- 30, how does it feel?

COLD !

this has been the forcast for about a week :

you don't see the wind chill here but it was below 40 I promise you. this is no joke!

so no need for me to stay longer to tell you about the winter cold of northern saskatchewan. And for the quality of my test (or maybe because it's fun and paid) I worked outdoor three  whole days.

-30 how does the everyday life go on? here are written the results :

1- don't complain, it's only november. so yes, it's going to be worse. and yes, you europeans, it is possible.

2- dress up warm and loads. forget about fashion or confort, you are trying not to loose any bodyparts here!

it means : long johns (good quality ones) + jeans + insulated coveralls and good socks (1-2pairs) + winterboots (usually neoprene insulated at least 6mm on the sides and 1,5cm on the sole plus ruber). that's for your legs. Then you cross each top layer with a bottom layer (everything really tugged in). So on top : thermo long sleeved t shirt, 2-3 fleeces, a scarf (I personally wear a thin buff tugged in my first fleece and a big cotton scarf on top of everything that I raise up to my nose and ears), a warm toque (forget single knitted one who arent wind proof), mits (gloves are too cold) and a big (remember the layers) insulated jacket (not that thick actually) with a hood, just in case.

So yes forget about shape, everybody looks bulky, remember the color of you friends toque because that's about the only fancy item you can wear. the coveralls are all, in the begining, either either black or light brown and in the end either white (snow) or dark brown (cow shit).

3- go slow and think about your future.

Guess what? try to run with deep fluffy snow or ice on the ground and so many clothes on. Yes it's heavy, both too big and too tight and slippery. So after 5min you pretty much feel like a 90 yo grandma racing with her stroller in the retirement home. 

sweat is the cherry on top. yes, because running cows on usually means that you aren't a Rothshild's relative so no brethable light strechy 300$ clothes for you. Don't complain you'll get to experience something very special! getting cold after putting your jacket on again. When you sweated so hard and took it off to cool down and not getting wet, did you foret that it's 35 below ? yeeeeees. so now you just put on a jacket coming straight out of the deep freeze (even worse, deep freezes usually run at -28). Bravo Einstein. ;-) Unique feeling brrr. But you'll smarten up and next time only take it out for a very short amount of time or just open it or just run even slower. Cows are falling down on the ice at every run anyway.

4- discover that water freeze up instantaneously.

the feeling that your nostrils are sticking inside? don't worry they're just frozen inside. Your eyelashes too? the same, it looks nicer though. oh and your hair or any loose fabric is doing the same too.

It is so quick that they have a heater to rests the seringes and vaccines against when you aren't stinging the animal. overwize...it'll freeze.

4- drink lots and warm

bless your coffe thermos because without it ... it'll freeze in 5min.

It comes to a point that it doesn't matter that you are actually drinking hot water without herbs in anymore (they quitted flavouring the water after the 5th refill) because 1. it's warm 2. you're thirsty.

Actually I only realised how dehydrated I was after 2 days. Maybe for the better because getting to the washroom with that many clothes is like the rest : it takes a loooong time!

Anyway, I drank more coming home yesterday than after the thurst-ride in july.

5- life is a blur.

Because your nose feels so sticky and froze, you breathe hidden behind your scarf with your mouth open. Consequently, your scarf become a rigid shield (not bad) and you have a nice fog just in front of your face everytime you exhale. so basicly all the time because your out of breath because it's god damned hard to run!

6- you're played out three times faster.

and you don't want to get out of bed the next day or rather untill spring, it goes without saying why.

7- free iceskating

with a car, unwanted, uneventfull.

how do you think the roads are after 2feet of unplowed fresh snow? and -30 30 times runover snow? clean, white and very icy. What can the dpt of highway do about it? throw some sand on top to feel not really totally useless? now you have a brownish icerink instead of old plain white.

8- feeling very european

by getting stuck at work with a reluctant car. What? you forgot to bring an extension cord and plugged it in? ha-ha. We'll give you a boost anyway and ask about it tomorrow. (yes EVERYBODY at work (gently, because they're canadian and great people) asked me the day after).

by complaining and really struggling with the cold

because IT'S NO FUCKING HUMAN TEMPERATURE!

