Day 3!!

Well day 3 saw us leaving our B&B and heading North again in the rental car. We had to be in Port Hardy by 1 ish and we made it. Barely. The drive was about 4 hours and it rained almost the whole time. On and off. We stopped at one town to buy more batteries for the camera and spent almost a hour looking for a fuel station and buying batteries. The town was amazingly short on fuel stations. Port Hardy was worse. They only had 1 that we could find. Oh and the price of fuel jumped 12 cents between the 2 towns. (about 2 hours apart!!) There was quite a bit of traffic on the road mostly truckers and RVs pulling boats. Papa passed LOTS of them and managed to get out in front and then it was clear sailing all the way to Port Hardy. When we got to Port Hardy we checked into our hotel (honeymoon suite!!) and topped off the car before bringing it back. The car rental guy was the friendliest guy we meet on our entire trip. He chatted about everything. Telling us a lot about Port Hardy and what to do and where to eat. He suggested we take a trail down to the river and watch the bears come out to eat the salmon that were getting ready to go up river. Papa and I thought about it for a bit but ultimately decided NOT to. In a car... yes. On foot 20 minutes walk from the nearest town?? No thanks. We've seen lots of bears and didn't feel like being prey. Though it would have been fun in a car. Instead we found a local diner and had lunch and walked along the few streets that had little stores on them. But it really was a foul dock area. Smelly and growing and gross and we didn't spend too much time there. Of all the docks we saw this was the worst. The people were not super friendly and there was very little to do. Thankfully we only had the afternoon and evening to spend there. So we headed back to the hotel and watched the wharf from the balcony and took pictures of the boats where we didn't have to smell gross rotting fish. On the other side of the bay from us was a cannery and a log yard. The cannery had fishing boats unloading (though we couldn't see much.) but the log yard was COOL. They had these little tough boats that blew BLACK smoke (which is how we noticed them.. you could barely see them in the logs) and they worked as skidders and moved the logs here and there. Then a self loader loaded his truck with these logs that the skidder boats brought him. It was neat to watch them move the logs around in the water. The salmon were congregating in the harbor and doing a lot of jumping. We could hear them every few seconds..Plop. Plop. It was cool. Even when it got dark we could still hear them. They will go up the rivers soon. The room had a big tub and we had a nice soak to get the smell off us. Watched TV for a bit (They had a VCR but no place to rent movies?? Weird town.) and went to bed early so we could be ready for our Ferry shuttle at 5 am!!! The room at the hotel.

A salmon jumping.

The little skidder boats.

A Port Hardy sign.

The wooden carrot. If you can, read the sign. Kinda neat.

A huge sail boat that came into Port Hardy while we were there. The man working on the boat below thought that the sailboats mast was at least 110 feet tall!!

A character boat in dry dock.

On the road to Port Hardy.

At Port Hardy... See the guy running to get into his picture!

A rain speckled view of a mountain on the way to Port Hardy.

We saw this view a lot during the 1st few hours of our drive.

Some cute signs at our B&B.

Our B&B.

Day 2.

The next morning we ate chocolate crepes at the Bed and Breakfast with about 20 other guests and visited with our table mates from Dallas Texas who though we were amazing to have 4 small children and on our 10 anniversary trip. They also thought it was funny the way Papa and I shared our fruit cups. Papa doesn't like pineapple or kiwi so he gave all of his to me and then after eating all his and most of mine I handed over the rest of my fruit cup for him to finish. After breakfast we left the B&B and headed back down town to take some pictures and have some lunch at the Swans. Papa found the Swans on the Internet before we went and they have micro brews so he had to go!! They also have great food and a beautiful deck to eat it on. Papa got a 6 sampler of beer and loved them all. I had one of their root beer and it was wonderful too. After lunch we headed out to Butchart Gardens over 55 acres of flower gardens. We took a LOT of pictures and (sorry Mom) decided we would pass ever going with Grandma Griggs. LOL. Seriously we walked through it in about 3 hours and Grandma Griggs, we are sure, could spend DAYS there. We would have liked to see it at night too but we had to get a move on. Don't worry Grandma we are planning on putting the pictures on CD and sending them to you!! The Gardens are wonderful. Awesome even. What is also fabulous about them is that part of it (the sunken garden) is in an old pit. There used to be a cement factory there and they completely obliterated any signs of the factory. Oh actually there is one left. There is an old tower standing behind the sunken gardens but other then that. Nothing.
After leaving the gardens Papa and I headed out North up the island to find a place to stop for the night. We had to get to Port Hardy by 1pm the next day or they would charge us for an extra day on the rental car. We had a booklet of B&B's and we drove to one in Nanaimo and they had a room so we left our stuff there and headed out for a night on the town. We went out for supper, we went to a brew pub and Papa had a few samplers. After supper we headed to a movie and then to bed. What a great day. The movie was "The Time Travelers Wife" and it's very good. We both enjoyed it. If you liked "The Lake House" you'll love this one!!

I really like Tugs. Here is another one.

Where we had lunch.

A house I loved!! They were working on it but boy was it nice!!

