CO Scare

Yesterday as I was testing out my dehydrator making apples and pears, I had a box of pears I got from a preschool fundraiser and wanted to make some jam but there was a lot and so I also canned some.  The vanilla pear jam soooo good! 

But since all burners and plugs were used (not quite but it seemed like it) I cooked us burritos in the oven, nothing I haven't done before.  But before lunch was over the fire alarm went off.  Well the microwave above he stove quit so that meant I had so exhaust fan either and I figured that's what it was.  Well turns out no.  It sounded weird so we listed and she was saying carbon monoxide warning.  Not good.  Well I guess you are supposed to turn off all gas powered appliances and let it cool and then test again.  Well lunch was almost done and the canning was done so off went the stove and oven and we opened the doors even though it was -22*C outside and we turned off the furnace.  The alarms went off and never went again so we guess it was good this time.  I turned back on the furnace and left the doors open a bit to circulate some air.

Then off to google I went to see what I could find.  Turns out all gas ovens vent into the house they say it is a safe level.  I noticed last couple times the fire alarm went off it was when the oven was above 400, below that it never bothered.  I think its a mix of the oven needing cleaning and no exhaust fan and Neil was in town and he said something to the electric guy and he said they go off a lot when its this cold out.  Makes sense we are not going in and out very much and its pretty sealed up inside.  So I guess as soon as it gets a bit warmer so I can leave the door/window open I will clean the oven, the second sounds nice.  And we have a new microwave with exhaust fan that I bought of a buy/sell group and we should put that in before I do much more cooking.  I was thinking I haven't had a microwave in a month I didn't need it.  But I guess I need the fan.  And I want popcorn lol.

Merry Christmas

We spent the 23rd in Medicine Hat at a funeral for a good friend,  She will be missed.  Cancer sucks.  But she is in a better place now and we will all see her again one day.  While we ere there we finished up our Christmas shopping and then had supper and headed home. 

Sunday we were on our way to Olds after Neil finished chores.  But first our neighbors come and we had coffee and Baileys with them, must have Baileys in all coffee at Christmas time ;)  Then the waterers were frozen so it actually worked well cause they were thawed by the time the neighbors left.  So we packed the truck and off we went.

(Jaret modeling his snowman glasses)

(Tristan modelling Santa glasses)

(Neil and his farmer shirts he loves)

(the sign I made for Jaret)

(Heidi so excited for her new camera)

(Tristan got a Denny's cup, best gift ever for him lol)

(my mom with her anchor socks, she LOVES anchors)

(Neil looking at a gift)

(my Aunt Shirley studying her gift)

(my mom and her knitting bowl)

(Neil with more presents)

(Heidi opening a birthday gift from my aunt, its an unfinished scarf lol)

Was a good day , we opened presents and ate and got stockings and visited and lots of laughing occurred.  I had most of my shopping done early and I really liked that it saved a lot of stress except what shoulda been easy was hard, t-shirts for a teenager, well last place we stopped at had the best ones and they were cheap!  We shoulda gone there first. 

(Cheyanne was pooped)

(Rupert not a fan of the noise)

(me and Neil by the tree)

(aunty Shirley)

(Tristan and Jaret)

(Tristan and Heidi and Jaret)

(my mom and Clint and Cheyenne)

(haha me in my model pose by the tree)

All in all a good day, I took a lot of pics, will share a few here.  Then on the way home we stopped to take pics at the John Deere and Case dealerships who always decorate some farm equipment its pretty cool. 

And then got home at 11 and it was -33*C brrr.  Good thing it warmed up a bit today lol -16*C but still too cold to go for a ride even if it was the first Christmas in my life I coulda.

Life and Christmas

Well I guess I'm here to post again, have been around reading blogs but not a lot to post about here.  I haven't rode in 6 weeks, probly the longest ever since I got a horse back in 2004.  Not sure I like it even though everyone says its good to take a break and its so icy out its pretty well impossible to ride unless I jump on bareback in the field they live in but I don't wanna do that and have 7 loose horses around.  I did get the farrier out to do their feet, hes pretty sure hes not gonna do Jess and Nita's feet next summer when they have foals on them so he plans on coming in late may for their last trim.  I think I can convince him to do them after that in July or August anyways.   Both are pretty good, we will see how they are then, I guess no use worrying about it now.  He also thinks I should breed Nita to his cowhorse/ranch stud.  I'm not sure, I either breed her back or I ride her and maybe sell her not sure which I should do yet.

(Nita is looking good still, I was a little worried about her)

(Jax is just so cute!)

(Rayne looks so big next to Jax lol)

(Happy herd, and glad way more snow has gone than this)

We had the craft sale, it was really bad, I sold $125 worth of stuff, less than half of what I usually sell (which is closer to about 300)  Because the lady in charge of advertising just didn't.  She was supposed to get posters up to all the mailboxes and call in for free advertising on the radio and she did nothing so no-one came besides the people selling and a few others.  So I don't think I will go next year and have started a Facebook group for selling my stuff, been looking around at a few other craft sales that only sell homemade stuff and there is a couple not too far I may try for next year.

(sunrise morning of the craft fair)

I went to a craft night where they were making Grinch trees.  What a fun thing to do :)  I love mine and when I got home I put on the battery lights and its even better :)

Otherwise just getting ready for Christmas, we are going to Olds for Christmas Eve and spending the day with my Mom.  I dunno what else but at least we got that much planned.  I have almost all the gifts done, tried to finish tonight on our way when we went to see the Holiday Train, which was super cool!

Neil is going next week I'm gonna send him with my last 3 items to get, hes trying to get me to go but I'm not sure I wanna.