Road Trip - Part One

Some of you may be aware that the Cowboy is a man of many talents. Not only is he good with animals (friends teasingly call him the Cow Whisperer), but he can run almost any piece of equipment. In fact, when he's not ranching, that's how he makes his living (because nowadays, no-one can make a living as a rancher, but that's a rant for another day...)

In this northern area, most industry that takes place in the bush has to shut down for spring break-up. They can't travel the roads when the frost is coming out of the ground. So the Cowboy has been home, working on the ranch and resting. Spring break-up coincides with calving season, which works out well for the Bag Lady! (yes, she planned it this way! Ha ha) Well, apparently, spring is over. The Cowboy got a call that he is needed back at work starting today (weather permitting), running a log-loader. But before he could even lament the fact, his boss called again and asked him if he could haul some equipment this weekend. Hence the road trip!

He had to haul a piece of equipment to the town of Slave Lake, then pick up another piece of equipment there and bring it back. So he invited the Bag Lady to go along as his "swamper". Many years ago when the Cowboy had his own truck, he and the Bag Lady did some highway hauling, and she quite enjoys the odd trip. She was also aware that this would probably be her only chance for a holiday! So she grabbed her trusty video camera and off they went. Unfortunately, she didn't have time to charge the battery in said "trusty" camera, so it died relatively soon after they got on the road.

A measure of how determined she was to share this road trip with you is the fact that when they
stopped at a little place along the highway for a bite to eat, she paid an enormously inflated price for a disposable camera!

The town of Slave Lake lies at the eastern tip of the lake, so when you are traveling from the west, you catch occasional tantalizing glimpses of the lake for almost 100 km (62 miles). It is the second-largest lake within Alberta's boundaries, stretching over 100 km in length, and 15 km across at it's widest point.

But first we have to get there....

This is the dashboard of the truck:

Crossing a bridge:

Over this river:

Here's an old hip-roof barn. Almost missed it - it's hard to take photos from a moving vehicle, especially one with a really large side-mirror blocking half your view!

Another bridge:

Another river!

The Bag Lady also managed a little video before the battery died in her camera. It isn't very good (as usual, she had the camera set wrong, so it's a little blurry), but she wants you to hear how noisy it is at times. This is going down the hill approaching the first bridge in the photos above.

She tried to show on the video (in the side mirror) what the equipment looked like that was on the truck. Here is a better photo of it:
And now she's off to town to get the pictures developed from the disposable camera! With any luck, some of them will turn out and she can show you the rest of the trip!

Wee Little Post!

Oh, loyal and faithful readers! Be sure to check in over at Mizfit's blog today for a chance to win your very own CartSmart Bag!!! For the price of a comment on her blog today and today only, you can be the proud owner of one of the Bag Lady's creations.

Have a great weekend!

Friday Round-up

This is the Bag Lady's 200th post! When she first started, she was afraid she wouldn't be able to think of anything much to talk about. She can't believe she's managed to blather on for 200 posts! She is actually surprised at the number of people who take the time to read her blog on a regular basis, and who comment faithfully. Thank you, thank you! Isn't the blogosphere grand?! Who'dathunk anyone would be interested in what a boring city girl turned - cattle rancher would have to say?

She loves her site meter, too. Especially when she sees people looking at her blog from all around the world. She can identify most of her regular commenters' addresses, and is curious about the readers who appear on a fairly regular basis but don't leave a comment. She loves to see new places appear, and some of the names of the cities are intriguing.

Some of the hits on her blog appear there as the result of searches, as I'm sure most of you know. Her most common search hits are people looking for weird houses, or tractors for dummies! If she were a trifle less conservative with her language, she would probably get more hits, but she's really not interested in having a bunch of people looking at her blog when they are looking for porn sites, thankyouverymuch!

