While we were away

The farm was well looked after while we were away, here is our star pulling a calf. Remember Superman?

Homeward bound

On Monday we took a cab to Heathrow airport, and thanks to web check in, but more importantly, Sarah's cane, we were only 10 minutes from the time we walked into the terminal until we were thru security and in the midst of countless bottles of liquor and samples at the duty free. And that brings us to Sarah Allison, who wasn't born when we were at the airport in Halifax, but was by the time we got to Norton. Tanya did tell us that she would have her baby before we got home.

Sunday, April 20th

Saturday was spent relaxing after a busy week, then on Sunday we drove out to Windsor castle.

Friday, April 18th

Today, after visiting the farm again, we went to Chartwell, the home of Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of England during World War II, and one who was largely given credit for the Allied victory. Then back into London, and we had a very enjoyable stroll (cold and windy, the buds were blowing off the trees and we thought it was snow!) down The Mall to look at Buckingham palace, then back past Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. Friday evening we took in the musical Grease, a presentation of the school where Ainslie, Liam & Cameron attend.

Thursday, April 17th

Today we again took the tube to Charring Cross train station, and then caught a train to the town of Seven Oaks to visit the dairy farm of someone that Sarah had known in Cape Breton. Henden Manor, apparently the former home of Anne Boleyn, one of King Henry VIII's wives. An enjoyable train ride. We watched 250 cows being milked in a double 24 herringbone milk parlour, had dinner at the local pub, then spent the night in Anne's room.

Wednesday, April 16th

Today, Sarah headed out with a bus load of ladies, to Stoke on Trent, to go browsing in china shops. She had been looking forward to this for ages, which is more than we can say for the owners of the china shops! Luckily, the damage was minimal and Sarah had a great time.
Bruce & Carrie were in for a more cultural day, and they took various tube rides into London, first to the huge O-2 center, where they took in the Tutankhamun ( King Tut) exhibit. Very impressive, lots of gold to be seen there. Another tube ride took them back to downtown London, to the Lyceum theatre, and a very impressive Lion King performance. Carrie was awestruck with the whole performance. They grabbed a burger at "MacDonald's on Strand" before heading home.

Tuesday, April 15th

Today we traveled to the small village of Swavesey, to visit the very old Parish church of St Andrew. There is a bell in this church dedicated to the Mitham family, apparently there has been a Mitham involved in ringing the church bells for over 250 years, since at least 1747. There were a lot of Mitham gravestones around the church, we even found one for Sarah!

Monday, April 14th

Today we visited Hampton Court Palace, famous for being the home of King Henry VIII, and all his wives. We saw the splendor of the palace and gardens, learned some history, and Bruce & Carrie had a bit of fun in a maze in the garden.

Sarah Allison

I have been remiss in announcing the birth of Sarah Allison Harvey, born Monday, April 21st. A daughter for Tanya & T J, and a sister for Emma & Madilyn. I am sure I will be told if I didn't get that spelled right.

Sunday April 13th

On Sunday we took the tube to downtown London.

The London marathon happened to be on, there were 35,000 runners.

Saturday, April 12th

Today we visited Salisbury Cathedral, a very impressive church.
We were impressed with the size of the church,
the 2 huge pipe organs, and all the history in the church.

Then before we left the city of Salisbury,
Carrie & Sarah found the British equivalent of a dollar store!

Our next stop was Stonehenge! (Jesse said we saw some rocks)

Friday, April 11th

We are home now from England and have a few pics to post. Our first day was spent relaxing after our trip, and then on Friday we visited the oldest pub in England- the Royal standard of England, apparently 900 yrs. old. Here is a pic of Bruce & Sarah with our friends, Stuart & Ann Marie Moors, our very kind hosts while we were in England.

Jesse Screwing Up...

Here is a pic of Jesse doing what he does best...but we are happy with what we have got done on the chicken barn. Maybe 3 more sheets of plywood today, but oh well...

Off to England

Here is a pic of Bruce, Sarah, & Carrie after packing for their trip to England. They are going for 10 days. I wonder if there is a llama in England to post pictures for them there. Jesse is staying home to look after things..Yikes...He got his wish though, we had 3 calves today, so there should only be one cow calve while he is alone. Or maybe we have smart cows??

Kings Barn

We used to look out our kitchen window and see the neighbours barn across the road. I guess we won't do that anymore. I wonder what year that barn was built?

