Some Assembly Required

So we have moved. But we are far from being settled. While the house is functional, it is far from being a place where we would feel comfortable inviting the new neighbours. The new place is large. Very Large.

Here are a couple of pictures before we moved things in.

Dining room

Mira's room

office

Kitchen

Living room

The house is bungalow with 6 bedrooms, 3 baths, 2 kitchen, work room, studio space, countless closets, laundry room, linen closet, and A DISHWASHER!

These are the "before" pictures. I am not going to show you the after pictures just yet. And the reason for that is...well....let's just look at a few more "before" pictures. These are of the old place the weekend before the movers came.

OMG! Look at all this Stuff! How did this happen?

I think you get the picture. There are more rooms like this.

Our former living space Filled with Boxes of Stuff. Good Stuff. Bad Stuff. Random Papers. Cables and Cords. Computer Parts, etc. (yes I am speaking to you Dear) Kid Stuff. My Stuff. Stuff we Need and Stuff that We should have gotten Rid Of Ages Ago. (hint hint-no time like the present!)

Seriously! We had been at the old place for 15 years. When we moved in, it was Me, Bill, Mira, and Bug the Cat. The cat eventually went to the Great Catnip Field in the Sky and in the mean time was replaced by Three Kids. So that made 6 people in a space that fit 3 comfortably. And they all had their own stuff. Sort of reminds me of A guy named George.

In any case, it all went into a truck.

And there was more stuff so they came back for a second trip. Although I will say that the second trip wasn't quite so full. The main reason for the second trip was to pick up the freezer, which had to be emptied, and seeing as they were picking things up on Monday and delivering them on Tuesday and seeing as I didn't want my frozen foods sitting out over night I thought that it would be better if we just got the freezer and the food and what ever else didn't fit into the truck although it was a whole lot more than I thought would be left over so I was glad that we had their services for another day even though it ended up costing Way More than I had estimated it would.

A few words about moving guys.

These fellows really know how to pack. At first I was a little concerned because they seemed to be taking a Very Long Time getting things on the truck. There were three guys and two of them seemed to be taking an awful lot of smoke breaks. I was frantically packing the last of the things in the kitchen and it wasn't until we were at the new house that I realized Why they were taking so long. The truck was packed like it was a Tetris Game! No wasted space. Everything was snugged up quite tightly and a lot of the furniture was wrapped in blankets. Reality dawned. I am glad that I am not a mover. 

In any case...The kids are going to school, we are working, doing homework, laundry, meal preparations, dishes, unpacking, Garden Stuff STILL ( more on that later) And I am thinking about starting to try and prepare for one of my three Christmas Sales that is NEXT WEEKEND? WHAT!? 

Deep, calming breaths.

The long and the short of it is that we haven't been solely focused on unpacking. And so the house looks like a combination of the pictures from the old place and the new one.  All that space with all those boxes. I really hope to be settled by Christmas with Most of the boxes unpacked and stuff put away, or disposed of, or given away. The kitchen is mostly unpacked and functional (although I am still playing the "Where did I put That!" game.) The kids bedrooms are mostly  unpacked. My studio space had carpet which had to come up, which also meant carpet tack to remove, which then meant that concrete patch had to be bought (done) and applied (not done) before the floor could be painted and all of my stuff moved in.

I am at the point of saying "it will happen when it happens"

And you will be able to look forward to a new view when I post pictures of the snow storms that will hit this coming winter. Not looking forward to That! Although shoveling the drive way will be much easier because it is much shorter and there are no houses right against it! Whhhheeee!

I haven't been avoiding you.

We are moving and that has taken all of my energy.
Well, that and starting actually teaching including developing some curriculum and delivering said curriculum instead of hovering in the background and quietly helping students.
And dealing with all of the produce from the garden.
And then there are 4 kids and all of the things that they need. Like regular meals and clean laundry and someone to throw a cleaning cloth at the bathroom occasionally.

I have been very very busy.

But once we are settled in about two or three weeks, I will return and give you a tour of our new digs!

Fiddleheads

We managed to get a lot!

43 pounds worth. Considering that I saw them for $4.99 a pound this year. I think that we did rather well.

James

I am in Ottawa right now hanging out with my sister and brother-in-law and getting to know my nephew a bit.

James asleep

 Being almost two months old, James spends a fair amount of time sleeping. I have managed to coax a couple of smiles out of him but he doesn't give them up easily. Hopefully when he comes to visit in the summer he will be a little more free with them. He loves lights and shadows and will calm down (sometimes) when pointed in a direction where he can see them.
It has been a while (7 years) since I have done the baby thing and some of it is coming back. I remember some of the good tricks to help calm the savage beast. The "rock\bounce\walk" and the "hum and grunt". And the knowledge that sometimes nothing much will help until they get the poop\gas out on their own.

