Dorothy AWOL

Has anyone seen my duck.  The last time she was seen was Monday afternoon, sitting on her nest at the base of one of the willows in my yard.  We were anxiously awaiting the arrival of her brood.   Here is a picture of what she will look like with 8 ducklings in tow.

I was hoping to get some pictures of the ducklings out frolicking in our yard under the watchful gaze of mother duck however when I checked her nest on Tuesday this is what I saw.  One egg still intact and now apparently abandoned by Dorothy.

Lots of bits of egg shells plus the one below that was almost intact with just the top broken open.

It appears that sometime in the past 48 hours 8 of the eggs hatched.  After a little research on todays version of Encyclopedia Brittanica I discovered that after hatching they stay in the nest for about 10 hours to allow their feathers to dry and then they are off to find water.   Its going to be a bit of a walk from our place but hopefully they find a better home than our yard.

Guess I can now cut the grass on that side of the yard.

Thats the report from Wiebe's Nature Preserve.

Later.

Dorothy Duck

I haven't posted since we got home from Snowbird 1.  We have settled into our normal routines although knowing that we plan to head off for Snowbird 2 in another 5 months does bring a little more urgency to some of those household projects. 

Lori and I have decided to take Golf lessons.  Neither of us has played much in the past number of years and the game had become more than a little frustrating.  While I have never been a good golfer, breaking 90 was an accomplishment, my game had deteriorated to the point where there was little joy in Mudville (to borrow a phrase) after a round of golf.  It was either take some lessons and commit to getting out more than a few times a year or put the clubs on Kijiji and free up some space in the garage.  Well last week we went for our first in a series of lessons.  Our neighbour had given us a coupon for a swing evaluation at Golf Tec and after watching the video of my swing a couple of things became very apparent.  My golf swing was UGLY.  Every part of my body was moving and not in a coordinated way.  It was a wonder that I could even hit the ball let alone figure out where it was going to go.  The other thing that was in full evidence was that I have become fat.  Don't know when that happened but obviously too much of too many good things results in a hefty profile.  Guess I need to quit making those midnight trips to the fridge and increase the pace, length and frequency of our walking regime.  

Now for the reason for my post.   I was cutting the grass today and as I was trimming around the willows there was a sudden flurry of feathers and the sound of beating wings. Kind of startled me but I quickly realized it was one of the Mallard ducks that has been hanging around our yard. As I passed by one of the willows what to my wondering eyes did appear. No, not a sleigh being pulled by 8 tiny Reindeer but rather a nest lined with duck down huddled between the protective branches of a large willow tree. The nest contained 9 large eggs, all perfectly arranged awaiting the return of Mrs Mallard to provide them with the warmth they will need to hatch.  
Now that I know they are there I will avoid that area but continue to view from afar and wait for the hatchlings to appear. The nest is located right at the base of the tree and only a couple feet from the ground so hopefully no predators raid the nest.  

A couple years ago we had foxes under our shed and it was a joy to watch the kitts playing under the watchful gaze of mom and dad. Deer make regular appearances and we have on occasion seen coyotes wandering thru our yard (I could do without seeing them).
Country living does have its benefits.

The only camping we are planning for this summer is 3 weeks at Clear Lake.  2 of my grandsons will be joining us for 1 of the weeks and we are looking forward their visit.  My son tells me that the kids don't take naps in the afternoon so I'm going to be one tired dude by the time its dark and we can light the campfire.  

Just a quick mention about our plans for next winter before I sign off.  We are planning on trekking west in late October and visiting with my Son and his family in Lethbridge.  From there we will continue through the Rockies to southern BC and down the Washington and Oregon coast, likely taking 101 most of the way.  We plan to spend much of our winter in California and are busy researching places to see.  We hope to return much the same way although we would like to pass through the Okanogan which should be beautiful in the spring.   This is all very preliminary but its the start of a plan.  Now if the Loonie could just get back to 90 cents.  

Later.  

Home Sweet Home

We arrived home on Thursday about 8:00 and I have been meaning to provide this recap of our last few days travel but we have been busy getting settled back in to the house.  So here it goes.

When I last left you we were checking into a hotel in Denver while RV Four Seasons was going to fix our brake problem.  I spent an hour with their tech while he checked out the brakes and the wiring harness.  Turns out a loose wire on one of the magnets was causing a short and overloading the system.  The result was total brake failure.

I had been getting a wiring fault message since early in our trip however it was intermittent and we still had lights and brakes and the fault warning disappeared when I plugged the trailer into the receptacle underneath the bumper rather than the one in the box.  I chalked it up to a loose connection in the receptacle in the box and figured I would check it out when we got home.  Well that intermittent problem became permanent at the worse possible time going through the Rockies.  Thankfully we didn't have an accident and the warranty took care of most of the repair costs.  Kudos to the RV Dealer as they worked us into their busy schedule and we were back on the road just after lunch on Tuesday.

