Yikes.....

We have been going non-stop, between soccer, cycling and unusual amount of events with friends and company, we have been busy.

We have added two new kittens to the family, shadow and witch. There names really seem to fix them, shadow is a little shy and hangs back alittle more where as witch is always jumping 4 paws first into any kind of trouble.






Autumn on the other hand has just finished a great year of kids of mud, she has found so much new strength in herself, and it is really showing in everything else she does. I am so proud of how hard she has worked this year and how she starting to let her fear no longer get the best of her and just going for it.





What is going on farm wise??? Well everything is up really nice, and weeding of the pumpkins started today, with melody and my mom getting one area of gourds and mini pumpkins all cleaned up, looks like perfection.

I on the other hand have been in a week long fight with our tractor, One of the front hubs had started leaking, so when the last forecast of rain came, i tore into the hub assembly, it came out fast and easy, then that is where everything else went wrong. Lucky with the help of a really really nice friend, he was able to help me sort out the mess i made of it, and it's all back together today.

And by far the most exciting news to me is my farther s day gift, a new bike. I loved it when i first saw it, and after much humming and hawing melody got it for me. I am so happy with it, but the down side is, i feel a little old as autumn as now claimed my old bike - which to me means she is on a full size bike, next is a car. She does seem to be getting a little pleasure from watching me struggle sometimes still with the clip in pedals and shoes she demanded i had to have.

Hope you are having as fun as summer as us.

What do you do when you are a farmer and it is raining???

So Sunday morning we woke up to rain. Owwww what to do?????

So we headed out to breakfast at the eye opener diner and then off to kid nap my mom for a day with us. First stop was at bikes and beyond, to get some issues fixed up on autumns bike. As we walked in i was expecting to hear how busy they were this week and that it would be a couple days, but they grabbed it tossed it on the work stand and fixed every issue there was, they didn't even complain about the puddle of drool i left on the floor next to the new bike i am wanting. So once again to all the staff at bikes and beyond, Thank you.

We headed off for our spring trip to the garden centres on the west side of winnipeg, grabbed a few flowers and some herbs. Then headed continued on our adventure finally ending up at assinibone parks new play ground, the kids had a blast, it is time winnipeg had something like this, so good to see.
We enjoyed a walk around the duck pond and a stroll though the english garden.



So our lazy day saw use once again getting home just before dark, and just in time for we to make a quick walk out to the field. I was pleased to see rows of corn showing themselves and in the one pumpkin area dry enough to walk on, gourds and mini pumpkins are starting coming though the surface, looking so healthy and full of life, with one more day of sun before 30mm of rain on tuesday, things look really good.

Whew.... this week is over.....

This has been one busy week, wednesday night autumn raced at the second wednesday night race series at birdshill park and did amazing, just seconds from first place. Cutting almost 4 minutes off the time of the winner of the first race.
Then thursday we were off to pinawa to pre ride the course for the race on saturday. As i was packing the bikes, out of now where the skies opened up in a half hour downpour. There was water standing everywhere, it was amazing how much water feel that fast. But we rolled out to pinawa, all the time thinking this is crazy we are following the rain there, how will we be able to ride. But to my surprise it was sunny and nice. Autumn headed off on to the trail with her group, and i choose a fun ride with june and melody around town and some riverside trails.


Friday night we went to see a circus that was in winnipeg, it was good, but found ourselves leaving have way though, between autumns allergies to the horses and the family that showed up late and scattered all around us as they talked though the whole show, we made a break for it at intermission. ( we really are not city crowd people...LOL)


Saturday was a beautiful day for autumns race, sunny but not to hot, and she was surprised by her aunty and grandma making the drive to watch her race, and if you have ever been to a mountain bike it is not the most exciting spectator sport. We did some sightseeing around town, going to the suspension bridge and the old dam for a hike. The a ice cream stop on the way back to winnipeg.



We spent the evening with friends camping at birdshill park, enjoying the fire sharing some laughs as we put the end to an amazing day out in nature.

What an awesome day.....

Well i finally got around to planning a ride with some friends for sunday morning, and it was autumns first time to go on a GUY's Mountain bike ride. I had most of the route planned out in my head, some of our favourite trails, with some connecting trails in between. It was going to give use a full loop around birdshill park with very little exposure to pavement. But due to the cooler weather and sick family members everyone bailed on us at the last minute.

But the ride would go on, it started out great challenging and fun and was coming together so nicely. Then we came across a few water holes i suggested to autumn to come over to the side of the trail incase it was deep, but she went for the middle and made it though, so when i suggested it again for the second water hole there was no way she wasn't going to go for it, as i rode though the shallow water on the side i saw her feet going deeper with every crank of the pedals, then she lost motion as her back wheel just spin in place, then the slow motion fall as she struggled to unclip from her pedals but it was to late as she splashed her entire body into the water, I busted a gut instantly.

