Over the Fence

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Days are turning into weeks and passing by so quickly and at the same time they are moving too slowly. My mind feels numb with details on some days and blank with the "in between living" on others. Maybe you know what I am talking about maybe you think I am nuts. Maybe I am nuts these days. It sure feels like it sometime. For instance, I sent my mom some flowers and put her street number on the form with a street name that she hasn't lived at in a long time. Oh well. Maybe it is the stress of the building/moving or maybe it is menopause or maybe a little bit of both. My yoga mat is calling me in not so subtle of ways and I am not heeding its call. I'll do it tomorrow, I always say and then I say it again the next day. But... this past week I have been witness to some beautiful things over the fence.

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On Saturday our neighbors son and his girlfriend go married in their back yard. The guys got ready across the street and the girls got ready at the neighbors house. Mostly I think the men drank beer and the women primped. I was on our deck when things got underway and thinking it was too intrusive to peek over the fence, I went upstairs and watched discreetly through my bedroom window. The celebrant stood on the lawn, the men stood in a row with black jeans and purple golf shirts. The bride walked up behind her bridesmaids and the couples two toddler sons ran around in Mrs. Busby's newly planted garden. The whole thing lasted 5 minutes tops. There was no music, no "churchy" stuff, no pomp and circumstance. It was one of the nicest weddings ever. Short and sweet and fire up the grill!

That same afternoon a real miracle occurred. Our elderly neighbor across the street FINALLY got rid of the junk car he was meaning to fix which had been sitting for 5 years in half of the driveway. He told me since we were moving away it wasn't going to be quite as fun keeping it without me bugging him about it all the time. What I really think was the reason was Mrs. Olson said "It's that stupid car or me. One of us has to go!" He chose wisely. Athena spent a good part of the afternoon planting peas and beans with them and of course had to have an iced tea break halfway through. They will miss her and she, them.

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On Sunday, perhaps the most beautiful thing of all, on the other side of the fence a few doors down I heard some sawing and hammering going on. As I stood to look over I saw Athena's friend Tyler in the yard with Step Dad and Birth Dad. The boy asked if he could help with the project and Step Dad said to ask Dad. And Birth Dad showed his son how to sand a board. "Speed comes later, after you have learned properly. Go slowly, take your time." And the rest of the afternoon the Two and A Half Men worked side by side. It stood out to me as quite lovely that these broken families can get along so well in ways that benefit the child so much. It was very uncommon and I took note.

And of course Sunday was Mother's Day. We got together with two our three adult daughters for lunch. All the little girls sat at their own table which was not next to ours. They were very good and very thrilled about the whole thing. Truth be told, little Josie, the youngest of the four, was best behaved. My other daughter may have come but she is at home growing us another granddaughter who is due sometime this month. Lots of girls in this family. Lots of girls means lots of laughter and LOTS of talking. Notice the men in their little corner talking about boring man stuff. It was a wonderful weekend in so many ways!

Not What I Bargained For

What a glorious weekend we had here in Central Saskatchewan. The sun shone brightly and now so does my neck. I am an avid sunscreen user but it seems so odd to use sunscreen when there are still little patches of snow in shady spots.

We spent most of the weekend outside enjoying the warm weather. Almost too warm, but I am not complaining. Saturday found us meeting up with our daughters family and perusing the annual Montgomery Garage Sale for hidden treasure. I spent 75 cents. Woohoo! I guess my mind was thinking, as I examined each thing I picked up, was "Do I really want to pack this up and transport it to our new home?" Clearly the answer continued to be "No."  Still, walking around with my kids and their kids was so nice.

Sunday we headed out to the farm. We like to call it the farm as that is what it will one day be when we get the chickens and the goats. Who knows? Maybe a cow one day. This is only the second time I have seen the land and the first without snow. What an exciting day! We had a bit of trouble with the trailer swaying behind the truck. Paul brought up a shed package that he bought from Costco and a trampoline for little Miss A. It took us a bit longer than expected and we were 5 minutes late for an appointment with the law office to sign papers. Only in small town Saskatchewan would someone meet us on a Sunday to do so. I was very appreciative of that.

