Work, Work, Work!

Gotta keep everyone busy around here!


Erinn hanging out after school, notice the pyjamas? The first thing she does when she gets in the door is shed her clothes and put on her pyjamas.


Kirby was home sick today, but not too sick to get her chores done.


Blair emptying the dishwasher, he didn't want his picture taken so he shoved his head in the cupboard before I could snap it!


Me looking pretty rough, this has been the norm since I went back to nights! You'll notice the 'hooks' on my shoulders, that's what happens when you write the Sergeant's Exam, they want to you to act like a Sergeant.
My first night doing this I was expected to put down a roll of loonies (for the beer machine that's in our police lounge), just a little something we do for certain screw ups or special events. The funny thing about this is I made an extra $27.50 that night, so in essence, after putting my roll down I only made $7.50!!!

Good Bye Snow, Hello Rain!

With highs in the teens the last few days the snow really disappeared.

Would of been nice to have the grass in before this came.

The gravel on the driveway isn't there any more.

I took these today, we got some rain last night but you can see my puddle is soaking away.

If nothing else this moisture will be good for the trees.

I'm on days off starting today but I will have to wait until next week before things dry up enough for me to get the yard worked and my grass seed in. Carolyn picked up some seed potatoes so we have to plot out the garden and get that going too. In the picture above you can see a farm off in the distance, he's selling manure at $25 a truckload, I'll get a few loads of this and work it in to the 'garden'!

So Long Snow!

Today my snow started to melt! Boo Hoo!!!!


The driveway is getting really soft, the ground never froze underneath so its going to be a real mess for the next few days!


You can see the ground is already starting to dry on the top, the sun was only out for an hour or two today too!

Budding Actress!

All this week Kirby has been preforming in a play at the Esplanade; "Once on this Island Jr". Last night Carolyn & I went, it was really good, the kids did an awesome job, Kirby played a villager and got to do some singing and dancing.


Here's Kirby in her costume after the performance.


There was even an article in the Medicine Hat Newspaper about the play, Kirby is on the far right.

Gotta Love Four Wheel Drive!

This morning I headed out to the compost pile, it took me a while to find it in the 2 feet of snow, but when I did I was surprised to find the ground unfrozen; the snow is like a big blanket keeping everything warm underneath.

What an awesome day, its about -2 with no wind and fresh snow falling. I stood for a while at the back fence and just took in the silence and beauty of it all, not too many days like this left! Last night is was very windy, out of the east whereas it was out of the west a couple of days ago, this will be good because it will fill in both sides of the yard!


You can see how much the snow has drifted in the back yard, I had to get in here to off load the small water tank the other day, if I didn't have four wheel drive I would of been in trouble!


When this stuff melts over the weekend it will make for some good moisture. I got a call from Pioneer today, my bag of grass seed is in, wouldn't you know it! The forecast is calling for highs in the single digits for the weekend than up to +15 for Monday and highs in the double digits for the whole week. Good bye snow....sob....sob!!!

More of the White Stuff!

Today we're getting more winter, strange stuff though, its -5 but the snow is melting as it hits the ground. We had some good wind the last few days that managed to drift the snow in the ditches and bare the hills, now everything is filling in again. Even the wildlife is acting strange; there was a herd of Antelope bedded down right on the edge of the highway yesterday, last night a brown jackrabbit loped into the yard and this morning the pheasants were nested along the edge of the pavement.


Whiteout on the Ridge.


This will be good moisture for my trees, you can see they don't provide too much of a shelter belt just yet, maybe next year.


I couldn't resist, I had to go for a short training ride! I made it around the corner, 0.1 kms, and that was enough it was -12 with the windchill, not ideal weather for wearing nothing by Lycra! Carolyn says I'm "CRAZY", but I like to think I'm "Dedicated"!

Snowy Delivery!

Rain or shine, -35 or +35, mud or snow, the water must be hauled. At only $2 a load I can't complain too much! That and the trip in to Dunmore takes me right past the cold beer store.


Thank goodness for four wheel drive!


If there was only a way I could turn all that snow into water and transfer it into my cistern.....ummmmm!

Winter's Back!

