CAN I COME UP FOR AIR?

What a week this has been and it's only Friday.  Sorry if I haven't been around much but it has been a kind of busy crazy week. I got myself so tired burning the candle at both ends that I got myself a nasty cold for Christmas and have been working sick. I'm on the mend but still have a bit of phlegm in my chest. I've been eating raw onions to stop the coughing. Thanks to my daughter Christine, for the tip, it works.

Since Christmas Eve we've have had 7 cows giving birth and 7 calves.  4 heifers and 3 bulls. I still have 3 more cows that are due  to calve tomorrow. I hope that they wait a day or two.  I now have 14 small calves and 8 larger calves to care for and calving cows that comes in my area of the barn on a regular basis on top of my other chores. We even had a calf born on Christmas Day but we managed to make it to my daughter and son's in law house for a great turkey dinner anyway. We've had late nights working at the farm almost all week.

On Christmas Eve we had family visiting and everyone was glad to see James and his parents of course.

On Christmas morning James opened his many presents. I didn't take many pictures as I was totally wasted from the cold and a run down feeling. Christmas was a routine work day for my husband and I.

James tasting some of his Tubby toys with his mom, my daughter Christine.

Here, he opened his wall mount bubble maker for the tub. Bath time is really going to be fun for mom and dad too.

Already he's turning the dial. A typical boy, he wants to know how things works. 

Here is a present from James. I had no idea what it was but what a delightful surprise to see his very own baby photo book.

The front cover.

Some earlier photos of  a sleepy baby with mom. Most of the photos in the book have been posted on my blog at some time.

You may recall these photos that I posted on my blog earlier. Halloween photos and James and his dad at the Ottawa Blues Festival.

James having fun playing and my son Vaughan holding hims. I think that James has a serious concerned look on his face, lol...

There were many other photos in the book that has already been on my blog so I won't bore you with more but this is one of my favorites on the back cover. He looks like he telling a story worth listening to. What a cool little dude.

One of his many toys that I discovered in the sunroom after they left for Prince Edward Island for a few days.

At our house our down time is making puzzle after the Christmas stir is over. It has become a tradition. Nothing relaxes me than working on a good puzzle.

  As promised here is a book that I won in a give away by author Margaret Andrews of the blog                           Nanny Goats in Panties   and hosted by our wonderful blogger friend Nezzy of Cow Patty Surprise. I read the book and found out that I used most  but not all of Margaret's suggestions in the book.  I don't always use metaphors because it's just not my style but occasionally I do. Thanks so much Margaret and Nezzy.  Go check out their blogs.

This book is a gift from Patrice at Everyday Ruralty blog.   It wasn't a give away, just a nice friendly and generous gift from a very nice blogger friend who is a good listener... She remembered my interest in the book. Now that is a special blogger friend. THANK YOU SO MUCH PATRICE FOR YOUR THOUGHTFULNESS. I so appreciate it.

Patrice's blog is always interesting and she is known for her Wednesday posts link up for chats on her porch. Check her out. It's a lot of fun learning tid bits from other blogger friends.

I'm looking forward to reading this book. I had it in bed and fell asleep after reading one page. No, it's not a boring book. I'm just so tired.

I haven't watch the TV news lately but someone  I ran into at  the grocery store, told me that the Triplet Story was one of three Highlights of the year of 2011 in the CBC TV News because it made international news. Apparently they showed a picture of me and the triplets. Who knew that someday my picture would make Highlight of the year, thanks to the triplets of course. It's all about them, ha ha ha... I'm just abroad for the ride. lol...

I sure hope that I'll post more often in the new year with shorter post but life gets in the way sometimes. I'm trying to visit your blogs but I had just to post this evening. I know that you'll understand.

Thanks for visiting and please leave a comment.  HAPPY NEW YEAR, stay safe and warm.  JB

SWEET REVELATIONS....

It's chat time at Everyday Ruralty with Patrice. Every week you are invited to link up with Patrice to offer glimpse of you on the porch.

Here are Patrice's questions for this week:

1.  Who makes the best cookies at your house?

All my daughters are good bakers. We all make the best cookies.

2.  What was most satisfying or pleasing thing about Christmas 2011?

Seeing my new grandson and how he has grown.

3.  How many photos did you take while your family was together for Christmas?  Tons?  A few?  What Pictures?

A few. I was too busy enjoying myself.

