Look what Iain did today! Plus a photo of the girls ...

Alison had quite a few lessons "banked" in exchange for work at the barn all year, and was unable to use them all up before the end of the summer. She decided to give me, Iain and Claire all a riding lesson! Obviously there are no photos of me attempting to ride ... I felt a bit clutzy, but it was awesome. Today, it was Iain's turn. He has never really been on a horse before, and he did really well for a rank beginner. He even trotted several times, which was his favourite part. He has never been interested in horses before the Olympics this year. He became quite fascinated with the Grand Prix dressage, and when Alison offered the lesson, he was quick to take her up on it.


Mary is quite a cautious instructor, but he ended up doing circles at the walk without Paige leading him, and using inside leg and rein to guide Chevy.


Claire will have her lesson in a couple more weeks.

Claire received some photos from a friend today, and I LOVED this one of Alison, Claire and their friend Angela. It was taken at Alison's grad in June.

It's a historic and bittersweet day today :-(.

http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/

The incredible comic strip, that my children and I have grown up with, is ... done.

This is it.

The Pattersons will no longer age, change, adventure anew.

And what is terribly poignant, for those who have been following this last storyline, and in particular this last strip, is that Lynn Johnston's husband left her last year.

For those who never followed this strip, it is truly exceptional. It will continue. Lyn is retraining herself with a simpler style; the characters will no longer age and it will be present day humour alone.

Adios, Patterson family ...

Auditions held the last two nights down at Mount Tabor Theatre in Milford

Kev took Claire down, and both auditioned for parts. Kev didn't particularly want a major role, although the director had initially targeted him for Mr. Warbucks. He is thrilled that instead, he's going to play several minor (and, of course, character) roles.

And Claire will be Annie! She is beyond thrilled (and somewhat terrified ;-) ...). But her eighth grade year will be a good year for her to do this; she's in good shape academically and I would be less likely to encourage such a large part in high school. Plus she is UBER organized and I have complete faith that she will be able to maintain her school work and family responsibilities.

The theatre company they are a part of is The Marysburgh Mummers.

So excited for her ... :-) (and grateful that Kev is involved too, and will be doing the driving ;-) ...!)

Note to a child.

It is unwise, at this time of the month ;-). and when Mom has been outside since 7:30 moving a few hundred metres of Electranet fencing so that we have new pasture and are ready for winter ... when she has been digging up thistle plants and milkweed because they are alternately fleece-destroying and poisonous ... when at 10:30 a.m. she NOT YET had coffee nor breakfast, and when after she gobbles those, she must buckle down at the computer and work for a couple of hours, in amongst laundry and booking appointments and sundry other things ...

it is unwise ...

very, VERY unwise ...

to whine in reply "It's not fair!" when asked to do a chore that you should have done already this morning. A chore which you haven't done because you've been reading comic books and playing with the three caterpillars you've made a home for in your bedroom.

Heh, heh, heh.

Love (really!),

Mom.

P.S. But MANY, MANY thanks to the child who happily cleaned our entire house this morning, blasting ABBA (can you believe it) and singing at the top of her lungs :-).

2008 PEC 4H Sheep Club Acheivement Day, August 17, 2008

Here are the three handlers and lambs that went to the Achievement Day from our place.

Here is Claire, with FFF C0riander. I love this lamb. Her fleece is to-die-for crimpy, all the way out to the tip, and consistent all over her body. She has a lovely soft face (Arcott golden sheen) and a very sweet small head (courtesy her Shetland sire). She was extremely well behaved. She placed 2nd in the fleece class, and 3rd in intermediate showmanship.


Here is Alison with FFF Rosemary. Rosie looked REALLY great at home this morning of the show, but didn't show well. She must have been a bit stressed; she looked like an old plug during the the fleece class! Her fleece isn't quite as nice as Corianders, although it's still better than any other fleece I've had on my property so far, and she is still very consistent. She's also a bit taller than Corrie. She got a third place in the fleece class, and Alison won Senior Showmanship with her (and Reserve Champion Showmanship later in the day).



This is Amanda, our neighbour, with FFF Peppercorn. It's her first year in 4H, and her first club. She goes to the kids' school, and Alison encouraged her to join the club. Alison spent a lot of time with her; she was a great student, and was also the first to dive in and help out with chores around here this summer. She wowed everyone at the show. She won first place in Junior Showmanship, AND won first place in the fleece division. The judge made lots of nice comments about her being and up'n'comer. (Now, I personally would not have placed Pepper first in the fleece class, however the judge used to breed Texels and put a heavier emphasis on conformation). Since Pepper has Texel in her lineage, and picked up the stocky body type of her sire, she was a shoe-in over the other fleece animals. BUT, her fleece is NOT consistent, not very crimpy, and VERY inconsistent with substantial britch hair. She's very much her mom's daughter when it comes to fleece. (Her mom, Jazzy, won the Market Lamb class at last year's show).



