This Week

We spent this week getting back into the swing of things, and started our spring work. Here we are using the new set of plows.

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