Hello from claire, with the cutest car ever!

So I've been useless, I know. Exams, moving, harvest mayhem - who has time to write?? So in 24 hours its good bye to Yorkton. Its weird how feelings work, this is not the kind of place I would imagine anyone could get nostalgic about, and don't get me wrong - I'm not. BUT, the little donkey outside will be missed, the hay bales in the garage, on the way to the shower will leave a gap. The most insane sunsets in the world, do have something special about them. The way we know our bank manager, and post office lady and all the nurses and the guy who walks aimlessly around etc, etc. Small town stuff. Not the kind of thing I ever thought I'd miss. Oh and the afrikaans lady who works at the video store, who is married to a canadian farmer who has a lisp.

So, I am very excited about moving to the big lights of MooseJOW(thats how you say it if you want to be understood) It brings better work, actual friends proximity to an airport and a starbucks. Joy.

Okay, time to cook.
Bye

Crops

So, when in rome. Anyway, I heard a joke. Ready? I'll localise the first part for most of my readers.

If you are driving your car in Joburg and fall asleep at the wheel, your car leaves the road and crashes into a tree.
If you are driving your car in Saskatchewan and fall asleep at the wheel, you eventually wake up when you run out of petrol.


Its flat. (That's for you Gran. Oupa, you might STILL have to explain it to her ;-) ).


There are also lots of different crops. Therefore, I'm running a competition. First correct identification of each gets you a snail-mail of something or other (if you live in Saskatchewan you CANT enter! You probably grow this stuff yourself). I have yet to decide what "something" will be. I'm sure it will be awesome. And probably made of solid gold (-en syrup). On with the show.


That is all.

News and stuff

Well, we are very much under way. Well, not UNDER WAY, as such. I'm sitting on my ass, blogging, so how busy can I be, right? Well, things are moving. Well, not MOVING, as such, but WILL be. Friday actually. Since you might be reading this at any stage, it's Wednesday afternoon now (Wednesday evening in SA, and probably Thursday already somewhere. Actually, let me go see where...Oh wait - its ABOUT to be Thursday in SA. Hectic. Back to the news.) and we are moving on Friday. Picking up everything (all three items - one box and two suitcases. And some blades. For blading. Sweet) and packing them in ... OUR NEW CAR!!!!! YIPPPEEEEEE!!!!

Why so excited. Well, seeing as everyone has monitors bigger than 5 inches, you've no doubt seen the pictures already. Cheat. I cover up EVERYTHING below where I'm reading in case I accidentally see the end of a story. You should all do the same. Shame on you. So here it is.



Now, let me guess something here. Anyone who was made to feel ashamed by my SEVERE tongue lashing above (you deserved it) feels happy again, right? It's the affect V has on you. She is just so pretty and happy. V is the blue one. Claire is the red one. V for Vai (let me know if I've spelt this wrong, all you afrikaaners - She is SERIOUSLY quick. I've spread rumors that she has 175kw, but its only a rubbish 150kw. Dealers and poor research are to blame, but thats another story. A long boring one. I'll tell you later. I was kidding about it being rubbish). V for Via, as in Viagra, since she gives you... the impression she is the same colour as the little blue pills :). WHAT WERE YOU THINKING!? (If you feel bad, look at her again. The red one too)

So... I lost my train. OH right. Packing our stuff in V and booking out to Moose Jaw. We found a little flat after much hunting (which is hard from 250km away, but not impossible) and it's on a month to month agreement, so if it sucks, we can leave. Flexibility is key right now. We like some flexibility. That's why Claire loves me. Because I buy her those red sweetie things that look like licorice but are red and flexible and pull apart.

And because I make her try weird things like canned wine. Say it with me "What the hell!?" (okay, so you had to read ahead to know what to say with me, but lets try it again. Ready? One. Two. Three. "CANNED WINE!?" haha - tricked you. Sucka. Look at V again.) I'm not kidding about the wine. Look.


So that wine was actually a little while ago. Around the time of the rodeo, and the crazy insane hailstorm of death. But it was before harvest.

Harvest is like mad scramble time. Seriously. It's cooling down, and people are worried. Next thing, snow. Claire had her quietest days of the year while everyone was driving their swathers and combines up and down, providing. Bob would be proud. Socialism is alive and well in Canada (and it works - car insurance system for example - CLEVER!).

