Meat Chickens

Here are the meat chickens. All 100 or so of them. They have changed from yellow to white feathers.
This is Erin 4 showing Emma 19 how to pick them up. Emma thought she was in a Twilight Zone episode. No not the Robert Patterson kind...the old school freaky show kind....O.K I just showed my age.

Anyhow. Here they are. In another week or two they will get to roam in the outdoor cage and then eventually onto the grass. It is too cold at night to let them out just yet and so far the coop is still big enough for all of them.

looks and smells sooooo much nicer with fresh wood chips laid down.

Proud to be Canadian

I FINALLY heard from my husband. Well sort of. He was able to send me an e-mail from somewhere in the Ukraine.

He was speaking to a teacher out there and mentioned that it was Canada Day today. The teacher said that it was not a real celebration because we are still under the rule of the British empire and under the control of the Queen.

Well, British empire or not..Queen or not...Here in Canada we may not be perfect and we may lack in some ways, but I'm pretty GLAD I'm a Canadian.


I'm Glad for Universal Health Care,
I'm Glad for living in a safe community,
I'm Glad for Sanitation and Education,
I'm Glad for Freedom of Religion and Tolerance,


No...I'm PROUD

I'm Proud to be a Canadian....Happy Birthday Canada.

And to CELEBRATE we will Jump on Trampolines........

Drive Plastic Jeeps around the yard...

Roast Wieners and Marshmallows.....

Paint our faces (and bellies) and celebrate the day with our friends.

and wave around sparklers and write our name in the air.

Why??? because we CAN......That's Why.

My Sun Porch Retreat..So Far

O.K. As requested here is the updated sun porch pictures. This is the view from the driveway. We still need to paint/stain the Board and Batten sides. We are going to go with a light stone grey. Also, the railings and landscaping need to be completed.

Front view. This one gives you a better idea of the landscaping that needs to be done. Also the painting of the steps and adding the lights. The railing will be black iron.

Other side. Again a little grass may go a long way. Notice the shovel in the garden? That is today's attempt at the weeds taking over my perennials.

This is the view of the sun porch from the inside of the house. We still need a ceiling fan, to paint the 'tin' ceiling, paint the trim and walls ect.

This is my new day bed. I love love love it. The three drawers are huge and will hold games and blankets, and the bed pulls out into a double! We are going to buy black out roller blinds so this space can be used as an extra spare room.

I CAN'T WAIT to cuddle on it with the new baby and fall asleep with the windows open. I'm thinking there will be HOURS of cuddle time with all the kids, stories and conversations here.

This is what the other side looks like when I'm sitting on the couch. It is NOT finished yet. I will be taking away one of the chairs, adding a comfy one with an ottoman perhaps, and a magazine rack.

A side view of the bed so far. Pillows/throw to be changed in future if I want.

This is what I see when I'm lying on the couch/bed. Ahhhhhhhhhh feel the breeze.

Me....relaxing while the kids play right outside in the sandbox and mosquito's ;)

The door shut to the house so I can block out whatever noise I wish to......double Ahhhhhhh.

My new mat that will go with the iron railings and lights....and the light stone grey colour that will be the steps. I'm thinking on either side of the steps will be some sort of flowering bush as well.

If that cat scratches at my screen one more time I'll.....I'll......Let her in. But I'll be angry!

That's it for now. Love it? Hate it? suggestions??? Just don't tell me to lower the windows....not helpful.

Super Wife

Yesterday I shopped till I dropped in IKEA and met a great friend for lunch.
It was a good day but I over did it.

Especially when I spent 5 hours putting together a Day Bed in the heat.

My Sun porch is almost finished. Just some painting and minor details....HOWEVER I know what I'm going to do for all of it, I just have to get the painting done and BUY the minor details.

I'll take some pictures today to show you the progress. I'm sore and tired today so I'm pretty useless to do anything else.

