Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Day One - a few weeks late!

OK. Here it is. Hang On, and enjoy a week in the life of Heather Tober. (I know, I know - it's taken me long enough! but access to my computer has been limited - the spare room/computer room has been occupied with company for the past 2 weeks, and I'm not allowed to take the lap top in the baler! )
*Disclaimer* This will not be a fluffy account. I will be truthful. It is not a pity party, dirty laundry account of my life - but it's not a martha-perfect one either. The truth (or my version of it!) is not always pretty but it's not always ugly either!

Sunday July 11th
Woke up at 6:30 in the Chicken Chef Inn (classy, I know) in Ste. Rose du Lac, Manitoba. We went to our college friend Jesse’s wedding yesterday. I silently get ready for the day, gather up all our crap that our suitcase has puked everywhere, and stew & steam while everyone else is still sleeping. I am up this early because we have to be in Souris, Man. for 11:00 for a rodeo. If we leave at 8 we will have just enough time to get there. The kids and I came home from the wedding dance around midnight. Dan, in classic Dan fashion, made sure that everyone went home before calling it a night. He even got a ride to the hotel with the groom’s parents. I’m not sure but I think this was a lot closer to 3:00am than it was to 1:00. Regardless, it is HIS rodeo we are rushing away to today. But HE is not up getting ready to go. So this frustrates me. I got up, got myself ready (no shower, though, too loud and my hair takes to long to fix afterwards..) Gather up everything and become the THREE alarm clocks it takes to get the sleepy cowboy up and in the shower. While he’s in the shower I carefully load the 2 sleeping mini-Tobers into the truck, along with the suitcase, Monk & Sunny, a shoe bag, & 2 cowboy hats. One last check around the room while Dan gets dressed and we’re off to Souris – a half hour behind schedule. (Story of my life…)
HE sleeps in the truck on the way to Souris. I stop in some town that starts with an N and attempt to get a McD’s breakfast without murdering the morons that work there. Still have 3 sleepers in the truck. In Brandon everyone begins to stir, so I locate an A&W and get them some greasy breakfast. The kids LOVE hash brown patties.
We make it to Souris in time to learn that the rodeo is delayed by almost an hour (a silent sigh from the tired mom who could have enjoyed another HOUR in bed!)

We have a lot of fun at the rodeo. Lots of rodeo friends and their families there – everyone seems to have a 3 year old! Dan got second in the rodeo – so he was very happy (so am I – he LOVES to rodeo and it makes things better to be winning along the way!)
On the way home, just outside of Souris the low fuel light comes on and the countdown to empty begins… 80km…60km…. 20km…how far is the next town? 33km….lets hope the countdown is off a bit…5km to empty…panic for me – sleepy oblivion for the others…ZERO km to empty….thankfully the countdown computer had overestimated by at least 15km. We pull into the Melita White Owl and I fill my thirsty Expedition.

On the way home we go and check our new cow herd. We purchased 20 purebred Tarantaise and Hereford cows & calves from a farmer in Carnduff. They are still in his pasture for awhile. These new cows are beautiful – been shown at Agribition and all over – and are just like big pets – they come up to the fence looking for scratches and pats!
All good with these guys – onto the next stop. A hay field south of Alida that we have rented for this year. Mom & Dad are out there hauling bales, so we stop by to do a quick repair to the baler, and then bale 6 bales before it gets too tough. Mom took the kids to her place to have supper and get ready for bed. I haul a loaded trailer of bales back to the Hansen Farm by 9:00. We have a yummy supper with mom & dad and head to our place by 10. When we got home we found the Calgary Stampede on TV. The kids got to stay up to watch the chuckwagons before hitting the hay. (They’re first time seeing them – someday I hope we can take them to Stampede and they can experience them LIVE.)

Saturday, July 10, 2010

Making up for lost time... (or something like that)

So it's been like a month since I updated this thing (told you I don't have time for this!) But to make up for it I'm going to do a week in the life of me. So stay tuned. I plan on jotting things down in my notebook for the next 7 days then updating on here. I've seen this done on a few other blogs...so I'll try to accurately portay what happens around here in a week - not just facts, but feels and maybe a revelation! I'm also trying to upload some pictures to make this blog a bit more interesting.