Tuesday 27 February 2018

Twenty. and Square Dancing.

We celebrated a birthday on the weekend.

Johanna turned 20.

Twenty.

I made her a cake to reflect her studies in nursing.  She is in her second year of the RN program.


I asked her if I did those heart rhythm things right on the cake and she laughed and said NO...but it didn't matter!  Then she showed me what they were suppose to look like.  Ya....they're not quite right.


It's pretty neat to think back on the day she was born...just as I was about to give birth I was asked if a group of nursing students could watch...and I said YES!  of course!  I had no idea what was about to happen...I think it was a first time for all of us!  Everyone was thrilled when I delivered a healthy baby girl with a full head of hair.  The students were always checking in on me the day after....making sure I had water to drink...and they wanted to have another look at the 'hairy baby'!

So it turns out that now Johanna is attending the same nursing school that all the students were attending who watched on the day she was born....twenty years ago!

Johanna came with me on the night of the 4-H Square Dancing Achievement.  Sophie danced this year.  Johanna did not.  It was the first time in 10 years that she wasn't in the change room with all the girls putting on the dresses with the crinolines. Her 4-H square dancing days are over.....

But Sophie's 4-H years are just getting started...






Brenda


Wednesday 21 February 2018

Doughnuts,a Bull and a Campout Supper

It's Wednesday and I think it's Monday.  I'm so confused.

Monday was Family Day and yesterday was a snow day.  Only it didn't snow.  It rained.  a lot.  and now the yard is 'a bottle'.  That's what my Grandma would say.  'The yard is a bottle.'  Terry told me not to go up to the henhouse this morning....he said that he would look after it.  It's all ice.  Only it's ice covered in water.  Extra great.

On a whim I applied to The Great Canadian Baking Show....


and they called me!  I need to go to an audition in Toronto in March sometime.  I don't know the details really....but a weekend away in the Big Smoke will be fun...even though I don't even know how I will get there.

My cousin encouraged me to apply.....I really didn't have any idea what I was getting into as I haven't even watched the show!  I don't watch TV at all.

So the other night I figured I better have a look online at this show and see what it's all about.  And then I sort of panicked because they were making things that I had never heard of!  I've baked a lot of things but there are a lot of things that I haven't baked.

With the snowday yesterday I thought I'd make some doughnuts with the girls.  That's something that I've never tried.....mostly because I'm terrified of a big pot of hot grease.  But it all worked out and they were sooooo yummy!


I've spent the last two weeks trying to help out with a bull riding dance.  Terry is on the Renfrew Fair board and he had this idea for a fundraiser....a dance with a mechanical bull.  I made up the poster for the event...


I decided that it should have a photo booth.  So I made all these props....all with the cowboy theme....cowboy hats, moustaches, a beard, guns, a sheriff badge, a set of lips and all those speech bubbles with things like 'YEEHAW' and 'This Ain't my First Rodeo'.  Then I made this huge 'WANTED' sign that people could stand in and take their photo.


It was great fun!  We had a DJ and served chili and hotdogs.....but that bull really whipped me off quick!

We celebrated Family Day on Sunday with friends in the bush.  It was a beautiful day with sleigh rides and campfire food.



Our MacGyver Bush Guy friend decided to start a fire inside a log to make us supper.


It was slow going at the start and we were beginning to doubt that the steak would be served....


but he pulled through for us. 


The pan of beef and onions was empty in a matter of seconds....even though he jokingly told us it was coyote meat! DELISH! Thanks Scott!

Brenda


Wednesday 7 February 2018

Speeches and Poopy Receipts.

It's speech time.  Both Sophie and Lydia wrote about 4-H this year because I couldn't think of a better topic....or even two different topics!  They both wrote their own speeches and it was all going well until Lydia decided that she wants to say her speech in the gym and try to go to the competition at the Legion.

Seriously?  Really?  that's a whole lot of extra stress.

So I had a look at her speech and every paragraph ended with 'and lots more things'...or 'and more!'

I told her that she actually had to tell us what the more things were....and she wasn't interested in that.

She told me that she wanted to type it and she could do it herself.


So the next thing I knew she was talking to the laptop.  She had turned on the microphone feature on google and was getting the computer to type it for her.  Only it was bad.  There were sentences that said "Her name is Ricky." and "Cloverbuns are for ages 628."

It was a mess.

I gave in and told her that I would type it.  And then we ended up sitting together and adding a bunch of stuff and explaining all the 'and mores'.

She told me that she knew why I was such a good typer....it was because I played the piano.  I told her that actually no....it was because I took two typing classes in high school and it has nothing to do with playing the piano.

And her speech is now over 5 minutes long.  It's too long.

She said it would all be fine...she'd just read it really fast.

Whatever.  I gave up.

It was late and time for bed.  She said lets just go now and pray that I don't get in trouble tomorrow at school because we weren't suppose to let anyone help us write our speeches.


I should have never changed any of it.

It's snowing pretty good here today.

I'm still working on the farmbooks.  Some receipts are poopy than others.


Poop.  It's the story of my life.  It's everywhere.

And Terry is wearing his favourite long johns with a hint of diesel fuel.

That's all.

Brenda

Monday 5 February 2018

Elsa and Diesel Fuel

A friend asked me to make an Elsa cake for her daughter's birthday.  Of course I searched Pinterest and there was lots of ideas there.  I needed something simple.  easy.  

I had the idea in my head....I just needed a little Elsa figure so I went to the dollar store and there was none to be found.  I bought a strip of tiles that had Elsa on them.  Only they weren't really tiles.  It was just a thick sticker.  There is no way it would actually work as a tile on a wall with water contact.  It was a useless Elsa tile that was really meant to be on my Elsa cake.  So I cut out Elsa and stuck it onto a piece of bristol board and then glued a dowel rod behind it so I could stick it in the cake.

Pinterest had Elsa cakes with faux glass all sticking of the cake around Elsa and when I searched to see how to make that glass I realized that it was just too hard....and it sometimes doesn't even work....and you need a candy thermometer....and it's all too complicated and I don't have time for that.  But I liked the effect of it all.

So I bought some blue and white candy melts and melted them and put them out on parchment and swirled them a bit and sprinkled some round white and silver sprinkles on them.  I let it harden and then broke it up into pieces that would look like glass mountains.  And I shoved those into the cake.

TA DA.....




In other news Terry spilt diesel fuel all over his pants this morning.  It soaked through into his favourite long johns.  His world was shattered.

He threw the pants outside and then put the long johns into the washer....even though I told him that the smell will not come out.  Then he added his coat and toque and he was thinking of going out and getting the pants and putting them in the washer machine too.  I told him that the diesel would still be there even if I washed them.  And one day he would go out to the furnace and a spark would light his pants on fire and he would have a burnt leg and I would have a whole lot of problems....so please just leave the pants outside.  And he did.

Brenda


Friday 2 February 2018

One Second Everyday January

Happy Friday!

Happy Groundhog Day!

I haven't seen much of the sun in the last month....I was really missing it....and suddenly it appeared this morning.  Just for Groundhog Day!  And if a groundhog was to come out he would have seen his shadow here.  Only I didn't see any groundhogs.  But I know for certain that there are 6 more weeks of winter.  Because there always is. every year.  Whether the sun is out or not.  It's winter and it's February.  I have never understood this Groundhog Day thing.  As if winter is not going to happen?

Whatever.

So this is our January....one second everyday.  Only some days I posted twice and some days it was 1.5 seconds.  But whatever....



And our internet is extremely slow and it makes blogging really hard.

Brenda