Introducing...!!!

I am pleased to introduce our newest crew member.  As followers may be aware, we lost our beloved voyage critic # 1 due to age related maladies. 

Apparently, it is not God’s will that we continue with our mismatched crew.

While in Cereal for a week we chanced to cross paths with a family who were also full timing.  They were in a class A with a trio of dogs.  They were content with 2, but the third arrived when her mother had to move into assisted living.

They were doing alright with the arrangement, but when we half in humour implied that he would always be welcome with us, the ball was rolling.  I gave him our card, and we thought that was the end of it.

Yesterday we got a call from an unrecognized Saskatchewan number, and low and behold, there was a little boy who was available for relocation.  Today, we went down to a campground near Drumheller to reacquaint with his family.

Ken is the dog person in the family, but of course, I love all members.  Nonetheless, the intention is for the bond to be with him.  We have decided that difficult though it is, for the first while, I am going to ignore him and just let Ken interact with him.  That way, the bond will be encouraged in the preferred direction.

As for Glory, we settled her into the bedroom and gave it a couple of hours where they knew each other was there, but were completely out of each other’s range.  I then closed the glass slider between the kitchen and the living room, and gave Glory a great cuddle, then let her loose into all but the living room.

They have seen each other, and other than curious sniffing at the door’s threshold for each other’s scent, there has been no kerfuffle.

Later, I will test the final grounds and see how the final connection goes.

So without further adieu, I introduce the latest addition to the crew roster:, Midnight.

He is 5, he is well adjusted to RV life, has great manners and training,and seems to be a great addition to our ensemble.

I must say, it is now 3 hours since Midnight stepped into our home.  Look at this.  Glory has not said a single expletive, only a couple inquiring mews.  

  

So now I shall head off to feed the 2 legged crew members and will now give you the further...

Adieu :-)

Conclusion on teaser for today :-)

I have often said that life is what happens while you are busy making plans, and today was no exception.

Originally, we were going to transfer the cottage to Mack so that we can prepare Smokey for sale.  Then we remembered that our night shifter had only 1 full day and night off, so we went with the plan of the last post..... Then finally concluded in the plan C version of the day.  :-)

While we let our family members get organized, we did manage to transfer the mopeds to the rack which we moved from the back of the 5th wheel to the nose of Mack thanks to the recently attached nose hitch.  It looks great and travels well, but if we do any night moves, we might need to supplement the lighting and signals just in case.

The Arboretum (spelling corrected upon sight of the sign in Trochu) was postponed as we wanted to spend more time at the next stop, the TL Bar Ranch Campground.  The idea with this local is that you can dry camp, trail ride, canoe (or in our case, kayak), hike, or just hang out.

We decided that we might just take the cottage out for a go some time this summer.  The gals of our group are keen on a trail ride.  The guys are more inclined to hang back on the idea, but it sounds like they might be persuaded....

In the meantime, we took some neat shots of the area.  Again, I will link to my photo album, but highlight some of the pictures 'cause I like the look of colour on the pages :-)

For example:

 

Two of the friendly staff we met

 

River scenery (you could see minnows and clam shells in the water) and on the left was the training session for this year's trail ride staff.

As for kayaking, it too was postponed until we first scoped out the site, and besides, time was limited, and the transfer is currently more complicated than our schedule allowed.

And as for the aisle my Step-Granddaughter had planned, it was a tragic bust.  This unavoidable disappointment is brought on by the bizarre notion that bowling alleys are no longer needed to be open once the summer season arrives (??!!???)  Okay, yes, it is an alley, not an aisle, but they are close in meaning after all....

So tomorrow we will get the cottage placed, the kayaks moved over to its roof, and then we shall see what else can be added to the itinerary. 

And as I glance at the clock and see how quickly tomorrow approaches, I bid you

Adieu.

Today's prospects

You never know what a day will hold, but today is Ken's daughter's last day off this week, and so we are hoping to take in the Trochu Arborium, (tree garden) and perhaps, finally taking the kayaks to a meander in a nearby river for the maiden voyage of the kayaks.

..... but time will tell what the day actually does hold, so stay tuned.  If my Step-Granddaughter succeeds in her hope in a shared activity, we could possibly end with a trip down the aisle.  (She in only a mid-teen awesome young lady, and unattached, so I will leave you hanging on this puzzle. Tune in for our next episode for the exciting conclusion on this post)  ;-)

With question marks well positioned for the day, I now bid you

Adieu.

