Well, we made it to this wild place, Alberta. Here, it rains and it pours and the thunder roars across the big, huge, forever changing sky. Every so often, the sun makes an appearance and warms things until white mist rises from the long grass that stretches long and wide across the fields that hold back forests of spruce or poplar. It can actually be hot on a few of these early summer days. On those days (really they are hours) I roll out the Thule awning and enjoy the extra shade and room. It’s not a fancy awning, but I marvel at the fact that it does a good job as I enjoy my Alberta brewed beer Then a ferocious, awning consuming wind comes out of nowhere. It must be 60 km an hour. And it doesn’t work up to that. It’s just suddenly there, trying to my precious awning into shreds. And so, the awning gets disassembled and rolls up into it’s housing, safe and sound. beer and laptop and 4 dogs go inside the trailer almost in unison. Then go I. And we watch the trees sway and bend in the strong, strong wind.
Wildlife in a wild place
Some mornings, a family of ravens argues and cajoles each other from the trees as they hang their wet wings to dry in the heat of the sun (while it lasts). In the evenings we there are the mischievous yips of a band of local coyotes, sometimes interrupted by the long moaning howl of a few wolves that pass through the surrounding acreages. Behind the R-Pod, deep in the forest, there is a moose that beds down on the trail my son built. I am still waiting to make her distant acquaintance. I never want to meet a moose up close.
Alberta is at once, full of hope and dispair
Covid ridden and bearing the economic scars of historically low oil prices, Alberta is at once full of hope and despair. In the field next door, the Pumpjacks hang their heads as if in unified mourning for their lost jobs. Big bales of last year’s hay still sit rolled and turning silver in the sun. Whether it’s caused by a fluttering economy, or for other reasons, people just aren’t eating as much beef as they used to, so alot of hay is going unconsumed by beef. The vegan in me cheers to this (with Alberta’s finest Bow Valley lager of course).
Alberta is riding an unpredictable and bucking wild economy right now.
