My friend's father passed from this life early this morning.  He had struggled with metastatic colon cancer for several years.  Actually, he did not struggle until just recently.  He passed peacefully this morning at the Hospice house in Prince George.  As deaths go, it was as peaceful as it gets.  My friend is now alone, save for her cousins.  Her brother and mother both passed several years ago. 

This made me ponder the future for two of my grandchildren who are single children.  It is important that they stay in touch with their cousins as, one day, cousins will be the only family connection they have.  Family ties are important.  No, one does not have to live on the doorstep of the other, but to get together once in a while to connect with a bond that you have with no other human being, is important and grounding.  I find that, when I get together with family, I enjoy just sitting back, listening and observing the strong traits that run through our genes.  One thing I have noticed, without fail, is that we are a family of incredibly strong women.  Get togethers can be on the extreme end of the energy spectrum, but interesting all the same.  So, for those of you without siblings, connect with your cousins.  You will find a comfort there, no matter how crazy they are, that you won't find with anyone else.

With that, I look forward to getting together with family in Victoria in January.  We are supposed to get together on the anniversary of my late mother's birthday, which in my opinion has been flogged to death, but whatever.  Getting together is a good idea, no matter what the reason.  For me, it gets me out of the bush.  I connect with my sisters and nieces, reminding me there is more to life than farming and bush life.  I also hope it helps my urban relatives see that there is also more to this great country than urban pursuits.  It is people like Dennis and me who provide food for tables, all the while consuming few resources while doing so.

Please feel free to comment on anything you read here.  Just click on the "no comments" spot and a comment box will appear.  I enjoy good discussions of views and opinions respectfully exchanged. 
Bye for now.

Here is a sample of our chicken production.
All grown without chemicals, antibiotics or anything not completely natural.  They are fed grain and wild vegetation that I pick from the property.  Each day I will take the quad and trailer up into the farm, fill the trailer with mostly pea vine, and bring it back to the chicken yard.   

Yesterday was Grey Cup.  I had hoped for a closer game but it was fun to watch all the same.  Interesting interceptions, some great passes and with Canadian football, up to the last minute there is always the chance that the losing team can pull off a win.  I felt so badly for the Calgary coach.  He looked as though he was wishing the whole thing would just go away and let him go home.  Well, it did end, but not before the Stampeders fell apart on the field.  Clearly frustrated, the players started to become annoyed with each other, definitely a recipe for defeat.  Nevertheless, it was good football. 

The interesting thing about this 100th Grey Cup was reading the comments on-line afterwards.  Were most of them about the game?  Nope!  Canadians from far and wide ripped apart the half-time show!  While I have a lot of respect for Gordon Lightfoot and his music, I really do think it is time he stopped doing big public performances.  I never really relaxed during his performance as I thought the poor man may just fall over.  He seemed so frail and weak.  His voice is still on key, but very weak.  The rest of the half-time show was pretty disappointing.  Justin Bieber's performace was predicable.  I guess the bubble gum set can relate but I found it the same as every young singer's performance these days.  Lots of the same dance moves.  I think he even lip-synched the songs.  Marianas Trench must have had sound technical problems because you could hardly hear the back up singers.  I thought the music ok, but not 100th Grey Cup worthy!  Carly-Rae Jepsen was also just the same as all the stuff I see on voice and singing competitions on tv.  Baby voices.  I guess I'm just too old.  What happened to music that made a statement, like in the late 60's and the 70's?  If this is what sells these days, then so be it.  I just think the Grey Cup half-time committee could have done a waaaaay better job at selecting real Canadian talent.  Even the rendition of O Canada stunk.  It was weak and could have been sung at some smokey cheap hotel lounge.  O Canada should be strong and proud.  The Grey Cup rendition was weak and insipid.  Just my opinion.

