Wordlesss Wednesday

Summer Roundup

I have been a bad blogger this summer, so much going on and I tried to post lots but seemed as though it never happened as much as I wanted.  So here is a quick roundup of all I did this summer.

(We had the junk haulers here and they hauled away our old combine 

and a whole bunch of other steel stuff we had just cluttering 

up our bull pasture.)

(I had a bunch of flowers grown, lilies are my favorites)

(I did lots of riding, mostly on Jessie and Bailey but a few rides on Kali as well, cause

  I really wanted to sell some horses (another post altogether) 

Rode a few times at night even under the harvest moon)

(Did a bunch of touring around, both with family and Neil and by myself, the little church in Drum and the vine covered dino and the new one on the scooter, this guy made me laugh he looked at him from all directions)

(Jessie was at the trainer for a while and then we went to a show and it was much better, I did not feel defeated at the end of the show at least.)

All In All it was a pretty cool summer and even though everything I wanted to get done did not get done, I am happy with all I did.  But am so not ready for winter to come, I am already cold and don't wanna be this way for another 6 months.  This week I am up at the Supreme in Red Deer most of the week, got some pics from Monday and Tuesday but will save them for a whole post.  Pretty excited to meet up with Shirley and Sherry there too.

Tree Trimming

A couple years ago, a lady from ATCO (the power company) came out and asked it it was OK if she mark some trees that are getting close to the power lines they want to cut down.  Neil says its OK as long as they clear out all the trees on the North side of the road.  I did not want them to get rid of them all, I know they collect snow but its so hard to grow a tree in this country it just seems a shame to get rid of them all.  Well a week or so ago we wake up to trucks on our road.  I guess they finally come out to trim the trees.  Pretty cool trucks they got, the bucket can swing 65 feet away from the truck so they can get pretty much anywhere.  And the saw is run by hydraulics and super quick!  The cut quite a few trees out, although its hard to tell where cause they cut em right down to the ground.  Except the one, they cut 2 trunks off  but left the third, looked weird to me, but it is curving away from the power lines.  And I don't think they cut any of the ones Neil wanted, lol he thinks the lady was just agreeing with him to make it easier for her.

They also had wood chippers with them and they chipped up all the trees and then asked if we wanted them and so we said to dump them by the garden and we will find a use for them.  There was a lot more than we figured there would be!  But we got looking and some are pine needles and we had no pine trees so they were not just ours.  As they were leaving we asked the guy if he could cut down the one dead branch in our yard that sticks up and looks awful and he said sure it would take him no time.  And it sure did not, within 10 minutes he had cut down the dead branches and had his truck ready to go again.  We tried to pay him but he would not take our money.  Pretty nice!  And our tree looks so much better, but as he was leaving we saw another dead branch but we figured that was too much to ask and that tree is pretty close to the edge of the yard, we can maybe get the tractor in there to get to it.

We just told them to trim the tree and we would cut it up for firewood seeing as they just unloaded their trucks, but wow we did not realize how much firewood it would be!  I think we are set for the whole summer, and its dry already cause it was dead.  Cant wait to have a fire :)

A Yard and Garden Tour

So yesterday I got out my lawn mower cause I figured I had better cut the garden before the grass in there is over my eyelids so I go get the mower out and it has no gas in so I fill it up and pull it over by the step so Neil can get it going for me.  Most gas mowers/equipment I argue with the first time they get started for the year then we are OK after that.  Well I thought I will just try it once, so I primed in and on the first pull it started!  I was really shocked.  This is a mower my Mom and Clint bought me last summer at a yard sale for $30, so even more impressed.

Well that kinda sucked after all cause I have to drive across the lawn to get to the garden and can't just leave one path mowed, so I did the whole lawn too.  That took about an hour and after round-uping before that I was exhausted and it was only lunch time.

Well I had lunch and a break and figured I better get the garden done since that was the original plan.  I wasn't gonna do the lawn till next week cause it wasn't that long yet.  At least the garden only takes 20 min or so to mow.  The garden plot hasn't been worked yet and I am not sure if I am gonna plant much this year maybe just some lettuce and work on improving the rest of the dirt in there, work it up a few more times and add some manure and it hopefully will be nicer next year.  But it will be hard for me to not grow anything.  So I will see.  In the col frame I think I will fill with dirt and plant my strawberries.  I am not sure where the Blueberry, Raspberry and Blackberry will go yet.

Then I got looking around in there at how stuff is progressing and I got a look at my favorite crab apple tree, which is not close to blooming yet, it just got its leaves a couple days ago.  It seems to me that its later than last year, but I never remember.

Then I thought I would check on the two evergreens I planted last fall.  The little one is still little but it looks like its still alive.

But the bigger one I thought was dead earlier this spring but now it has some green needles growing back.

and the other mystery tree I got from Neil's Mom last spring seems to have survived as well.

And this lilac bush I hate so much cause its mostly dead and its not real nice, but I am gonna trim it up a bunch and hopefully get rid of most of the dead stuff and then we will see how it looks.

And the olive bush (I think) looks better than last year but still needs some trimming cause it catches on me as I mow.

and this poplar tree is dying and I wish I could cut the whole tree down, but Neil just want so cut the top half off, but I am pretty sure that the rest is gonna die really soon, but I guess we will cut it down then.

And the oak trees are not even close to getting leaves yet.

But the elm trees are my favorites, I like the height and the whole tree although they look weird with those lumps on them.

So I got a close up of the lumps and there are leaves coming out the ends of them.

I will get pics later this summer and see how much better they look fully leaved out.

Wordless Wednesday -- Leaves

Sunday Stills--In The Dark

This week we are taking pictures in the dark.  Kinda interesting.  I have done this before with my camera so I knew it was posssible.  But of course I forgot about the challenge till last night.  Which wasnt so bad, except it was cold out and kept trying to fog up my lens.  And the snow on the ground makes my pictures look lighter than they should.  But this is what I come up with.

Our Yard at night:

And the cool olive(?) bush:

And the calf pen where the lens started fogging up:

For more check out Sunday Stills.

Complaining (Sorry)

Well we got all weaned, and sold all the steers and half the heifers.  We only want to keep some replacements, but Neil's Dad decided to buy a few and he will run them up at Stettler next summer then sell them bred next fall.  I don't think its a good idea, but I don't have a choice in it I guess.  

We went to watch them sell in Brooks and we got there just as they were finished.  They went through a lot faster than Neil thought they would but we did pretty good on them even if we didn't get the stress of watching them sell. 

Afterwards we went shopping and I got a new office chair for my birthday.  It was a little more expensive than I thought, but Neil was determined we buy it in Brooks and only one store had any choice so that's where we got it at.

When we got home, the cows had gotten out of course cause the fence on one side is not very good, but it just goes into another field which wasn't a problem, but when they moved the cows, they left the gate open, so there were cows in the yard again.  Its no wonder I wanted a fence around the lawn, sure was glad of that when we got home.

Just put up a short video of what it sounds like around here.  I am hoping by tomorow most of the cows will have wandered away and it will be only a few stragglers left mooing in yard.  Sure liked how we did it when i worked at the ranch, we weaned the calves and moved them to another yard and the cows only hung around a day and a half maybe cause there was noone bawling back.  And the calves hardly ever made a noise cause no cows to bawl at them.  I think weaning is more stressful on the cows than the calves.

Wordless Wednesday