May Expenses

Well, I had to go back into our 10 years of budget history to see the most we ever spent on groceries in a month. Because we certainly broke that record last month!

We remain convinced that it will even itself out over the next four months (yes, we are 1/5 of the way through our time here already!), or at least we're hoping that it will.

Alberta - Wild Rose Country

Next up in our series celebrating Canada's 150th birthday is the province of Alberta.

This province has a population of about 4.1 million people, most of them living in and around the two major cities, Calgary and Edmonton. Alberta has an oil based economy and is the largest producer of conventional crude oil, synthetic crude, natural gas and gas products in Canada. Alberta is the world’s second largest exporter of natural gas and the fourth largest producer of natural gas.

The older you get, the more difficult it is...

While that sentence applies to a lot of things, this particular time I'm talking about learning a new language.

When we were kids here in Canada, we took French in school. But it was very basic. I think we got 20 minutes per day (or something like that) in grades 1 through 8, and that increased to 40 minutes per day in high school.

It's nearly impossible to keep clean...

I've always been really good at keeping a clean car. Washed, vacuumed, and with crystal clear glass. But the little blue car has been neglected the last couple of years because it's so impossible to keep it clean living here. And it's frustrating.

I had given it a quick clean up when we parked it last September, but when we arrived here at the end of April and got it fired up, it had a nasty smell in it.

Beautiful British Columbia

That's what it says on the vehicle licence plates issued by the Canadian province of British Columbia. And it's true! British Columbia (or simply "B.C." as it's called by many Canadians) is a beautiful province.

Home to 4.7 million people, British Columbia is the 5th largest province by area, and the 3rd most populated province. Over half of the population is in the area around the city of Vancouver.

It was a blustery day!

Well, just an update about what's been going on around the park. We had a decent Canadian May long weekend. Quite a few of the seasonal campers moved their trailers in for the summer, and the weather was good for this time of year. We only had three or four day to day campers come in, but that's typical. Our park is usually fairly quiet until the water level in the lake rises.

Haven't seen our owls again. Haven't even seen remains of what they've been eating, which we usually do.

A lesson in modern farming

Our regular readers will remember last fall when we had a lesson in modern harvesting when the crop was ready to be taken off the field. At the time, we got to ride along in a high tech combine and we learned a little about farming.

Yesterday, we were invited to learn a little about what farmers are busy doing at this time of year... planting the crops. Or, simply called "seeding"...

Canada's 150th Birthday

This is a big year in Canada, with lots going on in celebration of the country's 150th birthday. So over the next few weeks leading up to the big day on July 1st, we're going to be talking a lot about Canada.

There are 10 provinces and 3 northern territories that make up Canada.

Sunday morning pancakes

Actually, they are "weekend" pancakes for us, because we only happen to be having them this morning. So while they are Sunday morning pancakes today, they could just as easily be Saturday lunch pancakes next weekend!

Ruth and I have a bit of a tradition with weekend pancakes. As well, we do weekend bacon and eggs!

Great RV and Camping Deals

As you know, we love a great deal. In fact, who doesn't love a great deal? Even people with lots of money love to get a great deal. That could even be how they got to have lots of money! After all, they say that a penny saved is a penny earned.

Most of our regular readers know that I'm pretty good at finding great deals.

Opening day!

Well, it's opening day for most campgrounds here in Canada. Monday is "Victoria Day" so it's a holiday long weekend up here in the great white north. Americans have to wait another week yet for their "Memorial Day" May long weekend.

But things are not so white up here any more! Mostly very green. And they're calling for a beautiful weekend with sunshine and highs around 21C (70F) for the next four days.

We found our baby owl...

Late Tuesday afternoon, our summer employee Kevin was cutting some grass in one section of the park and he spotted our baby owl! We came and had a look, and sure enough, there it was sitting against the bushes. We were so happy to see it alive and well.

We had seen the mom in the same area, so she's definitely looking after it and making sure it's fed. After dinner, we decided to go move it and put it in a nearby tree. So we grabbed the camera and went to see how it was doing.

Our three favorite places in Mexico

We've been to 29 of the 31 states in Mexico. We're still missing Hidalgo and Tlaxcala. And while there are many places that we like in Mexico, there are three places have become our favorites. These are not normal Mexican vacation spots.

You'll notice that places like Puerto Vallarta and Cancun don't make the list of our top three!

Casino Camping

Back on October 17, 2007, on only our second night in our motorhome, we woke up in the Sudbury Casino parking lot. No, it's not because we drank too much, or because the engine wouldn't start. We had actually asked if we could overnight in their parking lot.

At the time, and even today, many RV'ers will overnight in parking lots if they're in transit. Walmart parking lots are somewhat famous for this activity, however we've always found that there are better options.

Casino camping is one such better option!

This mom is going to be busy!

Well, we're more than a little disappointed to say that there has been no sign of our little baby owl. Yesterday, Ruth saw both the mom and the dad in nearby trees. This is rare, because we hardly ever see them at the same time. Usually the dad is off doing... well... dad things. But, haven't caught sight of the baby. We're still hopeful that it's safe and sound stashed away somewhere.

Sitting here this morning, and we saw a deer come wandering into the bush beside our house trailer.