We settled into our new temporary home just north of Cochrane, AB, and slowly got to know the critters and the routine. It took a bit of adjusting for all concerned, including having one of the cats tell how displeased he was with his new servants. A nice pile of poop was left on our bed that first night :shock: .
But it didn’t take us long to become best buddies with most of them — most especially little Rocky, the killer chihuahua who everyone learned to love.
But it wasn’t just little Rock-a-dock who demanded attention. The big horse Tucker was on a special diet of beets, oats and molasses that he got three times a day. We had to prepare the mixture and deliver it on time. If we were late Tucker would stand by the gate and stare at us through the kitchen window.
Ibn, the other horse, became a bit jealous of Tucker’s special food so we started bring him carrots as a treat. We became best of friends after that — unless we forgot his carrot.
So, with five cats and two parrots inside (along with little Rocky), and the two horses and two donkeys on the outside, we kept rather busy. All these critters meant a lot of cleaning and feeding. And then there was the shoveling out of the stable every morning. But it really was rather fun.
One of the really great things about this place was how close it is to Calgary and the Ann part of the family. So with the full blessing of our wonderful house owners, Carol & Pete, we were able to invite everyone to visit, and even to stay overnight. But the highlight was that this allowed us to host a full Christmas dinner with all the trimmin’s — something we’ve never been able to do.
Ann did the turkey and everyone else brought one of the side dishes. We drank the wine Mom and Kathy special ordered (and sneakily shipped to Donna :twisted: ). Everyone says they had a good time. It certainly was fun for us, and nice that we could finally play host for once.
The days rolled on, and we celebrated the coming of the New Year — except we only made it to Newfoundland time. Ann’s getting old you know :grin: .
Over the six weeks of our stay the weather was mostly pretty nice. Temperatures hovered in the normal range (not too cold), and we only got a few small dumps of snow — nothing major. But we did get a number of foggy days, which seemed very strange for Alberta. It did produce some pretty spectacularly frosty scenes though.
So the time moved on. I experimented with some new bread-making techniques 
, and drank lots of good local beer. Ann made good use of the Cochrane fitness centre to go swimming as much as possible.
We also both tried to teach the parrots new phrases. Mine was “Eat me!” It didn’t work, but Merlin did start saying phrases that sounded like us. This was his way of getting back at us because it would cause each of us to start yelling at each other, “What? What?!?!
A few days into the new year slave-driver Cailan showed up to assess Ann’s health and create a slave-driving workout plan. Ann’s loving it, of course, but she is a bit of masochist 😉 .
Later Peggy and Marc came to visit for a few days. We ate, drank, played silly games, and generally made merry. It was really great to spend time with everyone.
The days rolled on. Horses got fed, donkey stalls got shoveled, cages and litter boxes got cleaned, bread got made and laps got swam. It was both relaxing, yet busy at the same time.
As we moved closer to our end date the weather forecast started getting scarier and scarier. We’d had it pretty easy so far, but now they were calling for a deep freeze of near record proportions, with temps dipping to -44ºC.
Pete and Carol were also watching this from their warm spot in California. They decided to head for home early — news we were happy to hear.
It was sad though, because it meant we’d be saying goodbye to all the critters a bit earlier than expected 
. We’d both become rather fond of them all — even the parrots, which sometimes drove me bonkers! But I’ll miss even them…
Carol and Pete did arrive back five days early, so we said our goodbyes to everyone and moved back into the welcoming bosom of Sam & Donna. This was an unexpected bonus because the original plan would have had us staying only a day or so. This way we got to hang out, do some work, and even get to see the new Star Wars movie with Sammy (wild horses couldn’t drag Donna to sit through another Star Wars movie).
So now we weather the deep freeze that did indeed settle over all of Alberta. It’s been very cold — thankfully it’s a dry cold 😉 . But at -40ºC it doesn’t much matter.
We expect to begin the journey east in a day or so. We head to Kincardine next, where we’ll meet Rosie and Barry, and get to look after their wonderful looking house right on the shore of Lake Huron.
