Monetary Advances

Today marks exactly two weeks since the commencement of my new job! Two weeks ago I started working for People's Jewellers in the local mall as a cashier/sales associate-type position. I really love it and it's lots of fun. The customers are a lot easier to deal with than in a supermarket (interesting when they're spending so much more money!!) and the whole team is very family-ish. We're a close-knit bunch and everyone likes everyone else and stands up for each other which is quite refreshing after the politics of a certain supermarket I will refrain from naming ;) So I am now officially saving up for the next visit to Australia!
My bagpipe lessons are going well. Glenn says I'm well ahead of all the other students he's ever taught in his years of being the band quartermaster. Looks like maybe it won't be the full year to two years before I get to graduate to the actual pipes instead of just the practice chanter.
We had our first 'snowfall' yesterday morning. Only enough to dust the ground and make it pretty and then it melted as soon as the sun came up. We did milk testing and had 2 visiting Malaysian government veterinarians come and check it out. They were pretty excited to hear I have a cousin from Malaysia.
I'm currently working hard on a video for a competition called Farm Flicks, about Canadian agriculture. Organic Meadow, the Christian organic co-operative we supply, is partnering with me to give me the soundtrack from their new music video promo, free O.M. tshirts, you name it...if my video is approved, Farm Flicks will post it on YouTube and the winner will be based on which video in the comp. receives the most views between Dec. 10 and Dec. 30. So I'll post on here if and when it's on YouTube and try to get some more hits!
If you have a spare 2 minutes and 32 seconds, go to YouTube and look up Clean Living and Organic Farming ~ Country Music Video. That's our latest excitement here in Ontario's organic sector. All the people appearing in the clip are Organic Meadow board members and Organic Meadow farmers and members. The guy playing the guitar and singing the song is our CEO and his son, Ted Zettel Jr., wrote and composed the song itself. We got an up-and-coming company from just outside of Toronto to film it for virtually nothing, they just wanted the experience and to get a name up for themselves and they seem to have done a great job.
Combining the corn is very nearly finished--now we just have to race to get everything disced, cultivated, ploughed, and possibly roto-tilled before the snow and the frozen ground really hits us...

Photos

 Me and Kayla on a very hot day.

 My new haircut lol although it was a long time ago so it is no longer new or hardly even existent but anyway I got it re-layered.

 This is Del when she'd only been here for a week or so. She's very cute. Del is Welsh for pretty.

 These are the little baby swallows that were born on one of the beams in the calf barn.

 We went on a car tour day with our 4H dairy club to a bunch of farms and then the Peterborough Zoo where we saw kangaroos and this EMU!!!

 Kurtis and Kozy being affectionate. Kozy just had a baby girl we've called Komik and Krispy is in the background too. She just had a girl we've called Katchy.

 Kozy.

Brad's Harley. He took me for a spin on it last Sunday out on the road and it was AWESOME!! Don't think I'll buy one just yet though :) Sorry some of the pics are sideways. I can't figure out how to rotate them on this thing!

Time Lapse

A big apology to everyone who's been checking out my blog and not seeing anything new on it. The reason you didn't see anything new is that I didn't add anything new. The reason I didn't add anything new is that the internet didn't work for ages and ages and then we were right into calf showing and stuff like that and I simply didn't have the time or inclination to sit down and type stuff on here! Plus I'd been sending some of you letters and things anyway so you knew what I was up to.
Since I last updated my blog, a few things have happened which I will outline in point form to save my time and yours!

• We had a very hot summer
• Clare came to visit for 11 days and we went to Niagara Falls and Ottawa (I'm hoping to give Clare my account name and password so she can hack in and post some photos--I didn't take any)
• I showed Kruze at the 4H show. She won her conformation class and we went on to the 4H championship at the Lindsay Exhibition where we didn't do all that great but it was still lots of fun and good practice
• The church we're at bought an AMAZING Yamaha keyboard which was really exciting, especially visiting the guy selling it who is a professional pianist who plays at weddings and things. He was 84 so Mrs. Hall would've loved to have met him :)

Other than that it's just been VERY busy and a whole heap of farm work. I'm going to start learning the bagpipes shortly. I still don't have a job and I'm still applying like crazy. I had my Canadian 21st celebrations which involved going to visit Brad and Laurie (the pastors of the church we're at) and horse riding there, then going out for tea at the Mandarin!!!! (awesome Chinese buffet) with a group of friends. Thankyou to everyone who wished me a happy birthday in some way or sent presents or cards or money!
I'll upload some photos when I have some interesting ones loaded onto my laptop.