Any other day we could have kept riding but at only 8 above freezing we made our way back to the truck and will plan another day to make this loop work. But i think i may have my new favourite picture of autumn, I couldn't look at her with out smiling or laughing all day. Still am as i type this now.

Spring is late, so we have to hurry up....

So this is melodys new bike, the trek transport +, it is a electric assist cargo bike, we have put on over a 100 miles so fair and are really enjoying it, great for getting to work and some grocery runs so far. It is quickly becoming one of our favourite bikes.

We have been busy with mountain biking, autumn is in the race group this year and is really pushing her self. She came in 6th place at her first race and 4th place at her second race. She is really starting to push herself and her coach is bringing her inner toughness out of her.

June has taken to soccer, she is having a great time and her first goal is coming soon, I am sure.

And last week we were finally able to plant, we went like crazy for 3 days and got it all done before a weekend of rain. We were starting to get nervous about when we would plant and man if feels good we got it all done, since it is still wet and cool this week.


For the last few weeks we have had these turkeys hanging out in our yard the last few weeks and it seems that have taken up living in the bush across the road from us, so if they stick around a little longer we may have to name them.


So with the fields planted we are getting ready for autumns next two races and soon we will be in full on weeding mode. Till then we are just enjoying our late spring.

Bikes, bikes and bikes.....

Well we should be planting right now, but since it is raining every couple days, we wait. So we are busy with kids of mud, soccer and general life we dont have time for when the fields need attention.

Autumn had her first mountain bike race of the season and finished in sixth place 2 seconds from 5th place. She is really working hard this year with her kids of mud coach and you can really notice the improvements.

June had her first night of soccer last night, was a week late in starting thanks to the late snow storm we had, but it did give us a chance to make one snowman this year.

So we are biking lots, waiting to get on the fields and enjoying the extra free time till the planter starts to turn.

Where have we been???

Well it is already the middle of april and it is time to catch up........ We headed down to Disney world and had what ranks as one of the greatest vacations EVER!!!!! Sure there was the moment it looked like we may be spending the week at the rental car garage in the orlando airport, but after melody showed me the trick to starting the car and the laugh that came from that, it was non stop smiling and laughs for the remaining 9 days. There is so much to talk about, almost to much, but we went from the time the parks opened till we where crawling home sleepy and worn out.




There is so much more going on, but i will share it all in the next few days.... For now we watch the water flow....

Free picture slideshow generated with Smilebox

Happy Birthday Autumn

Snow Snow Snow....

So the post office pick up slips are starting to show up, the seed orders are arriving and for some reason it is always to exciting to open the boxes to see seeds.( Its not like it is even a surprise, we ordered them) But maybe it is the hope of new life and a sucessful year that makes it feel so good.



We really haven't had much lazy time this winter, and the repairs that need doing for summer time are slow in getting done, but with the forecast looking warmer this weekend i plan to take on our ditch. It has about a ten foot drift over it and goes for a couple hundred feet, i need to clean it out because the water from our yard wants to flow that way but it will all back up if this drift is there, i would almost be willing to leave it this year but with how wet our fall was i really don't want to risk it.



We went to look at some snow sculptures one afternoon, but other then that weekends have been busy and haven't even had any wiener roasts this winter as the weekends have been quite cool all year. Maybe in the next week or two.

George

It's almost christmas

Melody and I always have a way with home renovation projects, we talk about it out then all of a sudden we are in the check out line at the hardware store with wood and paint and much much more in hand. We finally painted autumn's room for her and got her a new bedroom set. She was quite surprised.

Then we decided to take on our upstairs washroom which was really outdated with the 80's wall paper starting to peel it was long over due, but a simple plan of removing the old wood wainscotting and painting, soon lead to flooring, a new vanity, knocking holes in the wall for a built in shelf unit, but it feels so much better in there now.

We caught the John butler trio show in november and have to say it was the best concert i have ever had the plessure of seeing. They had the energy of 10 year old kids but the chemistry between them it is like they have been playing together for 50 years. I would not think twice about traveling to see them again.



Then i was treated to an amazing weekend away with my wife to a relaxing cabin to hang out with my best friend. The weather was cold, but we still had a great time, would have been nice to have been able to get out more, but it was so nice to be able to relax with out feeling like there is something you should be doing.


We were waiting to start christmas decorating till sabina got home for christmas and now are in full christmas mode, lights are going up and we are building a tobogganing hill in the yard, cleared the whole front yard of snow to have enough to do it.



The kids are counting the days till the big guy drops by, feels a little more like christmas everyday.