Christmas Trees

Well I tried to set up Special K’s Christmas tree - which had been sitting untouched in the basement for 3 years - but it was just too big and awkward, so instead I put it on Kijiji! Haha! But first I scavenged three loose branches, wrapped the ends in a dish cloth and stuffed it in a glass: and voila, three mini-christmas trees are born. We have the red & gold tree, Kirt’s Christmas past tree (decorated with ornaments made for him over the years by his aunt), and the burned out lightbulb tree.

The light bulb decorations turned out pretty good actually and it only cost me a can of spray paint. You have to use your imagination a little bit, but picture a full size tree full of gold painted sparkly light bulbs with gold ribbon and twinkly lights. Next year, when I have more than 6 light bulbs I am going to try that! 

Sunset

Here's a lovely little photo of the sunset taken from the upstairs window just moments ago...AT 3:40 IN THE AFTERNOON!

Santa, you better be bringing vitamin D supplements.

Snowy day inside

I spent the morning reading about Nellie McClung and her plight for woman’s suffrage, equality and prohibition…and then I spent the afternoon in the kitchen baking cookies and drinking from a box of wine…something just feels wrong here.

What is also wrong is the cookie. The Cowboy Cookie recipe I once labeled “awesome” was not all I remembered it to be, so I had to make three variations before I had a cookie I’m not embarrassed to bring to the cookie exchange.

Here’s the recipe to save yourself some trouble should you want to make a decent Christmassy oatmeal cookie.

1cup margarine

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

3 cups rolled outs

1 cup red and green m&m’s

Cream margarine and sugars. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well. Mix remaining ingredients in seperate bowl then combine with the sugar mixture. Drop by rounded tablespoon onto cookie sheet. Bake 12-14 minutes at 350.

And if you want to make this a heartier, healthier, barley-farmer friendlier cookie…use barley flour and/or barley flakes instead of boring old all-purpose flour and rolled oats.

Northern Classic

Well the Northern Classic was a success. The home team won (4-2), over 5,700 fans were in the stands, and the weather conditions were pretty much perfect for outdoor ice. Here are a few pics from the night - they didn't turn out very good, but you'll get the drift.

 

Hockey History

Tonight Fort McMurray will make hockey history, by hosting the first ever outdoor junior hockey game. They will also break the AJHL hockey attendance record with 5000 cheering fans watching the game between the Fort McMurray Oil Barrons and the Drayton Valley Thunder.

This is big deal up here. The $10 tickets sold out in 54 minutes, and this week they’ve been selling online for $150. Crazy! I wasn’t fast enough to get tickets, so I’m volunteering my way in instead. And of course, at the last minute Special K was handed a pair or VIP tickets, so we both get to go! Except he'll probably get to spend more time in the beer tent.

Fireman Calendars

The 2^nd annual Fort McMurray firefighter calendars are now available. And yes, Steven flexed enough and made the cut – he is officially Mr. September 2011. While this is somewhat disturbing for me, as I will never be able to think of September or hot firemen in the same way, it is all for a good cause - and the teasing he is going to get from his friends will be priceless.

Calendars are $20 each with proceeds going to Muscular Dystrophy. If you want one, I’d be happy to send you one or have Steven deliver next time he’s in your neighbourhood. But put your orders in soon - last year they sold out before Christmas. They also beat the Edmonton and Calgary FD in sales, and this year they hope to beat Vancouver. So help a brother out and get yourself a calendar!

Dream Home

I couldn’t help but laugh when I saw this year’s Oil Barron’s Dream Home. Not that it isn’t a nice house or anything…it just isn’t quite what you’d picture a ‘dream home’ to look like, is it? It looks more like an average house you’d find in a Calgary suburb. But hey, that’s what $1.2 million buys you in Ft. Mac!

Halloween!

I love everything about halloween...except the SAW movies, those are waaay too creepy. We had a few people over for a lovely dinner of brains, baby poop and rotting flesh then we went to the Knights Rugby Halloween Party fundraiser down at Mac Island. There were so many great costumes and it was a Much Music video dance party - just like high school! Last night I thoroughly enjoyed scaring the trick or treaters - I didn't keep track, but we probably had about 100 kids. And now it's Nov.1...official day of eating all the leftover candy.

Six Lakes Quadding Trip

A few weeks ago we went on the neatest quadding trip to Six Lakes and the Richardson Sand Dunes. We left Ft.Mac on Friday morning with a posse of 9 (plus one dog) and drove to the staging area at the start of the Ft.Chip winter road. From there, we quadded into Keith's Lake and set up our campsite for the next 2 nights. The weather was great, the scenery and lakes were absolutely beautiful and the amount of sand everywhere was unreal! Who knew there was a desert in Northern Alberta? The quadding was so much fun too - the trail was really rough so there were some sore muscles the next day and some of our cargo, including one of the tub trailers, didn't survive the journey. But, it didn't seem to slow us down much as we managed to put almost 300 km on our quads that weekend. It was a good thing the boys packed lots of extra gas because we needed every last drop to get back out!

