The Shobode hobby farm

Greetings dear family!

First things first, Chuck is feeling much better (altho he feels he has heard MORE than enough about the hazards of motorcycles!) I have even convinced him NOT to ride again until he is verified healed. I will say that that "Ribs and things" note got the most response of any of my updates!

We have been very busy working outside, and have been grateful to have help from my paid crew from "Hire A Slave" - 3 girls spent 4 hours helping me put in my new flower garden (took me many hours of digging to get it ready but it is worth it - and you should see my arm muscles!) They are coming back on Friday to help with another one. Heather and Peter have also pitched in - Heather has given me dozens of plants from her greenhouse and garden, plus tons of advice. She also put in a huge veggie garden. I plan to put some before and after photos up on Flickr.

Peter has been working on the Shoboat helping Chuck get it ready for its first outing this year. Apparently we now have marine radio, depth finder/GPS and wiring for downriggers. He also gave us "ears" so we can hook the motors up to the garden hose and run them for testing. And if you want to know more than that, come see us! We also get to have Corynn visit weekly and she and the little girl next door and Chester have great fun!

To complicate matters for our yard work, our garden tractor/lawn mower has broken down repeatedly - I guess we could only run over old chains and pieces of metal so many times before repairs are needed! But we have found most of the hazards now, we think. We have a hanging wicker chair (a great garage sale find) and a hammock set up along with a fire pit and some garden furniture, so have some nice outside living space to enjoy.

We managed, after many dump runs and bonfires, to clear most of the junk from the property. We have spoken to a couple of realtors who encourage us to proceed with our subdivision plans, as we will be able to greatly reduce our mortgage if we sell part of the lot. They know the place well, and have told us the difference we have made in it already is amazing. Of course right now the rhodos are in bloom along with the fruit trees, so it is beautiful.

Unfortunately, the person we hired to handle the subdivision/rezoning request when we left in December, with the thought that we could then sell the new lot this spring - did almost nothing. Chuck fired him yesterday - so we are about to learn the ins and outs of property development! We hope to get our retainer back.......

The family renting our house got the pool running on the long weekend (the temp of +28 C was a great incentive) - a nice bonus when any of you come to visit us! We are looking forward to Mom and Dad's visit in mid June and to the Shobe extended family visit in the summer. And we are supposed to be transporting Andrew, Andrew, Jennifer and Jess up to the trailhead for Della Falls at some point! We will be flying to Edmonton for Cindie's retirement banquet on June 26 so are excited about that.

After much conversation, we decided to buy a pair of (non-breeding) pygmy goats - hence the "Shobode hobby farm." They will be ready to be picked up at the end of the month, so we are madly reading up on them. Hopefully they will get along with the deer! They will be young enough that they should "bond" with Chester.

I was watching raccoons in the trees across the creek yesterday, and there are juncos and robins nesting everywhere. We have had one bear visit to our garbage, which will hopefully not be repeated now that we are putting the can inside the shed. And our renting family has two cats which Chester now pretty much ignores. So quite a menagerie.

Workwise, I was complaining that I wasn't getting enough work from eCampusAlberta - and then 30 courses to be reviewed arrived! So as usual, we run out of day before we run out of work. But we are greatly enjoying ourselves and find it hard to imagine how far we have come in the 10 months since we left Calgary!

Much love from Chris, Chuck and Chester

Ribs and things

Greetings! Some bad news and some good news.....Chuck bought a small motorcyle a couple of weeks ago. Ten days ago, he took it out on a gravel road and wiped out in a pothole. The bike was OK but he was pretty scraped up, bruised and swollen. Of course I wanted him to go get checked out, but he kept saying he was fine.
This morning, however, he says he felt the rib move around - up until now, he figures the swelling held it in place. He went to Emergency at the hospital to get his ribs x-rayed. He has a broken 7th rib - and of course there is not much to do but restrict movement, and not do anything that makes it hurt!

Sigh. So this afternoon we phoned a handyman to come help us out with some garden work and hauling.....

In keeping with instructions from various offspring and family members, I am letting you all know about this!