4.  Do you have a fireplace, wood stove, or a pellet stove? We have a fireplace and a wood stove.

5. What time did you get up on Christmas morning.

I got up at around 6:20 am  went to the barn to feed the calves and other animals  

I hope that you like our little visit. Thanks for taking the time to response, Have a great week.  JB

WHAT A GREAT SURPRISE

You're invited to come on over to Everyday Ruralty and join in the Chats on the Farmhouse Couch and meet Patrice in a live video. No more guessing what she looks or sounds like. Just click on the name Everyday Ruralty and you will transported in her living-room by magic. Come as you are to join in the chat.

Today, Patrice showed us her beautiful Christmas tree in the living-room and showed us some of her cherished ornaments.

Here are her questions.
1.  Please tell us your favorite Christmas tradition.

I have many Christmas traditions but the one I like the best is relaxing on Boxing Day working on a puzzle with my family. We work on it into the wee hours of the morning and have so much fun and when it's almost finished and it's getting difficult to place those dark pieces, we are allowed to take a sip of wine only when we place a piece in. Sometimes someone gets lucky and place several pieces in a row and there's lot of laughter.

2.  Are you ready for Christmas?
Well I'm almost ready but still have some more shopping to do as I don't have much time to shop and I don't shop at night. I always have to come home to feed the calves.

3.  Tell me what you would talk about if you were sitting in the living-room with me?
  I would like to sit on Patrice's couch with Patrice and  all her other  guests and get to know everyone better, I would love to take a walk to the farm and see Wendall and the other farm critters. I would like to taste some of her Christmas baking.

This was a lot of fun Patrice  and thanks for the invitation..

Thanks for visiting my blog and  and I hope that you will come by again. You know how much I love receiving your comments.
MERRY CHRISTMAS  everyone. Stay safe and warm. JB

IS SANTA FOR REAL?

A couple of days ago I was answering one of the questions posted by Patrice  of  Everyday Ruralty blog. She was asking "Did you believe in Santa as a kid?"My answer was yes  until I discovered quite by accident  that my father was buying the toys and hiding them in the compartment under the sofa bed. I was so disappointed of course at loosing the magic of Santa.

My newest grandson is checking it for himself, unlike me when I was young many, many years ago, I had to go on blind faith that Santa was real. James is quite taken by Santa and feels safe in his arms. A nice looking Santa, I must say...

IS THIS REALLY SANTA, HE LOOKS REAL TO ME. HE HAS A CURLY WHITE BEARD AND A RED SUIT AND FUNNY GLASSES

I'VE BEEN SUCH A GOOD BOY, EVEN MAMA AND PAPA SAYS SO... GEE, I CAN HARDLY WAIT FOR CHRISTMAS. I WONDER WHAT TOYS HE'LL BRING ME...

 HMMM, I WONDER...  I'LL GIVE JUST IT A LITTLE TUG, HMMM... I WONDER IF IT'S REAL...

YEAH, I'M SURE  THAT HE'S REAL. I'M HOPING FOR A LOTS OF TOYS THIS CHRISTMAS. I CAN HARDLY WAIT. ( Santa wanted to keep him)
                                     *******************************************
And now my dorky story for this week:

This past Sunday after my husband and I were finished work for the day in the evening I came home to start cooking supper while  my husband went to bring the expectant heifer in the calving pen for the night but he discovered that she was in the process of calving. He call my cell.

I went back to the barn to help and it was a huge bull calf that we had to pull out. The chain was hooked to the calf feet but he was too big and we couldn't pull him by ourselves.

 A winch was attached to the chain  and my husband was telling me to crank the ratchet on the  winch and to push on the chain at the same time. Well, I was cranking the ratchet and I was putting some weight on the chain  and it was getting more and more difficult  to crank. It was quite dark in that part of the barn as the light had been broken and not replaced. I was huffing and puffing and when I took my eyes of the calf and looked down I saw that my jacket was getting caught in the cogs of the winch.

Now what. I couldn't get myself out and I couldn't crank anymore. My husband had to let go of the calf, hell, ( he wasn't going anywhere anyway,)  and get me unstuck. One lesson I learned, I can't push and crank at the same time, ha ha ha.

I was telling my husband, stop pulling, let him hang upside down for a minute to clear his lungs.  I never saw so much amnionic fluid coming out of the calf's nostril. It must have been a good quart of fluid. If it's not cleared up quick, they can drown in the amnionic fluid.

