Shutting it Down 2012

Well, it had to happen a little earlier than I would have liked due to Teresa's birthday party, an early Thanksgiving and Cara's allergies.  This is the first time I can recall not being out at the cottage for a single day in October due to the early long weekend, but in a way I feel fortunate that I did not wait until this weekend to shut the cottage down as we are presently having a mini-blizzard here in Winnipeg.

Shutting the cottage down is my least favourite day of the year and likely is Cara's too, albeit for substantially different reasons.  This year though Cara didn't want to come up as the cottage has been setting her allergies off horribly and with so many other things were going on during the September weekends I only got to go out for a day but I got to bring out the two older girls and Rowdy.  Everything went off without a hitch, and I even did a bit of plumbing without too much swearing!  The four hours I got to spend on the front beach with the girls and Rowdy was wonderful, but as always a certain melancholy remained...

Regardless, here are some of the highlights of the day...

Frances is channelling her inner Auntie Pearl me think...

Teresa drawing a wonderful picture of a lady made of shapes...

Teresa had to suddenly go to the washroom, and the closest one was already shut down for the season. Thusly, we meandered to the new washroom all the while Frances insisted on butt scootching her way down the "sand hills" of the boardwalk.

Teresa discovered a bone from the Lake Winnipeg Monster!!!

Cara and I listened to the girls when they insisted that they would not swim.  Ooops.

And Frances follows suit

Playing on an island.  Rowdy had a heck of a day, as he got swim and chase a ball for over four hours.

One last sunset.  No bugs for this one!

A last view of the cottage with the moon overhead.  This is likely the last time I will need to poly the front door come fall...  Sigh...

Farm Day 2012

For Margaret's birthday proper, we decided as a family to go out and celebrate Manitoba Farm Day, where numerous farms around Manitoba open themselves up to the public.  The only reason I had heard of it was because on the way up to the lake we stopped at Chorney's family farm, a long standing Yost tradition, and they were opening themselves up this year for the first time.  Due to time constraints though we were only able to visit the Chorney's farm, but hopefully next year we can make a longer day of it.

We learned all sorts of tidbits about their farm and farming in general.  The Chorneys do mixed farming with around 1500 acres within 6 miles of their farmhouse.  They have a ton of crops that they bring in, in addition to the produce for the farmstand, including oats, wheat, canola, corn & soybeans.  I had never thought that soybeans were so prevalent in Canada yet, but they have made a large inroad in the past decade, in part due to their success in low rain environments.  The level of automation is pretty amazing nowadays.  Apparently when he first started it would take hours to fill a grain truck, now with the large combines they are filling them every 15-30 minutes.  The combines now weigh their loads so they have an inventory management system that is accurate within 1%.  They just added an air blower to their combine to keep more seed on it that was apparently necessitated by their foray into soybeans, which will now yield slightly greater harvests for all crops.

According to Mr. Chorney (I believe it was Doug) they plant about 14 acres for their farm stand (under 1% of their acreage), but it takes up 50% of their time.  Clearly this is either a lucrative venture or they understand the part they play in some people's weekend driving trips around Manitoba...

Now for a short retrospective on the day.

On Highway 59, just North of Highway 4.  Home of the 1976 Manitoba Potato of the Year.

Big tractor tires.

Cara approves of their choice of John Deere equipment.

This tractor was attached to a disker / plough / seeder that was run by air pressure.

After seeing the tractors, the combine & the grain augers, we were off to the garden patch to pick our own produce.

Cara is SUPER EXCITED about getting her own tomato.  We had a frost two nights prior, so the plants were suffering.

Frances is pleased with her selection of a tomato and a jalapeño pepper, though not nearly as excited as Cara was...

 

Apparently they use this little guy when they are out picking produce, and removing severely injured football players from their fields.

Enjoying theirs self-chosen carrots by the grain truck.

