Sunday, June 18/2017 - Saturday, June 24/2017

Leoville rally

Sunday dawned a bit dreary and it certainly looked like rain would be in our forecast but we loaded up and headed out onto the quad rally trail.  There looked to be a lot less riders this year but that only meant it would not be as crowded on the trails.

John and Kelly

There was mud and wet and rain and getting stuck and winching but we had a blast on the trail.  Lots of laughs, fun and frolic.   No one came out clean, that is for sure.  The mud was flying and the rains came just to add a little more spice to our lives!!  By the end of the day, we were covered in mud and with the upcoming 8 miles of road home, we would add "cold" to the list of adjectives to describing the day!!  Fun was had by all!!

forest trail

Clear cutting by a local company

Tons of logs along the trail in the clear cut

And yes, there was mud!!

The bridge on Vimy Tower Road

beaver lodge

Beverage on the trail

Had a bit of rain that day - rainbow.....should mean the end of the rain

We arrived back in Leoville after the rally and enjoyed a hot chili supper and that certainly "hit the spot".   I had made chili the day before knowing that we would be hungry when we finished and knowing that no one would feel like cooking so it was chili - premade and that required minimal work.   I tossed it into a pot to heat and we enjoyed the warmth of the food in the mancave.  Gary had made buns on Saturday so we had fresh buns and chili .... and, it was good.  Al stayed for supper and decided that he would stay the night.  It would be a lot safer that way for sure.  No driving down the grid when it was not necessary.  All in all, it was another good day in the forest!!

Booko trying to fit in Masons bed

Moose calf on the north road

Monday, was most definitely a "quiet" day.  We were all stiff and sore from all the smashing and crashing around on the trail yesterday so I for one was looking forward to a "do nothing" sort of day!! I think we all had a bit of "the old grey mare syndrome".  I for one definitely am .... "not what she used to be"!!  The weather was cloudy but we did have periods of sunshine so that was a nice reprieve from the past few days.
John had to check out why the hot water heater was not working in the big trailer so he did that and discovered that the heater actually works much better when it had water in it!!  Not sure how that happened but at least it was easily remedied and now Kelly has hot water in her trailer!!  She is currently staying in the big 37 foot fifth wheel here in the yard so she thinks she has a roomy condo for the rest of the week!!  It  is pretty cozy in there, I must say!!

Beverage at the gravel pit

On Tuesday, I had a mandatory safety meeting to attend at Evergreen so headed over there with my sauerkraut/corn salad for the potluck lunch and meeting at 1:00p.m.   Gale had stopped by before I left and we had a quick chat and when I left for my meeting, her, John and Kelly had just cracked their first adult refreshment of the day.  Gale said she didn't know what she was going to have for supper at her place so decided to come and see what we were having.   She invited herself for supper and her problem was solved!!
The meeting was over by 4:00 o'clock and by then it was time to take Booko for a run.  We headed out and got back in time to get supper on and await Gale's arrival.
John cooked chicken and we had the "special" potatoe/veggie combo with it.  As usual, it was delicious.  It was 10:00 oclock by the time Gale headed home and I was in bed shortly thereafter!!

Booko and Mason

Deer

We had hoped to get at least one ride in this week while Kelly was here but Mother Nature was bound and determined to keep raining so we never did get back out to the trails.  We did make a few trips down the road to give Booko his runs and on one of the trips we stopped and showed Kelly the Timberland School and the Lutheran Church.   Both of these places are steeped in the history of the area and it is always a pleasure to go inside these building and feel that history.  They are both incredibly unique and we are so blessed to have the opportunity to check them out from time to time.

Marie and Kelly at Timberlost school

Marie, Kelly and Booko at the palpit in Timberland church
I said a few words from the bible while we were in the church
but I really do not think John nor Kelly were really listening!!
They are going to be going to Hell for sure!!

Chillin in the man cave

Booko chillin in the man cave

It remained chilly and damp for the rest of the week but we did manage to get a trip to Meadow Lake in .   The roads were totally shitty on the way there but had dried a bit by the time we coming home so it made to trip home much less stressful.  Booko needed some more of his antifungal pills so that is the reason for the trip.  We did not see any bears on the trip to or from Meadow but we did see lots of deer so that was a good thing.   We did get to see a Mom Moose and her calf on one of our trips down the north road so we were all thrilled by that.

