Ancestry Discoveries, Fall Chores & another Golden Hour Ride

Today didn’t start out sunny and beautiful, but rather overcast and gloomy for most of the day. I stuck with my usual morning routine, publishing yesterday’s blog and doing a bit of marketing before settling into my Ancestry tree. My cousin in Sweden had sent some information, so I had plenty to work through.

There was a break around 11 when customers came to look at a table I have in stock. It turned out to be exactly what they were looking for, so I’ll be refinishing it for them over the next few weeks. Meanwhile, garage laundry was underway with towels, horse blankets and rugs all getting their turn.

After a quick sandwich, I was back at the family tree, this time working with information Mom had received from her cousins. Surprisingly, I found a few more errors, which I think I managed to get corrected. There always seems to be another little mystery hiding in that tree! I was also adding photos to relatives, and I included this one on my granddad’s page. It’s a picture of him and me from 1967. <3

as well as uncles Ken and Ron

The sun made a brief appearance after three, so I took advantage of the 22° weather and got Harley out for her walk before turning my attention to the garden. With the forecast looking like another change for the worse come the weekend, I’m watering and pruning and hoping the rest of my tomatoes—and my one little pepper—get a few more days to grow and ripen.

I also attempted to finish aerating the laneway, but quickly learned that bone-dry ground does not aerate easily. Instead, the machine was jumping all over the place, so I gave up and decided that job could wait for another day.

Back to Ancestry.

By supper time I had nothing planned, so I contacted Brittany, who was on her way home from hiking with Shaina, and ordered some Korean food. She arrived with it after six, although she opted not to eat hers claiming my house was too hot. I certainly made up for it and chowed down the whole bowl! LOL. I remembered afterward why I don’t really like ordering from there—the food is just a little too greasy and heavy for me, and I’m pretty sure I’ll be feeling that choice for the rest of the evening.

Luckily, the evening had a much better finish. We caught our horses and headed out for another golden-hour ride through the winery. Tonight we spotted Mama Moose and her two twins around the slough, although they didn’t stick around for long and soon took off. As we made our way back toward the barn, we and the horses heard the Mom calling.

In the city, Renn and Kaylin were out and about again.  Nathan is in Las Vegas this week for a work conference, which unfortunately coincides with Debby and Chuck’s visit up here.

Back at the barn, we unpacked, groomed and got Switch settled back into the pasture while I let Bird out for Britt coming with the feed tubs. I came back in and resumed my Ancestry work on the iPad at the island. Brittany headed home after eight, and I finally settled in with my book, shutting things down around 9:30.

A pretty full day of family history, fall chores and horses—with a moose family making a very memorable appearance in the middle of our evening ride.

Freezer Shuffle, Some Very Boiled Egg & First Day of Fall

I awoke to a beautiful sunrise after 7 on this first day of fall, gave the cats some food and sent Harley out. Then it was coffee and a bit of Instagram to start my morning.

I popped out to the garage and finished wiping out the freezer and turning it back on. On to more cleaning projects. Lo and behold, I found the robot dust bag stuffed completely full. LOL. Maybe this is why it was having suction issues!

So adorable <3

With my the second cup of coffee, I finished Sunday's blog. I then ended up wasting hours trying to print my driver’s license for the ballot return envelope.  Our printer is always a bit of a challenge as it seems to eat ink and throw errors, but I finally managed to pull out the empty colour cartridge and print a very grainy copy.  Hopefully, they’ll accept it!

Renn and Kaylin FaceTimed for a fun little catch-up, which was a nice break.

I took the ranger to the winter gate and let the horses out on what had turned into a cloudy, windy, ugly-type day. Harley ate late as I did a whip around the yard with the poop fork. Then it was time to get my workout and shower completed.

