Bushel And A Peck

Sunshine, evidence of brighter days to come, offering breaths of new life to all things it envelopes including the winter weary body, between the cold, leering reminders of winter, we found and enjoyed the reassurances of the coming summer with the beautiful sunny days of earlier this week. The rain streaming down the windows as I type this update have me questioning it's whereabouts, but never the less our seasons are yet another one of God's promises to us and Lord willing it will be here (and gone for that matter) before we know it.

On one such sunny day earlier in the week the girls and I struck out to enjoy some time in our yard. This simple pleasure is all new to Bethany as the ground has just dried up enough, and she is only just becoming mobile enough, to enjoy some mini adventures on the grass. As Grace and I conjured up new ways of entertaining ourselves, we watched Bethany as she moved like a spider, first standing very still until a target caught her eye and then darting towards it, when Grace caught sight of her Soccer ball that had rolled under the fence and into the pasture field below our house, which is still a springtime muck hole. Deciding a game of soccer might be fun, I informed her that she would have to retrieve the ball herself since she was the only one of us wearing rubber boots and after a hearty pep talk concerning the electric fence she shimmied under the wire, stood up by the ball, and sank. Standing there on the grass in my sandals I watched Grace struggle to free her bogged rubber boots when from the corner of my eye a wiry haired creature on a mission raced into view then attempted to slither it's way under the fence to her big sister. Grabbing Bethany and coaching Grace on how to extract herself from the muck, it occurred to me that I would have to hove in and rescue her. With a quick "just let me get my boots and I'll be right back", I raced Bethany to the farthest reaches of the yard with the presumption that it would take her at least long enough for me to grab my boots before she reached the fence again. Hearing a frantic "Mom! The cows are coming!" I looked back to see Grace staring wide eyed as the cattle took interest in their visitor and surrounding her in a semi circle of bemusement stood chewing their cuds, and staring back. I yelled "don't panic, just wave your arms if they come too close", ran into the house, grabbed my boots, packed Beth back up into the yard and raced back to Grace. Heaving myself under the fence I grabbed Grace under the arms in attempts to hoist her out of the mud before our inquisitive critter returned, not able to budge Grace, I glanced over my shoulder to see that our great explorer had in deed returned and was shimmying backwards down over the hill and under the fence towards us, and the mud. Once again leaving Grace in the mud, clutching her soccer ball, surrounded by her onlookers, I scrambled under the fence to reposition Beth. Then, back under the fence, I hoisted Grace out of her boots and set her, sock feet, in the muck while I pried her boots loose. As I helped Grace jam her soggy feet back into her boots, drag herself and her ball back under the fence and up the hill, I examined the yard for Bethany's whereabouts, to find her climbing the deck stairs. Then I sank. Standing helplessly with my own boots submerged in the mucky mire, watching Bethany happily gurgle her way to the top of the rail less deck, I hollered at Grace to run and keep Beth on the deck while I freed myself. In the end I managed to unstick myself a bit easier then Grace (thankfully as I would have been quite a lift for her) and swept up the hill just in time to grab our little explorer as she casually walked off the side of the deck, into my arms, and on to her next big adventure.

This past weekend Mom and I packed up the girls and drove the 3.5 hours to Truro for a Horse Expo and to visit with some relatives for a few days. After enduring the conventional "are we there yet?" for the last 1.5 hours of the trip we arrived at our hotel, denoted by Grace's exclamation as to "who is that giant chocolaty man!?" upon her viewing the fifty foot high bronzed statue of a Native sporting feathers and a loin cloth in the hotels parking lot. As I often do in these places, I momentarily considered my lack of understanding for the theory behind Tourist Attractions and their fixation for the size of their token characters. As giant, personified Potatos, Blueberries, Ears of Corn and Whicker Baskets drifted inconsequentially through my mind, it occurred to me that I was thrilled to see that "Giant Chocolaty Man" standing before me in a skirt that could redden the cheeks of even the least reputable of ladies, indicating that we'd made it, and that if he were only a "Tiny Chocolaty Man" he'd be much less novel.

The girls enjoyed a swim in the pool while Mom and I dodged the tidal waves caused by exuberant water slide users and treaded in the midst of frenzied chaos, as what seemed like hundreds of screeching animals (not unlike monkeys) had their aquatic fun. The hotel was filled due to several large events happening in the city and because the walls were possibly constructed by some sort of paper product, we could, and did, hear everything. While thankfully the neighbours television did not stop the girls from sleeping as it blared into the wee hours, the Microwave in our room did wake Grace when it malfunctioned and began beeping persistently until I turned on the lights to find and unplug the cord. Finally all snuggled in bed again around 3:30am, we heard the television next door go silent and momentarily gave thanks that we may have some uninterrupted sleep, when a great bellow emerged from their room, and was apparently a declaration of the domestic dispute which would ensue until almost 5:00am. Not wanting to wake Bethany who was sleeping next to the rooms phone, by reporting the incident to front desk, and too scared to leave the girls alone and walk there, we lay in bed listening to the confrontation and hoped someone else would hear and report the incident. Finally the male participant left in a fury of profanity and all was silent. After reporting the issue in the morning, the following night passed uneventfully but for the hysterical giggles coming from the, now best of friends, next door and left me to ponder how exhausting a relationship like this must be.

We spent the next day enjoying the Horse Expo and then spent the afternoon at the beautiful walking park in Town where Grace and I climbed what is called Jacobs Ladder which consists of over 100 stairs leading to a trail above which takes you over a beautiful waterfall. We made it all the way to the top and halfway down before Grace declared her legs like Jello and had to then take several breaks on the final steps. While we were there we met 3 inspiring people who ran Jacobs ladder 10 times and then one of the ladies ran the remainder of the parks trails including many more flights of stairs, steep inclines, and left us winded behind her, huffing our way to the Falls and dubbing her the Bionic Woman.

JACOBS LADDER

GRACE AND NANNY B. AT THE FALLS

Overall our weekend was both long overdue and absolutely wonderful, with many laughs shared and quality time spent.

While we were away Jamie had a surprise born in the barn, a young heifer whom we had turned out with the bull just last week, calved. While we declared our new bull "a keeper" for producing offspring so quickly, it seemed she was somehow bred without our knowing, and obviously much too young. However, she produced a nice big calf and both Mamma and baby are doing great. We also had a mature cow calve while we were away and has refused to claim it, Jamie has been tying the Cow twice a day to feed the calf, but the Mamma is miserable to deal with and continues to refuse the calf while shoving Jamie around and even crashing through gates. It is looking like this little one may have to be fed on Milk Replacer, which is less then desirable but can be the best solution when someone (Jamie or the calf) could get, and has already gotten, hurt.