Down the Road from Dogpound

Back to the Future

2010-01-16T18:46:00.001-08:00

Join us back on the old John & Brenda’s Incredible Adventure site for our latest updates

National Finals Rodeo

2009-12-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

Well I am off to the Rodeo, no I’m not taking my truck, but it is pretty cold. Lucky for as a retiree from a great company I have Health Insurance that covers my trips to the States for up to 4 months at a crack so I will not become a burden on the non-existent American system. It was about –18C or 0F when I left Fort St. John and about 50F in Las Vegas when I arrived. It took a few minutes to get my luggage and then I hopped in a cab and ran over and checked into my motel (Emerald Suites), the cabby waited and then dropped me at the Thomas & Mack for Performance 1. It was as good as I expected and is probably, as far as rodeo’s go, only second to the Calgary Stampede. Not that I am biased or anything, being a Calgary boy and a volunteer at the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth.
The shot above is of the opening ceremonies on another night as I was a little late getting to the rodeo on that first night.
I had a little excitement on the way down, when I got off the United Airlines flight from Vancouver in Los Angeles and headed to meet my flight to Vegas I realized that I had left my laptop in my seat on the previous flight. I talked to the agent at my new departure gate (halfway across LA from my arrivals gate) and he called back and then took off running across the tarmac to the other gate. The previous plane was just pushing back to head to Tucson but they had found my laptop and handed it off to my new gate agent. Lucky for me, I am thinking not many of these things get returned to their owner, and certainly not as quickly as mine was.
The hospitality given to the Canadian contingent at the Rodeo is amazing, one night out of the 10 days is actually called Canada Night and our flag and national anthem are featured prominently on that night. There are about 115 contestants total in the event and only 4 of them are from Canada, Dustin Flundra, Saddlebroncs, Curtis Cassidy and Lee Graves, in Steer Wrestling, and of course Lindsay Sears, in the barrel racing. All except Dustin have won at least one go-around and Lindsay and Lee have won two and it is not over yet.

This is a shot of Lindsay Sears the reigning World Champion Barrel Racer who carries Canada’s colours into the arena every night.
The rodeo is an evening event so the days are free here in Vegas, yep, I said free, those who know me know that gambling isn't my vice. Hmmmmm, wonder what my vice is? But with those free days I thought I should see some of the surrounding countryside. One day I took a run out to the Valley of Fire State Park north of town and took a few of the following pictures.

Another day I took a spin out on the western edge of Las Vegas to Red Rock Canyon park and got a bunch of photo’s there. It is hard to believe that this spot is only a few minutes off the hubub of the Las Vegas strip.

If you look closely at the shot above there is a group of wild burro’s hiding behind the vegetation.
Other days were taken up with wandering around the many Cowboy Christmas shows and looking at all the latest and greatest clothing, boots, gadgets, tack, and other assorted geegaws. There were a couple of horse sales here also this week, one the Benny Binion Bucking Horse Sale, and the other was a Double Dollar Rope Horse sale. Lot’s of great horses and I think the prices were more than reasonable so it is probably a lucky thing that my horse trailer is still in the frozen north. Speaking of which I am outa here tomorrow morning and on my way back to Fort St. John where it is reportedly –31C this morning. Oh well at least it should keep the mosquito’s down for a while anyway.

Technorati Tags: National Finals Rodeo,Las Vegas,Double Dollar Rope Horse Sale,Valley of Fire,Red Rock Canyon,Emerald Suites

Canadian Health Care Issues - Traveling for Work – Ms. Ella!

2009-11-28T10:58:00.001-08:00

I just had a look and it is a few weeks since I updated this journal. I guess that is what happens when you are working every day, lots of interesting stuff going on but nothing that can be shared in a forum such as this.
But there have been some things going on that are worth sharing. Probably the most important is Ms Ella’s recent trip to the Stollery Childrens Hospital in Edmonton. Even before she was born they had identified some issues with her kidneys and although for a while we thought it was resolving itself, last Monday she had a test done that made our medical guru’s think they better get it fixed sooner rather than later.
Tuesday she headed back into the hospital and after a four hour operation came out better than new. They kept her in the hospital for a day or two just to keep an eye on her, but she was sent home Thursday.

Here is a photo that I only wish I had taken, but I stole it from Ella’s Grandmothers Facebook Profile. Pretty cute isn’t she?

Well that worked out pretty well as Wednesday night I caught the late flight out of Fort St. John to head home for a trifecta of doctors appointments myself on Thursday. I stopped by my family doc and she gave me a new prescription so I am ready to roll south if I get done this job anytime before the grass gets green. The dentist just likes to scrape away for a while to help pay for his new car I guess and I actually had an appointment with the eye doctor also. That went well, my eyes are working as well as can be expected at my advanced age and she said that the reading spectacles that I get for a buck or two at the flea markets are still all I need. Once I got done with all the docs I stopped by the farm to pick up my mail and then headed north to Rocky Mountain House to have a visit with Ms. Ella. She and her family were their usual charming selves so after an American Thanksgiving dinner of pizza with my newest granddaughter I headed back to Calgary to await my early (6:00AM), yep planes can fly that early Deb, charter back to Fort St. John.
I’ve been watching the coverage from the States on this new Health Care bill and listening to all the propaganda that BOTH sides have been shoveling out for public consumption. I know that both sides have concerns and it is really none of my business. And not likely to become that as I don’t think I am giving up my Canadian citizenship anytime soon. And one of the reasons for that is the Universal Health Care system we enjoy here in Canada. Nope it ain’t perfect but it sure as heck beats out whatever is in second place. In the case of Ms. Ella’s recent visit to the hospital that line-up that everyone talks about was about 20 hours from diagnosis to operation, and that probably can’t be beat anywhere in the world. I have heard some folks say that we don’t look after our older folks well if I am older folks I can attest to the fine care I have received on both my regular medical issues and certainly the heart issues I had a few years ago. Now if that is not old enough for you I have watched my Dad (83) and my late Grandfather (98) and their interactions with our system. Now Grandpa was only 95 when he got his last knee replacement so maybe he hadn’t gotten old enough to join what some of my southern friends call the elderly. And my own Dad has been well looked after by the Medical system we have here. So maybe that doesn’t cover all the age groups but my experience ranges from a pre-birth identification of an issue that needs to be monitored, to a 98 year old, now there may be folks outside of that age range that are not being properly cared for by our sytem but I have to confess I have not heard about them.
Now if we could just export our system to the south so we could wander the whole continent at will rather than be restricted to our six months a year. Earlier in the year I wrote a little piece about our system and I guess the core of that one is “IT IS NOT FREE”. We have higher taxes in Canada than in the USA, but not so high that we are overtaxed for what we get. Would I like to pay less tax, you bet, but not at the cost of losing that basic right that we Canadians call Universal Health Care.

Now those who know me know that I am nothing if not curious about what makes people tick. After finishing this blog I went roaming the internet trying to figure out why the opposition to a Universal Health Care system in the US is so virulent. I found this link on wikipedia that does a pretty good job of comparing things and seems at least to me to be pretty balanced.

