Spring time finally found us and I am sure we may still get some cold spells like it is still -4 this am. I managed to get an amazing amount of work done in the lavender garden no I am no where near being done but I will win. You know if I did not have pine needles 99.9999 percent of my work would be gone. This tree is huge he has been hit my the pine beetle quite a few times but he has managed to hang on. Mano h man if he dies and has to come down I am leaving for the weekend I would cry to see all the damage

 Poor little lavender plant it was crazy how it just squashed it the branches were huge when we cut them down they do not look so big in the tree.

 hmmm.

 

 

I truly do not know where the time goes. We are still having winter and even though it was a fairly mild winter I am so over it now. I have so much work to do that I need to get outside. My daughter has moved her wedding form November up to July so I need to clean, clean and more clean. I know I can do it, it just seems overwhelming right now.

 These two pictures show of a very nice way to add nature to your home and garden without spending any money. I have Cedar branches living beautiful in the jars of water and I could change them over to nice vase if I choose to. I just clean out the water now and then and they stay so fresh.

 Here are more branches that add a little green and nature to your home. This was a sweet mistake and the liven up the house during these dreary months.

I hope to bring in more rocks this weekend for my walk way to the lavender house. I need to make it nicer for the wedding. So that is my agenda this weekend.

 

We have had a busy month here. A lot of family time we celebrated family day it was a perfect day cold enough to skate this will be the last time for our rink we are now warming up and rain. All the kids skated and hung out together.

 I have been enjoying learning my new machine. It is time consuming but it can be pretty cool. This is a shirt I had made for my brother for his birthday. I had to rush it but once I had it ironed up it looked okay.

This is our baby Alpaca she lost her Mom this winter so we are keeping her close and giving her lots of love. It has been a rough winter on the animals. Which I am not too sure why as it was pretty mild, yes the temperature has been jumping around and we did hit some cold days and nights but over all not too bad.

Winter has found us again temperature is dropping this is not too good for the lambing. We have eight little lambs now and so far everyone is fairing well. We have five ewes left to birth out. There is nothing fun about tip toeing across the yard in the middle of the night at -18.

For me lately every little spare time I have I am debudding the lavender I am sure I must be winning at this.

Hockey season for us (Minor Hockey) is done for us another practice it is a shame for Sam but for us we are okay with it ~ time to move on. The kids seem to be getting colds they go so long without one then it slowly creeps into them. Gosh I sure hope I do not get it!!!

This pictures are off my iPhone and then I have a new App that makes them turn into water colour painting. Pretty cool and so much fun

 

It is the end of January and it is crazy mild for this time of the year and I am sure we are going to pay for it with a cool spring. Look at who's tail is growing back oh my goodness I love him he is so majestic and lovely. I have my fingers crossed our eggs will be fertile and we can hatch a few.

Baby Grandson is checking out the new babies he is quite the farmer. This day of the picture he was loving the yellow farm bucket which is now in my house. 

We have five babies as of this morning three boys and two girls. It is in our plans this year to sell them early only time will tell what we will do.

This is Pip the Christmas quail he is growing very nicely and he is really quite bad full of mischief. We have three more we hatched they are not giving me a great hatch but I think it is how long we waited with the eggs.

On Friday our youngest son starts his hockey play offs it is a straight three days of hockey for him. And, both Sam and Hyacinth are in the middle of writing their exams then on to the last semester and full steam to the end for Hyacinth ~ graduation.

All our kids are doing great growing up to be such great adults we are very proud of them.

This was my finding while in the garden so sad it has been such a crazy winter up and down. We are for sure going to loose some plants...down right depressing.

Today it was up to eleven above at lunch time beautiful; weather if you are not trying to winter lavender or hold onto an ice rink. Today my dad did a bit of work on the yard as it is so icy we can not walk are vehicles were sliding.

Now the animals are loving it, it is nice and mild for them it makes the ducks much louder and perfect weather for the chicks transition out of my house - smelly little things!

 

Oh the noise

I have been looking at other peoples blogs some really write some fun, awesome write ups. They must lead a little more exciting life than me. So maybe I SHOULD add some fun may more iPhone pictures. I watched a lovely add on TV tonight  it was an Apple add where a young teenage boy looks bored with the holidays and visiting with family when really he is making a movie to play for hi family at Christmas~ I watched over and over and then I went and got Miss Hyacinth to come watch it. I was telling her we should learn to use our iPhone since we have them and lovely contracts...

This is an iPhone picture

This is also an iPhone picture

Really one can have so much fun and creativity with these cameras on phones.

Today was such a good day I had so many jobs crossed off my list.

 I was working on a folder for Petit Creek Lavender

www.facebook.com/petitcreeklavender.

come on over and visit us

Well it is seriously late now so off to bed

Good Morning a chilly -8 here this morning and still as dark as night outside.

