Faux studio shots

This is my alternative to the studio shot of Rowan that was taken in Edmonton and was out of focus, not to mention totally uninspired. The photographer was inexperienced in working with small children and we couldn't seem to get him to look at the camera, never mind put on a decent face (that's what you get for cheaping out at Wal-mart). Anyway, when I got home I figured I could do better and this is the result. I think it looks professional enough. Rowan is usually smiling and cooing away and if David would leave the camera home long enough for me to get a shot of him I might get one of his great big smile, it's so cute! David just got a new lens that's about a foot and a half long, something I would never be able to operate with any sucess, so that must mean it's time for me to invest in a little point and shoot type (my favourite) and maybe I'll actually get some more photos on this blog. Merry Christmas everybody!

Farewell Dog

Free to a good home. Killer dog, especially fond of goats, cats, cattle, and deer. Otherwise friendly (ie. no human attacks to date), fairly quiet, and was once voted number 1 dog on Whyte Ave. Any takers? Responses must be prompt as my patience has reached it's final end and dog is about to make a one way trip to the edge of eternity. Did I mention the chickens? Also fond of chickens. I had actually made some "free to a good home" posters in the spring when my patience was being strongly tested (but had not reached its end) and I sure regret not following through with them at that time. Five chickens, two goats and nearly a kitten later, I have no more mercy for this animal, though it has taken us some time to conclusively determine who was the destroying culprit. We even had to get some help from Fish and Wildlife, whom I called after the grievous death of our goats. Thanks to F&W I learned to determine what creature most likely caused the death by skinning the animal down and inspecting bruises and punctures, gory yet interesting. Maybe I'll include details on another posting. (We wanted to know for safety reasons if it was a cougar or wolf related attack) Despite her many short-comings though, Kona was a great tree-planting camp dog, good traveller, and cute besides. Here's a final farewell to Kona, hope you have better luck wherever you end up.

Extending the flock

We just can't seem to stop extending the flock! This lovely little budgie we've named Bartholemew (one of David's favourite names, I call him Bartie) and he just started to give a few little chirps today, a sign that he's feeling more at home. I know nothing about domestic birds but I had envisioned that when my greenhouse gets built this winter (hopefully), I would create in it a safe haven for tame birds that they might encourage the plants with their song. Seeing as we seem to get everything in pairs (2 dogs, 2 llamas, 2 more llamas, 2 goats, 2 cats, 2 boys) I expect another bird will be arriving shortly.


These next pictures are for especially for you, Hero. David thinks we should start sending photos to food companys and get Lucas into advetising. He certainly is photogenic.

Let me think now, do I have any vents for today.... no, none today, I know you're all sorry to hear that.

Cats

I'm trying something new. In my scant half hour of spare time today (thanks to my wonderfully sleepy baby and equally wonderful caring husband) I did a little web surfing and discovered the wonderful tool of snooping on other peoples blogs by searching their locations (ie. Rocky Mountain House) or interests. It was devilishly similar to reading someone elses mail, yet totally kosher, besides, we all know that what you say on the net is everyone elses buisness. Unfortunately searching Rocky Mountain House did not result in anyone of interest (to me) but I thought I would add a bunch of "interests" to my profile and see if anyone happened to look me up. Kinda fun don't you think? I was somewhat inspire to be a bit more bold with my postings, considering I've been tiringly neutral, and considering I have very few vent venues, why not use this as one.




But before I get on with my venting I have to address the issue of Dijeree Doo (I know I'm spelling that wrong but haven't had time to look it up). That is what we have tentatively named our rescue cat who is now attacking my foot with kitten-like fury. We rescued him out of a deep crate in the corner of the work shop, apparently abandoned by his mother (actually I don't know how to tell if it's he or she so we go with he). Anyway, with a new baby and an aggressive toddler in the house, this poor kitty is not getting the TLC it deserves and needs a new home. Any takers? Besides which, our fat cat, Kyoto, has taken a dislike to this little intruder and has not yet attacked though I do fear the day is approaching...