Groundbirch Chronicles

2009-11-01T15:15:00.001-08:00

Yep, I’m still here, reading about all those snowbirds heading for southern sunbelt hideaways. I am living vicariously through their journals and enjoying the trip as if it were my own, well almost. After seeing a few shots of the sunrises they are enjoying I thought I should have a sunrise shot of my own. Here is the Saturday morning sunrise here in Fort St. John, not quite a brilliant sky over some gently waving palm trees but as good as it gets around here for now.

Once that morning fog burnt off we got the blue sky that this country has, to make even a cold day seem bright and cheerful. And just like over there with the Bayfield Bunch we have some beautiful vistas of our own. Just the colour scheme is a little more basic.

And that is it for the feeling sorry for myself part of today’s blog. I took a trip south last week to get a couple of things done around Calgary that needed to be looked after. It was time to for Meg’s annual physical and updating her shots so that if she has to spend some time in a kennel this winter she will be already with all her immunizations up to date. There is a kennel just a mile or so from my place so she won’t have to go far and in fact in her younger days she used to go and visit over there on her own.

I also brought the motorhome back to the farm so that it can be kept under cover in the quonset hut until it gets the call to duty, hopefully in the next few months.

Technorati Tags: Meg,Winter Landscape,Groundbirch

Chickens!

2009-10-24T18:15:00.001-07:00

Well not really, they are Canada Geese, and like some other Canadians, they are running for the warmer climes of the southern USA. Tough to watch them go, a year ago today I began my migration to warmer places also, but not this year.

Circumstances change and you gotta change with them so while the geese head south I will stick around the Peace River country. Other than the odd moment of envy I am enjoying my time here and getting a lot of enjoyment out of the job. Sounds strange but I have always loved my work. Can’t believe I get to spend my time in such great places and meet such an interesting array of personalities. Sounds a lot like the RV’ing world.

When your office is the seat of your truck you get to pick the spots. As long as the cell coverage is good and the internet is OK it makes no sense not to have a great view.

And it always helps if you are doing some good also. We are drilling a lot of holes and apparently finding some gas so all is well on the work front also. So I will salve my envy for those who are in warmer spots by imagining I am doing my part to keep North America’s Energy supplies secure and plentiful. But maybe just to ease the pain a little we will raise the price of gasoline and diesel to help compensate those of us in the frozen north for the things we are missing out on…..lol.

View Full Album

As usual Natural Gas is found where it is, but it is sure nice that where it is, is also places where I like to be. Here is a shot of one of neighbours moving his cattle through the Sunset Community Pasture. It is fall gather time on the northern ranges and the cattle are being trailed and shipped back to their winter pastures.

Once the cattle are gone the ranges will revert back to their original inhabitants who will live here undisturbed for the next 7 months until the cowboys return after the spring rains gets the grass growing again.

And I wonder what this fellow below is compensating for with his choice of ride?

Technorati Tags: Dodge Truck,Bull Elk,Wapiti,Drilling for Gas,Sunset Community Pasture,Sunset Pasture Cowboy,Cowboy,Northern Ranges

What’s Up

2009-10-13T17:42:00.001-07:00

Just thought I should update the blog so I don’t get to far behind. I am still working up near Fort St. John, British Columbia and the fall weather is in full swing. I am not sure how long I will be here but I have given the company an end of October deadline to get back to me with some timing proposals. If there is a complete winters work here I may stay for the duration, except for the first two weeks of December when the National Finals Rodeo is on in Las Vegas. If the work will not go much into the New Year I am thinking that I will probably take my motorhome south for the Rodeo and then just keep on trucking. I am enjoying the work but the call of the south is loud and clear up in this country this time of year. The geese are all heading out and the “snowbirds” will not be far behind them. But I have all my rigs winterized so there is no need to get in a hurry. Some of you may remember the shot below from an earlier posting.

Well this morning it looks a little different. Yep we got the hay all baled and hauled off and then we had it dusted with a nice white tinge to celebrate the coming of winter.

I headed home Tuesday, and on the way I stopped to have a visit with Lacey and Ella in Rocky Mountain House. She sure is a good baby and cute to.

On Wednesday I took my Dad in to get a CT Scan on his legs, they were supposed to do the angio to clear up some blockages but I guess his blood was to thin to do that so he will have to return in a week or ten days. But the CT Scan at least showed us that there is a good possibility that they can clear up the blockages.

Thursday was spent working in the office, primarily talking to our IT Help Desk folks in Malaysia trying to get my corporate email account and computer to work. That was a frustrating 7 hours not helped by the fact that after doing a few hundred different procedures the darn thing is still not working. Oh well, I guess I am just not a corporate kind of guy anymore. I still have my own laptop and if the truth was to be known rather prefer to use it anyway. Not nearly as complicated or well firewalled as the company one so you can actually do stuff with this one.

On Friday I took Dad into get some blood work done and then we decided to visit Mom. Following that we headed over to the relatively new Bass Pro shop north of Calgary. Although I had been, Dad had not, and he was pretty impressed by the decorating that goes into one of those stores. I have been to many in the States but this one is pretty special as it is all local wildlife and local scenery that is in the murals. I am thinking that if you are hiking in this part of the country you don’t need to fret about wolves or black bears as most of them are stuffed in Bass Pro. But I don’t recall seeing a grizzly in there, even though they range quite close, although they have a couple of polar bears that don’t frequent our neighbourhood, at least not yet.

The shots above are just a collage of Peace River country in the fall type of scenes. Well there were going to be shots above but I guess I haven’t figured out how to do the album thing with Live Writer so I will continue my quest for a simple solution. Hopefully that will prompt a couple of the Live Writer gurus, like Rick or Al to help me with the problem.

The rest of the weekend was spent just loafing about doing some housework and getting the horses shoes off and their feet all trimmed ready for winter. I do believe I heard them sigh with relief when the shoes were pulled as they probably know that is the official end of the trail riding for this year.

Today we are off to my son Paul’s in-laws for Thanksgiving dinner, yes for my American friends we celebrate our Thanksgiving a little earlier than yours and some of the stores are actually closed, believe it or not, to give their staff time to spend with their families, so we give thanks for that too. Rick, a fellow blogger, did a great job of explaining why ours is earlier so I will let you take a trip over to his blog, Rick and Paulette’s RV Travels to explore that.

Until next time, travel safe, and Speedy try not to have to much fun at Kerrville, you are making us all jealous.

Southbound and Down

2009-09-28T15:47:00.001-07:00

Well at least half of the journey was south. I took a little drive, 1914 kilometres to be exact, so that I could haul my niece Caron, and her friends Elizabeth and Sidney and their horses to the Calgary Western Riders final gymkhana of the season. For those of you who know what I do at work, that is what I mean by following up on commitments, when you make one you make it happen. For those of you in the Far South 1914 kilometres converts pretty nicely to a LONG drive. Pretty near 1200 miles, but it is a big country up here and lot’s of folks do that for a weekend away. The shot below is of the equine athletes that were competing today.

