Pelicans

This one I took today (Saturday). I was trying to get closer to him (her?) but it flew away. If I had been ready when it arrived, I could have snapped a neat photo of it landing on the water. Oh, well. There is always another day!

I took this picture at lunch time when I took my lunch to the park beach by the town library. These two were just floating serenely by and I took a couple of pictures. They then started to separate and one flew away in one direction, the other flew away in the other direction. I am still waiting to find several closer to shore!

LLB County Fair

At the 35th Annual Lac La Biche Country Fair, we watched the Heavy Horse Team Pull. In this competition, each team pulls the same weight for 14 feet, or until a pin hammered into the ground behind the stone boat, comes loose. When all the horses have had a go, another 500 pounds is added to the boat, and the horses go again. When they reach the point where they can't move the skid, they stop and that weight is logged as their finishing weight pulled. The scoring takes into consideration the weight of the team, as in light/middle/heavy weight division.

Here, a couple of teams are snoozing between rounds.

This is an easy pull for these big lads.

This team is working a bit harder - another 500 pounds has been added. These boys did not really pull together, which made their efforts harder for them.

This team worked together well. The horse in the foreground always pulled with his head up, while his partner lowered his and leaned into his collar. Despite the two different ways of pulling, this team worked together, both horses pulling at the same time. You could see the difference between this team and the one pictured above. In that team, both horses pulled, but not together, so it was harder work for them both. Heavy horses are built to work, and enjoy it.

The young man in the red shirt hitched each team to the stone boat, then leaped for safety. These guys are already getting ready; stamping their hind feet and lowering their haunches, they are getting ready to put some muscle into this pull.

... and they are successful! The owner encouraged them with the words, "Get to it, lads!" and he repeated it until they had moved the stone boat. The winning team pulled over 7000 pounds. Voice was the only encouragement used to urge all of these horses to pull.

This team was driven by the Chief of the Cree Nation on Kehewin Reserve near Lac La Biche. We have several Cree reservations around the town. The tan coloured horses in the background are Norwegian Fjords. I have never seen them before and thought they were smaller than they are for some reason. I guess pictures can't give you the true picture!

Look at the effort these two horses are exerting. These are the Cree owned horses.

Here are the Fjords working. They are compact little horses, with an excellent work ethic!

Here they are again. They were the first to go in each round. This is their last successful pull. In their final effort, they moved the stone boat 17 inches, but that was not enough to pull the pin out of the ground (they had to move the boat 14 feet). They were not successful and they knew it - their ears showed they were ticked with themselves. A rub on their foreheads and encouraging words restored their good humours.

After the heavy horse competition was finished, we made a visit to the Arts and Crafts Sales tent... I bought a sweater hand made in Bolivia. It's heavy enough to be a jacket.. they probably saw me coming, but that's okay. The sweater is made from "baby llama" hair, and I love it!

Portage College also had a table in this booth, and sales were quite good I was told!

A lady in the craft sales tent carding some wool (regular sheep wool!) prior to spinning it. My friend took this picture. There is another which shows her face, but I chose not to put it in this blog.

When it started to rain while we were watching the Super Team Competition (shown below), we headed for the exhibit hall, but stopped at the petting zoo on the way....

This is a miniature horse and her foal. All the animals seemed to enjoy the attention that the children gave them!

The pictures below show the Super Team Competition...

This team is entering the arena for its turn. It will be hitched to the stone boat (behind the wagaon). Each team would pull the stone boat, which carried about 1 ton of 'stone' (actually cement pipes cut in half), 14 feet until a pin which had been hammered into the ground, was pulled out.

Next, the horses were hitched to this wagaon. They had to turn within the chalk circle without going over the lines, then leave the keyhole along a short lane marked by 4 pylons, without touching the pylons or knocking off the tennis balls sitting atop them.

The teams were then driven down a lane marked with pylons - here the judge's assistant is riding the wagon, checking to make sure the pylons are not touched. On the far side of the ring, the teams were driven in a figure-of-eight, then backed up to a loading dock. The assistant then stepped off the wagon, onto the dock and back onto the wagon, as if he was loading or unloading grain.

Here they are doing part of the figure-of-eight. This team performed quite well.

After backing the wagon to the loading dock, the horses were then driven back into the beginning circle, unhitched from the wagon and driven out, again without knocking the pylons, or the tennis balls, or stepping over the chalk line.