Miles and miles of sand trails

Kirt & Jeff at one of the 'Six Lakes'

Richardson Sand Dunes

So beautiful

Happy campers

Heading home and packing out the busted trailer!

Where The Highway Ends

It's been confirmed, the highway does indeed end. The gravel road ends about an hour north of Ft.Mac, before turning into a bumpy sandy trail through the boreal forest. In the winter, the trail is flooded and becomes the 223km ice road to Fort Chipewyan. And in the summer it's the perfect starting point for a quadding trip!

Back in Business

I just got back from a 3 week "working holiday" at the farm, so my apologies for neglecting this blog! Harvest is all wrapped up now and I'm back in the Mac with a backlog of stories and updates to post, so I'll get on that tomorrow. For now; here's a picture of the seed collectors in action and one of the local moose that likes to hang out in front of our house. 

It's a bird, it's a plane

no…it’s James Cameron! The Canadian movie man who brought us Titanic & Avatar is in Ft.Mac today to see the Oil Sands for himself, after previously calling it a “black eye” on Canada’s image. He wants to see the impact the oil sands is (or isn’t) having on the environment, so he’ll be buzzing around in his chopper for the next few days, touring the mines and meeting with oil execs (who will show him this) and Aboriginal leaders from Fort Chipewyan (who will show him this).
It will be interesting to hear what his official stance on the matter is once this tour ends. Not because his personal views are all that important, but you have to admit he can be one persuasive dude. (Have you seen Avatar? Don’t tell me you didn’t have real feelings for that magical tree!) Because of his celebrity status and the amount of media coverage surrounding this trip, his final verdict could really sway public opinion one way or the other; so lets just hope he gets a fair and balanced look at both sides.


**update**
Well it seems Mr.Cameron got a good like at both sides, because there wasn't a lot of news about his reaction; he left with a new appreciation for the complexity of the oil sands yet still concerned about the environmental impact. He said "Everybody has got their perspective on it and I don't think anybody's doing anything irrational. It's just a question of how these perspectives need to be reconciled". He also mentioned doing a documentary about it someday. So all in all, it wasn't that big of deal after all - which is probably a good thing.

Hellooo waterslides

The new Aquatic Centre is finally open for business and it looks awesome!! It has an Olympic-sized swimming pool, an additional four-lane pool, a lazy river, splash park, two water slides, a couple of hot tubs and who knows what else, I haven’t been inside yet. I figured I’d let the masses of screaming children get their fill first, but I can definitely see myself spending a few winter afternoons here pretending I'm in Mexico. And it’s all part of Mac Island, which I told you about in a previous post – so translation: lots of fun under one roof. So pack up the kiddies and come on up. Who needs West Ed, you can come here now instead!

Graffiti: Fort Mac Style

Kijiji

I just love it. I have the app on my iphone and I can’t help but check it at least once a day. If you don’t know what Kijiji is yet (mother), it’s basically a gigantic online garage sale. What’s great about it is that it’s local, so if you find something you want, you just contact the seller and arrange to pick it up. I get a kick out of the Fort Mac ads, because there seems to be an abundance rental properties, truck tires and engagement rings for sale. I haven’t bought any of those things, but so far I’ve scored a brand new pair of rollerblades (for free), a nice set of Wilson golf clubs, located a cat groomer, and my latest Kijiji achievement is selling Special K’s old computer printer (which he probably would have just taken to the dump) for fifteen bucks!
There’s always lots of high quality stuff to be had, though I don’t usually need anything. But hey, if you’re ever in the market for a used quad, work boots, or a piece of property in Newfoundland, Kijiji Ft.Mac is where you want to look first!

September Golfing

Here's a few pics from the Finning social club golf tournament yesterday, held at the Fort McMurray Golf Club. This was the first time I'd ever played here, and I was terrible as usual! Luckily, we were playing best ball and my team was pretty awesome - so awesome that we ended up taking 3rd place actually, yaaa! I can't get over how nice it was yesterday too - three days ago it was snowing, and yesterday people were golfing in shorts.

Brendan, showing us how it's done.

Kirt with his stash of balls! He disappeared into a gully, and came out with 40 new balls.

Hey, no wonder I suck, this isn't baseball!

Maiden Voyage

What a great weekend in the Fort! Went to a 30th birthday party, volunteered at the Oil Sands Discovery Centre's 25th Anniversary (face painting for me, standing around BS'ing for Kirt), played in a Finning golf tourney, AND took the new boat on her maiden voyage! The weather was beautiful - but fall is definitely here. A few friends came along and we spent the afternoon cruising around Gregoire Lake. The water was like glass, and there just happened to be a dry suit and a ski on board...too bad we forgot the rope!

The new vessel

Someone is happy with his new toy!

Jeff, Brian & Kirt

Claire petting the fish, with one finger. Cute!

