Didsbury, Alberta – 4th September on

We arrived at the home of the Stewart family just out of Didsbury, Alberta, on the 4^th September, and were welcomed with a room inside the house for the next few months, work whenever it’s needed or we are able, and a lovely new family to spend time with!

Didsbury is a little town in central Alberta, between the cities of Edmonton (about 2 hours north) and Calgary (45 minutes south). There are about 3000 people in the town, and we’re about 10km out of town here. The Stewarts live on the Didsbury convention grounds, but that’s only part of the property – there’s around 70 acres of spruce tree farm, and around 1600 acres all up I think – much of which grows either wheat or canola J

We’re lucky enough to be with some super lovely people who are willing to put up with us living in their home, and it’s great to have some new friends here! It’s such a beautiful rural spot, and it’s nice to have a bit of farm life!

Looking at the house, barn and workshop from the driveway

The awesome red barn! :)

And the house...

The dining shed for convention

One of the many sunrises we've seen since being here!

And another

Annnd another. From the road outside the property

I’ll let the photos do most of the talking, but we arrived here with pretty good timing: the night after we arrived here was their ‘company supper’ for all the people working for them, so it was a great chance to meet some of the friends from around here as well as more of the family (we’d previously met some of the family camping in Montana)! Parents Robert & Wanda, son Chad and his wife Alesha, son Brett and his wife Heather, son Jeremy & girlfriend Micaela, and son Joel and his girlfriend Lynley, as well as Wanda’s parents Barry and Willa who live nearby!

3 of the brothers - Jeremy, Brett & Joel

Brett, Heather, Kallie, Wanda & Robert

Brett & Heather with Kallie

Jeremy & Micaela with Kallie

Joel & Lynley with Kallie

Sunday night supper (dinner) with the family

Willa & Barry (Grandma & Grandpa)

We also met another Aussie bloke working with the Stewarts further south – Wade, from Narrabri originally but more recently from Roxborough Downs in Qld, as well as another cattle station near Katherine in the Northern Territory! So he has a few different Aussie experiences to us to share!

Wade, the Aussie cowboy

We got to see Gary from Montana again, who we met at camping in Montana, and as it has been said, it was simply ‘hi-larious’. And ‘Oh My Head’, Gary went out shooting skeet (clay pigeons) with most of the boys at the company supper as well. I believe a great time was had by all but the dog… Buddy wanted to run after the clay pigeons, and was rather fortunate really to still be able to see, although he’s a little slower than he used to be… Buddy has the life though – he loves to laze around outside in the sun, and sometimes he’ll grab your leg when you try to stop patting him, to make sure you stay!

Barry with Gary (from Montana)

Some of the boys shooting after the company supper

Good old Buddy, after shooting...

About a week after we arrived, a new little girl arrived into the world and into the Stewart family – Brett and Heather’s gorgeous little girl Kallie Mae, who was born September 10^th at long last! She’s been pretty popular around here, what with first time grandparents and great grandparents waiting to spoil her! So that’s lots of fun too J Brett and Heather’s cat also had 7 tiny kittens on the same day, which were absolutely adorable, but she wasn’t very good at looking after them, so that’s another story…

Proud new Grandma Stewart!

Little Kallie, very early on

Adorable little kittens

All in all, Didsbury is great and so are the people! We’ve been having a great time, and keeping pretty busy, as the crop harvest started not long after we arrived, and is still going! J

Hinton & Edmonton, Alberta – September 1st to 4th

From Jasper we made a few phone calls to find out if there were any friends in Jasper, or meetings nearby. There weren’t, so after establishing that the nearest was in Hinton, about an hour away, and we were both in dire need of a shower before a meeting, we were invited to spend the night at the home of some friends in Hinton, although they were away for the weekend! So although we haven’t met them yet, it seems we’ve met two of their grandsons, and now their son and his family as well, and we had a lovely night at their place!

We also saw a bunch of elk on the way there, which was pretty great! It felt like it’d been a long time since we saw any big animals… As it is now elk rutting season, we heard and saw the bull elk in the group bugling (very high pitched shriek) to impress the females.

Bull elk in the water alongside the road

After the meeting in Hinton, we stayed for lunch with Sean and Colleen and their kids Janeth and Bruce, and ended up spending the afternoon with them and also ‘supper’ (dinner/tea) – it was a great afternoon spent with them, and great to get to know some more friends! Lawrie had a go on a small excavator, and pushed down a couple of trees and dug some holes – like a big kid in a sandpit (he said it, not me!) J

Janeth, Colleen, Sean & Bruce

We headed towards Edmonton after that, but didn’t get terribly far before finding a campground for the night – then we headed into the city of Edmonton in the morning. Seeing as it was a long weekend and any one that we were planning on catching up with was out of town until that night, we headed to the gigantic West Edmonton Mall (possibly with the rest of the city?!) to check it out. It is, as we had previously been told, enormous, and I probably wouldn’t pick it to actually shop at, but it was kind of exciting to have a fun park (from a carousel and dodgem cars to a few different rollercoasters!) as well as an indoor water park with some pretty cool looking waterslides (definitely worth a visit in winter I think J), a sea lion show and many other things that people come to the mall for, other than just for shopping!

Figure skating group in the ice rink at West Edmonton Mall

Part of the roller coasters at West Edmonton Mall

Sea lion show at West Edmonton Mall

Some of the waterslides...

The water park at West Edmonton Mall

We caught up with Sonya and Brodie Helms that night (both from New Zealand, but living in Canada – Sonya has been over here for a few years), and had a rather late night… It was great to see them both again! The next day we headed to nearby Elk Island National Park, and even though we could have picked our time of day much better (ie. Early morning or late afternoon) to see elk or moose, of which there are heaps, we saw a bunch of bison and a few beaver dams and moose wallows. We went on a short hike and saw some fresh bison footprints and…droppings… and got a little worried about seeing a bison or moose at too-close range with nowhere to go, and getting charged!

Driving through the city at sunset

The house where Megan & Justin used to live
 - by the pink outdoor furniture, looks like the same lady still lives there...

Elk Island National Park

With no animals in sight...

One of the walking tracks

Small bison

Gigantic lump of bison...

Heading back into the city we arrived in time to go with Sonya and her friend Kyle and see the first stage of the Tour Du Alberta, the pro cycling race that happened to be starting that night in the Edmonton city centre! Lawrie was more than excited! As it was an individual time trial stage, we saw lots of the riders starting off and ending, and lots of other part way along the track, absolutely flying along! Lawrie had a few different Aussies to root for, that he was very excited to see in person, such as Cameron Meyer, Jack Bobridge, Rohan Dennis, and Cadel Evans, as well as Mark Renshaw who he didn’t expect to see. Some of the Aussies must have bombed out compared to what was expected, but Rohan Dennis took second place after Peter Sagan from Slovakia. We stayed to see the podium ceremony, then headed to the nearby state Legislature building, currently under renovations, with Sonya and the architect of the building dome refurbishment himself, Kyle!

Near the start of the time trial race track

Warming up before their turn

The start of the track

Cameron Meyer (Aussie) heading to the start line

Cameron Meyer just after starting

The finish line

Very excited husband

Team cars and spare bikes, including for the Jelly Belly team!

Cadel Evans (Aussie) on the home stretch

Prize winners

The Legislature building, under renovations, and Sonya and I in the wading pool in front (Edmonton's beach?)

Kyle & Sonya

After another late night with Sonya in Edmonton, and plans made to come back and visit, we had a late morning and then hit the road south towards Didsbury, our home for the next couple of months J