The hotel room was a nice change.  A square room as opposed to a long narrow trailer which has been home for 5 months.  Charli liked the King size bed and made herself right at home.










Interesting fact.  On Monday when we had stopped to look for a dealership to help we found RV Four Seasons via our search on the Keystone website (our trailer Mfg).  Lori commented that it was essentially the same name and logo as the dealer back home in Virden, Mb where we had purchased our previous Cougar and perhaps they were related.  Turns out that the Virden dealership purchased the Denver dealer a few years ago along with another dealer in the US.  We had always been impressed with Four Seasons and their professionalism and focus on the customer has translated to their US acquisition.

We left Denver and took I76 Northeast with the hopes of getting to North Platte, NE.  The drive was uneventful, the road was good and no mountain grades to contend with.    We checked into Holiday RV Park which only had a few seasonal residents and some returning snowbirds like ourselves.  We decided to push the next 2 days to make up for the lost day in Denver.  Not that we had anything pressing to return to at home but we were simply tired and wanted to get home.

Wednesday we headed north on Hwy83 which is 2 lane but good smooth pavement for the most part.  Unfortunately there are lots of rolling hills and we drove in heavy fog for most of the day.  An idea for the US Gov't:  "Day Time Running Lights". They are mandatory in Canada and given the number of drivers we met, about 50%, that refused to turn their lights on in heavy fog (even after I flashed my high-beams) mandatory day time running lights would be a life saver, literally.

We decided to follow the GPS which took us on a slightly shorter route on State highways 18 and 44 before eventually getting us onto I90.  This is a lesson I never seem to learn.  Even if its a few more miles get on an Interstate.  The American highway system is not what it once was and while even some of the Interstates are a bit beat up, many of the state highways are simply Rock and Roll.  By the time we reached I90 my tummy was so tired of jiggling.  We eventually made it to Sioux Falls, SD and found Yogi Bears Jellystone RV Park.  A nice park with pull throughs and we set up quickly as it was cold, 42F, and raining.  Found my gloves, touque (or beanie as its called in Az) and put on my heaviest coat.  Back to reality I guess.

We were in bed by 9:00 and slept soundly till 7:30 the next morning.  These long driving days seem to take their toll on me, especially when the roads aren't the greatest.  Before we hit the road we had one main priority.  Book a campground in Clear Lake for a 3 week stay in August.  Since we have got back into camping we have made it a priority to spend at least a couple weeks each summer at Clear Lake.  Its in the National Parks system and has a nice little townsite, great campground, biking and hiking trails.  We also have friends that own a store in the town and its always great to catch up with them.

Thursday was the first day the Park was taking reservations and based on past experience I needed to be online ready to go at 8:00 AM sharp.  Well I was on time but but by the time I navigated the website and made it to the reservations page all the full service sites for our selected 3 weeks were booked up.  I quickly moved over to the Electric only sites and there were only a couple spots left.  I booked one and finalized the reservation.  I'm thinking that somehow someone is getting in early and booking up sites before the general public.   The Electric only sites are actually the best sites in the campground with the most privacy and shade.  Trees in a campground will be a nice change after 5 months staying in what essentially is RV parking lots in Az.  I will have to bring a long garden hose and my tote so that I can replenish our water tanks and drain our grey and black tanks without having to move the trailer but thats a small sacrifice.  We will also have to use the campgrounds showers which are actually pretty good and more of an issue for Lori than myself.   Oh well, we all have to make concessions periodically.

Thursday was perhaps our windiest day on the road.  Took about 3 hours before we drove out of the rain but the wind never stopped and my mileage dropped from close to 10, down to just over 7 MPG.  We made our last fill-up of cheap US diesel, $2.60 p/g, at Pembina, ND and made it to the Customs office at the border.  Only one car ahead of us so no wait.  We made our declaration and since we were over we went in to pay our due to the Province and the Feds.  We declared abut $2,700 however what I hadn't anticipated was that they convert that US amount to Canadian and then charge the GST and PST.  Given that the exchange rate is just shy of 30% the total damage came to $200.  We will have to try to spend less next year.  After all how many t-shirts, hats and purses can we possibly need.

After clearing Customs we started our drive north up Hwy 75 and were quickly reintroduced to Canadian roads.  We bounced and jiggled all the way home.  I don't know where the Provincial Govt has spent that extra 1% sales tax that they are taking from me but it hasn't made its way to Hwy 75 or the south Perimeter yet.  We pulled into our driveway about 8:00 with just enough light to easily back-in and unhook.  As we were finishing a few snow flakes started to come down.  Welcome home I guess.

In the next few weeks I hope to put together one more post which will be a bit of a recap of our trip including our learnings which we will use for Snowbird 2.  Yes we are already planning our second trip.

Later.