Visitors!? Yep, all the way out here!

In a nearly unprecedented occurrence, my niece, Kelsey and her boyfriend, Dan, came out to visit us for a few days! Upon hearing they were coming and after the shock had passed, Carol and I decided it might be time to vacuum the place and get some sheets for the bed in the spare room. We have been working in the ensuite bathroom to try and finish it all up. We needed to put the baseboard trim and door trim on, trim out the window, "fix" the painting mistakes (blotches of wall paint from errant roller passes), hang pictures and install towel bars. When I first tried to trim out the pocket door, my finishing nails were too long, getting in the way of the sliding door and jamming the whole thing up. As I worked to remove the too-long nails, I somehow managed to detach the door track from the framing and screwed up the whole thing. My only option was to cut a big hole in the drywall so I could access the track attachments, screw it all back together, repair the drywall, repaint the wall, and finally, attach the trim using shorter finish nails. "Why do things the easy way?", has become my motto working on this house, it seems.
Having gone through all that, and after filling the nail holes and sanding everything smooth, we were finally able to put the finish coats of paint on the trim. Wow, everything looks so nice! There's a lot to be said for having rooms "finished"! One down... every other room in the house left to go. Yikes!

On a roll, I trimmed and painted the window in the spare room so it would look nice when our company arrived. After buying a new vaccuum cleaner a few weeks ago, the house wasn't in too bad a shape. We did give it a good going over just to make sure. Having guests come to stay sure has a way of moving "housework" to the top of the "To Do" list!

Both Dan and Kelsey are paramedics (EMR's/EMT's/medics/???) with the City of Edmonton and are fortunate enough to be able to organize their days off so they can have 4 or more days together every once in a while. To take full advantage, they were working until 3pm on the Friday, and then driving out to Kamloops. I met them shortly after midnight on the Trans Canada Highway in town so they could follow me up to our house. If you've never been up here before, suffice it say that you don't want to drive up here in the dark as your first experience in finding our place. It would probably be a long night for you (and for us!). As we finally arrived at our gate, I got out to let Dan know to continue up the driveway as I closed the gates behind us. He opened his window and as I leaned in to give him the message, Kelsey, eyes as big as saucers, exclaims, "Holy shit!"
I'm happy to say that after that initial shock, I think she had a great time over the 3 days they spent here. Carol took her riding on Sunday and Monday, with the latter being a 2 1/2 hour adventure through the forest behind our house. Sierra had tried to take advantage of Kelsey's inexperience on their ride on Sunday, but was a great partner for her on the Monday ride, behaving himself the entire time. Jake got spooked by a VERY scary rock and the four of them barely managed to escape with their lives - if he was telling the story!
We also spent a lot of time exploring on the ATV's. Dan brought his quad and with ours, we had enough space to fit a couple of dogs, and the four adults. It made for some fun adventuring. The weather cooperated big time and we had comfortable, sunny weather for almost the entire weekend.
I mentioned the dogs earlier. There is a little story there. Buddy, Kelsey and Dan's golden retriever, is a sweetie who gets along with everyone. He and Ben spent the weekend playing together. Sadly, our other dog, Joey, has a hate on for strange dogs and Buddy was no exception. Even with her muzzle on she was very aggressive so she had to spend most of the weekend in the laundry room, where her bed is located.
We ate some awesome meals over the three days, BBQ'ing a small turkey on Saturday, ribs on Sunday and leftovers on Monday.

It was a busy but fun "long" weekend. It was nice to spend some time getting to know Dan, and it's always great being with Kelsey. She has grown to be a very nice young lady and I'm proud to have her as part of my family.

A Few Photos

 On the way in to the office this morning they were cutting all the logs to uniform lengths and re-stacking them into neat piles ready to be loaded onto the logging trucks.
















This is a couple of shots of the new loafing shed. Nothing special from a construction point-of-view - just 4x4 treated posts, 2x10 and 2x12 frame with 5/8 plywood sheathing...oh, and a corrugated galvanized tin roof.







The shed measures 12 feet by 12 feet and has a 3 foot roof overhang on the open side. It is almost 9 feet high at the front and more than 7 feet high in the back.




 

It's kind of difficult to see the round pen in that mess of rails and fence posts, but trust me, it's there! Almost 30 cubic yards of crushed shale has been compacted to form the base. It will be topped with around 20 cubic yards of dust-free sand.
The round pen is actually a 14 sided polygon, loosely approximating a circle with gates forming two sides of the polygon.
You can see our (new to us) horse trailer off to the side. The trailer's small tack room gives us handy storage and access to the saddles and bridles when we want to ride.





