8 April 2024. It's been awhile. Hello everyone. Hope all is well as spring comes in full force. Happy belated St.Patricks day for those who celebrate it. We did have a celebration here. 17 of us consisting of cousins, families and Keith was here also. Was a good time. Lots to eat. Corned beef and cabbage as well. Happy belated Easter to all. All 20 of us were home. Busy, busy. Easter bunny came too, much to the delight of the kids. Again lots to eat. The weather was nice. Sunny and warm. Kids were happy to go outside, feed the cows and generally run around. All the family is good. Charlie, the youngest is doing well also. Keith's son turned 12 in March. The weather has been great. Nicest winter I can remember for a long time. Geese were back 17 March. Grackles 20th. Crows 24th. Cranes are here and robins today. Snow is gone. 55 it has been for a bit and continues for a week for sure. If we can get some rain grass would green up quick. Wasn't much snow so we will need rain for pasture and grass. Was an easy winter on the deer, elk and moose. I always have feed out for them but this winter they didn't come as much. Easy to get to their regular food. Seen them in some fields all winter. They needed  a break. Going out this afternoon to look for some sheds. I had 4 young elk bulls go by a camera this am and there was only 1 horn missing out of 8. They carrying their horns for a bit yet I guess. Vicki is busy outside now, cleaning and anxious to be able to plant. She checks cows and feeds every day. We have 17 calves now. All is going well. One heifer needed a c section but that went well and the other heifers are calving on their own. Calving season will be done earlier than last year. July was the last one. That cow was not in calf this year so she went to town. Heaviest cow ever to come from here. 2053 lbs. Speaking of cows, I best go check. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

19 Feb 2024 And then there were 20. Hello everyone. Hope all is good. Our youngest daughter April had another baby boy. Charlie Dean Houston was born on January 30 to April and Dean Houston. Mother and baby are doing well. The 20 I refer to is now there are 20 of us. Wayne and Vicki decendants. We are happy, proud and blessed to have such a large wonderful family. Since the last update on weather. We did not get much snow till about the 10th of January. It was then also that we had our cold temps. Dipped down to 30 below for a week or more. Temps then rose to near 30 and has been quite warm since. Daytime temps in the 20s nights sometimes near zero. Next week warmer. Still only 6 or 7 inches of snow. It has been an awesome winter to say the least. You can see deer feeding in the fields most any day. 30 in a bunch one day we seen. Haven't found any sheds yet. One neighbor has 3 bucks in his yard. Of the 3 one has lost one horn. No stress for the deer to be carrying horns still. I did go fishing as the weather has been so warm and not much snow. I did catch reasonably well. For me anyways. We took a bag of walleye fillets to April and Deans after the baby was born. We all enjoyed a fish fry. Weather so nice I also have been trapping coyotes and fox. So nice getting around, still on the quad. I'm not sure the ratio of deer a coyote kills in a year but more deer will get to live. Twice I saw some wolf tracks where I was. December early and yesterday. They don't like my setup I guess as they did not volunteer. Cows are still out swath grazing. Will be good out there till the end of the month. Been an easy winter on the feed stack. We are only about 40 days from calving. Won't be long now. 40 to calve. One cow may be open. Hope not but if she is she will get a ride to town. Vicki has been planting a few pots with some kind of flowers. Growing well so far. Weather so nice she is getiing antsy to be planting. Too early yet as is still February. Well I shall be going. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith 

01 jAN 2024 First time to write 2024. Happy New Year everyone. Hope you had a wonderfull Christmas. Our Christmas was special as always. All 19 of us for 3 days. Our house was busy. Daytime weather was in mid to high 20s. I took the J5 Bombi on the pond beside the house and cleared the inch of snow off the ice. Adults and kids alike skated, played hockey, gpt pulled around on sleds, had a wonderfull time. Hot dogs and marshmellows for lunch. Fire always. We had a big turkey supper one night of course. All slept well after so much exercise and fresh air. Now into 2024, we wish you all a happy, healthy and sucessful NEW YEAR. Cheers. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

19 Dec 2023 I am not a baker. This is a joke I ran into somewhere. Google it and laugh. Hello everyone. It has been a while obviously. Hope all is well with you and yours. We are all good here. The weather has been fabulous so far and for the next 2 weeks also. We are going to have a brown Christmas. It's been a long time since the last one. We had a small storm come through in late October which gave a couple inches of snow and colder than normal temps. I thoight it was here to stay but the cold was short lived and the weather warmed and the snow melted. We had a bit of snow a couple days ago and so the ground is mostly covered. Weather the way it is and will be is good for the deer. The last couple winters have not been the best for the deer. This years hunt season saw sucess as good as ever, average score down some. Next year for sure will be better. On that note thanks to the guides and cooks for their labours and time. Much appreciated. And thanks to who hunted with us this year. We had our outfitter convention last week in Saskatoon. Best attended in a long time. There we get updated on the latest in the industry, see a bunch that we see only once a year. We also get to voice any concerns. We had speakers on various topics, border crossings, accounting, hiring, retaining, market place, social media etc. Since it was during the week we only got to see Alicia. She has a flexible schedule, even while working, so we had lunch with her on the way home. Everyone else was at work. Christmas is not that far away so we will see everybody then. 19 of us now. April is expecting her 3rd in January so will be 20. I think that will be it. I feel so blessed to have such a large family. Something so very special when we are all together. We won't be doing any sledding this year as there is no snow but we can skate on the small pond beside the house. Roast a few weiners over a fire. It will be good for sure. The family is all well and good. Other news as you may have heard. We sold our deer tags to Candian Whitetail Outfitters. Vicki and I have been contemplating selling for a few years and the opportunity came along we took it. We made a lot of friends over the years that we will miss. A lot of memories made and shared. We have not seen the last of each other. We will travel to see many of our hunting clients, if I can get Vicki off the farm lol. And we are always open to have company here. We do have the bear tags still and great opportunities to fish nearby. Talked to Bently this am and we will fish one day before Christmas. For now I will close . More to come later. In the meantime "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" to all. Wayne, Vicki, Keith 

01 Sep 2023 Hello everyone. Hope all is well and good for you. We are all good here. August has come and gone. September is here. It's been a while. Let's see. July I cut and baled the hay. And hauled. Average crop. A little short of rain in May. Excellent hay. The 3 girls stayed at the Loon Lake cabin as most years. Vicki and I did visit and had supper with them a few times. Grandkids had a blast at the beach. We had a fish fry on evening. Reg and I fixed all the leaky tires on the trailers. Some needed tubes put in them. Won't have to pump up tires hopefully. Took 2 trucks to the shop for repair. One transmission and one oil leaking, hard starting. A little more grief last fall they gave. Last few days of July, Vicki and I went to Saskatoon to visit the kids. We picked up at Ashley and Norman's  an antique breaking plow which I had purchased at an auction sale near them. It sits near the HH sign at th end of the driveway. August I built some hangers to put in one the seacans. Hung them then put leftover tin from the garage and vjoint on the hangers. Freed up some space in the garage. Vicki has been busy canning tomatoes, pickles and baking pies for the fall. Smells so good when she is baking. Keith has been vacationing with family in BC. Missed all the fires. Saskatchewan and Alberta still have fires but not too many and only a few not contained. British Columbia on the other hand has a bunch of fires. Even the NorthWest Territories has fires. So seldom up there. Some places finally getting some much needed rain to help out. Smokey quite a few days, depending on the wind. We put up some cameras a week ago about. Mostly looking for elk. One spike so far. Different deer and moose. No horns yet. That will come. Our elk season only 2 weeks away. Keith will make it home then for a bit. Reg and I will be going to the bush Monday or Tuesday depending on the weather. We put some cameras, take some feed out and check on beaver ponds.  We started harvest yesterday so we will make hay as the sunshines as they say.  I bought a new drone a bit ago. Quite an update from the last one. I had some cows out a week ago. I put the drone to the test. I opened the nessasary gates, flew high past the cows, turned around, come down the moved the cows right back to where they neede to be. Awesome it was. I will make use of it the future for sure. Well not much else going on. September will be busy for sure. Till next time, take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

13 July 2023 Happy belated 4th of July. Hope it was as it was meant to be. July 1 here was rainy so no fireworks fpr us. Not much exciting since last report. It has been hot a lot of days, mid 70 s and some 80 days. Excellent haying weather. Started cutting on the 5th and finished baling on the 12th. Was mostly an average crop. Needed another inch of rain in May. Kids and grandkids are all good. Alicia and family just got back from vacation in BC. April and family we camped at the nearby lake. Vicki and I went there one afternoon for Patrick s birthday party. He turned 4. Was a good day for all. Good news from April and Dean. They are expecting again. January due. Looking forward to that. Keith at work as usual. Will likely be homesometime in August and some in Sept. Yes 2 months till elk season here.  Ashley sent pictures yesterday of their barn. Painting has begun. It has a new tin roof, windows, lights and now paint. Good to see the barn kept up. We have the same family of deer in the yard very regular. Nice to see, just like pets almost. See deer, moose and elk in my travels. Reg saw 3 bucks yesterday am on his way here. Said they were pretty impressive. Looking good. My crop renter ordered 6 big bins and we spent parts of 3 days helping with the setup. Crops look very good. Hopefully weather cooperates and we can fill the bins. Harvest will begin in September. Not much else going on. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

16 June 2023 Mid June already. Time does fly. Hello everyone. Hope all is good with you. We are all good here. Vicki always busy in the garden and cutting grass. The kids and grandkids were all home last weekend for our annual Madden golf tournament. Our annual reunion started 25 years ago on my aunt Dorothy's 75 birthday. She is gone now but us first cousins keep the tradition going. Plan to come next year Cheryl and Rick and family.  Good to have everyone home. Alicia and April and kids will be home this evening as they are playing in a ball tournament tommorrow and Sunday. I have always enjoyed watching the kids play ball. Vicki and I will look after the kids. Norman is busy spraying the crop. Norman and Ashley will be camping at the nearby lake with everyone else come the end of July. Keith has put in 14 days helping with the fire fighting crews west of Fort McMurray and then north by Fort Chipeywan. I think everybody has heard of all the fires in Canada. Alberta the worst. Smoke went a long way at times. South Saskatchewan has been getting for a while. We had an inch in May and 2 so far in June. North finally getting rain now. Good to see. Closet fire was 3 hours north of here. With the rain hopefully the fires can be controlled and put out. Always feel bad for the displaced animals. Nesting birds and rabbits etc not likely make it. The deer and moose and bear should be ok. Reg and I made a 3 hour trip the other day to pick up some barley for my swath grazing. We saw a number of mule deer bucks and I was surprised at the amount of horn growth already. As much as 18 inch beams. See a fair amount of whitetail but they hide more so than mule deer. Fawns are big already. Have seen moose with calves too. Local fox down to one pup. 2 cows left to calve. One soon and the other a month away. Not sure why she wanted to be so late. We have 34 calves from 33 cows calved. A good year that way. Crops all look good. Wheat started to head out. Fingers crossed to not have any more hail. Well I best get going and look after my chicks and chickens. Till next time, take care, stay healthy. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

11 May 2023  The snow is long gone, frogs and all birds are back and most nesting. Hello everyone, hope all is well with you. Frogs made their preasence known 24 of April. Always awesome. With not a whole bunch of snow, and next to nothing for frost this spring there was hardly nothing for run off and things dried up quick. Spring was early and the grass is green and leaves out now. Good spring for the deer. My travels in the bush I found 2 deer coyotes had taken. Normal for the time I spent in the bush. I did find in my time in the bush 5 deer sheds. Some were in the yard. One fork horn on a skull. 1 moose horn and 1 elk shed. 5 point 5 or 6 yrs old. Keith and the kids were home on the weekend for a few days. Declan, Keith's son found an elk shed while we were scouting a beaver pond. Just a little 3 point be was happy. I am always happy to find any shed. Keith and family all doing good. Vicki and I heading Martensville for our youngest grand child Thomas's birthday. One year old. Alicia and April taking Vicki greenhouse shopping for mothers day coming up. Keith's kids are all in ball and Alicia's oldest as well. Everyone is doing good. Ashley and Norman are busy seeding now. My renter started seeding here on the last day of April. We have never seeded in April before and usually a week into May. The weather has been warm though. Most days in the 70 s and few at 80 degrees. More warm weather coming too. We did have April showers but nothing in May so far. Wheat is all in here and the canola and a little oats will be next week. Then it can rain some. Calving is near done. Numbers wise. 6 left, but they will take a month. All went well. Everybody has a calf. I saw a cow moose with her calf the other day. Calf was good size already. Haven't seen any fawns yet but soon for sure. Lots of deer I see so should be a good fawn crop. Early grass should result in good horn growth. Fingers crossed. Vicki has all of her lawn ornaments out, leaves picked up and lawn mowere out. She is anxious. I will change oil and service. Make sure all is good to go. I am on my way out to harrow one field of pasture that was disced this spring and check culverts the beaver had plugged. They usually don't bother till August. A pest they are. Well take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

April 2023 Happy belated St.Patricks day. Hello everyone, hope all is well and good with you. We are all good here. We did have a gathering for St.Patrick s. A good time for sure. All my local cousins were in attendance. No corned beef though. Hard to find. Not a whole bunch going on. We have started calving and have 9 now. Going well so far. 5 of the 6 heifers have calved and on their own. Likeing that. We did change the bull we use on heifers. Working out. Easter is upon us here right quick. My 3 daughters and families will be here today and tomrrow. Keith and family Saturday. Vicki has the Easter baskets made up along with an easter egg hunt and egg coloring. The kids will be busy. We will put the v joint on the main wall of the garage through easter. Once Easter is over I will make a trip out to the bush to pick up a few cameras and have a look around. Weather has been a bit different lately, cold at night and quite warm during the day. Starting tommorow spring will bust loose. We await. I have found 3 sheds near the yard and will look for more once the snow has left. My neighbor and I share the same deer and so it has been I find one side he finds the other side. We get together to compare and trade. Many birds of spring have been here for a while. Grackles allways the first to come mid March. Song birds, crows have been for a while  and geese now have arrived. Can t wait for the frogs to rejoice their chorus.  Vicki is waiting to go and feed the cows. I best carry. Stay healthy and safe everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

15Feb 2023 Update for our Hunting season 2023 We have decided to go back to hunting Monday thro to Saturday.  So our first week of hunt will start on Oct 30 this year and go to Nov 4th. West Jet has announced yesterday there will be direct flights from Minneapolis to Saskatoon later on this summer. Please check with West Jet if this interests you as we all know the things can change with the airlines. We hope this change will work better as our hunters that are still in the workforce were having to take extra days off as their hunt started in the middle of the week. We're having a mild february which is nice 0 to minus ten. Also makes the winter go by much faster. I better  get outside and feed the cows hope everyone is doing good. 

Wayne, Vicki and Keith

 

7 Feb 2023 Happy belated Happy New Year. Hello everyone. 2022 is gone and we are now into 2023. Hope it is going as good as you wished. All good here. Always happy to flip the calender to a new year and month. From January to spring is closer everyday. Days are getting longer. January gone now too. We had an exceptional January weather wise. Only a few nights down to 0 F. Awesome. Makes a nice winter. February warm too. Lots of 20 s and warm for 2 weeks. Only about 2 inches of snow in January as well. I have found 2 sheds in the yard and my neighbor has found 4. Deer are shedding now. I had a few cameras out and the moose still had their horns . Google says moose usually shed their horns late December. Still on late January. They must be likeing the winter. The kids and grandkids were all home for Christmas. Was a good time for sure. Grandkids are all a year older than last year and had a blast. Family and family time is the best ever. To be cherished. We are blessed to have a large family (19 of us now)all get along and enjoy our time together. Last October Alicia, Dean and I cleared a trail to a pond near the house. Christmas time the weather was warm and we dressed the kids, cleared off a patch of ice and skated, played hockey and just had fun. Gramma made hot hot chocolate and we had a fire. Kids all slepted well with all the excercise and fresh air. Vicki helps with chores now. She enjoys feeding the cows some grain and the cats at the barn. Fresh air and excercise is good gor anyone. She like the one bull though. Says he gives her a funny look sometimes. Just be careful I tell her. Well not much else going on so I will sign off. Time to put wood on the fire and feed the chickens. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

25 Dec 2022 Merry Christmas to one and all. I m hoping Santa made it down your chimney last night. Enjoy this time. Sometime early fall a had a phone call from someone looking for a couple spots next fall. I was driving and before I could write his info down I lost it. If you happen to read this this please call me. Thanks, Wayne

13 Dec 2022 Another deer season is behind us. Hello everyone, hope your hunt season went well or is going well. We here at HorseHead would like to extend our sincere thanks to all who hunted with us this year. Was a little trying but we made it through. A big thanks to Vicki and Helen in the kitchen. Great as always. To Keith who takes and makes the time to be here for the season. Thanks Keith. Reg who helped out a lot this year. All through harvest right up to December. Thanks Reg. Great job. Kevin and Benson, our new guides. Hard working, personable, ambitious plus. They are career guides. Both guide bear in the spring, guide fish camps in the summer, birds in the fall and now deer for us. Well done guys. Thank You. Also to the families of the guides. I know there is a lot of time apart. Sometimes not easy. I appreciate your patience and understanding. Season is over now. Time to be together once more. Our season was not a banner year. We did however take some good animals. Sucess was down some but not terrible. Average size was down some. I was happy with the number of deer though. Most stands as many deer as ever. Some stands down of course. We fed them well again in hopes of getting them into the winter in good shape. I will be making another trip out in the days to come. Weather has been normal I would say so far. which is good. Normal 365 would be perfect. Next year is next year. We ll cross our fingers. Christmas is soon here so look forward to family, friends, turkey supper, a drink and a preasent maybe. Offer up a prayer of thanks. Merry Christmas to all if you don't hear from me sooner. Wayne, Vicki, Keith    I will get pictures up as soon as my it person gets here. Just a note, prices for next year going up to 5500. We ve all seen the price of everything go up and don't think it will retreat

Oct 2022 We have 2 spots open Thanksgiving week and the last week if anyone is interested. Oct is here, fall is here. Hello everyone. Hope all is good and well with you. We are all good here. We are enjoying the good weather. It has been very nice for a long time and for the time of the year. Harvest came and went. Good yields and good weather for it. A stressless harvest. It is dry now as there has been very precipitation for a couple months. The pastures and grass did last well as we had lots of rain earlier. Crop is in the bin, bales are all in and we are busy baiting. Have been in the bush for a while now. Seeing lots of deer when baiting and the odd moose. So nice out there. Roads and trails are dry. Beaver do have their program in effect yet though. Some stands will have to wait for snow to get baited. that's not too far away.  I did not get an elk this year. Heard them, seen them. Oh so late in the evening and early morning move before daylight. More vocal than other years this fall. That's hunting. Late moose season I will get out and hopefully harvest an animal. I had a contractor come and dig some post holes for me this morning, around the corrals. I will now go and pound the posts in. Take care everyone. See you soon. Wayne, Vicki, Keith 

18 Sep 2022 It all starts with one leaf falling to the earth from a tree. Hello everyone. Hope all is fine with you and yours. It is fall now and many are into archery hunting, scouting upcoming seasons and the prep that goes with it. Keith and I have been the same here for our elk season. Keith has been home a few times this fall. We put up a few stands and checked cameras. Things were looking good. The weather, more precicely the wind did not cooperate this time. Hard to get to the stand undetected. Elk on camera in position but rather than busting them out we left them alone. The big bulls have gathered up the cows and have them hid away. More on that at the end of the season. We had one good 4x4 deer on our elk cameras and have seen numerous bucks in our travels. No shortage of deer. As time and cameras go out more bucks will be seen for sure. Vicki and I went down to see our daughters and families near Saskatoon. They are well and happy. The grankids are are older and can talk and listen and interact. Very good indeed. Was good to see them all. They will be home on our thanksgiving in October. They are already asking if there will be any harvest activities then. We may be done by then but there will be some kind of harvest procedure left. We can cut some winter supply of wood if nothing else. The peas and lentils are off here. Good yields. Canola is swathed. I will start swathing my oats today. The second cut alfalfa is cut and baled and stacked. Keith was home for that. 730 square bales. Hay crop was good with ample rain in June. Excellent weather for baling. More rain once it was baled to make an excellent second crop. I made also 40 small round baled and 20 or so large round second cut bales. We have alot of hot weather in August and into Sep. Was good to mature crops and aid in harvest conditions. Once harvest is done we will head to the bush and start baiting etc. Will be nice to get back up there. See how much water the beavers have dammed up. Reg has been helping me lots and is looking forward to getting back in the bush also. Vicki has been busy canning tomatoes, beans and jam. Cucumbers did well this year also. Beets are in. Carrots, some of will be brought in today. Potatoes later. Bumper crop of apples this year too. We did some grocery shopping for the hunt season yesterday and prices have gone up some more. I m sure you have noticed this as well. Ther s more to that but I won't go any further. I shall go now. Take care everyone and have a good day. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

