Down on the Snyders Farm

busy, busy, busy

2010-06-07T12:37:00.000-04:00

Life around here seems to be neverending busy. The kids have started into another soccer season, which, makes 3 evenings a week extra busy. Our lawnmower is FINALLY fixed and we can mow our lawn again...I think our neighbours must be wondering what's going on around here. The third birthday in our household of spring is complete and now it's trying to find time for the party with his friends. It's kinda hard to schedule a date and time when all his friends are in different sports of their own....but, I think we've got it figured out. :D

For now, here are a few pics of what's been going on.

Faith's 4th Birthday - March 28

Garrett's 8th Birthday - April 24

Haden's 10th Birthday - May 18

with his new Penguins cap...sadly they got beat out by the Flyers)

My First...

2010-04-17T15:23:00.002-04:00

I am so excited. I made my first Etsy purchase and I cannot wait for it to arrive.

I purchased a DIY Girls Peasant Dress kit from "littlefishbigpond" at Etsy.com. I have been wanting to try my hand at sewing a dress for Faith for awhile now, but have always felt a bit overwhelmed about the whole thing. This kit seems like the perfect thing for me to try. It comes with everything I need...pre-cut fabric, elastic, ribbon, etc. I'll post pics as soon as it arrives (in about 2 weeks)!!

Pink

2010-04-15T09:40:00.001-04:00

Having a girl who loves pink, has really got me liking pink.
A few people I know have had baby girls recently, so that got me to the fabric store (to buy pink) and make a few things:

This little onesie was a gift for a new baby at church.

I simply zig-zagged around the flower shape and

straight stitched the centre of the flower.

I also added a straight stitch of pink around the neck

to add a bit more pink, although, this may be hard to see on the picture.

I sewed this cute flannette into a good size blanket.

Will be a great gift for someone I know who had a baby girl!

Bubbling

2010-04-09T10:09:00.000-04:00

My creative side has been bubbling inside my brain for the last little while.
Soooo many ideas, so little time. I've spent a few mornings with my daughter at the fabric store getting inspired. I've also spent too much time on other blogs getting many ideas.

To get myself started, I created a shirt for my nephew who turned one.

I just pinned the guitar shape onto the t-shirt (lots of pins) and did a zig-zag stitch around the entire shape. I added straight stitching down the centre to create strings on the guitar. I liked how it turned out, especially for this being my first try at sewing onto a t-shirt. The hard part was actually finding a plain white t-shirt.

2010-04-08T21:28:00.002-04:00

I'm getting inspired...stay tuned!

A Few More Camping Pics...

2009-08-05T09:51:00.001-04:00

Camping 2009

2009-08-04T22:01:00.000-04:00

We had a great camping experience this past week. Not as much rain as they had forecast, so our spirits weren't dampened. This was the first full week of camping we have done since the kids were born. Well, actually, I think it's the first full week of camping for us ever! It helped that we were able to borrow a pop-up trailer that someone so generously offered. It made it a bit easier than a tent. Here are a few pics of our fun week!

Love of a Lifetime

2009-06-25T08:41:00.000-04:00

15 years ago today, I married my best friend! WOW!

Here are a few pictures to remember when...

Spring on the Farm

2009-06-24T14:12:00.001-04:00

More pictures, as requested! :D

Faith boating...

Little lamb...

And, just a few random photos...

Canoe Trip

2009-06-16T21:26:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday afternoon, we spent the afternoon with friends canoeing down the Thames River. The kids loved it and it was so beautiful. The weather was perfect.

Me and Kathy (not very flattering, I know)

Faith sat between me and Kathy.

The Thames River

Tom & Dan (and Haden) in the canoe and Holly being pulled by me & Kathy

Garrett in the other "dingy" being pulled by Tom & Dan (and Haden)

We even managed to see two bald eagles sitting in a tree.

We were moving so quickly at that point I just managed to get a picture of the one.

If you look closely you can see the beak of the other just a bit below the visible eagle.

So cool. First time for all of us seeing a wild bald eagle.

Mud Walk

2009-04-05T17:36:00.000-04:00

Today was a great day for a mud walk.