Plant care and attempts at repotting were next, but it seems I need some more pots and bark before I can get much further. A bit of ancestry was worked in too, because apparently I can always find another rabbit hole. Sheldon’s long days of harvesting consist of repetitive photos of his view from the combine’s window, yet he seems to find enjoyment in the monotony. However, I think he definitely takes advantage of the onboard Wi-Fi seeing it drives itself.

These 2 wonderful people were out for coffee with friends

The wind finally died down to a light breeze, so after giving Harley her Cartrophen shot, I took her for a walk in the 22-degree weather. The fall season is definitely here.

That led to moving all the frozen food back into the stand-up freezer and cleaning out one of the chest freezers so I could defrost and clean it all out as well. Harley ate her supper and got multiple frozen treats, which she considered a pretty good bonus to her day.

As I was sweeping and tidying more in the garage, Matt’s mom Betty texted about the fall cleanup she was doing. That inspired me to start putting some of the decor away, which led to breaking off more sunflower seed stalks and taking them to the horses, rolling up soaker hoses, digging carrots and, as I was walking back to the house, remembering something else...

This was a pot of eggs I had put on to hard boil!!!

Guaranteed they were going to be hard boiled after bubbling away for over an hour. LOL.

I ran in, threw them in ice water, went back out and finished my outside work, then back in and tried one. It was fine. 😂

Back to some computer work, publishing yesterday’s blog, doing some accounting and sorting through my computer photographs, which is always a task in itself.

I messaged Brittany to grab us some burgers for supper, as A&W had $4.99 Teen Burgers on special.

She delivered them as the sun was starting to set around 7:30. We ate quickly, then she went out to feed her horses and headed home within the hour. I wrapped up my computer work and ended the evening with reading my book.

Another one of those days where I started with one little job and somehow ended up doing about twenty things. But hey, the freezers are clean, fall cleanup is underway, and I even managed to save the eggs!

Cleaning Focused Day

Not sure how many times I can say what an amazing day lies ahead, but it looks very similar to the last week of sunny starts!

I had my coffees while doing the usual morning pet tasks before getting on the computer and working on Saturday’s bull riding blog. Be sure to go back and look at Saturday as I added a bunch of photos of Renn at Heritage Park Kaylin sent.

My focus for the day was to do some house cleaning, as there will be multiple people coming and going over next few weeks. I also chatted with Mom on the phone a few times, had a video call with Ma and Pa Kuhn, and a phone call with Candace. That was a great catch-up with everyone.

I ventured out to the garage around noon and emptied the stand-up freezer, setting it to defrost as we have half a beef, half a pig and perhaps some bison coming later in the fall.

While I was out, I pulled a bunch of flowers, moved the planters away from the front door and watered the ones still growing, as well as hand-watering the tomatoes and zucchinis.

The wind was back today, which was a bit disappointing, but the sun definitely outweighed that.

Back inside, the laundry continued and the robot got busy cleaning all the floors. Cleaning continued in the bathrooms while I chipped ice out of the melting freezer.

I fed Harley, then headed to town after 5 to meet Sharon for supper, as we were both starving after our busy days — hers included babysitting two grandchildren all day.

At the gate, I found my coffee pod order delivered by Purolator, so it definitely was not whoever drove into the yard on Sunday, which is still a mystery!

Sharon and I enjoyed a two-hour catch-up in the 27-degree sunshine on the Origin patio.

Before heading home, I stopped at Walmart to get groceries. I was very surprised to see an elderly gentleman being handcuffed and put in the back of a police car at Walmart, apparently for shoplifting.

On the way home, I stopped by the mail and found my voter package, and passed Brittany, obviously in the dark, as she made her way home from feeding the horses.

I unloaded my groceries and cleaned out the now ice-free freezer with soap and water, also wiping down the fridge door and some inside empty areas. I also pulled out all of Brittany’s feed storage tubs, swept up a dustpan full of gunk and tossed it out.

All this cleaning feels very satisfying!

Now to relax. After filling out my ballot, I settled in with a little Netflix but soon switched to reading my book to wrap up the day.

