Happy Birthday, Canada!

It's Canada Day!

The Bag Lady will celebrate by hanging the new flag that she had to buy because the wind has been terribly strong this year and her flag is looking a little worse for wear.

There are showers in the forecast for tomorrow, which may interfere with some people's plans for picnics or other outdoor activities, but the Bag Lady will be more than happy if it actually rains. It has been so terribly dry that the pasture and the hayfield are suffering greatly. In fact, it may almost be too late to save the hayfield.

The Bag Lady and the Rancher were checking out one of the hayfields the other day, clearing any dead trees that had fallen that might interfere with the haybine. The hay in that particular field is the best that they have, but even then is barely halfway to the Bag Lady's knees.
They were clearing the last tree off the field when the Rancher pointed out something unusual in the bush:


Here is a closer look:


You might want to click on the pictures to enlarge them. Do you see it? Can anyone explain how it got there? This piece of land was homesteaded by the Rancher's father about 40 years ago. At that time, you could purchase a quarter section of virgin land from the government for a relatively small amount of money, with the stipulation that you had to break 40 acres and plant some kind of crop. That is all that has ever been done on this particular land. No-one has ever lived there, and certainly no-one has ever planted lilac trees there! This one has obviously been there for a very long time - it's really tall. The only explanation that the Rancher and the Bag Lady could come up with is that it blew in from across the road - a distance of about a quarter of a mile. It's very strange. But then.....

Busy Monday

The Bag Lady spent a busy day around the house, cleaning and tidying her sun porch, which should actually be called the cat house. Both of the Bag Lady's cats spend a great deal of time sleeping in the sun porch.... and there was a ton of cat hair everywhere to prove that fact! The vacuum cleaner got quite a work out. The floor is washed but the Bag Lady has a small mountain of laundry to do before she can put the room back together again. She is too exhausted to tackle the windows ..... all 38 of them will have to wait until tomorrow. Well, maybe she'll break out the vinegar and do a few tonight.


Here are some more pictures from the Bag Lady's sojourns to the pasture:

The wild roses are blooming everywhere - even on the barbed wire fences. The Bag Lady has no idea what the other plant is called, but she thought the two of them looked pretty together.


The bush between the yard and the pasture is loaded with wild roses


There is an abundance of these little white flowers close to the corral. The Bag Lady has no idea what they are, either. She's not exactly a fount of information today, is she?

Mini-tour

The Bag Lady thought you might like to take a stroll through her yard with her today. We'll start with a peek at these little forget-me-nots in her flowerbed. She planted them several years ago, and is always happy to see them in the spring:


Around the back of the house, the wild roses (Alberta's provincial flower) are blooming in the bush:


It's evening, and the trees make long shadows across the back lawn:




Looking in a different direction is the firepit and the back of the outdoor oven:


Turning slightly, we can look across the lawn toward the garden:


And here is the front lawn:

The Bag Lady artfully ignored a good portion of her yard (the parts with all the weeds and mess!). These pictures were taken about a week ago, and she can't believe how dry things look in comparison! She has probably complained in previous posts about how long it takes her to mow her lawn, even though she uses a ride-on lawn mower, but if it doesn't rain soon, she won't have to worry about mowing! It seems to have stopped growing.

Have a great weekend!

Rescue Me....

Imagine, if you will, getting a call from a frantic mother/father/sister/brother, telling you that their child/wife/husband/family member has gone missing on a wilderness hike/ski trip/canoe ride/whatever.

You are an experienced woodsman/hiker/skier/canoeist; you volunteer to help look for said missing family member.
You risk life and limb, but find the missing family member and all is well.

Imagine doing this on a regular basis. As a volunteer. You don't get paid. It's dangerous work. You do it because you are experienced in the outdoors, and feel a desire to contribute your particular skill to help your community. You don't always find the missing person in time to save their life, but you give it your best shot, risking your own life to try to save someone else's.

Now imagine that you are on a ski holiday, at a resort, wanting a little thrill. There is an area marked out-of-bounds, but you are arrogant enough or bold enough (perhaps even drunk enough) to think you know better than the operators of the ski resort. You and your spouse decide to ski that fresh powder beckoning just beyond the markers. You get lost. You do everything you can think of to attract attention. You stomp SOS in the snow. You spend long cold days and longer colder nights on the mountain. Your wife finally succumbs to the elements just two days before you are finally rescued.

You are overcome with guilt, frantic at the thought of your wife needlessly losing her life because of your own stupidity. Do you compound that stupidity by turning around and SUING THE VOLUNTEERS for not finding you in time to save your wife?????!!!!!

I can only assume that the asshole who went skiing out of bounds in the mountains of BC with his wife (who subsequently died of exposure after they spent seven nights in the elements) has lost his mind..... why else would he sue the people who volunteered to search for him? He and his wife must have known there was at least a chance that they would lose their lives when they deliberately crossed the clearly marked barrier into the out-of-bounds area of the mountain.

This has made me so angry, I can scarcely marshall my thoughts into coherent phrases. Volunteer Search and Rescue organizations all over the country are wondering what will happen. Their volunteer searchers - those brave souls who go out in all kinds of weather at great risk to themselves to help find someone who is lost - are dropping out of the organizations, fearful of being sued for not finding someone on time.

I am over-simplifying the situation, perhaps, but the whole idea of suing someone who didn't have to go out and look for me in the first place doesn't sit well with me.

Those people knew the risks involved in going into an area they weren't supposed to be in, and I for one, hope that this case is thrown out of court. If the case is actually heard, and the fellow actually wins, there will be no-one willing to volunteer for anything ever again, because this opens the door for myriad abuses. Would you volunteer to help someone with their groceries if they could turn around and sue you because you didn't bring the groceries into the house quickly enough to suit them and a fly got into their house? Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it? But is it more ridiculous than suing someone for not rescuing you quickly enough from a situation you created with your own stupidity?

Am I off-base? Do I sound like a cranky old woman? What do you think about suing volunteers? Do you wonder, as I do, if some of those volunteers are wishing they had been just a little slower finding this guy?

And Another Thing....

Here are a couple more photos the Bag Lady took on her weekend trip. Her sister-in-law has this "yard ornament" in her backyard:



And there was a rabbit on the side of the road..... honest.......


The Bag Lady and the Rancher have been swamped with appointments and such these past couple of days, so she's sorry she hasn't been around much to respond to your comments. She's hoping things will be back to normal (well, okay, as normal as things ever are for the Bag Lady!) sometime later this week!

In the meantime, thanks to everyone for visiting here!

Weekend Travels

The Bag Lady had a busy weekend, and it's still busy around the ranch. She and the Rancher had a family reunion dinner to go to, and she took a few photos during the drive.
As they were leaving home, there were river boat races:


She thought this little creek looked interesting:



And even in summer, there are snowsun men!



They saw this little old church along the way - it looked abandoned:



And Saturday was the longest day of the year, so she took this picture on the drive home Saturday night. It was 12:16 am, and there was still light in the northern sky:


She will have a few more pictures to share with you tomorrow!

Photo Phinish Phriday

Here are a couple of pictures of the Bag Lady's flowerbed for you:

This is rock soapwort:


This is a honeysuckle bush:


And here are the newest additions to the ranch:




Have a great weekend!