Hard to believe that a week ago yesterday we had +26 degrees! Saturday this stuff showed up, apparently it surpassed the old record of 24.5 cm by 5 cms! I was working that night and it was like being back in northern Saskatchewan, we had over 30 accidents reported and had to shut down every road with a hill until the city could get their sanding trucks out. I was able to drive my patrol car only a few blocks from the station before getting stuck and having to jump in with another member who had a 4x4, later in the night we had to switch vehicles again because that one died due to a moisture buildup from all the snow. Last night there was only one car on the road, the rest were all 4x4s!


You can see from the drifts that the car stayed in the garage.


The drifts are up to my knees!


I shovelled out the back walk so the kids could get out to the bus.

When I came home from work on Sunday morning the kids were tunnelling in the snow. You can tell from their rosie cheeks that they had a good time outside. Erinn's missing because she went out to the farm on Friday and had to stay until today because of the poor roads.

April Showers!

I had the day all planned out; get the rest of the yard disced and ready for seeding, well 'best made plans!' We woke up to showers this morning, so I bought some new rubbers, put on my rain slicker and headed out to get things done!


Blair last night cruising around on the quad.


Fresh rain on my freshly tilled land.


Ready for planting trees.


Mission accomplished, 13 ashes, 6 spruce and a sore back!


Before I took the quad back I harrowed between my rows, looks pretty good.


The April showers didn't provide enough moisture so I had to add some of my own. Out of the picture was me drinking a Lucky!

I went to Agricore this morning to buy my seed but they didn't have any in, so I will have to wait for another set of days off to get my seed in.

Farming!

Today I was busy working the yard, I borrowed my neighbour's home-made discer and another friend's quad to pull it with. I admit I was very impressed at the job it did, I'm convinced that a quad would be all I need to keep up with the day-to-day yard work. I have been shopping for a tractor but a small acreage tractor is worth twice as much as a big one and considerably more than a used quad, that and we can use the quad for fishing & hunting!


You can see me progress, the green stuff growing there isn't grass!


Like I said I was impressed with how well this thing worked. My neighbour used to be a welder, he is an RN now at the hospital and just does welding on the side, he made this from scratch which is pretty good considering he knows nothing about farming! Its set up so you can put 100 pound sidewalk blocks on the top but I found it was digging in too much with only one block on it.

Tonight the trees arrive and hopefully tomorrow I can get some seed to do my ditches, originally I was looking at hydro-seeding but this is apparently quite expensive!

Good Cause!

On June 6th I will be riding from Medicine Hat to Edmonton with 9 other law enforcement people, this will be a non-stop relay to raise money and awareness for our Special Olympics Athletes.

If you would like to donate please go to the following link: http://www.albertatorchrun.ca/


Article from April 11, 2008, that appeared in the Medicine Hat News.

Communion Weekend

I've been busy this past week so I was unable to get these pictures up from last week, Blair's 1st Communion.


Dad hanging out with my sister Joanne and niece Teagan.


Erinn wearing off some energy on the "tramp"!


Grandma & Erinn playing Choco!


The kids all dressed up for church.


Proud parents.


Mama & Papa with Blair.


Grandpa & Grandma with Blair.


The whole family.

First Communion

This past weekend was very busy, hence no blog update! My parents were down as well as my sister and our niece Teagan for Blair's 1st Communion. Carolyn's parents come out on Sunday for a big supper with the whole family, mass was at 6 pm.


Our parish priest, Father Keith, was out for supper, here he is laughing it up with Blair. Carolyn's mom made the cake, her specialty!


After church Carolyn's mom snapped a photo of Blair and Father Keith! Pretty proud moment, daddy's boy is growing up, he was pretty proud of his outfit which he picked out himself!

Day Off!?!?!

Today was my first day off. I don't know if I can really consider it a day off with all the work I gotta get done around the ranch; hauling water, hauling garbage, hauling the compost, cleaning out the garage, cleaning bathrooms and the kitchen!


I borrowed a friends 350 gallon tank to see how it would work on the truck. Two dollars later it was full and the bumper was still off the ground!


One load with the big tank will save me 2 trips with the little tank! I had to take the roll-top cover off the truck box so the tank would fit but it was worth it!


We got 4-6 inches of snow on Sunday night, after everything had finally dried up. However the last couple of days have been sunny and above zero, so it won't take much to dry things out again. This Saturday we are supposed to get up to +12 or +15!


More snow towards the hills but today when I went south to pickup the water tank it was whiter to the north! Spring can't be too much farther away which will mean yard work season.

Work!

You know any of these guys?