Controversial questions

I want to stir it up a bit. I haven't had a lot of comments lately. There must not be a lot of farm fans! For those of you who do comment (a few friends and my Aunt and Uncle Tom and Dorothy) thanks. I love hearing from you! I am going to ask a question that has been plaguing me for a while and I want you to weigh in.

Are we getting too casual as a society? I am shocked at what people wear at weddings and funerals. I see everything from jeans and t-shirts all the way to sleazy outfits that some deem as classy? What has happened? I know it was a tradition not long ago when I was little to dress up really nice for lots of occasions. Even travelling on an airplane was dressy. Golf courses were one of the last to go. You could never wear spaghetti straps and tank tops but I see a lot of things in the last couple years you would have never seen. Why is this? I think part of it is we have very little respect for things or people.

You just have to look at customer service to see that! What a rare thing anymore. Yesterday, I was treated like meat by some of the nurses at the ER and some were very kind. I had one exceptional porter that treated me like royalty. Sometimes I think Safeway is the only one left with great customer service and the one in Brooks is way better than the one on the SE hill here in Medicine Hat! People truly don't care. When buying an expensive piece of farm equipment the other day, we let the one guy know we could get it $40 cheaper somewhere else, would he match it. He just got in a huff and walked off and said you better get it there then. What! What about potential clients in the future!

I know I speak my mind way too often and sometimes come across as rude but I am really going to work on this as I think it is a lost art to be kind. I want our youth today to do better than we are doing but we have to set an example as parents.

As most of you know, I belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I see some of these attitudes even slipping into our churches. I am now talking back with casual dress. Here is the controversy. Please don't be offended. I just want an opinion. I see a look of wearing a dress or a skirt with leggings underneath to church. I myself think this look is too casual and I worry if we don't teach our children and ourselves it could slip further. Now, I see almost long shirts with leggings made to look like a dress. . Am I wrong? Is it our best? Where do we draw the line? Please let me know what you think?

*UPDATE: Thanks for the comments. I don't think that leggings can be compared to nylons at all. They just seem too casual to me. Maybe that is the old lady in me talking. If we were meeting the Savior would you wear it? Also I agree that we all must just wear our best not talking about not being able to afford better. I hope not to judge just discuss.

Going on a Goat Walk

Yup you read it right...a goat walk! I looked at our dog harnesses and thought
I bet that would fit out goats and by golly it did!

The dogs were herding them along. The goats didn't want to go for a walk...they loved the green grass but didn't like getting pulled along!

Meet Pita (brown one about 4 months old) and Milly a yearling. They are the newest members of our family. They miniature Pygmy goats aren't they so cute! I just love having them around.

I love this picture of London and Pita! Pita needed to smile for the camera though!

Milly headbutted Brigham a couple of times which I thought was great but it still didn't seem to beat any sense into him! They are so loud. If they hear the door open they start crying for us to come over and bring them some grass. It is so funny! I am going to tape record it so you can hear how loud they are.

This is my Cousin Pearl- Ann she though it was fun to take them out and her grandson Porter liked to feed them dandelions. She is a storyteller...professional...really! This picture looks like she is telling one of her tall tales!

We got these guys at the livestock sale. I was excited to get some. They have been hard to find. They were older than I wanted but this fall we can get Milly breed and by next spring...babies! I had to rip Pita away from her mother in this stall and take her out when we bought her. She was crying.....MMMMAAAAAAAA it sounded just like it and the mother was trying to climb out after her and was also crying BAAABBBBBYYYY.....it was so sad and loud. When Sean looked over at me he was like "why are you bawling?" I wanted him to go back and buy the mother so they didn't have to be separated but he wouldn't. I felt really bad! She is happy now and I am sure her mother has forgotten all about her.

My babies are growing up

I can't believe how big all my babies are getting. I wanted to give you an update so you can see yourself. They are 5 weeks old now and the chickens are going to be 6 weeks! The ducks are still very soft and fuzzy but they are definitely getting feathers. They love their supervised swim times! They don't follow me around as I hoped. I think you have to have just one or two for them to imprint on you. These guys rely on each other.