Kelly has a friend

Kelly's Mason

Booko and Mason actually got along fairly well this week although Mason does have a protective streak in him and often snarled and snapped at Booko if he got too close to Kelly.  Booko of course thought he was playing so the gongshow was on!!  Kelly found out that Mason loves real bones as he laid claim to several that were lying in the yard.  Booko didn't seem to care but took every opportunity to bug him when he was chewing on them!!

Mason stealing Booko's bone

More rally pics

We managed to watch our first regular season football game this week and it was between our Riders and Montreal.  We lost by one point and our little mascot was once again, turned towards the wall!!  He is allowed to look out into the room only if the Riders win!!

Beverage with the "locals"

Al photobombing our pic!!

A little stuck or,  a lot stuck....depends on one's perspective!!

Winch time

Run the winch

Back in Church

All too soon, Friday rolled around and it was time for Kelly to head back to Saskatoon.  Life started getting in the way of our fun times here in Leoville.  Kelly was scheduled to have the trailer back to Kayla by the end of the day so that meant that the week was coming to a close.  All in all, it was an awesome week and both John and I hope that we showed Kelly a good time and that she was able to have lots of R and R.    It truly was a fun week.
 It was cloudy with periods of sunshine and we actually got to sit outside and enjoy a few cups of coffee before Kelly and Mason had to leave.
Saturday dawned cloudy and rainy.   Enough already with all this bloody rain!!   Eventually the sun did shine and John and I were able to sit outside and enjoy the day. John started a fire and Gary came over for a few adult beverages.  Before too long, we were joined by Dave and Shirley and Jeff and Amanda.  Good grief....a party had once again broken out in the yard.  Of course we had to reach out to Kelly and make her jealous for not being able to join us!!
Once everyone had departed though, John and I headed into the mancave where he cooked supper and we ended up chatting with Kay on the phone.  All in all, it was an awesome week and......Life is Good!!

Sunday, June 11/2017 - Saturday, June 17/2017

It continued to be rainy and rather dreary looking to start off this week but that was okay since I was scheduled to work another day shift at the nursing home.   There was no point in having pleasant weather when I had to work!!  The garden could use the water anyway.
Monday morning arrived with the sun shining and the birds singing so I'm thinking that the rain has decided to give us a break and we can now enjoy the sunshine.
John got busy getting the camper out of the shop and set up outside for any wayward visitors that decide to spend some time here in the yard.   That was a job well done.   The roof got its necessary repairs and all is well again in camper land.  Of course moving the truck camper out of the shop involved having to move the quad trailer as well so that got done too.   Wow, we are making some progress!!
With that camper out of the shop, the free space in there is significant.  John still needs to get the other little camper out of there and then maybe he will start on my summer kitchen!!  Now, that would be so cool.
Dave and Shirley came over for a visit and we ended up sitting around the campfire sharing adult beverages and some laughs.  The evening was quite nice after we all sprayed with mosquito repellent!!
Tuesday arrived and the weather turned dreary again.   It was a good day to do laundry so I got a load started and then put the sprinkler on the garden.  Although it looked like it could rain, the garden was looking rather parched so I thought "what the hell, I will water anyway and if it starts to rain then I will just shut it off"!!  As it turned out, it didn't rain until later that evening and by that time my garden was watered and looking happy.  I am sure the weeds even appreciated the water!!
We took Booko for a run today in "Old Blue".  It was the first run of the season for him and he motored down the road without any trouble.  The old ford is getting pretty tired but I guess that brand new battery has given it a new lease on life!!
While we were out, we saw a Mom deer and her baby.  The baby was lying down in the tall grass and the Mom was simply standing beside it.  John backed the truck up so that I could get a picture and the Mom scooted across the road into the trees leaving baby behind.  We did get a cute picture of baby sticking his head up though so the whole trip was well worth it.  And, Booko got a much needed run.
This week also marked the return of the phone.   My, what a long haul this has been.  It has been darn near 6 weeks since I dropped the "old" phone into the toilet and destroyed it.   The first replacement that was sent did not work properly so another had to be sent out.  Well, it arrived on Tuesday and Holy Buckets......it actually WORKS!!   We can now take pictures again!!  Woo Hoo!!
Wednesday was dreary again but we did manage to get Booko out for another run and John cut the grass again. We also took a quick trip to Buck Lake where we gathered more wood.  the mosquitos were relentless so we didn't really waste any time at all.  It was simply out of the truck and back in as quick as possible.   We did not see any wildlife at all on the way back into town and that was rather disappointing.
On Thursday, John got the "big" trailer all set up and ready for Kelly.  She is coming for the rally this weekend and will be staying for a few days after so we will be busy visiting and quadding in the upcoming week.   It should be fun and both John and I are looking forward to her visit.
We managed to watch one of the preseason football games this week and it was good to finally watch a game.  I am sooo looking forward to the upcoming season and hope that our Saskatchewan Roughriders do well.  Time will tell!!