4 July 2022 Happy Independence day. Hello everyone. Hope all is well with you as you celebrate this day. We are all well here. Biggest news since last update is the announcement of April and Dead adding to to the number of grandkids Vicki and I have. It is now 9. Thomas Wayne was born on May 8. Mothers day here. 6 and a half lbs. Relatively quick delivery. All good. Congratulations April and Dean. We are happy and proud and blessed. Keith and family, along with their good friends and family are camped at the lake nearby for a week. All the kids will be camped at the lake a month from now. The water is pretty cold yet as there has not been a lot of hot weather. Some days 70s but not a lot. Lots of rain in June. Crops are doing well with all the rain. Lentils, though do not like it so wet. Sunshine and heat is what we need. We finished calving a week ago. She was the oldest cow on the ranch so late is ok. 34 cows calved and each has a calf. Pastures look great. Hay crops are looking good as well. We ll I shall go let the chickens out. Have a good everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

1 May 2022 April has come and gone. And the snow with it.  Birds are all here. Killdeer came a few days ago too. Geese the first a long time ago, before any water from snow melt. Hello everyone, hope all is well and good with you. We are all good here. The frogs have been out since the 27th of April. Sweetest sound known to me anyways. It has been a different spring to say the least. I had snow piled up high expecting it to be there till June. Not really but you know what I mean. Snow banks went down incredibly fast. Not much run off for the snow we had. Very little frost in the ground, and being the ground was dry the melt soaked in. Fields firmed up early unlike other years where you couldn't drive on them till well after snow had left. I found a spot with no frost under some snow with a trailer load of logs. Trailer went right down to the axle on one side. Stuck I was. I had to get the other tractor and unload most of the load before I could get out. I have been out in the bush feeding the bears and picking up some cameras I had left out. 50-60 miles so far. Found where 2 deer had been killed by coyotes. Very normal. Haven't found any that did not survive the winter other than the coyotes. Hard to tell if we lost many. Acturally seeing lots of deer. In the fields at home and in the bush. There was some clear cutting done last winter and that helps any deer nearby. We had a good healthy population to start with. The weather has been up and down. Always had warm spells in the colder months. Above normal temps, some below. Not much precipitation in April. Or March either. Temps Wednesday and Thursday up to 70 degrees. That will bring on the green even more. Happy belated Easter. Easter was nice weather too. Kids and grand kids were all home. A great time by all. Grand kids had a ball coloring eggs, easter egg hunt, checking out the new born calves and feeding the cows and chickens. April is due in 2 weeks. Her and Dean are saving the sex of the baby till birth. I always ask her how Patrick's brother is doing. There hasn't been brothers in the Maddens since 1956. We are due. 6 girls, 2 boys as it stands now. Well I best carry on. Vicki busy outside raking up leaves and picking up bones the dog has dragged in over the winter. Till next time, take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 Mar 2022 Happy St.Patrick's day to all who celebrate the day. Hello eveyone. Hope all is well with you. We are all fine here. We will have a gathering of us Irish decendants tonight. Corned beef and cabbage, a maybe a wee taste of Irish whiskey or Guiness beer. Spring is springing on us now. Very welcome too. Snow is retreating fast. Daytime highs in the upper 30s, lows in the 20s. Sun shines most days. Today the first goose showed up. A good sign spring is here. I'm sure all the animals are ready too. It won't be long before calving starts. 2 weeks about. Perfect weather for it. I do have some snow to move here shortly around the barn etc. where my tractor is too big to get into. I have a skid steer coming tommorrow. A month ago 8 of our family of 18 had had covid. Now it is 11 confirmed and 1 suspected. 2 thirds of us. None very sick. Saskatchewan and Alberta have done away with mandatory mask wearing. Canada now only needs proof of full vaccinations on the arrivecan app to enter the country. No need for a covid test anymore. Good news. Makes travel back and forth so much easier.  Last fall travel not so nice. A bit of a hassel. Hopefully airlines will have their flights etc. straightened out somewhat. Sure to be better than last year. Pictures are up from last fall. 1 or 2 missing. I will get them on next week. Well I best carry on. Time to feed the cows. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

9Feb 2022 I forgot to mention. We will start hunting on Tuesday Nov. 1 this year rather than Monday Oct 31. All weeks will start on Tuesdays. Week 1 Tue. Nov 1. Week 2 Tue Nov 8. Week 3 Tue Nov 15. Week 4 Nov 22. Week 5 Nov 29. Plan to fly into Saskatoon on Sundays. We will pick you up on Mondays and travel to the lodge. Hunt Tuesday through Sunday. Travel to Saskatoon Sunday evening, spend the night, fly out Monday. Check your calender and double check. Flights will be cheaper and likely hotel rooms also. Flights from Toronto as low as 348. 

9 Feb 2022 Hopefully the new year is treating everyone just fine. January is now gone and we are into February. The days are getting longer and the sun is getting stronger. Always good this time of the year. Christmas through new years and half of January was kinda cold. A warm spell and normal the balance. Feb. now is warm again and normal or above normal for the balance of Feb. That is good. Probably average normal. Lots of different variations of"normal".  Hard to tell how much snow but 20 inches I would guess. Every time it snows it blows and so it is drifted and piled up. Nothing much in the forcast for February as far as snow goes. Don't need any more. Weather has had it's ups and downs in different states and provinces. Climate change lots call it. Enough about the weather. I haven't been in the bush since the season but will take a short trip out today. I have one tent out yet. Always busy and played out at the end of the season and then was cold. Then Christmas. The kids and grandkids were all home for Christmas. A good time for sure. Busy busy. A little cold for the kids but they did go out and slide down the driveway on the sleds, and fed the chickens. Declan came with me to feed the cows. Some of the grandkids went with Vicki to carry oats to the calves. Kids always like feeding animals. I sold calves in early Jan. They weighed good and sold better than they have for a few years. We have deer in the yard as usual as I leave a grainary door open for them. One day 4 bucks I think were in the yard. A week or so ago  8 bucks walk by the house. They only come by every once in a while. There are a half dozen does and fawns are here every day. Now we have a cow and calf moose hanging around. Right outside the window. I watched one evening as they walked from the garage past the house. The dog barked it's token bark. Moose never even give the dog a second look. Futile were the dogs efforts to move the moose on. The dog just gave up. Just a wee bit bit on covid. Every conversation has some covid in it. Good, bad or ugly. Saskatchewan and Alberta are both lifting restrictions this month. Never to come back they say. In our family of 18, 8 have had the covid. Nobody very sick. If that is the case with the general population then near 50% have had covid. We are getting imuned one way or another. Going forward, we are tenatively booked for 2022. I do have a waiting list and will ph if a spot opens up. Thanks to all who inquired. I have all the pictures ready to send to get put up. Watch for them. Sun is up and cows are waiting. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

Jan 1 2022 Happy New Year one and all. May this year bring happiness, joy and sucess in whatever you are doing this year.  

25 Dec 2021 Merry Christmas everyone. Hope today is filled with family, friends, happiness and joy. Been 2 months since I've been on. My apologies. A quick update. The deer season came and went and is now in the books. We did have a good year. We did harvest 2 in the 170s, also 160s, and numerous ones in the 150s. Average definately up. We did have a storm middle of Nov. Wind blew and near a foot of snow came. Not much fun but we did get the guys out. We had 2 snow machines out but realizing how much nicer it would be to have another, I bought another. I had to make a lot of phone calls to find one but did. The last one. There were enough of the fast mountain type sleds but no good for what we are doing. I bought a ski doo tundra 600. Awesome machine. Quiet, stop and start anywhere. We have had warmer weather since and the snow settled some and anothercouple small snow falls since so snow is still roughly a foot. Temps have been mostly average for this time of the year. Cold coming for Christmas and New Years. Too bad because the whole family will be home by the 27th and it will be too cold to be outside for the kids. Maybe just long enough to feed the chickens and gather the eggs. It is especially nice to have everyone home for Christmas. We manage this about 3 times a year. I won' t go on any longer. Enjoy the day with family remembering how Christmas came to be. Till next time. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

25 Oct. 2021 Only days away now.  Hello everyone. You're most likely hunting at home or preparing for your next hunt trip. We are busy here doing just that. Just wanted to put it out there that we have 2 openings for the third week. Nov 15 -20. If you or any you might know is interested give me a call anytime. 306 248 7720. Just like me everyone is a year older than last year. Not so much the hunting clients but therir spouses or family members. Hope all recooperate well. We are not able to turn back the clock though. Baiting has been under way for some time now. Trent, Parry Joe and myself have been out. Trent and Parry are new to the staff but not new to guiding. Both have guiding experience. We are seeing lots of deer. More bucks than we usually see. We usually don't see that many. All indications are that this is going to be a good year. Reports of a multiple drop tine buck, 180,160s. Seen a couple good ones myself. We are checking some cards now and is looking good. I do like the water down low most places. So much nicer to get around. I will trapping some beaver this year as I will have a little more time. Vicki has been busy making pies and cookies and lasagnas etc. Mostly done I think. The flys were something else but now mostly done. Freezes most nights except for the last 2. Only 36 or 38 at night, tonight also. For the next 2 weeks it will not get colder than 20. Most days 35 or so. Pretty easy to take. Holloween the coldest night. Till next time. Straight shooting. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 Oct 2021 Vicki and I are proud, happy  grandparents once again. Ashley and Norman are the proud parents. Rosalie, Violet Detilleux was born Friday morning weighing in at 6lb, 15 oz. Everyone is doing great. Congratulations Ashley and Norman. Baby was born day after their first daughters birthday.  . Good morning everyone, hope all is well with you. We are all good here. Weather for the most part has been still warm. Freezes most nights but is thawed before morning is done. 10 or 11 Oct. we woke up to the ground covered in snow. About an inch. It kept on snowing faster than it could melt and ended nearly 3 inches. Near an inch of moisture when all said and done. Trails went from dusty to muddy. Till it freezes, not too far away. We have been out baiting and the bush trails and a lot of puddles, ponds, even beaver ponds are dry. That is making it so much easier to get around.  We were able to get to some of the hard to get to stands already. Next snow we should be able to get to the rest or if it freezes up. A week ago was our thanksgiving. Alicia and family, April and family were home. It was a good time and good eating. The weather was in the 60 s. We put wood in the basement and brought in wood for here also. One afternoon we baled 5 acres of straw that got missed earlier. We made 50 square bales and 4 round bales. Harvest is all but complete. My renter has 60 acres of flax out yet. Everything else is in the bin. Crops were better than anticipated for as dry as it was. Prices are as high as they have ever been. Gross receipts will be similar to other years. I did get some second cut bales made.  Cows are on the hayfield cut earlier.  Will wean in about a week.  Oh yes, the wasps and hornets are done. What a year for them.  Covid. I don't know that anything much has changed. We now have to wear masks indoors in public places again.  I think the info has been passed on previously but again I will mention. We have secured a time slot at the Saskatoon airport to have everyone tested for the return trip home. We will got to the airport Saturday for testing. Quick tests, results quick sent to your email. I don't know if they will print or not. i will look into that. I will also find out if anyone leaving early can get the test done earlier in the week. Those hunting the last week will be tested on Sunday I believe. The cost is 136 CDN. To speed things up, Rather than everyone running a c. card through I can pay ahead. Each then give me a 100 US note. I will pay the little bit of difference.  Flights are being cancelled and changed from what I am hearing, a pain for sure. It will all come together. You ll feel better when you get up here. Best go. Vicki has a to do list for me. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

I can't wait for a good frost. Reason being is that there is a wasp nest every 100 feet. Hello everyone, hope all is well in your corner of the world. All is good here. This the year for wasps. There was a nest in the one truck I bought last fall. I had to change out a power steering hose and thought there were a few too many bees. Turned out there was a nest under the box. I had to care of that to fix the 2 rear tires. I then was going to do a seat change with a donour truck. There was a bee nest under the drivers seat. I took care of them also. So now I look for them before I into or on anything. There is a nest in Vicki's gardwn shed, one under the deck, I found yesterday, one under here old wash machine planter (no more) another in the combine (no more). In an old grainary where I keep some quad parts. I sprayed this one too as I need to get in there. Every dam I blew had a nest on it somewhere. Last dam had 2 before I could get to where I wanted to go. I aborted that one. Enough, you get the picture. A frost would be nice for that reason. Put the bees into hibernation or whatever takes place. On a more positive note. The border is now open to fully vaccinated US citizens. Travel takes a bit more than it used to becauase of the tests nessassary and documentation etc. The arriveCAN app can be downloaded from an app store. You can then feed in your vaccination info, ask for a receipt. The reciept is what you will need to show to your airline carrier to board. I suggest that research and implementation be sources and understood ahead of time. Incomplete or something not right will for certain cause delays at the border or entry refusal. Be prepared. There is no international flights into Saskatoon at this time. Our federal MP says they are hopeing that all airports will open on Sep. 7. Of course you cannot take that to the bank. If that does happen then it will be up the the individual airlines whether or not they choose to fly to Saskatoon from the US. As of now you will have to fly into Toronto, Calgary or Edmonton. From there to Saskatoon. Not much fun but you and I don't make the rules. It has been a dry and hot summer here. Lots of temps in the 80 s and up to 90. Not a lot of rain. Harvest will be early this year and quick as there is only half of normal crop to put through. Second cut hay is up in the air. Alfalfa is green but not a lot of growth. Will try cut some but some rain would go a long way. Keith and family were home about ten days ago. Good visit. Kids are all older and doing good. Keith, Declan and I spent some time building a blind, 8x8 insulated. I will mount it on a trailer for porability or maybe even on a truck. I should have it finished in a day or two. I guess I should paint it camo or something so it's not a solid. Will be roomy and comfortable. A fold up cot, office chairs, small table and a small cupboard will adoen the inside. Carpet on the floor. Overnighters will be quite easy. I will go now, time to water the garden again. Vicki has canned 20 some quarts of dill pickles already and has more coming. Lots of tomatoes for this year. Peas are done, beans still going. Onions didn't do well this year, and betts will be processed, today Vicki said. Anyway I shall go. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

22 July 2021 Things are looking up!! Hello everyone, hope all is good and well at home. All is good here. The good news, I m sure everyone has heard, fully vaccinated US citizens will be allowed to enter Canada for non essential purposes on August 9. There are conditions of course. I will list some of them. I'm sure this will change as time goes on. I suggest also that you do your own research as willnot have all the info. -Travellers will have to be fully vaccinated.(check for which vaccines are excepted)-August 9 is the travel date at this time.-A covid test at least 14 days before travel, must be negative.-Proof of covid test must be carried with you along with your covid vaccine card.-Airlines will be verifying passenger' vaccination status through the "ArriveCAN appor website before passengers board their flights.Travellers must wear masks in any Canadian airport.-Those driving into Canada must also use ArriveCAN before departing. Info must be submitted within 72 hours before arrival. - A neg test is also needed before returning home. Check online info for more info and details. At this time there are no international flights to Saskatoon. I'm sure that will change as you can book flights to Saskatoon. We will all have to monitor that as we will plan alternatives if it doesn't change. A bit of a hassel it will be but we have no choice. We will deal with it. The weather has been mostly hot and mostly dry. We are getting enough to keep us in the game, so to speak, but there will not be any bumper crops this year. The hay is cut and baled, perfect shape. Need rain for a second cut though. I have enough supply stored away for this year.  Pastures are fairing fine, at least for now. Other parts of the province have had even less rain than here. Dugouts are drying up and some of the other water supplys. Some hauling water. I have been working on the beavers and dams here and there. I am gaining. Population has been reduced, dams opened up. Some beavers are relocating or maybe predators getting them, one way or another they are gone. One thing now, if the water is let out from their pond, it not replaced. I have been in the bush last coiple days and beaver are drying up. Going to be a lot nicer getting around this fall. More to be done too. For the last 5 or 6 years we have had quite a bit of rain and the beavers took full advantage. Reverse is coming. Been seeing more deer out and about lately. Fun to watch the fawns thinking they are hiding in the canola fields. Nose and ears sticking out. Seen a couple bull elk, a bull moose the other day and of course some bucks. All indications are for good horn growth. I best carry on. Vicki has a todo list for me. She has been a lot of Saskatoon berries so we will have some good pies this fall. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

4 July 2021 Happy Independence day to all who celebrate this day. Hello everyone. Hope all is well in your corner of the world. We are all good here. We just came off of a record breaking week of hot weather. Many states suffered the same as we did. British Columbia set Canadian records 3 days in a row. Temps up to 120f. We got 100. Every the house warmed 4-5 degrees and never cooled off. The shop and garage were a cool retreat but they too started warming daily. Difficult to sleep, sun was a killer. Got the AC fixed in the tractor and that was relief to say the least. Once wired in we will have AC in the house. We will be ready for the next heat wave. Did cut and bale the first field of hay. Very average as we have had only 3.5 inches of rain so far this year. Will cut the other field today.  Wherever the snow drifted deep is showing now. Dips and hollows green as ever. Crops and pasture holding up well considering. We always look to the future. Fininshed calving last week. 2 in June again. Bull was lame a few times last summer. Sold him and replaced him with a black Angus bull. First time for an angus bull in our cow herd. The kids are all well and busy. Nothing much new there. Ashley and Norman got the deck built on their house. They incorporated the 8x8 posts or  that Norman and I sawed into the deck, looks great. Alicia, Ashley and April will be camping some nearby in July so we will get to see them more. Keith and family will be home sometime or other also on their summer holidays. In just traveling around close, feed store store and back etc. we see quite a few single does. Obviously their fawns are hid. Last years fawns by themselves now. Have seen a number of bucks and it seems quite a bit of horn growth for early in the season. Did see an elk bull yesterday. I think just a yearling as he was with some cows. The longest beam spiker I have seen. A good year coming for horns. I did not get drawn for anything, again. 7 yrs now in the super A pool for moose at home. Frustrating. Every year you hear of someone that has been putting in only a few years and get drawn. Next year. Well enjoy the day and I am headed to the hay field. Take care all. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

10 June 2021 It's raining. Time to spend a bit in the office. Hello everyone is well and good. We have been somewhat dry lately but it is raining again. Crops are all up and running. All look good, some canola seems slow but it will get going now. Has been different weather this spring up till June. All balanced out now. We will have about 3 inches after this rain which about normal and crops have enough in their young stage. My oats are looking good. I seeded about a four acre plot to turnips, radish, brassica and more. It is coming up fine I think. Anxious to see how that turns out. Hay and pasture would have liked to have some earlier but they are catching up fast now. 2 cows left to calve. Not sure why so late but.... Calving went well otherwise. Lost 1 and had 1 set of twins. Every cow has a calf. The animals are likeing it this spring and summer. Joe saw an elk calf and a bear yesterday. I Saw a fawn no more than old in a hay field along with another doe and fawn. Also saw 2 bears. Bears spend their time wherever the eats are easiest and most abundant. Hay fields are it at the moment. The abundance of wildlife, another sign of the mild winter. Not much hunting  preasure doesn't hurt either. The grandkids are all doing well and growing. My kids are all doing well also. Keith and family will be home for a few days and all the rest of the family will be home on Saturday. Always a good time when we can get together. Looking forward to that. I will head back to the shop. I have a couple tires to fix and it is time to do a little clen up. BORDER and Covid. I recieved and email from SCPO (Saskatchen Commision of Professional Outfitters), We are members. Trudeau and Biden authorities are working on it hard. All speculation is that the border will be open in July. One of the conditions, for now at least is that anyone coming into Canada will have to be fully vaccinated and test negative. We all are looking forward to the border opening. Saskatchewan will be wide open mid July if we have 70% of all age classes vaccinated. We have recieved guide lines from the gov. through SCPO on how camps are to operate. Not going into any detail no detail now as this will likely change by hunting season. I m sure anyone wanting to cross the border will be fully vaccinated. Vicki, Keith and myself are vaccinated. Not sure on the rest at this time. Camp will have available, masks, sanitizer etc, and will do what we can to make everyone as comfortable as safe as possible. Well take care everyone, Wayne, Vicki, Keith

