Day 364.....Sunday, January 3

Well, Jim left for work today....to Whitecourt, for we do not know how long.
Rather than sit around and mope about my man being gone, I made a trip to town and returned a Christmas gift that was missing parts.
I love the long line of evergreens along the road....they especially looked pretty covered with snow.

Day 361 - New Year's Eve

We had originally planned to visit our parents today, but because the roads were very icy last night when we brought Vinj and Kath home, we elected instead to postpone our visits to Saturday and use this day to get Jim ready to go to work on Sunday.

I made sure all his laundry was done and folded, ready for him to count out however many shirts and socks he wanted and them pack them into his bag.

Not the most celebratory way to end the year, but we enjoyed having the day and evening together, even if we did not have a party.

Day 319. Monday, November 30

Daniel has a job! He is working with his Uncle Ken. Notice his jeans have begun to look like Uncle Ken's jeans......more white drywalling mud than denim. LOL. Here, Dan is making his lunch for the day.

Day 308~Wednesday, Nov 18

Jim's truck broke last night. Donny A fixed it this morning. I drove it out to him at work this afternoon.

Day 300 Tuesday, November 10

I took my truck to Jim at his worksite today.....he moved his office into my truck then I took his truck to our mechanic friend to have the front end replaced. This is most of what I saw of my hubby while I was at his site......while he was getting all his paraphanalia out of his truck.

Day 292....Monday, November 2

Jim went to work early this morning but found that his wellhead was leaking. He could not get the services out to fix it today so he was home at about noon.

He worked all day from home.

Day 288 Thursday Oct 29

Drove out to DV this morning since Jim would be back in town by 1 pm then going out to check a new location. A perfect opportunity to spend the afternoon/evening together.

Jim had to stop and fuel up from his slip tank on the way out to the new location......

Day 270...Saturday, Oct 10

Since it is Thanksgiving weekend, Jim is not working - YAY! Two weekends in a row that he has been able to be home.

However, he came home feeling quite sick and our weekend was pretty full of plans.

Today, he had to get to the lab in Edmonton to drop off the soil sample kits from the last 2 abandonments he had done.

We made a stop at Costco to pick up some dog beds for the shed which Jim was planning to work on tomorrow. We also picked up some new jeans for Jim - in a size smaller than he has been wearing!

He also had some reports to write and paper work to do today but we wanted to attend the birthday celebration of our twin nephews in Sylvan Lake. So.....I drove and Jim worked.....

We spent an hour and a half or so at the birthday party for Joey and Titus.......

Then went home to regroup before heading out to church for the evening.

Day 260 - Wednesday, Sept 30

The day started with a call from my accountant......he had been looking into some confusing information from CRA for me. The news was frustrating....they had taken some of our payment for 2008 and applied it to 2010!

That makes a lot of sense, actually.....now they can charge interest and penalties on the amount 'still owing' for 2008.

Did you know income tax is actually illegal?

The interest they charge alone is immoral....the Bible calls it 'usary'.

The result of that phone call was that I needed to find a reciept for the interim payments we had made already for the 2009 year end. I could not immediately find them and it was by then 10:00. I had an appointment with Melanie for 10:30 so I raced out of the house as I was and set myself down for a nice, relaxing visit with my sister while she made my nails look pretty.

I did find the reciept I was looking for, after I got home.

I did not actually take a photo today, but here is one I haven't posted yet.








There is something about the consistency of railroad tracks........

Day 188 - Wednesday, July 8

I met the Ritchies in town this morning.....

Later, Jim and I went to Edmonton to pick up some soil sample kits for Jim's next job. We also took his personal laptop back for warranty work (again). We left under some pretty ugly skies and a tornado watch.

Andrew was not working so he tagged along with us......

I think he stayed up too late the night before!

Day 187 - Tuesday, July 7

The little girls have begun a Summer Reading Program at the library. They each go one day a week for one hour. That means 3 days a week for Lana. Today it was Sophia's day. Lana had planned to walk to the library and then wait for Sophia since it is only an hour long but it was raining or threatening to rain so.....Mom and Dad to the rescue!

