Leah Ringham Photography
This picture of us before the wedding turned out to be one of my favourites.
Leah Ringham Photography
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Wedding Rehearsal
Many thanks to my sister-in-law, Joanna (Joanna Adams Photography), for taking these!
One of the flower girls' families.
One of my cute nieces. :)
Our 1st Anniversary!
Our first anniversary!
It's been an amazing year and I can't wait to spend the rest of my life with you Austin! <3
Wednesday, November 5, 2014
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. :)
Monday, October 20, 2014
The Move!
Packed up and ready to hit the road
In MT, the halfway point
MT
Beautiful MT scenery
So happy to be with my man after being apart for 3 months. No more long goodbyes!
Our first Pumpkin Spice Latte of the season together. :)
Beautiful misty OR weather
Elliot and Austin unpacking the trailer. Thanks so much Elliot for your help with the move!
My handsome guy :)
The carport was a convenient place to unload everything
So glad we could bring the piano.
My detailed list. Came in so handy when unpacking!
Wednesday, October 15, 2014
Reminiscing...
Almost five years back, after a couple absolutely crazy months, I finished work at the dairy and moved over 500 miles away to start running a chicken farm on my own. An experience that I will never forget and one that I learned so much from. I grew up on a farm and was used to animals of all kinds but had never raised chickens or completely run a farm so it was a steep learning curve.
A year-and-a-half in, I started managing my neighbour's farm as well so that was another challenge as the barns were older, run with different systems, and there were a whole lot more numbers to deal with. :)
Raising around 80,000 birds in 8 week cycles never left me with any dull moments. Birds would arrive and the next five days would be spent checking the barns fives times a day. Then I'd continue to do chores and check them three times a day until the end of five weeks. Shipping was crazy since I'd be up all night for usually two nights in a row. Then it was time for barn clean out which I started on right away since there were four barn to pressure wash. There was a little time for the barns to sit between cycles and then a few days before placing, it was time to start getting the barns ready again. Getting good results from the plant, it made me feel like all the effort and work was worth it. When I had raised the last cycle of birds, I figured out that I had raised 6.5 million LB of chicken!
So many memories of the days when things ran smoothly and the days when everything would go wrong. The first chicken cycle shortly after moving there, the area had record rain and my yard had record flooding. :p I remember bucketing out water for hours, building gravel dams inside, checking the pump throughout the night, and thinking, "What did I get myself into??" And, it didn't end up being the only time to happen.There were stretches it seemed the alarms wouldn't stop between the barns, feeders, and coal boilers...around 2 AM at night when it was -30* or colder seemed to the most ideal time. Or, when the feed tube would get pushed out of place and there would be a couple tons of feed to bucket out. Or, when the pressure washer hose had to burst three times when I was trying to get the barns cleaned out quick. And, the list could go on for quite a while... But, I did manage to gain some trouble shooting skills and at the end felt like I could handle almost anything that came my way.
Though overwhelmed often, looking back I see it as a good experience. It helped push me out of my comfort zone and I learned that I could handle work that seemed intimidating or daunting at times. These past years were probably some of the busiest and hardest of my life and at the same time some of my best.
One of the biggest blessings was finding a great church to attend. I won't forget the awesome group there and the friends I made during that time. So many genuine and thoughtful people who really cared. Many great memories: helping out at camp, Ladies Time Out, helping a friend with her restaurant, friends always making sure that I had a happy birthday, hot dog roasts, kind and generous neighbours, dinner invites, spontaneous get-togethers, Ladies Nights. and so many more.
It has been one of those chapters in life that will always stick close to me. One that has had an impact I won't forget. I'm thankful the ones who were apart of my life then (both far and near.)
A year-and-a-half in, I started managing my neighbour's farm as well so that was another challenge as the barns were older, run with different systems, and there were a whole lot more numbers to deal with. :)
Raising around 80,000 birds in 8 week cycles never left me with any dull moments. Birds would arrive and the next five days would be spent checking the barns fives times a day. Then I'd continue to do chores and check them three times a day until the end of five weeks. Shipping was crazy since I'd be up all night for usually two nights in a row. Then it was time for barn clean out which I started on right away since there were four barn to pressure wash. There was a little time for the barns to sit between cycles and then a few days before placing, it was time to start getting the barns ready again. Getting good results from the plant, it made me feel like all the effort and work was worth it. When I had raised the last cycle of birds, I figured out that I had raised 6.5 million LB of chicken!
So many memories of the days when things ran smoothly and the days when everything would go wrong. The first chicken cycle shortly after moving there, the area had record rain and my yard had record flooding. :p I remember bucketing out water for hours, building gravel dams inside, checking the pump throughout the night, and thinking, "What did I get myself into??" And, it didn't end up being the only time to happen.There were stretches it seemed the alarms wouldn't stop between the barns, feeders, and coal boilers...around 2 AM at night when it was -30* or colder seemed to the most ideal time. Or, when the feed tube would get pushed out of place and there would be a couple tons of feed to bucket out. Or, when the pressure washer hose had to burst three times when I was trying to get the barns cleaned out quick. And, the list could go on for quite a while... But, I did manage to gain some trouble shooting skills and at the end felt like I could handle almost anything that came my way.
Though overwhelmed often, looking back I see it as a good experience. It helped push me out of my comfort zone and I learned that I could handle work that seemed intimidating or daunting at times. These past years were probably some of the busiest and hardest of my life and at the same time some of my best.
One of the biggest blessings was finding a great church to attend. I won't forget the awesome group there and the friends I made during that time. So many genuine and thoughtful people who really cared. Many great memories: helping out at camp, Ladies Time Out, helping a friend with her restaurant, friends always making sure that I had a happy birthday, hot dog roasts, kind and generous neighbours, dinner invites, spontaneous get-togethers, Ladies Nights. and so many more.
It has been one of those chapters in life that will always stick close to me. One that has had an impact I won't forget. I'm thankful the ones who were apart of my life then (both far and near.)
Tuesday, October 14, 2014
Packing for my move to OR
October finally arrived and it was so exciting. It meant I would finally see Austin (after 3 months of being apart!) since he would be coming up with his brother to SK to help me move down to OR. No more weeks and months of being apart between visits. No more immigration forms to fill out and wait on on this side of the border. And, it meant that our wedding was next month! :)
I actually didn't mind packing and the house getting emptier and emptier made me feel like I was making lots of progress. :)
Austin and Elliot arrived later on the evening of the 9th. I had to return Stefan and Sherra's fridge and then take mom's washer back so I headed out earlier in the day and then met up at dad and mom's so we could load up the piano and stay the night.
After only about 4 hours of sleep, we had breakfast, said goodbyes, and headed up to my place to load up the rest of my stuff.
Elliot's truck and then a trailer that he was able to borrow from his boss. It ended up being the perfect size and everything packed in great.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)