A sunny day in Nanaimo

Who knew we would spend this glorious day on the water's edge listening to the eagles call and watch the ferries go by. We saw a subdivision sail past. Yes indeed a subdivision. A collection of attached homes on a barge. Maybe 5 homes in all. Obviously a floating home condo. I am too lazy to get up off my chair to go inside to look for the camera cord to upload the pic to this blog but when Bryan is off the internet maybe I will.
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Our camp site tonight

We are overlooking the waterway between Nanaimo and Gabriola island. Our spot is right on the water. Wow!!! This is special.
We had a lovely day, Lunch with Peg and Mike at Genoa Bay, a tour of Duncan and a tour of their boat. Their house is perfect just what they ordered, they couldn't have done better. I will post more tomorrow.
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deck pics

Humane calf roping

Today I am at the all girls rodeo in Brooks Ab. These are wee little peewee ropers. Yes indeed there is such a thing, some of them are only six years old, riding full siize horses. That is over a thousand pounds of horse flesh. The cowgirls rope the calf as it comes out of the chute and immediately let go of the rope. There is a yellow flag on the end of the rope so that the judge knows it has been thrown down and the clock stops at that point. The calf gets a little run and is not threatened or flipped or injured. In fact it isn't even touched except by the rope and there is no tension on that. The calf leaves by the gate at the opposite end of the arena and the rope is slipped off of its neck or from around its feet and it is none the wiser for this experience.
The little girls in this rodeo are born to the sport of horsewomanship and stick to their saddles like they are glued on.There is  much skill involved in managing a big animal and the rope and their own centre of gravity, these girls even hang onto their hats. I can only imagine the self confidence they develop for the rest of their lives with the experience gained in this sport. These little girls just know that they can do anything.

BS

Bob and Sherry that is. They had taken the summer to cross Canada and the US and return. They took their truck and camper and logged...was it 23,000.00 kms?  To Lanse Aux Meadows and back.  Correct me if I am wrong Bob.  Upon passing through Calgary they stayed for a few days and told us lots of interesting stories. However they were still not finished when they got here. We had a huge dinner of Wild Sockeye salmon on Tuesday, local grass finished (Chicken Jerry) beef rib steaks on Wednesday (we are all foodies) and the next day we went to the Bar U. Mostly to see the country side as they hadn't come up the 22 highway where the Bar U is located, snuggled up to the eastern slopes of the Rockies. The previous day Bob and Sherry had gone to Writing on Stone park and had come to Calgary up highway 2.

We heard lots of stretched out yarns from the driver of the percheron wagon that took us down to the old buildings.

Bob was eager to get his lips wrapped around a mug of cowboy coffee at the re enacted round-up cooksite.
Apparently my imported special picked, roasted and ground and  french press coffee just doesn't cut it for him.
I guess there is roughage in the grounds at the bottom of a cup of 'cowboy coffee.  By the way. Cowboy coffee or camp coffee as we used to call it is made by boiling the coffee grounds right in the the enamel pot which either sits on a grate or hangs directly over the fire. Cowboy burns on the hands when fetching a pot of cowboy coffee were often the side effects of drinking this sludge. Oops coffee. 

This is my Great Grandfather Wilson Blain and his heavy horse which I assume was a percheron ...judging by the feathers and the fact that my Great Grandfather was a practical man. I wonder if this horse came from the stock at the Bar U. That ranch was one of the largest breeders and exporters of the Percheron horse.  My family came from Ireland via Ontario in the  Petrolia area and travelled out west to Elkton /Cremona area where they farmed from the Nitchi Valley to Didsbury.  Breaking the land and farming with heavy horses. 

I love this bronze taken from a painting by Charlie Russell It sits outside in the parking lot of the Bar u Ranch in Alberta. 

The Big Smoke

Fortunately we have a hepa filter in the car and can still drive around. This picture was taken from the old Children's hospital parking lot. This smoke is coming from the fires in western BC. 

The Deck

the deck is a lot bigger than it appears. and my bank account is a lot smaller than it appears. and the deck is a lot wetter than it appears.
Today the smoky fires from BC are polluting the air so badly that I can't even open the door. The sun is somewhat obscured, otherwise we would get direct sunlight and a dry deck in no time. 

Next time Kat when you come to visit in the snow we can leap the fence a whole lot easier than last year. 

Every little detail is done, our contractor Jeff, is really a landscaper at heart and I think he would brick over everything if we let him. The flower bed is actually deeper than it appears here and we are awaiting underground sprinkler installation  for that on Monday...once again that is a 'maybe'...if it rains, well we are hooped.

ain't my patio purdy? Really well done and so precisely laid out. This one is set in concrete on the perimeter and is at the sill level of the door so that it feels like another room. I can't wait to get it decorated. Of course the post will have battens and will be really beautiful.

Okay, so the deck is up and ready to be covered in vinyl. The vinyl surfacing weasels didn't come yesterday when they were supposed to so of course it rained like a firehose this morning at 6 am and that makes covering the deck impossible until it dries out. Rain showers, with thunder and lightning and hail etc are all forecast for the weekend. D*&^$!!.