The Cabin - - At Last!

 After a summer of being wet, the bugs, thresherman's, farming and just generally being busy we finally made it to the cabin for a wiener roast! And would you know it, the skeeters are out in full force again! Blah. As much as I dislike them, I will not wish for a frost just yet to get rid of them. We need the frost to hold off awhile yet.

 The temperamental two year olds....LOL.

 Rootbeer and orange floats Mmmmmmmm.

The quad is forever popular! It never gets old. Our relaxing evening came to an abrupt halt when our daughter filled her pants. And I had no wipes or extra panties/pants. Good thing we are a minute from home!

Ashley

Finally!

...some RED tomatoes in my garden!! I have lots of tomatoes on my plants but I have only picked one measly red tomato all summer long. I even cut all the tops off a few weeks ago, maybe it's finally paying off. These will delicious at our wiener roast at the cabin for supper tonight!

Chow for now! - The rain has FINALLY cleared out of the forecast. Here's hoping it stays away. We don't need anymore.

Ashley

Prairie Dog Central Railway

 On Sunday we headed into Winnipeg to take a ride on the Prairie Dog Train. We went with my whole Friesen family.

 These rail cars are over 100 years old. Very neat, almost everything is original.

 They acted out a train robbery theme, horses, guns, the whole thing! Pretty neat. They actually come onto the train and demand everyone put up their hands and ask for their money. The money is actually all donated to the Jocelyn House (I think that's the name), a paliative care home in Winnipeg.

 Sorry, bad picture!

 This was the old steam engine. Built in 1882. So that makes it 132 years old!!

 Daddy and Grandpa took the kids through the steam engine tour.

 After the train ride we stopped in Portage at the Island Park for a picnic chicken supper. Mmmmm.

 The kids had a blast playing on the play structures! It for the most part had finally quit raining by then.

Ali with a second cousin of hers.

It is definitely worth checking out. Next year there will be a lot more older buildings and antiquey stuff set up to look at. If you would like to check it out, here is the link:

http://www.pdcrailway.com/

Have a good night!

Ashley

The last couple of days in pictures...

 My little gardener. He just LOVES helping me in the garden and I appreciate it so much.

 These absolutely love their Papa! At Christmas there could potentially be 7 grandchildren to fit on his knees!

 Headed out last night to open up a canola field.

 Baling some very mediocre hay that was out in that rain we had for a week plus.

 My little crop scout.

 Waiting for Daddy to be done swathing to give him a ride home.

 Moving bins today.

 Cousins that are almost like brothers they fight so much! lol.

I made bath paint for the kids tonight...they loved it. Sonya, it was kinda close to the flour in the pan with tractors activity :s

Good Night!
Ashley

Perogy & Farmer Sausage Casserole (Crockpot)

Up on the Country Cookin' page this afternoon is the recipe for the perogy casserole I mentioned in my earlier post. Delicious!!

Ashley

Rain, Rain, Your finally gone away!

This is what our horizon to the west looked like a week ago Sunday evening. Since then we have had somewhere between 6-7 inches of rain. Of course, we were right in the middle of combining our winter wheat and we had just cut about 75 acres of 2nd cut alfalfa the day before. Corey went to check out the crops last night....it had finally stopped raining. That storm absolutely flattened our canola and oats. It also damaged some of our Sunflowers. That alfalfa, there are swaths sitting in water. That is depressing...plus we don't even have really warm weather now or a nice breeze to take up the water. So more than likely we won't be baling it.

In between all this rain, I have been wanting to blog...but what to blog about when everyone is in such a blah mood? I have been in the cooking/baking mood lately which is good because I drive myself nuts when I'm staring at the clock at 5 pm. hoping someone will come trotting in the door with a huge pizza. Simply because they are doing a good deed for the day! How come that never happens lol??? Anyways, yesterday I made a perogy and farmer sausage casserole in the slow cooker and it was delicious! I make a similar one in the oven but this was better. I will be making it again. Then this morning as the hubby is leaving for work he informs me that we have no bread left...I rarely let us run out of bread. This is an issue!! I also have wanted to find a fail proof bread recipe that slices nicely for toast and sandwiches. So - I used this as an opportunity to try yet another recipe. Soft Whole Wheat Bread. This was pretty simple and easy to make and I think it might be a keeper. We'll see how the hubby likes it. It's actually a whole wheat recipe but I'm out of ww flour so I just made them white.

Really hoping to get back to the field this weekend.......fingers crossed.

Have  a great day!
Ashley

Combining, donuts and cinnamon buns

 Our little Ali is at the point now that whenever her brother heads out the door with Dad, she has to go too...except that is almost impossible. She is too young to be following Dad while he's busy in the field or working in the yard. So today when she was having a meltdown I promised her she could go inside and paint...well she was all over that! She was very excited to do that. I always feel guilty because I let her brother do stuff like this all the time even when he was younger than she is now...the story of the middle child..lol.

 And this morning I was craving a fresh homemade donut. So what does the pregnant lady do? Make donuts. I really have to curb my spontaneous cravings of food that I can actually make myself...because making donuts is not just a one hour episode!! It's an all afternoon affair. And then in between, I made cinnamon buns, laundry and made lunch for the guys. So by 5 pm. I was pooped. Which is the norm lately. But. I must say the fresh glazed donuts were soooooooooooooooo worth it ;)

 Plus a bonus! My little sister came out and helped me make them! We had a nice little visit.

 Me at 20 weeks preggo................

 Ali and I were waiting for Daddy to come around the field with the combine so we had some fun with the camera. We have the cutest little girl!!

 We found a pretty little Monarch sitting in the weeds. Ali loved it.

 Checked out our Sunnies across the road while we were waiting. I love them! I will NEVER forget that on our wedding day there was a field blooming at their peak right beside the place where we had our reception. Someone mentioned going and getting a picture while we were waiting to make our entrance. I said no, that we didn't have time. I will always REGRET that. Sigh.. So on our way to South Dakota for our honeymoon wouldn't you know we also seen lots of beautiful sunflower fields. We even stopped and took a picture in one. But it obviously did not erase my regret!!

 This is her 'Cheese!" lol. Hilarious.

 Combining the winter wheat.

 Just look at that little pigtail, she's adorable!

 I have always meant to take this picture right here and finally this year I did it. I just never took the time before.

Ali and I went for a round with the boys before we went and prepared supper...........at Subway ;)

Have a great night!
Ashley