Sorry

Well guys, I can't load my photos up, my parent's dialup connection won't allow me to load them to blogger. Wait and in a few days I will hopefully have them up. Ride safe and have fun.

It's been a loooong time.......

Holy! my first post since August 1, hard to believe, however I do have an explanation for it all. There are no photos, even though I have a lot on the camera because I'm at my parents place and they have dialup internet. Tomorrow I will try to get some photos up though. Anyway, here is my explanation for it all. On August 4th Tina came out to Nordegg from Saskatoon. It was the August long weekend and she had Monday off and I was doing driver train still so we knew that we would have the weekend to ourselves. On Sunday morning August 6th we decided to go fishing, I had caught one fish a couple of weeks ago and we wanted to get another so we would have enough for supper one night. We went to a little river by Nordegg called Shunda Creek and we fished in a small pond in the river for probably an hour. The fish weren't biting at all and I was getting discouraged so we decided to pack up and head for the fish pond northwest of Nordegg. We waded up the river to the road that went to the highway and were having a fun time playing around in the river. We then drove over too the fish pond, the fish pond is at the bottom of a steep hill just off the road (there is a photo of Dad fishing in it on a previous post). We packed all the gear down the hill and I started to cast out in the water, on one of the cast I swung the rod back and Tina was behind me, she thought I was going to hit her with the end of the rod so she back up. When she backed up she stepped on a small rock that was on top of a bigger one, it gave out and she fell backwards, she appeared to land on her back and I heard a crack, I freaked out of course, but then she was kneeling on the ground and screaming that her leg hurt. We figured that her leg was broken, there were some other people there and they were very nice and helped us out, we got Tina on her side and rested her leg on my tackle box and a bag of ice to keep it straight, one of the guys there phoned 911 and the ambulance was on it's way. Since it was a long weekend the ambulance was in Nordegg for the weekend so it didn't take as long as it could have. The ambulance from Rocky Mountain House came and they switched her into that one to take her to the hospital in Rocky Mountain House. There they took her into emergency and did x-rays on her leg. They told us that she had broken her fibula, the small bone at the back of her lower leg on the right side. because it was so swollen she had to get a splint on it instead of a cast. The next day her leg hurt really bad so we took her back, another doctor looked at it again and he told her that her fibula was broken and that she had a dislocated ankle with torn ligaments, he schedualed her for an appointment with the orthopedic surgeon in Red Deer and she went on 9th of August to Red Deer. The sugeon told us that she had indeed torn ligaments and her ankle was dislocated, but he also said that her fibula was broken in two places. He arranged to have her go in for sugery, she went on Thursday the 10th and got some ligaments reattached and also got two screws put in her ankle to help relocate it again. I picked her up on Sunday from the hospital and brought her back to Nordegg. She was doing fine until Wednesday (the 16th) when she fell while getting down on the couch and hit her bad leg on the floor. I took her to the hospital two more times about that and she is okay, just pulled on some muscles when she fell. She is feeling much better today and her leg is starting to feel better for her now. Well that is the quick and condensed version of what happened. Along the way I also went for my Class 1A drivers license driver's test and passed, so now I have my Class 1A license and can drive a semi truck, that took a lot of pressure off at work and I can concentrate on learning other aspects of the job. We won't be returning to Saskatoon until the beginning of September and then I will be taking Tina to her parent's place to recuperate. Anyway, thanks for still reading for anyone who checks in once and a while, and sorry for the lack of current content. Remember to be safe, ride safe and above all else, have fun

Finally.......

My suprise I mentioned in the last post, I bought a longboard skateboard. Just one more way to potentially hurt myself.

Julian, looking very serious and Leo at Cranberry Flats.

We had a pretty nice thunderstorm Saturday night, you can see the hail balls on the sidewalk leading up to the door of our apartment.

Leo cycling up the boardwalk at Cranberry Flats.

Julian cycling up the same boardwalk, I didn't get a closeup because he was going to fast to snap a second photo.