From left to right, Kokanee, Lucy, and Duke.

As you travel across a small part of British Columbia and a significant part of Alberta on this trip you are likely to run into almost anything, but even for Alberta this is a big Beaver.

You’ll understand that he is a little out of focus cause when you are that close to a beaver that size, look at those teeth, you really don’t want to stop.

Once I got down into my own country things slowed down a little. On Saturday I had to run into the city and thought I should take a shot of the fall colours up here. We don’t get many reds in our country but the golds can be breathtaking. This one is actually “Down the Road from Dogpound”, yep, that is an actual place and this is the road leading into it.

I took some photos of the girls and their steeds while they were racing each other and the clock. Below is Kokanee and Caron digging in to round the turn on the way home.

And this is one of Sidney and Lucy as they round the pole in a pole bending race

And this final Gymkhana shot is of E and Duke turning and burning with a beautiful Alberta mountain landscape in the background. Next year we’ll have to get you in a cowboy hat Elizabeth.

Hauling this team of girls to the arena this summer was a great experience, what great horse women they all are, and their horses are amongst the best trained at the gymkhana. They and a few other of their barnmates that were here, over the summer, certainly had a good time competing with each other and themselves. Now they had a surprise gift for me and a wonderful card. I got a new headstall, I wonder if that was because Caron thinks some of mine are kind of dilapidated or what. Thanks for the headstall , the great card, and most of all the memories girls, it was an honour to be part of your “team”.

This trip was really a quick turnaround but I did get to connect with my cousin Mike, as well as my Dad, Mom and brother Brent and Caron’s little sister and brother, Remi and Christopher. As well my son Paul was out to the farm to stow his trailer for the winter and brought my granddaughter Annika along to chase a few leaves and visit with the scarecrow.

Technorati Tags: Gymkhana,Beaverlodge,Annika,Caron,Elizabeth,Sidney,Dogpound

Another Week in the Peace River Country

2009-09-21T21:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been watching Al from the Bayfield Bunch experiment with Live Writer all week so I thought I should get in the act.

I am still up in the Peace River country in Northern British Columbia and although the weather has been great there are starting to be signs of fall around as is evidenced by the yellow trees in the foreground of this shot across the Murray River Valley.

Now the shot above here is from a little farther north up the Heritage Highway between Tumbler Ridge and Chetwynd, British Columbia. On the hill in the distance you can see a lot of red trees and I only wish that were a sign of fall. What it does indicate is a Pine Beetle

Technorati Tags: Pine Beetles,Moose,Chetwynd,Tumbler Ridge,Ground Birch,Live Writer,Bayfield Bunch

infestation that has decimated most of the pine forests in BC and is threatening to move to the east in Alberta. These little critters have single handedly destroyed an area 4 times the size of Vancouver Island (approx 14.5 million hectares or 56,000 square miles). Or another way is that is an area equal to the size of the state of Iowa which is the 23rd largest state in the Union.

Now that is devastating for the forests of today but will mean a fresh start for the forests of the future. As humans we tend to think in pretty short terms but long term the forests will recover and may even be healthier.

And here is evidence that things go on. This young (yearling) cow moose is looking pretty fat and happy. Hopefully she will be able to make it through the coming winter and will have a couple of twins with her next spring when she is wandering the Groundbirch area.

The job is going well here and I am collecting a few stories for my memoirs but the thought of spending a winter in the north has me wondering how sane I am.

Well I am going to try to publish this Al and see if all your tutoring has solved some of my issues with Live Writer.

Peace River Country

2009-09-13T17:04:00.000-07:00

The job I am on is along the Peace River in northern British Columbia. The Peace runs through a wide and picturesque valley here, although not far upstream there are two dams. The Peace Canyon Dam and above that the W.A.C. Bennett Dam. Below that the Peace River runs unharnessed into Lake Athabasca in NE Alberta and then by way of the Slave and Mackenzie Rivers into the Arctic Ocean near Inuvik. That may change soon as there is a third dam being contemplated. Site "C' is a little bit controversial to put it mildly and many of the residents of the valley are opposed to it's construction as the photo below shows.

Here is one of the residents of the Groundbirch area keeping an eye on his gas well. Pretty good security.

This rig is drilling a number of wells on one pad so as to reduce the footprint associated with producing the resource. Many companies in the area are developing new technologies to help reduce the environmental impacts of their operations on their neighbours, while allowing them to access the resource.

This is one of the Historic Milepost along the Alaska Highway.

That particular milepost is along an old section of the highway that is now only used to access the Kiskatinaw River bridge. This bridge is quite unique as it is a wooden bridge and is built across the river with both a curve and a bit of banking on its deck. It was bypassed many years ago, but it is with much chagrin that I admit to having used it when I started in the business many years ago.

This is the actual sign that explains the details regarding the bridge much better than I could and it should get enlarged if you double click on it.

Here is a shot of the actual bridge and yes you can drive your motorhome across it, as long as it doesn't exceed 20 tons, so I would recommend it as a must see for anyone contemplating driving the Alaska Highway. There is a BC Provincial Park right below the bridge and although the sites are quite forested there seem to be some large enough for the biggest rigs. No hook-ups though.

The shot below is off Stewart Lake, a small lake that is quite remote but has a good road accessing it. It appears to have been created by a small man-made dam at the south end but probably was an smaller lake that was enhanced by man. It is apparently stocked with rainbow trout but the road requires that you have an SUV or other high clearance vehicle although the resource companies in the area have made quite a few improvements to it.

And here is another resident of the area that I am working in. She seemed willing to watch me as long as I didn't move but when I attempted to get the telephoto she thought it was time to move on.

Nieces and Horse Shows

2009-09-08T17:35:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was taken up with horse shows and getting ready to roll to work. They are all day affairs and I needed to be at Caron's barn at 6 AM to get them to the venue on time. That meant an early call for me as I have to leave home by 5AM to make that arrival time down in Bragg Creek. On Saturday it was mostly western type of riding and Caron and Kokanee won some ribbons and got some good experience. My other niece Remi came out on Sunday and had to take her big sisters steed for a spin around the parking lot. Kokanee acted like an old hand at riding little kids and it probably won't be long until Caron has competition from right in her own household.

Sunday was an entirely different type of show as it was dedicated to English riding and some Hunter and Jumper classes towards the end. As you can tell that is Kokanee's forte as he won a couple of first prizes and not surprisingly the Hi-Point Average. Tough to beat out the horse that won all the classes for that award.

The picture below is of a friend of Caron's, Heather, who smoked the Jumper class and completed the course in a blazing 37 seconds, easily the fastest time by a large margin, I think the other horse we had hauled down to Okotoks was probably had the second fastest time as Lucy and her rider, Sidney, were certainly tearing up the course also.

