Coming up for air

When I don't blog for over a week it means one of two things; I'm extremely busy or sick... funny how those two things slammed right into each other last week. I thought the two weeks before the end of school was busy but that week slid right into the next. Another dentist appointment, another child to pick up from a field trip, blood work in Lillooet... yup busy week alright and it felt as if I lived in my truck. It didn't help that I finally had enough of a "football feeling in my throat" and panicking when I couldn't breath, then drove myself into the ER on Saturday afternoon.


After about a 20 minute wait the dr. asked me all kinds of questions, prodding, and poking me and then diagnosing me with "sub acute thyroiditis." Well now I had a diagnoses and a reason why I got it (from the flu four weeks ago!) ... but he couldn't really do anything for me except assure me that I wouldn't suffocate, and I felt better knowing that. I won't bore you with all the details and now I'm waiting for blood tests I had last Monday to come back and tell me if I have a hypo or a hyper thyroid... still no word and it's been a week, I think I'm going to have to call.


Just before all this happened Hubby got a week off work. In that time our skidder went out on a lowbed, spent the night just outside of Lytton, and then came back. The company that hired it was able to get their own machine from the Gold Bridge fire so ours wasn't needed and came back home.


Here's Hubby loading it onto the bed.





Gee if I would have stood in the same place the next day I would have had a picture of it coming in the driveway :)





Numerous trips into Lytton and road construction only added to the time I spent in the truck. I'm not complaining because it's nice to see Highway 12 actually being worked on.





The graduation and awards day went well. Jevan graduated from Kindergarten! You might notice in the picture the HUGE dirt mark on his pants... I've been without a washer for almost two weeks :( Dallas was doing a load when it stopped pumping and started to make some noise. After the laundry room flooded, then the water ran under the wall into the bathroom, I was fit to be tied. We don't have any laundromats in Lillooet or Lytton so I was making due until Sears shows up... well that didn't last for long...



Last Friday Hubby and I drove into town and picked up the cheapest washer we could find so when my big one is fixed I'll have a backup (I got tired of finding our "cleanest dirty clothes" to wear.) The Sunday before last Hubby tried rigging up an old wringer washer on my back porch... and I would have used it if the agitator wasn't broken! Even the new cheap washer was hooked up to a garden hose on the porch until Hubby just HAD to borrow the hose to water the lawn... I then dragged the washer across the back room into our bathroom and it now shares the hoses and drain from the washer in the laundry room which is behind the wall... us girls gotta do what we gotta do to have clean towels, sheets, panties!! :)


Miss Veenstra and Mrs Bayda, and Jevan with his diploma. (I would have cloned out the dirt but hey I'm a "tell all kinda gal.")





Both kids received school attendance awards, something new this year because normally they only give them out for 100% attendance, Sydney had 99% (she missed one day, two total in two years) and Jevan 90%. Jevan also received a "curiousity and willingness to learn new things" award (quite a mouthful there!) and an award for completing all homework packages. Sydney received a second attendance award for her class as well as the Royal ROAR award for social responsibility. If you're wondering about the spelling of "curiousity" (curiosity) this is how it's spelled on the award and it looks like someone might have had trouble with it because it's actually printed over white-out. Maybe it should have been called the "inquisitive and willingness to learn new things" award?

Mr. White and Sydney, with Mrs O'Conner (the principal) looking over. Mrs O'Conner has been one of the best principal's I've ever had to deal with and does wonders for LES. It will be sad for Sydney come grade 6 because Mr. White has been her teacher for the last three years but won't be teaching grade 6 for her next school year. :(
(Oh, by the way Mr. White, I had a talk with your Mom at the Mcbeth play and we both think you should shave)... I have no idea if he reads my blog but I really did have that chat with her LOL.