Every year I do a bulk order of dried fruit, nuts, seeds, baking chocolate and other such items from Rancho Vignola in Armstrong, BC.  For the fall order a minimum of $500 is needed.  Some friends and I go in together so we can order larger amounts to get the economy that larger quantities of each product affords.  It is cheaper per pound to buy 20 or 25 pounds of an item rather than 5 pounds.   One year, when I first ordered from Rancho Vignola, I bought 25 pounds of organic coconut.  Do you have any idea how much coconut that is?  The sack was as large as a sack of grain!  I had coconut for years.  As a matter of fact, this is the first year I ordered coconut, and ordered 5 pounds.  Sheesh!  I have to keep reminding myself that we are not a family of 6 any more!  Anyway, yesterday I weighed and bagged the builk items and sorted everything into boxes for each person's order.  It is always fun seeing everything nicely in their boxes.  This year I ordered candied ginger.  I love ginger.  I find that right now, given my angry stomach, the candied ginger is one of the only things I want to eat.  Food has really lost it's appeal and I struggle to find anything that even remotely looks and smells appetising.  Going back to the Rancho Vignola order.  I was going to say that in order to have fresh seeds and nuts and dried fruit, the only way to get it here is to bulk order then put them in the freezer.  Once you have had actually fresh nuts compared to the rancid things we get in the store, you will never go back to store bought.  And, by buying in bulk, the price is pretty well the same, or even better.  If you calculate that small package of nuts you buy in the store into price per pound, you will be very surprised.  Plus, I order everything organic which just is not availble here.

Things are quiet on the farm.  The sheep are on hay so it is just a matter of throwing a bale or 2 in the pen once in a while and keeping the heated water bucket full.  The garden is under snow until spring.  The summer machinery is winterized and put away.  The insurance is off the pick-up truck and on to the landcruiser.  Now is the time to turn to the inside of the house.  De-cluttering is in order, especially after I viewed the pictures of daughter Rebecca's house on-line.  They are moving to Williams Lake and their house is up for sale.  Wow!  It looks beautiful.  So, why wait for selling, I say to myself?  We have stuff from parents and grandparents that we never use.  Silver, especially.  Gone are the days when we had formal dining rooms and formal china and flatware.  Our house is small.  Time to dung it out! 

Here is a picture of our driveway and garden fence after a snowfall. 

Bye for now.

It has, yet again, been a busy few days.  We did get to spend 2 nights away from the farm, though.  Our friend and neighbour down the road, Kim, was kind enough to take over dog and sheep duty for 2 days which allowed us the luxury of being away together for the first time in ages.  We left Wednesday morning.  The roads were excellent, which is a bonus this time of year.  I was booked for my stomach scope on Thursday at noon and for my CT scan the following Monday.  As soon as we arrived in Prince George we went straight to the hospital and up to the CT booking desk.  I asked if they could put me on the wait list for Friday due to the 3 1/2 hr drive each way to the hospital.  They were excellent and gave me an appointment for 11:00 a.m. on Friday!  I was so happy that I did not have to make the long trip back again on Monday.  So we checked in to our lovely room at the Coast Inn of the North then did some shopping.  We had a great supper at the Shogun restaurant in the hotel.  After that it was fasting for me until after the procedure.  Dennis picked me up from the hospital at around 4:30 Thursday afternoon.  By 6:30 I was starving and ready for a meal. Then it was fasting again for me after supper in preparation for the CT scan.  I was done by noon on Friday.

We met our friend Lois for lunch then went to hospice to visit her dad.  He is such an interesting fellow.  We talked about him growing up on the prairies in the 30's.  He said that when the war started things were starting to improve after the depression.  They finally got rain for the crops, but since all the able bodied young men were off to war, he, at 12 years old, was expected to drive the team of horses with the mower, rake, etc.  It was interesting to compare his young life with that of this generation.  He said there was just no question about working hard - you just did it.  If you did not work you did not eat.  It was as simple as that.  He was not complaining about it nor glorifying it.  He just said that was the way it was.  I believe his life prepared him for facing his death.  There he is, his mind as sharp as a tack, but his body failing.  He said there is no point worrying about nor fighting the inevitable.  We all have to go there one day.  He just wants to have as little pain as possible, which is certainly a reasonable request.  It really is a treat to visit Bill, to listen to him talk about his life, and to marvel at his ability to face his impending death.  He is an exceptional man. 

The sun is rising later now.  A week ago it rose above the hill across the lake at 8:15 a.m.  I did not notice when it rose today, but at solstice I know it rises after 9:00.  It is a beautiful day today, blue sky, sun and about -3 C.  A good day to relax and enjoy the sun.  Yesterday was spent on the road.  I drove in to Burns Lake, picked up 13 boxes of Rancho Vignola dried fruit and nuts (we have a group of us that orders and I coordinate it), then off to Greyhound to pick up a box of Epicure products, then off to Telkwa (2 hrs from Burns lake) to pick up our 8 lambs that were cut and wrapped at the butcher there.  Then it was back to Houston to deliver 2 lambs, back to Colleymount to deliver 4 more, then back home to get my own into the freezer.  It was 8:00 pm before I was home again.

