A look around our property :)

From beside the garage, looking West.

Looking North-West down the laneway.

From the end of the laneway, looking South towards the barn and garage.

From the end of the laneway, looking South-East towards the garage and barn. The house is  behind that big clump of trees.

Partway down the laneway, looking East.

Partway down the laneway, looking East towards the house.

Partway down the laneway, looking East towards the house and trees where the kids have their  forts.

Partway down the laneway looking South.

House from the West side.

From laneway looking South-East at the garage and garage #2.

Barn.

House from the South.

Looking North-East towards the dog pen and garden.

Looking South towards the green space on the other side of the garage.

Looking South-East.

Looking South-West at the green space on the South side of the garage.

Looking West down the green space on the south side of the garage.

Looking North from the same spot.

Looking at the house from the South-East side, by the garden.

Summer Plans.

As I sit here typing this, it is the morning of Monday June 25th, and we are on the brink of 10 weeks off of homeschooling, for summer break!!


Jade did her last math test on Friday, and all the kids had their last swim lesson for the year on Friday afternoon. We are officially DONE school until the Fall!! :) 


Last year, we decided to lightly do school through the summer. This year though, I decided we all need the break to gear up for the Fall, when the triplets will start doing Kindergarten!!


Being out on an acreage, I am enjoying spending time outside, more than I ever have in my life, aside from when we are up at the lake. I have never been an outside person, and I always wanted to spend most of my summer up at the lake, because at home I would sit around inside, wasting away the summer, feeling like there was nothing to do!


This summer, I am happy to spend time at home, and I have lots to keep me occupied outside! Between cutting the grass, tending to my garden, and playing with the kids, I never have "nothing to do" outside! We also have zoo passes and Heritage Park passes, and I would like to go to both places at least a few times over the summer. Hopefully we will be able to take a day trip to the dinosaur museum in Drumhellar, and to Calaway Park as well.


Since Gairod is still in his first year with the fire department, he doesn't get any vacation time yet. He is allowed to trade shifts though, so he is looking at getting someone to cover 4 shifts for him, probably some time in August, and then he will be able to have 12 days off in a row, and we can go up to the lake!


So we don't really have any set summer plans just yet, and I'm okay with that. I am looking forward to lots of down time, and lots of flexibility to be spontaneous! :) 

Pete Knight Days!

On June 16th, we took the kids to "Pete Knight Days" in Crossfield. It's an annual event, that includes a pancake breakfast, a parade, a free hot dog lunch, a rodeo, and more!

Gairod had to work the night before, so the kids and I just met him in Crossfield on Saturday morning. We went to the pancake breakfast, where they also had free face painting for the kids! For some reason Hayden didn't want to get his face painted, so he didn't.

After breakfast, we went to claim our usual spot for watching the parade. Even though we don't live in Crossfield anymore, we wanted to take the kids to Pete Knight Days this year, because it is something that we have always done, and the kids really enjoy it! :)

My cousin Jessica came out from Airdrie with her 2 little boys to watch the parade with us. Gairod's mom and dad also sat with us. The parade was really good this year. It seemed longer than usual, and lots of people were throwing candy, which of course thrilled the kids! :)

After the parade, we walked down the street to the free hot dog lunch. Now that we live farther away, I find that I enjoy visiting with people more, since we don't see them as often. Pete Knight Days is a fun filled day of visiting and entertainment! :)

After lunch, we headed out to the rodeo grounds to watch some of the rodeo. We couldn't stay for all of it, because Gairod had to go back to work (he was on nights again that night), and the kids and I had to go to our Twin and Triplets club wind-up BBQ. The kids really enjoyed the rodeo this year - I wish we could have stayed for all of it! Overall it was a wonder, family-fun day! :)

Heritage Park!

On Tuesday June 12th, Gairod and I took the kids to Heritage Park, in Calgary. Heritage Park is a historical villiage, with lots to see and do! It's fun AND educational! :) 

I've always liked Heritage Park. Both Gairod and I are fascinated with "the olden days", and think it would have been cool to live back then. We love looking through the old houses and buildings, and imagining how much simpler life once was.

We haven't been to Heritage Park much in the last few years, but now that the kids are all getting a bit older, and no one is in a stroller anymore, we are hoping to go more often - so we bought a seasons pass! :) The seasons pass is a great deal, and pays for itself in only 2 visits. I would like to try and go 4 times this season, and get double our money's worth! :)

Walking in. There is a LOT of walking at Heritage Park. All of the kids did great, especially Sage, who has just recently stopped riding in the stroller!

