They're Alive

Yesterday afternoon, as ominous as it looks it rolled on by here silently and then trashed High River I guess.

It has been a long time since I fired up Blogger and updated folks on what we are up to. Last time I had just arrived back from the land of the sun in early February. That was a mistake as it was a long time until the furnace quit running up here in the Land just North of Summer. But Brenda was needing a little nursing and the best she could come up with was me. I ain't much good at it, but I do work cheap.

After hiding out from OLD Man Winter for the month of February I started back at the pool doing a little swimming most week days and that seemed to make winter pass a little quicker. Sometime in late March I took the trailer into Woody's in Red Deer to get a few minor things looked at and to get their opinion on what I thought were some pretty flat springs under her. They agreed and Grand Design agreed to replace them with similar 3500# springs, Well it seemed to me that putting the same springs on would just mean the same result so I gave the folks at Grand Design a call and with a little cajoling they agreed to upgrade them to the 4000# models. That may solve the issue, sure can't hurt anyway.

April and May were spent getting all caught up on my Doctor and Dentist appointments, appears that I am good for a while more, at least until I'm not I guess.

Towards the end of May, Brenda and I headed into the city to watch our grandson Luke walk across the stage and graduate from High School. I have no idea how that happened, seems like yesterday he was just starting pre-school. There is a story behind those Red Boots, they are made right in Calgary by an outfit called Alberta Boots and you can almost guarantee that if you have a pair you are a member of the World Champion Calgary Stampede Showband. Luke is all of that and comes by it pretty honestly as both his father and his mother were members of that same group when they were his age.

Grandson Luke in his fancy Red Boots

I have no idea who the girl in the Red Boots is, but if she is wearing those boots odds are she is good people.

Sometime this spring we got an overnight visit from the Anderson clan, always good to get to spend a little time with them.

Of course July wouldn't be complete without a visit or two to the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth, the Calgary Stampede, and if your grandchildren are performing there it is even better. Annika is a part, the most important part in my opinion, of the band front for the Calgary Stetsons Show Band a High School aged band.

I think having Grandpa poking his camera in her face was a little disconcerting but I did get a smile or two, but I missed the money shot, when she stuck her tongue out at me.

I already mentioned that Luke was a part of the Stampede Showband and I don't actually think my paparazzi like stalking bothered him as much, he seemed to be having a blast. He plays the contra, a low, low brass instrument, but if you are part of the band you are part of the show so it is not all about music. This year Calgary was the host city for the World Association of Marching Showbands World Championships and our own Showband stole the show and won it all, their sixth time as Champions, and the Stetson's, Annika's Band, came in a very respectable third.

Having fun you think?

A salute for Grandpa, probably not, but I am taking it anyway.

We were going to try to escape Dogpound North and head to the Buffalo Creek Ranch up Wainwright way and gather some Saskatoons for jam and pies but we had a little truck problem so had to write that trip off, cousin Mike did come down from there and spend a night with us while he visited an old friend in the city though. 

Now we are getting a little bit caught up, last weekend we were into Chestermere to visit with our Tomasir grandkids, and oh yah, their parents as well. Always great to spend time with them and get a chance to visit on a beautiful summer day in their beautiful yard.

Grandma, Everly, and Kash

The Tomasirs

No shortage of sass in this one.

I have not really burnt up the digits on my camera's this year but we have had a few nice skyscapes over the past few months, well more than a few but here are two I captured, three, if I include the first shot in this epistle.

Just a dramatic skyscape that rolled on past DPN

Thunderhead

Where the Heck Did They Go?

April 25th, an auspicious day, our daughter Lacey and her Alle both call that their birthday and it is also the day I last posted a blog. I am reluctant to spend a lot of time on the mundane goings-on in our lives, let it suffice to say that we have been to dentists, doctors and shopping a bunch of times over the last 4 months. Didn't drink coffee on any mornings and very rarely read the newspaper, but we have kept up on everyone's goings on with the internet. We have been out camping a few times, once with Lacey et al and then by ourselves, both times to the Bighorn Dam where I can run around with side by side and the living is easy.

Abraham Lake on the North Saskatchewan River

Abraham Lake

Company comes to Brenda's Morning Tea Fire.

I did get an opportunity to run in and see Annika, our granddaughter at her Spring Concert, she attends the school her Dad started teaching at 21 years ago, and the Director of her Band was a student of her fathers I think. Time sure flys by.

