Harvest

 The last half of September kept me busy making harvest meals down at the seed farm. Usually 10-12 meals each supper which had to delivered to sometimes different locations a ways apart. It ended up being a challenge getting to the location since there weren't many landmarks or road signs! By the end I was getting more familiar with the area and the roads.

Worked on different menus so there would be some variety with the meals.

Main dishes: 

lasagna, chicken wraps, baked spaghetti, pulled pork, stuffed shells, enchiladas

Mom did a smoked salmon that was awesome and went over big with everyone!

Sides:

garlic bread, coleslaw, baked beans, caesar salad, wild rice, nifty carrots, mandarin jello salad, corn

Desserts:

cinnabons, ultimate chocolate cake, brownies, confetti squares, oreo cheesecake cupcakes

This meal was Baked Spaghetti, garlic bread, and caesar salad.

 I never got pictures of the full meals because it was crazy right at the end trying to dish all the meals out and keep them warm. :)

 And, Cinnabons for dessert!

 Mom has a bigger kitchen which was great to work in since there were so many dishes being used. This was a familiar sight.

My clean truck didn't stay clean for long delivering meals to the fields. lol.

Typical sight every meal time. :)

 Always lots of activity at the main seed farm yard.

New bins being constructed.

 Used more grain bags for storage since some of the land was several miles from the main yard.

My dad and brother putting in long hours and keeping the farm running smoothly.

One chapter ending and eye surgery

  The end of July found me shipping my last cycle of birds at my place and my neighbour's. The next week was barn cleanout and it was a relief to finish for the last time. Usually it'd take about a week to thoroughly clean 4 barns and it always felt good to have them done with a little bit of down time before getting for the ready for the next cycle. This time though, with cleanout done just in time, I was getting ready to go in for eye surgery.

  On August 8th (exactly 3 months before my wedding!), I went in for laser eye surgery. The past year or so I had been thinking about how nice it would be to not have to deal with glasses or contacts any more. I was 7 when I first started wearing glasses and then mainly contacts since 14. The past few years my eyes seemed to be getting a little more sensitive and I ended up wearing glasses and contacts about an equal amount of time. The more I looked into eye surgery, the more appealing it seemed. How nice it would be to not have to bring your glasses along every time you travelled, contacts and contact solution (esp a pain if you want to travel carry-on :p), not have them fog up with winter activities or cold weather, etc. Plus, my then fiancé and now husband, was very supportive and encouraging in my decision. Knowing personally a few people who went through laser eye surgery, I felt more confident in moving ahead with it.

  First I called the optometrist to make an appt and had to book it a ways out since I couldn't wear contacts for a month (due to astigmatism) before getting tests that were necessary for the surgery. That was towards the end of July and then I got an appt with Horizon Laser about a week later. I drove down to Regina (about 3 hours away) and had a good appt. Due to my cornea being too thin, I wasn't a candidate for LASIK surgery but I would be for PRK, another form of laser surgery. With both surgeries, you end up with the same results about 6 months down the road. PRK is more painful and has a slower healing time but then you don't have dry eyes as severe and there is no flap that needs to heal back in place. When I went to book the surgery, the receptionist surprised me by saying there was an opening in a week, and if not then, it would be several weeks before another available slot. So, I took the closest one and then tried not to freak out and get excited too much. lol.

  The surgery went smoothly but recovery was slow. My parents took me to the appt since they don't allow patients to drive right after surgery, and I wouldn't be able to anyways. Then I stayed at their place for a while. The first 3 days were the worst. I was supposed to sleep pretty much that whole time because the eyes heal best with darkness and resting. Mom would help with the drops since at the start there were 4 different drops to be applied and some of them 4xday. There was a lot of pain those first few days. Then finally on the fourth day things began to feel gradually better. I was very sensitive to light still but at least was able to stay up part of the day and not have almost unbearable pain to deal with.

  I went to my first post surgery appt at the optometrist and said everything looked good but my vision wasn't clear enough to pass the eye test for driving. Usually you can start driving about a week after but sometimes it takes longer. Recovery was much more difficult than expected. My eyes stayed blurry for quite some time with occasional moments/times in the day when it would start to clear up. The days seemed to take forever to pass by. I couldn't do a whole lot due to my eye sight, or lack thereof, and I like having something to keep me busy! My next appt was about 10 days later and I still couldn't see good enough for the driving test chart. That was discouraging but not totally surprising. My eyes were at least slowly improving but I was still dealing with  blurriness, seeing double/ghosting, halos around lights during the night, etc, My next appt was 2 weeks later and I finally passed the test and was able to drive again after almost 4 weeks post surgery. That was such a relief and it never felt so good to have my licence back! :) You realize how helpless you are when you can't drive.