Back to Grand

As anyone who knows my family of Yosts, they should know we have an affinity for (as my father likes to refer to it) Plato's Ideal Beach, located in a secret place...  Oh what?  I mentioned Grand Beach before.  Darn it.  Well, knowing that I wouldn't be able to make it up to the lake for month due to other commitments, I cajoled Cara into skipping her nephew's birthday and coming out to Grand Beach the first weekend of June.  We shall return Friday (or Saturday depending on how long Jeff's move will take).

This was planned to be a quiet easy weekend of enjoying the water.  Sadly, as I pulled into the cottage I saw this:

Really?  Come on guys.  I do not want to have to saw down 5 trees and haul them to the corner.  Cuss! Host! Tabernacle! Ah well, so I took out the chain saw and got the trees down and segmented, and then promptly ran out of gas.  CUSS!!  A bit more work on Saturday and Sunday and we solved the problem, and I inherited a great deal of firewood.  Why of course the trees blocking our view can't magically fall over like this is beyond me...  After this and a mow of the lawn we had the rest of the slightly abbreviated weekend to ourselves to relax and enjoy the sand.

Teresa is now a rockstar.  Oh yes, and she looks darling here.  Her cute poses are much improved since Pearl's visit.  Hey!  Wait a second...

Yeah.  That's a lake... Oh wait, in the middle of that picture?  That's a bald eagle!  Another tick for the weekend, along with a ton of pelicans and some spawning carp by the rocks.

Another cute pose.  I could have sworn I cropped this in iPhoto.  Blast.

More lakeside shenanigans.

They love throwing rocks into the lake.  Only once or twice have they almost brained each other or Rowdy.

The girls brought out toys and a blanket for Margaret to play with.

Now that is some quality decoration (and odd posing).  Frances' most recent "smile" looks more like she is growling at the camera.  As auntie Jackie would say "natural poses everyone".

May Long Weekend 2012

May Long weekend is the official start to the beach season regardless of the weather as we can finally go to the cottage and not have to rely on hauled water and outhouses.  This season was a special as Auntie Pearl came to visit for a longer-than-a-long-weekend.  The girls loved having another person around to read stories, take pictures, watch their general insanity and (of course) play with them.  Auntie Pearl of course obliged.  I shall let the pictures tell the story.

Saturday was a rainy and miserable day (what else could you expect from May Long?), so I hauled the new BBQ & lawnmower into the house and assembled them.  This was smart, as I didn't lose a single dropped piece!  And yes, the girls played in midst of the construction.

Teresa took advantage of all the bubble wrap to design a new dress for herself.  I see a career in high fashion for her (sigh...)

Miserable weather?  What troopers.  The addition of umbrellas really helps the situation.

Why look at me, all cute and such, surrounded by toys and the modern day children's classic (full of existential themes), "But Not the Hippopotamus". 

Come on Pearl.  You know that this picture had to end up on the blog...

Maragret spent most of the weekend trying to pull herself up on this toy...

Story time with mommy...

Our first  walk to the rocks, and the girls got to see the smashing waves.  Teresa and Frances have both gotten good at doing it on their own, though Frances often choose to ask for help.

This must be one of Pearl's pictures...  The girls enjoy the shore, especially throwing rocks into the lake.  Stupidly, I have since slid on the rocks, while trying to deal with a tired & crying Frances and a pretty sure I broke my little toe...  Sigh.

That is one wet, somewhat majestic looking dog.  Why do I have a picture of a dog?

Sunday was thankfully substantially better for weather, and we settled close to an "island" for the afternoon.  The girls had a great time, getting ice cold at times...

... so we went to the red park to warm up ... 

... where Margaret came to meet us ...

... and had her first "swim" without complaining!

A lineup of cuteness.

Monday I had to mow, so the girls went for a walk with Cara and Pearl.  I can only imagine that this ended in tears.  Whose, I am not sure.

Frances walking Rowdy.

Playing at the park Monday morning.

And what would a visit to Winnipeg be without the Original Pancake House?

