“we’re livin’ the story”

I haven’t been posting on my blog so much this last great while. I could say I just haven’t had much to say, but that probably wouldn’t be accurate. I’ve more honestly had too much to say, but nothing that I can put together within the walls of my mind lately, to type it out properly.

And then I heard it the other day. The reason why I have not been writing lately. To quote from my new favorite movie, We Bought A Zoo

Rosie Mee, the young daughter, to her father asks:

How come you don’t tell stories anymore?
Benjamin Mee, her father, replies:

Well, because we’re livin’ the story.

 

Right now, our family is living the story. I began writing the story of our Our Long Way Home back in May of 2012. Now, it’s getting close to a year later, and the story is still far from over.

Some days, our family has become a little weary of this long way home. We pray daily that our hobby farm in BC will sell because we had hopes of buying a much larger acreage here on the Prairies. Every.Single.Other.Thing has fallen into place so beautifully here on the prairies. My husband and our two eldest children all have great jobs, the kids both received great raises today at those jobs. We have an awesome church family that brings us wonderful encouragement and support. We’ve made great friends. My business continues to thrive. Our life is just as we hoped it would be.We LOVE living on the prairies.

Yet… we still live with the daily echo of, “when the house sells…”

In the meantime we continue to hope, and pray, that this one last, very big piece of the puzzle, will finally fall into place while we keep on keeping on. We encourage one another to continue to hope, and continue to work hard towards that future. It’s got to happen!

Each new morning brings new hope of a brighter future for our family!

Sundogs in Saskatchewan

 

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!

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!

Our Long Way Home – Part 5

This post is Part 5 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1 – 4, here: 
http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/
 

Our Long Way Home – Part 5

Once we made it to the mainland and off the ferry, we were really on our way. A lot of the long drive is a blur to me, other then remembering it was VERY difficult to stay awake. The drive that only took my husband 17 hours to make when he drove from the prairies to the Island, took us over 40 hours. I honestly could not understand what was wrong, and why the drive was going so poorly.

We drove as many hours as we could, then we’d stop to let dogs out for a walk, take cats out to use the liter box, let everyone stretch their legs, and use the bathroom. Sometimes getting a bite to eat, and then be on our way again to do it all over until the next stop!

I felt totally ‘off my game’. I’m normally a fairly confident person, but towing a very long and heavy trailer, through the Rocky Mountains, at night, for hours and hours, and just simply feeling completely ‘off’, was getting to me. I couldn’t quite figure out what was up. Graydon wasn’t doing a whole lot better the longer we drove. He had spent a whirlwind 10 days driving the 2000 km to the Island, packing, working to get everything done that needed doing on the property, and being busy the entire time he was there, only to turn around and have to head right back again. We were both completely beat. Neither of us had slept more then 4-6 hours straight in weeks. We were both close to our breaking point.

However, we continued on. The three girls did great and were real troopers. NONE of the animals complained either, not even a bit! Every time we stopped to take them for walks, they’d do their business, eat, drink, and hop back into their ‘crates’ or designated person’s lap, and go right back to sleep again. I was very impressed.

We stopped whenever we needed to for short naps. We stopped twice alongside the road because we simply couldn’t drive another minute, and twice at walmart parking lots. Over the 40 hours of driving, we slept a total of about 6-8 hours. Just enough to keep us going each time. The girls slept off and on along the way, as they needed it. They considered it all more of an adventure then anything else. They enjoyed the Tim Horton’s coffee shop stops, and a treat here and there along the way. They understood we couldn’t stop for too long in any one place since we had to get to the new homestead as quick as possible to get all our animals out of the suv, and so we could get things set up for the horses before they arrived!

Finally… we were about 45 minutes from our new home and suddenly one of the tires on Graydon’s trailer blew. The tire was completely shred by the fender, and the fender flew off, and landed almost directly in front of me as I followed behind him. We barely missed being hit by the flying fender & shred rubber! Amazingly, Graydon was able to pull over safely.

