This is a picture from the trip my friend and I took to the Lavender Farm. It was a wonderful day. A very warm day. It is hard to believe today I was wearing sweat pants and sweat shirt.

I quite like this picture. I decide the best pictures of me are when I am not looking at the camera.

This is the view from deck

It was a fairly busy day today. With chores, moving sprinklers, fighting with a mean chicken. This chicken gets a bucket on her head while I reach in to get the eggs. Nasty piece of work she is. I have to do a head count on ducks every day to make sure know has been stolen. Our dogs have been barking all night every night. Absolutely no sleep at all here.
Tonight I have searched the Internet on Lavender Farms there are some real nice ones. It is fun to go and check them out. Give it a try google them.
It is very late nearly midnight and I should go to bed.
I am waiting to see I bought a spray of Benadryl for my arms to see if it helps the itch plus I took a benadryl pill. I also soaked my arms in Epsom salts. I never take that stuff so if I am not back... it's not any good!!!
Well I am wondering if my sister in Hawaii got her rain. She was to have a hurricane then it dropped to a tropical storm and now I think it is just a rain cloud. A rain cloud they so need. Where she lives there has been no rain at all. However if it makes her feel any better I might have had 30 drops...
Well I am off to read for a bit and try to make myself sleepy. Have a great night

The deck is finished

Our front deck is finished. I just have to stain the edges and steps. It is not perfect but is should do us a few more years.

It is in blues and has a ocean theme. I really do have a lot of shells, sand dollars and star fish

I made new pillow covers and a cover for the wicker rocking chair. This is the rocking chair Allan bought me when I had Savannah. The chair is twenty years old.

When I am out and about. I always have wonderful ideas of what to write. I have great inspiration, ideas and stories to share. However then I come to the computer and I get sleepy and start to yawn...and that is it all inspiration gone.
Today are day started before 5am I was so tired. Again another night of no sleep the bloody dogs barked all night and the smell of smoke was quite strong in my room. I had to make sure I did not sleep in my daughter had to be at the arena by eight am. Eight am is no big deal but we had to do chores, water, move pipes in the fields, switch over laundry and be clean for town.
After I came home I stained the deck the floor is now done. I am going to stain the trim which I may start this afternoon. I also made some rhubarb stones. I would like to think it is going to be a bird bath but it is too early to tell if it worked.
I also filled out the forms online for Miss Tanisha for a college. I am now out $150.00. We will see which way the wind blows. She has to send in her essay today and then wait to see if she gets accepted... I worry sick about her having to live in Vancouver
Well I am off to a cup of tea then head back outside

The other day I was home alone so I invited Miss Lulu in the house for a few minutes. It was a bonus because she was not wet. She is usually dripping water every where. All was well she checked things out. Here in this picture she is trying climb on my knee...she is not little. She loves to cuddles but she also likes to lick. Again she checked things out and then she met George. George is our thirty pound cat, he is huge, idol and always hungry. It was going quite well until they went into the back room. Then I heard screaming a very loud scared cry...it was not George. Poor Lulu she only wanted a friend but George took her out of my sight then chased , scratched and hissed at her. Needless to say Miss Lulu went straight outside while George went to the comfort of his food dish.

I have had this machine for nine months and never opened it up. I did not know where to find the little disks to use in it. So a few weeks ago I found a disk of coffee for it or at least we thought it was coffee. So after 40 minutes and a lot of reading a lot of trial and error we did. Only to find out it was not coffee it was steamed milk. So we did not try it again. Well finally I found some more of these disks in Wal mart. If you use one steam milk and one coffee it is okay. Great for a one cup in the middle of the day.
Today was terribly windy it was just horrible we could not think outside at all. We managed to lay the plywood down on the deck and I put the first coat of stain. I hope to screw it all down and stain it again tomorrow.
I think we will like the deck like this. We took off the railing it gives it a nice look.
Well I am off to bed have a good night.

It is very windy outside tonight. It makes it quite Smokey out there.
If you watch CMT Chevy countdown in Merritt you will see Jordan. It was his big moment and I guess he did not say too much... too funny. We will look for it tomorrow and tape it for him. He is still out at the fire in Brookmere. They had to come off the fire early as it was getting too active.
Three of my kids are in Bridge Lake, Jord at the fire so it is only Tanisha at home with us.
I hope to work on our deck tomorrow. I also think we have to get parts for the truck tomorrow in Kamloops.
Today I joined Savannah and Tanisha in town and we went for our 5km walk. It was warm but it is always a good feeling when we have done it.
Well I should run. I am tired I have not been sleeping at all lately or actually I wake up a lot. I never know what wakes me up but I am wide awake and then it takes awhile for me to fall asleep again.
So all of you have a wonderful night and I will talk to you all soon

I saw this cool bus when I was at the Coast last month. It sure is a fun bus. We were quite busy today. We trimmed, weeded, transplanted all morning out in the front yard. It was the side we keep our small dogs on. It was a nasty job horrible thorns, thorns so bad they would cut into you.
Then Savannah came out for a visit. She was spray painting a brass make up stand to match her bedroom for her makeup. I will try to finish it tomorrow for her. I just ran out of time today. Dalton, Sam and I also put down the plywood that we could do by using crow bars and muscles. Now the rest will have to wait for Allan. I hope to get it finished this weekend however it all depends on if Allan is working or if he has to work on the truck. I hate half jobs finished. I am not the most patient person.
I am reading a book called Sundays at Tiffany's not a bad book. I like it because the writing is really big so easy to read. It must have come in my book club.
Well I am off to enjoy my cup a tea and try to get my kids to bed before midnight.

