polar opposite cows...

today the cow leila pushed me and crushed me against a door frame and continued to head butt me for the food i was carrying for her. then not ten minutes later the cow pay (i didn't name her i swear) decided to like my hair.. she loves me.

eggs, eggs, i love eggs!

one of my jobs this summer is collecting eggs from our lovely organic free range chickens. i do feel bad taking these eggs from the chickens as they think they are their babies, but really we don't have a rooster so they aren't babies they are just egss. the chickens have been known to attack me while collecting egss like flying at me and clawing at my back or my faviourite running at me full tilt and then head butting me in the leg.

collecting egss is a easy job and sometimes interesting. as you may know most eggs will look like the following.

well every once and awhile i find an interesting egg one that doesn't look like the others, one that doesn't belong just like on sesame street, it looks something like this:

on a sad note i fear that one of the chicken's will be laying scrambled eggs today as it was stepped on last night by one of our cows that was overly excited to get into the barn to get some yummy grain.

one to go down in history

the other day i was hanging out with a couple new friends and we decided to go swimming. unfortunately we were 30min from my home and i didn't have a swim suit with me and neither did one of the other girls. so we headed to a local store that carried cheap bathing suits. since it is the middle of summer you would bet there was slim pickings and you would be right. the only one piece bathing suits were in a size so small that my ankle would fit through the leg hole and then it would stop because my calf would be to big for the opening, so i had to chose the dreaded bikini!

now this was a location with a selection of mix and match combo to choose from, but for some reason there were many more bottoms than tops. i so i grabbed two different sets of bottoms and tops and headed for the change rooms. and this is where the magic moment occured never to be repeated again.

i picked the first suit up and tried it on (over my undergarments as the 5 sings on the changing room walls said i had to do) and guess what..... IT FIT!!!!
ok just take a moment and let that sink in. i went bathing suit shopping and the first suit i tried on fit and looked good.

so i immediately put my clothes back on and exited the change room and now i call my new swim suit my magic suit. i will keep it forever!

and today i made...

butter! i made butter! i didn't realize just how easy it was to make butter. you just put cream in a jar, close the lid and shake, and shake and shake. then you squeeze out all the left over butter milk and your done! oh the things you learn. i also made yogurt today, well its still making but i'm sure it will be done soon... i hope its good!
just so you know, i also made strawberry rhubarb jam, strawberry rhubarb pie, and i need glasses, all in one day!

farmer in the dell!

there is a possibility that i will be a farmer for the summer! yeah! organic farming with chickens and cows here we come. i will know for sure later this week..... mmmm smelling like farm. i think my husband may divorce me!

100th post yeah!

i'm scared, i planted my garden, and now its cold and rainy. i cared for those plants for so long and now they may suffer! oh my, i'm a wreck... maybe the sun will come out soon! on the plus side i haven't had to drage the watering can up and down the stairs to water the garden in two days, that's good!

local #6

i discovered a new local today, he lives two doors over. i'm going to call him bath robe guy, because that is all he wears. he wears it to put out the garbage, he wears it to bring in the garbage cans, he wears it when he is fixing his car on the road infront of his house, he pretty much wears it all the time. ah bath robe guy, why can't we all be as fearless as you?


an interesting fact... if you live in an apartment above a garage you can not store any gas in that garage even if it is in vehicle. in other words we can not store our car in our garage because we live above the garage. i learned this after realizing that my neighbour was syphoning the gas out of his ski-doo that he keeps in the garage to commute to school in the winter. yep we live in a hick town.

the non-locals... and then the locals

i spent two lovely weeks in my new town without knowing a soul other than my husband, oh and two friends from previous schooling which i haven't been in contact with. these two weeks were lovely, walking down the street and no one having a clue who you were, i could wear my pj's, pick my nose, talk to myself, and it wouldn't matter as no one would know who i am. but this all changed last weekend.

on the occasion a one of my husbands co-worker's wives birthday we were invited out for an evening of mingling, where i met 3 locals and 2 non locals. it was a great evening of video games and mc craps. since this day we have built a friendship of the nonlocals and even had a board game night last night (boi we played settlers!), which included another non local. so chalk that up to 3 local, and 3 nonlocal friends!

i must say its great to hang out with nonlocals as (no offence to the local friends - they are normal) most locals are a little crazie up here. but let me introduce you to some of the locals.

local #1: i was a little confused the first time i met this local i thought he was paying for something but no he was making the cashiers at the grocery store count his money. apparently he goes from store to store having people count his money for him. and the legend goes that he makes thousands of dollars a year picking up change off the street..... i sense a new career.

i haven't had the pleasure of meeting any of the rest of these locals but i can't wait until i do

local #2: this local lives a tim hortons. you will know it is him when he starts patting your hair. apparently harmless but he just likes hair. he sits a tim's all day talking away to any one who will talk to him, and apparently he is a local favourite, surviving on cookies, and doughnuts handed to him all day long.

