Saturday, August 3

[gottawonder]

Today I am grateful for:

My Sweetie got up before I did, and took the load of garbage we rounded up yesterday and went to the dump. He also helped some friends of ours haul old mattresses out of a parent's house (parent is now in personal care home, and they're trying to empty that house to sell it).

I got very little sleep last night, almost none, and woke up very unhappy and crusty, but managed to make an effort to have a good day anyhow.

Moderate heat. Not too hot.

Our friend from Edmonton (the one that I looked after her pets last summer), came to go to the lake down the road with us.

She recently bought a FOLDING kayak, and she wanted to try it out with other people around in case it didn't work out.

It worked just fine. It's not super fast or easy to maneuver, and I personally feel like it's kind of expensive given the lower performance, BUT, being foldable it is super light and very convenient, and she can use it easily with just her car.

So, it is probably a good fit for her.

She's not the most motivated paddler, and that is the slowest, most leisurely outing I think I've ever had. She kept stopping and just floated around a lot, and that kind of forced us (I was in my kayak, my husband in his canoe) to stop and float too.

That wasn't awful, just different for us. It was a lovely afternoon, and drifting around aimlessly wasn't so bad. A bit awkward though, because after a while you didn't know if she was drifting around or if she thought we were drifting around.

Poor Roxy now has something going on with her other leg. She didn't want to put weight on it. Sigh.

When we came back from the lake to our place, I showed my friend what I've been doing with Wonder and Dandy, teaching them Liberty. I don't know that she knows enough about horses to appreciate it, but she was a good audience.

Then we watched "The Watchers", which was okay.

I finished fixing a cribbing collar for R, the old leather straps had broken. I replaced them.

Friday: my Sweetie had today off, but that led us to think on some level that it was Saturday.

He loaded up the truck with garbage, thinking that the dump was open, but it is not open Fridays. It's open Saturdays. So we went for a fairly pointless drive, but at least the truck is loaded for tomorrow.

Then I went to see River, and my husband went to the climbing gym.

River and I ended up working in the indoor arena because the flies were bothering him too much outside, and he couldn't focus. His work was good. Nice, forward trots, and improvement in his hindquarter yield.

I came home and worked with Wonder and Dandy, and I'm seeing a bit more progress just in how they are more comfortable staying with me. Then I let everyone out into their pastures.

I picked more raspberries.

Then we watched "The Challengers" which was okayyy, but a bit tedious.

I started working on repairing a cribbing collar for R.

Comments

[cf2princessawnw]

I think it's so cool that you have a lifestyle or you just happen to mention that you went kayaking as part of what you do in life. Good for you - it's not easy to get and maintain a life that you want.

Hope that you sleep well tonight and tomorrow is an easier day to enjoy.

[gottawonder]

My husband grew up canoeing; he spent a lot of summers near the lake where his grandparents camped with their RV. I didn't have much opportunity to go out on the water until we started dating.

That said, I always WANTED to go canoeing/kayaking.

So, we've always had the canoe, which is a bit big for me to load onto the trailer/to the water by myself, so I insisted a few years ago that we get a kayak for me, so that I could go out by myself when he's away.

He wasn't sure if I "needed" it, and I insisted that I most certainly did need it.

I've used that kayak a fair bit, just to go out to our little lake down the road by myself. It's pretty wonderful.

It was a bit of luck that our place is so close to a nice, quiet little lake, and we go to it (and the park around it for hiking and biking, I know I've mentioned it a lot) fairly often.

[cf2princessawnw]

I remember some of what you've mentioned but somehow in the moment I can't remember if I knew it was that close to you that you could go daily if you wished. You'll have to forgive me as my mind is not remembering things as well as I transition locations and chapters of life - it's a bit too full these days!

I think it's absolutely lovely that you have a place nearby like that and super cheers indeed for insisting on the kayak which has brought you so much joy. :)

[gottawonder]

Yes, it was quite a discovery to realize that we had a modest Provincial park only a few miles away from our new home.

It's not one of the "grand" parks like Banff or Jasper, but a modest little patch of wetlands and mixed poplar/spruce bush with a small lake that is too salty to support fish and too shallow for power boats. It is ecologically valuable as bird, beaver, and moose habitat, mostly.

From what I understand, the lake about 50 years or so ago was much larger, and less salty, but then there was a project to cut a canal from this lake to a town nearby to provide water, and it got a lot smaller, and that's when it got salty, and now it is on a trajectory to dry out completely at some point because the salt levels make the water warmer, so it evaporates faster than fresh water, and it's not refilling enough to compensate.

The signs at the lake talk about the salinization cycle, but not the fact that the lake was partially drained. Can't say it was the fault of stupid humans, right?

However, the very modesty of the whole place means that it just feels a lot less developed and commercial than some of the more glamorous parks. There's no little tourist town with faux "old" buildings selling trinkets and hotels. There's one ranger building with a little gift shop, a decent camping area, a parking lot, and just enough paved walking paths to be nice when it's mucky, and there are "back woods" (dirt) trails that aren't very busy even in peak camping season.

Most of the time when we go out on the water we're the only ones out there.

After September long weekend, all the campers go home except for a handful, and we have the place pretty much to ourselves.

It's a gem.

[cf2princessawnw]

It sounds like exactly the place suited just for you! Love that you have that there and found it.