Wednesday, October 29/2014

It is looking like it is going to be a fairly reasonable day. I do not think we had any frost last night as the airstrip is green, not white like it has been the last two mornings.
Lorne was up early and gone with the gravel truck. He is hauling around Sparwood today.
It is cabbage roll making day today so I had better get into gear and get them started. I think most of Lorne and Marilyn's kids are invited for supper so it should be a fun (and noisy) filled evening.
I just may have to keep Hogan in the camper tonight as that very scary baby - Miss Scarlet will be around tonight and she terrifies him!! She has learned to crawl so poor Hogan is not safe around her. She tries to touch him and he is not having any part in that!! That is just toooo scary for him!!
I headed into the house and started on the cabbage rolls and by 1:00 p.m. they were in the oven cooking.  Mmmmm, they do smell good!!
Marilyn was off to the massage therapist and I grabbed a quick shower. Time to get the cabbage smell off me!!
With that done, I was ready to great the remainder of the day. I had time to read a few chapters of my current book series The Game of Thrones as well. Man, what an awesome series. I can see why it is such a popular TV show.
John was busy most of the day up loading pictures to the blog so now I think we are pretty much caught up. Man, that is a full time job in itself!!
Lorne did not arrive home until after 6 so he certainly had a busy day. It was a "short" run today and there were lots of haulers so he said he spent a good part of his day waiting to get loaded. He referred to his day as ...... boring!!
Gentry (one of Lorne and Marilyn's boys) came home with Marilyn and got on the quad to go hunting. With his native ancestry, he is able to hunt "out of season" so he is hoping to get a deer and an elk.
The kids started arriving shortly after six and before too long the house was full of chaos. You know, the kind that only dogs and children can create!!
Hogan was flabbergasted and I decided that he would be far happier in the camper (away from scary baby, Scarlet). He was more than happy to accompany me outside!!
Supper was absolutely delicious. The prime rib roast was cooked to perfection and the cabbage rolls were a definite hit. I heard comments about the gravy being awesome as well. Everyone ate until they were stuffed.
As the evening progressed the little ones petered out or got cranky and that triggered the exit of the supper crowd.
It was awesome to spend time with the kids and get to know them a bit better. They are a good bunch.
Once they left, the house was virtually silent. The old adage, silence is golden just took on a very real meaning!!  Wow, I think I am tired from just watching the activity!!
Before too long, it was time for John, Marilyn and I to eat. Lorne had gone to bed earlier as he has another long day ahead of him tomorrow.
With our supper over and done with, we straightened up the kitchen and called it a night. Man, I think I ate too much!!
Once again, another awesome day here on the ranch surrounded by good food and even better company.

John, Brodie, Jordan and Lorne

Gentry and Marilyn

Lily

Tyler and Sheri

John and Brodie

Life is Good.

Marie, Kelsey and Tyler

Gentry and Marie

Sheri and Scarlet

John and Kelsey

Jordan and Marie

Marie and Lily

Tuesday, October 28/2014

We awoke to a cloudy day buy hey, it is not raining and not snowing so all is well. Today, John will be riding in Lorne's truck. He is hauling gravel out of the pit across the road from the ranch so it will be handy for Lorne to slip over and pick him up this afternoon.
It is in this same pit that a big grizzly bear attacked and mauled a hunter a few weeks ago. That is exactly how close to the attack that Lorne and Marilyn live. Lorne says the grizzlies usually do not cross the highway but he has seen them on the airstrip. Hell, Marilyn even has a few pics of a Mom and her two cubs on the runway!!
We decided last night that it is John's turn to cook so I have taken some ribs out of the freezer and he can show off his BBQ skills when him and Lorne get home off the gravel truck.
While he is out and about, I will start getting this camper back into shape for the start of our second leg of our trip south. We will be crossing the border on Saturday and starting the "US" leg of our journey.
John had a good day with Lorne. Marilyn scooted into town and I did get the camper clean. All in all, it was a good day.
Once everyone had returned home, it was time for a few refreshments then John put the ribs on the grill. Marilyn cooked up some basmati rice and some veggies and presto......supper was ready.
We spent another great evening enjoying the hospitality of Lorne and Marilyn and again, all too soon, it was time to call it a day. Time does fly when you are having fun!!

Lorne and John leaving

Life is Good!!

Monday, October 27/2014

I did not sleep well last night - maybe because I knew I had to get up earlier this morning, I don't know.   At one point I awoke to coyotes singing their songs and it sounded like they were not too terribly far away.  This was the first time I had heard them since we arrived.

Heading into Fernie

I got the coffee going and before too long we were headed into Fernie to a little repair shop called Backyard Mechanical.  Koodos need to go out to the owner for getting our truck in and looked at.  By 2:00 o'clock it was ready for pickup with a clean bill of health.  I can now continue the trip south knowing the truck is ok.  I will however, keep "The Powers" on standby!!