11 May 2021 Beautiful time of the year. All of God's creature singing their praise of spring. Hello everyone. Hope all is well with you and family. All good here. All the animals and birds are as happy as can be. Frogs are always my favourite and we live near the water so hear them lots. Black birds, robins, ducks and water birds, heard a couple loons fly by a few days ago. Seagulls, herons, cranes, and of course Canada geese. I am missing some for sure but you get the picture. Lots of deer, saw only one new born so far. I m sure others are hiding, where I don't see them. Good weather for having babies of any kind. The winter was good. One cold spell in Feb. but not too long. Not a lot of snow this winter, about a foot. Hard to tell, wind blew often. There was a rock about 10 inches high along the driveway in the field that was visible all winter. Most of the snow was gone by the 20th of March. Ahead of normal for sure. About the 27 or 28th of March we had a blizzard by defenition. Wind 60 mph and snow. Again hard to to tell but likely 3-4 inches. Warm enough lasted only a few days. April and May we had unusal weather weather. Days near 70 then cool to 40. Days warm, night cold. Lots of nights at 30. Now and into the future warm, no more frost. Tree leaves are green and the grass but not growing. A shot of rain will change that in a hurry. All farmers are busy seeding now, some started last few days of April. Rare as can be for here. I will seed only 80 acres myself this year and will start and finish on Thursday is the plan. I rented a dozer last winter and did some land clearing. A few bluffs, a fence line etc. And a couple acres for a food plot. Going to seed some radish and turnip and brassica. See how that goes. I think it will be good. I bought a 350 bushel hopper bin for Keith. We are going to try rig up a feeding station somewhere. It will be interesting to see how that goes. Keith give me his 223 and it works well . Beavers are in trouble now. I've had traps out for two weeks or more as the beaver cause a lot of grief around here. I have taken 13 or 14 so far. Joe has come out with me a few times.About a week ago I saw a fresh bear track on one of the beaver dams where I was trapping. When I got to where my traps were I saw where the bear had pulled up my trapped beaver and had a snack we'll say. No problem. A few nights ago I went to one beaver house that I have to paddle a canoe out to, to pull the traps to find that the bear had been there and dug 2 big holes into the beaver house. The bears are working with me. They are checking my traps for me. Not complaining but they could set the traps that would be great. Lol. It is late and I am headed for bed. I will be back in a few days for more. For now take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

24 Mar 2021 Happy belated St.Patrick's day day to all those who celebrate the occasion. Hello everyone. Hope all is well with all. We are all good here. It has been a while obviously. Not too much to report on maybe. We did have a good St.Patrick's day. Family gathering. It was a fine time indeed. The grand kids are all older and growing. Keith, Norman, Dean and I went to the bush where they had clear cut a bunch and cut wood. From the tops and cruked tops etc. that was left behind. Quick and relatively easy firewood. Mostly pine and some spruce. Vicki had an early easter egg hunt for the grandkids. Always a big hit. Was nearly 60 degrees here last Saturday. Awesome. This has been one of the nicest winters for quite some time. Last week of January and the first 2 weeks of February were cold. Winter it was. Before and after were quite nice. All rivers between here and Fort McMurray, where Keith lives, had open water all winter, except a few. Streams and rivers all running now. We only had a foot or so of snow this winter also and is more gone than here. Even in the bush ground is 50% bare last Friday when we were out gathering cameras that had been out all winter. Keith took his skidoo and I took the quad. Quad was a better choice. We have put them away already.  I was out 2 days ago picking up cameras again. I was worried that it might be thawed too much but last few nights have been cold enough. It wasn't a problem. Some water but frost still close most places. One more day out there. I found 6 sheds in my travels that day also. Made my day. 1-5 point. Seen quite a number of deer also. They did find this winter as nice as we did. They were in the fields till the 3rd week of January when it snowed and blew. Have been the fields again for 2 weeks already or more. We had a cow and calf moose go through yard 3 times this winter. Close up, 20 feet from the picture window. Geese have been here since 15 March and lots. Not just a few. Grackles too. Crows will be any day. Cows will start calving in 10 days. Good weather for it. I have a little work to do in the corrals, hang a gate etc. then we're good to go. Vicki is a big help, helping with chores keeping an eye on the cows, feeding the cats and watching out for the skunks. Skunks clean up the cat and dog dish if there is any left over. Feeding program changing a bit now. There is 1 skunk less as of yesterday than there was the day before. My tractor smells like skunk. I am going to order a tanning kit and try tanning a skunk. They do have nice hides. Got my 2019 deer and wolf back from the taxidermist back in January. they turned out very good. They will be on the wall come the hunt season. I guess we need the border opened for that Keep your fingers crossed. I think most people are tired of the covid for sure. Everyone knows someone that has had it and most that I know of only had mild symptoms for a few days. Once more have been vaccinated there will be more confidence out there. We wear masks in town and the like as it is mandatory. We are lucky to live where we do. Well best go. Time to put out a few skunk traps. Take care all. Wayne,Vicki, Keith  

01 Jan 2021 10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1, HAPPY NEW YEAR everyone. Though a lot of us want to forget 2020 it is now history. In the books as they say. Here s raising a glass to 2020 now past and to 2021 coming. The days are getting longer, we are on a new calender heading towards spring, even though it is a ways away. Optimism to all as we look forward to a more sane and civil 2021Take care care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith 

25 Dec 2020 Merry Christmas one and all. Hope this day brings good memories with family and friends. Stay positive, phone a friend, be happy. May Santa bring happiness and joy in his special way. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

26 Nov 2020 Hope everyone is having a happy and safe Thanksgiving. Hello everyone. Hope this finds you in good health. We are all god here. I have talked to some of my hunting clients who have had the covid. Most only somewhat sick for 3 or 4 days. Some sick as long as 2 weeks.   No one hospitalized. I have heard the same here. No one I know but someone's cousin etc. Enough about that. The weather. The most talked about subject in the world. For the next 2 weeks we will be above normal temps ranging from 25- 32 degrees. We did get about 4 inches of snow 3 weeks ago. A little early but only a few dustings since. Did have a few colder days too. One night down to zero f. The deer liked us in that weather. I have been feeding them, leting them know I am thinking about them. With the snow it is good getting around. Keith was home a while ago and we got to all the far away stands. Being drier than most falls and earlier cold weather all was froze and was easy getting around. Joe has been out some too and we went to the 3 stands hard to get to till freeze up. Deer in different spots meet us. Nice to see how they remember. We are seeing more moose this year too. They shortened the regular season by 2 weeks every fall to help with populations come back. Also cut back draw tags some. It is working. Keith coming home for a few days again before Christmas. We will be out feeding and will trap a few beaver. The kids will all be home at some time for Christmas. Always good. On my way out to feed a week ago I was cruising along when all of a sudden the truck took off on it's own. We had a bit of rain one morning a few days later just enough snow to cover it up. The well travelled roads and even the ones that were in the sunshine were fine. The others where rain fell on packed snow, were trecherous as I found out. I headed for the ditch and bush, which is not far away on this back road. At 45 mph I was bracing as I had no control. When the hit the bank the trailer was pushing the truck and pushed me backwards staying in the ditch. This did the box side on the passenger side of the truck. The trailer then swung right around and into the bush jacknifed and brought us to a stop. Got the other side of the box. Everything that was on the trailer flew off including the quad that was tied down on both ends. Everything that was in the truck flew out of the box. Must have been near upset. The trailer kept me upright. Was quite a ride. Phone a friend, bring a jackall, a spare, couple blocks, and a tow strap. Changed a flat on the truck, pulled it out and loaded everything back up. Quad had a bent rim, bent a frame and some busted plastic on the fender. I best carry on, corral cleaners are coming this morning. Stay safe, enjoy your Thanksgiving, offer a small prayer of thanks. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

2 Nov 2020 Happy belated Halloween. Hope everyone s candy was sweet as can be. Hello everyone. Hope all is well in your corner of the world. All is good here. Last night we had supper all by ourselves. Missed everyone scheduled to hunt with us. As is well known the border is closed till the 21 of Nov. for sure. Obviously we won't be hunting the first 3 weeks. I doubt the border will open then, but, if it does by some chance we will hunt. All who are booked with us will automatically be booked same week next year. I am as dissapointed as you are about the way things are going. Next year. We have been out feeding the deer and so far looks good. Will have cards to check tommorrow. I saw 3 different bucks last time out and one was quite impressive. Tall long tines and thick enough. Good to see so soon. I m sure this is the one I saw the last day out in 2018. He was not shy and came in to eat while I was right there. He was a symetrical 10 then about 140.160 now. I will for sure have pictures to know for sure. We see all kinds of deer in the fields now and some antlered deer more than usual. We ll all pray for a good winter and next fall all our deer will be a year older and bigger. Small consulation for missing this year. All the harvest is done and earlier than the last 4 5 years. Bales are in, calves weaned a week now. Got some corral fencing done, pipe I put on. Hung a half dozen new gates. Nice for harvest to be done early. The weekend of Oct. 12 the family all got together for our Thanksgiving. With everyone here the house was full. Always a  good time when everyone is home together. The boys and I went out one morning for a goose shoot. We did get some and 1 duck but it was not busy. Had been hunted too recently. Ducks mostly gone now but the geese that are raised here are still here. Keith will be home on days off in November to help feed the deer. We had about a week of " cold for this time of year weather" a couple weeks ago. Was nice, ground was froze and small puddles etc. were froze over solid. Could navigate with quads a lot of places. It has since warmed up and for a couple days past and a couple more temps got up into the 60 s. We had an inch or snow but that is gone now. We never had any big rains since July so lots of the low spots that are ususally wet are now dry. Real nice getting around compared to other years. I best sign off and get to it. Take care all. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

30 Sep 2020 It's acturally October now. Good morning everyone. Hope all is well in your corner of the world. We are all well and good here. Not a lot has taken place since the last update. What is on a lot of minds, still, is the covid. The border is now closed to 21 October. In a week or so I expect to hear it's closure till the 21 of November. They did announce a few days ago that loved ones seperated by the border will be able to reunite. Not sure on any details. The weather has been the best for harvest in 5 or 6 years. Our combining and baling is done. Most of the bales hauled off. All in Sept. My renter has a 2 or 3 days left here then done. All the grain is dry and good shape. Average yields. Everyone in good spirits with lack of stress of weather related problems. The forcast looks good for 10 days or more. Yesterday's  forcast not so good. Day before was good and today good again. Later this week I will clean and bag some peas and start feeding the deer. Got my second cut alfalfa baled up in good shape. Made some 24 inch round bales to try this year. See if we can handle them ok. If it works it will be less hassle than square bales. Made a bunch of square bales too. The deer will be happy. There all kinds of deer out there. Population growing. The deer will a year older and bigger next year. Hopefully a decent winter again. Our thanksgiving this coming weekend.  Keith is working and on call so can't make it till the following weekend. Alicia and April and familes coming this weekend. Ashley and family coming next weekend when Keith and familyis here. Alicia and April maybe will come again then too. Kids and grand kids all doing well. Going back to school, catching colds , missing school, repeat. All good.  Vicki has been busy canning tomatoes, jam and jelly, relish. Most of the garden is in. All kinds of carrots and beets this year. Peas and beans just average. Tomatoes were good also. Can't think of much more to report on so will close. Stay safe, healthy. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

7 Aug 2020  Today in history. Hatfields and McCoys feud. 100 wounded or die. A little history. Good day everyone. Hope everyone is fine and good. The covid is still the most talked about subject there these days I'm sure. Starting to get old and repetitious, for me at least. Not meaning to down play it but... Anyway we all hope to steer clear of it. Here and there and probably every where it is gaining numbers. We are no exception. At one time Saskatchewan was down to 16 active cases. Now over 100. It is not going away. I get asked regularly if the border will open by November hunt season. Like you, I don't know. It is not looking good though. There are no laws in Canada restricting travel from one province to another. We are close to the Alberta border so we see a lot of AB plated and I'm sure they see ours. Lots of room out here anyway. Masks are optional most places and businesses. If the border opens we will hunt. If it doesn't open we won't hunt. If the border stays closed, deposits will be held over till next year, same week etc. as it would have been this year. This last couple of weeks have been as high as 90. Super haying weather and has speeded up crop maturity. Harvest getting closer every day. The last field of hay was cut yesterday. Will bale as soon as it dries. Crops look good but are likely just average. We had more than average rain but lacked heat at times for the crops to be bumper crops. Still good though and hopefully we can have a good harvest fall. We are in the process of putting up a garage at home. Going quick and hope to have it finished in a week or so. Vicki can park her truck inside this winter. Not much new or exciting going on as of late. Cows are happy and content. No pigs or chickens. The fawns are growing to beat heck seems like. Seen some elk yesterday. One calf quite a bit bigger than the other. See bears more regular than ever. Once a week for sure. Been seeing more last 3 years. Not sure why. Used to see 1 a year in the wild. Maybe like the moose, migrating slowly south. Ashlet and Norman went out to Banff AB for a short vacation. They left Isabelle with us while they were gone. Was a fun time having her here. We will likely run up to see Keith sometime this month for a couple days. Keith will be home in a month or so  for harvest operations. I best carry on. Stay safe, take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

4 July 2020 Happy 4th of July everyone. Enjoy safely. We had a pretty mellow 1 July here. Most everything is open now 100% but big crowds or unnessasary are not allowed. Just in the last week or so. Previously restaurants were at 50% capacity. They are not that busy as it is summer and most people are enjoying the outdoors, camping or fishing etc. I ve been out fishing with a friend of mine a couple times this last month. We caught enough but not a lot of big ones. We ate good at least. Vicki and I took her sister and husband out on the pontoon boat a week ago. We never caught a fish. Better luck next time. We se lots of deer on our travels. I m amazed at all the does we see with fawns. Much more than usual. That's good. Also the number of horned deer. Usually don't see too many this time of the year but have seen a half a dozen. Last one was outside his ears, long beams and 2 points on each beam. He will be a dandy this fall. Weather has been good. Plenty of rain, warm. We've had some days up to 80 and some cool for the time of the year weather. Crops are all looking good. Hay will be cut as soon as the forcast is good long enough to get it cut and baled. Cows are done calving, last one coming 25 June. She gained 3 weeks over last year. I built some fence by the barn so that I could have the cows graze around the barn etc. and keep the grass down. Saves me cutting that grass. I trapped 4 skunks from under the skinning shed but there must have been 2 more as there are young ones there now. I will have to trap them too. I asked my taxidermist if he would tan a skunk hide if I skinned it. He was quick to say know. Lol. The kids were all home last month. Always a good time when they are all here. The grandkids (7) range from 8 years to 8 months. Quite a gathering we had. We had a local photographer come out and take pictures. Was tough to the kids facused but we got it done. We are hosting Patrick's 1rst birthday here next weekend. Will be good for sure. Not much else to report on. The border, I guess was maybe going to open on the 21rst of July but I doubt it. When it opens is anyones guess. We ll keep our fingers crossed it will be open by Nov. Flights and hotels are booked by all far as I know. Till next time, take care, stay safe. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

5 June 2020 Raino, raino fall upon the earth again and make it good. make it cool and fill the river, fill the pool, quench the thirst of every fool and every sage and every soul who's  lost so much he doesn't know his need. Hello everyone. Hope all is well with you. I got those lyrics from a Chilliwack song. It is raining now and has been for a couple days. The most perfect rain in years. Not too fast, not too heavy. Steady gentle rain, soaking in just right. Since May 2, my last update things have changed. Everything lush and greenand growing like the peverbial weeds. Vicki cutting grass most days or between rains. Speaking of rain we had rain in May much more than usual. That was nice as it wakes up and warms up the ground and everything gets going. Cows are on pasture for a couple weeks now. They get tired of dry feed and I get tired of feeding them. 2 left to calve. One will make June, the other calved 18 July last year and won't be any earlier this year. That will be her last calf here. This spring I helped my renter with the harvest on the crop that was left out from last fall. The weather was perfect and it came off much better than we had expected. The crop is all in and growing well. I planted oats on mine and my renter seeded peas and canola. All this early rain will make for a good hay crop also. Been a long time since a better than average hay crop. My 3 girls and grandkids were home a week ago, for 3 days for Vicki's birthday. Grandkids old enough now to run around the outdoors and enjoy all there is. The 2 youngest not running yet lol, 6 and 10 months of age. Keith and family will be home next week for 3-4 days. Haven't been home since Christmas. Fishing is on the agenda and maybe a bear hunt if weather and time permits. We have been feeding the bears some and they are always glad to see us. Plan to go out again as soon as it quits raining.  We see good numbers of deer when we are out. As far as I can tell they did fine through spring. I found a skull with horns attached not too far from home. Predator kill. Another with horns attached from 3-4 years ago. Covid 19 has had an effect of sorts on the whole world. Hopefully you and families are safe and healthy. Work has been interupted for sure, slowed or stopped. Saskatchewan has been very fortunate as we have now 34 active cases in all of Saskatchewan. We are not effected directly in any way. We still buy groceries etc. Any place we may need something is available. I even got a haircut a week ago. First since February. Was looking like a real bush man. I anticipate that the border will be open before November. Things can change for sure but I recomend that you book flights as per usual. Ask many questions about cancelation insurance, cancelled flights etc. Booking flights ahead of time will show optimism and airlines will be happy to see the bookings. Aparently Delta has no plans as of now to fly into Saskatoon.  That could change but don't count on it. Also book rooms as normal. Their cancellation policy is 24 hours so should't be any problems there. Outfitters for fishing are open now. Would be only Canadians now. Some maybe won't open for half the clientel. Not sure. One group I know got in their 4 days a week ago. No hitches or concerns. There will be protocol for outfitters for sure, and guidelines for any operation. We will of course follow to ensure safety and health of those coming to our camp. Any questions or concerns please call and I will answer what I can. Till next time take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

