MAYBE JUST ONE MORE

 Post before the end of 2021. I haven't been a very frequent poster this year, but then maybe subconsciously I would just as soon forget most of it. 2021 was certainly different and came with its own set of challenges. On the positive side all of us here at Dogpound North are triplicated with our Pfizer shots. 

Mom took a spill about 6 or 7 weeks ago and broke her hip. She already had a titanium joint in there so they wired up the femur, put a new ball joint in and resurfaced the cup so she should be good for another 20 years on that side. It has meant she has been kind of restricted from putting any weight on it for the last 6 weeks, but just last week she was cleared to walk on it and is doing a whole lot better. It has meant that I have been in and out of one healthcare facility or another everyday for the last couple of months so it seems that my Pfizer experiment is holding up pretty well. That said the unit she was on for her first two weeks was a covid ward for most of the past year and it was pretty enlightening speaking with the nurses and health care aids about their last year. Those folks are angels and I can only imagine how traumatizing that experience was for them. 

This year being home for Christmas meant we spent Christmas Eve with the girls, Rebecca and Lacey and their families, the first time we have done that for about 10 years. Seeing as how half of their kids are younger than 10 it is probably OK to call it a lifetime since we last did Christmas with them. Brenda and the girls whipped up a turkey and all the trimmings and we had a great day.

Lacey

Becky

Alle

Ella

Everly

The whole gang

Over the Christmas season we have been enjoying some crisp weather, temps in the -30's, wind chills knocking on -40, but on the positive side it has been weeks since we have spotted a mosquito.

Merry Christmas

Round-up

 Might be just a little overdue but life here at Dogpound North is pretty much steady as she goes. The fact that I am finding myself going back to review past blogs to remind us of what and where we were got me thinking I need to either keep my journal more up to date or at least throw some things on here once in a while. 

Covid kind of has our travel schedule a little restricted but that said we did manage to haul ourselves over south of Speedy Creek in Saskatchewan to spend a week at the Grasslands National Park. It is pretty much as it says just grass, but there are some interesting critters over there, both bison and prairie dogs. The bison are pretty cool but the prairie dogs look just like gophers who have spent to much time at the feed bunk. There are also sage grouse and some mule deer hanging about. The campground there is infested with Richardson Ground Squirrels (gophers) as well.

After our journey out into the flatlands we were back here at Dogpound North for July and other than some cool cloud formations it was business as usual.

Compliments of our neighbours to the west in British Columbia we had a pretty smoky summer but we managed to break loose of our ties here on the farm and head out into Banff National Park for a week or so camping in the Bow Valley. Other than that aforementioned smoke and a poorly timed fire ban that curtailed our morning campfires we enjoyed our time off the grid for a week or so in July. 

Along with the smoke here it has been a dry year and our hay crop is down about 50% and the dust is creeping into everything.

Harvest was done in September this year in much of the country, the low rainfall meant small crops and faster harvest times. It will also probably mean with all the crops beating winter into the bin the snow owl population this winter will be smaller and harder to find.

For the second winter in a row we decided back in summer that we would forego our southern migration, we have some family issues to deal with and the covid potential in our usual stomping grounds lead us to this decision. With that in mind I put the Solitude to bed in September, winterized it, pulled the batteries out and brought them into the basement. We will enjoy another winter here at home.