Catching Up!

I have some catching up to do, since I have not blogged in quite some time!

Here is what happened in October:

October 14 & 15 - Crop Weekend in Jasper

It was beautiful in Jasper!  Sunny and no snow!

Friends Viola and Kathy and I.

October 19, 2011

Baby shower for my Cousin Lisa and her Baby Evie

Me, Lisa, Evie and Great Grandma! (Lisa and my Grandma)

Lisa opening up Baby Uggs!


November 5, 2011

My 35th Birthday spent with Eric in Cadomin



Mountain Sheep



I love this pic!  Lots of snow!



The river (not sure the name) at the campsite.  Beautiful!



Eric and I!

That is all I have for now!  I will keep you updated on our December!

Have a great day!

Luv Tracy

Canning 2011

Today, I was collecting up all of my canning to put away for storage. 
I just had to take a picture of my accomplishment!

Alright, so it doesn't look like too much, but believe me, it was a lot of hard work!

Here is what I made this year:

Relish
Mincemeat
Tomato Sauce
Yellow Plum Jam
Nectarine Jam
Plum Jam
Apricot Jam
Nectarine Apple Spice Jam
Nectarine Jam
Applesauce

For a grand total of 119 jars!!!!

This will definitely taste good in the winter!

Have a wonderful day!

Luv Tracy

Flood

This week we experienced Mother Nature.  She brought us a lot of rain and with that rain, she also brought flooded river banks.

We have a nice picnic area on our farm down by the river.  We spend a lot of time down there and we often take our trailer down there and camp overnight

Here is a before the flood pic:

June 2009

This is what the picnic site looks like now after the flood:

There is a ton of river silt on the ground.  Up to about 4 inches thick in some parts.

This picnic table and wood have been repositioned by the water.  They are not supposed to be in the bush!

Our grain field.  We had just underseeded this field this year.  Hopefully the underseeding survives.

This is a fence in between two fields.  There isn't supposed to be a lake here.



Flat hay filled with river silt and sticks.

Flat hay.

Molly checking out the grain field.



Another shot of our grain field.



The power of water is amazing.  There is no stopping water when it wants to move.

The good thing is that our home is safe.  Our trailer is safe as well, as we didn't move it down to the river for camping.

Have a wonderful day.

Luv Tracy

Bottle Baby

We have a bottle baby named Harry.  Harry was born on June 5, 2011.  His momma didn`t love him :(
We were watching for her to calve, because last year, she was a heifer, and she didn`t like her calf then.  We decided to give her one more chance and keep her over for this year.  Well that was a mistake! 
On the 5th, Eric and I were over at the neighbours helping him handle cattle.   So before I went, I checked the cows.  I knew that this cow would calve sometime today, so I went over to the neighbours for a few hours.  At 11:00 I came back home to check on her.  She was still farting around doing nothing, so I went back to the neighbours.
I came back home to check on her at 2:30.  She had the water bag out.  I went back in the house to have a bite to eat, and would check her in 30 minutes.  At 3:00 I was heading back out to check on her progress.  That is when I heard a deep bellowing coming from just behind the barn.  It sounded deep like a bull.  But we don`t have a bull right now, so I knew it wasn`t that.  So I ran out there and momma had just calved.
The other cows were up with her too, and bugging her.  I chased them away.  I called Eric to see where he was and that I needed help.  He was almost home.  He was only 2 miles away.  I could hear our truck racing from the time I called him!
The cow was doing ok with the calf at this point.  Kinda licking it.  Not really hurting it at all.  Eric arrived and I said to him, ``maybe she will take him this year``.  He said, ``just wait until the calf starts moving``.
As soon as the calf started trying to stand is when the cow came ``unglued``.  All she would do is bunt it and knock it down.  So Eric and I decided to bring the cow into the head gate.  Sometimes with cows, if you get the calf sucking when they are in a head gate, they will calm down enough and take the calf.
Well, this cow is very much a pet.  She would let Eric milk her and not bat an eyelash.  But as soon as the calf came in to try and suck, she just blew up and started kicking and writhing in the head gate.
Another trick we tried was putting a paper bag over her head.  That works with sheep.  But didn`t work with her.  We tried everything with this cow.  She just had no instinct to be a mother.
We brought her into the headgate twice a day to milk her out, so we had something for the calf.
She was good with walking in, she was great with us.  As soon as she seen her calf, it was like Jekyll and Hyde!
So, now we have a bottle baby named Harry!
Harry is a good calf.  He really likes his milk!  We have taught him how to be a pail bunter (drink from a pail instead of a bottle).
He is getting bigger everyday!  He is quite rough at times.  He wants to play, but he is just at the right height to take your knees out!