Well now you know where last week was spent... please Lord let this week be a calm one, even though Hubby gets Friday off, my Aunt and her granddaughter and great granddaughter are coming on Tuesday for a night (I love you tho' AB!!), the Sears repairman will be here tomorrow, and the person that buys up my eggs always shows up tomorrow as well ;)


Oh before I leave you... I submitted a picture for the weekly DPS assignment. This week it was "F/16," you had to set the aperture on your camera to F/16 and snap a pic. Here's my submission. It sort of calms me when I look at it, I hope it does the same for you :)

Red Chair

This week's assignment over at DPS is "Chair." First thing I thought was "How do I make a chair interesting?" All week visions of chairs danced through my head until I had one of those "aha" moments. I tossed around a few ideas and finally came up with what I wanted.


I had to wait until Hubby came home from work on Friday to implement my plan and said to him "What do you think of putting one of our red leather chairs in the field with Sydney sitting in it holding her guitar wearing a cowboy hat? Oh, and by the way, I'd like the cows to be in the background."


I almost fell out of my chair when he simply said "Sure." He lugged the big heavy chair out to the upper horse pasture, weaving in and out of a temporary fence I'd put up near the pool, eventually setting it down with the curious cows quickly surrounding it. All the while I'm thinking "he must really love me." It was either that or the fact that I hadn't cooked supper yet ;)


After taking 120 pictures I finally weeded them down to two. Then settled on one.




The other picture was this one but I think it lacks focus on the chair.



Which one do you like better?

Osprey and her chicks

After dropping Jevan off at the school for his early morning field trip, Sydney and I parked at the old hospital in Lytton and we took a walk across the road.  Standing on the Chief David Spintlum bridge you can see across to a large nest with an Osprey and her chicks.


I'm making these pics a bit large but I was so far away it was tough to get up close pictures, if the right side of the picture is cut off click on the pic to go to flickr and get a full view.


The nest is huge and doesn't look at all comfortable!




The chicks are rather ugly looking little creatures and when they finally showed they came up fighting each other.




It looks like she's looking down at her babies and giving them a stern talking to :)  (Kind of reminds me of my house lol).



For a sec I thought she was going to haul off and belt the little buggers... but she just stretched her wing ;)




You know, sometimes I'm really amazed at how many animals I see on a trip into Lytton.  In one day I saw the Osprey and her chicks, a deer crossed in front of me on the road, three marmots, one very dead doe laying on the side of the highway, a herd of baby sheep and then Sydney spotted a grouse and another deer, I think the only thing missing was the bears and coyotes.  Quite often I see more animals than cars on Highway 12.  Thursday was my sixth trip into town and now I can hang up my keys until I have to drive into Lillooet on Monday and two trips into Lytton on Tuesday.  I have burned more fuel in the last four days than I have in moons... time to take a break! :)

Sydney has posted some pictures of herself performing as Lady McDuff in their Macbeth play, the reason for most of my trips into Lytton this past week.  If you'd like to check them out visit her blog: Doodles.


Have a great weekend everyone! :)

A Rainbow

I sometimes wonder how us parents bite our tongues and control laughter when our kids say stuff? Last night, as Jevan and I were leaving to pick up Sydney at the school, Jumbo, one of my chihuahuas, is trying to jump in the truck. I don't usually take any of the dogs with us when I'm heading into town because it's too hot in the summertime to dare leave them in the truck, even for a few minutes. Anyway Jumbo is desperately trying to get in and I tell him "Down Jumbo you have to stay home." He whines a bit and mopes back to the house, and I feel guilty leaving him behind.

I say to Jevan "Darn Jumbo, I wish he wouldn't do that."

My six year old replies so seriously "Yeah Mama, those dogs are really pissing me off."

