Last Weekend of July - Stone House

I had a fantastic weekend...!  Work has been extremely busy for me this summer, as well as for Margarit.  In light of the staffing issues at my company, we have both been working a lot.  When the weekends finally arrive, and there isn't something absolutely essential going on at work, I try to escape and get away for a recharge.  This past weekend the girls and I had plans to head down to our place at East Coulee.

Margarit and I went to the Eskimos football game after work on Friday.  It was a really pleasant evening and an entertaining game.  The hometown Eskimos defeated the visiting BC Lions and improved their undefeated streak to five games.  We ran into some neighbors at the game and ended up giving them a ride home from the LRT station and stopping off at their place for a couple of drinks.  By the time we got home and to bed it was about 1:30AM.  When the alarm went off a few short hours later I was just too tired and ended up sleeping in until around 8:00.  We quickly shuffled the girls out to the truck and hit the road.  It was close to 1:00 when we rolled in to East Coulee and connected with our friends Chris and Connie from Calgary.

It was really hot and sunny as we spotted the trailer in the yard at the shop.  We packed up my cameras and a few supplies and set out to go exploring.  Our three daughters elected to stay behind at the shop, in air conditioned comfort, and watch movies on the laptop.  Margarit and I piled into the truck along with Chris and Connie and headed out onto the prairie.  Chris had learned of an abandoned old homestead with a stone house and we decided to check it out.  It was a long way out in the middle of nowhere, but well worth the effort to get there.  Despite the hot, dry conditions the road in had a few mud holes along the way.  Higher clearance was needed to navigate the road, and we got ourselves pretty muddy.

We spent a couple of really pleasant hours here exploring the old building before setting off to our next destination.  The place has such a mood of abandonment and one couldn't help but feel the desolation of the place...