Funeral

After the purchase of our vehicle I had to high tail it to a funeral.
A friend of ours Mother passed away suddenly,  she was 97.
She was going strong until an aneurysm struck her heart on July 23rd.  She even had a pair of socks partially knit for her son in law... her daughter wished she had turned the heel!   If you are a knitter, and one who knits socks, you will understand why her daughter wanted the heel turned.  Heels can be intimidating... her daughter, Eveyln will finish the socks for her and give them to her husband.

The reason I am writing about this funeral is cause she wrote many poems.  One in particular that touched my heart.  I understand the family is going to put her writings in a book... I hope they do cause they are beautiful.

 I love hearing about peoples history and it was shared by her family...here is an overview of hers

I learned a little more about her (Kathleen's - Kate's) life... she was born in England in 1915 during WWI.  She was 2 months premature and they doctor didn't think she would live. He said "put her by the warming stove and hope for the best"  Obviously she lived and for 97 years!
She lost her mother at the age of 6 to pneumonia... at this time she started living with many a relative as her father worked and in those days many widowers never cared for their children.   Her father decided to follow his dream and he migrated to Canada to become a cowboy, leaving her in England.  In Canada, He lived with a family named Bailey in Alberta.   When Kate was 12 years old he called her to come to Canada.  She travelled from Liverpool to Quebec by boat and Quebec to Alberta by train - All by herself.  An elderly couple befriended her along the way and made sure she got on the right train in Quebec. 
After about a year or two Kate's father decided he didn't want to be a cowboy anymore and he was going back to England to be married. We were told Kate stomped her feet and refused to go back saying "Canada was a better place and she wasn't going to have a step mother".   So her dad went "home" and Kate now stayed on with the Widowed Bailey whom had remarried.  Mr. Bailey's new bride had been widowed and had a son around Kate's age...
Big guess :)
 Yep the son and Kate got married.    They had 2 children together; first, Evelyn and 5 years later, David.  Evelyn said that her mom was always sweet and never raised her voice... David on the other hand said that what Evelyn didn't get - he got.  LOL   He told a story of throwing snowballs at the cat, the cat was on the kitchen window sill... he missed the cat and broke the window.  He said that was the first time he heard his complete name and found out that wasn't good news when that happened! LOL

They shared her favorite song "Danny Boy" (her granddaughter played it on her flute accompanied by the piano) they also shared a few poems of Kate's, their precious Mother. 
I would like to share one with you.

MY PRAYER
Dear Lord, forgive me day by day,
If I should err, or the wrong word say.
Forgive me if I fail to see,
The many blessings you have given me.
Forgive me for prayers I have not said,
And the Bible verses I have not read.
Forgive me when I get upset,
For there are times when I forget.
Forgive me when I go astray,
A thoughtless word that I might say.
Please hear me Lord, for this I pray,
You will forgive me, day by day.

by Kathleen Nicholl   June 2, 1987

RAV

Yesterday we made a purchase...
We have been looking for quite some time for another vehicle since our Ford Focus died.  With the luck we have had with the last 2 we weren't so trusting.  We have broke the mold and skipped Ford and went to Toyota.  Well, we checked out Honda too but the salesman was, well, lets just say "idiot". We did go back to Honda later and got a different salesman and he was better but the Honda CRV we were looking at didn't suit us.  They had made the back window very small and they had that back up thingy that - well -  I know how to use my mirrors and that that thing was irritating!
Anyway, we finally settled on a Toyota 2012 RAV 4. 
Here it is on the lot...

All Karl kept saying was I hope it last at least 10 years! Better yet more!

Now I don't have to toss my groceries in the back of the pick up truck (open air) and hope nothing melts before I get home.  AND I can take more than 1 passenger again.  woo hoo!

Slow growing

The corn is very slow growing... it had a cold and wet start....very drowned out in the spring and what did survive is doing much better than we thought. 
We are hoping for a mild fall so it can have a longer growing season.
I need to put a meter stick or have someone stand by the corn when I take the picture... you can also measure it by looking at the barn & silo in the background.

I will do more corn and less lawn next time so its easier to see the buildings.  I like to stand in the same place all the time to get a fairly accurate "view".   I am facing NW in the evening so the sun gets in my way when taking the picture... here I am trying to limit the brightness by using the shade of the tree.
go to http://farmingfibrefriendzy.blogspot.ca/  and click on the tab - corn 2012 - to see the progress

Corn & 2nd cut

This is our corn on July 7th... it looks fairly green - more green than it did a week or so ago... but there is one BIG problem... once the weeds disappear there won't be so much green.

