6 Months

Half a year, approximately 180 days, so much can happen so many things can change & yet all you want to do is try and keep things somewhat the same.  If only the kids could stay young, work could stay at a minimum, money could grow on trees & those you love most in the world could live forever. Years ago I saved a bottle of Verdiccio wine thinking it resembled a funky little genie bottle. Maybe I should have tried making a few wishes.
 My wishes are more like outloud thoughts, sometimes too outloud & sometimes I'm faced with the immediate Karma of the outloud thought. I'll mention that I wish Jack's tournament wasn't that weekend & then it ends up on a weekend we had booked to go away or I'll say something like it's too bad we weren't able to stay a little longer in Florida & then we'll end up with delays at the airport.   I need to master better wishing & dream follow through.  I really do try a glass half full approach.  I want the skies to always be blue & life to be that delicious piece of cake.  I want my kids & my life to portray that philosophy as well.  That being said i realize that there is also a level of excepting the things that will be & hold on to the life that is unfolding.

The Warden doesn't share my same philosophy.  He WORKS & then he WORRIES.  He comes by it naturally & most days it's for a reason.  I guess that's why you marry your opposite.  This spring there have been lots of valid worries in his head.  It was a long & very cold winter & we went from worrying about the wheat surviving to now an overabundance of rain on EVERYTHING.  It was tough getting things planted & now it's been tough making sure it grows.  My father in law said the other day that in 55 years of farming he has never had to replant a corn field 3 times. That's something.

Six months ago it was like an ice age around here & now we could use Noah's Ark.  Farmer's have an almanac that is about prediction not about wishing.  They have a plan & a procedure & every morning they get up and attempt to make sure it's accomplished.  Nothing is worse than when the weather messes up their plan. A breakdown can be fixed, a tire can be changed a part can be ordered but its impossible to Tarp the Sky.

So here we are the start of summer & many of the changes I didn't want to happen have.  The kids are getting older, I still haven't found that money tree and we have lost some people we cared about.

One of our family's big losses was our beloved black lab Harley.  She was 13.  She was given to us when she was a year & a half old an she was the best Damn dog you could ask for. She raised two kids, had numerous fishing adventures, field explorations & did not fetch she instead would happily trot along beside you while you got the ball.   We'll one day get another dog probably sooner rather than later as we're all missing that piece of happiness, be there no matter what love your 4 legged friend can bring you.

We'll truck on through another season and try and come out for the better rather than the worse & know no matter what tomorrow will be another day, another season and another shot at giving things another go around. Stay tuned.



This was a draft I never posted 5 years ago & shortly after I wrote it we added BadMolly & the HicksyChicks to our brood.  This post is STILL so incredibly valid & accurate for our lives today, quite ironically even.

My Love Hate Relationship with February~ ~ and My Husband's Girlfriend

Feb-Brew-Airy....the month I still have to sound out to spell.
The month before the Lioness of March and the spring Lamb return of April.
Keep your winter boots by the back door Month.
Southern Ontario turns into the Arctic Tundra Month.
To Shovel or to wait til morning Month.
The beer might freeze in the garage Month.
Most chance of skip school because of snowday Month.
Snowmobile & skiing Month.
He loves me, he loves me not Month........

It's right about now every person who still enjoys cutting their grass, digging in the garden & would gladly choose their weedwacker over the snowblower starts to look out their frosty kitchen window with a vision of spring in their head.  Me included!!
I'm done with the month you're never quite sure on which day it will end.  I'm over pre-warming up my car because it's -37 out again this morning and I hate wearing socks!!

I am however all for a snowy season that can be enjoyed with winter activity but this tundra like version of Frozen hasn't provided us with little more than a handful of days that can be enjoyed without the threat of frostbite.  So I'm Marching On, pun totally intended.  My seed packets are bought & today I will be for the first time starting to sketch out a PLAN for my garden this year.  Part of that plan includes starting some of these seeds indooors first.  This is something I have attempted every year but have never been successful at.  Mainly, well if I'm being honest, my focus stinks. I either buy everything & don't pre-seed anything or I plant a few seeds and they don't get 'enough attention' to sum it up nicely.

