Home at last!

My adventures in the wild west have now come to an end and I find myself once again in the big, bustling city.  The last few weeks that I was on the ranch we did a ton of riding. It was turn out starting in May 15th, so that means that all the cattle get moved onto range lands.  I was a riding a beautiful buckskin mare named Divorce (odd name, I know) and she was wonderful! She is now my second favourite horse.  All through turn out I was riding in an australian saddle, which is much like an english saddle.  I believe that this has actually improved my riding slightly, as there is no saddle horn to hold onto, haha!

Before the cows and calves can be turned out though, they must be branded. This is not an option, it is required by the government if you have cattle on range land.  Branding marks the end of the calving season and is a great excuse for a party! They invite all their family, friends and community to come and help in this big event. The week leading up to branding was an extremely busy one.  There was all the cooking for both lunch and dinner to be done, cleaning the house and yard, vaccinating all the cows and getting everything organized around this huge event.  When the day finally arrived, we had a great turn out! I'm not sure the exact numbers, but there must have been about 50 or so people (which is HUGE for Anahim Lake).  It was a fantastic day, got all 450 or so calves branded by 5:00, had dinner around the bonfire, listened to the harmonica and banjo do their thing. It was too cool!  As you can imagine though, the next day was a clean up day :)

The weekend after branding my parents finally made it up to Six Mile . . . and brought the pouring rain with them. I've never seen it rain so hard there, not even kidding.  It was nice being able to finally show them where I have been living for the past year.  When I was finished showing them off, we headed down the Bella Coola hill, explored the town a little and stayed the night with some lovely friends of mine.  In the morning we headed for Spring Lake Ranch, just north of 100 Mile House, where my adventures all began. It was so good to reconnect with them and to ride my Sweetie once more. We stayed the night there and were homeward bound in the morning. The best feeling in the world is coming home! It never gets old. So I am home with my cat and family until June 1st.  One the first I am getting on a plane headed for Gothenburg, Sweden to see my 4 friends over there. It is rather hectic trying to get ready in such a short time, however I am so excited to be seeing them again in a few days. I will be back on August 4th with many new tales to tell, this time from over seas :)

Thank you to all who read my blog for all these months, I have so enjoyed telling you about my life as a ranch hand in Anahim Lake! 

A couple weeks ago now, I was able to escape calving for a few days and take a mini-vacation to the Okanogan.  A friend of mine from Bella Coola goes to UBC Okanogan in Kelowna; she is also studying to become a vet. So, I went along for the ride to pick and pack her up after exams.  It was a lot of driving and I saw Kamloops, Vernon, Kelowna, Merrit, Quesnel and everything in-between. We live in such a beautiful province!  In Kelowna it was lovely to look out the window and instead of white snow, see lush green grass, flowers blooming and heat rising off the pavement. As much as I loved seeing my friend and having a break from everything, it was so good to see the cows again!

Gloriously, in this past week the snow has completely disappeared in Anahim, hallelujah! And the blustery days we’ve been getting have worked wonders in the corrals, drying up the mud, making it way easier to get around.

Two new additions have been made to the cowherd. A Holstein and Jersey, both milk cows and both so wonderful!  I named the Holstein, Black Velvet and Ben named the Jersey, Jessica. They each have so much personality, are gentle and petable. I have been doing a lot of milking as you might have guessed, but their milk is delicious and rich, so it is worth it. I've hand turned butter and made some ice cream, yummm! I have decided that one day I am going to get a Jersey milk cow and keep her for a pet :)  Milking is excellent exercise for one’s hands.

There are now less than 40 cows to calve, its so amazing! And all the heifers (first calvers) are done calving now. We had a long streak where we didn’t have to pull any calves, which was a nice change.  Nevertheless, one cow came along with a calf that had one leg back.  Since the head and one leg were already out, we had to push the calf back inside. Easier said than done.  The tail block was not working on this cow for some reason. I’m here to tell you, that trying to push against a cow is really hard. But we managed to get him back inside, straighten out the legs and pull the calf out easily enough.  Another exciting thing I learned is how to tube a calf.  So, if a calf is sick and dehydrated, you have to stick a tube down its throat and into the stomach to feed it electrolytes.  At first, I was so scared of getting the tube down the wrong hole and drowning it. But, thankfully I didn’t and am much more confident in tubing calves now. It’s a handy skill to know.

