Life on the Ridge

Friday, June 5, 2009

The Next Dwayne De Rosario!

Blair is becoming quite the soccer player!

Rushing in for a line change.

Winding up for the big kick.

Playing "mids" with Cameron; these two make a good combination.

Blocking Red!

Clearing the goal.

Just missing a save.

Covering the net.

SAVE!

Getting set for another save!

Last week I was dealing with bears, this week I was dealing with bears, almost every day now we are getting a call about a bear causing problems; either they are in some one's backyard, in town, in a rancher's grain bin or chasing cattle across a pasture.

So on Wednesday, for a break, Perry & I went out and retrieved a camera from one of our carcass intercept feeding sites. This particular site was way back in the Gladstone Valley, we first hauled our quads to Beaver Mines Lake then quaded for about an hour, as far as we could go with them, then we got off and hiked for another hour into the site.

It was a warm day so we stopped to fill our water bottles in the Gladstone.

Gladstone Valley! We were probably farther than most humans have gone in this valley, it was a hard hike, there were lots of dead fall in the bush that we had to climb over or crawl under.
When we put the camera out here, the first of April, there was 5-6 feet of snow! This day there was a bit of snow on the other side of the creek and it was 25 degrees out; the water in the creek was about zero!

Here's some of the bears I dealt with this week...

This guy looks like he's reading the "DO NOT ENTER" sign above the door of the trap, he was coming into this guy's backyard and eating out of his bird feeders. I wasn't able to catch him even though he went into the trap, he was able to engage the safety stop and the door only went halfway down before it stopped and he was able to get out.

This was the same trap a few days later, I ended up catching this little bear cub and his sibling, mom (who, as you can see was a beautiful blond color) was not very happy. When Perry & I arrived he covered me while I lifted the door and let the little guys free!

My last day of work we got a call about a bear in a tree in an acreage owner's shelter belt, when we arrived we found this guy hanging out, literally! I had one of the dog guys from Blairmore with me so we decided to haze him out of the area instead of capturing him and relocating him. This turned out to be a big mistake since a couple of hours later he ended up in a tree in Cowley - a small town along Highway 3, just west of Pincher Station; this time he was captured and relocated!

Hot Weather Fishing

Last Saturday Kirby & Carolyn went to Lethbridge shopping so Erinn, Blair & I decided to go for our first fishing trip of the season. We went down to our hot spot in Strathcona Park at the mouth of Ross Creek and the South Saskatchewan River. The temperature went up to 32 degrees!

Erinn trying to catch some red-nose suckers in the creek.

Blair trying for a big pike, although nothing in there will probably top the 16 pounder he got this past winter.

Dad caught this one, a nice 3 pound walleye that was bang on the size limit. This was the only fish we caught so it was a fight over who got to eat the most!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Our 1st Teenager

We celebrated Kirby's 13th Birthday on Friday!

Mom & Dad sprouted several more grey hairs!!!

Friday, May 29, 2009

Visiting Dad

Carolyn & the kids came to Beauvais Lake this past weekend to visit since I had to work.

My spot out at Beauvais Lake Provincial Park (I don't work for parks!), which is a far cry from living in the warehouse between the highway and the train tracks.