This is a long view of the floral competition, showing some of the prize winning arrangements. There were also the usual baking and jelly entries, as well as artwork, photography, quilting and sewing.

More of the floral arrangements.

I bought two tickets on a raffle, but I don't think I won anything. At least as of 9:15 p.m. I haven't received a call!

July 1st 2008 Canada Day

On July 1st, I went to the Old Mission, an historic site just outside of Lac La Biche for Canada Day celebrations.The oblate Missionaries, the Grey Nuns and the Daughters of Jesus established the mission in 1853, and it became an important geographical crossroads and supply depot for the area where Metis, Native, Anglophones and Francophones met and carried out trading. A residential school was established here, as well.

This is the dock, once well used, but now overgrown.

One of the buildings. I was told there is a ghost here, but a friend told me this, I did not hear about it while I was visiting.

The church was destroyed by a tornado in 1921. The altar in this picture and the 7 statues were found undamaged lying on top of the rubble. The church was rebuilt and the wood from the old one taken to another location and used to build a church there. There was squabbling at that location as to which group would use it, another tornado blew through, demolished that church and solved the problem!

The Desjarlais Big Country and Western Band entertained quite a large audience. I sat and listened to them, then listened to the amateur talent contest (amusing!) that followed. The main guitarist introduced each of the local talent. After the contest was finished, I decided I should move around. That is when I took the other pictures of the mission.

Another shot of the band.

A friend and I went to see the fireworks at the dock in town. This is the sunset, taken while we were waiting for it to be dark enough to see the fireworks. (It was taken about 20 minutes earlier than the picture in the Fireworks 2008 section, below.) The show began about 11:00 p.m.

I was using a new camera, and discovered there is a fireworks mode on it, where the shutter speed is slowed down a bit. It makes interesting pictures, as it shows the fireworks trail. It also lets in more light, so that it looks like it is much earlier in the evening than it really was! This is one of my favourite pictures...

... this is another one.

Here is another... although it looks like the horizon and the water is showing through the sparkles, I think it must be cloud formations.

Sir Winston Churchill Provincial Park

This is the sign at the beginning of the Long Point Trail. Some day I will walk the whole length, but the evening I took this, we just walked along part of it, when down to the beach, then came back.

You can't really see it here, but the town of Lac La Biche is in the distance.

Sarah told me to put a picture of me in this blog, so here is one. I am not happy with it, but is anyone really happy with their own picture? A friend took this one of me, and I took one of her; we both used both our cameras.

This picture and the one below are part of the boardwalk. These steps going down show how steep the climb is. The lake is in the background between the trees.

These steps are going up. The ramp on the side is for bikes.. and for people who don't want to use the steps - the ramp is easier on stiff knees!

This was on the same evening, taken from the causeway. The white dot on the water is a pelican. I am trying very hard to find a pelican up much closer than this! I have seen a couple flying by, but not close enough to get a good picture. Some day soon I will have the time to go and sit and just wait for them to fly in to feed. There are a couple of locations where this happens... I just have to be there at the right time!

These are some wild grasses growing by the water.

I thought this was a pretty shot with the evening sun on the water. It was taken the same evening as the couple just above.

You can see Lac La Biche in the distance. This was taken from the Boardwalk Trail... as can be seen, not the whole trail is boardwalk!

Another view of the trail.

I was trying to catch the ripples of the water as the waves lapped the shore... the water is so clear, and it wasn't very cold.. just refreshingly cool!

I was lying on the beach under this tree and looked up. It was so pretty, I took a picture looking up through the tree. You can see that I have the photos the right way up because of the date/time stamp!

This is another section of the beach. You can walk from one to the other in places, or you can reach each section by its own path from the parking area.

These are the steps we had to use to go down from the path to the beach pictured below!

Spring

Crabapple trees at Portage College in the spring. They were so glorious that I had to take some pictures! I walked up one Saturday morning, and I am glad I did because a few days later the blossoms had all fallen.

These are my indoor plants, taken from the living room looking out. The pot of mums in this picture was one of sixty used to decorate the gym for the convocation this year. Everyone who helped decorate was given a pot to take home after the ceremony was over.

This pot of mums has since been repotted into a large pot and moved outdoors where it is very happy!

Spring on my balcony. There is also a pot of petunias hanging on the wall just out of the picture.