Oh so random. Always.

I’m realizing lately that my blog, my facebook page, my twitter, and all things online & social are so very random.

My instagram is total proof of this!

So I was pondering this and wondering if it’s a good thing, or a bad thing?

Then I realized, I really don’t care. I know ONE thing.

It’s me.

“I” am random!

My LIFE is random! How could everything about ME not be random?!

This last while has been a good example of how totally random our lives are. In the past couple of months or so we’ve:

-moved into a new home, one we hope to STAY in for good, for FOREVER!

-enjoyed our first summer on the prairies!

-moved our horses from one home, to a friends property to graze for the summer.

-made many new friends and enjoyed doing things together!

-driven to the city THREE times in an effort to pick up THREE back ordered bookcases (not wasted trips mind you, we always make the trips worth while, but still…)

-had my sister come stay for a few days

-had snow, which prompted a bit of a ‘panic’ about getting ready for winter

-we purchased an outdoor water heater element ‘thingy’, for keeping the horses water bucket from freezing. Can we call ourselves farmers now?

-our house/hobby farm that’s still for sale in British Columbia was shown 3 times

-the kids and I rejoiced at not having to BE there to clean up for these showings, while trying to still live our busy lives and run a business

-our Realtor informed us one showing will turn into a second viewing. Supposed to happen this week. We continue to wait.

-my hubby and three youngest kids went away for a few days to help out at a Bible camp up north

-we all worked on putting up fences here on our rented (hopefully one day soon OWNED) hobby farm

-we all worked on making a path through our ‘yard site tree line’ to our newly fenced paddock

-we found a very old truck on the property

-we celebrated not just our 22nd anniversary but the 2nd birthday of our smallest of 6 dogs, and the 14th birthday of our eldest cat!

-we saw a coyote on our driveway

-we had company come stay with us for 3 weeks, and we made a trip to Corner Gas while he was here!

-we had a flood in our home, from the washer.

-two weeks later, the water tank pressure pump ‘exploded’

-we thanked God for great landlords, and thanked God that they appreciate great tenants who can get things fixed, themselves, with little cost!

-less then another two weeks later, we lost all our water and dh realized the connections on our pressure tank need replacing. Good thing we LOVE our home. lol

-we explored possible garden sites on the property for next spring! And dreamed and dreamed about next spring, hoping the land will be owned by us, by then.

-hubby and I went away for two nights for our 22nd wedding anniversary

-we found a shelter to bring onto our property for the horses, it’s not a real horse shelter but it’s free, and it’ll work!

-we discussed all the possibilities for this new found shelter later on, sheep, a cow or two, chickens, pigs! oh my!

-we saw a second coyote, or possibly a small wolf, in our backyard quite close to the house. I want a gun now.

-we looked at guns, but need a gun locker first. We pondered many times over why all things cost SO much money, and why our money tree does not grow! We have kids and animals to protect here!

-we  unpacked boxes, mostly boxes of books, books packed away for years.

-friends gave us loads of crapapples and I made crabapple sauce and juice!

-3 of our dogs got real sick, 2 of them so sick they were close to death. We brought them back to full health again!

-we talked lots about how much we miss having chickens and eggs are no longer the same. Pale eggs=blah. We miss rich orange egg yolks.

-we discussed possible “real” barn ideas for once we actually own this property! Oh the discussions we have about when we can start a ‘REAL’ farm!

-we celebrated Thanksgiving with a big meal and company

-other friends gave us LOADS of potatoes

-my husband received a notice that he’s being audited. Apparently the gov’t doesn’t like agreeing to moving costs. This happened the last time we moved half way across the country too, and ended in our favor and them owing us. Guess what? So far it’s looking like it’s going to go the same way again. They send us a list of what is ‘allowed’ and oops, looks like we forgot to claim a couple of things!

-I renewed my love for the breadmaker (if we can’t have fresh eggs, we can at least have fresh bread right?!)

-other friends gave us loads of carrots, pumpkins, beets, & squash!

-we finally found a way to fix the big crack in our HUMONGOUS jet tub that’s in this home! We have high hopes we may one day be able to take baths, not just showers, again. Woot!

-we started school, HOMEschool, two weeks later then usual. It was the first time in my 17 years of homeschooling that I was thinking maybe sending my children to ‘real’ school would be easier…then I shook my head and snapped back to reality and reminded myself, I don’t “do” easy, that’s not what life’s all about!

