The second event is a horse pull competition. A friend of ours was with his father who came down from Prince George to compete in this. They start the horses of with 300 pounds of salt on the wagon and the horses have to pull until they get the stake out of the ground, oncce all the teams have a turn another 300 pounds are added. This continues until only one team is left.

Our friend Cory in the blue t-shirt with his dad on the first pull.





Getting dark and the salt is still being added.

I am happy to say that Cory's dad won the competion with his horses pulling a little over 4 1/2 tons. Cory the next day was on his way to Kelowna for the Canadian National Arm wresting competition. he has won this a few times, though we do not know how he made out on Sunday yet. After the work out he had Saturday night I am sure his muscles were all flexed though.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 8:16 AM 0 comments

 

I had a rare three day weekend so J and I decided to take in the Barriere Fall Fair & Rodeo on Saturday. I have never actually been to any kind of rodeo so I was all geared up. We first went to visit friends who live out there on 40 acres of farm and I took some pictures of some of the animals they have. The first one is their daughters horse.




A Nubian goat.


The Sheep

And of course what are farm pictures without chickens.



After a visit there we went on to the fair and watched the Chuck wagon races. The pictures do not really show the speed of the races but you can get a general idea. This is the first race and the driver of the yellow wagon was tossed out when the wheel broke and was out on the ground for a few minutes. I have to admit I did not see that part since I was so intent on snapping pictures. The horses all wound up continued the race without him.


To start the race they first have to do a figure eight.









For more pictures of the Rodeo see my next blog.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:18 AM 1 comments

 

Oh my it has been a long time since I have blogged, but I am here. It seems like I have been running non stop this month. I have been doing a lot of overtime at work as they are offering an additional $25.00 an hour top-up on time and a half, so being able to earn almost $40.00 an hour I am working my butt off. Everything seems to be neglected, my blog, housework, yardwork and personal life.

On August 12 I had a BBQ for J's birthday and what started out as a gathering of 18 people quickly turned into a party for 42. All was ok food wise until my friend who had said she would bring a lasanga could not make it. Into the freezer I went and with the help of my daughter and daughter-in-law we had a big piece of ham into the microwave,defrosted, sliced and heating up in the oven. With that many people the party had to go onto the lawn, so with the help of two very willing teenage boys the furniture was taken from the deck into the garden area.

My gardens in the back reacted with pride and did their best to impress my guests. On Saturday morning I went out to give the grass a quick mow only to discover that almost everything in all the gardens had decided to re-bloom, the rose bushes were bursting with a new show of roses. Don't you just love it when your garden is well behaved in front of your guests? On the vain side of me I was so happy when everyone oohed and aahed over the gardens. The gathering lasted until late and when the solar lights came on and we got candles going it all felt very mystical.

I for some reason did not take my camera out so there are no pictures. J's boss who is of Scot descent always gives J who is of Irish descent a ribbing about being a potato thief. Here is a picture of his birthday gift to J.




This is an Irishman's gourmet dinner. One case of beer, a sack of potatoes, and candles. Please ignore the ugly pink plastic tablecloth it was the only thing I could find to protect my dining room table in a hurry.




Good news I have almost completed the side garden and pictures will be posted soon. My neighbor gave me some fall plants for the garden and everything is starting to come together nicely. Here are a couple of pictures I took recently.



My $3.00 carpet rose from Walmart.






A finished area. Since I took this picture I have almost completed the other side.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 6:57 AM 4 comments

 

5) You catch your reflection in the mirror and realize you have mascara on only one eye

4) You conduct business meetings on your cell....during spin class

3) You check your date book to see if you have time for a quickie

2) If you get home before 8 PM your dog thinks you're a burglar

1) The pizza delivery boy thinks your name is pepperoniwithextracheese

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 11:48 PM 2 comments

 

I decided to make a place for me in my garden. After having numerous people ask me if I take time to enjoy my gardens I decided that it is about time I created a place just for me. Although I do admit that just being out and working in the gardens is a joy even if it seems that all I do is work. Here is what I did yesterday I went from this.


From here


To here


I have it nestled right beside the lavender which seems to be the only thing that grows in that corner besides the weeds. I am not sure what to plant under the bench seat but my mind is saying either thyme or hens and chicks.

Not much was done last week at all with the temperature at 105f for three days and me with an injured foot. It got bad enough to go to the Dr. and was x-rayed, however no broken bones, he figures that I just managed to bruise it badly and advised me to stay off it for a few days. All is good now it no longer hurts and I am able to get outside again since it is healed and the temperature has come down.

Here is another lily in bloom and for the life of me I cannot remember what it is called but it is pretty.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 8:31 AM 8 comments

 

No this is not a field of flowers, this is a shot of the garden off my deck and if you look close enough you'll be able to spot the Casa Blanca lily in bloom. When I came home Monday night I went out on the deck with my dog while she did her thing after being cooped up for 8 hours. The first thing that hit me was a wonderful scent drifting to me on a nice gentle evening breeze (I get home around 11:15pm) Of course being pretty dark I did not realize that the fragrance was coming from the lilies. Here is a better picture of them taken yesterday of the ones planted in the side garden.











