Day 310 Friday November 20

Dan put foam board insulation into the dog house today....increasing the ability of the lamps to keep the dog house warm.

Day 302 .... Thursday, Nov 12

Day 264 ~ Sunday, October 4

We had breakfast with Mom and Melanie in our little apartment/hotel and were on the road quite early. Jim had a list of things the length of his arm that he wanted to accomplish before he goes back to work on Tuesday.

Daniel had stayed at our house Saturday night in order to take care of the dogs. He got up when we came in and had something to eat before he went outside to work on the root cellar......






I chose to finish harvesting the root vegetables in the garden......I had already pulled up all the beets a couple days ago.

The Rutabagas included some giants!

The first thing Jim did when we got home was to hook up the trailer and go into town to pick up our dog pen which Andrew had been using. He won't be putting his dogs outside all day over the winter, so we reclaimed it........

Jim's next priority was to figure out what was wrong with his truck's turbo (which was just replaced last summer).....







Dan went to work building a door covering for the bottom of the cellar stairs.......









AhHa! Here's the problem......the hose has a hole in it! An easy fix, fortunately.....








By this time, I had stored the beets in layers of peat moss in the cellar, pulled all the rutabagas, and the carrots......

There weren't as many carrots as we had hoped, but what there is are nice and straight......






I stored the rutabagas and carrots in the same manner as the beets and I pulled all the frozen squash and tomatoe plants. The other day I had taken all the onions and cabbage out when I pulled the beets so all that is left are the broccoli and brussels sprouts. Well, I cut all the broccoli that was ready....these plants apparently benefit from several hard frosts so I'll not be harvesting them quite yet.

The problem with his truck diagnosed, Jim set to work tearing down the old dog pen......








Daniel completed the bottom of the stairs door and then rushed off to work in Edmonton.......

Jim set up the new pen walls.....

The dogs are a little uncertain about this.......I think they can smell Andrew's dogs on the walls - they are not too comfortable in there, yet.

But it looks much better than the old pen, that is for sure.

Jim finished up our busy day by hanging the door on the garage......hopefully, the pigeons were not at home at the time and they will go find somewhere else to build a nest.

Overall, a busy, productive day.

Day 220 - Monday, August 10

A very lazy day......we slept late and sat on the computer virtually all day.

I did venture outside, however for a short walk around the yard and took a photo of Bear.

Day 217 Thursday August 6

Jim's still not feeling very good, but he was getting a bit of cabin fever so he decided to come with me to town on my mission to get groceries for the weekend.

Before town, though, we took Andrew a jug of water at his worksite.

We came home, unloaded the groceries, and sat down to check our mail, etc. We were both a little tired (we'd done quite alot of shopping - at different stores) and Jim was especially dragging, since he still isn't feeling up to par.

Less than 10 minutes after we sat down, the dogs started barking and we were pleasantly surprised to find we had guests......Mom and Dad Hutch were in the yard, greeting the dogs. Needless to say, we sat down and visited them - getting the lowdown on Dad's appointment in Calgary with the Cardiologists.

Dad and I took a short tour of my garden to discover that the dogs have been enjoying the cabbage! (Emma had told me this before, but I thought she meant they were eating the leaves)

When I went into the house to unpack groceries and make us some supper, I discovered that there was a 'Mini Pansy' growing between the boards of the deck!

This little guy must have grown from a seed that dropped between the boards from one of the flowers that I grew last summer! Cool, eh?

After supper, we started working on our meal preps for the campout. Jim peeled and cooked potatoes. I cooked eggs and made Jello and ........I forget what else I made, but I also did quite a bit of packing so we'd be ready early in the a.m.

Mom helped me peel eggs.

Rob and Lana showed up during all this preparation......they came to pick raspberries so Lana could make a fresh raspberry sauce for pancakes on Saturday morning.

Lizzy helped her mom. They got a full pail of berries.

Robert and Titus stayed inside and visited with Grampa.

A long, busy day.......Mom and Dad went over to visit at Ritchie's for a couple hours after Mel got home then came back to sleep in our spare bed (which THEY put clean sheets on for me). That is something else I did today - laundry and putting clean sheets on both beds.

Day 215 - Tuesday, August 4

Jim took these photos of Bear, sound asleep on the deck....

This is about how fast Jim and I moved today......we are taking it easy in deference to how Jim is feeling.

Day 204 - Friday, July 24

Random photos from our yard......

The south west view....

Riley.....

And, some of the first fruits from my patio tomatoe plants......

Day 150 - Sunday, May 31

It is Sunday, so it is 'Family Day' at 'the Farm'..... It was a small gathering today - only Andrew and Vinjelu and Kathryn.

Here is a sight seldom seen......




Another sight we haven't seen for quite some time.....

We enjoyed Vinjelu's birthday gift from his wife - a Wii. Here, he is playing baseball....

Vinj provides a headrest for Kath as she watches someone else play....

Seth, loving on Thor.....

....and Lady. Lady loves Seth......

Concentrating.....how do you make this thing talk?

And finally, a shot of two of my dogs....Riley and Lady.....

Day 144....Monday, May 25

A full day, beginning with meeting with my girls at Victoria's mom's house for a Bible Study. The Miquelon's back yard is FULL of fun things for kids to do!

We had a good time, looking at the Word and discussing how to apply it to our lives.

Back at home, Jim began to water the potatoes since the ground is extremely dry.

Andrew came out for a visit, as well.

Thor loves to play 'fetch' with his ball - which is left at our house for when he visits. He is so funny - he just brings it to Andrew, drops it at his feet, and then stares at the ball until Andrew picks it up and throws it. The ball is that tiny white thing in front of Andrew's foot.

Andrew's other dog found 4 baby skunks.....Andrew took this photo for me - it is not great because he did not want to get too close - for obvious reasons.

We did not want to have a family of skunks living in our field, so Andrew volunteered to take care of the problem. He suited up in his chemical suit before going out to their den.

Day 118 Wednesday, April 29

Sal decided to 'pose' for me.....



My house smells like potatoes and here's why.....

It is a rather 'earthy' smell - not entirely unpleasant, but better suited to a root cellar.

At least we have plenty of seed potatoes. We are planning to supply all the kids for the winter and have some left for seed the next year.

Day 109; Monday, April 20

Worked hard all morning on finishing up our tax preparation for our corporate taxes (a year late).

During one break, Jim looked out the front window to see Lady sound asleep in the hole beside the step.....the one that leads to the hole in the basement wall (see photo yesterday). I tried to sneak up on her to get a photo of her, but she heard me and started to get up before I could snap the picture.....




The cabbage is up today.....

Here are some progress pictures of the tomatoes.....

and the lettuce....

After meeting with our accountant in Red Deer, we had supper at Mom and Dad Hutchy's house.

(Notice Taffy's 'pillow'. )