Getting Ready

Well despite my good intentions here it is almost 2 and 1/2 months since my last journal entry. When last I wrote we were heading to Vancouver Island to visit our good friends John and Gina, and planning on visiting with Renè and Jeanette along the way. All that went according to Hoyle and we had a great visit with them all. We went to dinner at Fort Langley with Renè and Jeanette and then once we were back at their place we headed over towards the ferry terminal. We originally planned to just roll up to the locked gates and spend the night right there, but along the way we came across a Bass Pro Shop in Twassen and decided that looked like a better spot to hole up for the night. We were on the early ferry the

She fits and didn't actually take up the whole ferry

next morning so were pulling into John & Gina place around 9ish. Our rig was a tight fit, but with some help from our new neighbours, and rolling across their lawns we made it into our spot at the Resort on the Lake near Westwood Lake. It is a nice place with friendly folks and some great walking trails that Maya and Max just loved down by the lake.

We spent a great ten days hanging out here, picked a few berries, told a few stories, shared some laughs and met Brenda's long time online friend Angela and her husband Don, RV'ers who spend their summers on the Island and their winters in Arizona.

Then it was back to Dogpound North, but first we had to navigate the forest fires that BC has had going on all summer.

Fires along the Trans-Canada Highway just east of the Rogers Pass

I snuck out one day to see our nephew riding a bull up at Sundre. It was a learning experience for Justin as just after this shot the bull won the battle and drug him around the arena a bit before he got loose.

Early September is birthday time for the Tomasir kids so we headed in to spend a little time with Kash and Everly at their birthday bash. A good time was had by all and Grandma got some snuggles in, tell the truth so did I but there were no camera's spying on me.

Kash and Grandma

Everly and Grandma

 The rest of September was taken up just fiddling around here at Dogpound North, got a little road work done, fill in some sunken spots around our fire pit and closed up the big burning pit we used to get rid of our old barn. Then it was time to take our rig up to Allandale to get a few warranty things looked after. One of our solar panels must have taken a direct hit from a meteorite or something as it was shattered, so that was replaced under warranty as well. Allandale did a pretty good job, but Heartland the manufacturer of our Road Warrior is pretty slow getting parts out to their dealers so it was there a lot longer than was the plan.

Dry Island Provincial Park along the Red Deer River

Last weekend Lacey and Clayton brought the girls down to have one last visit with us before we head south for the winter so it was great to see them one last time as well.

Alle

Ella and Alle monkeying around

We got the rig back today and other than the 50 mph winds that blew me home from Red Deer that went well. Tomorrow we start loading it for our southern migration, so we are hoping to be south of the Medicine Line and looking for warmer climes pretty soon.

Sunset over Dogpound North last night

Where Did August Go?

Well not only did we not get three entries done in August for the first month in a long time we got none. Not a lot of exciting relate-able things happening here at Dogpound North I guess. Not to say there wasn't any excitement though. Mid month Brenda was in for another surgery on her knee. We are hopeful that that will resolve some of the pain and mobility issues she was having. Of course it does mean restarting the rehab process back where she was in mid-March so it is a slow painful journey back to normal.

Our horses have been enjoying the easiest summer they have had since I quit working and are all as fat as ticks. One thing we have no shortage of here at DPN is grass, it is stirrup deep, so they don't even have to bend their necks to get their fill.

September started with a visit from our nephew David Odo on his way to a camp counsellor assignment at the YMCA's Camp Chief Hector. He had a day or two to kill here at DPN so I took him on a little tour out through our west country. We saw a lot of forests and some mountains as well as a few wild horses along the journey. The last time he was out to visit us was for our wedding back in 2001 so both the country and he have changed.

Riding Crystal in 2001

David Odo today.

 Then it was on to a couple of big events in September, Kashton's birthday was on the 3rd and he was 3. It was a good party made even better by his Grandma Tomasir's Slurpee machine. Put enough vodka in those slurpee's and even a bunch of 3 year olds can't get you down. Well those that know, know I am kidding, I love being around the kids so we didn't spike the punch.

Then the BIG event, September 6th was Rebecca's due date and right on schedule she delivered our newest granddaughter, Everly Quinn.

Rebecca, Grandma and Everly

Grandpa, Kash and Everly

Last weekend I was up to Ponoka for a Canadian Cowboy Challenge clinic. I am sure Blue and I learned a lot of things there, we were just shy about showing them off in the clinic.  Although some think Blue is a little stubborn about doing some of the stuff I like to imagine that he is a thinker, and after a quick look he figures why walk over that plank mounted on some tires, when there is perfectly good dirt right beside it, and a whole lot less risk of slipping off. When we are in the hills he seems to do what we need to do so we'll just have to work on our fancy town riding a little more.

While I was off gadding about the country Bob and his crew managed to finish up the hay so that was all under cover when Monday's snow storm hit. We left here at about 11AM and we had a skiff, when we got home about 3:30PM we had 9". By nightfall we were closer to 10". And then overnight we probably added another 4-6 inches. But September on the northern ranges meant it was melting the whole time so who knows how much moisture we really got. I do know that our windbreak which is primarily 80 year old poplar trees took a beating though. We have lots of trees down and once the snow is all gone it will be time to don the chainsaw pants and start to uncover a few things around here.

Yes, that is Tricia's Motorhome under that mess.

It all looks so peaceful but that is because there is no sound so you can't hear the trees crashing down around the yard. One laying there on the centre across the lawn.

Oh well, so it goes, and I will leave you with this sunset from Friday night in Ponoka.

