LIFE IS FULL OF SURPRISES

I've been a poor blogger this Summer as you all know but I got a big surprise this morning when I was reading one of my followers blogs, Stephanie Faris,Tween Author.   I won a Quintet of Radiance Award. It really took me by surprise to be chosen amongst many of her followers.   My first reaction was this...Me ? No way... OMG. Really? Yes, that's me.  lol. To be chosen is special even though I usually decline all awards. This time however, I felt very honored and accepted the award. Thanks Stephanie and good luck with your new book.

Stephanie is a novelist and freelance writer and lives in Nashville with her husband.  She authored 30 Days of No Gossip and is available from Simon & Schuster's Aladin Mix  and 25 Roses which will be coming out in 2015.  Please visit her blog, you can order her book directly from her blog.

I tried to add this Award Button to my sidebar but was unsuccessful and I dragged it into a file and uploaded like a photo here on my blog.

Oh dear, now that I've accepted this award, I have to do the 26 words from A to Z  to describe me.

A-   accommodating  B-  Barefoot   C-  conscientious   D-  discerning  E-  ethical   F-  feeler
G-  generous              H-  honest       I-   idealistic           J-   just             K- Kind      L-  likeable
M-  married                N-  natural      O-  orderly             P-  prudent       Q-  quiet      R-  responsible
S-  survivor                 T-  truthful     U-  unique             V-  versatile      W-  wise      X-  xenophobic
Y-  youthful                 Z-  zealous

That was  a challenging rule.  I'll stop here. I'm surprised that I could find 26 words from A to Z to describe me.

  I used to share a lot of what happened in my every day experiences at home and on the farm. Things still happens and I don't want to bore you with what seems a normal day to me.

August is on it's way out and it just got here it seems. My daughter and her family came for a long visit and I had lots of fun with James and Daniel and I've been away from the computer more than usual. Those two little guys can keep a grandma hopping to exhaustion. Their mama was exhausted too, lol... James used my computer to view some educational videos in the evening.

James visiting my bigger heifer calves.

James and Daniel looking at a big cow. Daniel is keeping his distance

James and daniel watching a video on the DVD player.


I've made two batches of Lady Ashburnham pickles for the church fund raising auction again this August, got 2 new heifers calves and 2 huge bulls calves which needed to be pulled out.  Yesterday another  cow calf and my son pulled a dead heifer calf out.

 I've looked after a sick calf called Victoria and she is feeling much better today. When I went in to feed her she refused to get up. I took her temperature and it was 103 so I fed her a bottle of Calf-Lite with electrolyte. I took her temperature again at noon and it was 102 and again at 4:00pm and it was up to 104. My son Vaughan, gave her some antibiotics and she was feeling better in the morning.  She has been digging in the corner of her pen and sucking her own juices the dummy calf. No wonder she got sick.  She drank 2 bottles of milk this morning but this evening she wasn't too hungry again. She didn't even finished one bottle.

My son brought a sick cow for me to care for.  He thought that she had a displaced stomach as she refused to eat her grain and only gave a pint of milk at milking time and she looked very cathartic.

I said a healing prayer and asked Jesus to heal her.  I talked to her and  petted her and offered her half a scoop of grain and some hay and I got her water bowl running and she turned  her head and looked at me but stayed there starring aimlessly at the wall...

In the morning  I gave her a full scoop of grain, not expecting her to even touch it but she surprised me and ate it all so I offered her another scoop of grain and she ate that one as well. She ate her hay and drank water and peed and pooped.  I called my son Vaughan to come and milk her and he milked her and she gave almost 4  quarts of milk. She seemed to be responsive and even licked me when I was near her.  That was another  surprise.

Today I harvested the rest of my onions and put them in the gazebo to dry. I did a bit of weeding and came in the house to cool off with a cold beer my son in-law gave me  before he left and I looked like a hobo. I had just sat at the computer with my red sweaty face when the door bell rang. It was Father Laden at the door. He was our first priest in our new parish in the 1980s. What a surprise to see him at our door after so many years. He was visiting family in our area and dropped in to say hi. He lives in Ontario.

So yes, life is full of surprises.

Thanks for visiting. I love receiving your visits and comments. I'm running behind in visiting but I haven't forgotten you. I'll visit as soon as I can.

JB