The Bed & Breakfast. It was build in 1912. I think. :)

Day 1.

Well we hopped on the plane and enjoyed the view from above for the trip. We saw rivers and lakes, mountain and houses. We even saw some smoke from fires. Then all of a sudden there was only water below us and we were dropping dropping and Oh look land and then we were down on the ground rolling along the run way!! What a rush!! We grabbed our bags and headed out to find a bus or something to take us across to the Island and to our rental car. An hour later we were on board a bus and heading for the 1st ferry ride of the trip. We got off the bus on the ferry and spent the next 90 minutes taking pictures and gawking at the scenery. 15 minutes before we docked we ran back to the bus and hopped back on to finish out the trip to Victoria and the rental car. It was only a block from the bus to the rental and 15 minutes later we were on the road exploring Victoria. We had a great day. A seafood lunch on the pier, walking downtown, we stopped and watched a street performer and Papa walked right by another performer covered in white stuff holding so still like a statue and didn't even know it wasn't a statue until I told him later!! We toured the Parliament building, and bought coffee, chocolates and ice cream. We went for a drive along the coast and saw some incredible houses and some neat trees before going and settling in to a B&B for the night. That night we ate a wonderful seafood dinner and totally enjoyed ourselves. Oh and we took pictures. Though we didn't have the camera the whole time so we have no pictures of the inside of the Parliament building or the beautiful stained glass windows. The Parliament Buildings at night.

A piece of farmland on the way. This was pretty much the only piece we saw from the ferry. Papa fell in love with it.

The rest of the piece from above.

Papa and I on the Ferry.

A beautiful place.

A Ferry like the one we were on.

A lighthouse.

A Tug Boat in the Harbor

A Wonderful Thing!!

Papa and I have been married 10 years this fall and we planned a special trip for our 2nd honeymoon/10 year anniversary trip. We knew what we wanted to do but had a really hard time finding a WHEN!! Our anniversary is on Sept 6th which is usually close to a long weekend so we were wanting to go then but we couldn't find a babysitter for that weekend. No one could do it. So we felt God was saying WAIT! So we messed around for a bit thinking and finally came up with a week that would work for our babysitter (my mom) and Papa's work and us!!! When it came all together it was incredibly fast. We got our tickets a mere week before we left. Thankfully we got a travel agent to get them and they did a great job!! So we left our kids with Grandma and Grandpa went home to have a good nights sleep before getting up at 4am so we could drive an hour into the 'city' so we could hop on a airplane and began our 6 day trip!! Here I am with some huge flowers at Butchart Gardens in Victoria.

Here we are on day 2 after our haircuts. Papa's gift to me was his bare upper lip!!

The Easy Way....

Papa borrowed this bobcat to move cow manure from our wintering area to the front so we can mix it with peat moss for the raised beds. This was the 1st attempt. He is going to try it again with the forks of the bobcat and hopefully be able to get it out. The area he's cleaning out is about 24 feet by 12 feet and is under a roof. Here he is in the taking dirt out!! A bit tricky as the bucket won't dig deep and the bobcat doesn't have a lot of traction.

Dumping it in the truck bed trailer instead of hauling it across half the property every bucket full.

Pulling the trailer to the dumping area. Tricky work but Papa's got it down pat!!

Dumping.. Oh wait trying to dump. It refuses to fall out. He had it completely upright!! The next load he tipped it over from the side which he said worked better as it all fell out.

And the Hard Way. Papa had to pitchfork the last half out as it would not come out!! I told him I was taking pictures for proof that he can shovel shit with the best of them!! LOL.

This is the 3rd old one that needed pictures. And actually this project is NOT finished. We only got a few loads done and then it rained. This will be our project for this weekend. Got to get that area ready for winter. Have a wonderful day all!!

It's another BIRTHDAY!!

Papa turned 32 on Sunday and I surprised him with a pie and snacks afternoon with friends. We all totally enjoyed ourselves. The kids had a great time 'picnicking' in the bedroom and playing outside. The adults played '4 on the couch' a fun memory game and the girls won once and so did the guys. Papa loves apple pie so the kids and I made him 4. The boys cut up all the apples and I DID NOT FORGET ANYTHING!!! ( I do sometimes and Papa laughs at me!!) The pies were great and we all had a great time.

This is another one that was waiting for pictures. I have one more :)

Bossy and Beauty.