Now on with the venting. What's with all these newly developed parenting techniques that are supposed to make my life easier, I mean the ones that have been cropping up in the past 150 years or so. Kind of like how communication technology is supposed to bring people closer together. As if! I've never been so alone in my life and it's only getting worse. I could easily go a whole month without seeing a single member of my extended family or a single close friend, the kind I feel comfortable having a real conversation with. I blame the industrial revolution and the dissolution of the extended family. Honestly, why can't we all go back to cave man style parenting. I mean it worked for thousands of years, why do things have to change when I come along. I think I should have lived 2000 years ago, living on nuts and berries, spinning and weaving sturdy garments, washing wood smoke out of my hair with home-made soap, and chanting hymns to the full moon. Anyway, back to parenting, my world, life, and pet peeve right now. I feel like I am a little lonely boat in a huge empty ocean when it comes to "attachment parenting", a coined term that I've discovered most accurately represents my parenting philosophy. In a nutshell, let your kids sleep where they're comfortable and feel safe (with you, in your bed), feed your baby as much as he wants when he wants cause his body knows best, take your kids with you when you go places (carry baby in a sling), birth your babies at home (if you can), and don't count only on the school ciriculum to teach your kids, teach them what you know too. As simple as that all may sound to the non-parent, would you believe how much I have had to defend these convictions. If not out-loud (and usually I don't have the energy to argue my case) then I defend them in my mind which eventually leads to a mentality of constant defensiveness. Not really what I had in mind when I first became a parent. Like I said though, I feel pretty much alone on the whole matter, not that I critisize the parents that I know cause everyone must follow their own inner light, but I guess one is always surprise to find themselves travelling a path alone when they thought they were following a well-trodden course. Most likely my parenting convictions will change as I become older and wiser. Perhaps I will become a shining light so someone who also feels alone. There, I vented, aaaaaah! (I think that was the sound of a sigh of relief from my husband who was just saved from being a vent venue for the day) By the way, the picture way up there is of Lucas with his dad in bed, eating popcorn, with Lucas making his last clever attempts to resist bedtime. Yes, that is a queen sized bed that we ALL share with no difficulty, Lucas (18 months), Rowan (3 weeks) and their happy parents.

A Beautiful Fall Day

I couldn't resist getting a photo of Rowan in the bright fall leaves. Good thing I got the picture when I did cause now it's COLD!

Rowan Forest Robert

Our precious little boy was born Monday, September 25, 2006, at 3:00 AM. We had planned a home birth in Red Deer but Rowan decided he didn't want to go that far and was born with hardly a moments notice at our midwife's house in Rocky.

Rowan weighed in at 9lbs 8oz. with a 37cm head and 57 cm (22 in.) long.


We were all surprised that the labour was only 3 hrs long and Rowan was 2 min. away from being born en route in the car. Luckily our considerate midwife, Barb Bodiguel, had the forsight to prepare her guest bedroom for us just in case things progressed quickly and sure enough, Rowan was in a huge hurry.

He is a beautiful, brown haired, chunky little angel and Lucas is very enamoured by his newest "pet". Lucas rubs Rowans head very gently and tries to give him food and toys. We feel truely blessed with our two beautiful boys.

Lucas on the Harley

We had a great visit with Uncle Colin (David's brother) and Rhonda when they came out to the ranch. Lucas got to stay up late and socialize and Rhonda took some great photos of him and his Uncle. I think Lucas has a lot of the Williamson features in his blood cause so many of these pics remind me of the shots I've seen of his cousin Levi (Colin's son).

I can't remember if Lucas was on the Harley last time Colin brought his bike down so I won't call this his first Harley ride but pretty close. Uncle Colin even let fire up the engine.

Morning chores on the farm are becoming the highlight of the day. Lucas has been learning to feed the chickens and he's pretty proud of his feed scattering abilities. I've tried to teach him to throw it far away from his bare little toes; I'd hate for one of his little toesies to get pecked. The chickens follow him around and he loves the attention. In the meantime I have to try to keep the goats occupied so they don't come and steal all the food out of his container.

Latest addition

The herd is complete (for now). We picked up Juniper, a one year old milk goat from our neighbours so Cedar now has a goat companion, though Cedar seems to prefer the llamas because Juniper is a little wild. Our fences have been bunted, bashed and bruised by our newest herd member and I'm proud to say my amatuer fencing skills have passed the aggresive goat test. Unfortunately I have no pictures of Juniper yet cause our camera battery charger has gone the way of the wild turkey. Replacement parts are on their way, though for my snap happy husband they can't seem to get here soon enough. Maybe tomorrow...

Goats!

Hooray! We had a little family outing yesterday and picked up our first milk goat, Cedar (she was already named and I call her Cedarina, it just sounds more feminine). It was a bit comical with me driving our battered and bruised pick-up and David squashed in the "back seat" with the loudly bleating goat. Lucas looked on with wide eyes from his rear-facing passenger position as we bumped along the gravel road. Amazingly he actually fell asleep on the way despite the loud rattling of the truck and baaaing of our 3 month old goat.

The goat promptly escaped from it's new pen (what was supposed to be Lucas's play yard) and we chased it around and around before David finally had to put Lucas to bed and I crashed off into the bushes for one last try. I finally caught up with the little bugger in some thick brush close to the property line and after failing to catch, pounce, lasso and coax the fearfilled creature back, I, in desperation, started bleating to the best of my human ability and wouldn't you know, that darn goat followed me all the way back to the pen echoing bleat for bleat. Thank goodness Cedarina has now accepted our big mamma, Loretta the llama, as it's surrogate mother and no further escape attempts have been made.