One more of photos...

My new cowboy boots Mum & Dad bought for me :)

I turned a pair of old jeans into jean shorts and decided to embroider names all over them of all the people that love me :D Pretty random I know :P These are the ones I've done so far!!

Also my awesome hair straightener

Catching up on pictures :)

2nd cousin Mitchell :)

Tangalooma Resort, Moreton Island, QLD

Roma Street Parklands, QLD

Me with Aunty Teua

Me and Fair Cousin Bennnnnn

Me with Mark Yull's pet lizard Gandolf

Sarah, Andrew, and Mark Yull, our friends in Winchester

The Yull's West Highland Terrier Sadie

Huge John Deere sprayer we saw when we went on the Pioneer Seeds bus tour around Cambellford area...this was at Amaizeing Acres, a huge grain elevator operation.

Photos again--I hope!!

Roma Street Parklands, QLD, with 'Mike' the scarecrow.

Amy's hens day on our scavenger hunt

Kurtis 22nd birthday cake--made by me :)

Inside the barn getting the cows ready for bed

Jay having fun

Caricature of us done by an artist in 10 mins at the Lindsay fair

The rose Kurtis bought me for our first anniversary

Brandi!!!

Kangaroo Point, QLD

Melbourne Foodies Update

I have good news regarding my food cravings list! A couple of nights ago Kurtis and I were in a grocery store when he suddenly spotted sausage rolls and meat pies! I'd tried meat pies in Canada before and they were horrific but these (while the pastry on top was a little flaky and stodgy) were very similar to Aussie meat pies, and the filling was especially good--real steak! The sausage rolls were also a lot better than I expected--nearly the same as the ones you'd buy in Coles...so that means I can take 2 things off my list! But I can think of a million other things to replace them :)
Yesterday was actually quite hot (18 degrees) and I harrowed the entire oat field twice, managing to only smash my head off the tractor roof once due to bumps that are less like bumps and more like canyons.

Melbourne Foodies

I've just been reading an online article from The Age back in February entitled 'What Melbourne Foodies Miss'... sounds like pretty much every overseas traveller from Victoria craves exactly the same foods that are well nigh impossible to acquire in any other country. A lot of people say they hanker after certain types of beer and wine but, not being of that turn of mind, this is my list...
ESTHER'S TOP 20 AUSSIE FOOD CRAVINGS:
1. Deep fried dim sims
2. Spring rolls
3. Steamed dim sims with soy sauce
4. Sausage rolls
5. Banana malt milkshake at Max Brenner's in the Melbourne CBD
6. Meat pies that ARE meat pies
7. Battered flake and chips with a potato cake and more deep fried dim sims
8. Gourmet coffee, not just coffee that's brown water but where you have CHOICES and FLAVOURS!
9. Singapore noodles
10. Sausages that aren't fat and weird tasting!
11. Chicken parmagiana from La Porchetta or similar
12. Honey soy chicken wingettes
13. Ham steaks fried with pineapple rings on top
14. NANDO'S NANDO'S NANDO'S
15. Cadbury snack chocolate
16. Big M milk that comes in more than just chocolate
17. Magnums, esp. the classic and peppermint versions. The white's not bad either!
18. One of those cheap hot dogs with onion in a piece of white bread, like at Farmworld
19. Kangaroo anything
20. One of those disgusting hot dogs from Donut King with the frankfurter thingy in it. Burp. Yum!
I think I'm going to come back to Australia for like 2 solid months just to eat!!!!! :P

Oats. Oats. Oats!

