Remembering the Acreage

I was poking through some photos and found this one of Tucker, my first horse. She left us at 28 years. She is still on the Acreage, the place she really liked

This fellow came back for 4 years straight. He must have liked my fence post!

Riding with the hounds. There was only Boots and Brooklyn on this trip. Sometimes I had upwards of 10 dogs along. The neighbours dogs seemed to know when I was saddling up and joined in. After 5 hours of riding on the mountain, their butts were dragging

A Sad Day!

It was a sad morning as we took Boots down to the Vet one last time. He has been with us, as part of the family for 10 1/2 years. He got his name from our Grand Daughter  at 3 years old, when he dragged one of our son's boots across the kitchen floor at a time when we were trying to figure out a name.

 What Boots liked best in life.. looking after the horses, and of course, accompanying us on horse back rides and getting overall skritches from anybody that would accommodate.

Rest in peace Boots!

The Final Count down Begins!

On Friday, we gain possession of our new home. In the meantime, we are living in a sea of boxes all labelled as to where they go. We are also making do with 3 plates, 2 bowls, some cutlery, one pot and a frying pan. The ladies came and packed everything which is great! it makes us realize just how little we can get by with.

The conditions are off our place and the new place and we are just waiting for the word from the lawyers that all the paper work is in order. The gas supplier, electrical supplier, satellite suppliers for internet and television have all been notified, as has the County and town of Whitecourt.

Left to do basically is get the dogs some town licences and update their shots.

Sometime between December 6 and 12, I will be off air as far as blogging and emails go, hopefully not for long. Already it seems there is much more red tape in Town Vs County!

The dogs know something is changing. Since Boots "retired" from horse watching, he has turned into a real lovable, skritchable dog, not like his previous self. He is much more laid back and is actually enjoying inside life, except at night even when it is -28C (-18F) where he still prefers his dog house. When inside, this is his favourite place.

December 6 is D day. Over the next three days we are told to expect 20 to 45 cm ( 8 to 17 inches) of snow, near blizzard conditions and Zero visibility, depending on which forecaster you listen to. Following this, a cold front is moving in for 3 days with lows of -26C (-15F) and highs of -12C (+10F). Great weather for moving!

We moved in 10 years ago at -35C (-31 F) so this should be a wee bit warmer.
Have a great week out there in Blogland!

Killing Time

All the packing is done that can be done before the move away from the Acreage. I took the opportunity to take the dogs for a walk and got a bonus.

 There was so much sniffing going on, Boots may have strained his nose. :-}

 Brooklyn decided to stay mostly on the road

 This was the bonus. A cow and a calf moose got up and crossed the road.

 I tried to circle them to get some closer pictures, but Boots saw them.

The temperature got up to +7C  (45F) which made it pretty sloppy walking. A freezing rain storm came through in the night and made the roads treacherous. Ah, life in Alberta! If you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes.

A Speed Bump On the Road of Life!

Due to one of the people in the domino chain of house purchasing, turning up late with a mortgage rate on our house, the whole chain of house moves ground to a halt for a while. Briefly, it looked like our house acquisition and sale would not happen. However, it turns out the issue was resolved, but with a delay of our purchase from November 16 to December 6. It appears that things will go ahead but not as originally scheduled. (sigh!)

In the meantime, Boots is starting to show his age. He is turning into an inside dog that enjoys the lazier things in life. The outside dog house seems to be more and more abandoned as the temperature drops.

Our oldest son showed up all the way from Houston Texas to help out with the packing and such. We managed to disassemble the wheelchair ramp and stack the lumber ready for the move. Elaine is still improving daily and managed to walk from the house to the car and down 10 steps for the first time today! Our youngest son also was involved. the help and visits by both sons was much appreciated by Elaine and myself. Alas, Andrew headed back to Texas today. I did capture a photo or two of him playing in the snow.

 Note the smile!

Hope you all, (all y'all for my American friends) enjoy a great Remembrance Day on Monday!

Retired Horse Dog

Retirement is good! More time to do this. Sunny spots in front of the garage are great for the old bones. (10 years old now). Yep, he sleeps with one eye open. You never know when Brooklyn is going to pounce.

Follow up to "I Said I wouldn't...But"

It's amazing the difference that a summer will make. This was the pile cleaned up this spring.

This is the same pile on Sept 25. By spring it will be even further broken down and ready to go to work in the garden.

Just to show that some things are prettier than a precompost and compost pile. Here is Brooklyn still trying to catch ducks. She swam across several times trying to get one.

 Boots was late getting up this morning. He spent a lot of time last night keeping the coyotes at bay.

Thoughtless Thursday

It's thoughtless 'cause it's so darn hot and all the Boss wants to do is work on the access ramp. Somebody has to keep these critters under control. They are getting a little too far away.

 I will give them my patented Stink Eye. That should bring them in closer. Glad I didn't have to move too much!

 Don't look at me. I don't do horses. Besides somebody has to keep an eye on the Boss in case he falls of the ramp, or hurts himself. Besides, I am a bird dog, and it's too hot!

 I mean it! It's too hot! Now let me sleep.

Or maybe I'll go smell the roses. Naah, bad idea. Too far!

Still Growing!

One of these days this guy will come in to the salt earlier in the day. and I can catch a better (clearer) picture of him.

 One of the horses, (I think it's Alpine) insists on kicking the salt block out of the box.

Boots was just laying out of the picture ignoring the deer.

It's Been a While

I know I haven't blogged for quite some time. The reasons are several

1. It's not fun taking pictures in the rain

2. Most of the critters are hunkered down trying to stay dry.

3. I had a BIG project develop. ( details later, once it is near finishing)

It hasn't been that long that it's now fall. The tent caterpillars have been defoliating every thing in sight. It's been an effort to keep them off the fruit trees. The whole county is being over run with the little bug (ers).

Fortunately they do not seem to like lilac bushes (yet). we are getting lots of blooms. So far there haven't been any humming bird moths about, but I would expect to see them in another week.

There are lots of Tiger swallowtails sipping nectar. Now these are an alright bug!

Is it a moose? Nope, just Alpine trying out some forest vegetation. Once the horses start doing this, it's time to switch them to another field.

Alpine is getting close to looking like a round bale with ears!

A strategically placed tree covers the fat rolls.

If you look closely, you can see that Boots has been a bad dog! Yes that is a dreaded bark collar on him. It cured him in two barks. I have decided to leave it on a couple of more days just to be sure. I may put a plain collar on him, just to trick him into thinking it's the high charged version.

Back to the project on Wednesday. Stay tune for pictures.

Wordless Wednesday

Boots and Friends

Sometimes I can be a little shy, particularly when that guy with the camera is watching!

Then again, it's not hard to tell who is the fairest flower in the patch! No, not that tall grass eater!

 Too many pictures. I am bored.

 Too hot also. It should never get above 20C (68F)

 On a day like this it's OK to lurk in the horse candy.

 I can even lurk in the bushes. 

Darn, I am missing a horse! Maybe I should try what they're eating.

Hey, camera guy, can you put these critters back in their field so I can get a power nap?

Wordless Wednesday. On Guard

Boots

Biz, Alpine, Boots,Tucker

Boots

Tucker

Boots and Friends

It's another warm, sunny day, and not much to do except eat and watch horses. Boots spends the majority all of his time standing guard. He has amazing patience.

Biz will be the victim for some road riding this afternoon.