The dogs have been barking so much my son's put up the trail camera and we have a good bunch of coyotes hanging around, plus cougar tracks.

 In the back part of the camera we see eyes and there is something there hard to see just out of the flash.

One son thinks it is a bear and my dad thinks it is a cougar.

 Pretty scary when you think about it.

 I used to walk all the time up there but not any more the last time my son when up the coyotes were trying to call him out the edge of the property.

 Another time when he was up on the back of the property he was being stocked by a coyote one he could handle but we have a pack of four for sure and up to five.

 

Enjoy your day

 

This was the beginning of our holiday we had a brief heavy snow fall all came within a couple of hours. It was great for pictures. Fun to play in.

Then

we had rain, warm weather but through it all we saved the rink.

Now tonight at six pm it is already minus seven.

This picture show the rain on the rink.

This weekend our goalie is in a hockey tournament. I am lucky to escape it as my husband and other kids get to go. So far he has won three and lost one not too bad.

Hard to believe the holidays are over and we are already into the start of the New year time just keeps marching on not waiting for anyone.

 

 

Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year

May 2014 be incredible for all of us

Making wishes

making dreams

Create

inspire

We have enjoyed family time our home has been bursting with people and things.

We have had fun skating, eating good food, visiting and recovering from hand, foot and mouth

We have started new jobs which has thrown in some great stress.

All in all we are just living life

making the best

trying to win

Deep Breath...

A busy week here.
Many new projects have been done a Peace Pole Project, many new lavender products for the lavender house, putting things away for winter and just general living.
The stress in this house is oozing out the sides it can quit any time it likes. Stress totally wears a  person out.
We had our first snow not too much just a reminder it is coming and coming soon. If I did not have to leave home or if I knew my family did not have to drive in it I would enjoy it all winter long...
I have had our grandson three days last week and two this week. We have had a lot of fun.

 

Our telephone number has been taken by scammers and they are using it to call out and use a recorded message about giving away points. It makes me so angry how can people get away with it. They tell me they can not stop it but rest assured if it was me doing it someone would be knocking at my door.
I have noticed the birds are moving in a sign it is getting colder. I have also noticed the Canadian Geese flying I love to see them in the sky. It never fails to make me smile when I can hear them and then I have to stop and hunt the sky to see them.

Yesterday I woke up to minus eight way too cold way too soon this morning is only minus four. We have our wood cut do we have enough? probably not. I bought a pallet of pellets for the wood stove in the back of the house sixty bags plus six bags that we had. It will last for a bit.
You can not walk in our back porch full and ready for winter.

Yesterday was a Grandson day he sure is fun. We sorted pumpkin seeds and roasted them. He liked the fact he could sit in a chair next to me all grown up.

Isn't it funny how a few words can make your day " Hockey practiced in cancelled today" I know there was a sigh of relief in our house. Yes for me thank goodness one less thing to deal with even for Sam he was happy one less thing to have to rush to he could relax and watch a movie. There is nothing funnier when I can hear him down the hall laughing to himself when something is funny.

We made carrot cupcakes and iced them in a horrible orange icing. They taste nice but the icing is not too pretty ~ perfect for Halloween.

 

Today is another Grandson day we have three this week so I had better get ready to head outside and do chores. I really hate to do chores in the dark and cold.

 

Hello today was a damp, wet, windy day even though it was nine above the wind is coming from the north and cold.

It has been blowing the leaves all afternoon.

My dad is out a bit more now a few weeks ago he was deathly sick in the hospital with E-coli that is a horrible, horrible bug. It is quite crazy how sick it makes a person. At least the chores slow down for winter so he will be able to take it easier.
Today my son traveled to Fairview, Alberta to go to school, ahh he is so far away from me. He showed a picture with snow so winter is starting too soon for me.

This weekend we brought quite a bit of wood in. My Dad and our middle son brought in a feeder for the cows, we moved hay over and we are now feeding the sheep over in their winter area now.

 

I gave all new bedding for the animals as it is getting chillier at night now.

I had a talk with chickens one green egg every second day is just not cool.

 

Here is our Mamma and her baby.

 This little Alpaca is the funniest little thing she has such a great personality ~ she is just plain bad.

We are ending near October time is flying by. I have not been to my blog in ages. Our computer and Internet has not been good so it is an effort to just get onto the Internet. Last week we changed the router so we will see how this goes.
our oldest son was home for two weeks it was really nice having him here. He did so much for us, we had great visits, he did some hunting and he had friends over.  He is now this weekend heading off to school in Alberta so many changes.

The farm work is slowing down but know doubt  as soon as the snow flies I will have to start digging gates and carrying water is just no fun.
We have had the fire going on and off for the last month and it is quite noticeable  how much fire wood we have used already.

