Wednesday 30 November 2016

A Cupcake Cake in the Shape of a Cupcake!

I made my first pull-apart cupcake cake on the weekend.  It was SO easy!

And it was in the shape of a cupcake.


See it?  Can you see it?

So it was a cupcake cake in the shape of a cupcake.


As I was putting it together, every time someone walk into the kitchen they would ask what I was making...

a cupcake cake in the shape of a cupcake.


And they would say a WHAT?

And I would need to repeat it and explain it.

And then the next person would come walking thru the kitchen....and ask...

So blessed to live with 6 people!


A cupcake cake in the shape of a cupcake.

Easiest cake to make only slight mental break down having to explain it again and again.

The cupboards have arrived!

I love my white kitchen but I was convinced to go with wood....so I picked maple....


The kids had a snow day yesterday because of freezing rain.  I was trying to tile a backsplash and luckily my Aunt dropped off a couple early Christmas presents on the weekend!  They are crazy about this colouring kit.



They coloured and read books and watched a movie and I nearly got the backsplash all tiled.


Nearly. 

The tile cutter busted.


Tomorrow.  It will get finished tomorrow.

Brenda

Friday 25 November 2016

600 Cookies, Birthday Cakes and A Pine Floor

You know when you are packaging 600 cookies for a 4-H banquet and the kids in your house keep coming into the kitchen just to check things out.


Are any of those for us?

Are there any extras for us?

Can I have one?

Can I just have one?

How many do you need?

Are there any extras?

Heaven help me.  I caved and let Grady eat 2....I was pretty sure that there must be some extras in all the madness.

It took me hours to package them all....and by that time the kids were in bed!

And there were 10 extras!  But I couldn't scream and shout for them to come and eat them because they were sound asleep.  So I left them on the table...thinking maybe they would put them on their lunches.

But no....they all sat around at the table eating cookies for breakfast.  Even dipping them in milk.

As happy as could be...they got some cookies!

It's Friday!  Another week has disappeared!

I made a couple of cakes last weekend...it's all a distant memory now....but anyways....

This one was a chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in the center and chocolate buttercream....


I had some fun with this one!  They only requested the colours and then said....do whatever you want!  YES...LOVE those requests!  This is what I would want!!...


And this one was a lemon cake with lemon filling on the bottom and white cake on the top....all covered in buttercream...


They requested this exact cake with these exact colours.

It was sort of neat how both requested the same colours and both cakes were for teen girls.

Lots of stuff going on with the house and the move!  I sanded the last floor that needed to be sanded last weekend.


I didn't take before photos because it was just too ugly.  Kidding.  I forgot.

My new beautiful pine floor!


Must keep on rolling...

Brenda


Tuesday 22 November 2016

Snow and Another Grad!

There was no snow day today. 

It was business as usual.

But not really.

We had been blown out yesterday evening but the drifts just all blew back in with the crazy wind!

The snow has blown so hard across the fields that really there isn't a lot of snow in the fields.  So we put the truck in 4WD and went out across our back field...crossed over through a fence into a neighbours field...tucking in the side mirrors as it's a tight squeeze between fence posts!...and came out on the other side road....and got the kids to school!

It was grad picture day for Grady....there was no way he could miss that!  Grad....already?  A second one graduating from high school?....how is that even possible?  Excuse me while I go and cry.

Johanna graduated last spring and she is pursuing a nursing degree now.  I guess I didn't share that with all of you as I was having a wee blogging break....



Anyways...back to the snowmeggeden situation.

By noon I wanted to see what exactly the road that was unplowable looked like!  I went out with the truck and drove all the way around....through the fields and around to our road.

And this is what I saw.....




Wow.  Our road has never been that bad.

By 2:30pm the plowmen were back.  A big tractor and the township plow...and they got it all cleared out. 

And the winds have finally died down.

Hopefully it won't drift tonight.

Brenda

Monday 21 November 2016

Hello Winter

It snowed.

A lot.


I don't know how much but we were in the 30-50cm zone on the map.  It wasn't a regular November snowstorm where the snow softly falls and it's magical and it makes you start dreaming of a white Christmas.

This was a crazy windy shake the house storm where you can't catch your breath because it's so windy and you don't want to go outside sort of storm. And all the windows are in the entire house are decorated with snow.