Well Blogger finally "allowed" me to post my photos, for the last few days it has been saying that my "document contains no data", very frustrating. On Sunday Leo, Julian and I went out for a ride, it was actually Julian's first ride since he broke his wrist. He proved that he certainly hasn't slowed down while he was recuperating. :) We rode out to Cranberry Flats and then after that we headed out towards Grasswood to have lunch at the Smittys there. My suprise was that I bought a longboard skateboard, I saw it in the bike shop and thought that it would be something good to take along with me to Alberta, as it will maybe fit in my bag (I think, it's pretty long). I tryed it out last night as Tina was cleaning the inside of her car, I managed to stay upright on it for a bit, but it's hard. You see the wheels pivot so that you can go around corners, so it makes it hard to balance, you just have to remember that the wheels don't pivot past a certain point, so no matter how hard you lean over it will only go so far. Anyway, I guess it was an early midlife crisis, but I will learn how to skate on it, just takes some practice. Ride safe, and have fun

More photos from Alberta

Fish Lake, just by my parents place.

A Heron on Fish Lake, I wish I had gotten closer to it.

This during the thunder storm, Dad was fishing and I noticed a double rainbow, so I snapped the photo.

Dad fishing just before the thunderstorm.

A beautiful sunset in the mountains.

Here are some more photos that I took while I was away for the last two weeks. I should have some more current content tomorrow, I'm going on a ride with Leo and Julian tomorrow morning and I have a little suprise too. Ride safe and have fun!

Finally!!!

Windy point on Abraham Lake, just west of Nordegg.

Abraham Lake again.

Tina and I on Windy Point.

Abraham Lake (again)

Abraham Lake

Tina at Crescent Falls.

Cool lighting through the clouds.

The forest fire at Nordegg.

This photo was taken at night, believe it or not, but it was a lightening storm.

My tomato plants.

Well I haven't written a post in a long, long time, so here it is. Not much to say, I've been working quite a bit lately. I went riding today, I actually rode out towards Blackstrap to meet up with Leo. I managed to get in 48kms so that wasn't too bad. My legs are a little sore, thats all. Anyway I will have more photos from my last 2 weeks in Alberta tomorrow.

Hi Everyone!!

I'm writing this from my parent's place in Nordegg, Alberta. I've been doing driver training for my Class 1A drivers license in Red Deer for the past few days. On Wednesday night I went to my parent's place and stayed the night. Unfortunatly for everyone who reads this regularly I don't have highspeed internet access and for a night that I spent at Red Deer College I didn't have internet at all. I've taken some really nice photos around Red Deer and Nordegg and as soon as I can I will post them on here. Tina came out on Friday night for the weekend because I really wasn't working all weekend. We've been sightseeing around Nordegg and today I bought some fishing gear and a fishing licence and we went out trout fishing at two different lakes. We didn't catch anything but we seen a huge trout swim right by the shore while we were fishing, he was smart though and didn't want nothing to do with our lure. We had a really good time and it will be sad to go back to work on Monday (isn't it always?) but I want to get back to my driver training too. Anyway when I get some internet access (usually when I go out on a job and we are in a motel for the night) I will post all my photos on here. Ride safe and have fun, thanks for reading too.

POST #200!!!!!!!!! Beaver Creek and Fort Carlton

Fort Carlton from the outside

Just a fencepost, but I like it! :)

Grain elevator in the very small town of Carlton, pop 10 I'm sure.

A beautiful canola field in full bloom.

The inside of Fort Carlton, the square concrete sections outline were all the other buildings would have been in the original fort.

Looking up in the hills behind Fort Carlton.

"Watching" for the enemy.

The boardwalk around the outer walls of the fort.

Beaver Creek winding it's way through the trees to the South Saskatchewan River.

Looking upstream towards Cranberry Flats.

Tina took this photo of me standing in the wildflowers at Beaver Creek.

What a view! looking down at where Beaver Creek empties out into the South Saskatchewan River.

Another shot of Beaver Creek.

In the last few days Tina and I have been exploring around Saskatoon a lot. Mostly because we've never really done it before and we had some time to do it. What I've discovered is that there are a lot of really cool places, right at our back door. So often people go away to a new place for holidays, but they never really bother to check out what is around where they actually live. I was suprised, but out of the prairies sprung up some truely beautiful places. Up around Batoche and the St. Laurent Ferry there were places that I could spend all summer, along the banks of the river. I wish I had the time to get into fishing again because there is what looks like some really great spots for that in and around that area. Yesterday (Sunday) we ventured out to Beaver Creek, it was spectacularly beautiful, the whole river seems to unfold before you, the pictures I took really don't do it justice at all. Today we ventured up to Fort Carlton. The fort that is currently there is a reproduction of the original that burnt down in the 1930's. The original was a Hudson's Bay Company fort for fur trading and it also housed the soldiers that fought in the Battle of Batoche. The reproduction fort is very impressive and from photos of the old fort it is pretty close to what it looked like. We then went down the road and checked out the town of Carlton, out in the middle of nowhere and lost in time, it was a pretty neat little place. Around 5:00pm we headed back to Saskatoon. I'm going to be working again now, I will try to post while I'm on the road, but sometimes it is pretty hard. Please bear with me and check back often for more. Ride safe and have fun.

