Prairie Yard

Back in mid-July we spent a few days down at East Coulee.  This was the weekend at the end of my second week of vacation.  Our friends Chris and Connie from Calgary came out to meet us.  We have been out with Chris and Connie on many occasions in the past.  They are the Bigdoer team and run a website called bigdoer.com, as well as a Facebook page.  They are historians, researchers and explorers with a passion for old stuff, and a keen interest in the natural world.

Margarit's brother Shawn and his girlfriend Donna were also down with us for the weekend.  We hung out at the shop in East Coulee.  Margarit and Helena and I stayed in our trailer.  The other two girls stayed home in the city.  All of our guests crashed in the shop.  We had a good weekend of visiting and hanging out, with a little exploring thrown into the mix.

On our way down to the badlands Margarit and I stopped at the Antique store in Erskine.  We had always wanted to check this place out, but it was never open when we normally passed through.  This is because we usually passed through on Friday evenings on our way out, or Sunday evenings on our way home.  This time it was midday Friday, and the place was open.  I had actually stopped here once before by myself, but this was Margarit's first visit.  Lots of cool stuff in this place...!  This time I bought an old double barrel 12ga. shotgun.  It was made by Syracuse Arms and dates back to around 1905... so well over a century old...!  It's probably not safe to try to fire this, and I only bought it to hang on the wall at our cottage.

Chris had made arrangements for us to visit an old farm yard out on the prairie nearby.  This one was occupied, and we had permission to visit.  It was at this location that we checked out the old abandoned swimming pool.  I posted a scan of a large format negative that I shot here... a few days back.

There was also a really cool old snowmobile in a storage building.  Probably dates back to the 1940's or 1950's.  Big 4-cylinder aircraft engine on this one, and it was wind driven by a propeller about six feet in diameter.

We also made a stop at the churches in Dorothy.  Chris is writing a book on historic places and Dorothy is one of the subjects.  He wanted to get some "after" pictures of the restored buildings.  While we were there, I showed Chris what is rumored to be an unmarked grave, in the pasture near town.

The rest of the weekend was pretty low key.  Had a big BBQ with the whole gang.  Visited around an evening campfire.  A very enjoyable time.  By Sunday evening we had to pack up and head for home.  This would be the end of my second week of vacation, and I had to head back in to the office on Monday.