Yesterday would have been one of those times when my husband would have said to me.... "Hunny, do you have to do that NOW?"
And where I would have replied "yes",
and he would have said "Fine but but I'm tired so don't expect me to help you"
and I would have said " That's fine, I don't need your help"
and on step 5 of assembly of the IKEA bed (actually more like when the entire HEAVY box slid out of the back of the van and I had to take all the pieces out while propping the box on my foot ) I would have started to cry and said "huuuunnnnnnnneeeeeeeeeeey, can you help me??"
and he would have rolled his eyes and being the AMAZING HUSBAND HE IS would have helped me.
Then I would have said " oh Hunny I love you, you are the best!! "
and he would have again rolled his eyes and said " y'a y'a"

But I did it!!! So there ;)

Cousin Love

Here is a picture of Lara in Vancouver with her cousin. She is having a really good time and being spoiled ROTTEN!! Not that I'm complaining. This picture was sent to me yesterday. How fun that they are wearing the same outfit.
Too bad they are so far away from us. I only have one brother and so these are the only cousins my kids will have.
I would love it if every two years we could get together, but with a large family (us with 6, and them with 5) that becomes very costly.
Oh well. I guess for now we will have to settle with Grandma taking one of them with her on her visits, or meeting half way at my Dad's in Saskatchewan or something.

Well...I suppose I should head out and feed the animals and get my two remaining babies ready for church. I am hesitant to leave the house in case Adam calls from the Ukraine but I suppose I can't wait by the phone all day. We have not spoken now since last Tuesday and it is killing me!

I really miss my family. How boring doing this all by myself. I'm a chatty person and I don't have anyone to talk about my day with. Boring Boring Boring.

Oh The Weather Outside is Frightful....

A wicked wind blew in over the back field this afternoon, bringing with it a quick thunderstorm and down pour. This picture does not capture how dark it became or how hard the wind was blowing. I actually expected to see hail.


I just sat in my sunporch with my feet up, the paper and my tea. It was nice. Serene...quiet. Just the sound of the wind and rain.

Unfortunately it did not last long enough. The rain OR the peace and quiet. I miss my husband today. Him AND my oldest daughter.

Some like it Hot...Not this pregnant Lady

O.K. today was SUPER HOT!!!! 32C ish, humid and NO WIND!! blah!!!!

I thank the Blessed Lord for the 100 year old maple trees that shade our yard in the morning and the clouds that THANKFULLY came right at the time when my kitchen porch thermometer read 42C!!!!
This old house is great for keeping the heat out for about 2 days. On day 3 however it becomes an inferno. I think it acts like a brick oven. At least the porch outside my kitchen does. It is shaped like an L and the afternoon sun beats down on it from 330pm-7pm. The air gets trapped in the corner and SERIOUSLY heats up 10C OVER whatever temperature it is outside.

So if you come knocking on my door don't be surprised when I fling open the door, grab you by the arm and DRAG you inside and Shut the door behind you. I'm not crazy just trying to avoid actually baking the baby inside my belly. O.k maybe I am a little crazy but I'm sure you have all figured that out by now.

Can you tell my husband is in the Ukraine and Lara is in Vancouver and my two other babies are in bed?? I have nobody to talk to right now but don't have anything to say really. So comment today...I'm lonely.

Bah....It's Just a Flesh Wound

That's my boy. " It's just a Flesh Wound."
I'm reminded of a Monty Python Skit from the Holy Grail movie...if you have seen it you are laughing. If you haven't you are missing out.

I digress....

This head injury is another example of the difference from when I had my first child to my now third.
When Lara (first) was around the same age she hit her chin on the bathroom sink and bit right through her tongue!!! There was a lot of blood and I FREAKED out!!! The funny part was that I was FRESH off my Paramedic course but just FROZE when it came to my own child. I grabbed her draping a towel over my shoulder so as not to get any (God forbid) blood on my shirt and ran over to my neighbors crying and asked if a kid could get stitches in her tongue. After laughing at me they told me to give her a freezie to stop the bleeding and that in a day she would be just fine...They were right.