Kurtis planted the oats. I screened the oats. Not all the oats. But a lot. At least if you were screening gold you'd get fame and riches out of it lol. Not the case with oats. You just get oats in a seed drill and straw and dandelions and dead insects blowing all over you. And sore arms. However! We got all the cultivating done and the oats planted before the rain hit. It's meant to rain solid for the rest of the week so I'm trying to remember where my gumboots are! I'm starting work today with the lady who wants help with getting her house cleaned and other odd jobs done...so that'll be a few dollars!!!!! Yay! Not enough for a plane ticket, but maybe one day...
I think we've perfected how to cook a roast. Thanks to Adam and Khatt sending us the details! YUM! And then the best part is that you have leftover roast beef which you fry up with cheese and onion and have on a wrap with sour cream and stuff mmmmm and the roast vegies are like candy :D
I shall end with a joke I heard on the radio yesterday morning...
A lady named Mary Katherine decides to join a convent. She walks to the nearest convent and the head of the convent comes to the gate when she rings the bell. Mary Katherine tells him she'd like to join the convent.
"Certainly!" the man says. "This is a convent of silence. I am allowed to speak but none of the sisters must ever speak unless they are directed to. You may stay with us in this convent for as long as you choose."
Mary Katherine decides she still wants to join and soon she is Sister Mary Katherine.
After five years in the convent, the head calls her into his office and says "Sister Mary Katherine, you've been here for five years. Today you may speak two words."
Sister Mary Katherines says, "Hard bed."
The head apologizes and promises to replace it with a softer, more comfortable bed.
Another five years pass and Sister Mary Katherine has been in the convent for ten years. The head again calls her to his office and says, "Sister Mary Katherine, you've been here for ten years now! You may again speak two words today."
Sister Mary Katherine says, "Cold food."
The head apologizes and says, "I promise the food will be better from now on!"
Another five years go by and Sister Mary Katherine has reached her fifteenth year in the convent. The head calls her to his office and says, "Sister Mary Katherine, you've now been with us in this convent for fifteen years! You may speak two words today."
Sister Mary Katherine says, "I quit."
The head shrugs and says, "Yeah, probably just as well. You've done nothing but complain since you got here!"

Sly Cat~~~~PHOTOS!!

That's what Kurtis calls Jay. She is the cutest cat in the WORLD hehe well I think so anyway...so I'm going to try to upload some photos!! I showed her off to the milk truck driver this morning and he just about melted. He likes cats :) I actually managed to do the photos including one of Kurtis and me so that's my feat for the day!

This Is Not Australia

By this I mean that just because it's spring doesn't mean it'll act like spring. A week ago the temperature reached 14 and we had a picnic lunch outside in one of the back fields. The birds were singing, the sky was cloudlessly blue, the sun was hot, and we were having a lovely time kidding ourselves that this was how it was going to stay. 2 days later it was pouring rain and freezing cold. A few days after that and it was snowing! I have subsequently learnt that you should never expect Canada to do anything in particular. It makes up its own mind.
Last week Mort died of unknown causes. She appeared to have distemper, although when I looked up the symptoms on the Internet she only had some of them. Apparently it's very contagious to other cats and lo and behold, now Manny is exhibiting the same symptoms. Harry tells me older cats are immune so we're not too worried about the other two. On Sunday afternoon we picked up a free kitten to replace Mort. She's ginger and white and extremely cute and we've named her Jay. During her first 24 hours here she attacked anything that moved of the dog, went for a ride on the stable cleaner, tried to run underneath a cow, and swung off a gate with her back feet dangling way off the ground. Obviously she won't be anywhere near as lazy as Mort was. Fortunately she hasn't shown much interest in the other cats, so that makes it easier to keep her from catching any bug floating around.
I've been given a job for a few hours one day a week helping a very busy lady with some general housecleaning, cooking, laundry, gardening, etc. It's not much but it's more than I've had up till now and hopefully it works out that I can use it to supplement my income when I get a 'proper' job. This lady sounds young and enthusiastic and fun to be around.
Harry went to Holland with his older brother for 10 days to visit his relatives. He took the video camera and came back with well over 2 hours of footage which we put on DVDs for him. We've been spending time watching them with him and asking him to translate what the relatives are all saying as he speaks fluent Dutch.
Last night we made a raspberry pie and that, I think, is an awesome excuse to stop typing and go eat! :)

The Problem With Blogs...