Paul was meeting a guy up there to discuss building a road and he had to figure something out in the basement for another guy. Sump pit I think. Athena and I pulled on our rubber boots and away we went, traversing the property.

We made several observations:

•  There are literally hundreds of wild rose bushes
• Acres of Saskatoon berries
• Pussy willow all over the place
• Aspens, poplars, birch and maple.
• Alpine strawberries

And that is just what I could identify without anything being in leaf yet. But the biggest delight of all is that we found not one, but two babbling brooks, one on either side of the land. We followed them down all the way where there was a little waterfall with a pool and on the other side it flowed down to a little pond with cattails growing in it. Oh joy. We hadn't bargained for water. Now we can get a duck or two!

The land seemed to go on forever, as far as the eye could see. I was awestruck that this belonged to us. I can't believe after all of these long years of wanting to live in the country that my dream was manifest. I still get goosebumps when I think of it.

Athena wished we could just move here right now and I wondered aloud how I was ever going to get her inside to do her school work. She said I could find her playing at the waterfall. Of course I would.

Now for the not so great news. We found an awful lot of this:

If you know anything about animal scat, you will know that it belongs to this guy:

I suppose having all those Saskatoons is what brings him here. Oh dear. Didn't count on that. We also found deer prints, moose prints and all the scat that goes with that. We found coyote poop too, riddled with fur. At the back of the land we found evidence of a deer kill. Dried hide with fur. Pieces the size of a dinner plate. Exciting stuff for a kid and her mama nature lover.

On our way home, tired from the two hours of walking up and down hill and vale, I pondered what I was going to do about the bears. Any advice?

Dreaming of the Country Life

What a beautiful weekend we had. The weather reached 20C. We got a lot of yard work done, mostly moving snow, which is now gone. Yay! We even had our first "beer on the deck", or wine as the case may be. It was glorious. Paul got a little sunburn on his head and has now resigned to the fact he must wear a hat. We say the reason he is losing his hair is because he has so much testosterone!

We took an afternoon drive back out to the house to see if the bathrooms were done, and they were. The doors and closet doors were all hung too. Now we are just waiting on the hardwood and then it is complete!

 

 

 

 

As much as I love the house I live in now, I am looking forward to having a new house that doesn't have leaky taps and foggy windows. More than that, I am looking forward to living in the country. My heart lies there and it has for as long as I remember. (Remember if there is such a thing as re-incarnation, I KNOW I was a farm wife in a past life.) 

 

Just being out of town, seeing nothing but landscape, fills me up like nothing else.

 

 

"Soon enough" I keep telling myself. "Soon enough."

PS I found out there aren't any ticks in the Battleford area. I do hope it is true.

Food, Glorious Food.

Spring has arrived, at last. The weather has been beautiful. Today, not so much, but it promises to warm up just in time for the weekend! We got out the patio furniture and grilled some steaks on Saturday night. Athena wanted to eat outside but the table hadn't been washed down yet.

 

The time is coming quickly where we will be eating lighter fare. Lots of salads and grilled veg. But there is still just enough chill in the air to make heartier food appetizing. Breakfast, for instance. Eggs is the way to go. On the weekend we throw in bacon! I love bacon. But this is what a typical breakfast looks like for me. One egg, a piece of homemade bread and some tomatoes drizzled with evoo, sea salt and ground pepper.

 

I have been playing around with this recipe for Creamy Lemon Pasta. This weekend I added some fresh spinach and a blackened chicken breast. Oh my, it was so good. Other times I have added asparagus and spicy grilled shrimp. Really, you must try this recipe at least once. The possibilities are endless.



On Saturday I made corn chowder. I know you all know that I LOVE soup. This was a new Jamie Oliver recipe and of course,  as with all of his recipes, it was great. As is my habit, I send two bowls across the street for our elderly neighbors and is her habit she sends back the bowls with something tasty inside. This time it was homemade cream puffs. Scarfed that down right away. She told me I make such good soup and with a little tear in her eye she said she would miss us so much. Aw.