The Week ends with wine

This week we spent most of our time working on the chicken barn. We also did our regular chores which takes a bit of time. We are pleased with what we got done this week. Milk is up, so that's good too. Tonight Bruce & Sarah bottled a batch of wine, here is a pic of Sarah putting the shrink wrap on with a heat gun.

Beef to Chickens

Bruce and Jesse have been working away since the first of March, tearing out one half of the beef barn to have a place to keep chickens. We were fortunate to get layer quota for 1000 hens, and this is where we will put the cage system.

Bedding up the cows

Here are two pics of Jesse spreading sawdust into the freestalls with our new sawdust thrower that we got with the new skidsteer at Christmas.

Goodbye Gus

Yesterday we buried Gus, our old horse. He died in his sleep this week, we think he was around 32 years old. Here is a pic taken of him last year, with Carrie.

Tanya's Family

Here is a pic of Tanya's family...her husband TJ, Tanya, Emma, and Madilyn...and soon one more.
She was supposed to send me a picture after she was here on March break, but Bruce , Sarah, and Carrie had to drive up and take it themselves at her home in Glassville. But they got to enjoy a marvelous Easter dinner with them and TJ's father, brother and sister.

Bradford, Stacy, & Nanny

The Future

Here is a pic of Jesse, just out of a phone booth but minus the cape...hmmmm...

Manicures

Thursday we had our foot trimmer in and clipped the toes of 15 cows. We send them in a chute, flip 'em on their side, and it makes it so easy.

Milk & Beef

Here is a pic of the milk truck taking a load of milk this morning.
We also sold a bunch(23) of beef calves to a feed lot today. Here are a couple of pictures of them waiting for the trailer to arrive.

#2011's new calf

Just to show this is actually a farm, I had Carrie take a pic of a new calf we had on Saturday. A nice big bull calf. We like heifers, and have had lots so far this year, but we are now raising all our bull calves for 3 months or so for veal, so this big calf will do well for us.

Gibson

We have some catching up to do, so I'm going to post a pic of the newest family member now. He is Bradford Hyde Matheson, born February 15th (notice the r in February, Stacy?) . Proud sister is Kara, and her Mom and Dad, Gilbert & Stacy. Bradford is named after his paternal grandfather, and the Hyde is his great, great grand mothers maiden name.( and a good excuse when there is too much work to do..)

Willard's First Blog

Hi all. I thought this was going to be easy, but I guess things don't come to a llama as fast.
I thought a few pictures of our March break high lights would be nice. Carrie was off to Quebec for 5 days with her cadet group. The Simmonds Air Cadets. Here is a pic of Carrie getting ready to go. We also had a visit from her big sister Tanya, her daughters Emma & Madilyn, and later in the week they were all back with some guy called TJ. He said something to me out in the barn that wasn't very nice. I'm going to get Tanya to send me a pic to post.

Welcome Back!

After a 1.5 year break this blog is under new management. We will try and update it a little more regularly. This is Willard, our most recent addition, and he is responsible for the blog from this day forward.

It gets so hard to get time to write my blog. Well we had the crew together for the baptismal was a amazimg minor fights but all went well. I also got to visit with my friend Anne fun.Bruce has been busy spreading manure of and on. The weather has been amazing there is days it feels like late summer 19 degrees. The grandkids were all herelast nite Grandma to, I forget how loud it can get with young kids. We now are feeding 13 babies all beef 2 I figure looks alot like a highlander cute woolly

Time is a flying we have been busy .We had a sad time Bruces father passed away at the end of August very sudden it has been very hard to adjust to. He was a very kind and dear soul a great father also a great grandfather. We have gotten all our corn in Tanya travelled down to help her dad it took them 3 days and the fourth day started feeding out of the silo. In the middle of Sept. we had Bayard Goodday family reunion there was relatives fr Vancouver Halifax Montreal Ontario Kentville Glassville Truro Hampton and Midland We all had a blast we did tours of family histroy and we had good food and we ended the evening with music bonfire and carrie gave gator rides It was a special weekend and I hope we do not leave time go to long before we do it again.Well its that time of year we are moving animals home from pasture and low and behold it is going slick. Sold 27 beefers this week it went good again. Amazing Well so long

It is about time

Hello every one It has been a rough 2 or 3 months My father inlaw god love him passed away the end of august pretty rough we really miss him . It hard to get use to .
Now our victoria has head of to university and she also had a rough patch but she is in the groove and doing ok {right vic] Then we had the Bayard Goodday reunion Bruces relatives fr Halifax Kentville BC Hampton St John and St Stephen were all here oh yes Ontario and Montreal too We visited histroy spots we had great meals and we ended at nite with a terrific bonfire It was a great family get together. well I try and get in the groove and keep in touch. Did I tell you we are done corn and now feeding it. Also sold 27 feedercalves I know carrie halfpint to. se ya

