Find Flippy........

Just so... adorable! A special treat for your Korean students?

엄마에게서 인사

Flip before and ........

Before ! ....cat chasing..happy yapping...heinz 57!






After!...............
O La La....Voila! Un petit caniche français tres..... chouette luxueux.






Ahhh you find me handsome......
I give you kiss!

Believe it or not!

Amazing..... you pull Dad ears and his eyes will close..........Is this something in the Vandenberg gene pool? try it!

Spring Storms

The weatherman forecasts a hot and dry summer. Spring has been warm and wet, excellent growing weather for the crops, garden and huge mosquitoes. Burford, as usual, has been battered by these pesky stingers, Little Austria campground is losing its campers over it.
The worm pickers are busy too at the Brown farm, their lights move look like fireflies through the field at nights. It was clear last night and the stars were out and my luck....a shooting star. The coyotes were busy too practising their howling!
We have had hot humid days with storms building to chase the heat out again. Last month we saw several pass us over, the last one June 19th. spun a tornado north of Stratford, a dairy barn lost its roof and trees down.Just 2 weeks earlier Tavistock had 15cm+ rain out of 2 heavy storms with hail....the town flooded ... fields were duck ponds.Gerbrich's farm was just on the edge of it and did ok..only 3''.

We could see the storm building on the radar on the 19th. plus Duke new already by coffee time something was up! We lost our hydro and had to run the generator. The storm broke and in 15 min all was done. in those 15 min dad had to run twice to the barn to adjust the curtains ... the rain came down so heavy ..then the wind picked up.....1e run.... then the wind changed directions.... 2e run. All through this ......wind ...hail...driving rain.....lightning......and very loud thunder. His routine never changes!
Had to clean the litter from the trees ...the sun was out again... all was clear.



On June 8th. we were surprised by a wall of water out on the back deck by the pool, at the same time Wanda K. was walking with Tracy's little boy, Carter, in the stroller along the road and had to be rescued by Joe and take shelter in his tractor. He happened to be in field right there by the road.
We are in for some more thunder showers tonight and Summer starts today!Have a good one!

Goals Holland Goals Go Korea Go You gave it all Oilers and fans..now rest!

Garden Palette

Nice you came to visit ...I'll give you a tour of my garden and send you some flowers to keep!
The colours are vibrant. The smell is sweet.


Leuk dat jullie even komen kijken...... kom mee.. gaan we de tuin door..... en geef ik je bloemen mee!

De kleuren zijn intens en de geur is zoet......


Double Click on a picture and then click again on the icon in the right bottom corner and the picture will expand to regular size.



dubbel klik een foto aan ... dan weer rechts onder aanklikken op de pijltjes om de foto tot normale grote te maken.


The Canadian summers are never long enough...for those who like to play in the dirt!

De Canadese zomers zijn altijd te kort.....voor ons bloempjes genieters! Hoe staat jullie tuin erbij?..laat ook eens zien!

Fathersday Privilege

Happy Birthday Sandra

Sandra and Phil ............Hilti Demo day!........or Phil's intro to the family

Mark and Amy

The Boy's

2006 Family Album

With love from Mom and Dad

Alberta Bound

Carien traveled by car on the 4th of May to Olds Alberta. She packed her tent and 10 speedbike and left for the west! On the way she camped in the still uninhabited provincial parks and slept with the deer at the lakeside. I am sure the bears were out too.... but must have kept their distance because Carien arrived safe and sound in Old, Alberta. There she met up with a college friend and is now renting a room in a house with fellow adventurers from New Brunswick and Ontario.

The oil exploration brings a lot of farmboys to Alberta to make some good money.
Carien is settling in well and is building fences for horse pastures near the rocky mountains. Extreem Fencing with bulldozers ect. She is enjoying it and is happy. Last weekend Mike and Carien went to Banff camping and enjoyed the Banff hotsprings. The pictures are from around Banff

Go Oilers Go!

Hup Holland Hup!

Score Korea Score!

Duke

Duke is our 8 yr old bouvier, he is our fateful guardian of the farm and all who live there.
Duke takes his job very seriously and will make enough noise for anyone or anything new to tread lightly on the property. He will howl with the coyotes at night and will play with the odd one in the field.He will chase raccoons and stray cats up the trees.
His best buddy is Flip, our small mix breed, in the morning they will inspect the the farm yard of any nightly intruders and if so will leave their mark on top! This goes on for at least 1/2 hr. before all is well and they come in for a treat.


Every Spring Duke gets his wintercoat clipped.He looks like a black bear at the end of winter and his heavy coat is too warm for him so he is in full co-operation when I take the cattle clippers to him. He lets me slowly clip him like a sheep until he comes out like a new dog, a bit shrunk in size too.

One of Duke's favourite trips is hunting muskrats in the creek at nights. With a full moon, for sure, he will sneak out to the creek and in the morning he returns totally exhausted muddy and his belly bloated with creekwater.....he is getting to slow to actually catch one.....I never found one on the doorstep yet!

