August 1/2014 - August 15/2014

At the boat launch at Deer Lake

I had several shifts at the home booked for these few weeks so that took up some time but we did manage to get out onto the trails a few times.   John and I, Casey and Suzie (a young girl from town) and the two dogs headed down to Deer Lake for a short ride.  The dogs loved the water and we spent a few hours enjoying the quiet of the forest.  Well....as quiet as it could be with two dogs vying for the same stick!!

Suzie and the Sammi

The dogs love to chase sticks into the water

Hogan being a goof in the water

Once again we tired the dogs out with all the running and swimming.  On this particular trip,  it started to rain so we sat in an abandoned fishing shack until it was over.  It didn't take too long and we headed for home with a stop at the church.... as usual.

Looking for the stick

Tonight's sunset

Casey and I took the dogs back down to Deer Lake a few days after these pics and spent a few hours there.   It was hotter than hell out and Casey floated around on the lake while I stayed on shore and threw sticks out for the dogs.  Man, they must have swam for two hours.   We all enjoyed the day and Casey got even more suntan!!
All in all it was another good two weeks but it is already the middle of August and some of the leaves are turning color and starting to fall off the trees.   All too soon, if you ask me but I did notice that the Golden Rod is in bloom along with the Asters and that is a sure sign of Fall.     Life goes on......

Roxy swimming out to Casey in Deer Lake

The serene beauty of Deer Lake

Along the edge of the lake

Roxy chilling on the air mattress

She loves the water and being with Casey
is a bonus!!

July 19/2014 - July 31/ 2014

The Alberta Cousins heading home.  They
stopped to say goodbye.

It was back to work for me for a few days but we did manage to get back out onto the trails over the next week or so.  With the Sami up and running, the dogs are able to come and since a little exercise certainly will not hurt either one of them, we have started taking them out and running them down the trails.   They love it and John and I get to have a quiet little "booze" cruise!!

John and I heading to Otter Lake
with the dogs

One trip we took was to Otter Lake where I had hoped to spend some time at the shoreline throwing sticks into the water and having the dogs fetch them for me.   I forgot just how muddy the shoreline was so that was a great big fail.  I did manage to get them covered with mud.  Neither they or John were too impressed with me!!

Roxy is always out in front

Dave (our Neighbour) said he found a quicker way to Otter Lake but it involved crossing a rather questionable "bridge".  It was good for the quads but he wondered about the Sami making it.  Of course we had to go check it out and found out the it indeed was a little "iffy" but always being up for a challenge and checking out just where the nearest tree was (just in case), John slowly advanced onto and over the bridge.  We were good to go.   While we were checking out the bridge, the dogs were checking out the water below.   Man, you just can't keep these two out of the water!!

The dogs love the water.

At Otter Lake

Once we got to Otter, the dogs were into the lake and enjoying the mud!!   I tried to get to a better spot along the shoreline and ended up brushing up against some stinging nettle.  Man, that shit actually stings!!  Yikes!!
With the dogs covered in mud, we let them run down the trail to dry off and decided to head over to Vimy where we knew the water was clean and the dogs could wash off.
Once again, we had not been on this particular trail for a few years and found parts of it to be rather closed in.  There must have been lots of snow on the trees as many were bent right over into the trail.. Thank heavens we were in the Sami as the trees just went up and over us without any trouble although I did manage to get a few good slaps to the face from some stray branches.

John and Sami at Vimy

We got to Vimy and the dogs got cleaned.  Man, you would think with all the running they did, that they would be too tired to swim.  That was not the case but after several trips into the lake, we were all ready to head home.

Roxy is ready for the ride home!!

With one final stop at the power pole to enjoy a refreshment and get a few  pics of the sunset, we finally made it home in time for supper.

Tonight's sunset

The dogs were happy to be home but tired.  Both settled in on the couch in the man cave and were soon snoring!!  I ate supper and was soon snoring too!!  Once again, another good day was had by all.
It is back to work for me now as I have a few shifts booked that will take us to the end of July.