Most people know that last summer I raised an orphaned calf. She was my bottle baby for a few months.  She was small for her age because she was a twin and didn’t get as much milk as she could have eaten. She was sold to a local guy here in town a few months ago. He told me I could come and see her anytime. I went down there last week and couldn’t believe my eyes! My little cute baby has grown into a fair size teenager cow. She is doing well there though and is as nice as ever. It is amazing how fast things grow.

Branding is coming up in two weeks, the biggest event of the year (apart from rodeo). They are expecting around 50 people to show up and we have to feed them, ahhh! I’m up to my eyeballs at the moment in baking for desserts. We’re starting on the cooking soon.  I hope I’m not doing the cooking too, I might give everyone food poisoning or something. Sadly, I have not inherited my mother’s cooking skills. 

An extra exciting birth occurred here a few days ago.  A mare named Jelly Bean had her baby finally!  It is sooo adorable, with its long gangly legs. Three more foals are expected this spring; I just hope they have them all before I leave. 

The octopus calf

The calving has slowed down drastically and our night shifts have changed to every three hours instead of two. Punky and Eli decided it was finally safe to go home for a night, although they left the radio on just incase there were any problems.  I was on the 2 o’clock check.  When my alarm went off, I dragged myself out of bed and went outside.  Someone had put a calving cow in the barn on the 11:00 check. However, when I looked in on her, she had afterbirth hangout out but I couldn’t find the calf anywhere. I was puzzled. I ran her into the chute just to check her out. When I reached in and felt around, I was even more puzzled. All I could feel were three legs and feet (all different sizes), a tail, and no head. Something was VERY wrong and that baby wasn’t coming out naturally. I ran inside and got everybody up to help deal with this thing. Roger said that whatever was inside felt like a ball with legs sticking out of it every which way. It was either going to be a C-section or bullet calf. I called Punky and Eli on the radio and they rushed up to the ranch.  By the time Punky got here we had everything set up for the C-section, so she set to work right away. Once we were in the cow, the uterus wouldn’t flip and come to the outside insition, no matter how hard we pulled. One can’t cut into the uterus if it isn’t in a place where you can sew it up afterwards. I reached my arm inside the cut, went shoulder deep and could feel the bones of the calf through the uterus wall, but it would not budge. There was absolutely nothing that we could do for this cow and her calf, the most humane thing being to put her down. They got the gun and butchered her outside. I went to sleep for a couple hours. When I awoke, everyone said to look outside the door in the wheelbarrow.  So I did and I couldn’t believe what I saw!  It was the most deformed and scary looking calf you could ever imagine. There was not one thing normal or right about it. All of its joints were backwards, it had four joints on some legs instead of three, the legs were pointed weird directions, its face and nose were squashed in on one side, the neck was curved way back so the head was upside down, the spine was crooked, the hip bones in strange places, and the ribs were in the wrong spot (not covering internal organs). Later, I dissected it and the insides were just as weird as the outside. Its liver was all bulgy, it had one shriveled up kidney, the lungs were black, and the stomach was filled with fluid. The heart was normal. However, the liver, heart and lungs were all in the wrong place. It should have aborted long ago, but somehow it had lived all this time. No one had ever seen anything like it.  Although it was all very interesting, I felt so bad for the calf and the poor cow. She had been a good mother in previous years and was very gentle; sadly there was just nothing anyone could do for them. Here is a photo of what it looked like (don’t look if you are easily grossed out). I would post more pictures, but they are rather gory and I don’t want to cause anyone to be sick. 

Here are some pictures of the prolapse. The before and after shots :)

The beautiful warm weather seems to have been eluding us lately. And somehow, the Vancouver rain has found me. The ground was drying up so well! Now, with all this wet everywhere, the corral is a nightmare to wade through.  With mud coming right to the top of your boots, it makes chasing cows through the pens impossible. You get your daily exercise and burn lots of calories though.

Two exciting (for me anyways) events this week!

The first being that we discovered a calf was born with all of its small intestine dangling out of its bellybutton. The calf seemed healthy otherwise, was up and walking around right away.  I imagine everyone was thinking that the lead to the head solution would be the way to go and that surgery wasn’t worth a shot. However, I really wanted to at least try and do something to save her, even though there was, and still is, a huge possibility that she will die anyways.  So, out came the needles, scalpel, iodine, catgut thread, penicillin and lots of warm water.  Since the calf was born in a pile of shavings, we needed to wash, sterilize and lubricate the intestines before they could go back in.  The belly button hole was not big enough to push them gently back in place; therefore, we had to make the hole a bit wider.  When the intestines were all back in place we sewed her up, gave her a shot of penicillin, got her fed and put her back with her mama. She didn’t even lie down. The tough little thing was up and walking around right away, as perky as ever.  As of now she is still alive and doing extremely well considering. I am so glad that we did all we could to save her; hopefully she’ll be all right and infection won’t get her later.  We named her Hope.