So why will this year be different??!!

Let's back up to 'he loves me, he loves me not'.  I discovered The Warden/my husband is not just in love with me.  He's introduced me to his new chef/girlfriend & her beautiful Southern accent only to be equally matched with her funny wit & incredible skills in the kitchen and her multitasking abilities to run two restaurants & a family.  Her name is Vivian Howard and she is on PBS with a little gold nugget of a show called A Chef's Life.

 I've come home from work at night and caught him watching her show!! That's fine, I mean I get it & let's face it he does have great taste in women (pat-pat) however in order for this not to get out of control I have to pull up the preverbal socks I don't much care for and step it up a notch.

In otherwords I have a boyfriend.  
His name is Peter Evans (he prefers Pete) and he's an Aussie Chef that was part of a couple of seasons of a show called The Moveable Feast not to mention being an author & host of a handful of other cooking shows as well. Seriously, google the shit outta this guy!!! He's amazing (you know in the kitchen) !!

 Needless to say I have chosen this fire with fire route because well we should each be able to fall asleep soundly at night with the faint whisper of our cooking show TV lovers selected accents & visions of the last dish we virtually enjoyed with them.


My point being is that through the work and talents of others it helps to inspire us to be better at what we ourselves are capable of!!!  

I'll say that again basically 'Be Inspired'!!

There are zillions of cooking shows and 'garden to table' guru's out there now that during these long winter months I think SERIOUSLY this is the year my garden will be AMAZING!!! This is the year I will have the vegetable garden of Eden I've always wanted. Yes, I know I say that every year the same as every year will be the year I pay my Visa off completely. A girl can give it her best shot every year can't she?! 

The Secret to Goals though (lean in closely for this one) IS THAT YOU HAVE TO HAVE THEM!! Just like the lottery, you can't win unless you play. 

So last year I played and it was better than years previous but if I can start some seeds now and map out a plan, who knows.  So..... that's it, I'LL MAKE A PLAN.  I don't usually have one but these Chefs have plans & lots of them so what the hell, I mean it can't hurt right? It can't be any better or worse than the plan I had for this bad ass Green Machine! 

(Still wishing it was mine but hopefully the Warden builds me a beautiful barn one day instead!)

I hope you've made some plans in your head or on paper for the start of a new year & the beautiful seasons ahead!! Keep the visions of  green grass & endless amounts of flowers & vegetables that are running through your mind fresh by searching out a couple episodes of the shows I've mentioned. 

 In the meantime I'll try to keep you posted on how mine all turn out but lets face it I might be busy nurturing them into the dirt ;)

A Few Good Reasons Why Fall Shouldn't be Bought at the Grocery Store

Pack up the kids & go for a drive! There are more than a few great places with lots of wonderful activities & some really cool varieties of pumpkins!! 

In Maidstone between the expressway & the 401 on Manning Rd you will find what I think to be one of the best places for the kids. 

Every year they keep adding more & more scary props & fun hands on displays for the kids. This year they've extended the parking & seem to have the largest different variety of pumpkins I've ever seen them have. They have also extended their parking lot to make for fewer headaches.

If the Great Pumpkin were to appear anywhere on Halloween Night it would definitely be       HERE!! 

A little further up Manning Rd you'll find Sylvestre's Nice Pumpkins & lots of hardy potted fall arrangements.   

Elaine's is an easy quick stop on your way home from work too with seasonal produce & pumpkins still available.

 

The other side of the County offers up Pepe's in LaSalle they have a lot  for the kids too. 

Pumpkins & a petting zoo!!

If you're just looking for a quick stop & some delicious produce George's is nearby & had lots of great vegetables for your Thanksgiving dinner or canning needs!

 George also had some of the biggest & Best pumpkins that I saw if you're willing to pay for them!

I'm sure I missed a few places on that side of town but I was anxious to head back to Cottam.

