Life Update

Since it's been a little while since I have posted I thought I'd do a quick update on how things have been going. 

First off, J found a job!  YAY!!  Not only did he find a job, but it's a great one.  Good paying and great benefits.  He's just finished his 3rd week on the job and seems to be settling into it now.  He was very nervous and frustrated at first because he had a lot to learn in a very short amount of time but I had faith that he would figure it out and he has.  It's nice to see him settling in and getting some confidence back.  It has been a long 6 months for the both of us.  When he came into my work to tell me he got the job I gave him and big hug and congratulated him.  What I really wanted to do was break down and cry.  I had been trying for so very long to hold it together for both of us and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off me and all these emotions I had been holding in for so long wanted to come rushing out.  His new job may mean some big changes in our life, but I am looking forward to that.  He is working out in Taber and has to commute to work and back each day.  We have discussed the option of moving out to Taber.  This is something we have talked about before.  To be closer to the farm and be able to help out a little easier.  I am all for moving, but with the caviet that we get a new and more reliable car so I can commute back to the city and keep my job.  I love my job and am not ready to find something different.  The commute for me would be a little easier as my job starts a little later in the day than his.  We are thinking that January would be a good time to move. That way he is good and settled in his job and we have time to save up a little money beforehand.  I am really looking forward to this as I find myself growing more and more sick of the city.  I tried to sit on my deck and read the other day and I found myself getting very frustrated with how noisy it was outside!  Construction, cars, sirens, people yelling etc.  And I really miss having a yard.  I think we have outgrown our little apartment and I look forward to something new.

I am offically the stage manager for LMT's production of Hairspray this year as well as my duties as Vice President.  I was very excited that the director wanted me involved in the audition process.  I really enjoy working with this new director so far and I am hopeful for an amazing show.  I really enjoyed watching everyone audition and seeing such an amazing group of truly talented people!  I am glad that the final decision wasn't mine.  I did get the opportunity to call and offer parts to the members of the cast who made it into the ensemble.  That was an interesting experience.  I was expecting people to be a little more excited I suppose.  I was shocked by the number of people who auditioned, said they would accept a role in the ensemble and then turned it down when offered.  Two of the people who turned it down later reconsidered and were allowed back in and two more ended up declining after initially accepting the role.  But all in all, we have a great group of people and some amazing new talent to work with.  I will also be training a new assistant stage manager this year as one of my usual ones has been promoted to production manager.  I'm excited to work with her though and I know she will be an asset to me. So, as has become a bit of a tradition with my, my fall will be exceptionally busy.

Work has been going well, if not a little slowly.  This is our first summer since I've worked there that we don't have an alterations department in the store so we are finding ourselves a little bored at times.  But all in all, it's good.

Some sad news to report.  The little colt who was attacked by the coyote is now an orphan.  Her mother had a heart attack on father's day.  J and I arrived at the farm and were in the house for no more than 5 minutes when we went out to help his mom light the BBQ and found her dead.  We're not sure what happened but we think the stress of the attack took it's toll on her and she had a heart attack.  B said she had slowly been going downhill since the attack.  It was so sad.  I have been on the farm when a horse has died before but this was way harder to watch.  The little filly tried to wake her up and kept pawing at her mom.  I was heartbroken.  I just hope that she makes it.  She has fought an uphill battle since she was first introduced into the world.

On a happy note, I'm going to be an Aunt again!  Ms A and Ms E are going to be big sisters and I'm very happy for my brother and sis-in-law.

Anyway, there's the update.  I'm going to try to to get back to writing a little more regularly on this blog, and maybe my other one too until the fall hits and life goes crazy again.

Being a Farm Girl

So the last two weeks have been crazy and we've put a lot of mile on our little car.  Usually we go to the farm every May long weekend to brand cattle but this year things went a little differently.  Friday (the week before the long weekend) I get a text from J while I was at work that we needed to head out to the farm asap as things had gone bad at the farm.  We rushed out after I got off work and found that things were a bit of a mess.  The cattle where breaking down fences and a new baby colt had been attacked by a coyote. By the time we got there, J's dad had gotten the cattle into the big corral and the colt and it's mom into a stall in the barn.

We got straight to work.  Me, J, B and my nephew T2 went to work sorting the cattle into 3 groups.  One to stay in the field at the farm, one to go to the community pasture, and one to go to the west pasture.  It was going well until I realized that the list I was working off wasn't divided correctly and we had too many cattle in one pen.  It was getting really dark by this point so it was hard to see the tags in the cattle's ears.  We had to give up for the night, but at least we got them settled.  J and T2 did have to do a little hunting to find one mama that had gotten separated from her calf so they didn't break a fence in the night trying to find each other but they managed to do it.  The next day I had to go back to town to go to work.