So yes, lambs from our place took top three spots in the fleece class. I REALLY didn't want that to happen; the judge made lots of encouraging comments about how our three lambs were in top-notch perfect showing condition; perfect weight, yada, yada ... but then went on to describe how the other lambs were not. She wasn't particularly tactful. I was a little embarrassed. The other lambs in the class were purebred Shetlands, and one could say that the difference was that Shetlands don't tend to keep condition as well ... except that last year the class was all Shetlands and our little girl, from a different judge, again was much more conditioned that the others.

So.

Somehow, on our measly 3.25 acres, we do something right! Certainly one advantage we have is that we ONLY have sheep, and the other farms have mixed livestock including goats. Goats are very dominant to sheep, and I've noticed when visiting these places that their sheep all look much more nervous. I expect that affects their condition. Or perhaps it's the soymeal treats we feed them ;-).

Here's a shot of the final showmanship class.


Here's a small portion of the obstacle course. Jeff put a lot of work into it! The kids had a lot of fun, and after the show, Alison actually took all three of our lambs in-hand and put them through it :-P.




And, one of my favourite photos from the day ... Farmer Kev holding one of the lambs. Voluntarily! Really :-).


A photo of the 2008 livestock club, missing a couple of members unfortunately!

Olympic Updates! - Edited

Canada is doing great in the jumping (equestrian) events! Woo hoo!

Edited to add: I'm so thrilled that Canada won the silver medal in team jumping. The jumping team hasn't brought home a medal since 1964. Even more important, Ian Miller, 61, who has been a part of the team since 1972 (I believe he has matched a world record for the individual who has represented his country the most times in the Olympics; had Canada not withdrew from Moscow he would be in the lead) has NEVER brought home a medal, and yet is the backbone of the Canadian team. Poignantly, his wife died in March this past year and it's very sad that she was unable to live to see this victory. She was his biggest fan and supporter. For the next Olympics, Ian's two children could also be representing Canada, which is just cool.

Re: the actual competition; because Mac Cone had to pull his horse on Sunday due to injury, the team only had three members so they lost their discard score option :-(. Had Matt not had to pull, they may have actually brought home a gold! Eric Lamaze had a brilliant ride on his brilliant horse Hickstead.

The last neat thing about the top three were that the top two were North American teams, and the bronze went to Norway. In the case of Canada and Norway ... these are cool climate countries and I find it astounding that the horses were able to perform so well in the heat of a summer in Hong Kong. Not to mention that these are spots normally taken up by European countries, who typically dominate horse sport. It was shocking that Germany and Great Britain were not medal winners.

I pointed out to the children that the beauty of equestrian sports is the longevity of the riders. The competitors this week have ranged in age from 16 (or was it 18?) to 68, unlike many sports where by 26 you are over the hill.

It's just too bad that the equestrian sports don't make it to regular station coverage in Canada. We had to purchase another station for a month (BOLD TV, formerly Country Canada) to be able to watch.

The view from our front porch last night at around 10:00

We had no rain whatsoever, but I suspect Napanee and Kingston were dumped on. We had electrical activity in the east (the above videos) but also a huge electrical storm over the lake to the south. I'm glad they didn't collide overhead!

Mummers camp!

Claire had a wonderful three weeks at the Marysburgh Mummers Camp. The Mummers are a theatre company based in Milford, Ontario. They have a long history of quality productions, and aim to include as many children as possible. I was blown away by the musical they ended up with which was done twice on Friday. The pianist and musical arranger was actually a symphony orchestra conductor who lives in the county half-time. Two guys in different musical theatre programs (Sheridan and St. Lawrence) volunteered three weeks this summer, unpaid, to help out (these two were AMAZING!). Jeanette Arsenault helped out by being a musical director, and assisted the kids in writing their own song which was showcased. As well, there was a talent show. The energy was amazing, and these few photographs will not convey much of anything. But here goes :-).

Below are two videos of Claire doing her rendition of "Tomorrow", from Annie. The first she performed a capella during the morning show; the second she was accompanied by the pianist during the evening show. This was thrown together at the last minute. Claire started out a bit unsure, the pianist had a few bobbles, and the arrangement was a bit lower than she had practised, but it still came out pretty well.



Ack. Having problems uploading the videos :-(.