The calf was then pulled out and his mouth cleared with clean paper towels and his nostrils wiped and he slowly started to breath on its own.

Then the heifer has to be brought all the way to the other end of the barn to be milked for the first time but she just didn't want to go in. It took us about 15 minutes  of chasing and going back and forth to get her in the milking parlor.

The calf drank 2 full bottles and the cow was returned to the pen with her calf. Equipment had to be cleaned, new bedding put in her pen and we both got home at 9:00pm.

I'm expecting two new  calves tomorrow.

This week I received my give away  book from Nezzy's blog at Cow Patty Surprise. What a hoot she is.
I'll show and tell about the book on my next post  I hope as I wasn't organized enough to take a picture of it for this post.

Thanks for stopping in and leaving a comment. Keep warm and safe and have a joyous weekend.  JB

CHATTING ON PATRICE'S PORCH

I'm meeting the girls on Patrice's porch but I'm running late as usual. I hope that the chocolate is still hot and that Wendell has left some carrot cookies for me. He's so cute and smart that fella.

I like that Wendell has joined in the chat today. I wish that I had brought some carrots for him.

Today's questions from Patrice.

1.  Where is your favorite place to think, reflect and pray?
In my bedroom with the door closed, in an old wooden chair and the other place is in the garden when I'm weeding.

2.  Did you believe in Santa as a kid?
Yes I believed in Santa until I was about 6 or 7. One day  I opened the sofa bed only to find unwrapped Christmas presents in the storage bottom compartment under the sofa. I kept my mouth shut and never  told a soul or let on that I had discovered all by myself that Santa wasn't real... I was so very disappointed and I didn't want my other siblings to be disappointed like I was.

3. What is your favorite kind of Christmas cookies? You can add a recipe if you have time.
I love cranberry cookies, shortbread cookies, all kind of cookies but my all time favorite are Russian Tea Cookies  but I call the butter Ball Cookies. Yum yum... As chance has it, they appeared on Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog today. Click here for the recipe. They are so easy to make and so delicious.

4. Did you grow up around any of your grandparents?
Yes, I grew up living close to my mother's parents but never met my dad's father as he died when I was just new born. I lived about a couple of miles from my other  young widowed grandmother and I remember that she was always crying a lot and I didn't understand why.

5.  What is your favorite winter sport-skiing, skating, sledding, others(? ) ? If you live in a warm place what is your favorite winter sport when the Olympics are televised?
As a kid I used to slide in a toboggan, skate and make snowmen and snow angels. Now My bones are feeling their age and I no longer care for winter sports and I don't even bother to watch the winter Olympics. I hope that I didn't bored Wendell or anyone else with my answers.

Thanks for the chat Patrice, and I enjoyed the hot chocolate and the cookies.    JB

GETTING THERE LITTLE BY LITTLE

Wow,  have you looked outside at that big full moon? I kind of felt like howling tonight and I was wondering  why... lol.

I lost a calf yesterday as the cow wouldn't come in the barn to the calving pen and my husband tried three times and she kept getting away from him so he let her be. She had her calf by the gate inside the shelter  in the afternoon but instead of having her calf on the dry hay, she chose to drop it in the water by the gate. The poor calf probably drowned when it tried to breath. It was raining hard the day before and water had puddled by the gate.
On a happy note, all my calves are drinking from the pail and it saves me lots of time at feeding time.

After two weeks of my dishwasher sitting in the entrance, my hubby finally got time to install it this past Sunday. You guessed it, I bought it on sale and now I'm having a bit more time to spend on Blogger... lol... The old one was broken for at least 20 some years and I never really missed it until I got really tired of washing dishes one day and I saw this on sale at the Co-op.

I've been putting up Christmas decorations here and there in the house. I got this nativity in 2000  from my daughter Christine and I love it. I want to make some kind of stable for it of papier mache some day. I put those two small trees but I'll probably will move them somewhere's else. I'm not really fond of them there.

  I kind of like snowmen and bought a few more this year at Value Village. I just buy when the price is right for me and so far I've been lucky. The stuffed one are on the mantle and in the tree. The paint on the wall is sage green and looks gray on this photo.

 My Christmas tree has ornaments from all over the world that my traveling girls brought back from their travels and some old ornaments from my kids when they were younger. I cherish all those ornaments as they all have some special meaning to me. It's nice to look at them and remember the days gone by

A friend of mine gave me that victorian handmade angel when I was going through chemo and I cherish it. I've been collecting some small nativity scene of the Holy Family and I've grouped them here.

