Grandchildren and the Place We Leave Behind

Annika and Lucas and their cousin, our eldest granddaughter Claire.

I thought I have done some of these posts on some of the great places and people we have seen while travelling and working, so it was probably time I did something about the places and people we leave behind when we head out in the fall for warmer climes. We are blessed with a great family, including those "Grand" children that seem to be even more perfect than their parents. I am going to include some shots of the grandchildren but I'll leave their parents and our other kids (future parents of more grandchildren) for another time.

Here's a shot of Madison and Annika

We live on small farm NW of Calgary, Alberta, Canada near a place called Dogpound. That is along a highway that they call the "Cowboy Trail." Legend has it the name Dogpound comes from the noise the dogs used to make as they travelled along the creek bed in the winter. It is a beautiful place to be, quiet and peaceful and with a great view of the Rocky Mountains out of our homes windows. I always tell folks if it wasn't for those mountains we'd have a pretty good view of the ocean.

Here is a shot off of our deck in the summer.

Looks as green as Ireland in this shot. We are in an area where Timothy hay is the principal crop although at other times we are likely to have barley or oats just to give the place a rest from the hay. Most of the hay that is harvested here is shipped overseas, if you're lucky enough to get it off without any rain, where they used it for roughage for their cattle who otherwise are on a grain ration. We have sent a couple of crops down to Florida for some dairy operators there. Hmmm, wonder if I could figure a way to make a winter trip to Florida tax deductible. Call it business development or something.

Another shot off of our deck first thing in the morning as that alpenglow brushes the mountains to the west of us.

Now why would anyone leave this veritable paradise on earth. A little thing called winter, and although the scenery is no less beautiful, damn I hate looking at it with my long underwear on. I figured that at least for a few years I have enough photographs to remind me what it looks like and every once in while I can stand in front of fridge with the door open to recreate the climate.

Another shot from the living room window.

Well it won't be too long until we start to meander our way south again. We are hoping that our new coach arrives in the next couple of weeks and after a short time spent loading and rigging it up we are aiming for a departure around the 24th of October. We are thinking, weather cooperating, we are going to head out through the Rockies to the West Coast and visit some friends there before beginning the southward travel, down I-5. We'll play it according to the weather though, if the roads are not good, we'll head directly south down I-15. Once we get loaded and on the road we have nowhere special to be so we will just follow the sun.

Next post I am going to try and take you on a trip to a special place where we take our horses, time permitting, for some mountain trail riding.