After working, I headed back out to the farm and found the J, B, T2 and one of our other nephews W just finishing up with the cattle.  The got them all sorted and the cattle for the west pasture hauled away.  Everything was ready to go to brand the next day.  We headed back to the other farm to check on the colt. It was the first time I had seen her and it broke my heart.  The coyote had really done a number on her.  It attacked her rear end and had ripped her up very badly.  Her right hipbone was visible through the wound but she's a fighter.  She was up and walking around and eating well.  And she's gorgeous!  Thankfully she has a really gentle mama so we get easily get into the stall and clean and doctor her when needed.  I love the name B picked for her too.  Because the horses are purebred, their names often have a  bit of their parents name in it as well making it easy to follow the line back. (ie Silver and Gold to Silver Warrior to Warrior Princess)  The colt's mom is names Penny so B named her Penny Many Wounds.  I took some pictures of her about 18 hours after the attack.  Warning, the images are graphic.  The black/dark blue inside the wounds is bactine for pain and to prevent infection.  Just remember, she is doing very well.

Left leg after coyote attack.  

Right leg after coyote attack

Mama and Baby 

Sunday, we decided to brand.  It was a week earlier than we had planned but the cattle were getting restless and hay was starting to run low.  Better to get it done early and move them to the pasture with loads of fresh grass.  The only bad part with this was that the rest of the family had not planned on being out there until next weekend.  They all managed to rearrange their schedules to make it out and by the time they got there we were ready to go.  One of the great parts of my nephews getting older (and bigger!  Holy have they grown) is that they are more than capable of jumping in to help us now. J and B got se up on the calf table while T2 and I made a plan to push the calves.  Usually J and I do this job but it's time for T2 to learn the ropes.  I loaded the calves in the chute and moved them forward and then T2 would take them one at a time and load them into the calf table to be branded/vaccinated etc.  W learned how to vaccinate this year and did a great job.  T2 was so awesome with the calves, who were exceptionally big this year.  He took a good kick in the chest at one point but kept on going with a smile on his face.  We got done in record time this year.  The best part for me was watching one of the dogs work.  Kobe is a two-year-old Border Collie.  She was bred to work animals, but she has had no training with them yet.  The most she has been taught is sit, come and where she is able to wander on the farm and where is off limits (such as the road).  I was to busy working to grab my phone and film her working but it was amazing to see.  No one told her what to do.  She sat in the alley and watched us for the first few calves and then suddenly it was like everything clicked for her.  She would lie in the alley with one eye one the calves in the pen that were finished one one eye on the calf in the table.  When the calf in the table was finished, she would jump up and lead it into the pen with the other animals.  She kept a watchful eye on them and got it in her head that they all needed to stay together in the far corner of the pen.  If one began to wander away from the rest, she would jump and and herd it back with the others.  She never barked once or nipped at any of the calves.  It was amazing to watch really.  Pure instinct.  She's going to be one heck of a cattle dog.

After 3 long days of working with the cattle and the horses J and I were exhausted so we headed back to town.  That night we got the call that a second colt had been attacked.  Thank goodness this one wasn't as bad.  It has a fighter for a mama and she beat them off before they could do too much damage.

Since I already had the long weekend off, we decided to go back out to the farm for the long weekend anyway and do some fix up jobs that had been neglected over time.  Everyone came out with their trailers and tents and we had a very productive weekend.  Me, J and the kids rebuilt a couple of the corrals and cleaned up a bunch of wood that was lying around.  It was so great to get down and dirty and work hard, eat amazing food and sit by the campfire and visit each night.

J and the boys hard at work on the corral

Finished corral

Sunday we decided we had had enough of building fences so we decided to move the horses from the lake up to the other pasture out west.  That involved moving them across the road from the lake, behind the house and into the round pen where we could load them up into the trailer to move.  In the past this hasn't been the most difficult challenge, but with the attacks this year those mares where high strung and skittish.  We made a plan of how to do things and went into action.  

A few of the herd at the lake before we moved them

We dropped of J's sister and one of the boys down the road a little ways to keep them from turning and J's mom and I took our post a little further up the road.  W haltered Penny and brought her out to the gate by the lake to lead the herd across.  That kid was amazing.  Here he was holding this incredibly strong animal who wanted nothing more than to get back to her baby and he kept her under control and kept his cool.  After a few tries we finally got the herd to follow W and Penny and that kid just took off running to show them where to go.  Thank goodness we got them across the road safely as some cars just didn't pay attention to what was going on.  One we got them in the pasture behind the house, things fell apart.  One of the mares was being very uncooperative and kept breaking away and causing the herd to scatter.  Poor W was working so hard to keep Penny under control and she just kept spinning around him and nipping at him constantly.  One of the colts took a hard tumble when the herd turned but she got up and kept on running.  I watched the poor little one who had been attacked take a hard step into a badger hole and open up it's scab pretty good.  As frustrating as it was, it was a thing of beauty to watch.  There's something about a herd of horses running that is just beautiful.  I wish I could have stopped to take a picture.  One of the coolest things I saw was my one nephew outrun a horse.  One of the mares cut from the herd and ran towards him full tilt.  He waved his arms to try to get her to turn but she wasn't stopping.  I thought for sure she would get past him and we'd have to start over but he turned and took off running, got ahead of her and managed to turn her back to the herd and the right direction.  After a while, we finally got them moved and into the round pen where they could settle for a bit and have a rest before we loaded them to move.  Those poor babies were so tired!  They just laid out where ever there was some grass and took a nap.  I took the time to play with Jack a bit and pet T's horse Appy.  

