The older kids enjoyed a day off today and a few had it yesterday. It is semester change. This semester they are just finishing actually went pretty smooth. I hope the next one is nice and mellow also.
My middle son had a friend out for two days. During the boys two day visit they skated, tobogganed, put together roll away chicken boxes. They spent most of the time with the chickens. It was actually quite clever they put two set of roll way egg boxes together by themselves. The big excitement was the hens actually use them. We have had three eggs in the boxes now. My youngest son also had a buddy out to skate and play. Along with my daughters boyfriend and oldest son's friend. Now tonight after the hockey game my middle daughter is having a friend. So there is a lot of extra kids coming and going.
Tomorrow our middle daughter plays in west side at nine thirty so that means we have to leave the house by six thirty. I think I am going to go. however if I go that means my oldest son is in charge of the three other kids who all have games plus concession duty.
Not a whole lot of creativity has been going on lately unless you consider my clean house creative. Honestly there has not been one second of time the whole week. Well I must run and put two bad puppies to bed. Have a good night.

Do they not look cute when they are sleeping. Don't let them fool you they totally ruin my house. The black cat is over twenty pounds the cream is just plain rotten. I could so sent her to live outside but I can't Dalt totally loves her. Maybe she will settle after she gets spayed at the end of February.

I love these treasures. I have so many special things that I love . I have showed these before in different photos. I always love to show them again and again.

Star fish amaze me as long as I do not have to touch them. Even like this I can not pick them up. They make me shiver.

Full days of traveling back and forth all day long. I had a school meeting at lunch time today which went well. I had to take kids to exams, take kids to work, pick kids up, take kids to hockey!...!! Not too much is getting done. However my middle daughter did says I was contributing to her future. I say I am just using gas lot and lots of gas. I am off to have tea. Then read for a bit and then find my bed after my daughter calls. Have a great night

Pine Beetle Our area has been quite hard with the Pine Beetle. The highways cut down the trees that could fall on the road. It was going to get pretty dangerous. One man down the road I bet has lost most of his trees. His trees were already to fall down in hard winds.

Our road used to be closed in most of the way with trees lining both sides. Well now it looks like this. As you can see the red a lot is still there. It is sad to seem the trees gone but at the same time I glad they are removing them. We did not have any on our road side. All our trees are up on our next two levels. It is pretty cool how fast the trees were removed.

Yesterday was a crazy day I sat around all day waiting. I swear I must spend have my life in my van. I left home at eleven fifteen came home for an hour and a half. Then I left again and did not come home until nine twenty last night. I had it I was so tired. Why I don't know. I accomplished absolutely nothing all day. Well today is pretty close to being a repeat to yesterday so I should run. Have a great day do something wonderful !

Do you have a friend?

We do! She is our friend

This is my one of my son's pet chickens. I had to stop everything I was doing to come and visit her. I think we should name her lucky as she is one of the few that the dog did not get.

Today we definitely accomplished nothing. I had to go into town and there I waited all day. Waited all day for kids. It is exam time so there is a lot of running around. Then my daughter decided she does not want to ride the bus so we are dealing with that. I had a sick kid home today. In our house you do not get to be sick for very long. Since I was in town she had to be in town also. Then we flew home unloaded groceries and headed right off to hockey. the weather was a lot warmer today however I still froze. It was so windy on town. When we drove down from the top heading into town we saw a dust brown colour of dust covering the whole town. It was really weird. Sad as we are breathing that. Well I am off to read for a bit then bed. Have a great night.

Part two of the Fairy book

The white fairy pages are probably my favorite.

I love the sparkle that was added

Each page has a pocket that has a pile of pull out pieces.

It was so cold this morning. It did warm up a bit when the sunshine came out. I was setting up a weather station outside and the cold felt like it was burning my fingers. It was a amazing how the cold hurt. Then when I came in to put wood in I burnt the end of my finger while putting wood in. That would be the fingers I had just froze outside. Ahh no happy medium
Today while I was tiding I found some lovely rocks. I love to find a good treasures. I have rocks, crystals, amethyst everywhere in our home and yet it is still exciting to find more! Well I am off to get little people ready for bed.