Summer Fun

Today it cooled off a bit again. I managed to get my Lavender garden weeded. I still however do not have my deck fixed. I can not do the job myself and my husband has no time so it will have to wait. I really hate the mess.
I went to town this morning and brought Miss Hyacinth back home. She was to go to a resort in Kelowna with Savannah but the resort was evacuated. So instead she spent two nights at Nicola Lake.
I then took Tanisha into her program this afternoon. While she was doing her thing I went for a 5km walk. I really hate to walk by myself in town. I put my headphones on very loud and tuned out the world.
I was watching the news tonight about President Clinton. I am so glad he did something good. I really liked him and I hated to think he left on a sour note.
My son is out at the Brookemere fire. He was telling me the are firefighters out there from other provinces. It is funny how a couple of months ago we had to send firefighters out of province and now we need the help. The weather is so unsettled.
In between writing this my son just phoned he is not coming home tonight so that means I can go lock the door and got to bed now.
Today while the goats were out in the field I was watching them. They looked so nice and content eating the grass. When I see them that way I can really enjoy them. But damn when the goats starting getting dramatic it becomes a lot of work and sometimes heart ache. I have been dealing with a little goat who has not been well. I have no reason that I can see why she is not well. Today she walked about on her own and was eating hay. She is not out of the woods yet but there is some hope. Well off to bed for me have a great night.

Today was a full day. It has cooled a little bit. Now we need that rain they are saying should come. I watered a lot today. Moved stuff off our deck ready to set down plywood. This afternoon was taken up to a full three hour conference phone call with The Art Institute of Vancouver for Culinary Art. Now she has to write an essay and we find out if she is accepted from there. If she is accepted we then will have to figure out if we can actually afford to send her. I truly do not think we can. We could maybe come up with the schooling but living expenses on top of it. We will have to take this with baby steps... not sure what else to do.
I think I will head to bed early it has been a full day of a lot of thinking. And to top it off they have shut the bush down again...Two days ago we put on five new driving tires today Allan sat on the bush road and waited for Kal tire to come fix a flat. Last month eight new tires...Tomorrow the truck goes to Kamloops to get inspected. I sure wish we could win a lottery ticket just a little bit.
I am off now have a wonderful night. Talk to you tomorrow

These two pictures were taken back during Sam's goalie school. This is what we did for eight hours. We did not share the benches very good and there was only two. It was long, long days.

Today was again warm I don't think it was quite as hot but still warm enough. In town it was very smokey and that also was hard to believe. I hope it rains soon. I would hate for those people to loose their homes. The weather and news seems to take up most of our time. I guess it seems such a huge part of our lives because our work is in the forest industry, plus Jordan being a fire fighter and all our dead trees.
Tomorrow we have a telephone conference with a man from the Culinary Arts school at 2pm for an hour. So no one phone during that time. I don't need an interview I need a price. No where could I find a price on the web sight. Now on the US web sight I found a price list. So we will go through the motions and see what we can do. Well I am off to melt for another night. I am enjoying the warm weather but our house is so hot. Well I am off for the night have good sleep.

Today was a very warm day. We had Savannah and Jeremy come out for a visit and we hung out by the pool for awhile. It was very warm and very smokey again today. My poor husband worked out in the sun all day working on his truck. Now he goes to work at a 11:30 tonight
My firefighter is home for a few days he is hobbling along on his sore ankle. I think if he would stay off it for awhile it would do wonders for it.
Again there is more fires. It is amazing how many are starting up. It unnerves you a little. My dad and I were making a plan this afternoon what we would do if we would have to evacuate. The best thing would be to rig up the sprinklers get the animals in the field. We have to many to move out but our fields are the best bet we the sprinklers raised there are no trees in our fields and they are very green. Let out everything of there cages. However I would be pissed right off oh my goodness if my hay went. Moving hay is so much work I refuse to do it again. I think if we lost our hay I would just sell the animals.
I am quite tired today we had a little boy having a sleep over and he slept walked all night. Very unnerving I was scared I would loose him.
Well I am off have a good night. sleep well

Grey Gables Bed and Breakfast

www.greygablesbedandbreakfast

Toll Free 1-877-764-6024

If you have not checked it out do you will love it.

It was really a great place to stay. So remember if you are in Kelowna check this place out

Here is the great kitchen it was so big. Really it would be perfect for a large family

This is the front entrance to the home. Isn't it lovely

Here a few more pictures of the Bed and Breakfast I stayed at.

splashing, swimming, floating, jumping ahhh what a fun summer

Even Dad enjoyed the shade by the pool. It was very warm and tonight it became very, very smokey with a lot of ash falling around us.

I love this picture of Sam falling in.

She is white also. Her and Hyacinth are going to tan this week as they are spending the week together at a resort on the lake

Trying to get a tan. It is very noticeable no one is very brown this year. We are not sure why.

Mom trying out the new chair. She could not quite get the hang of laying in it

Miss Hyacinth trying out the new chair. Her lulu lemon bathing suit matched the chair just perfect.

This is what I did this afternoon. My Mom bought me this new swimming chair. It was great fun. It was so nice and warm. We try to do a lot of swimming while we can you never know with our weather. We may be wearing a coat next week.