Ralston Rodeo

It's been another very hot week here in Alberta. The highlight this week has been the annual Ralston Rodeo; Yee-Haa! Trucks, RVs, burger vans, horses, cowboys and, of course, numerous angry bulls rolled into the village to transform the Ralston Rodeo Arena, aka 'Fort Whoop-Up', into a full scale Rodeo event. It must be the Canadian equivalent of a travelling circus that moves from town to town; bizarrely the next day there was hardly any evidence that the Rodeo was ever here!

This year we only spent a few hours at the Rodeo as it was so incredibly hot (35+) and we left earlier than originally planned to cool off in the pool at Medicine Hat. We had a brilliant time and got to see a few (short!) attempts of the cowboys riding the bulls. Alongside that the kids had a great time clambering over the various displays of armoured vehicles laid on by the Prairie Staff (as did Leigh!). The travelling cowboys are absolutely crazy & I am surprised that in our current climate of `Health & Safety` they do not wear crash helmets, let alone the event ever being allowed to go ahead at all! As you would expect, there were lots of ``oohs and ahhs`` from the crowd as each cowboy nearly got impaled on a horn or got carried off on a stretcher - but I guess that`s all the fun of the Rodeo!

It is a relief that the current MEDMAN exercise has just finished and Leigh has a few days off. The plan is to spend more time at the pool and have days out at Echodale & Elkwater. The children only have 1 more week off school; Ben is particularly gutted about that, but, unsurprisingly I am doing cartwheels around the garden!

By the way, don`t worry if you can`t understand the North American drawl - neither could the rest of us!

Wives Prairie visit

Well what fun! On Sunday night a bunch of us wives spent a night out on the Prairie to see just what our husbands get up to and to watch the final nights live fire exercise unfold. We started out at 8pm and were taken to CFB Suffield for a safety brief & helmet issue. From there we were packed in to the back of a smelly, dusty, green truck and were strapped in to what can only be described as some sort of roller coaster seat (all rather OTT I thought at this point!) for our next journey up to EXCON (Exercise Control). To get to EXCON we had to travel on what is called 'The Rattlesnake' - a very bumpy, dusty track on which we were thrown around and completely covered in dust - at this point we valued our helmets and 'OTT' seating and we all had scarves covering our faces as we couldn't see or breathe! Once we dusted ourselves off at EXCON, we were fed and watered and were given a briefing on what the whole Medicine Man (MEDMAN) exercise is about before being given more kit ready to move on to the Prairie. Packed again into our smelly, dusty truck, we had an hours drive across the Prairie where we were thrown yet again around inside this truck (I think we could be heard for miles with all the shrieking & giggling - not from me of course!) before reaching our final destination at Madden's Rock.

We arrived around 1.30am, which was when I realised that I had packed nothing of any use in my rucksack; the rest of the girls were unpacking chairs, blankets, LOTs of food and flasks of coffee - all I had brought was (a now very squashed) marmite sandwich and a hairbrush! Just as I was beginning to feel very sorry for myself, Leigh appeared from out of the darkness and took me off to watch the exercise from his very warm & cosy TSV (Training Support Vehicle). I had never really thought very much of Leigh's TSV before, but at that time in the morning on a freezing Prairie I was becoming a huge fan of it!

So, as 'Jack' as it was to abandon the wives in favour of relative warmth and comfort in Leighs TSV, I showed my true colours and was off like a shot! The exercise itself was very impressive indeed. I have to say I was utterly confused about what was going on - lots of explosions, tracer fire, loud bangs and soldiers and tanks moving around. A lot of the firing was going over our heads (which was slightly alarming!) and I was listening to all the radio nets from Leigh's TSV. Needless to say I couldn't understand a word of it! Amazingly throughout all of the noise Leigh's driver managed to kip outside in the rear of the TSV and only woke when Leigh shook him to drive us to the next point in the exercise.

Sadly, I had to leave to exercise early at 7am to get back & relieve the babysitter before the children woke, which meant I missed the finale of the 'Python' being fired - a very expensive rocket that makes alot of noise & a big mess (and apparently clears a route through a minefield)! But all in all it was a really good night and I have alot more sympathy for Leigh being very tired. It has taken me about 3 days to catch up on my sleep; the men were still working long after we left!

I have attached a little bit of film which I took during the exercise and have since edited. The last scene is the 'Python' being fired which Leigh filmed for me. Sit back, I think you will be impressed!!!

Happy Birthday Nick!

Just a quick extra blog to say Happy 38th Birthday to my older sister Nicola! Happy Birthday chick - fame at last eh! (well except for that time when you were on Swapshop!) xxx Lookin' good bird!xxx

Summer fun

A much overdue blog... Thank you for your concern in Saltash; no we haven't been eaten by dinosaurs, though I will use that as an excuse as I haven't got a better one! We have been without IT for a few days though; our laptop met with a rather unfortunate accident and is completely broken; sadly we have lost some of our photos too. On the plus side though we do now have a shiny new laptop which I am very happy with and am using now!

Leigh is busy out on the Prairie somewhere... and the children & I along with the rest of the Prairie widows have been soaking up the sun & generally relaxing! Last Friday eve we were over at the Commanders house as General & Lady Dannatt were out here visiting. He's a really nice chap. I wish Leigh had briefed me before hand though as the Canadian Chief of General Staff was out here visiting too and over dinner I asked him if he was in the Army! I didn't find out until later who he was! Oh well, it could have been worse; one of the other wives asked him if he lived in Ralston! Clearly I wasn't the only one who had no idea who he was!