I dropped Lana, Titus, and Sophia at the library while Jim stayed back with Emma - Jim was working (he had just recieved a call for a job as soon as it quits raining in the Whitecourt area) and Emma had school work to do. When I got back to the house, Emma found that Gramma MARKS her school work and then expects her to make corrections! THEN I got her to read a chapter in her 'Bible' (graphic Bible....or, in other words - comic strip format). Finally, we let her play the Wii....as long as she left it on mute since Grandpa was making phone calls for work.

The Goose Family is growing very quickly. The 'babies' already look like small adults:

Day 181, Wednesday, July 1

Jim came home late last night for one day at home - the powers that be wanted to avoid to paying services double time for working on Canada Day.

We started the day by inviting anyone who could to join us at Smitty's for brunch.

Rob and Lana, Vinj and Kath were the only ones free....

While we were eating, Andrew put out a call for help - his water pump had broken and he needed a ride to Camrose to get a new one then back to work to fix his truck. Jim and I answered the call, after we ate. We needed to go to Camrose as well, to get an oil filter for Jim's truck since CT at Wetaskiwin did not have one in stock.

Later in the day, as we were pondering Jim's 'office in a truck' problems, we wondered if Mike and Tor's old trailer would work for Jim as a 'pull behind' office so we drove out to Coal Lake to take a look - and to have a quick visit with Mike, Tor, and Kaden.

Kaden was really too busy walking around to visit much, but we enjoyed watching him explore his little world.

I forgot to pull out my camera until we were driving away so the only photo I have is of the lake.

As we were driving home, Jim suddenly skidded to a stop, gravel flying everywhere. He pointed out a large Grey Heron in the pond on the left. The bird stood silently while the truck sped by, sprayed gravel all over, sat idling while I got my camera and climbed out. Then, as I carefully walked as silently as possible over to the other side of the truck, he flew off.....

If you click on the photo to enlarge it, you can just see the bird toward the right side of the photo, in front of the trees. He was beautiful.

Day 174....Wednesday, June 24

We drove back to Rocky this morning to pick Jim's truck up from where it had been getting fixed.

It was still as muddy as when Jim dropped it off.....

Jim went to work, I went home, via Red Deer and the accountant's office.

Day 154 ~ Thursday, June 4

I don't know if it is true, or if I am just particularly unobservant, but it seemed that overnight the blossoms on the crab apple trees and the lilacs just popped out overnight!

This was the day Jim and I were supposed to be preparing to travel to Montana to visit Daniel, but at 4 pm Jim got a call from his boss - there was some kind of emergency and they needed him on a job tomorrow morning by 8 a.m. So much for getting ready for a short road trip/holiday. Instead, we focused on getting Jim's truck ready to go. (We really hadn't expected a call for at least another 2 weeks so he was not prepared).

As he went to wash the mud of early spring off his trusty vehicle/office, Jim discovered one of his tires was almost flat - and, worse....it was damaged.

He tried to fill it, but the 'thingy' on the air compressor that puts the air in the tire did not work. By that time, it was 7 pm.....he had to call the emergency guys at the tire shop and then drive in to Camrose to get new tires. He was not home until 11:00 pm. By then, I had washed and packed his work clothes and gotten his 'housekeeping' things in order for him - as well as started to pack for myself.

In the meantime, while Grampa was working on his truck, Seth was playing outside - mostly on the tractor. He got good and dirty and had a great time!

How is it even little boys LOVE to 'drive'?

Later, he did some exploring and turned the snowmachine ramps into a ladder...

Day 77....Thursday, march 19

A quiet day, since Jim was sleeping most of the day.

This is what I busied myself with....

A guy's got to have clean socks, underwear, and t shirts once in awhile.

I made some chicken soup to take back with him......

I also repacked his suitcase and filled up his lunch box.

We are thankful that he is still working since the road banns started to go on today.

After 'breakup'? We really don't know.

Day 76 March 18

Jim has been working night shift for the last couple nights...meaning he has been trying to get his body on a sleep all day, work all night cycle. So, he slept all day. However, he wasn't needed tonight but would be needed the next night. So, rather than try to stay up all night in an unfriendly motel, he came home.