Heading out of Fernie - the sun is hitting the mountains -
Looks Awesome

There had been a heavy frost overnight and the highway was rather intimidating for me.  I had not travelled wet (possibly icy) roads for a long time.  It didn't take too long before I was back in Saskatchewan winter "driving" mode  and was entering the City of Fernie unscathed.

The Elk River

Once we dropped the truck off, it was off to the grocery store to get all the necessary ingredients for the cabbage rolls that are scheduled for Wednesday's supper.  With that done and the stop at the post office done, we headed back to "The Ranch" to await the repairs on the truck.

Fog in the area

At 2:00 p.m. we headed back into Fernie to pick up the truck, grab some beer and get back to the ranch for happy hour.  The trip home was exciting as there was a semi truck behind me (John had the camper in front of me) who thought he needed to ride my bumper.  I was driving the little tracker and was quite intimidated by him but thought "screw you, big guy, I have a right to the road as well".  It wasn't long before the highway allowed him to pass me so now he was able to ride John's bumper.  Of course I knew John would be slowing down to make a left hand turn off the highway so knew that this whole scenario was not good.  There is no turn lane so this asshole had to slow down.   Well how easy is that for a big semi?   Of course John got on the C.B. and had a not so friendly chat with the driver who informed John that he had a schedule to keep!!  Seriously!!!!  John asked him if his schedule was worth some one's life and the driver failed to answer him.  Of course I did not hear any of this exchange.   All I saw was the semi taking the shoulder of the road to get around John.   Jesus, Mary and Joseph, there was dirt, sand and gravel flying everywhere but the driver kept control and continued on his merry way.   Where are the cops when you need them??
Of course, there were two semi trucks behind me and I am sure they heard the exchange over the radio as I noticed that they had dropped back behind me.  I signalled in lots of time and I noted that the one semi directly behind me immediately put on his four way flashers indicating that he was slowing down.  Thank You Lord!!   I was never so glad to get off a piece of highway as I was then!!

The Hwy to "The Ranch"

Both Lorne and Marilyn arrived back home close to the same time and we then commenced with refreshments, conversation and supper.   All too soon, it was time to call it a day.
Once again, we have come to an end of yet another great day.   Life is Good.

Somewhere.....there is a Stellar Jay in the tree!!

Sunday, October 26/2014

It rained all night and this morning it is still raining.  It looks like this is going to be an all day event. Actually there was a point last night when I thought it sounded more like little pellets of sleet hitting the top of the camper and when I looked out this morning, there were indeed a few pellets remaining on top of the trailer. Well, I guess tis the season!!
It looks like the kind of day for a big bowl of soup and a good book!!
Around noon, it started to clear up and the constant drumming of the rain started to ease off.  Man. I am sure it has rained at least 2 or 3 inches since this system moved in. It is just so "wet" outside. There is lots of new snow up on the tops of the mountains now and several have an accumulation on their sides as well.  Looks like winter has come to the upper elevations.
Marilyn invited their life long friends Tressa and Wayne for supper tonight and she tells me the dress attire is "formal". I hope she means clean blue jeans and Tshirt as I left my gowns and jewels at home!!
Supper was great and the company was wonderful. I can see why these two couples have been such good friends for so many years. Both of them are so genuine. It is good to know there are still some pretty awesome folks in this world.
Of course Marilyn made way too much food so once again, we have enough in the fridge to last us until I make cabbage rolls on Wednesday.  I promised I would show Marilyn how a real Ukrainian makes them!!
Tressa had to work tomorrow and Wayne and Lorne were both unsure if they would be working in light of the heavy rainfall we just received so they all called for an early night which once again left John, Marilyn and myself sitting around the table chatting about anything and nothing.
Eventually, we too ate and called it a day.
The truck is scheduled in at the repair shop tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. so it is off to bed for me as I need to get up much earlier than that to greet the day and get the coffee on!!

