Jump!

Of course my fearless child just had to try jumping off the merry-go-round, while it was turning. Seriously, he has no fear.

And the result...

So what does he do next? Gets right back on and tries it again. I think this kid is going to be my BASE jumping, skydiving, fast driving wild child.

Little Helpers

I am pretty sure my mother had children for three reasons only. She needed slave labour to:

1. Weed the garden
2. Wash the dishes
3. Turn the hand grinder when making burger from wild game

My boys should consider themselves pretty darn lucky that we have:

1. A yard full of dirt instead gardens
2. A dishwasher
3. A 1 horsepower electric meat grinder

Now that doesn't mean my boys get off easily. They help with the yard work by moving dirt around in their dump trucks. Hunter now loads his own dishes into the dishwasher and helps me unload it. Cavan likes to unload it too. Usually while I am not looking and then he takes the big wooden handle steak knives out and uses one in each hand to saw at the kitchen door frame. Yep. That happened last week while I was doing laundry down the hall. As for the meat grinding you can see for yourself:

Hunter had zero interest in helping until he learned that it was his job to turn the meat grinder on and off. Then he really got into his job.

Cavan was wary of the grinder until he realized he liked what came out the other end. For some reason this kid likes his moose meat raw and in ground form. He kept stealing and eating the meat just like a little raven.

Here Hunter is transporting my wrapped packages of ground meat in his car while Cavan looks innocent, but really he kept trying to steal my masking tape and plastic wrap.

I think these boys are going to make fine slave labour as they grow. I think my mother was onto something.... Maybe I should start a garden next year..

Winter Has Arrived!

My backyard yesterday morning:

My backyard as of a few minutes ago...

And it is still snowing. I am definitely thankful for that moose already hanging in my garage!

Successful Moose Hunt!

Yesterday my husband bagged his first Yukon moose! He has shot a BC moose, a number of Nunavut caribou, but this was the first animal for the Yukon and the antlers measured 46". He and the friend he was hunting with actually shot two moose nearly at the same time. Boy did they have their work cut out for them!! Field dressing two moose, putting them and all of their overnight gear onto one quad and an argo and then quadding a couple of hours home. They made it in last night at nearly midnight.

I still have my moose tag and we both still have our caribou tags, so we might continue the hunting season to make sure we have enough meat for the next year. I am so proud of my husband!! Just so far not overly impressed with their field dressing technique. I spent all of today taking bits of leaves, twigs, dirt and hair out of all of the meat. I am really picky about my meat and want everything as clean as possible. We butcher our own meat, so everything is hanging in our garage next week and myself and my mom who will be up visiting next week will get it all cut and packaged.

Bring on winter! We are all ready now!

Cavan telling me that is a "mooooosh":

Hunter and the moose:

Lots of meat hanging in my garage!!

"Are you sure it's dead, Ma?"

My husband, looking mighty proud of his moose!

The area they were hunting in. How gorgeous is this?

Matt's hunting partner and his agro loaded to the hilt:

The happy, but exhausted, hunter:

Backyard Science

We are friends with a family in town that are homeschooling three of their kids (actually, there are six kids in the family, but two have graduated and one is doing her high school work here at the school in Faro). Their mother asked if I would be willing to do some fun science experiments with them throughout the winter and I was more than willing to take it on!

I thought we should start our experiments out with something I have been wanting to try for a while- dropping Mentos into bottles of Diet Coke! The kids met me behind my house and looked rather excited when they saw my wagon full of goodies. I had made a spreadsheet for them to keep track of the data from our different trials (there were 15 in total). We tried varying the number of Mentos added, type of Mentos, size of pop bottle, type of pop, sealed container, Mentos and pop in the mouth, crushed Mentos and even a rocket!!

There were a lot of laughs. Now the kids have to take their data home and come up with some thoughts on each trail. Then they will come back to my house for a discussion on their ideas and finally we will be watching the episode of MythBusters that explains it all much better than I can!

I cannot wait to plan my next experiment with them.

My wagon full of goodies:

Hunter even got in on the action!

Mini explosion!

Filling my sawed off broom handle with Mentos to add to the pop:

Lots of bottles for recycling!

After I launched a successful rocket, Elijah gives it a try with no success!

Throwing this one in the air to see what happens on impact!

BOOM!

My budding scientists!

They like the same things

Even though these boys still scrap a lot, I am starting to see them get along at times.

Making roads in the sand together:

Wants to swing just as high as his big brother:

Happiness:

And my heart is warmed when I look in the living room expecting trouble because of the silence, but instead see this:

Always Dirty

I swear, within two seconds of stepping out the front door this kid is covered in dirt from head to toe. Every single time!

Sir Dirt:

Trying Something New

After nine months of working at my weight loss I was feeling so unmotivated. I just couldn't get back on the wagon and those five pounds up five pounds down were leaving me frustrated.

A friend who had lost 50lbs using weight watchers had hit a similar point earlier in the summer. She decided to try something new and then lost another 17lbs in six weeks and is feeling better than ever. She convinced me to give her program a try.

At first I felt like a bit of a failure by even considering something new. Diet hopping is such a no-no, but I needed to feel motivated again.

