normal days

It was already my third day of work again today which means one more day of work and i am off again for two days... :D The work is going like always... nothing special except the little stallion which is pretty full of himself and you never know when he pulls his next stunt !!!

rodeo stock on the way to Edson

Now is the time of the pasture hauls and also rodeo season. This means a trucking business is very busy ! And of course it means for me to grab the chance to see more from the country :) That's what I did yesterday again. This time we went to Edson. Robin picked me up in Winfield town and then headed over to pick up rodeo stock (11 horses and 11 bulls) outside Winfield. We had to wait a bit till the owner showed up he had to look for a horse out in the pasture. I was waiting in the truck and suddenly there is this horse running in the yard. With the horse also came the owner driving in the yard. So, everybody was ready to load. After everybody was on board we hit the road toward Edson. The weather wasn't too bad, a bit grey clouds, a bit rain from time to time and nice temperatures. Like always, we had a good time ;D I enjoyed the drive even I already knew the route. After we dropped off the animals at the rodeo ground we went to town 'cause I needed a new cell phone... my old one died ! Around an hour later we jumped back in the truck and headed in the direction of Entwistle where we enjoyed a nice supper. We both were tired and so decided to go home. I had to go back to the barn in the evening anyway.

deworming day

Today, was quite the grey cloudy day, it was also spitting a bit from time to time. There was even the sun shining a tiny little bit on some point of the day. After a lazy morning with chatting and figure out what to do today, we went out in the pasture to catch the members of the big herd. These guys needed to be dewormed. Some of the horses were pretty good and we could catch them pretty fast, others needed a bit more talking them into the idea of getting caught. The one youngster had an argument with Rob about beeing handled. And soon the horses around them had little fits too. I was standing beside the truck where one of the youngster was tied up and watched Duke rearing. This was quiet an impressive picture 'cause Duke is a draft horse, a Percheron (?) I guess. He was standing pretty good balanced on his hindlegs... Wow !! Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me :( and he was tied to the jail ! We dewormed almost everyone except a couple which thought they play 'hard to catch'. It was fun but it also took a lot of energy out of me. I was just tired after we were done. Rob had to buy staples in town and so we took off to Breton. I took the chance to buy groceries.

off after 5 days of work

After 5 days of work (I will get the one day off in June) I am finally off again. It just sucks all the energy out of you when you shovel shit for that amount of time !!! I was just exhausted ! (I wonder how I feel when I will work 8 (!) days in a row in July). And it didn't help at all that I didn't sleep good the night before. So I am back in Winfield to charge my batteries. Last night I just slept like a rock, i was out like a light and this morning up at 8 am. Yesterday evening, Rob and I went for a few little job outside. Moving horses to other pens, putting a temporary fence up on the one pen, chasing two horses which out of a pasture where they didn't belong and went for a quad ride in the bush to have a look where the two covered bridges will be. It was pretty muddy after all the rain we had. My pants and coat was just a mess.... But the rain was needed badly !! Oh well, mud is part of spring here I would say.

Mavis

I have a little helper, Mavis the black and white cat. When I first started at Double W she was shy and I couldn't catch or pet her at all. I can't remember what happend but suddenly she came to me and I could pet her and she followed me everywhere. And since she is on a diet, I usually feed her twice a day. So, every morning when I come to the barn to have my breakfast Mavis waits for me, sometimes outside the barn (spring) or inside. Usually, I get shit from her... maybe to hurry up and feed her ?? I am not quite sure ! I have my breakfast first and around 7am Mavis get hers too. I try to feed her not too early in the morning otherwise she will be hungry in the afternoon again instead of the evening. Mavis usually helps me feeding hay to the horses in the morning and afternoon. She can sleep on a chair but as soon as I take the wheelbarrow to fill it up with hay bales, Mavis is on her way to the spot where the bales are. As soon as Missy is on the bales and ready to go, we take off for our feeding tour. Sometimes I get shit from her here too... Mavis is a real queen, I call her the 'Queen of the barn' :D Sometimes, she follows me even to the house. Once she was waiting for me, had a nap on a chair and when I went to the barn for night check again she followed me all the way back to the barn. My little cutie helper.. ;D

a full day

Saturday, my day off and yeah, I am pretty busy already again. In the morning we took off to Drayton Valley to drop off a tractor tire to fix it and in the meantime we went grocery shopping. We were all done with shopping but the tire wasn`t fixed yet so we headed over to the chinese restaurant for lunch. It was good like always... then finally the tire was fixed and we could hit the road again to reach our next stop, the auction place. We checked out the stuff which was for sale. Nice trucks, play grounds, power posts, boats, tractor, you name it... everything you want... around 20 min later we jumped in the truck again and took off to our next destination, home. Where Robin and I changed into the big semi truck to go on a horse haul. We had to pick up bucking horses to bring them to the rodeo ground in Thorsby. I was so excited ! And so curious how you can load bucking horses in a trailer... ! Easy ! Open the door and let `em run in... these guys knew what`s going on. They were up in the trailer, in the compartment and arranged themself so they could travel without any problems. I was impressed ! These are not handled horses, almost wild. And they loaded like aces !! We picked up 25 and off we go to Thorsby. The unloading part was way more quiet then the loading part. Open the door and here they come.... WOW !! Now, next stop a cow farm to pick up a load of cows to bring them to their summer pasture. They have a basset hound. He is a real cow dog !! :) This time he was tied up (I met him the first time when we picked up the heifers for the trip to Fairview). I think this dog has sooo much class. Also, no problems with loading, all pro`s :) around 15 min later we reached the pasture, unfortunately full of mosquitos ! I prefered to stay in the truck and have some m&m`s for a snack ;D All unloaded and ready to head home. It was soooo hot in the truck that we needed an ice cream badly ! A detour later we were eating our ice cream sandwich and having a nice chat. Finally, home it' wasn't time to be lazy yet, next project put the fixed tire on the tractor and go fencing in the bush. I was driving the tractor, a loud old thing. I had some problems to drive that thing but after a while it wasn't too bad at all. Robin checked the posts and I followed with tractor and post pounder. It was soooo peaceful, the only noise came from the tractor. I really enjoyed to be in the bush. I just love it !

surprising cattle haul

My day off yesterday started with a cattle haul. My friends picked me up and I was surprised to see both in the truck... Soon, I knew why. A cattle haul was scheduled for 6.30 pm. GREAT ! :) Of course I took the chance to go on a little road trip. It is so nice now, all the green and the tiny leaves everywhere... I love spring ! Especially when you had that much snow for 5 or 6 month. We picked up 24 cows to bring them to the grazing reserve where they will stay for the summer and go back home in fall. It was interesting to see how it works to bring cows to this place. We went home after we dropped them off. As soon as we came home the decision was made to go to a place where they have an auction on Saturday to check things out. The 4 of us jumped in the truck and got going. Are they still open at around 8 pm ? We called there and sure enough they closed at 8pm... :( okay so all the way back home. The rest of the evening we had a good visit.