Hiccoughs and Horsing Around

First off, Ken has finished the fridge panel for the cottage, as you can see:

I am very proud of that man, you know. He is quite a fabricator!! :-)

Second thought of the day: We have hit another tweaking needed on Spirit. He has been bottoming out on the slightest of bumps on the highways, and especially with the new deeper tranny pan, it is very concerning.

We have taken it to a place a bit outside town which specializes in shock and suspension. They took one look, and determined that the suspension had been lowered (!!???!!) Considering the previous owner bought it to tow a fifth wheel, it is rather boggling all our minds - Ken's, mine, and the shocks specialist.

There should be at least another 3-5 inches clearance, so right now, there is nothing but rubber to give a bit of "koosh" over the bumps. I think the old buckboards were smoother.

Anyway, it should be all better by Thursday.

On a lighter side, I went with Ken's daughter to the stable. We had a really good time. She has a filly that is just over a year, and an older girl who has had disabling health issues that were undiagnosed by the previous owners, as well as some less appropriate training. She is well on her way to healthy and is learning trust and training in a much more appropriate manner. It is going to take time, but both should be ridable with patience and love.

There are other horses in the pastures, and it is a joy to watch them come on over when they notice people approaching from the high pastures. As you can see, they come a long way for a bit of attention :-)

As we were getting close to departure, they all started yawning. It was quite the giggle seeing it. Apparently, yawns are as contagious among horses as it is among people. Take a look at this :-)

So sorry, was I boring you!!??? LOL

Well, having put the horses to sleep with this post, I think I will bid you,

Adieu

Settled for the Week

We are booked in our site in Three Hills until Thursday.  While here, we are going to take it easy, get some tweaking done, and take in a bit of the hulla-ballou as well as have some family time.

I missed when it was most showy, but this is a not bad shot of our view out the passenger side living room window.

The nice thing about a rig with slides like ours is that there is room for a variety of working in it that can be accommodated. For instance, Ken has some important woodworking to be done, but it is raining.  Solution?

Set up the workbench in the kitchen, and have at 'er!!  :-)

This particular project is replacing the outside fridge panel off the cottage.  It decided to leave us somewhere on our journey back from Bellevue, and now resides somewhere south of Strathmore.  We now have an exposed outlet and outer workings of the fridge.  Ken is making a vented panel out of 1/4 inch plywood with hinges and a latch, and a series of 1/4 inch drilled holes for ventilation. (A 1/8 inch pilot hole was done first, and the holes are at a 45 degree angle downward for weather guarding.)  It will be painted white to match the camper.

This Saturday, Three Hills hosts an event known as a Show and Shine (I believe it is actually a car world's version of a rodeo circuit as I know Oyen hosts one too, later in the year)  Car buffs can follow them around all summer, I suppose :-).  Early signs of the day weren't too hopeful, but by 1 pm, it had cleared away the rain and hail to be respectable.  Although I am more inclined to trucks, I took a rounded selection of shots for you to traipse through. 

All can be viewed on the link, but here is a nibble.

It was well presented.  I had to laugh though, there was an old beater beetle there that from the front, I just didn't see why it was showing, but on our way out, I happened to walk behind it, and I saw a bumper sticker on it that just made me giggle.

(You will probably have to click on the picture to view it closely enough to read.  Here's hoping it works on the cops, LOL)

In the evening, they let off fireworks, but we were already hunkered down in bed, having also filled the day with workshop stuff, and I helped out on the farm where Ken's daughter boards her horse.

We were shuffling around the horses, pairing a potential breeding pair, moving 2 moms and foals to a different pasture, (and stopping to deworm the foals before turning them loose), fixing some fences, moving some oat mix, and general barn work.  Ken had a chuckle when I returned.  He took a picture, but it is a bit blurry.  Probably a reflection of my exhaustion :-)

Anyway, we are off to visit the family again this afternoon, so I will bid you,

Adieu

Power to The People

Okay, so we have been a bit busy since I tagged in.

First off, I got a few shots of the burnt out power plant:

This shot accents to me how far out the charring reached during the fire

  

These 2 shots show what little is left of the plant.

............

We did take Spirit over with his generator, and we ran it for a few hours to get the fridge back up to temperature.  The powers that be decided to just hook into the main grid of Three Hills, and I guess they were able to accomplish that by very late that night.  All was well, no contents were lost, and crisis was over come.

Meanwhile, we decide that we were nonetheless, going to go down to Bellevue, as we still needed to get the cottage and Smokey back to the Roving Acres.

We left Tuesday morning, and took our time on the trip.  We stopped in Nanton AB as Ken and I really like "the old birds" of WWII and they have a really neat museum there with a Lancaster bomber and several other static displays there.