I've found another house to add to my set of homemade ceramic village,  (the one on the right), it's porcelain.  Unfortunately it will never be complete as I lost all my village molds in the flood, I still have a school to paint but never got around to painting it. This year I added a little hill and a tree in the background and a small  birch that is partially seen on the left edge and a small gate with two cardinals in the center of the picture.

A large stuffed snowman bought at our Co-op last year and a gingerbread man bought this year from the Co-op   and a Value Village basket and pine cones. The bow came from a gifted poinsettia last year.

I couldn't resist the woodsman snowman to add to my Value Village finds.

I couldn't believe that I got this heavy three dimensional country crock snowman  for only $4.99. I better remove the price sticker.

I went to a Christmas party last evening for my husband's fraternity organization and won this poinsettia as a door prize. I win one every year it seems.

This little bear is hanging on my back door closet.

I found this Lost Mittens sign for $.99. It's prim and I love it. I embrace all kind of style of decorations.

I couldn't resist this cute glittery snowman stocking. I have another one hanging on my front door but will show it later. I already have too many pictures. I haven't shown all my decorations and I'll call it  enough for now. I admire the creativity that goes in to these decorations.

I still have some shopping to do and more baking. I especially have some serious thinking to do to get ready. I have a few homemade presents to finish. This week I've been getting my senior drug prescription and health plans in order.

I'm slowly taking out my Christmas mugs as I need them. I'm slowly getting in the Christmas spirit but not very exited yet. Could be that I'm just too tired from working every day.

Today I had my two grandsons helping on the farm and I had 5 males with big appetites for lunch and made a huge pot of spaghetti and a pan of date squares. I never took a picture of the men at the table as it never occurred to me.

I hope that you are getting the Christmas Spirit with joy in your heart at remembering that the best gift of all at Christmas is the gift of LOVE, PEACE and  JOY that Jesus gave us. It surpasses anything that you can possibly get this Christmas.  Hugs,  JB

HAVING A CHAT ON PATRICE'S PORCH

I wonder what's going on with my blogger friends. Most are loosing their Holiday Spirit this season. They lost their Mojo, including me. Some even have lost their blogging Mojo...

It's not that I'm getting too old for Christmas,  joy is for everyone. It's the Grinch I tell you. That evil is up to no good in the heart of men and women and even children...

Why, he's so undermindedly  crafty that he stocks up the shelves and bins,  the minute Halloween is over. We don't even have time to take the decorations down, he rears his ugly head and dumps mountains of most hideous toys for boys and girls that they MUST have... He send Santa's wish list catalogues to those who have shopped in the past. The stores are overflowing with merchandise and every creation is done in overkill. Nothing is unique anymore. At every corner someone is collecting money for this and that...
I don't do crowds very well. I usually return home empty handed.

Music is blaring with subliminal message of spend, spend, spend. The thing that gets me is that all this starts so early that we don't have time to decompress from the previous holiday. Our list gets longer and more complicated every year.  We've forgotten why we celebrate Christmas. We are more rushed than in the past and more people are dysfunctional.

I have no clue as to what to give anybody for Christmas except one person.

What used to take me an afternoon to set the Christmas tree took me 5 days this week, really... It's no matter I thought that today was Thursday. Geez...

On Saturday I put the tree up and fluffed up the branches. On Sunday I put on the lights. On Monday I put on the garland. On Tuesday I took down the totes of decorations. Today on Wednesday I decorated the tree. I didn't take a picture as it was too dark. I didn't even turned the Christmas music on...

To me Christmas is family, food and laughter and the birthday of Jesus. I love the little traditions that gives it a bit of familiar for the family.

I'll find my MOJO back but I'm just saying...

In the mean time I"m having a little chat with Patrice   from Everyday Ruralty.

here are my answers to her questions.

1,  Yes I've had a blog slump but mostly not having enough spare time keeps me from posting.

2,  I love hot Chocolate with miniature marshmallow floating on top.

3,  When I think that I know a person that I can't place, I just tell them that I know who they are but I'm having a senior moment and have  forgotten their name as I know that it happens to most everyone and it's nothing to be ashamed of.

4,  I was born the 3rd in a family of 17 kids.

5,  I accumulate possession but I place myself somewhere between a pack-rat and a minimalist.  I do a cleansing on a regular basis depending on what possession it is.

Thanks for the chat Patrice.