Dennis is curling in a bonspiel this weekend.  So far they have lost 1 game so are in the C event.  He should be home in time to watch the Grey Cup. 

Today I will be sorting the Rancho Vignola stuff for our group and just puttering around.  Happy Grey Cup day everyone!  I love Canadian football!  I remember going to Empire Stadium with my dad when BC played Hamilton.  BC lost.  The only players I remember was Willie Flemming for the Lions and Angelo Moska (sp?) for Hamilton.  It was so exciting to be there! 

These pictures show the evening sunset looking East (top and bottom) and looking West (middle).  These are taken along the lakeshore in front of our house.  They were taken in January 2009.  The lake had not yet frozen but does every year.

 

 

Ok, bye for now.

So much has happend the past week.  The lambs are slaughtered and off to the butcher for cut and wrap.  We couldn't contact our regular butcher so we had to make arrangements to take all the lambs to Telkwa, about 2 1/2 hours away, for cut and wrap.  We went through a huge blizzard on the way there, snowflakes like pancakes.  But the sun came out and we had a beautiful drive home. 

The butcher there was so impressed by the size of our lambs that he wants to buy some live ones from us in the spring.  That was a huge endorsement of our breeding line!  Our lambs ranged from 40 lbs to 56 lbs on the hook.  For hair sheep, that is a good size.  We had 4 over 50 lbs.  Hair sheep are a milder tasting lamb, not at all muttony.  Most people prefer the mild lamb, but I had one guy from England telling me he preferred the wool sheep for their stronger taste.  I think it is all what a person is used to.

We are off to Prince George tomorrow for a two night stay.  I can't remember the last time Dennis and I went away together.  The planning and preparation for leaving 6 dogs and 8 sheep is incredible!  It wouldn't be so complicated if it was summer, but winter has a whole set of extra demands.  Water buckets must be electrically heated and topped up.  All plugs, cords and buckets must be in good working order.  Extra hay must be brought from the barn down to the sheep.  Hay must be put in the shelters for the dogs.  Niko cannot curl up his back legs to keep them warm, so he must have a warm hay pile to nest in.  We have made a nice hay pile in the wood shed, nicely out of the wind.  Gates have to be dug out so the person looking after our animals can get in and out of the pens easily.  Food is portioned out for each meal for each dog.  Morning meals have the MSM/Glucosamine/Condroiten mix added plus a salmon pill.  Bridget and Crystal have other medications added.  Evening meals have no salmon oil or joint formula but Bridget still has her thyroid meds added.  So each dog has a bucket with all their meals in, plus extra in case we are delayed, and each meal is labelled a.m. or p.m.  It is a bit of work to prepare but makes it so much easier for the care taker to feed 6 different dogs!  She will be here for supper tonight to do a walk through and get a feel for how things are.  I'm cooking her a leg of lamb!  

Since we have so many dogs they are all fed in their crates.  This is done right from the start to help them see their crates as a good place to be.  It also allows them to eat their meals without the pressure of another dog possibly challenging them for their food.  This way they eat calmly and don't gobble.  Each food dish is labled as is each crate.  Each dog knows which crate is theirs.  At meal time the crate doors are open and the dogs immediately go to their own crate.  Makes it simple and theirs NO FIGHTING.

The wind has been blowing for 2 days.  It is -7 and blowing like a hurricane out there, making it seem a lot colder.  The furnace is going for all it's worth, but the wind seems to just get into the house anyway, especially upstairs where we still have the old windows.  A huge difference standing by the deck windown upstairs compared to the deck window downstairs! 

The Colleymount Recreation Committee had our annual Christmas bazaar at the Trout Creek Hall on Sunday.  I had a table of Victorian Epicure there.  I have been a consultant for almost a year now.  It is a great product and a local BC company.  It is always good to get out and show people what a fine product it is.  I had a crock pot there with pulled pork as a free sample.  Almost everyone who tried it bought a package of the pulled pork.  I sold out in no time and took orders for more.  It was a great sample!  If anyone is interested in learning more about Victorian Epicure, or becoming a consultant, let me know! 

I had better get going.  Our neighbours down the road will be returning from Prince George soon.  He had to have a pacemaker put in his heart at the hospital there.  We are looking after their dog, Megan.  She is a great dog and a lot of fun to have around. 

