Well here we are in the middle of April and the snow is coming down the road from Dogpound. We can use the moisture though, so I am a little hesitant to complain to loudly. I sure would rather it was a nice slow warm rain that lasted about 4 or 5 days though, the country is parched and we are likely to deal with a lot of forest fires to the west of us and drought on the crop lands to the east if we don't get some timely rains.

Since I last spent anytime on this blog we have not done a lot of real interesting things, I have gone back to swimming a few days a week, and put the batteries back in the RV a week or so ago, during one of our warm windy spells. So it is ready to roll once the weather cooperates. Not sure where to though, with the price of fuel, maybe we will be doing some moochdocking right here in our own yard. Not to much sacrifice though, it has a spot down in a shady spot with its own power, water, and fire pit, with an endless supply of firewood included in the price.

Mom is doing great, her hip has healed pretty well and she is getting around the house pretty well. I stop in there a few times a week and haul her groceries and make sure those kind of things are tended to.

A couple of weeks ago I ran down to Frank Lake a little south of Calgary to see Elsa, a pelican who in the Alberta birding community has become something of a legend, she has taken up permanent residence here in Canada. While the rest of her flock head for warmer climes in the winter she has found that the water at Frank Lake, because of some inflow from both the Cargill plant and the town of High River doesn't freeze over and there is an infestation of Prussian Carp, a sort of wild goldfish, that have invaded the water and supply her with nourishment, so she is sticking around and enjoying the Canadian winters, for two years now. Speculation is that, although she can fly short distances, she doesn't have the stamina to make it all the way south with the squadron of her flock mates.

Elsa - a "Canadian" White Pelican

As I said not much happening here so I will close this with a few pictures I have taken since the last blog.

Down the Road from Dogpound

Blue Jay hanging out with us this morning

Chickadee

Rough Legged Hawk from our DPN Rodent Control Air Division

Part of our Dogpound North Air Division who looks after some aerial surveillance and rodent control

Old Bins down by the creek

Is it Time?

A real Snowbird, actually a Snow Bunting

Maybe, February is racing by and that means it has been a couple of months since I last updated this blog. Not that we have done anything exciting and I hesitate to tell you about my daily activities as that can get pretty monotonous as they mostly consists of popping into the city every couple of days to visit Mom, and watching the sun come up, cross the sky, and drop off in the west. Makes for a nice pictures but not a lot of entertaining activities to share here. 

Mom is back home, has been for over a month now, and although she is not up to hiking around on the ice, she gets around just fine at her place and is settling back into her routine. She has a few follow-up appointments over the next few months so that will keep us fairly close to home.

This the third February that we have been enjoying the weather here down the road from Dogpound out of the last 4 so we are pretty used to the weather here now, again! Since the cold snap we had over Christmas with the -40ish lows we came into January and those chinook winds saved us from the deep freeze. For the most of January we had fairly warmish weather, not sunbelt warm, but not to bad for here, just around freezing in the nights and sometimes up in the double digits Celsius during the day. We survived, although as I am writing this we are heading for more seasonal temps (-20Cish) over the next week or so. That should knock down the mosquito population so those pesky little buggers won't be pestering us for a while yet.

I have been watching a few RV vlogs on Youtube so Hitch Itch as set in, but we won't be moving to far until after breakup here. We have winterized the rig and our lithium batteries are warmly ensconced in the basement so it will take us a day or two to get it road ready once the weather cooperates. That will happen sometime in late April or May in this part of the world.  I have hauled our rigs through the winter a few times and really have no need to practice that this late in the winter.

So far Brenda and I have navigated this pandemic without incident, whether from vaccines, good health, or just lucky, so we are hoping to continue with that trend.

I'll throw in a few pictures that will probably be repeats for my friends on Facebook though.