 

We will be starting a new job or my husband will be and this pretty much consumes my mind twenty four hours a day it makes me sick to my stomach with worry.

Over the last four or five years all I have done is worry about bills, making ends meet analyzing how to stretch a pay cheque from here to hell. It totally sucks the life out of you and makes nothing fun anymore.

 

I do get to spend quite a bit of time with our Grandson he sure is fun.

 

 

Here he is at the pumpkin patch with his pumpkin he is picking to buy.

First day of Autumn

How the heck did summer go by so fast. We have been going full speed ahead with hockey, school, kids working, Allan on the roads lots and a baby Grandson.
I have been getting some cleaning done around here and boy does it need imagine six months of being in the gardens - yah not pretty.

Yesterday was the Car port which by the way we could not fit a car into it. So I tidied removed the bags of cement for the winter I use a lot of cement for projects. Planted pots with shrubs decorated for the season. Now I am ready for fire wood and the mess will start again.

 

This morning my phone rang about four forty five this morning and of course I did not bring the phone into my bedroom so I flew down the hall and it was my Mom. She is taking my Dad into the hospital sigh I am so not good with this stuff.

 

This September I learned a new art garden sculptures it is fun, messy I hope to have all the ones done I want to put out in the lavender gardens next season.

I will show pictures later as the computer must be updating and won't let me browse for a picture.

Enjoy today

September gardening is slowing down.
 Lambs have headed off to the Auction.

School has started this year I have three college students ad two in high school and one still fire fighting.

Hello I am setting up a new computer tonight. Our last one was hanging by a thread. It takes so long to set up a new one. We are in our last week before school that is so crazy so sad school is starting again.
Today little Cash came to visit he loves tractor rides, when I take him on he squeals, screams and shakes with excitement. I will have to see if we can film him.
Well I am off to finish setting up this computer. Good Night

Middle of August all ready.
 I am sure hoping I get into a routine with the blog again it really is a good journal to have. This summer has sadly flown by absolutely amazing how quick it has been. My husband has been on the road a lot and I think that is why the weeks fly as I keep myself extremely busy. Then the rest of the time I stress myself about money, bills and all that not so nice stuff.
This fall all the kids go back to school which is funny the older three are all going to school one in Heavy duty mechanics, one in Early childhood education and the other into business. The younger two are in grade ten and grade twelve and my middle one is still in firefighting hoping to get any extension into the fall.

The gardens have done well.
The Lavender was perfect however it did all bloom and was ready to harvest all at the same time. With our extreme heat it was a challenge to keep the gardens moist. I did expand the one garden and I added to them all summer so lets hope winter is kind to them.

Wow that was a long time to be away from the blog but it is summer time and we have been busy, extremely busy. The kids are all working so there is a lot of running around but mainly juggling trucks. And, the gardens have over taken my whole summer harvesting was intense and no time to slow down. The lavender was all ready at the same time and our weather was so intense and wonderful it had to be dealt with right away.
When our weather decided to become nice it has been so beautiful just lovely.

This summer I have added a lot of new shrubs, roses, grapes and flowers to the Lavender garden. We also opened up the farm during the month of July so we had quite a few visitors it was nice to share the gardens with them.

On the farm side we have ten little tiny quails that we hatched out gosh they are tiny. I was pretty excited that we actually were able to hatch them.

We separated the lambs last weekend they were so rough on the mom's it was time. A lot of bellering for about twenty four hours and now they all seem to have settled.

Summer Day's

A Beautiful Day
The weather has been nice we have been enjoying our summer swimming, visiting with family yesterday nieces and nephews were here it was really nice to see them. The kids are all growing up so much.
It has been endless work on the farm but it is all good. The gardens are beautiful the lavender is blooming and now the hard work begins it actually is a little overwhelming. I guess I just start on plant at a time. Ahh who wanted so many plants :)

This was Savannah's twenty fourth birthday here they are enjoying cake.

Baby Cash is awesome we sure are enjoying him we laugh all day at him. Watching a child grow is truly an amazing unreal experience. I love it!!!

 

Summer Solstice

Rain, rain and more rain

We have had a rainfall warning so lets hope it passes and is finished today

First day of summer

New pond fish

Our baby Grandson loved the new fish it was a bit of a worry when he hugged the bag.

Dreaming of roses

I am on the hunt for a yellow rose like this

Summer Solstice project

Summer Solstice

Summer has quietly approached us amid the lousy weather.

How does it do it?

 We have had two days of rain great for the fields but so much rain for us.

School is finished tomorrow the last of the exams there is nothing better than summer holidays for the kids.

 

Projects are being done.

 Gardens are quite nice.

Sheep are growing it is hard to tell the lambs from their mom's.

Our oldest son and his girlfriend are on their way home tonight for the weekend I am quite excited to see them.

Time for bed have a great sleep.