Biking in Abasand

I tried out some new biking trails over in Abasand (an area of the city) and was pleasantly suprised! Usually I just stick to my part of town (Timberlea) and bike the trails that I can get to without loading my bike up. I don't know why, I'm lazy I guess. But now that I've seen the light, I'll be doing this more often and see what else is out there.
The trail takes you behind a residential area, with a few park benches along the way and great views of the Athabasca river. I had no idea this spot even existed until Steven drew me a map and told me to check it out. He forgot to mention the hill though...it's a fun ride down to the Horse river, but coming back was slow and painful. Made even more painful when 2 guys went zipping past me on their quads, laughing no doubt. Anyway, just another lovely little spot in the Mac.

The Athabasca

Not sure what you're supposed to see from here.

The Horse River

Gotta love self timers!

Raising Money for United Way

A couple weeks back we put on our boots, chaps and cowboy hats and went to the annual United Way fundraiser organized by Finning. Here are a few pics from the event. (The 797 truck is actually a dog house which will eventually be raffled off - lucky dog!) It was a FUN night – there was a delicious rib dinner, silent auction, and a funny-money blackjack casino, which you could use your winnings to bid on auction items at the end. Between Special K and I, we had over $400,000…which was not enough to get anything! There are too many high rollers in this town I tell ya! It was a fun night though and A LOT of money was raised! I don’t remember the exact number, but let's just say Finning employees are ridiculously generous...and ridiculously good looking.

(photo credits to Allana...just incase she ever sees this! :)

BYOB

Bring Your Own BAG! Today the ban on single-use shopping bags in Ft. Mac begins. That means no more plastic or paper bags at any grocery or retail stores in town – if you want your purchases to be in a bag, you gotta bring your own! The only exceptions are for liquor stores, take out restaurants and pharmacies (because no ones needs to know you just bought hemorrhoid cream!)

I think the idea is good – the city is trying to reduce the amount of waste in the landfills, hopefully reducing litter, and it might also help improve Ft.Mac’s environmental reputation. But there are definitely times when it’s going to be super frustrating. Like when you’re in the checkout line with an overflowing shopping cart and realize you forgot your bags. Or, when you run into the mall for one little thing, but then you see a giant sale at your favourite store, so you either have to go all the way back out to your car in the freezing cold to grab your bags, or, you have to shell out $$ and buy news ones there. Also I read in the paper today that some stores are worried that asking people to bring their own bags could result in an increase in thefts.

But I guess we’ll see how it goes! I already went to the grocery store today, cloth bags in hand, and I didn’t die. There might be a few raging customers at first, but I’m sure we’ll all eventually adjust.

Ohyesby!

Your Alberta plates aren't fooling anyone!!

Victory!

I am happy to report that the Bag Taggers took home 1st place in playoffs this weekend - woohoo! We had to play the same team three times on Sunday, so it felt especially good to kick their asses in the final game. Plus, a couple of them were douche's so the win was even sweeter.
The rest of the week was great too. Mom came up for 8 days to visit, which, coincidentally was the same week Steven took possession of his new house, so lots of time was spent cleaning, painting and picking out furniture. We also made a trip out to Gregoire Lake and Anzac for the famous deep fried pickles and found out they also make great caesars - top five for sure. Just throwing that out there incase you needed another reason to come visit!

Studying hard

Oops, I just realized that I haven't posted anything for almost a week, sorry faithful followers - please don't leave me!
Sometimes people ask what I do all day up here, since I'm unemployed and all, so here it is! Ok, not all day, but for a few hours a day anyway. :) I'm taking three classes right now, and they're almost finished - horray! I just have exams to write, then the next three classes start, and then I'll be done for good. I can't wait for that day! But, I must say, this life ain't so bad either! Maybe I'll get a masters next...

Real Estate

The one thing you hear about all the time up here is the high cost of housing. And it’s true, I won't lie. Your average newer starter home in Ft.Mac is about $650,000 whereas a similar place in Calgary would probably be closer to $450,000. Two bedroom basement suites are going for $2000/month and to rent one bedroom in a house will cost you about $900/month. The mobile homes are what really get me though. This particular piece of trailer park real estate, which is just down the street, is listed at $504,900. For a trailer! But, I guess it is in one of the nicer trailerhoods, so it's totally worth it. Yowza!

ps. Anyone looking for a room to rent?

Pepper Harvest

I have one plant in my “garden” – it’s a pepper plant courtesy of G & G Sackett. And what do you know, it’s still alive…and producing! I just picked these tonight, and there are 3 more coming along. Yay! I feel like such a successful farmer.

Marqua Lake

This is Marqua Lake, which is about 35km south of Ft.Mac. We’ve driven past the sign a hundred times this summer on our way in and out of town, but had never stopped in until this weekend coming back from Gull Lake. It’s a provincial recreation area and there are a few camping sites too. It’s a nice little spot, hopefully we’ll make it back sooner than later.