2 May 2020 I think when the dust  we will realize how very little we need, how very much we have, and the true value of human connection. I read this in a little Bulletin paper we get. So much is true. Hello everyone. Hope all is well in your corner of the world. It's not likely normal but kinda close maybe. We are all good here. Not much has changed for me and my operations. I can go to the parts dealer and get what I need. Feed store the same. Some places you phone in your order and they bring it to the door, some are business as usual with distance tape set up. Really no issues. Maximum # of people in at time some places. Grocery stores are open. Saskatchewan has been very good with the covid. Less than 400 province wide and lately most new cases are up north. Sask premier has plans to to slowly open up business s. And get some economy going. Oil prices and the lack of fuel being used has the oil sector slowed down to a crawl. That is going to hurt lots of people here as we have lots of oil in the area. Vicki's oldest sister and her husband tested positive a couple weeks ago. She said it was like a bad cold for 4 days and came through it just fine. They are 73 and 84. Some provinces are not so lucky. Alberta has enough covid. Keith is working steady and his company is following strict guidelines for safety etc. Keith washing, sanitizing lots as to be safe. They are all good up there. Fort McMurray has flooding this spring. Fire 4 years ago and now flooding. 12-13000 evacuated at one point. Water going down now but the damage has been done. Keith is high and dry. Alicia, Ashley, April and family are all doing well. Grand Kids are growing, walking, talking. Alicia and April are on maternity leave. Ashley does some work from home but is on the road quite a bit also. Vicki has been retired for nearly a year now and is loving it. Feed the cows everyday and helps me sort or tag calves or what she can. Nice for me too I have to admit. She is busy putting out plants and yard decor etc. Weather in the 70 s some days. It has been so nice. The snow that came in March stayed  into April some but when it decided to warm it disappeared in a week. Surprisingly a lot soaked in and didn't run off like we had expected it to. Not muddy long and it dried up. Trees are budding hard and leaves will be out soon. Grass is greener every day. Spring may have been delayed some but is catching up fast. Trees will be no later putting out leaves than any other year. The birds and the bees and frogs have been singing the praise of spring. The most wonderful sound in the world. Geese will be nesting soon. I did take out and feed the bears even though there will not be a spring season. Bears have been out for some time. Deer were absent from the fields for about 3 weeks. They are all back again. They look good. I spent the last couple days going through my baler and getting it ready to bale. I baled yesterday what I could. Ther is a bit that wet from being in a low spot or pothole but it will be dry enough soon. Harvest operations are going again. Some farmers combining, some baling and some doing field work and the odd one seeding. Busy spring for a lot. Busier for lot more. Maybe a good fall this year. Today I will hook on to the air seeder and get ready. Will seed in about 10 days. Well I best get back at it. Reg told me I should update my journal more often. I ll try lol. Reg and I spent a couple of short days getting my down argo home. Was like old times. Was good. Thanks Reg. Till next time stay safe. Stay healthy. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

12 April 2020 Hello  everyone. Happy Easter. I know it is nothing we had anticipated or expected but good or bad it is Easter. Let us remember the reason for easter. Covid 19 is upon us and not to be fooled with. We are all good here but like you are missing the family gatherings we are so used to look forward to each occasion. It is hard for lots of to not be around and in the social circle. Even if just our own family. However we will get through it and it will be in the past. No one knows when or how. Anyone and everyone has a guess or theory. We will find out when the time comes. As you know there will be no spring bear season. Probably no fishing this summer. Birds this fall up in the fall. Unknown also is the deer season. It has a better chance as it is the farthest away. We will play that by ear. If there is no season this fall the deer will be older and bigger for next year. I will still feed the deer much similar to any other year and put out cameras. We are all in this together. We haven't seen all the kids since Christmas but I did see Keith and family late March. April , Dean and young Patrick stopped by one day but never came in. They had a cold or something. Oh well. Enough about that. The weather is behind schedule. The winter was so good right into March. Now it seems like March still. Soon to be back on track in a few days.  Vicki retired last year and she is enjoying being retired. She now has time to do what she likes. This winter she has been helping me with chores and we both like that. We are calving now and Vicki checks cows also. We have 25 of 37 now. All going good. Got the order to get rid of the 2 old cranky cows that would eat you if they could when they calve. I will oblidge. It is difficult to check when you can't be within a hundred yards of them for fear you might be too close. The heifer calves out number the bull calves 15 to 10. Hopefully even out to come yet. Well I shall not carry on any longer. Hope you and yours stay safe, keep your distance, whatever it takes to get through the covid 19 in good shape. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith 

24 Feb 2020 The days are getting longer, the sun is getting stronger. Hello everyone. Hope all is well and good for you. We are all good here. Allmost like a taste of spring last little bit. Weather has acturally been good all winter. Temps lately have varied but a lot of 20 and even 30 degree weather. Ground hog didn,t see his shadow on Feb 2nd so that means a shorter winter. 60% of the time lol. He is in the 60% this year. March 1 forcast is warm, low 30s. The saying "in like a lamb, out like a lamb will be started on the right foot at least. We still have barely a foot of snow. More in some places and some drifted of course but still not much. Good for all the animals. I just brought the cows home a couple days ago. I thought they would be anxious to come home but seemed they could hardly care less. They were not hungry like some years. The grass they were eating must have been better food value than most years. 5 weeks we will start calving. Deer and moose enjoying the winter also. A friend of mine saw 3 bull moose ten days ago still with horns on. This is late for moose. Kids and grand kids are all doing fine. Young ones are growing every day. Trying to talk, all smiles and laughing. We are truely lucky. Luck of the Irish on March 17. Remember to wear green, all you Irish folks. Pictures are in progress Madden time. Might even get a few misc pictures up if I get on a role. Don't hold your breath though. Well i will go and feed the cows. More chores that they are all home now. Vicki has been carrying oats to the bull and an older cow and also the year and 2 year old heifers. She does enjoy it. Feeds the cats, but not in the barn anymore as the skunks have joined the cats now. I caught a muskrat yesterday running around buy the bins. No where near water. Spring is close. I did skin this muskrat for the pelt and rest fed the cats for a treat. Balance is bait for the skunk. I set a trap for the skunk yesterday. Going to go check that when feeding cows. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

26 January 2020. My vision hasn't been  2020 for a while now. My eyes at least. Hello everyone. Hope the new year has been treating you well. Just a short note on the weather etc. Today, and for the last few days we have been in the high 20 s. Coldest in the next 2 weeks at 0 f. Pretty nice winter. We did have a week or ten days where it got down to 30 below but that is not unusual for SK January winter. Still have no more than a foot of snow. Winter shortened up a bunch. The cows are still out swath grazing for 3 weeks then I will bring them home. The warm temps and lack of snow definately works for them. And me I guess. The longer they can stay out the longer the bale stack lasts. I am working on getting the pictures up, should be up and done by Friday. My computer skills are less than optimum. Till next time take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

01 Jan 2020 May continued health, happiness and sucess be yours this year. Happy New Year!! Wayne, Vicki, Keith

25 Dec 2019 Merry Christmass everyone. May this day and all the days of the holiday season be filled with family, happiness good food and maybe a glass of wine. Family and friends together at the table or beside the fire is as good as it can get. We will be all together on the 28th as Keith had to work Christmas this year. April, Dean and Patrick arrive on the 26th. Patrick is doing so well for his age. Bright eyes, big smile, tries to talk. The newest addition to the family born on Nov 10 2019 is Remy Rae Madden. She is doing very good also. Growing fast. Alicia and family will be here on the 28th also. Ashley, Norman and Isabelle have moved into their new house on their farm a couple weeks ago. They had their first Christmas there a few days ago. I see last post was Oct. 23 rd and it was snowing. The snow never completely left from then. We got 2-3 inches. It melted down to almost gone, then snow an inch or so, melt down again. As a result there is a lot of crop out yet that couldn't be harvested. We still have only 3-4 inches of snow and not more than dusting a few times in the coming weeks. Temperatures have been quite mild for this time of year also. Coldest days were 10-12 Nov. rest of Nov. was quite nice. Turned cold the Sunday after the season. All the animals are having a very good winter so far. Hopefully the not so cold weather prevails and snow doesn't pile up or something similar. We had a good deer season basically from start to finish. We took 3 the first day to start. A first for sure. Some of the highlights was a honest drop tine buck. One on each side, one of those split into 2. We took 2 in the 180 s. One wide and heavy. The other narrower but long tines, also heavy. Very symetrical. We took a lot of 150 deer. Heavier than they have been for a few years at least. Success rate higher this year also. We have some good deer to look forward to next year also. Elusive as can be, we will be awaiting their reappearance. Every year we see a lot of next year deer. Doesn,t always turn out as we would hope but it did this year and some. I would like to thank all those who hunted with us again this year. We always look forward to seeing you come. Friends and familiar faces, hand shakes, hugs and sometimes a tear. All good. We look forward to next year. Raise your glass, cheers, to a good season. I would also like to Thank my guides Keith, Joe, Lyndon and Brandon for all their dedication and job well done in brief. The cooks Vicki and Helen for the warm greetings, all the home cooked meals, coffee poured, glasses raised at the end of the day. The New year is just around the corner so I wish one and all a Happy, healthy, successful New Year. May your aim be straight and true. All the best in 2020 Wayne vicki Keith

 

23 Oct. 2019 Looking out he window "no joke" snow. Good morning everyone. Hope all is well with you. We are all good here. Except for the farmers, I not sure if anyone is done. I have my hundred acres in the bin but I took it off tough. Not the end of the world but for all the other farmers the weather has been lousy all of fall acturally. There will be a lot left out over winter. Most grain is tough and damp. Dryers are going everywhere. Enough about that. The hunt season is fast approaching. Less than 2 weeks now. Joe and I have been out baiting and clearing trails etc. We have cameras out and will change cards next time out. Some cameras showing so far young bucks does and fawns. Normal for this time of the year. We had one a couple months ago regular but then no sign of him for a month or more. With all the frost and now snow their tastes will change and they will like us more. The elk eluded us this year. Again. We had4 or 5 different bulls on camera. Of the six cameras we had in rather close proximity they were on one camera lots. 11 pm-5 am. Always in the dark. Another couple cameras busy early Sep then slow. We have a couple cameras that send pics to our email. That s nice to see pics in real time so to speak. We will expand our search next year. While Joe and I were baiting we found a 6 point elk shed. A true trophy for here. It would have been shed last spring. Bigger and better this year, survived and will be that much better next year. We weaned calves on Monday so it will be noisy for a few days. From what I have heard prices have been satisfying for the cattle men. Hopefully it stays good. All the family is doing good. Little Patrick was born Jul 11 is doing great, lots of big smiles, I m sure he will be laughing before long. Alicia is Due Nov. 10. All is good there also. With this child there will be 17 Wayne and Vicki decendants. Awesome I say. Well I best be on my way. Go check the calves. Be safe, take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

11 Sept 2019  9 11 today. We remember. Hope everybody is doing well. We are all good here. It,s been a while since the last update I see. Happy belated 4th of July. Probably the biggest news since last time is the birth of my second grandson. Patrick Ross Houston was born to April and Dean July11. Everything went well. Everyone there is doing good. Young Patrick has a good sleeping routine now. We now have 6 grandchildren and Alicia is due in November. I am likeing it. They are the best thing ever. A week ago April sent a picture of Patrick with a big smile on his face looking right at her. Pretty awesome for just under 2 months of age. Alicia anf family are doing well. Blake is doing well. Knows her alphabet and numbers and speaks very well for her age.Being pregnant Alicia tires a bit but does fine. Keith and family spent some holiday time with us a month ago. They are all good. Declan is getting taller everytime we see him. We all went to Saskatoon for a couple days after that and spent a few days there. First time we were all together there. We went out to Ashley and Norman,s farm to see the foundation set and ready waiting for their new house to arrive. Any day now the house is coming. Should be ready for a big Christmas gathering. They are all doing well. Isabelle growing and very good on her feet. The summer seemed to go fast. We got short changed on the hot weather we usually get in July and August. We did get some but not as much as usual. I cut and baled my hay in the hot weather of July. Cut and baled in 5 days. Dry, no rain. Perfect hay. Much of the hay in the area got some rain on it. Couldn,t get a week of no rain in anywhere. Rained nearly an inch in the last 3 or 4 days. Don't need rain anymore now. It,s supposed to be harvest weather. Canola here is swathed and some barley. The rest of the barley will be straight cut. I am ready to cut the second cut of alfalfa when the weather forcast looks good. The second cut looks good if the weather cooporates. Picked up some peas from the neighbor and cleaned and bagged them last Friday. We will start baiting with straight peas this year. Any oats the bears in in them so bad. I don't know where the bears all came from but they are very visible this year. Everyone is commenting on the number of bears being seen. Not normal. I have one that is hanging around the lodge and barn yard. He best move on or else. Vicki has seen him in the yard here a couple times also. Makes uneasy when outside. Vicki has picked and processed the beans, some carrots, made pickles and relish. She has made peach jam and pies. Cherry jelly, raspberry jam, saskatoon and apple pies. Even found some choke cherries this year and Vicki made some chokecherry jelly. My favourite. We have a doe and fawns that nearly live in the yard. See them very regular. We are seeing deer more and more out in the fields etc. One of our own cameras has a 160 on it. Neighbor has a 170 on his bait. Hear more people seeing good horns this year. A better year coming up. Hopefully this winter is a good one again. We have a couple cameras up now and next week some more. Joe and I have been monitoring some cameras for elk and moose. So far a spike and fork elk and only cow moose. That will change as the rut has started. Not much else to report on. Our elk season opens on the 15th. Keith,will be home on the 19th so Joe and I will have a plan put together for when Keith gets here. We may have one down before Keith arrives. I will let you know how it goes comes October 1. Till then Take care everybody. Wayne,Vicki, Keith. PS in case I missed letting someone know. We raised our price to 5000. We plan on taking a few less hunters to be able to let a few more deer make another year. One thing we can do to help the deer mature another year.

Happy 4th of July

17 June 2019  3 months since you last heard from me. I'd like to say I was busy. I may have been. I can still do a days work but it takes me a week to do it. Hello everyone. Hope good health is with you. We are all in good health here. Some good news for us. Our youngest daughter April is pregnant and due mid July. Everything is going good. Our oldest daughter Alicia is also pregnant and due in November. All going good there as well. We have 5 grandchildren and will have seven later this year. Awesome I say. Easter everyone was home, all 15 of us. Very special time for sure. Every year we have our annual Madden golf tournament and 13 of 15 were home. Special again. I got to see a lot of my first cousins. 25 of us left yet. We come from a family of 12 so there were a lot of first cousins at one time. Was a beautiful day for our gathering. Spring and now has been quite nice also. April we had a half an inch of rain which is always good. Helps take out the frost which was not as deep this year as most. Warmer than normal weather till February and snow cover kept the frost from going down. Last day day od March, also the last day of fishing I went fishing with a couple of friends, They reminde me that quad only on the ice as the ice wasn't safe any longer for a pickup. First I can remember. I stopped to pick up some bait on the way and the person behind the till told me quad only also. 2 trucks had gone through the ice on Loon lake, 1 20 miles west and 5 on another lake. Spring was indeed early. May good also. Some warm weather for then, a cool break and another half inch of rain. Everything turned green but slow growing. Needed more rain but it has since rained an inch plus and more coming. All plant life is going full speed ahead. It was a good calving this year. 1 cow had twins and never lost a calf so have 1 more calves than cows calved. I did loose 1 cow. The calf was upside down in presentation. I called the vet and in the process of getting the calf to turn over it tore a hole in the uterus. Calf was delivered fine but the cow lived only 4 or 5 hours. Too bad. I bought a holstein as a wet nurse for the calf and for one of the twins. She has 2 calves and happy with her family. I plan to put the bull out this afternoon with the cows. He is anxious of course. The crop is all seeded and up growing. You can see the growth every day. Oats for the cows and deer is what I planted. All the crops here look good. The other day I came across a doe twice in the same spot 15 minutes apart. I thought she must have a young fawn with her and sure enough I did see it come out of the bush and go back in near her. I then saw another come out closer to me. It came up to the truck blatting looking for it's mother. I shut the truck off and got out to take a video. It laid down under the rear bumper to hide. Instinct. It got up and came within a few feet of me before finally going back into the bush where it had come from. I left safely then. We have been seeing lots of deer through spring till they started having fawns. One of my neighbors has a camera that sends pictures to their phone and they have a real impressive bull elk on camera. Already has his width. I have my cameras out on the bear stands yet. We had more big bears than usual coming this year. 4 big black bears and one big coloured bear from 350 to 400 lbs. We had lots of bears come in this spring and a good portion were coloured. They got their appetite early than normal this year. Good coats this spring too. Promises to be a good season next spring. I will pick up cameras this week and put them out for deer, moose and elk. See what we can find. Always exciting. I have been looking after some of the nuisance beaver and 4 skunks so far since the snow. The lack of big rain falls has made it easier to lower water from dams etc. with none to relace it. An going chore with the beaver. Well I shall go now. Stay healthy and take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 Mar 2019 Happy St.Patrick's day for all those who celebrate it. It's acturally the 21rst but ...We had a gathering at the lodge yesterday and it was very fine to say the least. A wee bit of Irish whiskey was tasted along with other spirits of course. I cooked corned beef, cabbage and potatoes. Cousin Jim and Pearl brought cicken wings. Cousin Rock and Nora brought pork hocks and sauer kraut, cousin Dale and Shirley brought a vegetable cassirole. We all ate very good. A good time it was. Hope everyone is doing good. We are all fine here. A day older than we were yesterday. That doesn't change ever. As you know February was cold. Once we got into March a bit temps rose considerably and has been on the plus side of our 0 everyday for a while now. The snow is fast disapearing. The sun is shining bright everyday and not too cold at night. Yesterday snuck up to 50 for an hour. I went fishing yesterday with a friend. There was 4 inches of water on the road out onto the lake. We are Loving this warm weather along with all the other creatures. Deer included. I have been trapping beaver this winter a bit and did catch a dozen. Also caught 3 coyotes. Joe came with me on the 4th of March checking traps and then we went to the bush on our sleds and picked up a few cameras and toured a bunch. We did see 6 or 7 deer in our travels. They looked good. They are mostly in the cover of the spruce where the snow doesn't get as deep and forageing is easier. One of the deer we saw was a mid sized buck still carrying his horns. We were surprised to see that. A good sign though. Alicia and family, Ashley and family went up to Fort McMurray to see Keith and family last weekend. They had a good time up there. Keith took them on a tour of Suncor where Keith works. They went to a hockey game of Declan's and then the pool. The grand kids all got along well. It was high 50 s when they were up there one day. It is warming from the north this year, which is unusual. The Yukon and North West territories have been setting high temp records. With these warms temps I will not be burning wood much longer. On my way out to cut the last load of wood for the season. We did saw a bunch of logs into wind boards for corral fencing and firewood. Got the mill yard cleaned up. I have some spruce to saw into lumber now. Cows will srart calving in 2 weeks. A lot nicer calving in warm weather compared to last year. Anyway time to get out and at it. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

15 Feb 2019 Being the day after Valentines day I hope you had a very happy and romantic day. Hello everyone. The days are getting longer, the sun is getting stronger. Hope the world is treating good this year so far. Feb 2 was ground hog day. He did not see his shadow which in theory means an early spring. However the remainder of winter is to be quite chilly. As you likely know Most of February has been colder than normal. Lots of 0 and even 20 below. Looking ahead weather looks good. Into March a bit is warms quite nice. By St. Patrick's day plus degrees. That will put spring more than a month ahead of last year. That is the biggest factor  for good deer survival. Spring on time. Dec and January were quite tolerable weather wise. We are all doing good. The kids all well, working, staying warm and healthy except for a small cold here and there. Grandkids doing well also. Declan will be 7 March 5. Time does go by. April and Dean announced that they are expecting in July. Good news. That will make 16 of us. Hopefully a few more before we are done. Keith and family doing good. We ll see everybody at Easter. Ashley and Norman are in Mexico for a short vacation. They left Isabelle with Alicia who is on days off. First time away from parents. She is fine as all sisters see each other all the time. I had breakfast with Alicia, Blake and Isabelle morning of the 12th on my way back from New York. I took a week off and went to Norwich NY. I stayed with Monte and Libby. We went to the big show in Harrisburg. A big show it is indeed. Near wore myself out. Monte took me around town starting with downtown diner where I met Lori and Kim. Owner, cook and waitress. Great people. We tourned 2 different maple sugar processing places. Weather was warm enough for the sap to run. I went out to see Joyce. We toured the property and farm where her and Bruce lived and built. Bruce had different collections of stones, arrow heads antique bottles and more. Their trophy room was somrthing else. 20 plus whitetail from Saskatchewan, 5 stags from New Zealand plus others animals from there. And many animals from Africa. Joyce has a barn with 10 goats residing on her farm. This was quite interesting as see looks after them daily and has names and stories for each of them. We sat in the tower stand which Bruce had built. 26 feet enclosed stand. Quite a vantage point and confortable. Room for anyone who wanted to come and sit. Beautiful home built and designed by Bruce and Joyce. Joyce took me to the car museum in Norwich which was spectacular. A lot of cars I never knew existed. Lots built right in NY. Trucks, cars big and small from the inception of automobiles.  We went shopping for souvenirs type stuff, had lunch. Had a good time. I got to see Steve at his farm, Paul at his work place. He wasn't expecting me so was quite surprised. I had a visit with  Rod Y. in Harrisburg at the show. The day before I left I went out to Rod N. 's place and we toured the mill where he worked as a scaler and buyer. We scaled some logs as he wxplained the different grades etc. Looked at the different species of logs. He took me to Filmore park and seen the gorge and the falls preceding one of the finger lakes. Very interesting. Saw a lot of deer. I won't say where. We saw about 30 turkeys. That was awesome for me at least. Of course I didn't take enough pictures. Next time. Monte also took me out to the big mill north of town. Biggest for a long ways. The kilns there were huge. Heated by a wood fired steam boiler. I did enjoy my time there. Every body was great. Weather was good and I will return.  Next time I will stay longer and try to see everyone from not too far away. I best get out and feed the cows. I just brought them home a few days ago from the swath grazing. They are looking good. We will start calving the last few days of March. Until next time. Stay warm, stay healthy. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

Jan 01 2019 It is 2019. 2018 is history in the books now. Happy New Year everyone. Wishing you all the best of health. It becomes more precious with each passing year. We used to take health for granted in our younger years but with with each passing year we appreciate our health more so than ever before. I f you are not healthy I hope you return to good health. I wish you happiness. Happiness comes from the family and friends that surrond you. Things are material. Success in the coming year. This in your own interpetation. Comfort, for those who have lost someone special and close. Know that you will be together again. Shake hands with your neighbor and pass on the Happy New Year wishes. Wayne, Vicki Keith

25 Dec 2018 Merry Christmas one and all. I hope Santa Claus made it down the chimney just fine. All the best in the coming New year.

