The Talens' Tales

Today on the farm, a calf was born. Not an unusual event by any means, but he made a little stop in the yard while moving from the place he was born over the dairy barn. Joash was quite fond of the calf and kept petting him and saying how soft he was. Mataya was not so sure at first.  But we finally convinced her to give him a pat and then she too said he was very soft and at supper tonight, she said he was beautiful. This is what it is to grow up a farm kid.

Just a few quick, "heard around the house lately" from here. These are some we want to make sure we remember. ********************************************** Mataya loves to swing. She has also learned from her brother that twisting on the swing is fun. While twisting, she always shouts, "My busy, my busy." She mean, "I'm dizzy." *********************************************** Mataya must live in opposite world lately, or something. It seems like so many of the things she says, she really mean the opposite. Walk into a dark room. "Me turn light off." Standing by the sink to wash hands. "Me turn water off." Spending a day at home. "Me want to go home." While she can speak clearly enough, this is certainly making it a bit more challenging for us to figure out what she wants. ************************************************ Joash trying to convince Mataya to taste her ice cream. "Ice cream...

It is Old Home Week here on PEI and we went today as a family. It was the Dairy Cow show today, so we checked that out first. There were lots of nice looking cows and heifers. The kids were not super entertained, so it is a good thing this mom packed some snacks The kids and Daddy!  Joash decided to give the Pedal Tractor Pull a try this year. He did a pretty good job, but he didn't quite make it to a full pull.  He even got a fun ribbon for participation, which he is pretty pleased with. The kids also enjoyed the tractors and the toy tractors as well as the people walking around in a cow and chicken costume. The kids also tried out some of the rides. This was the first ride and the only one Mataya went on. She was eager enough to go on and happy to sit in the truck at first, but by the end of the ride she was not a happy camper. Joash, however, had a great time and went on all the rides he went on last year and tried out some new ones as well. It was a ...

Dr. Gabriella Speciale has assembled an international team of elite scientists with one goal in mind--to create and control out-of-body experiences that transcend the limits of time and space. Reese Clawson's mind-bending experiments aim to explode the boundaries of human consciousness--and annihilate the opposition in the process. When a terrifying discovery and a string of failed tests threaten to dismantle both programs, the key to survival may reside in the mind of a gifted grad student whose unsettling dreams have thrust him into the center of a dangerous battle for control. As the threads of perception and reality become tangled and time itself twists in unexpected directions, one warning remains clear: what you don't know can kill you. This is yet another awesome book by Thomas Locke (Davis Bunn). While the whole concept of time and space travel is a little bit vague, but the pieces came together as the story progressed. The story really grabbed and I was sad wh...

While our summer has been nice. it feels like good beach days have been few and far between. So on Monday evening when I checked the weather and saw it was going to be a nice warm and sunny day and I knew there was no pressing farm work to be done, I declared it a beach day. We had both coffee time and a picnic lunch on the beach. And Joash was pretty excited to wear the solar power fan hat that he found in the workshop on Monday.  Joash really wanted to be buried in the sand, so we did.  Then Joash and Wilbert dug a deep hole in the beach to see if they could find water.  We also did walk in the water a bit and the boys jumped in the waves. The water was a bit on the cold side and Mataya did not want to touch it at all. We came home for nap time, one of the great perks of living only 15 minutes from the beach. We had a great morning at the beach.

Joash has been a busy boy lately. In the morning, he likes to eat breakfast, play a bit, then get ready for the day, do a "summer school page" (a page out of a Pre-K workbook we have) and then he heads out to the barn to help Daddy. And he is outside for a large chunk of the day. Here are some of the other things he has been up too. A family portrait by Joash. I drew circle to get him started and I helped with the hair and labeled of course. Bur the rest is all him. Opa's helper. Joash continues to create and be very inventive. Here he is using his "welding helmet." After going to the tractor pull, Joash had his own tractor pull in the house. Here he is with his tractor hooked up to the sled. He is wearing his "helmet" and holding the "rule book."

I have been doing a poor job blogging lately. So, here is a glimpse into Mataya. Mataya, the melon monster. This girl loves to eat melon, especially watermelon and cantelope. She is pretty artsy already. So different from her brother. The humid summer weather gives her super cute curls that melt my heart. We tried braids for the first time today. They worked so well and stayed in much better than pigtails. We have found our new go to hair do. Tomorrow is Joash's turn.