9- be proud to have lived such an extreme life. (ok maybe it isn't that adventurous, people do that all the time here but it still feels very out of my confort zone! :p

=> I've earned my new awesome (no nobody is allowed to differ) belt that nobody here will see before april seeing what the weather is like.

getting to the point

Two weeks after my theory hunting course I reached the pratical one. So, on a cold sunny afternoon, I was fetched up from my comfy next to the stove armchair to go target praticing! So I awkwardly grabbed the .22 rifle, let Leonard dug into the burnbarel for some innocent cans and let's go.

Steadily resting on the truck's spare tire in the box, I loaded the rifle, streched my leg way back, leant down to spot the fast moving obective in the scope, put the rifle back up high on my shoulder, check the target again, squezze (don't pull! Len insisted on that) the trigger and ... off goes the can, deadly wounded straight in the middle of its round belly.

That first shot did feel awkward. I didn't grow up with firearms. I must have seen a rifle once in my life before coming to Canada and it hung high up by the ceiling in my grand mother's country house. So holding a gun for me is like as we say in French a chicken holding a knife. I don't  know what to do with that long feared heavy piece of metal - actually now I do. After 20 shots, I felt more comfortable with it and quite liked it.

I'm looking forward to hunt something (easy) now. No idea if it is going to happen here.

We did went for a hunting trip the next day near Maidstone (2hours south west) because there was only three days left on the season for mule deer. To be allowed to shoot mule deer in that specific area, hunters have to apply for a draw tag. As the name says it, the 200 tags get drawn and if you are lucky, you get one and can go hunting in that gorgeous country.

Hunting rules are area, specie and tag specific. I tried but didn't understood/registered all the rules for our  mule deer hunt. What I got from it :

you can shoot either a buck, a does or a foan

only one animal

quad aren't allowed to hunt (you can't carry a gun on a quad here) but you can use one to drag back your prey.

horses are allowed to hunt and pack out your animal.

hunting in a truck is allowed (and commonly done)

dress code is jacket and hat either red orange yellow or white. As long has you are hunting (carrying a gun, packing out meat) it is mandatory, even in a vehicule.

how does a hunting day goes? depends on lots of things I gess.

you can't call mule deer => no sitting and waiting

this area is big with lots of open spots and heavy bushes => googling ++

this truck is rubbish in snow + over a foot of snow, drifted by the wind => we had to stay on the main paths

no quad, no horses to bring the animal to the truck => if we shooted something then, better don't be it too far from the truck (1mile big maximum)

so in the end very little spots to usefully shoot something and bring it back.

We saw lots of deers (18 at the same time) but they were either to far away or not worth shooting (the deepfreeze is still pretty full and if needed whitetail deers are all around here).

I spend a very sunny day sleeping, reading and screwing up my knitting work in the truck. lazy but after 6hours it gets really boring. Anyway I am really thankfull to have had that opportunity and would like to go hunting for my self at some point in my life. I believe I'll like it.

Meadow Lake in the fall

First I've left Salmon Arm the 22nd. I only have one and a half months left in Canada so I better use them well and ride as much as possible, do caws and get miles on April.

I drove the 1 220 km straight on my own with my devoted little red car and iphone. It took us from 5.00am to 9.30pm (15h and a half because of the time difference) one coffee, one tea, a little less than 2 tanks of fuel (75$ roughly) and a lot of music ! the weather was really good (except some expected fogg in the BC rockies), the construction sites pretty empty (at 7am in the middle of nowhere that's not magical but still good), moose and deers behaved themselves too.

So I arrived quite exhausted but relieved at Leonard's in Meadow Lake. His house is small, quiet and closer too town 10-15min. The plan is to bring April (Yes, I'm spoiled :-) ), ride her (getting slower and more collected gaits, rope, more cow work) and some other horses (tall Spider and freaky Spirit), help Leonard in whatever he's doing (so far bringing in wood and driving him around to look at trucks - but he found one so that job is over), hunt and learn too shoot with a riffle. so we'll see how things go.

So far :

truck bought, needs fixing and adjusting to Leonard's taste

got a shooting lesson in the living room about the basics (loading, checking, holding and pointing a riffle)

rode Spider once, April twice (at Marilyn's) and Bandido once to move back Kelly's dry cows to George's to get pregchecked there today.

