Surprise

Olympic Trials at DPN

It has only been a week since my last blog post, but I am trying to keep things a little more up to date here. It is hard to use this as a journal to look back on when I only say a few words every two or three months. Last week I wrote we had finally finished the haying here at Dogpound North (DPN), and the last bale had hardly hit the ground when the snow started. A lot of our neighbours and fellow Albertans and even folks over in Saskatchewan are caught with their crops still in the fields. The news reports say the harvest is about 80% finished so that means most of the profit is still laying out under the snow. In the past the oil patch has served as a fall back position for many in the agriculture industry, you could always pick up a few months work over the winter to pump up the cash reserves. Well this year that might not be easy, although the price of oil is playing with $50 it is still pretty slow out there in the patch. Canada desperately needs pipelines that reach tidewater, Canadian tidewater. For the most part our oil has been sold to our neighbours to the south, but that necessitates taking a discounted price and they are less inclined to buy our product as they have a lot of their own now, since the fracking has taken off in the Bakken and Texas. So it really doesn't make much sense for us to sell our oil to them at a discount so that they can in turn export their own production around the world at world prices. Well enough of that topic.

Up here north of the Medicine Line we don't just use Scarecrows in the Garden

Another piece of news that I thought I would share, this year for the first time since we bought our place down in Arizona, five years ago we are not taking a horse south with us. Brenda, because of her CRPS can't ride, and I am not much on riding by myself so I thought it would be a good time to leave the horses home. We are still taking our LQ with us and if the mood strikes us we may get out and visit some of those old spots we liked to boondock in before we sunk roots into the Maricopa soil. We have no plans to give up Dogpound South (DPS) but might not be tied so tightly to it. Just blueskying but that is one idea anyway.

We are doing what all snowbirds do at this time of year, visiting with our medical teams, planning our departure, and readying the rig for travel. Who knows when we are going to head out but Max is looking at me like, what's the holdup old timer, there is snow on the ground and we should be heading for that warmer place with no grass.

And with those thoughts in mind we have been bringing our security detail up to speed here at DPN, surprisingly the dogs don't seem to mind the company.

On Patrol

Just checking

New Knee's and Other Things

One morning when we weren't paying attention and forgot to lock the gate, Mike and Janna slipped out of Dogpound South and headed for North Ranch, up Congress way. We will miss them but in this lifestyle it is always till we meet again not goodbye.

We haven't been doing near as much riding this winter as in previous ones, primarily because of the problems Brenda has been having with her knee. She has been traveling back and forth to Dogpound North this winter on an almost monthly basis and her doctors and her have finally decided on a course of action. It is out with the old and in with the new and that is going to happen on March 18 so we will be packing our outfit and heading for the northern ranges a little earlier than usual. It is sad to say goodbye to the great folks and great weather that this winter has brought here in Arizona but the call of the north is irresistible, as is the promise of a new knee and the free healthcare that Canada provides.

Floating mountains and green fields near Dogpound South

 After packing everything away for the summer and getting the horses paperwork all completed we got everything loaded and headed for Sky Harbor. Brenda is going to fly home as that is a whole lot easier on the old knee than a 3 day drive up the interstate to Canada. After dropping her there the horses, dogs, and I headed for the snow topped mountains of Utah for our first nights stop. We made it to Fillmore the first night and Great Falls, Montana the second. From there is is a short 7 hour trip into Dogpound North. The roads were great the entire trip and we never saw a flake of snow, except up there on the mountain tops where it belongs. That was not true once we got to Dogpound North. There is more snow here than we have ever seen in the 37 years we have been on the place and before we could even get the rig unhooked we needed to do a little snow removal. We barely got a spot big enough for the LQ when the tractor had a problem. They just don't make things like they used to, those tires are not a day over 53 years old and you'd think they could last a little longer but alas they pushed their last snow bank.

Just flat on one side though.

Well even with the flat tire we got everyone unloaded and put the LQ to sleep right where it sits, at least till some of the snow melts, and got the horses settled in. Once stroke of luck, it is chinooking up here and that means above freezing temps for the first week or so we were home. A little nice welcome home for the horses and it will give them time to acclimate.

The day after I got home was Brenda's birthday so we hustled off to the city to meet Becky, Ved, Kashton, Cheryl and Haley for a little celebratory dinner.

Stolen from Brenda Brown

The next weekend we managed to run up to Rocky Mountain House to spend a couple of hours with Miss Ella and her sister Alle, oh yah, and Lacey and Clayton.

Getting ready to get some tats

Tuesday morning, March 18th, we headed off bright and early, and I mean bright and early, we had to be at the hospital for a 6AM check-in as Brenda was number 1 on the list that morning. Her knee surgery went fine, and was videoed and broadcast in the hospital for some staff and streamed to the Science Centre here in Calgary for a class of high school kids that they were trying to recruit into the medical profession, so keep an eye on Youtube, these things tend to show up all over. It took most of the day for the freezing to wear off but from all reports once that happened this was not a pleasant experience. There is a lot of pain involved in this surgery and that is only the beginning, the physio afterwards seems to be very painful also. Brenda is gritting her teeth and getting 'er done, as she wants to be back riding before to late in the summer, but unless the memories fade, I think it will take a bigger fellow to drag her back to get the other one done, should it need it.

