Spring Family Weekend

Many years ago my family started the tradition of getting together for a weekend in the spring. Originally this was an opportunity to get my Dad out of the city with his kids and grandkids.  I'm really glad that we started the tradition while Dad was still around.  In later years it was a bit of a challenge to get my Dad out with us, but we always made a point of doing it.  For the past few years, since Dad is no longer with us, we've kept the tradition going.  With all of the grandkids getting older and becoming involved in various activities, and striking out on their own, I can see that this is going to become a challenge to keep going.  This year was no exception as we quickly learned that dance recitals of my girls, as well as various other commitments of their cousins, would be in conflict.  We eventually settled on a date in late May.  This forced us to cancel a couple of reservations and re-schedule to a new venue.  In the past we have usually managed to get together in Jasper.  That was the plan for this year as well, but with all the schedule conflicts we had to relocate to a different venue.  We eventually settled on a private ranch west of Calgary.  This architecturally unusual location was north of the Bow River Valley, not far from the Ghost Reservoir.  The house was very modern and up to date, but somewhat unusual.  It consisted of two separate buildings, connected by a covered patio.  One building housed the kitchen, living room and a large bathroom.  The second building housed all of the bedrooms.  We didn't strike out on any great adventures but instead spent a low-key family weekend together.  This may be one of the last times that all of us are able to take part.  My oldest niece and nephew are now of the age where they are setting off on their own.  My niece Amelia just completed her first year of university here in Edmonton at the UofA.  My nephew Samueal is about to set off to Ontario to start his first year of university this fall.  Hopefully we can continue to find time to get together with the whole family at least once a year.

I managed to get out and wander about a little with my camera a couple of times over the weekend.  It was a nice place, but fairly isolated and remote.  There was not a lot of particularly interesting photographic subject matter within close proximity but I made the best of it....

Badlands Weekend

Last weekend the girls and I returned to the badlands.  We spent the July long weekend here as well, and at that time my Mom came along with us.  Margarit's brother Shawn, his son Garrett, and his friend Donna also joined us.  This time around it was just me and the girls.

We left the city on Friday evening after work and now that we are into the later stages of summer, it was dark by the time we arrived at East Coulee.  With all the rainy weather that we have had here in Alberta this summer, it was very warm and humid.  It seems like every day starts out clear, and then the clouds build during the day, and showers start in the evening.  This time around the air was very heavy with rain clouds building, and that seemed to draw out the mosquitos.  There were hoards of them and it was almost unbearable to be outside.  We were eaten alive as we backed the trailer into the yard at the shop and set things up.  Once that was done we quickly retreated to the trailer for some relief from the swarms of blood suckers.

On Saturday morning we got up and found that the mosquitos weren't quite as bad as the evening before.  In the early afternoon Margarit and I took a walk up into the hills behind town.  Some historic documents that we had seen made mention of a petrified forest up in the hills and we set out to find it.  As we walked through the more grassy areas in the lower badlands we were once again swarmed by blood sucking mosquitos.  Once we got up higher and the breeze picked up a little, they weren't quite as bad.  But it was very heavy and humid and not particularly pleasant to be outside.  We did find the petrified forest though.  On a high outcrop there were numerous stumps and logs that were more mineralized than petrified.  They were all somewhat crumbly and shattered, but it was obvious that these were once very large trees back in the late cretaceous.   

We had an early supper and then headed into Drumheller for the historic ghost walk.  This was the same one that we did last year only this time Lothar the magician did not lead it, and had one of his assistants take his place.  We wandered around downtown Drumheller and heard tales of all the historic buildings, and the hauntings that were rumored to take place in some of them.  By the time the walk wrapped up it was dark, and we headed back out to the trailer in East Coulee.

We slept in late on Sunday and didn't really get around to doing much until early afternoon.  Margarit and I took a drive east out to Carolside Reservoir where I took some photographs with my big view camera.  There is an old junk yard out there, with the bodies of some old vehicles.  I managed to take a few shots between showers and we were pleased that the mosquitos weren't quite as bad as they had been earlier.  On the way back we stopped beside an old abandoned windmill for yet another photograph.  