April isn't with me for now because we need hay (she'll be in a pen) from Marilyn first. With no truck (problem solved now) and no brakes on the flatdeck (Howard's actually), it's postponed untill those are fixed and running. And on top of that, Marilyn had to organise a funeral and all the mess going around such joyfull events in Prince Albert. So she was away for a week more or less.

So no worry April (just in case you were bored of hanging around a hay bale with your friends watching cars go by), we are getting there someday ! and being involved in cowy adventures with a not so sane rider. :-)

I also was requested to watch cayote and moose hunts video. So now, I know what RID (Rabit In Distress, what else?) sounds like and how you're supposed to use a decoy. ...

getting ready for winter

some must have :

long johns

scarf/hat (or toque for Canadians)

light gloves

work gloves

sunglasses

tea bottle (with grid)

good warm socks (still to come from bass pro on my way back)

warm jacket multilayer compatible (hideous but 15$ at the coop it isn't bad)

what else?

the saskatchewan flag is actually a must have for homesickness because I know it's comming that way too.

comments to the pictures

I wrote that entry once before and internet being itself, it got lost. So this is going to be short and synthetic.

really busy time before leaving, getting ready to get the cows in and sorted. Fall being the season when the most cows and calves are sold.

fencing. nearby pasture for the next 2 months and pens for the winter.

preg checking at George's. so he can decides wich heifers he's selling. Wonderfull experience working cows with April. Best time of the summer I think.

The grass is low so it's time for everybody to go home. So, time to castrate the yearlings, Casper and Haggis, before Dale pick them up.

The colt, Georgie, 4months, had a hernia. So he got fixed be Ed the vet.

the cold is starting so we follow with cutting and choping wood for the stoves.

There were 2 horse meetings. The big horseshow from the horseclub with one day english and the other one western. For convinience reasons I ended up doing a trail class with April. First time there and even I was really impressed by her. Calm, focussed but a little bit confused on the L sideways and the gate. Great for a very first time as a green horse without specific training. too bad I can't take her home with me, she'll do a perfect TREC horse.

One competitive trail ride at Kelly's. April jumped so good for a second time. Amazing feeling too.

Oh and I rode her bareback. There is no word for that. It was almost as good as the cow work at George's.

=> really pleased with my last week with April. I miss her really a lot already. and believe me, I'm not a cheesy person.

Now I'm in Salmon Arm after a few days in Jasper. The rockies are still gorgeous, even more than in summer I find. The acrage I'm staying is a really different enviroment. There are lots of opportunities to learn and the temperature is milder. So let's see how I settle down in a week.

Salmon Arm

First sorry for not having written in a while.

So as you know I had a magnificent trip from Jasper to Salmon Arm. but what happened since then?

As usual, settling down to a new house ended up being quite challenging for me. I left chaotic but beloved Meadow Lake for the unknown which is a british family with very british runned stables. 10 horses : 5 full time in the paddocks and 5 are in stables at night and in the paddocks during daytime. We can only ride 3 of them, the rest is either to small (a pony) or boarding horses.

The helpers' job is to feed, move and muck out the horses morning and evening. Exercice them following Becky's (the boss) training program : a rotation of flat work, longeing, jumping and (very) short hack.

So in term of riding, it's only english style, depending on the skills of other helpers every second or third day and no more than 2h a day. After training April on my own and riding up to 5-6 hours a day it is frustrating. Although I get  that in term of helpX you meet all kinds of people and as an host, you have to have time to ger to know and trust your helpers. One sign more that it's time to come back home and build my life.

With time it's getting better here and there a lot for me to learn in term of training eventing horses and of course english riding. Becky looks like a great teacher so I hope I'll get a lesson from her soon. :-)

I'll keep you updated of my riding progression.

Otherwise Salmon Arm is really big and civilized compared to ML. I even got an haircut (successfull).

the art of travelling during fall

After 1 day in the car and 2 days in Jasper I decided to take the 8 hours drive to Salmon Arm easy and stop in Golden a town just below Yoho National Park.

So today, my eyes are almost sore from so many beautifull mountains under the fall's snow.

and my back well rested in huge comfy couches of the very cosy dreamcatcher hostel.

So I can't complain about not being rested before going to my next helpX in Salmon Arm.