Bushel And A Peck

TIGHT QUARTERS FOR A SNUGGLE

Valentines day, Love Day, Heart Day. It started out with a special surprise, Jamie and I woke up, rolled over to face each other, and happily realised that this was the first conscious encounter we'd had with each other since the previous evening, there by denoting that Bethany had not gotten us up through the night for the first time in a couple of months. Normally a great little sleeper, she is currently bringing in all 4 of her eye teeth at once and seems to require a bit extra moral support.

So as we relished the unfamiliar feeling of being fully conscious upon getting out of bed, we continued on the mornings rituals of coffee, Jamie sitting with his bible and coffee and then on to breakfast with coffee. Until Grace, clad in Jammies and fuzzy braids came shooting out of her cave with a bag of Valentines that she'd painstakingly made with love for as many people as she could think of, and jumped on me (well more into me like a Freightliner) with a hug and a "Happy Valentines Day!" VALENTINES DAY!! I momentarily went dear in the headlights, valentines day, Grace has been counting sleeps for weeks, preparing lists of who would get her valentines, asking what kind of treats I would make for the special day, and I forgot all about it. Quickly regaining both my feet and composure I did the expected "oooohs" and "awwwws" over my beautiful card and when she asked me what I got her I told her that because of the storm I'd decided to take her to the store to pick out her own special treat. Then, Jamie and I somewhat sheepishly wished each other a Happy Valentines day and as is our custom on this world renowned day of love, apologised for the lack gifts for one another. Then Jamie left for the morning chores with one more apology that he hadn't gotten anywhere to get me flowers.

MY BEAUTIFUL VALENTINES FLOWERS

After a somewhat productive morning of housework, the girls and I set out for our Valentines day shopping. Grace has had her eye on a Webkin for ages now and I always meet her request with a "not today" so, of course, this being the first thing she picked, and I, still feeling a bit guilty, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to be "the best Mom and in the world" and told her to pick one out. Next onto the cards where she lovingly took 2 seconds and picked Jamie out a snazzy Singing Spiderman Card then asked which one I was going to get him. I gulped back a snicker and launched into the spirit of things just to find the only cards that were left were those sappy ones that make an ordinary person feel a bit nauseated just before heaving it into the trash. Here is where I really must interject with the fact that Jamie and I have an incredibly happy marriage and mean the world to one another, but the thing is, we're possibly not what one might call, conventional. Certainly not sappy. I told Grace that I thought I could draw him a more appropriate card but she insisted, so I took the least sappy card I could find. Which incidentaly crossed the somewhat fuzzy, gray line between "the sappy card no one wants to read' and the card that quite possibly "no one should read" and gave thanks for the fact that Grace didn't insist I read it to her. Then we picked him out some body soap and a new toothbrush and stuffed it all in a gift bag with our cards, we later added to this a Kit Kat bar, which is his favourite and had been in our cupboard for the last 2 weeks. Our next stop was the grocery store, still feeling the spirit of the day, I decided to surprise Jamie with a nice Scallop Stir Fry for supper. As we were checking out Grace came over to me carrying a beautiful bouquet of flowers, dropped down on one knee by front cash and asks me to be her Valentine. After thanking her for being so thoughtful and helping her to her feet with a hug, I told her to go put back the expensive flowers. Then feeling horribly guilty upon seeing her little face fall I was quickly saved by the 5.99 Grab and Go Bouquets and told her I would love it if she picked me out one from there, to which she said, "great, now I can tell Daddy "I" got them for you!"

OUR OLD DAIRY BARN (NOW A FEEDER BARN)

Coyotes have been making there presence known around the farm for the past couple of weeks and we are now seeing tracks right in our front yard. The animals around the farm go through spurts of anxiety and we can't help but assume that the coyotes are somewhere that the cattle are aware of and we aren't. Even little Max is nervous to go outside at night, so we know something must be up (or he is too lazy to leave the doorstep to relieve himself, either way it's win win for him as he just does it on the deck and runs straight back into the house) At about 3:30 a.m he needed to go out and then refused when I opened the door for him, so I shoved him out with second thoughts that I may have just created a late night snack for whatever might be out there. Max did his usual nighttime peeing on the deck routine and then must have decided he had more business to attend to as he trotted over to the steps, started down, then stopped and stared up the hill and started making a strange squeaky noise, (much like his toy poodle does when he tries to disembowel it) and shaking, just sat on the top step with his front feet on the next one down, staring. In the end he ran back to the door and scratched frantically until I got it opened and let him in.

Jamie has been doing an engine job on one of our old tractors and so his last couple of days have been spent in our little workshop with the wood stove going, tearing this tractor apart. After the -20 weather the last couple of days our water lines to the livestock froze and then busted so much of his day today was spent scooping out water and plumbing. Our snow accumulation doesn't nearly compare to last winters so things are much easier to get done, but after this last snowfall it has definitely made the going a bit tougher and put a stop to the woods work for now. Jamie was getting stuck today just in our yard trying to get the tractor back up the hill after feeding the cattle.

ENJOYING THE SUN

BULLY HEADING FOR THE SPRING FOR WATER

MY PARENTS DAIRY COW YSABELL (SHE IS STAYING WITH US FOR THE WINTER)

PICNICING IN THE SUN

Today the weather was perfect, the kind of day that you step outside take a deep breath and give thanks for the world and all it's splendour. It was also the kind of day that I couldn't help but wonder if Mother Nature may possibly be Menopausal as the temperature was reading +5 here after a frigid -22 yesterday morning. In any event the animals were thrilled to be released from their lock down as both the cattle and horses have been in the barns out of the weather for the last few days. Grace and her three cousins spent the afternoon and evening out building snow forts and sledding and I even got to "go walk about" while the girls were handy to hear if Bethany should wake up from her nap. When I got back to the house they were in the yard digging snow forts and I took a minute to appreciate the quiet, serene beauty of our little place, when it was suddenly ripped apart by blood curdling screams from out in the yard. I ran out onto the deck to see one of the girls come around the house and to my relieve looked fine, assuming that they were playing some sort of game that only the occasionally sardonic mind of a preteen might understand, I started to turn back. Then I saw Grace following behind, crying huge retching sobs and spitting mouthfuls of blood into the snow. I held her until she began trying to tell me what was wrong but all that came out was "my yips", "my yips". Apparently her poor cousin Courtney had been shovelling steps up our hill into their new fort when Grace's face got in the way, she was hit square in the mouth by the end of the shovel handle. Assuming by the blood that she must have lost teeth I got her to rinse out her mouth and upon inspection thankfully only found a tiny cut above her gum. It'll be sore no doubt but no serious damage done, amazing though how such a tiny cut can produce so much blood. Once the bleeding stopped and calm returned, Grace spent the rest of the evening making Courtney, who felt terrible as it was, trek back and forth between the fort and the house, to get her water to rinse out her mouth. We wrapped up the evening with Seven Layer Dinner, Multigrain Biscuits (which I am currently a bit obsessive about), homemade Pumpkin Pie and the girls played a game of Sardines while I cleaned up.