-I drove a quad/ATV, on my own, for the very first time

-I drove a quad/ATV on ALL OUR land, ALL 87 acres (well, we call it our land, we HOPE very hard it will BE our land soon!)

-we all went camping as a family, for the first time in years!

-we enjoyed Tobin lake up north, and I snapped many photos that I have yet to share!

-we went for quite a few walks/bike rides, especially near home!

-I received my information packet on the info I need to send into the school district regarding our school plan (this is new to me! homeschooling was done differently in BC!) and I’m learning how to fill it out and send it back, but not quickly enough!

-I dyed more fabric. I love my job!

-I worked on quarterly taxes, twice, I’m late sending one quarter in. EEKS! I hate being late! Explaining that I’ve moved twice, and even halfway across the country, even with a whole homestead, doesn’t make any difference to them either. Taxes must be done when taxes must be done!!! EEKS!

-Homestead Emporium (me) was interviewed twice for online articles this past month: http://slowmama.com/greatproducts/all-about-cloth-pads/

-I sewed a lot of pads (a lot… of pads… sewn… always)

-I sewed other things too! Even one of my socks! Yes, I fixed one of my socks. Gotta save where we can right?!

-I finished the bamboo velour quilt and shipped it to it’s owner!

-I cut Shaylah & Julia’s hair

-I cut Alesia’s hair

-the kids finally all have their very own beds, and very own bedding! Well, except our son, he’s not decided on homemade bed vs store bought, what kind of bedding? camo vs wildlife vs ?. Decisions decisions…

-we explored our new hometown

-explored nature

-went on many day trips to see many sights!

-we prayed, countless times, that our home in British Columbia would sell

 

-we continued to also pay for said home in British Columbia that still has not sold, and continued to wonder why we have to ‘throw away’ so much money every month… *sigh* (so many extra hours of work, time spent away from doing family things, farm-y things…)

-and we continued to kick ourselves in the pants and say “hey, get over it and get on with it the best you can while you wait… and wait…and wait…!”

-and so we continued to do more work on THIS property here, and carry on the best we can, and ENJOY our property, and our lives here to the fullest!

-and through all that, I realized how much I am really loving our lives, our new home, our new property! Random and all!

Our Weekend Away

Last weekend we had the rare opportunity to go away, just the two of us, for 48 hours, for our 22nd anniversary!

We spent two nights in Saskatoon at a lovely hotel with blackout curtains for sleeping in and a gorgeous autumn view!

Good friends offered to have our youngest three girls spend the day at their home so we could get an early start on our weekend, rather then waiting until Alesia, our 21 year old daughter, got home from work. So we did something totally different from the norm, and headed straight to the city to watch a storage locker auction! We’ve always wanted to see one locally, and it was pretty neat! Pretty much just like you see on tv. We thought it may be a good way to add some household furniture one day in the future, since our new-to-us home is rather large and rather empty at the moment.

However, when the first bid began at 400$, for a locker we felt was worth no more then 500$ at most, and went up over a grand… well… we realized this won’t be the way we will be furnishing our home. lol I guess I’ll keep watching the local used sites.

After the storage auction we had some time to kill before heading to the hotel, so we headed to a nearby mall. We don’t have any malls in our little town on the Saskatchewan prairies, and when we head to the city, there’s no time to hit the mall with kids in tow and grocery/household shopping to do! It’s over two hours to the city each way, so that’s over 4 hours of travel time each time we need to head to Costco!

One of the first shops I saw in the all was… LUSH! My favorite luxury bubble bath is sold at LUSH! Our new home is wonderful, but…

our.great.big luxurious tub has a GREAT.BIG.CRACK! It’s SO sad! We’re working on a fix though!

So… although baths are one of my most favorite things, I hadn’t had one since the move to our new place at the end of June! To find a LUSH shop, before heading to the hotel, was a great find! I got myself some yummy bubble bath! The weekend was looking even more promising now!

We did some ‘window’ shopping and then headed to the hotel for check in. I had time for a nice bubble bath before our dinner reservation and enjoyed every minute of my soak!

For dinner we again did something different from the norm! I had been able to purchase a groupon coupon for 50% off a meal at a Fondue restaurant right in the city. It had been YEARS since either of us had done fondue, since before marriage actually, so over 22 years!

When we sat down at our table, our menus had been custom made just for us, wishing us a happy anniversary, with menu specials just for us. It was a real nice touch!

