Day 347 - purging Good Friday

Day 347 found Shaina off early heading to Sunshine picking up Yanni and boarding for the day. The rest of us slept in till 10 am! Wait, Britt was closer to noon! Then it was purging for me. Sheldon made a hot brunch and then took horses a bale and Diego on a harrow quad run. Then it was back to napping for him. Britt got up and washed pots and pans.

Afternoon was spent cleaning and sorting and updating the blog. Britt rode Bird at 3 and fed her and Julio before we boogied off to the city just in time to do some returns at HomeSense before stopping at Chinook mall to pickup Shaina. It was then off to the Saddledome for the last regular season game for the Calgary roughnecks lacrosse with a quick drive thru to A&W for supper.

What a great game, ended up 15 to 14!

Day 346 - chimney sweeping bird

Day 346 went from snow covered cool wake up to sunny warm and green grass afternoon to a few gusts of snow blowing thru in the evening!

here is the morning view. Off to get Britt to school and work. After work I headed home and heard a distinct noise of a bird in the fireplace so once Sheldon got home he set out to capture

 can you see it in there?

 here is a better shot, this is one black bird, we call him sweeper as he cleaned all soot out of the chimney which we wisely cleaned up before releasing him into the bottom

 the series of shots not going into the bag as planned but rather flying at the windows

but soon enough he was captured and released into the sun filled day. Britt fed the horses while I continued to clean and sort and purge items via FB garage sale. Supper and then I took Britt to Hannah's for the evening. The Paetz family came here for a visit and pool tourney. Shaina drove home yet again thru a foggy snow filled night not getting home till 10. Everyone headed home and I went to pick up Britt at midnight!

 Asher tells Shaina a story

Day 345 - storm rolls in

Day 345 found the girls heading off to school and me following close behind going to work. I left big dog outside this am for my 4 hours of work and he was on the deck when I got home :-)

I worked on changes to our preliminary landscape design, very exciting to think it will someday get started. I also depressed myself by going out to the storage trailer to find a few things but found 1 million boxes of "stuff". Yes we are very blessed with stuff. It is imperative I get sorting the stuff and sharing it with others via the church rummage sale in a couple weeks!

Shaina worked after school till 9 while Britt had badminton after school and caught a ride home for supper at 5:30 from Olsens. Sheldon took Diego out for a quad run/harrow.

A delicious steel head trout and quinoa supper with a healthy salad prepared by Britt was enjoyed by the 3 of us.

Today Sheldon and I each finished another bottle of our detox liquid

At about 7:30 the predicted winter storm blew in, yuck! Shaina had a slow careful drive home after work at 9:30.

Day 344 - weather changing

Day 344 started a sunny day but then the wind picked up and it got overcast. Upon going to feed Diego I found 4 large piles of dog doo in the garage. This was not the way to start my day but Britt eventually came out to help and confess that she left Julio's food out last night. Of course a huge tub of beet pulp and flax mixed with apple cider vinegar and kelp would give a dog who gets diarrhea and farts from one scrap of people food a rumbling belly the entire night. Now I was no longer angry with him but more so the darn child who not only did not feed my polo pony but caused such a "$#!%" show for Big D in the garage. I dropped Britt at school while Shaina walked dogs before heading in to class.

Coreena and I managed a walk at lunch but the wind was picking up by then. At 2:15, I enjoyed a well needed massage. Back to the ranch I let the dogs out and began to update the last 5 blog days. The girls arrived home just after me and they went out riding their horses, each a separate way to work alone on training.

Britt was working on speed issues and hoping to get her to slow down.. she came in with extreme saddle burn, Birdy has wheels and is not afraid to use them!

Shaina did long trotting and slow cantering while enjoying her ipod as seen here during a cool down portion.

Sheldon was to go donate blood then follow up with a  massage right after work but it seems he forgot his wallet so home he came, grabbed it and back in. He enjoyed his 5:30 massage then went to donate, not arriving home till 8 when he finally got to eat. The girls headed into town giving Shelby a ride too to 4-H meeting. Shaina and Kaylin went to work out after so Britt took S's laptop to enjoy while waiting. They arrived home at 9:30. Sheldon was just chatting in the last few days that how one year ago we were deciding where to stake the basement and getting plans in order to start!

Ma & Pa Kuhn made it back to Medicine Hat by 7 pm after two days hard driving from Arizona where they have been touring since end of January. Welcome Home!

Day 343 - busy start to the week

Day 343 was a beautiful 19 degree day. The girls headed off to school while I started laundry, dealing with dogs and tidying.

 early in the day these geese wanted to take over dirt pile but Coco was telling them to move on, below Diego just watched her nattering but threw in an occasional growl :-)

At 10 I was off to town grabbing a shot for Shaina and picking the girls up for a doctor appointment at 10:30. Then there was an hour of waiting and a quick actual time with Doctor M. A quick stop at work to get my yoga mat for Shaina and print her some 4-H record sheets then it was off to stock up on booze and groceries. At 12:30 I headed back to the ranch and was pleased to find Diego laying down but paying attention on the deck. First time left alone for 2 1/2 hours and he did great.

