Wednesday 27 February 2013

Over another big hurdle

 We are very happy to say that we now have concrete floors in the basement and entrance-way!!! The pumper truck pulled in at about 7:30 AM this morning and it was 8:00 PM when the guys finally left tonight. It looks great though and we are so glad it's done. The house is now officially all sealed up. So today I had 4 extra people to feed. So I slow-cooked two beef roasts all night and then shredded it with BBQ sauce for beef on homemade buns, made coleslaw, potato salad  and puff wheat cake. It was delicious.
 Entrance - just finished pouring cement.
 And the troweling begins...
 Basement - That's my Uncle on that trowel.
Our temporary furnace hanging  from the ceiling keeping it warm.
I have been getting so sick and tired of Tanner asking to watch cartoons. I know I am guilty of letting him watch too much and I do not like it. So today we finally sat down and did a craft. He loves doing crafts. I did one with him. I joined in the fun and made my own as well. (the colorful one) I let him pick the eyeballs and antennas.

Miss Ali turned 8 months old today!! Sheesh, that's really all that needs to be said. Well I might as well add that time just goes way too fast. I love this munchkin so much. She is such a happy girl!

Anywho, Have a great evening!
Ashley

Monday 25 February 2013

Checking cows a Family affair

 Off to the barn we go!
 Our newly acquired orphan. Of course Tanner had his eyes closed for this cute picture.
 Even though it's only like -2 Tanner insisted on wearing his 'carf. I love how he leaves out the 's' sound. ('poon is my favorite he he)
 His new Momma! She seemed to quite like him. My Hubby was trying to find a lot of patience at this point...I probably should of let him hold Ali and take over. But as soon as Hubby left him alone and did something else he went to it like a champ!
 My babe and moi.
 The newest addition on the farm. Although there could be a newer one since then as this was a couple hours ago. We have had 20+ calves in the last couple of days.
 In every picture here Ali's expression is,"I do not know these people, I do not belong to this family"! lol.

 Brandy and Troop. Calving, their favorite time of the year...yuck. Need I say more?
 Always got to be feeding those cows. If he is a cattle farmer he will most definitely have fat cows!
The fresh air was spectacular! I sure hope the -30 crap is GONE for good. It's fun when we can all go out together. Next winter should interesting when both kids want to do chores with Daddy! We probably have about 70 calves so that means we are about 1/3 done.

Well I am doing pretty good to have two posts in one day!
Have a great night!
Ashley

More cement...

 We are getting the entrance-way and basement ready to pour the cement floor in. The entrance is all ready (not in this picture, it has red heat pipe too), we will be doing it tomorrow and the basement we will be doing on Wednesday. Here you can see where the stairs will go down to the basement now. (I need to put up some pictures of our beautiful hole in the wall)
 Here we are in the basement pulling rebar through the window.
 This is looking to the East where you will walk into the basement, that door is where the entrance is.

I am getting antsy to be in there!!!!!

Have a great day!
Ashley

Monday 18 February 2013

Today...

Today:

...We bought a new Black Simmental Bull, I can`t wait to see him...
...I cleaned up puke. Tanner has puked every morning for the past three days like clockwork and then he is fine the rest of the day. He has had diarrhea also but does not complain about a sore tummy or anything like that. Strange bug...
...I went for a peek in the house. We will soon be pouring the basement floor and once that is done then the stairs can be built to walk down into the basement and the plastering can begin...
...I made Carrot Pineapple Muffins and they were mediocre...
...Have had two calves that I know of. Storms always bring out the best in cows wanting to have babies...
...We are going to go to Subway for supper and go see Baby Zevah...
...I washed my porch floor, washed dishes 20 times (might be a BIT of an exaggeration, but it felt like 20)...
...I did laundry...
...I dreamed about summer and longed to be living in my new house (where is this early spring they predicted) I guess I should not complain about the snow, we will need it this summer...

Saturday 16 February 2013

Decisions, Decisions!

 
I have found this to the hardest decision so far! But we have finally decided on our kitchen cupboards and the counter top. Those are the pictures above, I was going to keep this all a secret to you guys so the end would be a surprise but I can't hold it in.

This will be our upstairs bathroom vanity and counter top. All the cupboards, kitchen and bath, will have dark hardware as well. On another note we got the hole dug for the staircase in the entrance way, the wall is poured and now we have to cut out the hole to go into the basement. And the plumbing is started in the basement. Once the basement floor is done we can mud and tape and paint!!! 

 

 Potty training is going very well, dry at nights and naps, still have a few accidents here and there.
 Proud as punch, she can sit on her own.
And also knows exactly what this cup does....perfect!

Have a great day!
Ashley

Thursday 14 February 2013

Top 10 ways a Farmer (Our Hubbies) Expresses Himself on Valentine's Day

Top 10 ways a Farmer - Not you of course - expresses himself on Valentine's Day:

10. He tell her to sit tight - he'll get the gates today.  
        ~Just what my Hubby would say!

9. He asks his seed dealer for a hoodie in her size.
      ~I would be literally thrilled if he came home with a hoodie for me and in my size - literally!

8. He moves the equipment off the lawn and promises not to apply chicken litter while her mother is visiting.
    ~About that equipment, I'm still waiting!

7. No chocolates at the farm store, but there was a sale on jumper cables.
    ~No chocolate, what kind of store is this ;)

6. He points out that he told her he loved her when they got married and that, if anything had changed, he would have let her know.
     ~Well at least I wouldn't be in the dark!

5. He suggests that, seeing how it's Valentines Day, after she picks up parts she ought to stop at Sonic so she won't have to cook tonight.
     ~Funny thing is, I would be perfectly happy with this...Not having to make supper in any shape or form any day of the week is a treat. 

