Priddis Venture

Yesterday I drove to Priddis (south east of Calgary) to visit my mother.
The place is fantastic. A beautiful view of rolling hills and distant mountains. I’m more of a fan of hills than mountains. A hill feels so much more accessible than a mountain. If I look at a hill, I can believe that I could leave from my spot and climb to the top of it, and maybe be back for supper. A mountain holds no such illusions.
Because of all the hills it would have been fun to go running there. Of course I say that, thinking hills would be fun, but really, when you are climbing them, they aren’t. I didn’t go running because my mother wanted manual labor for her yard. Of course I use the term, “Yard” in a liberal sense. It’s a big field, overgrown with natural vegetation. My mother likes things in a natural state.
I chopped down three trees (with an axe I suspect was dull) then got them moved into a circle in the field where we tried to construct a fire pit: A large pile of branches in a pyramid shape just waiting to be lit up to be a big bonfire. The community board won’t allow that unless it has just rained or there is snow on the ground, so we’ll probably light it up for New Years.
I also planned out and mowed a snaking path through the yard. That way one can walk through the yard, while Harry (the dog) can romp around in the tall grass.
I think they should plant corn and try and make a corn maze.
Yesterday there was a lot of teaching Harry to use a dog door. He was a little dumb at first, but I think he’s getting the hang of it. His big problem seems to be to figure out that no one needs to be standing next to the dog door for him to go through it.
Harry was overjoyed to see me. For some reason he really connects with me. He had been bored lately because there was nothing to do, or look at. With my arrival things became interesting. The down side of this was that he wanted to spend a lot of time with me. Which meant that he wanted to sleep next to me. And for him, sleep seems to consist of licking his paw for several hours. That is not easy to sleep next to, so I’m a little tired now.
I left for Edmonton at 6:50 this evening. There was a pit stop in Red Deer to pick up a bit of gas. I arrived in town at 10:00. My total mileage was approximately 680 km. The total gas bill was $45.60. Well worth the price. I only got sleepy around the time I was passing the Edmonton airport, so I didn’t need the coca-cola I had brought along.
Greeting me when I came back was construction across the street with a big spotlight that is mostly pointing down into the work area, but also manages to shine into my bedroom. Don’t these people ever sleep.