And the last photo in the series is of Kokanee going over the jumps. Speed courses are not his game but he can jump pretty high and if he wasn't so tired from two days of competition where he and Caron entered almost every class he would have done OK also.

I know Caron would love to have an outfit like this for her own so we took a shot and thought we would forward it on to her sponsor.

Good luck Caron!! lol

Retired - From Retirement

2009-09-04T14:34:00.000-07:00

Once the reunion was over things slowed down a lot around here. Our hay was cut, and although it was a little sparse compared to lots of other folks we are doing OK. There is enough to keep some for an emergency with the horses and sell a little back to the fellow who does the farming here. Our barley didn't fare so well. Earlier in the month we got a little hail storm traveling through and it knocked a lot of it down. We managed to salvage what was left and Bob made silage that he will feed to his cattle this winter. A couple of weekends ago I hauled my niece and two of her friends horses to a gymkhana and just for fun took my own horse Willow along with them. Some of you might recall Willow had been out at Bates Bar J where Caron was the "horse counsellor" and she was riding her while there. So like I said just for fun Caron thought she would make a good gymkhana horse and lo and behold she is. Although she had never seen any of this paraphernalia before she handled it like a trooper. At the end of the competition I even took her for a spin around the barrels. Didn't do to bad for a horse that had only been around them once before and a rider who was on his first trip. But I am thinking I will leave the competition to Caron and I will just do the trailriding.

Here's the way I like to see my hay, all rolled up and ready to go. Ironically we haven't had a drop of rain since the hay has been baled.

Some of you will remember that Lacey was having a baby and I thought I better get a photo on here before she graduates school. Little Ella Petrice Anderson is a beauty and really well behaved, where did she get that behaving stuff from Lace. The beauty is obviously directly from her mother. She is growing like a weed and every time I see her she has changed a lot.

Now for the title of this piece, I got a call from the folks in my old team at Shell asking if I was interested in doing a little work to keep my hand in. Well things have changed a little around here and it seemed like the thing to do. I went in to talk over what they wanted me to do and for how long. I will be doing some stakeholder visits in the North East British Columbia area over the next few months and trying to resolve some concerns that our neighbours up there have. Should be fun although I am hoping this shot of one of my old colleagues in the office is not a precursor of things to come, I would hate to be run off my feet.

Today is the day my friends Rollie and Gina's son Thomas graduates from Basic Training and becomes a full fledged United States Marine. I know his family will be bursting with pride and I wanted to add my congratulations to this future defender of our freedoms.

Buffalo Creek Ranch

2009-08-21T16:03:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning early Mike and I got the horses tacked up and took Caron and Trish for a tour through the coulee's on the Buffalo Creek Ranch. Mike and I practically lived down there as kids, and it is just as beautiful now as it was then. Below is a shot of the group stripping Saskatoons off the the side of the trail for an early morning snack. They were sweet and as big as grapes and just hanging there waiting for someone to come along and gorge themselves on them. Horse back is so much better as the best berries seem to be higher on the tree, at least that is the way it seems when you are standing on the ground. Here is a shot of the berries, we had them fresh off the bush, in pancakes and my Mom brought some home and we have had that in pie with ice cream. Mmmmm.....mmmmm good!!

The shot below is my sister-in-law Trish on the left, Caron my neice in the centre and me, Mike was behind the camera and behind us is the coulee on the Buffalo Creek Ranch.

I don't believe I have any other photo's of Blue and I together, I am usually behind the camera and he is usually just hanging around looking photogenic by himself. That is Buffalo Creek and the coulee behind me.

Here is another shot of Caron and Trish

The girls and our guide, cousin Mike are in the shot below. Other than Blue all the horses are his, Trish is riding Diesel and Caron is on Red, pretty original Mike we had a Red when we were growing up too, and Mike is riding Smokey on what was probably his last ride as I think someone who was at the reunion/anniversary party last night actually bought him later on the day we took this ride.

Mike and the dogs, Meg and Joe, Meg is frequent visitor to the blog but this is Joe's debut. He is the boss dog on the ranch, keeping my uncle in line most of the time. As you can see this a pretty special piece of real estate and it is probably 40 years since I last rode a horse through it. The trails are still the same, maybe a little overgrown without a couple of half grown kids and their bareback horses beating them down daily. I sure hope it isn't that long before I get to do it again.

Below is a shot of my summer rig parked in front of the shop at the ranch. Blue has his winter coat on as the wind and rain were a little cool last night.

Macnab Family Reunion 2009

2009-08-21T11:49:00.000-07:00

I thought I would lead off with this picture. This was the core group of Macnabs the first time we had a reunion at our Cremona farm in 1991. Although many of us would like to think we haven't aged at all there are others who have grown into adulthood since this was taken. And others who have left us and still are missed, but we know they were with us this year in spirit. Below is the shot of this years group. The idea for this reunion came out of conversation about how the only time we seemed to get together as a family was at sad occasions and maybe we should invent a reason to just sit around and chat and tell some stories. I'll give credit for the initial idea to my brother Brent, but I think my cousin Mickey carried the ball after that initial spark so thanks to both of you.

The location for this reunion was the Buffalo Creek Ranch, the place that my Uncle bought many years ago just down the road from the farm he and my mother grew up on. It is a beautiful spot although these photo's don't do it much justice. The weather was cooperating, with the farmers, as it was a nice steady drizzle that the country sorely needed although we could have done without it at the reunion. It meant we huddled under shelter most of the weekend but the kids didn't even seem to notice it as they ran around the yard nonstop every day.

In the photo below is Mick on the right and her daughter Jackie with the paper towels. Mick has a weak spot for emotional moments and it is almost a family joke that she can cry over almost anything, happy, sad, doesn't seem to matter.

The first evening we all gathered at the Ranch for burgers and to renew old acquaintances and maybe as is our families tradition tell some stories. I guess we all had a whirl at the story telling but anybody who knows the Macnabs know that the chief story teller is Blair with able assistance from his older brother Randy. The photo below is a one in a million shot of Blair. He had just claimed that he was about to tell a TRUE story and I thought that in itself was worthy of capturing for posterity. Now after listening to the story I am not sure that this photo is a truthful representation of that statement but we will let it stand.

As I said earlier Mickey carried the ball on a lot of the organisational details not the least of which was supplying the food. Her and her husband Jeff pictured below supplied all the groceries for this hard eating crew. And what a job they did. Jeff and his family run a food supply business in Edmonton called Eberhardt Foods and I am here to tell you that they supply good food.

We managed to combine a lot of things together during this weekend, it was my mothers birthday on the Monday following so we had a cake and a birthday party for that followed by a cake and an anniversary party to celebrate Blair and Lori's 25th. There were folks who came specifically for one and stayed for the other as well as most of the town of Valleyview that came down to celebrate with the Silver Anniversary couple. There were also a great many kisses sent down to Lori, which their friend Louie relished delivering one at a time.

