To My Family And Friends. . . You Are Invited!

Our 25Th Anniversary party is coming up and it seems that not everyone got an invitation!

So I'm going to remedy that right now!

(Didn't Crystal and Mom do a great job on the invitations?)

Dress warmly as we hope to have a fire in the back yard fire pit as well as evergreen swag making in the greenhouse after dinner. (How many parties have you been to that allow you to be creative and take your creation home to decorate for Christmas?!)

I will of course have the heaters going in the greenhouse.

We do live in Alberta after all!

We'll all stay warm with hot chocolate(or wine) and fill ourselves up with delicious food.

I hear my cousin Leona is bringing cake and I can't wait to see what kind of fabulous flavour it might be.

Yum!

Stay tuned for the next little while as we keep you posted on party preparations. . .

A Little Bit Better

Now if I could just stop coughing!

Still Sick. . .

On the plus side I was hungry for the first time in days so for our anniversary dinner Henry barbequed the most delicious pork loin steaks. Yum!!
Of course it was accompanied by macaroni and cheese as that was all I had the omphh to make but still. . .
It's the thought that counts. . . right?

25 Years Ago Today. . .

Henry and I shared our wedding day with my sister Lisa and her husband Rick.
I had a great post planned.
Henry and I were going to dress up and have a lovely dinner at the Keg with our $100 gift certificate.
But. . .
I. am. soooo. sick!
I've been sick since Friday and there is no end in sight yet.
For crying out loud!
Hope your anniversary is a lot better than ours Lisa!!!

In The Garden

It was 17 degrees yesterday and it is supposed to be 9 today!

Whoo Hoo!

I've been out in the garden scrubbing down the greenhouse and everything in it.

Greenhouses need to be disinfected at the end of every season to prevent diseases and bugs from overwintering and wreaking havoc next spring. (Havoc in the greenhouse is not a good thing!)

It's a HUGE job!

Time to get back at it. . .

Enjoy your weekend.

Hunting Season

Henry and some friends are off on their first hunting trip of the season tomorrow afternoon.

They will be hunting cow elk, cow moose, deer and bull elk.

I am hoping for elk as I think it is the tastiest of all the wild meats. (Although moose would be my second choice.)

I'm not overly fond of deer as it has a fairly strong taste, even the ones who mostly feed on farmer's grain.

The guys have permission from a farmer about an hour or so outside the city to hunt on his land and they generally bring back a few small deer during the season.

This trip is all about the bigger game though, and it involves camping out in the bush and other manly pursuits.

To keep toasty warm Henry has felted wool pants and a coat to match.

The pants were a bit long though and he asked me if my sewing machine would be strong enough to hem them.

Yes, yes it was!

Now it was a worthwhile, sensible purchase! ( The machine not the pants. Of course the pants were a sensible, worthwhile purchase!)

Dreaming

I'm going to bed tonight dreaming of farming.

My farm has chickens, sheep, a cow, a few pigs, a HUGE garden, compost piles, bee hives and a few Nubian goats.

I shear sheep on my farm, can and freeze food, spin and weave wool, milk my cow (by hand!) , make cheese and collect eggs to bake cookies (Which are of course, baked in the oven of my wood stove).

It's a lovely dream. ( I can see Lisa rolling her eyes right about now!)

And for the most part that's likely all it will ever be.

A dream.

But who's to say I can't have at least some of that dream right here in the city?

I'm sure going to do my best to make as much of that dream come true as I possibly can.

Anybody ever hear of chickens in the city?

I'm pretty sure a cow would be frowned on.

Darn. There goes my chance to make cheese!

What's your dream?

It Was That Time Of Year

Last year I convinced my kids to carve some pumpkins for me by telling them I found it to0 difficult to carve one myself with the arthritis in my hands. ( Some times a mom has to be a little sneaky when trying to get mostly grown kids to do something crafty!)
I tried to make it more interesting by showing them some new carving methods on Martha's website.

They were reluctant at first, but after some subtly applied guilt, became very interested, finding patterns on other sites that appealed to them more.
Their pumpkins turned out great. http://rose-gardendiary.blogspot.com/2008/11/pumpkins-and-princess.html

I had pictures of this year's pumpkin carving evening but my camera somehow managed to erase three days worth of pictures and those were included!

No guilt was needed this year as they were all gung ho.
Morgan's girlfriend Sarah made one as well. I got the pumpkins from Superstore for $1.97 each so buying four came in under $10.
The pumpkins were very moist and did a whole lot of dripping as they carved but they had a great time anyway.
They started at about eight in the evening and I'm told finished at two in the morning!
Sarah obviously enjoyed herself because when I got up the next morning I found a paper poking out of the top of her pumpkin which said: My pumpkin Rocks! Sarah.
They didn't hold up as well as last year because of all the moisture but were still more or less intact for Halloween.
I love it when My kids are crafty!


Morgan's

Jesse's

Sarah's

Holly's

The whole gang.

Wordless Monday

Okay, okay, I know it's supposed to be Wordless Wednesday but. . .

I just really liked this picture and wanted to share!

Plus I started this yellow rudbeckia from seed last year and I'm pretty excited that it's grown so well this year.

Happy November!