Post 199

Warning! many photos are coming your way. :) I just wanted to make post 200 a special one, so I didn't put them here.

Batoche

Fields along the river, notice the canola farther up on the field.

Part of Carlton Trail going through Batoche.

Cattle grazing along the river.

The interpertation center at Batoche.

Field of wild grass at Batoche.

The church and rectory at Batoche, there is still bullet holes in the top of the rectory from the Gatling gun that the Canadian army was using.

An example of the river lots that used to be in Batoche. Every lot went down to the river so that all the people have access to the river. You can see the rows of trees that border each plot of land.

Another shot of the Church and other buildings.

A cool hay field.

The cemetary at Batoche.

Tina and I went to Batoche on Saturday to check it out. Batoche is the site of the battle between the Metis settlers there and the Canadian Army in 1885. The church and rectory still stand here and you can see the rifle pits of the metis people if you hunt around in the fields a bit. The cemetary is still in use today by the Metis people. We went to the church and cemetary as well as the East Village site. The East Village site was just the remains of the former Metis houses that were in the village. There was also a site where the Metis people had a ferry to get across the South Saskatchewan River. On Monday Tina and I are going to go to Fort Carlton which is on the North Saskatchewan River and where the Canadian soldiers were stationed at the time of the Battle of Batoche. Ride safe and have fun.

Sorry, first post in 8 days :(

A storm came up while I was out riding on Friday and it was really blowing good. I took this photo about the time I decided to head home.

Broadway bridge, notice how the tree on the left is really bent over good.

Dust blowing around in the streets.

Part of the aftermath.

I obviously didn't think it would be too safe for cycling at this point.

Wow, I'm really letting everyone down here, first post in 8 days. I want to thank everyone for sticking with me and continuing to read this. The fact is that a lot of the time now I'm putting in up to 16 hour days. The new job isn't hard but it requires a lot of waiting around. Couple that with subpar internet service at best and you get some pretty decent delays with my blog here. I got back to Saskatoon Wednesday and have been enjoying it a great deal ever since. I can't believe how I miss Tina and just being home. It makes it hard because she has been waiting til I get home to go places, and then all I really want to do is stick around home. Saskatoon has really blossomed with the wet weather and now a little bit of heat. My tomatoe plants were doing not bad until I left them out in the windstorm we had on Friday (see photos above) and the wind bent them all over, I did get some good tomatoes off them though. My first bike ride went good except for the rain, also I'm out of shape from a month of near inactivity so it took a while to get up to speed. Tina and I went to Batoche today and I have photos, but that post will have to wait until tomorrow. Also I'm planning a trip to Fort Carlton on Monday, so stay tuned for that. Until then, ride safe and have fun.

Nordegg Mine

The coal storage shed at Nordegg Mine.

An electric locomotive and coal cars.

A briquet press at the mine.

The mechanism for dumping the coal cars.

A photo I took today from our well lease.

On of the two shafts of the Nordegg Coal mine

One of the massive fans that ventilated the coal shafts, it is actually double this size, there is another blade on the other side.

A 'Bent cartoon Leo sent me.

The boiler and chimmeny at the Nordegg Coal mine.

Here is the second set of photos from the weekend at my parents place. On Sunday Mom and I went on a guided tour of the Nordegg Mine site. It is now a National Heritage Site and is very interesting to go see, I highly recommend it if your are ever in the area. I'm really getting ready to come home now, being away is really just wearing on me and I want to see Tina again. I got to drive the truck today. We unhooked it from our trailer for the drive back to Brooks, Alberta. The semi is hard to drive that is for sure, I grinded my fair share of gears. :) The guy I'm riding with let me drive it away from the well out to the highway and then down a gravel road for a while until we got out to the TransCanada highway, then thankfully he took over before I made a complete fool of myself. :) Ride safe and have fun, thanks for checking my blog out too.