Aroundtheyear's Blog

Vaulting away

Janet — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:42:10 +0000

The girls have recently joined equestrian vaulting and are busy practising! We joined the local team and meet once a week and Katie soon wants to go twice a week and join the competitive team.

It is a lot of fun, team-oriented and outdoors! It is done on a trained horse that is being lunged in circle and routines have compulsory and freestyle routines like figure skating. Vaulters start at walk and the move from trot to canter.

Moves are first practised on a training barrel. Marianne loves this!

Katie is making lots of new friends and enjoying this sport immensely. Here she is working on a team routine.

One has to really become one with the horse and develop core strength and balance.

Fun, fun, fun!

Felting good days

Janet — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 06:03:55 +0000

I have been busy felting a dozen little Easter chicks for the store. Felting is somewhat addictive and I dream in felt. I have been know to stay up until 2am(pssst) putting little beaks on these darlings…

I fondly remember last year when we raised our hens. They all came in a cardboard box in the mail with a Fragile- Live! sticker on it. Marianne cuddled the baby chicks until they fell asleep in her hands.

The other felting project has been a playmat inspired by Marianne building fairy houses all over the land. This took a few days but I felt like being the creator of a magic land. Marianne felted one of her own with lots of help. Picture to come soon.

Little farm in the Kootenays

Janet — Mon, 29 Mar 2010 05:44:35 +0000

Our place has been listed for sale since November. All winter long our move was really easy to imagine, but now with the buds swelling and the daffodils popping up, I see again how nice we have it. I have always appreciated the breathing room the kids have here. So all winter I was thinking of moving into town, now I am pondering being outside, just a little.

Marianne has really taken the chickens under her “wing” and cares for them almost independently. Collecting the eggs and sorting them into cartons is her favourite activity.

When she takes out the compost bucket all 14 chickens will run after her at a trot. Unfortunately they also follow her back to the house now. And poop on our deck.

Our Icelandic ponies have gotten quite fat over the winter (it is just not harsh enough here) and now that we are hoping to sell them, it is time for a bit of a diet. They get fat just from looking at hay! The girls and I have been starting to clean the winter pen. Lots of nice manure for the garden. Now I know why the pioneers had 15 kids!

I was amazed with the work of the three of us!

Look at these girls go.

Katie bringing the horses back into the pen.

And Marianne having a little cuddle. It has been great to have such trustworthy ponies. What a nice experience for a child!

An ode to spring

Janet — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:50:32 +0000

The warmer weather has us outside again after the greyest winter yet. Marianne is already planning her garden. Last year her garden was right by our house but the deer kept eating her tomatoes and beans, so this year she is choosing to be inside our fenced garden “patch”. We found many, many worms thanks to our manure machines Bardi and Flocki.

We are hoping to plant spinach, radishes, lettuce and peas soon.

The animals are also enjoying the warm rays. Hence the shedding has begun! Hair, hair everywhere with two cats, one dog and two horses.

We have all been on spring break and the rest is welcome indeed. We cleaned the house and the yard and had time for some Easter crafts.

Here is Katie catching up on some homework.

With interruptions.

We have been using our own chicken eggs to paint for Easter. This was the first year where Marianne wasn’t just happy to paint away. She had something in mind and became frustrated when the paint had other ideas. I can so relate…

Welcome to our blog!

Janet — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 00:39:45 +0000

We thought this would be a great way to let people we know, see what we are up to and stay in touch. And I was never really good at organizing those photo albums. This will be a way to record memories for ourselves also. You can subscribe and an e-mail will let you know of a new entry.