Friday, July 18/2014

Jace and Kristie

Jace and Kim had to head home today so it was just John, Casey and I heading back over to Clearwater to spend some more time with the cousins.    Some of the pics posted to this day are from yesterday and of course as the night progressed, so did the silliness.  Yesterday was a ton of fun and I truly hope that we will be able to do this again next year and the year after and the year after that!!

Jace, Kristie and Casey….. a real bad combination

Casey and Brooke

We had promised the kids a trail ride yesterday so we loaded up the quads with riders and headed out onto one of the "kid" friendly trails.   Brooke rode with Casey.  Quinn rode with me and Tanton rode with his Mom Kristie.   It was a short trail and Quinn and I had to stop to pick some wild flowers for her Mom and we all  made it back safe and sound, including the flowers!!

Kristie and Tanton

Marie and Quinn

It was ribs for supper and I took over some lettuce and green onions out of the garden for salad.  That along with baked potatoes and we had the makings for an awesome meal.  We sat around the campfire and chatted enjoying the day and catching up on all the family "gossip".  Before too long, it was time to head back home and put an end to yet another great day.  Life is good!!

Thursday, July 17/2014

Kids on the tube at Clearwater Lake

John's cousin Edward and his family are here camping at Lac eau Claire for a week so today, we are all headed over there to spend some time with them.  Jace and Kim were supposed to go back to Saskatoon today but we convinced them to stay for a visit and just "play it by ear".
Although John and I saw Ed and Deb's daughter Kristie last year, neither Jace nor Casey have seen their kids since they were little.   Now the kids have kids!!
Jace and Kim headed over first then John, Casey and I headed over in the Sami.  We took the back trails over and that in itself was quite an adventure as the sami is set up for two people only.  Of course since I was the most healthy.....no broken backs or legs on this girl, I took the back!!
We arrived at the lake and enjoyed the day with the cousins.  We met all the kids and the kid's kids.  Man, it really makes one feel their age!!

Cousin Sheldon with Baby

We spent the afternoon at the lake enjoying some refreshments and watching the kids play in the water and getting a few tube rides behind Edward's boat.  Everyone, big and small had a great day at the beach.  Once the sun went down, it was time to get the campfire going and bring out the bush pies.  Alisha, Sheldon's wife made the filling and I heard was real nervous about me eating one as it was originally my recipe and she was concerned that she had not done it justice.  Of course she had nothing to worry about as it was delicious and the recipe is really hard to screw up......KIMMY!!  LOL

Jace bonded with baby Sawyer and had a few good pics taken with her.  She is a cutie, that is for sure although her Mother was not too terribly impressed with the beer can picture.

Cousin Ed

Back at camp, there were limited chairs and I managed to get a good shot of skinny Edward sitting quite contentedly in Quinn's little chair.  It is a good thing it was a sturdy thing.   He enjoyed the evening sitting in the chair drinking from his favorite glass "Randy".   God, it is so funny what you remember after all these years. I think Edward has had "Randy" for at least 25 years!!

Jace, Edward and John

Kimmy

Quinn and John under the umbrella, ella ella!!

We sat around the fire while Casey took all the kids on quad rides.  They loved it and Casey was their best friend for the rest of the day.  It did rain a bit but not enough to have to worry about it.  Eventually the kids went to bed and we partied until the wee hours of the morning when it was soon time to load up and head home with the promise to return tomorrow for another day at the lake.
We arrived home about an hour after we left the lake once again taking the trails home.  It was good to get home and I could hear the bed calling to me.   It was another great day spent with family.  How blessed we are to be making these wonderful memories.

Tanton waiting for his quad ride with Casey

Quinn and Casey

Jace under Quinn's umbrella

Wednesday, July 16/2014

Refreshment break

Jace and Kim drove out from Saskatoon today to get away from the daily stresses of life.  It was time to,  take some time and play!!  Too often we are consumed with what we should or should not do and forget that it is OK to have some fun.  Thankfully Kim put her foot down and told Jace that it was time to drive up here and have some "Ma and Pa" time and relax for a day.  We had a blast and it was well worth it!!