We had JUST driven through a small town that Graydon knew had a tire shop. He unhooked the trailer in the nearest driveway, was greeted by the owner of that home and told to help himself to any tools from their garage if he needed them. He made the quick trip back to where we had just come from, and came back within about 25 minutes with a new tire. In the meantime the girls and I let the dogs out for another walk. Graydon put the new tire onto the trailer, and we were on our way once again!

Fourty five minutes later, we were finally pulling into our new home. The home we expected we’d spend the next two years, possibly the next fourty two years. We had no desire to move again. If this homestead could work for us, we’d stay, forever if we could. We felt like we had finally arrived. Finally arrived home.

Little did we know, we were still a long way from home.

Our Long Way Home – Part 4

This post is Part 4 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1 – 3, here: 
http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/
 

Our Long Way Home – Part 4

Sunday morning Graydon (dh), Julia (12), and Elsa (14) headed out to church. By this time, there was still SO much cleaning left to do, and I was SO emotionally, and physically spent, that I honestly couldn’t even handle the thought of any more good bye’s after church. I had said goodbye to those closest to us the day before, when they had been by to help clean, and they had said they would understand if I couldn’t make it to church the following day. Shaylah felt the same as me, and stayed home to help continue with the cleaning.

Graydon, on the other hand, had been away from our church for months and it was a great time for him to get to see everyone before we left the Island. They had a real nice potluck lunch afterward.

We tried hard to get things done before we had to leave a little later that afternoon. The list of what still needed to be done seemed ENDLESS and completely daunting! Graydon and the girls came home and we all continued to work. Graydon still had lots to do, and time just kept on ticking away! We finally finished loading all the last of our belongings into the two trailers each of us would tow the 2000 km to the prairies.

Our plan was to catch the 5:00 ferry, but it was quickly becoming clear that it just wasn’t going to happen. Our pastor and his wife showed up mid afternoon, and jumped in to help with the last of the cleaning. We were so thankful for the extra hands, and their thoughtfulness.

Finally, we loaded up our 2 cats, 2 birds, and 4 dogs into my suv at about 5:00 and we pulled out of the driveway. Graydon and one of the girls in his truck with his work trailer behind him, me in my suv with the other two girls and a large uhaul behind me.

Have I mentioned I’ve never towed a large trailer before? Great time for a first time right?

Just before we pulled out, Graydon had hooked up the trailer so I could drive it and practice backing up and turning at the dead end down the road. I felt fairly confident that I’d do ok, and we were off!

We made a quick pit stop to one of our neighbours who we hadn’t had the chance to say goodbye to yet. Chatted for a bit, and then were on our way!

We made it in time to catch the 8:15 ferry. Later then we expected, but at least we made it!

On the ferry we took turns staying with vehicles & pets, and wandering around.

Goodbye west coast. It’s prairies, or bust, from here.

Our Long Way Home – Part 2

This post is Part 2 of Our Long Way Home.
You can find the prologue, and Part 1, here:
http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/category/our-long-way-home/
 

Our Long Way Home – Part 2

The horse mover was to show up Friday around dinner, after the house movers should be gone. In my hopes of preventing any issues with our five horses loading, I had booked a trailer to come at least a week beforehand so we could ‘practice’ with the horses. The guy who delivered our hay each month was very experienced with loading horses and was going to give us lessons with his trailer, and our horses. One of our horses had never been in a trailer before, since she was born on our hobby farm after we had rescued her mother. Two had only been on a trailer a couple of times, when we rescued them. My mare didn’t like trailers a whole lot, so this left us with only one ‘easy’ loader.

Some how the training session for loading the horses never happened. My calls to book the definite time were never returned, until called the day the horses were to be picked up.

By then, it was little too late.

We had also been having issues with the horse mover herself. I had booked her months ahead, tentatively, because once my husband had headed for permanent work to the prairies, we knew we were all going to be following along at some point, hopefully soon. Immediately when I had a definite moving date, I made a solid booking for the move with the horse mover. Since we were moving five horses, it was a full trailer and there would be no need for her to find other horses to fill the trailer to make the trip worth while. I thought we were good to go!