Today is a very special day It is my little nieces birthday. So Happy Birthday Gabrielle I hope your day was full of fun and cake.

Rubbish

Last week we finished cleaning all our cup boards out. It is funny when one cleans one spot we seem to mess several more. Then it feels we are no farther ahead.
I am absolutely knackered tonight. How will I ever go to sleep. We have the bread maker on and it is in it's final stage and smells sooooo good! The bread making job is my youngest son's job. Sam takes a lot of pride in his bread and he eats most of it!
My arms are so sore and I have grout up my finger nails. I made three bird houses today plus my husband cut me out of ply wood five house shapes. I was using grout tonight and to spread it I was using my fingers. I had to put a lot of pressure on to get it to stick and now my arms ache. We were up early this morning our house was so cold. I had a bath by five am to warm up the bathroom. I will need to set my alarm for around three am to put wood in tonight. If my husband puts wood in at midnight when he goes then I hope to put wood in at three. I am hoping it will last until five am.
Well am honestly too tired to write anymore. I will check up on you all tomorrow. I have to go to a ski meeting for Sam tomorrow night then I should be home.

Remembering

Tonight I was going through the bag of bits of paper I brought home from our trip last spring. Now I never said I was a good traveler. I usually get pathetically homesick and I just don't go. I am amazed how far away from home I was. Granted I could not hop on a bus and come home. Well when I looked at this stuff it was just napkins brochures etc no pictures. Anyway I had this deep down homesick feeling. It was because I thought of how my husbands and kids dropped us off and just left. They did not know they would still have to pay the same for parking if they had stayed. So they came back into the airport to see us and could not find us. Then they left again. Knowing this now makes me for some reason feel sick. I am so glad I did not know it. I would have never made my trip.
We had a wonderful trip we saw so much. I am going to start the process of starting albums. In all honesty I do not know where to start! Should I start from when we left until we arrived home. Or. Go with each country now remember we went to many, many countries. I am thinking countries would be easier as I would not have to remember the order. In have of my bits of paper I can not read a word too loss to me. Also should I just keep photographs separate from bit of my paper brochures? I will still think on this however I may be eighty before I figure it out.
We had a very, very busy day today. The wind bit right through you and the arena was freezing. When I came home from hockey our bedroom was only 12 above Celsius. When I left our kitchen was only 57 Fahrenheit. Different thermometer read two different ways. Well I must run the kids will be home and I am sure they will want food!!!

Using new cutlery. My kids says it makes them feel rich.
I have a silver set, this gold set and another set of silver that has several different pieces.

Making granola yesterday. We go through a lot of granola in our house we eat it with oranges and yogurt.
Today I am pretty sure I did not accomplish much. After chores I made cookies did laundry then it was off to town. I picked up kids delivered hockey equipment and that was the day.
Tomorrow we have four hockey games so that will be all we get done.
To add to our stress list. The man my husband hauls for told him to spend no money during break up (for those of you who don't know spring break up is where the shut the bush down until the roads dry up) sometimes break up can be short three weeks or as long as six months. Last year for us we went from a pay cheque for our truck in March and not again until the end of July! He told my husband the mill is laying off workers and he does not know where his seniority is!!!!!! I knew that would be when it would get us. So if it does affect us I think my husband will plan to find work and maybe if he has to go away for work. It is usually somewhere between March, April May. I won't worry yet just start making plans. Well I am off to make tea have a great night. I will talk to you all soon

Triple M Mohair

These photo's are suppose to be with the write up down below but my computer had a mind of it's own tonight.

This yarn is available from FreshIsle from Manitoulin.

I absolutely love these. I really want a pair!!!! However I can not knit that well. So I can only dream.

Can you imagine how Wonderful my girls would look dyed like this. I can see it now my movies stars all dressed up in Watermelon. Hmmm I wonder if the dye would stay on them
PS Sally I did not send you the email on this as I did not think your dial up could handle it but how cool is this!!!!

How cool is this check it out!

