M-S Bike Tour

This past weekend we participated in our annual fundraiser fo the M-S society. The Rona M-S bike tour. Despite their neutral stand on the CCSVI procedure that seems to have benefited Sarah and so many others, we feel that our support and gentle persuasion for change in thinking is the best plan for us. When we were doing our open farm day last weekend, I would never have thought that by this weekend we would have had our first cut of haylage all done, but we ignored all weather forecasts, and got 'er done. So, after a late spring and sketchy weather, we are all caught up to where we were at this time last year. And the bonus, no broken bones! We welcomed Simon back this year, but due to pregnancies and other reasons our team was down to just 4 this year. Here are Carrie, Jesse and I waiting to start. Simon will be here before we go!

Tanya was upset that this would be her first year not biking, she left home at 6 AM to be here with the girls to see us off. But ended up being the official photographer for the Psycows.

Here we are getting ready to go. I told you Simon would show up!

Nanny and Tanya were waiting for us in Norton. We won the Team Spirit Award, mainly for the enthusiasm that was shown by Tanya and her girls. Emma biked with us from Norton to Hampton, it was not warm out, and even after it started to rain, she declined an invitation to stop. "I want to do this for Nanny!"

The rain stopped, the cold didn't, but we got to Rothesay. I can't say Jesse left us in a cloud of dust, as it was too wet for dust, but there was no catching up with him. Here he is with Sheila at the finish line. After awhile, Carrie and I biked in.

We enjoyed a great meal at the banquet, and were pleased to earn our top fundraising per team member trophy for the 4th consecutive year! Simon also earned a personal fundraising award.

It was definitely HFC (hurting for certain) on the return to Sussex the next  day. But Grandma met me in Hampton with some Advil, and I soldiered on. And Emma, I think she wants to bike again!

And we did.

Notice Carrie in the background? Well here she is, still smiling! Proud of you Carrie!

And me!

At some point after this picture, both Jesse and I had flat tires. I needed air twice for a slow leak and Jesse had a blow out which was fixed quickly by Bill, from Darling Island Bike Shop. But we finished, and looking for those pictures.

School Tours

Today we had an open farm day, with proceeds towards our annual M-S bike fundraiser next weekend. It went very well, we had a steady flow of visitors all day. It also signified the end of this years school tours. We have been hosting 2 - 4 schools a week, for the past 4 and a half weeks. We even had a group of seniors in this year as part of their bus tour. I got a few pictures on a couple of different days. Here is one group in the lower barn.

Autumn, Jenny, and Santa

Milking a cow is a favourite.

Waiting for the milk truck, and looking at their funny reflections on the shiny truck.

Bacon, Ham, and Sausage

The kids having their snacks, and Emma and Abby wishing they could too.

And of course the horse rides with Banner.

Randoms. Carrie being brave on Banner, and Sarah being equally brave while in with the pigs.

Kara, Bradford, and Cecily. Today at open farm day.

Happy Birthday Cecily

It's not often that you turn one year old, but having a grandchild turn one seems to happen a lot around here. And there is no indication that it will stop anytime soon. Here is a very happy Cecily on her first birthday. The rest of us get to celebrate with her on Thursday.

Cecily is likely fast asleep by now, oblivious to the fact that Boston is 4-0 above Vancouver after the first in the 6th game of the Stanley cup playoffs. Hoping you had a happy day, YEAH Cecily and Boston!!!

Introducing Autumn

Why Autumn when it still feels like winter and summer is only 2 weeks away? But Autumn is a llama, the newest addition to the menagerie of animals we have around here.

Jesse and Carrie went to pick him up, and it looks like Autumn and Jesse have already formed a bond.

I'm sure there will be more and better pics of Autumn as he gets settled in.

Happy Birthday Jesse

This time last week, we hadn't put a seed in the ground, but what a week...we sure got lots done. And to top it all off, our little boy turned 25 today. As he hasn't changed that much, I just pulled a couple of pictures from the albums. The first is with Junior, just before we ate him.

 I'm not sure why there were only 3 candles on the cake, but it might explain a lot of things...

We all hope you had a happy day today, stay out of jail tonight, I'll be up in case you are late, but don't be too late as you have to spread bark ash in the morning, so we can get our last piece of corn in. We all love you Jesse, Happy Birthday!!!

Finally planting corn

I know, I know... I am up late, but I just got in a shower and a couple of glasses of wine ago. Today was a good day, we finally got some seeds in the ground. I started planting around  9:30 this morning and got 23 acres done here, and then a field at Brian's, and then over to Gilbert's and got all his done.

Dancing with the Stars

Carrie is now a dancer. Hmmm... On Dancer and Prancer, Donder and Blitzen...

Well, OK, she had a terrific dance recital today. Sarah was there and said so... But I am looking forward to tomorrow.... She has a job interview at Canadian Tire... Don't they give 15% off to employees?

