Days 7 & 8 - At the farm...and More!

Day 7 - 

The day started with Tara making bread fresh, and doing chores in the barn.  The amount of work that her and the kids do is INTENSE!  Tara also home school's the two older kids for middle school.  The woman really reminds me of "Super Mom".  Not that she tries to be that way, she just is!

Before lunch we managed to get out to the barn to meet the animals.  I wore Jenni in the Snuggli so that Jenni would be safe and also so that she wouldn't get into anything gross.  We met Mikayla's sheep "Hunny Bunny" and her goats "Muffin" and "Salt".  We also met the most hilarious sheep ever, Billy (named for the one and only Billy Coles of BCP), who had the most ridiculous "Bah".  He didn't sound like a normal sheep, oh no! His "Bah" almost sounded like a belch.  It was so funny!  I laughed every time I heard him.  We also met a whole slew of other animals not excluding chickens, turkeys, rabbits, cats, a dog named "Xander", and a big white cow named "Roxie"...and so much more!  After the barn Tara took the baby for me, and we went on a bit of a hike up over the property.

After lunch Jenni went down, so the kids and I played a very fun game for Xbox Kinect.  It was "gym" credit apparently because it was hard work.  Lots of fun though.

Around 3:00 the little kids got home from school and I helped all 4 kids with their animal presentation for the 4H exhibition that weekend.  It was cool!  However, Jenni was able to run around free, and she found a goat turd but thought it was a rock.  Incase you forgot, Jenni really likes to eat rocks.  Luckily I was fast enough to stop her.  No goat poop in her mouth...thank heaven!  That would have been REALLY GROSS!!!!

Tara made a delicious supper and then it was time for the 4H girls to come clean some sheep for the sheering competition.  Those girls were nothing like I thought they would be.  Usually 13/14 year old girls are all "Ew dirt, Yuck mud, Gross poop!"  These girls were all, "It's poop, big deal.  I'm wearing rubber boots"  So, after I put Jenni to bed I brought the monitor out and I too got my hands dirty.  Yes, that's right.  I helped clean sheep...including sheep bum!  Granted, it was REALLY gross, but I can still say that I did it.  :o)

The girls left just before dark and we went inside.  I helped Andrew and Tara make a coat-thing for Hunny Bunny and then went to bed early.  Apparently the fresh air tuckered me out too.

Day 8 - 

I woke up early-ish and got to relax for the morning.  Jenni crawled around the house, and the animals stayed outside...apparently Jenni is entering her "Elmira Stage".  Jenni went down for an early nap because she was grouchy and I got to read a book.  Tara and the kids were outside while Hunny Bunny was getting beautified for competition.  I apparently fell asleep because I woke up to Jenni giggling.  Tara had gotten her up and given her some lunch and just let me sleep.  I was apparently very, VERY tired.

Once Jenni was fed she went back into the snuggli and we went for a giant hike around Andrew and Tara's property.  It is so gorgeous!  We were gone for more than an hour just exploring.  In one field there was a big white bull (cow) and Jenni was convinced that it was a "Bah".  I had an argument with my 1-year-old that went something like this - 

"Bah"

"No Honey.  That's a cow.  Moo"

"Bah, bah"

"No Honey, Moo"

"Bah, bah"   ...etc...

*Five minutes later*

"Bah, bah"

"Fine, whatever!  Think what you want!"

There were also these two giant German Shepherds that we met on our walk, and one of them already had a little too much fun with Xander (picked him up and threw him across the yard) so he got to hang out in Jared's arms instead of being on the ground.  They were huge dogs!!!!

So, we got back to the house just in time for the younger kids to get home.  Makenzie was so in love with Jenni, so she was happy that we were still at the house and was more than thrilled to play with Jenni for the next hour or so while I was getting everything together before Aunty Brenda got there to pick us up.  The kids played Duplo together, and it was really cute to watch!

It was so very sad to say goodbye to such amazing friends.  I didn't any pictures of Andrew, which is very sad, and I didn't actually get to see him that much.  He gets up really early to go to work and then has lots to do around the house and the farm when he gets home.  Luckily, I did get to say goodbye to him when he came to pick up Mikayla (she needed to get her new glasses).  It was very sad to leave them!!!!

Back at Aunty Brenda and Uncle Al's us girls (Emily, Alice and I) got ready for Open Mike (and Donna) night.  It is a really cool artsy gathering at a coffee shop in a town called Wolfville.  People sing, read poetry, play penny whistles and draw.  Alice asked (through Aunty Brenda, of course) me to sing before I even left Alberta so I prepared two Opera pieces (upon request) and a few more modern pieces.  There was a really cool local musician kid, Jesse Potter, who I sang Jason Mraz's "I'm Yours" with.  It was pretty much awesome!  Grammy and Grampie even came all the way out to see me sing.  It was very special!  Alice was drawing people that night, but because of the "necklace incident" she had a pretty horrible cold.  Basically there was a lot of snot and "m's" that sounded like"b's".  It was actually a little bit funny except poor Alice was miserable, so it was a bit less funny.  You should ask her what lesson she learned about little girls with snotty noses and necklaces.  Let's hope it stuck!

We got back to the house around 11 and all of us crashed!  (Aunty Brenda took Jenni home much, much earlier than that, so it was just us older girls getting home that late!)