Whenever Margarit and I were out exploring, the girls were mostly in the shop.  They were pretty pleased with the idea of using the internet connection there to watch Netflix on their laptop.  This is not an option when we go to Nordegg as there is only limited cell coverage and no internet up there.

By late afternoon we began packing up for the drive back home.  We promised the girls that we would stop at the spray park in Drumheller for a little while on our way out of town.  We did, but by the time we hit the road for home it was nearly 8:00PM.  We made the routine drive home and arrived back in the city shortly before 11:00PM.  A long but fairly relaxing weekend...

Summer Hockey Season Ends

The summer hockey season ended last night for the Renegades, on a sour note.  We finished the regular season in fourth place, which gave us a bye through the first round of the playoffs.  We played a team called the Shootin' Blanks in the second round.  We managed to win the first game of the best of three series in a close one.  It went to overtime and then a shootout before we could claim victory.  But then we lost the next two games, both by fairly lopsided scores.  I don't know if we just ran out of gas, or were missing too many of our regular guys.  Our opponent managed to bring out some of their top skilled players and it was just too much for us.  Our season comes to an end and we now have to wait for about three weeks, until early September, for the winter season to get underway.

It seems that this is the season of the underdogs... at least in our Division 7.  The four teams that finished in the top four spots in the regular season have now all been eliminated.  The playoffs continue with the 5th, 6th, 8th and 10th places teams challenging for the championship.

I have mixed feelings about it.  As much fun as it is to play hockey and go on an extended playoff run, it is also nice to get a bit of a break and catch up on some other stuff, before we start the whole process over again in three weeks.

August Long Weekend

At the end of July we headed back out to Nordegg.  I was driving my Red truck which had just had the clutch replaced, following the events of our last trip.  Margarit drove out with her SUV.  We had left the trailer behind after the previous weekend, and returned to find it safe and sound.  Our contractor had finished up some work on our driveway and it was now graded better, with some extra gravel filled in.  We headed out on Friday July 29th, right after work.  It was late by the time we arrived so we just settled in for the night.  We knew that our friends Shelley and Eric and their family were also out for the weekend.  Shelley is Margarit's best friend and they have known each other for many years.  They have a property about a dozen lots down the drive and it is actually through them that we first found out about the lots in the area.

Nordegg Days were on for the August Long Weekend.  This started out with a big pancake breakfast down at the fire hall in town.  We headed down there on Saturday morning and met up with the few neighbors that we knew.  We soon ran into Shelley and Eric and their daughter Amy.  After breakfast we headed back up to our property and began work on cutting up some firewood.  I had put out a salt block the week prior, and every time we head out I now set up a game camera to see what visits our place.  The camera is motion sensitive and actually captures not bad image quality.  It also has an Infrared Flash, not visible to most animals, that allows it to capture images at night.  I also put out a bird feeder full of sunflower seeds.  I suspect that the deer enjoy our sunflower seeds more than the birds do.  That's OK... because I'm not a hunter, and have no intention of baiting or shooting anything, other than with a camera.  Seems the deer weren't the only wild life around...

The girls have really been enjoying the old trampoline that we brought out and set up in the woods.  My brother Greg gave it to us, as his kids have outgrown it.  

On Saturday evening we headed back into town for the community BBQ and a band that was supposed to play at the beer garden.  Unfortunately the clouds rolled in and it began to rain heavily.  Many of the people bailed out and there were only a handful of us left by the time the band started.  Margarit and the girls headed back up to the trailer while Eric and I and few other guys toughed it out.  Soon we too gave up on the weather and headed back up to the campsite.

On Sunday Shelley, Eric and Amy packed up and headed for home as they had already been out for a few days.  The girls and I stayed until Monday, doing some work around the property but generally being fairly lazy, sleeping in, and not accomplishing much.  On Monday afternoon we packed up the trailer, with the water tank empty and the holding tanks full, and headed for home.  It was a great weekend despite the wet weather but we would not be able to return for at least a couple of weeks...