However, about a week before we were to leave, I received a phone call from the horse mover saying she had another job to do, moving 15 horses from the US. Was there any way we could move our horses earlier, so she’d have time to get to the US before it was too late.

Hmmm… no. Seeing as we were heading to a rental property, that had the land for the horses, but not the fences, we’d need that bit of time we had already booked ahead to get the horse fencing up before the horses arrived. It had all been planned, for weeks! We even had the post pounder booked, and the fencing and posts dropped off at the rental property awaiting our arrival. It seemed one thing after another that we had tried to be diligent about, kept unraveling, out of our hands.

She promised to figure some thing out, but pretty much told us we had no choice, she would be moving those 15 horses, and our horses would be sent somewhere in between and we’d just have to trust they would be fine. I wasn’t too happy about this, since I had NO idea where our horses were being sent, but seeing as we had no other way to get our horses half way across the country, we didn’t really have any choice in the matter.

Friday at about dinner time, 30 minutes before she was to show up, right as I was heading to the barn to give the horses their herbal ‘meds’ used to calm them down before loading, she called to say she wouldn’t be there for several hours yet. I know things happen, but this meant she may not arrive until after dark. We hoped, and prayed, that she would some how get there before the sun went down. Our property didn’t have a whole lot of light after dark. Country roads don’t have street lights. Loading inexperienced horses in the dark was not something I was looking forward to, not to mention I felt it was dangerous. I shared my concerns, but again, my hands were tied and there was nothing I could say or do to move things along any quicker. We just had to wait.

Finally she arrived, thankfully before it was dark.

We put Bandit, Joshua’s horse in first. We knew he was an easy loader, and hoped his calm manner would make it easier for the next four horses. Raiah, my mare, loaded up fairly well with a little prodding, into the stall next to Bandit. Then came Nikki, Julia’s pony. She loaded up into the trailer alright, but then wouldn’t’ back up into her stall. Finally, after about 20 minutes of prodding and trying everything from bribery with food, to pushing, she was in.

Next came Mina, Alesia’s mare. The mama of our baby. She would NOT back up for NOTHING into her stall. Finally, we completely opened up the back of the trailer and walked her through another way and after about another 20 minutes she was finally in. Then, came the baby, Lacey. The only one who had never been loaded in her life. She had spent her 4 years of living on our small hobby farm without any knowledge there was more to this world then her little corner of it.

Lacey would NOT, for ANYTHING, put a hoof up onto that metal ramp to get into the trailer. We had saved the largest open ‘box’ stall for her, to make it easy. All she had to do was get into that big box stall, through the great big door in the middle of the trailer, and she’d be in, and they’d all be good to go.

She wasn’t having NONE of it! To her, that clinky, clangy, metal ramp that she had to set her hooves onto to get into that trailer was some sort of a death trap. Even though her mama was up inside the trailer already, and you could just SEE she wanted to be in there with her, she could NOT figure out how to get into that trailer without setting food onto that death trap of a ramp, to get to her mama!

She was SO upset! We tried everything! Bribing with feed, showing her hay, putting a second rope around her rump and pulling, tapping her rump with a whip (gently of course), nothing would convince her to set even one hoof onto that ramp. We were limited as to what we, her owners, could do to help because the horse mover would not allow us to get into, or too near, the trailer. For liability reasons I’m sure, but it made us feel awfully helpless through the whole process.

Finally, Lacey, in wisdom that only Lacey could ever come up with, gave a little buck, and a kick, and LEPT right up over that ramp, and into the trailer! It was like nothing else I had ever seen before.

She made it! She was finally with her mama, and she did it on her own terms without ever touching the ‘death trap’ ramp that she was so afraid of! They were all loaded up and ready to go just as the sky became completely dark. They had been loaded just in time.