Garrett went thru 2 pairs of boots. They had fun getting their boots stuck in the gushy mud and trying to get them out again.

Hockey

2009-01-18T16:36:00.000-05:00

Hockey is a BIG part of our life. One hockey highlight was when Garrett got to have a turn being goalie for his team. He was thrilled and had all the right moves...

Pep talk before the game.

Leading the team to the ice.

Practicing his stance.

Saving a goal.

Just being a goalie.

Happy 2009!

2009-01-14T16:39:00.000-05:00

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

What are You Eating?!?!

2008-12-23T07:54:00.000-05:00

Ever thought you'd eat a tractor?!?!??

Now, I can't take credit for this design. A wife of one of Tom's customer's gave him one for Christmas. So, on the weekend, I braved the Christmas crowd at the Bulk Barn (which wasn't too bad) and found all the chocolates I needed!

Now, if you know your tractors, you are usually a green tractor fan or a red tractor fan. So, to keep everyone happy I made some of each!

Snow Day

2008-12-19T11:44:00.000-05:00

Today is a kid's dream come true...a snow day before Christmas holidays start.

While the snow falls and blows and drifts, I've managed to keep my kids busy enough that I don't think they've even whined once!

Here's how we managed to fill half of our snow day...

Christmas Card ball

Candycane cookies (and wreaths and a ladder..not sure why the ladder).

Advent!

2008-12-01T11:10:00.000-05:00

It's beginning to look like Christmas around our house!

Every year, I buy those cheap chocolate advent calendars for the kids, but, this year I decided to sew an advent calendar and put my own treats in for each day. I wasn't sure if this was going to be too big a task, but I surprised myself.

I found a great fabric panel that already had nice squares for pockets. I just had to cut out each individual square, iron little seams down each side, and then sew them on the red panel. A little time consuming, but I'm very happy with the results. Take a peek...

I'm not sure what I'm going to do exactly for the numbers of each day. I may just take some ribbon and hang the number on each pocket and after the kids get their chocolate, they can tuck the number in the pocket and they can see how many days until Christmas.

Here's a close up of some of the pockets.

CELL PHONE VR BIBLE

2008-10-28T12:55:00.000-04:00

Found this on a blog, and since I don't know how to link it to mine, I thought I'd just retype it.

Ever wonder what would happen if we treated our Bible like we treat our cell phone?

What if we carried it around in our purses or pockets?

What if we flipped through it several time a day?

What if we turned back to go get it if we forgot it?

What if we used it to receive messages from the text?

What if we treated it like we couldn’t live without it?

What if we gave it to kids as gifts?

What if we used it when we traveled?

What if we used it in case of emergency?

This is something to make you go….hmm…where is my Bible?

Unlike our cell phone, we don’t have to worry about our Bible being disconnected because Jesus already paid the bill.
Makes you stop and think ‘where are my priorities? And no dropped calls!

Coming Soon to a Blog Near You

2008-10-27T11:49:00.000-04:00

more coming soon....

Our Sunday Afternoon Walk

2008-04-21T19:37:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day so we decided to take walk around the Dorchester Mill Pond (for those who don't know, it is a walk in the woods around a very large pond that takes about an hour).

Garrett was running way ahead as per usual. Faith was taking turns walking with me, Tom and Haden. We came to a curve in the path and larger hill to go down. Garrett and Haden were nicely jogging, so I thought I would join them and burn a few extra calories. Tom had Faith and they were just a bit behind us.

We came to a wooden walkway-type bridge that has no railing (because it just goes over a small, knee-deep creek). As I'm jogging just behind the boys, I hear a big SPLASH behind me. I turn around to see Tom holding Faith. She is drenched from head to toe. Tom is soaked up to his knees. I call to Haden and Garrett to come back, and go running to Faith. She is dripping and shivering and crying. I quickly get all her wet clothes off and wrap my sweater around her.

Tom tells me, as we are walking back to the van, that just as he and Faith approached the wooden walkway, he had just thought to himself that maybe he should hold her hand. She was running, but had tripped on one of the boards and went diving head first into the water. It all happened so fast, and I don't even think she was in the water more than a couple seconds. Tom got her out pretty quick. I didn't even see her in the water.

