Repost from July 22, 2008

Life is beautiful.

Friday evening Linda (whose cottage I am living in) came down from the city for the weekend with a friend.  We sat around drinking wine (though I only had half a glass—I was too tired to drink) and chatting.  Saturday morning we went over to Jim and Lauren's for breakfast:  Homemade waffles, bacon, sausages, lattes.  I think I ate about 10 waffles.  Oooh, heavenly.

After brekky I saddled up and went riding with Jim and Hugh.  We moved a bunch of cows from point A to point B.  I managed to take a few photos on the ride:

 

 

 

We went back to the ranch (we'd driven to the field in question with the horses in a trailer) and picked up Linda, her friend, Christine and Mattias, who was having a riding lesson:

Doesn't he look fabulous?  He's a really whiny child normally but not this day!

These three horses were put into the horse trailer and we rode up to a field called Chapel Rock:

There were 156 cows with their calves and three bulls in this field.  The bulls were there having a MARVELLOUS time with all those lovely ladies.  (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!)  Jim and I rode up the right side and over the ridge looking for any stray cows.  We found three and pushed them back over the ridge and then down to the main group.

 

 

Now, moving cattle is really interesting.  In the 'old days', there was a lot of 'yeehaw!' and 'Move!  Move!' kind of shouting as you rode in among the cows.  But now, with the 'cow whisperer' philosophy, you just come along quietly and slowly from the opposite direction you want the cows to go in, saying in a calm voice:  'Hey, cows.  Hey, cows.'  Or possibly, 'Picnic's over, ladies.  Move along.'  Yep, that's it.  No racing around.    No shouting.  No dramatics.  Not mingling in with the cows but staying behind them.  And it works like a charm.

I realise this shot is blurry (I took it on the go) but can you see how shiny and healthy these cows look?  I wish my hair were as shiny!

Back to the ranch.  I washed up the dishes, changed, grabbed some fruit and crackers and went off with Lauren, Matthias and Sophie to the kite festival.  It was fab!  Lots of kites, bouncy castles, hamburgers and sno-cones, and then splashing in the (freezing) water.  

Bouncing in the bouncy castle!

The bouncy slide-thing. 

Sophie really wanted to go up, so Matthias gave her a hand.

This was, perhaps, a bad idea as she got sort of stuck at the top.  Lauren scrambled up and rescued her before she got too scared.

There are a lot of Hutterites in the area.  These two girls were taking part in the 'candy canon' for six to ten year olds.

Lauren laughing at me because I kept screwing up taking a photo of her.

I don't know what this sport is called but boy, it sure looks cool!  And hard.

Sophie at the water.

Silly faces.  :o)

The area where the kite festival is held is called 'Windy Point'.  It's so windy that the picnic tables all have two-sided shelters around them.  Well, it keeps the mosquitoes and deer flies away.

 

Home at about 5 pm.  I downloaded my photos while starting in on a G&T.  I walked over to Jim and Lauren's (with my new bottle of gin, some limes and tonic).  I was the self-appointed bartender and made everyone G&Ts.  Heh, heh, between 5 adults we nearly polished off a whole bottle of gin.  For dinner we had absolutely gorgeous BBQ steaks, salad, sweet potato and cauliflower.  It was a lovely, chatty dinner.  And hey, Hugh actually complimented my riding/cattle management skills.  I was pretty chuffed, let me tell you!  After dinner I walked up to Betty and Hugh's to use their phone (the phone in Linda's cottage is only for local calls).  Afterwards we sat in the living room as the light slowly failed, chatting.  Betty and Hugh were sipping  whiskeys (ugh) and telling me the most hilarious tales of their younger years.  My face hurt from laughing.  It was truly and amazing day.