I am now trying to Harcombe Diet and am having quite the success with it! This diet focuses on whole foods, curbing cravings, getting a person off of all processed foods and sugar. It sure isn't easy though. While I don't have to count calories, I do have to put a lot of thought into what I eat now.

I never knew I could survive without condiments. Now I cannot have any of them since they are all full of sugar or other chemicals. It has been 10 days since my last taste of ketchup and I am still alive!!

I have lost eight pounds in the last ten days for a total of 45lbs in 2010. And there have been other perks:

• Foods are tasting good again
  
• I am no longer snacking all day
• I have energy like I haven't had in years
• I am sleeping like a dream
• And most importantly... My motivation is back!

In ten days I have followed this new plan to a T, minus two instances. While make banana bread en mass I had one mini muffin. Usually once I start eating banana bread I cannot stop and before you know it half a loaf will be gone. This time after just one, I didn't go back for more. And then for some reason the next day I had a wicked binge on cookies and drank about a third of a diet pepsi. But after not having wheat, sugar or pop for over a week I paid the price. I was so sick and had an upset system for the rest of the day.

From the cookies incident, I am realizing that I may be either suffering from Candida yeast or some food intolerance which this diet plan is geared towards dealing with.

I love that this plan is getting me off of all processes foods. Of course the bonus of me trying this diet is that everyone in the family benefits. Sure the guys are still eating sugar and ketchup, but the meals are always getting better.

So I guess I am not a failure, I am just trying to find what suits my needs and right now this plan is it.

Thanks to the MamaBear!

The boys were mighty excited this week when a parcel came in the mail addressed to them! Brand new homemade toques for each of them made by the mother of a dear friend. They arrived just in time for the cooler weather and the boys love them! However, attempting to get a picture of them in their new toques proved rather difficult!

Thanks so much Patricia!!

My crazy boys:

Fishskin Fabrics!

Fabric selection across the North is a joke. Yes, there are Walmarts but have you ever tried to find the fabric in the store in Whitehorse? I think they are using that area as box storage lately. Other fabric stores are few and far between and many times overpriced to the point I walk out in frustration.

I have a solution! Well not really me, but my friend Jill sure has the solution. Jill, of Prince Rupert, BC, has started an online mail order fabric store! Her prices are fabulous and the selection is growing daily.

At Fishskin Fabric we are committed to encouraging the creativity of our customers by providing fresh, fun and modern fabric selection to crafters everywhere!

Head over to her website or check out her facebook page to peruse the lovely fabrics at a store run by a lovely woman. If you don't see what you are looking for, just send Jill a message and she will try her hardest to find what you want. Where else can you get service like this?

And as an added bonus, Jill wants to give readers of this blog a discount!! When you make your first purchase just enter "wenttofaro" as the coupon code and you will receive a 12% discount on your purchase. See, I told you she was a lovely woman!

Photoshoot with Birds on a Wire Photography

We were in Whitehorse recently and took advantage of a fantastic opportunity! There is a new photographer in the city and she took such gorgeous family pictures for us. I am so pleased with the results! Johanna, of Birds on a Wire Photography, has a real knack for capturing fun in her photos.

Please check out her website. Her rates are unbelievably reasonable and you get a disk full of photos on it to do whatever you want with! She was even so thoughtful as to bring a bag of little presents that the boys got to pick from. The boys loved her right away and she was full of ideas to keep them smiling and posing for the camera, no small task with these rowdy boys!

Thank you so much Johanna! We will be back next fall to do this again.

And you should also go and check out her Etsy shop. Beautiful photos and cards for sale there!

Now check out these amazing shots which are only some of the photos we got on our disk!!

Taking the wee-hillbillies out in public

Our kids don't make it to town very often. Maybe once every six to eight weeks we hit the big city of Whitehorse and our wee-hillbillies are always entertaining. My favorite is listening to Hunter talk to people while he rides in the front of the shopping carts or when he starts yelling, "Beep beep! Excuse me please, we're coming through!" Granted we do get a few dirty looks from some people, but most just grin and laugh at our monkeys.

Nothing like running around the hotel naked!

This shot is actually from the restaurant here in Faro, but not much different from our visits to the city! Getting comfy while chowing down on fries:

Cranberry Picking

Signs that fall has arrived in the Yukon:

• the leaves change to yellow
• temperatures start to dip below zero
• neighbours start dropping off gifts of carrots, potatoes and beets
• and the air is filled with the smell of stinky feet!

No, that last point isn't a result of the men in my household but the ripening cranberries in the bush!

This weekend we made our way to the secret cranberry picking spot and picked a whopping six pounds of berries in an hour and a half. Hunter picked about 10 berries and even Matt helped for a bit! I went back to the spot again with a friend the other night and we picked another nine pounds of berries.

The berries will be turned to juice and then into cranberry jelly, cranberry syrup and some juice will be frozen in ice-cube trays to be added to drinks over the winter. Hopefully I can get back out this week and get a few more ice cream buckets full of them before the snow arrives!

Heading the to secret spot.
Of course the dump trucks had to come!

My helper lasted all of three minutes:

Adding his pickings to mommy's bucket: