Road Trip, and more

Dear reader,

Hahaha. So... here is my report to you all, mostly about my trip out West. The first pictures show you some other things from the week and weekend before I left, you can read more about it in the post before this one.

This is the staff of Jersey Canada at the office in Guelph. From left to right you see Jill, Phyllis, Ryan and Russell.

Wow, bald eagles... How awesome can you be... This is a picture of a fourteen year old one at the bird of prey show at the African Lion Safari. Later, during the trip, I have seen and pictured two wild ones!!!

Yes; there you see the Falls! With some surrounding commercial stuff (several streets look like Las Vegas, as far as I know how that city looks like). The ones on the right are the American Falls by night, straight, lower and smaller, but its definetily a good thing when the view of your hotelroom contains a look over these!

Just a beautiful butterfly


Tuesday morning around 7 Dietrich picked me up at Garsholm Farms and after a final look at the Jerseys and everything, we were on the road! First we had to drive North for quite some time, just to get around the big lakes.

We followed the coast of Lake Huron, till Tobermory, where we took the ferry to Manitoulin Island (the worlds largest fresh water island, just that you know), where a lot of native people live. The water was the clearest water I had ever seen (that didnt came out of a tap or bottle). Shortly after we arrived on the land again, we were able to head NW or even W, following the coastline (a kind of) of Lake Superior. The first night while I was driving there was a dead moose on the road, wow, they are SO huge... We slept a couple of hours in the car, besides the road in Lake Superior Provincial Park, till the sun woke us again. During an early bird walk we saw the two bald eagles, together in the top of a dead tree. After every step that I was able to come closer without them flying away, I took a picture...

Just a few minutes later we saw a male moose, and this one was alive! When we first stopped and got out of the car he was just looking at us and than he went on, eating the water plants till he walked on for a bit, totally relaxed. I guess he doesnt have a lot of enemies...
Before we entered boring and ugly Thunderbay we visited the Sleeping Giant Provincial Park, packed with almost tame deer. After a very, very, very quick visit to Thunderbay we saw Kakabeka Falls, where brown water thunders through a canyon. We drove till after midnight and slept in the car beside the road again. It is fun driving in this part of Ontario, ever since we left the ferry the road was curvy, hilly and not to busy, with an incredible view!

Sleeping Giant Provincial Park and my two travel partners for the week

On Thursday (May 18th) I woke up while the car was driving, just before Winnipeg. When I got up from the back seats of the car I saw that the road was straight, the view endless and the landscape almost flat. What a change! We arrived in Winnipeg around 6 am, drove through the city centre, nothing too special, and walked through the park with very nice sculpture part while we were waiting for the Royal Canadian Mint to open.

Yeah, lets celebrate the important things in life; the arrival of the Dutch in Manitoba!!! Other picture is of the Cadillac sign, with Winnipegs city centre in the background ;)

The only way to visit the Mint was with a guided tour and the first one started at 10.30, so we left this city after we visited the gift shop (how interesting!) and kept on driving to the West on highway 1 for many hours. We decided to try camping in a park for a night, so we drove South for a bit, till we arrived in Moose Mountain Provincial Park around 3 pm. The temperature was quite a bit higher than in Ontario, so emidiately changing of clothes was necessary. Tried to find a nice trail to hike, but there was not too much choice, so we sat down at a lake to see if the beavers would show up in front of their house. Not to much luck today.


Sunset at Kakabeka Falls

Friday morning up at 5 and heading NW towards Saskatchewans capital Regina. We were surprised how late schoolbuses filled with kids were still on the road and at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Museum and trainings centre we found out that we crossed another time border! Haha, so we were up and running at 4 am! Regina is a nice city with lots of green and space and some nice buildings.

We were in Alberta for less than an hour when the temperature of the cooling was 130 degrees! We had to sit down and wait, drive carefully back to Medicine Hat and visit friends to change to oil. It was after midnight before we left and drove on to Write-On-Stone-Provincial Park, very close to the U.S. border.

Sunrise somewhere between Moose Mountain Prov. Park and Regina

On Saturday we were up even before the sun, to be able to see the sun rise. It was very beautiful, even with my half sleeping head and half closed eyes (starting to get a kind of tired). After that we drove NW again, till Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, a historic site thats on the UNESCO heritage list. In earlier days the Indians used to scare the buffalo and they would run like crazy, without being able to stop when they arrived at the cliffs. We were able to get a first, misty glimp of the Rocky Mountains... Mmmmm

We didnt always take the highway...


Shortly after Head-Smashed-In, we started travelling North on the cowboy trail. After a while we had to turn around because a road was closed, but its not too bad if you have to drive a road twice with this much to see. At one moment there were totally blue birds flying around the car! We skipped Calgary and headed West, into the rainy Rocky Mountains. After a short drive through visit to Banff we walked a trail at Lake Louise. It is difficult to believe that the water was really that clear and most of all, so blue! The lake was still frozen for the biggest part and there was a lot of snow, brrrr!