Apparently the drifts are outrageous out there. 

I didn't go out.

Terry said they are over 6 ft high.

We were wondering were the snow plow was..it hadn't come in and plowed out the township part of our road.  Terry took the tractor and drove across our field and the neighbours field...the snow has blown so hard that the fields are sort of bare....and he came out at the other township road...and he found the snow plow.  He was stuck in a snow bank.  Terry helped him out with the tractor and asked about our road but he said that it's too deep and he can't do it.

So we are snowbound.

See you in the spring.

Bahaha....no actually the township will hire another guy with a bigger tractor to plow out our road.

Sometime.  We aren't sure when.

So we are snowbound.

And the wind is still howling out there.

And it's still snowing.

The girls went out a couple of times even though it's not playing in the snow sort of weather.

And we've played BINGO and Scrabble and drank hot chocolate and ate popcorn.  And watched Elf.

And they are hoping for another snow day tomorrow.

Brenda

Wednesday 16 November 2016

A cake. The washing machine. A sink.

Tis the season.


I was asked to make a cake for this hunt camp last week....the Black Donald Hunt Camp.  I don't even have any idea where it is....way back in the bush somewhere.  Anyways, the local radio station was coming for a visit and they wanted to celebrate.  The station goes around to all the different camps and interviews the hunters...talks about the camp and their tradition of the hunt.


I had quite a day yesterday.  I knew the washing machine was at it's last...I had been spinning the cycle by putting it on the spin only cycle because the spin cycle during the regular wash cycle quit last week.  The machine is not even 3 years old. 

I bought a new machine on the weekend but it won't arrive until tomorrow and a week without doing wash here would be a national disaster.  And I have no time to go in to town to the laundromat....so I just keep putting in a wash and messing with the buttons and hoping that something will happen.
 
Yesterday it refused to spin.  I had a large wash of all farm stuff...big stuff that I couldn't ring by hand.  I just put it all in 2 baskets and took it to the clothes line.  Dripping wet.  Then I thought the line would snap with the weight....but it actually didn't!  And the sun came out and it was nearly dry by the end of the day!

After that episode I went in to Home Depot to get a sink for the kitchen.  I had measured our sink cupboard at home and it was 36"....so I figured that was standard.  Sinks are a pretty big deal for me.  I have never owned a dishwasher.  I would rather wash by hand.  I have some big pots and pans and baking sheets so I love my big sink.....but I can't take it with me when we move so I went and bought a big beautiful sink.

And I came home and looked at the drawing for the new kitchen and saw that the cupboard is only a 34".

And today I will return my big beautiful sink and buy a regular sink.

And I will never wash my big cookie sheets again....without getting water everywhere.

And I did a wash again this morning with that machine...just a small one with clothes that the girls need.  I washed it twice because there was no rinse....and no spin.  I wrung it out with my hands....and it's on the line...and here comes the sun!

And it's my birthday!

Funny how I don't make my birthday public on my Facebook page but it only takes one friend to wish me a happy birthday and it all blows up.  Everyone knows.  There is no hiding anything on Facebook!

Brenda

Tuesday 8 November 2016

Dewey

Back in August, there were a whole bunch of calves born within a couple of weeks.  They were all out on pasture and we were always checking on them to make sure that they were doing well.  But we really didn't know which calf belonged to which mom because they had all arrived so quickly.

Then one hot day when the boys were out checking calves they noticed one off lying by itself...and it was hungry.  But there was no mom balling for it or missing it or paying any attention to it.  I made up a bottle for it and it took to it right away.  We had caught it in time....before it was completely dehydrated and we could have possibly lost it. 

We left it in the field to walk with the mom's and play with the other calves.  We sort of hoped that maybe it would attach itself to a mom....that maybe one of the cows would take it and let it suck.  But that never happened and one of us would walk out to the field every morning and evening with a bottle to find it and feed it.

We figured out that it was from one of the sets of twins that had been born and it's mother had just decided to only look after one.

The girls named him Dewey.  I asked if it was after the dewey decimal system in the library...but they had no clue what I was talking about.  I remember fifth grade....we had 'library' class and we had to try and memorize the dewey decimal system so we could find books in the library.  We were even quizzed on it....I think I didn't do so well.  I had no interest.