Side by side Market Stands both have some wonderful treats to offer.  Pies, jams, breads & wonderful produce you can't go wrong with choosing Murray's or Pretli's. ( I believe Murray's takes orders for pies too, wink, wink)

 What Murray didn't have in pumpkins he made up for in spades 

with lots of other homemade baked goods & produce!

Pretli's has some really different varieties of pumpkins & gourds & I couldn't help but notice they have homemade perogies & cabbage rolls now too!! Well done Pretli's Well Done!!

Do your family a favour this year and make a point of stopping in at McCleod's this month. After 34 years this will be their last pumpkin season.  They will still be open for strawberries thank goodness but    after this year their season won't extend into Fall. 

Clarkson's (right) in North Ridge offers spring & fall produce too. 

Malott's (more famous during sweet corn season) also have some of your fall supply needs & potted mums as well.

I didn't snap any photos out Leamington way because we ALL know if you're headed to Colosantis' you're sure to have a nice afternoon with the family between the broasted chicken, old fashioned donuts, apple cider & seasonal buys not to mention the little petting zoo too.   If you need anything else you didn't find there just drive a little further & you'll stumble upon roadside stand after roadside stand just to help make sure the car gets filled to capacity!!

 If you have just a little room left and you feel you're deserving of a 'best parent ever' treat there's LOTS of wineries to pick up a bottle of 'Pat yourself on the Back'! I mean the kids got to pet a goat & pick out their perfect Jack O Lantern why shouldn't you pick up something perfect for yourself too!

So this year bypass Sobey's & the Superstore & load up the car and journey out to one of the

 Essex County Pumpkin sites! 

Where are your favourite fall places?  Tell me of any I may have missed:)

Happy Halloween!!

My Hometown

   ***PARENTAL ADVISEMENT***

(Just for MY parents don't worry.  Mom & dad you are going to be mentioned in the following blog & also stories you may or may not already know will be told.  Can't say I didn't warn you.

Love Your favourite daughter xo)

          I'm a huge Eric Church fan! Love his songs, his music & the energy he can bring to the stage at his concerts.  His new cd was finally released yesterday.  In its tracks it includes a song called 
Give me Back My Hometown.  Maybe I was singing it in the back of my mind this morning when I went to go visit mine but here it is my Hometown.  It will probably take you longer to read this blog than it would to drive through the town of Cottam but here it is through my eyes.

          I grew up in Cottam from the age of three until I was almost twenty and moved to London with my girlfriend Tricia for a couple years.  My parents have been in Cottam now for 37 years, 
put your calculators away no need for math.  
Yep, THIRTY-SEVEN years!!
 Despite them torturing us every weekend by bringing us through multiple open houses 
& telling us we're moving at least once every six months. They still live in Cottam.

 It should also be noted that even in my adult life my parents still peruse through the new housing developments going up in the towns around them just to verify
 that they may or may not move somewhere else one day.  
My parents would wake up in the morning & load us into the car 'just for a drive' they would say & we would go scope out the houses that were 'open'.  
Our family car was a CHEVETTE at one point in time. This was in no way an
 enjoyable experience for my sisters & I.  It's comical for me now to drive by some of these places & think to myself that I've been through that one & that one & that one etc.

       Cottam thirty years ago was a little community between Essex & Leamington.  Cottam today is still just a little community in the same spot but they've tacked on the Kingsville name to a few things now that the municipalities have amalgamated. There used to be a lot more traffic that would pass thru our little town before they built the bypass.  We were the town along our own kind of 

route 66 known today as Old #3 or county rd 34.  

You could stop in the summertime for some hot buttered corn at Cornland Corner, a soda at the mini mart or maybe some chinese food on the outside of town.

We had a water station in town on the four corners that you'd see the county people coming in to fill up their trucks, a fire station at the bottom of the hill & the best damn kielbasa at Cottam Coldstorage.  

You could walk a block on a Saturday morning & pick it up to bring home
 hot out of the smokehouse.

  The centre of my Cottam universe though was the ball diamonds in the summer & the Cottam Pond in the winter.  Life was good!  My parents house backed out onto the ball park & even though they never stopped looking for somewhere else to live there really was no better place!

