alberta

Jim

Derby Day is here again!

It doesn’t happen often, but we are getting the day off! We tend to work most weekends, but not this weekend. Saturday is Derby Day! It’s the 88th running of the Canadian Derby. What a great chance to get out and enjoy some fantastic thoroughbred racing. Thoroughbreds, what a beautiful, sleek, fast animal.  Did you know they were derived from breeding English mares to Arab Stallions? I’m not going to turn this into a horse breeding lesson but since Twyla has such a soft spot for Arabian horses I would be remiss if I didn’t mention it. I would have to say there isn’t an animal on the farm that Twyla admires more than her Arabian. I confess, I have a bit of a soft spot as well. Maybe a little more about that sometime down the road. For now, we’ll stick with the Derby. Derby day is jam-packed with fun. It has everything: fine clothes, great food, exciting entertainment (read: betting), and a great selection of beverages.

Let us start with getting all shined up.

It’s not mandatory, but it definitely adds to the experience for us. To be sure, you will see everything there from summer shorts and flipflops, to tuxedos and walking canes. And sometimes you see them combined. For me it’s the hats, the ladies wear some of the most fantastic hats.

I love this butterfly hat.  

Twyla ran over and asked the wearer if we could take a picture and she agreed.  Isn’t it cool?

Between heats I find myself doing two things; grabbing a beverage, and looking at the various hats. There is literally anything and everything there. It’s fantastic. For ourselves this year, we went through a number of choices in the store before deciding on the hats for us. It can take awhile to pick just the right one. And yes, the guys will wear some pretty cool hats too, so I admit I also take my time.

The ‘Seamus’ hat.

(I should make a note here, that it is important to remember whose hat is whose when getting ready.  As you can see, Seamus got a little confused. Now, I’m not going say it didn’t look real nice…but perhaps the wrong venue?)

Okay back to the horses.

There are a ton of things to consider when you place your bet. Too many in fact. Explaining the various ways you can bet at the track is something I’ll leave to the experts. If I tried, this column would be a mile a long and very confusing. So for now lets forget the words exacta, trifecta, quaddie, treble, etc.

We’re just passive race bettors and that’s how we approach the Derby. We generally place the simplest of bets: “Race 1, Horse 6 to win, for $2 Please”. It doesn’t get much more stress-free than that. Watching the horse race is incredibly exciting on it’s own, but by placing that $2 bet it ensures we have some skin in the game. It’s what gets you on your feet as they round the clubhouse turn heading down the home stretch. “Go 6! Go! Get the lead out boy!!! Come On!” Oh yeah, that’s fun stuff!

How does one pick their horse?

Well, at one time we used to walk down to the outside tarmac and look over each horse carefully; size, musculature, walk, spirit, etc. We would even gauge the track conditions. Oh, and don’t forget the jockey! Does he have a winning record? The list goes on. It’s too much. And wouldn’t you know it? It did not change the outcome one lick as far as our betting was concerned!  We don’t do that any more.

Each of us does it slightly differently, but here is my very ‘technical’ method: “Yep, those are decent payout odds, boy that’s a cool name”. This year, for the final race I had to pick ‘Double Bear’.  The name just gave me no choice, right Brenna?  I screamed when they rounded the club house turn cheering on my ‘Double Bear’, it was so exciting!  It looked as if we were set pull it off too! We were actually going to win this thing! Then there was a bump from ‘Chief Know It All’.  Subtle, but there it was. Well, to make a long story short, that bump cost me my wager. Damn, that was close!  (As a side note, that bump is still being contested and although the race was given to ‘Chief Know It All’ during the derby, it won’t be official until the appeal launched by ‘Double Bear’ is ruled on.  Unfortunately for me, I threw my ticket stub away, so that bet is an official $2 loss now. Double damn.)

No matter, it was a very fun day. Although I ended up with negative winnings I figure it was $32 well spent.  When the last heat wraps up it’s time to head off to the Hotel Selkirk (a must stay) for some much needed supper, drink, and an old Fort Edmonton walkabout. We’ll take our time to enjoy all three before closing the doors to our rooms at the Selkirk for some shuteye. Tomorrow it’s back home to the farm we go. Once there we’ll have some coffee, look at our pictures, tell a few tales from the day before and believe it or not, start planning for next year’s Derby…what to wear, what to wear?

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Transformer Robot in the Garden
Twyla

A snippet of my morning to do list: deadhead flowers, then water all containers and tomatoes.  I love making my rounds throughout the yard watering can in tow each morning.  I feel as though I’m getting something accomplished long before the real work begins.  Scents abound as the dew slowly lifts and flowers share their unique fragrances.  I groom pots and quench them for the day ahead. Making my way to the tomatoes, one of my favourite garden plants.  Some may disagree, but I enjoy the pungent aroma that these babies emit, and even more-so, I love the fall bounty they’ll produce.

I enter the garden, shears and watering can ready.

Instinctively I take in that something is amok.  I drop the tools in hand and approach the heirlooms with trepidation.  Scanning the area, my mind racing, I realize an epic battle has taken place.  The Early-girls and Romas quiet sentinels.

Quite obviously Jess has been in the garden!

Debris lies scattered along the broad black space between the tomatoes and potatoes.  With a nod to my Dad I always leave plenty of space between the two!  Tiny pieces of white and navy blue plastic everywhere I look.  Judging by the surroundings this was quite a match.  My eyes land upon a mangled heap of dirt and white plastic.  Obviously dead.  I survey the area for more casualties.  None. Clearly this creature met his demise against whomever shed the blue bits during battle.

This scene, I swear encountered just this morning, takes me back in time.

Jess loved loves transformers!  And what better play setting than in the garden plot?  Where dirt, rocks, sand and gravel await his imagination.  I cannot begin to count how many times I’ve happened upon similar scenes, or worse, taken out a robot in disguise with the rototiller.  Oops!  A great gardener in the making, the boy is a good hand throughout the gardening season.  I marvel that all these years later, he’s 20 now, I’m finding remnants of his play.  Still a little boy at heart, do they ever grow out of it? I doubt it.

As I take it all in and debate grabbing the camera, I flashback to the days when he would list off all the members of the opposing clans.  And then quiz me on it!  An accepting interest in his passion, kept me in the game.  He loved to draw audiences in to his world.  I gladly went along.  Always cheering for the heroes, I knew just what to say when he asked who my favourite character was.

As I examine the fallen soldier, dusting away the dirt and grime, I’m relieved to see that he is not one of the good guys.  Another villain taken down, good-bye Decepticon, may you rest in peace.  I chuckle as I say out loud for all the fruits and vegetables to hear.    Call it habit or a Mother’s heartstrings –

Yes Jess, Optimus Prime is still my favourite!

 

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bales in the field
Jim

I love baling hay.

I love the smell of it when it’s freshly cut.  I love the smell of it when it’s being wrapped into bales.  I love the smell of it as I haul it down the road to the hay-yard.  I even love the smell of it when it is first stacked, awaiting its winter use.  Haying is fun for me, there’s no doubt about that.  However,  there is one thing about haying that can be a little less enjoyable.  The heat!

Of course to make hay you need that heat.  Those warm breezy mid-summer afternoons help to dry it for several days so it can be baled without spoiling.  Everyone has heard the phrase “Make hay while the sun shines.”  Actually I think it’s probably less of a saying and more of a rule.  Yeah, let’s call it a rule.  The first rule of making hay, lots of sunshine!

Now with all that sunshine, comes some pretty warm temperatures around home.  I’ve spent many days baling hay in an open station tractor with the sun glaring down, or in a cabbed tractor with no a/c and no working fan.  It can get awfully warm, dusty and sticky, baling hay.

As those hot days start coming one after the other, after the other my mind always wanders to the very same thing; water.

A lake, a river, a stream, a dugout, even a pool.  Always filled to the brim with nice, cool, refreshing, dust removing, life-giving water!   Once the thought of water enters my brain there is no getting rid of it.  I become fixated.  Normally that’s as far as it goes until I end the day.  I simply pass the hours day dreaming about swimming in some perfectly clear lake.  In reality at days end I wind up in a shower to rinse off all the dust.  But this year was going to be different!

I decided to put in a pool!

Nothing too fancy.  A small pool for sitting and visiting.  You know, sort of like a big hot-tub but without the ‘hot’.  I’ve been dreaming about it forever, but this year I was biting the bullet and installing my very own fresh water pool.  Something I can jump right into when the haying is done for the day.  I was so looking forward to it.

As it turned out, the actual installation of the pool was rather quick.  But filling it up?  That takes a bit of time.  I can’t tell you how long I waited, as I watched it fill with the garden hose I think I may have dozed off for a bit.  The good news is – it did fill and when it was finally up to overflowing I couldn’t wait.  I ran to the house to put on my trunks and in I jumped!

And holy smokes it was cold!!  I should point out that Seamus, my fellow ‘haymaker’, was first in the pool.  I was a distant second.   But we were equally frozen by the end of it!

If I could offer some advice to anyone making a similar pool, first, put a black tarp on it for a few days to the let sun warm the water a bit.  Second, install a swim-up bar.   As you can see, I put one in and it was one of the better pool ideas that day.  Finally, third, make sure the cows aren’t already using it.  They may not appreciate you in there if it’s in use.

homemade pool

What a great way to get that hay dust off and my water fixation out of the system.

I think a pool was one of my better haying ideas this year.  In fact it may become an annual thing!

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