 |
April 2008 |
Jump to updates:
27 April - New Foal on the Farm
20 April - Spring Time in Lacolle
27 April - New Foal on the Farm
Wow our first foal!! Jolie finally had her baby on Friday 25th April just after 9am,
20 April - Spring Time in Lacolle
Click here to see the pictures
Yey, it has finally warmed up, the snow has all melted, the mud is beginning to dry up and it wont be long before the mozzies are back out! Its hard to believe when we are sitting outside in 18 °C having dinner in the evening, that only 2 weeks ago the place was covered in snow and it was still -10°C at night! Lets hope it stays this nice for a while. The tarps have been removed from around the balcony of the house and the washing is back back on the line! We have even managed to start work on 'Marie'
Back to the end of last month and the main event was Isabelle's birthday party. There was live music, lots of guests and tons of vietnamese sandwiches (which surprisingly after having to eat them solidly for a week after the party I am still not sick of! In fact I quite fancy one now!!) It was a really fun party but the star of the show had to be the cake that Isabelle's mum had made, it was an amazing chocolate horse wonder and must have taken ages to make. Mmm, I fancy a piece of that now too, very sadly it has all been eaten though.
At this party Stuart was chatting to Pierre (the amazing house he built himself, pottery man, if anyone is keeping up with the story!) and offered him a hand with the work he is doing renovating his house in Montreal. The next day we had a phone call and it was Pierre asking if Stuart could come and help, I was invited too so we both shot off up to Montreal. Their place up there turns out to be just as fab as their place down here and it's situated in the centre of the city in a really nice area. They have a jacuzzi too which you get to use whenever you want!! Stuart stayed and worked with Pierre and I got to have a lovely little holiday. I visited Art Galleries and Museums, walked around the city, got lost in the underground city and shopped in the malls (with no one to tell me off!) It was really good fun. Thank you very much for having us :-)
Back to work on the farm after our little time away and this month we have been, stripping furniture, spring cleaning the farm, which has involved a lot of raking of hay from around the barns and garden and removing old poop. We have had a big clear up of all the old metal that has been lying about the place, it was quite satisfying taking that down to the tip, we nearly managed to fill their container single handedly! We have also finally managed to cut one of the pastures in half with new fence, so we have an extra field where we can put the geldings and one of the stallions.
Horse News .... The vet came to grind all the horses teeth down, which was a very interesting process (you can see what happened by looking at the pictures) Isabelle has been training Stuart in the art of hoof clipping and he has been helping out with trimming some of the horses hooves. 'Mister' one of our gelding's is back from training and Kaloo one of our mares has gone to take his place. Windy another of our mares spent the last month in quarantine here on the farm and she finally left for France last week, and we have a new comer, a palomino gelding called Taz. The next big thing on the horse calendar is Jolie who is due to have her foal any day now, so we are very excited about that and hope that we will be there to witness it!
Boat News ... We have removed the steering station, stripped that of the old paint, primed and prepared it to be re-painted. We have taken the water damaged wooden paneling off of the windows and are in the process of making new ones. (When I say 'we' this is the royal 'we', it really means Stuart!) We are also in the process of reinforcing the rudder. I have been on a bimini fixing mission and am preparing to create new 'Marie' signs for the stern. Our Marina opens on 15th May so this is the date that we are hoping to be back in the water, its all systems go!