A taste of country

Today we visited my cousin Michelle out in Chilliwack. My kids were especially chatty on the long drive out there and they both decided to tell me about their dreams. Now I noticed the other day that every single time Elisabeth decides to tell me about her dreams she might do a little introduction but then she always recounts her dream in song.

Today I decided to ask her about it. And what she told me about blew my mind. Apparently her she dreams in song! How cool is that? Dreaming to music.

She falls asleep every night to music, but I'm not sure that's why she dreams in music. I mean, I used to fall asleep every night to this song and this one. And I never dreamed to song (my uncle bought me a clock radio one year and I loved it!). I wonder if she really does?

Anyway, much story telling later, we finally arrived at Michelle's new digs. Here we are ringing her doorbell!

One of her neighbors came out to check us out. Isn't he regal?

Chadya had bought me a gift certificate to Minter Country Garden for my birthday so we went there for lunch and to pick up my gift certificate. I think I'd need to spend an entire day there before I could decide what to get!

Close up of the kids with the mouse.

We had lunch in the Calliope Cafe and then headed out to wander the grounds. This is the country store, not the gardens but there is still plenty to look at. At Christmas they had some reindeer in this pen, but today there were two very friendly dogs.

I love the red in this guy's beard. He should be Dave's dog!

We wandered back to where the Christmas train goes. I love this little house.

We saw some EMUs along the way!



Back inside, David was captivated by the cacti. They are pretty weird looking! I was impressed though, he was actually brave enough to touch some of them.

Next we went to Michelle's friends' farm. Now I feel like I'm always saying I grew up here, I grew up there. But we moved a lot so I grew up in Quebec, Ontario, England and all over Chilliwack. But during my first five years of school my parents were farmers. And then in my highschool years we didn't always live on a farm, but it was home base. So I think I can say I grew up on a farm.

My grandparents owned the farm on the east side of the road. And though it had some barns and outbuildings, it was mostly used for hay or corn. So the biggest barn's milking parlour was mostly filled with junk. And today, when we walked into the barn on Sheila's property, I was transported back 2o years to that old barn on Lickman Road. Wow.

Only we never had roosters.

This barn is a little more blue than ours was. I never liked going in it by myself. I had way too vivid an imagination!

We didn't have horses either. There were seven on this farm. We fed them clover. And watched them run.




There was a mountain of sawdust/woodchips beside the barn. I remember we used to get a load of similar stuff dumped at the farm when we were actually farmers. The cows would go crazy. They'd be running up and down and frisking away like a bunch of children. It was awesome to watch. And that's a little how my kids acted on this mountain of wood chips today.


There were a few old tractors on the property too. I think David wants a tractor.

After asking if it was okay for him to climb up on the tractor, David sat in the driver's seat and pretended to drive around. He was a little disappointed when I told him he couldn't start the tractor.

So then he proceeded to examine every square inch instead.