Harry drinking from his pail.  There is a nipple on the pail and he sucks the milk.  The pail holds alot more liquid than a bottle does.

Harry following Eric.  He is like a puppy.  Notice his tongue sticking out!

Eric teaching Harry how to eat hay. 

It has been a while...........

It has been awhile since I last blogged!  I can`t believe how fast time goes by!  What has been happening since I last blogged?  I will post pics with a description telling you our story!

Molly and Eric playing on the bales in March!



Eric got the ski-doo stuck! 



Trying to pull the ski-doo out with the Rhino!  We finally got it out, but it took quite a while!



Eric "pimping" up the Jeep!  He put on a new bumper and winch.  April 10, 2011 

Our road was flooded with the run-off!

You can see how much water was on the road!  It washed our road out, the county had to come and fix this!

This was a whirlpool on our farm.  You can see the shiny culvert under the water!  There was so much run-off that the culvert couldn't handle it all!

You can see right down the middle of the whirlpool!  This was really neat!  Eric and I played in the water for qhite a while!

Molly!



May 20, 2011



We have been very busy with life in the last few months!  
I had the opportunity to take a photography class in April, and I am experimenting with taking pictures differently.  I love the last picture of Molly.  Something different for me!
I hope you all have a wonderful holiday Monday and will chat soon!

Luv Tracy



March 5, 6 & 7, 2011

I apologize for not blogging in a while.
I have been experiencing some technical issues while blogging. I was not able to upload photos, so I hope today I can!

On March 4, 5 & 6, my Grandma and I went to Calgary for my cousin Tim's wedding!
I picked grandma up on Friday March 4, at 12:30 pm. We drove to Calgary via Hwy 2. The roads were fairly good, with exception of a few icy patches. We arrived in Calgary at rush hour!!!! It took us a while to get to our hotel, which was way on the south side!

Grandma went out to the rehersal supper, while I went shopping! I couldn't resist visiting Scrapbookers Paradise!

 

My Grandma and Uncle Barry







Amanda and Tim!





My Grandma & me!






The First Dance





My mom and dad





My mom, myself, grandma and my cousin Lisa

This is just a sneak peak of the wedding pictures!  I took tons of pics!  I am making thier wedding album!  Should be fun!

Have a great day!

Luv Tracy

Latest Layouts

What a wonderful day to do some scrapbooking!  It was -33 this morning with a windchill of -38!  A great day to stay inside and create!

I haven't posted any pics of my latest layouts recently, so here they are!

 









This is a 2-page layout of Eric's ski-dooing experience!  He went out one day in late January to take the ski-doo for a ride, and blaze a trail for his dad.  Well, it was a very warm day, and the snow became very heavy and wet.  The ski-doo wouldn't stay on top of the snow, it only sunk.

So Eric became stuck.  He spent 1-1/2 hours trying to shovel his way out.  When that didn't work, he walked home the half mile, got the tractor and plowed a trail to the ski-doo and hauled it back in the bucket of the tractor!

These pictures were taken on Feb 2 of this year.  It was a very unseasonably warm +8 out that day!  A very beautiful winter day in Alberta!  The house in the pictures are of Eric's great-grandparents.  They built this house when they immigrated from Scotland in the early 1900's.
The house is very sturdy to have stayed upright for all of these years!  But this year, with all the heavy wet snow we have had, it is taking its toll on the house.  The roof is starting to collapse.