We spent about an hour and a half just wandering through.  Among the displays inside and away from the actual birds was a section about the Great Escape of POWs from German capture. (There was a movie made about it if you haven't heard about it.)  When one thinks about the details, the ingenuity, logistics, and all else that was involved while under strict supervision of enemy soldiers, the mind boggles!!

After that we simply meandered down to Bellevue and stayed 2 days before bringing both trucks home.  There was no longer a need to go to Nelson for the generator, so that trip would be saved for another day.

The scenery along Highway 22, heading towards Highway 3 is very breath taking.  It truly is the foot hill region.  I was able to snap 2 shots on the fly, but it is amazing how you have lush hilly green pastures with mountains wedged between the hills.  If it weren't for cold winters, I would consider it a really good place for permanence. 

 

These shots are somewhere south of the Chain Lakes half way between the 22 junction with 533 and the 22 junction with the 3. There were better shots, but the camera was never handy at the right time.

Anyway, we are back in Three Hills and holding ground for the next week anyway.  Tomorrow is supposed to be the Show and Shine (a car show that engulfs the community and its roads) but in its honour, the rains that have long been awaited, have arrived with gusto!! (Oh yeah, and did I mention that they are predicting snow as a possibility??!!!)

One more set of shots for you, this is the re-assembled Roving Acres.

 

I am now heading out into the cottage to plug in a heater so the lines don't freeze.

With that, I will bid you

Adieu

The joys of portability

Today was somewhat unorthodox.  Whenever possible, we like to sleep in to 8 or 8:30.  This morning, however, we woke to a buzzing noise that said a cell in vibrate mode was going off somewhere in the kitchen.  It was about 7:45.

I stumble-bunnied my way down, and sonar located the buzzing.  I answer the phone, and Ken's Three Hills daughter was on the line, "Hi, Dad's cell was off, so I called yours.  You'll never guess in a hundred years what happened this morning!!!"

She was right, especially with morning foggy brain, I was beyond even trying.  So....

Apparently, the Prairie Bible College is on an independent power grid from the rest of the town.  Rather, it was.... but due to a huge fire, several explosions, and accompanying smoke and such, it burnt to the ground today. (If I can, I will get some shots.) 

So as they live in residence for students, their power crashed, and the timeline for solving the absence of source is uncertain, she was wondering if we had a spare genset so the contents of the fridge wouldn't die a smelly death.

.... Funny that we had just left the smaller one at her sister's place in Nelson, only about a month and a half ago.....

So we re-secured the utility trailer's contents (Ken had been using them for a week), moved the bikes from the utility trailer where they were parked to the back of Mack for securing for the trip, did a hasty prep and pack, stopped to dump the black water, and were on the road by 10 am.  And that included shaking cobwebs, coming up with a plan, and acting on it.  I really must say I was very impressed.  

If we had planned to move on, it could have been done faster, I'm sure as the utility trailer and bike would have been prepped the day before, and a lot of the shut down and prep for slide retraction as well, but as we were likely to be holding ground for another week, it was no where on the grid of likelihoods.  The only minor misses were that the roll out pantry wasn't latched and the TV antenna was still up (both fixed at a gas stop in Hanna - 1 hour down the road)  Fortunately, that part of Alberta has absolutely nothing overhead, so there was no danger of clipping it.

One thing I had alway liked about this lifestyle is that one can abandon a disaster in a hurry, and live off the grid as needed when a crisis arose.  It never occurred to me that you could equally rush into one...

BTW, no one was in the building so no one was hurt, but half the population of Three Hills is running powerless.

So the plan is that now that we are here, we are leaving Spirit with the genset in her driveway to run the fridge, and we are taking Mack to Bellevue to pick up Smokey.  We are bringing the bike rack with us so it can go on Smokey and we will secure the smaller genset on it.  That way, we don't have to use 2 trucks to get it. (The camper rather encompasses the box after all.  Then we come back to Bellevue, and actually only are driving both trucks from Bellevue back to Three Hills.  We will be back on Friday according to this new plan.

So I sit in my living room with a cat that is confused about having spontaneously hit the road again, and who is also having a slight case of deja vu, having only left this exact site in the exact campsite only one week to the day earlier.

And just yesterday, Ken was commenting that we should really give the genset a good test run.  I also commented to his daughter that next time she wants a visit, just saying she would like to see us would suffice, no need to blow up the power grid.

So as tomorrow is another early day and a long trip, I'm going to bed.

And with that, I bid you,

Adieu.