A Drive Through Dorothy

Last week after the retreat I stayed at my Moms Sunday night cause I didn't want to drive home in the dark on snowy roads at -30.  It worked good.  We went out for supper and had leftovers so the next morning my Mom went to work.  I think its weird she works and I don't (not regular hours anyways).  I picked up Tim's and we had coffee and bagels with our leftovers for lunch.  We visited and toured her church.  Its slow on Mondays cause the pastors take the day off cause they work Sundays.  She said she actually gets the most work done on Mondays cause no one is there to bother her.  Except me that day.

I toured through Drum and the snow covering the hills at Dorothy was so pretty I had to stop and take a few pics.  I don't often catty my big camera along but I had it this time.

Sunday Stills --Bitter

Well it was pretty hard for me to take pics of bitter this week.  After Sunday got kinda nice and so waited till today in which it looks bitter out but in reality was really warm.  Sun is even trying to come out now.  But we headed to East Coulee for breakfast, I love there Sunday breakfasts, once a month we try to go every time.

(the river)

(no snow on the grass)

(water filling the ditches)

(and mud, yuck)

Friday was so warm down in the valley, between Dorothy and East coulee, the grass was showing even the river was melting.  Was warm here to but not quite enough to lose all our snow but it sure shrank down.  And now is back up again.

(Dorothy hill, I like when I'm not driving :) )

(Elevator)

(closer)

(and closest)

(and back home starting to clear up)

Still snowing but the sun is trying to come out, we will see how the rest of the week goes, Im hoping for warm of course :)  All week been thinking about bitter, other thing it reminds me of is old people, specially old ladies don't know why they can be so bitter (not all of course) Must be regreting stuff not done I always figure.  Hope next week is more cheerful ;)

Firsts

Was playing with blogger on my phone and published a post with just a title.  Ooops so here's the words now.  I got my first ride of the year today, a 20 minute ride on Jessie.  And my second 2 which is my first ride on Razz this year.  And I rode for the first time in my arena.....in the snow.  And first time I rode in my riding muck boots, I like them but am afraid I got a size too small as they squish my left middle toes.  Not the right but I will try them again before I decide for sure it was the boots not me.

First was Jessie.  She wasn't sure a ride should be in her future today and thought shed walk away when i went to catch her, well I'm tired of that nonsense so I chased her and about half way around the corral she stopped and came up to me.  Much better, I used to just follow  her for about 5 minutes at a walk but that's not needed on a good horse.  I tacked her up and away we went.  Decided to use the middle as it was less snow although still enough.  We walked and packed it down pretty good then trotted a bit and then went through the middle to change directions.  Did the same the other way.  She was a bit leaning towards her buddies at the end but easy to correct.  

We got a video going that way and then went through the middle stopped and did a poor imitation a turnaround then went back and trotted a little more both ways and called it quits.  It was so fun tho!

Then onto Razz.  I was a bit nervous as its been quite a while and so I had no expectations.   She does love to be ridden so that makes it easier.  I forget how much energy she has until I ride her again.  Anyways got all go and I thought Id kinda do the same this as Jessie, stay on the circle do some walking and trotting and changes of directions and go with that.  Well Neil came over and was chatting while I was riding but I didn't quit I just kept going kinda calmed me down a bit really cause I had to think of what he was saying and not worry about what my horse might do....Stupid worry.  Anyways she was in a hurry so I let her trot a bit and we changed direction lots and lots of stop and then go again.  She holds her head so much more collected than Jessie and puts it so low it worries me, but she stops so soft and collected its so nice!  We did a bit more of the same and our circle wasnt as nice as Jess's but I am glad I did that it gave me something to do.  Yay now onto longer more pushing rides now I know shes gonna be good.

Made the collages for the challenge page as it is nicer if all the pics stay together with the post.  And I kinda liked them so put them here too.

Odds and Ends

We had a lot of mosquitoes this summer, the horses were miserable, staying in the worked up ground in the shade and Jess all covered in fly sheet and mask and still got irritated with bugs.

And the cows just stuck all bunched up.  Finally they forecasted snow and freezing temps, was kinda early but I was so tired of mosquitoes it was kinda wanted...not snow just a frost then it could go back to being warm again.  Well the day came and luckily even though being miserable and cold, we never got a killing frost and only rain.  I expected it to turn to snow overnight but we only had a skiff in the morning, whew!  But it did kill a bunch of mosquitoes probly from drowning them, lol.

Well it went away and the temps got super warm again that was nice but rather unexpected!  I headed to Calgary a couple days later to get a bike from the rental place next to my sisters store that sells all their rental bikes and water skis and whatever other summer stuff.  I got a really nice bike I am super excited about it, but they still had snow in Calgary but it was warm so I even went for a ride to try it out.

But on the way home I had a look at all the crops, what a mess, I feel for them farmers it just looked all trashed, gonna be pretty hard to get some of them off.

We finally got our water fixed from no shower all summer (at least the toilet and sink worked)  But we been heading down to Emerson Campground to shower and they were closing up for the season, which was good it was getting too cold to go right outside after a shower.  Wasn't all bad, lots of times we headed to Brooks for supper afterwards and one day we saw Cookie Monster in the Tim Horton's drive thru, lol

Other than that been riding and amazed at how green the grass is this late in the year.

Snowed In

On Monday I had an appointment at the dentist in Calgary.  I wasn't too thrilled to be going down to downtown Calgary just to get a root canal done, but that's where my dentist sent me so I was going there.  But a storm was predicted for Monday so I figured I better go on Sunday in case roads were bad.  I stopped at Chars for coffee on the way and then off to my sisters.  Sure is handy she lives there and lets me stay.