The second rather thrilling event of the week was when a cow had a full on uterine prolapse while calving out in the pen. This happens when the cow has been pushing so hard to get the calf out, that she actually pushes out her whole uterus.  In this cow’s case, she didn’t get up and see that the calf was out, so she kept pushing. We didn’t realize what she was doing until it was too late. Therefore, Roger and I set to work on her.  Once in the maternity chute, she got a shot of lidocaine in her spine to stop her contractions. Then we chained her up by the tail, one to keep her upright, and two, because it is easier to push everything back in when the cow is in that position. After washing off the uterus and getting some of the after birth out, we dove elbows deep and stuffed her uterus back in.  I’ve never been so covered in blood in my life! Then I gave her a big does of liquid myosin, to help stop infection, and some oxytocin. After sewing up the cow’s rear end to prevent her from prolapsing again, she was put back with her baby.  What a fun experience! It was so interesting to see what the uterus actually looks like and how the after birth is attached to it and so forth.

Those were a couple of very busy and eventful days, but otherwise the days here are pretty routine.  We have got quite the orphanage going in the barn.  We have our regular barn bum, power milker, Fritzel; she has been with us since the start of the season and is getting quite large. Then there is an older calf whose mother died of cancer recently. One twin calf whose mother rejected her and another twin whose mother did not have enough milk. That is a lot of hungry little tummies to feed.  It takes us a good two hours every morning and evening to feed them all.  Hopefully they will all find new mamas soon. Wanda figures there are only about 115 cows left to calve, hurray!  I will be happy when I can get a full night sleep again.

Now it is back to Six Mile and my awaiting bed . . . and then up at 1:00 again . . .

Time flies when you are having fun!  It feels so weird that two months of calving has already gone by.  It’s so hard to believe that in 57 more days I will be boarding a plane departing for Sweden! I can hardly wait to see my dear friends again, after more than a year gone by.

Meanwhile spring has sprung, up here in Anahim Lake! The songbirds are slowly but surely returning, filling the air with their sweet melodies. Sunshine has finally become a regular occurrence, reaching temperatures that make you work up a sweat.  There have even been a few sunburns going around. My ear was rather crispy a few days ago.  But the most obvious sign that spring is here would be the hatching and horrendous buzzing of the flies. My swatting hand is again in use. And oh, shock and horror, the first two mosquitoes of the year have been spotted! They had better stay in hiding until I am long gone; I don’t think I could go through another summer of nasty, flying, biting insects.

With all the warm weather, the snow has sure taken a beating. It is truly amazing and wonderful how much it has melted this past week.  The downside of this is that you can hardly walk through the mud (aka cow shit) without almost loosing your boots in it.  Needless to say, my afternoons have been spent digging drainage ditches in an attempt to keep the water levels in the corrals down. It is actually quite fun, reminds me of making little rivers in my sand box when I was little.

The calving has been fairly steady. We’ve had a few very busy days and a few slower days, a nice mix.

We had a great Easter at the ranch.  The boys went on a big Easter egg hunt and got loaded up with sugar. Their cousins and friends were visiting, so that was very fun for them.  We all decorated and died Easter eggs (courtesy of Jackson’s 30 or so chickens), and once again I am reminded that I am not an artist.  That was before eating a big lunch and then an even bigger turkey dinner.  All in all a great day!

