New Seasons begin!!!

I love the start of fall which means the start of season premieres!!!
Not a huge TV watcher but I did allot some time this week to catch some fav's from last season as they are beginning again!
The Biggest Loser cycle 8....
I think this show is amazing! Am so in awe at some weeks to watch their weight loss. The first week one guy lost an amazing 28 lbs!! That is huge for 1 week! Granted I think he is over 400 lbs to start with but still its pretty amazing! I think what they are doing for these people is great in working with them and giving them the tools to take control of their lives. I super enjoy watching their transformations from week to week!

America's Next Top Model cycle 13
This is another fav for us girlies in the house. I am amazed again at some of the make up they do and how they make these girls look, their photos come out absolutely stunning! Tyra can get a little full of herself now and again and she gets annoying but I suppose its her show and she can do what she wants right???!! This season is a little different as she has chosen candidates that are under 5'7 which seemed to be the minimum if you were looking to model so good for her to give some of these 'petite' girls a shot!

And finally Desperate Housewives.... love to watch these seemingly bored housewives get themselves into hot water by doing stupid thing. On some levels they can be relatable and then on others, not a chance but still like to catch their weekly episodes anyway!

Amazing I actually watched 3 hrs of TV this week! My good ol' stand by soap opera ( Y & R ) I havn't seen in ages. I managed to catch about 15 minutes a week or so ago and there was this whole outdoor scene with a crazy lady with a stuffed cat??? What is that about? I'm sure the writers are getting paid big bucks so I'm sure they can come up with something better than an insane person with a stuffed toy? Whoa....

A different view

Had my camera out the to get some pics of the horses and took some of the buildings from another angle.

Thought I would share.

And still the barns seem too small, we may need to expand yet!

Too Cool...

The other day I was driving home and noticed this brown thing in the field. I thought it looked like Dave had dumped a pile of stones. I thought it was strange that he would have dumped stones in the middle of the field so I questioned him and he said that the brown thing was a muskrat house.
This is what I spotted from my van.....

So of course I had to go and investigate and check it out!! We have had an incredible wet summer and I guess the now wet land is ideal conditions for them to buy their houses.

Although I didn't really want to run into the occupant of the house I did find it really interesting and cool how it was built and what the little booger made his house out of. You can see he used roots and grass and mud. His house stand about 5 feet tall and about 3 feet around. Pretty impressive for a 'rat' sized body I'd say.....

Call me simple but I just think it is really cool how nature can take care of itself and how one little 'rat' thingy could build something like this!!! Even though I've never seen a muskrat and I'd like to keep it that way, kuddos to him for his inginuity!!!

Still more pics!

And here are the some of the rest of the lovely shots that Tracey took that day! I am absolutely thrilled how they turned out!
For ease of viewing and not to give you picture 'overload' I have made collages of everyone. You can click on them to make them larger.

I think this is my favourite shot! I love this with the rail fencing and the barn in the background!

And more Pics!

And still more pics, Tracey you made us all so relaxed and brought the best photo's out in us!

We had a great day! The guys scampered off to do their thing that day so it was just us girls for the end of the shoot! Brittany and Casi were busy posing for Tracey and loved every minute of it! Think they have watched too many episodes of ANTM!!!

Some teasers...

A while back on this very blog it was gently 'suggested' to me that my family picture on the right of the screen is quite outdated....(you know who you are, thanks for the nudge!)
It got me to thinking, yes our last family picture was quite outdated (2006)and we should do it again!
I have been seeing on FB this wonderful local photographer's work and decided to track her down and have her do our family shots!
What better place to do a shoot but at our little piece of paradise...our farm.
I wanted very casual and very country shots of us using the cedar rails and barn boards and the wildflowers that are growing.

I have anxiously been awaiting these 'teasers' for weeks! I love what she has done and can't wait to get the rest of the pictures! You will notice that James is not in these...I am only adding what I have so far! Once I get a family shot, I will be updating my family pic on the right of the screen too! I am so thrilled with the teasers, if anyone in my area is interested in using this photographer, she is wonderful! Very calm and put us all at ease really quickly, which was no easy feat considering the 'male' members of my household were less than thrilled with the whole photo shoot idea! Her website is www.tkendallphotography.com

Thanks Tracey for a great day, you are super!

Up and Running....

For anyone that doesn't know, the free webspace 'geocities' is shutting down the end of October. I have/had 2 websites on geocities both of which are crutial for advertising and selling my puppies and horses.
So with that in mind I had to buy a domain for my 'businesses' so they could remain visible on the web!

So welcome to my new webpage!
It is TimberYork Farm and you can find it at http://www.timberyork.com/
I have the basics up and hope to do some changes to fit the whole grand scheme that I have in my head. I just need to get accustomed to the new page building tools!
Have a look and let me know what you think!

