Central Alberta – Out and About

Central Alberta lies to the east of the Rockies and is the most densely populated area in the province but you would never know it. The area is most noted for its vast productive farmland and ranches. The landscape varies from the foothills to the prairies with a multitude of waterways. There is always lots to do in this area.

We spent most of our time boondocking (i.e., moochdocking) at various locations in Central Alberta. The food, drink, and conversation never ran dry.

Our rig and a grain truck during harvest

View of our rig parked next to the wheat field

Drone view of our site

Swather coming through

A cloudy day on the prairie

Site as seen from the Morning Glories

Parked amidst the grain bins

Surrounded by beautiful flowers

Parked by a wheat field

Sunrise over the grain bin as seen from our rig

We were there before harvest and during harvest, at least for some of the farms. This meant activity and more fabulous meals.

Wheat in a combine

Combined wheat moving to the grain bin

Auger, bins, and grain truck

Inside the grain truck as it is being emptied

Norm changing oil on various equipment

Grain bins by a canola field

Newly combined wheat being moved into the grain truck on a smokey day from the fires in Montana nd BC

Norm checking out the wheat

Wheat

Grain truck

A perfect time of year for the garden. This meant not only lots of beautiful flowers but farm fresh veggies that were all absolutely delicious!

Sunflowers in the garden

Gladiolas in the garden

Butterfly

Norm digging potatoes

In the potato patch

Picking peppers

Absolutely delicious cherry tomatoes – tasted like candy

Norm and our niece picking fresh strawberries – delicious

Fresh watermelons

Choke cherries – they make an excellent jam or syrup

Beautiful flowers everywhere

But, there was work to do.

Generator in the back of the car to use with the electric drill

Norm drilling holes in Poplar stumps to fill with salt and water

Selfie showing stumps filled with salt and covered

Just some of the stumps we covered

Drilling holes in stumps

Drilling away

Selfie with a lone sunflower while working with the stumps

The last stump out of 99 stumps

Hauling branches away after trimming some trees

There’s were lots of animals around to keep us entertained.

Jade excited with the field of stubble of recently combined wheat – Harvest Happiness

Cow on road

Norm teasing Ruger

Ruger chasing drone

Meow meow meow cat

Sheep in Meeting Creek

Bull

Jade

Great Horned Owl perched on our roof – hmmm…..

Lucy’s cat

Horse

Cows

Hummingbirds abound

And, as usual, we listened to the howling of coyotes at night.

We had beautiful hiking trails to allow us to work off all the wonderful food we were enjoying.

A lovely area on the farm

A walk in the woods

Autumn is here

Dogwood

Old Ferry Point Trail

Autumn leaves on the trail

We attended a few horse events, the Alberta Barrel Racing Finals in Ponoka and the Stettler Gymkhana, all to see our wonderful great niece participate and win a buckle. Congratulations Lexa!!

Lexa participating in the Alberta Barrel Racing Finals!

Stettler Gymkhana – our great niece riding

Stettler Gymkhana

Pee Wee riding

Watching the event

Pee Wee

Flag racing

That a girl

Flag racing

Winners Buckles

The winner gets a buckle – Congrats Lexa

We visited Miquelon Lake Provincial Park outside of Edmonton to visit our friends who were camp hosting. A lovely campground with nice private sites on a lake. If were weren’t always busy moochdocking that this would be a great place to stay.

Visiting our friends at Miquelon who were camp hosts

Trail at Miquelon Lake Provincial Park

Miquelon Lake

Typical site, C216, in the dry camping loop

Another fun place to visit is the Rosebush Tea House in Edberg for a lovely desert and some tea along with some shopping of various items all set up in an old house.

Rosebush Tea House Edberg Alberta

Tree lined entrance

Front of tea house

Old car with Cuba license plate

Lovely area under the trees

Antique bikes

Tire swing

Dog wants into tea house

Flower wagon

Cute blue bike

Antique car

We also spent a day on the Alberta Prairie Steam Train which takes you on a return journey from Stettler to Big Valley and includes a lovely roast beef dinner and a train robbery!!!

Stettler Train Station

Lady In Purple

Seating compartment

Hallway

Passage between train cars

Bar car – boy was it popular

Bartender

Train station at Big Valley

Cool Tool Museum

Big Valley

Engine 41

Train Robbery

Besides that we had miscellaneous other excursions and fun.

Bashaw Fire Hall

Majestic Theater in Bashaw Alberta

Church in Camrose

Drone

Sunset in Edmonton

Grain Elevator and Train station

Grain Elevator

Farm field and slough

Viewing the eclipse

Sunset on the farm

But as the geese and the sandhill cranes started heading south and the motorhome and the car were being covered by frost we knew the time had come for us to move south also. Goodbye and farewell with fond memories!

Sandhill Cranes heading south

Geese heading south

Frost on the roof of our car

Frost on our tire cover – time to head south

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