Earle Expedition

Earle Expedition

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Moose Mountain

This past Sunday I pulled my hiking veto. Tim doesn`t care much for hiking so we only end up hiking once a year. The weather wasn`t supposed to be great so going to the beach was out of the question. So we headed west of Bragg Creek to Moose Mountain for a little hike. We got a call from R.T. when we were at Bragg Creek saying we got hailed out. Well that kinda put a damper on things. But the weather was gorgeous so we enjoyed the day there.

Our neighbors Beth and Mason joined us. Her husband, unfortunately, was working so he wasn`t able to join us. Mason was quite content in his little back pack. Thanks Mountain Equipment Co-op for it.

We rarely get pictures of the 2 of us so Beth took one for us. The view was gorgeous!!
A storm was rolling in so we were contemplating going to the top. Beth suggested we go to the "second top". So we did and man was it a climb. But we had a 360` view. It was gorgeous.
This was to be our final destination. The highest fire lookout in Alberta!! But we didn`t make it due to the weather. We got back right when it started to rain. Good timing!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Our yard so far


My mom came out before the wedding to help me lay down the shavings. This is our fire pit area. You can see a little yellow thing sticking up. It is an old tractor rim that we put into the ground.
The apple trees don`t show up that great but there are 2 of them. I`ve had to hang nylons of human hair on them cuz the deer have nipped off the leaves. If anybody has any wonderful ways of keeping deer away please leave a comment.
This is Sadies new pen. She came into heat for the first time this week, so the pressure was on to get it built.

And finally the newest addition. Tim`s lawn mower. Until now we have borrowed the farms` lawnmower to cut our "barley". It took about 2 1/2 hours. Now with this baby we can do it in 35 minutes. It is wonderful. Tim is even excited to cut the grass now!!

Wedding Quilt

I forgot to post this picture of Dave and Naomi`s quilt with the wedding pictures. Each of us kids got a wedding quilt as our gift. Mom designs each block to represent something of our life with our significant other.

The center block was on all our quilts and represents the diversity of Alberta. Going from the grasslands, to prairies, to foothills, to the mountains with our big blue sky. Dave has always had a love for grain elevators and the old ones are slowly being destroyed. Of course mom included the pigs. The bottom left is a combined square for D & N as they have enjoyed many outings in the outdoors. Dave`s favorite cookie is the Graham ginger cookie so that is why the gingerbread man is there. The church represents their faith as well as the time they got married. (You cant see it but it is there). The top winter one is for the winter activities both have been involved in. The top right represents a picture than mom took of our feed mill on the farm one harvest morning. The next is for Naomi and all the pack trips that she has gone on with camp. The bottom right is Pioneer Ranch Camp lodge. Naomi grew up at that camp and is still very involved.




Thursday, July 17, 2008

Bath Tub Lake

This past weekend Tim and I headed out to Hanna to jet ski. We were told it was 1 1/2 drive to the lake. Well 2 1/2 hours later we finally reached it. The lake has a power plant next to it. The heat from the plant warms this lake to make it feel like a bath tub. I had to steal some photos from Marti`s blog cuz I forgot my camera. One of the guys brought 6 machines to try out before he sells them and then we had our 2. So we had a blast.

Marti has a fear of water so to see her stand up and go around the corner standing up was huge. Way to go Marti!

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Wedding Pics

I know I promised wedding pictures so here they are. Even though I was in the front row I didn`t get very many good ones. But they`ll give you an idea of how beautiful the day was.

Owen is just too cute not to post a picture.
The guys are just hanging out before the ladies come up. Dan (far left) is Dave`s best friend from grade 1, then Dave the groom, then our other brother Bri, and then Dave`s friend Dustin from FarmHouse Fraternity at U of A.
My mom made all the dresses, including Naomi`s. Erin (far left) was Naomi`s childhood friend, then Caily a roommate from UofA, then Naomi`s sister Amy.

The whole party listening to special music.
The close ups of Dave & Naomi were the crappy pictures cuz the pastor was always in my way. But here they are.


I hate this picture but I thought I would post it anyways. We forgot to get a picture of the two of us during the day so we set the timer up in our room before we went to bed.








Wednesday, July 09, 2008

Let`s Ride!