That is Ray the black one. We had two but one drown. My ducks were definitely racist at first and didn't want to accept him but they have come around to seeing that it doesn't matter the color of your fluff! He is a Indian Runner so he is taller than the rest even though he is younger.

They love there pool mud and all! I need to clean it out one of these days.

Here are my big chicks! They are still going through a really ugly stage as they don't have all their feathers. They seem to be happy and filling out. They are heavy little suckers. I try to spend as little time as possible with them as they will be on my dinner table one day!

They do nothing but eat and eat and eat! I can't believe how much food they go through. They need some serious therapy that there is more to life than food....once they figure that out they can teach me!

We finally put there water off the ground and it keeps it way cleaner. I need to get a pen build out the back so that they can go outside and enjoy the grass and sunshine!

One of our hens has become Broody already. There is a reason Broody rhymes with moody. She doesn't like you trying to take her eggs away! We had 10 eggs this morning the first and most we have had! Yippeee! WE only have 10 hens so I don't think it will get better than that.

The big 40!

Well I really got spoiled for my birthday. This year I am the big 40 and I am very sad to be 40! I am starting to feel better about it but the days leading up to it were really rough! I cried a lot. I know that is silly as it is just a number but I look at accomplishment and goals not met and the impact I have had on my part of the world...very small so now I am just motivated to do much better! As far as family and friends they were amazing for my birthday it has gone on for weeks!
On the actual day I got a e book reader which I am so excited about! I love love love it. It has been many years of Sean trying to convince me that I would like one and me saying there is nothing like holding a book! I must say it is convenient no more late books or waiting for books so now I am sold! I got spoiled with lots of love and goodies. My friend Ghuenda even took time from her day to come and bring me some chocolate and a lovely present. That was so nice. The time that took and the hug and the remembering meant everything to me! We had a busy day that day so we just grabbed subway and hung out.

The weekend was full of surprises I went to Brooks to go out for supper with friends and they held a surprise birthday party for me! I didn't suspect that! It was so nice to spend time with my old friends that I love so much and not be forgotten. Some special friends were missing but I know they had other things going on! I got spoiled again with some beautiful and many funny gifts! I got BENO because they heard I was Farty! hehehhehee. Amy did a beautiful letter of the top 40 reasons she loves me as her friend. It made me cry and I will cherish it always. Also they played Family Feud game all about me! It was so kind and fun for Amy and Tyler to do that for me!

For the Long weekend we get together with my side of the family and celebrate every ones birthdays! There are lots of them. My Uncle Wes and Aunt Lue from way up in Fort Kent came and my Favorite Cuzzy Pearl-Ann and her daughter Stacey and her two boys. It was so fun! They mocked my old age too. The "40 sucks" I loved! Plus I love that kind of sucker.


Pearl-Ann do 40 age related fortunes in these fortune cookies! I am totally going to steal this one! loved it!

My Aunt Lue and Uncle Wes made me this lovely sign which is still out! I thought it was really funny! WE ate we visited, we ate, we visited, we ate...you get the idea. It was a lot of fun. I got some amazing gifts. I love the homemade ones especially! I will post pictures as they are amazing! I love my family so much!

This is Pearl -Ann and her grand baby Grady. She is an amazing women. She has so many talents and is so fun to be with. She is also my travel buddy. She made me the most beautiful garden spirit which is way to nice to go outside so it is in my living room.

Isn't this the cuties little guy! Look at those dimples! he can get away with anything this one!

Porter is a little cutie as well. He is so good. He will play for hours by himself with Lego. He is one smart cookie! They were in a house full of adults but they were so good!

This is my Uncle Wes and Aunt Lue and I can't believe I don't have a better picture. They are so amazing. My Aunt Lue is my mom's sister and ever since my mom died she has adopted me and one of her own. She is always so good to me. I love them both so much!

New family!

