Today, we got up bright and early so that we could go to the Stampede breakfast put on in CP Rail’s office building. (Aunt I works at CP Rail.)
After enjoying some pancakes and coffee, we headed off to the Calgary Zoo. (We debated for a while, wondering whether we should make an appearance at the Stampede. In the end, the exotic animals won out over bucking broncos and bulls.)
On Monday morning, we flew to Calgary to visit Aunt Ivy for a few days. We spent the rest of the day relaxing with Aunt I. In the evening, we caught up with some cousins who happened to be spending the month in Calgary.
Today, we got up early so we could make a trip into the mountains. We decided on a hiking trail, loaded up Aunt I’s Honda, and headed out. Although the guide warned us that getting to the trailhead might be a challenge, we decided to try it anyway. After doing some off-roading with the Honda, we came up to a rocky riverbed and we realized we had driven about as far as we could go.
The next challenge was finding the trailhead on foot. We walked around for about a half hour before we came across a horse trail. It was the most promising trail we had come across, so we decided to follow it.
About an hour later, we discovered why the horse trail was so well worn; apparently, it is used regularly enough by an outfitting company for them to build a quasi-permanent camp complete with corrals and buildings in which to store extra hay. We decided to use one of their picnic tables to have lunch.
After lunch, we decided to backtrack and see if we could find the trail we had come to hike; the guidebook had said something about some lakes and some interesting rock formations, none of which he had yet come across. Finally, after wandering about in the woods for about 3 hours, we came across the sign indicating the trail we were looking for. Hurray! We decided we still had enough energy to follow the trail to the first of the lakes it was supposed to take us too. After hiking another half hour, the trail disappeared under a giant puddle of water. We gave up and headed back to our vehicle. Even though we didn’t see the things we set out to see, we decided that our afternoon had been well-spent. It would have been criminal to complain after spending a few hours looking at views like the one below.
We’ve been enjoying our summer in Manitoba. I’ve been working on a paper. Pam has been puttering around the house. And L has been keeping himself busy. I think he has learned something from his parents.
L has also been enjoying some quality time with his extended family on the farm. Here one of his Grandpas is teaching him how to kick a ball.
He has even found some time to pester the farm dog. L thought the dog would look good wearing a baseball cap. The dog didn’t agree with him. Here the dog is trying to get away.
Two days after the target completion date, our backyard contains a new deck. The project had its challenges, not the least of which was trying to get some work done while L was in the vicinity.
Here L is posing on the finished product. He’s already acquainted himself with the new deck by rolling down the stairs in front of the patio doors. The pigeons nesting on the neighbour’s house have also “christened” the deck–I need a paintball gun! And this morning, I was able to enjoy a nice cup of coffee in the morning sun. I’m a fan of the deck already.
PS. I’m also proud of it. I think it turned out quite well.
Determined to get something done yesterday, I worked through the rains … all five of them. It made things muddy. The mud in our backyard is sticky, so I spent most of the day with oversized and heavy boots. At the end of the day, when my back was talking to me loudly enough for me to listen to it, I had the beams for the deck completed.
This morning, I was out there early, hoping to get in a few hours before the rain. After outlasting another short downpour, I managed to get the deck ready for the floor.
Last year, when I tackled the fence in our backyard, the thing that got the whole project going in the first place was the deck. It was unsafe, a liability lawsuit waiting to happen.
As things went, I ran out of time before I got to the deck itself. However, I’m now happy to say that the eyesore in our backyard which passed for a deck (at some earlier point in its career) has been removed. Yesterday, I took the good old wrecking bar and sledgehammer to it. Its parts are now a pile of (mostly) rotten, nail-filled pieces of wood at the landfill.
I thoroughly enjoyed destroying the deck. Maybe it’s a guy thing. There’s just something exhilarating about swinging a sledgehammer with all the force you can muster and seeing the splintered wood fly.
While demolishing the deck, I had a chance to “admire” the handiwork of the person who built the deck. What a mess! He also didn’t spend a whole lot on materials; he must have found a deal on railway ties and decided to build a deck using nothing but the railway ties and some recycled four-by-fours and two-by-fours.
He even made good use of the existing vegetation in his backyard. During the demolition, I discovered what appeared to be a tree stump functioning as a support for the deck floor. Here I’m resting one of the last railway ties on the stump while I get ready to muscle it onto the truck.
Today, Pam and I set the foundation for the new deck.
We arrived in Manitoba yesterday evening. This trip to Manitoba was slightly longer than it usually is; we added a stop in Iowa to say ‘Hello’ to some friends. L travelled as well as could be expected. We are all glad to be here, not having to face another day of 10 or 15 hours of travel.
Tomorrow morning we head back to Manitoba for a few months. We’re looking forward to seeing all of our friends and family again. We will continue to post updates here, but the updates will probably not appear as frequently.
Today, our last full day with Aunt Colleen, we drove into the Berkshires to spend a few hours at the Norman Rockwell Museum. Norman Rockwell grew up in New York, but for much of his life he lived in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was interesting to hear about his life. Many of the faces that appear in his paintings are the faces of people who lived in Stockbridge when he lived there.
After taking in the Norman Rockwell Museum, we meandered through the Berkshires back to Granville, Massachusetts, where we stopped for some ice cream. The Gran-Val Scoop, an ice cream shop on an old dairy, is owned by one of the basses I met when I sang with Novi Cantori this spring. The owners of the dairy make their own ice cream. L liked the ice cream, but he was also a fan of the animals there.
Today we decided to head down the Massachusetts Turnpike to Old Sturbridge Village. We saw some interesting 18th- century buildings and, as L would attest to, some (equally) interesting farm animals. We were worried that the weather would ruin our day, but the rain held off just long enough for us to see what we wanted to see.