It has been a slow calving week; I guess the cows decided to give us a few days off.  I have taken advantage of the time off by reading, taking some long afternoon naps and trying to go to bed as early as possible. The calving is slowly picking up and just in time because the weather has turned warm again! It is now reaching a balmy 12 degrees on a fairly regular basis! As a result, my snow pants can pretty much stand up on there own.
This past week there has been a run of twins. There have been about 5 pairs so far, I do believe. One set of twins was incredibly tiny. We weighed the smaller twin and it came to a whopping 18 pounds!  That’s like a medium sized turkey . . . but she is doing great, sucking well, determined to grow. She is oh sooooo cute; I could die! There was another calf born and that weighed 126 pounds. She is a very large girl that’s for sure. I find the difference in weights simply astounding.
Last night I went outside at my regular time of 1:00 to check cows. A full or almost full moon was casting bright light over the snow; I hardly needed the flashlight. I heard a lone wolf cry to his pack across the flat. And they, in turn, answered with an echoing chorus that seemed to put the cows on edge just a bit. What an amazing sound for nature.
The lady who gave me my kitty cat has another litter of kittens . . . this is so bad. I went to see them and now I’m thinking I need another one. It is so hard to overcome their cuteness!
Other than the regular, everyday chores, the occasional calf pulling and cow sorting, nothing much has been happening. Just the habitual ups and downs of the season.

The hustle and bustle has been slowly but surely picking up around this outfit. The calf count is now past 225. What fun to watch these little creatures race around with one another, tails stuck straight in the air, bucking and jumping as if they were practicing for the rodeo. These warm sunny days we have been having lately fills everything with energy and a feeling of the impending spring!

            On one particularly busy day, we had to pull three calves all in a row.  One was backwards, another was just too big and the last was upside down. I got to see it all in one afternoon. After all that “experience” I guess they thought I was the right girl for the job when yet another calf needed to be pulled that night. I felt inside, hooked the chains up to the feet and guided the calf out. It is so satisfying knowing you helped a little calf into the world!

            I plucked up the courage to try milk straight from a cow and I was pleasantly surprised. It didn’t taste terrible, amazing! In fact I thought it had less of a taste to it. I am now regularly having it on my cereal, yummy!

            And finally, the heifer that I have been so excited about and waiting oh so patiently for, has calved. She was the sweetest, quietest and cutest looking heifer of the whole bunch, or so I thought.  Her calf was large so it had to be pulled. It was a fairly hard pull too, but it lived and is good and healthy. However, when we let the heifer out of the maternity chute, she went absolutely NUTS. Attacking and screaming at anything and everything in site that even smelled human. My jacket that had been hanging on the gate got a good beating! Roger says he has never seen a cow do that in all his years of working with them. We gave her a few days to accept her baby, but she never did. So the calf was grafted onto another cow and has a new loving mother now.  My favorite little heifer has been designated for trail ride meat . . . they said they would save me a steak! Ohhh, I’m so sad, I thought she would make such a great cow. :’(

Unfortunately, there have also been a few more fatalities. One morning I walked out into the heifer pen and found a dead and extremely bloated cow in the mud. It seemed she had gotten onto her back, couldn’t roll over, filled up with gas and died. Apparently this is not uncommon and they can die within minutes from being in the wrong position. And sure enough, a few days later I was walking about doing checks and found a cow on her back.  She had just popped a calf out and was rolling around, legs flailing, trying to right herself. I hollered for help, ran to grab a rope and we managed to get her up without difficulty. It’s a good thing I walked by at just that moment though, or we might have had an orphan to deal with.

Another unfortunate event was when we had to pull a heifer’s calf and it got stuck halfway out for some reason.  They pulled and twisted the calf but he refused to come out.  Consequently, he suffocated because he was not able to fully inflate or drain his lungs. When we finally got him out it was too late.

With the dead pile accepting a few new members the scavengers have been around. There was a bald eagle and a HUGE golden eagle getting into a brawl over the food, boy was that was something to see!  The other morning I was lying in bed and was startled by a bang that shook the whole house. Shortly followed by two more equally loud bangs. There was a wolf by the dead pile and as I had guessed, they were shooting out the window at it. I don’t believe they got it though. Wolves are a real threat to the cattle and they can and do kill them if they get hungry enough.

There have been many happy births too. We had one heifer calf born, weighing in at 125 pounds . . . glad I wasn’t her mother.  Another calf was born premature but he survived and is doing very well. He is a tiny, short haired, toothless thing, that couldn’t even walk a few days ago and still has some difficulty eating. My goodness is he adorable though!

And today the oddest calf was born. For most of the day we had thought this calf had been stepped on by the mother; that would explain her large swollen belly. I noticed that her rear end didn't look right, a bit puffy and bulging. When we lifted up the tail, there were no holes. This poor little heifer couldn't poop or pee. There was really nothing we could do (even I, the optimist in these kind of situations, couldn't find a bright side) for the poor little thing but put it down. We opened her up and took a look at her insides. Her bladder was HUGE! Close to rupturing I'd say. And there was a strange watery sack attached to her liver that had everybody stumped; so she obviously had other issues too. It seemed as though her urinary and digestive tracts ran together somehow, and what would have come out was a mixture of both. Interesting, yet very sad to say the least.

