Week 2 @ Home

The picture above is one of those Alberta Chinook Arches we talk about so much. Legend has it that Chinook is an Indian word for snow-eater, not true but a great story nevertheless. This part of the country gets warm winds that come over the mountains and literally eat the snow in the winter, although this past winter it seemed like they were less frequent than usual.

This weekend Matt, Michelle and Madison were out for Friday and Saturday nights. It was a little cool to work in the garden but not a bad day for playing with the horses. What with a little rain and snow to keep the edge of the heat we had a nice day on Saturday grooming horses and even a little riding for Madison.

Brenda cooked us up a mess of appetizers to hold us through the day today, jalapeno poppers, spicy chicken, mozza sticks and some chips to make it all go down smooth. A little spicy probably for Madison but just right for her Grandfather.

Sunday we gathered a posse of grandchildren, my Dad’s, and myself and we moved Grandpa back to the farm. He has been living in Calgary for the winter and was itching to get back out on the farm. Matt, Paul and Ryan helped us haul his furniture out to Matt’s storage locker and we left the bulk of it there and just moved his big reclining chair into his house out here. Other than that there was a bunch of clothes and as anybody who knows my father knows a whole bunch of papers. Didn’t take us to long to get the stuff in storage and I managed to manhandle the recliner by myself so the rest of the crew just stayed in Calgary.

Monday I had an appointment with a new doctor, longtime readers remember my old doc passed away last January, to get my prescriptions renewed and to set up a time for a complete physical later in the summer. That done Tuesday Brenda and I both went to the dentist for a checkup and a cleaning, and then headed out to do some furniture shopping. The sofa we have in the living room needed changing, or so Brenda told me, and we were looking all over for one that fits the Western kind of flavour our house has on the main floor. We ran down to Claresholm, 120 miles south, to have a look at a new furniture store that has opened there and although they had some nice stuff there was nothing that jumped out at us so back north we headed. A week or so ago we had seen a sofa and chair set in Rossinni’s in Calgary that had all the right stuff so we stopped there on the way through the city and it will be delivered on Thursday. Once we got home I needed to run the bus into town and refill the propane tank, it has been cold here and we have had the heat on low for a week.

Wednesday was motorhome cleaning day for Brenda. She likes everything to be Spic and Span when she puts it away so that is done. I washed my truck and gave it a rubdown with “the Solution” so it is nice and clean also. Later in the day I walked the perimeter of the farm just having a look around and enjoying the warm afternoon sun. I have been trying to keep up a 2 mile a day pace and what with the blizzards and such have actually made it about 5 days out of 7.
Matt was out to the farm on Thursday to return the truck after moving Grandpa last weekend so we sucked him into giving me a hand taking our old couch and chairs out to make space for the new one that will be delivered later today. Here is a look at the old furniture.

And with the new couch and chair in place.

Once the new furniture was delivered I gave him a ride into town and we stopped at St. Basil’s and picked up our granddaughter Madison. She has a Professional Day tomorrow so she is coming out to spend the night at the farm with Grandma and I and then tomorrow she can give me a hand with the fencing and the horses.

Friday Madison and I got a couple of fence problems resolved and visited with the horses for a while. Although we didn’t seem to get much done it took us all day and we sure had fun doing it.

Brenda ran into Chestermere to visit with Rebecca and help her start packing. They are hoping to move into their new home in a couple of weeks. Matt and Michelle came out to farm for the weekend after work so I had a visit with them and we sat around their trailer until the sun went down and it cooled off.

Finally today the temperatures got high enough to make it a great spring day. I spent most of the day working with the horses and Madison and Michelle got in a short ride, although their horses were still a little rusty. They spend all winter standing around together so really hate to leave their buddies behind at the barn. It takes a few rides to work that stubbornness out of them. I manage to get 3 of the 4 horses we have ridden and we worked on leaving your buddies behind as the primary lesson. Sometimes we have to do a little counselling to get er done but by the end of the day Rosie and Hank had agreed with me that it was easier to leave the others behind than to fight a losing battle with that big cowboy on our backs. Now my main man and also the youngest horse in the crowd is a gelding named Blue, his dam is the aforementioned Rosie that Brenda usually rides and he was born here on the place. He is pretty well schooled and when I got on him for the first ride this year, this afternoon, he just stepped right out and left the rest like he had been waiting all winter to spend some one on one time with me. He is a pleasure to ride and even more fun just to be around as he genuinely loves to be with people. Matt and Michelle were BBQ’ing tonight so they had Dad and Christine as well as her mother Leslie over for dinner. Brenda is not feeling great today so we opted out although my mouth was watering with the smell of those pork loins wafting across the farm.

Today, Sunday the 3rd we had a visit from our daughter Lacey, it was sure nice to see her and she happened to be traveling by on her way home to Rocky Mountain House and stopped in for a visit and lunch. For those of you who are keeping up with our quest for another grandchild I have included a photo of Lacey. It will still be 6 or 7 weeks but things are coming along nicely I guess.