It was a time when you walked out the door & played baseball or street hockey or rode

 your bike over to a friends.  In the winter time you made your sister carry a shovel & you went up to the pond & skated. 

You skated till your toes were so cold and your hands so frozen that it was better just to walk all the way home with your skates still on then to sob infront of everyone while trying to take them off.  

Thankfully there was usually a fire on when we would get back home

 & we'd lay on our backs with our feet up on the hearth practically in the fire 

to try & get the feeling back in them.  

I can remember that frozen foot pain like it was just yesterday. 

 My dad was pretty good at rubbing them. 

 With all his years of hockey I think he was able to sympathize.

For a little town with no population attached to the sign it has to hold some sort of record for most churches per area.  At my last count there were five.  

There was the Cottam Baptist, St.Paul's Anglican,

another baptist church on the Belle River Rd. almost across from the school, one that I think might be Jehovah Witness on old #3 and of course the practically 

famous for it's turkey supper ~  Cottam United.

  It was the Cottam United Church that we would walk up to for Sunday School as kids.  

Joyce & Ray Allen took care of us after school & it was their church which is how it became our church.  My parents both grew up 'very' Catholic and had logged quite a few hours of religion to a sort of maxed out level.  They were both very thankful to the Allens for taking us.  

We were baptized Catholic but it was the United Church that we learned about God, starred in Christmas concerts, attended vacation bible school, ate wafer cookies in all three colours & drank that refreshing orange punch that you can only get in a church basement after Sunday school.

After our Sunday school years we would just hop into church with our friends after a Saturday night sleepover.  I can say the same thing about most of the Churches in the area as I can about the houses.    I've been in that one & that one etc.

It's hard to tell from this picture but another bonus to our big city is the Alley's. 

 I could time it perfectly that when I left the house to get the bus at the end of Laird I could hide out in the alley & then lap back through.  By that time my mom would have left for work so I could have the house to myself. This only happened 'once or twice' & got a lot harder to pull off 

once my sister started high school.

There are four alley's in town and made for some great short cuts, secret routes & as previously mentioned hideouts.  There were times though when you didn't and shouldn't need to be behind your neighbours house in the alley.  One example of this was a horrifying afternoon witnessing Mr. Winger killing chickens and hanging them on the line with a bucket underneath. 

Where did he get those chickens? I mean who knew??

 I was forever both scarred and baffled by this.  

Looking back now I wish I would've had an odometer on my bike.  My Norco & I were inseparable.  The boundaries were not being allowed over the Belle River rd or Old #3.  You could go to the pond with permission and you came home when the street lights came on or risk the embarrassment  of your parents yelling out the front door for you.  Some kids were called by whistle, for real! 

I'm not sure exactly if there was an 'official age' that I was allowed to go further on my bike because I always had a bit of a grey area when it came to following rules.  So while I wish I'd had something to keep track of the miles I put on that bike it was good there was nothing on there keeping track of the travels.

I logged a lot of miles going back & forth to the Freeze.  

While it is in the town of North Ridge most people associate it with Cottam.  Most of the time that would be what you would say after someone didn't know where Cottam was.  You'd respond with 'Do you know where the Dairy Freeze is?
 It's the next town just past there towards Leamington.  

This time of year is the only time you will see the Freeze without a lineup & a jammed parking lot. 

 It means a lot to all who grew up loving it that it is still around!

There is still not too much to report on in Cottam today. There have been some changes but not quite what I'd hoped would happen. 

My vision for Cottam was that it would one day 

develop and grow into a beautiful town similar to Bayfield. 

 Businesses have come & gone.  The Cottam Cafe and Calabria Pizza have been around on the main street for a handful of years now.   Cottam Coldstorage is still up & running but there have been numerous business come & go throughout the years 
down that main street.  
We most definitely can boast that we have some wonderful family run farm stands like McLeod's & Hyslop's that are worth 
the seasonal journey out to Cottam all on their own. 

  

            

The post office, the firehall and the telephone office have all changed buildings and 

we now even have an OPP outpost.

It's still the town that will host a horse show, a Santa Claus parade, 

a yard sale day and various soccer & baseball tournaments.  

