I didn't always know that you can neither "lead" a cow to water nor make it drink, and that you in fact had to "herd" it there, I hadn't always appreciated that something so seemingly (and typically) pleasant, almost dimwitted at times, could if the circumstances warrant, in an instant cause you to leap tall buildings in a single bound. Or at least the nearest gate. I had never found cause to purchase a calander which discussed reproductive organs or how prolific a particular herd sire is, nor did we discuss such matters around the dinner table. I was a horse person, I knew horses, I knew that you could "lead" a horse to water but you couldn't make it drink", I understood that a horse could be pushed too far, and had invested a great deal of energy (and skin and tears for that matter), learning the signs. As for the reproductive practices of equines, well, lets just say, we chatted about other things over dinner.

When I met Jamie (my husband of almost 9yrs now) I was an aspiring horse trainer and show woman, I invested most waking hours into learning, working with or reading about horses, they both consumed and defined me. Being a horseperson I thought I was an animal person in general, and so I was (and still am) in the warm and fuzzy sense of the word. I love animals, but when it came to actually knowing anything about anything to do with cattle, well my ego filled bubble popped pretty quick. Anyone married to a farmer knows what it is like to actually date one, romantic walks to check and repair fences, dimmly lit evenings spent bedding and feeding cattle or snuggled up in a tractor cab and watching a plough turn the earth red (crammed up with a Charlie Horse/snuggled up, it's probably a relative opinion). Of course there were the occasional evenings when we planned to go out, and some actually worked out to be wonderful time spent together. Often though it would turn out to be the same evening that a cow would have a calf hiplock or a newborn that wouldn't suck or one (or several for that matter) of the various machines necessary to run a farm would break. I didn't always "get it", to say that it didn't frusterate me from time to time would be a lie, but usually even the nights that just didn't work out, worked out.

Jamie has the patience of Job, well to be honest there are times when I am not sure that it is patience or a strange and twisted sense of humour. There was (and still is on occasion) the typical pranks like when he waited until I was fixing some part of the electric fence and then turned it on and waited until I screamed in electrocuted hysteria. I truely questioned his sense of humour when he suggested I drive our prehistoric, fossilized dump truck to the field for him. As I gulped and resigned myself to climb up and not let on how terrified I was, Jamie reminded me of the fact that both the power steering and brakes were'nt working. Encouraged by the fact that the doorlatch at least worked I turned the key and proceeded ever so cautiously to pull away from the blocking that kept the truck from rolling down our barnyard hill. The truck stalled. For a split second I thought "no biggy, it'll just roll back to the blocking and stop".....Unfortunately gravity and momentum had taken over and I plummeted backwards down the hill frantically trying to start it, ram it into gear, or something. As I looked up in utter horror, I can still see, the typically laid back and never phazed Jamie, standing on the road watching, slapping his hand on his thigh, head thrown back, and laughing. It was so funny in fact that he was still laughing when I crashed through the pasture gate, and I am sure he was still laughing as I gracefully slammed into the V-Plough that was parked just beyond it. I don't swear, I never swear, I swore, one awkward but fierce word I'll not share and refused to get back in the fossilized piece of prehistoric Dinosaur Poo. Jamie, who had gained his typical laid back composure simply looked down at me and calmly said "Get back in the truck Mag, we gotta get to the field". There was always some sort of excitement such as the time the beaters on our giant manure truck plugged and seized. Jamie tied a towrope from it to our 3/4 ton truck and told me to "hit it" the immediate sound of glass smashing gave me temporary heart failure as I was momentarily sure that my right ear had been removed by the hook which had come undone and crashed through the back window whizzing by my head.

Today is a snowday, a reflective day, one of those days that memories of my earlier times as a farmer and as Jamie's partner in crime, rang to mind and made me smile. There are countless more, perhaps on another snowday there'll be more to share.

Yes, today was a snow day, a day that the farm seemingly stands still and yet becomes busier all at once. Typically in a snowday just the everyday things take double time, which tends to make it busier in itself. Then ad the snow removal of several driveways, the barnyards etc. and Jamie's day is in before it gets started. Today he managed to complete the repairs on our grain mill which he has been working on most of the week. I am sure this made all our cows smile as they have been going without since it seized up on him, this also doesn't do anything in terms of adding weight to our Fat Cattle, and of course where there is no weight there is no profit, so all in all a great job to have done.
The girls and I hybranated indoors today, I did get out for a walk in the morning, it was absalutely beautiful and I managed to slip, slide, and army crawl a full 3kms before succoming to the ice and repeating the motions to get home. Even poor Max slipped and fell a couple of times. When I got in Jamie had the woodstove cozily keeping the house warm, and as I got breakfast I was quite pleased that he did not have to rush out to the barn today. With the bale grazing we have been doing he fed extra yesterday, so there wasn't a rush to get out to feed. Family moments can be precious little at times, although he works very hard to make time for us, in any event the girls were extatic to have him in and Grace kept him busy reading books, which inadvertantly switched to bordom, which consequently lead to wrestling and finally to Grace yelling at me to "make Daddy quit pulling my beard" and Jamie screaming the same until I just wished the snow would quit.

GRACE, APPARENTLY ORDERING AN IPHONE

MY ASSITANT CHEF

HELPING MAKE OUR BREAD A FEW DAYS AGO, ONE OF HER FAVORITE THINGS

After Jamie went out, Grace and I entertained each other while Bethany slept, Grace played a few video games on the Nick Jr. website and then called me over because she was having trouble applying for an Iphone. Apparently she followed some pop-up she shouldn't have....I'll be paying closer attention:-) Together we made a Roast Beef Dinner with all the trimmings. Grace loves to cook and takes part in most everything we make from meals to baking. We had a drop in guest over lunch, a neighbour whom we had not yet met and is going to help us decrease our Coyote population. Finally after lunch I cried Uncle and called in back-up to entertain Grace, by way of her friend and Jamie's cousin Courtney who is 8, together they did some crafting and set up forts in our living room. All this in theory seemed like a great idea except that both Bethany and Max kept crashing the party and tearing down the forts. At one point the girls were apparently playing Dr. and Patient, and while Courtney was "operating" on Grace, Grace pipes up and says, hey Court? Do you notice how I don't have any hair on my legs? Courtney says "yeah Grace why"? To which Grace matter of factly replies "Yeah, it's because I use the No No Hair Remover by Radiance".

It's now just after 10:00pm and the house is finally quiet, Max is asleep by the woodstove and everyone else is snuggled in bed, I'm signing off now and anxious to get to get to sleep, Grace asked Jamie and I if we would meet her in Dreamland and take her Trout Fishing.

LITTERMATES MAKING NEW FUN WITH AN OLD TOY

PASTA CRAFTS!!!

TODAYS TREAT, RECIPE IS BELOW!

GLORIFIED ROCKY ROADS

1KG Milk Chocolate Chips
3 tbsp butter
1 Box of White Bakers Chocolate Squares
3/4 bag of White Mini Marshmellows
1 cup Almonds
3/4 bag of Teddy Grahams ( you can also break up any Digestive Cookies)

Melt Butter and Chocolate over low heat, crush the white chocolate and Teddy Grahams into chunks, mix White Chocolate, Teddy Grahams, Marshmellows and Almonds into Melted Chocolate and let cool for a couple hourse in fridge.  These also freeze beautifully.