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.