God answers prayer. It's amazing sometimes how fast. We found out on Tuesday that the bull that we borrowed last fall to breed Bindy was a dud. He had only two calves out of Jim's whole herd of about 60 cows!! So there was no calf. Which explains Bindy's behavior. She did not want to dry up and when we made her she just about stopped eating all together. We were sure that there was a calf but there never was. Which just shows how much we are still learning. Her bagging up we are attributing to being stressed at Mikes and relaxing here. Anyway. Our neighbor with the bull, Jim, brought some of his cows to auction yesterday and stopped in on his way home to pick up Bindy to take her to his place and the bull. She has been a bit of a brat lately and we were quite happy to see her go!! Papa went with him to take the halter and rope home and to check out this cow that Jim got last spring. Jim was telling him it was really tame and possibly had some Holstein in it because of it's size (She is very tall and big boned for a Angus). So the kids and I waited. Papa had not seemed excited about this cow at all and was only going to 'be neighborly' and because Jim was so insistent (thank you Jim) so I had no great hopes. I was sitting on the couch snapping beans when I heard something. Thinking Papa was home I went to look and here he is with a funny look on his face. Then I heard Jim drive up still pulling the trailer. Papa's still not saying anything just watching Jim back down the driveway. So I yelled SO?? Then he laughed and said. SHE"S TWICE AS TAME AS BINDY!!! WAHOOOOO. I called the kids and grabbed the camera and we stood by the window and watched them unload them. Yes. Them. As they were getting ready I asked the kids what they thought was in there. Well. E was SURE it was a horse. The boys didn't know and didn't want to guess. So I tried to give them a hint and said that it was something that mooooo-d. Well E pipes up. Horses don't say MOOO... they say NEIGH!!! I tried several times but she was convinced it was a horse. At this point the boys changed their minds and figured it was a bull. Bindy had not been gone more then a hour and I'm not sure they even noticed she was missing. Even when the big, but rather skinny, all black cow walked out E still thought it was a horse. If it had been it would have been the ugliest horse ever! And then here comes this little black calf. A heifer calf. OH then the noise level hit a whole new level inside. E is screaming about 2 horses. A big one and a little one. L is telling me that 'yup she's a milker.. I can see the milk mom. She looks like she has lots of milk in those things.' J is super excited that there is a 'new calf to watch too. A new cow and a new calf to watch too.' Over and over till I just blocked him out. And little R is standing, barely able to see out the window, screaming ARRR HHHHHHARRHHHh at very near the top of her lungs. I looked down at them all and just laughed. They were SO EXCITED!!! And I was too. But because the window was open and the cow was right there and in a new spot I did my best to shush them. The noise level went down a little bit but the cow never even noticed them at all. She love all that nice green grass that Bindy has been turning her nose up at. Papa figures Bindy will be very happy to have it when she gets back as Jim's pastures are all dried up. That very morning before breakfast the kids and I had prayed and asked God to help us to know what to do with the cow situation. We didn't ask for a new cow that night but that's what we got. They are not ours. We did not buy them but the cow has a bad hip and Jim was going to bring her to the auction unless she works out for us. Jim called her Bossy and so I named the calf Beauty for the one little white dot she has on her cheek. A little white beauty mark on a all black calf. Bossy is about a 100 years old and looks it. Jim says she's probably too old to breed back which is why he's getting rid of her. This from a man who has the oldest cows of anyone we know. Her bag is nice and large and she looks like she'll give a lot more then she is now. Papa and I went out after Jim left and took a closer look at her. Papa milked her in the corral at Jim's and I was SHOCKED when she came over and sniffed me and asked for a pat. She has a ENORMOUS head which none of our halters will fit on. She came over to me twice just for a pat and I told Papa "I could get used to this." Bindy is very offish with people. We're giving them a day to settle and Papa's going to try milking tomorrow morning. She's quite leery of chickens and chases them as much as she can with her bad hip. Beauty is also quite tame and about 6 weeks old. Young enough to tame some yet. If she'll not let us milk then Jim will take her to the auction in 2 weeks. Another wonderful thing about Bossy and Beauty is Beauty!! Papa and I have a back up if we can't milk. Oh and E didn't seem to have any disappointment over the cow and yes she now realizes it's a cow and not a horse. When I told Papa what had all gone on.. he laughed and said. "I guess we are going to have to get that girl a horse yet!!" I wonder if I can get it in writing?? :)

Fathers Day!!

The kids and I had a lot of fun getting ready for Fathers Day this year. We baked Papa these mini apple pies (and YES!! I did forget the flour inside but you should try making pies with kids sometime!!! They were still GOOD!!!) and each of the kids got to pick Papa out a card at the $$ Store and decorate them with stickers and drawings when we got home. Even R got to color on an envelope :) They did a great job!!

And yes I know this is really late. I thought I had posted this already but I was waiting for a better connection to put the pictures up too and it got a bit forgotten!! Sorry.

Fish

Well we headed down to the pond the other day with the camera and the kids. The kids loved the wild strawberries that grow well there and I took a bunch of pictures of my fish. Boy have they grown!! When I put them in they were only about 2 inches and I think, it's hard to tell, that they've doubled in size. 13 survived!! On the way back to the house the kids got a ride in our portable waterer for Bindy. Bindy had been by the pond but Papa had already moved her back closer to the house. So we put them all in and Papa pushed them up to the house.

Lard.

Here are the pictures I promised from my lard rendering day. Here it is cooking down. And cooling and sealing it's self in jars. Note the heavy glove. This stuff is HOT!!! The brown jars are cracklings. I also got 5 yogurt containers of lard (that I froze) and 3 of cracklings.

The cooker. To fill the jars I placed a clean piece of plywood over the top and used it as a table.