9 Dec 2018 long awaited journal update." Don't waste your time with explanations, people only hear what they want to hear" a quote I ran into. Hope the season finds everyone in good health readying for Christmas fast approaching. The low down on our recently wrapped up deer hunt season. As most of you have heard the season was not as we had hoped. We left a lot of good deer a year ago to hopefully return bigger and better than ever. For the most part that was not the case. Even though last winter was mostly normal the delay of spring coming did result in some of the deer not making it. I was optimistic that would not be the case. A lot of the deer we knew from last year gained only mass and not many inches. Not all bad. We did take  mature bucks. Seson best 160. Some 150s. Some impressive big frame 8s. We saw a lot of deer. No shortage bucks and again a lot of next year deer. The peverbial next year. We cross our fingers. From what I heard most of Saskatchewan similar. More and more our hunting clients will pass on an average buck knowing that they need another year. I do apprciate that. We understand QDM and that is an important step that we can make to ensure bigger and better next year and down the road. Mother nature has the biggest part to play. The weather has been above normal for most of November. We had 1 colder week. And daytime highs to reach 7-20 above for the next ten days. Bonus for us and the deer. We have 3-4 inches of snow now which is fine. My kids, although not kids anymore, are all fine. Keith back home enjoying his family in person. Ashley and Norman planning their new house for next year. All the grandkids are well also. Isabell, the youngest is begining to walk. I stopped in there in Martensville last Sunday for brunch. Saw my 3 girls and Isabelle and Blake. Alicia has her at the kitchen counter helping to make bread etc. Pictures show she really enjoys time with mom at the counter. Maybe she will be a master chef one day. Keith and family will be home for Christmas. Declan is so looking forward being outside feeding cows and sledding. He is in hockey now and I m sure we can in a game on the driveway. 15 of us will enjoy turkey together. Doesn't get any better. I will go now. Thank you to all who hunted with us this fall. See you next year. Thank you to all the guides. They do put a lot of effort into what they do and long hours. Vicki and Helen for all the wonderfull meals. Some reported having gained weight. LOL A bit about harvest. We did get all the crop off here. Oats were a bit tough but will keep. Used to feed the cows and the deer. The canola came off better than what I expected. We had some frost damage early Sep but yields and green count we tolerable. Again "next year". As always I will get the pictures up soon. Apparetly I have missed some from last year too. I will get them up too. I will sign off by wishing one and all a Merry Christmas. All the best in 2019 Thinking of you Joyce. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 Sep 2018 From 0 to 30 in 30. Nope wrong way around. From 30 to 0 in 30. Hello everybody. You guessed it. I m talking about the weather. A month ago highs were predicted to be 30 c. Never made it because of the smoke from from the British Columbia fires. They were dry and hot and burning up smoke coming this way and blocking out the sun. Now we are down to 0 c or 32f some nights. The last month has been mostly kinda of dreary, overcast, drizzly and unpleasant. There was some good weather though and local farmers were able to harvest their pea crop. The rest is waiting for warm dry weather. It will come. Vicki and I went to Martensville over the weekend and the farther south you went the more crop that was harvested. Roughly half there was harvested. Ashley and Norman's farm the same. About half. All three daughters once again live in Martensville, just ten north of Saskatoon. Was good to see everyone. Alicia and family in their new house. Blake, who will be 2 in Dec, is getting smarter every day. Able to communicate and understand more and more. Remembers us and warms up to us rather quickly now. Their house backs up to a retired golf course. Makes a super big back yard for being in town. Ashley and Norman are doing well. Isabelle growing more each time we see them. Crawling now and teeth about to come. April and Dean doing well also. We helped plant grass there a month ago and it is doing well. They built a deck renos mostly done now. We went to Fort McMurray to see Keith and family in mid August. Kids are growing up fast. I helped Keith build backyard patio with a fire pit. Very nice. They laid a bunch of sod down earlier and it looks really good. Declan going into grade 2, Zoe pre school and Cala enjoying being at home practicing a roar she developed. Just talked with Keith this am about the upcoming season. It will be here before we know it. Have the trucks and quads all tuned up. A universal joint in one to change yet. Weather has been so wet and miserable that we haven't been out to the bush yet but will be this week rain or shine. Joe and I have a bunch of cameras out for ourselves, basically for elk and moose. We have both on camera and will be in the hunt mode now. Our elk season opened on the 15th. Keith is coming for a few days later. Let you know how we make out. We have some deer on camera of course. A bunch of younger buck, 2 other 10s that needs another year. There are 3 from last year that haven't showed up yet. One ten from last year gained only mimimum from last year but gained. A friend I talk to once in a while said he was pleased with the deer on camera. He has deer that were 8s last year and are 10s this year. A big positive there. We ll know better in a month once we have bait and cameras out.. Joe and I were out for a bit on Friday am for elk. The wind was from the east so we had to approach from a different direction than I wanted but we made it work. We did hear 1 cow call once and a calf that called a bit later. 7 or 8 times it called. We were mostly inbetween so sat quiet. We did hear animals walking not far at all but only a bull moose materialized just 20 yards from us. Joe and I keep talking about bow hunting. This bull was definately in bow range. There are different seasons opening soon or have opened both here and there and I wish everybody a safe and sucessful hunt. Take care everybody Wayne, Vicki, Keith

30 June 2018  "The problem the rat race is that even if you win , you're still a rat"  I laughed when I read that. Thought I wouls share that. Hello everybody. Hope all is well in your part of the world. All is good here. Weather has been good since spring. It has been a while, I see since I last wrote and I will have to go by longer term memory for past weather. We, like most places didn't have much spring. Went from snow and cooler than normal to summer in 5 days. Snow started to melt in a hurry, 2 days later water was running and another 2 days was drying up already. Summer came. We had weather make daytime high to 80 well before  seasonably normal. Temperatures have been normal or above ever since. Our ice fishing season ends March 31. We hads lots of good ice then and all the ice fishing said they would be fishing on the ice when the season reopens in early May. Didn't happen. All the were ordering earlier maturing varieties thinking seeding would for sure be delayed. Seeding was no different than other years and less pot holes and soft areas to go around than last year. Everything is on track so to speak. Haying season is just around the corner and hopefully the weather will cooperate. Next 3-4 days some showers and chance of thunder storms will maybe give us some moisture and then dry for haying. Crops all look good and growing fast. Perfect conditions. I seeded oats again this year and anticipate an excellent crop. Got it in 2 weeks earlier than the last couple of years so harvest will be earlier as well. Better harvest weather early. Cattle are all happy on pasture. Young bull that I bought last March having a good time. Cows were done calving 3 weeks sooner than last year. Was a good year. We assited 4 of the herd but all went well. Keith's son Declan rode on the tractor with me when I moved the harrow packer from one field to the other. He does like tractor rides for sure. All the kids and grandkids were home in May for Vicki's birthday. Great times. Christmas and Easter were both too cold to be outside but this time the weather was super. 70 degrees, sun shining. The kids were all outside playing and running around having a good time. They sleep better with all the fresh air. 2 weeks ago we had our annual Madden golf tournament and reunion. All the kids and grandkids were home for this also. We had golf starting in the am, social from then on, a catered supper supper at the nearby hall. A good time had by all. This same weekend as a local ball tournament. April heads up a team every year and this they came up winning the tournament. April and Dean camp at this event so didn't make it to the reunion. Alicia, who plays on the team made it to the supper. Their final game was on Sunday so I was able to watch this game. They were pretty hard on the oposition. Beat them 24-4 I think. Most of April's team is 30 give or take and for the last 3-4 years have been having babies. They are done at least for now and all were able to play. Biggest reason for the winning. Keith and family enjoyed the outdoors, the birds, flying the kite and just running around. Alicia's Blake enjoys being outside now also that she is a year and a half old. Next year Isabelle will be one to watch outside. Keith, Norman Declan and I cleaned up the trees and branches that blew down in the storm a few days earlier. It had rained the day before. Some thunder and lighting as usual. This day, the day after at 10 am the wind picked up blowing hard. I didn't think too much of it until Vicki said. "I'm going downstairs. The trees are blowing down". I hurried to the window from the office and seen the trees down. In a matter of a few minutes 14 trees had been blown down or broke off half way up or tops broke off. One big tree took down a couple smaller green and healthy trees with it. We cut the big tree off and winched the smaller ones back and stood them up and tied them there. Root and just tipped out rather break off so they should be fine other than they will have to be tied there for a couple years. Grass cutting a regular thing now. Behind the lodge, when cutting grass I see a lot of deer beds. Nice to see. I see her cross the driveway quite often and I'm sure she has young in the bush beside the lodge. At home too, deer beds behind the quonset. A few days ago I saw a doe nursing her fawn. Was just driving home and a half mile south of home in a little clearing there they were. Pretty neat to see. I acturally spent a little time shed hunting this spring. So nice to be walking in the bush before mosquitos etc. Found 7 sheds in the time I was out. Nothing very big but found a set of horns on the skull of a near 150. Coyote kill probably in January. Didn't find any evidence of winter kill. A month ago I  found a yearling road kill buck. Already had 6 inches of growth. Quite a bit for a young deer early in the season. I did feed the bears this spring and gathered some pictures. Will make one more trip out and pick up cameras. Clear cards, change batteries and put out once agin for elk. Neither Joe or I got drawn for anything so will be hunting the regular seasons. It's a little frustrating to be in the super A pool so long and not get drawn. Next year. Right? We ll see. Seeded my swath grazing yesterday so now will move equipment home and park. My schude for today. April, Alicia and Blake are coming home this long weekend today. Tommorow being Canada's birthday. I will sign off now. Happy Canda Day July 1. Happy Independance day July 4. Take care Wayne, Vicki, Keith

5 Apr 2018  Good intentions. We all have them. I have them. I always have intentions to write in my journal more often. It never happens. As you can guess I like computers, office duties, anything electronic less all the time. Hi everybody. Hopefully everybody is well and healthy. We are all good here. Happy belated St.Patrick's day and especially happy belated Easter. Our family was all home for easter. !5 of us now since Isabelle was born in October. A house full for sure but the best times ever. The grandkids are all doing well. Lots of fun. Keith and I were able to get out to the bush for an hour or two. We took out some bales to a few stands and checked cards. Lots of deer, a few moose and some elk. An elk turned the camera on the one stand so didn't get any pictures after that. Wanted to see what kind of elk were coming. One deer had his horns yet on the 4th of March. A sign of no stress from weather. The geese have been seen 10 days ago. A gopher has been seen. Grackles have been here for a week. Crows 4 days ago. They are 2 weeks late as spring is. They are obviously optimistic and so am I. We are colder than normal for this time of year and some periods of the months preceeding. The best of the winter, I only had to plow the driveway twice. We never had that much snow till Christmas and then only a foot. A month ago we had a storm go through and left another 8 inches. Stubble showed all winter except for 3 weeks after the snow a month ago. It has since evaporated and settled and stubble out again, a few bare patches  in the fields. Snow won't last long. I plan to ski doo the bush on the weekend to see what it looks like out there. I have  a few cameras out since last fall. Batteries would be long dead but interesting to see whats on cam. We are calving now. 14 of 33. All is going well. 11 of the 14 are females. Usually close to 50 50. Lots to pick from for replacements. As always I say I will be back soon, lol. We ll see, right. In the mean time continued health, open arms to spring. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

26 Jan 2018 Have you got the Christmas and New Years turkey and fixin's wore off yet lol. Hello every body. Hope the new year finds all in good health. We are all good here. There has been a lot more flu and colds though this year. With the mild weather lasting till near Christmas the bugs have survived. We did have it cold from before Christmas till a few days into 2018. Then quite nice until about the 12th, then cold for 4-5 days then nice again. We got about 3 inches of snow last night brings up to 6 inches now. It is going to cool off some for the rest of January. The cows are  still out on the swath grazing. I checked them again yesterday, took them a bale and checked how much feed is available. They are quite content yet. The swath grazing is cleaned up nice and they are now grazing in the hay sloughs. The snow being deeper I may bring them home soon.The calves are doing well also. I sorted the heifers I plan to keep as replacements out and put in a seperate pen. They are fed different than those going to market. The deer have liked this winter so far too. Not much snow and not that much cold weather. They are still in the fields picking and browzing.  The 3 girls were in Mexico for a week. They kept busy with excusions and the like. April, Dean, Alicia were amoung the sick before they were done. All are better now. April will be coming home for the weekend. Will be good to see her. Keith and family are doing well. Each of the kids were sick for 1 day taking turns. Nothing too serious. Vicki working steady and had her 1 day of sick also. This time of year nothing too exciting going on. I will sign off now. Hope the winter is good for you too. I know there has been some cold and snow in the north and eastern states. We sent it from here lol. Well, take care everybody. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

an 1 2017 Happy New Year    May the coming year bring health, happiness and success in all that you do. From all of us here at HorseHead  All the best in 2018. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

25 Dec 2017 May the spirit and true meaning of Christmas be with everyone this holiday season. With warmest wishes from all of us here at Horsehead    Wayne, Vicki, Keith

8 Dec 2017  Hope everyone had a successful hunting season. Long awaited journal update. It has been awhile no doubt. Our hunting season is now over and time to reflect on the season past. We had a better than average season. We had the bigger one top at 182 taken by Earl who has put his time in passing good bucks along the way. A suitable reward. This deer was a wide 9 pointer last year and added a point on each side, mass and more width. One the the extra tines was an 11 inch. Nash's 12 was another we watched grow up. going from 10 to 12 and mass scored scored short of 170. Kevin and Steve took deer at 160. One thing we noticed was all the fawns and yearling deer. All kinds of spikes every day. Obvious signs of the survival of the last couple winters. There seemed to be a bit of a shortage of the 150 type bucks. For this I have no explanation. We had lots of next year deer left a year ago. Where they hid I don't know. We are all optimistic about next year. This fall was good for us in another way also. It froze hard enough the night before the opening morning to freeze any mud. That was awesome. You could still find mud where it was deep in some holes but the road was good. We did get into the hard to get stands earlier than most years. We moved a couple stands, not too far, baited and awaited. We had that big hail storm last July which blew down a pile of trees. This meant we had to cut a lot of trees off of some of our trails. One line was mostly big healthy pine. Must have been a heck of a wind. Some broke off 20 feet high. Some simply blew over bringing up a huge root ball with it. One stand that had mature poplar was the same. These trees were on the edge of a clear cut and took the full force. There were more trees down than standing. What a mess. It would have been dangerous for any and all creatures in the forest on that day. This storm started 20 miles into Alberta and pretty much went straight east, how far I don't know. We got to use the argo this fall to get into some of these stands early. A valuable addition. Only once did it get stuck and only a winch pull away from the quad on high ground. We will be sure to use it next year Also. The  weather all through the season was good. We had about 10 days mid season that got down to near 0 and the rest was just about right for sitting. We had about 3 inches of snow by the end of the first week which was perfect also. Only a few skiffs since. Weather now is 30-32. Quite nice for this time of the year. It is staying nice till near Christmas then cooling off some but still nice for December. Vicki, Keith and Joe are all back to work. I have office time to put in getting next years roster put together along with all else related. Trucks and quads to put away, a day of bale hauling etc. Keith is happy to be back home with family who for sure were missing him. The family will all be home for Christmas. Alicia is having a birthday party for Blake and I on the weekend. Blake is turning one on the 11th which is my birthday also. Since my last journal Ashley and Norman had a baby girl on the 14th of Oct. Very good baby and all went well. They will be at Alicia's also. April and Dean are into their new to them house now after a couple months of reno s. Will be good to have see them all this weekend and then again at Christmas when Keith and family arrive. There will be 15 of us now counting spouses and grand kids. Family is the best ever. I will close by saying thank you to Vicki and Helen who do such a good job at putting excellent meals on the table for us. Keith and Joe  who, as usual, do such a fine job at looking after our hunting clients. Jeff also did a super job for us this year. Jeff went to school with Keith and is no stranger to hunting and the bush. Thank you to all who hunted with us again this. And to the the new to us. We are fortunate  to have such good people come and hunt with us. We do have fun and share stories and get along so well. Most are here every year where friendships are rekindled. If you don't hear from before Christmas. All of us here wish you and yours a very merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

12 Sep 2017 the clock is ticking fast. wow Hello everyone. Hope all is well with you. Less than 2 months before the fall deer season. It will be here before we know it. Nothing special to report but we got the 2nd cut alfalfa up in good shape again. We made 800 plus bales. We have a three year supply put up and sold some also.  Wheat harvest started here yesterday. Weather has been good but cooler weather and maybe a little precipatation is expected. Hopefully it stays dry so we can get harvest done. My oats are going to be late because of hail storm that set it back. Hopefully frost too stays away for a while. All the family is doing well. Ashley 8 months along is uncomfortable a good amount of the time. 1 more month. Ashley, Alicia and Keith were all home for a few days last weekend. Alicia had a school reunion. She enjoyed seeing many of her old schoolmates. Lots of them she doesn't see very often. Keith brought one of the argos down. We bought a set of tracks and Joe Keith and I put them on one evening. We tried them out the next day and they worked great. We will have a way to get to hard to get to stands early this year. Early freeze up is always the best. We still haven't got any elk horns on camera yet. Joe went out today to check on 3 that we haven't checked for a while. Maybe something will be on these cameras. One of the cameras had a new buck. 150 plus 10. One camera has a bachelor group of bucks. We need to find this more often. Anyway I will keep you posted on the elk season and moose as it developes. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