This is our cat Tiger.  He is quite old, about 13 years!  He loves his cat bed!

I loved making this layout!  This was such a great pic of Eric with the Rhino!  This was a lot of fun to make!

This is one of our bottle babies - Scooby.  Scooby was a twin (her mom didn't want her, wanted her brother only).  So we bottle fed Scooby for awhile until we found a new mommy for her!
Scooby and Molly love to play together (well Scooby loves it more than Molly likes it!)

We took these pictures while we burned down our old wood piles.  It was a cold day with little wind.  It needs a title, but haven't thought of one yet!









I hope you enjoy looking at these layouts!  I sure had fun making them!

Have a great day!

Luv Tracy


Friendly Visit

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile, but lots of things have been happening in my life.
Work is crazy busy!!  Working tons of hours.
We have had a bit of excitement at home!
On Wednesday morning - super early in the morning - like 6 am, I heard a funny sound.  It sounded like scratching.  I rolled over to Eric and whispered "there is something in here". He was sleeping, so again I said, "there is something in here".  I am pretty sure that he thought I was on some kind of drug or something.  So I said to him, "listen, you will hear it".  But, no sound was made.  I told him I was sure I heard something.  So, being the protector that he is, he put his glasses on and turned on the lamp beside the bed.  (he was doing this not because he thought something was in the room, but because he wanted to show me it was all in my head!).  So he sat up in bed and started to look around.  Then he said "I see it, don't freak out."  Well, what would you do when someone tells you "don't freak out?"  I put my glasses on, and he could see that I was nervous to see what he was looking at.  Again he said, "don't freak out".  That is not making me feel less nervous!
I wasn't sure where he was looking, so I said, "what do you see?"  He said look between the laundry baskets.  I couldn't see anything though.  He had a slighty different viewing angle than I did.  So I said, "I don't see it, what is it"?
He said, "look between the laundry baskets, underneath the hope chest."  Then I saw it........................a weasel!
Again he told me not to freak out, or he would spray.  Well that is exactly what I didn't want to happen, so he told me to get out of bed slowly and go to the living room.  He said that if we made some noise, he would probably leave, but to not make any sudden moves.
So we went down to the living room, and we were talking about the weasel.  Eric then named him Wally!
So we were talking about Wally, trying to figure out how he got into the trailer.  Eric said that they can go where ever a mouse can go.  So as we were talking about him, I seen his little weasel paw poking out from under the wall beside the stove. (we are renovating our kitchen, so there is a bare wall beside the stove).
Eric said that Wally has a weasel highway between the kitchen and the bedroom!
But, as of today, I haven't seen any signs of Wally.
Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of him. 

I hope you have a wonderful day!
luv Tracy

Scrap~tures Blog Hop

I just completed a blog hop and it was really fun!

The hop started yesterday and will continue on until tomorrow.  Visit the blog for some great ideas and inspiration!

Happy hopping!

luv Tracy

Layouts for Project 52

I can't believe that it is January 22 already!  Where did the month go? 
So, as part of Project 52, I am going to show you the pages that I have completed already.

This is the first page of my album. 
I really like how the journalling turned out. 

This was my first layout for Project 52!



Week 2's layout.

For week 3, I did 2 layouts, here is the first one.



This is the second layout for week 3.  Eric took these pictures!

Project 52 - Week 2

So, here we are January 15, 2011!  It is officially freezing outside!  It is -22 degrees Celcius out right now.  That isn't too bad, but there is a nasty biting wind out there!
I had to go out and check the cows, to make sure they had enough feed until tomorrow.  So while I was out there, I took some pictures!


  I thought this was a neat picture with all of the snow in the trees, and the cows in front.
caption

 

This calf looked cute with the frost all over her face except for around her eyes and nose!



Snowy cows!

I was trying to take more pictures as well, had my camera set onto a beautiful Chickadee in a tree, when low and behold........dead batteries!  I guess that means it is time to come in from outside and get warm!

Have a wonderful weekend!

luv Tracy