June 2019

The first part of June was plagued with the smoke from Alberta's forest fires.  There are huge fires burning in British Columbia as well.  Also Northern Montana is ablaze.  Everyone is in need of rain.Thank heavens Saskatchewan has been blessed with rain and forest fires in this province are minimal.
Kay started a whole mess of night shifts which she is not too impressed about but knows it comes with the job.
My garden is finally done.  I gave it to my neighbor to plant so I hope I don't regret this decision.  I am unable to care for it this year because of my hips but I hope it flourishes and gets put to good use.

My summer kitchen is finally coming to gather.  John hooked up the stove and did some wiring so that I now have an overhead light.  I will be doing most of our cooking in the summer kitchen so that should help with all the up and down on the camper stairs and the wear and tear on my poor old hips.
I finally had to face the fact that I can no longer work at the nursing home because of my hips.  I had a meeting with the Director of Care and we both agree that it has come down to a safety issue as such that if anything happened and I could not respond in a hurry that just may be a problem.  If I couldn't get to a choking resident fast enough or if there was a fire and I had to start evacuating residents.....  Now that could really get ugly.  Sooo, I had to close that chapter of my life and it was a very hard pill to swallow.   We left it at the point where if my hips improve then I could return.  Unfortunately, that is not likely to happen anytime soon.  I am on the urgent list for a left hip replacement and on the elective list for a right hip replacement.  I'm looking at a two year hiatus from nursing and that would bring me to the age of 65 so really, is returning to my career a reasonable expectation.  No, it wasn't but I really had trouble wrapping my mind around it.  I couldn't even think about it or even talk about it without crying.  I was soooo colossally sad.  I have loved everyday of my nursing career and am sooo blessed that I was lucky enough to have found a job that I looked forward too every day.

a cute little cabin in the woods by Mystery Lake

One of our woodland creatures

John and I took several trips into the forest and that was a blessing.  It kept me busy and my mind off my sadness.  We met Dave and Shirley a few times on the trail for beers and to let the dogs play. They love romping around and pretending they are pups again.
We got a load of wood for the wood stove and spent several hours enjoying the view of Otter Lake.  It is very peaceful there.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders had their first game of the season and unfortunately, they lost!!  Oh well, they can only get better....right?

Booko crossing the little stream as we head to Deer Lake

Frolicking at the boat launch at Deer Lake

We took a few trips down to Deer Lake to give Booko ar run.  He loves to run and the lake is the "dog biscuit at the end of the run.  He gets a drink and plays at the lake edge.  He is not comfortable swimming but loves to play at the edge.

First Tiger Lily of the season

The kids were going to come up and stay in the yard for the Father's Day Rally.  Instead, they decided to stay at Lac Eau Claire and that was more than fine with us.  We ended up taking a trip over to the lake with Truckee.  We started at the Vimy Tower Road, headed down past Huard Lake and ended up at Lac Eau Claire where we had a good visit.  We came home the back grid and all in all, it was a good day.

Planes coming into the Great Falls Airport

On the 20th I went for a pedicure and then we headed out on a "vacation".  I was still very sad about my career coming to an end and my depression was not getting any better so John decided to get me out of here and go on a trip.  We didn't tell the kids we were leaving and thought we would see how long it took them to track us down,
John decided to go visit friends in Montana and it wasn't until we had been gone for three days that we got a call from Kimmy asking us "what the hell are you doing down there"?  We had to laugh!!
The day we left, we travelled all day and all night in blinding rain and nasty wind.  It definitely was not good travel weather.

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We arrived in Whitehall, Montana On the 22nd and spent the next four days visiting, quaking and just  relaxing.  We had a really good time and Karl could not believe that we actually came for a visit.
We had brought our side by side with us in the hopes that we could go for a little ride but once John got in unloaded, he discovered that he had a big leak in the rad hose so that put an end to that idea.  Not to be deterred though, we decided to all climb into Karl's mule and go for a short trip.
When I say we "all", I mean 6 people!!  We had called Kay's sister in law (who also lives in Whitehall) and asked her to join us and she agreed and Rob, one of Karl's and Naomie"s friends joined us as well.  Needless to say we were all squeezed into the mule and headed out.
I had wanted to see and hear the "Ringing Rocks" so, that was our first stop.  The Ringing Rocks are a highly unusual rock formation.  When the boulders are tapped with a hammer, they "ring" like a bell.  The different rocks produce different sounds qualities and a rock will no longer ring once it has been removed from the formation. (Thank heavens for google!!). It was really quite fascinating and I'm glad we were able to get to hear them.

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Ringing Rocks

Once we were done at the Ringing Rocks, we headed over to the little creek that flows not too far from Karl's back yard.  It too was pretty cool to see.
We stayed there for a bit, enjoying the views and then headed back to the yard where one of John's raging bonfires awaited us.
John and I took a quick trip into Butte, Mt to get the radiator hose and were lucky enough to find one.  We stopped and picked up dog food there as well then headed back to Whitehall.

We spent a few more quiet days at the ranch then headed out so that we could get back into Canada and arrive at Lorne and Marilyn's before the July 1st weekend party.
We stayed at a fishing access in Montana that night and then headed up to  Eureka to do some final grocery shopping before crossing back into Canada.
We crossed back into Canada on the 27th and settled into our usual spot on the Airstrip at Lorne and Marilyn's.  It was hotdogs over the campfire that first night and they tasted delicious - Like only a hotdog can,  roasted over an open fire.
The next few days were spent celebrating the Canada Day Weekend by going on a couple beer cruises and enjoying several games of Corn Hole and chatting with all the guests that arrived.  
The weather cooperated and the food was delicious.  One day we had a fish fry courtesy of Walter and Heather.  They had been fishing at their cabin in Northern Saskatchewan and decided that this would be their contribution to the weekend.  Wayne and Theresa supplied her signature lasagna and of course, her homemade French bread.  John and I supplied ribs and baked potatoes.  All the food was delicious and makes this weekend extra special.       Life is Good!!