We had a great time eating and visiting, with zero interruptions! Something that doesn’t happen often for a mom & dad of five chatty children kids! (our older two don’t like to be called children… I guess it has something to do with them being 21 and just about 19 now…)

The next day we slept in, and then did some sight seeing and hit some sales for winter gear. Coming from Vancouver Island and a much warmer winter climate, the kids and I were sorely lacking any true winter gear! I’ve been concerned that it would end up breaking us financially to suit us all up! However, thanks to some awesome deals and some fantastic thrift store scores, winter may arrive whenever it seems fit because we are now ready! What a relief!

We went out for a simple dinner on Saturday, nothing fancy but again simply enjoyed our time of conversation without interruption.

Sunday, we slept in again, had brunch, and then went for a nice long walk along the river boardwalk! It was a GORGEOUS day, as it has been every single day for the past month!

I really can’t get over the amount of sunshine here in Saskatchewan, especially in the autumn! I’m not sure if this is entirely ‘normal’ weather for this time of  year here, but where it is or not, I’m going to enjoy every moment of it!

And if it is ‘normal’, I believe autumn on the prairies may just become one of my most favorite times of the year! It’s cool enough at night that there’s no longer any real bugs, yet it’s so gorgeous and hot during the day I’m sure if I took my kids to the lake they’d jump right in!

After our leisurely stroll along the water, we headed towards home. We made a detour because the store where I had been trying to purchase some on sale book cases (34.99, for FIVE shelf book cases!) said all three that I had back ordered were finally in! I was excited to pick them up and finally have a place to put all our books BEFORE my sister’s visit later in the week.

However, when we arrived at the store, they found only ONE book case was available for pick up as the other two had been damaged in transport. Ugh. We live well over an hour away from this store, and this was starting to become a real hassle! I had been to the same store in Saskatoon the day before, and they were unwilling to let me take home from THEIR current inventory, even though they had SEVENTEEN of these same book cases in their stock! lol How silly! I told the teller this, and she promptly wrote me up a rain check to use at ANY of their stores. Since I knew I was going to be heading back to Saskatoon later in the week to pick up my sister at the airport, there was hope that an end to this book case hunt may finally be in sight!

We continued on our way home with a quick visit to our favorite coffee shop, Tim Hortons!

And so ended our wonderful celebratory weekend away in the big city of Saskatoon!

A park and the land of the living skies.

Two posts in one day. I should to be packing. Can you tell I’m procrastinating?

We try REALLY hard not to let all this  moving ‘interference’ get in the way of living, real living. I hate ‘survival mode’ and try my best not to feel like we’re having to live in it but some times, especially now that it’s getting close to crunch time, 19 days from moving day yet we still don’t have a place to go to, it starts to get a little more difficult to remain positive…

I still keep trying though. It’s a minutely battle between my mind and heart at the moment.

But in the meantime, to try and persuade myself out of a soon-to-be funk I figured I’d go through some photos from this past weekend. We had a great weekend, despite the nagging in the back of our minds about “where are we going to live?”

Friday we packed up a picnic and took the girls to Greenwater Provincial Park.

It was a gorgeous day, for a beautiful park!
Still a little cool for swimming, but that didn’t stop the girls from a quick dip!

All four three kids played in the playground. I turned the photo below into my husband’s facebook cover photo. Hee hee. I couldn’t help myself.

As for residing in the land of the living skies, I am constantly trying to capture the true ‘essence’ of just that.

These magnificent living skies.

While on our way to a church picnic on Sunday, I captured the above photo while in the moving vehicle. I think it ‘almost’ captures what we see around here, after a little playing with some color punch.

And above, a storm trying it’s best to dampen our church picnic fun. To no avail. It dropped a few drops, and went on its way.

In the meantime though, I had the privilege of capturing it’s beauty before it was gone.

Land of the living skies. Yup! That’s where we live now!

New puppy on the Homestead & more on Saskatchewan.

Last Thursday we headed to the city of Regina!

Some of you may remember Shaylah’s note a while back (which I can’t seem to find the photo for anywhere in the archives!) which included her plea for a puppy.

Shaylah has wanted a puppy for MANY years now. She’s waited patiently (some times lol) for a long time now and was finally rewarded for her patience last week.

Meet Bentley.
He’s 3/4 Corgi, 1/4 Chihuahua!

Yes, a rather odd mix, however it’s a perfect mix for Shaylah! She really wanted a Corgi, but I felt a full grown Corgi was a bit too big for her. She wants it to sleep with her, and be an indoor dog, but living on a farm means an indoor dog needs LOTS of baths! A pure bred Corgi can get really heavy! Since she’s only 12, I felt this breed mix created the perfect sized Corgi for Shaylah!