Before all Canadian readers will think it, I better say it; wooden shoes, wooden head, wouldnt listen... Seems to work for all Dutch people ;)

That night we drove till the Saskatchewan River Crossing, where we slept in de car that was parked in some parking place. Sunday was our resting day, so we decided to hike a trail to Glacier Lake, which you can see in the picture above. It was just an awesome day, we walked from 9 am till 8 pm and whenever I was thirsty I drank the water from the lake or, when we were walking in between the evergreen trees, stream. Ice and ice cold!! We walked at least 40 km and it was just amazing how quiet it was and how beautiful...


Monday morning we drove to Edmonton where we brought a visit to the West Edmonton Mall, the biggest mall in the world. Thats where I bought my guitar; a deep red acoustic Fender, a beauty!!! After some trouble with finding human beings in Rochester, for directions to the farm, I arrived May 22nd around 7 pm at the Unique Stock Farm of Dave and Tracey Morey. The next morning I was up at 5 for milking etc. And thats what I am still doing ;) I am looking forward to the Calgary Stampede and the arrival of my parents and sister on the 8th of July, 20.30 in Edmonton!
My little palace

Greetings to you all!

Lotte

Last three weeks --> hope you like (cat) pictures!

Wow, here I am again, already. Don't ask me where if found the time and energy. Just enjoy it (mostly the pictures :) )

I was at Gord and Ann Striker's house and farm from the 16th of April till the 7th of May, so that makes three weeks. They live in Frankford, Ontario and milk around 50 cows at 6 in the morning and 16.15 in the afternoon.

Next to milking and other work at the barn, my weeks were filled with computer work and trips to cities. When the sun was shining too nice and I was too sick of the computer and my report, my buddy Baxter the boxer was my first and best volunteer to go with me on walks and runs, to explore the land around the farm. I've been told that he misses me... Next to the picture of the Striker's house you see the provincial flower of Ontario; the trillium. How nice.

The milk barn; tie stall, pipe line milking and with two rows of cows, facing eachother. The biggest brown picture is the milk barn, seen fram far away in the back of the fields at night. The white round one is the new barn for young heiffer and bulls and some dry cows. You see Gord milk a cow with the bucket milker, a good way to keep milk from for example treated or fresh cows from getting into your tank.
As I mentioned, I've had the opportunity to go and visit some beautiful Canadian cities. In the first week a went to Earl Vander Meulen (see earlier posts) at Wednesday night, and after a three hour sleep at the couch we were heading towards St. Hyacinth, Quebec. There was a sale and show for Jerseys, Ayshire, Short Horns, Canadians, Brown Swiss and that was it I think. We arrived at 6.30, the cows were just back from a shower (I'm serious!) The cows get clipped with a precision that you would think the clipper's life depends on it and when the cows are finally ready, there will be somebody watching them constantly in case they poop and lay down in it. The other job is to try to feed them as much as you can, so they look nice and full in the show and sale...
On our way to the show we passed beautiful Montreal, during the day I had more time to read about it and when we arrived in our hotelroom at night I knew that I was going to Montreal the next day. Too bad for the show. The city is filled with fighting history, and musea about it. I've also been to some nice churches and other building, I walked a lot and enjoyed going my own gang for one day again!

At the show in St. Hyacinth I met a Jimmy who told me that some of his family and friends rented a bus to go to Quebec City. The Holstein Breeders Club had their annual meeting overthere and Timmy's uncle did earn a Master Breeder Shield. The end of the story was that I could come!First beer in the bus popped open at 7 am, and we had 7/8 hours to go....
You see the view from our hotel room, so nice that I decided to fall a sleep in the window the second night. Next morning I've seen the most beautiful sun rise you can imagine. I'm not even going to try to describe it...
Again a lot of history with fighting people, the old battle fields (the Plains of Abraham) are a nice park right now. Our hotel was next to it. All the people from the bus went on farm tours on Friday and a diner/pary at night. The tickets were all gone, so the next morning I was the only one who was alive early. I enjoyed myself with seeing more of this beautiful city (it is the nicest one till now and the changes are pretty small I'll find a nicer one here) and we left the city around noon. On our way home I've seen 15 deer and two beavers!!!