Saturday, October 25/2014

Well, I went to bed early last night so am up early this morning. Time to check in on facebook and get the blog caught up!!
I don't really know what is planned for today so I guess we will play that by ear. At least there is no rain falling this morning so that is a good thing.
Hogan has already been out doing the perimeter check and making sure things are fine. Gosh, if he ever ran into one of those big elk on the air strip I am sure he would have a heart attack!!
The morning was spent just chillin.
Gentry, one of Lorne and Marilyn's boys came for a visit and decided to do a bit of cleaning up along the airstrip. This past summer, this area got hit by what sounds like a plow wind and there were many, many trees down. The airstrip had a few trees impinging on it after the blow but the surrounding woodlands took a beating so now Gentry is trying to get the mess cleaned up. He certainly has a big job ahead of him. Today he was burning one of the many piles of wood.
It was nice to meet him.
The afternoon found us on the back roads in the tracker. We loaded up the refreshments and headed out for a bit of a drive. Today we did a backwoods logging road that took us up and over one of the nearby mountain passes. The scenery along the way was phenomenal and with John in the front seat, he was the designated picture taker!!  It was funny with me reminding him to take pictures and not the other way around!!
We probably travelled today for about 3 1/2 hours and enjoyed every minute of it. Lorne is a encyclopedia of local knowledge and anecdotes so we are quite entertained. He has driven many of these back roads with his logging truck and is never short on little tidbits of information.
Once back at the house it was decided that we should have a campfire so John and Lorne got busy doing that and Marilyn and I waited inside the house until the fire was burning and sending off much welcomed waves of heat.
Kelsey (Lorne and Marilyn's daughter) and her boyfriend decided to come out and brought hot dogs, buns and marshmallows so we had an old fashioned wiener roast. It was nice to meet this couple as well so that leaves only Lani and her family for us to meet and since they live in Calgary, well that is not likely to happen this time around.
It started to rain after a few hours so that ended the campfire and we headed into the house for a nightcap (like we needed one).
We soon braved the elements once again and headed to the camper and bed. It looks like this rain is settling in for the night!!
Another great day spent with good friends. We truly are blessed.

Heading out

Our Mascott

Marilyn enjoying a beverage

Three Sister Mountains

Girls r peeing!

Lorne and Marilyn's kids have marked this spot 

Heading down the mountain and home

Friday, October 24/2014

Well, it seems to have finally quit raining.  The skies are clear and all seems well.
Lorne spent the morning servicing his truck as he chose not to drive today. Instead he thinks that today is a good day for taking us for a ride in his airplane.
I am sooo excited about this.
The flight was phenomenal. Lorne taxied out of the hanger and to the end of the runway where we boarded and took off!! Marilyn, who has been up more times than she cares to remember stayed at home. She volunteered to take pics of us taking off and she got a few good ones.
While we we taking off, a lone elk was eating the fresh young grass on the airstrip and as soon as he heard the approaching plane, took off into the bushes. That....was a very good thing!!
Once we were airborne, Lorne headed towards the Town of Sparwood as this is where he goes to fuel up. We landed there, took on fuel and once again headed off into the wild blue yonder.
I kept thinking "WOW".  It was totally awesome.
Lorne toured us up and down the Elk Valley and being the wonderful tour guide that he is, shared with us all sorts of wonderful information and anecdotes. He has lived in this valley all his life so certainly has stories to tell.
We flew for a good two hours I would think until finally, returning to his runway and landing. The whole trip was incredible.
Once we landed, we returned to the house, had a quick bite to eat and then headed off on yet another road trip. There would be no cooking for us today and it was time to road trip and eat out.
We were taken to several of the areas we had flown over earlier in the day and we got a whole new perspective on the lay of the land. There are certainly some beautiful homes nestled in and amongst the trees and lakes here. Once again, it was awesome.
We ended up in the small town of Jaffary which supports a local Bar and Grill and had a great meal and some great conversation with friends and relatives of Lorne and Marilyn.
All too soon, it was time to head home.

Lorne taxiing up with the plane

Tonight will be an early night as we are all feeling the need for a good night's rest.
John spoke to the repair shop today and the truck is going in on Monday morning to get the transmission looked at.
I see the Riders played football tonight, and lost to Calgary.....DAMN!!  That is not good!!

Lorne's hanger

Lorne and Marilyn's house

1953 Cessna

John, Marie and Lorne - just before take off

Getting our headsets on

Looking at camper from inside the airplane

The Instrument panal

Taking off

Airborne

The surrounding Mountains

The yellow tamarack was very apparent from the air

Marie enjoying the flight

At 6500 feet - awesome

The Elk Valley and the Town of Sparwood

Coming in for a landing to fuel up

Fuel tanks in each wing

A huge coal mine

Town of Sparwood and the Biggest Truck in the world.
See that little green thing at the bottom of the picture?  That is the truck!!

The Elk River

These mountains sit at about 9000 foot elevation

The Town of Fernie

More yellowing tamarack and some smaller lakes

This is a huge reservoir - extends about 75 miles

The bridge over Lake Chookanoosa (I probably spelt that wrong)

Lorne's Mom's place

Elk River Canyon and dam

Hole in the side of the mountain

Snow in them there hills!!

Back on the ground and waiting to go back
into the hangar

Mule deer ( or black tails, as Lorne calls them) near one of the little lakes

They were not concerned by us at all

This one actually was lying on the shoulder of the road.
He did get up when we passed but did not leave the road.

This deer was chillin on the green grass of a lake home.

Clay Hoodoos near the end of the reservoir 

Hoodoos and the reservoir in the distance

A popular pet cemetary.  

"Buddy" lies here