Booko learning to ride in the back of the truck

Fawn hiding in the grass

Booko getting his run in

Time for a drink

On Friday, the day started out dreary (Gosh, that seems to be the going thing this week) but the sun did break through and I am hoping for a sunny day.   My garden is hoping the same thing!!
Scotty and Jim stopped by for a quick visit.  They are headed to Clearwater for the weekend and with any luck, we just may meet them on the Rally on Sunday.
Kelly arrived while they were still here so we all had a good visit.  All too soon, Scott and Jim had to head out and that left us with Kelly.  We had a nice little visit and then Gary joined us and the party week started!!
Saturday brought MORE RAIN and that was nasty.   The trail for tomorrow's quad rally will surely be muddy and with today's rain.......well, that is just going to make it even nastier!!
I did manage to get the dill seed that Kelly brought into the garden and was glad of that.   I really would have been sad if she was not able to find any in Saskatoon.  Fortunately, someone mentioned Early"s Seed and Feed and that is where she finally found it!!  Woo Hoo!!
Saturday night found us eating steak and partying in the man cave as the weather remained rather "shitty" all day.  It was early to bed for us as tomorrow is going to be a long day.  Life is Good!!

Sunday, June 4/2017 - Saturday, June 10/2017

The weather has certainly improved and that is a good thing.  It looks like the garden will be planted this week and that too will be a good thing.
On Sunday, we joined Dave and Shirley at Buck Lake.   The trail has been blocked by fallen trees since the Spring and today, Dave wanted to take the chainsaw and cut the trail open.  I had worked night shift on Saturday so we made plans to head out to the trail a bit later in the day.
John cut a bit of grass before we left then followed Dave and Shirley out to the trail.  We had to empty the sewer tote before we headed out so were a few minutes behind them.
When we arrived at the trail, Dave and Shirley had already cut the offending trees out of the way and were sitting in their lawn chairs enjoying an adult beverage on the hill, overlooking the lake.
It was a beautiful day and oh so peaceful here at the lake.  It wasn't long before John and I joined them and we too enjoyed the day's sunshine and incredible scenery.
Booko ran around like the pup he is and made several trips down to the water's edge.  He obviously has no issues going into the water as he came back soaked!!  Of course the mosquitoes and horseflies loved that and he made several trips down to the water in what we think were fruitless attempts to evade the nasty little insects.  Eventually, he headed to the truck and looked at John as if to say "can you please open the door and let me in?"  He huddled in the truck for a while "hiding" from the offensive little insects.   He did eventually come back out and tolerated us spraying him with bug repellent although I swear, he thinks we are trying to kill him with it!!
Eventually, the sun waned and it was time to think about heading home.  Before we did that though, John asked Dave to stop and cut a few pieces of wood for us.   There were several long trees stacked up at the end of the trail so, we did stop and get a good jag of wood that could be put into the trailer for future use in the campfire!!
When we did arrive home, John started a fire and Dave and Shirley came over and we shared a few more adult beverages......Lord only knows, we sure needed them!!  LOL
On Monday, the skies looked very threatening and it sure looked like rain was in our near future. Shirley brought her coffee over and we started on the garden.   We had it done in about 2 1/2 hours and that was a VERY GOOD THING!!   The skies had started to sprinkle on us and we thought.....go ahead,  rain now!!  All that needs to be done now is for us to watch it grow and harvest what it offers!!
Tuesday was a work day so I had to rest up for my night shift!!   The sun was shining and I am sure the little seeds we planted yesterday were busy sprouting!!  I walked over and had a coffee with Cheryle today and gave her the cilantro seeds I had.  Cheryle plants her herbs from seed into pots while I prefer to plant my herbs as bedding plants.  It gives them a head start, that is for sure.
Gary had been out fishing and brought back some good sized northern pike today.  While he was filleting them he somehow managed to cut his finger so I had to provide some first aid to the bleeding wound.  Man, I really hate the sight of blood!!  I got paid for my services though as we now have a good feed of fresh fish for tomorrow's supper!!   Actually we would have had the fish without the first aid services!!  Work went without a hitch but it was good to finally get to hit the bed in morning.
John fried up the fish using the "secret" recipe I got from Terry in Utah and it was delicious!!  Soooo yummy and with the french fries and coleslaw.    Man, what an awesome meal.  I really am going to have to get my fishing license this year as we do so enjoy the fish.
Thursday found us in the side by side headed down into "The Block".   We wanted to see if we could make it to Otter Lake.  Who knows how many trees are down along the trail but we were bound to find out.   Gary came with us and we made a few stops along the way for refreshments.  We stopped along Beau Creek and Mr. Beaver had been busy adding to his dam.  The flow of the water had been slowed but not stopped completely.
It was at this spot that I realized just how bad the tent caterpillar infestation was.  One could actually hear the little creepy crawlers chewing on the leaves.....that is how bad it was!!  The leaves were falling from the trees like they do in the fall.   The ground was covered with half eaten leaves and there were several caterpillars swimming on the surface tension of the nearby pond.  One had to only look up on the surrounding hills to see the huge areas of denuded trees to see the destruction these worms were causing.  It was really quite ugly.
We carried on down the trail and with each low hanging branch we passed under and disturbed we had to pick off several caterpillars that had fallen on us.   Good Grief.....they were everywhere and at one point I thought I was in some sort of Hitchcock horror movie.  I swear that by the end of the day,  I had picked  975 million caterpillars off John and I!!  Give or take a few!!
Unfortunately, we were unable to get to Otter Lake as we came upon a few huge trees that were down across the trail and we were unable to go around them as they were down in an area that had a rather steep cliff to one side.  I wasn't too terribly upset by this as I had just about had enough of those damn caterpillars!!  We turned around and headed back the way we came.  The only saving grace with this was that I was hoping that we had knocked most of the caterpillars off the branches we had just passed under!!  All in all though, it was an awesome day in the forest (caterpillars not included).
We made it home in good time and John BBQ'd steak for supper as I was scheduled for two day shifts this upcoming weekend so would miss our usual Saturday steak supper.  Now, being a steak lover.....that was not going to happen!!
Friday night found us huddled around the campfire under the umbrellas as the rain Gods felt that is was necessary to make their presence known to us.  We enjoyed a few vodkas until I somehow managed to break the glass container that the vodka was in and I soon had the Lake of Vodka on the man cave floor.  Imagine my horror as I watched it spread out across the floor knowing there was not one thing I could do to save any of it.   The glass had shattered into a bazillion pieces and the floor was filthy.   There would be no saving any of it and I was SAD!!
I had to confess my most recent "sin" to John who simply said "Nothing surprises me anymore from you".  Now, what the hell is that supposed to mean???   LOL
I walked to work Saturday morning in the rain and the day remained dreary.  We had a "good day at the office" but I was glad when the shift was over and I could come home, put my feet up and rest a bit before heading to bed.
It was a busy week but a good one.  I battled nature's caterpillars and the Vodka demons but I seem to have survived both.    Life is Good!!