Now after raining all Friday evening and most of the day Saturday, Sunday broke out sunny and warm. It was a great day, the weather cooperating for a change so we were able to move the party outside and even the grills. Below you can see our cooks for the weekend hard at it. Some of the folks here had been out the day before roaming the pastures with the Rhino's Blair had brought down so we had an ample supply of Saskatoons to lace the pancakes with. Randy had manned the grill all weekend and did a masterful job of feeding an ever fluctuating number of hungry folks and always with a smile on his face.

Here are some of the folks enjoying the bacon and eggs and Saskatoon pancakes and the sunshine on Sunday morning.

These two are part of the next generation, the first of our reunions was organised by my Mom and her brother, this one by my brother and my cousin and maybe the next one will fall to another generation and my neice Caron and my cousins daughter Baille are a likely combination. And not to worry there is already at least one more generation after them that were here racing around causing havoc and playing out poor Meg throwing sticks and balls for her to fetch from sunup to long after sundown.

Trek West to the Yaha

2009-08-18T14:19:00.000-07:00

After the team roping in Sundre my cousin Mike, and his friends Harold, Diane and I headed west to that little piece of heaven on earth called the Yaha Tinda. If you are regular reader of mine you have probably figured out that if the weather and the world cooperated I would spend almost all my time out here. And why not? The founder of the RV Dreamers rates his campground and the "it" factor is an important part of the rating. Well the Bighorn campground doesn't have 50 Amp power, or any power for that matter, no cell service, no tap water and certainly no sewer connections but when it comes to "it" IT blows all the rest away. The photo below was taken not 3 steps from my camper and is the view we had from our campfire.
Not any hookups but even the most parsimonous RV'er would like the price structure....free, well you can buy a membership in the Friends of the Eastern Slopes Association that looks after the campground for the huge sum of $20.00 per year per family. Not mandatory but you gotta be some kind of cheap to pass up that price.

We arrived Monday late in the morning and set right to making our campsite home for the next few days. Now one of the things I remember from my childhood was my Grandma Macnab getting right out of the car and raking the campsite wherever we stopped for the night. The photo below shows that Mike is carrying on the family tradition. Grandma would be proud of you Mike, I know I was.

Now a campground in the mountains isn't right without a campfire and Mike and I scavenged all the wood we could find at some other sites that didn't look occupied and Mike set to splitting it. After all it wouldn't be a Macnab camp without some tube steaks being eaten.

And once you got the firewood cut and the tube steaks eaten well isn't it time for a nap while you dream up the next thing on the agenda.

After all the camp chores were completed we saddled up and went on a short loop over near the YMCA's Outpost camp and then up to Eagle Lookout. That lead us along the ridge east of our camp and down through the mountain meadows that give this place its name. The photo below was taken while climbing the hill to the top of the lookout.

We had a great 3 and 1/2 days here and managed to ride into Hidden Falls and around the Grizzly Crossing trail (nope didn't see any griz) as well as up to the Scalp Creek waterslides. Mike also roamed around the meadows every morning bright and early while the rest of us enjoyed another hour of sleep and that oh so important first cup of coffee or tea. Just for those who are keeping track Blue continued on his training and with Harold and Mike on hand got a few lessons that both he and I learned a lot from. Thursday morning broke with a steady drizzle of rain so we packed up our camp in the rain and headed for the Buffalo Creek Ranch for our next adventure.

Sundre Super 6

2009-08-17T15:00:00.000-07:00

The shot below is of Mike as he is getting ready to snare a steer.

The weekend of August 7-9 I took a trip up to Sundre to watch my cousin Mike compete in the Sundre Super 6 team roping event. It was an interesting weekend and there were over 1000 teams competing there. Although Mike didn't win any money it sure looked like he was enjoying himself. I took Blue along with me to give him a little exposure to the hubbub that was going on around the rodeo grounds. He took most of it in stride but he has never had any exposure to roping so some of those ropes whirling around were a little spooky for him. I guess that will give me something to work on him with.

And here is a shot of Mike dragging another steer after he has made his catch and is waiting for his heeler to do his thing.

More steer chasing above and a close up of the catch below.

Below is a photo of Mike and Harold busting out of the box in hot pursuit of their steer.

Below is a shot of Mike with the steer in tow and Harold getting set to snag the heels. Mike and Harold made it into the finals on Sunday afternoon but didn't get into the prizes.

Below is another shot of Mike and his horse hanging out waiting for their turn to rope, the rider in front of them is Bill Hamlin the fellow who rents Mike's Dads pasture in the coulee at the Buffalo Creek Ranch.

It was certainly a fun weekend with lots of things to watch and many new experiences for Blue to absorb. Once all the rodeo fun was done we headed to the Yaha Tinda for a few days of riding and relaxing, but that is for the next post.

More Yaha Tinda

2009-08-03T12:10:00.000-07:00

Well here it is late in July and Blue and I are thinking about another road trip. Well you will remember from my last post that Blue was having a little travel anxiety and didn’t want to load in the trailer. So we began a little remedial work on that. Turns out that with a little coaxing and the fact that his feed station was moved into the trailer he soon became quite willing to hop into the trailer. Not exactly the way the “horse whisperers” tell you to convince your horse to load but at least for the near future Blue is going to eat and he has figured out that the trailer is a pretty comfortable spot to dine at.

Once that issue was out of the way we loaded up and headed out to our favourite spot at the Yaha. The weather was spectacular and the scenery as usual beyond compare. There are always folks around out there who I either have met before or who are just waiting to be met this time. Once we got camp set up Blue and I took a spin around the Bighorn Camp just to see who was there and what had changed since last time we were out. There we a lot of folks camping there without horses and with tubes and blow-up boats for floating the river so there were some new and strange sights for Blue to get accustomed to. A couple of groups who are there pretty regularly invited us back to jaw a little in the evening once they got the campfires going so although Blue decided to hang out at our site, Meg, my Border Collie, and I did make the rounds but headed back to our own spot early to keep Blue company.

Some folks just returning from a pack trip, and below the view from the Lunch spot on the High Trail.

Our first full day we headed out onto what I call the High Trail and everyone else calls Popular Bluff. There is a spot up there that just begs to have someone setting enjoying the view while they eat there lunch although this time there was a pretty voracious bunch of biting flies up there to welcome us. Needless to say we didn’t stay for much longer than to get a few photos and then it was off down the hill. On the way home we rode up the backside of Eagle Lookout on a trail I hadn’t been on for a few years. It is quite often pretty muddy but with the hot dry weather we have been having it was not to bad. It brings you out on the ridge overlooking the Red Deer River valley and then back into camp.

