Thursday, September 30, 2010

Fall is a beautiful time of year (photo heavy)

It was a lovely day on Wednesday and in the afternoon I cut the rest of the field.  After I did that I took photos of some of the views from around The Acreage.







Last day of September already, no idea where the month has gone too.  I wanted to hold off putting on the heating or the fire until at least October, and I am pleased to say we have managed to achieve that.  My next goal is to try and keep it off until October 8th.

I also got dh's hair cut as well before supper. This must be the fourth time I have cut it and I think I am starting to get the hang of it.....finally!!!  Dh was fed up of paying nearly $20 for a haircut, so I bought some clippers for $100 and I started to cut his hair.  I know the more I do it the better I get.  I also know that another couple of times I will have paid for the clippers by dh not going to the hairdressers.

Trying to save money where ever we can............

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Quilts, quilts and more quilts......







 Now one of the next two photos won best in the show, but despite me asking a couple of people which one won, I never did get a straight answer!!!  Personally I prefer the last one.

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

More photos from the weekend......

There were a number of farm animals at the show on the weekend.  Here are a few.  The goats were so cute, thought they would be fine grass cutters!!


 Click on the photo to see how cute these sheep faces were.


These ones still had their coats on.
 I think pigs would make wonderful pets, but have no idea about them?

Monday, September 27, 2010

Strong and graceful creatures...

More photos from the Great Northern Exhibition.  One of my favourite things is watching the Horse Pull.    The first three photos are from the "light class" of horses; they were lovely, helped by the fact the sun was shining at that time.






 Here are the larger class horses.
 Here they are putting more weights on the sled. 
The winning pair of horses pulled 8,900 lbs, and they pulled that for well over 60 feet.


I didn't realize that Belgians were originally used to pull lumber out of the bush/forest.  Prior to coming to Canada, the only large horse I was familiar with were Shire Horses

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Today's Flower...

These Fall displays were in the beautiful village of Creemore
 If you click on this photo, you will see they also had pumpkins beside some of the displays.  That old Home Hardware store, is like walking into a store from the turn of the century with it's wooden floors and old doors.

For more Today's Flowers photos, please click on the link

Great Northern Exhibition.....(photo heavy)

Dh managed to get home early from work on Saturday so we went to The Great Northern Exhibition, and we both said afterwards what a great time we had.  The only thing that spoiled our day was the weather, as it kept raining, mind you we were dressed for the weather with both of us wearing coats.

We saw a lot of neat things, and I learned a few new things.  I now know more about fan tailed pigeons than I thought I would ever need to know!!  My total knowledge about pigeons is that Jack Duckworth keeps them on Coronation Street!!  It turns out these pigeons are the equivalent to poodles in the dog world; pretty to look at but pretty useless otherwise!!

I took a pile of photos, so I am going to have to split them up over a few days so I don't bore the heck out of you.

One of the things we enjoyed a lot was the mud bog.  I have never seen this before, and was lucky enough to stand next to a guy who was really into it, and explained the in's and out's of it all.

What amazed me was some of these vehicles going through the bog were people's regular on road vehicles.  There was a mobile truck wash there that could if they wanted wash them down.

 This was a pretty neat looking vehicle.  The guy driving it was covered head to foot in mud; all I could think was his poor wife/girlfriend/mother who has to do the laundry!
 They went so fast that the mud just flew everywhere.
 This truck was driven by a young girl and she was really good.
 This was someones regular truck, as it had licence plates on it.
 Here are the tractors putting more mud in the bog to make it harder to get through.
 This was really funny, as one truck got stuck, so the big tractor went in to pull it out with the chains.  Then the tractor got stuck, so now we have a truck and a tractor in there, so they had to put chains on another tractor to pull them both out.  Meanwhile some guys were shouting at the tractor driver to use "something differential???"  I think that was the word, it meant nothing to me, but the gist of it all they all thought the tractor driver was useless!!
 Just another photo of another truck, which by the way, next time we saw it did not look like this, it was covered head to foot in mud. 
If I ever see an advert for this sort of event, I will definitely go, as I thoroughly enjoyed it.  They had a truck pull later on at 5pm, but it was cold and we were not keen on getting wet AGAIN.  However I think next year if it's warmer we will stay for that.