Annika's Spring Concert

 Then in June there was a gathering at Dogpound North for my birthday, a complete surprise for me but these beauties spent the night, all worn out from the partying.

Sleeping beauties at Grandpa's Birthday Bash

 July in Calgary is Stampede time and if there is a cowboy on the planet who wouldn't like to ride at the ride Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth I haven't met or even heard of him/her but this one is special one this is Justin James, the son of Derek who gave Brenda away at our wedding.

Justin James Calgary Stampede debut

 And Stampede is Band Time also, here is my grandson, Lucas, playing at McMahon Stadium.

Lucas at McMahon Stadium with the Calgary Stetsons Show Band

 And just to keep things hopping July is also haying time in our country, it was good to see it all put up and covered with tarps with nary a rain drop on it, and I just heard today that it is all sold.

Dogpound North's haying is done, all sold too, I heard today.

 We have a couple of hummingbird feeders here at DPN, but this guy likes his organic grub. These little guys keep me entertained most evening watching the aerial dogfighting going on. I have taken hundreds of pictures but they have so far avoided me capturing any mid-air collisions.

Mid-Air Refueling

Now we are getting up to today, this was a log marshalling yard just upstream from Revelstoke. We found a great spot to boondock there as we meander our way towards the coast. Tonight we are in Merritt, BC, and tomorrow we plan on stopping on at Renè and Jeanette's before camping out at the Twassan Ferry Terminal so that we can catch the early Sunday morning ferry to the Island. I expect with a total length on our rig of right around 63' we will almost single-handedly put BC Ferries in the black this quarter.

Loading Log Trucks at Revelstoke Dam

Good morning view from our Boondocking site at the Dam Site

Well I won't make any promises but maybe, just maybe I will get another one of these journal entries done before Christmas time. Thanks for stopping by.

Enjoying Summer

We got back from the Hummingbird and lo and behold the Calgary Stampede was in full swing. The catch phrase this year was Stampede 101, Come Hell or High Water, and although we had the high water this year, the Stampede went off without a hitch. Oh yah, a few big concerts had to be cancelled when the Saddledome filled with water but other than that things went along pretty well.

The folks at the Stampede put together a T-Shirt with that logo on it and at last count had sold 150,000 of them raising approximately $2.1 million for flood relief. The city had a good time and like the mayor said "you might not see Calgary at its prettiest, but you will sure see it at its best." Neighbours were helping neighbours and although it will be a long time till things are back to normal, things are getting done.

We took a spin down to the grounds with Kashton and his parents. Always great to see an old familar place through the eyes of a child. He loved the rides and getting him off was a job in itself. If he had his way he would have just stayed driving the cars and riding the rollercoaster while his Dad ran and got more tickets.

Kash and his Mom on the Merry Go-Round

Grandma and Kash riding

Kash loved these cars although he was not to sure about sharing it with this little girl

He thought maybe she should ride in the back!

Rollercoaster, Kash and Ved in second car

Brenda and I and that tree behind us was actually a person on stilts, imagine what your horse would do when a tree starting talking to them.

It was a great day at the Calgary Stampede's 101st edition.

Then this week I headed over to the Dogpound Rodeo grounds to enjoy our local rodeo, it has been running for 107 years and is still a local must do in this area. Seems like everyone in the country is there and a lot of them are participating. Me I participated in the pie eating and took a few pictures.

Hard to believe but this guy stayed on this bull till the horn

Our granddaughter,  Madison, in the orange shirt, but luckily the piglet was captured and taken home by some other youngster.

Local girl, Shelby Cummings, has been doing this rodeo since she was 9 years old.

And here she is starting the next generation of trick riders.

The Wild Rose drill team another local group.

The Dogpound Rodeo is always a fun time and well attended even though it always runs on the Wednesday after the Calgary Stampede show ends.

Today Brenda was off to Chestermere to keep an eye on Kashton while his mother was off selling houses or something, and Wink and I had a date with the Brand Inspector up in Olds to get that out of the way for our upcoming ride across the provincial border, and our trip south next fall. We are off with some friends to ride along the Alberta-Sask border. It isn't the mountains but it should be pretty nice as it was a famous American's, Sitting Bull's, summer home when things got a little hot down around the Little Big Horn. Who knew, he might have been the first snowbird. More on that after we return.