Whisky, taking a  break from eating (rare event!).

Fathers' Day weekend

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there! I often think of my dad, but especially at this time of year. Not only do we celebrate Fathers' Day, but his birthday is June 14th. Dad died almost 20 years ago of ALS and I miss him very much. He would have been 81 this year.
On a happier note, it was great to get a call from my son, Justin. We don't speak often enough but I love him very much and appreciate it when we can chat and catch up on his growing family.
Carol called and spoke with her dad, Alec, at about the same time I was talking to Justin. It's hard to celebrate when you're far from family, but it does make those times special when we do manage to get together.
We worked hard (as usual!) over the weekend and managed to get a few tasks accomplished. I was up early on Saturday to be at the rental shop to pick up a plate compactor we had rented. The crushed shale we used for the round pen base needed to be compacted before a layer of sand goes on top. Once compacted, the shale does not absorb much moisture so a gentle slope was necessary to shed any rain that falls. That was one of the reasons we chose to put the round pen where it is. From the west gate, the ground falls away about 12" to the east side of the pen. We had put some 2x12 lumber between the posts at ground level to contain the shale and sand. I would estimate that we have a compacted base roughly 6" thick. Ron is bringing up the sand this week and once installed, it should be around 4" deep. This will be plenty to give the horses some very solid footing to work with regardless of the weather conditions.
Our farrier, Jordan Camille, was up on Sunday morning to trim all the horses feet. He asked to work from the round pen and seemed quite impressed with it. He did comment that the rails might be too low for breaking colts but since we never intend to do that, it is not really a concern for us. Being that Sunday was Fathers' Day, Jordan had asked to start early so he had arrived a little after 7am! He was done by 10am and on his way back to his wife and two boys, Tyrell and Ryder, shortly thereafter.
After a cup of coffee, I went out and finished painting the loafing shed in River Run. We had one coat on the exterior already so I did a single coat on the interior and finished it up with a second coat on the exterior. It looks nice colour matched to the house! Once we finish trimming the house windows and doors, we can put some of the white trim on the shed to dress it up a little.
For Fathers' Day, Carol made up a nice brunch for us which we managed to scarf down easily after our busy morning. She has also been hard at work cleaning up the junk piles around house. She's been burning the scrap lumber and some of the smaller pieces of wood we've removed from the ground in the paddocks. We also took a pickup load of scrap material and garbage to the landfill. Anyway, it's making a big difference! All the garbage in front of the house is now gone, and so is one of the two piles off the side of the house. It's looking much nicer! We still have one giant pile of crap in the back beside the driveway, but we're hoping to get rid of that one over the next few weeks as well. Our burn barrel is working round the clock trying to keep up!
We got out for a wonderful trail ride yesterday afternoon. We timed it perfectly between 2 thunder showers. Having the horse trailer with it's built-in tack room parked down by the paddocks worked much better this time. We tacked them up in the new round pen after locking everyone else in The Vale. We had left all the gates open which made it easy to get out of the paddocks safely and without much fuss. Jake and Sierra are much better when they both ride out together - not so much calling out. The four of us all had a great ride with Carol leading on Jake and me following on Sierra. We went out by the well, turned east down the narrow field past the grassy pond and then carried on down the hill. After a few hundred meters, we turned south and climbed up through the trees to an open pasture. We were concerned how the horses would react when turned for home but needn't have worried. Jake and Sierra were both real gentlemen the whole time. We had scouted a few places to trot and were successful when we made the attempt. Apart from a few head tosses by Jake once on the old Sinclair Road, the two of them couldn't have behaved better. What a wonderful ride for our first real "trail ride" at Gull Lake Ranch! We comfortably rode them back down to the paddocks and into the round pen to dismount and untack them. Whisky, (our young guy) must have missed the big boys because as soon as he saw us coming down the trail on our way back, he took off galloping at full speed from one end of his paddock to the other (a few hundred meters). It took him quite a while to settle down even after we let them all back together. We suspect he must have been happy to have his feet all trimmed up and comfortable as they were quite a mess before Jordan got to them. Whatever, it scared me a bit to see him running so quickly over the uneven ground, but wow, he's very fast!

We finished the day up with Carol's famous BBQ ribs. Yummy!