I stepped a bit closer to the field and turned my camera to the right... do you see the massive bare spot? Well... that isn't the only one... AND this corn should be knee high by the 1st of July... well its anywhere from ankle to mid calf.

The good news is we do have 2nd cut hay down.  Actually as of today, July 12th this field and the far distant one (behind those trees) is all nicely round baled and stacked in the barn.

We cut 130 acres (in our area that means about 13 fields) ranging from 5 acres to as big as 20 acres.

They are calling for a "hint of possible thunder showers" tomorrow after noon and Saturday morning... lets hope it holds off just a liiiiiiittttllllle bit longer!

ROUND ABOUT

We have a new round about between our two farms now... its exciting to see the big trucks get around the circle NOT.  The circle was engineered by someone sitting at a desk and has never driven a fully loaded long semi or farm vehicle before... but it looks good on paper.

There has already been a very serious accident at this corner...the vehicle was coming down the hill on the right - hit the center - got air time - flipped several times and landed in our corn field.  Since they started creating this round about there have been more accidents than ever before.

This is what was sent to us in the mail -  this is actually a computer generated picture of what they think the round about looks like... this is a truck route but the flyer only mentions trucks very briefly... trucks complain that this round about is not big enough for them.
Oh by the way that is our farm in the background on the left (Charlies place).
Funny, they got the "drawing" right but not the actual "photo" for the width and lines. 

Here is actual... now I don't have a wide angled computer generated lens... I took the real thing and had to do it at 2 different angles... you will notice in the cross walk there are only 3 lines not 4 in the actual.  Meaning the road is narrower than they show it is in the picture.
Trucks have to turn into oncoming traffic to get out of the circle - many drive up over the median coming out.  The curbs are all black from tires rubbing on them.

These photo's were taken on a Saturday so not much truck traffic (although  one went through right before I got there and one right after I got back in my vehicle to leave!)

They haven't done the landscaping in the middle yet but that is minor - you know its taken 3 years for them to complete this project and its not done yet?

 Now don't get me wrong... I like round abouts... it truly helps the flow of traffic.  Before this the traffic used to be stopped (4 way stop) and be backed up all the way over the hill both ways (East and West)  BUT instead of putting medians and wide side walks in they should have widened the lane.  OR make it oval, not perfectly round.

I will probably take more pictures when I can capture a semi truck making its way around... definitely not as much truck traffic as their used to be since this round about went in... and it is supposed to be a truck route.
Thankfully we are able to find a different route, instead of turning left out FIL's driveway we turn right and go around that way - or better yet - when things are not seriously muddy we drive out the back of his property and our friendly berry farmers have given us a little right of way to cross a small corner on the edge of thier field... that pops us on the end of another street and we toodle down there to our street and up our driveway...  we call it the sneaky way or the back way. :)  It avoids A LOT of traffic!

Canada Day

Twas a lazy day for us... not much doin' except feed the animals... went out for lunch with a friend... oh I sold 3 fleeces from my sheep (a gal and her family came by for a tour of the farm and to see my fleece) ... then during evening milking I pulled thistles in my sheep pasture... got quite a few!  That should make things a little less prickly!

Then after dinner we went out for the evening and enjoyed the fireworks with friends.

We head to the hills overlooking the town.  The hosts hay a field that has a birds eye view.  Problem this year is its very wet... so we had to be careful when driving on the field... 4x4 was highly recommended... 

I captured this interesting firework display... it was just in the process of exploding

Very nice evening!

The end of the evening required a few strong people to push out a truck... but problem was the truck was too slippery slidey.. so ended up getting the tractor.  Not sure what was better entertainment, the fireworks or pulling out the truck!   So reminded me of this song...

The Truck Got Stuck

Had to Share

I just have to share this tidbit.
A friend of ours, Cam, is a trucker but he is also an avid cycler.  He sent us this photo to let us know what cyclers do when they run out of water!

Ain't that awesome!
Maintain your Cool!
Not only is he getting hydrated he is also getting energy!

Work out fun

One thing our kids had the most fun on was the trampoline... this is our second one in thier lifetime.  I am not sure what is getting the workout more, the kids or the trampoline!

Glad to see they can still have fun :)

Characters:  Tricia & bf Cole, Jeff and friend Gord

Of course they were freaked out I was going to put this on facebook... so I promised not to... but I didn't say I wouldn't put it on my blog! hehe