Alberta weekend, Post 2: Ranch fun

The rest of our weekend at Nicole's family's ranch was filled with lots of fun outdoor activities.

After the calf branding on Saturday, I had a bit of a nap while Ben helped with some more mustering and branding of grown cattle. He got to ride a horse, which I was sorry I missed since I've never seen him ride.

Then, we went gopher shooting! We had never seen gophers before, but we were told they were pests on the farm, and in need of some population control. Nicole, Roxy and I piled into the back of a red truck with a couple of dogs, and some of the others came along on quad bikes (aka four-wheelers).

Roxy

Nicole

Where we'd done the branding that morning

Then, we set off to find some gophers. We soon saw some - they make a habit of standing upright on their two back legs, usually beside a dirt mound that is the entrance to their burrow. We all took turns shooting at them, which they seemed blissfully oblivious to - they remained perched upright with an inquisitive expression while bullets whizzed past their ears!

Anyway, perhaps they were more intelligent than we gave them credit for: a great many bullets were spent and I'm pretty sure only one gopher was hit. You can see a photo of him below. I must admit that after Roxy and I saw this gopher up close, we were happy to keep missing his friends!

Layne

Layne and his son

Layne and me

Roxy having a go

Ben

Somebody's (not Ben's) kill

Alton and Ben

Tyson

Layne

Alton

Ben

All this for one gopher...

Next, we took a few quad bikes and headed bush in the hope of seeing a bear. (Well, I think some people (Roxy) may have actually been hoping we wouldn't see a bear. However, Layne, an expert hunter, assured us that no way would a bear attack a group this size. Also, he had a gun.) The bear hunt involved a lot of animated discussion, trekking to prime stakeout spots, and standing still pretending to be trees... but we didn't see any bears.

"The cabin"

A swing made for Tyson and Nicole's
wedding

Roxy and Nadine exiting a mud puddle

Layne waiting for bears while his
daughter sleeps on the ground!

Pretending to be trees

We did, however, see a bear's huge pawprint! This is it alongside Tyson's hand...

We rode back to the house via a scenic ridge and some real off-road conditions. It was a lot of fun!  (And although there aren't any photos of me riding a quad bike, I did have a turn!)

Ben and I atop a ridge

That evening we enjoyed a cosy dinner, and then Roxy and I sang some songs for the group. We ran through our country repertoire and sang a few Aussie songs too, which were a hit!

The next day, Sunday, we took a few photos after the meeting...

...And then headed back up to the cabin for an outdoor lunch cooked over the fire. This was extremely delicious, and a thoroughly pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon! After lunch, Ben tried out Layne's bow and arrow, and Roxy and I did some more singing.

The tranquil scene

Lunch on the way

Nadine and Jaelyn

Tisha

Jessie

Layne and Jaelyn

Ben getting an archery lesson

Hold, aim...

...and release!

This doesn't look dangerous at all...

Jaelyn

Singing

Our captive audience!

And that was our wonderful 2 days on the ranch! THANKS, Tom and Monica, for your kindness and hospitality... we had such a wonderful time!

We didn't leave until Monday afternoon, and I have one more blog post to write about our excursion on Monday morning, so stay tuned...

Alberta weekend, Post 1: Branding

On the Victoria Day long weekend (May 19th to 21st), we headed to Alberta to spend the weekend on our friend Nicole's family's ranch. They always brand their calves that weekend, and due to hearing all about it from Angharad - who'd gone with Tyson and Nicole last year - we'd been signed up to attend this year's branding weekend for months! Nicole's sister Nadine - who lives in Calgary - had invited Roxy too, so this was the first time we had seen each other since Roxy's move to Calgary 2.5 months prior.

Around 2:30pm on Friday afternoon, Nicole, Ben and I set off for Calgary in our car (yes, the RX-8's first real road trip!). Tyson had flown to Calgary the previous night so he could do some work before we arrived. Insert an enjoyable albeit long road trip here, and the three of us arrived at the ranch (which is a couple of hours from Calgary) around 4am on Saturday morning. Then, after a few hours of sleep, we were up and at it!

Over breakfast, we were reunited with Roxy, Tyson and Nadine (who'd driven out together the previous evening), and met Nicole's dad Tom, his wife Monica, and their daughter Tisha. They live in a fascinating log house with a lot of unique country décor features courtesy of Tom's creativity. Tom is a retired school teacher, and Monica a nurse. They were so cheerful and welcoming that we instantly felt at home!

The branding was to begin around 10am, and people started arriving to prepare for it a couple of hours earlier. There were quite a number of neighbours and friends in attendance. At this time of year they spend their weekends going from ranch to ranch until everyone's branding is done!

