Margarit and Hailey travelled to Vienna on May 14th. That left me and the two younger girls home alone. It was a challenging week as I was busy at work, plus had to try to shuffle the girls to and from school. On top of that I had made a commitment to a friend to move a bunch of darkroom equipment for him, plus I had a hockey game to play. That game was really exhausting as it was a 10:45 ice time in the middle of the week. To make matters worse, only eight or nine skaters showed up. We played the entire game with only three defensemen, which meant I was on the ice for two-thirds of the game. We ran out of gas in the third period, but hung on for a 7-6 victory.
Thursday evening was equally as exhausting. I had a brief meeting with some of the Monochrome Guild members to assess the recently moved darkroom equipment. As soon as that wrapped up then I rushed home to pick up the girls and we headed over to the grocery store to pick up supplies for the long weekend. I got some take out food for the girls, dropped them off at home, and then spun out to pick up a used guitar amplifier that I bought from a private seller through Kijiji.
By Friday evening we were all spent. I bailed out of work at 5:30 and headed home to pick up the girls. We threw our stuff in the truck and loaded up all the pets... including the two dogs, three rabbits, two skinny pigs, and all of their supplies.
We rolled in to the cottage in Nordegg by about 10:00PM. By the time we got unpacked and set up we were done and just crashed and went to bed. On Saturday morning I just puttered around at the property. I cut and split some firewood but mostly just relaxed and took it easy. By afternoon, Anna's friend and neighbor Raquel had come out, and the three girls hung around together. Raquel ended up staying at our place for a sleepover. On Sunday morning we had a big breakfast and then I did a little work around the yard. I loaded up two truckloads of construction waste and garbage and hauled it to the nearby dump. This chore is always a bit of a challenge as the dump is only open for very limited hours... even further limited on long weekends. After our second trip to the dump the girls and I took a drive up the Forestry Trunk Road to Blackstone Crossing. Surprisingly there was hardly anyone there... just one group of campers back in the trees. We wandered around on the riverbank for a while, looking for cool rocks. I found what I was looking for... a stump that should work for a coffee table base...
We rolled in to the cottage in Nordegg by about 10:00PM. By the time we got unpacked and set up we were done and just crashed and went to bed. On Saturday morning I just puttered around at the property. I cut and split some firewood but mostly just relaxed and took it easy. By afternoon, Anna's friend and neighbor Raquel had come out, and the three girls hung around together. Raquel ended up staying at our place for a sleepover. On Sunday morning we had a big breakfast and then I did a little work around the yard. I loaded up two truckloads of construction waste and garbage and hauled it to the nearby dump. This chore is always a bit of a challenge as the dump is only open for very limited hours... even further limited on long weekends. After our second trip to the dump the girls and I took a drive up the Forestry Trunk Road to Blackstone Crossing. Surprisingly there was hardly anyone there... just one group of campers back in the trees. We wandered around on the riverbank for a while, looking for cool rocks. I found what I was looking for... a stump that should work for a coffee table base...
Later when we got back to the cottage we went for a ride on the ATV trails. We tried to go down to the waterfall on Shunda Creek but the trail was blocked by a fallen tree. Later we made dinner and relaxed for a while.... and crashed fairly early. Seems everyone was tired from all the fresh air and activity.
On Monday morning we made breakfast and then by mid day set out on another ATV ride. This time we took a chain saw along so we could clear the trail. Raquel's Mom and her older sister came along on their ATV. We managed to clear the trail and got down to the falls. The water level in the creek was moderately high and as a result it was difficult to cross... unlike later in the summer. The girls managed to place a log across the narrows and got over to the other side with nothing worse than wet feet. By mid afternoon when we got back to the cottage, the girls made pizza and macaroni for dinner. Then it was getting to the time that we had to think about packing up. It took a couple of hours to do all the dishes, sweep and mop the floors, put everything away, and load up all the pets. We finally hit the road by about 6:30PM, and made it back to the city by 9:30PM.
On our way out on Friday evening we saw a black bear cross the road up on Saunders ridge. We got a good look at him, but there was no time to stop the truck and grab the camera for a photo. We also saw the wild horses up on the ridge both on the way out and on the way home.
I think I'm a little spoiled from all my time spent out there over the winter. It is so nice and quiet and on many weekends in the off-season there were only a handful of other people around. This weekend it was very busy with lots of people at their cottages, and lots of campers out as well. The trails were really busy with lots of ATV's and dirt bikes....
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