Now it Can Rain

We got some bales put in the barn for the winter and a little for our friends from Drayton Valley and the rest has been tarped and once those stack covers are on, it is time for some welcome rain.

We still have some barley but that will probably go as silage so a little moisture will be good for it. Tuesday it started spitting at us but by evening it was a pretty steady drizzle and all day today it has been coming down. Not a torrential rain just a steady soaking rain that will replenish the soil moisture and give our trees and lawns a good drink. Not to mention our hay fields which now are growing back for winter pasture. We are planning on taking our saddle horses south with us but the pensioner pen here will be staying home and they like a good regrowth to paw out of the snow.

For all you Texans suffering through a drought that is one 24 hour period of rain.

Monday, once we got the hay put away we had ourselves a wiener roast with my son Matt and our granddaughter Madison. It was a beautiful evening for sitting around the campfire and visiting.

And watching the dogs play, although Mack is bigger, Meg still has a way of growling that tells him she is ready for him to quit.

Tug of War VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

And the sunsets on another day at Dogpound North.

The Haying is Done

 

We have enjoyed a streak of great weather here at Dogpound North and you know that old saying “make hay while the sun shines” describes what has been going on here. Until yesterday I was just an interested bystander, but it looked like Bob could use a little help so I climbed in and he gave me the grand tour of his engine and baler. The tractor was pretty high tech compared to my old John Deere 4020, but the baler was basically a newer model of the balers we used on my Mom and Uncle’s farm 40 years ago. Pretty good design I guess to stand up all that time.

Thursday Bob had the whole family out working on our place, two balers working till the sun went down and the bale wagon was working in the wee hours picking up all the bales that they had made that day.

 

Haying Time VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

These bale wagons have made a lot of the hard work that I remember haying and baling straw a thing of the past. I had a question about the little bales from Rod over at Retired Rod. The answer like most is a combination of things, in our country we grow a lot of timothy hay, and try to export it to Japan. The Hay Plants like the small square bales as they compress them so that they are much smaller, and heavier, for shipping overseas. Now recently there are getting to be some big square balers around and they are moving towards them as the trucking is easier, but those balers are pretty expensive and this is what Bob has so that is what we use. And for our own use here at Dogpound North we hand feed our horses and take bales to the mountains all summer so we don’t need any 1500-2000 pound monsters for that.

The feather at the top was left out in the hay by one of our resident hawks. They love watching the haying and picking off any unsuspecting mice that might be exposed by the recently cut hay.

Ram Falls

Our trip yesterday, Thursday, took us up to the South Ram River on the Forestry Trunk Road. Just east of the road is Ram River falls. It is a beautiful spot but man are there a lot of stairs to get to the viewpoint.

I took a scamper down them but as you can see Brenda and her bad knee stayed at the top, she is up there encouraging me as I looked up. Oh and she kept our picnic lunch up there so that gave me a little more incentive to clamber back up to the top.

Well with one more look around I headed back up the stairs and boy did that lunch taste good, and what a great view.

If you look at that little island below the falls you can just see a young fellow standing on the left side. He was fishing down there and almost every time he drop a fly in the water he caught a fish. Good sized ones from what I could see with the telephoto too.

But in this part of the country it is Catch and Release so his frying pan will be empty tonight.

Here is a look at my traveling partner and a couple of fishermen we saw along the creek as we snooped at a new campground

that we might take our horses into some time in the future. A beautiful drive but time to head home and see what is happening back with the working folks at Dogpound North.

Heading West!

This morning we jumped in the truck and head out into the hills. I spent most of my working life in those hills doing one thing or another from hauling heavy stuff up them by hand to soaring over them with a helicopter. Almost every turn of the road brings back a memory and Brenda had to listen to a lot of them today. Not all, but a lot, gotta save some for next time I guess. We are lucky to live in a place where such spectacular country is commonplace and I couldn’t think of a day working out there that I didn’t appreciate the raw beauty. Things have changed a bit since then, more people, more oil and gas activity, and some logging, but time marches on and in a hundred years it will probably look different again.

Forestry Trunk Road VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Most of our trip was along what has been called the Forestry Trunk Road by locals since it was built back in the 50’s and 60’s. The link leads you to a Wikipedia page and although it gives you the general idea, the road actually begins down near Coleman in the Crowsnest Pass a couple of hundred kilometres south of where their entry puts it. Over the years since sometime in the 60’s I have driven this road end to end numerous times at all seasons of the year and although it can be dusty it is never boring. Today there was not much traffic and the road was in pretty good shape so we made good time heading north from Bearberry to the South Ram River. I’m saving the pictures from around the Ram River for tomorrow but along the way we passed Limestone Mountain off to the west as we transited what is called Corkscrew Mountain. A couple of weeks ago Ivan over at Roadtrip 2010 took a tour right up to the lookout on Limestone and did a great job of showing it up close. I can only take you as close as my camera will go as we were 5.73 miles off to the east.

