Taking A Ride North

Having lived in Alberta for 6 years we still have friends in the province and on Monday I took a ride north to Cold Lake/Bonnyville. One of our friends, Sally, is living a life with animals and as close to nature as one can get. Her property is a 10acre-parcel where she over many years has built up her own paradise.   There is small Dexter cattle, ducks, hens, small pot-belly pigs (one is called Peter the other Bea!!) there are turkeys and of course last but not least the border collie lady Brandy. In fact, as I was rolling into the farm yard Brandy started crying as her emotions over seeing me took over. And it is about 3 years ago I had seen her!. I love that dog.  “Brandy”   Sally built her own house of straw bales. Her heating bill is neglectible.   Her electric power comes mostly from solar panels, though she does have a Honda 2000EUi as well.  Yes, she has been living off the grid for a long time. Her property features an extensive vegetable garden, which feeds her in the winter. There are fruit trees and beautiful shrubs as well.                                                     “Peter & Bea” Monday evening was very warm and after we had watched the newborn calves jump around in the fresh green grass, we seated ourselves outside catching up with each other’s events. It is a rather long drive from Banff to Cold Lake about 7-8hrs. and when I left there yesterday around 11am, I managed to forget my wallet on a sideboard. Of course that did not come to my attention until I had pulled into a gas station 90 minutes drive away and couldn’t pay!  OUCH. Luckily, I had my passport with me so I could ID. myself to the people and they let me go back to fetch my wallet. So I lost about 3 hrs. on my travel time back to Banff, and when I finally arrived in the hills around Cochrane,AB around 10pm, a mighty thunderstorm was pushing through the area. Lightning was so intense that the road was illuminated almost to daylight. It was a horrific show and then the rain started pelting down. When clouds opened up a bit, there was still some light from the sun behind the horizon. Alberta thunderstorms can be extremely violent and I just attribute that to the dry air we often have here. I was sure glad when my trailer was showing in the headlights, and it didn’t take me long to fall into a deep sleep.