I'm out on the wives visit to the Prairie on Sunday night. We go out at 8pm until the following morning to see what the boys get up to and to watch the final night live fire exercise, which is apparently pretty impressive. I'm really looking forward to it - it will be good to see what Leigh does out here after all this time. I bet the boys can hardly wait! Attached is recent footage of the children enjoying the pool in Medicine Hat & Ben skateboarding (for a change!). Olivia is first down the water slide followed by Charlie, I did pan around to try and find Ben but as per usual he was nowhere to be seen, pretending not to be out with his Mummy!

A little bit more exploring... (in the car)

Leigh had most of last week off which, with the exception of a couple of days, we spent mostly chilling out in Ralston. With lots of sunny weather and a fairly decent size pool in the garden we had another great week. We also had a visitor for a few of days - Ed Robinson who was out here 'working'(!) for a week.
We did eventually get off the garden chairs for a couple of days and visited the Provincial Dinosaur Park in the Canadian Badlands at Drumheller. It's about a 2 hour drive from here and is a really amazing place.
Apparently more dinosaur bones have been found there than anywhere else in the world and excavation is still ongoing. Some of the bones & fossils found there date back 70-90 million years. The Provincial Park itself resembles a mini Grand Canyon and has these really unusual rock pillars called Hoodoos, which also took around 70 million years to form. There is a great museum there too full of the dinosaur
skeletons which they have dug up. Whilst the children really enjoyed the museum, they were less interested by the amazing scenery & Hoodoos and much more keen to get to the nearby Go-Carting track! The Provincial Park is also home to the worlds largest (plastic!) dinosaur (left) which you can climb up inside and view the park from its jaws! If you enlarge the picture you may just be able to make out me and the children at the bottom of it!

The Great Little Canadian Roadtrip

Despite vowing that we would never hire an RV and go off camping with the kids, last week we hired an RV and went off camping with the kids! It was all quite short notice as friends of ours who had hired the RV originally bought one instead, so we took the hiring off their hands. After a very successful 'test run' camp at nearby Elkwater for a night we decided to take the plunge and head south to the US border, taking in some really fabulous sights along the way. We ended up having a brilliant week and we are so glad we did it.

We didn't travel for more than a few hours at a time and our first stop was near Lethbridge, camping next to the Oldman River. The campsite there was really good as it had an outdoor pool & great facilities. After a leisurely start the next day (kids sleeping in 'til 9am!) we made our way down to Waterton via Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump(!) & Fort Macleod. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is a World Heritage Site and is the place where Indians used to kill herds of buffalo by causing a stampede and sending the buffalo over a cliff...very efficient! Fort Macleod is the first post set up by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on the southern frontier and there is a replica Fort there.

Waterton is absolutely stunning; a beautiful turquoise lake set in the Rocky Mountains and it is on the border with Montana. The first night there we camped in the mountains - it was very basic but very beautiful. We made a camp fire and were joined by all sorts of wildlife around the picnic table! The beavers & chipmonks were most interested in our pile of fire wood and a stunning deer emerged from the bushes right next to us and was not bothered in the slightest by the Tingey Tribe!
We were all much relieved it wasn't a Grizzly bear; desperate as we were to see one, that would have been a little too close for comfort! The next day we moved down to Waterton Town Campsite which was much more civilised! We had an amazing 3 hour boat trip on the lake which took us over the US border and we stopped off briefly in Montana. So incredibly beautiful!

After leaving Waterton we headed home via the town of Pincher Creek and
also took in Ludbreck Falls. Just as we were giving up hope of seeing a Grizzly bear we saw 2 from the road as we were driving out of Waterton National Park. Just amazing - we think it was a Mother & Baby Cub. Leigh said 'Kerry quick! Get out and take a photo'! So I did! (Leigh would have taken it himself of course, but he was driving!). Sadly the bears look more like sheep in my photo! We stopped off for one last camp next to the Oldman River, and here we are now, back in sunny Ralston. But what a great week! We both had visions of the kids getting up a 6 every morning, jumping up and down on the beds in the RV; it couldn't have more been different - in fact Leigh & I were awake most mornings before the kids!

Sapper Supper

Apologies for this late blog. The week following Olivia's birthday party was pretty hectic and for the last 7 days we have been on a little Canadian roadtrip in our hired RV(Recreational Vehicle), which I will write a separate blog about shortly!

Olivia's party was a great success (no injured children!)and she was a very happy 5 year old, particulary with the sack full of presents she received! That week, Leigh & I also hosted the annual 'Sapper Supper' in our garden. Every year the Engineers throw a big party(for no other reason than throwing a party I think!) and our garden was
turned into 'Fort Sapper' by about 12 soldiers; complete with hay bails, fire bins, seating for 90, a large Canadian Canoe full of beer and a freezer full of wine...and of course lots of jugs of Pimms. Even the BATUS VIP Chef turned up to do the BBQ! The usual Sapper games of log-sawing & nails were laid on and it was a really great evening (well it couldn't really fail with the amount of alcohol on offer!). All 90 invited guests turned up and we then had about 20 more when gate-crashers appeared after the pub kicked out! There were still a few left in
the garden when the soldiers turned up the next morning to clear up (no surprise that Leigh was one of them!) So all in all I think just about everyone in Ralston was at our party - Leigh & I are now looking forward to all the return invites!

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!