Sunday after breakfast I was all set to go riding with Linda and Christine when Kyle arrived to pound in a couple of new fence posts.  Yes, the Evil Cows had come in to my yard again and eaten ALL of my Swiss Chard, my barely recovering broccoli, half of my beets, etc, etc.  Little sods.  So Kyle took out the wonky post and bashed in two more.  All of a sudden my plans for the morning changed as I then had to rebuild the fence.  I managed to do it on my own.  By the time I finished I was feeling quited proud of myself and astonishingly tired!  But relief was at hand:  After my shower I walked up to Betty and Hugh's for a couple of beers and a wienie roast.  I was extra happy as I managed to con other people into cooking my 'cheese smokeys' over the fire for me.  :o)

Sunday afternoon I didn't do much until about 4 pm, when I went over to Jim and Lauren's to babysit their kids for a couple of hours.  As it was still hot and sunny, we played in the kiddy pool for a while, then played with the assorted kid-sprinkler attachments.  I had a surprisingly good time!

Monday morning I painted the fence.  Then I tidied up the little shed to the left of the fence.  Kathy has made several trips to Linda's cottage to collect her stuff (Linda's cottage used to be Kyle and Kathy's cottage).  The shed was full of empty boxes, cans, bottles, garbage, plastic, garbage, dirt and more garbage.  While I wouldn't want to eat off the floor ow, it is certainly a LOT cleaner and tidier than it was.  Oh, and I also made a new door handle out of antler.  (These antlers are collected as they are found, they fall off naturally.)

 

In the afternoon I went to the doctor for my physical exam.  I did a bunch of blood tests and everything came back normal! Hooray!  My blood pressure was a little high, though, which astonished me.  My blood pressure has ALWAYS been a little on the low side so I was truly amazed.  As this is the second high-ish reading the doctor said I need to do something about this and if it's high for a third time we will have to start treating it. AHHHHHH!  Not MORE medicine, please!  He said that I could help myself by  

1.    exercising (which I am doing a LOT more of here on the ranch),

2.    losing weight (already on to that) and

3.    cutting down on my salt intake, indeed, cutting out salt entirely.

I must have looked horrified because he said that yes, the food would be more bland but that would help with my weight loss.  Um, yeah.  But it won't do much for my immediate happiness.  This morning when I cooked my egg I didn't add any salt other than what was in the butter I scrambled it in.  On my multi-grain (and flourless—I haveno idea how they make flourless bread) toast it was actually fine.  So I will survive lowering my salt intake after all.

Other good news is my CK was 91 (normal is under 139.  I haven't had a reading that low since 1998.)  And I had the blood test the day after I had gone on a 4 km walk, sawn up a tree and done some gardening.  My body rocks!  :o)

I did the driving around town yesterday.  Today I plan on practicing my parallel parking on the ranch—so I can take my time without the stress of tying up traffic!

This morning when I went to let the hen, two teen-aged chicks and four tiny chicks out of their hut there was a very handsome rooster hanging about.  When the hen and her two babies came out the rooster followed her under the lilac bush, puffing out his feathers.  He puffed so much that he got a little tangled in the low branches and had to de-puff a bit.  Not perhaps the best first impression.  He was not a fellow to let such a small mishap put him off and immediately let out an enormously loud 'cock-a-doodle-dooooo!'  The hen, clearly with other things on her mind, continued to scratch and peck in the dirt, utterly ignoring her.  When I checked 20 minutes later they were all in the front yard.  Will the hen and rooster get lucky?  Will there be step-siblings for the two teen-aged chicks?  Stay tuned...

So that's where I'm at!  Today I am going to do some research about sodium.  Oh, and the doctor suggested that everyone in Canada needs to take 2000 mg (IU?) of vitamin D daily.  Although right now it is sunny and hot, most of the year Canadians (and northern residents of the USA, and northern Europeans) don't get enough sun and are actually deficient in vitamin D.  Vitamin D is good at warding off osteoporosis, assorted cancers, osteoarthritis, hypocalcemia, enhances immunity, is necessary for thyroid function, normal blood clotting and enhances mood.  So I'll be making a purchase of a bottle of vitamin D this week.

Tomorrow we are going to start filling the silage pit (oooh, what fun!  NOT.)  Thursday to Lethbridge for the morning with Kathy and her kids, then next week I may be going to the Okanagan for a week to hang with Kath and family for a few days, then join my cousin for a few days.  Assuming my cousin is in town—I must email her now!  On that note I will bid you a fond good-bye for now and wish you a wonderful day!