Friday, September 9/2011

Northern Lights

Full Moon

Fire God Looking Out!

The sun is shining again this morning and according to the weather man, it will be in the 30s again today.  I guess I will do the potato salad thing for supper tonight.
As I am sitting here today, I hear the elk whistling and a flock of geese has just flown over the bus.  Oh, the sounds of the changing season are in the air and I can't help but think how incredibly lucky I am to be able to witness such as event.  There is always a sense of anticipation with these changes - the wonder of things to come.
The neighbors huge maple trees are turning more yellow each day and that alone is interesting to watch.  The screeching of the blue jays is heard more frequently lately and I wonder why.  Could it be,  that they too,  are heralding the changing of the season?
I made three more pies today and finally am done with all the apples Gary brought me!!  It is truly a good thing that I do not have to cook them as it would be incredibly hot in this bus if the oven was on.  It is hot enough just with this temperature outside!!
Eventually, the day cooled and John and I sat around the campfire.  Tonight, we were blessed with the Northern Lights.  They were quite vivid and danced across the sky for a couple of hours.   John tried to take pics of them but I am not sure if the camera was able to pick them up.  I am afraid that our little camera has limitations and the Northern Lights just may be one of them!!.  It was a wonderful ending to an otherwise awesome evening.

Thursday, September 8/2011

Well I am up early again this morning and the sun is once again shining like crazy.  With coffee on the go, I quickly finish up the blog then get started on the pies.  I will have them done before John even gets out of bed!!
With the pies done (two for Gary and one for Shirley) I quickly did up some macaroni so that we could have a "cold" supper tonight.  Who is going to feel like cooking and eating something hot in this 32C heat?
I washed clothes today as it was was hot enough to have them dry out on the clothes line by the time the next  load was ready to hang!!
Gary came by for a quick visit.  He is more than pleased with the pies I have made for him.  I think I still have enough apples to make a few more!!  Dave stopped by while we were sitting with Gary.  He arrived on his quad with some garden refuse tied to the front rack.  He is on his way out to his deer stands with more bait and just wanted us to know he was going.  He said if he wasn't back in a couple of hours, to come looking for him.  It is always a good idea around here to give someone a heads up as to where you are going and when you are hoping to be back.  I see he carried his little "coach" gun with him - just in case he came across a "too friendly" bear!!
He was gone for nearly 2 hours and I had just asked John if his two hours were up when we heard him coming down the road.  He had squeaked in under the two hour time limit!!
Shirley arrived home from work shortly after Dave arrived so we all sat around in the shade and chatted about the day's activities.  Shirley is apparently off for the weekend so she is happy about that.  We will have to get out on the quads or go fishing on her days off.
John found a fishing boat for sale on Kijiji and it is in Saskatoon so Jace will have to go take a look at it this weekend.  He discussed it with Dave who also saw it and was thinking of buying it himself!!  He said it looked like a good deal and thinks he had one just like it previously and he loved it.  It has a "wide" body which apparently makes it quite stable in the water.  It would be totally awesome to have a fishing boat up here and available for fishing the lakes around here.

Wednesday, September 7/2011

OH My - it looks like it is going to be another scorcher of a day!!  The sun is shining this morning when I got up and decided that if I was going to make apple pies, I had better get it done before it got too hot.
I made three pies this morning and I must say, they looked awesome when I was finished with them.  I took them over to Gary's and he wasn't home!!  He had left the back door open so I simply left them on his counter.  He had not wanted them cooked and that was a blessing in disguise as it would have been brutal to bake pies in this heat!!
It wasn't too long before Gary was over thanking me for the pies and I told him I had apples enough for a few more so I think he was quite pleased about that.
Gina stopped by today with my Avon order.  I now have enough shampoo and conditioner to take down to Arizona again this year.
With the temperature well into the 30s today, I cleaned up the mess in the kitchen and relaxed for the rest of the day. The fans were running full speed and I even contemplated turning on the air conditioning in the bus - which I didn't bother doing because it would involve me actually getting up out of the chair to do it!!
Eventually, the day cooled down and we enjoyed a pleasant evening.  According to the weather man, it is supposed to be hot again tomorrow!!

