A green Christmas, but a white New Year.

Clyde looks longingly at Clementine through the fence. Gary will put Clyde in with the girls, Clementine and Willow, around the end of January so that, hopefully, we'll have baby pygmy goats around the end of June.

The snow doesn't seem to bother the bunnies, they just scratch through the light snow to find the grass. On the left, Callie on her leash watches the bunnies.

Some Christmas stuff

Christmas dinner at our good friends, Karen & Lealand and daughter Karlea and Karen's family. There were 11 of us. Gary and I are hidden on the left side of the table, the 3rd and 4th ones in. B is, of course, taking the picture.

Gary and I - ready to head to the Lewis' for Christmas dinner.



Pippin being very regal amongst the chaos.

Callie in the presents - aren't I cute?

Christmas '06

Our tree after Santa came to visit - we left the camera out for him. Brenton was trying out some different settings with the camera. I like this soft, golden glow in these pictures. I have some more pics of Christmas and dinner with our good friends, the Lewis', however, we forgot our camera there on Christmas day. Pictures to follow!

Memories of last Christmas

I guess this was last Boxing Day - Mike came down for the night and Jason was home for the holidays.

Babies in Germany

Well it looks like its going to be a quiet Christmas in Upper Clements this year. Jason won't be home (his first Christmas away), Frank and Kita won't be here, and our non-biological grandbabies will still be in Germany. Boo hoo!! Here are a few pics that papa Manfred has sent from Germany. Aaron and his most favorite 'Teddy' on a train.








Little Luca, almost 9 months old - look at that hair and those big, beautiful blue eyes!

So this is winter!

Well, we're getting our first snow and it is kind of pretty and exciting so I sent Brenton out to take a picture of our Christmas decorating. Brenton decided to add the 'Merry Christmas' and I (lazy sloth that I am) am thinking - could this be in place of sending Christmas cards? I'm thinking 'not', but we'll see. Anyway, this can all disappear tomorrow - I think I've had enough already. Gary's tractor is in the shop so this better not accumulate! This snow stuff really looks prettier in pictures on Frank's blog and I think he should keep all the snow up there this winter!

And now, our newest addition!

This is Clyde, our new billie goat. We plan on breeding him with our girls Clementine and Willow so that we will have baby pygmy goats for next summer. Clyde is a little impatient and would like to start the breeding now. The girls are on the other side of the fence and constantly flirt with him! Poor boy! And its true, boy goats are really stinky. He's so friendly but we don't dare pat him (we'd have to chop our hands off after) so we scratch him with a stick instead. So Gary's farm continues to grow . . . . . . .

Grass is great but we like still like pellets!

These babies were having a great time eating grass but were still happy to see their familiar pellet bowl.

Baby bunnies exploring freedom

This is the first time these bunnies have been out of the cage - notice how close they are staying to Papa (Gary)!

10 baby bunnies

These 10 baby bunnies are 9 weeks old and ready for the outside, or out of cage, world. They are so cute and just about identical - what is the word for 10 siblings or is there one?

Sunny and warm in Germany!

Well yesterday was Tuesday, but no Aaron as he and family are in Germany for a few weeks. He's been gone for 2 1/2 weeks and, hopefully, will be back in about 2 weeks. This is a picture that his Papa sent us from Germany. On this particular day it was very warm - the rest of the pics show much cooler weather - winter coats and such.

Awesome show!

Another picture to add to our 'Wall of Fame' - Bruce Guthro and entourage are staying at Upper Clements Cottages tonight! We just got back from his show at Kings Theatre - totally awesome show! He seems like a really nice, down to earth guy, and what a voice - I may become a Bruce Guthro groupie!

More bunnies

Trick or Treat?

We had a few strange looking trick or treaters last night, in fact, the little devils show up just about every time we open the front door. We're usually mobbed by 7 or 8 'front yard' bunnies - not to be confused by the 'back yard bunnies'! I bet Kita is licking his chops!

Two rainbows

What strange weather we had this weekend! Very high winds, sun, rain and hail. The only thing we didn't have is snow. Hopefully you can see the two rainbows over cottages 4 to 7.

The rest of the rainbow

The other part of the rainbow over cottages 1, 2, and 3.

Aaron's 3rd Birthday!

It's hard to believe but 3 years have zoomed by and our little NBG (non-bilogical grandchild) was 3 on Friday! He loves helium balloons and I think he's going to get a lot of enjoyment out of the work bench we gave him. He loves tools and helping Papa. When we left, he was busy helping Papa put the bench together. Luca was 6 months old on Saturday and is growing like a weed too!

Aaron's Tuesday visit

Tuesday was sunny and warm so we were able to play outside - favorite Teddy had to come out too! We have a family here now from Columbia and they have a 2 1/2 yr old boy - even though 'Juan Sebastian' speaks only Spanish - the kids still had fun playing together. The Mom is working at the Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Cornwallis for a month. We do get to meet a lot of interesting people here!