That is all.

What's dat?

Anyone know EXACTLY what the little matching hearts on the pockets mean? I could wager a guess, but maybe someone actually knows.

Storms and Cow-folk

Well, its been crazy here, meteorologically speaking. Lightning, thunder, rain, and now hail. Now, I say hail, but what I really mean is "crop-shredding-mayhem". Although I doubt the weather forecast would include "a 40% chance of crop-shredding-mayhem, and a humidity of 65%". I can dream. Anyway, on with the pics (seeing as they will speak 2000 words, and you don't want me rambling for quite that long).

And what do you do with that much hail? Hail-a-ritas of course.
Much fun was had by all.

So, Yorkton was mean to us. We wanted to go down to Regina and Moose Jaw for some house-hunting and car shopping, but they had to go and host the Ranch Rodeo. Who can leave town on THAT weekend? Not us, that's who. Also, not these people (because when else are they going to be able to wear their outfits)


So the day consisted of a series of events ranging from roping to herding, with some racing in between. There were some real personalities, like calf number 10 (he was a real fighter) and this lady, who was ALSO a real fighter (well, she looked like one).

Keep in mind that these are real, working cowboys (cow-people). They live and breathe horses and were SUPER impressive, for the most part. The had were lassoing and riding backwards and hauling bull-calves to the dirt. It was pretty intense. Look at the experience in this face:

He's seen some beans on toast. Yir darn-tootin.

There were some calves

And some cowboys (duh)
(cow-cam)
The highlight of the day was definitely the free-for all race-thingie. They let a bunch of horses go at one end of the ring, and had a bunch more cowboys chase them, rope them and saddle them, and ride back to the start. Mayhem.

It was another unique experience. We almost had some food from the local tuck-shop, but Claire felt that might be taking it a step too far.

That is all.

Hurry, hurry

These people are weird. A lot of the nurses I live with are also part time farmers, or at least their husbands are and they all have HUGE veggie gardens. Okay, so here is the weirdness - they are all making a mad dash to pickle or jam or otherwise preserve all their fruit and veg for winter. They are like hibernating bears. Plant, plant, grow, grow, harvest, rush and can. So there is a lot of swapping going on, someone has lots of cucumber, more than she can fit in her cellar, and someone else has too much beet, so they swap. I'm getting some of the excess fruit and veg in an attempt to help ease the load. But I have never seen anything like it. These people have basements of tomatoes and "fruit in juice" in jars (not jam), and jam and potatoes in a cold place and pickled cucumber(dill, not gherkin) and it just goes on and on and on. So everyone is hustling for harvest and I'm just watching, maybe come November I will regret not cooking up all the carrots I could and putting them in jars, but I'll take my chances.

Moose Jaw is on. YAY!!

WOW!!!

I intended to put up a little more "learning" material today, but got caught up in my animation, so didn't. Then just as I was about to go to bed, I noticed that the electric storm that had been brewing for an hour or so had decided to get a little more furious. Being the cool dude that I am, I whipped out my tripod and got exposing (because that's what cool dudes do. That and say "cool dude"). Check out this insanity...


Make sure you click the image - it will open up BIG and you can see the bang-bang!

It's late. That is all.

Being Foreign

It's weird. I never thought of myself as a foreigner, but that's exactly what I am. I sound different, I misunderstand completely obvious things and I'm often misunderstood. I'm sure I stand out like a sore thumb to the locals, but it's really quite liberating. People expect me to act differently, so when I do, they really aren't surprised. If I want to walk around with my underpants on my head, people won't look at me thinking "What the HELL is his problem?!", but rather "Hmph. Foreigner."

It has been quite a surprise how often there can be a language difficulty between two English speakers though. Blank stares and four or five consecutive "pardon me?"s are not uncommon. Sometimes I just give up and say "Sure, right on". "You bet" is another of my new favorites. I'm sure I make no sense, but they are expecting weirdness, so what does it matter? Besides, in a small place like Yorkton, me saying something strange is the most exciting thing that's happened to them all day.

Now I just need to see how far I can push this little game. Suggestions are welcome.

That is all.