Quess We are done haying about time

yesterday we got done haying the last field and it did not get rained on imagine . So normally we would head camping to late to fallish , So we set up camper for carrie behind the hedge so she can think she is campin g I slept out one nite Bruce has slept out a couple . It is not ideal but it works. Now Vicky and Carla has gone to Vancouver to spend aweek sight seeing and visiting Bruces brother Peter and his wife Mai. Now we are pulling for a little freetime here what shall we do. Had a cow calve today in the pen imagine that and she had a heifer All doing well. Our oldest turned 24 yesterday they all are growing up not our little tan Tan any more.

Saint John Idol

Our Vicky did us proud tonight, she performed in the wildcard round of Saint John Idol. She sang a song that wasnt her style but did ok. Our Vicky is more country, wait until next time saint john lol. Next up is the A&E...here are some pictures of vicky singing. Bruce started second cutt today. We had to stop doing hay for a while because we are making a mess of the feilds because they are so wet. The tractor got stuck in a field we just planted so we decided to take a breather from all of that stress..

Another slow day hopefully tomorrow we will hay. Today we had Peter the foottrimmer in and a dozen cows were done and only one real bad one. Bruce went to see his Dad who is back in the hospital maybe they will figure out whats wrong. It has been a rough summer for him getting sick every 30 days or so. Carrie came home from camp today good to have her home there was kids from vancouver and the states and you name it. Also her hamster fot sick today and passed away I wonder who felt the worst Bruce or her . Angel the hamster was to be 2 in august old for a hamster,

Here the group that did the ms bike tour donot look to bad for half way mark

well it has been 10 days since I wrote some text and yes lots has gone on. We had a heifer who calved out in the freestall and yes of course it was a heifer and we do not like them to come in contact with any manure matter, well it's face was covered with manure and the heifer is a b t h and boys she hard to get in the parlour and she won't let you put the milker on her ahh it will come.next we had a good day we got the gravel knoll done up in hay and the little swamp by the lower barn done it was not bad hay also we did the meadow up in silage it was good stuff ran into a problem when the wheel bolts came of and the wheel fell of and wagon is now full sunk into the ground and of course this leaves Bruce with a project for Friday .Well our front end loader cannot lift it so he has to get excavator down, took hub of that wagon got hub of another wagon and we are back in business and can get wagon of the field and the neighbours can relax. Next day is Bruce,Tan Tan ,jesse, and Bruces sister Shelia big ms bike tour 122 kms in 2 days. Can you imagine how soar they will be and it is amazing 134 riders all ages raising money for a cure They were fanastic and I am so proud of them Now all those riders raised 695000 dollars. Wait till next year we will be bigger and better maybe we will practice. You think. Now our grand finale was a bq at Shelias and grandma and grandpa came and so did stacy gilbert and kara . It was great Shelias and Arts boys were there to.

It is that time of year we work very hard to get haying done. Well it is a fight it is foggy and muggy and we are fighting all sorts of conditions to get any sort of haying done. Today it rained and rained hope that it would relieve the air wrong . Tan Tan and her 2 munchins came down for a visit it has been great Emma has lived in the pool and she even wear a life jacket. Bruce and tan Tan have been practicing fot there ms bike tour i am so impress at there determination I wish I had as much . Well tomorrow is a new day and it is to be 30 degrees its of to the fields and lets hope we get more done.

Awesome

What a day we had a terrific herdhealth we got 4 new heifer preg and a whole bunch more, makes up for the lousy weather. It might be xmas before we get to do haying I am not looking forward to go camping in the snow lol (we go camping right after haying) Then off to St John idol Vicky was trying out she made the first cut 133 preormed first off only 80 made that cut tonite first 20 of 80 preformed and only 3 made it and we did not make it but by golly to get up and preform in front of all St john some proud of her takes after her grandma the singer of the family . Did I tell you that Bruce Tan Tan Jesse ans Shelia are doing the MS bike tour 120 kms some proud of them . Oh yes Bruce cut a little hay today maybe a sign of gooddays ahead. You think

Happy July first we arrived back fr Halifax intending for the crew of us to go to hampton to see fireworks and low and behold a truck pulls in the yard its the farmer next to our dry cows they are all out we all headed down and 24areout considering thatsll thereis lol so we work as a team and put them in then we leave late for fireworks and quess what they arelate starting good and they were great Emma loved them. Next day is Sunday and it is raining you know we need it.lol Bruce and Tanya go do a 30 kms bike ride I stayed home and planned a meal They came back said there tired but they are fine today. We moved the cow 631 out of pen into the horse pasture and she made it and is walking great and this morning i let her go with the cows real brave of me . Today the fields were wet so we did not mow but we will tomorrow, Bruce is getting ready to hang up two shed doors that he rebuilt him and vicky got one done we will finish it tomorrow.