I also said to dh he would have loved doing this if he was 30 years younger, as I would.  Now that we are "old farts" watching is the best thing for us!!!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

A 1956 fridge........

My dear friend called the other day to give me some information.  She was telling me that their fridge had broken and it was only 20 years old.  So I commented that I thought that was a good age for a fridge.  She then told me about the fridge they had at the farm in the shop that they bought in 1956 and was still running fine.

I told her next time they were at the farm I would pop by as I don't think I have seen a fridge that old.  So on Friday morning I went by and took the photos below.


The freezer part does not work, but the fridge part works just fine.  Does anyone have any old appliances that they still use?

The weather was super warm and very windy on Friday, so I decided to take advantage of it and cut the grass.  I think I have half of the total grass cut.  Would love to think I don't have to cut it again but I don't think I will be so lucky!!

Did grocery shopping on Friday morning.  My deal of the week was Royale facial tissue, a pack of six boxes was on for $2.97 and I had $1 coupons.  So I picked up a pack for us and two packs for the food bank........I know it's not food, but people need that sort of thing too.

Got a busy weekend ahead of us.  Hope you enjoy your weekend.

Gill


Friday, September 24, 2010

Cute........

Dd was nominated to make a cake and 60 cup cakes for her boyfriends cousins baby shower this weekend.  Luckily her "future" mother in law is baking the cupcakes for her, and dd will decorate them.  Below is the "topper" for the cake.  She has bought a cupcake tree and is decorating that as well.



I will post a photo of the finished cake and cupcakes when dd sends me one.  By the way the baby will be a boy and the colour theme is tiffany blue and brown.

I actually had a day at home on Thursday.  Must say though although I got a bit of work done I didn't get as much done as I would have liked.  I kept getting sidetracked with other things.  Managed to get a couple of columns written and submitted.  Did a pile of laundry and got that all ironed. 

It was such a nice day I had the windows open in the house.  I even barbecued for supper.  While looking in the freezer I found a couple of burgers and a couple of hot dogs laying there so figured they needed to be used up.  It's something we don't eat a lot of, so it always makes a nice change when we do have them.

In case anyone is interested here is a link to my column in the Orangeville Banner, I am whining about the hydro bill............

Thursday, September 23, 2010

Skywatch Friday

A view to the South East this morning, with the bright sun.  Don't worry I didn't look into the lense to take the photo.
Similar view through the trees......


For more Skywatch Friday photos, please click on this link

Molly's friend...........

Molly's friends are back and enjoying some lovely Fall sunshine.




Must say I don't think this is one of her friends!!!

Had my tooth seen too on Wednesday, so hopefully no more problems. I go back for a permanent filling in it on October 5th.  It cost me just over $100 out of pocket with dh's insurance picking up the rest.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

A bit of this, and a bit of that........

Tuesday was a super warm day, with temperatures up in the 80's.  I personally prefer temperatures in the high 60's, low 70's.

In amongst everything else I did on Tuesday I put together another Sudoku birthday card I had been working on.  This time I did the numbers in green so they are easier to read.
I also emptied three more boxes of "stuff" into the spare bedroom closet; it's only taken me a year and a half!!!  Most of it was my sewing stuff and scrap booking stuff; which is sort of strange as I am not a fan of scrap booking, but do have a ton of photos that need to be put into albums at some point.

I had to talk to Dufferin County on Tuesday to see if they had a permit on file for a septic system for the new extension; they don't.  However she did say something surprising though.  I gave her our tax roll number and she says that our house was built in 1909.  Now the house was sold to us as being built in 1907, and when I went to the archives it stated the house was built in 1911?  So your guess is as good as mine as to when the house was actually built.  Of course back then you wouldn't need a permit to build a house.

Wednesday is going to be a super busy day for me, but the good news is I should be at least toothache free by mid afternoon when I get my root canal finished.  Although I will no doubt be hurting over how much the bloody thing cost!!!  Anyhow I want to be out of the house by 8:30am and hope to be home by 3pm, so another total waste of a day!!!  One of these days I am going to have a full day in the house doing housework........just don't know when!!

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Summer is back again and other stuff...

Monday was a glorious day weather wise, mind you I saw a touch of frost on the ground up the road from us first thing Monday morning.  We're going to be up in the high 80's with the humidity today?  All very, very strange!

