Raspberries, Relatives, and Other Things

Raspberries, Relatives, and Other Things
Well the raspberries are picked for today. They sure are tasty, I had my breakfast while picking them this morning,(as many in my mouth as in the bucket). Now I just have to take them to town and get rid of them. I have several orders from people who would like some, so the only question is, will the raspberries produce enough to fill the orders, or will I get sick of picking them first?



I also cut some lilies from the garden this morning. I love having fresh cut flowers in the house, and especially love lilies.


We are dog sitting for my daughter-in-law this weekend while they are camping, so we are a 3 dog household for a few days. They all get along well and are presently sleeping off a very hectic morning!
This weekend is my late husbands' family reunion, some relatives are visiting from Hawaii and also from Idaho. So I will be going into town to visit with them shortly, it will be nice to see them again. They were here last summer; but it will be better catching up on their lives in person, rather than via email. The one gentleman, who is 88 1/2 (definately years young), has driven up from Idaho by himself!! I know that if I ever manage to make it to that age, I will not be capable of such a drive, especially alone. It is approximately 1400 kilometers--one way.
Will finish this later, after I return from town.
Well I'm back.
When I got the mail, I got a very pleasant surprise. There was a cheque for the sale of my truck! So now I will be payment and debt free while we are gone. I spent the afternoon racing around cancelling the license plate, insurance, and paying off bills. Hectic afternoon; but wanted it all accomplished, as Monday is a holiday here and everything will be closed. What a great relief to have that off my mind.
It has been a busy, productive day.
Please feel free to leave comments, even if it is just to tell me how incredibly boring this blog and my life are!!
Hasta Luego

Population Explosion

Population Explosion

Well, it seems that the population on our acreage has gone from 5 (2 humans,2 dogs,1 cat) to 9 in the space of a few days. A couple of weeks ago I thought it seemed that our cat was gaining a lot of weight, well it appears I was right, she was embarazada (pregnant). She has 4 pretty little kittens and has been hiding them for awhile as their eyes are already open. She had been eating a lot of food lately so I decided I had better check it out a little closer today. She is a barn cat, so kind of leads her own life, after all she is a cat. Sure enough, she is now a very proud mama and we are grandparents again, sort of!!! We have decided to give them all Spanish names, in honor of our up coming Mexico trip.

On the more boring side of things, I had to pick the raspberries today, they are big and juicy this year because of all the rain. Picked a ice cream pail full and then got rid of them, as I am still trying to get rid of last years jellies and jams. Several people want some this year so disposing of them is easier than the picking of them.

Moving On

Moving On

It's that time of year I guess. My niece phoned the other night, she is very excited about her upcoming move from her small Saskatchewan community to the city of Saskatoon to attend University. Then yesterday, a neighbors daughter came over with a thank you gift for us, (she had her graduation photos taken in our yard). She will be moving next week to Ontario to attend school. Yesterday my sister and one of her sons also came up to visit. We spent a pleasant afternoon making some picture frames out of some old barn wood. She also brought her dog, a Golden Retreiver, so our dogs had a happy doggy afternoon. They always enjoy when Zoe comes to visit. The first thing she (the dog not my sister!!) did was take a dip in our big pond which my nephew found quite funny. Nephew (10 years old) is quite interested in keeping the fish from our pond over the winter for us, he likes beasties and took home a multi-colored caterpillar with him. He did warn me that he is really not too good at keeping fish pets alive; and wasn't sure if he would give them back when we return in spring, if they do survive. Hard to believe that my baby sister has been married for 23 years(yesterday) and that her oldest son is in Grade Eleven this year. My oldest son was their ring bearer, so that makes me feel a couple of months older also.

I guess we will also be moving on in a different direction with our lives, by taking the winter off to go to Mexico.

Our lives are all changing, in a variety of ways, and everyone is excited about their new paths. Hopefully we will all enjoy the travels that life takes us on.

What a Beautiful Morning

WHAT A BEAUTIFUL MORNING !

This morning on my way home, after dropping Roy off at work, I drove slowly and just enjoyed the sights and sounds.
The sky was a pretty baby blue, with a few thin,wispy, white clouds dotted here and there. The sun was just beginning to burn off the fog in the valley. The heavy dew on the grass and trees sparkled in the sunshine, while bird songs filled the air. A deer quietly grazed in the grass at the side of the road. It looked up as I approached, and calmly walked a little further into the ditch. Country living at its best, easy to forget all the mundane chores for the day, that clog up your mind and make you forget to just slow down and look around you.
It just reinforced my belief that man can never re-create what nature does so effortlessly if left alone.

