Photo Session today

 Today was a cold picture day with Auntie Merry.  Here she posted one of Doug and myself.

Then she has posted one of me and my kid.  This is Frank Lee Morris.  She is such a good little goat.

Then Merry could not resist such a cute face and Frank Lee had her own little photo session.

 I remember that she took some pictures with the kids but she has not posted them

A Different Kind of Halloween

This year was a little different for us.  With Keisha, Shaun and Jayden all having corn syrup allergies, and the two having dairy as well, it made things different.  But some times different is good.  The only "candy" that they can do is plain potato chips and at that Pringles really are not good either.  And I wasn't going to sink money into costumes and have the 5 kids go out and only have the 2 older girls be able to eat the candy. So our plan of attack was going to be to go to a movie but I found out the day before that I would have to pull them out of school early to go to a movie and with there being no Halloween activities at school it was a learning day. So next plan was to go to Chuck E Cheese and then head out for dinner. 
As we were leaving Chuck E Cheese, Chuck came out to walk around so here we are

The kids all really enjoyed the evening, and so did I because it was really cold here and we got to play inside. And yesterday I got to run around and find plain chips and some chocolate bars for Taylor and Elyssa.  This may be our new tradition we will see what happens next year.

Jayden had a thing at preschool that he dressed up at and sang some songs but if I just stand there and watch he always has the biggest smile on his face.  The second I bring out a camera he hides so it is super hard to get a picture and this time he was too good.  So here is one of him playing after.

Tonight we are off to get our family photos done with Auntie Merry at the ranch and we are even going to get some with Frank Lee Morris.  Bet this is Auntie Merry's first time taking pictures of a goat. 

4H

Taylor is now old enough for 4H,so we signed her up.  She has had so much experience with cows that we figured we would put her in the beef program.  Ok there is no goat program, which wouldhave been ideal so we went with beef because in this area it is beef or horse.  So Doug found her a Lowline Steer (Lowline steers will only get a few inches higher than this and should only end up about 800lb) way up north of Lamont.  So on Sunday Doug, Keisha and Taylor went for a drive.  They dropped the cow off at the ranch and waited til this mornings weigh in.  Today they were at the meeting most of the day.  They had to guess how much their steer weighed.  Taylor put the guess out at 387lb.  She was pretty close at 378lb.  This is her steer: Deejay Moo

Some 4H cows.  Taylor's is the little black one in front

 HMMMMMM Hey Dad how do we get it out of the trailer?

 Oh this is how it works

Got to get it away from the texas gate

A little more fencing

This past weekend we decided to do some more fencing.  We have a couple goats that keep escaping so we went electric.

 Doug and the fencing crew

 Coming down the hill

Taylor flirting with the mud.  I had a kid throw me a fence post and well it did not make it to me and as the story goes I got stuck in the mud to my knees on both legs.  I got one leg out and then Doug ended up coming over to me and laying down branches.  I shoveled out the other leg and Doug pried the other foot out.

Doug got a couple goats together and they have been dubbed as mine.  The one we have now named Frank Lee Morris, after the guy who escaped Alcatraz.  She has been named this because she keeps escaping.  I went to one pasture, the one she is supposed to be in and she was not there.  Doug counted and thought that she was there because how could she escape an electric fence.  Well she was not there, I went in and she was not there.  So I drove the area and no goat, so we figured that we were down one.  A bit later there was interruption in the electric fence in the other pasture and sure enough she had gotten shocked getting out of her pasture   and the into the big one and she was getting out again.  So this is what you do, you borrow your dog's collar and put it on the goat and then take it for a walk

 

Doug got the goats mixed up and Friendly is number 24

Cross Country Run

Today was the Chinook Edge cross country run in Innisfail,so we headed up.  It was a very cold day.  When we got up to the race it was still -2 and there was a lot of frost all over the ground.  When the sun came up it started to get nicer and warm up.  I am not sure why they don't do it a week earlier when it was hot out. 

 Keisha getting ready to go 

 Keisha and 3 other girls in her class.  There was only 1 girls who did not come

 And they were off

 Jayden waiting for the race to end.  We had a super busy morning and he spent it running to keep up with me and then we had to do the walk through of the race, so we walked with Elyssa. So we ended up walking 1.5km most of it uphill and they did it at a fairly quick pace. 

 Elyssa is the pink blob trying to hid from the camera

There is a happy boy.

 Keisha did her 1km and finished 8th out of 40

 This is the second year that Elyssa has run it and she gets very grumpy before a race. 

 Some of the girls in Elyssa's class.  That is her teacher behind her.  She ran the race with the girls.

 Still grumpy

 And they were off.

 Elyssa is the third person running in the picture

And she finished 11 out of 125 grade 3 girls.

An Example of Skating, I think

The boys are in a Canskate program this fall/winter.  So they are supposed to learn to skate. This is what I saw.......

 Jayden on the ice

 Oh now he is trying to take a nap

 Shaun getting help from someone  and laughing that Jayden is on the ground

 Shaun trying on his own, Jayen getting some help

 Oops he is on the ground again

 Shaun trying to scrape up the ice with his skates, putting it on his glove an trying to lick it off his mitt. Tough to do with a face guard on.

Jayden finally standing on his own but trying his best not to move or else he would end up on the ice again.

Another trip to the Ranch

On Saturday Doug went to Saskatchewan to pick up some goats.  I got a call that some goats had gotten out so we headed down to fix some fence.  We waited for Doug to get to the ranch so that we could be there to help if needed. 

 Here are the new goats.  We ended up getting 111 doelings.  The first group

 The second group.

And I never got a picture of the third group.

Shaun petting Number 24.  He is super friendly and always comes up to you when you are in the pen.

A Big Project

I started a civil war quilt just over a year ago, and I am still not done it.  It was my first quilt class that I went to and I really enjoyed my Saturdays at the quilt shop sewing. I finished month 11 tonight outside of the partial assembly.  I still have a border to piece.  There are over 1000 squares in the border.  I could be at this for a bit.  I had to skip ahead and get the one corner on tonight just so I could see what it was going to be like.  It is a little on the large size.  I laid it out on our bed, a queen, and I still have 3 large corners to put on.

The red square that is in the top center of the picture that will be the middle of the quilt.  This has been a challenge of directional fabrics.  I am trying to get this one done because I have just signed up for another Block of the Month, because they showed me the fabrics and they are beautiful. 

Some more farming

We went down to the ranch today to do some fence repairs.  Our 2 little bucklings are now apparently mine.  They keep escaping so for that reason they are mine.  So today some gates were lowered.

 Taylor trying to fix some fence but Mrs Goat kept coming by to help.  The bucket was where we were putting our garbage and the goat kept putting its head in.

 Mrs Goat now trying to help Elyssa

 Hey who let them drive.

 Llamas one standing,one laying down on its side and the other laying

 Goats.

 Hey look at Taylor

 Elyssa getting a ride

 Taylor still driving. She is on a standing skid steer.  She did very well driving it. 

 Look at that clean face.  The blue thing is a tattoo from the Terry Fox Run.

 Second kid to catch a chicken.  Guess I have to pay up again.  I am not sure how she caught it, but she came walking out of that metal building with it.  The chickens need to fly away from the kids.  It is starting to cost me money.

 Taylor in a barn, she found something to play on

 Jayden playing with the puppies

 Keisha wanting to learn how to drive.  She played in the straw too.  When we got home we had to pick through her hair.