Brazen sleeping

Being 14, the cat spends a lot of time sleeping too. She has bad hips and knees and occasionaly gets a dropperful of some really good drugs that have her staring at the lights like a college boy. She has the longest fur that I have ever seen on a cat. And surprisingly she is not bad on my allergies.

Craftier and Craftier

Since the new year, Mira and Bill have been taking a night pottery class down at the Craft College. Before the class started, Bill was asking me what I thought that he should throw. Did I want bowls or mugs or something else? Having taken 2 years of clay,  most of it on the wheel,  and watched beginner class after class make monstrosities, my reply was "Anything. If you manage to throw anything half decent, I will be happy"

Well, after very little instruction (and many, many, many, youtube videos) Bill managed to make a number of very nice actually usable pieces of pottery.


Here are his three mugs. The one on the left even has fish relief on it. They were sculpted out of a slab of clay and detailed and then attached.

Here is one of his first bowls. It is about 5 inches across.

Here is one of his early vases. We will not see his first vase like thing. It is holding 5 pens and can be used to defend the house from intruders. It's a little thick. And heavy. And ugly (he agrees).

Here is a cereal bowl. Bill has also made a much, much, much, bigger bowl. Actually larger than any bowl that I have ever thrown. It is in the kiln being fired right now and will hopefully make an appearance soon. 

I think that Bill was rather taken aback by my early comment of "Don't expect too much from yourself" There is a steep learning curve when dealing with clay. Especially when working with clay on a wheel. He was determined that he would take command of the clay and show it who's boss, so to speak. And to show me that he would do just fine thankyouverymuch! And he did.

New nephew!

I have a new nephew! He was born on Monday. 7 lbs 11 oz, which is pretty respectable seeing as he arrived two weeks early! His name shall be James Ian. Nick names to follow. Maybe.
He is super cute, but you are going to have to take my word for it because the only photos of him that I have seen are on flickr and I can't grab them for some reason.
This is my first nephew and I am super excited to meet him!

In the mean time, I will leave you with another found picture of my first born.

All that I know was that it was raining. A radish harvest just took place. And that IS a lampshade on her head. Oh. And no alcohol was involved.

Happy New Year?

Already? Where has the time gone?
Actually, I know exactly where it went. There has been a flurry of weaving and dyeing and selling, sadly mostly undocumented. There have been some minor health issues, which have decreased my productivity and my desire to put words out into the screen as the case may be. There has been life itself which, while I have been trying to do less, seems to conspire to make me feel like I am running on a tread mill with no end in sight. The Christmas break has been heavenly but sadly not anywhere near long enough.


Some good things have been happening here.
Mira created a wonderful snowman in the front of the house

He has some crazy eyes that she made out of wood knobs that she found somewhere and painted

Sadly some jerk knocked the head off. She learned a lesson about art in public places. I really don't understand those who take pleasure in destroying others work. She managed to salvage the eyeballs and will try and rebuild him.

And we had some snow the other day after many days of rain. I asked one of the kids were Bill was and they said out side shoveling. I didn't realize how he was dressed for the task until I went to ask him a question.

Real Canadian or Real Man or maybe both?

He said that he had to come in because his hands got cold.
I hope that it won't be so long until my next post, but until then, Happy New Year!

Happy Mothers Day

Happy Mothers Day to all of the Mothers out there. Especially the one we call Mamoo!


I had a pretty good day. I slept in. Had breakfast made for me. Was able to thread most of my next warp. Has a bath that was relatively uninterrupted (a miracle in itself!). And had a lovely supper.

Scandinavian Chicken Salad. I posted the recipe here.  It was one of the first things that Bill made for me and it had been a family favorite ever since.

Mira also made me a cake. It was a Lightening Cake. So called because of the speed with which it can be whipped up. She had her friend over and the two of them were reading the recipe together. As in one would read one bunch of instructions and the other would read the next. Surprisingly enough, this resulted in a few mix ups and the cake wasn't constructed as quickly as advertised.

She then had fun with icing.

This was her first venture into cake decorating and the plan was to try and experiment with as many tips as there were. Colour mixing was also explored.

I likened it to a coral reef gone amuck. The cake was tasty, but I have to admit that the icing was a little over the top.

The kids took may pictures of the tree, but I think that this one is my favorite. It is like one of the old style trees with the candles instead of lights. Either that, or an Ent who has had enough and is getting ready to leave.