This is a copy from the blog of freshisle I will try to get the web address.


Magnificent Mohair
I have been keeping a secret. A most wonderful secret. I have a new yarn.

It is perhaps the loveliest yarn I have ever knit with. It is so soft, easy to knit, and slides along the needles like a dream. It's hard to stop knitting with it! A few, lucky friends have knit with it and declare it to be very, very addictive.
I'm not sure what the best part of this yarn is - the actual yarn or it's story. It's from British Columbia, processed in Alberta, and dyed in Ontario (by me!) - a truly Canadian yarn.
I've decided to call it Triple M Mohair for Manitoulin, Merritt, and Marian but that could easily be magnificent, marvelous mohair, too. It's a 2 ply light, worsted weight yarn that is 70% kid mohair and 30% wool. Total luxury.

Some has now been dyed into the popular self-striping watermelon with slight adjustments because of the yarn weight difference and I've knit mittens and the most cozy Fuzzy Feet. The mittens are incredibly soft and are becoming softer and slightly fulled with every wear. Triple M Mohair felted easily and these are the warmest slippers.
It's my standard mitten pattern with 3.5 mm needles instead of 4 mm, and Fuzzy Feet, from Knitty, knit with 6 mm needles instead of the suggested 7 mm. One skein completed the Fuzzy Feet and a little less than half a skein completed the mittens.

There are a precious few skeins now available in the shop but although there is a limited supply, more will be coming. That is if I can stop knitting up all of it myself!

Star and Candy The one on the left has natural big ears.

The girls learning from their dad. Check out those ears.

Yesterday we watched the USA bring in their new President. It was so nice to watch. I hope that man does wonderful things. Then it was off to hockey and a parent meeting. You would not believe how long it takes to decide yes or no if the boys should go to a tournament. I finally left and asked if they could just email me. I was absolutely freezing. I don't know why no one else is cold there. maybe it is just mind above matter and I am not really cold. I just do not want to be there. When I get that cold I can only warm up by cooking myself in the bath. Well I had better get over it. I am at the arena for three ice times tonight and I won't be home until 9:45pm. It is quite chilly even though the sun is shining. We went for a quick walk today. I did not want to go for long as I am cooking my supper so we can eat at 4pm.
I was thinking today in one and half months we will start kidding. I think if I keep my goats this may be the last year we have babies in the early spring and try for late May. It is a thought I would be much warmer so would the little babies. It all depends on the year. Next year is a Grad year!!!!
Well I must run and get ready for kids. Talk to you all soon

This is a book I made a few months back. It is a fairy book I found the idea in a magazine. It was amazing how much time was used for each page . This is the front of the book it is thick and has a lot of things added to it.

You can pull out different cards, letters and pictures on each page. There is a lot of glitter and fairy dust.

Today was spent sorting and cleaning the studio. I rearranged the room and I hope to feel creative. A friend of mine came out tonight and helped me sort all my rubber stamps, lace, ribbon and plan. It was a little over whelming and I did not know where to start. I still have a lot to do but at least I know what direction I am going. I am waiting for kids to get home then I am off to bed.

Today our day was busy but also good. I was just getting ready to leave for hockey this morning when I was greeted to water running down the hall. It was quite the good stream coming at full speed. I shouted for towels and we used every towel we could find. This has never happened in all the years of living here. That is until last spring after we put our new flooring in. It is like they are a magnet for trouble. The water was the washing machine. I was washing Miss Hyacinths lovely feather pillows. Which by the way don't do they float do not sink when wet so the water just flowed right off them onto the floor and out the laundry room straight to my room. I'm guessing the house must lean that way. This is being done because of c a t s... which involves her brand new bedding.
By the way don't wash feather duvet's in the machine either...?
Today was spent by me cleaning, cleaning , cleaning all day you would think we were pigs. There is so much to do all the time it never quits. For instance I just hung up the phone from middle daughter who is suppose to be at Grandmas in ten minutes . Here Dad has gone to pick her up but she just this minute left Penticton. Did I mention we live over 20 miles from town. I am sure that won't go over well.
Good things are my son's grad pictures came in and our now just waiting for a frame and to be hung. Oldest son put together a cup board for me now I am going to rearrange my studio. I will take pictures for you in a few days. The boys cleaned out their chickens and they have now recieved four eggs from those Golden hens. My floors are very clean due to the river rushing down them this morning. My four new fish are still alive it is day three. My oldest daughter drove today first time all winter.