Happy Birthday Kara Bliss

Today was Kara's 5th birthday. We went over for cake and ice cream with her tonight. On Saturday she is having a tea party to celebrate. Happy  Birthday Kara! 

A few weeks ago, we went to see her at her heritage fair. Here is a picture of her presenting her project on egg grading.

And today we let the cows out for the first time. The heifers and dry cows have been out for a bit now.

Cold Huh...

Yikes, it has been 3 weeks since I posted. We've had a few things happen, likely the most important was Mother's day. But no pictures. Tanya was down with the girls, and on Saturday night she and Carrie, Stacy and Gilbert, Sarah,Grandma and I went out for supper at Shiretown Publicans in Hampton. It was a good evening, and a great way to celebrate Mother's Day.We seem to be stuck in colder weather, no, not the song, but we haven't got much of our spring work done yet. A little manure out, the pit was full and we got it down 16 inches, and then it was full again, overflowing and we took a load out a day just to stay ahead of it. The last few days have been half good, so the pit is down about 40 inches. Heifers are all outside now, trained to the fence without too much problem. We were kinda hoping to have to chase them a bit, just to warm ourselves up. The cows will go out soon. School tours started Friday, it was warm that day, but not expected to be so warm with the one tomorrow.As for pictures, we had bought some new wagons, so we used some of our rainy days to get them and assemble them.

 

And we bought a new loader for our older tractor, part of a deal we made on a new tractor, but that is news for a later blog post.

And on a very positive note, Jesse and I were over to visit Scot tonight. He is home for the weekend, and expects to be home for good in 10 days or so. He has surgery scheduled for mid June to replace that part of his skull that has been in the fridge in Saint John since the end of March. I can't express how good it was to see him, he was milking the cows, and I'm sure he wouldn't be able to express how happy he was to be doing that.

Today

We got these new Sunflower offset disc harrows last fall, after trying them out on a hard piece of pasture ground last summer. This is the steep side hill next to Jesse's house, and we didn't really want to plow it. Jesse put Roundup on it last fall, and these discs cut it up pretty well today, so we are pleased.

We've had a busy past 10 days, Sarah and I went to Cape Breton for the funeral of her Aunt Eva last Monday, Sarah stayed the week there, and I returned this Saturday for the wedding reception of her cousin Ken and his wife Kim. And we also enjoyed the company of Jim, Mary Ann,and David for the Easter weekend. Lots of fun and laughs, maybe a beer or more, and maybe a bit of wine.

Happy Birthday Emma

Guess who turns 9 today? Emma!! Hard to believe it's been 9 years since we had 1 more beer, and a game of ping pong, while Tanya was waiting in the Escort. Happy Birthday Emma! Emma goat and Emma chicken, and all the other Emma's wish you a Happy Birthday as well.

On another note, today in Horsham, England, their will be a rededication of a war memorial to honour my grandfather, and other alumni of Christ Hospital School, that died in World War II.

Reginald Goodday was the son of Leonard and Matilda Goodday; husband of Dorothy M. Goodday, of Rothesay. He attended C.H. Newgate Street from 1895 to 1902 – Ward IX – and on leaving emigrated to Canada, where his father had just found a job with the Canadian Pacific Railway. He served in the Great War, first in 56th Canadian Infantry Battalion, and then as a staff officer at Canadian Headquarters in London. When the war ended he returned to civil life as a mercantile broker, but remained a volunteer with the Militia throughout the inter-war yEars and in 1939 was appointed Commanding Officer of the St John Fusiliers, a machinegun battalion. During the war he was employed as Deputy Assistant Adjutant- and Quartermaster-General (NOTE 1) at Headquarters Number 7 Military District at St John, New Brunswick. He was in his uniform and at work in his office on 31 August 1945 when he suffered a heart attack and died.

Happy Birthday Sarah

 Today little Sarah turned 3 years old. Here she is with her famous funny face. Happy Bithday Sarah!
We were up to Florenceville last Sunday to watch Madilyn's dance recital. Good job Madilyn.

And as long as the girls don't mind sharing the blog post with a couple of calves, here is a picture of non identical twins that were born last week.

And the manure pit. I previously reported that I had room for 10 more days, that was 13 days ago. Well, it's full now. So tomorrow is the day.

Random picture... I like this picture of Madilyn with Sarah.

Happy Birthday Hailey

Happy Birthday Hailey!

Today was Hailey's 1st birthday! Party time! So we all went to Vicky's for cake.

A happy time was had by all, it was so great to see all the grandchildren in one place that I had to try and get a picture.

And so it begins...

For the record, we started our spring work today. Jesse spread about 50 T. of bark ash, and found the fields for the most part fairly dry. This is a good thing, because in 10 and a half days we will run out of room in the manure pit.

We also got to try out a Massey-Ferguson tractor today. Ouch.

We are still praying for our neighbour, Scot, who remains in a coma, after his accident on March 30th.