Halloween 2011

As Carrie is in grade 12, and just might be off to some sort of post secondary education next year, this will likely be the last year we have a child go out for Halloween. About time some might say, but it is somewhat sad as we realize our kids have all grown up. But, We have grandchildren! Here are Emma, Madilyn and Sarah.

And Stacy with Kara, Bradford, and Cecily.

Hailey is all dressed up and Chloe is just looking cute at 10 weeks old.

We only had 4 kids at the house collecting treats, until Carrie and her friends came back for the night. Here is Sammi, Mariah, and Jessica. And Daniela, Carrie, and Emily. Smile Jessica!

Sarah took a bunch of pictures of the girls, and as I was going through them for this post, I noticed a common theme.

Happy Halloween!!

We Painted the Lower Barn Roof

I shouldn't say "we", because Marty did it pretty much all by himself. He was looking for a project, so I suggested this, and the rest is a really good looking job. We also did the machine shed roof, because it really needed it, and for practice, as it was not nearly the challenge the lower barn roof was. Sarah bought us a pretty cool paint sprayer at Home Depot, and we found the paint in 20 liter pails at Dulux paints. Ryan gave us a gas powered pressure washer, and we borrowed Everett's hose, and pressured washed all the old paint and birdshit off first. Then a coat of primer and a coat of paint. Being very safety conscious, we tied Marty to the Gator while he was doing the top half of the roof.

We had tried to rent a thingy to lift Marty up, but that was a no go. Way too much money, and you needed a course and licence to operate the thing, so we made our own. A 110 liter barrel, a set of come alongs, and the old excavator.

Just got going good, and Workplace Health and Safety flew over.  Actually, it was a fellow taking aerial photographs. He came in the next day and offered to photoshop the finished job in. He might of had a deal if he'd offered to photoshop in green grass and all new tractors too. How about a new barn and an extra silo?

The excavator was fun, but you couldn't beat the good old ladder. We finally found a good use for that 40 foot ladder we bought back in '98.

Good job, Marty!

Happy Thanksgiving

We finished up the corn silage today. Best run ever. No breaks for rain, just straight ahead chopping corn. Crop was better than expected, except for one field that I don't know what the hell happened to it. But I knew it was awful, so I guess it was good as expected too. Four days of going back and forth. We had postponed Thanksgiving dinner until we we were done, as Sarah was away, and we were waiting for Grandma and Peter to arrive home from Montreal. So it seemed proper to have it when we could be thankful that this years crops had all been harvested. So after we all shared what we were thankful for, we ate a fabulous turkey dinner. Thank you Sarah, and thanks to everyone that were here. And here is the last load!

And here is the dude that trashed our corn behind Taylors. Thanks to Tommy for the pic.

 

I should set up one of these trail cams in the corn field. Yes, that's a dead chicken hung up there as incentive.

Aunt Joan

Chris called this morning with the sad news that his mom had passed away shortly before. So many memories, old and new went through my head all day as I chopped corn. One is of her sending me a picture of our cow named Joan. She took this on a visit here, not long after we had bought the farm. After learning we had a cow with the same name as her, she waited in the milking parlour with Sarah to take it's picture. Just as she snapped the picture, Joan the cow stuck her tongue up her nose. Joan the aunt was very impressed, and had been trying to do the same ever since. This was one of her memories we talked about when Grandma and I visited her in the hospital in Halifax just over a week ago. I'm happy that I saw her then, and talked with her again Wednesday night. Really glad that Grandma spoke with her yesterday. RIP Aunt Joan.

Billboard

Moove over Carrie, your parents are pictured on a billboard on the Rothesay Ave. exit  into Saint John. Just us and all the other NB egg producers. Excluding Tanya, TJ, and Stacy. Gilbert is there, but it was a timing issue last March. These pics were taken just 2 days before Sarah and I drove across Canada last year.

Here is a close up of the picture they used on the billboard. Gilbert is on far right.

And for those interested, a closer up of Sarah and I. Can you tell I'm excited to be pictured on a billboard?

Hands up to anyone else that has had their pic on a billboard...

Carrie

Thought I should change up the blog. Trust Carrie to have a picture for me. What do you suppose she is preparing for?

Congratulations Charlene and Charles

On Saturday, September 17th, Sheila's first born, Charles, got married. To Charlene.

Weddings and funerals are always good times for families to get together. I prefer weddings. It was good to see Chris and Joyce again.

And my 2 pregnant daughters. Seems like just yesterday that I figured out Tanya was pregnant, now look at her. That between wedding/reception time seemed like a good time for a baby belly fight. It was also a great time for the non prego people to catch a quick beer or 4.

Grandma enjoyed some wine, but got called away for a picture.

The reception was at the new Q plex in Quispamsis. The supper was good. Nice to have the girls together.

Jesse was down later and hauled his Mom and Dad home. No pic of Jesse, but I found a couple more of him doing the 5 miler and I'll edit them into that post.

 We wish Charlene and Charles the best!

Sheila is definitely happy. As were her boys. No pics of them either, but it was really good to see them.

Hampton 5 Miler

Today was the Hampton 5 Miler. An increasingly popular race for runners that started 11 years ago by the Hampton River Runners, of which Sheila was a founding member. Grandma has done it for years, this was Jesse's 3rd year, and I finally decided to do it when I noticed the flyer said "Walkers Welcome". So I walked and came in 411th out of 420. But the big story here is Grandma. At 83, I think she was the oldest, and she never missed a step. I walked with her and her friend Elsie, and I gotta admit that I was a bit concerned for the first half mile if I was gonna be able to keep up with them. Here is a pic of Mom and Elsie at about mile 2.5.

And here is a pic of us at the finish line. Mom doesn't look any worse for wear here, looks like she could do 5 more. Sheila joined us for the pic, she had time to shower and change, but then she is a real runner. Jesse was off having a smoke.

 But speaking of Jesse, here he is before the race. He almost looks like a real runner in this pic. He and Marty ran together, after a rushed morning milking, and then rushed home to finish combining the barley. So maybe those other marathon runners had better times than us, but we completed our own marathon in the past 2 days, finishing haying, harvesting our grain, moving cows and new calves from pasture, and along with all the regular chores, we still got our run(or walk) in.

Thanks to Peter, I found some other pics that were available online, taken at Mile 1.  If you look behind Sally, you will see Jesse, HFC. And  Marty.

 

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And here is our hero

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Done Haying

Barry Martin always told me that they were the best 2 words in the English language. I've never disagreed.
Here is a picture of 7 empty hay wagons. There is still one with 2cd cut hay on it in the shed, but in the whole aspect of things, we are talking 1st cut here. What a year! We went several weeks without making a bale of hay. This was our 31st haying season and only the 2cd time we have hayed in September. The other was just 2 years ago.

Back to School

Last time ever having a kid starting a school year. Carrie started Grade 12 this morning. Sarah wanted to walk her to the bus, but she didn't take the bus. Got a drive with Beth. But she came home on the bus, with Jessica and Lexie, and they were definitely pumped after their first day of grade 12. We took lots of pictures because we won't be getting to do this again. Oh, maybe our final off to university pic next year

She thought she wanted her pic with Willard, but he was having nothing to do with that.

Jesse was upset too. We thought he was going to come through the barn window waving her goodbye.

Carrie said her goodbye's to Abby and Oreo the night before.