Our new diningroom

The color we chose for our kitchen/diningroom is call 'Thyme Garden' and it's Debbie Travis color - i am a huge fan of Debbie Travis. The diningroom had wood wainscotting up half way and it made the room seem small - its not a huge room to begin with. We (as in Brenton and Gary) tore the wainscotting down and then Gary had a lot of repairs to do as the gyproc had never been finished. He did a great job and then I painted it. We painted the trim white and we are going to put up crown molding . I absolutely love the color and Gary likes it too, though he says "I liked it before too!" He's such a good sport - I think it up and he helps me make it happen! Now I need some new fabric for curtains - I think I'm going to make a roman shade - a trip to Halifax to find fabric!

Our front entry

Our front door opens into our kitchen and we painted the wood wainscotting to brighten it up.

Our new ceramic backsplash - today we grout and then put the plug covers back on. This is Gary's first attempt at doing ceramic tile.

Fall decor

Brenton has decorated our office entrace for fall.

The reason why I haven't been blogging much!

So here's the reason why I don't have much time to spend on our blog in the summer. I calculated that I washed about 588 sheets in July - that's 18.9 per day! And also about the same amount of pillow cases, bath towels, hand towels, face cloths, etc.! As you can imagine, I pray for sunny days! We're having a great summer - very busy, which is a good thing. We're even taking reservations for next summer already.

A different angle - notice our lovely gazebo up on our deck - it's screened in so that we can enjoy eating outside without being eaten alive by mosquitos! We have a smaller, unscreened gazebo at the pool for guest who want to get out of the sun.

My non-biplogical grandbabies come for a visit!

Aaron, baby Luca (3 months) and Mama Silvia came for a visit yesterday and a dip in the pool. We don't see too much of them in the summer as we are so busy but we sure look forward to a visit. After a little pool time we went in the house for a little play time while Silvia had an opportunity of a little swim alone. Can you tell I enjoy spending time with these cuties?

A great day for a dip.

The happy face ball is just out of Aaron's reach but he's enjoying the water anyway.

Aaron and I have a little dip - the water was about 85 - just about bath water temp.

Aaron floating in the turtle - this used to be Brenton's when he was a baby - I made a new fabric seat last summer and the turtle has been enjoyed by many kiddies since. Momma Silvia is looking on.

Pond up-date

Our pond is looking really great - just a little landscaping to finish up. Brenton has worked very hard on this - it's pretty much his project and we're really pleased with it. I think it will look really awesome next year when the plantings are more mature.

A pic for the super cute great nieces and nephews!

This little frog thinks the pond is great - especially the lily pads!

A pretty bloom on our Hybiscus tree.

Strawberry Jam anyone?

I managed to get some strawberry freezer jam made before we got too busy. Freezer jam is sooo easy to make - no more sweating over a hot stove like Mom used to do!

More baby ducks!

Jake & Daisy are the proud parents of 4 new baby chicks!

New baby ducks at the Mailman farm

I thought my cutest ever little great nieces and nephews might enjoy seeing these pics of baby ducks. If you look under Mama's chest you can see an egg that is just hatching!

I've been a poor blogger lately!!!

I know I've been kind of (very) slack on my blogging lately but we are into our busy season so most nights I have just enough energy to check out the family blogs before I hit the bed. Brenton's report card inspired me to get it on the blog - click on this pic to see his great marks! He passed grade 9 with Honors With Distinction. He sure puts Gary's and my report cards to shame when we were in grade 9! He and Gary are still working on the pond and it is looking great - hopefully we'll have some pics of that completed soon. Anyway, don't forget to check in on us now and again - I will try and get some pics up when I can.

The finished project!

Actually the next picture shows the project a little better. We're quite pleased with it - a major improvement over the old concrete. When we get the pond at the end finished, it will look even nicer! The lattice panel at the end of the concrete (seen in the next pic) will also be removed so that the pond will be seen while sitting at the cafe table.

Another view of the finished project

Concrete repair project.

So we had this cracked and ugly concrete deck around our office entrance and rather than dig it all up and replace it, we decided to try the new Home Hardware product called 'Flexrock' that you trowel on. The first step was to repair the big cracks and remove any loose concrete and then power wash it. Then we painted on this primer. The next photo shows the grout lines that we made since we decided to make it look like slate. The last photo shows the Flexrock that I have trowelled on. Then a sealer goes on top and, apparently, it is very durable - we'll see about that!

The next step - those lines will be the grout lines

Getting close to finished!

As you can see, it is taking shape here and we will show the finished results if it ever stops raining! We managed to get the second coat of sealer on and just about dried before the rain started last night. I guess this will be a good test to see how durable this stuff is!

Am I a cute kitty or what?

I had this mattress protector on the kitchen floor as I had to do some alterations on it. Callie took it as a invitation to curl up in it - not very helpful!

Or how about this, do I look cuter this way?

Still not helping, Callie!

Sleeping toddler

Today is probably one of the last Tuesdays that I will have Aaron until the Fall. We are getting busier with guests and reservations and last minute stuff. Here Aaron is having a big nap in "Margaret's bed". No more playpen for him - our babies are growing up Michelle!