Tuesday, September 6/2011

The sun is shining again this morning and I dare say it is already hot!!  Nice!!  I wonder what I should do today.....
As it turned out, I really did nothing!!  Shirley came over and I helped her get some beets so that she could pickle them.  She also mentioned something about trying some beet relish.
We also raided the cucumber patch and managed to get a big bowl of those as well.  She certainly has her work cut out for her today.  Shirley is a busy woman and is always on the go,  doing something!!
I watered the garden when she left as there are still all kinds of blossoms on the cucumber vines and we will likely have another batch of cucs for Shirley to make either pickles or relish if we keep the vines happy.
The tomatoes are awesome and I picked three ripe ones off the vines today and John and I enjoyed toasted tomato sandwiches. Mmmmm....
Gary brought over a bag of apples today that he had brought from his daughter's house and asked if I would make him some apple pies.  Since he hauls my butt around to the various lakes with him to fish, I am more than willing to make him a few pies.
The quad was still totally filthy from the weekend so I decided to take it to the carwash and give it a good cleaning.  By the time I was done, the quad was much cleaner but I was filthy!!  So much for scooting to the store and picking up a few things I needed for making the pies!!  Home I went to clean up then headed to the gas station to fill the tank and then to the store.
Once back at the bus, it was time to sit and relax in the shade.  It is just too hot to do anything else.
Gary came over for a while then it was time for him to head home for supper.
John started a campfire and we sat around it enjoying the quiet of the evening.  The elk are starting to whistle during the evening and into the night and it is yet another reminder of the changing season.

Monday, September 5/2011

I awoke to beautiful sunshine today.  Apparently it is to be in the high 20s this week and maybe even get into the low 30s.  This is truly harvest weather and the farmers are busy combining their crops and getting as much done as the weather will allow.  I took some awesome pics of a couple of the crops we saw yesterday.
Today, the kids and Dale are leaving.  The weekend is over and it is time for "real" life to once again rear its ugly head.  With breakfast cooked and eaten, the travelers are all on their way home.  Jace and Kim to Saskatoon and Dale to Regina.
There is peace and quiet once again in our yard.
Gary came over and asked if I wanted to go fishing later today and I agreed to go.  He wants to fish Miko Lake today.  After hearing about the huge fish the kids caught at Island, he is sure wishing he was able to get his boat down there however, the trail is simply not wide enough after the plow wind tore through the area.  He will have to settle for the other lakes around here.
Back from fishing and I managed to catch five jack while Gary managed to land only two.  I had better watch out of Gary will be kicking me out of his boat as well!!  All the fish were small so we simply did a catch and release today - there is always another day.   It was a beautiful day on the lake and I did notice that the fall colors were even more pronounced today - it is coming!!
Burgers for supper, a bit of TV then bed - life is good.

Sunday, September 4/2011

Wheat Crop

Beverage!

Dave

Shirley

Jeff

Hoppin Trees!

Dale

How do we get through here?

More lakes

Crossing a creek

Deer watching us watching them!

Jeff and Dale stuck

Suns going down

Made it home

Another great fire!

