In Loving Memory.....

My dear uncle was called home yesterday. As saddened as we are about his passing, my aunt is forever grateful that he is no longer suffering. I believe that he is now joined with my mom and dad and hopefully they are having a huge steak together like they did here.

Uncle Bill....you were a terrific man and I was so honoured to be your surrogate daughter for the past 13 years. I loved your sense of humour and your bear hugs. I loved the way your accent was exactly like moms and it was a comfort to hear when we missed her so much. I will be reminded of you when the cherry trees blossom as you were so looking forward to coming and picking cherries.

The Broken Chain

We little knew that morning that God

Was going to call your name.

In life we loved you dearly,

In death we do the same.

It broke our hearts to lose you,

You did not go alone;

For part of us went with you,

The day God called you home.

You left us peaceful memories,

Your love is still our guide;

And though we can not see you,

You are always at our side.

Our family chain is broken,

And nothing seems the same;

But as God calls us one by one,

The chain will link again.

Linda Grace

June 7, 1966 - June 14, 1998

Also coming up is a date that we too will not forget. The day that we lost our sister at the young age of 32. Linda, you were taken from us too early. There were so many things that we did not get to say or do together. Although 10 years has passed quickly and so many things have changed, I think of you often and miss you.

MDK Recital

Yesterday we attended the girls dance recital. I managed to get a few pictures. Here they are doing their hip hop routine. They also did a jazz routine and Brittany did an acro dance as well.
Here is Brittany in the centre.

Casi....
Their ending....well done girls!

Upcoming puppies!!!!!!!!!

For a long time now (actually months!) I have been waiting on a season with Sadie. I had anticipted her to come into heat back in March and have been waiting..rather impatiently I might add for this to happen. Finally she has cycled and I can see the glimmer of light for my next show hopeful!!! Don't yawn...for those of us in the doggie world, this is exciting stuff!!! Pouring over pedigrees and critiqueing your males and females and hoping and wishing, this is what we dream of! Of course we all would want the perfect puppy, but there is no such thing so we have to improve what we have and work through the faults a generation at a time. So for now my plan is to breed Chase with Sadie in hopes of getting a beautiful show female...already have the name picked out in my head folks!!! So keep your fingers crossed that in August we have firstly a healthy litter with Sadie and secondly a little girl for me!

Here is Chase shown above and Sadie below. I chose these 2 because they are quite opposite from each other. Chase is quite light and Sadie is sooo dark so I am hoping for somewhere in between. Chase has a firecracker personality and is really fine boned wheras Sadie can be shy and is more bigger boned...so hopefully the offpsring will be somewhere in the middle...we can hope!!!

Also by surprise, I wasn't expecting this quite so soon...Sienna has come back into heat! So I will have my only 2 litters planned for the year almost back to back. Not sure of dates yet but I would guesstimate that these babies will be born only a week apart from each other! Preferably I would have liked only 1 litter at a time but when we are dealing with mother nature...you just have to roll with it. So my "plan" here is...to breed Sienna with Cole in hopes of a nice show boy.

So these 2 are more similar in some ways but I think they will compliment each other with their puppies as well. They both have the benefit of having some really big European bloodlines behind them. Sienna is shorter in body where Cole is longer and I actually find he is a little longer than I would like. Cole has a beautiful silk coat and is really strong in his colour so I have to be careful that I don't get too dark in my puppies as we don't want black!
Sorry for the yorkie critiqueing lesson guys...couldn't help myself!!! So mid to late August should be an exciting time around here! Should be crazy busy as well! Might have to do back to school shopping early as I will likely be grounded at home for a while!! All I can do is hope that all goes well and we have 2 healthy litters and no vet intervention deliveries..that is a big plus for sure!!! Will keep you posted....

Dancin' Girls

The ladies have been taking dance classes since September and are currently preparing for their recital in June. They had professional pictures taken on Saturday but I thought I would get some of my own! Here they are in their Jazz outfits. They also take hip hop together and Brittany in addition takes Acro (gymnastics + dance). I couldn't resist getting pictures of Casi in hot pink. She has really detested pink since about gr. 3, so this was a treat for me!





I am so happy that they as sisters can share in things together. There is a unique relationship between sisters and I hope that it is ever lasting for them. Love you 2..XOXOXO!!!