...Is that you have to use a computer to update them! And our computer is so ridiculously slow I can't even be bothered emailing people half the time because I'd need a whole day off just to wait for the computer to open the Web browser.
Kurtis and Esther welcomed two new arrivals into the world of Helling Holsteins in the early hours of Thursday morning last week. Monday had a bull calf who was about as huge as a three-month-old calf as soon as he popped out. He's being sold today to a neighbour who raises beef cattle. Then a couple of hours later Chilly gave birth to Helling FBI Camo. Camo's a tiny little thing and very possibly the cutest calf I've ever seen here. Her whole personality is "Hi! I'm Camo and I'm cute. Will you be my friend??!" If I ask her if she's angry she starts bawling and jumping around her pen.
I suspect The Foosa is also expecting a litter of kittens judging by the shape of her belly. Usually when she gives birth she's a horrible mother and lets them all die. So I'm hoping this time I can find them as soon as she has them and give them a better start in life and make good mousers out of them.
This morning we had a bat in the basement. Kurtis told me bats are the only animals who can carry rabies and still live. Learn something new every day around here!
I'm applying for more jobs...this time as an outdoor living salesperson with a garden/gift/outdoor furniture place, and also at Tim Hortons where I can get all the free tea and coffee I can drink. Our neighbours worked there. They say that living under a bridge in a cardboard box would be preferable to working at Timmies so we'll see. Sounds like it might be as bad as Coles!!!!
The April Fool's joke news article on the radio this morning was that Westjet have agreed to make their planes lighter by partially filling the tanks with lighter-than-air helium.
Last night I took Kruze out of her pen (my 4H calf) and led her with her halter for the first time. She did amazingly well. All calves plant their feet and won't move on their first time out so you have to drag them along but Kruze walked perfectly so I'm hopeful that she ends up being an amazing cow to show.
Also just worth mentioning that 2 days ago it was between 7 and 9 degrees Celsius and we were sweating and only wearing tshirts :) Also the local county fire authority has no clues. The ground is frozen. It's still cold. There are tiny little patches of snow. There are no thunderstorms. So they got bored and decided to declare a total fire ban until the end of April!! Only in Canada...

"Did Edwina go on 'oliday?" ~Chicken Run

No, Edwina didn't go on holiday but Kurtis and Esther did :) We left early Monday morning after chores and got home about 8.30 Wednesday night. Our goal was Winchester, which is about 4 hours east of here, extremely close to Ottawa, Canada's capital city. On the way there we visited an older couple we know in Russell, a tiny little place which always seems to scare the pants off our GPS--last time we were there she temporarily passed out and could only talk in shrieks and moans. This time she did a little better. We reached Winchester at about 4p.m. and stayed for two nights with a lovely family who used to rent the house on the other farm here. They have a 12-year-old son. Had a great time hanging out with them and going laser tagging in Ottawa! The building there has a few levels so it's a lot trickier than most places. Unfortunately we were lumped in with around 25 children having a birthday party and they have a horrible habit of standing in front of you giggling and waiting for your vest to light up so they can shoot you and then stand there giggling again until next time. Kurtis' usual method is to grab their gun, point it in their face and say 'GO AWAY!!!' It usually works but instead by the second game we decided the 5 of us would team up. After that the kiddies didn't stand a chance :) We just picked a corner on the 2nd level and staked claim. The people on the first floor had no idea where the lasers were coming from :D
The cows are pretty happy to have us back again and we've been frantically cleaning the barn and the cows today in preparation for the university tour we have coming through on Saturday.
I like an 'oliday :)

O Canada, thou who canst not make up thy mind...

The weather here is INSANE. We were meant to get 10cm of snow and instead we're now soaking through an expected couple of inches of rain! There's glare ice everywhere and you're lucky if you can take a couple of steps without going for a slide. Yesterday we had what the Weather Network (Canada's version of the Bureau of Meteorology--and Canadians would believe everything the W.N says even if they forecast 75 degrees Celsius with snowy patches) calls 'mixed precipitation'--in other words, it snowed for 10 minutes, rained for 10 minutes, snowed for 10 minutes, and so on until we didn't know which way was up!
We've been doing lots of cooking :) Cream of broccoli soup, cream of cauliflower soup, beef stew, beef stroganoff, chicken and vegetable soup, pasta bake, thai chicken curry....the list goes on and it all tasted really good. Love trying new recipes! Stay tuned for what comes next :) Tonight we're trying lasagne.
I've applied for so many jobs I've actually lost count--probably getting on for 15 now. Anyway this morning I got a phone call from The Source in Lindsay asking me to come in this afternoon for an interview! So we'll keep praying and see how that goes. It's a high-tech electronics store which sells all sorts of gadgets--laptops, cameras, video cameras, iPods, iPhones, remote control stuff, computer accessories...you name it. I only applied yesterday afternoon so they're either really desperate or they REALLY liked my resume! I'm hoping for the latter :)