Since my blog is rather sporadic these days, if you are interested in knowing when I post, just subscribe to the blog.  You will receive a notification in your email when there is a new post.  You can unsubscribe at any time.  Things will be a bit sporadic for the next week for sure, as we will be in Prince George for 2 days, then home Friday, then back on Monday.  I was told yesterday, after being on hold for 47 minutes, that I must come on Monday for a CT scan.  I will be glad to get to the bottom of things but it is a lot of driving, being a 6 hour return trip each time.  I just hope the weather cooperates.  Things can get so slippery this time of year.

We are taking the insurance off the truck and insuring the land cruiser for a few months.  We don't really need the pickup now and the land cruiser has way better traction. 

Ok, I had better get on with my tasks!  Bye for now! 

This is my 1988 Toyota Land Cruiser, right hand drive.  Imported from Japan.  Terrific vehicle!  It has power windows, locks, air conditioning, sun roof and is turbo powered.  Goes like a hot rocket!!

Today I am a busy farm wife.  It is slaughtering day.  Not the nicest word in the vocabulary, but one that anyone who eats meat should be able to tolerate.  Those nicely wrapped packages of tenderloin in the supermarket cooler were once living, breathing, fur covered creatures.  It is a difficult day for me and for Dennis, but again, we like to eat lamb so we go through the humane (is it ever?) killing of our livestock.  Joe, our friend from across the lake, is here to run the proceedings.  He will spend the night so today I am in the kitchen making lunch, baking for tea, and making supper.  Tomorrow morning will be a breakfast as well.  I thought about the days long ago when farmers from around the area would get together and thresh the grain from each farm.  The ladies would bake and cook and serve tables of food to many people.  Today I serve 2 men hot soup and corn bread.  Tonight will be chicken and gravy, carrots and potatoes mashed together with garlic and butter, a good salad with the remaining tomatoes from my greenhouse.  Dessert will be a wild fruit compote with ice cream.  The men work hard out there and it is not pleasant work.  The least I can do is have some good comfort food on the table for them. 

I am happy to say that Amigo has a new family to go to at the end of the month.  The absolutely perfect family heard about him via facebook.  We are excited for Amigo and happy he will be going to a loving family.  Thank you to my family for having Amigo's picture on their facebook pages and telling their friends to spread the word. 

A few days ago we were in Prince George.  While there we visited Bill, the father of my friend Lois, who is in hospice.  I have never been to a hospice (should it be an hospice?) house before.  Bill is suffering from the latter stages of cancer.  The hospice house is absolutely beautiful.  It smells good, it looks like a regular home and it is run by the nicest people ever.  I talked to the volunteer coordinator who told me a lot of people don't want to use hospice as it underscores that this is the last place you will be on this side of the sod.   Even though there is nothing one can do to stop death, we try to fool ourselves in that if I don't think about it, it won't happen.  Not that one should ponder death and dying continually, but as one marches towards the inevitable, it is good to get things in order.  Both Dennis and I said that if we spent our last days in the Prince George hospice house, or a similar facility, we would be happy.  It takes the pressure off the family, is a loving and comfortable place to be, and you are surrounded by people who's profession is to help you transition from this world to the next.  It makes a lot of sense to me.  Bill was as happy as a dying man could be.  He couldn't stop talking about how wonderful it was there.  I could see the visible difference in Lois also.  She was more relaxed and happy than I have seen her in a while.  I think she felt a huge load off her shoulders, knowing her dad was so well looked after, and that he was so happy to be there.  If you are looking for a charity to support, I encourage you to consider your local hospice house.  Go and take a walk through, talk to some staff and have a tour.  Hospice helps local people in the community at the most difficult time of any person's life.  I am so happy they are there.


Ok, time to get busy with supper preparation, making up the guest room and baking something for tea.  In memory of our lambs, here is a picture of happier times:

This last picture is symbolic in a few ways.  That is Crystal, our nearly 15 year old akita x walking alone down the road.  The fields are empty.   She walks alone towards the blue sky. 

The lambs eat the grass, we eat the lambs, we go back to the earth, the grass grows on the earth, the lambs eat the grass.....

bye for now.

Sheep.  Not always the brightest of God's creatures, but sometimes they are able to outsmart me!  Now is the time to de-worm the sheep in preparation for breeding.  Our one ewe lamb has to be caught and removed from the flock as she will be sold as a market lamb.  We cannot put her in with the ram lambs as they are still intact.  Having a ewe around them will cause them to want to breed which in turn will cause fighting and testosterone levels to rise.  They can bruise each other and the testosterone will give the meat a disgusting taste.  So the poor ewe lamb is alone in a pen across from the ewes.

