Tyson, Kristin, Kayleigh, Bluey, Gena, Bailey, John, Carolyn, Riley
and it wouldn't have been complete without Molly getting into the photo as well
Now, back to Brookdale. We took a trip down to Spirit Sands in Sprucewoods Provincial Park. This place is the only recognised Desert in Canada. It is an area with constantly shifting Sand Dunes in an area that is home to all sorts of wildlife such as Coyotes, Bears, Dear, Elk, Wolves & Cougars. It's main attraction is the Devil's Punch Bowl. Whilst not much to look at, it as many of these places do here, had a fascinating story to it. To look at it, the Punch Bowl looks a few feet deep but is actually 20 to 30 feet deep with quicksand around its edge. This area never freezes in Winter (even when it reaches -40C, as it often does) but the Indians believe that this water never freezes due to a native getting caught in the quicksand many years ago and it is his spirit that prevents the water from freezing over. One of many interesting Indian 'Legends' that we have encountered in Canada. The highlight of this trip was in fact the mode of travel that we used for this tour. We spent 2 hours looking at this area in a Horse & Cart. It was a fun and very relaxing way to see this area.
Despite it being very hot, Bailey still ran everywhere
Gena & John in the Desert
Even Gena found it easier to run down this Dune
The Horse & Cart that we took the tour on
Devil's Punchbowl - it doesn't look 30 feet deep does it?
A very relaxing trip - Gena was too relaxed as far as John was concerned
On Friday I got the opportunity to take a ride in a Combine as I was invited (through John) by the leader of the local Hutterite Colony to take a spin in one his machines as he was combining wheat. It was an amazing machine that was basically driven by a GPS system that knew absolutely everything about what was going on with both the machine and the crop. Joey asked me if I would like to drive for a while but as he was sitting chatting to me without touching anything, I told him that I was already doing as much as he was and didn't need to - modern technology, AMAZING. In truth, as he finished a path, he did have to disengage the GPS, turn the machine, point it roughly in the right direction and then re-engage the GPS again. He could also empty their hoppers without even stopping the machine - a tractor and trailer would pull up beside him and he unloaded as he continued driving.
Combining wheat
This combine carried a massive 40 foot Header
.......and unload its grain without even slowing down
...... then off it goes to empty into the Grain Truck
Saturday was pretty cruisy as John & Carolyn had a wedding to attend in nearby Neepawa. I took Gena, Riley and Bailey into Brandon (about the size of Morwell & Traralgon combined) and we took in a movie. Now, we really should have done this more often. Not only is it cheap to see a movie over here ($29 for 2 adults, 2 kids) but the snack bar was something else. The popcorn & softdrinks were not only cheap but had unlimited refills. For anyone that knows the Flanigan boys - giddy up. Didn't we cash in on that - Riley & Bailey took turns on the refills. (PS. The Bourne Legacy - awesome).
Yesterday, we once again got to do some things for the first time. Bluey, Riley & Bailey went with John to help set up his deer blind in preparation of hunting season later in the year. We also attached a motion camera to a nearby tree which looked directly through an area full of deer tracks. John will call back from time to time to check what the camera has been taking pictures of. The photos are date & time stamped, so John not only can see the size of the deer feeding in the area but also what time of the day they are feeding.
Next, we put up the blind. It is a sort of tent structure that has been specifically designed for this purpose with access areas for shooting out from. Once set up, we needed to camouflage the blind and we set about making it look like a big shrub and I might say, by the time we had finished, it looked very effective. The reason that we were setting it up now was so that the deer get used to it being there between now and hunting season. Bambi won't stand a chance with this sort of preparation. John will be very particular though as this season, hunters will only have the chance to shoot one deer (normally it is 3), as their numbers have apparently have dropped in the area. I couldn't add a picture of the finished blind, just in case some of the deer read this and get the heads up - either that or I forgot the camera again?
In the afternoon, John had teed up a tour of the Sprucewood Hutterite Colony for our entire family. It was an eye opener for us as Gary (our host) gave us an all access tour of their facilities - to say that it was amazing is probably an understatement. Whilst living this way may not necessarily suit our family, watching everyone working together and getting an explanation of some of the strict rules that are adhered to was fascinating nonetheless. The colony is completely self sufficient in every way as they grow or breed their own food, have every trade covered off from within the colony - there isn't anything that they can't manage themselves. The other intriguing thing is that the spoken language amongst the Hutterites is German and this is the language they use with each other - English is their second language. I don't have photos from the colony as I wasn't sure if this would be offensive, so for one of the few times on this trip, the camera stayed home.
~Bluey
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