back in Edson at the 'Funny Farm'

I am in Edson since yesterday again. The weather is still good, a bit of a wind. We took it easy today, fed animals, visited and split wood. I met Curly (mostly white) and Norman (brown-white), the two little goats. Curly has lots of interesting ideas where to put his nose in :) and he is a real talker. The wood splitting was a nice job and it was fun too. And I also met some old friends again. Maddie grew up to a nice dog. I also met the 2011 foal, Wildfire. He is such a handsome boy.

drive a semi

Lots to do at the moment, help hauling cows, hay and equipment. Lots on the road and see new areas... The weather is not too bad, yesterday grey clouds were hanging around the whole day and a bit spiting in the evening. And today the sky was blue and the sun was shining again. There were no cows to haul yesterday and so we decided to haul a load of round bales home. I got the job to drive the semi truck with trailer in the field so the bales could get loaded. I never drove a rig like that before. I wasn't nervous at all... only excited :) I was so excited that I forgot to push in the clutch and so the truck died :( I could start it again and off we went to pick up more bales. It was great and I really hope I have the chance to drive this rig a bit more.

ranch rodeo in Olds

Ranch rodeo...where real cowboys compete against each other. :) These guys are actually working every day with cows. Sounds interesting ! It was really interesting. Yesterday at 10 am the first class 'ranch horse' started. The pattern was to ride circles of different sizes, sliding stops and spins and then a calf came in the arena, which needed to be moved around. After a lunch break the rodeo started. First class was 'California branding', followed by 'doctoring', 'trailer loading', bronc riding and bull roping. Only the 4 ranches with the most points were entering in the bull roping competition. 3 of 4 bulls weren't happy with being roped :) As soon as they came out of the shoot they tried to attack the riders if they were to close to him. After the cowboys roped a white bull he was a bit mad i guess... he didn't really wanna leave the arena. It took several cows and cowboys to finally get him out of the arena. I really enjoyed the rodeo, it was totally different then the 'professional' ones.

swamper

I am on the road again, helping haul cattle for customers. We went yesterday and the day before. Yesterday we hauled for three different owners from the Buck Mountain Grazing reserve back to the their places. It was the last day to haul the cows and calves out of the reserve and so there were lots of trailer. I was watching when they try to load the cows and calves in the liners (trailers with two floors). The one group of calves was cute, they went in the trailer without any problems... only to come out after a few minutes again :D I had to smile when I saw that ! Most of the cows and calves came back out as fast as they could when no one was there to keep them in the trailer or piled up in front of the door. :) These liners are narrow and the cows have to go up a ramp to get in the top floor. Almost every time when a group of cows or calves went on it sounded like the group was falling down...  I really like our trailer, it's wide, open and not slippery.

projects...

We finished the outhouse building :) and already started the next project, putting shingles on the front part of the church. I was cutting shingles on the ground and went up on the roof afterwards... well, it didn't feel so good to be up there but the view was good ;D and I put a few nails in the roof :)

build an outhouse and do ground work

We are busy building an outhouse beside the church. It looks nice with all the logs and boards. Today we put the roof on it and build the door. The next thing to do is put the shingles up on the roof. I also worked with the draft horses again. This time I worked with both. Nellie and Duke are in a small pen now beside the house cause both, well especially Nellie, like to play the 'hard to catch-game'.  Today both came to me and I had no problems to put the halter on. We worked on leading, back up, move shoulders and hind end. Nellie is more laid back then Duke. He needs to calm down when he's around people.... He needs a little more work :) I really enjoy to work with them, I missed it !

ground work with a draft horse

I worked with the two draft horses out in the pasture a couple times over the last few days.  Both think they need to be hard to catch. :) Fine ! I can work with that and it's so much fun. I really enjoy that. I can practice my horse language skills some more ;D The one minus point for me is the bigness of the pasture. If they decide to take off I have no chance to catch up... So, I need to get them in an area where I also have a chance... I wanted to continue our little discussion from yesterday. Nellie let me come closer today but then Madame thought 'No, you can't catch me !' and took off. I didn't really want to work with her today anyway. Duke was standing beside me and let me pet him. He didn't mind that I put the rope over this neck and soon put the halter on. He was a bit nervous but didn't try to escape. We made it to the one little pen beside the house. I asked him to move his hind end, go forward and backup and move his shoulders. He did great ! I was surprised that he didn't fuss so much. People told me that he is pretty pushy ! I left him the pen for a while by himself. Poor guy, he was sooo sweaty ! He is a brat ! Duke reared up right at the gate and tried to escape... He learned that from Nellie...( She did that in winter when they were looked up in this pen. Her stunt is to rear up, push the gate down so the chain gets out of place and she can push the gate open. :) smart cookie !!)  I put the halter on Duke again and we walked nicely to another gate where I turned him loose. He showed me good manners, still nervous. I am so proud of Duke :)

thanksgiving day

Thanksgiving day started pretty lazy :) we just hung around till noon and had a brunch. After that and more hanging around I decided to grab the draft halters and head to the pasture to work some more with Duke and Nellie. Yeah, Nellie decided she doesn't really wanna be caught and so we had a little discussion about being not rude. I really enjoyed to work with Nellie :) I hope to have time for regular work with them. Everyone else left for a trail ride and so I decided to watch the round pen video I have. Education is always good ;D Our next project was shooting, this time with rifles. I never shot a rifle before. We set up targets. I didn't get the target :( but it was the first time I ever shot a rifle. Good thing the recoil wasn't that bad like the one from the shot gun... Soon, it was too dark to shoot and so we headed back to the house.

thanksgiving weekend 2011

Thanksgiving weekend in Winfield. A three day party with all kind of activities like trail riding, skeet shooting, lots of food, a service in church on Sunday, other entertainment things like log sawing contest or walk races... The weather is good, sunshine and blue sky. The log sawing contest was so much fun. It was Switzerland vs. Canada. :) Switzerland started and it took us 47 sec to saw the log. The second group had 48 sec ;) We did a good job for our country. :D The next event was a walking race which I won :) We had to walk from the barn to the jail, a piece of cake for me ;D And in the evening is the turkey supper.

fencing and cutting lumber

Another foggy day, damp more or less... I fixed a fence and helped cutting lumber till it was too dark to see. My job was to roll the logs in position so they can go on the cart to get cut. Not hard work... :) Wait for supper to be cooked, watch a movie and warm up beside the fire.

Fall is really here

I am enjoying my days off in Winfield. On time with the beginning of October the weather is totally like in the fall. Clouds, rain, sun and fog, thick fog at the moment. The leaves are falling down and all the trees wear nice yellow, red or green colours. I really enjoy to see a nice fall. Unfortunately, with the fall weather the air is getting colder again too. So, that means dig out the winter gear and wear more then just a t-shirt ;) I went on the truck again to haul cattle yesterday. The one road we drove along had on both sides of the road trees with all this beautiful colours... even the Tamaracks turned in a nice yellow. I really love this time of the year ;) It's my favorite beside spring.