Happy Thanksgiving

 

Just thought I would pop in and let you all know I am still around. Company, projects that needed completing, and my bad back have kept me from posting. I hope to get back in the groove tomorrow. 

Wishing all of my Canadian readers a very Happy Thanksgiving.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Menu Monday

 I am in a great deal of pain today. My back is killing me and I don't really know why. I can't sit for very long and need to get up and move around often.

So all I am going to do is post my menus for the week, and hopefully be able to visit with you all tomorrow. Wish me luck.

Monday

Turkey soup and egg salad sandwiches. Something very simple is all that I could manage today.

Tuesday

Leftover roast beef made into a kind of stroganoff. Served with egg noodles, and peas. If I am up to it I will make a coleslaw.

Wednesday

I pulled a container of chili out of the freezer. Probably served with toast. Plus the remains of the slaw.

Thursday 

Leftovers from Tuesday.

Friday

This depends on if Kurt and Kris will be home and want to warm something up. I will either do glace, potatoes and eggs, or pancakes.

Saturday

Smoked brisket, potato salad and baked beans.

Sunday

Turkey, mashed potatoes, corn, gravy, stuffing, pickles, and a salad. 

Off to move around.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. See you all tomorrow.

God bless.

Last Day Of Vacation

 I know I usually do a roundup of what has been occurring here on the Phillips Homestead, but thought I would finish with the photos of our last day.

We did a couple of small hikes, I was a bit disappointed that the trails were not clearly marked. One had to kind of guess where they were. No pictures as there really was not much to see. I was hoping for some of those elusive orchids that are only found here, but no such luck.

In the afternoon, we thought a visit to the Lookout Point and Bald Butte were necessary. We were going to hike, but in looking at the map the distance was a bit beyond us oldies. 

One of the signs along the way to the lookout point.

This was located in the lookout point and told the story of how the Cypress Hills was formed. It also mentioned how far one could see from up there. Harvey was amazed that on a clear day one could actually see 100 km away to the Great Sandhills. It was not clear that day, but we could still see Maple Creek, and a couple of the lakes that were 25 and 50 km away.

Next it was off to Bald Butte.

Ignore my finger, I have no way of knowing how it got in the picture.

The Butte is starting to erode so we were warned to stay away from the edge. It was also a very rocky trip to the top. 

After this it was back to the cabin, getting our last meal ready, and Harvey once again feeding all the little squirrels.

If you notice those squirrels are getting much closer.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

More Photos

 Just a couple more photos from our day trip to Fort Walsh.

Remember how the commander of the fort lived. Well this is the enlisted men's quarters.

Pretty spartan really. The beds were hard boards covered by pelts of various fur bearing animals mostly wolf or bison. Those were used to soften the bed. 

This was the bedroom of the leading Sargent, just a curtained off alcove with no heat.

On to our second day.

We started off with a little bit of a hike down into the park itself. Most everything there was closed for the season so no coffee to sit by the water and enjoy.

We did do a drive around the lake after we got back from our afternoon excursion. 

In the afternoon we visited a winery.

No pictures of the inside as I was too busy taste testing. Harvey was driving so did not partake. We bought a few bottles of fruit wine, and some jam and honey that are produced around the area.

After driving around the lake we went to the cabin and relaxed. Once again seeing lots of squirrels (of course Harvey had to feed them) and some deer in the gully below the firepit area.

Supper was once again cooked on our small charcoal BBQ and the firepit grill. Going old school.

Everybody have a wonderful evening. 

God bless.

Thrifty and Frugal Thursday

 Thrifty and Frugal

Tomorrow I will continue with the get away pictures. I have lots of Fort Walsh, but will only post a couple more before moving on to our second full day.

Today this post will concentrate on the thrifty and frugal happenings here on the old Phillips Homestead.

Since I knew the weather was changing I went out and picked all the green or half ripe tomatoes, the rest of the jalapeno peppers, the rest of the Hungarian Black peppers, the remaining bell peppers and more thyme and oregano. I also picked what I could of the lavender and I hope to get more as I want to make some sachets for drawers and closet. Those sachets will use up some of the muslin fabric in my stash.

Found more scraps of fabric which I can cut up into 4" squares to use in more quilts. I also found some lovely soft fabric to make into more tinkle cloths for myself. Thus saving on toilet paper. 

Mended a seam on one of Harvey's shirts, and redid a hem on a pair of my pants.

I froze more tomatoes, and today I made tomato sauce for pasta. 

Heat is not on yet, but things are pretty chilly here in the mornings. I am hoping that we can make it to mid October. 

Made my own hotdog buns (a little on the large size, but this is a learning experience).

Laundry was line dried.

We moved the hydrangea I had in a pot to the perennial bed to see if it will grow again next spring. Soon I will move one lavender into the perennial bed to see if we can keep that growing as well.

Used up all the leftovers in the fridge in other meals or as lunches this week.

Most of the groceries were bought on sale. I will be making another visit to the grocery store to pick up at least one turkey and some soft drinks for when Kurt and Kris are home. Canadian Thanksgiving is in 11 days from today. We actually eat the day before so I only have 10 days.

Used up a frozen package of pumpkin making muffins, as well as a cup of saskatoon berries doing the same thing.

Bought a complete set of towels from bath sheet to wash cloth to add to Kris's Christmas basket. All were on sale and I spent less than $20.00. I plan to get Kurt a set as well. The store had lots on sale. 