First thing on Monday we went to get blood work done and one of the nurses I think was a trainee.  It took three tries before she could get any blood out of me........all the while she was tapping on my arm trying to find the vein and the more she tapped the more sicker I felt!!  I have never had this trouble before; all very interesting!!

We went to breakfast straight after that and it was good.  For $5.75 we had two fried eggs, fried potatoes, four rashers of bacon and two rounds of toast, with a cup of tea or coffee (free refills.)

After popping home to hang out a load of laundry we went to Barrie to the mall.  I wanted to get dh a new pillow and I think pillows are a very personal thing that you should pick out yourself.  Anyhow got him that, and while I was at the mall figured I should have a quick look around!!!  Picked up dd a Christmas Present (wink! wink!)  Dd reads this blog!

We then popped into Lowes to check out the prices on "blue wood."  While there dh saw the tool below and decided to purchase it along with some replacement blades for it.  I had given him $150 for his birthday and my dad and step-mum gave him $60.  The tool and replacement blades came to $203 leaving him $7 leftover.  He bought some new laces for his boots, $4, so now he has $3 to fritter on anything he wants....LOL

We got home at 1:30 pm had a quick bite to eat and did a couple of quick jobs, and then we were back out of the house, to be at the bank for 3pm to meet with the financial planner.  Two hours later the meeting was over with.  Have some things to sort out and meet with her again in a couple of weeks.  She's going to Britain on vacation so it gives us chance to get things sorted.

Got home around 5:30 pm, popped a pizza in the oven and wondered where on earth the day went too!!

Back to "normal" today as dh is back at work............those three weeks just flew by......

Monday, September 20, 2010

Sunday at home........

On Sunday I had to sew the blocks for the block of the month club.  This month's block is called Cubed Lattice.  Would you believe both the blocks below are the same pattern, I just set them differently.  One thing that was different with this block was that it used four different materials in the block and up till now I have only been using three materials.  Tuesday's meeting will be the last one for the year.  I am not sure if I'll join the 2010/2011 club.



We had a day at home on Sunday.  As well as sewing, I went to church and for once there were a few more people than normal there, including a couple more children.  Sunday school is in the basement of the church, and I swear this morning those kids had hob nail boots on, as they sounded like a herd of elephants, I thought I was going to have to say to the Vicar to speak louder, and I am one of the few who doesn't wear a hearing aid!!!

Got all the paperwork and information gathered together for the meeting with the financial planner.  That itself was a job and a half, as they need to know so much.  Between me and dh we got it done, and things aren't looking too bad to our unprofessional eyes!  Mind you after the meeting, we could be proved wrong!

It's dh's birthday today, 29 and holding I'm guessing!!!  We are having blood work done first thing, and as dh has to fast for his tests, I decided to take him out for breakfast after he has done his test as a birthday treat, it will be a full English fry up!!  Mind you the closest we get to that over here will be fried eggs, a couple of sausages, hash browns and two rounds of toast.   Also having this kind of breakfast after he has his blood tests is more advisable as it won't make his tests look bad!!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

They're back and a look back at an old post..

The mice are back, caught two overnight on Friday night.  We're a bit puzzled as to where they may be getting in, but figure it could be through the new basement. 

I had a few packets of Ramen Noodles in the pantry that I decided to donate to shelter.  I also wanted to print a recipe to include with the packages that I had used before and is pretty easy to make and very budget friendly.  I found the recipe on this post I did a while ago with a number of other links of budget friendly recipes.  Thought for anyone who is relatively new to my blog, it may be worth a peek.

The kids came up on Saturday to do a couple of jobs for us and to celebrate dh's birthday, which is on Monday.  Dd made her dad a cake.



She did a good job, although I must say the cake was very sweet.  I am in charge of making her birthday cake in November, so will have to figure out what to do.

We all went out for dinner last night at a road side diner just down the road.  Place is a bit rough, but the food is good, and its makes a change from the usual chain restaurants.

I am going to be busy on Sunday, because as per usual I have left it to last minute in making my quilt blocks from the block of the month club.  The meeting is on Tuesday and I have stuff planned for Monday, so Sunday is the only day left to do them.........

Enjoy your Sunday.

Hotel Stay

First of all thank you for all your birthday wishes.  Each and every one of them was greatly appreciated.  The kids bought me/us an overnigh...