They named him Dewey after the name of my eye doctor.  I have not a clue why.  I don't think they have ever even met him!  They just seem to really get a kick out of the name!

Anyways, everyone was away one Friday evening in September and I was left home alone....to feed Dewey.  I went out to the field and found him and then I took selfies with him.  I have no idea why.  I'm really not much for selfies.  But I convinced him that we needed one together.








We eventually brought him into the barn because there were some mornings that the cattle were all away back at the bush and I had a very long walk and search for Dewey...with the bottle in hand.

He's been hanging out with some sheep and we are only feeding him one bottle now....in the evening.

I decided this afternoon to go out and see if I could get another selfie with Dewey....he's grown so much!  But when he saw me he just did this....

 He was hoping I had a bottle for him!




He is too big and strong...and I couldn't convince him.

Brenda

Friday 4 November 2016

Paint and Floors

It's Friday already?  How did that happen?

I had a few days of painting...it felt like night and day non stop painting. Ceilings were the worst. My body ached but I got it done.


When I was thinking about what colour....and I was thinking green because the house we are in is basically this green only lighter and darker everywhere....because green is my favourite.  I asked Sophie her opinion on colour and she just sort of looked at me funny....like...is there any other option other than green because green is our house colour and we need to live in a green house.

So ya.  It's green.  again.

In that photo up there you can see the big archway...that wasn't there a month or so ago.  It was just a regular door between living room and kitchen.  But now it's a big archway and you see how thick it is?....that's because it's hiding the logs of the house.  They busted thru the logs of the house to make the archway.  I didn't take any photos because I was just standing around sort of scared and stunned and asking our carpenter if the whole house would fall down.  He just laughed and said....I hope not!

Ha Ha Ha.

You can also see the staircase in the photo.  There was a wall there before.  We called it 'the world's narrowest hallway'....because that was a tiny hallway that ran along the stairway and the wall was covered in hooks...because there was no closet to hang up a coat.  I was actually a little afraid of what that space was going to look like after we moved in....there would be a million coats all hung on hooks and a billion pair of shoes/boots/farm stuff all over the floor.  It would have been awful.  So we tore out the wall and built a closet...with a door....so we can hide all that stuff.

I should have taken some before photos.

But I didn't.  It was all decided on rather quickly.  And happened rather quickly.

Anyways, I was sort of in a painting frenzy because it had to be done so the floors could be put down before the hunt starts....because Kevin was the one helping with the floors and once the hunt starts next week he will be unavailable for floors.

Because most of Renfrew County comes to a standstill when the hunt starts.

So Kevin came to help get the floors started and now Terry can work away and get them finished.

They are oak and 'rustic' and I LOVE them.





With my excitement I shared a photo on Facebook and of course people mentioned that they loved Terry's safety shoes.


Yes....he is in his socks.


His boots have spent too many days in the barnyard and there is no way that they are walking on those floors!

Brenda

Tuesday 1 November 2016

Happy or Creepy?

Sophie and Lydia were sitting by the pool at my Mom's one day in August when they started to talk about Halloween. They decided right then and there that they wanted to be clowns this year.  I thought that that was a great idea as we had all been clowns six years ago and we still had the wigs.

As October rolled around there was lots of news about creepy clowns and the girls came home from school one day upset because they were told that they weren't allowed to be clowns this year.

Terry was disgusted and said that that was like giving in to the terrorists! He said....it's HALLOWEEN! They can be whatever they want to be.  Let them be clowns!

Ya. I guess.

So I didn't have a clown suit for Lydia and there was none to be found in Walmart or the grocery store....not even a clown wig to be found because I think it had all been banned!  I found a suit in the perfect size at a smaller store downtown and when I went to buy it the guy working there sorta looked at me funny and said...you're putting your kid in a clown suit?

I said...ya. I'm from Douglas.

He said....oh. You should be fine then.

Of course we'd be fine! Douglas is known for being 'Home of the LEPRECHAUNS' and the Mennonites. Who's going to notice a couple of happy clowns?

And that's what we were aiming for.....HAPPY clowns not creepy clowns.

But honestly....after Johanna did our make-up we were sorta more on the creepy side!

And some of the neighbours didn't know who we were!


But oh my goodness we had fun!

Brenda