09 Aug 2017 Beautiful summer morning, John and Martha were enjoying breakfast on the patio when Martha asks " John, if I were to die, would you marry again" John replies " what kind of a question is that. Beautiful morning, good breakfast. I m not even going to answer such a silly question" They finish breakfast and carry on. Every day she asks and gets a similar reply. Finally John says after more pestering "yes". Now would you leave it alone" Hopeing that she would be satisfied. She then asks " would you sell the house" John thinking this conversation might be done answers " no, I like this house, I ve lived here a long time"  Martha then asks "would you sell the bed?" John then replies "no, I wouldn't. don't see any reason to sell the bed. Once again hoping the questioning was done. Martha then asks "would you let her use my golf clubs" John somewhat frustrated and not thinking answers too quickly. "no, she s left handed".     Hello everybody, hopw all are well and healthy. We are all good here. Weather has been good. We had a stretch in July above normal temps but mostly normal. Never been a shortage of rain. The hay is all up but some did get some rain on it. Forecast would be good but then a chance of rain. And it would rain. Crops are all good except for the crops in the pasture. They got beat up from a hailstorm that came through 2 weeks ago. They are recovering but yield certainly hurt and this will delay maturity by at least a week or 10 days. Joe and I have cameras out in search of horns of any kind. We have the cameras out where we hopefully can catch some elk and moose and of course deer. We are getting pictures of all of the above but mostly cows and does with their young. One young buck. I did see a good whitetail in a field a week ago. He looked I say. I ll be watching for him. Also saw a bull moose, about a 24 " Bigger will show up for sure. Joe is off now for a week so we will go swap cards and see what what we can see. The elk are only 2-3 weeks from the start of the rut so likely will be on camera with the cows. Hopefully a few bull moose and bucks. From what I have seen and what others are saying it looks like a good year for horns.     Alicia enjoying her maturnity leave with baby Blake. Alicia, April and Ashley were all up a couple weeks ago for a 3 day weekend. They were all at the lake. Vicki and I took the pontoon boat up and we all went out for a afternoon of fishing and enjoying the beautiful day. We had a good fish fry for supper and again the next day. They are coming again in a couple weeks. Hopefully we can get out on the water and do some more fishing. Always a good time with family. Vicki has been busy canning dill pickles, making raspberry jam, strawberry jam, cherry jelly. Apples are not far away. Lots of apples again, not many plums and next to nothing for Saskatoon berrys. I see if any blueberries when Joe and I head out to the bush this week. I still haven't got the spring bear pictures up. I apologize for that. Soon though. I had Joe go through all the trail cam pictures and get them sorted out. When viewing it's easy to see that we have a lot of bears, big and coloured. We will also put some of these pics on the website. We will also put up some of the deer from last fall that will be a year older this year. Last couple days I have been busy cleaning out the shop and rearranging. I set up a 2 post truck hoist and purchased a big air compressor so moving stuff around a bit. I backed up a truck box trailer to the door and starting filling with scrap iron and the like. This will fetch money at the meatal recylers. I have the box near full. I read somewhere that if you save it you can throw it away. True. Also that after you throw it out, even if it's been there for years, you will need or want it shortly thereafter. Also true. Some of this stuff I have had collecting dust for 20 years. I can't believe some of the stuff hideing in the corners. I put up some new led lights in the shop also. What a difference this makes too. Will be a lot nicer doing repairs and maitanance with the lift and lights etc. Well I best be back at it. Take care everybody. Till next time. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

27 June 2017 In less than 6 months the days start getting longer. Sunrise today 4:49 sunset 9:50. Our days are long now for sure. Hello everybody. Hope health is with you. We are all good here. We have had ample rain this year. Temps could be a bit warmer or more often but everything is growing well. Bush looks like a jungle with all the foiliage.  One month ago we wrapped up our bear season. Sandy brought his son Riley and friend Aaron for the spring hunt. Sandy took his bear with his bow and Aaron with the rifle. Both good bears. Sandy first to connect first evening. Had different bears come in, also a nice coloured but all needed another year or two. Finally a shooter black came in and Sandy made a perfect shot. Super coat. Aaron just an hour later connected on a big black bear. We weighed this bear in at 407 lbs. 20 inch skull. Again a super coat. I sat with Riley the first night and we saw 3 different bears. Biggest a shooter but had a few rubs on it's back end. We had one knock the bait pails off of quad just 50 yrds behind us. We went to investigate and got within 50 feet of him before it left. Later it came to visit where we were sitting, again maybe 50 feet away. Always neat to see being this close. We continued watching the other two feed and this other bear went back to the quad and got the seat before I got there to run it off. Son of a gun to be polite. The next day was Riley's 13th birthday. Sandy Riley and Aaron all sat sat the same place and decided to take the shooter even though he was rubbed some. It will make an excellent shoulder mount. Congratulations Sandy Riley and Aaron. Well done. Joe and I were out once to feed the bears one last time and pick up cameras. We put up a few cameras for elk and for sure will capture some deer also. Joe drew a taf for farmland moose and mule deer. We put out some more bait and cameras for moose and elk the other day. I have a picture of a cow moose from one of these stands with no nose. Unusual to say the least. I don't think anything happened to it as it looks too neat. Not mangled or tore. Waiting for the bulls now. One buck carrying good growth a month ago already. Saw one on the road early June with at least a foot long beams and points quite visible. Yesterday a mule deer with horns out past his ears. Shapeing up to be a good year I'd say. We have a doe in or near the yard very regular. Must have a fawn here. Vicki puts out bird seed and this doe will sneak in and steal the seed. Dogs sometimes get caught sleeping I guess. Vicki cuts the grass every couple days to stay ahead. She is kept busy with her garden and flowers and cutting the grass. Not too far away, a matter of 5-6 miles the catapillars are eating the leaves off of the pasture. I found the first one here today. We will be vigilant about watching for them. They leave it unsightly in their wake. Keith and Jilion's daughter's birthdays were Zoe the 26th',  Cala the 27th, and Jilion's on the 29th. I sure hope I have that right or I'm in trouble.  Last weekend Alicia and family were home along with April and Dean. There is a local ball tournament and they play every year. They ended up winning 2 and losing 2 games. Earned enough to get their entry money back. All games were close. April and Dean sold their place and bought a house. Needs some improvements but such a nice big backyard with mature trees. Alicia's young daughter Blake is now 6 months old. Happiest baby you ever saw. Actually just like Alicia when she was that age. We have 4 grand kids now. More good news. Ashley and Norman are expecting in October. Norman got all his crop in good time and all looks good. They haven't had as much rain as us so would like a little more. Ashley busy with here garden and flowers and work. She will soon be on lighter duties. I have been  busy moving cows, some fencing, seeding my small acres etc. The crop is all in except for my swath grazing which I will seed in a few days. Crops look good. I bought a 2 post lift for the shop to make working on my trucks and quads easier. Project after seeding to set it up. Well best carry on. Take care everyone. Wayne, Vicki, Keith. Hope you had a good birthday yesterday Rick

15 May 2017  May is half gone already, sunrise 5;16 sunset 9;11. Hello everybody. Hope all are doing fine. The days are long now and streching out still. Weather has been different this spring, first part of April was nice, warmer than usual. 14 April we had 8-9 inches of snow overnight. Not that cold but we didn't want to see any more snow. It only lasted a few days but left everything muddy and wet. We have had a lot moisture this spring. Last week we had temps in the 70s but cooled off this weekend. Grass is green and the leaves are out but we want warm and dry weather now to get things into high gear. Seeding is under way but we had nearly an inch of rain over the weekend so will be a few days again to get into the fields. All the cows have calved but one which will in a week or so. All of our cows calved in 30 days except for this last one. Never been so quick. We lost one calf and had one set of twins. Joe and I have been out feeding the bears. They have their full appetite now, eating all we put out. The bears had a good winter also as they look to be in better shape than usual. Good coats this spring too. They were out early April then went back to bed when the snow and cooler weather came along. I would too, not that exciting for a bear to be out in the snow. In our travels baiting we are seeing lots of deer. All have their fawns in tow, another sign the winter was easy. Fawns  usually find it the hardest. I think there are are more moose and elk tracks this spring too. I applied for draw moose and mule deer again this year. Hopefully I can draw one or the other. I may need a camera man if I draw a tag. Let me know if you might be interested. We have an open week for bear anytime after the 28th May. Bears look good this spring. Full rut at this time also.   Yesterday was mother's day. Ashley and April came home on Friday evening to spend the weekend. Saturday they took Vicki to the green house to pick up flowers tomatoes and the like. They had to make two trips. Our house looked a mini green house when the brought it all in. Ashley likes gardening and picked up quite a bit. April some tomatoes for the deck. April and Dean have their house up for sale as they wish to get out of their condo and into a house with a yard with grass etc. Norman is busy seeding when dry. They didn't get as much rain so won't be held up for long. Ashley and Norman are expecting a baby in Oct. We will be happy to be grand parents again. Alicia and family are doing well also. She sends pictures regularily and baby is always smiling and happy. A good baby she is, sleeps nights, seldom fusses over anything.  Keith and family busy as ever with their house. Talking with contractors, sourcing materials etc. Jilion is busy keeping up with Declan, now in pre school, and Zoe busy as ever. Cala who will be one end of June.  Vicki all excited to be out in the yard raking leaves, tilling the garden, putting up decorations. She will be mowing in a day or two. I keep busy feeding the bears and the cows and getting everything ready to seed and hunt. Today I will be cleaning up a fenceline we tore out last year. Some rotted posts and some rocks to pick. This field will be sprayed in a day or two and later seeded to canola. I best get at it and get it done and then this evening I ll be on beaver patrol. They are a nuisance for sure. Take care everyone Wayne, Vicki, Keith

12 Apr 2017 What,s that I heard. I stopped, gave full attention. Yes! It is. It was truly the sound of frogs. Last night. Good morning every body. Last night I did hear the frogs singing their praise of spring. I went back to see when they were out last year and the year before. Didn't find last year but 2015 they were out on the 23rd. This year 11th. That's 12 days earlier than 2 years ago. Spring is truly here. We had a half inch of rain on the 1rst of April and more coming in the next few days. We had a lot of moisture last fall and so will be well set as far as moisture for the start goes. All we need now is a little warmer weather to come and the grass will be greening. We have our bear baits out and cameras up. I have been to 1 stand to check and 1 bear visited this stand. He was there  one day for 10 minutes then left. I took the camera as I left cards at home. Something else on the camera was a buck still with both horns on April the 6th. I haven't seen deer carry horns this late. Another had just recently lost his horns and a third appeared to have a nub starting new growth already. A neighbor told me he had 9 mule deer pass by his yard on April 6 also, all bucks, all carrying their antlers. Another friend reports the same. Mulie and white both with horns on one of his bear cams. He said not much sense shed hunting yet. Traveling about and down the roads we see a lot of deer in the fields. Last night 24 in a mile. Reminds me of 5, 6 years ago when we would see so many. Nice to see. A promising hunt this fall for sure. We had 3 heifers calve in the last 2 days. We helped one this morning and the others were born on their own. We are half done now and only one heifer left. Well on my way out to feed the cows. Take care everybody Wayne, Vicki, Keith

7 Apr 2017 63 degrees yesterday. Spring is truly here. Hello everybody. Hope you are having spring as well.  It has been quite warm here for this time of the year. You have to look hard to find a bit of snow hiding somewhere. Robins are back today, geese and starlings came back way in March. Flies are out in full force. Joe and I have been putting out bait for the bears. We didn't see any sign where we were but I know it will be only a few days before they are up if not already. Usually later the first week of April for the bear to rise in the bush. We have a few openings if anyone is interested in coming up. Easter is only a week away and that's when we will see the kids next. We get pictures and talk on the phone but that is not like in person. The 2 young grandaughters have home only once so that will be a real treat, especially for grandma.  We are calving now. 14 of 42 have calved. One heifer had to have a c section. They are both doing well.  It is so nice outside and I am in the office. That's not fair. I am going to bust out of here and go check on my beaver situation. I built a new road across the creek last summer and put in a culvert. It is running full boar with the spring run off. I have to keep the beaver from plugging it or my road will wash out. I ll let you know when we have bear pictures. Till then have a happy easter. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

No news is good news?  Well all is good whether you have heard from me or not.  Hello everybody. Hope everyone is doing fine this winter.  I hear the weather has been quite mild just about all over. It has been mild here too. Normally we get 3 weeks of winter and a warm week but this year it is the other way around. I have not plowed the driveway once. We still  have only 4 or maybe 5 inches of snow. My cows are still out on the swath grazing happy and well. I took them a bale today just to see how they were . They were eating it but mostly because it is better than what they have there. I will leave them there another 3 weeks. I will take them a bale now and them so they remember who I am lol. This lack of snow and mild weather has been very nice to all the animals . Keith Joe and I took atrip out to the bush over the holidays and picked up the last of the cameras and a few tents . We took out some deer mineral blocks to see if the deer would eat at them or not. We took some out in Nov. but I wasn't that impressed or the deer I don't think. These last ones were a different manafacturer. We ll see come spring. I think the seed eating birds and mice chew on them for sure. Maybe this time of year they will be more interested than the easy Nov. they had. The kids and families were all home for Christmas and a good time was had by all for sure. First Christmas for Keith and Jilion's newest Cala. Also for Alicia's 2 week old baby Blake. Ashley and Norman just got back from their  Bermuda holiday. They really enjoyed it there. Highlight was the stalagmight caves they visited. April busy with here accounting and now my bookeeping. Dean setting up to do his electrical business on his own. It will take a while to get setup but it should work out fine. All the kids and grandkids are doing just fine. I bought 53 joints of pipe to use for corral fenceing. That will be one of the summer projects along with a mile of pasture fence to complete. With all the mud we had to go through last fall and all the brake pads I had to change I am going to set up a lift in the shop to get the trucks off of the ground to work on them. I still have 3 pics to put up. My computer changed it's mind and I didn't go along so ended up getting help with things. Part of my delay for being so long to get this wrote up. My time in the office is not my strong suit. You knew that already.  My oat germination came back 98% so that is good. Bear season not too far away anymore. We will be hunting an extra week this year as we have more bookings. There are a few spots left if you can make it. Watch for pictures. I will be putting some on the web site. Today, you kidding, not tomorrow either. Try Monday. Well best be on my way. Time to sort calves to go to market. I did keep a half dozen back for replacements and to butcher. We like to eat good. Wood pile is out too. Take care everybody. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

01 Jan 2016   Happy New Year!! to one and all. May the new year bring happiness, wealth and continued health. All the best in 2017. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

16 Dec 2016 2 months to the day. I m slacking. Season is basically wrapped up. We will make another trip out to the bush over Christmas holidays when it warms up. We will feed some stands more remote and take a deer block to them and salt as well. We have a few tents and cameras to pick up also. It will be interesting to see if the home deer came back yet. We had deer on cam end of Oct that had't yet returned after the rut. They usually come back by end of Nov. It is cold as you likely know. More than 20 below this am and has been cold since the Monday after the season. I will back up to Oct briefly. we had snow in early Oct. 4inches at home and as much as 8 in the bush. At this time the deer thought we were treating them well with our feed. We had a good number of deer on camera then and were looking forward to a promising hunt season. Of course the snow did melt and the deer didn't need us so much anymore. All of Oct the temps were quite mild and only 1 inch of snow at the end of the season. We now have 1.5 inches of snow. The warm temps made it nice for hunting as far as sitting goes but made the hunt slower. We did take some good deer though, most heavier than other years, top deer at 170. We took another 9 pt at 165. We took numerous deer at 155 We took some 20" deer and mature deer. 8pt to 12pt. Overall a pretty good year but not quite as good as I had expected. We did what we could to convince the deer that they should come for dinner lots had other plans. 4" of snow would have been awesome. On the up side Nov was not a winter month and so shaved a month off of their winter. Though it is cold, with only an inch and a bit of snow, this is quite easy for the deer to take. We moved the cows home the day after the season to the swath grazing. They are likeing it there. We have the calves yet at home and they are doing well also. Markets are up from what they were 2 months ago. Also good. Cousin Dale has been out lots looking the cattle and moving the bales home. Our oldest daughter did give birth to a baby girl on Dec 11. Blake Leigh Madden. Baby and mother adjusting to the newness of all. Keith and Jilion have their new house sitting on the foundation. Gas was being hooked up yesterday. Electricity next week. Sewer and water hooked up ready to be turned on as soon as permit is signed off and heat is hooked up. I was there yesterday and saw for myself the damage and disruption the fire caused back in May. Most of the trees in Keith's neighborhood were killed by the fire and have been taken down. Houses that were burnt have been cleaned up and lot levelled. This with slow rebuild and trees gone make for a wide open view. Totally different than before the fire. Early New years they should be in. Then comes the basement and garage. Then in spring and summer more clean up and landscaping. Ashley and Norman are doing well. Both are busy at their jobs and are coming home tonight. April and Dean are bothe busy at their jobs as well. Now that April is an accountant (CGA CPA) not sure. I gave her my books to do the book keeping. Darn dad anyway. lol  We will all be together along with my 2 sisters and their families as well. Our dear old mother of 94 did head for the happy hunting ground on the 13th of Dec. She did live a good life just got old and ran out of gas. SHe was good to the end. She was happy to see any vivsitors and knew what was going on. She will be missed but we know she is in a better place now. I will sign off now. I would like th thank all those who hunted with us. I appreciate your patronage, patience and persistance in the hunt this year. We do look forward to seeing you next year as much as we did seeing you this year. I hope to touch base with everyone during the holidays. If I can't please have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Thank you to my guides Keith, Joe and Allan. A lot of dedication and hard work and late evenings they did put in. They do like the hunt season as much as I do. Not but not least Vicki and Helen in the kitchen preparing all the fine food we enjoyed throught the season. Much apprciated ladies. Take care everybody Wayne, Vicki, Keith

16 Oct 2016 I know better I had wrote a lengthy journal entry and did not save. It disappeared before I finished. Hello everybody, hope all is well with you. Save your work. I will be brief and more details to come. Nearly 2 weeks ago. (time does fly) we had Alan and Cindy, Gene and Mary and Bob in camp. Original plan was for Alan and Gene for bear and Mary for bear. Deer movement was very slow so all switched to bear. A very sucessful decision. We took 3 beautiful black bears 250 to just over 300 lbs. Gene saw 2 coloured bears, one of which was a big bruser. Wouldn't come in for the shot. Mary's bear had the white patch on his throat. Alan connected the same day on his black bear. We had pictures of a super coloured bear on one of our deer stands but he refused to come in while we were there. They get big for a reason. Bob was visiting or here for a vacation. There was not time for feet up. Bob wanted to be in the bush with us and that's what we did. We baited and cleared trails etc. It was a good week even without deer. Great people. Gene is coming back in the regular season for deer and next year Gene and Mary both for deer. Alan and Cindy we will see again too. Weather has been not good for nearly 2 weeks now. Wet then colder than normal. We did not escape the snow. We got about 4 inches a week ago, half melted as it fell so we were left with 2 inches. That was slowly going to disappear then we got another 6 inches. Today rain most of the day which took the snow down but it is making things muddy. slippery and not at all nice. Allan just came to change tires so I will save and come back tommorrow, For now Wayne, Vicki, Keith

Boy am I behind. I knew it had been awhile but the 4th of July. Come on Wayne LOL. Been a busy summer. Renovations at the lodge taking all of my free time. Hello everybody. Hope this finds everybody well. We are all good here. Ample rain, sunnny warm days. Couldn't get much better. A lot has been going on since Jul 4th. Cousin Dale and I had all the hay put up dry and no rain in July. I bought a new to me John Deere baler. A big part of getting the hay up early. Cows and calves all doing good. Lots of rain means lots of grass. Cows can't keep up. That's good. Carryover grass means a better start next spring. Kids are all good. Baby Calla is doing well. Keith and Jilion, Declan and Zoe along with Calla are now back in Fort McMurray. They have been back up for a month roughly. Good to be back. Keith had a contractor in to clean up basement etc. Everything coming slowly. Insurance people are slow and changing stories on things so that's holding stuff up too. Talking with home builders trying to get something lined up. Concrete people ready when Keith is. They are hopeing to have a house set on the foundation by the end of October. Nothing goes as quick as planned. Likewise is the lodge. Drywallwes coming next week to put up board. Painters, flooring personel, ready. It will be busy to get done. Vicki is busy now too. Pick apples every second day, making pies. Canning pickles, relish, soon plums. She truly does enjoy harvesting the garden. I had to just about fight to have beets for a few suppers. She wanted to can them all. Apples have the branches bent right over to the ground. We, the bears and deer will have plenty. My old mother is doing fine for 93. She is in our local lodge for seniors as herself. She eats pretty good, has her cigarette or 2 after meals and a drink after supper. She has all her maebles so she likes to visit with anybody she can. Alicia will be changing job departments as soon as the big file she is working on is done. She camped at a near lake for a while. April too. Dean was on a fishing trip. Caught a bunch of walleye. Vicki and I went up and had a good fish fry. Ashley busy with her job and her little garden. She is like Vicki but on a smaller scale. Norman is farming and getting ready to harvest. I think all the girls are coming home for the blueberry festival this weekend. This is annual event that we have in town last Saturday of August. There 120 booths set up selling any and everything. Crafts and baking. Different food vendors. Show and shine cars on displays along with a local guy with his antique running motors. The blueberrys, acturally all the berries and fruit trees did well this year. Hopefully horns the same. I see quite a few deer but as always few bucks. I did see a good mulie buck a few weeks ago. Full velvet of course but he looked good. Our local elk season starts 15 Sep. Looking forward to that. Geese are bunching up and sitting on the pea and green fields. Crows are bunching up. The black polar leaves are turning yellow and some on the ground this morning. All signs of fall. Always been my favourite time of the year. Well I shall call it good for now. Stay safe everybody. Heal quick Bryan. Till next time.   Wayne, Vicki, Keith

