Newest Farm Yard Addition

SO.... I was checking out the freebie ads on Kijiji and came across an ad for free pot belly piglets. I knew from the area, which was very near to us, that they were probably the same piglets that were at the County Fair. Sure enough, they were. They had 3 girls left. That was great because we wanted a girl. When Becky, Ben, Jacob and I got there, it was hard to pick which one to take. Ben wanted the little tiny piglet and I kind of agreed. She was so adorable, but she was all pink and we like to get interesting animals if we can help it. So Becky right away fell in love with this one. She has some grey and pink areas and her nose is black along the top. We brought her home, sitting on Becky's lap the whole way. Now she is in a stall in our barn next to Mommy and baby chick. We called her "Aunt Bea" from Andy Griffith. Which doesn't really suit her now, but when she is a big, old sow, I think it will be perfect.

Mystery Chick (An amazing story)

Today while picking raspberries near the barn, I heard what sounded like a baby chick. After raising 54 chicks in our basement, I really got to know their sound. BUT, I thought, how can that be? We don't even have a rooster and we collect the eggs everyday. Well, when the kids finally got out to the barn at suppertime, they came running to tell me there was a chicken with a baby chick walking under it! Supper was ready, so we scarfed back our spaghetti and ran out to the barn. I couldn't believe my eyes! There WAS a chick with a chicken. Not only any chicken, but a chicken (Princess) that went missing about 3 weeks ago. Exactly the amount of time it takes to hatch an egg. This was the kids favorite chicken and she has a little bit of different markings on her neck so that we can tell her apart from the rest. Now the mystery stands as to how Princess got her hands on an fertilized egg and where she went to brood it. There were no chickens like her sitting on eggs in the barn and like I say we scour the barn everyday for eggs. Also, we found her outside, which would mean she hatched her chick outside, because that chick could not jump up into the barn.

We could see that the mommy and baby were stuck outside, so we gathered them up and put them in a stall in our barn. Now I feel scared that the mommy won't be able to look after the chick, but we'll keep our eyes on them and keep you posted.

Ponoka County Fair

We had the most wonderful time at the Ponoka County Fair last weekend. The fair was all day Saturday and Sunday. This year they added a Cowboy Rodeo. In this rodeo the cowboys had to separate and load cattle, doctor cattle, "brand" cattle and other events too. It was really neat to watch how they worked together. There was one family with a little cowboy that was 9 years old. He did so amazing. They also added stock dog competitions and dog agility races. Of course, they still had face painting, jumpy houses, sumo wrestling, sheep shearing and Rainbow the Clown. Sunday morning we had a community church there as well. It was really special because it was our pastor who spoke and what a message of unity he gave! Then we stuffed ourselves with the pancake breakfast.


This is Ben holding a pig that I was THIS close to buying. They were so cute.

Here is Jacob with his balloon hat. The next day he waited for an hour for another balloon creation. The whole time he just watched Rainbow the Clown so closely. When we got home, he was twisting and squeezing his balloons so that they did different things.

Here is Rebekah holding another sweet little pot bellied pig.

These are some of the items Rebekah entered into the bench show. She won lots of ribbons. It was a long week for Becky and I, because we entered so many things. We had to get them all tagged and they had to be there by 11:00am Friday so that they could judge them. I can tell you we ran straight to the bench show Saturday morning to see if we won! It was so exciting.

Here are the items I entered. I entered 9 things and I won 6 1st place ribbons and 3 3rd place ribbons. I always like it when my baking and canning win 1st because I sell those things at the Farmers Market and it kind of confirms that they are good quality.

Well, another County Fair has passed and we are looking forward to next year's fair.

Update

Well, I can't believe it has almost been a month since my last post. Time flys by so fast lately. Right now I am baking bread to sell tomorrow at the Farmer's Market. I have already baked banana bread and a rhubarb pie that I will use as an example of the frozen pies I sell there. I have been busy in my garden and pumpkin patches, going to the farmers' market, and Larry has been quite busy with his new job of selling vehicles. We took a spur of the moment trip out to British Columbia to pick up a truck he bought there and on the way home, we went to my Mom's for a couple of days. That was so nice to hang out at the beach and enjoy summer. We also had Larry's parents here for 3 weeks, I had an operation and my Mom and niece came for a couple of days. So I must say that July went by very quickly!

So Jacob continues to be a very busy little boy. He loves to work with tools, so that is him in his swing set in the picture at the top. He had taken out half the floorboards and he took off the ladder. That's a big smile on his face as he is quite proud of himself. And the other picture is of our lawn tractor after Jacob raised up the back end with our car jack. He put the jack exactly where it needed to be to raise it up with out damaging it or himself! He's always walking around our yard saying, "I've got lot's of work to do."

Today as we were driving way out in the country, and Jacob was looking out his window. He said to me, "Mommy, the clouds are moving very fast. They are playing tag."

I have started some fall craft projects and I hope to post them very soon. So I will see you all again then.