About that lamb I wanted so badly, I think it will have to go on my 'future pets list'. I just don't know where I will keep him when I am moving around so much. But I WILL get one someday :)

A cow named Zipper

Probably the most exciting thing that has happened since I last wrote was the incident of the “Zipper” cow.  One Saturday night I stayed up watching Snow White and the Huntsman (a terrible movie, I would not recommend it) and got to bed at about 10:00pm. Two hours later I got up and did my night check. Fairly uneventful, I just put a heifer that was starting to calve in the barn. The protocol for calving heifers is to stay up until they have calved to be sure there aren’t complications. I waited for her to do something for about an hour or so and when she wasn’t even showing feet I knew something was wrong.  I got some help, saying that we needed to pull a calf . . . if only it had been that simple.  But what we found inside was very strange. Was it backwards? Was it in a curled position? Bunched up? Twins maybe? For three hours they tried to figure out what position the calf was in.  The calf was not going to come out; everybody was out of ideas and ready to put the poor cow down.  In a desperate attempt to save the cow, they decided to do an emergency Caesarean section.  Quickly, back into the house to grab needles, freezing, razors, scalpels, pliers, liquid myosin, oxytocin, warm water, iodine and a tail block (to stop her contractions).  The incision was made, kept as clean as possible, and the calf lifted out. It was dead by then. Just as they were beginning to sew her uterus up, she lay down. This is a very bad when you are trying to be hygienic.  I was holding her tail, which had been wrapped around the side of the chute to keep her still. Therefore, I basically had to hold up this cow by her tail. I am here to tell you that this is not the easiest thing to do, even when leaning my whole body weight on it I could barley make it stay.  However, soon I had help and we managed to chain her tail to keep her up.  By the time everything was said and done it was 7:00 in the morning and I was starting to fall asleep on my feet. The cow was put in a pen, shot up with drugs and was not given a high life expectancy. After that eventful night/morning, I went on to work for the rest of the day, finally crashing in the late afternoon.  But, I am pleased to announce that the heifer is doing very well; the surgery was almost two weeks ago and she is on her third dose of long lasting liquid myosin.  I always knew she would make it!

Well, as the weather man predicted we got a huge dump of snow! At one point we were getting about an inch in a half hour. Over a period of two days we likely got a good foot and a half of snow, bringing our total snow measurement to three feet. It is easily up to my waist in some areas. If you walk in places like that it is extremely hard and if you fall down (which is very easy to do) its quite hard to get back up without being buried in the snow.
My days are starting to fall into a routine. I am mainly just moving cows around, from the pens to the barn and back out again; Checking for calving cows; unfreezing the watering system every morning; and making sure food, salt and minerals are kept stalked up.  The new calving barn is now fully operational as of this week as well. Just in time too, the other barn is not keeping up with the amount of babies being born. We are having to set up a lot of make shift pens.
A new development! I stuck my hand up a cow without a glove on for the first time. And I must say that you can feel things a lot better. This calf was backwards and needed to be pulled. It was a successful pull and we all went inside for breakfast, being sure to wash hands.
I was able to see how to treat cows with swollen/sore bags. They put a clamp in the cows nose and crank her head up, then they pour carbolic acid down her throat. Apparently this brings down the swelling, I'm not sure why, but would love to find out.
My night check has been recently changed from 3:30am to 12:00am, which I am glad about. It means I get a more solid sleep from about 1:00 to 6:30, yay! The other night, just as I stepped out the door I saw a shooting star, that made my night!  I am always very wary of moose while on my night checks. There is always at least one. However, one night there were about 5, at various locations around the yard. Wolf tracks were found today about 100 yards from the back door too.  It can be a little nerve racking at times. . .
A random note: I have just discovered how awesome Johnny Cash is. And am loving the song Folsom Prison Blues :)
Sam and I have been put in charge of milking Candy (she is part milk cow) out once a day.  Yesterday I milked half a gallon out all by myself, cleaned it and put it in the fridge.  One thing is for sure, if I keep this up I will have very strong hands. You would be surprised at how fast your hands get tired. I haven't tried the milk yet. To be completely honest with you I am a little nervous . . . it is awfully yellow looking. But at $8 a gallon with 9 of us living there, I can see why they would want to milk her instead of buying it.
And the most exciting thing that happened to me this week I have saved for last!
Punky and I went to the neighbouring ranch to pick up an orphaned calf which they have now grafted onto a cow of theirs that lost its baby.  We picked up the calf and everything and then the lady showed us her lambs and . . . Oh my goodness, I have never seen anything so cute in my life! They had a tiny black orphaned lamb too and I got to hold it. He would just run around your feet and follow you looking for food, poor little guy. Now I am determined to get one! Wanda says that I can as long as I milk the cow to feed it and it leaves when I do or I find a home for it. I have pretty much got everyone else convinced and if they aren't convinced at least they are thinking about it. I wonder how my grandparents would feel about having a sheep in their backyard . . .
Ahhh, I am so excited!
If only my name was Mary . . . :]