The kids decorated the tree again this year and I have never heard such squabbles. Nobody was putting anything on in the right place, everybody was in the way, no one was choosing the right ornaments, or conversely, everyone wanted the same ornament to put on. I have put on the 2010 calender at the beginning of December, " Decorate the tree ALONE" And I just may stick to it.

It seemed to be the year of big presents. I was the giver of small presents but the aunts and uncles and grandparents were givers of big presents. Mamoo and grampy gave a big tent that the kids can use camping or at the lake in the summer, Uncle Sandy gave sleeping bags to all the kids, and Aunt Christine and Uncle Joe gave the kids a Telescope. A real on that Joe found second hand from a woman who's husband apparently said "you have too many telescopes so you have to get rid of a couple". Unfortunatly, the photographer was asleep behind the camera. either that or she gave up trying to get a good photo of the animals around the kill (aka: kids around the presents)


And here is the nasty puzzle that I dumped at the farm. Hmmm. Maybe I should have said "brought out" to the farm. I once had a fellow tell me, upon hearing that we liked to do puzzles at Christmas, that if I wanted, he could get me a 15,000 piece puzzle.
I told him thank you , but to take a long walk off a short pier. I did puzzles for pleasure , not for the challenge, and definitely not as a thing of torture. 15,000 pieces. Jeese!


Mom said that she didn't think that such a puzzle existed so I did what any one would do and googled something along the lines of "nasty large puzzles" and found a puzzle that was 24000 pieces. NO THANK YOU!

So mom, how has the puzzle progressed.

Why I used to nap in the playpen

No, really, I did. When my twins were little and I was suffering from chronic sleep deprivation I would climb in the old wood playpen and curl myself in the corner by the wall, cover myself in one of their small blankets and take cat naps while they played in the room. That way, I was there if they managed to get into trouble and need me for whatever reason ,but at the same time, they couldn't get me.
Naps were essential in those day. Nights were spent more awake than asleep until the boys started sleeping through the nights around 2 years old. Tired tired tired. Bone crushing exhaustion. Relentless. That is one of the things that I remember most from that time when my boys were small.
The other thing was dirt. Dirty dishes, dirty diapers, dirty laundry, dirty floors, dirt, dirt, dirt. I was so exhausted and things just kept getting ahead of me.
Eventually they started sleeping through the night, which meant that I could too, and I slowly, slowly started to conquer the piles.
People used to say, "remember the times when they are little, you'll miss them when they are bigger". I haven't yet hit that point.

Legs on my camera

Nicole got a new pair of tights the other day. When I downloaded the photos the other day there were many many many pictures of these blue tie dyed legs! This is a girl who like clothes, unlike her older sister! In fact, the other day when I told Mira that we were going to buy her some new sneakers and Mira moaned (even though she agrees that she is in need of new foot wear), Nicole piped up and said "Mira, you should just go shopping! That way you can get used to it!"
I think that I am going to be in trouble!

Kayak

The other day we took delivery of a couple of kayaks that Uncle Sandy bought for the kids for Christmas.

They arrived well wrapped in plastic. Nicole though that if it was warm enough to be looking at a boat, it was warm enough to be in a bathing suit. It actually was a surprisingly warm day!
Bill made the first cut in the wrapping.
With the help of many hands, the plastic was quickly peeled off.
One final tug and it was free!
Then the paddles and what not needed to be examined.
Everyone is very excited to try them out. We had to restrain people from "trying it out".
Although we did have a flood this year,

there seems to be a distinct lack of water in our back yard. A trial run will have to wait until we are ready to go to the lake.

In Like a Cow

The gals are in their new home, and as mom said, they didn't even wipe their feet! They are really dirty from bedding down in hay and now that they are able to bed down in sand, (and soon go outside) they will be cleaner and happier. There are a few things that are not quite finished but they will be able to get done around milking time and once the cows begin to spend more time outside.
Thanks to all for the donations and support. Mom said that she is trying to write thank you letters, but has been finding it hard to find the time. As they say, a farmers work is never done. Or maybe that was a woman's work is never done? In any case, a woman farmer gets no rest what so ever!

Mamoo, you rock!

Barn Raising Fund Raiser

Yesterday, all day, from 8 am until midnight, there was a fund raiser to help pay part of the cost of the my parents barn.

There was a yard sale,

Elvis came to sing. And he was just one of countless bands that played starting at noon and going almost non-stop until midnight.
There was also a silent auction with many, many, many wonderful prizes.
Breakfast and lunch was served by the church ladies and both sold out. The church committee said that they had never had so many for breakfast before!
In the afternoon there was a barbecue that was also a huge success. Breakfast was $5 but both lunch and the barbecue were by donations and the generosity of people was amazing!
There was also a 50/50 draw, a draw on a $100 bill, and the ever present bake sale as well as a donation jar.