It's Been A Good Day

IT'S BEEN A GOOD DAY

I had a good day today, and so did Roy when he got home from work.
I managed to get into the office and do some filing,etc. that needed to be done, also got busy and cleaned everything out of there that might freeze. As I have mentioned before we are shutting off all the utilities, so anything freezable has to be put into storage. So one room is almost finished.
While cleaning I decided to check our emails, and got a very, very pleasant surprise. A couple that we had emailed in New Mexico about a house sitting opportunity had written back to us. It looks like we will be housesitting for them from the 1st-6th of October. We will be leaving here a couple of weeks sooner than we expected. This, of course just made our day. Not only do we get to leave sooner; but we also will get to experience another new location and meet some new people and their dogs. Being there a week will give us a chance to look around and explore at our own slow pace. They live on the outskirts of the mountains, so we will have lots of walking opportunities with the dogs. It will be nice to be with the dogs, as I am sure we will be missing ours. At the moment Roy is giving them both doggie biscuits, man they have a rough life!!!
Yes, it's been a good day.

Summer Days

Lazy summer days, yah right!! We had company this weekend, they left yesterday morning. Lots of cooking,eating and visiting. I had made a couple of apple pies, my grandmothers recipe, to use up last years apples from the deep freeze, well those are gone, and must say they were tasty.
We took our visitors out to see a couple of the lakes in our area, of which there are many. Walked on the beach and had a nice time.


This is a picture of Kehiwan Lake, which is about 10 miles from our house. No sandy beach at this lake on this side, but it is nice and deep for boating, fishing, skiing, etc. There is a sandy beach on the other side. We also visited Whitney Lake and took a nice walk on the beach there. I have photos of that lake on the Webshots album, so will not bother posting any here.
Spent yesterday doing the usual household clean-up that seems to come after having company, it was windy and cool out so didn't feel like working outside.
We have been looking into doing some housesitting and have had a couple of opportunities; although none that have fit into our current plans. We could have gone to Belize in June; but at that time Roys passport had not come yet, and also it would have interfered with our winter plans for Mexico, so had to turn that one down ( couldn't have been away from home for what would have been 10 months). We also had a chance to go to Vermont in November for just a couple of weeks; but as we plan to be in Mexico by October, we had to turn that one down also, would like to go to Vermont sometime; but not enough to put off our trip south!!!! Would be nice to find somewhere to h.sit on the way down to Mexico, it would be a pleasant break in the trip.
Well time to get off of here and get something done.

Being Lazy

I know I haven't blogged on here for awhile. I have been busy with yard, company,etc.. Have also been playing around some with the Blogger site and have posted a few times on there, if you are interested you can click on the link to it in the lists above, or here is the link: http://brendandroygoingtomexico.blogspot.com/
hopefully this link will work and if not use the link above.
Rained again on Saturday evening, another 1" and 2/10's so things are still green, cannot believe the rain this year!
Time to go for now.

Winter Water

Well, talked to the man from the water well servicing company the other day and it sounds positive. He said they should be able to just come and pull the pitless adapter out of the well and everything should just drain back and voila, done. That sounds easy enough. We will be shutting off all our utilities for the winter, no sense in paying charges for everything when we are not here. This means, though, that anything that will freeze will have to be removed and stored somewhere else. Have been trying to use up some leftover paint, etc. so that there will be less stuff to haul out. I didn't plant a garden either this year, as will not need the frozen,canned stuff when we aren't here, still trying to use up the pickles, jams, etc. from other years. My last culinary efforts before leaving could be interesting-- hmmm jam sandwiches with dill pickles..... sounds very cordon bleu doesn't it??? Oh, and with apple pie for dessert, still have frozen apples in freezer from last year to.
We got the front brakes checked/repaired on the car the other day; but need to get the back ones done yet before we go.
I need one booster vaccination sometime in September and then that will be finished with.
Things are finally starting to come together, so many things to get ready, will be glad when it is time to leave.

Storm Clouds

We had a short rainfall last night again. We are being very fortunate with the rainfall this year. We received as much rain in June as we usually get in approx. 3 months. Everything is very green and lush as a result(for our area of Alberta). The garden pictures in the webshot album will attest to this.
I got some nice photos of the clouds last night. Will post one here and the rest on Webshots(in the clouds album).
Had called the company, about shutting down our water system for the winter, and they were to have called back last night; but no call. Will have to get on that again today, I guess. Need to know exactly what to do, so that nothing will freeze up and be destroyed.
We have been reading some other blogs about Mexico and I will include the links to them, just in case someone is interested in checking them out. They make interesting and at times funny reading. They talk about their experiences travelling and living in Mexico.
http://www.mexico-with-heart.com/blog/
http://billiemercer.blogspot.com/
http://mexicopeeks.blogspot.com/
http://mexiblog.blogspot.com/2004_09_19_mexiblog_archive.html
http://ranchocalypso.com/travellog/



That's it for today.