Then we loaded up our tack, well… some of it, because although the horse mover had assured me several times beforehand that she could move ALL the horses AND their tack too, suddenly she had no room because of this extra trip she was making to the US. It was becoming more and more frustrating. What could we do with our tack now?! We had no extra room! By this time the house movers were already gone, our own two trailers were already completely full, and we had NO where else to fit saddles, hay and feed. She had even said she could move our hay since we’d need some for the trip, and as soon as the horses arrived, and now we had JUST bought extra hay specifically for THIS trip, that would now have to be left behind. It was very frustrating! On top of everything else we had to do, now we had to figure out how to move the rest of our tack etc. and we’d have to give our hay away. With all the extra expenses we were already incurring with the house, we did NOT have ANY extra to be spending/wasting!

Our Long Way Home – Part 1

The prologue to Our Long Way Home can be found here: 
http://homesteademporium.wordpress.com/2012/05/28/our-long-way-home-prologue/

Our Long Way Home – Part 1

It had been a long and hard fifteen months. During twelve of those months, our family had been split apart with Graydon (dh) living and working first in northern Alberta on the Oil Sands, and then on the Prairies in Saskatchewan, working as an engineer. The rest of us, myself and the five kids, back on the Island doing our best to fill in the void left by Graydon/Dad being away while still keeping up with kids jobs, caring for the homestead, my own full time business, and the younger three girls homeschooling and care.

Our family had grown very weary of this lifestyle. This was not the way we planned to live our lives. We had always done everything together, worked together, schooled together, lived together, worked hard to build our small homestead together. Our children were growing up right before my eyes, and away from their father’s eyes. To be split apart, with the head of the home thousands of miles away, just didn’t seem right and we felt it was time to put an end to it. We had seen Dad/dh just twice since the summer, each time only for a few whirlwind days. Time always flew much too quickly, and then he was gone again.

About the first week of March we made the decision to make the move, to just get it done and get our family back together under one roof. Well, most of our family. Our eldest daughter Alesia, who was now 20.5 years old, would be moving to Ontario in the spring to be a Nanny for relatives. The rest of the family however, would be moving to be with Graydon in the prairies, all under one roof. Our son Joshua had already secured an apprentice position with John Deere in the same town Graydon was living and working in. And now, Graydon’s income tax return could be enough to move our household belongings, and almost enough to cover our own gas, etc.. We decided we’d have to work hard to come up with funds for any extra costs we’d incur to make the move. We just couldn’t go on like this any longer. We needed to make the move now.

Finally!

We had a 2 week time frame. In just a few short weeks, Graydon would have just enough time off, to get back to the Island, help us pack up anything that still needed packing, and move our family and homestead to the prairies, before he had to be back to work again.

At the same time, we finally found a rental home that seemed to suite our family’s needs, and our homesteads needs too. We had horses and other animals to move across the country. It wasn’t as simple as finding a home in town, we needed an acreage. When we found one for rent, we jumped on it. It had been the first, and only acreage, we’d seen come up for rent since Graydon had moved out there in July. He viewed it, spoke with the landlord who suggested we may like to buy it after we lease it for two years, and we said we’d consider this option if all worked out.

It seemed things were falling into place and we’d be on our way home.

However, first we had to take our current home off the real-estate market and find someone to care for it and deal with renting it out. We had tried for years to sell it, and decided that instead of giving it away by dropping the price still lower and lower (we were already almost 100,000.00 under appraisal price) in this bad market, we’d rent it out instead. This wasn’t so easy however. Every rental agency we contacted said they only dealt with city properties and our 5 acre hobby farm was too far out of their way. This befuddled us. Our home was exactly 12 minutes from the city. How could this be ‘too’ far?

Finally, we found a rental agency willing to work with us, but now the hard work (not to mention all the extra cost we never realized!) had to take place. The property, the cabin, the shop, and the main home all had to look ‘perfect’. New carpet was ordered for the top floor of the main home and the stairway. Appliances had to be purchased for the cabin. We had used it for my business, but now it would become a rental and needed to be ready to rent. No excuses, things needed to get done, or it wouldn’t rent out, and we needed it to rent out. We were working on a very tight budget.

