Lindsey came down on Friday night to bring down Audrey's new couch.  On Saturday we  took Audrey's old couch in to the the Bargin Barn and then we drove up to Waterton.  Lindsey treated me to pizza and then we took a short walk around Linnet Lake and then drove back home.  We had an really enjoyable day. Lindsey then drove back home to Calgary.

Linnet Lake

Yesterday, I finished staining the new boards that we put on the front of the deck, to replace the boards that were damaged last winter. I won't go into how they got damaged, but I will say, that Rod is not allowed to be within  three feet of the decks with his tractor.  I was smart in that, I wrote down the color and brand of stain when I stained the decks last year,  so that I didn't have to stain  all the decks by our house this time.  It looks 100% better.  I am also posting my patio tomato plants that I have been babying along all summer.  I bring them in every night and put them out in the morning and make sure I water them every day.  I picked the two ripe tomatoes this afternoon and we had them for dinner in our tossed salad.  There is nothing better than  vine ripe tomatoes.  Very tasty!

Surprise Produce Box

I am really excited tonight,  because my fridge is full of nice fresh produce.  I was telling Jennifer (the girl I work with at the office) about Megan's bountiful baskets that she  received last summer.  Jennifer told me that the Hutterite colonies in the area do about the same thing with the produce that they grow.  They have a box full of fresh produce that a person can buy for $25.00 and what is inside the box is a surprise.  My box contained  green onions, cauliflower, spinach, tomatoes, radishes, peas, new potatoes, broccoli, beets with beet greens, lettuce, cabbage, baby carrots and garlic.  For supper I had a tossed salad, cooked baby carrots with peas, cooked new potatoes and barbecued chicken.  Very delicious!

Swim Meet

Today I went and watched Leah and Aidan participate in the Cardston Swim Meet.  Teams came from Raymond, Magrath and Cardston.  Leah and Aidan were awesome and they both did really well.  I am so glad that I was able to go and watch the girls participate, even though it was extremely hot watching them in the stands.  It almost made me want to jump in the nice cool water myself.  Way to go girls!

Hike to Crandell Lake

The Stake Relief Society in the Cardston Alberta West Stake organized a hike up to Crandell Lake for today.  One of my goals for this year was to go on more hikes up to Waterton and so I asked Shannon to go  and participate with me. The weather was great, not too hot and not too cold and the wind was not blowing so  it made for a really enjoyable day.  We got to the lake in good time and then there was a group of us that wanted to hike some more,  so we hiked up the trail  to the Cameron highway and then back to Crandell Lake where we ate our lunch and then headed back to our cars.  Shannon, Judy Olsen and I  stopped in Waterton where we went  for a treat of shaved ice at Weiners. Very Good! I am glad that I had a great day with Shannon. 

Motorcycle Race

We kind of all went in opposite directions today.  Some of the family went up to Waterton, while Rod and I decided to go to Raymond to watch Scott's motorcycle race.  We hurried this morning because his race was suppose to be around 10:00.  I found it  really hard to take pictures during the race because by the time I found Scott  in the view finder and pushed the camera button he had  already gone by, or if I anticipated when he was coming into the view finder, and I pushed the button, it was way too soon and all I got was a picture of dirt.  So this is the best I could do under the circumstances.





  





Scott is number 696 ( The good looking one!!!) The next picture is not of Scott, but I included it anyway.

I snapped this picture a little late! Sorry Scott!

 

Audrey's Birthday

We celebrated Audrey's 87th birthday on Friday, July 1st.  We had a great time catching up on each other's families, events, and came to honor a wonder lady.  Later that night we went in to town and watched  the July 1st Canada Day fireworks.  Dan and Ruth brought this beautiful cake down with them.

Usually when I go for a walk the horses come up to me to see if I have any treats because Rod usually carries peppermints with him and gives them to the horses. The other night I decided I would carry with me a healthier treat, so I took some carrots with me.  The horses came up to me and I gave them the carrots and they just spit them out on the ground.  I now carry peppermints with me for their treat and I save the carrots for me.

