Wednesday 27 November 2013

Snow Day

It snowed last night.

A lot.


The school buses were all cancelled.


We shipped the stockers to Brussels this morning....the ones that were making the hairy fence.

I will miss them.

Not really.


There were snow fights.

And a snow fort.

I made a pan of nainamo bars....or ninami bars.


And then I raided the craft box and searched Pinterest for some ideas.

Sophie and Lydia wanted to make ruffle trees....but really I ended up doing all the work because they can't use a glue gun.  They just bossed me around and told me what to do.


It's cardboard from a Rice Krispies box....shaped into a cone and then covered in green ribbon....I ruffled it as I glued.

Then I made this angel.  The head is just the cardboard from the same Rice Krispie box....and then I used whatever I could find in the craft box and glued it all on.


And it was my sister-in-law's birthday, so I had decorated this cake for her last night.  It was delivered to her today.


Happy Birthday Aimy!

BUT.....the BIGGEST news of all was this....


Sophie lost her first tooth!

Yes, there are already two teeth coming in behind....the front two have been loose for some time now.

Wiggly teeth make me shutter.

I can't stand it.

They creep me out.

And Sophie has the same problem.

This tooth finally falling out was THE BEST.

Now she just has to loose about 19 more?  Am I right?

Shudder.

uuuugggg.

Brenda

Tuesday 26 November 2013

Ice on the Horses' Trough

Yesterday morning everything was frozen hard.

The pails of water in the hen house.

The water bowl.

The trough.

Even the tap in the barn needed a little help from my hair dryer.

It felt like -20 with the wind chill.

The cold makes doing the regular morning chores just a little harder.....and it takes longer.

As we were finishing up the chores, Jack mentioned that the only thing that he doesn't like about winter is that the water freezes.....but then he went skating on the pond in the afternoon.  Maybe the frozen water wasn't so bad after all.

Today is much milder....and better.  There is a storm coming tonight.

Things weren't quite as frozen this morning.

But the ice on the horses' trough needed to be chipped away.





And the trough needed to be filled again....I miss the hose.  It can't be used in the winter, so I need to fill the pail...several times.....and dump it into the trough.


As the pail fills again, I have some time to talk to them.


Happy horses.

Brenda

Thursday 21 November 2013

The Lovely Calf

Remember this calf that was born last winter?

 
She has a heart on her forehead.

She grew.



She is Lovely.

She is Midnight's sister.

She was born on the same day as her sister....exactly two years apart.

Their mother does not have a name.  She is called the 'Shorthorn Cow'.

She calved a bull calf in the year between the years of Midnight and Lovely.

It's important to keep track of a cow's family history.

And birthdays.

You wouldn't want to forget a cow's birthday.

Brenda

Wednesday 20 November 2013

Getting the Hens Ready for Winter

The November sun was warm today.

We needed to move the hens from the Farmhouse property into the warmer log chicken house for the winter.  Moving hens is whole lot easier than moving sheep.  We have a special crate to put them in....and it fits nicely in the van.

Jack decided to clean all the chicken coops.

The one we have here at home....with all the 'pretty birds'....

 
 
 

and the one over at the other farm.  Lydia and I helped him shovel out the.....mess.

 

It was a dusty job....but we had it done in no time at all.  The hens are happy....and they are all ready for winter.

 
 
Brenda

Monday 18 November 2013

The Ruffle Cake

I've been wanting to make a 'ruffle cake'.  It's all over Pinterest and it's so very pretty.

So, on Friday evening I baked a cake.  I decided that this weekend I would try the ruffle cake.

They saw the cake in the oven and asked if I was baking myself a birthday cake.

I guess so.

I had sort of forgotten that it was my birthday the next day.

Anyways, I went on 'you tube' to find the ruffle cake.  Most of them were made with fondant.  I'm not fond on fondant.  Butter is so much better....so it's buttercream for me.

I watched a lady make the ruffles with buttercream.  She started from the top and worked the ruffles down.  I didn't like that idea.

I started from the bottom and worked the ruffles up.

It's really a simple, fast way to decorate a cake.  I used wilton tip no. 104.


Then I wanted to try to make these simple flowers.  I used the same tip and I just put some colouring in the bag of icing....so it would be swirly.


There was a dance party going on while I did this.


I put my dancers to work and they decorated a few cupcakes.


They like to make sure that there is sufficient icing on them.


There was no shortage of desserts that evening....


I let them sing to me.

I let them open a can of cherry pie filling and they turned their pieces of chocolate cake into black forest cake.

But I didn't want cake.

I made myself this.


Happy Birthday to me.

Brenda

Wednesday 13 November 2013

Random Conversations

With colder temperatures it means that the kids don't go outside as much.  They rip and tear in the house.
 
Run around and scream like fools.
 
I can handle it most of the time.  I just carry on with my chores and block out most of the noise.

But Terry has a harder time.
 
He came in from the barn the other night and said something like, "Please,  settle down.  You have to stop running." 

And I responded with "Leave them alone.  They are happy and healthy.  Let them rip.  Just be thankful that we aren't sitting in CHEO." 

And then I thought about it....for like 30 seconds....and I said "Wait a minute....if they keep doing what they're doing....we're going to end up in CHEO." 

And he said that that was exactly what he was thinking.

----------------------------------------------
I said to Jack yesterday that I had to stop making pies because I was sick of eating pie.  And then I said NO...actually I'm not sick of eating pie....."I'm fat of eating pie." 

And Jack said "Well, I'm not fat."

He wants me to make more pie.

----------------------------------------------
Yesterday Lydia asked me what 'drinking and driving' meant.

I told her that....it's like drinking something....like a beer and then driving....it's not a good idea.

She looked at me and said "Ya, you might spill it."

I knew I had to explain it to her better.

But she wasn't listening.

I started to say, "When you drink beer..."

But she said, "What about people that drink coffee?  They shouldn't do that....they might spill it too."

I was trying to tell her that they had to be careful with their coffee.  But drinking beer is different than coffee.

But she wasn't listening.

She said, "But it's okay for kids to eat while you drive....RIGHT?"

I told her that yes...that was fine.

Then I wanted to stress about the beer again and I said, "When you drink beer it makes you sort of silly and you shouldn't drive."

And she looked at me so bizarrely....like as if to say...WHAT are you talking about?

Brenda

Tuesday 12 November 2013

The BEST Window Cleaner. ever.

My windows needed to be cleaned.

So I bought a package of these.


Problem solved.


 
 

My windows look FABULOUS.

Brenda

Saturday 9 November 2013

Some November Snow

These two girls were pretty excited to see the snow fall this afternoon.


 
 

But these girls weren't excited at all.


No reaction.  No snowman building.


Just enjoying the cool air and taking a nap.


Brenda