We got to work, did what needed to be done and cringed while we hired others to do the very few things we couldn’t do ourselves in the short 10 days we had to work with. We hired a painter we knew personally, since we had so little time to work with. We removed the large built in bunk bed from the girls room, and ripped up the old carpet in preparation for the new carpet ourselves. We removed the closet doors, and anything and everything else that needed doing was done, or on it’s way to being done.

The entire house, cabin, shop, and barn were packed up in short order. The movers were scheduled to pick up our belongings 3 days before we moved, just a week after Graydon arrived. I booked them to arrive on Friday the 13^th of April, so that they could get to our rental home on the prairies shortly after we would get there, on the following Tuesday. I specifically arranged it this way because originally, we were going to have them pick up on the Sunday, the same day we would leave, but the movers said there was no way they could get there as fast as us. We had to give them some extra time, so we worked around it.

In the meantime, we arranged to sleep in an RV from friends for the last few nights. Our belongings would be gone, except for what we could fit into our vehicles, and the two trailers we would tow behind each of our vehicles along the way.

Name that feathered friend.

Anyone who knows me, knows I love snapping photos, and I love creatures. Birds are a favorite, because of the vast differences between them all! I love the intricacies found in them, like flowers.

Since arriving in the prairies here in Saskatchewan, whenever possible I’ve been trying to capture as many photos of the different birds as I can, so I thought I’d share a few photos with you and see if some of you might know their names.

This pretty creature I’ve never seen before, and have no idea what it’s called. It’s orange-ish with gorgeous black markings on the eyes.

This one I’m not sure of either. There are definitely many birds here that I’ve not seen in British Columbia. I need to find where I’ve put our bird books and start looking them up!

LOVE the bright blue head on this little thing.

I’m quite sure most know the name of the bird above.

And believe it or not, it took me a while to remember the name of this black bird with the red wings…

lol

Can you guess what the black bird with the red wings name is?

Then there’s this one. I need a better, closer photo, of this bird. This was in our back field so I see them quite regularly and will try my best at snapping a closer photo soon. Do you know what it is?

As I’ve mentioned in a previous post, this area has MANY bird species of all kinds. I look forward to spending many years capturing photos of as many as I possibly can!

Do you like to bird watch? What’s your favorites? Have any photos you’d like to share with us?

I spent an hour with my camera outside last night, in my backyard.

I spent an hour with my camera outside last night. I snapped a few photos.

Just 215. That’s all.

The amazing part about that though? I snapped 215 photos all in one small area of my new backyard.

As I stood there looking through the camera lens, scanning all around me in search of the next shot, I would constantly pause and listen to the hustle and bustle of busyness all around me.

It was amazing.

I stood there wishing I had brought along my phone too, so I could record not only ALL that I saw, but ALL that I heard too, so I could share it with all of you.

I have the sights in photos, but the sounds were equally amazing.

The largest of the ponds on our rental property here was the busiest.

There were coot’s.

And beavers. There’s always beavers.
The beavers here have been very busy trying their best to destroy the entire windbreak of trees at the back of the property. If you think beavers are cute, I’ll agree, but they aren’t so nice to farm land. They flood everything, and kill lots of tree lines.

And there’s geese here. Lots and lots of geese, and lots of evidence of geese.
(I think I need to invest in some new rubber boots…) 

And all sorts of other birds. Red winged black birds, black birds with yellow that I haven’t named yet, geese, ducks, wild canaries, finches, you name it, this area has it!

The area which we live in is an “international bird area”. From the website linked:

With over 300 species, one day counts of over 300,000, and over one million birds annually, it’s no surprise that the Quill Lakes region is Canada’s most nationally and internationally recognized bird Areas. 

This area is amazing. Have I mentioned we have some bird lovers in our family?

And through it all, the sun was doing it’s thing.

In all it’s usual glory.

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!