Willow Bunch

by

A Day in WIllow Bunch

L might be leaving tomorrow ( 🙁 ) so we decided to spend one last day together exploring the environs as I’ve been working while he’s been puttering around and doing some landscaping.

Before we headed out, he made me open my awning. What a heavy sucker! But I did it!

We decided to go back to Willow Bunch to visit the thrift store, the museum, and then try the food at the pub.

The thrift store didn’t have much new stuff, but it’s so crammed full we still made discoveries. L found a gorgeous leather man’s coat that he refused to buy because the buttons were on the wrong side. And then he found another bomber-type leather jacket that fit me really well and he insisted on getting it for me. Wow, what a score! I also found a nice light jean coat/vest and a squeegee. When we went there the first time, L found a giant stuffed clownfish (‘Nemo’), so that was rather hard for him to beat. 😀

We then headed over to the museum, which occupies two floors of the old convent. It is much better than the Assiniboia museum as there are more informational placards. The French left something to be desired, so I left my contact info as I am willing to volunteer a few hours to improve the translations.

For lunch, we decided to try the Jolly Giant pub. It looks rather intimidating from outside, but the interior is cozy. We both had a really good grilled ham and cheese sandwich (fancy whole grain bread and real cheese). L had the tomato soup (obviously homemade) and I decided to take a chance on the fries. OMG, they were real French-Canadian fries, super well cooked and very dark and sweet! Yay, I can find real French fries around here!!!!!!! They could have used another minute in the deep fryer, but I’m just being picky. 🙂

We then took the back roads home. L says that the next time I’m in Kansas he wants to take me to the western part of the state as it apparently looks just like southern SK.

by

Attending the 5th Annual Willow Bunch farmfest

This afternoon L and I joined up with C&C, Laura, and two ladies I met on the wagon train to attend the 5th Annual Willow Bunch farmfest, an outdoor concert put on by the musical Campagne family. Of all the acts, I best recognized Carmen, a popular French-Canadian children’s folk singer.

The event was so much fun! The music, a good mix of anglo and franco tunes, was excellent. I enjoyed listening to all the French chatter around us. L loves going to music festivals and had a blast.

For dinner, there was the option to buy ginormous grilled bison burgers with sides of coleslaw and wild rice salad. Charles had me try his burger and to my immense surprise, it was nothing like beef, which is gummy, rolls around in your mouth, and leaves a lingering taste. I decided to have one of my own!

For someone who doesn’t like red meat and who has had perhaps five portions of it total in the last fifteen to 20 years, eating that entire bison burger was quite a feat! It actually went down very well as the meat is very dry and crumbly and actually doesn’t have that much flavour. It is just very hearty. Dressed with tomato, onion, cheese, mustard, and relish, it felt more substantial than an equivalent-sized chicken burger. It wasn’t quite ‘yummy’ as I would have put some onion and garlic in the meat itself, but I really enjoyed it and had no trouble eating the whole thing. I’ll be danged! The venison on the wagon train went down well and now so has bison. Maybe I’m more of a game than domesticated meat person….

The only thing that spoiled an otherwise enjoyable evening was the weather. It was COLD, which is NOT normal for this time of year. Those of you who have read my blog for a while might notice that whenever I land somewhere, they have weather that is NOT normal. I may be cursed. 😀

by

Ever Wonder What a Miracle Sounds Like?

A miracle sounds something like this:

It took L about 10 minutes to get my generator going. He:

-removed the fuel line and blew in it to see if air was getting through (yes);

-sucked on the line till he got a mouthful of gasoline (the things this guy does for me);

-put in 25L of fuel to make sure I was well above the quarter tank mark;

-removed the cover from around the brushes (which I as not able to remove) and manually rotated the brushes to a clean spot that was not all gummed up;

– primed the carburetor by spraying fuel directly into it.