But with the big lense maybe we can get you in close enough to see the lookout cabin.

If you look close off to the left side of the photo you can see one of the power poles that supplies power to this lookout. From up there on a good day you can see the city of Calgary, 85 miles away off to the South East. Lots of good stories about Limestone Mountain but maybe the best was told by a helicopter pilot I had doing some work around there who came up on the backside of the mountain and spun around the cabin only to find the lady Fire Spotter making sure that she didn’t have any tan lines for her winter vacation. Gentleman that he was I am sure he averted his eyes quickly and reversed his flight path just as quickly….or maybe not.

The image above I stole/borrowed from Google Earth and the circle to the left is the Lookout and the one to the right is where I took the photo from the road on Corkscrew Mountain. If you search “Limestone Mountain, Alberta” on Google Earth it will take you to the live shot, or do like Rod and blow up the shot to get the coordinates at the bottom, then you can zoom in and see some other photographers pictures from both places.

And Another Day Rushes By.

Today was another great weather day here at Dogpound North. Temperatures got up to 28C (85F) here today and for us that is HOT! Things should moderate back into the low to mid 70’s F over the next few days so we will be able to put away our parasols and stray away from the air conditioning.

I got going early this morning and got the outside yard all mowed before the heat got to carried away, no AC in that mower. Brenda ran into town and washed her Jeep and took her recycling in at the same time. And that was about all the excitement for today. To steal a great quote most of the day I just spent sitting and thinking, or maybe I was just sitting.

Our hay is ready to bale and Bob turned it over last night and this afternoon so I imagine the balers will hit the field any time.

And of course as I wandered around out having a look our mutts gave everything the once over too.

Meg on the left, and Mack on the right

The only other thing of note today was my son Matt arriving back from his shift in Albania for a break. He should be home for almost a month before he heads back. His dog Mack was pretty happy to see him wheel up, and I know his grandparents have been looking forward to his return.

Once the hay was all rolled over it was time to start baling, and that started this evening.

Haying Time VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

There will still be lots to do tomorrow and maybe the day after but it is good to see it getting started. Now if we can just get a couple more days of dry weather.

I liked the way the clouds came out in this one. Tomorrow we are thinking about a little road trip out west to scout out a new riding spot and maybe just see some country that I haven’t been in for a few years.

Now What?

Not much happening around Dogpound North today, guess that is why they call this time of year the “dog days of summer.” It is hot and sultry here in west central Alberta, but hot here doesn’t mean hot like a lot of our American friends are dealing with. Talked to a friend of ours down in Maricopa the other day and his low was 29C, far as I can figure that was our high, for the year, so far. And even down in Montana it is getting into the 30’s C on a regular basis. I usually don’t find much to write about if I can;t find anything to capture with my camera and so far today has been a dead loss, so maybe I will just wander back into the past and dig around for some interesting shots. Maybe I should start off with a cooling trend for our southern neighbours.

Hope he has his snow boots on

We have our hay all cut here and have had 5 or 6 good drying days so I am thinking that the baling will start any minute now. It will probably need to be rolled over once just to let the dew dry out a little though. While the hay is drying out let’s take a leap down to Florida and see what my old friend the Wood Stork is up to.

 

OK, so he is just sitting around waiting on a hurricane to come by and cool him off, or his buddy the sandhill crane to come past for a visit and tell him about his travels north in the summer looking for cool weather.

Or these ducks talking about how soon they should head somewhere warm for the winter.

But after having a look through my files I figured if you were looking for bird photo’s you’d just pop over to the “Birdlady of Bloglands” own blog and see the great pics she has rather than my poor substitutes.

Judy and Emma at a Wildlife Refuge in Texas last winter.

Road Trip

Our new LQ horse trailer needed a little tender loving care from the dealer so I was up at 6:00AM and on the road to Red Deer to have it there for an 8:00AM appointment. One of the benefits of early mornings is the sunrises.

The trailer was on time for its appointment and the guys hoped right to it. We had a weld that needed rewelding and were moving a couple of tie rings on the outside of the trailer so it didn’t take long once they were started. Meanwhile I wandered around town and fuelled up the truck, shopped at the farm supply store and then took a run out to Sylvan Lake. Sylvan is Central Alberta’s best known lake community and for the most part is the closest natural lake to the city of Calgary. Lot’s of changes there since I was last there about 15 or 20 years ago. Holy Smokes they even have a Walmart Supercentre now. And people, lots of people.

And off in the distance I saw this guy looking for a party. Might be Rod from the Lake of the Ozarks down there in Missouri wandering along checking out the coves.

Got the trailer hooked up and headed home by 11:00AM so I had time to take down some temporary fences I use to pasture the horses on some of our lawn here. The grass has slowed down enough that I am thinking I will be able to keep up on my own now and it is time for the ponies to move on to greener pastures. Besides that we might get some company in the next couple of weeks and maybe those horses looking in their motorhome window would be disconcerting, although I guess it beats bears on the deck.