After saying our goodbyes to our Smithers folks, we made our way down to Cochrane, AB. But first we had to make a quick Calgary stop to see little Olivia! … and also those other not-as-cute family folks like Donna, Sam, Monique & Phil (Jr.) 😃. After that, it was off to the next farm.
Our Cochrane friends have a small farm that houses a rather large collection of different critters. Inside are three cats, one dog (two, but one travels with the owners) and two parrots. Outside there are two miniature donkeys, a large Tennessee Walker horse, and a new miniature horse. It’s quite the collection.
This is our third time sitting for Carol and Pete, and it felt a bit like coming home. Sadly, they’ve lost two cats, and now one horse, since we first began sitting for them. But on the fun side, they now have a very cute, and rather mischievous, little miniature horse. His name, Snoop, suites him well, because he’s often getting into trouble.
Tucker and Snoop make a real odd-couple pair.
Another new development is the free-range birds. The parrots have always been rather … annoying. They easily get bored, and then start to squawk and Squawk! and SQUAWK!! But Carol discovered that if they are given more freedom, they are far happier — and so are we. So the birds now get to roam where they please.
With so many different animals, the demands on our time are pretty constant. There’s constant cuddling 
, and holding 
, and carrying 
, and sleeping with 
. Oh, and of course there is poop management… that was mostly my job:
During our stay the weather went from warmish and dry, to:
Very Cold!
Then icy
Then snowy.
The snowblower was also a new addition to this farm life, and a darn good one. The weather turned pretty snowy for Alberta, with dump after dump after dump… Normally we’d get a chinook in between the snow falls which would blow and melt it all away, but not this time. The snows just kept coming, so I made good use of the blower.
At least the cold, crisp skies, and snowy fields delivered some stunning morning images:
One of the joys of being at this place, is it puts us close to the family in Calgary. Sisters, brothers, nephews, nieces, and now a grandniece! It also allows us to give a little back by hosting, instead of always being hosted. And so we did… First playing host to Donna & Sam, then Peggy and Phil paid a visit. And then the big event: nearly the whole motley crew showed up for dinner and zoo time.
Unfortunately Monique and Olivia took sick so didn’t make it out for the dinner. But they came out a week later, along with Niq’s friend, Abaigeal, her daughter Astoria, and baby Hugo.
Although we were at the mini-zoo for over a month, the time went fast. Ann kept busy cleaning, and swimming, and video exercising 
, and cuddling (with the critters, not me, of course) 
. I passed the time ukeing and drying food 
, and of course, pooper-scooping 
. In general, we just enjoyed the comfortable space, and spending time with the critters.
As always, our time here ended all too soon. But it looks like we’ll be coming back next winter, so it is goodbye, but not forever. For now, we move onto our final house sit of the season, over in Medicine Hat, AB. This is actually a house house-sit, with only two very cute cats to look after.