Last weekend.....

Last weekend was so productive! We accomplished alot! We had the arrival of our 2nd foal plus 7 baby call ducks. Our pheasant is finally sitting on her nest of eggs so that is exciting. We have red golden pheasants and the males are so pretty and vibrant I would love to see more out there! We got alot of our yard work done, grass cutting and weeding. I finally finished planting my flower bed and got some impatiens in my shade gardens.
Here is part of the garden, we planted this in sweet corn and I also wanted to try a row of ornamental corn for decoration in the fall! We planted on the other side of the raspberries, peas, beans, spinach, parsnips, peppers, radishes and cucumbers. I am on the hunt today for heritage tomatoes. They are so wonderfully delicious and taste like I remember tomatoes tasting on the farm when I was little. These are seeds from way back when before hydroponic and hot house tomatoes.

I got all my flower beds worked on...not gonna say that they are done but they are at least caught up for now.

Our lilac bushes are in full bloom along the road. It is so fragrant, wish they lasted longer

Already posted about our newest foal, Vision....I caught a picture of her livin it up yesterday. She was rearing and kicking and just loving being a baby horse!

We had a visit from Lori and her family plus her mom. Had a great visit and I love watching them enjoy the animals and have fun. Sometimes when we live here all we see is the everyday stuff and it is refreshing to enjoy it with others.
Here is Chad with Echo.

Another one of Chad and Saucie....notice the carrot in mid air!!!

Lori took this amazing shot of Mia and Indy. I love it! It is my desktop picture on my laptop!

Here is Hope getting a kick out of the horses....the minis love the attention. Ella trying to snatch something good.
One of our bottle babies looking for a snack.
All in all it was a great weekend! The weather was gorgeous and it was so nice to be outside in the sunshine. If you havn't figured it out, I love being a country girl, there is nothing better to me. I know different strokes for different folks but this is my piece of heaven on earth. I am so pleased at where our farm has come in the short 3+ years we've been here. I wish my parents were here to see. My dad was a farmer through and through and think he would have enjoyed this with us too. I loved our visit Lori, thanks for coming out and having tea. Certainly needed was nice to catch up!

Dave the shepherd...

Even though he would not admit it...Dave loves his sheep. He calls them...they all come running. No matter from where..the far side of the pasture...he calls..they run. I guess they love him too. Thus he's been nicknamed "Dave the shepherd"!!
Here he is with our 3 bottle babies.


Lunch time....

TimberYork's Inquisitive Vision

My 2nd (and final) foal of the year has been born!!! We awoke yesterday and immediately I usually scan the field for the horses and noticed Liley off on her own in the far fence row. We didn't see her baby at first so we carried on our usual morning routine of feeding our bottle baby sheep. We happened to look over again and there was this figure standing at Liley's front. Well I flew across the field and approached the pair. To my complete delight there was a gorgeous little buckskin pinto standing there. I thought I wouldn't be so lucky as to have a filly and sure enough we have a little girl!!! I am so pleased to announce the arrival of "TimberYork's Inquisitive Vision". She measures even smaller than Echo at 17" tall. She is so friendly at this point and I am all smiles! I have wanted a buckskin forever!!! Mom and baby are doing good and I am sure Vision will be a keeper as she is duel registered. I am so pleased with my babies this year. Diesel certainly out did himself and gave me 2 dilute babies!!!

Having a nap...being born is very hard and tiring work!!!

Getting loved up by Casi and James

Finding her feet....still a bit wobbly.

I am still over the moon....she has arrived at a super time. I have been feeing a bit down this week. With my mom's birthday and mothers day this month, it just really bites that she is no longer around. So I've been in a bit of a self pity mode. Having Vision arrive certainly has brightened my spirits and especially since she is exactly what I have looked around for for ages! I am a bit of a dilute seeker, as much as I love pinto's the dilutes really take my breath away. She is both pinto and buckskin, she is absolutely perfect!!!

