Valentine's Day

Hmmm, Valentine's Day today.  Not a day that means a thing to me unless it falls on a Saturday and sometimes Sunday.  You see, I have a hubby who works away from home all week and he's one of those types "out of sight out of mind."  Oh he's bought me dozens of roses over the years, and the cards he picks out would really amaze you if you knew him, and he's even bought me a helium balloon once!  But alas it was only if Valentine's Day fell on a Saturday.  The man plans nothing ahead of time so today will come and go like it was any other normal day. But I did have a handsome fella climb out of bed this morning, sleepily look at me, and yawn "Happy Valentine's Day Mama!" and that's good enough for me.

Busy week, getting much better

Wow time sure flies the week the kids get out of school!  Trips to Lytton for field trips, awards day, and anything else that involves school.  So sad that one event was cancelled and that was the end of the year school play.  Sydney was supposed to be Friar Lawrence in Shakespeare’s “Romeo & Juliet.”  Unfortunately all time for the play was to be done outside school hours and I think a lot of kids lost interest, as well as it was a bit of a hassle for parents to give up so much time getting the kids to the school for rehearsals.  Sad really, because I think the arts, drama, etc. should be just as important as sports in school.  I bow to Mr. White and Ms. Peters for the many hours of time and dedication they put into the play and I’m extremely sad to see Mr. White leave Lytton Elementary School.  My oldest daughter was in school for 13 years, Sydney for 7, and Jevan for 2 (I’ve come across a LOT of teachers), Mr. White taught Sydney for grades 3, 4, & 5 and he is the best teacher I have ever dealt with, good luck in your new position Mr. White and if I ever win the lotto you bet I’ll be hiring you full time to teach Jevan & Sydney! :)  I’d also like to thank Chris from Peoples Pharmacy in Lytton for driving Sydney home from the play on a few occasions. :)

Awards Day was a day for me to be proud of the kids!  Both of them received attendance awards, Sydney has only missed 3 days of school in 3 years.  She also received Citizenship, Best Effort, and an AVID award.  Jevan earned himself an Excellent Reading Skills award and a Homework award for completed all 29 of 29 homework packages.  Yup I was beaming when I came out of the school that day! :)

Jevan receiving his Homework Award.

We have new babies on the ranch!  Mildred and her flock.

Cuties for sure!

We did some fishing at the Fraser this past couple of weekends but I swear there’s no fish left in the river because we came up with nothing!  Hopefully things will improve soon.

McGillivray Creek is still running into the river and in the last 18 years I’ve only seen this creek run twice, I do not like that it takes all our soft sitting sand down to the river with it!

We took a drive up to Blue Earth Lake last weekend and Sydney caught her first fish!

After getting lost for over 2.5 hours it was well worth the trip, beautiful place, but I wish we could have spent more time there.

Jevan earned himself a kite for perfect attendance for the month of June and him and I headed up to the field to try it out.  The wind was a tad strong and he had a heck of a time holding it down!

He lost it a few times and here he is winding it in.

And lastly my “Eighties” entry into DPS this past week… yup it was “all about the hair” back then. LOL

For a more “Blue Earth Lake” pictures visit my flickr site:

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Cowboys & Cowgirls!

A few weeks ago I asked Hubby if he wanted to take the kids and I over to the Ashcroft Rodeo.  He said “Rodeo? You?”  He was raised on ranches, rode horses, & milked cows, I, on the other hand, am considered a “town kid” around here.  It doesn’t matter that I went to the Lillooet Rodeo’s when I was a kid, or even attended and worked as the treasurer for Pritchard and we did quite a few rodeos there.  In a way I can see his point, I really don’t have much to do with rodeos unless I am somehow involved or at least know some of the people who are riding in them.  So my sudden interest in the Ashcroft Rodeo sort of surprised Hubby.  But you see there is a method to my madness… I wanted to take some action shots… and what better place than a rodeo! :)

So on Saturday we all jumped in the truck and headed for the 48th Annual Ashcroft Rodeo.

There was breakaway roping.

And lots of barrel racing.

Bull riding is always fun to watch, especially the faces of the guys hanging on the fence.

Ouch!  That looks like it might hurt a bit!

None of the riders made 8 seconds and the bulls all won.

We got dusty and dirty, ate hotdogs, hamburgers, and french fries and had fun.

And what would a rodeo be without a clown to keep us entertained during the breaks.

I can’t remember all four of us heading out to do anything off this ranch so it was a nice break away.  I think next month we are going to head back over that way to see the drag races, after all I still need some more action shots. ;)

For a ton more action pictures of the Ashcroft Rodeo visit the collection at my flickr site:

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Branding 2010

Saturday was our annual branding for the calves and it was the quickest branding I can remember.  Gotta give credit and thanks to the two excellent ropers Les and Del!

A few pictures I’ll post here but the majority you’ll find at my flickr site.

These are my two nephews Dezmond and Mikey.  Mikey’s throwing the calf.

Our brand.

Del going after a calf.

Les going after a white calf.

Hubby tending the irons.

My BIL Mike.

Dezmond taking a calf on.

Our neighbour Rick tries out Hubby’s gloves.

Lee, a long time friend, jumps right in… unfortunately he also fell right over!

Lee and the calf hit the ground at the same time.

Les throwing his rope.

Hubby brands a calf alongside his brother Doug (right) and friend Jeff (left).

It was a great day with wonderful weather, lots of helping hands, and excellent food.

We finished up quite early and all headed over to Grandma’s for lunch.  I cooked a ton of sausage rolls and about 3 dozen cabbage rolls (one day I should blog my recipe).  Two friends fighting over who was going to take home the few cabbage rolls left made me feel good LOL!

For more pictures of the branding visit my flickr site:

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Butchering Day on the Ranch

One day; two cows, and two pigs… busy day.

Thanks goodness we have lots of helping hands on the Ranch because we did two cows and two pigs in short order.  Hubby and I drove the meat into the butcher toot sweet because it was way too warm to hang ‘em.

Mike, Brent, and Hubby.

Pops sharpens his knife.

My BIL, Mike, runs the tractor.  Bonnie, a first time watcher, takes it all in.

Grandma and Aunty Helen work side by side.

Brent, a friend who used to live at the Ranch long before Grandma and Pops bought it, always helps.

A good day’s work for all of us (although I mostly just ran my camera) but I did pitch in for one of the pigs. :)

Fountain Valley Beaver Dams

On Friday Hubby and I took a couple of trips up to the beaver dams in Fountain Valley.  Every year on a continual basis we have to rip sections of the dams apart or the Ranch seriously lacks for water.  If there’s an abundance of water it’s fine but when there’s a water shortage the beavers do not like to share and keep building dams that get much too wide.  We find draining off some of their water helps down here quite a bit.

We go to Fountain Valley Tree Farms which is on private property and we have permission from the owner.

A beaver lodge.

Digging out one of the many dams.

It doesn’t take long and the water quickly subsides.

It was a tad breezy while we were there.

We managed to get one beaver.

The beaver tail.

The topside of the beaver’s back foot.

The ponds the beavers have created have increased quite a bit since last year.

Hubby with a pulaski.

Mikey holding the beaver.

For more beaver and pond pictures visit my flickr site: