A Year in Alberta

 It is sooo dry here, like 14% humidity dry. Your skin dries up, tea towels are bone dry, and brown sugar loses its moisture. I feel parched all the time, and feel like I can't drink enough water. The landscape itself is dry at the moment. Winter is the snow season, and there hasn't been any real snow since November. This snow is important as when it melts it feeds the rivers, and recharges the aquifers. Also, where we are living the bore water is gross; good for cleaning with, but not for drinking. So we need to buy 20L jugs of water. It is interesting to watch water consumption going in a more visible way. Like going camping and only having your jerry cans. Water is something I think about in Australia, but not to the same extent. I always thought I lived in a dry part of the world (and it is); but having the ocean means that the humidity level is generally lovely, and you can desalinate the ocean to top up city water supplies. Not so in Alberta. What they've got is what ...

  I got to play a game of hockey today (Shinny). Sooooo good. I didn't score, didn't handle the puck that well, but don't care at all. It was such a delight to play a game of hockey in Canada. It was great time spent with a bunch of blokes whose names I don't know, and who don't know mine. But hockey was our universal language, and calls like 'go go go' or 'wheels' and 'nice save' or 'change', the sport is truly global. I don't have much else to say about it, it was sublime, I love skating.

So Israel broke his arm yesterday. He was on a pony ride, and then Bons let him have a tiny amount of time with the horse (Mr Bubbles) under his control. The horse trotted and then loped, and Izzy fell off. He broke both his ulna and radius on his right arm. The bones stayed in alignment, so just a cast for the next 6 weeks. We had to pay up front at the hospital ($1100) but should get the money back through either the Alberta Health Care system OR our travel insurance. It brought up lots of feelings for me. Mainly around the feeling of inadequacy and ignorance; and all to do with horses.  I remember feeling this way when I worked at Circle Square, and even though I was not working with the horses, it felt that all the cool kids knew how to work horses. I ultimately learnt how to be comfortable on a horse, and even enjoyed it. But now I feel back to square one. I feel that horses are just walking injury-traps, and at the same time that I really want to be a great horse-rider; proba...

 I am living for a year on a horse ranch. Whilst this is not entirely new territory, as I did work for 18 months on a horseback riding kids camp - though I was the life guard for the pool, not many horses, the amount of time and commitment I am giving to the horses is an all time high. Currently I have to feed the horses in the evening, and I try and get out to help feed them in the mornings. I am also planning to seriously upskill my horse-riding abilities. I currently feel confident in saddling the horse, getting on the horse, and walking the horse. When it starts to trot I don't think I will fall off; but I'm not sure how much faster I would feel safe with.  My goal is to gallop at least once this year, and feel good whilst loping. I currently own all the cowboy gear, with belt buckle, cowboy short, boots, and hat. Now I just need to learn how to earn it. Today was my first horse-ride of the year (and really, my first of the last 5 years) and I did okay. I stayed on, even w...

'Twas the kids first day at school today and as we dropped them off there was a strong sense of excitement and nervous anticipation in the car. But we bade them farewell and left to run errands in town. Upon returning, not only did we meet their super-cool bus driver (Amy), who decorates the bus according to season (she's basically a real life Ms Frizzle from the Magic School Bus), but also got to see the kids come out smiling and excited to share about their first day. It is always a rare joy to get the kids from school; being a teacher sees me only able to do it about 5 times a year. I am also very aware that they may not want to share all their stories to their parents once they hit high school. But today was a good day, and we got to hear about push-up competitions and dodgeball in gym class, Canadian kids with large interests in Aussie animals, and optional wood-shop lessons. I am excited for the kids to start taking the bus from tomorrow and hope that it is a fantastic cu...

 1 week done in Canada This weekend was -17 both days, and since we are broke (money hasn't made it's way from Australia yet) we needed something free to do. So we decided to go to a local library, but stop off at a skating pond on the way. Well first we had to stop at a hardware store (Canadian Tire) to purchase kitchen gadgets, kids skates, hats, and a beanie (all super essential I promise you). Once we made it to the pond, the children got out of the car and took all their winter gear off in order to put it on in the correct order. This led to much wailing and chattering of teeth (-17 is quite cold to have your boots, hat, and gloves off). However, once we made it onto the ice and started skating, it was as if the finger of heaven had come down and touched each child. All 3 of them were seen sporting massive smiles, as they glided and shuffled around the pond. I love skating, and how it feels like flying, but watching the kids learn, and figure out how to move on the ice was...

  I thought that the hardest thing to acclimatise to in reaching Canada was going to be the almost 60 degree temperature swing (today was -20). But that has really been very easy, you just remember to wear your thermals, toque, jacket, and gloves and the cold is very bearable. The two things that have been hard have been the lack of friends that you can drop in to and most importantly, the sunlight. I know academically that the sunlight changes in Australia over the seasons, that the sun is not directly overhead at noon in the dead of winter. I also understand that the days are shorter in winter than summer. However, I'd forgotten how low the sun sits on the horizon here in Alberta during the winter days. It does not rise until 8:30 and is dark by 5 (and it was a much longer period of dark a month ago). I am struggling to wake up in the morning and it feels like dinner time at 3pm. I look forward to having more sunlight, I feel being South Australian that I, like most houses in Ade...

 Day 2 in Canada Today we did a school visit to the kids school (they start attending on Monday), and I was itching to get in the staff room, meet the teachers and start teaching some kids. I guess my inner teacher does not yet know that I am taking the year away from the classroom. It will be interesting to watch how I deal with not teaching this year. A significant part of my self-labelling is as a 'High School History Teacher,' but now I am an unemployed house husband. Something I (and Bonnie) will have to deal with is a certain level of financial stress. I have no income for the year (we knew this going into this year), but it turns out that Bonnie will need to find employment for a few months. Work at the ranch is slim pickings at the moment, and she needs to find probably 3 days a week of work somewhere. Either in Bragg Creek or maybe being a lollipop lady on the highways. I hope that when I read back over this blog in years to come, that this issue was quickly resolved. ...

 Day 1 Today was a laborious day of buying groceries, setting up a Canadian bank account (thanks Drew at ScotiaBank) and getting a Canadian SIM card from the phone-boyz (this is what Bon called them) at WalMart in Okotoks. What was fascinating was that everyone we spoke to during this time asked why we wanted to spend a year in Canada. They were absolutely gob-smacked that we would want to up sticks from the idyllic, beach-side, ever-summer paradise  that is Adelaide, Australia (not that any of them had actually heard of Adelaide). What made this so interesting to us was that everyone in Adelaide that we spoke to about this trip was sure that we would never return from the snowy, mountain-filled, winter wonderland  that is Alberta, Canada. Is this people dreaming about the awesomeness of other places, or not recognising the beauty of their own home? Or perhaps a little of column A and a little of column B. Hmm, something for me to dwell on and remember the wonders of my o...

 Day 0 in Alberta This year, 2025, myself (Danny), my wife (Bonnie) and my 3 sons are spending the year in Bragg Creek, Alberta. We have left the beach-side city of Adelaide and moved to the Great White North. We are doing this to re-connect with Bonnie's family, to show our kids their other country, but more importantly, to have a great adventure that we can look back on and reminisce with our kids about for the rest of our lives. I am going to be using this blog as a journal, to ensure that I can read over this in years to come. Also, to have a space to get my thoughts down as they arrive. Danny