Sunday, May 28/2017 - Saturday, June 3/2017

This week will bring us into June and once again, you can not help but think.....time flies.
Casey, Megan and Gabriella left early Sunday morning as they had to be back in Saskatoon by 10:00 so I was up making coffee and getting them sent off.
After they left, I settled into the recliner and watched the movie "Noah", starring Russell Crowe.  It was good and it gave me time to just rest after the hectic past few days!!   Man, I think I am getting old!!
John had to cut grass again this week (on Sunday) and is hoping that he won't have to cut it again for at least another week.  Geez, I'm thinking he cut it about four days ago and with all the rain lately, well, it is growing faster than he can fill the gas tank on the mower!!  I did manage to go around the perimeter of the fence with Roundup so hopefully that makes things look a little neater.
We headed over to Meadow Lake with Booko for his vet checkup on Tuesday.  The "checkup" in itself was a gong show as the vet never did look at him.  So...no blood work and no lung picture!!  We did however get told that the antifungal drug he was on was available through Edmonton so that was a good thing!!  We were also told that the flea/tick collar around Booko's neck was useless.  They compared it to us hanging a roll of fly paper around our necks!!  OK then - off it came and we bought a tick "cookie" for him to take.  It was quite an adventure needless to say.  Hopefully the drugs get ordered and we can get back on track on the follow up appointment.
We did manage to see two bear and two deer on the way to Meadow Lake and once in Meadow, I did get all my bedding plants so the trip wasn't a total waste of time.
I worked three shifts at the nursing home this week and that really finished off this week nicely.
The weather has been mostly rainy and the garden still needs to be planted!!  Perhaps this upcoming week will be better weatherwise.    Life is Good.