Central Alberta – Out and About

Somewhere on the open road

Out in the fields “pretending” to help

We spent well over a month in central Alberta and certainly wore out our welcome! But it was a terrific time. We spent lots of quality time with family and friends and enjoyed the farm life.

Earning our keep

Flipping burgers on one of the hottest days of the summer

Old building

Yes, one cat sat on the other cats face!

Checking the crops

Birthday party celebration

Barn

Cat

Those Young Guys

It was in the summer when British Columbia was under a state of emergency due to the over 500 wildfires burning. For at least a month the wind blew the smoke east into Alberta and on. The smoke would vary from day to day but there were many days when the sky was grey and the sun was partially obscured by smoke. Our eyes would burn and our throats were irritated and we had an overall lethargic feel. We hoped for rain and for wind.

The cattle gather round

Wheat field

Swathing canola

Cow

Canola

Peas

Wheat

Swather with a smokey sky

Canola field

Wheat

Campground: “Mooch” docking with relatives
Location: Central Alberta
Site: Farmland
Cost: $0 (included fresh farm cooked meals, entertainment, and booze)
Services: 15 AMP
Comments: Nothing could be finer than moochdocking with loved ones!

Parked near the garden

Parked by the garden

View of one of our sites

Parked near the grain bins

Beautiful flowers border our site

Another great parking site

Heading out

The best part (well almost) was being parked right next to the gardens for not only beautiful scenery but fantastic food! We spent one afternoon digging potatoes and then making palt which is a traditional Swedish potato dumpling.

Pumpkin!

Maybe a type of Coleus?

Apples

Mountain Ash

Apples

Getting ready to dig potatoes

Digging potatoes

Here’s his haul

Adding flour to the shredded potatoes

Mixing the flour and potaotes (then added some pork belly to the center of each ball)

Slowly putting the palt balls into the boiling water using a wooden Palt spoon

Swedish Palt cooking

Frying up the palt in the Nevada desert – more on that in future posts

And, of course, the flowers in the gardens were beautiful.

Petunias

Lilly

Lots of sunflowers

Morning dew

Sunflower

Morning dew on a rose

Bee on a flower

Gladiolas

Profile of a sunflower

We even managed to get to a farm sale on day in Barrhead, Alberta. No, we didn’t buy a combine or a seeder, but we wanted to!

Auction in the shed

Auctioneer is fully mobile in his truck

Moving on to the big equipment

Here’s a short excerpt from the sale. Notice the sky is smokey, all from the tremendous amount of wildfires burning in British Columbia. The smoke is blowing east into Alberta and further on. Those aren’t clouds in the sky, it’s smoke!

We also checked out the Alberta Legislature Building and Grounds in Edmonton while we were there visiting friends. They have a nice Visitor’s Center with multiple exhibits. We visited the Borealis Gallery and viewed the “Snapshots of Canada” exhibit which was quite interesting. We even watched a movie on the history of Alberta in 4D at the Pehonan Theatre (Pehonan means gathering place in Cree).