We laughed about it soon afterward. And, once she was all dry and warm while daddy carried her back to the van, she was asking to go slide down the slides again before we went home.

Oh, by-the-way, we didn't even make it 1/4 of the way around the pond. We'll try again next Sunday. This time someone will be holding her hand. :)

Collecting and Boiling

2008-03-30T15:57:00.000-04:00

On Wednesday we started collecting the sap that was filling out sap buckets quickly.

On Thursday we started boiling sap...

and boiled it....

and boiled it...

and boiled it some more.

It was a long process of boiling, but we managed to get about 2 litres of maple syrup in total. It was much more than I anticipated.

We even managed to get some maple sugar (even if it was a result of boiling too long!).

So, this morning we just had to have some maple syrup on french toast. YUMMY!!

Yummy Pure Canadian Snyders Maple Syrup

2008-03-25T20:23:00.000-04:00

This year, we are tapping our maple trees for the first time. We braved the cold wind last night and drilled some holes and hung up some sap buckets.

We can't wait to collect enough sap to boil it down to syrup. The ratio of sap to syrup is 40:1. So, that means, we need to get 40 buckets full of sap to get one bucket of syrup. It was quite exciting when we saw drips of sap coming out of the tree immediately after we put the tap in.

The boys had to keep peeking to see how much was dripping out of the tree.

It will be interesting to see how much we get to make. The boys will be checking those buckets every day (the boys meaning Haden, Garrett AND Tom)!

Only Once

2008-02-03T15:02:00.000-05:00

I did something today that one should only do once in their life. And, you should try it at least once. Maybe twice. But, probably not three times.

I DEEP FRIED A MARS BAR!!!!

I feel my arteries clogging already.
But, oh, oh, oh. Was it ever yummy.

For those of you who are curious (I know you want to try it now, too), I took two Mars bars and refrigerated them over night. You probably don't have to refrigerate them that long, but I wasn't even sure I should try this. (So, I waited over night...and, yes, this morning I thought I should still try it.)

I made a batter of 1/2 cup flour, 1/4 cup of corn meal, a pinch of baking soda and enough milk until it was the consistency of a pancake batter. I then cut my Mars bar into small bite size pieces. Dipped them in the batter and placed them, a few at a time, in the deep fryer. They only take about a minute or two to brown up. I scooped them out, ever so gently, and placed on a paper towel...to soak the excess oil, right!?! (At this point, I don't think it was really going to change the caloric count too much.) I grabbed my fork, poked one warm morsel, and popped it into my mouth. mmmmmmmmmm I think the best word to describe these tiny bits of sugar fried in oil are EVIL! YUMMY EVIL! My hips will love me forever!

But, I recommend everyone should try it at least once in their life.

Now if you will excuse me. I have to spend the rest of the day on my treadmill.

There is no picture. I do not want any evidence of me actually eating them.

Oh. And, yes, I did share with my kids and Tom.

Girls Night Out

2008-02-02T16:56:00.000-05:00

Yes, I actually got to have a girls night out.

Cindy and Barb came to London, and we had an evening out at the London Food and Wine Show a couple weeks ago.

It's was very yummy (as you can see from the picture).

Cindy even got her picture taken with "the hunchback".

What's his real name, Cindy?!?!

Too Big Too Fast

2008-02-02T16:47:00.000-05:00

Well, here's the latest.

Haden has lost another tooth.

He's getting too big, too fast.

He truly looks like a boy now.

Wacky Hair Day

2007-10-24T11:26:00.000-04:00

Today was Wacky Hair Day at school for Haden and Garrett. Here's how I sent them to school. Aren't they cute!

Fall Fair 2007

2007-10-02T17:32:00.000-04:00

Here is a picture of my attempt to be artistic. The kids think it's pretty good and that it will win 1st place at the fair on Saturday!!

Famous for a Day

2007-09-14T12:04:00.001-04:00

Garrett is famous for one day. His picture is in the London Free Press today.
Check it out....

http://www.lfpress.com/cgi-bin/publish.cgi?x=galleries&s=gallery&p=2111&pg=2

I did something yesterday that I thought I would never do....I went to a farm show without Tom. Yes, I think I was suffering from a fever yesterday. But, as you can see, Garrett thoroughly enjoyed himself.