Happy Birthday Mom.... XOXO

Just sending out a tribute to my mom. Today would have been her 77th birthday. Even though she is no longer with us, I still think of her every day and especially today on her birthday. To those of you who didn't know my mom, she was a wonderful, beautiful, kind hearted person. She was always trying to be fair. I miss her dearly and sincerely grieve for the relationship that my kids have missed out on with her. I know she would have been a very special person in their lives and even though they were quite young when she died, they still treasure what memories they do have of her. Here she is on her 71st birthday, a sweet memory of better times when she was healthier.

This is a cross stitch sampler that I made for her after my dad passed away. It hung in her tv room proudly and now it hangs in my kitchen proudly so I can see it often and think of her.

MOM

The relationship between a mother and child

is a special bond of love

That grows deeper year after year

Passing time

makes me realize

Just how dear to me you've always been

My hope is

that in your understanding way,

you'll somehow know

The love that is in my heart for you

will be there, always near.....

Happy Birthday Mom, we love you and miss you. We will celebrate your day with a DQ dipped cone and wonderful memories of you. Wish you could have been here....

Going crazy

Just wanted to take a couple of secs to blog the insanity going on around here. I always have the usual housework, laundry, a floor that always seems to need to be swept. With 8 dogs running in and out I guess that is why. There is always a dog that needs to be groomed or if I do get them groomed they take great pleasure in rubbing their heads along something and pull out their top knots.
With Dave back to work on nights I am in charge of the morning and evening chores to do in the barn. For the past little while it has been bottle feeding our 3 lambs every 3-4 hours and then there is imprinting our new foal Echo to be loving and friendly. Once that is done there is lawn mowing and gardening and weeding of my flower beds. Lets not forget Dave's gst that has to be done. This all on the days that I don't work and then some on the days that I do, I feel some days that I put in a full day before I have to go to work at 2:30pm. Oh then there is grocery shopping that never seems to be enough as I am out of things the next day or just your run of the mill errands that have to be done. In the evenings I run the free taxi shuttle service for the kids to ball, dance or pick up/drop off at their work.

So I find myself sometimes on the computer late in the evening just to wind down and catch my breath as the day just seems to speed by.

I need to take time to catch up with loved ones or just give a call to let them know that they are on my mind even if I am not in touch. I did call my aunt in Ottawa this morning and found out that they are having a really hard time with my uncle. To bring you up to speed, he had a stroke about a year ago and spent considerable time in the hospital and late last summer he was able to go home. So for the past several months my aunt has been caring for him, no small task for sure. He unfortunately has lost the majority of his sight and with the confusion of that is not longer able to stay at home. So my aunt and her family have made the really difficult decision to put him into long term care. This is a really emotionally draining time for her and my aunt is one of the most beautiful Christian people that I know. Please keep her and my uncle in your thoughts and prayers as they need strength and peace with this whole situation.

All of this does prompt me to want to slow down and stop and smell the roses and take time out and enjoy this life that we have. I do love the farm and all the animals and I find them all very gratifying to watch and nurture and feel very proud for what we have accomplished here. I do need to stop now and again and appreciate the small stuff too.

Baseball Season begins....

So another spring is here and with that..brings ball season! I only have Brittany playing this year, Cass decided not to play. Britt is on the Ops Flames Squirt Girls team. She had her 2nd game on Monday night. I was able to catch this one, last week's I was at work and had to depend on friends to take her...thank you thank you Janet and Janet! Here she is ready to play!

Ready to hit...Made it on base....running to 2nd.

Playing back catch position...she loves forcing the runner on 3rd back to base.

Ready for the ball....
All in all it was a good game, the girls ended up loosing to their opposing team but for some reason in the last inning they "woke up" and really gave them a fight! Brittany brings fire to her game with a splash of attitude, definitely makes it fun to watch! Lets hope for a good season!!

TimberYork's Inquisitive Echo

We were surprised on Friday morning by the arrival of a new foal!!! I have been checking our 2 mares in waiting religiously for weeks now and Saucie didn't seem to be too close. Apparently however she was being sneaky! Announcing the arrival of "TimberYork's Inquisitive Echo" a beautiful little palomino colt! He is gorgeous and so amazing in such a small package! He measures only 17 3/4" at the withers. I have yet to have one so small. He looks to be the spitting image of his papa Diesel.

Just figuring out what his legs are for!!


Still needing to feel protected by his mama...

You can see how small he is when he is sniffing one of our barn kitties....