The triplets locked up - where they belong! lol! :)

Sage ♥

Jade helping

Kadance and Sage on the little ferris wheel.

Cole and Hayden on the little ferris wheel.

Jade on the big ferris wheel.

Cole and Hayden on the carousel.

Kadance, Sage, and Jade on the carousel.

Cole and Hayden on "The Whip".

Jade, Sage, and Kadance on "The Whip"

Relaxing on the board-walk with and ice cream cone at the end of a long, fun, day! :) 

2nd week of June!

Since we moved out to the acreage, Gairod's been just dying to start getting some "toys"! LOL! We already have two kids sized quads, but he needs to do some work on them, as they aren't working properly. A couple of weeks ago, he bought a little dirt bike for the kids!! It's a bit big for the little kids yet, but it fits Jade perfectly! :)

Another thing Gairod got for the kids, is a trampoline!! I always swore my kids would NOT have a trampoline. I know far too many people who have broken arms by falling off of trampolines. I know that the newer kinds have the safety nets around them, but I'm not a big fan of those either! ;) So we have a rule of only 2 kids on at a time (this picture is from right after Gairod got it set up, and yes, all the kids were jumping on it, but we were right there supervising). I am happy to say that they actually haven't spent nearly as much time on it as I thought they would, and have only used it a few times. Gairod only paid $60 for it, and it's just another option of something to do when the kids are playing outside! :)

This Spring has been VERY wet! We have not had a single day without at least a bit of rain for the past several weeks!! It is however, neat to be able to see the storms roll in from the west!

Our grass is starting to fill in nicely! :)

We had a week straight of rain, and I was not able to start weeding my garden. By the time I was able to do it, this is what it looked like!! Yes, those are mostly weeds and grass! Because the garden was made from fresh turned sod and dirt from the old garden, it was more full of weeds and grass then I would have liked!! Plus, I had to wait until things started to come up to be able to start weeding!

After 4.5 hours of weeding, it was starting to look a little bit better! lol!

After talking about it for months, finally, on Monday June 11th, we took away Sage's soother - cold turkey! For months she had been cycling through only having it at night, to having it more during the day when she was cranky or sick. She repeated this cycle over and over, and finally, after a week of her being cranky and having her soother WAY too much, I decided enough was enough! Gairod took it from her in the middle of the day, and when she asked for it 2 minutes later, I told her Daddy threw it in the garbage! I quickly gathered up and hid all of her soothers, and decided I was going to stand my ground. She whined and cried for her soother several times that day, and she cried quite a bit at bed time, but I just kept telling her it was gone, in the garbage, so she couldn't have it any more! The next day she only asked for it a couple of times, and I reminded her it was gone. She went to bed fine that night - no crying or whining for her soother, and we haven't looked back since!! :)

First week of June!

I almost had my blog caught up, and then I got behind again! lol!

I forgot to mention in May, that as of May 1st, Sage is potty trained!! It was a total spur of the moment decision to start training her, but I am happy to say she caught on right away, and we haven't looked back since! :)

The kids and I have been spending as much time as possible outside this Spring! We have had quite a bit of rain, which has made it a bit more difficult, but as soon as that sun comes out, we are outside playing, working in our gardens, and enjoying life on the acreage! :)

Hunter and Sage ♥

Hunter and Koda - Hunter is getting SO big!

Eleanor and Charlie are getting big too!!

Waiting for our garden to start growing!

Waiting for our grass to start growing!!

Jade's garden

The little kids gardens :)

Eleanor and Charlie are getting bigger and stronger every day! Charlie especially, is such a sweetie, and the kids (particularly Sage) love hauling him around like a doll. He's so laid back, he just lets them carry him around, and never gets mad :) At just 14 weeks old, we watched Charlie catch his first mouse!! I couldn't believe it! I thought it would be a few more months before they would start catching mice!


 On Monday June 4th, we got a new little kitten. We debated whether or not to get any more kittens, but eventually decided that death is a part of reality on an acreage, especially with outside pets. So we decided we will get a few more kittens :) 

 This is Charlotte. She was approximately 6 weeks old when we got her. She was from a farm, and quite wild at first! Gairod's parents knew we were looking for another kitten, and some friends of theirs said that they had kittens on their farm to give away. When we went to pick up this kitten, it took their teenage grandkids over an hour to catch this kitten!! If I had known their kittens were this wild, I would not have agreed to getting one! We want nice, tame kittens for the kids to play with - not feral cats!!