  It was about 6 -7 weeks before it felt like my eyes were completely healed and vision was perfectly clear. The optometrist said they were healing well and he was happy with the progress. I had recently finished the last one of my medicated drops so then just had lubricant drops to apply as needed. So, the first part was definitely not fun but the surgery was totally worth it. I love not having the hassle of glasses or contacts to deal with anymore and definitely have no regrets about going with PRK surgery.

Packing and moving

The time has come to start packing stuff up to get ready to move. Several of the big items I'm sending down to dad and mom's since they recently moved into another house. Dad and Graham came up with the stock trailer (cleaned out! :)) to move it down there.

 



When Days Don't Go As Planned

My life has seemed to be full of them lately.

Friday I headed out for Saskatoon with a long list of things to do/get: banking, hair appt, barn supplies, etc. My truck had started making a funny noise the night before and I was thinking that rocks had maybe gotten in the brakes. I tried the speed-up-and-stop-fast and reverse-and-stop-fast around my yard to knock them lose and hoped that the neighbours wouldn't drive by and wonder what that crazy girl is doing now. Thought it maybe helped a little bit but the sound didn't completely go away.

Anyways, I head out for Saskatoon and I keep hearing that quieter but annoying sound. Then a few times the truck started knocking at the front and would go away as soon as I slowed down. I made it to Humbolt and called Dad as there was now a real rattle and I was thinking this truck was beginning to have issues. Right across from Tim's was a Canadian Tire so I went in and asked the guy if they had time to look at it. He had heard the truck come around and said something sounded very wrong with it. He called around to find a shop that would be able to look at it right away. As a side note, I take back all my bad thoughts about Canadian Tire employees who usually would rather you not bother them and find what you are looking for on your own. I drive over to the shop and the guy takes a look at it and said it was the differential and that I should take it to the Chrysler dealership. Thankfully Humbolt is small so I didn't have to drive far.

I arrive at the Chrysler dealership around 10 AM and have to wait for an hour before they look at. I was concerned it was going to be an expensive fix since Dad said those type of jobs can be and sometimes almost not worth fixing. After checking it out, the guy came out with the diagnosis and a quote to fix it. It ended up being a CV joint shaft and another shaft totally seized up, a seal that need to be replaced, and a few other small things. He said they could fix it but it would be later in the afternoon. I was just glad it could get fixed that day as I would have been stuck two hours from home without a vehicle.

Passing the time was pretty much painfully boring. I hadn't brought anything to read or do since I hadn't exactly planned for this interruption in my day. I couldn't go walk anywhere really because I was at the end of town and it was pouring, I mean POURING! I used to think airports were the most boring place to pass time but I think car dealerships win the title. At least you can people watch at airports. haha. You look at the floor for a while, then the plaques on the wall for all the customer service and what-not awards they've won, the mute tv, and then listen to the occasional customer who can't believe their 5 minute signal light fixing job is taking longer than that. Then on top of that my cell phone battery was low and eventually went dead so I couldn't even entertain myself with that. One bright spot was the lady bringing a current Western Producer out so that was a great improvement over the assortment of magazines already on the shelf. 

4:30 came around and I was finally leaving with a smooth running truck. Definitely not what I had planned for the day but at least I hadn't been left stranded in the middle of nowhere which could quite easily happen in Saskatchewan. :P

Then fast forward to this morning and I was planning to go again but the alarm for my barn went off at 3:45 AM due to the power going out. I trudged out to the barn to realize the problem and reset the alarm. I didn't start the generator as it only runs a few things in the barn and I didn't have chickens in. So, the alarm went about every half hour until the power came back on. There are a couple buttons in the house which allow you to turn off the alarm system but that obviously only works if the alarm isn't power related. :P

So, tomorrow is attempt #3. I'm not going to even guess what could stop me from going. I'm just going to play the optimist and hope for the best.

Most of today felt like I was taking three steps back every time I tried to do something. The west side of the barn needs to be smoothed out so I can plant grass and be able to mow it. I went and got our tractor from my neighbour's as using the tractor bucket to smooth out the bumps seemed simple enough. I finally gave up after it looked like I was trying to destroy the yard. Seriously, it looks like a mess and I'm not quit sure how I'm going to get the result I want.

Then my fuel tank was finally ready to get filled so the truck delivered the fuel this morning.  Now the valve leaks a bit and the hose needs to be replaced as hardly any fuel comes out and it sprays out through a few places.

After that I walk into the barn entry and check inside the barn to see lots of water sitting inside it. Even though we've had the excavation work done, it seems the ground is still saturated plus the 2" we just had didn't help things. I try to start sweeping the water around but a 250' barn with an 18" broom, yeah...I stopped and went added "big broom" to my list.

So, I'm ready for today to end and am feeling quite overwhelmed. My partial "to do" list. :P

So much to do, so many problems to fix, barns to get ready again for chickens, yard work already getting ahead of me due to all the rain...

Here's to hoping a good night's sleep and a good cup of joe to start off the morning will make my life not feel so overwhelming. Good night!