Time is Slipping By

Well a few changes around Dogpound North, not the least of which is a new computer for me. I finally slid into the abyss and broke down and bought a MAC so this is my first visit back to the Blogger software in many years. I alway wrote my journal on LiveWriter in the past and only after I am finished this entry will I know whether things have improved here on the Blogger site or not. It has been over a month since my last journal entry and although we have been doing lots, not much of it is very exciting.

Last year we started moving all our medical stuff earlier in the summer so we can get that out of the way and jump through the hoops that allow us to travel south in the winters a little earlier. Other than a few final visits with our various docs we are getting close to the end of that process, so barring any late breaking news we should be good to go for next winter.

Our windmill and some interesting cloud formations off of our front porch last night.

One thing I do enjoy about being home is the Sundre Aquaplex, I swim there almost every weekday morning and unlike the pools in Arizona this one is a lot less crowded, in fact sometimes towards the end of my daily swim I get the whole thing to myself. Down in Arizona you are lucky if you get a lane to yourself at some point in the swim and it is unheard of to get an empty pool to swim in. I usually swim about 2500 metres each day but a few weeks ago the pool complex started tracking our swims and gave the lane swimmers as a group the goal of swimming from Victoria to Panama. Probably for some Pan-American Games or something. Well I figured if I was going to get out of here for winter I should kick up my contribution so at least the rest of them would be swimming in warm water once I headed south so I am now logging 3250 metres a day, or just a smidge over 2 miles. Takes me about an hour and twenty minutes to complete it so if I was really headed for Panama I think I would walk, bad knee and all, it would be quicker. But it is a good motivator anyway.

Sunrise in the morning on the way swimming

One more bit of exciting news that is being worked on here at Dogpound North is that my son, Matt, and his longtime girlfriend Michelle have decided to take the next step and tie the knot. Actually he proposed way back last winter while they were on a vacation in Cuba but just last week they set a date, so we are heading towards the Mexican Riviera next April to see them take their vows.

Michelle, Matt and Family

Yet another reason to keep swimming, so I don't embarrass everyone on the beach down there!

In our last couple of entries we showed you lots of pictures with the Anderson girls and since then we have actually had a visit with our grandson Kashton and his mother Rebecca, as well as our granddaughter Claire who was out to visit her Dad and sister Madison a couple of weekends ago. Both Kashton and Claire got the mandatory visit with the horses while they were here

Wink, Brenda, Kash, Becky, Claire and of course Mack

and Kash took one of our John Deere's for spin around the yard too.

Little Boys do Love Tractors

Of course those who have been here know that Dogpound North is an actual farm and we raise, or try to raise a crop here every year. Some years we are a lot more successful than others but most years we do manage to get something back from the land. We had a good spell of dry weather here during the last month and other than a few acres that will be sown to oats, for silage, and underseeded with timothy hay, the rest of the unseeded acreage is barley and we did manage to get that all seeded a few days ago.

Big Boys love Tractors too.

I have managed to give the fellow who farms here for us a hand from time to time this spring and at least run a set of harrows over what he has seeded.

Another couple of projects we have going on here include a little reno work in the house, kind of a makeover for the bathrooms and putting a new cooktop in the kitchen so Brenda has been busy picking out tiles and and countertops for that endeavour. We dragged our daughter Becky into that mix as she has a real good sense of what goes with what.

Rebecca and Brenda

So for the most part I was overruled and we will not be having a mauve bathroom, but they did let me pay!

The other project consists of a little rural renewal going on, we, like most old farmsteads, have a plethora of old buildings around, and it time to tear them down and reconvert them into greenhouse gases. Matt and I spent a couple of days hauling some old junk to the dump and sorting some other old junk into other spots where it will probably be stored untouched until the next generation discovers it all over again. So with all that and a few fencing projects around the yard we have been keeping busy here at Dogpound North.

As for the Blogger experience, all in all, not to bad, although some of the great functions of LiveWriter that I used a lot have escaped me here so I am, at least for now, having to resize each and every picture and was not able to subject you to an album full of pictures of the junk we removed from our buildings, but I will work on that for next time. Sure wish Rick over there on Vancouver Island would get a Mac so he could figure out some things for me. :)

Now where was I

It has been a long time since I sat down and tried to cobble together an update on our journal here. Not that we haven’t been doing stuff but it just seems like it is the kind of stuff I like and wonder if anyone else gives a hoot. But here I go anyway.

Right after we got back from Vancouver Island we took Brenda up to Banff for a little knee surgery. Most of the world would like to stop in Banff for a beautiful vacation but they also have a couple of great orthopaedic surgeons who are based there so it was the hospital that she chose. Now after about twenty minutes of scraping and grinding they sent her back out and told her to take it easy for a couple of weeks and she should be good to go for a while.

While they were fixing up Brenda I took a walk around town and saw these guys heading down river, I guess to the local trading post.

Then it was back home till the weekend when I slipped down and watched by niece Caron doing a little fence hopping.

And then back the next weekend to make sure her and Jager had it down pat.

Then the next week we had company for a couple of days and although I took a lot of pictures after this one she said “Grandpa stop picturing me” so I did.

Over the last few weeks I have also been helping out a neighbour with his haying operation. I enjoy the time on the tractor and like refreshing some old skills and watching the hawks and ravens playing around the hay fields. If you have been hanging around Facebook I have given you a blow by blow description of that operation. Friday we wrapped up the baling part of our season and got our hay for next summers rides stowed away in the barn. Now if we can just get the rest sold it will have been another year farming done. Thanks Bob and Diane. Speaking of Diane if you are at all interested in Western Art you should take a look at this lady’s stuff over at Tymarc Art Studios. She is a great sculptress and artist as well as a darn good baler operator.

And today we were off to Chestermere to our youngest grandsons first birthday. He had a lot of fans there and some of them were even his age.

Happy Birthday Kash!!