So this tells me that when I first noticed the genny wasn’t working in the spring of 2009, all I would have had to do was suck on the fuel line. The brushes were spinning back then and I knew to prime the carb and was doing so. *sighs*

But all is not copacetic as the exhaust pipe is missing a section. We are going to hit up the farm equipment suppliers tomorrow to see if we can find a replacement piece of flexible metal exhaust hose. We can then give the genny a good bit of exercise. I need to find a replacement air filter in the nearish future. When we meet up again in January, he will replace the spark plug.

I ran my AC for 10 minutes today and even nuked something in the microwave! COOL! 😀

We had a lovely day. He made a breakfast of pancakes with fresh blueberries in them and real maple syrup (what a treat for someone who’s been almost carb free for a while!). We went out in the morning and looked at the petroglyphs, then went to Willow Bunch for the fuel and to check out the thrift store. I came out with a few sweaters and a pink colander that matches my kitchen. 🙂

We had a late lunch of VERY expensive pizza at Willow Bunch’s Stagecoach restaurant (the toppings and sauce were 10/10 and the crust was a 4 or 5/10, but neither of us have had pizza in eons, so it hit the spot!). We came in, got the genny going, then I took him over to meet C&C. We came home to gab and then C&C came by a little while later for a longer chat.

Tomorrow should be pretty full with a trip to Assiniboia for parts and fixing the exhaust pipe, but things will get a little more sedate as I need to get some work done.

Having a guest arrive with their own house ROCKS. It really is very little hassle and disruption to the routine!

by

Baked Under a Prairie Sky

aSummer is in full force in southern Saskatchewan!

This morning, I heard some commotion at the front door and found this cheeky little fellow taunting my boy:

IMGP6930

He was not timid! I opened the door and he just hopped down a step. I had to grab Neelix by the scruff of his neck as he was ready to bound out after his prize!

After finishing my work for the day, I headed to Willow Bunch to get some produce, more gas for Miranda’s tank, and also to check in with the RM office about getting garbage pickup and a water tap.

It was a bad day to be on the road east since they were grading. Thank goodness I have a truck!

The gals at the RM office recognized me quickly from my emails. They will bill me for garbage and water until November 15th. As long as I can find a trash barrel, I can put my trash at the curb for pickup next week!

As for water, they said that they will send someone over tomorrow to talk to me about it. *all appendages crossed that he shows up*

The Willow Bunch Co-Op had some really nice produce, so I was quite pleased and filled my basket to the brim with the best of summer’s bounty.

I stopped at C&C’s on the way home to pick up some lettuce and green onions from their garden, and then went to work on the generator.

It would not spark again as it did the other day. I am so frustrated with manufacturers who don’t consider maintenance work. I went through the troubleshooting guidebook I got from Onan at the seminar and traced the non-spark to a section that is not accessible without pulling the entire genset unit. It has a two-part cover that is bolted and screwed in areas that you can’t get out with standard sized tools.

I am so irked to have gotten that far: oil good, fuel line clean, carb spic and span, air filter clean, 12V power getting to the unit and to not be able to clean and tighten some leads near the brushes!

I may tackle that bolts and such again tomorrow. By the time I realised how much elbow grease was going to be needed, it was way past dinnertime and I was getting the shakes.

When I saw a doctor in Lethbridge way back in the summer of 2012, I got the first full workup of my life and still the doctor could not figure out why I was just plain exhausted all the time and had been for years, which meant stress wasn’t the answer. He suggested that as soon as I had a two-week window of time with no social commitments, I should go on an elimination diet of no wheat, soy, dairy, yeast, and eggs to rule out a potential allergy that could be sapping my energy.

Well, the summer of 2012 at my mother’s was no place to try such a diet. Nor was fall and early winter in Hampton Roads, what with the holiday season. And neither was later winter and early spring of 2013, what with all my social commitments! I finally got a window of time after my Kelowna expedition.

So birthday cake on Friday notwithstanding (and this wasn’t a gooey sort of cake, but rather a lemon bundt), I have been off not only wheat, dairy, soy, eggs, and yeast for a solid week, but also all carbs except fruit, and no caffeine either. And I haven’t felt this good EVER. I’ve had no bad days at all and no withdrawal symptoms, and I haven’t had this much energy in all my life! I never ever thought I would get on the low-carb bandwagon, but something in my diet had to change and apparently that was it.

