Recuperating in North Bay

The past several days have been busy and eventful for us. Last Wednesday we had the annual meeting for NB Eggs, and on Thursday the Kings Co. Soils and Crops recognized us at a banquet at Up to Par in Midland. It was nice to have so many family and friends come out to be there with us. Thank you!
Then on Friday morning we got up fairly bright and early and headed out on our trip. Our first visit was with Jessy Allaire, Victoria's friend in Princeville QC. He was waiting for us with a big bag of cheese curds, which he knew we both loved.
Mike's was the next stop, and as usual he had a great meal for us. It was nice to see Jocelyn again, and nice to have a table to eat at.

Taylor came over too.

After a few beer, Mike showed us how well he could play the drums.

Saturday morning found us heading towards Montreal, and a lunch with April and Greg.

Mary Anne was waiting for us on Ottawa with balloons. She was quite proud of our achievement as the NB Farm of the Year.

We even had a special meal and a special cake. Thank you Jim and Mary Anne!

Brigitte came over with her 2 boys.

And Judy, we hadn't seen her in ages.

It was good to see Chris and Emily.

Thanks again for everything, Jim. We'll Skype you every night!

So, today we drove to North Bay, way too short a drive considering how far we plan to go, but we figured we should have one easy day. And who'd a thunk it would be 16 degrees in the middle of March here.

A Nice Sunday

It is so nice to have a good sunny day once in a while, and to have it on a Sunday is special. Sarah poked a chicken in the oven and called Grandma and Victoria to come for supper. Sarah and I took a walk down to the woods road and back. Nice. Then Grandma got here in time to see some of the pictures of the Ice Hotel in Quebec City that Carrie shared with us on Skype.
Vicky and Brad arrived in for supper and Vic posed for a few pictures.

Beautiful Day

Today was a really nice day....especially after the wild winds we had every other day this week. So this morning I dug the all season wheels out of the shed and Jesse replaced our studded winter wheels.
Putting on our all season wheels is in preparation for our Cross Canada (or North American if time allows) trip that we are heading out on next Friday. We have spent the last week getting our affairs in order, and will likely spend next week doing the same, and although we still won't have everything done, we are planning on heading out Friday morning. Exciting.
I topped up the windshield washer too...
It was also nice to have Ben and Maria stop by to check on their wine. They were only too happy to be put to work stabilyzing a batch, so now they can say they helped make it.  

Congratulations Canada!!!

 

I feel it is my patriotic duty to congratulate all the athletes that did Canada so proud in this years Winter Olympic games. Way to go Canada!!!

Stacy's 4th M-S Global Dinner Party

 

Today we went over to Stacy and Gilbert's for her 4th M-S dinner party. We are so proud of Stacy for the effort she puts into her own fundraiser in support of M-S. We all would like to see her bike with us, and I am sure that the "I am Pregnant" excuse will not be here forever.

Bradford was a star, eating everything in sight.

Until Uncle Jesse arrived, then he had some serious competition.

We were happy to have Sheila and Art make the trip fom Nackawic, and Grandma came too. Grandma wouldn't stand up for the picture as she was busy playing with a cat, and Art...well he was just busy.....

Joyeux Anniversaire Tanya et TJ

Today is Tanya and TJ's 5th anniversary. They decided to celebrate by ditching their kids and heading to Montreal for the weekend. They somehow managed a free upgrade on their room, to a really fancy one on the tenth floor, so if you look really close you can see them waving from one of the windows near the top of the Hilton Garden Inn. They are having a really good time and we wish them a very Happy Anniversary!

Yeah!!! 2009 New Brunswick Farm of the Year!!!

30 Years...

Tomorrow, February 23rd, will be Sarah's and my 30th wedding anniversary....Yikes!! Our darling children decided that it was an accomplishment worth celebrating, so last Saturday night almost all of us met at Montana's Cookhouse in Fredericton. We had a seat for Carrie, and big plans to take her with us, but in the end we left her on a table back at the inn. Oops...