Day two we headed west up the river towards Hidden Falls. This is a spot that is a must do at the Yaha Tinda, the falls have cut their way back into the hillside so that you actually have to walk down a steep narrow trail into the canyon to actually see them, not the nicest trip for a guy who doesn’t like heights but even though I was there by myself and could have made some excuse not to, I managed to slip and slide my way down in my riding boots and take a few photos. Maybe because of the surrounding forest or the cooler temperatures here the flies were not in evidence. I ate my lunch here and then managed to catch a few zzz’s before mounting up and heading back down to the valley. Not very often have I been here that there was absolutely no one else in the area. Once we got down the hill and heading back towards camp I started running into folks coming up. They told me the river crossing was pretty deep down by the camp so I thought well we will just find a good spot along the trail and cross somewhere else. Great plan, but once we got about halfway across the river we found a deep hole and Blue lost touch with the bottom. Now he is a pretty calm level-headed sort of fellow but this was a little unnerving for him so once he got solid ground back under his feet he went to doing a little bucking. After the dip we had just had my gloves and saddle were pretty wet and slick and I managed to get myself unloaded on a gravel bar mid-river. Rest assured it was an unplanned dismount and I didn’t stick the landing very well. Blue however continued across to the other side without me to weigh him down. Once there he stopped and just watched me as I tried to find a route across this glacial river. Luckily it was 75 degrees out so the cool water was quite refreshing. After Blue and I were reunited it was time to take stock of what was gone or broken. My camera had been in a saddle bag on the horn of the saddle and either my clutching or Blue’s lunging had dislodged that and we found it downstream hooked on a tree branch. Lucky break there although the repair depot will let me know whether the camera and lenses are repairable or we just brought them home for recycling. I had a few scrapes and bruises on my arm and back as well as some ribs that appear bruised or cracked. Not much I can do about those except try not to laugh or breath to deeply until they heal. Oh yah and the fact that later I noticed the back was torn out of my shirt gave some clue to the poor landing I managed. We did manage to cross the river many more times on this trip so there should be no lingering bad feelings about water crossings. And the bruises have gone and the ribs are healing fine.

Somewhere up there is the site of my horse swimming lessons

Day three I took a ride through what is a prescribed burn that has cleared a lot of the forest on the NW corner of the ranch and then stopped by Scalp Creek and the waterslides. Meg could actually hear folks down there and plunged directly over the hill and straight down as she figured where there were kids voices there would be people to throw a stick for her. Once I got Blue to the hitching place I wandered over and sure as shooting she was training a new bunch of stick throwers. There were a few bicycle riding folks up here also. One of them is camped right beside me in the campground so we had a visit and he tried to convince me that I should try the slides out. Even offered me his helmet. Now remember I had had an opportunity to test the waters out the day before downstream in the Red Deer River. While I was there some folks from Innisfail and Bowden, the Sawyers and Travis’s, who I had visited at their camp the day before arrived. Now remember this is water that had in its very recent past been ice. But they seemed to have fun sliding down the creek, between gasps of shock.

Scalp Creek waterslides above and Wolf Creek Falls below.

Day four I joined the Sawyers and Travis’s on a trip around the Wolf Creek trail. The weather was a little cooler today and we actually had a couple of opportunities to try out our slickers. I enjoyed this ride as usual and showed the folks a different trail to get back to camp without having to ride down the road into the ranch.

Now day five was a camp day. The Wolf Creek trail is a fairly long trail and I thought both Meg and Blue could use a relaxing day so we just hung out around camp all day and caught up on our napping and a little book reading for me. It is always interesting to just set and watch the comings and goings of other folks both those on horseback and folks who are just arriving or just leaving the campground.

Our last riding day we headed out past the YMCA’s Outpost camp and back around the High Trail going the other direction. Beautiful ride and the flies were less aggressive today than the first day so I actually managed to get my lunch eaten while sitting in that beautiful overlook spot.

Attack Cat

2009-07-18T10:47:00.000-07:00

Well it has been a while since I wrote an update to this blog that I am not yet publishing. What have I been up to that might be interesting to other folks. Well when you live on a farm there is certainly no end of things to do. Last week both of my boys and most of my grandchildren decided that a trip camping at the farm was in order. It sure was good to see them and Claire, Lucas and Annika. Madison was off visiting with her other grandparents in Saskatchewan so she missed the farm camping trip. Farms are a great place for kids, there are almost unlimited opportunities for exploring and it is pretty easy to get out from under the constant supervision of your parents. I am not sure that they stopped running for more than a few minutes the whole three days. They found the tree house that their Dad's had played in as kids and climbed over and around all the other machinery that has also been here that long. Then it was Eureka, they found a litter of new kittens in the barn. We get about one litter a summer and that gives us a self sustaining population of mousers. Now these aren't your typical house cats these are barn cats and wild as March hares. But somehow little kids and little animals just connect and all the cats in the barn seem to be a lot calmer this week than last.

One day this week Caron, my neice, and I decided that it was time to head for the hills with our horses. My intention was to load Blue and head down to her boarding stable and pick up Caron and her Canadian Warmblood, Kokanee, for a nice ride in Sunny Alberta's mountain landscape. Well you know about intentions, first Blue decided he did not want to go so he just wouldn't load in the trailer. This put me about 2 hours behind in picking up Caron and Kokanee. I finally surrendered and loaded Blue's mother Rosie and headed south to Bragg Creek to pick up the others. Now Caron has some concern about Kokanee loading but he hopped right in the trailer like a seasoned traveler and we were off. Oh did I mention the sunny Alberta part, well today it decided to rain a bit, like 2 inches or something. But we both had our slickers so we headed out anyway. We went west of Bragg Creek to an area called Little Elbow where there are numerous trails heading out into the beautiful Kananskis back country. We chose to ride one called the Big Elbow trail as it appeared to have good footing and was not very hilly, a concern on a wet rainy day. Other than the steady deluge of rain it was a beautiful day, what with the mists in the valleys and the clouds cloaking the mountain tops. We enjoyed a pretty quiet day in the mountains with nary another person or horse to interrupt our solitude and Kokanee, the arena horse, acquitted himself quite nicely. Caron you have a good one there.

Wednesday broke bright and sunny so the rain appears to be over for a while and we are back to being Sunny Alberta again. Now you remember the comment about Blue not wanting to load the other day, well today we began a little training program to overcome that hesitation, and I am glad to report that within a couple of days, we had come to a new understanding of the process. He loads, I am happy and we will continue our adventures together over the summer.

Friday was "pedicure day" for my equinine friends. They need to have their feet trimmed every couple or three months and Blue needed to have his shoes reset for a mountain trip next week. I also had shoes put on Willow so that she is ready as she is joining Caron next week at Bates Bar J camp, where Caron is the horse counsellor. She will spend 4 off the next 5 weeks leading budding equestrians on their daily trail rides. A wonderful experience for Willow and not to bad for Caron either.