Sambuca (Sambo) seems happy now to have another small sized friend and I've seen him do a few acrobatical little jumps and twirls as if he's trying to impress his new herdmate. I forgot to mention in the last story that while we were chasing little Cedar round and round, our male llama JoJo was making the strangest hee-hawing noises. Honestly, I'm sure he was laughing at us and maybe I would have been laughing to if I hadn't been so out of breath.

I have to include a picture of Kona who has been feeling rather left out in all this new activity. She likes to chase the chickens when left out unsupervised, I had to practically pull one out of her mouth the other day, so sometimes she's only out of the kennel for an hour or so a day. Poor puppy! Here's a photo on the internet to make up for it Kona! Now grandma's cats are coming over to tell me that I forgot to feed them today. I guess I'll brave the nighttime mosquitoes or they'll come and raid my cat's food (the expensive stuff... $45 bucks a bag for CAT FOOD! I'm way to much of a softie).

Busy June

Where does time go? My ambitious goal was to have at least a monthly blog but it looks like that might turn into a bimonthly blog. Insomnia is great for catching up on things. So much has happened in month of June, we got our long awaited Aurucana chickens (that lay green eggs) and built a chicken tractor for them. I'd love to post pics but I think they're on the other computer and that's just way to much fiddling. Maybe I won't sleep tomorrow night and find them for y'all.

More recently Loretta the llama finally had her baby... I was beginning to think she was just fat and not pregnant. Loretta is the brown one and we've named her little boy Sambo, he is SO soft! JoJo is the black male checking out his new herdmate in the picture.


I hope Lucas and Sambo will be good friends, they're off to a good start anyway. Loretta is a bit wild and tries to herd her baby away from me but I'm trying to work with him every day and I"m hoping he'll be the first of our llamas to handle easily.


It's been hot and sunny, perfect summer weather, and Lucas has fun in his wading pool. The pool has also become Loretta and Sambo's drinking hole cause we have them penned up in Lucas's newly fenced in back yard (wish I had a picture of that too cause I'm pretty proud to have dug the post holes, wired up the fence and made 3 gates for this yard all by myself).

Last Yukon blog

Here's a couple pictures of Lucas going down the slide. We do a lot of "parking" to wear off that extra energy and turn down the squirm in the car factor.


This picture is NOT of Lucas choking but he's not really liking broccoli on this particular day.

We've had such a wonderful time in Whitehorse and we leave tomorrow afternoon for the Alberta oil country. Bye bye Yukon (Lucas waves whenever I say bye bye)!

Snowy Yukon

These are snowy mountains about an hour away from Whitehorse. It looks like they just had a foot of new snow and we couldn't resist jumping in.

The last few days in Whitehorse have been cloudy, cold and snowy but Lucas is optomistic and looking like a hot northern guy. We've been busy hiking and park playing and doing cold weather stuff like watching movies with popcorn. Hero says last year the it was t-shirt and shorts weather. Well, we can't have all the luck.

Adventures in Whitehorse

This is a fine shot of Lucas choking (yeah, call me a bad mom) but we didn't realize it at first. Hero (the nurse) though he was just making a cute face. Nothing serious, but we almost died laughing through the rest of our fine Mexican meal (I was the next one to start choking).

Here's Lucas and I doing a self portrait in the Yukon! Those big blue eyes are major chick magnets... go Lucas! We've been here one week and are starting to love the place. Whitehorse is a cool town with cute shops, NICE places to eat and tonnes of trails! A resort compared to Rocky Mountain Hole.

This is Lucas at Miles Canyon. We went for a nice walk along the Yukon river and I ended up getting distracted by crocuses and taking a little bunny trail over rock and roots and up a huge gravel hill. We finally had to turn around when I decided against scaling a cliff with the chariot in tow (tempting as it was). We had to take a little photo break so I could catch my breath; five months of pregnancy tends to squish the lungs you know.

Here's Hero and Lucas in Skagway, Alaska. We had a great day trip and even found a very intriuging orange "PMS" pylon. (No David, I didn't take it). The canal was beautiful and the drive was fantastic from bare gravely mountains to white snowscapes to misty waterfalls to sunny seaside.

Sunday outing

This is a photo from last weeks Sunday outing when we went to Cow lake and drove down a bunch of backroads trying to get a feel for the place. Lucas is an amazingly co-operative passenger as long as he has his BOTTLES! Doesn't David look great with a little babe in his arms? Soon we'll have two hunnie bunnies...

Greening

We've had some busy days, seeding bare pasture land, researching natural chicken feed, designing a chicken and goat barn that will also serve as a livestock vehicle in case of emergency evacuation (due to forest fires). We had a burn barrel wild fire scare recently that has moved us toward taking extra precautions.

Lucas and I will be heading up north soon... more postings to come from the Yukon!