My Road Trip Monday

I went to visit my sister, The Bag Lady who still lives in the area we grew up in. As she posts anonymously, all I can say is that it is a four-ish hour drive to get there from Edmonton, but we had lots of fun. Maybe one day I will convince her to come out and join the MTM.

Northern Alberta is full of rolling hills and boreal forests, interspersed with creeks and rivers in deep valleys. Pictures do not really do it justice and when traveling by the generosity of other people, there were not many opportunities to stop on the way there.

The return trip was a bit different, we took a different hwy & we were able to stop a couple of times and there were beautiful vistas to attempt to capture. That is when it wasn't raining - almost sleeting! We travelled back the long way in hopes of seeing our beautiful Rockies and were treated to some wonderful scenery. Alas the cost of gas and the short time available to us didn't allow us to do more than glimpse them from the foothills.

I put together a little video, I hope you enjoy it.




I will over the next while post some of the stills I took on the trip. There are so many to choose from that I would have wound up with a post that took two days to read.

As you may have noticed, Alberta has a lot of forest and yes, the softwood lumber industry is going strong. So is our gas & oil industry which is why it is a bit of a shock that our gas prices jumped because of "IKE"!

I hope this finds all of my Southern readers safe and protected from Ike's visit.

Have a good day all.

Not exactly a My Town Monday post, but if you would like to read about towns from all over the world drop by Travis Erwins Blog, he has links set up.

Tying up the week

Well, I am back from my visit North to my Sister's. We had a great trip and a wonderful visit. More on that on Monday.

These are the last photos of my friends front yard. I didn't have time to post before we left, the bridge is in, the pots although empty are placed and the stream bed is looking great. No, there will not be a fountain or water through the stream, just an illusion.

This is the overall look. (I wish I had been up a ladder)

Click to enlarge

About what you see from the front door.


Your view from the barely seen bench in the top photo.


A toast...we are done!


Now our bodies can go back to their slothful ways we just have to see what the snow pack is going to do and maybe do some adjusting next spring. We are all very happy with the way it looks though and yes, that is real Champers!

Enjoy your weekend all.

WWC: Danger & Safe

Before we get to the WWC, my apologies to the MTM crowd for flaking out this week, I was pushing stones around and didn't have anytime to even read blogs, let alone do any kind of research.

As for the stone pushing, we did some more today (after two days off working my other job) and I feel like ....OLD! Tomorrow, we put in the last pretty stones, we will wet it all down to bring up the pretty colours and place the pots and I will post another couple of photos.

So, WWC, the words are danger and safe and my contribution is really pathetic.

Danger: The sign on the power box outside the apartment.

Danger: another sign on the box outside the apartment. (I said it was pathetic)


The sign in front of the school behind the apartment...they are pathetic, this was taken Friday night....School started Tuesday!

And my safe - sorry, it is not even in focus.

The weekly word challenge is hosted by the amusing Tink at Pickled Beef. If you would like to join, pop over to her site and she will let you in on the rules.

As I will be slave labour again tomorrow, I probably won't get a chance to check out all the contributors. I will also be heading up to visit the Bag Lady (my sister) on Wednesday, so I will just have to do my best to catch up later in the week and on the weekend.

Have a good day all.

Well, the big stuff is done.

Well, after a few grueling days of work, this is what we have to show for it.




We sieved a 16 Liter (4 Gal) bucket full of sand out of the rocks. Actually more, that is just the amount that we caught in order to use elsewhere. So, some niggle bits to do and finishing touches to add and we will be done. I will post photos when that happens.

Have a good weekend all.

Here we go again!

I did some filming while we were working today on the yard, but I am now having trouble editing! We got rained out after only about five hours work though, so I guess we are back at it tomorrow (Friday). We spent the rain time picking out more rock though, so it wasn't a total loss.

Hopefully I will get video up Friday evening, because that will mean we don't have to do more work on Saturday morning!

My body is finally adjusting to the torture I am putting it through so that is good.

Happy Friday all!

Work called on account of Old!

Well, the boss (my friend) got up and decided that with the little sprinkle we had overnight and the darned cold temperatures, that we would not finish the lawn Wednesday. I did catch up a few blogs (by no means all) and then we did a little work with concrete and chains. Gotta keep mobile you know, otherwise at this age, you seize up like a like an Edsel that never had an oil change.

Tomorrow, we are going to try to finish. Providing there is no rain - again! Part of me wants it to rain, because I have other things to do, the other part just wants to get it finished. There will be photos and a post by Friday, I hope. It is going to look great too!

Have a good day all.

Ouch!

I was all day helping a friend with her front yard....I ache in every fiber of my being!

If we don't get rain tomorrow which we are supposed to, I will be doing it again.

If we get rain, I will catch up on everyone's blogs Wednesday. I will however have an interesting post out of it when it is done.

I am going to soak in a hot tub with epsom salts then go to bed.

Have a good Wednesday all.