Happy 4th of July everybody  may this day be as it is meant to be. Everything you want it to be. Monday June 27 saw the arrival of Calla, Dorothy Ann Madden. Born to Jilion and Keith Madden. All went wel. Baby and mother are doing fine. Congratulations Keith and Jilion. Vicki and I went to Edmonton Sunday afternoon. We had a big supper prepared mostly by Jilion's mother Teresa and host Shelby. Keith and Jilion stay with Shelby and husband and family in Edmonton. Vicki and I stayed in Keith's new camper at a campsite near Edmonton. Jilion's parents Brent and Teresa had their motor home there also. Together we looked after Declan and Zoe who's birthday was the day before the baby's. Jilion's birthday is the 29th, 2 days after the baby was born. 3 birthdays in 4 days.   I finally got my swath grazing seeded between showers. We get rain every second day. Warm and muggy in between. Excellent growing conditions. 10 days ago the canola was starting to bolt and now is up to the mirrors on the truck. The oats are thick and green and now near mid thigh. Good things to come. 2 hours south of home there was a storm last night that produced golf ball and baseball sized hail. Wind blew over stuff but the news didn't elaborate yet. We don't want anything like that on our crops. We have our fingers crossed. Cousin Dale has been out helping and we are getting ready to do some fencing now that things are caught up a bit. We loaded posts etc. yesterday and will start likely this afternoon. Rain last night has it pretty wet this am. Spray foam insulators are supposed to come tommorrow and do the kitchen in the lodge. Next will be the dry wallers.   Best be going. Take care everybody, enjoy your day. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

24 June 2016  As previously mentioned we no longer book rooms on behalf of our hunting clients. However we encourage you to book at the Saskatoon Inn for conveniecne. Right now if you book through "expedia"  they have a special with the Saskatoon Inn.  112 dollars includes taxes and breakfast. If you haven't already booked this is a good deal. Maybe book and then cancel your previous booked room.  This is thanks to Eddie and Bob who are always researching air flights and hotel room rates. Keith and Jilion are no more than a week away from being new parents again. I will keep you posted. Spraying is done now. Swath grazing I will seed next week if dry enough. We have been getting ample rain, and crops are excellent at this time. Lush, green. I see the odd flower in the peas and the same for canola. There was some hail west of town 3 days ago which was hard on the flowers and garden. Pictures taken show hail piled and covering deck. We don't need that. We'll keep our fingers crossed.  In my travels I did see a buck come out on the road in front of me. In velvet of course but wide growth for this  time of year. Must of been 18 and not turning in or up yet. 2 points on either beam. Who knows how wide when he finishes. I see the does quite often feeding and you know their young ones are nearby. The fawns I have seen are quite big already.  Last fall when out in the bush I found, what I thought to be a bear den. A hole the right size, right kind of a place. Nov. it was and I did listen to see if this den was occupied. It was. I was excited as not to often you find a den that is occupied. So last spring I headed in to put up a camera hopefully to catch the bear come out.  I got there only to see that it was occupied by a porcupine. I was dissapointed for sure but put up the camera.  Next week I will pull this camera. It will be interesting for sure.  We are doing some big renos in the lodge. This is going well but a ways to go. A little electrical work. Adding a couple plugs in the kitchen so Vicki doesn't overload a breaker. Another plug in the living room as well as in the bedroom on the main floor. New floor in kitchen. I won't tell of any more.  I better get back outside and carry on. We have been done calving for a week now. Good to be done that.  Take care everybody. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

8 June 2016 "Tell me if you can, of anything that is finer than an evening in camp with a rare old friend and a dog after ones' own heart."   This a quote of Nash Buckingham's 1936   It is true. Nothing better than camp with friends. Old friend Jim and son Elliot were in camp in last May for a fishing vacation. Fishing was good as were the evening sessions in camp. Eddy was up for a bear at the same time. That was a sucess also. Eddy taking a good coloured bear 3rd evening of the hunt. Another friend made. Hello everybody, hope all is well with you. We are all good here. Our youngest daughter April is now married. April and Dean were married last Saturday in town. April's siters Ashley and Alicia were 2 of her bridesmaid along with Cassie. Norman was one of the best men. Family, friends and neighbors all gathered to make this a very special occassion. Everything went well. I will put up a picture or 2 when I put up the bear pictures. Keith and Jilion and family home for the event also. Jilion vey much pregnant. She does look good though and everything is looking good. Doctors say all is well and good. They headed back up to Fort McMurray yesterday afternoon to survey the damage after the fire. I will let you know more on that next week. We will go back up next week and salvage what can be salvaged.  We have had a couple inches of rain the last week or two, which is good. More coming. Crops are all coming good, green as green can be. Enough rain for the crops but the rain will be welcome on the pastures and hay fields. All the animals and birds are with their young now. Deer are acting shy or sneaky or basically just discreet out of sight not wanting to make their presence known any more than they have to. Little ones hid. We saw a lot of cubs with their mothers last spring. More than normal. Likely in part due to the mild winter we had. Mild winter and early spring is also good for all other creatures too. Some we would rather not see. Mosquitos took their time coming but came on like gangbusters when yhey did. Ticks will be around for 6 months this year. Last year they hadn't made it this far north yet but they undoubtedly will now. Moose are going south and bugs going north. Speaking of moose, I just got my draw in by the skin of my teeth. Normally we have the month of May to submit applications but this year the deadline was the 25 of May. I did recieve emails as reminders, (even the new deadline.) but being busy farming and hunting didn't read that far down. Morning of the 26th I sit down, now that hunting and farming is done, to make application. Once there all I see is red letters indicating the deadline has past I see red allright. The saving grace in this is that there were so many trying to apply the evening before, up to midnight that the system failed. They extended the deadline 6 days. Un be knowest to me though. It was after 11 pm when Vicki read on facebook that the deadline was in less than an hour. A mad scramble was made to submit my applications and was done with minutes to spare. A sigh of relief and happiness. I keep my points and place in order. All the cows have calved but 1. She will calve later this month. A calf on every cow, good I say. One cow was open and will not calve. One of my pets. They are all on pasture now for a while already and as happy as can be. I always put out a bale of hay with them when I first put the cows on pasture. Usually they eat this as the green grass early hasn't that much food value. This year they didn't eat much of the bale. Apparently the grass had all they needed from the start. This is good and means the grass was good early for the forest animals too. My 93 year old mother is now in the lodge for a month now. She enjoys it in there. She has a best friend, Viera, which is the same age and has known her since high school. They both smoke so they make their way out to the big gazeebo to have their cigarette and visit. It is nice outside there with the treees and nesting birds and fresh air. Out of doors like we all enjoy so much. She gets more excercise and eats better. Good for mom. Yesterday I fertilized where I will plant my swath grazing for the cows. I will harrow tomorow and seed in about 3 weeks. Keith will be here Friday for the annual Madden golf tournament. He will put up some pictures for me then. Watch for them. I will go now. Take care everyone.   Wayne, Vicki, Keith

12 May 2016  Good morning to all. Hope evverybody is well.  By now I m sure you have all heard of the devastating fire in Fort McMurray Alberta. There are a number of words and phrases that can be used to describe what took place in that city. None good. I will give you some of what I know. Most of this came off of the news at some time or another. Any fire starts small from whatever the source. As was the case here. Fire fighters, equipment on the ground and water bombers all worked to get the fire under control before it got too close to town. Heavt equipment on the ground worked around the clock to clear a fire break to keep the fire back. Residents knew of the fire and were concerned of course. The fire jumped the fire break. The weather in the 80 s and 20% humidity made ideal conditions for fire. Wind busy also. Then the fire jumped the river. Not good. Within hours the evacuation notice was put out. All but the developed area from the airport east. Some of which is Saphrae Creek where Keith and Jilion live. Being 8 or so miles from the fire there should be time and resources to stop the fire for sure by the airport. Keith and Jilion were downtown shopping for a few items when the evacuation was called. They went home and now everybody is aware of the true seriousness of the fire. Evacuating people left the city in a hurry, some seeing the fire come as close as across the street. Everyone from north of the bridge went north and everyone south of the bridge went south. Most never had time to fuel cars, pack much etc. Although there was no evacuation madatory for Keith's area they decided to leave anyway. There is only one road into there place and no options if things go bad. Leaving early is a good idea. The next day there was a mandatory evacuation and those who waited did drive through fire to get out. All are safe and sound. Keith Jilion and family included. Their home did burn down that night. Their camper trailer in the yard only suffered some heat damage. The garden shed only 50 feet from the fire still standing. His quad in the back yard is fine. Another quad close to the house is nothing more than front and rear racks about an inch off the ground. Some vehicles in the yard burnt and others not. 2 of the 3 closet neighbors burnt, 3rd did not. Keith and family will live in Edmonton for a couple months, at least till after their baby is born. His plant and others shut down. They all plan to get back up running as soon as it is safe to do so and once their workers and staff have relocated and settled in somewhere. There won't be antone allowed in for at least 2 weeks. Fires in town still smoldering etc. are now extinguished. The fire is now east mostly of town and burning out of control. Some areas are now being assessed and evaluated to damage that occured. Estimated 2400 structures have been lost. Some subdivisions totally lost, others surprisingly very little damage. The airport was saved along with the water plant, gov. buildings, schools, hospital for sure. Bulk of the structures lost ere residential. Oil plants to the north housed the 24000 evacuees that fled to the north. They are all now gone south as oil companies flew out those without transportation and the remaining drove south when the road was opened. They were given fuel to make sure they could reach their destinations. Many businesses in Edmonton, Lac Le Biche supplied houseing, food, clothing, water etc. at no cost. Also some clothing stores offered discounts as much as 75% to those effected. There are groups all across Canada volunteering and collecting for the unfortunate people of Fort McMurray. 88000 people were evacuated from town and area in 3 days. It is amazeing that everyone was moved out in a safe orderly, no casualty way. Fire crews worked round the clock and were excellent in saving what they did. Thumbs up to all the fire fighters and police. Keith's closet neighbor is a fire fighter and has shown Keith the pictures of his own burnt house as well as Keith's. For some it was near as bad as it could get, nothing but the shirt on their back. Others saved a trailer of goods and valubles etc. Most have their homes and maybe very little damage from even smoke and water. As you hear sometimes "it could have been worse" that is true. No one hurt.  Thank you to all who called, emailed and texted with concern and good wishes for Keith and family. Much appreciated  Keith, Wayne, Vicki

3 May 2016   Good morning everyone. It has been a month since the last update. Our internet service was down her at home for some time. I didn't realize since I had full use of my phone. Vicki's phone didn't work but I thought maybe just her phone. Anyway I made a phone call yesterday am they got me going again.  The weather this last month has been up and down. We had temps in the 70s a couple weeks ago, leaves were poised to come out, then it cooled off. Not cold but cool for sure. This put greening on hold. Yesterday 82 degrees. A couple degrees warmer today and warmer yet tommorrow. Leaves are coming out big time and grass is greening. Frogs were out on the 15 of April. 2 days earlier than last year. One of our local weather keepers told me a week ago that we had 17 nights of frost last year in May. I didn't remember it that bad but that would be part of the reason for slow grass last spring. No frost for May this year. Not much frost in the ground last winter resulted in ground warming earlier. Seeding has started for some already and most will soon follow. With my small acres to week I will wait about a week before planting. We have been feeding the bears for 3 weeks or so and they are hitting the baits hard earlier than usual this spring. Woke up with an appetite this year. Must be something to do with the warm winter. Joe came out with Stu and I last week and we finished setting up stands and baited the rest. Joe and I cut 4 trailer loads of logs for firewood. We will put them on the saw mill this month and take a slab off of them to allow them to dry. Cousin Dale and I cut one load of spruce to have in the yard to saw as we may need. We are getting pictures now also. Maybe in a week or so I will have them up. You know me. We see lots of deer in the fields and in the bush. They look good. The moose we see on the other hand look not pretty this time of the year. They have had ticks all winter and towards spring they rub lots of hair off trying to get the ticks off resulting in them looking gray or near white. They get in the cold water and get them off that way now that the ice is gone. That has to be cold.    Vicki has been raking the leaves up in the yard and cleaning whatever had shown up what was covered up through the winter. The dogs drag in a lot of bones and the occasional hide through the winter. Alicia busy with her job. Spent a week in Vancouver and last week driving motorcade. We watch to see her on TV but never see her. Always the dignitary. Ashley helping April with wedding plans as is Dean of course. Norman will be seeding any day now. Keith and family are doing well, kids are growing, just a month and some before Keith and Jilion become parents again. April and Dean s wedding in June. A busy month. Well I better get back to work. Take care everybody.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

31 Mar 2016  April fools day. Nope, last day of March. I wanted to let you know that our latest show with "Excalibre's Hunting the Backwoods" is on TV Friday and Saturday. I think the sportsman channel. Look for it and be sure to watch. We look forward to making more shows in the future.  Let me know how you like it. I do appreciate your feedback.   Today is the last day of our fishing season here. I have been out 3 or 4 times in March but it has not been good. I don't profess to be a pro fisherman but I fish with those who are. The same results for all. My last time out was day before yesterday. Vicki and I had fish last night and again tonight. Tommorrow night beef. We did get to eat fish after every outing so it is good. You know what they say "a poor day fishing is better than a good day at work" I won't argue. Jim and son Elliot are coming up to fish in May. I am looking forward to then. We ll be out on the water with master fish guide Alan. Eat all we can. Nothing but good.           Joe came out today and we cut trees and hauled them in to the saw yard. We will do the same tommorrow. Later we will slab them on the sawmill and stack to dry. Joe has an outdoor furnace now too. You can't beat wood heat.  We have started calving season here on the ranch. 2 to date. Both heifers and without a hitch. Just the way nature intended it to be. We have 2 more heifers to calve and I'm sure they will beat the cows. That is fine. When you are here nthis fall Kevin be sure to pick out for next year. Kids and grand kids were all home for Easter. A good time we had, brunch every morning right and proper. Lunch etc and dinner, I no we didn't eat too much. Enough about that. Good to get back to daily chores and excercise. Keith and I did make a run out to the bush though short as it was. 1 moose, deer tracks a lot and 1 elk track. Water has been running in places where it usually doesn't for a couple weeks now. Warm winter made for for poor ice and early thaw and potentialy hazardous conditions in places. Be carefull on any ice. Not what it should be this this year. Fish is ready. Till next time. Take care,   Wayne, Vicki, Keith

27 Apr 2016   "The hills are alive with the sound of music"  Sang Julie Andrews in the sound of music. Here it is the geeses, crows,  ravens and grackles that have more than the hills alive. They are all bragging and cheering on spring. Good morning everybody. We would like to wish everyone a Happy, Joyous and Blessed Easter.  Save a little turkey for tommorrow.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 Mar 2016  Happy St.Patrick's day everyone.   These things I warmly wish you-Someone to love, some work to do, A bit of sun, A bit of cheer, and a guardian angel always near.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

10 Mar 2016 back so soon. You wern't expecting that. I forgot to mention that the geese arrived on our grandson's birthday Mar 5. You know spring is coming. Different people are deer with their horns yet. Mostly younger ones. They won't be long on now though.I have been out fishing a couple times this last week and again tommorrow. Most people say the fishing is slow. First trip was slower. We had the camera up and most fish would come and look but not all were interested. We did catch some pike and I caught 1 perch in the mix. We did eat good though. Next trip was a short couple hours and I caught 2 nice pike. We ll see what tommorrow holds. It is so hard to spend much time in the office when it is this nice out. The sun is out nice now and warm. 30s and low 40s by the weeknd. Snow is going down fast. The cows are still out on the swath grazing. They have that cleaned up now and are in the slough grass next to the field. The snow will be gone before too long and they can pick what they may have missed. I took them a mineral tub and salt lick today. They are quite content. They start calving early April so I will bring them home then. Reminder to book your hotel room at the Saskatoon Inn. The outfitter rate is 139.00 plus taxes. Feel free to book through any travel agent that may be able to get you a better deal. Trivago, Kayak etc. When bookings flights check "Uniglobe travel". Their flights are sometimes cheaper. Thank you for the deposits recieved. Take care everybody Wayne, Vicki, Keith

 

7 Mar 2016 Hello everybody. Hope the winter has been good to you and you are doing well. We are all good here.  It has been a pretty awesome winter here. We can count on one hand the days minus 30 or colder. About every 3 weeks we would get 2 days colder than normal and the rest above normal. The 2 week forcast from here is good also. I am just loving it and I'm sure the deer are too.  Last month I mentioned that Alicia went to Costa Rica and now it was Ashley and Norman who just got back from there. They too had a good trip. We will all get together at easter and hear all about their trips. April and Dean are keeping busy with wedding plans and preparations. Vicki busy at work and helping April where she can. They were home a week ago and brought invitations and checked out some table decor. Was out with the sled today saw some deer and 3 moose. The snow and fields are smooth this year. We never had any big winds to drift the snow.  I Will get out yet before  we run out of snow. We have a good foot yet. The most of anywhere around. An hour west the snow is gone, half hour north less than a foot and south not much more than a couple iches. This may change as some areas are getting snow today and tommorrow. This will be good for those with not much snow as it is a little early to only have that much snow.  Snow right now is a little insurance in case it rains late or not much. I wi;; go now. Take care everybody. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

7 Feb 2016 Hi everybody. Just a note on something new this year that I forgot to mention last time. This year we are not holding rooms. We have clients that book through booking people such as Trivago etc. That can mean a savings more than the outfitter discount. Also rooms get double booked and we get billed for rooms that are not used. Please book your own room at the Saskatoon Inn 306-242-1440. Use which ever booking method you choose. The outfitter rate quoted is 139 plus taxes. We will continue to pick up at the Saskatoon Inn. Sorry for any inconvenience.  Take care Wayne, Vicki, Keith

01 Feb 2016 have you and I lost the pound or 2 we gained since Christmas, are we getting excercise? Maybe. Hello everyone. Jan has come and gone but for me at least, but not that extra couple pounds put on since the season end. I have started a exercise routine which is simply to walk a mile. It's a start. Hopefully to increase distance and or time. Enough about that. We are all good. Hope the same for you. Alicia got back from her vacation to Costa Rica. She did enjoy it very much and I will talk to her some more about it. Just had a few minutes on the phone with her and Vicki. Keith and Jilion are expecting again. Congratulations to them. Due in June. The month April and Dean are to marry. They are making plans and arrangements. Ashley and Norman just enjoying the warm winter. Warm it is. At least for this time of the year. Last week we had a couple days above 32f. Most of the winter has been mild. Cooler now but near 30 on the weekend coming. Mostly normal for the rest of the month. That is good for the wood pile and the deer. And all the creatures of the forest. Checked the cows on the swath grazing and they didn't even bother to come and see me. Lazy they are in the warm weather when their bellys are full. I guess most of us are too. Not too much exciting going on right now. I will sign off now. Keep the deposits coming please. Thank you. Hey ground hog day tommorrow. We ll see what he says about the winter. Take care everybody. Till next time Wayne, Vicki, Keith