For two days we have tried to get the ewes into the crowding pen and chutes in order to de-worm them and sort out the lamb.  The first configuration of the equipment just didn't work.  So I finally sent Dennis off to do other tasks while I pondered the problem.  I decided to put the ewes in the barn first.  I built a barrier to prevent them from running past the barn door.  Unfortunately, the post pounder had a broken hitch when it toppled over while Dennis was going over uneven terrain.

 

The post pounder was a barrier to the clear line of sight that the sheep need to keep moving forward.  Anything that blocks their sight will cause them to stop moving forward.  It makes them wary and flighty.  After a few tries and moving gates, they followed me with the grain bucket right into the barn.  When I tried to close the door the two brown sheep, the lamb and her mother, bolted.  I closed the 6 ewes in.  I knew the two rogue ewes would be drawn to the flock even though the flock was behind the barn door.  Once they were beside the barn I closed the gates so they were confined in the small pen in front of the barn.  I then opened the barn door and all the sheep came out.  It was easy then to pressure them all back into the barn.  With hay and grain in the barn it did not take much convincing. 

 After the sheep were in the barn, behind the door, I set up the chute and squeeze.  The blue panels to the left of the picture are the curved parts of the crowding chute.  I used them as a barrier to confine the sheep in the small area.  They remained there to prevent any escapee from bolting to freedom!  My plan was to have the door slide open just enough to let the sheep access the chute.  Obviously my plan was somewhat flawed:

They all pushed in and it was all Dennis could do to keep them from pushing the chute apart.  Of course, the crowding tub should have been attached to keep everything in place.  Oh well.  We kept them calm by moving everything slowly.  You can see the one ewe in the squeeze table.  That table will squeeze around the ewe, then we can actually tip the table on it's side so we can trim the hooves and examine the ewe.  When they are off their feet they go completely calm which enables us to work on them without harming them or ourselves.  This time I just tightened the squeeze to hold the ewe still while I injected the ivermectin.  I used the weights from the spring as I still have not fixed the scale. 

Once the ewes were done I led them all back to the winter pen by the house.  Dennis put a rope on the ewe lamb.  He tried to lead her but it was more like trying to lead a bucking bronco!  I wish I could have taken a picture but I was too busy trying to get the sheep across the road before a vehicle came along.  The lamb bucked and flipped and rolled on the ground.  Dennis was being swung around at the end of the rope.  It was hilarious!

Ben was happy to be with his harem at last.  The pictures say it all.

Tomorrow I am off to Smithers for my ultra sound.  Since it is son-in-law Chris's birthday, I will proceed to Terrace after having lunch with daughter Bernice in Smithers.  I checked the weather forecast, which said there would be sun on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  With any luck it is close to being right so I will have good travelling.  I will be home Saturday as I have a dinner engagement that evening. 

This may well be my last visit to Rebecca and Chris's home in Terrace.  They have been transferred to Williams Lake.  We do not know when the move will take place, but the move is confirmed so can take place any time.  It is exciting for them, but I will miss my trips to Terrace, especially when I took the train.  It was such a pleasant trip.

Dennis is cooking one of our last pork roasts for supper tonight.  Since we did not raise pigs this year we will miss eating pork! 

Time for me to go pack.  Still no takers for our lovely Amigo.  I am working on his leash training and he is progressing nicely.  He is such a lovely boy!

He has taken to sitting atop his shelter when the weather is clement.

Bye for now.

Stormy morning - coastal like!  It was a tea and scones morning!

But the sun came out in the afternoon.  The rain has washed away a lot of the snow.  Where a few days ago the snow was over my boots, now it is just a few inches.  The driveway is bare and there is grass showing where we have plowed. 