We did a load and a half of hay today I quess that means we started haying it looks like its going to be a hell of a crop it is about time. Weather is still iffy so not much haying mowing etc has been done yet. We have got a lot of bits and bites done. Like we fenced out front of the house so you can seat on the deck and watch your cows neat.Vicky has had a friend down fr Quebec for the last 2 weeks it has been fun for them both. It has been so muggy here it is gross.We are taking the weekend and heading to Halifax hope to see some friends and have some fun plan to head home for Sat. to go to fireworks all our grandkids will be here.

It has been a h ll of a week.Vicky was in the miss of graduation and we did silage all done over filled the silo had to shove out a half wagon load ( bruce did) and save the unloader and let settle and then reload in to the silo next day . Next Bruce got that silo ready to feed and the we shout down the other 2, sealed and started to raised greased and all ready to go.Now we are going to start to hay we will do a little to make sure all is going to work. Did I tell you that one of reasons we are done silage is that Bruces forage harvestor broke . WE are going to Halifax for the weekend and Tanya is coming to mind the fort cannot wait.

oh boys it has been a while and man we have been busy. We have had lots of grad stuff going on like grad banquet and grad church service and grad barbeque yes we are all grad out lucky for us it has been raining so this does not cut into our work just kidding it has been a blast and lets us join forces with all the parents. Well its been raining raining and more raining so Bruce went to visit Jesse on his farm and did some farm visits they visited Bruces old boss when he was Jesses age. When he was gone a pipe broke in the lower barn oh there was water every where cleaned it up took us girls awhile then compacitors on the silo conveyor went called Bruce on his cell and asked what do we do well he said take motor in and get them to fix and they did only a hr and I was feeding siage ,so then the foot trimmer arrived we trimmed 15 head then we took a break for supper and Bruce arrived home . Did the evening chores and I go to put a cow (631) in maternity pen due to calve in the next day or two and she is down with milk fever grr Bruce gives her a bottle in the vein (calcium) and the witch still would not move never got up till around 2 today still not terrific but she is up. Bruce fenced all day him and sam they enlarged the dry cows pasture and we got 8 beefers ready and loaded and him and the girls delivered them.Tonite we got the corn planter ready for storage till next year, Now we will have all our equipment ready for cropping and it will rain till Thanksgiving.

Gosh it is along time since I wrote a newsreport. We are getting a pile of rain here and cold well makes you wonder where did that nice weather go.Wednesday we had the dinner for grads and there parents thats us and oh ya our vicster. nice time and we got to see them get emotional of growing ang leaving there buds.Thursaday was the day we sold a beef cut and wrapped to a 3 people it looked relly good I love beef. Calves are doing reall good and cows are milking awesome. bruce has building a deck it is looking great it adds on to the back deck that is there. Tan Tan is coming for the weekend she has a friend who needs her

It has been a few days since I have posted much has gone on. We got silo 2 ready for silage we greased oiled it raised it you know stuff we are usually doing day we are going to put in silage, to be a head of the game awesome. we also got 3 drycows and 4 heifers down to the drycow pasture a major accomplishment a day when Bruce was to take Peter to the airport and I going over to watch the girls finally game of rugby,which they won 24 to 0 a game I hate , Carrie went to her middle school social and in all this after doing evening chores we went out and picked rocks of the long piece and then arrived home to get to bed and find a dead cow grr no reason not sick or anything who can explain it. Then to bed we all go and Carrie comes in and says some one downstairs of we go and Jesse and Amanda came home for a visit what a nice surprise. Now we are starting to get a little rain like buckets and buckets there will be no field work for a few days . Oh yes Jesse brought home a birthday gift for his dad a goat ,Billy is his name and he is a great addition to our animal kingdom at rothiemay. Well Stacy and Kara are still in hospital but keep your fingers crossed could be going home tomorrow if all goes aok. Well Carrie is of to camp for 3 days and Bruce has to drive there luggage imagine they will have fun for 3 days and NO ENGLISH ALLOWED those kids will be tired because having to think before they speak well talk again.