The plan was that he would stay up most of the night and then sleep the next day until midafternoon when he would leave again.

He made it to 1:00 am.

The dogs are always excited to see "Dad" come home.....

Riley and Jim have a bit of a cuddle - something they both miss when Jim's at work.

Day 15...January 18 - Sunday

Began my day in Drayton Valley at 5 am but went back to sleep for an hour after Jim left.


I drove away about 10 am, spent a couple hours at home, then picked Kathryn and Seth up to take them to Edmonton to Kaden's birthday party.


Our family was the 'second stage' of the party.... the house was packed when we got there, but everyone else soon left and we had a family day with Kaden being the center of attention.


What fun to watch Kaden and Seth play together with all the toys!


Since the boys were all going to play hockey after supper, Keltie caught a ride back to Wetaskiwin with me and Kathryn.


Jim had a tough day today.... his swabbing unit caused a blowout - endangering the lives of at least 3 workers. He fired the crew after they got things under control. He never likes having to do that.



The Birthday Boy

Opening a present

Cousins, sharing and playing

Day Nine...Monday Jan 12

Jim called this morning with an assignment – find a thermostat for his truck.

I phoned my friendly truck specialists at Ford who called around and found that the only place in Western Canada that had any thermostats in stock was the GM dealership in Red Deer. I called and had them set aside for me to pick up tomorrow - assuming the roads are OK for driving.

I answered an email regarding the snowmachine that Daniel crashed, began working on paying bills, and bought an AMA membership for Jim on line.

Melanie came over for a visit this afternoon...that is a rare and appreciated treat!

When I let the dogs out tonight, there was a rig in the field south of us. I could see the shacks and the rig, and hear the motors. It made me lonesome for Jim and made me wish I could be on location with him – listening to the clanging of the pipes and the roar of the motors and being bathed in the artificial bright lights of the light towers.

I did not take a photo today...still getting used to this idea, so I will use an old photo of a flare stack and rig on one of Jim's locations a couple years ago. Unfortunately, I do not have one taken at night.

Day Six - Friday January 9

….warming up.

Slept too late, posted on MFM and read blogs of other Fave Five posters.

Made calls to IROC and Ing and McKee.

Calling IROC – dialed 1 – 403 - …….. recording said I’d made a local 10 digit call and it could not be completed. So, I tried again without the 1….recording said I’d called a long distance #, please hang up and dial 1…..Tried again, same thing….3 times! Called the front desk, checked the number – it ws correct. What the!?

Walked on the treadmill for only 10 minutes….half mile. My hip is crippling me! Has been, all week.

Long talk with Jim.

Went to Camrose to buy BD gifts for Seth and Kaden as well as a muffin tin and some things to tempt Kathryn’s appetite. Ran into Justin St Louis.

Home at 7…..computer for ½ hour…..start cupcakes for Seth’s BD, and make myself some supper….talk to Jim while he drove back to DV (late) then finish cupcakes.

0C by midnight.

Hips really hurting tonight

Day Five - January 8, Thursday

I left the house by 8 to get Bear in to the vet for his surgery (14 teeth removed)

The trees and grasses were covered with Hoar Frost…so pretty.

After dropping Bear off, I went for groceries.

On my way home, Vinj called – Kath was having a bad day. A girl from church was coming to look after Casey and Seth but had to leave before Kath was going to the Doctor. I said I’d come by 2:30 to help out.

A storm was blowing in…..it was snowing and blowing as I drove back to town, but it did not get as bad as they predicted.

I stayed at Kath’s until I had to leave to get Bear. $650 later, he has very few teeth but will likely feel better and eat better than he has in years. I can relate to the poor little guy. He will be upstairs with me for at least the next week or so until he can eat the regular food again. Then again, maybe I’ll make this a habit? He’s not much trouble.

Also today, I called about getting Jim's gas monitor recalibrated (had to leave a message in the end) and talked to our agent at Ing & McKee where we buy our liability insurance.

I cleaned and organized another drawer in the filing cabinet, and made a pot of taco soup.

Jim called on his way back to the hotel from his location. We had a long talk - for the whole hour that it takes to get to town. It is always good to have a long talk with my best friend.