I'll Have "Stupid Yost Facts for $800 Alex"

"And the Answer is 'January, February, March & December'."

"What is, 'The only months Ken hasn't swum at Grand Beach?' "

"Correct."

Well Cara went (with some trepidation) to Grand Forks with her mother, sister and Margaret for a girls weekend of sorts.  Yes, I know I have failed to be a good husband by not allowing Cara full freedom from her family.  It is truly not my fault though as my nipples are purely decorative and we have yet to migrate Margaret to a bottle.  Why then does this force the stupid opening I have written upon you?  Well, it is because the (older) girls and I went up to the cottage today, and what an adventure it was!

I am always anxious to get to the cottage and preplanned super well Friday night, but as with the best laid plans of mice and men...

Saturday morning I get the kids going, having already promised them donuts at Robin's for breakfast (I have a coupon, it will save time, and for a change I get to treat them to something special) and start packing the van with the new BBQ & mower, the food I had already packed, and the bags the girls chose to pack that morning.  We hit to road, and just past Libau I hear Frances coughing hard, look over and she has thrown up a bit.  Cuss.  No big deal though, I am prepared for this.  I packed a bag the night before with swimsuits and extra clothes.

What?  You noticed that I didn't mention packing that bag.  CUSS, CUSS, CUSS, CUSS, CUSS!!!!

Frances tells me she's doing fine though, and I tell her to let me know if she feels off so we keep going without further incident.  I pull into the cottage lot and all of a sudden the rest of Frances stomach explodes forth, literally 15 seconds before she was to be out of the van.  I think I may have sworn in front of the girls at this point.  I clean Frances off with a bunch of towels and the water I had packed.  Thankfully she had a second shirt on that didn't sustain any damage, and I was able to scavenge Teresa's tights as Teresa had packed a swimsuit for herself.

Thankfully this was the last major issue.  Yes, I know I had no swimsuit so I had to swim in my fancy underpants.  Yes, I know that Rowdy had no leash so I fashioned one from a rachet strap.  Yes, I know that we had to leave the beach early as my kids had no dry clothes to keep them warm, etc...  Regardless we spent time in the cottage, almost three hours on the sand (with Rowdy!), I got a light sunburn and the kids had a great time.  Teresa was falling asleep standing up as we went to bed.  Rowdy can barely lift himself up and Frances is feeling 100%.  All in all a great day.

Tomorrow we go to Narcisse!

Getting a little wet - before I realized she was soaking the tights.

Teresa spent most of her time building sand castles.  Frances broke many of them.  Only a few times did this cause some stress between the sisters.

I saved you the picture of me all wet and half naked.  I am the fleshy dot in the distance.  Today I trained Teresa to take pictures on the iPhone and call 911 on it (I went on the roof, just in case).  So yes, I have now definitively swum in April.  I am still miffed by the March ice...  And today wasn't as bad as some May Longs that I recall.

Frances in her skivvies getting water while Teresa gets some too.  The little bay there actually had a great temperature of water as the sun was hot.  The wind was whipping pretty hard today the girls didn't seem to mind.  I threw the ball for Rowdy almost constantly.  He's dead to the world right now.

Frances smiling with her ladybug friend (look at her cold, cold hand).

Getting ready for Grandpa's visit.  By the way dad, the 2012 skipping stone second is set at 23.  You don't believe me?  Ok, fine.  I had one go for between 7-9, so I'll go with 8.  And I am pretty sure I saw the plover.  I took a picture but it is only a dot...

Too good a picture to pass up.  Teresa ate more dinner today than I did.  It was ridiculous.

The note about the breaking of sandcastles reminded me of two wonderful moments from this weekend that I hope I never forget.  Last night, Teresa thanked God for spending time with daddy, then she cuddled into my arm and said "I love you".  I think she's buttering me up early for her birthday :)  Today, for reasons I cannot recall, Frances hugged Teresa and told her she was her best friend.  I hope these moments help me through the teenage years.