Cleaning off the tires

We headed down into The Block" and of course the first thing on the agenda was to play in the waters of Deer Lake under the guise of cleaning the tires.   Ok Jace, we all know you like the water!!

Lots of smoke in the air from fires burning fires in North West Territories

We had planned for a long ride today and the weather was great although smoke from raging forest fires in the NWTs had drifted down making it rather hazy.

Nasty Ass water 

Of course there is always mud and some challenging water holes along the way to five corners and today was no different.  While most of these holes can be avoided....yes, I said avoided, that was not meant to be today.

There is no going around for Jace

There is no going around for these idiots and Jace was the first to get stuck, having to get off his  machine and push!!  John thought he may need the winch but I guess when you have your chest waders on, it is OK to get off and push!!

Kimmy

Kimmy chose to go around this particular muddy spot and together, her and I waited for Jace to extricate himself from the mud.  Once that was done, we continued down the trail to five corners with out incident although we did pass a most gorgeous tiger lily supporting three blooms.  Once we made our refreshment stop, I made Kim walk back down the trail for a photo of it in all its glory.  Wow, I love the wild flowers we have here in our province.

A three blossom stem - Tiger Lily

John actually posted two pics of this Tiger Lily but I somehow managed to delete one - not sure how I did that but it did cause a rather nasty word to come out of my mouth.  Shit, Oh Dear,  I guess I do have "happy" fingers!!

At Five Corners

Trail to Whiskey Jump

We continued down the trail, speeding down to whiskey jump where, if you are going fast enough can "get some air" as you travel down the trail.  Since I was on behind Casey, it is safe to say that we Did Not "catch any air"!!    He actually is a very courteous driver!!

Headed to the old bridge

We headed over to the old bridge so that we could access trails that would eventually lead us to the Big River Grid Road.   The old bridge has been washed out for a few years but we heard that there was an easy way through the river so off we went to check it out.

We arrived at the river and found it had easy accessibility to the other side so we were good to go.  We took several pics here and I noticed the many shades of green that this area offered.  It truly is an awesome forest.

With the river crossing behind us, we continued down the trail.  John and I have not been on this particular trail for a few years and it was good the see that it really had not changed too much.  It still offered a few challenging spots but nothing we couldn't handle.  The trail eventually spit us out into the clear cut logging area and we stopped just before the grid road access.   Of course there were a few more wild flowers around and I did have to stop and get some pics.

Another awesome flower

A pretty moth

Jace stuck up to his ass at Chute Lake

We accessed the grid and then had to drive at least 16K to access the trail that would lead us back towards home.   Of course driving the grid that many miles at a good speed, did not take very long and we were soon headed over to McRobb Lake.   Of course we had to check out "the wet way" home and Jace found himself stuck up to his eyeballs near Chute Lake.   This was a great big FAIL and it took a while to get him unstuck..  It took two winches to finally convince the muskeg to let go of its prize!!

Needing the winch

Casey and John helping Jace get out of the muskeg

Once freed from the "skeg" we continued on and eventually made it to another water crossing near Harry Piche's Cabin.  This water crossing was real low considering there have been times when it was over the racks and flowing like a banshee!!  Today, it was an easy cross and a good place to have a refreshment.

Big smiles - back on the sandy trails near Hooker Lake

Eventually, we hooked up to Lilac Trail (one of my favs) and then to the open field by the actual lilac bush.  It was getting late and and mosquitoes where voracious.  Man, the buzzing in the air was incessant and one could certainly understand just how horrible it would be to be lost in this forest and die of exposure.  Thank heavens for 40 deet!!
Soon, it was time for the final leg home and we arrived back in the yard around 10:00 p.m.  The dogs were happy to see us and it was time for supper.   I think steak is on the menu for tonight.  Mmmmm
All in all, it was a good day, spent with family and enjoying the out doors.   Can it get any better than this?   I think not.