At just after 1, Kaylin dropped Asher off as she was going to attend a friends memorial in the afternoon. Sadly this young man ended his life last Thursday. He and I did laundry, went out and move the water hose reel, OK I packed him while hauling the water hose reel as he was not pleased with Diego's size. He used his fake cry when he would see him outside and inside begged to watch him out the window while signing dog! We played farm and cars and the best game.. juggling balls! disclaimer.. I was with him for the following pictures and removed from him while we played.

he was very tricky signing for cookies and then would feed them to his buddy Coco! Kaylin picked him up at 4 and off they went back to town. Britt arrived home just after on the new shortened bus ride. Shaina stayed in town to go to yoga and then boot camp not getting home till after 10. I went out to water my planters and putz around the yard then went and raked out the horse shelters. Once Sheldon got home from work he emptied the quad trailer of trash and came and shoveled up my crap piles. Britt worked with Bird and had a great "very fast" ride.

Finally at 7 we all came in for barbequed hamburgers and 4 kinds of salads. Then another 3 man/woman pool challenge played out till just after 9! Seems some of us are getting better :-)

Day 342 - April Fool's Day

Day 342 was a darn windy yet sunny Sunday. It also was a very lazy one. I was up at 9 and Sheldon after 10 but the girls may have made 11:30 or later :-) I tried to do an April fools trick but Sheldon said my smirk gave it away.. go figure!

I fed dogs and started the last of my horse blanket laundry and did some blogging. Sheldon was trying to get the ipod to work on the down stairs system and when I went to help him just after 11:30 we found ourselves not coming out until 1:30 but at that time we had a reorganized shelf and more game boxes emptied.

 I may be a bit OCD..OK allot!

Quick lunch, girls played pool then I took dogs for a long walk while Sheldon watched Nascar. It did not take long before it was just a snore fest, I'm sure he did not even see who won in the end. Later he got out ladder and took the plastic off the front alcove window then played in the dirt & manure at septic area for bit then back to the car race. The green grass is poking thru but we sure need rain!

I enjoyed some time on Pinterest.. love this place, so many ideas. I also had time to sit down and enjoy James Patterson's new book, Now You See Her. I nearly finished it in the evening.

The girls were super lazy staying downstairs doing very little other than watching TV and sitting on their phones. Shaina did go put freshly washed halters away and washed dishes. Britt set and cleared the table for a yummy supper of fish and chips with home made coleslaw and sauteed spinach.

After supper it was a good hot bath, a couple games of pool and a few TV shows.

Day 341 - busy work day

Day 341 was sunny warm perfect day for getting lots done. I was awake at 8 and once out of bed got on with a busy day. A lady was out just after 9 to pick up some DS games Britt had for sale. I began a long day of washing horse blankets giving the garage washer a work out. Sheldon got out of bed after 10 and started his day when Darren arrived with a load of what we hoped would be top dressing for the septic area. Sadly after a few loads, it was apparent it was not going to work and needed further composting to get rid of the old moldy hay. He had tired to harrow the 2 loads to no avail so he scraped them up and will take them to the pit. Darn.. compost is a lengthy process for sure. Darren did bring a ham bone for D which he was most excited to get.

I was cleaning the shed area and tried to move my composters but it seems they might have to wait until the garden boxes are built and use them in there rather than leave for the naughty horses to rummage thru. They had broke planters and squashed plants, broke pallets and heavy plastic lawn chairs. What a mess. I organized and brought good planters and rain barrels back and all the rubbish and reset the area so they would not step on more plants. Sheldon moved out the perennials from in the garage outside. As well he leveled the trench area in the small field. The day was so fantastic and warm. I trimmed up Hawk while some were riding and worked up a sweat requiring a real cold beer following. :-)

Brooke and Britt rode horses and Shaina took KD out later for conditioning. Then they went out ont he quads and went in to play pool. Yanni came out to ride with Shaina as well (she took daisy this time) and then they rode bikes and quads and played pool too. Sheldon installed poles around the well head hydrant.

 bikers return

 tramp builders... wait it still looks like that on Tuesday as I update the blog

 more laundry and quadders in the back ground

The garage got swept out and horse blanket storage tubs brought in. Britt and Brooke tidied out the horse trailer tack room and tried to set up the trampoline with no luck. Diego had quite a day with all this action and spent most of it slobbering with exhaustion.

 Britt & Brooke try out the ping pong portion of the new table

After yummy spaghetti supper Brooke's Dad picked her up. A pool tourney ensued and Shaina took off for a outdoor party just before ten but home by 12:30.