Sure enough it was pretty snowy and windy overnight and into the morning but I was only 9 minutes away (in good weather) from her house so I left an hour early since i had no idea where I was going or where to park or what the roads were like.  I found it easy, love the GPS on my phone.  got parked and in the building.  Then had no idea where to go, was harder to find it inside then it was to find the building, so I called them and she told me past the bank across the +15 and they are on the right.  I was laughing at the bank, cause after all I was in bankers hall, lol.  But I did find it and was there half hour early, oh well, better early than late.  I got in early and he was really a cool doctor, took more x-rays then told me exactly what he was doing, and as he was working he kept talking to me.  If it wasn't for my jaw getting sore from being open so long, I coulda had a nap.  I like there were a lot less power tools than a filling, i actually preferred it even if it took longer.  And the weird rubber things they used to fill the holes were neat too, I wish I coulda watched.

Afterwards had paid parking till 2 so shopped around a bit then headed back to Heidi's cause it was obviously not getting better so I decided to stay another day. I had planned for this and brought an extra day of clothes.  I kinda thought it was gonna clear off by Tuesday morning and I would head home and hope it was nice Wed to ride....haha.  On Monday night the RCMP closed all the roads out of Drumheller, you had to have special permission to leave town that's how bad all the roads were.And so roads looked bad on Tues morning and so I stayed put.  My sister worked but they had 3 people on and no one was coming in so she left them working and came home after 6 hours.  She brought lunch and we played video games all afternoon and evening, it was a lot of fun, been a while since I didn't have anything I could do.

 (the worst corner)

 (how most roads were)

 (our gravel road, looks icy but just super sunny)

But this morning I got up and the sun was shining and the wind wasn't blowing so I looked at all the weather reports and roads looked pretty good, so after 11 (I waited till all the rush hour traffic was gone) and headed out.  The roads were really well clear through the city and then out of the city was good till I got to the Beisiker corner.  That corner is notoriously bad for snow buildup and it lived up to its name again.  From there too Rosebud was pretty good with spots where there was too much snow and no room in the ditch that is was piled up on the road.  But it was still passable and not slippery.  From Rosebud through Drum and hom was all clear.  Our gravel road even had very little snow but our Texas gate was snowed it but soft so I made it through and our yard probly had the worst of it.  Neil plowed it all out the day before but he said 4 foot drifts from house to shop. I am glad he cleaned it out so I could get in.

 (the bulls shed, wish my ponies had a shed)

 (frosty hungry bulls)

 (the cool snow by the windbreak...with Kali in the background)

 (Kali not sure what shes doing)

( Not much wasted feed for them, kinda wish there was more so they could lay in it)

 (Jess in the sunshine, wishin she was out in the field)

(Razz, Disco and Belle out in the pasture eating grass under snow)

I went out to see the ponies and how they handled it, and they were fine, I think kinda wanted out but things will get back to normal around here soon I hope.  Lots of blown snow, but I don't think much new stuff fell.

Its Still Winter...or A Spring Storm

Well sure glad i picked Friday to go for a lesson, cause on Saturday when i got up it was pretty miserable out.  Thought it was only gonna snow a little then get warm and melt, not so much.  I was talking on the phone to my mom and saw the birds trying to find a dry spot :)

So not much happened yesterday, we got a bottle calf (what a pain) and so he got fed 3 times and heifers and cows checked and Neil fed the cows, they are all hanging out in the creek where its not so windy.  We had a new calf yesterday morning and it was running after its mom last night so I guess it will be alright.  No others so far....I hope they wait till tomorrow at least.

Then this morning was more snow and although there is wind, less than yesterday and it isn't very cold out, just below freezing so hope everything comes out OK and we don't get any sick ones.  Was pretty miserable for us humans outside too, pretty hard to stay dry for more than a minute in the deep wet snow.  The ponies are not very happy, although I think they got the best spot in the yard for this kind of storm.  Even though the ground is wet they are in a low spot and with the tall fence there is very little wind in there and it actually felt decent in there (which is probly why the ground is not frozen I guess)

Sure hope it goes away, they say the snow should quit this afternoon and I hope so and the sun comes out.

Leaving Arizona

Sadly on Thursday I had to leave the warmth and come back to winter here in Alberta that is supposed to be spring according to the calendar, but outside not so much.  But before we left, on the Wed  we all headed down to a local barrel racing jackpot.  We were there much early so they could get some practice in (LaTonne was helping another girl get started) and so me and Megan headed out to the wildlife park down the road.  The animal part was closed but the aquarium was open so we looked through there for a while.

After their runs we headed back and then I had to leave the next day cause I had entered in a clinic on the weekend.  My plane got in to Calgary at midnight and it sure is fast when travelling alone, I was out of the airport in less than 20 minutes, through customs and everything!  Then I stayed overnight at my sisters and stopped to ride Jessie on the way home.  We had a good ride but I was exhausted to just brushed Razz and went home.

Sure was a lot of snow at home, I remembered Neil had said there was a few blizzards, but never expected this much.  And then he said on Wed our grader man spent 5 hours on our driveway to clear it off!  I am sure glad he did since Neil got his tractor stuck trying to plow the road and he was stuck at home for a couple days, if he hadn't I wouldn't have been able to get home.  And a pleasant surpeise of my Christmas Cactus was blooming.  I have had it a year and a half and this is the first time I had seen blooms on it, wasnt even sure what color it was, but I like it :)