We brought her home in a cat carrier (all of our other kittens Jade has held on her lap for the ride home), and she would growl and hiss if you even looked at her! I was honestly scarred to try and touch her! lol! It was Monday evening when we brought her home, so I just stuck the carrier in the sunroom, blocked off the entrance, and opened the carrier door. The next morning, she was still sitting in the carrier, and growled at me when I looked at her! lol! So I put on a pair of gloves, got her out of the carrier, and started taming her! By the time we ate breakfast Tuesday morning, all of the kids had held her. She was no longer growling or hissing, but was still very timid and scarred. She spent much of the first few days hiding under our couch! But within a few days, we had her tamed up quite nicely! :)

Charlotte had no problems with Charlie and Eleanor - in fact, she liked them better than she liked us at first! lol!

BAD week.

While most of May was good, the last week was NOT good.


On Thursday May 24th, our sweet little Lucy kitten died. She was only 10 weeks old. 


When we got the kittens, we made sure to keep them inside full time for the first couple of weeks. We then started letting them outside during the day, but bringing them in at night, and then finally we let them stay outside full time. We put a shelter for them on the deck, with their food and water in it, and they can also play and hide under the deck. Our plan has always been for them to be outside "farm cats", but tame, nice ones, that stay close to the house, and that the kids can play with.


We were also careful to slowly introduce them to the dogs. Since Koda is 6 years old, and has never been around cats before, we weren't sure how she would react. Surprisingly, she reacted quite well to them. She just wanted to sniff them. She would walk towards them, they would hiss and run away. Hunter, at 4 months old, wanted to play with them. He would move towards the kittens, they would hiss and run away, and he would bark and try to pounce at them. It was really quite cute! Before long, they all started getting used to each other, and we all started to relax, maybe a bit too much.


The dogs and kittens were "playing" with each other. The dogs would chase the kittens, the kittens would submit and lay down, then the dogs would lick them. Eventually the kitten would decide enough was enough, and would jump up and run away. We were confident that the dogs wouldn't intentionally hurt the kittens. Unfortunately, we didn't think about the fact that they might unintentionally hurt them. That's how Lucy died. The little kids were in bed, and Gairod, Jade, and I were watching an episode of "Little House on the Prairie". Hunter started barking, and Gairod went outside to see what he was barking about. He found poor little Lucy laying on the ground, barely breathing, and unable to move. Since none of us were out there, we don't know exactly what happened, but we think Hunter may have tried to pick her up by the neck (Gairod saw him do this to Eleanor a couple days prior, and scolded him for it!), and broke her neck or something.


Jade and I were both devastated. I know that they are "farm cats", and I know that the reality of having outside animals in the country is that they don't always live for very long, but I honestly didn't expect to lose one so soon, OR to have it be killed by another one of our animals! To make things even worse, Lucy was our favourite of the three kittens. She was the first one we got, and the sweetest. She was so tiny and cute. I had even said that if we were going to keep one to be an inside cat, I would keep Lucy in, because she was the nicest kitten, and the one who liked to snuggle in your lap. It still makes me sad typing this, to think that she is gone. 


Since this happened, we have been keeping the dogs on a much "shorter leash" so to speak! They are only aloud out of their pen when Gairod or I is outside (don't worry, their pen is plenty big for them to have ample room to run around in - it's as big as our entire backyard at the old house!), and they aren't allowed to go anywhere near the kittens. This is how it will stay until the kittens are big/old enough to defend themselves better, and the dogs learn that they are not toys to play with.


The following Tuesday, May 29th, I woke up at about 12am, to one of the most horrible sounds I have ever heard in my life. It sounded like it was coming from in the dog pen, which is right outside some of our bedroom windows. At first I thought it was just Hunter barking, a split second later, I realized he sounded really weird, and a split second after that, I thought something must be TERRIBLY wrong!! Gairod jumped out of bed and ran to the entry way. I layed in bed shaking, thinking Hunter must be dying, and that we were going to lose our second pet in less than a week! Gairod came running back into our bedroom, and I asked him what was wrong. He said that there was a coyote RIGHT outside the dog pen! He grabbed his .22, but couldn't find any shells! He finally decided to just use a shot gun, but as soon as he opened the door, the coyote took off. We got back into bed, and tried to fall back asleep. A few minutes later, it was back! Gairod jumped up and ran to the entry way, but again, as soon as he opened the door, the coyote took off. He decided to just bring the dogs inside for the night to be safe.


Gairod was on night shift for the next three nights, and I was paranoid that the coyote would come back when he wasn't there! I kept the dogs inside for those nights, and we haven't heard another coyote since.


I had never heard a coyote up close before, and had NO idea that they sounded like that! I've heard them howling in the distance, but I thought up close they would just bark like a regular dog, not yelp like a wounded puppy!!