 

One of the highlights of the week was finding that Costco had a 2lb clam shell of ORGANIC strawberries for $4.49. I have been getting a 1lb from Safeway for more than that price so naturally I bought several.

I got a Cuisinart ice cream maker from Kijiji and so Athena and I used some to make strawberry ice cream.

 



 

And here I was, thinking that all you had to do was dump the ingredients in the machine and turn it on. Turns out it was a two day affair. Now I have the bowl in the freezer so it will be much quicker next time. So few ingredients. Cream, milk, berries and sugar. The result was really good. I can't wait to try more, especially my beloved vanilla.

 

 

Today is rainy and cool and so we will eat the second last Hutterite chicken for dinner. I am trying to use up as much as I have since the moving van will arrive on June 24th and I am hoping to have the freezers emptied by then. I don't want to have to fiddle with moving frozen food so who knows what our meals will end up like in the coming weeks.

This Moment

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo many photos- no  a few words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. 


Doing some math at her new (to her) desk in the morning. We have since watered her neglected Peace Lily. :)

Weekend Doings

The days and weeks are seeming to melt into each other and pass quickly. At least something is melting. The days are full of phone calls, estimates, emails, decisions, planning, timing and just plain figuring out stuff. I am so very thankful to have a husband who seems to know what to do at every turn. There are a lot of turns. It makes me wonder how other people do this. There are a crazy number of hoops to jump through and a permit must be submitted and paid for for each hoop! I am not complaining about the nature of the hoops though. It is good to have regulations for the safetey of our groundwater! (This is coming from the wife of a ground water guy.)

 

I knew that our dream of living on a little homestead would not be without its share of work. I know it will all be a distant memory when we are all settled in. I can't wait. It is just the living in between that is hard, you know? One foot in one place, one foot in another. Paul is trying so hard to be that one guy who gets in his house earlier, rather than much later, than expected. He may just pull it off. As it stands now, the people who bought our home take possession on July 1st. Paul thinks that we could be in our new house by the third week of June. Wouldn't that be grand? I was thinking we would have to rent a furnished place for the whole summer. I may come back to eat these words but I am really noping not to have to.

 

 

 

We went out to see our house last weekend. It "lives" about 20 minutes down the road from here. We were excited to see the progress since the last time we saw it there was little but the shell completed. We were thinking how funny it was that we liked the house so much when there was nothing really "in" it to like. It is a nice quite drive out there. Our heart rates seem to slow down each time we head into the country. It is a good thing.

The kitchen cabinets were in and the sink Paul picked out was in too. Not all finished up but mostly done. They are waiting on the hardwood to go in before they do the finishing touches. All of the light fixtures were in too. My goodness there are a lot of them. The living room has a ceiling fan, pot lights AND wall sconces.

 

 

 

I had them change this built in glass shelved and doored china cabinet to a book shelf for my cookbooks. I am not the fancy glass china cabinet type of girl, nor do I have fancy china to go into it. :)

 

The ceiling is vaulted throughout so we have these wide open spaces above the walls for plants or maybe nothing. I am thinking plants because that front window is south facing. It will be good to clean the air from all those new building materials. Although we are going as "green" as possible with what we can, I am sure it will have its share of VOCs.

Paul went to the farm, as we like to call it, on Saturday to meet with the surveyor and the basement guy. They measured out and placed the house in just the right spot, or so Paul hopes I think it is just the right spot. He also had to figure out where the well will go, where the septic tank will go, where the mound system will go and where the power box will go. We are getting 200amp farm service so there is no need to have the box mounted on the house. Again, I am so thankful that he knows what he is doing. In fact, he always seems to know exactly what to do, except which buttons to press on the stove to turn which burner on. He has yet to master that.

We also had Athena's dance recital. She worked hard all year and was excited to show us. She had a tap dance and a ballet dance. The costumes cost a stupid amount but she thought they were lovely, of course. There was no makeup required, which is the thing I like about small town dance studios.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I leave you with her tap dance. And as you watch it, I'll be making more phone calls, packing up some boxes, emailing about 100 people and trying to fit some homeschooling in on the sidelines. Phew!

 

(Well I guess that didn't work. I'll try to fix it later. Have a nice day!)