Well I have just returned to work after a 4 week break. It was really tough to not get up put shorts on and pull my hair back. My holiday was splendid. For the first week Tim and I worked like dogs getting our yard done. The rush came on cuz my youngest brother Dave got married on our pasture on June 21. It is kinda cool but Dave is 5 years younger than me and got married 5 years later than me to the date. That`s right. Tim and I celebrated our 5th anniversary, celebrating a beginning of a new marriage. I wouldn`t have traded it for anything. Dave and Naomi looked great and were so in love you couldn`t help but love everything and everybody around you. I have pictures but I forgot the cd.
Our house was used as ground zero for all the hub-bub. So I used the wedding as a push to get the yard established. Due to costs some things will have to be put on hold till next year. But I am pleased with what we have got done so far. Again I will post pictures of that later too.
2 days after the wedding Tim and I headed to PEI for a wonderful vacation. Our plan a year ago was that we would try and get my family together for a vacation and cycle across pei tip to tip. Well Dave and Naomi got married a couple days before we left and are now in Africa on a missions trip. Pam and Bryant got pregnant and she was 8 months when we travelled. Then 2 hired hands quite on mom and dad so they couldn`t get away. So alas, my brother Brian and his wife joined Tim and I. Below is a bunch of pictures from the trip. It was hard to choose just some of the 300 I took to capture some of the memories. Tim and I were by ourselves for 3 days before we met up with Bri aand Shar.
One of the many lighthouses that we saw. This is at Wood Island were the ferry comes from Nova Scotia.
We couldn`t get over the red soil. The island of 135,000 is scattered with potato fields. The is just one and about the average size.
Lupins grow everywhere in the ditches here. It is absolutely beautiful.
We stayed at a B&B on a dairy farm that was only 5 min walk from Cavendish beach. Tim and I spend a while strolling along the red beach and enjoying the views of the red cliffs.
North Rustico is not far from Cavendish and a large fishing town. Lobster season was coming to an end so we watched them bring in their traps. We were able to go deep sea fishing one morning. At 8am the swells were about 12 ft high. So we enjoyed to rough waters. I don`t usually get motion sickness but when you combine the rough waters and two people on either side of us smoking I got a little queasy-but I kept her all down! I turned out to be a better fisher women than Tim. I caught 21 mackerel and he only got 12.


This is the home that LM Montgomery used for the setting of Anne of Green Gables. The movie was actually filmed in Toronto so the house isn`t the same. I was a little sad but still glad we went.
Another picture of us on the rocks of Cavendish beach. This shows how rough the water was. It was a lot rougher way out there.
The boys getting all the gear on the bikes. We started at North Cape (on the very north west tip of pei) It was gorgeous out there. Lots of wind turbines but luckily the wind wasn`t at full speed when we were there.
A picture of the four of us before we got all dirty and sweaty.
A farmer hilling his potatoes. Very fascinating for farmers to see other aspects of agriculture.


The confederation trail is the old railway system turned to a shale path. It officially starts in Tignish.

Our first day was straight rain. We were soaked head to toe. With the red soil being wet, my underwear even got dyed. Our bags supposedly had rain covers, but they forgot to tell us they wouldn`t work. I think we all scraped together one set of clothes that were dry. Our hotel rooms were peppered with wet clothes airing out. Thank goodness for Tim Hortons though. Our hotel was an old dumpy thing on the side of the road but really only thing around. Tims was another thing that was out in the middle of no where and thank goodness it was. Once the rain died down we spent the evening playing cards.
The view from the trail on day 3 was breathtaking.
This was what the trail looked like on a typical day.
Our 4th day took us along the coast for some time. This is mussel farming. The best mussels on the island are grown here in St. Peters Bay.
Our last day on the trail changed to lots of spruce trees. The trail was covered with a canopy. A nice cool ride to finish the trail. After our 1st day we were riding in 27-34 degrees with the humidex.


Here we are paying tribute to the confederation trail and it`s end in Elmira.
This here is the creativity of my brother. He wanted it to look like we were crashing over the finish line.

The confederation bridge is an absolute engineering piece of work. All the center beams holding it in place are actually floating. Who would have thought.


Our last day before we took off was spent on the `white` sands of PEI. Tim and Bri were having fun being kids. The ocean wasn`t exactly warm but we did swim in it for about 10 minutes.

The island is so beautiful. The bike trip was a ton of fun and not very strenuous. We biked 2 1/2 hours to 5 hours depending on the day. And enjoyed ice cream everyday without feeling guilty.