Week Before the Wedding!

The week before the wedding was busy catching up on various projects and getting ready for friends and family to arrive. 

 Finished the flower girl dresses. Love how they turned out.

 My friend and bridesmaid, Ruth, ( Skirted Blues ) and her husband, Mark. So glad they were able to make it out for our wedding and meet Austin too. They also were a huge help! Here they were filling the coffee favour bags.

 Manicure and shopping a couple days before the wedding. It called for a Starbucks stop. =D

 Loved my French Manicure and it lasted for about 2 weeks.

 Erin (my sister and matron of honour)

We gave ourselves manicures that evening while enjoying more coffee. lol!

 Ruth

Ruth, Mark, Bradley, Erin, and Austin. We had to fit a couple games of Dutch Blitz in that evening. :)

Engaged!

 

On November 29, 2013 the most amazing guy asked me to marry him!  I feel so blessed and can't wait to be Austin's wife! :)

12" of snow in 24 hours!

The last few inches of snow were very light and fluffy. So pretty!

I thought my lamp post looked cool. :)

I need to shovel my roof off!

My yard with the poor, lonesome, crooked tree. :P

Going out to chore. 25kph N wind. Brrr...

So glad I just got winter tires on my farm truck!

My driveway

Doing chores at my neighbour's. Pretty much had to dig out a path everywhere I walked.

Lost in Canada

An American and his wife were driving in Canada and got lost on the prairie. After what seemed like forever, they finally came to a city.

When they saw a gentleman on the sidewalk they pulled up to the curb and the lady wound down her window and asked: "Excuse me, sir.  Where are we?"

The gentleman replied, "Saskatoon, Saskatchewan."

The woman rolled up the window, turned to her husband and said,

"We really are lost.  They don't even speak English here!"

Canadian Wheat Board

Check out this video my brother just created about the Canadian Wheat Board.

A year (and one day! :)) gone by...

Happy 1st Anniversary Graham & Emily!

More from the photographer's blog

6 months

Today marks six months since I moved way up here to NE Saskatchewan. Can hardly believe how much has happened this year and at times it has felt like somewhat of a whirlwind. Graham, Emily, and I first looked at the barn the middle of March and a week later made an offer. The whole process ended up being a bit of an ordeal but everything finally fell into place and we took possession the end of June.

I came up in May and took a 6 week crash course in raising chickens. : ) I had cattle experience so this chicken stuff was new. The operation was actually fairly simple to run but didn't quite feel that way when I wasn't familiar with all the ins and outs of it.

And then we had another element to deal with...rain. Our area along with many others across the prairie provinces had record setting levels of rain this spring. Growing up in the arid southern Alberta climate where, when it rained you pulled out your chair and sat in awe, I thought it wouldn't be possible to ever get tired of rain. Wrong! When the 8" average turned into 22" it gave a whole new outlook on rain. I was beginning to wonder if we shouldn't have bought an ark instead of a barn! Despite water issues in the barn and a thriving mosquito population, it still turned into a nice summer. I only had to water my garden a couple times and the yard stayed beautiful.

I spent a lot of the summer with yard care (mowing, weeding, flowers) and cleaning up around the yard and barn (whippersnipping, taking several loads to the dump, etc.) The well collapsed due to the rain so that had to be filled in and it seemsed as soon as you accomplished one thing, three others popped up. Now the yard is pretty much in order and all the yard work done for the year which a very satisfying feeling.

However, despite the challenges, it has been an awesome experience to run a place on my own. I love the area here and am quite happy to call it home. : )

Optometrists

Optometrists just moved another step down on my list.

Recently I went to order contacts online to find that Ciba has quit manufacturing the contact I’ve used since I started wearing contacts. So, I was going to need a new prescription and contact trial fitting with an optometrist and then the company would be able to find a new contact that would work for me. Not quite as easy as it sounds though due to living a ways from civilization and finding an optometrist that doesn’t have a cow when you say that you want to take care of ordering your own contacts.

The closest Wal-Mart doesn’t have an optometrist come in so the associate gave me a couple numbers of optometrists in town there. Both were booked for two to three weeks and the one charged $110 for a regular appt. I thought $88 was bad enough! I pulled out the phone book and called another optometrist who was booked for a couple weeks but had a cancellation the following afternoon and could fit me in.

I’m usually not thrilled to go to optometrists due to past experience. Back in AB the office we grew up getting eye appointments at and buying our glasses and then contacts through turned miserable to deal with when we started ordering our contacts online. They were difficult to get information from and more or less told us how they’d help if we were getting the contacts through them. By ordering contacts online we were paying half the price that we were through their office! It seemed a lot of other folks were figuring that out too and so I think the optometrists were feeling the pinch and trying to intimidate their customers from ordering contacts online.

So, anyways, I went to my appointment and, while the assistants were friendly, I could already tell I didn’t care for the optometrist herself. She was a bit high strung and the type that thinks the care of your God-given eyes belongs to them. The appt went okay and then we were discussing eye health, contacts, trial fittings and all that kind of exciting info. I brought up the unacceptable question of ordering contacts online because it would be cheaper. That was more than she could handle and proceeded to tell me that “It made no difference to order them online and that I should just order them through her.” I told her that I could order the exact same contact for half the price of her charge. She came out and said that, “she was FRUSTRATED with me!” I felt like saying, “Hey, lady, the feeling is mutual” but I remained cool, calm, and collected almost somewhat enjoying it. Haha. She was perturbed and acted like I was saying there was no difference between an optometrist and the internet, of which she continued throughout the rest of the conversation to draw an outline of a computer whenever ordering online came up.