Simple Jack and a baby bunny

I love it at the farm.  I would be happy to stay there all the time!  It's so peaceful out there and I love the hard work.  Here's a few more pics from the weekend.

Our home away from home

The kids decided to make Smores by wrapping the whole thing in tinfoil...

The result of the Smore attempt...

J was playing fetch with the dogs and got the toy stuck on the power line.  B got the tractor to help him get it down. Please don't attempt this yourself.  They are trained "professionals"

The dogs after a long game of fetch...all tuckered out

The view over the lake every night.  This is why I love being a farm girl.

Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo 2012: Day 3

I didn't want to take so long to write this post but the con really wiped me out.  I guess I should have booked one more day off work so I could catch up on some rest.  Lesson learned for next year?  Anyway, without further ado, here's my day 3.

Day 3

After the bit of a fiasco that was Saturday, we decided it was best to get up early again and head to the BMO center early.  I got up around 6 and checked the Twitter feed and saw they were advising people to be there around 9.  We got dressed, packed our stuff and checked out of the hotel and were at the grounds by 8:30.  (Yes, I remembered to wear my necklaces.)  What a difference a day makes!  The organizers had really rallied over night and things were way better.  They separated the pass holders from those buying/redeeming badges and shuffled us into the autograph/food court area to wait for the main doors to open.  The vibe in the room was a million times more positive than the day before.  We found a seat at a table with on old University friend and did a little wandering before the main doors opened.

Once the doors opened it was nice to see they had added signage on where to walk through the congested areas.  We headed straight for the Boyce Theatre so we could get a seat for the Battlestar Galactica panel at 11.  This was the one thing that D, R, J and I could NOT miss.  J and I took D and R to the BSG panel at our first con and got them hooked on the show.  It's really a tie that binds us.  Plus with Aaron Douglas there again this year we knew we had to be there.  Once again the organization improvements were very apparent.  They told people at the back of the line when the room was full well ahead of time so that they didn't wait for nothing.  Once inside we got amazing seats just on the edge of the VIP area.  The labeling on the VIP area was a little misleading and some of the volunteers had to deal with a few snarky people that they asked to move but over all it was ok.  There was a woman sitting next to me who was a media member from the US.  She had moved down a few seats and lost her Blackberry in the process.  It was great to see everyone rally around her and help to find it.  Turns out it had fallen in the crack of J's chair and we eventually found it for her right before the panel started.  She was so excited and everyone around us clapped when we found it.

The panel was just as amazing as we thought it would be.  Aaron Douglas, Katee Sackoff and Richard Hatch are amazingly funny people and they entertained us.  Richard Hatch told a story about having an intimate dream about Katee and it became a running gag through the panel.  Aaron talked about how he felt that our little con was amazingly well run and he would gladly come back every year.  So say we all!

  Once the amazing panel was over, we decided to go get something to eat.  We found a place making wraps and sandwiches that were really good and fast, despite being crazy expensive.  I was really getting tired of line ups and decided that as much as I would have loved to see Jim Cummings panel I didn't want to stand still anymore.  So we wandered, took a ton of pictures and met some amazing people.  J posed for a picture with a 4-year-old who was wearing a "Shiny, let's be bad guys" shirt.  J put his hat on the kids head for the picture and the kid was so excited.  His dad told J later that his son believed that J was the real Jayne!  I love kids at cons.

We went back to Max Brooks' booth to quiz him on my name and posed for a pic with him.  He has got to be one of he nicest people I have ever met.  I waited until his line was short before jumping in.  He was posing for pictures with his fans behind his table and that's what I expected when I got up there.  I asked if he would mind taking a pic and crouched a little so he could stay seated behind his table but he jumped up and came out from behind his booth, pushed through the crowd and posed with me in front of his table.  A moment |I won't soon forget.

I could tell that we were getting to then end of our con experience as we were all getting a little tired and grumpy.  After getting separated for a bit, we found each other in the food court and D and I decided that we would head for the Corral for the last panel of the day, Sir Patrick Stewart.  J and R decided to join us so we made the long cross of the floor to the panel area and posed for pics on the way.  We got there about half way through James Marsters panel and I was totally ok with sitting and watching him.  That man looks fabulous!  Patrick Stewart was good, but you could tell he was getting very tired after a long weekend.  Once his panel was over, the hall was closed so we had to make the long walk back to the car.  This was the moment the weight of my skirt really started to get to me.  I'm pretty impressed I made it as long as I did in that thing.  I still have welts on my sides from it three days later.  R ran to the car and grabbed my bag so I could change before the ride home.  One of the best moments of the weekend happened at a gas station on the way home when some guys ran up to R (still in his Waldo outfit) and wanted a picture.  They hadn't even heard of the Expo and thought they had won a radio contest or something.

It was, all in all, a fabulous weekend.  I am very impressed at how the organizers rallied to fix things after disaster struck.  I got some big checks off my bucket list and I can't wait for next year!  Now to plan my cosplay....hmmm how to top Lulu.  Good thing I've got a year to go!  I'll leave you with a few more shots from Sunday.