After the initial shock, he gets a stern talking to, but you wonder where the heck he picks this stuff up and make a mental note to watch my own language :)

As we are heading down the driveway all is forgotten a few minutes later when Jevan hollers "Hey Mama there's a rainbow!" I quickly grabbed my camera and caught this:




We could see the whole rainbow but there was no way I could get back far enough to take a picture of it all... and that really p*ssed me off! (I'm kidding, I'm kidding!) lol

Woody the stinker

On Sunday I was heading for the pond to take pictures of the water lilies. It was a bust, and after seeing a snake hanging beside me in one of the trees and then suddenly leap into the water, the red ants EVERYWHERE, and the lilies hidden behind the willow branches making the shots difficult, I decided to head over to the barn and snap some pics.


I did manage to get a couple of pictures but nothing spectacular. I've never seen these flowers down at the pond before and when Sydney came up telling me I NEEDED to get down there and take some pics I thought I'd best listen to her :) I'm pretty sure they're water lilies but I'll have to ask Grandma to be sure, maybe she planted them there??





I have no idea what kind of flower this is. Any ideas?





Woody is one of the horses on the ranch that I really like because he's quite the character. He's the first horse to run up and sniff you out, mind you I think he's checking to see if you have food :)





So I have my tripod all set up to take pics of the barn and Woody is in the way, more like his butt is in the way. "Move Woody," I tell him. Nothing. "C'mon Woody get out of the way!" Nothing.





Then I get this.




Yup he's a stinker all right, but I love him ;)

I really think my blogging is going to suffer this week because I have six separate trips to Lytton! Yeesh it's gonna be a busy week spending most of my time in the truck. Hopefully I see some bears, deer, or something exciting on the way in or back. I love that my Hubby left me a note on my laptop when he headed for work this morning "A little bit of driving but they'll love you to pieces" was one part... why didn't all this happen last week when he had the whole week off? I always threaten him that I'm going to get a job outside our home so I can relax ;)

Baby Rattlesnake

A few years ago my BIL, Mike, brought me down a full grown rattlesnake to take pictures of. This time he brought me a baby he found under his trailer, actually it was my nephew who found it and Mike captured it. After trying to figure out how to take pictures of it without endangering ourselves I brought out the camera. I had emptied a large clear tub, took a window from the living room, and then placed it over the tub.


Here's some pics and a short video.












Hubby took the baby over to the old dump and let it go. As long as it stays far, far away from my house this little guy has a right to live.... but if I see him again there's no telling what I might do! ;)

Jevan PALS

Tuesday was the last PALS at the school. Jevan has never gone and when his teacher specifically asked me if he could attend when we were at the parent/teacher interview, and then sent a note home in his backpack, I thought I'd best take him. We had fun and I'm glad I went.


I have no idea what PALS stands for but the kids make crafts, sing songs (we didn't get to because it was running late), and we even had a Chinese dinner the teacher ordered in. Wow there was a TON of food!





Miss Veenstra first explains all the crafts and then you circulate throughout the room to the different craft tables.





I certainly have noticed a big improvement in Jevan's crafting skills. He can now hold scissors and cut really well, and is much better at putting things together.





Here he is making a fish tank.





This little piggy went to market but he changed it to this little "cow" went to market.





On the way back I stopped along the highway and took pictures of the sunset. The smoke from the Gold Bridge fire is sure making things appear different around here.









The fire has grown to 8000 hectares, has 230 firefighters (250 total with support staff), 15 helicopters, and 50 pieces of heavy equipment on it and I believe there's been a few structures lost but I don't know if it's homes, barns, etc. Reports of injured grizzly bears are starting to come in with orders to the RCMP to shoot on sight. They've lost their homes too and after surviving the fire they are shot, really a sad situation. The fire has been reported as "human set" and I hope this makes whomever did it think twice!

Cactus bloom

The other night Hubby and I took a quick run to the river.  I wanted to see if the cactus was in bloom because the last few times we've been down there they haven't been.  We were in luck!


Click the pictures to see them larger at Flickr.


A lone flower.




Almost ready to bloom.




It's not a good idea to wear crocs to the river because those cactus barbs really got stuck in my shoes!








As we were driving along the top road I spotted a few Canada geese but they heard me long before I got over to take pictures.  They gently floated out into the current and swiftly sailed down the river.  They were quite a distance away when I snapped this picture.