First Day of Senior Kindergarten (SK)

2007-09-05T11:09:00.000-04:00

Today was a marvelous day. Garrett started SK today. We got to school and he didn't even look back to see where I was. (I think it helped that he wanted to go play on the new playground equipment.) No tears this year! yeah! I'm a little sad that they are growing up so fast. c'est la vie.

Faith wanted in on the picture, so everybody together....say "cheese"...

First Day of Grade Two

2007-09-04T21:09:00.000-04:00

Haden survived his first day of grade two. He was quite happy to be back to school.

The New Snyders Vacation Home

2007-09-04T20:39:00.000-04:00

Well, we purchased our first vacation home. Here are a few pictures of it from our long weekend in Dashwood, Ontario.

The front and side views.

View of Master bedroom window(s) and the Master bedroom.

the boys' room

Faith's room (it's actually the same room as the boys' room. There was a wall but we removed it.)

View from the Master bedroom into the kids' room. The green curtain is a cupboard.

We are quite happy with our new vacation home (especially what the asking price was). It's very spacious and well ventilated. The indoor plumbing is lacking, but so far we've been able to cope.

Summer Fun

2007-07-10T21:20:00.000-04:00

Little Faith has her brothers wrapped around that little finger of hers. She just sat in that wagon while they took turns pulling her around. It was great. The boys loved it as much as she did, I think.

Visit

2007-06-22T17:37:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday we let the boys skip a 1/2 day of school to go visit Grandma and Grandpa. While we were there, Zefram and Auntie Mary came to visit. Here are a couple pictures.

Can you tell that Faith loves babies?!?!

Thunderstorm

2007-06-14T14:18:00.000-04:00

Last Friday (I guess that would be June 8), we had a wild thunderstorm at about 3:20 in the afternoon. We weren't home as I was picking up Haden from school. While we were driving to school, the clouds got darker and darker. Arriving at school, we ran inside just to miss the hard rain, thunder and lightning, and the wind. It stormed for about 10 minutes and then it just rained for a couple of hours.

Apparently, back at home our great big maple tree tore in half, right in the middle. We lost the top half, which is now lying on the ground.

I don't think we lost too much shade. I'm sure some year we'll have to chop the rest of it down. I'm not looking forward to that day. So, until that day, we will still get to enjoy racoons peeking at us from the great big hollow hole in the middle of the trunk.

My Little Liam

2007-06-13T11:34:00.000-04:00

I finally got to hold my Liam.

Look at how sweet he is.

I just had to give him LOTS of kisses...

Just Because

2007-05-30T11:00:00.001-04:00

Look at that beautiful face....

A Watched Pot

2007-05-30T10:43:00.000-04:00

A watched pot never boils.

Apparently a watched sheep never lambs. I watched a sheep for 45 minutes last night waiting for her to have her lamb. I gave up at 9:30 and came inside.

This morning I went to see the new lamb. And, here it is soundly sleeping...

And, to top things off, I just missed another one being born as I was coming to see the new lamb from last night. I'm always amazed that in a matter of minutes, they are standing and walking around.

In the last 12 hours, we've had 4 sheep lamb. So cute.

One Month

2007-05-28T15:18:00.001-04:00

Happy ONE MONTH birthday to my little nephews!

Aren't they the sweetest.
I know most of you who read my blog, also read the Riker Clan. So, I will just wish my babies a happy one month! Auntie Brenda loves you both!

The Bunch

2007-05-25T21:28:00.000-04:00

Just thought I'd share with you a picture of the infamous escapees...and their leader (all infamous groups/herds have a leader don't they?!?).

Bangs and Sirens

2007-05-25T10:45:00.000-04:00

Last night I was nicely sleeping, when I was awoken by loud sirens and Tom jumping out of bed. I asked him what that was. He said he heard some bangs, like firecrackers or gun shots...a few in a row. Then he says, I'm gonna go see what it is.