Just a quick note to say Hi. It has been an unreal long day, a very full stressful day with seven trips to town. I will write tomorrow as I am off to find my bed. We have to be at the arena by six am tomorrow. Have a pleasant night

Winter Fun

I just love this photo. I may have even showed this photo to you all already.

Here are some photo's enjoying the snow

A mountain of fun

Trying to be cute. This snow hill has given the kids hours of fun.

A little skating

A very crazy day. My day started at 5:30am we were up ready for school and out the door at 7:15am. My daughter was going to drive today. I figured I would just drive her save a trip and pick her up after. Well it would have worked if I had not been wrong on the time. We were an hour early and nothing to do in town so we had hot chocolate and a donut in the Wal mart parking lot. I then came home and nicely changed back into work clothes. I was just getting into a routine with laundry, dish washer just general cleaning. When the phone rings and my middle boy is not feeling well and wants to come home!!! Now I am in a panic as I have to head back in at 2:00pm any ways. So I get my oldest son to pick middle son at school on his lunch break. He then takes him to Grandma's in town. However middle son wants me so I have to rush. I phone my Mom and Dad and tell I was leaving and I won't be home until later tonight. Now non of this is no big deal if you have some where to go while you are in town. I head to my Mother in laws and my middle son is sound asleep. So I sit and visit and wait and wait. The middle boy then wakes up he has Turkey soup and we leave to go get our oldest daughter from work and drop her off at her boyfriends. I then have to head back out of town to pick up Sam then arrange to pick up other kids. We now have to decide what to do we decided to stay in town. So back to my Mother In laws I don't think she is sick of us yet. We hang out there I feed the kids sub sandwiches that I bought earlier. At four thirty I grab my kids and my nephews and head to the arena. We stay at the arena until 7:20 then finally come home. Now that was my day.
Granted I did leave out a lot of dramatics.
Like shopping at our Wal mart is always a pleasant experience... I can not write about them as my daughter works there and I do not want any grief for her. All I will say if we had any where else to shop I would. However our Town is pretty limited and it does usually have the best prices.
So the silver lining of a stressful day. I had a nice visit with my Mother in Law, talked to my niece twice in one day, had a coffee with Mom and Dad this morning, I had a quick visit with my husbands Aunt and cousin.
So now I am off to finish my tea and brace myself with the same type of day again tomorrow.

This is what we saw while driving into town. It is hard to see but you can kind of make it out. It was Bob cat. It was quite a large one. He was walking along on the ice. Very cool
I finished cleaning up the kitchen today. I still have the china cabinet I hope to look at it tomorrow but I won't have much time. Sam's hockey tournament starts tomorrow.
Today we moved the ducks out we had them with the chickens. They were just too messy and the little ducks were getting picked on.
I have been thinking I think our ram may have something to do with our Alpaca dying. I am going to give him a couple of more weeks with the girls then he is getting moved away from the barn yard. I have to go now and do homework with Miss Hyacinth. Hmmm never any peace!

Miss Hyacinth's dessert. It looks a little sickly!

Miss Hyacinth is taking cooking in school. She was taught to make cheese biscuits. So she came home and made them for our dinner. It was perfect as I had made Chili this night.

The kids are so proud of themselves when they learn to cook.
Today we spent the whole day cleaning right after chores. I came in from outside and I started on the cupboards. We went through the whole kitchen it was a lot of work we through out a lot of rubbish. It is amazing how much better the cupboards look. I do hope it lasts. Tomorrow I will make a box for the thrift shop and then the rest is garbage. So many bags I know I will have to pay a lot to go to the dump.It will be so worth it. I have one china cupboard, plus three more in the living room to do.