Leaving Australia (Take 2)

Well it's 6am on the 23rd of February and I'm having a second go at flying out today! I tried on Sunday and the only landing I acheived was landing myself in hospital for a couple of hours. I'd been feeling really crook on and off since Thursday and I felt okay on Sunday morning but then I started spewing all the way to the airport. I was so sick I decided I'd rather pay some dollars than have to fly out, plus as soon as Customs saw me throwing up in their queue they'd have me deported back to Australia quicker than you could say 'Quarantine'. Who says starvation diets don't work, by the way??!! Who needs Jenny Craig... Amy and Jon had the most awesome wedding ever :) Congratulations guys :D

Australia Stuff

My visit to Australia was postponed by 2 days as most people know due to heavy snowstorms in the U.S. causing 34 airports to be shut down. At least they changed the first leg of my flight to Air Canada--that was a bonus--plus I had one less stopover which made the flight quicker!
We spent most of the first week in Queensland with the family. We went snorkelling out on Moreton Island at Tangalooma Resort and went to Max Brenner's and Hog's Breath Cafe and did shopping and drank lots of coffee and went horse riding and generally were lazy and idle and dissipated! I loved it! Except the heat really knocked me for six...I was a bit headachy and very tired and felt sick whenever I got in a car or anything. It was 6 degrees the morning we left for QLD and I was sweating while everyone else was shivering :)
This week so far I've been to Amy's hens day and church and been out for tea twice....what a hard life it is here! I've also apparently been semi-offered a job with some dairy farmers in Canada when I get back...

Snow is real and here is proof!

This is looking over the field out the front of the house after our first decent snowfall.

I died. But I lived!!

Yes folks we are still alive. It is currently a balmy -4 outside and Kurtis and I braved the snow and EXTREME COLD and went in the spa which is OUTSIDE. Well it's actually in a half-closed-in shed thingy called the playhouse but the wind is free to blow through. I guess you could call it an essential Canadian experience or something?? Getting there wasn't too bad but getting back through the snow and breeze was something nightmares are made of. I think living in Canada for more than a couple of months must do something to your brain :P

Canada's cold, eh??!

On Sunday night it got down to -36. Nice and chilly. It wasn't too bad except for the wind which made it feel ten times colder and icier than it actually was. The heifers in the shed needed water so Kurtis ran a hose out to them--it took 60 seconds of it being outside before it was frozen solid. Ice cubes, anyone??!

Cows are actually a funny shade of peach

The cow classifier is coming on Wednesday to classify the cows, funnily enough. So now they have to get the 5 star beauty treatment which is something 99.99% of Australians have probably never heard of! They get clipped, brushed, and their tails washed so they look extremely pretty and hopefully the classifier will share our opinion and make them all Excellents. Ha. Anyway tonight after we finished milking I got out the clippers and a very itchy old sweater of Kurtis' (due to an infestation of cow hair) and went to work. 6.5 cows later (I gave up on Andrea--she's in love with me and she doesn't care who knows it) I wandered back up to the house a lot itchier than when I started and the cows now have extra bedding in their stalls in the form of clumps of fur and instead of looking white and black like a normal cow, they're all a funny shade of peach. The classifier better appreciate this. The highlight of my day (besides sleeping in until 8am if you can call that sleeping in) was that Celina was sold very early this morning. I'm happy, Kurtis is happy, and believe it or not all the other cows were ecstatic when she left. She was manic and not well-liked among the herd. I've only been barracking for her sale for the last 8 months so victory is finally mine!!!!!!!!

Snowblowing in -20

Today Kurtis and I got the Kubota out and the snowblower hooked up and away we went! It only took about 20 minutes to fully snowblow the driveway from the mailbox to the barn, alongside the barn where the milk truck backs in and a bit more around the grain bins so the tractor can get in without sliding the next time Kurtis needs to grind chop. It was -20 this morning and we kept warm...except for when the ABS rep turned up in his Ford, opened the door of the Kubota and stood there letting the wind blow in for about 10 minutes. He said it looked like a cozy place to be--which it was--when the door was shut.