It was time to go and see Ottawa, Canada's capital in the last week. Ann took me and her grand daughter Kaiti there on Tuesday. We left at 7 am, took some nice roads and stopped here and there for little stuff that there was to see. Arrived at 11.00 and after 'some' security we were able to talk to an advisor of one of Canada's ministers. After that he gave me a Canadian flag, super! Ottawa is called the city of tulips and everybody knows which nice friendly people started that ;) We had passes to go to question hour, it was difficult to believe that those guys and ladies are ruling this country... There was some serious stuff going on, but next to that I felt like home, during debating at C.S.R. in Delft.
We left the Parliament buildings at 15.30 and after almost half an hour walking we had exactly one hour to visit one of the most well known art galleries in the world. Some modern art; definitely interesting! And lots of older art. I think; the older the better. But who am I? I was pleased to see many Dutch paintings;
I was so excited to see this one.... It was incredible how I missed home as soon as I saw this one painting...
After a mall (all musea were closed after 5 pm) and an hour (!) looking for our car (we parked it somewhere under the ground) we drove home again.

In the barn at the Striker's, there were six nests of kittens, with around 25 kittens... One mom died, so I put the four of her in the fort of straw bales where three other moms already had there kittens. And mom number four got in and had three more... The scared one is Boots and the one with the big mess is Minnie (light and red) and Sally (dark) with a lot of kittens.

This is Pepper, Boots again and Snoopy nursing the two siblings of Boots.

If you want to adopt this little one, just contact me, I'll see what I can do ;)

A man that I met at the curch came by one of the first days and dropped me off a mountainbike!! It was just in one word fantastic to be able to bike on the hills and on back roads.

There was one cat living inside of the house; Shrek.




And here you see Ann and Gord, proud standing by there farm sign.
I'm sorry, I still don't have time to explain everything, but Sunday afternoon (7th) I ended up at a mall in Guelph, where Vicki Garrett picked me up and dropped me of at here room in a student house. The rest of the week was office work, I got picked up at 8.15 and was home at 17.00. And after some days filled with computer work I was able to print my report last Friday. I got a ride to the Garrett's with Jae (Vicki's boyfriend) were I was able to have a good sleep. Saturday night picked up by Tammy, and Tammy, Kaiti and I left on Sunday, after a Mothersday brunch with the whole family, towards Niagra Falls. On the way we enjoyed the African Lions Safari. Our hotel room view was awesome, again! Saw the lights on the falls, had diner in the Rainforest Cafe, with thunder storms etc and today we went to a bird zoo something, had a 3D ride down the falls, took pictures of the falls by day, again, and left to Niagra on the Lake for the Butterfly Conservatory. Beautiful!! It was a nice relaxing weekend, we had a lot of fun!
So, and tomorrow morning the big trip 'out West' will start. Dietrich (the guy that took me to the car show, see if you can find that story on my blog...) and I are leaving early tomorrow. We don't have too many plans, but we would like to end up in Edmonton (3500 km West of here) after a week or so. I hope that I've got time to show some pictures and share some stories with you once in a while, but I wont promise it!

I'm going to bed now,

Lotte

Surprise!!!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN....

I'M PROUD, EXCITED AND VERY PLEASED, TO GIVE TO YOU....

PICTURES FROM 'PENINSULA JERSEYS'!!!!!

TADAAAA!

Yes, it keeps raining blessings! I don't have the time to explain exactly how this is possible, but I was back at Jake and Annie's today, so I spent some time taking pictures and I even got the whole family all together. What more do you want??

So, this is the barn, the first low red part is the milkhouse and the office. After that you find the cows and to the left some of the young cattle. There is of course straw and hey in the mow. It is a little bit tiny, but you should be abe to see the sign of the farm; 'Peninsula Jerseys', 'the Vander Meulens' (they're trying to hide that they are Dutch... doesn't work for me..)



The barn at the inside; two long rows of Jerseys, standing with their tails towards each other. I already forgot the exact number, but I think that there are somewhere around 60 cows being milked at the time. A little bit more.



Now I've got your attention anyway, I might as well take the change for a little educational part on my blog ;-) What you see on the next two pictures are parts of the pipeline milking system. With this system, the cows don't move, but the farmer and his/her milkers move. Earl has four milkers, they weigh a couple of kilos each. There is a pipeline through the whole barn (the one that shines, a kind of), that runs down a little bit, so the milk will flow into the milktank. Underneath it you find the line for the air pressure. When you want to milk, you plug the two pieces into the right holes, push a button and put the milker on. There are milkers that will show you with a red light or tell you with an anoying beep that the cow is empty, but with some other ones you actually have to pay attention. I can tell you that it's an art to get it all right, fast and without sucking too much air into the milkline...



This here on te right is the heifer barn, where I spent hours and hours on those big hey bales, observing... The barn is facing the south, so that's nice on your back when the sun is out :-)

This is Jake and Annie's house. While I was looking at this picture I first noticed the front door, which of course, is never used, because we're in Canada (or is it a farmer's thing?)
Somewhere between the house and the tree, the ones with good eyes, can spot Earl and Sharon's place.



Here are some more heifers, just being their curious selves...