Jace and Kim have kicked me out of the boat today!!  I know it is because I caught the most fish yesterday and are being little cry babies now!!  Of course they totally deny this but I know the truth!!
Shirley is off today so we are planning a quad ride today.  Jeff (Dave's brother) leaves his quad up here all the time so the six of us will be heading down to the block for a while.  Dave's shoulder is sore and I know that John's leg is sore from two days of riding so, it is supposed to be a slow short ride.
The kids headed out fishing and we headed out to the trails.  It was a beautiful day for doing whatever one chose to do.  The sun was shining and there was a breeze blowing (kept the mosquitoes away).  The breeze was a bit more than what is ideal for fishing but the kids were gung-ho to show me up.  Good Luck with that!!!
We quadded a few trails, eventually ending up at the north end of Otter Lake where Leon has his barge tied to the shore.  We sat on it marvelling at the absolutely beautiful country we have chosen to retire to.    We even had a brief visit by a belted kingfisher - a bird I had not yet had the pleasure to see.  He was beautiful although I do not believe he was impressed by our intrusion.
As we were stopped at the cattle gate on our final refreshment break before leaving the block, we were blessed to see two deer come out of the bush a short distance from us.  They did not seem to mind us being there and actually hung around for several minutes checking us out and foraging for food.
On our way home, there was one final trail we needed to check out and in fact, if it was passable, would cut off several miles of road riding.  We would end up on the North Grid only 3 miles from town - bonus!!
As it turned out, the trail only had one nasty little spot in it that managed to trap three of us in mud up to our axles!!  Shirley and Dave were  the last in the group and managed to find a dry way around the mud so was able to winch Jeff out while Dale and John were winching themselves out!!  I guess it really would not be a good day unless somebody got stuck!!
We caught an awesome sunset while heading home and I know I got lots of nice pics. Gee, I wonder how Jace and Kim did on their fishing trip - will we be having a fish fry tonight?
Back at the bus, Jace and Kim had a campfire blazing.  They had arrived home about an hour earlier and had a very successful trip.  They had managed to catch several LARGE jack and were both smiling like a couple of fools!!  Jace said the fish were biting like crazy and they caught close to 25 fish choosing to bring home only seven - plenty for a fish fry.
Jace and I took the fish over to Dave so that he could fillet them (neither Jace nor myself are very good at that) and invited them over for a fish fry.   I quickly did up some potatoes, carrots, onions and celery, all mixed together with onion soup mix and dill and threw them on the BBQ then commenced to frying fish.  There was plenty to go around and it wasn't too long before everyone was full.  There was still enough fish left over for Jace and Kim to take two packages home for Kim's parents and leave us two packages as well.
All in All, it was a good day!!

Saturday, September 3/2011

Kimmy getting ready

Who catches a clam!  Marie does

Where's the big ones!

Jace should have brought lunch!

A awesome Sunset on the Lake

Fish stories!

All the fallen trees from the big wind storm

Happy Birthday to our oldest son Jace.  It is hard to believe that 28 years ago he was brought into this world kicking and screaming - somedays, he still does!!  What an incredible young man he has grown into and it is my pleasure to call him "mine".
I have decided to go fishing with Jace and Kim today.  John will quad with Dale.  Dave and his brother Jeff will also fish and we have decided to go to Island Lake.  Unfortunately, Shirley has to work today so that totally sucks for her.
Dave assured Jace that he could get into Island with Kim's new Lincoln truck (no scratches allowed) so off we went.  Jace towed the fishing boat he brought and Dave towed his fishing boat.  There were a few "tight" spots along the trail to the lake and Jace got out of the truck a couple of times with the chainsaw and made the trail a bit wider.  We made it down to the lake in time to see Dave put his boat in and apparently break something on the truck so that the four wheel drive mechanism no longer works.  Now that might be a little tricky come time to pull the boat out of the water.
The plow wind that went through this area took an incredibly wide swath in this area,  extending from the grid road all the way down to the lake's shore line.  I would use the term massive devastation to describe the area and I can certainly see why heavy equipment was needed to clear the trail.  I took pictures so I hope they were able to capture the enormity of the devastation.
Once in the boat and ready to fish,  Jace and Kim told me about the "fishing game" they play.  Something about getting Money for the first fish caught, the most fish caught and the biggest fish caught.    I was recruited into the game simply by being in the boat!!  No choices there!!  As it turned out - I WON and was $40.00 dollars richer by the end of the day (I even managed to hook a clam - not sure how I did that though)!!  Happy Birthday Jace - hand over the money!!  Of all the fish we caught, we only brought two home which we decided to keep until the next day.  Jace and Kim will be fishing again tomorrow and they may have better luck and we can then have a fish fry.
We arrived back in camp just before John and Dale arrived off the trails.  In fact, we actually passed them sitting at 8 mile corner (didn't know it was them though).
With everyone back in camp, it was time to cook supper (steak, baked potatoes and Caesar salad) then sit around the campfire and share the day's stories.  It was fun!!
PS -  We heard from Casey tonight while we were sitting around the campfire.  Apparently all is fine with him and he seems to be enjoying his job.  Hope it continues!!