Raspberry picking...

Our fields are filled with wild raspberry bushes and last night we went for a walk and the children picked a load of them as we walked.....the berries are only little compared to the kind you can grow or buy, but they still love to pick and eat them :) YUM!!!! :)
This Summer will be known as the summer of the thumbs up sign I think - Susie does it in almost every picture this Summer :) it's her thang lol!!! ;) funny girl :) so dorky ;)

Berries...

Beautiful summer colour....

Sams friends...

Sam's little buddies are just EVERYWHERE this year....you can't walk without a sea of them jumping out of your way...it is just sooooo DRY here. The bugs are destroying all the crops for the farmers :(

There is now barely any water in our pond at all. Alberta is cattle country and that is being cut by a third at least because farmers are getting rid of their cattle because they can't afford to feed them now because the hay has not grown. Hay will now be sooooo expensive this year that they can't afford to feed their cattle. The government are stepping in with financial aid for cattle farmers but they say by the end of September they are going to have to help the agricultural sector too because nothing grew!!!

We had a frost two nights ago and all our peas got hit - our potato tops look hard hit too - not sure if it will have effected the actual potatoes but the tops are all damaged :( So the only two things that grew anyway are now ruined probably. It was really a bad year - and last year we did soooooooo well! We finally have some tomatoes growing but they are still green. No more frosts for a while please!!!

What a crappy year for growing!!!

Slip and Slide fun....

Laurence had a friend sleep over on Wednesday and Thursday nights. Then another friend came over on Thursday for the day. His Mom is my friend Samantha!!! Val came over on Thursday too, as she knows Samantha!! Val brought her 3 too and we had great fun outside on the slip and slide!!!! I even went down the slip and slide too - it is soooo much fun and I went down several times even head first on my tummy!!! (I'm paying for that now though lol as I ache a LOT)!!!!

The boys did several science experiments up on the workshop roof and were also up climbing trees - not sure Samantha could quite believe her eyes ;) I think her boys have lead rather sheltered city lives ;)

Vals Daughter J stayed here and slept over as she was coming to a workshop with Susannah on Friday anyway - so Thursday evening we stayed outside until dark and had S'mores and snakes on a stick and played charades by the fire......it was a fun day but very tiring :) and yes I STILL ache sooo much from the slip and slide and have grass burns but even the kids were complaining that they ached and had grass burns too so I am not the only one hahahahaha - but it was worth it as it is sooooo much FUN!!! :)

I am hoping to get some more pictures from Thursday from Val as she took more pictures than I did!

What's on my kitchen island today????

On Thursday Lloyd went to help Laurence feed the turkeys and chickens and came back with 4 in one of my hive boxes because they were being trampled and attacked by the larger chickens. They were not looking good and couldn't access the water at all because of the bigger chickens.

We had them on the island and gave them food and water and within and hour or two they were doing much better. We put them in the garage over night and made sure they had plenty of food and water and then Friday night they went back over and rejoined the other chickens.

Christie phoned while they were on the island and Lloyd was cooking dinner at the time and she could hear the chickens and was making jokes about how the chickens were supposed to be dead before you cook them ;)

Many Offerings....

I planted sunflower seeds everywhere this year - and NONE of them grew!!!

However - our wonderful, clever little birds also happily 'planted' sunflower seeds for us, and they have sprouted all over the place! Amongst them, this BEAUTY popped up way down where the workmen put all the earth that they dug up from the basement last year!! It has 19 flower heads on it - some aren't flowering yet! The main top flower head has already finished flowering!! Isn't it GORGEOUS?????

I named it 'Many Offerings' after my wonderful friend Val - as Sunflowers always remind me of her, and that is the Native name she was given. I think it's actually the perfect name for this flower as with all those flower heads it will have soooo many seeds and offerings for the birds and squirrels AND for us to plant for next year!!! :)