Logging Pics

I'm amazed at how quickly the loggers can make the trees disappear. I suppose that I shouldn't be too surprised - they did tell us that they would take between 2 and 3 weeks to log off the quarter section of Crown land that our driveway runs through. This is an area 1/2 mile squared (almost a kilometre square!). It has only been a few days and enormous tracts of forest have disappeared, replaced by neatly stacked piles of logs, ready for transport.
Emotionally, I am more upset about it than I thought I would be. It's very sad to see those beautiful trees reduced to something represented only by a line on a spreadsheet of some enormous company, yet leaves the local wildlife with less of the precious habitat they need to survive and thrive.
Anyway, I rationalize everything by remembering that it's not my call, and on the other hand, I'm happy that this will leave our road in better condition.
The photos don't do justice to the enormity of the change in the landscape. Keep in mind that all these images were thick, dark forests only a week ago. New sight lines have already allowed the sun to shine in places it has been unable to reach for many years.

It will be interesting to see the landscape again in even just a few more weeks. To their credit, the loggers are leaving many trees - those too big or too small to be economically harvested in this manner. Sadly, a lot of the very small ones get destroyed just the same, collateral damage under the relentless march of the giant machines as they harvest their larger brethren.

Logging Update

It's a little later than we anticipated, but Interfor has started logging the quarter section of Crown Land next to our property. No chainsaws and axes for these guys! It's all done with enormous pieces of mechanized equipment. I haven't taken any pics yet, but will get on it so you can see how it all works. We first heard the buzz of the equipment working on Sunday afternoon and already they have clear cut some enormous swaths through the forest. It's amazing how quickly they can take down the trees! They estimate only 2 -3 weeks to cut it all, followed by 2-3 weeks of hauling the logs away. I made that sound like a linear thing, but the reality is that the hauling starts up very soon after the cutting starts and both tasks are carried out at the same time. So, if that really happens that way, we should have our peace and quiet back in a little over a month. We'll see...
We haven't been standing still at home either. Since the restrictions came off the roads a few weeks ago, we called Ron Hall, our trucking company friend to have him haul up some gravel and sand for our round pen. We estimated 3 truck loads of crushed shale and two truck loads of sand would do it. He brought the crush up last Wednesday and Carol and I spent the weekend moving it from the driveway, through all the gates and fences and down to the round pen. I have the tractor parked by the pile of material and use it to put two bucket loads of the gravel into the back of the Bobcat ATV. It has a powered dump box so we simply manoeuvre it to the spot we need the stuff and push a button to dump it. Of course, we still have to rake it all flat but at least we're not having to shovel it out of the back of the pickup!
Next up we have to compact it down with a tamper and then put a few inches of sand on top. Ron tells us that the compacted shale will withstand lots of abuse and moisture giving our horses some solid footing to work on. The sand is special in that it is supposed to be "dust free". I guess time will tell.
Wednesday also saw Dr. Jennifer Jackson, our large animal vet, out to see the guys, float a few sets of teeth and get everybody vaccinated. I have to say that was the first time I have ever had my hand in a horses mouth...up to the elbow! So much to learn! Jennifer seemed very happy with all the horses so apparently, we're doing a satisfactory job of looking after them!
It was also good to see our friend, Morgan, again. He is now a technician and assistant to the vet, and seems to be enjoying himself. Way to go, Morg!
We finished building the loafing shed and have the first coat of paint/stain on it. We got it to match the siding colour on the house so it looks like we meant it to look that way!
Last weekend also saw the arrival of the cattle on our property. Brian and Louise brought them down so we now have 2 people, 2 dogs, 5 horses, 25 cows, 25 calves, 2 yearling bulls and a bunch of wild animals all living at our place. It's a busy place these days!
I promise to get some pictures up in the next few days and apologize for being tardy in that regard.

Busy Building Westeros

Busy is a good way to describe the last few weeks. We've had a spell of great weather, sadly finishing a few days ago. We saw highs in the upper 20's and low 30's with overnight lows in the teens - lots of sunshine and just gorgeous for this time of year!