Here is what I have been doing since my last blog. The area around my three rose bushes looked nice with the bushes in bloom and the baby breaths planted between and around them, however the grass that I had cut away was ragged looking and very uneven, so I re-defined the edges and gave it all a good weeding, while I was in the shed getting the right tools I spotted some dollar store fencing I had bought 3 years ago to use in the front garden so I put it to use. Because it was cheap some of the pieces would not snap together so I used white twist tags to hold it together in some spots. Here is the final outcome of almost two days of work. I am going to try and take some cutting from my lavender bush and plant it between the rose bushes.






Being on a roll and a glutton for punishment I went on to the area where my climbing rose bush is. I did not like the way I set up the two trellis's as they kept wavering in the wind and look kind of cheap. I pulled up one and put it against the 1st trellis to form a corner using twist tags once again to hold them snug together, cleaned up the edges and moved some bricks over to tidy up the other two sides,transplanted a few pansies around the base, which died quickly I guess it was too hot to try that. Anyways here is a picture.










Now I know you are all thinking that I would of stopped there. Not one your life I was in my glory at the outcome of these two areas so I went on to do one more. Here I did not have to use any twist tags LOL I moved the bricks out and weeded the area good making the garden roughly 6-8" wider and dug up the wooly thyme which I placed in the side garden where it begins. I dug up some other plants to transplant into this garden to help fill in some bare spots. Notice the area behind it? I am using the plastic stepping stones to form a small path between the two gardens and the black edging which I have a ton of I am going to use to make a path in the back garden as well.






Since this blog could become very large I am going to end it with this and do another one later today. My girlfriend Marlene and I are bad or good depending on your view of things, about calling each other about good deals we see while shopping. Marlene gave me a call on Monday morning to tell me about a bench with an attached arbor on sale at Walmart for $60.00. You know I had to have it. After about 2 hours I finally got it together. It was not that difficult but it is heavy and really should of been a two person job and once again no twist tags. Are you ready? Here it is.










My two favorite tools in the world are twist tags and a glue gun.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:14 AM 6 comments

 

Ok why didn't someone remind me that I am not 19 any more. I spent 3 hours in the yard yesterday before work and a good 7 today. Now the only thing reminding me that I am not 19 are my poor screaming muscles. Oh well I did get a lot done, all the trimming around the edges was done by hand shears which means of course I had to really weed all the back gardens since I was so low to the ground I couldn't bear not to. After I finished all that I redefined some of the edges and enlarged one a bit. This meant simply moving some rocks and bricks, which I was doing anyways to get the grass and weeds from underneath them. I then went on to plant two white carpet roses that I bought at Walmart the other day on a clearance, they were $3.00 each, and move a Thyme plant.

After this I was pretty much done, not the work just no more energy. While I was cleaning up the tools and pulled weeds I caught a wonderful scent. This is what was causing it.



The first of my Oriental lilies to bloom.






Surprises in the back garden as well. The balloon plant and the white feverfew also are in bloom.










I was fooling around with my camera last night when I got home because the moon was cresting over a mountain these are the two best shots I thought I would share the first it the moon coming over and the second is the moon in all its glory. I wish I had thought about zoom when I took the first one though.









The last photo is the Apricot tree, the fruit is starting to ripen, Yum I can hardly wait.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:15 PM 4 comments

 

Wednesday I thought I was back to work and as I was getting ready it dawned on me that I might have another day off so after checking my day planner I realized that yes indeed I did have one more day of holidays. Not that I was complaining it was just a very nice surprise. Oh joy! So quickly changing into my gardening clothes I went outside and finished cutting the grass and then started working on the side garden, with dark clouds looming in the sky and a nice cool breeze I felt like I was in heaven. It started to thunder and I felt a few drops of rain, however not to be deterred I finished the section that I had left the other day and started on another area. The weather of course had a mind of it's own and when it started to spit lightning I decided that was enough and put away the garden tools. My neighbor was picking Saskatoon berries so I started helping her, plus it gave us chance to visit since she also works nights, the rain then started coming down in big drops which we ignored until it turned into hail at which time we both ran for cover. It poured hard and steady for about 3 hours with thunder, lightning and a high wind. Here are a couple of pictures of the sky later in the evening.








If you look close enough at the first picture you can just see one of the moonlights to the left.


Yesterday I went downtown and into a garden & antique store that I had never been in and found an antique birdbath at a very good price of $139.00 today I am thinking of going back and buying it. Now I need to decide if, although it is not that much I really should put the money elsewhere.

Also yesterday I had to go back to work and after being there for about an hour I was told that I had won the door prize last Thursday for the Canada Day celebration they had at work. I seldom win anything so this was pretty cool. The door prize included a folding camping chair, a holder for salt,pepper mustard and ketchup in the shape of a BBQ as well as a cooler full of goodies. Of course you know I took pictures to share. After I emptied the cooler to show all the goodies that were in it, it reminded me of a picture from the Chrisco Christmas Hamper magazine. There are even two martini glasses and a beach ball.

"May All Your Weeds Be Wildflowers"

Planted by crazygramma at 7:17 AM 7 comments