All that to say, I was thinking the other night about what to put in a tuna salad to make it creamy without using dairy and the answer came to me quickly: avocado. So tonight I whipped up some guacamole (with a Willow Bunch-purchased avocado), mixed in a can of tuna, and served a scoop of this over C&C’s lettuce and some delicious cherry tomatoes:

IMGP6932

Dinner was as tasty as it looks! I make my guac with lots of lime juice and garlic, so it is very flavourful and a perfect complement to the bland tuna.

Later, I will treat myself to a bowl of fresh local raspberries!

by

Grocery Sprint

Even though it looked like the transcription marathon was going to stop at the end of this current (very difficult) job, due tomorrow first thing, getting a few groceries today was absolutely necessary. I had originally planned to leave for Stettler on the 10th and didn’t want to leave too much food in the fridge, so I worked down my stores before realising that I’m actually leaving the 14th and that I would have to eat Neelix at some point to get protein. A gal can’t live off rice, veggies, and the odd bit of almond butter forever. 🙂

Since a) I was in a hurry, b) the truck was full of donations for the thrift store, and c) I didn’t want to do a giant amount of shopping, going to Willow Bunch made sense. To my surprise, my trip took me exactly one hour round trip!

The road to Willow Bunch was in decent shape and I actually drove about 80KPH on it even though it’s gravel.

I found the thrift store and Co-op (right across from each other) without trouble. The lady at the thrift store had me go around back through the alley to unload. It felt good to get that stuff out of my truck! She seemed pleased with the donations.

Then, I circled back around and parked at the Co-op. The food store is tiny, but the more I walked around, the better stocked I found it to be. Since the prices are the same as the Co-op in Assiniboia, I didn’t have the small market sticker shock I was expecting. In fact, once I manage to do a good pantry stocking run in a larger community, it would definitely make sense to just top up in Willow Bunch once a week instead of Assiniboia if I have no other errands to do since it’s half the mileage.

I stocked up on produce, including a 99 cent avocado, and then looked at protein. Like in Assiniboia, there was lots of choice, but everything was so pricey. Every time I have tuna (of the canned, non sushi variety) I think that I should start eating more of it. Since tuna was on sale for $1 a can if you bought two (which I think is a decent price for the Cloverleaf brand), I decided to go that route and I also found some nice looking pre-marinated pork chops for $4 that will make four meals, so that sounded like a fair deal. I am most definitely not a vegetarian anymore! 🙂

Today was the day Co-op members got their equity cheques. Of course, I didn’t have one (I’m told I will next year, though…), but that made me eligible for the BBQ. I wasn’t interested in burgers, but I was somehow talked into grabbing a doughnut and coffee “for the road.” Considering I haven’t had anything resembling junk food in a full week and the last time before that was about a week and a half, I have forgiven myself for my weakness. 🙂

The drive home seemed faster than the drive out, especially once I found the country music station out of Moose Jaw (turns out all the radio shows are on the AM frequency).

I came in and assembled a tasty tuna salad (using sour cream instead of mayo) and slathered it on some fresh cheese buns (couldn’t believe they had those; I am a sucker for them). I asked Neelix if he wanted the tuna juice and he answered by getting up on two paws and reaching for the counter. Still, he appeared dumbfounded when I poured the tuna juice into a bowl for him. He’s been wanting to go outside since we got here and so he’s been getting a lot of nos lately. He really enjoyed his treat!

It’s another beautiful, if not super warm, day and the internet has decided to work. *rolls eyes*

Oh, and before I forget, I have to give a shout out to Joni in Salem who sent me a tripod for my camera! THANK YOU! Having a post office right here in the village is such a bonus. I go once a day just for the walk and didn’t expect her package to be here yet, but the postmaster had seen me coming and had it out for me. I’ll be putting it to good use.