So other than physio and watching the snow come down, along with my daily 4000 meters in the pool that is all that is happening here at Dogpound North.

Wouldn't be our blog anymore without a horse picture though.

And for my bird watching friends

This little fellow was sitting out in our tree the other day, either commenting on the weather or Daylight Savings Time.

60

Long time readers will remember when I used to keep track of the miles I walked each day on the bottom of this journal. Well my old knees were not holding up to the walking and I had to make choice, walk or ride. Much to Blue’s, my horse, chagrin I chose riding. Well after a lay-off of a year or so with little to no pain in my knee I thought just maybe I could start walking again. I started back in April and worked my way up from a mile or so till I was doing a four mile walk in the morning. Sadly that was to much for the old knee and it seemed that if I walked any more than a couple of miles a day the old pain was coming back. Not willing to give up riding I thought I needed to discover a different way to get some exercise. Now back in the misty past, when I was a working person, 60 months ago, I used to drop into the YMCA on a regular basis and spend time in the pool at least 3 or 4 times a week. Not sure why I quit but it probably had to do with my heart issues back then.

Well after talking to the doc at my annual physical and telling him my woes about not being able to walk more than a mile or two a day, he suggested swimming and I jumped at the chance. Now the Dogpound Leisure centre has not yet entered the planning stage so I had to chose between Sundre and Cochrane the two closest pools. After weighing all the factors and especially the times they allocated for lane swims I chose to go to Cochrane and imagine my pleasure to find that down the road in Cochrane they actually sell “seniors” passes to folks who are in their 50’s, so not only do they have the best times they have the cheapest rates.

I started out two weeks ago today and could barely make 2 lengths without stopping for a breather and only managed to drag myself up and down the pool a total of 12 times that day. But swimming like riding a bike comes back to you pretty fast and today I managed to complete 60 lengths without a breather. Only 1500 meters (0.932 miles) but I was pretty happy. Although you don`t get to enjoy the birdsong or see the wildlife when you are swimming, unlike walking, the world and all of its distractions are isolated from you by the water so you get to spend a little time thinking. Not to much though or you lose count of the laps and have to start over again.

I left off this blog last Tuesday and I was mowing the grass and Saturday dawned bright and sunny so that is what I was up to again. It takes a few hours around here to keep the grass low enough that you can see out the windows and with all the rain we have had lately it is growing pretty quickly. I am also glad to report that my hummingbird friend appears to have recovered completely and is feeding happily at our feeders.

Yesterday was Fathers Day here at Dogpound and Brenda had cooked up a storm and invited a whole mess of folks out here to celebrate it. As usual we had more than enough fattening food and I managed to partake of more than my share of the main course and of course the Pecan Pie Cheesecake and I see in the fridge there are a couple of pieces left for breakfast. (Harken back to the third paragraph and remember the 60 laps.) We had the whole dang family out here along with all of our grandchildren with the exception of Kashton. No idea what he was up to, although rumour has it he was just back from a vacation on the Yucatan peninsula. All of my nieces and nephews managed to come along to so it was a great, fine spring day here, and although we had a few showers roll through early in the afternoon we managed to keep it all out under the trees.

You can see eldest son Paul manning the BBQ back there in the background and the mountains of ribs and Brenda`s special twice baked potatoes on the table.

This was my first Fathers Day without my Dad but I know he was there in spirit and rest assured some of his stories got told under that old tree once again. I never look at that old tree without imagining Dad under there telling stories or look at our windmill without seeing little brother Kelly up top of it checking the oil. As for my brother Brent he would have been busy getting everything organised and making sure that all the little details were being looked after. I missed them all but am sure they were with us all yesterday and enjoying the family being together.

Alle Kitten got to spend a little time with Grandpa today although I had quite a time fending off Grandma.

and Miss Ella and Great Grandma and Charlie Brown had some special moments.

Below is a collection of photographs from the afternoon.

Fathers Day VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

 

Over the years I have tried at these kind of gatherings to get everyone gathered up for a family photo, as  the years go past it gets harder and harder but then I am probably getting more stubborn and stubborn, not sure which came first though.

Now just to get you to sleep quickly I am going to list the whole gang, Back Row from the left, Sidney, the dog, my son Matt, nephew Ryan, SIL Tricia, Paul’s MIL Marilyn Laslop, DIL Terri, my mom, Georgia, of course Brenda, Terri’s Dad Helmet Laslop, niece Caron, and son Paul. In the middle row in her Dad, Clayton Anderson’s arms, Alle, daughter Lacey, niece Remi, granddaughter Claire, behind the hair, then grandson Lucas, DIL Michelle, and nephew Christopher. Now facing away from the camera and making sure nobody moves is Meg, and Mack patrolling the perimeter. Standing beside her old Grandpa is Miss Ella and behind me doing her best imitation of Pocahontas is my granddaughter Annika, and in the pink in front of her Mom is granddaughter Madison. Out of the picture and running the camera are the rest of the dog pack, Leo, Charlie, and Rex.

Oh yah, I’m sitting down cause getting all these folks rounded up was hard work and my mother tells me I turned 60 this weekend also. Have to take her word for it because I confess I can’t remember the exact date.