March 2024 – OsteoPraxis on the road

First stop, a quick farewell trip to the neighbours…..

……..off we go again……

After receiving an invitation from friends which inspired a three day ‘shake-down’ trip to Aspen Crossing 45 minutes south east of Calgary, the 2024 travels adventures were underway.

It turned out to be a good move, as we awoke the first morning to find the bathroom floor swimming in water and an enormous puddle under the trailer. 😮

At first it was a bit of a horror………but turned out to be three different ironically simultaneous issues. The inlet valve for the toilet ( now 11 years old) had cracked and leaked water onto the bathroom floor (CLEAN water..!!!)….the water heater that we had just de-winterised and cleaned needed another couple of turns of plumbers tape on the valve……and the third one………we remembered a ‘BANG’ in Lethbridge…….something had kicked up off the road and hit the underbelly of the trailer leaving a dent right beside the edge of one of the inspection hatches on the black tank (the water in there was also clean from drawing water through the system to de-winterise)

All three issues solved relatively easily (said the person who didn’t have to crawl around under the trailer in the muck…..!!!)

While in Aspen Crossing we also managed to do a side trip to Vulcan (really…who could resist.) The town had the name before Star Trek became a ‘thing’……but the town has embraced the connection quite tastefully !!!

I especially loved the little Enterprises on all of the lamp posts in town….

Scott found some aesthetically broken down barns on the way home….( 😂 )

After saying our goodbyes to some old friends and some new ones (Hi Mike and Leslie…!!) off we set for next stop…a Harvest Host at Cypress Hills Winery just off the Trans Canada in Sasketchewan

Cypress Hills make a variety of fruit wines and as overnight guests (in the windswept and completely exposed parking lot) we were obliged to taste test their product. The rhubarb honey wine was quite acceptable…!! 😋

Next stop, after crossing possibly the smallest Canada/US border port (it was a bit like going through a Tim Hortons drive thru to be honest..LOL)…..was another Harvest Host ...The Teachers Lounge in Fortuna, North Dakota (we have since discovered that even people elsewhere in North Dakota don’t know where Fortuna is…LOL….Their loss….. it was a tiny town (popn 30) but the Teachers Lounge bar was one of the most interesting and ‘atmospheric’ bars we have been in. Super friendly……. a little gem that is totally worth the stop…even if it is a little out of your (really anyone’s) way.

The bar….

The town…..

Fortuna is a surprisingly well-put-together little town for its small size….but it is on the edge of the oil fields.

It was a delightful stop and gave us great hope for the entertainment which awaits us down the road.

We have been based here in Southern Alberta for 18 months now…… (wow is it that long..!!). When we bought this property, one of its ……’quirks’……. was the monster woodpile project acquired along with the land.

Recap. Milk River used to have three grain elevators. In 2019 Parrish and Heimbecker demolished them. The owner of our place prior to us (the people we bought from) had done a deal with P&H to take the debris from this demolition. We think he had the idea there was a fortune to be made from reclaiming the lumber……and although there is some usable timber in the pile…

We have had some fun foraging for chunks to burn in our fireplace, and interesting pieces for some woodworking projects.

…..but mostly this lovely old wood had been shattered to chips by the demolition……… and was then transported to the southern portion of our property (the neighbours tell us the dump trucks were running through town constantly for weeks!!!)

Originally the deal was the wood was not to be burned but salvaged, hence the process has been mostly obtaining permissions…from the county, and from the fire chief…(Thanks Mark…!!)….to start the work in earnest by having a burn pit dug out and filled (for the first of many, many fills)

Fall 2023 we got the go ahead to begin.

Big excitement on the day the county guys hauled in the big CAT machine to dig ‘the hole’

It arrived over the hill on a big truck

….and the digging commenced……

It took 8 and a half hours for him to complete the 15ft deep, 12ft wide, 83 ft long pit. 😁😁

My blogtographer wanted me in there ……’for scale’……. 🤣.

It was quite the thing…..LOL….

Then filling it.

Clearing the big poles with the tractor resulted in someone (!!) finding one of those huge badger holes (North American badgers are seriously scary beasts and they dig huge holes hidden mostly by the grasses)

….but he bravely carries on….back on the tractor he goes….!!!

The weather miraculously held for us through November and December, so we managed to get it about a third full (and cleared about 1% of the pile)

Now we were ready to apply for the first burn permit, which required enough moisture/snow coverage to keep the thing safe and prevent the embers spreading fire to neighboring properties.

A little bit of diesel fuel to get the fire started in subzero temps (one of the many things we never could have foreseen us doing)