Another story from the farm!

Dawson trying to scare LouLou away!
LouLou trying to get to the nest.
This might be hard to see, but the duck is on the right beside the turkey and LouLou is on the left.
LouLou coming out.
The female duck made because LouLou is on the nest!

What problems do you have in your garden?? Bugs, dogs, cats....well my problem this year is a certain duck and LouLou the turkey!!

This all started afew weeks ago when the female duck decided to lay another nest of eggs in my flower garden! She ripped out the lilies and made a nest out of them! Since she is a type of mallard I didn't mind too much. She's beautiful and so are her babies. I love having them wandering around the farm. So at first not a big deal until LouLou the turkey decided that this nest was perfect for laying her eggs too! At first I thought she just wanted to sit on the nest and would push the duck out of the way. Dan then noticed that she was also laying eggs in the nest. (Too bad we don't have a male turkey so her eggs are infertile). It's been a battle here for at least three weeks while her and the duck take turns/fight or this next! I keep kicking LouLou off but she is determined! Then she'll go a couple days leaving the duck alone until she decides to lay another egg. I'm hoping the eggs while hatch soon and I can have my flower bed back!! Not only do I have to settle fights between the kids, the animals are having a hard time sharing too!

Bunnies

Yes, we've added yet another 3 animals to our farm. About a month ago we took some of the ducks to Keady to an auction/farmers market to sell. While Dan was busy with the ducks the kids and I were looking at the rest of the auction. Sure enough we found these three little dwarf bunnies. So I went to get a bidding number to make our bid. It ended up we got them for $3 each! No, Dan wasn't overly impressed when out we came holding three new critters to add to our collection, but he got over it fast :)

Since we've brought these little guys home the kids have been Loving them to pieces!! It seems someone is always holding a bunny during the day.

Travis has named one whiskers, Kaitlin has named one fluffy and Dawson named one Gorgeous! (This came from a little old lady at the market who told Dawson his bunny was gorgeous. From then on that's what he's been calling the bunny! I don't think he had even heard that word before!)

We have had one minor (thank god) problem with the bunnies. After cleaning out their cage last week, it seems the lid was not put back on enough....so yes you guessed, Three missing bunnies!!! We quickly found the white one all wet from Dixie "playing" with it. It wasn't hurt at all just a little warn out. We then looked all over for the other two bunnies. I though for sure they'd be in one of the fields surrounding our house. We looked and looked with no success. After supper while outside though sure enough we saw one out in the pen with the goats! The kids were thrilled, but still one was missing - Gorgeous. This all happened on Wed night. It wasn't until Friday night that we spotted the third little bunny by the shed. Dawson was so happy to have found it and I was surprised and so glad that all bunnies made it back ok! I'm so glad that the kids have the opportunity to experience looking after and playing with all these animals. Not many parents want the burden of this, but I think it's well worth it to see the kids love of animals grow.

Dawson's soccer

This summer Dawson was the only one who wanted to do any sports. Kaitlin has done 2 years of t-ball and one year of soccer and just didn't want to do either this year. Travis has done one year of baseball afew years ago, but since then doesn't have any interest. Dawson is my "athletic one". Although I know I shouldn't label kids. He is the one though who loves to be able to play any sports. He's naturally good at them and has the "keep on trying attitude".
Here are some pictures from soccer this year.
Here's Dawson in the "huddle" before the game looking at me and the camera.
Dawson and some of the his teammates.
Dawson ready for the ball.

Ok my husband thinks I'm a little crazy and wasn't overly impressed with my decision to get a tattoo! It's something I've always wanted but have been to chicken to get. I've been talking a lot lately to people who have one (or several) and I just had it in my mind if I was going to do it I wanted to this summer. A good friend of mine who has 4 tattoos already offered to come with me. So yesterday off we went to Listowel. I was a little nervous of the pain and how I'd tolerate it, but I figured I've had 4 babies, I should be able to get through anything now! I knew I wanted some kind of butterfly so with some other pictures to go by the guy desgined this one for me. It took a little more then an hour for him to finish it, and yes it hurt!! Not unbearable though. I had Kim talking/laughing at me to help make the time go by. Almost as bad as the pain was having to lay on my hand propping myself up for an hour! When it was all done my hand actually hurt more from being asleep for so long more then the tattoo. Once the tattoo was done the pain from it was gone too. I was thrilled to have gotten through it with only one short break. Not a pain I want to feel again anytime soon, but I have a bit of an understanding how it feels get more. I can't say I'll never get another one, but for now I'm happy with this. Oh ya, and the letters on the side our TKDK.

Michelle

An experience to remember

Well our excitement actually started the day before seeing the Snowbirds in Goderich. On Tuesday afternoon while outside at our house there was an incredible rumble that came down from the sky. It didn't take long to see where it was coming from. There above the house were the Snowbirds on their way to Goderich! I had told the kids I was thinking of taking them to see the planes, but they weren't really excited like I was. For one thing Dawson had to skip out on soccer which he wasn't thrilled about. I tried to explain that an experience like this might not come around again for a long time so once the kids saw the planes over the house in formation they were very interested in going to see them the next day. We were very lucky that Dan was also able to go with us! So last night we took our Harvey's supper down to the beach for a picnic and waited for the show. We had amazing seats! The planes were right in front of us over the water. It was perfect. The little bit of rain even stopped not long before they started. My only disappointment was forgetting my extra camera batteries in the van. I did manage to get a couple pictures and I'm hoping to get copies of the ones my friend got who was with us.

I truly feel lucky to be living where we are. In the beautiful country and not far from the water. Close enough to town but still on our own piece of heaven.....I can't imagine being anywhere else then here!

Another first for Dawson

Dawson has always been a little boy with big determination. Two years ago when he was only 3 he insisted on riding on a little toddler push bike as far as he could to the pond. He was always doing his best to keep up with Travis and Kaitlin. It wasn't long before he stopped using the little push bike and started pedaling a bike with training wheels. By the end of the summer (still at just 3 years old) He would desperately pedal bike all the way to the pond. He would get stuck but that never stopped him for long. At the time it was very frustrating because we always ended up at the pond much later then the other two!

Last summer same thing, although I knew if he tried we could take the training wheels off and he'd be fine. Although he had great determination, he was very scared of falling of his bike and was happy to just keep on going the way he had been.

This past weekend I offered to take him to the school where it is paved and try riding without the training wheels. Well once there it took 10 min then he was off without any problem at all. He was thrilled and there's no looking back. The next day off to the pond we went for his first ride there without the training wheels. He was still cautious but was very proud at how well he could go without getting stuck in the stones and potholes! It was like watching someone learning to fly for the first time. A proud mommy momement! So my little guy is one more step closer to not being so little anymore....not that he was every little for long.

After the fishing

Here's Travis walking the goats for the first time! They weren't sure what to think of grass and being on a leash!