Pretty sure there are a few other frugal and thrifty items I have forgotten to list.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Midweek More Holiday Pictures

 While the first part of our trip looks fairly flat, by the time we reached Shaunavon the topography began to change. More rolling hills, valleys, and steep benches of land. We were entering ranch country rather than farming and the homes were so much further apart. Rolling hills are not the best to try and plant wheat, canola, or any other crop on. 

The first day we decided to travel to Fort Walsh. It had rained heavily before we arrived on Friday and the road directly through the park is not able to be used when wet. 

This meant we had to travel up to Maple Creek and across back into the park. Fort Walsh is a National Historic Site. The fort served as the headquarters of the North West Mounted Police from 1878 to 1882. Before then it was just an outpost.

The fort played a role in imposing Canadian law from 1875 to 1883, in implementing Canada's Indian policy and supervising the Lakota who fled to Canada with Tatanka Iyitanka (Sitting Bull) after the Battle of the Little Bighorn. 

While most of what was in the fort was destroyed, there were lots of photos and the government and friends rebuilt many of the buildings using the foundations of the old.

In 1873, the Cypress Hills Massacre took place. Wolf hunters on the trail of stolen horses attacked a camp of Nakoda which resulted in the massacre of elders, warriers, women and children. This event prompted the Canadian government to send law enforcement as soon as possible. 

The Mounties' efforts to bring the perpetrators to justice convinced the First Nations of the impartiality of the force and the government. The memory of the massacre makes the Cypress hills sacred to the Nakoda. 

First we visited the visitor center to get an idea of what life was like at that time. 

We then made the trek down to the fort, first passing the NWMP cemetary.

Heading down the hill to the fort.

This was our first stop. This small building was where the commander lived and did his daily tasks. I was surprised that Commander Walsh's wife never did live there for any length of time. She came to visit once.

This was the commander's bedroom. The bed is really very short, which is something you can't tell in this picture.

There were lots of furs on the wall. This one was a Cypress Hill's Grizzley. They are no longer found in the hills due to over hunting.

A replica of the trunk that was found on site that could have been what the commander transported his personal items.

The commanders personal kitchen. He did not eat with the enlisted men.

The guardhouse. We got to check out the jail cells inside and learned a little bit about how the NWMP meted out justice. Since the First Nations people did not understand white laws their terms of service were much lower than those who were not First Nations. Say a young First Nations person stole a horse (for coup) they might get a month of hard labour, where as if another settler did the same thing, they could and did, usually get 2 years of hard labour. 

Because Canada was still a British colony the fort flew the Union Jack.

More pictures of the fort to come tomorrow. I don't want to bore you all. 

In this picture of the flag you can get a bit of an idea of how hilly this area of Saskatchewan is. 

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.

Tuesday Tidbits and Stuff

 

I am going to start off this post by saying while we were over total budget, it was only by just over a dollar. Most of the spending was on fuel for our holiday. Surprisingly, I was quite a bit under budget for groceries. That probably will not be the case this month as I plan on purchasing some Christmas gifts and doing a stock up for the winter and all the holidays it seems to contain around this house. 

Now on to the promised photos of our trip. I am going to apologize now for the format some of them will be in. Uploading from my phone it seemed that I could not get them saved the way I really wanted them to be. 

We left right on time heading west. It was going to be a return journey as well to the area we lived in for awhile and where our youngest son was born.

The day started off very sunny and there was very little wind. As the day progressed it did get cloudier and the wind picked up making it feel pretty cool.

Just outside of Assiniboia we came across a windmill farm. So interesting as this was something totally new to the two of us. It was not there when we left Shaunavon and traveled this road back to Estevan. You will need to click on the picture to make it bigger.

Definitely going to have to click on these to make them bigger. The first is the lot that we had our mobile home on in Shaunavon. Some of the lots are pretty much junk heaps but there are few that have been kept up not too badly. There was a mule deer in front of that trailer in our old lot. One took off before I could get a picture. 

The next is the hospital where Kris was delivered. Seems much smaller now. 

The last is the school where both Kurt and our daughter spent 3 and 1 year respectively.

Then it was off to the Cypress Hills. 

We did pass the oilfield that Harvey worked in and he told me a story about this "bench".

He was told by his boss of the time that if ever in the winter he saw dark clouds over the bench to get out of the field. It can get very stormy and his boss ignored the clouds causing him to be storm stayed in the shack for a couple of days. Harvey always left the area at the first sign of a storm.

Went through Eastend, the home of a T-Rex. We would have stopped to visit the museum, but of course it was closed. 

Went past a small portion of Grasslands National Park, next time we will visit there. Day trip time as we can always travel up to the Trans Canada and head to Regina for the night. Well, provided we leave early enough. 

Turning north at around Consul, we headed towards our destination, Cypress Hills Provincial Park.

We arrived just after 4 and so could check into our cabin. Hmm, and they said a "rustic cabin". Not quite what I would call them.

 

Perhaps the outside, but man the inside, not in the least rustic.  

There were two bedrooms with queen sized beds. This is just one of them.

A bathroom with an actual tub.

A cozy living room and a fair sized kitchen.

The first night we rested by the firepit and enjoyed the quiet. 

More to come tomorrow.

Everybody have a wonderful evening.

God bless.