Here are my layers. I can't believe I didn't show a picture before. They are so funny. They get grouchy if you try and go see them at night. tWhen they are all bedded down at night they will actually growl at you. They are happy as can be otherwise. They love the grass outside and digging holes and rolling in them to dust themselves. The roost must be to high because they don't use it or the nest at all. We will one day get around to moving it. They are all in love with our big rooster Noodle.

Noodle is the white one and he is pleased as punch to have 10 hens struting for his lovin'. He struts around showing his stuff. At night they all sleep on top of him. We thought we lost him once and looked and looked outside only to pull off all the hen to find him warm and snug on the bottom of the pile. When we first got him he couldn't crow but he is now doing a fine job of it! I love having windows open and hearing him crow!

The cat is watching and wants to eat them...Brigham is close behind. He got in once but they were faster than him and the hole to safety in the building was to small for him to get in. Brigham is good to have around though as he patrols the ground all day and night and chases everything off. He doesn't miss a thing that goes around here.

He loves Noodles and wants to eat some! We have been patching places that had damage or where animals have gotten in! They are now laying 9 eggs a day. There is 10 hens so someone isn't doing there job! But I have eggs coming out of my ear! I need to get rid of some so come over and you will leave with a bunch!

This was my sick chick that I tried to nurse back to health with no luck. I brought him in the house but he didn't make it. We lost 3 in total out of 50 so I think that is pretty good! Everyone is so big you won't even believe it I will post pictures as soon as I can wade out to the coop this rain is maddening!!!

Let's go fly a kite!

This is a continuation of dad's birthday party. We bought him a kite and borrowed kites from my in-laws. It was a really windy day so it was perfect for it! Our coulee funnels the wind and they flew so well! Sometimes to well and we had a hard time not ripping them apart!


I have this funny condition I looked it up once and it is real. I have a fear of kites! It is like a reversal of heights. Just looking up the kite makes me feel like I am going to get ripped off the ground and fall into the sky. I thought I might have out grown it but as soon as I felt that kite pulling on me I started to panic!

This is dad's birthday airplane! The wind was so strong once we got out to the coulee it ripped it right out of his hands. He almost got to the end of his sting. He flew it for quite a while and then passed it over to Sean.

Look how high!

My brother Darren was supervising!

I love these new fancy kites you can get. The propeller even worked! London's had a wind speed on it!

Brigham loves it when we play outside. He couldn't quite figure out how to get the kite though. It has been raining the last few days and he is so lonely with out us out playing!

Sean trying his hand at flying the kite!

Darren helping to relaunch the kite. It got so windy you couldn't really get it up and flying.

These fancy kites are a bit more difficult to fly. Sean had it doing tricks! I love not having the power lines in the way you can really get them going high!

Crash!

The kite whisperer!

view from the bottom of our coulee

79th Birthday!

It was Dad's 79th Birthday on May 15th! We had a fun birthday weekend. On Saturday we went to the animal sale and bought a bunch more things. It was fun! Then my brother Darren came to help celebrate dads birthday! Ribs was the meal of choice!
His hat says Happy Birthday Hot Geezer! One of the grand kids started calling him geezer and it stuck so know he is grandpa geezer!


You know birthdays are all about food! We had baking powder biscuits to go with it!

We gave him some bird seed and a feeder also a kite! I thought it would be fun to fly a kite for his birthday to remember his youth! It was such a nice windy day they flew awesome I will post pictures of that next.

Dad wanted Chocolate cake so I made my version of black forest! I blended the cherries with the whipped cream and made chocolate whipped cream topping. I was yummy if I do say so myself. It is so fun having my dad right here and being able to just extend our family.

I found a picture of a buzzard for the top of the cake. Dad frightened me the other day when he called he said he thinks he is going to die! My heart sunk thinking it was revelation...instead he said a turkey vulture had been circling his house all day!!!! Turkey that scared me so I added one to the cake.

I love this action shot! He ended up missing both the first time! He wanted two girlfriends! lol

Happy Birthday Dad! Here's to 25 more!