Yesterday Peyton fell and cut his head on a rock. I picked him up and brought him in the house not giving two craps that he was POOLING blood down the back of my shirt (cause really..it is just a shirt), grabbed the icepack and fresh gauze and pressed it on his forehead. I then proceeded to quickly clean it with peroxide, grab the Steri-Strips (sticky thing to keep a wound closed) to close the gash, and gauze up his head.

Hospital? Stitches? Who can be bothered to sit in an emergency for four hours to be told by the Dr. that 4 hours is too long to wait for stitches. Besides....I stopped the bleeding, and kept it clean.
Actually I think as soon as I found out I was having a boy I bought truckloads of gauze,tape, and Steri-Strips. Although now I think I'm leaning more towards that new skin glue stuff.

Whatever. Not the point.

Point is my evolution in motherhood. I think I earned my badge back today ;) Besides....It was Just a Flesh Wound.

What to do.....

What to do when your house is cleaned, the kids are finished school, your pregnant, your husband has left you to go save the world and it is 30C and sunny???...

You Go to the YMCA to work out, Head to Grandma's for a swim and free lunch, Sit outside and watch the kids play while you read a book, Have EVERYONE nap, have fruit salad and granola for supper, head to soccer, and take pictures.

Here are some from our day...

Lara took this of me in our almost finished sun porch. It took a while before she took one where my arm fat was hidden. Ah the power of a digital camera.

The kids playing some sort of weird ball game. Whatever....they like it and it allows me to stop playing baseball or push swings.

Peyton and Lara being...Peyton and Lara

That's it for now. It was a good day but a long one. It ended with the girls running over Peyton and pushing him onto some rocks head first where he proceeded to gash his head and bleed all over my shirt. No worries though. Paramedic mommy has enough steri strips and gauze bandages to close any superficial head wound.

Actually it was kind of nice to see him reach for me and cry Mama. He is a man of few words and it just melted my heart to be the one to soothe his pain.

So Day One of Adam in the Ukraine a success.....Now I'm off to feed Chickens and then to bed.

Meat Chicken Update

Oh MY!! The Chickens are just eating and eating and EATING!!

and Pooping.

Reminds me of Human babies. They eat all the time and poop lot's...

Anyway this afternoon I came home to check on my 100 'babies', and found two smooshed underneath the food trays and the fence surrounding them (in the coop) all knocked down.

Poor things.

I sure hope it was not ME who put the feed down this morning amongst the swarm of hungry girls and crushed them!!! I just won't think about that.

Anyway, they are growing SO fast that their little circle is WAY too small for them now. BUT I can't find anything else to use as a wall to make it a little bigger. To help them roam a tiny bit more I opened the ring a little and will have to let them go into the bigger part of the coop. Oh I DO HOPE THEY MAKE IT BACK TO THE INNER RING....

I'm like a Mother Hen.....Worry Worry Worry.

This is a picture of what I'm talking about.

Here are the Chicks the day we got them.

This is INSIDE the bigger chicken coop. The Chicks need to stay SUPER warm, so we create a tiny pen for them using some plastic. They have their feed and water in there as well as HEAT LAMPS over top. A home made incubator kind of thingy....

Here they are ONLY 10 days later, drinking A LOT more water, eating A LOT more every day, and their circle had to be expanded. of course I could not expand it any more so I am trying to open it up and see what happens.

The Shavings bag at the bottom of the picture is to stop the little things from running out when I open the door. The plastic is part of the soon to be finished winterizing of this big coop. Check out the water container!!! It is HUGE!! I got sick of refilling the other one 5 times a day. An investment I'm glad I made.

Soon the heat lamps will be raised, the circle completely taken away and they will be big enough to stay in the entire coop.

Hopefully...

If I don't smoosh any more of them.

Sigh....

Oh...and no jokes about my Green Party sign being pooped on by Chickens :) Go Green Party ;)