He’s pretty funny, and cute!

He definitely looks ALL Corgi. It should be interesting to see just how big he grows to be. His breeder is expecting him to be about 16 pounds full grown. I’m hoping she’s right. Most of our dogs have all gone ‘oversized’, except for my runt of a Chihuahua, Teagan, who tips the scales at 2 pounds, 7 ounces!

On our way to Regina we had to stop by the horse facility that boarded our 5 horses while we were busy putting up fences the first week we were here.

This drive took us through Fort Qu’Appelle.

When most people think of Saskatchewan, they imagine completely flat, barren, land.
However, as we’ve been discovering, there’s actually a lot more to see in Saskatchewan then most realize.

And as we’ve been discovering, even the flat ‘barren’ land in these parts isn’t so ‘barren’ after all!

Live Life Right… NOW! Begins.

I have some silly fears. One of those silly fears is driving in the city. Heck, driving anything but in the country and/or towns! My sister asked us to come for New Years Day since we had to miss out on Christmas dinner with my family. My sister, however, lives in the city. She lives in Esquimalt/Victoria. A city 2 hours away. Meaning I’d have to drive through at least one other city just to get to the city in which she lives.

*Gulp*

Usually, this wouldn’t be a problem, since usually, my husband would be here and HE would drive. However, since Graydon (dh) has been gone 8 out of 12 months this year, and our life has been anything but usual this year, it’s either I drive, or we simply don’t go.

Finally, I decided that enough is enough, I’m just going to get over myself, and make that drive! So I did! And guess what? We quite obviously survived.

In fact, we not only survived, we ENJOYED it!

The drive was lovely, the weather was wonderful, and since it was New Years Day, and a Sunday, it was the PERFECT day for someone like me, with silly fears, to drive to a city 2 hours away! The roads were clear, there wasn’t much traffic, and we were not rushed at all.

I actually LOVE driving. In my ‘angst’ about other drivers though (some are pretty crazy around here, most likely, everywhere) I forget just how MUCH I love driving.

After we spent some time with my sister, her husband, and my other sister’s two children (and a girlfriend) who were also visiting, we started to head back home. Then we drove by the Gorge. Suddenly, I turned the car around, and went right back to the Gorge.

The Gorge is a place I’ve always thought was very pretty. When my husband and I first met, he was in the Navy in Esquimalt. We had driven by the Gorge MANY times and since moving to the Island 12 years ago, I had always planned to stop by there some time with the kids, but just never seemed to get around to it any time we were in the area.

I wasn’t going to put it off any longer. I turned the car around and found a parking spot. We got out and walked along the boardwalk and snapped some photos of the view, and the wildlife.

Then on our way home, we made two more stops at viewing areas along the Malahat and gazed, and snapped some more photos.

I realized again how much I love driving. Not just for driving’s sake, but for the places driving can take me. When not in too much of a hurry, there’s just so much to see, so much to do.

So much Life to Live Right, Now!

Summer ‘Stay’cation

This summer our family has a goal. A goal to do as much ‘touring’ as possible, have as much ‘fun’ as possible, go as many places as possible, while spending as little funds as possible!

Our motto this summer is work HARD, and play even HARDER! Life’s too short to do anything else.

I’d say we’re off to a good start. This weekend was jam packed with touring, friends, good food, and loads of fun, all on a VERY low budget!

Friday, my husband had a small job to finish up in Cowichan Bay: http://www.cowichanbay.com/

We’ve driven ‘by’ this area MANY times over the years but most often we’re on the highway and the actual bay is off the beaten path, so we’ve never really visited before. We decided that since my husband had to drive there anyways, we’d take advantage of the trip and the three youngest girls and I would join him and stop in at the bay to really get a good look around.

We decided to be tourists! This Island that we live on has so much to offer, so much to see, and even though we’ve seen lots of it already, we’ve only skimmed the surface!

We parked near the boat ramp, and wandered the entire ‘strip’.

There was SO much to see.

SO much color!

We joked about how the horses would like these homes. Not much grazing to do here!

But so cute!

There were lots of boats out and about.

A Heron flew overhead.

Another nestled under the docks.

We wandered the local museum to finish off our ‘tour’.

And then we headed back towards home, with a detour on the way.

I’ll share about that one tomorrow.

In the meantime, don’t miss out on the contest to win a $20.00 gift certificate good in either one of our instock shops. Contest details here: http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2011/07/09/silly-saturday-silly-self-and-a-contest/