I'VE BEEN IN THE TRENCHES AND THE ONLY GUN FIRE I HEAR...

Today has been another busy day here at the farm. We've had such an abundant hay harvest this year that we ran out of place store it. The barn is full, the tarp building is full and there are several large piles outside covered with tarps but the high wind did some damage to the tarps  so my husband ordered another tarp building. It's going to be 120' long X 22' wide. The floor will be raised up and cement will be poured later.

 Today I was asked to help the guys getting the trenches ready to receive the cement. The heavy digging was done with the back hoe yesterday but it still needed to be levelled for the footing. My son Vaughan and the hired hand were also there to helped my husband. I helped in making sure that the lines were level, then I shovelled in the trenches to level the soil ( no pictures of me working since I didn't had my camera with me. You'll have to take my word for it...)  We were all rushing as the cement truck was supposed to arrive at 1:00 PM. It arrived about half an hour late.

 I carried the long boards in the trenches to hold the cement, then I cleaned up all the little scraps of wood that was left behind from the sawing. My husband  had a generator on the back of the truck so he could use the table saw to cut wooden stakes.

When my work was done I went home and made a lunch for the workers and brought it on site. Sorry, no pictures of the lunch.   There was a few drops of rain and the wind was blowing and since the soil was dry and there was a lot of dust flying. The weather forecast was calling for thunder storm in the afternoon but it did not materialized except for the wind. That was lucky.

 It's just as well that there are no pictures of me. My hair was a mess and I had my big safety rubber farm boots on. I should have wore a white hard hat so my hair would have looked OK. lol
Yes I've worked in the trenches but the only guns shots I heard were my own tooting in the wind, thanks goodness.

Here are some pictures of the site.

120 feet long by 22 feet wide.

You can get an idea how deep the trench is.
My son Vaughan directing the flow into the trough while my husband George rakes the wet cement level with the board.

All in all, it was a good day but I was tired after all that and my afternoon barn chores. The best that I could come up with for supper was grill cheese sandwiches and tea.

A special welcome to all my new followers. I can't believe that I've reached 120 followers since I've been a bad blogger for so long this summer.I hope that you all have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

JB

I HAVE A LOVE AFFAIR WITH MY NEW PADERNO SPAGHETTI POT

Yes my pot is sexy and I know it....  For years I've cooked spaghetti in my dutch oven. I used a strainer to drain the water but when my daughter Christine came to visit from Ottawa, she brought me a gift. This beautiful Paderno spaghetti pot she thought that I should have. Thanks you Christine. I love  my new spaghetti pot. It's perfect.

There's my new pot with the cover on to bring the water to a roaring boil.

I love the glass cover and the fact that the pot has litre marks inside the pot.

We LOVE garlic at our house and I always add a handful of garlic cloves in the last 5 minutes of boiling. I just mix it with the spaghetti and those who don't eat garlic can just leave them. It does not add the taste of garlic to the spaghetti and you can't even smell garlic in the kitchen. You get the full benefit of the garlic. I do the same with mashed potatoes, only I mash them in the potatoes after they are cooked. You can hardly taste the garlic and get the full benefit and they are so good for you. I love garlicky dishes too

Here is my wholewheat spaghetti with some of the garlic showing and a bit of extra virgin olive oil so it doesn't stick...

My husband like his spaghetti like this with Old Cheddar on top before adding the hot spaghetti sauce.

I let them add their own parmesan cheese and hot pepper flakes.  We are very informal at my house.

Here is my husband and one of the young hired hand happily eating hot spaghetti for lunch. Unfortunately my son Vaughan was late from the field and missed the photo. He had his share too.

Two posts this week, I must have gotten my MOJO back.

I love your comments. Thanks for stopping by.   JB

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY MOJO BY ANY CHANCE?

It's been ages since I blogged  because I lost my MOJO.  I've turned the house upside down looking for it. I found something that looks like it, but I'm not sure if it'll stay around for a while. I hope so.

This month was so hot and humid, almost unbearable. I had lots of visit and loved every minutes of it. My little grandson, James, has grown and walks and run and is starting to talk.  What fun he was to have around. I've been absolutely lazy about yard work and cooking meals. After working at the farm in the heat and humidity, I only did the necessary. Everyone pitched in and we never went hungry.

My daughter  flew in from Glasgow Scotland. She arrived on August 1st and left on the 18 and my other daughter from Ottawa, her husband and James also came for two weeks.  They visited PEI and brought me some lobster again to spoil me. My daughter from Scotland brought me some pearl earrings. They all spent some time at the cottage by the lake.

 I stayed home and cared for a new born calf.  I had another one today by the way.

My other grown children and grandkids  also visited so the house had a nice buzz about.  It's amazing how fast the time went.

I had lots brothers and sisters in law also visiting as we had to attend my cousin Vince's funeral. He died of cancer at 45 and sadly left a lovely family behind.

I want to share some pictures of  a crowd that showed up just before lunch as they work in my daughter's  garden behind our hedge and I had two large casseroles and my daughter cooked a big pot of fresh green beans and theres was lots of food for everyone. They had no intention of staying for lunch but I assured them that they was enough food. Not a fancy table but good food.

 My son and daughter seeing each other after two years.

On the left, is my oldest daughter from Scotland and on the right is our hired hand who works on Saturday.

These are some of my grandkids

 I took another picture just for the cute smile.

James and his dad dressed as Superman.

How about this for charm?

 James love to play the piano.

James at the lake

Yeah, even though this old bare foot grandma has some wee muscles on her biceps she can still use some help right now... I'm a calf wrangler... what can I say....

What a good sport getting his hair rinsed.

Where did the water go? The water was coming out but now it's not.

I'm not sure who my grandson is supposed to be but he looks like he's having a great time pretending to be someone with great strength.

A good thing that he's at the lake.

James having a relaxing time at the lake. Taking it easy with daddy...

Sorry about so many photos but I want the family to see them. Thanks for dropping by and I hope that  you still remember me. The weather was just beautiful today and the humidity has gone for now. I hope the same for you.      JB