Doggy Haircuts

Well Griz got his haircut today, what a change, if you didn't know him you wouldn't know it was the same dog. I am sure he feels much cooler!!
We read that we needed car title to get car across the border in Mexico. We couldn't remember ever having a car "title", so phoned around today and found out that we just use our registration; apparently car "titles" are a U.S. thing. So that's one less thing to worry about.

Doggy Haircuts And Car Titles Continued

11/07/2005

Well Griz. is much happier this evening after his haircut. Looks like a whole different dog. He should be much cooler now.
Am going to upload a couple of photos of Griz. before and after haircut, if you didn't recognise him by his actions, you wouldn't know he was the same dog!! Pictures are in the Blog Album with the horses.
Managed to confirm today that we do not have titles for our vehicles here in Canada, only the registration, so that is one less thing to worry about.
Guess what it is pouring rain right now. Can't believe the rain this year.
Bye for now

Getting the hang of it, maybe

Think I am getting the hang of this site, managed to get some links on, with some mess ups; but they are there, also got the photo panel installed from Flickr.
You can read the previous posts I have made on the other site and also see some photos if you want. The other site: http://spaces.msn.com/members/brendaandroy/ . The dog on the left belongs to my daughter-in-law, he has been visiting us for a week while they have been camping. The one on the right is our small dog, Griz. (who badly needs a haircut, which he will be getting tomorrow). We also have a large German Shepherd dog, named Brandy.

Car Titles And Dog Sitting

Well time passes quickly, it is now only 87 days til we leave, when we first started counting it was over 276. We can't wait, I'm sure the last week will be extremely busy and long lasting!
We have had Denises' dog "Scotty" here for a week while they were camping and the children were taking swimming lessons. Our dog Griz will be staying with them this winter. He left a couple of hours ago and both our dogs have been sleeping ever since, they had a busy week!!!
We have just found out that we will need a copy of the car title along with the registration to cross the Mexico border. We have bill of sale and reg. but not a paper that says it is the "title" so will have to look into that tomorrow. As with most everything else I foresee several phone calls to get that.
Griz goes for a badly needed haircut tomorrow, so he will be cooler after that, poor dog has been doing alot of panting the last few days. It was 88 farenheit here the other day.
The yard is looking good and have been taking lots of photos lately of it and other things. Have posted all the pics. on the webshots site. I was bored earlier today, and started fooling around on BLOGGER, it is a neat site and ended up creating another site, so if you are interested you can check it out. The link for it is on the List at the top of the page.
Right now we are just relaxing, me on here and Roy watching Nascar and the hurricane on the T.V., he says he has nothing to add to this so, I guess that's it for today.

Just trying this out

Have a blog on msn spaces; but in looking at other blogs on this site, it seems that they have more to offer. This remains to be seen.

July Is Here

Well July is here. Yesterday we went to watch the parade in town. Didn't upload any of the photos to the albums online as they were not very good. Camera batteries were low, so by the time it took the picture the float was halfway out of the picture. Wonderful. After the parade we watched some of the entertainment that was going on, strong man competitions, fur trader competitions(which we couldn't really figure out) and some live bands on the refurbished outdoor stage. It is Albertas centennial this year also,so everyone was given buttons and a copy of the centennial song.
Today we decided to chance the weather and went out to Stoney Lake, which is about 15 miles from us, we wandered around a bit; but as there is not much of a beach there, we decided to head off in the other direction. We ended up at Whitney Lake which is about 15 miles in the other direction. Nice sandy beach, we walked along the shore around the lake for about 1/2 mile and watching the clouds decided it was time to turn around. You can walk around the whole lake almost on the nice sandy shore. Posted some pictures on the webshots album of the lake. We also kept getting "dive bombed" by some type of gull, who must have decided that we were too close to their nest. The wild "tiger" lilies are all in bloom right now and because of all the rain we've had the ditches are full of them. The countryside is lush and beautiful this year. We just made it home before it started to rain again. This evening it poured again for awhile.
Oh yes, the grad photos were taken on the 30th so that is done with, now I can slack off abit on the yard!!
We will be dogsitting for the next week(starting tomorrow) so that should be interesting, 3 dogs!!! Speaking of dogs, our German Shepherd, who is totally petrified of thunder, did the funniest thing the other night. We had an amazing thunder and lightning storm on Thursday night. Of course she was in the house, she had disapeared and I never thought too much about it, as she tends to hide out wherever she can. Well, I went into the washroom and there she was totally laying flat out in the Bathtub!!! What a sight, we had a good laugh over that. She stayed there all night,wouldn't budge!!!! Think she was a little stiff in the morning though.
Well that's it for now.