We have finished all the electric fences; built a functioning round pen; installed rails on the fence in front of the house and started installation of swinging metal gates to keep the cattle from getting into the house and yard. Spring means the return of Brian and Louise's cattle and since we removed the electric barbed wire that surrounded the house last year, we needed to complete the new fence that replaced it. It also meant that we had to move our remaining hay from the stack on the other side of the road to its new spot under the deck by the basement door. Of the 150 bales we bought last year to feed the two horses we had then, we have 50 left. We did lose a few bales to mould where water had settled on the bottom of the platform we had the hay stack on. It sounds like our efforts are timely as one of our neighbours, Holly Campbell, had called last night to warn us that her cattle were now out on the range and that we should take measures to keep them out of areas we didn't want them in. Apparently, "finishing the gates" has now moved to the top of our lengthy priority list! It seems to never end.
On the "good news" side of things, we have Jake and Sierra moved up to our place. They actually came up several weeks ago but it's been a while since we have updated the blog. It's been fun to watch the herd dynamic as they all try to find their place in the pecking order. Jake is definitely the "alpha" and has displaced Mystery as the overall leader of the herd. The herd itself is now formed of two mini-herds - Mystery and Acorn representing our original group (minus Whisky who's at Camilles' Horses for training) and then Jake and Sierra, the "new guys". They all get along reasonably well with a minimum of ear-pinning and gesturing.
As we have 3 fenced fields that we can keep them in we have named the fields to allow discussion of horse placement without having to use terms like, "the field on the far side without shelter but that does have lots of grass". Being that we are currently enjoying the TV series, Game of Thrones, we have chosen names from that series. Winterfell is the paddock that has lots of shelter (but the poorest grass) where we had the guys spend last winter. It's closest to the house and easy for us to get to in the snow. Riverrun, is the smallest of the 3 fields and has no shelter at all, but it boasts an underground stream that gives it the best grass. The Vale, is the largest of the fields with some sheltered areas and some lush grass where the underground stream runs across a corner of the field. It is the farthest away from the house.
We have currently allowed the horses access to all three paddocks but will move to a rotational grazing system as the summer progresses. This will give the grass time to recover in one paddock while they eat down the next one. However, for now, they have all chosen Riverrun as their favourite, seldom venturing out, even in the rain and wind we had the other day. I've learned that horses are piggies when it comes to food and they have simply picked the best feeding area!

Round Pen

Jake and Sierra are headed home next weekend so we've been busy making preparations. The dogs had chased a chipmunk under my truck last year and while trying to catch it they managed to rip out all of the trailer hitch wiring. When we bought the two horses, they came with a 2 horse, angle haul trailer that is in pretty good condition. The brakes and floor had been replaced and all the lights were working. Steve did a good job keeping it in good condition so there wasn't much for us to do other than take care of our tow vehicle.


It took me a week of evenings laying out in the mud under the truck bumper, but I managed to repair the damage and wire a new plug fitting onto the rear bumper and install a plug-and-play trailer brake controller . We picked up the required size tow ball and hitch and easily installed them into the receiver hitch on the truck. We wanted to test it all out towing the trailer before we had to bring the boys home with it. Saturday was a cold and snowy day and we had decided against outdoor jobs, but focused instead on the trailer and a couple of shopping stops, so up to Dreamscape we went.
Steve had parked the trailer there when he delivered the two horses. We backed the truck into position, dropped the trailer hitch down onto the ball, hooked up the chains and electrical connector and checked out the lights to ensure they were working correctly. We did find a grounding problem with the left brake light, but apart from that, everything worked fine. We towed the trailer down a very muddy and messy Long Lake Road and over the Roy and Patou's place. They have a nice area large enough to turn the truck and trailer around and the trip would be good practice. After driving over, Carol took the wheel coming back up to Dreamscape Ranch. She did great! I handled the "backing up" chores this time but I'm confident that she will learn to do it in no time.
In town, we picked up some "horsey" things at the Horse Barn that will complete the tack we need for Sierra, in particular.
Carol was busy this week, riding Sierra, getting confident with him and brushing up on her riding skills. I will be riding him this week for a lesson and then a trail ride and Carol will be giving Jake the once over. It should be a fun week, in that regard.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (I've always wanted to say that!), we needed to put up all the rails on the round pen and do a little fence wiring work to finalize our other two paddocks. We will be needing everything once everybody gets home. I forgot to mention that Whisky, is away at Camille's Horses, having Jordan and Candice give him a proper start with a month of training. He is joined by, Chance, Lea's little rescued colt. Those two will be done early in May, but until then, we will have to make do with our two retired guys, Mystery and Acorn, until Jake and Sierra get home.
Sunday, dawned sunny and dry, and although it stayed cool all day, the sun was out so our round pen work went well. Of the 12 sections that comprise the pen, we completed 9 and managed to get portions of the other 3 ready to go. It will only take us a few hours one evening this week to finish it all up. Well, other than the tractor that is! Yes, you read that correctly, our tractor is disabled (the left front wheel axle broke and the wheel fell off) and is stranded inside the round pen. I was leveling the ground in preparation to put some sand down to improve the footing for the horses. While removing the dirt, I was manoevering the tractor, with a full loader bucket of dirt, and had the tractor in 4WD - apparently a big no-no. A nasty crunching sound, followed by the LF wheel departing its' normal place on the tractor, left me stranded exactly where I was at that time. The parts are ordered and will be here in a few days.