2012, a review

2012 was with no doubt a momentous and very memorable year for us. I really saw my year begin, when the rest of my life began on our wedding day...

A good majority of the rest of the year was captured in iPhone pictures. Hundreds of blurry but smiley pictures that I look over often to see memories of the past year. We bought our land, we built the shed, I discovered the horror that is tick season in Saskatchewan...

I have never had to deal with ticks before in my life. Not the kind that go on people anyway. I've had to pull ticks off of horses which I thought was one of the worse experiences, that was until I had to pull them off of myself and found them nestled in all the most vulnerable and inconsiderate kinds of places. Keith would roll around on the ground in shorts and not have a single one, I would tuck pants into socks and they'd still find a way in. It was awful. I'm already starting to get anxiety over this upcoming May/June.

The summer brought lovely heat which drove the ticks off. We were able to go camping (which is a big deal to fit into our summers!), we got the canoe, took Nova on long bike rides around the park, and of course there's always football.

When I came back from Markus and Allison's wedding Keith surprised me with our fuzzy new fur-baby. Sofi has never failed to steal the hearts of most those she meets with her big furry face and floppy ears. I love looking at her puppy pictures. 

September brought the momentous move of our house. The big thing we had been waiting so long for it seemed.

I'll let you guess what we built with the moon....

We enjoyed our new found sunlight in the new house - such a welcome relief after living with the north facing rental window! - and I cleaned floors with an old t-shirt and my slippered feet (don't worry I invested in a spray mop after about a month or so). And at Christmas we enjoyed sparkley ornaments, candles in the windowsill, and lots of doggy snuggles. 

Between the getting married and the honeymoon and the land and the house and the building of sheds and fences and things with moons it was a huge trailblazing adventure of a year.

And at the end of 2012, we found out that we were about to embark on our biggest adventure yet....

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I cannot wait to meet you baby.

Keeping Warm

This winter has been a difficult one so far.

Last winter was fairly mild as far as Saskatchewan winters go (so I hear, it was my first Saskatchewan winter, so it was a welcome change from a Northern-Alberta winter). So when this winter hit early and hard, it made for a bit of a shock. Not to mention it's our first winter out on our acreage, two former Alberta farm kids fending for themselves, and it's been a bit of a learning process. For example, in November we bought ourselves a quad with a blade on it to push snow, and scoffed when we were told "with no tree cover you'll need a snowblower, you won't get by with just a blade".

Psh. Come onnnnnnn. We are from the wilderness of Alberta and even with way more snow than southern Saskatchewan can imagine, no one I know has ever needed a snowblower. For their driveway. Snowblowers were for city folk who didn't have a quad with a blade.

And as usual, humility will be provided.

We arrived back home from four days at our parents before Christmas, and came home to such a blown and drifted mess of a driveway, we got stuck and trying to push it out with the quad was like running into a brick wall the drifts were so hard. So we had to invest in a snowblower for the quad. And it has indeed been a lifesaver. The last winter storm we had a week and a half ago blew drifts in overnight that were higher than my waist. I've been avoiding taking my Nikon out too much in the frigid temperatures, but managed to snap some crappy phone pictures...

Nova and I with the monster drift that had taken over our driveway.

Markus promptly turned lemons into lemonade and made a fort our of our monster drift.

We were able to go snowshoeing still!

Frosty fun :)

Markus and Allison came down last weekend to celebrate my birthday. It was a laid back and quiet weekend with no real agenda but it was absolutely perfect. I wouldn't have wanted to spend my birthday any other way.

Usually I am a fan of winter. I love winter sports, I love skating and snowboarding and skiing and snowshoeing and toboganning and pulling the calf sled around behind the quad, I love it all. But. It feels like it's been a long winter so far. And today it is -29C outside and I was planning and going to chip frozen dog poo from the icy ground, but with a windchill of -40C I've decided I'm better off safe and warm inside. And what better way to warm up than to look at warm memories of summer time?

Summer means football of course (can you see my hunny?)

 Our amazing gnome! (He even got a newspaper story that made it all the way to Calgary!)

 Going for long drives with Nova

 Making Keith wait for ever in the truck while I take pictures of weeds

 Happy woof

I hate all the alfalfa in our field... But it sure did make for a few good pictures.

Fresh delicious corn from our neighbor

 Stopping on long drives to appreciate the beautiful scenery near the SK-AB border

 And welcoming new family members :)

It truly was a lovely summer.

I do believe I've had enough of the snow and cold and wind and am ready for another.

Christmas 2012

I love Christmas.

This year I didn't get as much done up for the house as I would have liked. Mind you the way we've been going I'm pretty lucky to have decided on couches for the great room, so Christmas will have to get a bit better treatment next year. We did what we could though. Our lovely log railing is perfect for white little lights, and I did manage to get some decorations up.

 Whipped cream in beautiful bowls is a must at Christmas-time!

 Never enough sparkley ornaments!

 I loooooove white Christmas lights.

Growing up we followed Austrian tradition of celebrating Christmas on Christmas Eve. We never grew up with Santa Claus, we grew up with the Christkindl coming on Christmas Eve, and as such we would read the story of the birth of Jesus, have a nice simple meal, open our presents, and go to mass on Christmas Eve. Christmas day we would usually go to spend with our Canadian "family" and friends, and have the whole big meal.
Of course some things change. Now Christmas at my parents house is a quiet affair, and we go snowshoeing with a group of neighbors on Christmas day. Which has transferred over to Keith and I loving to snowshoe during the holidays (although we haven't gotten out this season nearly as often as we'd like!).
We spent a quick and lovely few days up north visiting our family, and then came back home to spend a quiet Christmas eve and Christmas day in our own home with our woofs. It was sleepy and perfect.

I dearly hope you all had a very Merry Christmas.