Berry Picking

A couple weeks ago I went down to Neil's sisters house cause she offered her Nanking cherries to me if I wanna pick them.  So I headed down there and picked about 4 pails.  She helped me pick a few but then had to go to work so it was just me and the dog and cats there.  It has been so hot that I just boiled them up and then strained the juice off and got a ice cream pail of juice that I froze, I will make jelly/syrup or cordial out of.

(I know I need to defrost, lol hopefully this fall when its less full)

The dog, Bailey, she is just hilarious, in the house all she does is sleep on the couch or chew her toys on her bed, but then outside she doesn't stop!  She just runs and runs and runs. silly dog!.  Then the cat came out and she wanted to chase/play with him but the cat was more hissing at her and chasing her than the other way around, but boy was it funny!  I think the cat liked it too, cause he never did leave and he coulda.

Afterwards I stopped in at Neil's Mom and Dads house for a visit and they gave me 2 pails of raspberries and a pail of beans, carrots, and onion and a tomato from the garden!  Wow were they ever good.... And the leftovers I made 3 jars pickled beans and 2 jars pickled carrots.

And then my Mom came out and she brought me a box of peaches from BC and boy oh boy do I feel spoiled this year!  But after she left, I spent the day peeling, pitting and slicing peaches.  Gonna make peach salsa, peach jam, canned peaches, and freeze some for smoothies or just eating.

And then a couple days ago I went down to the creek and picked 2 pails of chokecherries and cooked them into juice and froze it, gonna hopefully make syrup unless is jells too much then it will be jelly.

(also picked a bunch of rosehips, was gonna make tea 

but done even know how, 

oh well Google will help they know everything!)

I love fruit from summer :)

Sister Visit

My sister came out and stayed for 5 days....well her boys too.  That sure was a fun time but exhausting as well.  We went swimming at the Aquaplex in Drumheller one day, and looked at the hoodoos  and climbed the big dinosaur and down to the river at Emerson for a birthday party, and My Mom and Clint come out for a BBQ as well!... and Calaway park on the way home  And in between we walked lots and visited lots and the boys played on bales, rode bikes, Pogo-sticked, and helped Neil, Neil was teaching Tristan to weld.  They sure would like to come out longer I think.  They were kinda sad Jessie was at the trainer so they didn't get a chance to ride but maybe next year I will be more prepared for that.

They come out Thursday night and Heidi was doing a course that day for work and afterwards I picked them up and we went for supper and then headed out here, we stopped in Strathmore to buy a birthday present and then again in Drum to buy groceries.  It was about 11:30 when we got here and the tent wasn't set up yet.  I had borrowed one from Charlene and so I had set it up before and knew it was easy so we just went to set it up even though it was late.  I told the boys to be quiet cause Neil was sleeping and I thought it was weird he didn't leave the light on though.  We got the tent up and the boys blew up their air mattresses and were all set and then Neil drives in the yard!  Haha he stayed out to finish baling that's why no lights were on and we never woke him up.  We all had a good laugh at that!

The next day we decided to go swimming cause I never been to the pool and the boys LOVE swimming.  It was really cool, the outdoor and indoor were open and they have tonnes of floaties and we tried them all, everything from a canoe, to a giant hippo to a weird rocket ship thingy and of course rings.   Then we went up the big dinosaur and we stopped at the hoodoos on the way home.  There are tonnes of hoodoos in the valley but there is one set where it is all set up for tourists, parking, bathrooms, paths and all but we went to a different one that we could climb on and not be surrounded by people (it was the long weekend after all)

 (The boys in the dinosaurs mouth)

My sister just got a fit bit exercise tracker and I been using my map my run to map my rides and walks so we did a lot of walking while she was out too. One day we walked down to the creek and up a different hill and we walked a couple times down the road, once the 2 mile way and once all 4 miles (there and back).  She is supposed to do 10, 000 steps a day which is about 4 miles so no problem that day.

My Mom and Clint both have birthdays in July and we were having trouble finding a time to all get together so we invited them out when everyone else was here and it was awesome.  We had a BBQ supper and they opened presents, my Mom walked with us (the 2 mile walk) and we saw a snake on the road and my sister wanted to touch it but every time she got close it would move and she would jump back.  It was soo funny she just couldn't do it, lol.