Our most recent calf count is pushing 35 babies, alive and well.  We have had to pull quite a few (I've lost track now), but they have all lived, much to everyones relief.  One highlight of my week was sticking my arm in a cow and feeling the calf inside.  I could only manage to find its feet though.  A few days later I was "assigned" to clean out two cows who hadn't passed their afterbirth yet.  It had been rotting for quite a few days, so was rather rank.  I found the vick's vapo-rub and shinned up my nose with it; it helped considerably.  Eli showed me how to pull the afterbirth without breaking it on the first cow and then I did the second cow on my own.  They seem to be doing great now!
There are so many moose out here!  This afternoon I was about 20 steps away from a cow moose who had jumped into the round pen to eat the hay that was on the ground.  It was so crazy! Never thought I would be that close to one.
We are now doing night checks every two hours.  I have somehow ended up with the 3:30am check.  Most nights there is nothing happening out there on my check.  However, occasionally something happens and I have to move a calving cow into the barn or if the cow has already calved, move the baby and mother into the barn (which can be tricky).  If a first time calver is starting to calve someone has to stay up to make sure there are no complications.  So some nights I am up for an hour and a half or more. It gets pretty tiring and sometimes I sneak away and take a nap. I have had two nights in a row off though, so I can't complain!
It has snowed a lot over the past fews days and it is supposed to dump tomorrow.  Because more snow is just what we need! Glad to have my trusty old muck boots.
Tomorrow we will be sorting cows.  Taking out the ones who look ready to calve and putting them closer to the house.
I need to head back up to Six Mile and go to bed, seeing as I will be up during the night.
Goodnight to all!

I have been living back in this beautiful countryside for two weeks now (although it seems longer...) and it is so good to be back.  To see the stars again on clear nights, swinging myself back into the saddle, to go outside and hear absolutely nothing, being surrounded by all my favourite animals once more (especially Picket), to see the tracks of wild life in the deep snow and to breathe the cool, fresh, not to mention dry, air that is oh so wonderful!
We have had 8 calves born since the 13th of February, two of which have died.  I assisted in the first calf pulling of the season last night. The calf was backwards, so we had to chain its two feet and pull it out. Once the baby is out you need to make sure all the mucus is out of their mouth so that they can take their first breath of air. Thankfully this baby lived!
Again this morning we had to pull a calf, taking us almost an hour to do. This calf was in the right position, however, the after birth came out before the calf causing major problems and the calf sadly, did not make it. The babies that are alive and thriving however are so adorable and so fun to watch.
I have been doing the night checks for about the past week or so. This entails staying up until 2:00am or waking up at 3:30am to go outside and check for calving cows. Ideally we want them to have the calf in the barn where it is warm and sheltered, so we have to watch them to see who is the closest to calving out.
Anyways, this is about all the time I could manage to steal online today. I'm now headed up to Six Mile  and am going to be doing the 3:30am check :)
I will try and get an update out whenever I can to let you know what is going on up here!

And here I am, getting the last few things packed away in my bags, ready to head to the Vancouver airport. It will be an hours flight to Williams Lake and then a 3-4 hour drive out to Anahim Lake late tonight. I am just about ready for the calving season to begin!

And so, my mental countdown has begun! Two more weeks until I board the plane, fly to Williams lake and catch a ride with someone out to Anahim.  I am simply amazed at how fast time flies when you are enjoying yourself so thoroughly with friends and family.  However, in a way it will be like returning home; my second home.