The horses names are Rocky and Trixie.  Trixie keeps changing color every time I see her.  Sometimes she is a dark grey, some times she is a light grey and some times she is a dark blueish color. 

My boss has been considering for some time now, to try and implement the procedure to go paperless as much as possible at the office.  His decision was confirmed when a fire swept into Slave Lake a little while ago and destroyed  part of the town.  Some law firms were destroyed by fire and lost all of their files.  If you have ever been to our office, we have tons of files that are full of documents and papers and so this is going to be quite an undertaking in our endevour to go paperless.  He has been trying out  different computer programs that organize files and  that store documents off site.  We have finally decided on one program and so I started yesterday with a few files.  Instead of coping the documents on paper for the files, we are scanning the documents, and then sending them to an  off site storage program, and then when we need to look for a document we can retrieve it and view it in the off site computer program.  Anything that we receive by e-mail, instead of copying for the file, we are sending it instead to the  off site storage program.   Any letters, reports, faxes and etc. we will copy or scan  and paste them into the off site program.   We are only going to copy the documents on paper,  if the clients have to sign them and then when they are signed we will scan and copy it into the off site program.  We are going to scan and copy all of our closed files over a period of time,  and put into the off site storage program and then all of our closed files will be destroyed except for a few documents that we will need to keep. We are running out of storage space downstairs and so the off site storage program will help out in that regard.   We are also going to scan all of the original Last Will and Testaments for our clients and send them to the off site storage program. I am now backing up all our accounting records off site and that gives me a lot of comfort knowing that  we can retrieve the records if anything happens.  It looks like we will be quite busy for awhile trying to change old habits and training our minds to do things a different way.  I think it will be better in the long run! Save a few trees along the way!

This morning I woke up about 6:00 am and couldn’t go back to sleep. After tossing and turning in bed, I got up about 7:15 and worked on my computer doing some indexing. I also went for a walk because it looks like it is threating to rain  again and the forecast is for more showers today. It seems like we can’t have two good days in a row.


I need to go to town today and buy Audrey some more Petunias. A cow got in the yard this morning and ate all the top off her flowers, before Rod could chase it back out again. Stupid cows! I will be so glad when Logan puts in the new cattle guard, so that we can keep the cows out of the yard. The cows have the whole field to eat the grass in, but they must think the grass and flowers in the yard are better because they are continually coming in.  Buster has a full time job!

I went to the Cardston Public Library the other day, to order in a book that Sarah Leavitt suggested on Facebook. While I was there, I found a book called “Computing for Seniors” - Quick Steps. It gives easy, illustrated and how to steps, for working on any computer. I might have to go to Chapters in Lethbridge and pick up this book for myself, as it is an easy guide for operating my computer in a language even I can understand and it is in Larger Print Format. Good Reference Book!

Rob, Crystal and Samantha came for a visit on the weekend.  We drove up to Waterton on Sunday afternoon.  I love going to the mountains and smelling the fresh  mountain air and taking in the beautiful scenery all around me.  Samantha and I went for a walk along the path and played in a little stream  up at Red Rock while Rob and Crystal were taking pictures.  Audrey went with us and enjoyed the drive and sitting on a rock  enjoying the sunshine.  It was a beautiful day. 

On the ride up to Red Rock we saw a bear cub  with the mother bear down in a valley from the top of the hill along side the road.

The little stream that Samantha and I played in. 

Robert, Crystal and Samantha came for the week-end.  Rob helped Rod brand the calves in the morning and then  they had a wedding in Pincher Creek to go to yesterday.  Crystal made Samantha a beautiful dress because she was a flower girl and Crystal was one of the bridesmaids.  It is always fun when they come to visit and to help us. 

I woke up this morning to a beautiful sunny day. When the sun is shining, it brightens my day. Rod mowed all the lawns yesterday, and so when I look outside everything looks green,  fresh and beautiful.  I just know it is going to be a great day!