local #3: in this lovely town it isn't suggest that you go around clapping. there is a local that will attack you if you clap at him. i'm a little skeptical of this local being true but as a precaution i will not be seen clapping though the streets!

local #4: apparently this local hates metal boxes, which include mail boxes, hydro boxes etc... he has been seen attacking such boxes as he walks down the street. i totally get his frustration, they are ugly and they just seem to be sitting there!

and last but not least....
local #5: beware as you walk through the street late at night in this town as an older man may follow you. but do not fear he won't hurt you. he has been known to follow you and then let of a fire cracker when you least expect it scaring the bajeebers out of you!

ahhh... this is a colourful town, i won't get bored around here. all the locals names have been withheld because i don't remember them, but feel free to name them as you will.

moved and how i became retired

well, some of you will know that i have picked up and moved, far far away. i've moved to this small little town called pembroke, well its not so small about the size of burg but less stuff in it. and how is that possible some of you may ask, well believe me i was surprised too, and get this it takes over an hour and a half to get to the next city that would have everything you needed, no driving to shwa, or the petes.

so my first two weeks here have been pretty quiet. not much going on except unpacking. i've come to the realization that if you don't want to unpack you can just reorganize the boxes and it looks like you have made progress. it took me over four days to unpack the kitchen alone! i'm anal about making sure all new products, and products that have been boxed in basements are washed before using. i don't even know how many dishes i washed.

its been great fun finally seeing all my (i mean our) wedding presents. it was like christmas all over again. thanks to all of you who helped with that!

i would also like to thank those who helped with donations to our new apartment. we started out with no appliances and now we have a fridge, stove, washer and dryer.... and best of all a pull-out couch!

so here's the real hiccup. so far i have no friends up here (well that's not true i have two friends from university and college, i should call them). but i know what your thinking what no friends? how could this happen to manda? well its true, its hard to walk up to someone on the street and say "hey you look nice, do you want to be my friend?". imagine doing that... they would think that i'm a little creepy. although i did almost have a friend the other day, he was nice, but i don't think he would fun to hang out with and do fun things. and this is the story of how we met. i think if i did that i would be part of my new game i made up, which i won't tell you about for fear of being harassed for the unpolitical correctness of the rules but boi you know what i'm talking about.

i was walking through wal-mart (that's right, i have to shop at wal-mart up here, there is harldy any other place that i have discovered that has things i need) and i wanted to get down this aisle but there was this elderly lady in my way with her husband in tow. now how did i know she was elderly, besides the fact that she was wrinkled? it was her sun glasses. she had those great glasses that attach to your sunglasses that flip-up, you know the ones grandma's every where sport them. well i kindly waited for her to finish snapping at her husband and for them to move out of my way. and then grandpa (that's his new name) turns and see me and asks kindly "were you waiting for me to move?" and i reply "no, worries, i have all the time in the world." (which is true, did you know as a house wife there isn't a real schedule, you don't work 9-5, you may work 6-8 then 9-5 and then 5:03-6:48 (dinner time) and then sporadically throughout the evening as your husband tells you the things you forgot to do that day (i.e. wash the floors, doing his dishes) well you get the point... and so i usually take my time when i'm out in the community, to really slow down and enjoy life) right back to the story, so that was it for my encounters with them in wal-mart.

scene change. now i am shopping in food basics (quality food at low prices!) and i notice the same couple (only in a small town can you choose the exact same stores to shop at randomly, i would like to see that happen in toronto). so grandma is leading grandpa around telling him what to put in and what to do (i sense grandma is a little frustrated with grandpa). i nod a grandpa in acknowledgment and he nods back. when i was done my shopping i get into the shortest line which happens to be behind my new grandparents. well, grandma is getting frustrated even more with grandpa as he is using the wrong box to box their groceries and that he is taking to long and that he is in my way. to which grandpa cooling responded to her "don't worry, that young lady is retired too." and i began to laugh, and think he gets me he so gets me, i wonder if we could be friends? but sensing grandma's possible problem with me asking if i could be friends with them or if they would adopt me as their granddaughter (which i thought of doing) i just laughed and said goodbye.

oh the stories i have to tell about my new home town, and hopefully i will tell you them right here. but i must go and work as a house wife (which has so many fun stories all of its own). but if i know you personally, you will have to come and visit us in our new apartment, (warning you may have many boxes in your room, unless i reorganize them) and if i don't know you personally, sorry you can't visit, it would be weird and a little scary.

ello there

hey, so i started school again. it felt like the i started from the beginning, i have no friends. but not to fear, i'm starting to make new friends again, and starting to hang out with my old friends. but no fear ma shef, i'm not limiting my friend intake at the moment, but if it starts to get out of hand i will for sure.

i'm taking a great course call environmental issues, and its a general elective. but we finally have a course where we get to say what we think about the issues with the environment. yeah! like that global warming is a bunch of crap, but climate change is real, but climate change isn't anything new, its been changing for years, its just we are finally paying attention to it. i'm very excited to be learning agian, and to have a purpose besides go to gym, go to work. by the way i'm liking the whole not working thing, its great!