The Birthday Bash

We weren't going to have a party but then people start showing up and a party happens anyway :)


Both my younger kids are born in June, only three days apart (+5 years).  We always combine their birthdays and it works out great!


Sydney loves her birthday!  This year we bought her a new bike and gave it to her early.  I did a quick shoot in my studio to try out my new black backdrop, her and I had a blast, and here she is clowning it up!





Her fav present was her new rubbers covered in daisies.  She'll look great out on the field changing pipes :)  And the bonus is they fit me too! lol




I really tried to buy Jevan a mini-quad for his birthday but when I went to Kamloops on Monday, all three of the bike shops were closed.  I settled for Toys R Us and went nuts in there for him.  Here he is with his new sprinkler.  I should post a pic of his remote controlled tarantula but it's freaky looking and very, very ugly!





Lexi and Dallas were out but I didn't get a picture of Lexi wearing a birthday hat :(  But she was full of smiles when she saw her Nana LOL!  Her two bottom teeth are really starting to show and I'm sure she's teething again because look at that drool!

Goldbridge Fire

I don't know why the news keeps reporting it as "The Lillooet Fire" because Goldbridge is a good two hours away from us and we are in no danger. I guess because Lillooet is the closest town and they've set up an evacuation center at our Rec Center. Tonight on the news they said the fire is only 15% contained and it's up to about 850 hectares, I would imagine that number went higher today. It's hot and our temperature was at least 36C/96.8F today, even sitting here typing this post at just after 10 PM it's still 26C/78.8F outside. Lillooet has a dry heat and even if there is a wind in the air it's hot air, very much like a blow dryer on you.

Any pictures can be seen larger on my flickr site or by clicking the picture.


I was outside taking pictures of the smoke today and it's really getting thick around here.






This picture was taken in Febuary and you can see quite a difference.






This is almost directly across the river from us so it's quite close and the smoke is even thick right here on the ranch.






And this is looking towards town, Goldbridge is farther past Lillooet in the same direction. You can't even see the large mountains the smoke is so thick.






Unless we get some wind, which is not good for the fire at all, or some rain, which would be much, much better, I think this smoke is going to hang around for awhile.





Hubby called from camp today and told me that it's so hot where he's working (just outside of Chilliwack towards Vancouver) they are shut down all next week due to fire hazard. Then this morning the local fire department put out a call that there is a complete ban on all fires for our area, including camp fires, backyard fires, ceremonial fires, any fire.

Sydney keeps asking if we will have to evacuate and I keep telling her everything is going to be fine for us. It's her 11th birthday today and she's more concerned with the fire than she is anything else. I bought her a new bike when I zipped over to Kamloops on Monday and because she helped unload the truck when we got home she immediately saw it in the back. I let her have it on Tuesday morning but because Jevan's 6th birthday is on Sunday we most likely are having a weiner roast and such on Saturday. Hopefully by then the fire has died down and everyone can get back to their homes and my youngest daughter can relax and let her guard down.

My prayers and thoughts are with all the residents and firefighters up in Goldbridge, Bralorne, Tyax, and the Gun Creek area... stay safe!

PS I'm trying to fix an error on my blog so you will notice some changes, some good, some not so good, while I work out the problem.

Baby Robin rescued!

Today Sydney and I rescued a baby robin we found on the shop floor. The "floor" is actually the ground and the shop is an open shop so there was no way we could leave it because the cats would have had it by morning. The nest she/he fell from is in the rafters of the shop and we don't have a ladder tall enough to get up there. The baby could hop but it couldn't fly at all.





The parent (not sure if it's the Mama or the Daddy) was none too happy with us. He/she came swooping down a few times before we moved the baby over to the corral and left it to hop away under a board. At first we had two of them swooping down at us, but when I gathered the dogs up and headed back up to the house there was just the one.





A few more pictures of the baby.