And here you can finally see the family; Earl, Sharon and Diana Vander Meulen on the left and Jakob and Annie Vander Meulen on the right.

Talk to you soon!

Lotte

New update

Hi everybody!

I might dissapoint you, but this post will be a very plain one. I would love to show you only pictures and just stop talking, but I screwed my last (almost 200) pictures. I tried to get them back and, so far, it didn't work, but there's is still a little shiney point of hope, back in beautiful Delft. There were so many pictures that I would like to show you, from dew drops on the grass with the sun behind it, from the last farm, the turtle that I spotted, the swamp and from myself, milking and my from bibs. Ahhhhh, but I'll get over it... ;-)

All right, I wont make it too long, reading isn't that much fun. The last week of March I was back at the good old Garrett's household again. To work on my report for a week. Just don't ask about it.
It was the first real sunny and warm week, so that made it difficult for me to stay inside... I helped Dwight in de barn with milking etc. (almost) everyday. Tuesday night Dwight took me with him, to a very inspiring bible study, that I wont forget very fast. On Wednesday, all of the sudden, I had to hurry to get done with chores, because Doug and Nancy would take me to Niagra Falls!! There is one picture saved (I don't know why one with me, but it's better than nothing..), as you can see below. It was a fantastic day, but barely anybody to see at this very touristical place.
I had already seen so many pictures of the falls, but none of them comes close to the real thing! If you could only hear them... They are so impressive!!!
On the next day, Tammy picked me up to go to the Discovery Spring Show (cows of course). It is very interesting to see how many humans (at least five or six) are necessary to take a picture of one cow! On Friday we put some new gates in, but upside down. Haha. But that was fixed in a couple of minutes. The only really interesting things of the weekend were that Dwight shaved his beard off and that Gabriel's second birthday was on Sunday. But I had to leave early, because the next farm was around a four hour drive away and Tammy also had to drive back that same day...
So the other two weeks I stayed at Peninsula Jerseys, owned by Jake and Annie Vander Meulen. They are older than 70, I don't know how old exaclty, because I learned that that's rude to ask. Their oldest son (Earl), who is also owner of the farm, lives next door, with his wife Sharon and youngest daughter Diana. We milked at 5.00 am and 16.00 pm. Next to the normal chores I did lots and lots and lots and lots of observing for my assignment (the reason why I came here, wasn't it?). The weather was getting nicer and nicer, with sometimes some rain, but we need that too. We had very Dutch meals, with normal bread for breakfast and soup and bread at night, and a warm meal for lunch. The influences from long ago... Another something was that Jake and Annie both had a bike!! So I went for a couple of bike rides, the hills around here (here on the east side of Toronto, the landscape is getting more and more hills in it) make you pretty tired. But already the first time I discovered a swamp / conservation area. I have never seen anybody else in there, but I've seen tons of beautiful birds (and gees of course...), a turtle and beaver trails all over! Monday night we went to Senior Supper in the Christian Reformed Church; knetterfat! Tuesday night Sharon took me with her to giggle-volleyball. Just a bunch of ladies / friends who rent a schoolgym every week. It took us two hours and still I wasn't tired at all!
On Thursday afternoon, Annie showed me Belleville, a nice town on a bay and Friday we went to 'Brigadoon', a Scottish play where Diana took part in. In the weekend, on Saturday morning, Earl and I left early, heading to Guelph for a sale where some of Earl's animals were sold. It was a three hour drive, but we can always enjoy the country music on the radio!!! (it's difficult to find normal music around here...) At the sale it was lots of noise, jokes and animals. But I met Jim and Melissa! (Sparling) It was good to see them again! O, before I forget, it is true that Jim isn't the earliest to start in the barn, but I had to say that he is always late back into the house again too! (And that's true) After the sale, we drove a little bit more further west for an open house. And again, talking, looking around and eating food from a BBQ. We were home late... and we traveled 750 km that day. Sunday we went to church at 10.oo and 19.oo, and we had two good services.
The second week was basically the same. I have been to giggle-ball again, to the swamp again, did a lot of observing, walked along 'Peninsula Jerseys' land, walked a trail along the river in Belleville, got a back road tour around the area (secretly it all started because Earl and I needed a Tim Hortons) and we went to church, quite often because it was Good Friday and Easter. But there is one fact that stands out between all the others... (You have to imagine drums right now) On Thursday I found out that not only my dad, but also my mom and sistertje are coming to Canada for three weeks this summer!!! Wiehoe!!! Joepiedoepiedoe! Kadenkkabeng! On the 8th of July (yes, a day before the finales), at 20.30 they will arrive in Edmonton.

On Sunday after the second time church, Jake and Annie dropped me of at the next farm. Who, where, what and why? You will have to wait for that story, because I'm tired and hungry and sleepy and my neck hurts from staring at the screen for so long... But I'm still happy, I hope you too

Lotte