The organizing committee was spearheaded by my brothers friends and girlfriend. There are a couple of people that were camera shy that are missing from the picture (and Elvis was just in for the photo op). They worked so hard to get donations for the auction and the yard sale, they were there from early in the morning until I don't know how late last night. I was there from about 10:30 until 6:30 in a "I'll do what ever is needed" capacity. I might have stayed longer but Nicole came down with the chicken pox yesterday morning and I was wanting to see how she was doing and get a cuddle or two. Or three. Or four.

I have a huge thank you to give to all the hard work that everyone put in to this successful fund raiser. And thanks to all who came out and had a bite to eat (even if it was just a biscuit) and bid on something. Every little bit helps and there were sure a lot of bits given yesterday.

Barn Progress

Note: I had to remove certain pictures because of complaints from occupational health and safety.


Friday 6th march, 2009. All the strapping and bracing are up. Next is the steel roofing to go up hopefully on Tuesday if the weather is calm.

Another Article from The Local Paper

See it here

Barn Raising

Note: I had to remove certain pictures because of complaints from occupational health and safety.


I was unable to be at the barn raising, but Mamoo (photographer extraordinaire) sent pictures and gave the commentary. (Thanks Mamoo)

Last week, the wall frames were built.

This is the first rafter with closed end that was attached to the portion of the barn by the milking parlor. The part that was covered with clear plastic.
The second rafter being hoisted by the crane.
This is about the fifth rafter and the boys are getting the hang of it.
The sun is shining but it is cold and breezy up there.
Coming close to the end of the 177 feet building
The last rafter is being installed
More framing going up on the end of the building.

Hooray for those brave and valiant volunteer men working in the cold all day. They were partially rewarded by a turkey lunch put on by my parents church.
They were also rewarded by the knowledge that in the farming community, a helping hand is always there.

To bad more people couldn't be like farmers.

Article from the local paper

Taken form the Daily Gleaner

Vaughan Bourque was all smiles Tuesday as one of his prized herd of dairy cattle wrapped its tongue around his face.

Stephen MacGillivray

APPRECIATING THE TLC (tender loving cow): Vaughan Bourque laughs as he gets an affectionate lick from one of his cows. Bourque says the family has been trying to keep the cattle as comfortable and happy as possible since a barn roof collapsed Jan. 31, trapping about 70 cattle. Two cows died in the incident.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

PREPARING TO REBUILD: Vaughan Bourque, right, talks with Pat Goodine as they walk through the area where the cattle barn collapsed recently.

The seemingly grateful animal was one of 70 rescued from the family's barn Jan. 31 after it collapsed without warning.

Two cows lost their lives in the incident, but no one was hurt.

"We are just trying to make the cows the most comfortable we possibly can to keep them happy," Bourque said in describing what it's been like the last couple of weeks.

The good news for the cattle and their owners is that they'll soon have a new barn.

The Bourque family of Lincoln is planning a good old-fashioned barn-raising.

"As soon as the weather is good enough - it depends on the fellow up above - we will start building," said George Bourque, Vaughan's father.

"It depends on how things go. It might be in a couple of weeks, it might be a month. The sooner the better."

The Bourques still have about 60 head of cattle at the Lincoln location and more than 40 at the farm of Glen Pye in Mouth of Keswick.

"The cows here are doing good," George Bourque said.

"The production (of milk) didn't drop. Everything is going on schedule."

The new barn will be a permanent structure, and it will be higher than the previous building.

Vaughan Bourque said he's anxious to get the rebuilding project rolling. The only thing he is unsure of is how long it will take.

"I don't know; this is my first barn-raising party," he said with a laugh.

"It will be a couple of days, that's for sure. I have all kinds of friends who are willing to take the days off to help."

Pat Goodine of Bear Island is one of them.

"I am one of the guys helping," he said. "There's quite a few farmers who have offered to help. It will go up really quick once we start.

"Some of the materials are here now for the posts and the strapping of the rafters. We are just going to go ahead and build it."

Many people are making donations.

"We sent him cheques; farmers seldom have ready cash," said one Fredericton donor who wanted to remain anonymous.

"He is so grateful for people's assistance and prayers."

Vaughan Bourque said it's difficult to put an exact price tag on the loss, but he estimated it would be more than $100,000. He said the barn was insured but not for a collapse.

STEPHEN MACGILLIVRAY PHOTO

PREPARING TO REBUILD: Vaughan Bourque, right, talks with Pat Goodine as they walk through the area where the cattle barn collapsed recently.