Even though there have been some changes made and a few traditions kept what I'm proud to say most is that it's MY Hometown! And yes, that my parents are still at the house on Hill Street.

It was a great day to take a little winter drive out to the village and down memory lane.  

Here's hoping it helps put Cottam on your map now :)

Detroit Red Wings Win Stanley Cup 1997

 

The Story of Jimmy Beam

                

           It was the final game in the 97' Wings vs Philly cup series and a handful of us had decided to go the 'D' to be at the very least inside a bar when the Wings won.  Oh, we knew they were gonna win.  I've included the clip to remind you of the players and what an incredible team of Wings we had. 
      
        Anyways, inside a bar we were! I'm not sure what the statute of limitations are on this confession I am about to include you in on but rest assured it really is about a 'friend'.
    
      We were in a small packed basement bar called Wheelers shoulder to shoulder with basically every drunken soul that would fit into the place crowded around what may have been about three different tv's at the time cause remember this is before flatscreens but after black & whites smart asses.  Everyone's spirits are high & rowdy to say the least.  It was a crazy night to be in downtown Hockeytown.  Our friend, who I will protect his identity was standing at a portable bar that had been abandoned during the last minutes of the game. There happened to be a bottle of Jim Beam sitting on the bar still which I'm sure they were probably going to give away. Our friend in the chaos and celebration of the Wings winning the Cup snapped up the 40 pounder bottle of Jimmy & brought it home.  No one working there cared.  If I remember correctly he held up the bottle yelling 'Let's Go Red Wings' as we exited the place.

                              ......flash forward ahead almost 17 years later.......

 I enjoy a glass or two of whiskey & coke but bourbon was never my thing.  Baking & cooking with it however it really does make things better!

    This is how I put Jimmy to Good use these days.  I make a mean Bourbon Pecan Pie if I do say so myself and only about two a year.  Yes, Bourbon from that same bottle! These pics are from some tarts I made around Thanksgiving one year and look how multi purpose a shot glass is too!

      I'm telling Jimmy's story now because yesterday I cooked up a Bourbon pulled pork it would have been the last bit of bourbon to be used up out of that bottle.  I couldn't do it.

  I cracked open Jimmy's bf Jack instead. 

    With less than a fifth left in the bottle it now sits retired on top of my cabinets waiting for the next Detroit Stanley Cup so I can bake a pie!

     Let's Go Red Wings!!!

Wonderful Days

   Many arguments can be made on what  The Most Wonderful time of the year is.  It is possible as I sit here 4 days before the New Year that well, most of my times & days gone by last year 

were pretty damn wonderful.  

     Aside from a little too much rain in the spring we did manage to get the crops in and then thanks to the rain we recieved after that they turned out pretty good!

 His got planted and I was able to get my garden of veggies in too.

        My 'planter' is a little more hands on. 
As in hands on a shovel and then planting with my hands.

Hello Blue Skies!! The blooms bloomed the grass got greener & it was a beautiful time of year around here!

Things that were planted grew & even those seeds that were let's say 'scatted' about provided some wonderful fruit and a couple delicious pies

 It was 'just yesterday' in my own head that I was 9 months pregnant climbing up a tree picking mulberries when Rick came home & was perplexed as to my where abouts in my 'state' with my Mustang still in the driveway.  Mystery solved when I came back across the field with a couple

 full baskets of berries:)

Somehow my 'just yesterday' turned into 13 years ago and poof just like that

 my baby boy is a teenager! 

We couldn't be prouder!

Jack's birthday marks the end of a school year & the start of summer. 

 Every year we're fortunate enough to be able to take a wonderful trip up North to the cottage. 

 

Thank goodness we get that week of Northern air because after that

 it's time to come home & take off the wheat.

 Known to us as Heat Week.  It Never fails that it always lands on the hottest time of the year. This

 year was no different. 90 degrees plus all week!

These two are thrilled to get started!

                                                                 
                                                                    THE HELP.

While they were used to those long, hot days I thought no better time then now to turn them into blueberry pickers.  This was my first trip to Klassen's. 

