And we're back!

I was hoping to start posting earlier than this, but my body demanded that I take some time to rest and relax as best I could before starting back to work. Just to warn you, this post is a little long... photos will be added a little later.

David and I left for Newfoundland a couple of days after my last post. It was my grandparent's 70th wedding anniversary and family traveled from all over to be there to help them celebrate. Unfortunately, my grandfather fell ill just a few days before the big party and was taken to hospital (he's doing very good now, and is back home), so my grandparents ended up spending their anniversary in the hospital. The party went ahead as scheduled and we made a video for them with all their well-wishers. For the rest of the week, my grandparents had a never ending line of visitors as everyone stopped by to visit.

As for the rest of our vacation, David finally achieved his goal of climbing Gros Morne Mountain (the mountain the National Park is named for).

On our way back, we decided to stop over in PEI for one night. David had never been there before, and there was a mini mill on our way that we could visit (it's David's dream that in addition to an alpaca farm, we also process and spin our own fiber). We had a beautiful campsite at Lord Selkirk Provincial Park, and spent a couple of hours touring and learning about the Belfast Mini Mill. We met some wonderful people and had a great time!

We timed everything perfectly - we made it back home just in time to celebrate our 1st wedding anniversary!

That week was quite hectic as I raced to finish putting together a show book for the Navan Fair Alpaca show the following week. Once it was all done and sent off to the printers I had a couple of days to relax before the Alpaca show started. Once again, we volunteered as Alpaca Security and camped in the alpaca tent with the animals. It was kind of noisy, and I'll admit I didn't get as much sleep as I was hoping for, but it was much quieter than last year! We had a great time at the show; I even had some family come by to see what it was all about.

A couple days later and I was back to work. Looking back our summer passed in a whirlwind. Now I'm looking forward to our labs starting up and getting back into the swing of things!

And for those that may be curious: planning for our next Halloween party is well under way...

Catching up... again

So far, this month has been pretty crazy... as evidenced by the lack of posts!

On May 4th, I performed in Vanier's 40th anniversary choral concert with the college choir. It was a huge work, very... different...

We still haven't managed to tackle the two remaining gardens that were covered in hay in the fall. The gardeners were supposed to come by in the middle of the week to mow our lawn so we wanted to deal with the hay that had been raked off one of the gardens before the mowers got here. Tuesday evening (May 10th) we raked everything up, and decided since it was decent out, to burn the hay rather than fill countless bags. Needless to say, we got a good roaring fire going!

The following weekend we had some visitors Saturday afternoon, and Sunday my parents came by with lobster for Mother's Day dinner. Boiled lobster, corn-on-the-cob, rice & veggie stir-fry, and cheddar-bay biscuits... topped off by a chocolate-fudge cake... yum!

Last weekend was our busiest and most anticipated weekend! First, it signalized the beginning of our vacation (sort of... we traded 2 days for the following week). Our jobs have a temporary lay-off during the summer, so we'll both be off until mid-August. The weekend kicked off on Friday with alpaca shearing at Magpie Hill Alpacas in North Gower (just south of Ottawa). This is the same farm we helped out last year.

Cria (baby alpaca) with full fleece

Half way through...

 All done!

We had a great time, and we both learned a lot!

Sunday, our nephew was baptized, and I must say I don't think I've ever seen a more quiet baptism... not a squeak from him!

We has a few days to ourselves before we were back to work to help one of our suppliers set up equipment in one of our labs on Thursday, and back for workshops the following day. A great time was had by all, as we learned about ELISA antibody tests and protein analysis through electrophoresis...

That's me pipetting our sample into the gel for electrophoresis

Finally, yesterday we had a beautiful summer day... the thermometer read 25 degrees! David and I managed to finish working on 3 of our gardens: annuals were planted around the deck; our garden by the garage was edged, filled, planted (with dahlias & peonies), and covered with cedar chips; and the garden in front of the barn was edged, filled and planted (with gladiolas) as well! We put some garden lights in the two new gardens, but last night decided that they just didn't fit in there. So, this morning I've moved them to the garden around the deck (the photos were taken yesterday).

Facing driveway                                        Facing Back Yard

Dahlias & Peonies

Gladiolas

We also made another trip for plants this afternoon, and.... Ta Da!

New Home!

On March 31st, 2010, we received the keys to our new home! We had been casually looking at homes for a couple of weeks, with no intention of buying for a couple of years, when we found this home. As soon as we walked in through the door we both knew it would be our new home.

We started our search with the intention of buying in the city, close to work. What we ended up with was a home on almost 3 acres of land in the country, and a 50 minute drive from work. Our inspiration to search in such a rural area were the cute and cuddly alpacas that we were introduced to last fall. It was love at first sight, and we started learning all that we could about these unique animals. Our goal is to one day have a small herd of alpacas grazing in our pasture.