Welcome to Fern Valley

Here in central Alberta prime farm country,my husband Martin and I work together raising beef cattle and Appaloosa horses. Fern valley appaloosas have long been known for their quality of temperament conformation and color.I have recently rediscovered a love of writing and have published 2 collections of poetry. "Telling Tails" and Tails Trails and Campfire stories" . I look forward to a future spreading my wings as an author and as a horse woman .

Wednesday 16 September 2015

Its a wrap! (the summer that is ) many pics!

Well fal has arrived here at Fern Valley! It was a heck of a summer ,so very busy but feeling like we were on a hamster wheel , running and running and getting ... well not nowhere but it did seem to be a lot of hurry up and do the same thing over and over. 
My last big event of the summer was to fly to Seattle on Labour day weekend to attend my cousin's wedding .Whew! 4 weddings in 3 weeks, I am about out of party ! 
My dad and uncle , along with several other cousins attended and we had a lovely time. My Seattle family are some of the most wonderful people in the world, and I love to see them ,always wish I could stay longer. 
The family there is that of my dad's only sister, and he seems unable to refuse her anything so when she asked if he would sing again at her granddaughter's wedding , well you know he said yes!  
But first he sang to her at dinner on the friday night. The look of pure joy on her face is one I will never forget !
The wedding itself was a wonderful event! Done in a rustic style , at a gorgeous venue, Thomas Family farm, it was a beautiful big barn all set up for special events ! I will let the pictures speak 










 Cousin Murray whose wedding we attended last year. Ever the handsome and gracious fellow, picked me up at the airport in style! 



 Cousin Enid, mother of the bride 
 A proud and shaky Randy with his beautiful daughter Brittaini




It was a whirlwind trip but well worth it . 
Home and back to the real world where Martin and I have been busy working on a few projects. 
With the drought, hay is a bit hard to come by so we are working on some options, he found some old green feed that will double as bedding , and we are baling some grass hay into square bales from the gas well site, and also an old unused golf course. We got the well site done last weekend , he baled and I picked. Awfully glad there was only 30 to pick up! 30 is better than none but my poor arm doesn't love that type of work anymore. We have a crew (hopefully ) coming to help at the golf course, because even with the drought and the grasshoppers there will be substantially more than 30 bales! 
Also to feed these bales, and to prevent waste and loss, we use nets. But as I have mentioned my shoulder and elbow are a problem, so rather than filling the bag in the barn and carrying it to where I need  we are setting the bales up nearer to the pens and putting in these new feeders , that Martin and I have been building . We have 2 styles, one that opens more  specifically for square hay with a door in the side , or the alternative that opens at the top to allow you to put loose hay or from a round bale .






They will be mounted to the fence either with a ratchet strap, or more permanently with U bolts .
Alos this year I decided to do some canning, making Mustard Pickle, harvard beets, Giardiniera(mixed vegetable pickle ) also  Pickled Beans and pickled asparagus.



 As for the rest of the farm family, the critters are fine, My sister is finally catching up after the beautiful wedding she and my brother in law hosted here for Deanna and Adam. Mom and dad are well , coming out from time to time to visit and get the puppy love they need! 
I will wrap up for now with a few more photos








So now that fall has arrived, I am hoping to see a slow down and maybe get to horse time in .also to get out of this rut of barely blogging and get back to at least once a week and also start reading all of my favorite blogs again. Hope all have had a wonderful summer, and as always 
stay safe my friends !

Wednesday 2 September 2015

September song

Well actually this was in August, August 29 to be exact,but a song all the same .My dad singing to his granddaughter  Deanna as we all watched her walk down the aisle to become Mrs Scott!
I am so proud of my dad and of my beautiful niece!



August literally flew by with the preparations for company, and the wedding , also 2 other weddings just the week before!
Our own "Almighty Marshmellow "Mel!!! And also my good friends Annette and Keith  were married on the 21 and 22 . 2 very different but beautiful ceremonies.






Beyond that it has been business as usual, or unusual, due to a poorly closed gate, the renters yearlings got out and we had a merry chase in the neighborhood bringing a total of 88 home in groups of 10-20 over 4 days . Color me happy? NOT!  but we got it done and that is what counts.
And now I am trying to do a quick update on the blog and get a few things done before heading to Seattle on friday for a whirlwind trip to yet another wedding!
Hoping to catch up on what everyone else has going on soon and maybe start a few more regular posts in Sept.
Till then ,stay safe my friends