Another Harvest Week Begins & An Amazing Evening Ride

Good morning to another beautiful, sunny day with no winds in sight! Arising before 8, Sheldon started packing up his clothes, some beverages and food to take as I made coffees, with Chuck and Deb joining us for coffee and toast.

Sheldon was out the door at 9:30, heading to Acadia Valley and another week of harvesting.

As we were visiting, I saw a car driving into the yard and, thinking it was Brittany, I let Harley out, only to see the car turn around. Maybe it was a delivery of my coffee pods! The three of us headed to the gate along with Harley to see if the driver had left them there instead, but he had not. Hmmm who could it have been?

Back at the house, we enjoyed the morning visiting and catching up, with each of them having a shower and getting ready for their next adventure stop.

I grilled us some cheese sandwiches, paired with Shaina’s always-good with tomato soup, for lunch.

They packed up and headed off to their next stop at 2 o’clock, while I did a bit of tutorial sharing and blog catch-up after throwing some laundry in.

Shaina and Matt arrived, with Shaina feeling a bit under the weather after multiple days of company and evenings out. She rested on the couch while we had a visit before heading out to catch Mac and Hank.

They were both groomed, and seeing as it was such a beautiful 25 degrees out, Shaina decided to give Mac a rinse and scrub her mane and tail. Matt held onto Hank as I helped her with Mac, then I gave Hank a quick rinse too.

Britt arrived and caught Jimmy and trimmed his feet. She did Mac's fronts quick too.

I did a bit of gardening, picking some tomatoes and zucchini and sending them home with Shaina and Matt when they headed off after 5:30.

Once Brittany finished Jimmy’s feet, I changed into pants and she and I caught our riding horses and went for a lovely ride for over an hour.

As we rode through the winery, we saw a coyote off to our left, just staring at us. Then, as we turned around and headed up the tree line a couple of rows over, there was a moose!

moose right beside us who then ran south and around the trees

we wrapped around the trees on the other end 

seeing her at the end of the trees

and the coyote still standing in the trees just west of her!

It was like riding through the mountains. We looped down along our tree line to the south, out into the neighbour’s field and back around, putting on quite a few steps. It was such a beautiful evening to be out riding.

Once untacked, Brittany went to make up the horse food, and I walked Switch all the way around to bring the horses back around to the winter pasture gate, where Brittany fed them. I went in and made potstickers for us for a very late supper.

She then jetted off to town, and I finished the Outer Banks season/series and started the behind-the-scenes podcast.

A very full day, but a pretty amazing one — and ending it with a coyote, a moose and a beautiful ride was definitely a highlight.

Bull Riding & Schmitts Arrive

If only this weather would stay for six months! More sun, no wind and a beautiful start to the day. It was shaping up to be another spectacular one.

S made our coffees and watched the Pendleton bull riding clips on his phone, which we didn’t get to see before leaving yesterday. I also started searching for a winter vacation. I walked out with Harley and the cats and turned the trough water on, enjoying the sunshine and thinking this was going to be a pretty great day.

S had his second cup on the deck while I caught up on yesterday’s blog. Then the Pendleton rodeo from yesterday was on repeat, so we finally got to see the crazy bull riding within the PVC pipe fencing. So hilarious! I worked on more ancestry updates at the island while watching.

By noon, we were off to town for the Last Man Standing bull riding event, where we had suite access. It was neat sitting in the Strathmore suites above the chutes, similar to the ones at the Calgary Stampede but different. The format is 27 bull riders start, then 10 top rides then top 5.

Thought this guy looked like one Sheldon could give a go :)

The bulls VS

the boys!

Below our view above the bucking chutes

There was a scary event when one of the pickup horses standing to the side just dropped to the ground and did not move. It seemed like awhile but the pick up man took off his tack, a vet gal jumped over the fence and after a bit he sat up in sternal position 

It was a really nice get-together of our “rodeo” friends, although we did miss out on heading down to the food trucks for lunch.

