haying time

Already a week ago since the camp meeting. 4 day of work and two days off... Thurday evening I helped moving planks to fix a fence. We packed it in the truck and I drove it to the spot where it had to go :) Friday, we checked hay fields and I got my groceries. The weather wasn't good, rain on and off. Some of the hay fields were pretty swampy good thing I wore rubber boots :D It was amazing to see the grass higher then myself. In the one field we almost disappeared in the grass :) Yesterday, we brought salt to the cows in the pasture and checked some more hay fields. After a glass of cold water and an ice cream we grabbed truck and tractor and off we went to cut grass. My first time I was on a tractor when the grass gets cut. :) It was pretty bumpy on some spots. We cut six rows and then headed home for supper, bbq pork with baked potatoes ;D and to work up an appetit we played badminton till the food was ready. I love badminton :)

camp meeting

I am off again after 9 days of work in a row... After all I was not that tired. As soon as I was at the farm again, life continued full power. Camp Meeting ! An evening and two days of music and church services. My job is to help with the food, getting everything ready for that and if something is needed from the house to pick it up. Well, not only I do that, other family member too :) Some speeches are pretty hard to understand cause the people talk too fast and the one was jumping from one topic to another and soon I was just lost... Yesterday I had to take a break and sneaked out of the arena to bake my chocolate-coconut cake. Everybody who tried it loved it ;D It was really good ! It's interesting to talk to different people and almost everybody is amazed when they learn that I am from Switzerland. Today is already the last day and also my last day off !

trip to Sundre

Around 6 pm last night I got a call and soon I was sitting in the semi truck on my way to Sundre. We dropped off a gravel trailer there. The weather was just spectacular ! Huge clouds, grey and white and weird shapes. Thunder clouds, impressive and scary ! The sun was still present and so the light was pretty intensive. Soon, we were in the middle of a downpour. :( The area of Sundre just had a tornado. I thought, yeah we don't need a tornado while we are in this area. We were lucky and it were only nasty thunder clouds. After a good supper in Sundre, we were on the road again towards home. The rain stopped and so we had a nice sunset, it looked like a mountain on fire.

rain, thunder, waiting and a trip to Sundre

Rain and thunder on and off for the last few days. During the day its hot and muggy, yuk ! This is not nice ! All the cloths stick to your body and the mosquitos are just a pest ! That part of summer i don`t like at all ! I already made it to the 6th day of work ;) I am feeling not too bad. I just long for my next days off... Where I can sleep in and then it`s time for Camp Meeting. I look forward to it. I wonder how it will be... ;D Today, I get a little break from hanging around here at the barn. Robin brings a gravel trailer back to Sundre and had asked me if I would like to join him. Sure, I need a break ! Even the weather is not nice, I take the chance to see more from Alberta :D

hot day at work

The barn was busy today. We had a Dressage Schooling show. Some participants arrived already yesterday and even more today. It was just like in a bee house ! And weather was hot, sunshine and thank god a little breeze... It was almost too hot and too crowded for me !! I could escape to clean the outdoor stalls behind the barn. I was just beat at the end of my shift!

9 days on...

I am back to work since yesterday. This time I am on for 9 days straight ! I am happy that it is already day 3 tomorrow ;D only 6 more to go ;) Well, sometimes you need to set priorities in life. I shifted my days off so i can go on the trip to Fort McCleod and then to Camp Meeting the weekend in a week. It's not too bad at the moment, almost all of the Quarter horses are at a show this weekend, only two are here and then the Warmbloods. This gives me the chance to catch up some sleep. I was in bed at 9.30 pm last night ! I really needed it. :)

Road trip Winfield- Beaverlodge- Fort McCleod

At 9 am we left home towards Beaverlodge in Northern Alberta in the semi truck with trailer. I never was in Beaverlodge before, so it was a part of Alberta I didn't see yet. We stopped from time to time, had lunch in Valleyview and arrived in Beaverlodge around 4 pm. We had to be at the elk farm around 4.30 to load the animals. I never were on an elk farm before, another new thing for me :) The elk are still wild animals and to load them you need to run them up a shoot and then in the trailer. 32 bull elk had to get on the trailer. Of course the boys didn't really want to step in this dark box... so we had to push (as good as you can from above) them in the trailer. Finally, everybody was in there and we could leave. Our next destination and unfortunately the final destination for the boys was Fort McCleod south of Calgary. The weather was a mix of clouds, sun and rain (down pour). We even had the chance to see the moon again ! We didn't stop a lot to have a break, so we didn't get a lot of sleep this night. I tried to stay awake as long as I can to keep Robin company and help him not to fall asleep behind the wheel but after midnight I had to give up and crawled in the bed in the truck. Well, as soon as I was in bed I thought I am on a boat on a rough sea !!! The boys behind me just rocked the boat like crazy ! I had a hard time not to fall off the bed... I tried to get some sleep from Rimbey to Red Deer (about 1 hour ?). Robin stopped in Red Deer cause he was tired as well. I thought yeah, maybe I can sleep now... ? I don't think so !!! The bulls rocked the trailer even more now that the truck wasn't moving anymore !!! After 20 min we decided to get going again... These guys were just terrible ! We drove almost the whole night with little breaks. And arrived Fort McCleod around 5. 45 am. We were suppost to unload at the meat plant at 6 am. We made it ! I wasn't prepared for the smell and the view I got when I was looking out the window ! Bison heads on a pallett and lots of horses in pens. I didn't sleep a lot this night, my stomach was empty and then this gross smell... I was ready so throw up soon ! I felt so bad that we had to drop off the boys here and to know what will happen to them. Unfortunately, the elk didn't get off like I wanted which was as fast as they can.... Robin needed my help. I had to make sure they can't escape through the one door. After a long time (it felt like hours) everybody was out and in the house except one. An older bull which was down in the trailer. He got up but had no intention to get off the trailer. He was grinding his teeth at us which means he is mad. Finally, he was out but still not where he had to be. He was standing right behind the door I was guarding. Robin opend the door to chase him away, I peeked in the door and what I saw almost knocked me on the floor !! The old bull was still grinding his teeth at us, his eyes red like he was crying and blood on his cut antlers. He looked soooo hurt emotionally ! He must have been a proud animal ! This picture is burnt right in my mind. I was so sad and really hurt too. I didn't expect an experience like that at all. After a breakfast and 2 hours of sleep we were on the road again towards home. We took our time, had breaks and i tried to digest what I saw this morning. Still, I have to think of him a lot...