   What a wonderful experience! Endless rows of grape sized berries. 

 They too had a great season from the spring/summer rains which in turn allowed me to 

make some great pies & jams.

There was plenty of play as well as work this summer too.  Don't feel too sorry for my child labourers just yet.  There were ball games, concerts & fairs along the way ( they were at most of them with me) and another great trip up to the cottage with their friends.

Every year I sound like a broken record telling them how much quicker 

each summer goes by but truly it does!

Harvest time is upon us before we've got the sand out of our toes.  

I'm taking my veggies out of my garden before the combine is fired up again for the beans.

  Years ago when I started my garden I thought what a wonderful thing for the kids & I to do together.  Surely they'll love helping plant, water, pick & watch all these delicious veggies grow.  How excited they would be over choosing whatever vegetable 

they wanted to have for dinner & picking it themselves. 

 I don't want to say that I might have 'over-envisioned' BUT I DID.  

I kept hearing 'It's hot, the bugs are bad, I don't have shoes on, they're too picky, I don't even like tomatoes why do you grow so many?

 My personal favourite though was 'I already picked those yesterday'.  

So while I was in my glory having a wonderful time picking, scuffling, weeding and replanting,

 they for the most part really weren't. 

 Sure they'd entertain my need to educate them on the fun of my garden if I found a praying mantis or a pretty butterfly and if there happened to be a rabbits nest with some babies in it 

they'd keep me company for a good hour.

Jack would even come help me slay those nasty green tomato worms which I was very thankful for but other than those few tricks I had up my sleeve

 I was not experiencing the full picture of my vision.

 For me though, every day that something else was ready to be picked or I was able rototill up that nice damp soil I was thrilled.  

How wonderful! The 'veggies' of my labour.

Eventually they'll come around right?

With our summer days now long gone the kids back in school,  Autumn is in full swing upon us. Which brings me to my next favourite pie,  A P P L E :)  It was kind of a round about way of getting there but picking pumpkins, gourds & apples oh my is as good as life gets!

The kids know this too because the only apples they eat all year in their lunches are the ones they've picked themselves.  The red delicious that I pay $2 ea for in December is just the show & tell apple that will travel to school & back everyday only to be thrown out on Friday.  

I should say something to them about the starving children in Africa but I don't.

Rick stays incredibly busy for the months of September & October.  We don't see much of him other than making him a sandwich or going to pick up a part for something.  I learned quickly after we were married that you don't ask how things are going until they've got them done.

  It's a wonderful thing to see that combine out in the field plugging away and the wagons being filled so unless he calls me I am a firm believer in ' No news is Good News'.

When November rolls around the crops are off & the work is done, for now. The kids & I enjoy the tranquility of 'Daddy's away hunting week' or in this year's case 'hunting month'. 

 (Okay maybe I enjoy it a little more than the kids.)

The other thing about November rolling around is that it's Moira's bday Month!

Not only was I faced with my son becoming a teenager this year but I also had the reality of my baby girl entering double digits. On November 29th she turned  TEN.  

She is happy, funny, witty, sporty & responsible to the max!  She shines! 

 Jack's away hockey tournament in Belleville landed just before her birthday so she was able to capitalize on pre celebrations before the day of her birth.  As an added bonus the town of Belleville had a 'Moira' river, street & various business' that included her name.  Who knew she would gain celebrity status for the weekend!

Trying to play catch up on the last six months wasn't easy but looking back at the last half of the year has really made me realize I need to find a way to slow down time for next year.

Here we are with December basically behind us.  

We were able to fit in another great trip to Chicago with Ben & Sasha.

A Camo Christmas with Rick's whole family the weekend after.

and somehow be ready for another Wonderful (almost the whole) family on Christmas Day.

Looking forward to my little sister coming home on NYE but missing my 

other sister & her family for the holidays.  

So, it would seem The Most wonderful time of the year for me is all year.  

It's the time spent doing the things I enjoy with the people I love.

  Cheesy as it is that's the best I can sum it up.

Wishing you & yours many Wonderful days in the year ahead.

Happy 2014!