School's out for summer...

... Words that would normally send shivers down my spine! But as summer camp starts on Monday, I'm not too concerned! And summer is definitely here at last. We've had pretty much wall to wall sunshine all week and temps are reaching the high 20's. This weekend we are expecting highs of +36, which after experiencing -36 in January is most welcome! The only downside to all this hot sunny weather is the particularly vicious mosquitoes that we are now plagued with. We are all hoping for some very windy weather to blow them all away!


The children are all well, overjoyed in fact about the school hols! Leigh continues to be busy on the Prairie (the mosquitoes even manage to bite through their uniforms!). He did manage to have last weekend off though, which was just as well given the amount of champagne that flowed
following the fantastic news of his promotion to Lt Col. Well done Leigh, we are very proud!


Olivia has her (early) birthday party tomorrow and I expect the rest of the weekend will be spent at the splash park. I think it is fair to say that Olivia is far more excited about her party than I am at the prospect of entertaining 16+ kids!

Just a quickie!

I have just been looking over my blog archive which you will find towards the bottom of this page and have noticed that the footage of the children sledging, is now working! After hours of tinkering, it seems that for some technological reason (unknown to me!) it is now available for viewing! So take a l@@k! The blog is archived under 2007, and is dated Mon Dec 17. Ben is the first one down the hill,(it's amazing that he didn't take out a few pedestrians en route!) shortly followed by Olivia and much to Charles' frustration, I wouldn't let him go down (I'm such a bore!).

Rain, rain and more rain

As you may have gathered from the blog title, we have had rain alot of rain here. In fact it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that it has been on a Biblical scale! Apparently Alberta usually sees a couple of days rain a year, even less on the Prairie, so this amount of rain is very unusual. The Prairie has now turned green, instead of the usual scorched yellow and this part of Canada now resembles the English countryside. Lets hope summer does arrive before the Arctic winter sets in again!

Apart from that all is well. The children are busy and happy, Leigh is very busy and probably not quite so happy - he's been getting a bit wet out there! Despite the weather we did make it to a neighbours BBQ on Sat evening which was fun. The children have had their various 'Track and Field' days (Sports Day to the rest of us!), which they have enjoyed.

Hopefully attached to this blog is a recent episode of BFBS which amongst other things shows Ben & Olivia in their classrooms. BFBS have been out here filming the Med Man exercises and family life here in Ralston and it has been shown on TV here. There's some footage of Leigh briefing the Canadian Armed Forces minister too. But as they didn't do any filming in the gym or the Liquor store, I have managed to avoid the same fame!

Notes for the footage - Ben is stood at the front of the class (his 'show and tell' he claims!), Olivia is sat next to her teacher and is to the left of her shoulder when talking. The house shown (with the red car) is Marluth's house and I haven't been to the 'Prairie Rose' club since we moved in!

Hutterite Visit

Even though my visit to the nearby Hutterite colony was about 10 days ago, it's safe to say that not much would have changed there! Each year a bus load of us 'BATUS tourists' are allowed to visit the colony under strict rules - no photos and no questions about religion or thier personal lives but it was a truly fascinating day. As I said in my last blog, the Hutterites' resemble the Amish in thier dress but are more progressive than the Amish in that they use 4x4's rather than horse and cart and are often seen in Walmart!

The Hutterites' originate from Europe and Sects can be traced back to the 1500's. Persecuted out of Europe they settled in the USA, but moved to Canada after thier German language and refusal to help with the war effort made then look like enemy agents! Since then colonies have sprung up througout North America & Canada. The colony we visited were about 120 strong and when the colony number grows to about 160, the group splits to form a new colony. It is up to the Elders and Church leaders to decide who stays and who goes.

We were shown around the colony by some of the Hutterite children who got a rare day off from school & chores. We saw the school house, kitchens, living accomodation, dining hall, and all the barns and outhouses and slaughterhouse (not my favourite bit!). The children start school at 7.30am and finish at 5.30pm. In the summer months they don't have as much schooling as they are out weeding the fields. All the children leave school at 15 and work for the colony. No-one has thier own money and they are pretty much self sufficient. They all eat together at set times; the food prepared in the huge kitchens. They sit at long lables, the men and boys on one side and the women and children on the other. Thier homes are identical and sparsely furnished - upright chairs, no T.V, radio - not even a kitchen as everything is communal. And when they are not at school or working, then it's Church, Church, Church! They sing Hymns but without an organ or piano as that is not permitted. Nor are cameras as they are not allowed to be photographed, so there are no family photos around the houses. The children don't have toys (they wouldn't have time to play with them anyway!), they don't play sport and they have never seen films. Each year a family might receive $100 for new shoes; they only get new clothes when there is enough material for everyone to have something. No holidays, not even Sundays, and the only socialising they can do is with other colonies. Everywhere is immaculately clean - almost clinical.


Inspite of all that, they are such a happy lot of people. The children were amazing; so well spoken and confident, and all with great sense of humour's. Some colonies are more progressive than others - the photos with this blog I took at the Heritage Park last week. They are very rare indeed... I don't think it is very often that you will get a photo of a Hutterite on a Ferris Wheel!