Happy Birthday to... Me!

Today I turned 24, but somehow feel older than that. The girls from the Cooperators insurance brought me down a beautiful cake, and the folks at Alpine beer sent me candles, so I was all set.

March Break

This week is the kids March break, and yesterday both Tanya and Stacy arrived over here to catch some late winter sliding with Carrie. What a difference a week makes, this time last week we were complaining about so much snow, and this week we were worried that the snow would be gone before the kids got sliding. Here they are in the yard.

And here they are on the hill. Oreo even went, I wish I'd got the picture of him up the hill with them. And if you look close, there is Abby sitting at the top of the hill. I actually missed that at first.

And Emma got to help Jesse in the barn.

And a March break special.

Hailey and Victoria

Tuesday and Wednesday this week were spent in Fredericton, at the NB Egg Producers meetings. Not only did we get to spend the meetings with our 2 favourite son in laws, but Victoria was able to bring Hailey over for a bit. It was really good to see them. Apparently Hailey took her first steps today.

And more snow again

More snow again today, and to be followed by rain maybe, so let's get some off the roof.

More Snow

So, it's good to see a little more snow...but, yeesh, this one was bad...it took us all day to clean up after this, and we are running out of places to push it to.

And think about Billy and Bobby... We were late feeding them yesterday, but no matter, they couldn't find their way down anyways.

  

 So we enlisted Grandma, and she came over with her snowshoes and made a trail for them. I wasn't too hopeful, as she was only packing down the snow by an inch, and the Highlanders didn't have snowshoes, but it worked, and Bobby ran right down the trail.

It took quite a bit of coaxing, and I beat down the trail a bit more, and then Billy decided it was OK for him to come.

I guess the fence isn't an issue right now, the deep snow will keep them from getting out. In some places it is just 2 inches above the snow.

And in some places, all you see is the top of the fence posts.

But at the end of the day, both Highlanders and I were happy...

Snow

We've had quite a winter so far this year, and who knows, there might still be a whole lot more to come. It is still February. Here are pictures from outside.

And from inside.

The fence keeping the Highlanders in is only a few inches above the snow, but so far they have been good.

Carrie and Jessica made a snowman.

And Jesse and I spent a lot of the last few days clearing it off the roof of the barn.

Happy Birthday Bradford

The one and only (so far...) grandson turns 3 today! Yeah! We were over and had cake with him on Sunday. Happy Birthday Bradford! It took me awhile to get the picture up. I thought I had 30 days from the end of the week that his birthday was in, but I was confused. That is something else...

A Nice Sunday

Not much going on, a nice sunny Sunday. It is supposed to be cold tonight, not really cold, just -15 C, but that is the coldest so far this year. We could get used to this. Stacy and Gilbert and kids stopped in today, I made my third batch of white wine, and Grandma came over and did a little snowshoeing. Cousin Reg called, and I think we might have heard from Tanya once or five dozen times. Victoria even skyped. Just a nice relaxing Sunday.

The star of the day is Carrie...she passed her test and got her permit. Now she can legally drive with one of us with her. And today she did just that. Right through downtown Sussex. Yikes.  But we are proud of her. Good job, Carrie! I guess the next one to start driving is Emma, and that will be sooner than we think.
And on another note, our last 4 beef went last week. I'll miss the friendly guys, but someone shoot me if I ever get the idea to keep beef again.

Happy New Year !!

I heard from the peanut gallery that I haven't put any Christmas pictures up yet. So "Don't Worry, Be Happy"...here they are.

On the day before Christmas Eve, I picked Tanya's girls up in Florenceville. Sarah shopped in Fredericton with Victoria, and together we took the girls home to the farm, where we had a great evening alone with them. Tanya, T J, and A J joined us on Christmas Eve and we all headed to the Midland church for a nice community Christmas service.

Jesse drew the short straw, and had to stay home and milk the cows.

The girls didn't go to bed nearly as well for Tanya, as they had for us the night before, but finally they did, after leaving treats for Santa and his reindeer, and having T J read "The Night Before Christmas".
The next morning Jesse, Garrett, and I raced through chores, and came in to a Christmas tree crowded with gifts. After the obligitory picture at the top of the stairs, everyone came downstairs.

It was an exciting morning, great to watch the little ones opening gifts. And then it was off to Stacy's for a wonderful dinner. She did a great job, and everything was excellent. Here are Stacy, Grandma, Danielle, Kara, Cecily, and Bradford.

Going through the pictures tonight, I found it hard to find ones without Sarah making her funny face. Something like trying to get a picture of Stacy without her sticking het tongue out. Or Art doing something he shouldn't. So here is Sarah... and a few others...

And today, we had a visit from Hailey, Victoria, and Brad.

So, looking back on 2010, it has been quite a year. Wow!!  
Sarah and I celebrated 30 years.
Carrie's Quebec exchage.
NB Soil and Crops Farm of the Year.
An 18000 km. trip around North America.
A trip to Holland to celebrate the 65th Anniversary of the Liberation, and renewing our friendship with Fia and Jaap.
2 more grandchildren (that makes 7!)
One of the best growing and harvesting seasons and on the farm in years.
Broke the 4000 litre/pickup of milk, and still over  4000 today.
And other things like the trip Jesse and I made to Ontario in February.
The shortened trip to Quebec in September, but it was still good.
Broken collar bones and broken ankles.
Having Roma from the Ukraine working for us.
And we can't forget to mention Lacey, our new milker, who is a great milker and a pleasure to have around.
And Sarah's CCSVI in Bulgaria and the wonderful reminder of the great community we live in before we went. Sarah is showing continued improvements every week. This is good.
Did I forget anything? Maybe I should check the blog.
Happy New Year!!!