cattle drive

Monday, finally done with work ! I am ready for my days off ! This time ROAD TRIP ! ;) My friend picked me up and surprised me with the message that we will help his son to move heifers. Okay, no problem ;) I got a spot to hold up a rope when the girls will come down the road. It was a herd of around 200 heifers. As soon as they passed me there was my friend with the pick up and picked me up at my spot. We drove behind the cows all the way to where they had to go. The next thing was to pick up the semi truck and trailer at the mechanic shop down the road. I drove the pick up home after I dropped off my friend at the shop. After supper and a little visit I went to bed to be fresh and ready for our trip next day !

countdown #2

Today was my first of 3 (!) work days. I changed my days off so I am off Tuesday and Wednesday. `Cause on Tuesday and Wednesday is another elk run !! And this time i wanted to be part of it. I couldn`t resist and had to change my days off !! So, I will be on the road again on Tuesday morning. This time for around 24 h. Sounds exhausting ! I don`t know yet when we leave but it will be early in the morning. The journey will be from Winfield to around Beaverlodge somewhere and then all the way down to Fort McCleod. I look forward to that and can`t wait till its Monday evening.

Road trip and eating ribs

Yesterday, was another road trip on the plan. I had to do some more business in town and so I asked if I could go to town too. So, Robin and I took off. Our first stopp was in Hoadley to drop off camp meeting posters. We did several stops till we arrived in Hobbema, an native reserve. It was interesting to see how these people live. Of course, there was the typical picture of people hanging around in town, don't know that to do... Our next stop was Wetaskiwin, dropping more posters off. Soon, we were on the road again towards Red Deer. The weather started to change, grey clouds moved in and soon we had a nice down pour going on... ! Great !! I really missed that !!! :( We ate supper in Red Deer in Swiss Chalet. Unfortunately, there is no Swiss menu ! But it was good anyway. I learned that its allowed to eat ribs with the fingers even in a restaurant ;D This is farmer style :D It was time to go home, for me to go back to the barn and for Robin the farm.

Edmonton and Baseball

My two days off just flew by like crazy !!! On Thursday we went to Edmonton to buy food (me), parts for the truck and do other stuff. In the evening was a baseball game. Since I never used a baseball glove before, Robin and I had to try it of course immediately ;) He threw me baseballs and I practised to catch them. It's not that hard... and it's fun. I have to do that a little more ;) Two groups train every Thursday evening in Winfield. We went to watch and during the training I discovered that we never played Baseball in sports class... We played a poor excuse of Baseball !! Robin was explaining me the rules and when something happend what was going on... It was interesting.

Canada Day - July 1st

I arrrived in Winfield around 11 am yesterday and I had the option to go to the Canada Day parade in Breton. It's always neat to see parades... They had different wagons pulled by horses or tractors. The 4H group brought a bull, a heifer and a calf. The bull took his time to walk.. ;) that was funny. After buying my groceries we went home, it was time to get ready to move bulls out in the pasture.... Bug spray, baseball cap and rubber boots and off we go ! ;D 9 bulls to move. I had to hold on to the back door sitting on the fence. One bull was standing right on the other side of the door and I had a good view on his back. Wow, that's what the bull riders see before they mount the beast ! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me :( After everyone was loaded and dropped off where they belong we headed home. Short break and time for planting more flowers. It was a nice evening, I really enjoyed it. :)

Ponoka Stampede

Chuckwagon races at the Ponoka Stampede ?! Awesome ! Yesterday we had the chance to see the chuckwagon races, the boss of the barn has a box at the stands. Good seats for the rodeo but bad ones for the races if you really want so see something or wanna take pictures. So I took off on my own and was looking for a good place to take pictures. They started with the pony chucks (8 heats) without outriders and after that the 'real' chuckwagon incl. outrider. I really en joyed seeing them go. After the races was the concert. A country singer from the US, but it was the worst concert I have seen. It was 2 hours. Finally, the concert was over and the firework started. I was so ready to go to bed... but my coworkers still wanted to stay... I went to bed at 2 am after doing night check too !