Very proud of..

Brittany who ventured out and got herself some babysitting jobs! She loves kids and was looking to make some of her own money so she posted an ad on Kijiji. She was approached by 3 different people and had 3 interviews and now she has 3 different families she is babysitting for!

She babysat this little guy here on Saturday. Baby *S* was adorable! He is 21 months old.

She asked her friend Amanda to come over and help and the 2 of them were like little mama's and doted on this little guy all day. I'm sure he never had so much teenage attention ever!

He went home mid afternoon and then she had to babysit at the other place for evening. These were twin 8 year old boys and a 6 year old girl!

She was wiped by Sunday!

I am so very proud that you have taken the initiative Brittany and are doing what you enjoy along with making a few dollars as well.

Some of her free days are booking up if anyone is in need of a 'fun' babysitter. She is amazing with the kids and even helped out with a buddy of mine this summer who has a home day care.

So, so proud of you Brittany!!!

::Congratulations Kattie & Mike::

We had the priviledge of attending a good friend's wedding over the weekend. We have basically watched Kattie grow up. Her father was in our wedding party...many moons ago so it was great to be there and watch Kattie as she got married herself!
It was an outdoor wedding and the weather could not have been more perfect! Beautiful, sunny but not too hot and not too breezy.

As Mike is a dairy farmer, the tractors were an intrical part of the photos. The tractors were shined up and probably havn't never looked so good.
As we drove up and seen the tractors lined up with their loaders up in an arch, we actually thought they were going to be married under the arch but no, they were just placed there for a good ol "John Deere" photo shot.


Kattie's dress was beautiful and actually had the colour of her girls dresses along the top and bottom of the dress.

Even, their dog was part of ceremony. Kura (the boxer) was the ring bearer and was all dressed up for the occassion too!

I love it!

It was a great day! We seen so many people that we had not seen in ages! It was a fun time! Also great to see Kattie marry her soul mate!

Just friends...

Just some randoms shots of Brittany and Amanda, friends just chillin'
Rockin' the barn boots!!!

With the barn kitties.... Thomas and Julia....

Model posing...

Just having fun....

Running around on the 4-wheeler...

So nice to see the girls have good simplistic fun! Just hanging out and having fun!!! Good friends are so nice to have!

The Basement Chronicles...final edition...

This should be my last post on the basement updates. As I am finished painting and thought I would show some before and afters...
The rec room before...

Now.. found some good used furniture off of Kijiji, fits just perfect in there...

Before..
After...

From the rec room looking into the kitchen...

The kitchen before...

and after...we are using the extra space for storage of all those kitchen gadgets that only get used periodically...

from the kitchen looking into the rec room and what is now Brittany's room..

and now....

I am very pleased with the updates! I love the space and although we have not used it too much over the summer, I am anticipating alot of use this winter when we are all cooped up inside. I am onto painting the bathroom upstairs. Will let you all know how that turns out with some before and afters!

Just to let you know...

that the dental surgery went well. All 4 of the wisdom teeth are now gone. When I came back to pick James up he was still pretty groggy from the anesthetic. He was frozen and actually quite comical. He reminded me of the way he used to be at about age 5, prattling on and on and being quite cute.
His mood quickly changed to grumpy however once the freezing wore off. Luckily we were prescribed some pain meds, quickly got them on board!
So far so good, I did do my short 5 hr shift, came back and James had made a water trough for the goats??? Not sure why but I suppose it was a good project for him for the afternoon.
Not too much of the puffiness that everyone says will happen, however we will see how it looks tomorrow!
I DID get to the apples, never did get a chance to look up any interesting recipes but went with my ol stand by of cinnamon and brown sugar. The apple sauce is quite yummy just like that!
So, all in all its been a full day and slumberland looks pretty good right now!

The Relish

My first attempt at making relish was a success....I think..(I hope anyway) . As my cucumbers are ripening in droves I was at a loss of what to do with them all. You can only eat so many raw cucumbers before you start to look like one?
So always being game to try something new, I thought I would try my hand at making relish. Brushed off the food processor and away I went!
This BIG bowl of veggies sitting on my counter was really appealing and it smelled really good too!

The recipe said it makes 15 cups of relish.

I gave the taste test to 2 of the kids, got one approval and one not so much...

So I tried it and thought it tasted pretty good! If you are interested you will find the recipe HERE. I want to search through and find something for applesauce that might be interesting as I still have half a milk crate of apples to find something to do with???

Not sure what my day looks like tomorrow, may have time late morning. James has an appt to have all 4 of his wisdom teeth pulled. He has to be put out and not sure how much of a patient he will be afterwards...we'll see if I can pull off applesauce and look after him too??? Working at 4 pm so there is only a small window of time to do it? If I manage to get it done I will post and let ya'll know it turns out.