All the way up to October

Remember back in June when I was saying we needed a little rain. Well we got it, in fact it started raining at the beginning of July and other than the odd day of sunshine it has continued right through to end of September. The hay here on Dogpound North started getting knocked down on the 17th of July and even taking advantage of every bit of sunshine, it was yesterday, October 6th when the last bale was rolled out. Best I can remember that is about as late as it ever been. We had a big reunion here at DPN for Rebecca and Lacey's cousins in mid-July and actually that was one of the sunny weekends here.

Once we wound up the reunion we followed Clayton and Lacey out to the Bighorn Dam for a few days of chilling by the riverside.

Alle and Sam just chillin'

Alle

Anderson Girls

Next stop was Shelly Roste's 60th birthday. Back in almost prehistoric days Shelly and I worked together on Shell's Party 4 wandering around Western Canada looking for oil and gas. Those were back in the good old days before the environmentalist's took over when oil and gas was actually a good thing to find.

Then a week or so later we headed up to Alliance for a reunion of another sort. Brenda, Derek, John, and Gina have been friends for a long time, I am thinking something like 34 years. They were all just kids when they met in Cochrane and have kept in touch every since. Derek had Brenda as a groomsman at his wedding and he gave Brenda away at ours. Long time readers will remember us heading to Vancouver Island and hiding out on John and Gina's place on the Nanaimo River.

L to R Derek, Maya, John, Gina, and Brenda

Late in August I was up to the Buffalo Coulee Ranch near Wainwright. My mother grew up near there and my cousins still call it home. The occasion was cousin Blair's wedding and he asked me to come on up and take a few pics. It was a great time and I took a few more than a more, hopefully some of them good and a few real good.

Blair and his bride Jacki

Jacki

That about covered our gallivanting around for the summer, we had a trip planned out to the Yaha Tinda but the week we were going it was raining, and snowing in the west country so we decided the wiser choice was sticking close to home. I got out a few times to do a little picturing as those who follow me on Facebook are probably more than aware of.

The Horses of Dogpound North

Our horses are fat and happy here at home and I haven't heard one complaint from them about not getting out to the mountains all summer.

What with Brenda's CRPS and my sore leg it has been a lazy summer of eating grass and standing around relaxing for the remuda here at Dogpound North. And probably be a pretty easy winter as I am thinking about not taking any ponies south this winter.

Well that about catches things up to the end of September, and October started off with a big event, my niece, Caron, and her guy Chris tied the knot, so the whole fam damily was down to Canmore for that event. It was a rainy dreary day until an hour or so before the ceremony when the clouds cleared and the sun came out. I have no doubt that brother Brent was responsible for getting the weather in line for his oldest daughters wedding day.

Oh remember back in July when I said we got done with our hay on October 6th, well today is October 7th and we have had snow all day so it was good timing.

A Little Rain Event

AN UPDATE: What I have called "A Little Rain Event" has continued into the third day here at Dogpound North and the communities surrounding us. I guess that will necessitate me upgrading it to a more serious rain event.

Like everyone else we have been watching the coverage on TV as well as using the internet to keep track of family and friends who are more exposed to the floodwaters than we are here. Many small towns in South Western Alberta as well as the cities of Calgary, Lethbridge, and Red Deer are undergoing evacuations in areas nearest to the waterways. Not unexpectedly for this area, most of the evacuees are heading to family and friends places and the internet it full of folks offering refuge to anyone who needs it for themselves or their animals. Like others we have made what wet and muddy space we have available here at Dogpound North to anyone who needs it.

As for our newest family members, the Bow Valley SPCA reports that they are warm and dry and well cared for at their facility and will be until the highways reopen and we are able to make our way up to retrieve them.

I can't resist cautioning local readers about heading out to have a look for yourself. The Emergency Services personnel have a lot of things on their minds and the less time they have to worry about doing crowd control and keeping bystanders safe the more time they have to do their real duties.

Unlike down near Dogpound South in Arizona, where there are some large forest fires raging around, here at Dogpound North we are hunkered down watching the rain come down. It has been almost a month since the rains came, and up to yesterday here at the farm we have had about 7 inches. Sounds like enough doesn't it, well I guess not because since last night we have gotten another 2 inches here at Dogpound North, and to the west of us in the foothills and front ranges of the Rocky Mountains they have gotten a lot more. Out around Banff and neighbouring Canmore there are some major flood events happening. The Trans-Canada Highway is closed east of Canmore and west of Banff so it should be a quiet time in those two tourist towns today. We have a lot of friends living out there and it sounds like a lot of flooding going on and it might be a while till the roads open. Not normally a problem for us but yesterday we ran up to Canmore to visit the SPCA to see a Border Collie dog that might be a potential new friend for us.

Maya

Well she seemed perfect and while we were there she let us in on a little secret. When she was surrendered to the shelter she came in with a friend. They have been together for almost their whole lifes and it seemed a shame to separate them. One little problem was the other dog had been spoken for by some other folks. But the people at the shelter really didn't want to see them split up so they called the other folks and told them about this couple who live on a farm and were willing to take both of them as a pair. Those other folks agreed and soon we had an agreement to add them both to our menagerie here at Dogpound North.

Max

Max actually looks much bigger in this photo than he is in real life. He is some kind of Lab Beagle? cross and has quite the personality. The Bow Valley SPCA has a great policy that means after you adopt your new buddies you are not allowed to take them home for 24 hours, just in case you change your mind I guess.

Good idea I guess, unless you are heading into a major rain event. We were set to head up this morning to pick up our new companions and then along came the rain and the highway closures. So for the time being we are out here and they are still at the shelter. The folks called us and told us that although things were a little exciting out there they did manage to get someone over to the place to feed and walk the critters so all was well and we will try again tomorrow. Hopefully we have better luck then and can effect a successful rescue operation.

Maya and Max waiting for the flood waters to recede and that nice lady to come back and take us home