It was close enough to walk, and T J had a bottle of Fireball, so we put on our matching leather coats and headed out. Tanya and Brad walked with us, Victoria drove Sarah.

"Welcome to the Cookhouse" says Moose and the little guy.

Cheers!

Jesse rushed through his chores and managed to get there before us. I think he picked the beer glasses!

T J picked his own drink...

Gilbert wanted to sit with Victoria.

Stacy was happy to sit with Brad.

Sarah was just happy.

Until they brought out the horns...

And it was nice to have Krista show up afterwards to help us celebrate. Was that around 8, Jesse?

Happy Birthday Bradford

 

Today Bradford celebrated his 2cd birthday. We went over tonight and had a piece of an excellent cake Stacy had made for him. 

Bradford enjoyed it too!

Wine...and more...

Today was wine making day..give me applause, it is my 5th Sunday and I have stayed the course. 5 batches made, and 2 stabilized with 1 batch ready to be bottled next week.

Here I am stabilizing batch 2.

And here is Sarah working hard as we rack over batch 4.

This is batch 4 as it is getting racked...are we really gonna drink this stuff??...at a wedding??

And this is batch 1...I guess it doesn't look so bad...

And there has been a lot of interest these days in prego belly pictures. Tanya says it is the new rage. So to do my part...

This while I was racking wine. Time on my hands I guess.

Hey, there are my toes!!
I think I might better start walking again...soon.

When you get chickens...

This is just a warning to whoever might be interested in keeping chickens, that it comes with a price. We were lucky last year, but this year we had a few rats come to visit. A little bit of rat poison every day for a week, then panic set in, so we fed them a whole package a day for 4 days. That did the trick. Now, a rat running in the other direction is not something you like to see, but it sure beats seeing a poisoned one staggering toward you. Or a huge one laying there dead, but looking like it might just stand up and chew your leg off. That's why we are happy to have Jesse around.

He punched this one in the nose and took it out alive.

And this one was big enough that we had to get a picture. Funny thing was, as I was getting ready to take the picture, Sarah called, and the phone vibrated and I screamed. Funnier still, Jesse laughed, dropped the rat and didn't notice, then looked down and saw a huge rat by his feet, and he screamed louder. You had to be there...
Tonight we also had Scott MacLean here. Sarah's nephew.

And I hope Scott doesn't mind sharing the blog with a couple of rats. It was nice to have him stop in tonight on his way to Ottawa, where he will be doing practice doctor stuff in the emergency room at Ottawa General for 3 weeks.

Carrie in Quebec avec Melissa

We talked to Carrie tonight, again on Skype...gotta love it. I think back to our first exchange, when Tanya went to St. Jean sur Richeleau back in '98, how excited we got the first time we managed to hook up with her on ICQ, when she sneaked on a school computer. Now we can have a video chat with Carrie in her bedroom at home, and I get text messages from her while she is on the bus on her way to and from school. She is doing really well, enjoying school, and her new friends. She has been swimming in her school pool while we enjoy sub zero temperatures. Last night they went into Quebec City and enjoyed the Winter Carnival.

And the view from Carrie's end...much better I'd say.

Lely Trip

Last Tuesday Jesse and I, and a bunch of other farmers traveled to Woodstock, Ontario, to look at Lely robotic milkers. Victoria thought it was Woodstock, New Brunswick, and was upset that we didn't stop in. We did fly over her house on the way home, and saw lots of familiar landmarks from Fredericton to Jemseg.

We toured 6 farms, with 1 to 6 robots, and were well fed on both evenings that we were there. We saw some very nice barns, and got lots of ideas.

A view of a cow being milked in the robot from the front.

Attaching.

Milking

6 Robots.

Lely Juno for automated feed pushing. This would be great for school tours.

Lely Discovery for scraping manure through the slats in the floor.

A happy and stinky bunch of dairy farmers on the way home yesterday. They put us together at the back of the plane!