Dog Sitters!

Yesterday the kids and I looked after a friend's dog, Neeko, he's a K9 reject from our service and is now a SAR (Search & Rescue) dog. The kids have been bugging us about getting a puppy, we promised them one this spring but haven't figured out a plan for where we are going to set up the kennel, etc.


Neeko and the kids. When the service first got the puppies, 4 years ago, they had a 'puppy naming' contest and they picked both of the name the kids came up with; Neeko and Nacho.


Neeko stayed in the garage, he was a really good boy and didn't cause no problems, in fact when Clark (the owner) came to pick him up we offered to send the kids in exchange, he didn't take the offer!

Spring on the farm!

The weather, up until today, has been very nice, so we've been spending most days outside.


James, Ben & Blair driving Blair's r/c truck around the deck.


Erinn chasing Ben with her car.


The boys in papa's tractor.


Riding the trike, pulling the wagon.


Ben driving the jeep.

Hoppy Easter!

Every year the kids do an Easter present hunt out at the farm.


The kids waiting to venture out to find their hidden treasures. In case your wondering about the little boy on Erinn's right, that's James, he's mama & papa's adopted son.


Erinn excited about finding her present in the box behind here, kinda looks like a Leprechaun trap, doesn't it?


Blair after finding his under a spruce tree.


Kirby finding hers the same place it was the year previous.


Eating some of the goodies after a hard day of searching!

5-4-3-2-1 Blastoff!

While at the farm Andrew entertained us with his model rockets. He had three he launched for us, it was quite the feat yesterday with a brisk Southwest wind.


Getting the launcher hooked up.


Blastoff!


The 'recovery party' bringing back the rocket.


Ben & Kirby watching the excitement.


Andrew and the kids catching one on its return to earth.

Sighting In!

The kids and I sighted in the scope on their 22 while we were out at the farm, getting it ready for spring gopher hunting, there's already been a few running around!


Blair was having a few problems with the rifle, he's still a little small for it but he did manage to hit the paper.


Kirby is going to be my little sniper! She's already got the form down, she's just not sure about shooting anything but paper targets.


Erinn even had to give it a try; she hit the backstop a few times!


After we were done shooting I found the kittens huddled together behind the shop.


The kids with their little cousin Ben, enjoying the spring sunshine on the farm.

H2O

The 'low-level' alarm went off the other night which is usually an indication we've been using more water than I've been able to haul to keep the cistern topped up.


So I borrowed a friend's 'water-trailer', this instead of paying for a truckload that costs $75.00. With this trailer it costs me $3.50 to fill the 250 gallon and 350 gallon tanks. I don't fill the 185 gallon one on the back of the truck, I tried this once and ended up with my back bumper on the ground, too much weight.


Carolyn's Christmas cactus and prayer plant decided to bloom again this year. I think they are enjoying the spring sun in the front room.

To Catch a Leprechaun!

On St. Patrick's Day the kids made a Leprechaun Trap.


As you can see the trap had a visitor who left little green footprints.


It appears the Leprechaun entered through the back patio doors and went right to the trap.


The kids put some signs on the outside of the trap to lure the Leprechaun in and inside they had some fake gold. The Leprechaun left some goodies for the kids before escaping!

Evening Visitors

This evening when we got home from church, around 7:30, the deer came marching up over the hill towards the yard.

They stopped at the fence line and watched as I tried to steady the camera for a picture from the front step.

There was about six standing directly across the road and when I looked to the southeast there was another couple just coming out of the valley, following the same trail Blair & I had hiked earlier in the day.

This morning when I was getting Erinn up a couple of pheasants came strutting down the road and crossed into the adjacent pastureland. Over the last couple of weeks I've been seeing lots, the other morning I counted close to 20 on my drive into town, all males, must be a sign of spring.

Neighbour House Progress

With the weather turning warmer over the last couple of weeks they have really made progress on the new neighbour's houses.

Carolyn went to a water co-op meeting the other night and met most of the new families. Most have young families, one has 5 children all around the age of ours, another has 4 young girls and the other 2 more young girls. Lucky for Blair the family with 5 are mostly boys!


The houses in lot 2 and 3, looking west.


Lot 7, two doors west of us.


Here's the fresh snow we just had today, just when things were drying up nicely!

Family Weekend!

The Zimmer's spent a quiet weekend around home, Kirby took a Babysitter's Course on Saturday, Erinn & mom went searching for the Easter Bunny downtown and Blair & dad pumped iron and did some ground fighting at the police station.


Erinn had a friend from school, Buttercup, come stay with her for the weekend, she took her bicycling on Saturday when before the snow came back.


This morning we woke up to fresh snow, the kids took advantage of a quiet Sunday morning in front of the tube.


Blair & dad went antler hunting down in the valley.


We hiked all over the place and than came across this one just across from the yard! Blair wants to find the other side so he can make himself some rattling antlers for hunting this fall.


Kirby busied herself doing some crafts today, she started making pages for her Disneyland scrapbook.

Wacky Hair!

This past Thursday was Wacky Hair Day at school for Erinn and Blair.


The Pippy Longstocking look!


My son in pony-tails!

Snowboarding Weekend!

This past Saturday Blair & I headed down to Cypress Hills to do some skiing & snowboarding. When we left Blair said to me, "How are we going to snowboard when there's no snow?", since we have had just had a week of above 0 weather and most of our snow had turned to puddles & mud. As we got close to the hills he realized that there was lots of snow!




It was an awesome day, the weather couldn't have been better, above 0, clear blue sky and no wind!


Blair deciding what run to take next!


All strapped in ready to go.


"See you at the bottom!" I was amazed, this was only his second time snowboarding and his first run went without a single fall.


Perched on the top of "Suicide"! I convinced him to try this run, one we hadn't done before, what a mistake this was. We ended up doing it another two more times, I wiped out on each run at least once!


At the end of the day we had made around 15 runs, considering the nice weather the hill was dead, I think the longest we waited in line for the quad-chair was 5 minutes!


Just cruising!

Bravest kid I know!

On Wednesday Erinn went into the hospital to have her tonsils removed and tubes put in her ears. There was no fusing, crying, or arguing from her at all!


Here she is just after the surgery, cuddling her teddy she got from the hospital staff with mom holding her hand.


I ended up spending the night with her in the hospital, the next morning she was up at her usual 6:30, like nothing ever happened, wanting some ice cream for breakfast!

Dancing with the Stars!

This week was parent viewing week at dance.


It doesn't look like Erinn is having fun at all!


Kirby obviously dances better with her eyes shut, all the photos I got of her she had them closed.


Dad was against his son taking up dance until he seen this move, now he's pretty impressed!


Here's the real reason Blair likes dance.