Once we got the shoeing done Caron and I took Willow and Blue for a little test spin to try out those new shoes. We just kind of rode our usual trail around ours and our neighbour pastures checking fences and having a look at Lyle's cattle next door. Once we got up near our neighbours, the Cameron's, place we stopped for a visit with Leslie and her daughters Brook and Dale, boy have those girls grown since I last stopped by. This where the ride got interesting. They also have a new kitten, who I might mention bears a striking resemblance to one of our barn cats, and that kitten has a very attentive mother. My dog Meg, was with us but she is no threat to cats, so I was unconcerned about her presence. It appeared that Momma Cat was not about to let a dog set around her place. She repeatedly stalked and attacked Meg, much to Meg's chagrin. Even when Meg was a long way, 100 feet or so, away from the kitten that cat would not quit the assault. She even took a run at both of the horses although once confronted with a look up, a long ways up, Willows leg she thought better of that. Blue was not as unconcerned as Meg and decided that if this ferocious feline was going to attack him he just might kick her into the next county. Well he missed and I thought we had better break our visit short before we started some kind of range war between my animals and the neighbours. Sorry I didn't get any photos but it really was the stuff "Americans Funniest Home Videos" is made of. Even now the next morning I still can't believe what I know I saw and anyone I have told has look at me kind of askance. "You mean that cat attacked a big dog and two even bigger horses", yep that is exactly what I mean, and you know I haven't had a drink in years. Even have 4 upstanding young women as witnesses.

Haida Gwaii / Queen Charlotte Islands

2009-07-07T10:44:00.000-07:00

On June 29th my father and I flew off to Haida Gwaii or what is commonly called on maps the Queen Charlotte Islands for a fishing trip with his friend Gordon and his friend Nancy. For those of you who don't know where abouts the Islands are I have included a couple of Google Maps. It is about 3 1/2 hours flying from Calgary but it was an early flight so we were up at 3:30AM to make a 6:20 departure. That put us in Sandspit late in the morning.
We actually did all of our fishing on the Western side of the Islands up near the yellow pin in map below, near Hippa Island.

To get to the West side of the Islands we had to transit through a very narrow passage called the Skidegate Narrows and I have some shots of that below. The photo immediately below is of an place called Van Inlet, a long narrow fjord cutting about 4-5 miles into the centre of the North Island. This is where we had our prawn gear set out and we managed to harvest a couple of big bins full of them. The first bunch we ate most of while we were out there but the balance we froze and brought home. For all you Gulf Coast readers these fellows are bigger than the biggest I saw in Rockport last winter and they are already the orangeish red colour you look for when cooking those down there. Taste pretty good too.

Below are the photo's of our passage through the Narrows. The camera really doesn't do justice to its narrowness. And just to add a degree of difficulty the channel slaloms it way back and forth through these narrow spots (less than 100 feet wide in spots). Our boat was large enough that we were only able to traverse the Narrows at high water so this governed when we left Charlotte City the first day and when we had to return to make our flights home.

Not to good a focus on this shot below but you could almost touch the trees while leaning over the side. Not a spot to meet another vessel going the opposite direction.

Now the shot below is a special place. It is called Indian Head for obvious reasons, but it is also the point where we caught the lions share of our salmon. We were only here for a few hours but it was a pretty hectic few hours with two fish on the lines for much of the time.

Below is a photo of my Dad and I in a break in the action.

And here are Dad and Gordon enjoying a well deserved rest as we trolled for salmon.

Gordon is in the process of reeling up a Halibut from the briny depths here with Nancy and the Skipper, Ken, overseeing the work.

This guy appeared on July 3rd so I guess he was not planning on heading down south or over East for the Independence Day celebrations on the 4th. But he was sure keeping a close eye on our fish for us.

Oh yah, and here is the catch. The shiny critters are salmon, the bigger ones Springs or Kings they call them in Alaska and the smaller ones are Coho. The orange fish are Red Snappers and the others are a mixture of Halibut and Ling Cod. All pretty good eating fish.
Oh and I did mention some crabs we ate our fill on the boat and still managed to bring 30-40 home to share with the folks who were not lucky enough to come with us. These are much bigger than the Blue Crabs we shared with Bob and Molly and Rollie and Gina this past winter but tasted just as good. Who says everything is bigger in Texas. Rollie when these guys get loose they don't run away, they attack....lol

I would certainly be remiss if I didn't tell you about our guide and his boat for this trip. The Skippers name is Ken Seymour and the Jennifer Gayle is the boat. The Jennifer Gayle was big enough and seaworthy enough that she allowed us to head up the west coast of the islands where the other charter type boats were unable to go. Many of the spots we fished we were the only boat in sight and that may have explained that when we got to the airport we all had four boxes of fish to take home and the other travellers seemed fortunate when they had two. Oh well think of all the extra baggage charges that they saved.......LOL. You eat, sleep, and fish aboard the Jennifer Gayle and she made a great platform for all of it. We usually had our rods in the water within minutes of leaving whatever gorgeous anchorage we chose to stay in for the night. As for the food well when it came to supper if Ken ever wants to get out of the Sea Captain / Fishing Guide business he could open a pretty fancy restaurant. Other meals were cooked by members of the crew (us) as Ken was usually busy making sure we were in good fishing territory. There was certainly ample provisions on board to make eating an easy thing. Below is a shot of the Jennifer Gayle.

Who's Blue?

2009-07-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

He was born here 5 years ago and I raised him from a colt with the intention of making him my number one riding horse. I had him trained by a professional trainer as I came to the conclusion that I was too old to bounce anymore and she could probably do a better job of getting him started than I could. I was right he came back a great horse and is all I could have imagined him to be. At 5 he is finally old enough to take to the mountains on a regular basis and strong enough to carry this big old guy up most of the hills and across the rivers (see the Late July post for more on this) there. On May 28th Blue and I headed off in the Wild Blue Yonder at the Yaha Tinda ranch. The Yaha Tinda is a government of Canada ranch nestled in the mountains of western Alberta right near the boundary of Banff National Park. It is a pretty remote area and the Parks Service uses it as a place to winter and train the mounts that our Park Rangers use to patrol the Western National Parks.

Here is a shot of Blue and his dam Rosie on the day he was born. He is not really "blue" but his sire was and I was hoping he would be also, so around here he has always been "Shoulda Been Blue"
Here is a shot of him as a yearling. At that point he was almost bigger than Mom.

And this was taken at Eagle Lake this trip.

There is a campground located right on the ranch that is maintained by The Friends of the Eastern Slopes. It is not your regular RV spot as there are no formal parking sites and certainly no services, although there are pit toilets and some rudimentary horse stalls that can be used on a first come first served basis. Many of the folks who use this area simply keep their horses tied to their own trailers.

I took our camper and horse trailer out and Blue like many other horses spent the time not on the trail hanging around the trailer. There are four other horses back home on the farm and horses are typically quite a social group so with just me for company he is a pretty attentive trail partner. Those who know me know that I love taking trips with the horses into the mountains but sadly that is a summer time only pleasure in Alberta. Although the snow does not get real deep around these parts it does get slippery and mountain trails and slippery don’t go well together.

Well out there I ran into a bunch of folks who are regulars there and although I had not met any of them before we all know folks who know other folks so it didn’t take long to make some connections. Reminds me of RV’ers, when you have a lot in common it doesn’t take to long to make great friendships.