Roxy, Ben and I were probably the only ones there who hadn't been at lots of branding days before, so it was steep learning curve. Roxy and I were given the easy job of spraying the ointment/sunscreen mix onto the fresh brands (as Nicole put it, "the kindest job"), and Ben was mostly helping hold the calves on the ground while they were being branded. I'll confess that the branding itself was my least favourite part of the weekend, and that to start with I felt quite queasy at the sight, sound and knowledge of the calves' pain! It was all over within a couple of hours, though, and I survived.  :)

Since we took more than a hundred photos of the branding, I'll let them tell the rest of the story!

Earlier in the day, the calves were separated from their mothers, who sounded quite distressed at this turn of events...

Roxy

Then everyone stood around for a while...

Roxy

Me, with Nicole and Monica in the background

Alton

Tyson and a cowboy

Us

The vaccination syringes were prepared, and the brands heated up...

Medications

Nicole

Tom

Brands in the brazier

When the branding started, a rider on horseback would rope an unbranded calf and drag it away from the herd...

The calf would be held down by two people...

Layne and Ben

Tisha and Nicole

Alton and Nadine

And then the brands would be applied, one letter after another until the calf's side read "ZMO". This was the part I found a bit distressing, as the calf would bellow and struggle. There was also a disgusting smell of burning hair, lots of smoke, and occasionally some flames.

In between the brands being applied, the calf would also receive three vaccinations. After each needle, a kid would mark the calf's hair with a coloured crayon, so that the people holding the calf could tell when all three needles had been received and it was okay to let the calf go.

As soon as the third brand was lifted off, Roxy or I would squirt the skin with the ointment and sunscreen mix, at which point the calf would relax somewhat. Then the calf would be released and it would trot off, never having to endure this again...

My squirting style

Roxy's squirting style

Roxy and I also each had a chance to hold down a small calf while it was being branded. Ben took a ridiculous amount of photos of those two situations, so I will try to choose only the ones with the very best facial expressions to share. The calves might have been little, but they were very strong, and they wanted to get away!

Tyson helping me get into position

Not too sure about this...

Maybe this grimace will help...

Nadine helping me out after it almost struggled free
("Pull back on its leg like you're water-skiing")

Yee-haw!

*Rub calf's chin*
*Apologise to calf*
*Let calf go free*

And now for Roxy's turn...

Nicole helping Roxy get into position

It's all going well so far...

...But now the actual branding starts!

Yep, that's how I felt too

Hang on to it!

Tyson to the rescue again

And that was our branding experience!

To be continued (with the weekend's other activities)...

Alaska cruise, Post 6: Ketchikan

Our third and final port of call was Ketchikan, on Monday, May 7th. We docked there from 10am to 6pm.

Ketchikan has about 14 000 residents and is the fifth most populous city in Alaska. It was actually our southernmost port of call - we started heading south after Glacier Bay, and visited Ketchikan on our way back to Vancouver. Due to the steep mountains close to the shore, many of Ketchikan's buildings are built on stilts over the water, and some streets are just a series of steps leading up the mountain!

Unfortunately our day in Ketchikan was characterised by horrible weather. It was freezing cold, windy, and raining. People who had booked float plane and kayaking tours had their activities cancelled due to the weather. We had just planned to wander around the city anyway, but we only lasted 2 or 3 hours doing that (and some of that was spent in the public library)!

One of the first sights we saw was Ketchikan's Creek Street, a former red light district. The area was at its most popular in the 1920s, when Ketchikan's canned salmon industry and halibut fishing fleet boomed, resulting in hundreds of single men being in town each summer. Creek Street is now a picturesque tourist district with souvenir shops, gem shops, and tours of some former "bawdy houses" (complete with costumed female tour guides). Click here if you are interested in reading more about the colourful history of Creek Street.

After looking through some of the shops along Creek Street, we headed up the mountain a little way on a free funicular that led up to the Cape Fox Lodge. We didn't actually know where the funicular went when we got on it, but just thought we'd check it out! The Lodge had a nice view of rainy Ketchikan, as well as some native crafts and clothing on display in the foyer.

From the Lodge, we walked down a path until we reached Married Man's Trail, the forested path that men (particularly married ones!) could use to reach Creek Street unobserved... or to escape quickly in the event of a police raid! We walked along beside the raging river for a short while before heading back to Creek Street and the warmth and dryness of the local public library.

After spending a while at the library, we retired to the ship since being outdoors was just too cold and miserable.

Then, after one more sea day, we arrived back in Vancouver on Wednesday morning, May 9th. We enjoyed our Alaska cruise and highly recommend it as a way to see some amazing scenery in a relaxing and affordable manner!