Congratulations Charlene and Charles

On Saturday, September 17th, Sheila's first born, Charles, got married. To Charlene.

Weddings and funerals are always good times for families to get together. I prefer weddings. It was good to see Chris and Joyce again.

And my 2 pregnant daughters. Seems like just yesterday that I figured out Tanya was pregnant, now look at her. That between wedding/reception time seemed like a good time for a baby belly fight. It was also a great time for the non prego people to catch a quick beer or 4.

Grandma enjoyed some wine, but got called away for a picture.

The reception was at the new Q plex in Quispamsis. The supper was good. Nice to have the girls together.

Jesse was down later and hauled his Mom and Dad home. No pic of Jesse, but I found a couple more of him doing the 5 miler and I'll edit them into that post.

 We wish Charlene and Charles the best!

Sheila is definitely happy. As were her boys. No pics of them either, but it was really good to see them.

Hampton 5 Miler

Today was the Hampton 5 Miler. An increasingly popular race for runners that started 11 years ago by the Hampton River Runners, of which Sheila was a founding member. Grandma has done it for years, this was Jesse's 3rd year, and I finally decided to do it when I noticed the flyer said "Walkers Welcome". So I walked and came in 411th out of 420. But the big story here is Grandma. At 83, I think she was the oldest, and she never missed a step. I walked with her and her friend Elsie, and I gotta admit that I was a bit concerned for the first half mile if I was gonna be able to keep up with them. Here is a pic of Mom and Elsie at about mile 2.5.

And here is a pic of us at the finish line. Mom doesn't look any worse for wear here, looks like she could do 5 more. Sheila joined us for the pic, she had time to shower and change, but then she is a real runner. Jesse was off having a smoke.

 But speaking of Jesse, here he is before the race. He almost looks like a real runner in this pic. He and Marty ran together, after a rushed morning milking, and then rushed home to finish combining the barley. So maybe those other marathon runners had better times than us, but we completed our own marathon in the past 2 days, finishing haying, harvesting our grain, moving cows and new calves from pasture, and along with all the regular chores, we still got our run(or walk) in.

Thanks to Peter, I found some other pics that were available online, taken at Mile 1.  If you look behind Sally, you will see Jesse, HFC. And  Marty.

 

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And here is our hero

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Done Haying

Barry Martin always told me that they were the best 2 words in the English language. I've never disagreed.
Here is a picture of 7 empty hay wagons. There is still one with 2cd cut hay on it in the shed, but in the whole aspect of things, we are talking 1st cut here. What a year! We went several weeks without making a bale of hay. This was our 31st haying season and only the 2cd time we have hayed in September. The other was just 2 years ago.

Back to School

Last time ever having a kid starting a school year. Carrie started Grade 12 this morning. Sarah wanted to walk her to the bus, but she didn't take the bus. Got a drive with Beth. But she came home on the bus, with Jessica and Lexie, and they were definitely pumped after their first day of grade 12. We took lots of pictures because we won't be getting to do this again. Oh, maybe our final off to university pic next year

She thought she wanted her pic with Willard, but he was having nothing to do with that.

Jesse was upset too. We thought he was going to come through the barn window waving her goodbye.

Carrie said her goodbye's to Abby and Oreo the night before.

And Then There Were Eight

Announcing Chloe Olivia Follett

Unfortunately Chloe was delivered by C-section, due to being breeched. Although it made for an easy delivery, we hope there are no problems down the road, and Victoria makes a fast recovery.

Proud Grandparents and Aunt Carrie.

We found ourselves in the unique situation of being alone with Chloe for almost 10 minutes, while Vic and her were being moved to a private room. We took good care of her!

Oops... Happy Birthday Tanya!

Yesterday our oldest baby turned 29. Back in the day, that was as old as a woman could get. Not sure now, I think things have changed. Sorry about forgetting your blog birthday wishes, I did send a text, and called. We had a busy day yesterday, getting a lot of second cut in the silo. And Sarah got her old job back, helping Peter, the hoof trimmer. She did very well, only landing in the poop once. Anyways, we all hope you had a good day yesterday Tanya, at least Mallory and your kids didn't forget you. Happy Birthday!

Canoeing on the Southwest Miramichi

On Sunday, 9 of us travelled to Blackville, NB, and spent the night in a lodge on the Southwest Miramichi river. We had won this evening and ensueing canoe trip with our success in fundraising for the Rona M-S bike tour, back in '07, '08, and '09. The Country Haven Lodge was kind to put up with our repeated bookings and cancellations and honour their donated prize with a smile. Byron stated that he knew Tanya better than most of his regular guests, due to all the emails and phone calls they had exchanged. The lodge was spendid.

Tanya, Emma, and Carrie by the river.

 Carrie and Emma on the swing before they broke it.

Carrie and Lexie with their new friends.

Jesse and Marty.

Sarah.

Chris and I.

 Special thanks to Chris for the spectacular cooking!

Tanya on time out.

Jesse, Marty, and Chris...Thoughts on this picture can be shared in the the comments at the end.

We enjoyed a great country breakfast Monday morning.

And then it was time to hit the river.

Carrie and Lexie wore ponchos, so they wouldn't get wet in the rain that quit as soon as we started canoeing.

I do think it makes Carrie look a tad large?

So much for the ponchos...

Emma wasn't so impressed...

Waiting for Jesse and the girls...

And a quick beer break before the home stretch. We also took this opportunity to leave on shore all valuables and extra stuff, as the young ones vowed to tip Sarah and I. They set up quite the gauntlet, but we managed to beat them through it, and dragged the canoe on to shore as all the other canoes floated upside down.

And supper in Doaktown on the way home, and a visit with Bruce the Moose.(no relation)

I think we all had a great time, and I now know why everyone speaks so highly of the Miramichi!