Same Old, same old

Still hanging out here along the American Girl, still taking a stroll in the morning to get my heart pumping. Gives me time to listen to some political podcasts and contemplate the state of the world as I wander about the desert. I was looking back at my old blog entries back in early 2011 and I was doing sometimes 5 or 6 miles a day, maybe sometimes 7, today I am lucky to cover 5.5 kms so I guess old age is a metric measurement. Oh well, it is what it is I guess, still feels good.

I took this shot yesterday on my way back from my walk and then spent the rest of the day just watching the world go by, and stopping it with my camera a time or two to capture the things that pleased me. The picture below was taken from the comfort of my recliner just behind the rig.

And here is a look at our site from somewhere down in the Wash

We do have more critters visiting us here than just the hummers, this little fellow spends his days much like I do, just soaking in the sun.

I was just recollecting the old days in blogging when I was a lot less likely to stick a bunch of photos into the entry. We had about 5 GB of data to last us a month, now with Starlink the sky is the limit from here at Dogpound Anywhere. So I get to subject you all to an endless series of sunsets, sunrises, hummingbirds and neighbourhood views. This pair of hummers are pretty frequent visitors here at DPA so they are starring in a lot of our pictures.

And just so you know I am not the only picturin' person here at DPA the shot below is one I stole from Brenda of the sunset last night.

Just Chillin'

After our headlong rush to southern climes we are just cooling our heels here waiting for Brenda's Scrambler Therapy treatment to begin tomorrow. That usually eradicates her nerve pain, and that means one less thing to cause her discomfort. There are still other symptoms of her CRPS but anytime you can lessen the load that is a good thing.

We were into Gold Canyon to pick up a few groceries the day after we arrived here, so we haven't been going hungry. Christmas Eve some old riding friends, Dave and Linda Modahl put together a dinner, we contributed cheesy potatoes and although all the baking she did, and prepping the spuds wore Brenda out, I went and had a good time visiting and telling stories about the good old days. Mostly true too, but maybe a little better with age.

The view out of our door

Christmas Day we had a relaxing day, a tea fire in the morning and BBQ'ed some chops in the afternoon. The dogs are enjoying staying here where they are not having to be chained up all the time.

The sun is still out there

It's cool at night and the wind has a bad habit of cooling things off in the day time. Christmas Eve it rained most all day, and yesterday there was intermittent downpours interspersed with sunshine so the solar system was cranking all day. Our batteries are on their last legs so even with the solar we are having to run our Honda from time to time.

Sunset Christmas Day

Just in the Nick of Time

I was reminded this morning that I still have a blog out there in the ethernet and that Brenda checks it daily to see if it has been changed. The last time I updated this journal it was the summer solstice and here it is about to be fall so I guess it is time. We have had an eventful summer, not much riding, but a lot of other things going on.

Beginning back where I left off oh so many months ago, we had a couple of our favourite visitors for a weekend at the end of June.

Alle and Grandpa

Lounging by the poolside

Alle Kitten

The girls telling Grandma a bedtime story?

 Then it was off to Crimson Lake in July for Ella's 6th Birthday party, 6 where has the time gone, it seems like this was just yesterday.

Now she is a grown up little lady. Her birthday celebration was a beach party and the kids and I had a great time swimming at the lake and then eating her ice cream cake.

The next weekend was a celebration of Cheryl Brydens birthday her girls and our girls all came for a campout at Dogpound North. We ate well and stay up late around the campfire telling stories.

 And of course it wouldn't be July in Alberta without a little snow on the ground. Well really I guess if was hail, but frozen water is frozen water.

 But it does make for dramatic skies and some great photo opportunities

We finished up July with a visit from Mark and Jolene on their annual western swing. Always great to see Jolene and sure was nice to meet Mark this year. We did manage to spirit them away for a little drive in the mountains also.

The Bow River in the Stoney Indian Reservation near Morley

That takes us into early August and then we were off on an adventure in Upper Canada or Ontario as the natives call it. We were going down to Brenda's nephews wedding and decided to include a few other stops along the way.

Niagara Falls looking across the American Falls to the Horseshoe Falls in the background

The locks on the Rideau Canal between our Hotel and the Parliament buildings

Our digs in Ottawa on the left

Ashley, Madeline, Adam and Lukus, well the top of his head anyway.

Granny Doak, Donna and Danny Doak, Adams Dad

Mr. and Mrs. Doak and their kids, Madeline and Lukus

Aunty Brenda and Adam

The Doak clan, L to R Danny, Lukus, Ashley, Granny, Adam, Madeline

 After the wedding we headed off to meet some RV friends who have settled down in Smith Falls. Gordon and Sandra are also Facebook friends who capture some pretty nice photographs. Gordon, in his former life, was a graphic designer and is quite the Photoshop expert. I asked him to do his magic on this photo I stole off their page. To my eyes it appears that he did a great job on Brenda and Sandra but has managed to add a few wrinkles and a lot of gray hair on himself and I. So for those who don't really know us all that well, be advised that we both look much younger in person.

Those who have been to DPS before know that there used to be a patio roof running all along this side. It was blown off in a windstorm this summer and now currently resides in our neighbours yard about 300 yards away.

Once we got back to Dogpound North from our Ontario swing I headed south the Dogpound South to review the damage with our insurance folks and some contractors and initiated the process to get it repaired. That took about 10 days then it was time to come home for a couple of more birthdays. Our granddaughter Everly turned 1 and her brother Kashton turned 4 so they had a little soiree for their friends and family at Becky and Ved's place.

1 year cute

Kashton in the centre supervising his Dad's pinata installation

 While we have been fluttering back and forth across the continent Bob has managed to get all the hay put up here at Dogpound North and a portion of it sold. Seeing as how I didn't have any part of that I thought I had better get working on some other things around here. 30 some odd years ago when my Dad bought this place we needed to replace the fence along the road on the west side and lo and behold it is time to do it again. I spent a couple of days removing wire and with Matt's help got all the old posts hauled away. Another neighbour of ours is pounding posts and stringing new wire so soon it will be a nice shiny new fence instead of a tumbled down eyesore.

And the construction at DPS has begun so Brenda headed south to supervise that process. She has a much better sense of colour than I do, or so she says, so I agreed that she was the right person for that job. The patio roof is back up and from my daily report the painting is completed today. Now just to repair the door and the wall damage inside from an botched burglary and she should be able to come home. That could take another couple of weeks though so if you are in the Phoenix area give her a shout.

The dogs and I are looking after ourselves up here at DPN and although the cooking is not up to our usual fare we will probably survive. I have managed to get out a couple of days and take some photographs of both landscapes and some night scenes so will include a sampling of those shots to end this long, looooong update.

Some Northern Light dancing over Dogpound North

Looking back at the LaFarge plant at Exshaw

The Milky way from our deck at DPN

Mt. Kidd looking across Wedge Pond

The Kananaskis River running past Canoe Meadows

And finally a shot of Venus rising on the eastern boundary of DPN