He will have this happy satisfied look . Of course he is getting no where close to his doggybed in the mudroom untill he is in tip top shape again .....and that means a wash....I will need to drag or carry him.....which I am incapable of doing.... to the milkhouse for this warm water bath....so a gardenhose and cold water will do too. He will stand very quiet and sorrowfull on the grass and will let me scrub him clean .....the mud will be running of in streams. Afterwards he runs like a puppy and then collapses in aheap to sleep in the sun.


Duke has a 6th. sense for bad weather . He can feel a thunderstorm coming hours ahead and will stay close to me as to tell me to keep an eye out on the sky.
He is a bit of a baby when the storm breaks and will demand to be in the house or at least very close to a human being. He is a good dog and at nights will tiptoe quietly out of the mudroom into the livingroom and take a spot at my feet. Of course the thinks this is all done unnoticed as if he is this tiny mouse of a dog!All is well as long as the creekwater is not going to gurgle up!.




Duke is onze 8jr. oude bouvier, hij bewaakt ons en het bedrijf trouw. Duke neemt zijn taak zeer serious op en maakt genoeg lawaai als iets of iemand vreemd het erf op komt. Hij huilt met de coyotes 'snachts en speelt met een enkeling in het land.Vindt het een sport om raccoons en zwerf katten de boom in te jagen. Zijn beste maatje is Flip,een klein van alles wat ras, 'smorgens gaan ze het erf rond alle vreemde luchtjes die door de nacht achtergelaten zijn weer hun merk te geven, dit gaat wel z'n half uur door totdat ze alles weer geur herstelt hebben, dan is het tijd voor wat lekkers uit de honden snoeppot.

Elk voorjaar moet zijn wintervacht eraf, aan het eind van de winter ziet hij er als een zwarte beer uit, zijn dikke vacht maakt het te warm voor hem en als ik met de veeclippers hem scheert vindt hij het prima en wordt hij netjes uitgepakt en daarbij ook gelijk een maatje kleiner gemaakt.

Duke mag graag op stap naar de sloot, muskrat vangen,met volle maan gaat hij 'savonds aan de haal en komt in the ochtend thuis, totaal versleten, uitgeput en zijn vacht vol met modder, zijn buik staat bol van het sloot water....hij is te langzaam om ze te vangen...ik heb ook nog nooit een jachtbuit gezien op het erf. Hij ziet er zo voldaan uit en zou het liefst op zijn mat neerzakken in de mudroom, maar eerst moet hij langs de kraan in het melkhuis en daar heeft hij geen plezier in. Wassen wil hij liever niet als het even kan en moet ik hem naar het melkhuis dragen of slepen en dat gaat natuurlijk niet! Dus de tuin in en met de tuinslang en koud water de modder afspoelen en dan nog een lekker zeepje .........hij laat dit met zeer zielige blik toe en staat rustig totdat ik klaar ben met hem,dan schiet hij als een dolle jonge hond door de tuin en laat zich lekker vallen op een zonnige plek en maft verder de dag weg!

Duke voelt slecht weer aan en drentelt de hele dag rond me en dan weet ik al dat er onweer en zwaar weer op komst is. Hij is geen held met onweer en wil graag binnen zijn, dicht bij ons.
Duke is een goede hond en 'savonds sluipt hij de mudroom uit naar de huiskamer en zo stil als een muis gaat hij aan mij voeten liggen hopend dat niemand hem ziet.......ons goed zolang het sloot water niet begint te borrelen!

Haylage

Monday June 5th. we filled the silo with haylage. We cut 60 acres on the previous Wednesday and since then the weather turned and it was wet and cold till Sunday.
Monday we had to bring it in. Worried it would spoil and the cows would turn up their noses for it! Yes, the ladies in the barn know how they like their haylage! With a 2004 Grand Forage Master of Brant County as Boss, they are connoisseurs!
Happy to tell you they are satisfied and showing good appetite....and milk in the tank! The harvester started at 3.30 pm and was done 9.00 pm..... it was a tasty beer with the crew afterwards.

Stephanie said hello by internet video
link from Korea around that time and wanted to see Chris to make sure he was keeping busy too!







You girls know how dusty that haylage is around the silo when blowing up the pipe. The pictures tell the story .
The next day it was leveling off the haylage in the silo up top. A dirty, extremely hot and dangerous with the possibility of silo gas , we are always well prepared before going in.
Job done and coming down the chute, it is rest time and you need to drink extra fluids.
With protective clothing and face mask on,you sweat buckets!.

Ab still likes to climb up silo's but Chris is more inclined to bunkersilos.
This leveling off is done after each fill about 4 or 5 times a year. This time the silo was at 55 feet filled by the end of the season( September) it is up to 80 feet full. A top unloader throws the feed down through the chute to the mixer seen behind Ab en Chris.



Hup! Holland Hup! towards the Cup!