Then Neil's Mom had a birthday and they were down at Emerson campground and so we headed down there for the afternoon.  It was a nice place down there, but boy were the mosquitoes bad.  We hardly have any at home anymore so we were unused to that.  It was a good time anyway we had a fire and cooked supper and just visited.

(Manitoba smore, inside a chocolate chip cookie)

One day it was a little chilly out and we had wanted to create something so we looked though cookbooks and found a recipe for peanut butter fudge, it looked easy so we made it, although we did add chocolate icing on top and it was awesome!  And I had bought creamsicle icing down in Great Falls last time and really wanted to try it so we had chocolate cupcakes with it on, boy were they good too!

Then it was almost time to leave :(  But we decided we should go to Calaway Park, so we stopped at Heidi's and dropped everything off and headed out there.  Been a long time since I been and boy its still fun!  Had a lot of fun on the roller coaster (its my favorite roller coaster I ever been on) and then we did lots of other rides, including a train.  Jaret puked after one ride and didn't really wanna go on anymore rides after that, but I think it was all in his head cause he sure had no problem eating candy or a full supper afterwards.  But we went on some anyways, lol.  I even made them go on the carousel, lol and I rode a black and white paint :)  I was hoping Mary Poppins would come along and we could leave the ride but she didn't

 (we even saw Mario's wife, lol)

 (rainbow the clown and his tiny sandwich)

 (Tristan watched the creepy rabbit show instead 

of going on the bumper cars with us!)

 (our fashion statement, ziplock bags over our cameras in 

case we went on a wet ride (and we did))

(and Sherry I took this for you, an appy seagull, lol)

All in all a fun time, cant wait to do it again next year :)

Loving Cutting on Jessie

On Friday I went down to see Jessie at Doug's.  I was gonna see how she was doing, I was supposed to go the week before but he was busy hauling bales.  I was pretty excited to go see how she was doing.  I wasn't sure if I was gonna ride or just see what he was doing, but at the last minute I put my saddle in the truck.

I had said I would come after lunch and was a bit early cause I  was planning on doing some stuff in town, but I forgot it was Friday and all the tourist were out in full force and I just wanted out of there.  So when I got there they were still havin lunch and so I went to see Jess and Doug come by in his side by side and said if I want to ride her I can saddle her up and warm her up.  Well of course I did.  So I got her all ready and realized I forgot boots, but she has worked before in no boots and so figured it was fine.  We warmed up and she was acting kinda sore so I figured I should check her feet since I never did before but they were clean and so went to do up the cinch another hole and it was pinching her.   I am glad I checked, poor girl.  She felt much better after that.  Whew.

We got all ready and Doug had cows in the arena and asked if I wanted to work her, so I said sure do.  Was a little nervous cause haven't been riding much in the between times, a few times out on Bailey with Susan but that's not really work, more visiting while on a horse.

But anyways he said to pick a black cow so I did and she was fast!  We went around and around a few times and then the cow turned and run the other way, so no wait.  but it was good and we stopped and made our turn and did that a few times and got a new cow.  I didn't know which one I wanted so while walking towards them a yellow and white cow run out all by itself in front of us.  I guess we had our second cow.  She also was fast (of course she was she come out of the herd running!) and she liked to stop and turn lots.  And then I lost my stirrup while we were stopped and then the cow left and Jessie left and I lost my other stirrup!  I was hanging on pretty good and the cow turned again!  Oh man I thought I was gonna fall off.  Then the cow took off running, which was good cause at least then I could get my stirrups back, whew that was a rush!!  We worked her a couple more turns then on to a new cow.  The last one I picked was slow, finally, and it was so awesome, I could ask Jessie to move up a couple steps so we were head to head and she did then stopped and waited.  Then the cow turned and stopped and she waited.  I was so happy!  I am so glad I decided to leave her there for a while.

I am also glad I worked that first cow too.  It seemed like chaos and scary at first, but I always had trouble telling where the corners were to let the cow go around or to keep straight with them and never really understood the whole going around thing, but that me understand it a lot better.  And helped me realize she can be going clockwise while still looking at the cow on the outside, kinda a odd bend but keeps them from dropping their shoulder, which Jess was bad about trying to make the turn easier, even though it made it actually harder.

(he has puppies too!!!  So adorable :)

I still need to practice sitting back more and watching the cow more (specially since Jessie really is) and using my horn.  But so much easier when I don't have to worry about correcting her.  He is gonna call me tomorrow and thinks he has a plan in mind.  I don't know what this plan is, but I am super excited now :)