The first day out there we just set up camp and took a short ride just to stretch some cramped muscles from the trailer ride and get Blue a little familiar with his surroundings. This is a wintering and calving ground for many of the elk that summer in the National Parks so I had a chance to introduce him to his first elk cow and we also ran into three bald eagles and a couple of coyotes enjoying a feast from a elk carcass that was probably killed crossing the river.

Day two we took a ride across the flats along the Red Deer River down past the Eagle Creek Campground and the YMCA Outpost camp located near there before climbing up the steep trail to the top of Eagle Lookout. I call it Lonnie’s hill as he and his wife Robin were married at the top of the hill about the Outpost back when his father-in-law owned it and called it Frontier Town. That is a big hill and was pretty steep even for a fellow like Blue who is in good shape. I walked part of the way up but decided that my flaky heart would rather ride than walk. Didn’t want to induce a heart attack so we took our time. Oh, well it would certainly be a nice spot to leave from if one had to do that. With pounding hearts, both of us, we made it to the top and took in a great view. You can just feel your batteries recharging while you are setting here looking at the Rocky Mountains rolling off to west. We enjoyed the long slow slope back to the west that led us back to our camper and trailer.

Day three we joined a couple of fellows from Newfoundland via Fort McMurray, Dave and Steve and another couple from the Calgary area, Ian and Gord and took a ride out to Eagle Lake up in the James Pass. The trail was pretty muddy but we managed to slop our way through without sucking any shoes off although Dave and his horse, Preacher, had a little set to in the mud that ended with Dave doing a headstand in the slop. Pretty funny once we realized no one was hurt. I guess although it is messy falling off in a mud hole is actually a soft landing. Once again we got back to camp in plenty of time to loaf around and take a nap in the hot afternoon sun.
Sunday morning I decided to forego a ride today and just take my time getting camp packed up for the journey back to the farm.

It was a beautiful sunny day and I thought if I get home early enough I would be able to start on the lawnmowing around the yard and maybe get back out here later in the week. Once I got home and got Blue unloaded I had to overhaul the smaller John Deere front deck mower. The gas tank is contaminated so I had to remove that and drain it. Once that chore was done I got to work and managed to get Dad’s grass cut and then took the bigger diesel mower and did the barnyard and along the road. It looks so much better when it is trimmed up especially when all those wild marigolds (dandelions) are beheaded. Monday I managed to get my own yard done and start the watering process. Most times the weather takes care of that but we are enjoying a sustained hot sunny period right now.

2009-06-15T10:34:00.000-07:00

The stars were aligned and the weather was supposed to be great so I thought Blue and I could head back to the mountains and spend a few days in one of my favourite spots on earth. Dave and Sherry some friends we have made up here in the hills were spending a couple of weeks enjoying the country so we would have someone to ride with. Blue is a great listener but not much on conversation, at least the kind that you use your ears to listen too, so a little human company is welcome. Below is a shot of our camp with Blue peering around the trailer wondering what I am up to. Somebody asked for some photos and I said of course I took some, well when I had a look most of them were either out of focus or not very representative of the beauty of the spot so I dug back in my archives and pulled out some of the file photos. This is a shot of Warden's Rock at left centre looking from one of my favourite lunch spots on the Popular Bluff trail towards Banff National Park in the distance.

The shot below was taken this year looking from the Bighorn Campground towards James Pass. The elk are starting to calve right about now so the predators are out and about. There is a fully functioning ecosystem at work here. Over the few days I was here I heard about bears stalking calves and actually saw a wolf trying to run down a deer fawn. They passed out of sight before I could report on the results but my bet is on the wolf. That is the way the wilderness works.

On Friday we took a ride up into the ribbons and scouted out a new trail that the Friends of the Eastern Slopes are cutting so as to avoid a bog that there is presently a bridge across. It will be nice when the bridge is no longer needed as it probably takes a lot of maintenance and is always a spot that causes some anxiety for a lot of horses, Blue included. He doesn't like to just ride across but if I hop off he will follow me willingly. Probably thinks if that big lunk makes it across it should be safe for me. The weather was great for the first part of the trip and as we were eating our lunch a shower came up so we made the ride back to camp in our slickers.

Saturday we decided to take a longer ride around the Wolf Creek loop. About a mile and a half out of camp my wallet decided to fall out of my pocket and I didn't notice it till another mile had gone by. We had been working our way through some heavy bush and backtracking was not that easy. But lo and behold after about an hour of bushwacking around we cut our trail again and managed to follow it long enough to stumble upon the wallet. 1 in 10,000 that it would be found but it is firmly in my saddle bags now. We then continued on towards Wolf Creek, the trail in here crosses a fairly long stretch of steep side slope and I was surprised how well Blue negotiated it. Remember he is far from a seasoned mountain horse but hopefully by the end of summer he will be starting to master some of the things he has to learn. We stopped for our lunch at Wolf Creek falls and took some of those pictures I talked about not being in focus. Thankfully I had the one below and other than a few more grey hairs on Megs muzzle it is pretty much the way it looked Saturday. Truly a beautiful spot.

After lunch we kept on the trail and crossed the Red Deer River for the second time today. Dave and Sherry follow a trail that crosses the river a couple more times but I was leery of the crossings for Meg so opted to take the high trail back to the Eagle Creek campground where we met up again.

The shot below is of a rainbow that followed a brief downpour we had on Friday night. Probably a half inch of rain in 10 minutes so it was short and sweet.

Now Sunday rather than take another ride I thought as Meg was a little tired from her long journey the day before we would take our time and break camp before heading for home.

It will be a few weeks before we get another chance to head for the mountains so I dropped the camper off the truck in the quonset hut after giving it a good cleaning. It has developed the annoying habit of having the door come open while driving down the dusty roads, so it gets quite dusty inside. Have to figure that one out before the next trip.

Sunday was the day that my grandaughter Madison began her journey to being a top rated equestrian. She had her first lesson today and from all reports loves it. I know I will certainly need help keeping all the horses here at the farm well exercised and if I can get a few of the grandkids riding I may be able to just sit on the porch and reminisce about the old days......LOL.

Here is a shot of Madison and her lesson pony Cookie.

Here I Go Again

2009-06-14T10:37:00.000-07:00

I am going to attempt this blogging thing one last time. The contents of this journal will be mine and mine alone so the opinions and comments will be things that I think are worthy of sharing. Now as in most folks lives there are parts that are not probably wisely shared. I will try to honestly represent the peaks and valleys I go through on my journey "Down the Road from Dogpound" but there will be some topics that never make it to the public. I am not going to dwell on the low spots in life here unless there is some redeeming feature that might drive me to publish the story. But never fear if it is funny or even embarrassing to me I will try to relay it to my readers. If it is embarrassing to you and you want it published well I recommend you start your own blog and if you do I will feel free to provide a link to my readers. I guess in a nutshell what I am saying is that for the purpose of this journal I am going to spend more time on the peaks than in the valleys of life. Nevertheless I am sure I will have my share of time in those valleys, I just don't feel the overpowering need to share them with others.