On the Road Again!!

One last visit into Chestermere to make sure Kashton was enjoying his new digs and then Grandma and I hit the road north.

Yep, you read that right I said north. I know it is not to long until I will be hopefully heading in a different direction, but, Mike and Janna, our friends from Montana are taking a late summer vacation and decided that they wanted to make it as far as the Peace River so we thought what the heck, the weather is good, the baby is happy in his new home, and we needed to scratch that Hitch Itch. We left Dogpound North and headed up the Cowboy Trail to Valleyview for a visit with cousin Mike. He runs the Fountain Tire in Valleyview and has a place out towards Sunset House that had a spot just right for our rig to spend the night. We had a great visit, a fantastic meal, and a nice fire to sit around and solve the troubles of the world.

I didn’t get a picture of Mike but I did get the sunset shot as we enjoyed that campfire.

Mike was off to work early in the morning and we were a little while later heading out on our quest to find Mike and Janna. A quick email in the morning gave us a good clue as to where they were and where they were going to be although finding a pink motorhome pulling a bright yellow jeep doesn’t sound that difficult, northern Alberta is a big place and without a few hints we may have been a day or two longer running them to ground.

By noon we were parked right beside them in the Happy Trails RV Campground just out of Grande Prairie, and while Mike and I visited the ladies were off to Costco for a resupply run. Once the girls were back we spent the afternoon sitting in the shade and catching up on each others spring and summer. Brenda and Janna whipped another great meal so in the tradition of RV’ers all across the continent we are overeating. Along with all the eating and visiting we did come up with a plan for tomorrow so now it is just a matter of working that plan and we will keep you all up to date on what is next, when it happens.

Kashton Cole Tomasir

“Grandpa figured that I should write this blog but although I am thinking about it I figured today was my day and why should I be bothered with all this wordsmithing, it is bad enough that he has almost blinded me with that danged camera of his.”

So I guess you will all be stuck with me writing the blog Kash said “I can’t even read yet so why bother with a blog.” Oh well that will come soon but for now I will be still authoring this journal even though today it will all be about Kashton. He was born last night at 7:48PM after what Becky described as a not to bad a time. Now I am not sure what she measured that against but whatever the result is pretty cute. He was 7 lbs 7 oz. and 21 inches long for those of you who keep track of such things. Notice that although us Canucks use the metric system for a lot of things we still use that old Imperial system to measure our entry into the world.

Ella and I did manage to keep Grandma from storming the doors of the hospital for most of the day and only at about 8:30 PM, once Lacey let us know he was there, did the security system there suffer a massive breach and in she went. She was out of the Jeep before we stopped rolling at the door and all Ella could say was “where Grandma go!”.

She got a short visit in last night while Ella and I patrolled the parking lot and then it was back to the farm to wait for the official “grandparent visiting hours” in the morning.

As the clock struck 11:00 AM we were into the hospital and I got to see the little tyke for the first time for real. He is pretty cute and although I am sure he looks just like himself everyone else sees a resemblance to his Dad although for the time being he does appear to have my thinning hair. I am sure that will change as time goes on though.

After a short visit this morning we cleared out to make room for Ved’s parents and we were off to Chestermere as Brenda wanted to make sure that Bec and Ved’s fridge was well stocked when they got home. Lacey, Ella and I basically loafed around all afternoon as Brenda whipped up some chicken roll-ups and a beef stew to leave behind for the new family when they got home.

Bec and Ved got home about 4:00 PM and we mauled the baby, took a few photos then cleared out so they could start to settle in themselves.

Ella was enthralled with her new cousin and tried to make sure he was covered up with his new blanket as well as giving a concert to help him get used to his new home.

Congratulations Rebecca and Vedran, he is beautiful and I know he will grow up to be all you have dreamed about. And hopefully I will be here to chronicle it all.

The Waiting Game

Brenda woke up this morning with a text from Rebecca saying that her water had broken and they were on their way to the hospital. So as her sister Lacey is going in the be with her while the baby is born we are heading into Chestermere to pick up Miss Ella. She will be staying with us till the excitement dies down a little. Not wishing Becky a long labour but we do love having Ella here, so take your time Bec.

After grabbing Ella we headed back to the farm as my niece Caron was coming out today on her way to a reunion at Bates Bar J and we were hoping to get in a short ride before she headed down the road to that. On the way we stopped at Walmart in Airdrie and Ella and I hung out in the Jeep while Brenda made sure she had one of everything that we might need today. Then it was off to Dogpound North.

Sadly I forgot my camera while Caron and I were riding so I have no pictures of that event but you have all seen a thousand shots of us riding so you’ll have to use your imaginations.

Once we came back it was Brenda and Ella’s turn on Blue and I did get a fuzzy shot of that event.

And of course we got a lot more of her, she is a joy to have around, no trouble and she does keep her security detail occupied whenever she is outside running around the farm.

 

And of course a picture of two of my girls is a necessity.

Now we will go back to waiting on Bec.

Summer Fades to a Memory

Yep, there’s snow in them thar hills. While we were enjoying a nice soaking here at Dogpound North over to the west a few miles that rain was turning our mountains a whiter shade of pale. The photo above is shot with a big lens so it will be a while till that white stuff darkens our horizon so to speak. Although the weatherman is calling for a little cool weather tomorrow night and it is supposed to dip below freezing for a short time in the early morning. But he is promising a return to our summer like weather after that.

But one thing about that snow over there it will make for pretty pictures for Mike and Janna as they make their way north through the countryside.

From time to time as I talk about our riding horses I have offhandedly mentioned the retirement pen. I thought they deserved a little more attention paid to them here on the blog. Not all the horses there are retired but most of them see limited duty anymore. Rosie who is the dam of our good saddle horse Blue was a mainstay for Brenda until last summer, but along about the same time Brenda’s knee really started acting up Rosie got a similar hitch in her gitalong. This spring she was diagnosed with Osteo Arthritis in both front feet so she is taking some treatments and has a much lighter riding schedule this year. Hank is a character here, and like Rosie suffered an injury years ago that moved him prematurely into retirement. Over the years my niece Caron had him jumping and from time to time I took him to the mountains but if he is ridden to often he gets pretty sore so we pretty much just let him hang out and keep the grass under control. Coal is my son Matts horse and he is just 2 now so he will be heading off to a trainer this winter so Matt and he can learn together. And lastly is Smokey, he is a friend of my parents horse and is just hanging out here. His owner lives in the nearby town of Cremona and looks in on him from time to time and at the same time checks up on our place while we are away in the winter. Smokey is not broke all that well and it has been a couple of years since anyone other than Matt has been on his back. He is quiet though and lets Matt sit up there and look around.

From left to right, Coal, Smokey, Hank, Rosie

And sunset last night

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.