I asked her if I could get a fitting without ordering contacts and she said “No, and then quoted me $400 for the fitting and contacts for a year which would also include “having her on contract for a year.” Whoop-dee-doo, I guess that was supposed to seal the deal but, seriously, I don’t need someone to hold my hand through this “process.” Yes, I can read the prescription just as well as her to the contact company and save myself $200. Thank you very much!

Then she also recommended that I might want to update my glasses like she was enlightening me that they were out of style. Don’t you love when people point out the obvious?! I know they are but I rarely wear them and I’ve been easy on my glasses so that the only time I’ve needed a new pair was when I outgrew them. Anyhow, I probably will be getting a new pair since my prescription has changed and I will be wearing them a little more to give my eyes a little more of a break from contacts.

So, I’ll be going back to AB, getting a $15 fitting at Walmart so I can order my contacts online, and then heading over to Xenon’s who has given great service over the years to look for a new, more stylish frame plus save myself the PST. :D A money saving venture in every aspect. :D

I’m not anti-optometrist and they certainly have their place but you won’t see me looking for a “Have you hugged your optometrist today?” bumper sticker any time soon.

Now I'm curious what your experience has been with optometrists and contacts? Please share.

Cinnabons

This recipe is delicious and tastes very similar to the original Cinnabon.

1 cup milk - heat in microwave for 1 minute
1 egg, beaten
1/4 C melted butter
7 TBSP water
1 box (3.4 oz) instant vanilla pudding powder
4 C bread or white flour
1 TBSP sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 tsp traditional yeast

Filling
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C brown sugar
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 C chopped walnuts, optional
1/4 C raisins, optional

Frosting
4 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 C butter, softened
1 1/2 C powdered sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 tsp milk (Add more milk to desired consistency)
3 TBSP real maple syrup

Dough can either be made in bread maker or by hand in traditional manner. Let rise for an hour. Punch down. Roll dough to 17" x 10".
Combine first three filling ingredients and mix well. Heat in microwave 10 seconds to make it spreadable. Spread over rolled out dough getting as close to the edges as possible. Sprinkle nuts or raisins over dough. Starting with the widest end, roll the dough into a tight log. Cut into 1/2" - 1" pieces. Place in a lightly greased 9" x 13" baking dish with sides. Note: I use two pans this size and the second one ends up about half-filled.
Put in draft-free place and allow to rise until double, approx. 45 minutes. Bake at 350* for 15 - 20 minutes. Frost when rolls are done.
Yield: 20 rolls

SK pics

Our barn...I love it! I've liked hiproof barns for quite a while and was excited to see there was a nice red one with a newly refinished roof on the place we were interested in. There is something about a hiproof barn that makes a farmyard complete.

The loft

Old granary beside the barn

Grain bins

More grain bins...

Quonsets

The main house...there are two in the yard

Looking towards the farmyard

Saskatchewan prairie...

This is exciting as the landscape gets...LOL!

Grain storage on one of our furthest quarters

Of Moving and Saskatchewan...

I think every southern Albertan farmer has discussed at least once in their life about moving to Saskatchewan…the land of opportunity, especially if you are in the agriculture business. Though we are next door neighbours, there are many contrasts between the two provinces. The jokes about Saskatchewan being 50 years behind the rest of the country and the place you want to be known as from hold for a reason. Anyways, over the past several years there has been a small, steady migration of farmers over to Saskatchewan because of inexpensive land giving the chance to start a farm or expand present operations which otherwise would be unattainable in southern Alberta. We’ve talked several times about moving over there and, while most times it didn’t get past the talk, we were quite serious a few times. Last year with Saskatchewan land prices still very reasonable, commodity prices higher(where you can actually make farming pay), and selling some land here, we started looking eastward again. Again began the searching of Saskatchewan farmland section in the Western Producer, online farm realty sites, and a few trips out to check several places. Most places the guys had hesitations about for some reason or another but they finally found a place they could get excited about in central Saskatchewan about 6 hours from here. The process was more lengthy and deadlines were moved ahead several times as the farmer did everything through a lawyer because of family issues. Anyways, fast forward through all that, and we finally own a farm in Saskatchewan. I’m sure it will be fun of challenges, disappointments and everything else in between but we are optimistic about the new direction we are heading. We still own land in Alberta so probably only Graham will only be moving over for the time being. The possession date was Dec. 31st but since the previous owners haven’t found another place to purchase yet, they’ll be staying until March which actually works out good for both of us. Stefan and Dad will go over to help seed in the spring. The area is very similar to here and we are planning to use the same farming practices Graham has been using at his place with success. With Graham still owning his farm here and us having ours, I’m not sure how many of us will eventually end up in Saskatchewan. Our place would be a tougher sell but, if it is meant to happen, it will. For the time being we’ll keep discussing all our options and decide what direction we want to take our operations. There have been many minds buzzing with exciting ideas and there haven’t been many dull moments so it will be interesting to see what comes to pass. I’m looking forward to a change…