The Bag Lady has the coolest mother-in-law anyone could ask for! She is almost 80 years old (and now she's gonna kill the Bag Lady, so this will be her 200th and final post!) and decided a few years ago to get a computer. She called the Bag Lady yesterday morning and without preamble asked her which greenhouse she went to for her tomato plants. Then she laughed and confessed to reading the blog right before she called. She said she reads it almost every day to find out what's happening. She even uses one of the calf photos as her screensaver - how cool is that?! She's an amazing woman, and has patiently taught the Bag Lady an enormous amount about living in the country.

This has been sort of a "rambling all over the place" post, and the Bag Lady will leave you with a photo of this:

She saw it on one of her rambles. Can you guess what that is?

Happy Friday the 13th!! The Bag Lady had a Friday the 13th kind of week, so she's hoping the actual day will be a good one....

Have a great weekend!

Bags and Bells (Well, Bell Peppers...)

The Bag Lady had a much better day yesterday. The Cowboy took her to a couple greenhouses and helped her pick out some very nice tomato plants and loads and loads of pepper plants! There are even blossoms on some of the plants, so they are further along than the ones she lost to the frost. The ones that are blooming are going into pots on her covered deck, as are the pepper plants. She even bought habanero peppers this time around....

As soon as she gets everything sorted out and planted, she'll post some photos.

In the meantime, she worked on her CartSmart Bags this week. (For more information on the bags, click here)

She is slowly coming up with a new line for summer. Of course, she doesn't make very many out of the same fabric - the bags are mostly unique - you don't want to see "your" bag on someone else's cart!!

Here are a couple photos of the new bags:


This is the very newest one, and because of the design on the fabric, the next one will be different!


If you are interested in ordering a bag, contact the Bag Lady at the email address in the sidebar.

Thanks to everyone who commented on her whiny post yesterday - she really appreciated all the support!

Whiny Wednesday

The Bag Lady had a terrible day yesterday. She was in a real pout over losing part of her garden. What upset her most was losing almost all of her tomatoes.

It rained all day, too, which didn't help.

Today is sunny, and she is feeling a little better, so she'll get off her rather ample butt and do something worthy of blogging about! She will go to some of the local greenhouses and try to find some tomato plants to replace hers, and perhaps see if there's anything else of interest.

In the meantime, here's a (slightly blurry) photo of a wild rose, Alberta's provincial flower.


They are just starting to bloom, and grow everywhere, so the bush and roadsides smell very pretty now.

Gotta Love Living in the North

So, do you remember this?
Here is what it looked like today:
There was a frost last night which really wreaked havoc on the Bag Lady's potatoes. Sigh. She is hopeful they will survive, but knows that even if they do, this will probably set them back. If they don't, there is still time to plant more, if she can find seed potatoes somewhere. So she will keep an eye on them and if they don't seem to be doing much, she will be looking for seed potatoes.
Sometimes her procrastination pays off. She had not yet planted her annuals in the pots that she puts out, so at least they didn't freeze! Her tomatoes got touched a little, but were protected by being close to the house. She will keep an eye on them, too.

That's the price you pay for living in this gorgeous north country! We do have good weather, too, you understand.

There is light until almost midnight now, and the sun comes up really early. It's been a few years since the Bag Lady stayed up all night, so she's not exactly sure what time the sun comes up. She is thinking that in the interests of accuracy, she may just have to stay up all night at the equinox, just so she doesn't mis-inform all of you! Of course, she may need some assistance, so if anyone is interested in staying up all night, drinking beer (or the beverage of one's choice) around the firepit, you are more than welcome to join her! All in the interests of accurate reporting, you understand!

Now here is something for the little kid in all of us:

Drumroll, Please.....

PREEESSENTING:

MOJO, named in honour of Emily's dog.

Emily writes the interesting and amusing Blogging for Accountability.

This is probably the last calf of the season, and her mother is VERY protective, so this was the best photo the Bag Lady could get!

And, by "popular demand" (with his permission!) here is a photo of the "Cowboy" (a name he hates, by the way!!) riding his "cow pony", from a few years ago:

This is a terrific horse for working with cattle - he has real "cow sense" and has an infallible sense for finding cows in the bush.