4. He promises that, this year when the go to the county fair, they are going to borrow a nicer camper.
    ~Ha ha 

3. He hands her the TV remote control but cautions her it's only for tonight.
    ~For some reason just because it V-day, I still don't think my Hubby would pass that over...

2. He knows how fiscally conservative his wife is so, respecting her wishes, he gets her nothing.
    ~I don't get him anything either...

1. He remembers she said she loved stuffed animals and can't wait for her to see what he picked up at the taxidermist's shop.
    ~An excuse to hang another dead animal in the house lol...which I actually don't mind. Wow, that sounds very morbid of me when I put it like that!

This is how all most farmers think. I found this on another blog I follow and I thought I would share it. She found it here: Farm Talk Newspaper I added my own little comments below each one. The bottom line is that we don't make a big deal out of Valentine's Day here, never have. Sure he usually gets me flowers but not always. And that's ok, because I don't usually get him anything either. If you go to our local flower shop you probably can't buy anything for less than $50...I would rather spend that on something more practical. Anyways I hope you all have a great Happy Valentine's Day!!! (This picture is from 2 yrs ago...The only place my Hubby has been is the barn this morning and I don't think the cows have a flower shop out there)

Ashley


Wednesday 13 February 2013

My 2013 Bucket List

So some reason these last couple of days I have been thinking about all the fun things I would like to do with my family this year. I thought I would share them with you:

  1. Go camping at least twice. (most likely at the Lazy M and out to the hills)
  2. Visit the Zoo this fall, the Polar Bear's will open for viewing. They have been doing many renos here and it's supposed to be all done by September.
  3. Go to Meandher Creek Pumpkin Patch at Oak Lake. They have all sorts of fun things for kids to do including a corn maze, hayrides, slingshot, zipline, duck races, etc. I think Tanner would LOVE it.
  4. Head out to Red Deer, AB to go see family. We have not been there in almost TWO years!!! Shame on us! We hope to go out in November for some hunting.
  5. Visit my friend Clare in Gilbert Plains. (Hopefully more than once ;))
  6. Visit my friend Janette now that she lives closer to us!! Would love to go check out their new place.
  7. Move into our new house!!!!!
  8. Attend two weddings. One of which is my brother-in-laws and the other a cousin to my Hubby. Both close to home, which is wonderful.
  9. Briefly attend my family reunion at my Grandma's place. Unfortunately it landed on the same wknd that Bryce is getting married so we are not sure how much we will get out there. I want to see some cousins that I have not seen in awhile.
  10. Do at least one more trip stateside. 
  11. Go swimming at Splash Island, Spruce Woods and Delta.
  12. Take in the Thresherman's Reunion, Tanner cannot stop talking about going to the Robeedo. ha ha!
  13. The Hubby and I will be taking in Carrie Underwood and Hunter Hayes in May. I am very excited about that date of ours. 
 So there is just a few to mention, I will likely add to this list randomly but those are the ones that come to mind right away!


Hope you all have a great day!
Ashley

Monday 11 February 2013

Doing renos before we ever live there!

 Hallway looking into the kitchen/living room.
 Bathroom.
 Second bedroom.
 Master Bedroom.
 Our beautiful pine interior doors we purchased at Menards last week. Can't wait to see them stained and hung.

 Such a nice little poser :) Can you tell he is used to the camera?
 Installing the bath tub taps.
 RENOS!!!!!!!!!!! ha ha. This is where our staircase will be. This is in the entrance way.
 Three guys spent the majority of Saturday digging the hole out, there is still dirt to shovel out of the door.
And then I nervously watched them pull a cement pillar out through the doorway with a tractor....all went well! Anywho, there's a nice little update for y'all.

Good night!
Ashley

Thursday 7 February 2013

Fun, Fast Trip!

 About 3 weeks ago we purchased some stuff over the phone at Menards in Grand Forks, so we finally took the time (a whole 25 3/4 hours) to go and pick our purchases up among other things. We left at 2 pm on Tuesday and were quite pleased with ourselves for getting away in such great time. It's always too good to be true. We went to pick up an enclosed trailer that we rented and could not get a single light to work on it. So we finally got on the road at 5 pm. We pulled into Grand Forks at 8:45 pm. Just in time for a swim and some pizza before bedtime.
 This was Ali's first time in the pool and she did not even flinch! She loved it!
 The kids traveled well. Other than Tanner coming down with a wicked cold it was a great little trip. We were home by 6:45 pm last night.

Have a great evening :)
Ashley

Friday 1 February 2013

The rooms keep getting smaller & a BIG life-changing decision!

So the drywall continues to go up! That's what I mean by the rooms keep getting smaller, ha ha. We had LOTS of great help yesterday and it was greatly appreciated. Roy and Steven came down. Roy was here working from after lunch right through till after supper and then Heather showed up as well. So everything is almost done except for the entrance and a few places throughout the rest of the house.

 You can really see how high the ceiling is with people standing in the picture.
 This is the wall  between the kitchen/living room and entrance.
 Take note of the hole in the floor, that is where the stairs WERE going to go.
The dogs just love my pantry!

So originally our basement stairs were supposed to to go down from in our kitchen. We have the hole cut there and everything. But since we have had the house up we were realizing that having the stairs there really cuts out of  my kitchen. It was going to make it pretty squishy with my island, table and chairs. Today we decided to dig them out of our entrance way, it's hard to explain when you have not seen it but it will give me so much more in the kitchen. But it means cutting through cement...and if we didn't do it I know that we would be mad at ourselves for the rest of our life. So we are just going to do it! lol. 

Anyways, there's the update on the house!
Ashley