So, like I can go back to sleep. I get out of bed, my heart pounding. Tom is downstairs with the front door open, standing outside (in his underwear). The neighbours inside light comes on. There are lights flashing all through the swamp area just at the end of our property. We hear a few more bangs. Now I ask Tom to maybe come inside and watch from the window. It might be safer???

We watch out the livingroom window for awhile (also making sure all the doors and windows are locked). Tom gets out the binoculars to see if he can see things better. There is a firetruck and a few police cars. There is also quite a bit of smoke. Tom wonders if some teenagers were driving around throwing fireworks out their windows.

Things seem to be calming down, so I go to bed and watch TV for awhile. Tom comes up in a few minutes, looking out all the windows as he does. I turn the TV off and try to sleep as I try to image what is happening down there. 1:00 appears on my clock. I kinda drift off to sleep. 2:00 appears on my clock. Tom gets up to look out the window. I kinda drift off to sleep. 3:00 appears on my clock and now Faith is crying. Tom heats her bottle (apparently he's not sleeping good either). I feed her a bottle. Tom looks out the windows to see what's happening. All the lights are finished flashing. Everything must be taken care of. Morning is just a few short hours away.

6:10 Haden and Garrett are up and asking to go downstairs. Sure, I tell them.
Tom gets up for work. I drift off to sleep until 6:30.

After Tom leaves for work, I call him on his cell and ask if he could see anything as he drove down the road. He says it looks like someone burned a car. All that's left is a carborator (or some piece of a car) and a large rectangular burned area. We figure, someone probably stole a car and torched it....maybe. I guess we'll never know.

Cow Exercise

2007-05-24T11:02:00.000-04:00

I found a great new way to burn calories without having to go to the gym. All I have to do is chase cows around. Simple enough. Well, not exactly me choice of exercise but it was my exercise last night. I will try and explain without getting you lost (or myself).

Last night (after kids are in bed-8:30ish), Tom asked me to help him move some calves (good size bigger calves - 1/2 the size of a full cow) from inside the barn to outside in the pasture. All I had to do was stand in the sheep pasture, so the calves would go to the other pasture. Simple enough. And I did my job wonderfully.

Then, Tom comes outside and asks if he closed the gate on the other side of the pasture (yes, the pasture the calves were in). He peeks around the corner and says "NO". I turn around and run through the sheep pasture, climbing and jump over the tall green gate, run around to the front of the barn to head off the calves. Well, I'm too late they're heading for the field. I run around the back of the shed to stop them from going into the newly planted bean field.

They are standing at the edge of the field gazing into the horizon. I slowly start walking toward them. Even before I take one step, they are off running in full speed right through the middle of the field heading for the bush. All I could do was stand there in awe as I watch this little herd of 10 calves making a break for it. I run to see where Tom is and notice one calf has decided to hang around. Tom jumps in his truck and heads to the field. I stick around and make sure this last one doesn't leave.

Tom heads down the field after these calves. Luckily, these calves have pnemonia and can't run all the way to the bush. They stop 1/2 way to the bush, turn around and start trotting back toward the barn (in a nice neat row). Tom drives beside them and blocks them from going any wrong way. I leave the one lone calf in the pasture and block the way between the barn and the house. The calves are now walking, foaming at the mouth, coughing, and nicely walking into the pasture. We close the gate, lock it, and I tell Tom, "I really wish I had my camera with me." It would have been a great picture of Tom in his truck with calves trotting in a herd beside him in the middle of the field!

Adventures on the farm!

pictures

2007-05-24T11:00:00.000-04:00

There would be pictures on my blog if it didn't take an hour to post them. I am going to try making my files smaller and then uploading them and see if that makes a difference. Stay tuned for pictures oh sweet sisters of mine! :)

Gone Digital

2007-05-15T17:41:00.000-04:00

I am so excited about the new camera I bought today. Finally, a digital camera. I guess I've been living in caveman times, because everyone I know has a digital camera.
Now, we do too. :)
So, you can fully expect to see lots of pictures soon...once I figure out how to use it.

Starting Out

2007-05-14T21:23:00.000-04:00

I guess I caved. I've decided to start our own 'Snyders blog'. Well, I created a 'Snyders blog'. We'll see how much time I have to keep it going. I'll keep you posted. :)