The weather had been so beautiful at home, but unfortunately the wind picked up just as we got to town. It made for a very windy event, but at least the sun was shining and it reached 23 degrees, so I certainly wasn’t going to complain too much!

In the city, Shanice invited Kaylin and Renn to join her and her niece and nephew at Heritage Park for her company Canadian Pacific Rail days.

Deb and Chuck were crossing the border when we suggested they cancel their Lethbridge hotel room and continue on here. Even though it added another two hours of driving to Deb’s day, it was a go!

We planned to meet at Origin’s, but it turned out they had a beer fest on and were charging a $15-per-person cover. Ah, pass!

After our goodbyes and pulling S out by his arm, we headed home, where they were just ahead of us. We thawed sausage, and S cooked up his favourite KD to go with it and leftover beets, seeing none of us had eaten lunch either! This made it even tastier. :)

We spent the evening visiting and seeing the new quilts Deb had hand-crafted, along with all the other goodies she brought for everyone. XOXO

B was out to ride, feed and trim Switch's feet (THANK YOU) but headed home with plans to come and say hello tomorrow.

After our late night and long days, we all headed to bed after 9:30. I read a chapter and then lights out.

A pretty great Sunday — sunshine, rodeo, a very windy event, good friends and an unexpected visit that made the day even better.

Horse Wrangling, Comedy & the Wrong Golf Bag

Full-on sunshine and another amazing day ahead, looking very much like yesterday. It was a slow get-out-of-bed kind of morning after serving S his coffee in bed while he perused his phone and I continued fixing errors in my family tree on my iPad.

By 10, we were up for the day. S took his second cup out on the deck for a bit while I worked on yesterday’s blog and did some tutorial sharing.

Time for my workout and shower as S posted the church tiles on a few more FREE sites, hoping to get a taker and get them out of here. B was out just as I got in the shower. She fed and checked her horses and was off to work.

I was back to ancestry as S headed out to soak in the hot tub and sunshine.

A simple, easy lunch was had, then S hit the couch to rest his knee and watch TV. I took Harley for a walk to the winter gate opening for the horses, but they apparently did not get the memo. Luckily, I had my housecoat belt and used it as a halter to walk Switch, leading all the horses back to the gate and out. Then it was a race to get back to the yard gate and close it!

It was so amazing out at 22 degrees with not a cloud in the sky. I did a poop-scoop loop, then retrieved Matt’s travel golf bag from the storage trailer and loaded it into the car to take tonight.

Back inside, I worked on ancestry on my iPad at the island with one eye watching the crazy Pendleton Round Up rodeo S has been catching for the last few days. It is crazy, as it is held on a football field on grass!

Last-minute things were done, including feeding Harley, then we were off to town, eating a wrap and fries at our favourite Opa. We arrived at Paetz’s, where they jumped in with us, and I drove us to the city for comedy night.

We didn’t make it last year as we were in Las Vegas prepping for Kaylin’s wedding. They changed venues this year and now have supper, charcuterie, desserts and beverages all comped. Sheldon missed this part of the details, hence why we ate before picking AJ & C up. 😂

Shaina and Matt met us there too, and the evening was full of laughs, and minimal heckling even though we were seated in the very front row! Sadly, this may be the last comedy night, but perhaps some other event will replace it.

Then came the discovery that I had grabbed the wrong bag for Matt — I had brought his snowboard instead of his golf bag!! Perhaps they will pop out Sunday to visit Mac, Schmitt’s and get the golf bag.

Sheldon drove us home, with a stop at the Langdon Firehouse Bar where we found a live band in action. But they wanted a $25-per-person cover, so nope, no thanks! We headed off to Paetz’s for card games instead, which lasted until 1:30.

THANKS for the fun night, guys!

At home, I read a bit while S perused his phone, then lights out on an entertaining day.