I took the opportunity to give Amigo, our foster dog (maremma) his first formal training session.  He is learning to walk on leash and to recognize his name.  He is also learning to come to me.  We are taking baby steps, but that is what is needed.  Walking on leash is still quite new to him.  He tries to bump me with his hips.  Consequently, due to the rain, I got soaked as I forgot to put on my rain gear prior to the lesson.  Amigo was like a wet sponge so every time he bumped me, he transferred his sogginess to me.  Oh well.  The main thing is to teach him that leash walking is fun and not a punishment.  We also visited each of the sheep pens, on the outside.  Ben, our ram, has no fear of dogs.  This was a bit of a puzzlement to Amigo, who likes to rush the pens to startle the sheep into running.  Ben just nuzzled him and gave him the once over, sniffing him from nose to tail.  Amigo seemed surprised with this.  He just stood there wide eyed, but calm.  Next we visited the ewes, who kept their distance.  Amigo was praised for sitting and looking.  Then we visited the ram lambs, who were curious about this large dog.  They came up to the fence but not close enough to sniff.  Amigo tried to rush the fence.  I gave him a voice and leash correction, not hard, and requested him to sit.  He did as requested and just sat for several minutes looking at the lambs.  I thought that was a successful meeting and left it at that.  It started to rain again and Amigo was clearly tired.  Training does tax their frontal brain so I brought him to his kennel.  He was happy to go in and find some hay to curl up in. 

My friend up the lake arrived to borrow a dog crate.  She is buying two Australian shepherds tomorrow.  She arrived with her three children.  I poured her and me a glass of wine and served some nice white, extra aged cheddar.  A bottle and a half later we felt pretty fine.  What a great afternoon!  One good thing about this time of year is the socializing that we have time for. 

Tomorrow is the day we de-worm the sheep and separate out the ewe lamb from the rest of the ewes.  It is time to put Ben in the with ewes so we will have early April lambs. 

bye for now.

Well, isn't life interesting.  I was going to ponder the mounds of laundry that two people can produce in a few days, when one phonecall turns our world into some minor turmoil.  Amigo, the lovely maremma that we nursed back to health when his people were struggling with their own health issues, is now back on our farm.  Today he was supposed to go to his new family.  Unfortunately they phoned to say they would not be taking him after all.  We cannot bring him back to his original family, as they are moving into town.  We are now scrambling to find a space for him where he cannot harrass the sheep.  We have the ewes in one pen, the breeding ram in another pen and the ram lambs in a third.  Amigo is adjacent to the ram lambs.  Before, he would run at the pen as he got a thrill from making them start and run.  Now we have stretched a flexible mesh fence, akin to a snow fence, in the ram lamb pen, between Amigo's pen and the lambs.  That way the lambs won't wander close to Amigo's enclosure and the fence sort of blocks Amigo's view of the lambs.   It is important the ram lambs are not stressed in any way as this affects the taste of the meat once slaughtered.  In the meantime we are actively searching for a new home for Amigo.

Today I made an appointment with the Smithers hospital for an ultra sound which was requested by my doctor.  In the winter I allow myself 3 hours to get from here to Smithers.  If we can go the back way, along the Owen-East and Morice River roads, it should take less time.  But the trucks are hauling during week days so if we get caught behind one going in to town it will be a slow trip.  We have a road radio wired in the pick up truck and the land cruiser, but we will take the van for comfort's sake.  My appointment is for 10:15 a.m. so we will leave here by 7:00 a.m. since I have to check in at 10:00.  At 8:15 I am told I must empty my bladder.  I will tell you right now there are no toilet facilities between our house and Smithers.  Yes, I can go on the side of the road, but we have a lot of snow so there is no running off into the bush to go behind a tree!  Plus, as I said, there are trucks hauling logs, and ore trucks hauling ore concentrate along that road.  Plus hunters.  Sheesh!  This is more than awkward!  I would go to Houston early and have breakfast, but I cannot eat anything after midnight.  Oh well.  We'll figure something out, but there you go, another complication of life in the remoter areas of BC.  It is annoying that we cannot have this procedure done in Burns Lake.  As I write this, they are building a new hospital in Burns Lake, yet we cannot get a simple ultra sound procedure done there.  Nor will they deliver babies.  Go figure.  When I had my son, there was one doctor in Smithers.  He served Houston and Smithers.  He did house calls, delivered babies, had a clinic and did the hospital rounds.  He had a clinic in Houston every Monday.  Sometimes he fell asleep on an empty bed in your hospital room when he sat down to talk to you, but he did manage.  Now, unless there is a specialist standing by for every event, doctors will not even deliver babies.  What has happened to this province?

Ok, enough of my rant.  It seems life was so much simpler back when I was a young mum raising my kids.  We only had 2 channels on tv, no such thing as a computer or iphone,  and you went to the local hospital for whatever ailed you and did not have to wait 2 years for surgery.  Of course, we didn't sleep at night worrying that Russia and the USA would start lobbing bombs and rockets over Canada!   
Here's a scene from a trail on our farm:

Time to put a training plan together for Amigo.  Stay well.