01 Jan 2016    2015 is in the books. We made it another year. On this day, the first day of the year I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. May your endeavors be realized. Your health remain good. Your pockets full and friends many. All the best in 2016.  We had a good Christmass. Alicia, Ashley and Norman, April and Dean were all home for Christmas. Keith was working and is home now for New Years. Everybody else is back too. Good times. It really doesn't get any better. Everybody here is well and fine. The weather here has been excellent. It was down to zero different nights for a week but now warming to near 30. Still only 3 inches of snow. Can't run the sleds yet. Doesn't hurt my feelings. Fishing is more fun in warmer weather. We have 3 or 4 cameras out yet and Keith and the gang will pick them up tommorrow likely. It will be nice to see what's on there. One is at one of my stands where I get elk and moose pictures. I ll let you know what is on there. Bob was with me at this one once. We didn't get hat many pictures because an elk pushed the camera towards the sky. Did get pictures of the sky though. I have a bunch of calls and emails and texts to send and answer. I will not get this done in short order. I am thinking about all though. I will sign off now. I still have pictures to put up and to send. I/we will get them up. Thanks for your patience there. Take care  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

24 Dec 2015 It is the eve of Christmas  All of us here at Horse Head Trophy Hunts want to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas. May the many joys of the season be yours now and through out the season.  Talk to you soon.    Wayne, Vicki, Keith

08 Dec still  was getting teary eyd myself. Had to take a break. Acturally went for a beer also. Last Saturday I took Steve, Nash, Bryan and Rick to Saskatoon. In our new addition to Horse Head. A previous handi van. Yep. I will get a picture up some time. Say Christmas. Maybe New years. Anyway this bus, we'll call it was well recieved by eveyone. All the gear is under a roof, everyone travels together, tinted windows, it is quite the travel. Don't have to crowd into a truck anymore. I had coffee in the am with Nash, (the others had an early flight) then went out to Alicia's for brunch. I have been well fed for 5 weeks and this was no exception. Blueberry pancakes, syrop picked up in Quebec on one of her training sessions, bacon and eggs. I am getting hungary now just thinking about it. Did a bit of Christmas shopping on the way home. Nice to sit on the couch at home for a bit. Speaking of Christmas, Merry Christmas to all and all the best in2016. I have been so busy this season that I am behind on emails and texts. I will answer all but not today and maybe not tommorrow but I will get back to you. And phone calls too. It has taken me awhile to write this and likely taling you a while to read it. Thanks again to one and all for making this a sucessful season and we look forward to seeing you next time. Stay safe, be happy, enjoy the joyous holiday season fast approaching. Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

So far so good. I will carry on. Start 2 entries down. Before I go any farther many thanks are due. To my guides who put in so much time and effort to make this all work. Alan, first year with us, no stranger to hunting and the bush did an excellent job travel with Alan and you might be roasting your day meal over and open fire. Can't beat it. Joe as usual, also an excellent job.  Joe grills our steaks on Friday nights. How he can grill to perfection medium rare, medium and well in the near dark and all at once is beyond me. Thanks Joe. Brent who was here for the first three weeks. I could see the happiness on his face when his guys shot. He was as pleased as could be. Keith for sure as well. Always going the extra. Any day Keith could be in early he was cooking heart and backstraps for the boys. We all enjoyed that. His new addition of an office trailer now converted to bush trailer was the sight of a few meals in the bush. It doesn't get any better than that. Helen who helped Vicki in the kitchen. Always the good humor and frienly smile. Most of all to Vicki. Thank You. Vicki starts all the preparation in Sep. She picks the apples and cherries and plums off of our own trees and makes pies. Wild blueberries are bought and made into pies. Wayne can pick a belly full but can't get any home. Garden produce, carrots, beans, potatoes are brought in out of Vicki's garden. I help some. Gotta duck, I think Vicki saw that. The time time she takes off from her regular job to cook and clean is much appreciated. SAVE

08 Dec continued. Not taking any chances. Start reading below. The weather. The weather plays a part in every hunt whether good or bad. Temps were very easy to take this year. We had some rain in Oct. which made the roads muddy but once Nov. came a 1 inch ruler would have been sufficient to measure the total snowfall for the month. Saturday of the first week we saw 60 degrees in the heat of the afternoon. That was the 7th Nov. Friday last we saw 40 degrees. Half of the 1 inch is gone. Warm weather and basically does not make for good hunting. It did play a part as such. We had more deer feeding at night than usual. The deer did not feed as long. They did not, for the most part come to the bait much in the later afternoon. They could be seen browesing in the bush nearby more than on the bait. We all know what that means for the deer. We have not had any kind of winter thus shaving   6 weeks off of winter. Forcast is good too. All the deer we saw this fall were in excellent shape. Even the bucks at the end of the sesason still carrying some fat. Time to save again

08 Dec 2015 sow bronco billy buster. I had this just about done when my computer says   time out   You have got to be kidding me. I will keep this short and save. Then I will add more. Hello everybody. Hope your season is going well. The season went quite well. The sucess rate was down but the average score was up. We took bigger deer this year than the previous years. Our hunter clients are more so looking for bigger and better bucks. I understand and appreciate their patience and dicipline in this pusuit. You have all heard that is not a big deer behind every tree but maybe this tree. Or something along that line. Well we did have some exceptional deer taken this fall. I will tell you about the 3 scoring above 160. First was a 7x7 with a split g2 and a couple stickers to add up to 17 points. Scored 171. Congratulations Phil. George on Monday took a main frame 5x5 with 3 splits and 3 scoreable stickers and palmation second to none scored 184.  On day 3 Bryan put the sights on a , what appeared to be a super long brow tine buck with drop tines. Once on the ground the brow tines were 9" plus but the beams turned down at the end looking like drop tines. One split and the super brows brought his score up to 163.  Rick, first timer connected on a 150 10 point, brought tears to his eyes.  Awesome to see the passion and feelings expressed on such an occasion. Congratulations everyone. Wait till you see the pictures. I know. You've heard it before. Christmas is coming and so are the pictures. I am going to put this on and come back.

14 Oct 2015 The leaves are off the trees, elk season has come and gone, geese are heading south. The crows are still here. Unusal. Hello everybody, hope all is well in your world. All is good here. The crows will be gone soon and yes fall is here without a doubt. We had such a beautiful, colourful fall this year. The leaves so yellow almost golden. Red and orange all together with the green spruce makes for beautiful scenery. We have had frost quite a few mornings now and the wind has blown the leaves off. We did have the colour for quite a while though. Alan and Sandy came up for our fall bear hunt. Alan had mentioned earlier if there was anything else to hunt in the fall  here. I said we had deer also and would bait some deer stands early. Day 2 of their bear hunt produced a good black bear. The joy and excitement was amazing when I came to pick them up. Hand shakes, high fives and smiles all around. Bob who was up visiting from MI gave us a hand to get him posed for pictures and get him home. Once we had him all taken care of I boiled the skull. Nobody wanted bear head soup. LOL Maybe next time. Alan and Sandy sat for deer parts of 3 days and took a nice 140 9 pointer. Again all the joys and thrills of a good hunt and a break from the rat race back home. We  all enjoyed the time. This past weekend we had our Thanks giving. All the kids and grandkids  were home for turkey. Everyone is well and good. Grand Kids are growing as they should. Declan, now 3 and a half just loves the farm. Gramma takes him for lenghthy rides on the JD green lawm mower and I in the JD tractor. Nothing better than a tractor ride, espescially in a JD.. We baited some bear stands and some deer stands, ate good. had a few drinks and played cards in the evening. Doesn't get any better. Everybody gone home and back to the norm. Whatever norm is. Vicki brought the carrots in from the garden today. Best carrots in years. Maybe all the pond water I hauled in through the summer helped. I sure to some extent it did.  We will enjoy them. The weather has been mostly good.  A few days to 70 in Oct. Lots of 60 and some not so warm. Pretty normal for this time of year. We had 7/10ths of rain on Sunday. It rained enough we quit cutting wood. We did get what we wanted for the lodge.  We have been baiting deer for a while now. Putting some cameras and cleaning trails. Some stands that we had cameras up on are showing some good deer for so early. I m impressed so far. Expect better to come.  They have been cleaning up the bait quite wells so far also. Alfalfa going out now.    Elk season I came up dry. I had seen what I wanted before the season but when! You know the rest. That's hunting. Regular moose starts tommorrow. Maybe this will go better. Allan and I saw 4 moose yesterday so we know where to start tommorrow. I ll keep you posted.  I will sign off now. Stay safe, good hunting, see you in a month. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

09 Sep 2015 I found my thrill, on Blueberry Hill. Chubby Checker sang. Maybe I ll find the thrilling bear on a stand we call Blueberry hill. Hello everybody. Hope everybody is fine and well. We are all good here. Night before last was on the edge of freezing. Last night there was no doubt  about freezing. There was still frost in the shade at 9am this morning. The blueberries will be froze now. I have been out feeding the bears but the blueberries have abundant still. We have had ample rain late this summer. Rained 2 inches plus over the weekend. Was nice navigating in the bush but that won't be the case now. the roads will be muddy for a while. We've been there before. I will be baiting a few deer stands early along with the bear stands to see what might be out there. I have heard more reports of good deer being seen. Looking good. I was out scouting for elk the other day and saw 6 deer and a moose. None bucks.  Heard 1 more moose going through the water but I couldn't get around the willows to see it. Found some elk sign. Every year the elk will change up their travel routes or where they want to call home base. Just when you think you may have them figured out. Not that easy. That's hunting. I will keep you posted. The elk season opens on the 15th. I checked a camera yesterday that had been out since spring. 4 different bear but the big blonde came around also. Doesn't come too often but once in a while. I will put the picture on the website. The camera took dark pictures for some reason but you'll be able to see the size.  Ashley, April and Dean were home last weekend so got to see them. Will see all the girls this weekend. Norman is busy farming. Here the peas are off and 3/4s of the wheat is off. We should have the wheat off when it dries up in a few days. Yields just average. Not bad for the way early summer was with not much rain. My oats are almost getting greener with all the second growth from the rain. Jack Frost will put a stop to wanting to keep growing. Cows and pasture all look good. This year the greenest I can remember for this time of year. Was dry and brown for a couple weeks before the rain came. The trees are starting to show fall. Black poplar leaves turning yellow and some falling. The leaves will start to turn colour now. The underbrush is thick in the bush compared to spring. I'm sure the willows grew 2 feet since spring. I will have to trim some lanes quite a bit. Beaver are starting to fix up houses and gather winter feed. My favourite time of year. I will go now but I will be updating more often now as there is more to report on. Take care and good hunting. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

15 Aug 2015  Hello everybody. I hope this update finds everybody well.  We are all good here. It has been raining a steady rain since in the night. A very nice rain. We have been getting ample rain for the last month or so. The pastures look like they usually do when the weather and rain wake up the grass in the spring. Grass is lush and looks young and fresh. Maybe it will last longer into the fall. Got the last hay field cut and baled. It did better than the other cut earlier. I will cut the alfala field again for second cut. It is coming nicely the last month with the rain and warm weather. Pea  Harvest is started for some in the area. Yields are down from other years but wheat and canola will fair better. Not much exciting to report. Kids are all well. Joe and I went to Keith's last Sunday. We toured some of the oil sites we could see from the road and the huge equipment once used in the mines. The next day we into town and I got a transportation permit to bring home Keith's tandem gravel truck. He has finished doing what he wanted it for and now it will get to work here on the farm. I had to adjust the clutch a bit and fix an air leak and now she is good to go. When time and weather permit I will rent a loader and haul rock piles off the fiels to fix my river crossings. I have a field to clean up also. 2 rock piles, 1 big rock That I dug 10 years ago and had no equipment big enough to remove. These will be put into a hole I had dug for this reason. Then covered up. Sep I will start feeding the bears again. We will have a 2 week season this fall. We have a few spots open if anyone is interested. Harvest will be quicker this year as I don't have as many acres to harvest. Sep is also the time to get all the trucks and quads tuned up. Oct in the bush again but for deer this time. Clean trails etc and start baiting. Holy smokes and then Nov has arrived. Time does fly. 2 and a half months to go. A lot of excitement out there for the season coming up. I am anxious to see what kind of deer we have out there. Reports so far has been positive. I will be back on again in Sep. till then everyone stay safe and happy hunting. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 July 2015 Saving for a rainy day. Rainy day job. It's all good unless there are no rainy days. Hello everyone. Hope your are getting enough rain. It is raining today and rained most of the night. Best rain this year. We had 8 tenths last Monday, a tenth and a half the day before and an inch by this morning. Awesome I say. I talk with lots of folks from Vermont to Ohio and Michigan to New York and PA. Everybody has enough rain and most would like more sun and warmer. Maybe we are getting the rain now and the warm sun is shineing there. Hard to be perfect. Our pastures and hayland has suffered the worst. I have cut and baled 2 hay fields. Nowhere as good as last year but with this rain hopefully some second cut on some of it. I have 80 acres left to cut and will cut that next week. It is just first year hay so may grow more now that it has rained. Crops look not bad considering. In the bush you would never know we are behind on rain. You have by now heard about some of the Saskatchewan fires. More rain has been falling on these areas which will no doubt aid the situation there. Lots of fire fighting equipment and man power working hard. It has cooled down to 70 now also which will help. A few roads have been closed to traffic because of smoke for a day or two but travel is generally good. Fishing in the north has been very good from what I have heard. I hope to check that out in person later this month. Did get out closer to home though 2 weeks ago. Alicia and April and Dean and a bunch of their friends were camped at a lake 30 miles north. I took the pontoon boat up one day and 7 or 8 of us went out in the afternoon. It was hot and we didn't do too special. We went back in for supper. Before dark Alicia Dean and I headed for the boat launch, which wasn't too far away. It had cooled off and was just beautful out there so we decided to just troll back. We caught walleye and pike just that distance. The next night Vicki came also and we fished right there where we had caught the evening before. Well we hauled in a bounty of walleye and pike. We did release most of them though as they were on the small side. Went back last weekend for another go, but a different lake. We caught only pike this time but we had a good fish fry for supper.  It is our local fair this weekend. Alicia is camped at the lake again this weekend, April and Dean are home to play ball and Keith and family are home for the weekend too. Will be busy and eventful but we will have our time together for sure. Always good. Ashley and Norman are in eastern Canada on a little vacation for a week.   Pictures are coming. Always coming. Heard that before? Keith is here tonight so I will twist his arm and get a few more on. Well I shall head for the shop for a rainy day project there.  Take care everybody, stay healthy. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

4 July 2015 Happy fourth of July everybody. Fireworks tonight. Hope this day finds everybody healthy and happy. We are all good here. The weather has been quite hot for this time of year. Mostly June. We are dry too. The crops are doing fair. We have been getting some rain so they are hanging in there. The pastures are hay crops are suffering the worst. They need rain in May to make the good crops. I cut one field of hay a few days ago. Will make about a half a bale an acre. Long ways from last year. Being cut now will give it a chance to make a second cut. If we get some good rain. We have lots of pasture acres per cow so that is doing fine for now. I will be taking a self feeder with oats up in 2 weeks for the calves. This will suppliment the calves. Takes some preasure off the cows and the calves will acturally wean heavier. We will only have average crops as the potential for the bumper crops is gone. We have had above average crops for quite a few years so we are due, so to speak. Prices are already on the move up which will offset, to some extent, the shortage of yield. You have likely heard about the fires burning in Saskatchewan. Some states seeing and or smelling the smoke. I have heard reports that some smoke made it to Mississippi even. Kansas for sure and states in between. Because it has been so dry the fires are easier to start and harder to put out. Ironic that most of the fires are started by lightning of the storms that don't produce enough rain to put out the strike. Most of the fires are 3-5 hours north of here. Some people from here that travel to some of these places to fish are turned around. Some highways are closed. Only support personel allowed. One neighbor and his family were the last to be allowed to come home via one of these highways that were closed. They had some pretty wils stories to tell. The kids were terrified as the fire was burning out of control along the highway. They could feel the heat through the glass of the doors. Farther down the highwat the forest fire had jumped the road and was burning on both sides of the road. Scary at the time but the stories you can tell now!! Way north where some of these fires are burning is past the good timber. This vast area has not many inhabitants and has been previously burnt off at some time or another. When these fires are started, not always are they put out unless they threaten a community or settlement. There is some oil constuction closer Alberta which is protected also. There is a lot of streams, lakes and muskegs that the fires usually don't go too far any way.  Most of the rain we have had comes from these storms. Nothing consistant. Some places will get an inch and a half and 5 miles away only enough to settle the dust and so on. Vicki and I drove up to where another fire had started just north of here. They had water bombers on it and had it out same day. No hint of smoke or fire anywhere. I was surprised at how lush and green the forest is compared to the open farmland. Saw a buck that evening, wide wide spread. Pretty impressive for end of June. Logan and I went out a few weeks ago to pick up a few stands and cameras. I have 3 cameras out yet. Will be interesting to see what will be on there till I pick them up. One stand that still has a camera is where we had wolf pictures last May. I haven't got through all the pictures from the cameras that we picked up yet. I go through one or two and interestingly enough different bear that haven't showed previously. I sent pictures to be put up on the gallerys so should be up after the weekend. Alicia and April and a bunch of their friends are camped at a lake 40 minutes north of home so I took the pontoon boat up on Thursday. We put it in the water and went fishing and site seeing. It was hot but nice. The fishing was slow but we did catch. This was afternoon late. In the evening before dark Alicia Dean and I took the boat to the boat launch to load. On the way we decided to troll as it was not far. We caught more in that short trip than we did in the afternoon. Vicki and I went up last night and we went out with half the gang and fished where we had caught the evening before. We got into a bunch of walleye mostly small though. Caught lots though. Emily with trusty five of diamonds was nailing the pike hard. Good outing. Ashley and Norman and his family are camping farther east. Haven't heard yet if they are catching or not. Been excellent camping weather. Keith is keeping busy at work and around the yard. Zoe had her first birthday a week ago. The kids are busy playing around the yard with dog Rubble with them at all times. They will be down in Sep. for fall bear season. A short little update turned out a bit longer than I thought it would. Hopefully rain and sunshine will cooperate wherever you are. Take care Wayne, Vicki, Keith  

12 June 2015 "I will continue this tommorrow". That was the last you heard from me on the 19 th of May. Tommorrow took a long time. Hello everybody. Hope all is well. Bear hunt is done for the spring. We had a good season. It started with Jerry, Ray, Tom and Jim who drove up from MI. Super guys. Jim pulled the trigger first evening on a cinnimon couloured bear. Good bear 240 lbs. Excited he was as this was his first bear. Tom shot a 300 lb. black on day 4. Both had excellent hair coats. Jerry and Ray both saw lots of bears but not quite what we had in mind and put their time in waiting for some big ones we had on camera. The bears did not seem quite as consistant as in the past. Come one night, take a day off, come in the am. We have 18 or so hours of daylight a day and can't sit them all. We had 3 big cinnamon bears plus the blacks on camera. They'll be bigger next time. They were in good shape this spring. Winter not too cold. The following week I got my oats seeded, rocks picked and farming out of the road for the time being. Karl and son Jake with Excalibre's Hunting the Backwoods" came to film a hunt. Again we put in our time waiting for the big ones. Finally 2 good blacks show up on one stand and another black on another stand. This one a biiiiig one. Last day Karl heads in and Jake and I go to the other stand. Jake and I had the first bear bear come in about an hour and a half before dark. Less than 200 and rubbed some. Not what we are looking for. Next I hear from behind us one of the big ones. I give Jake the ok as soon as he gives us a shot. He came in and at ten yards stood facing us. We are busted. He turned and began walking away. He Stopped ever so briefly at a hard quartering away. One or 2 seconds more would have been adequate to send the Excalibre bolt and make the shot. He'll come back" I told  Jake but he did not. We get to the truck and the  retreival trailer is gone. This means that Stu went in to get Karl and bear. Jake and I went in to help also. It was the biiiig one. We weighed this bear at exactly 400 lbs. Quite a chore getting him posed.  We did though, took pictures and got his pants off just as light started filtering in from the east. Pictures will be up soon. I was pleased how the season went and look forward to the next hunt. Congratulations and I appreciate time and patience put in waiting for the mature bears. On a different note, the cows have all calved but 1. She is due any day. The cows have all been on pasture for a month except for this last cow and the bull. I will turn out the bull in 10 days. Weather has been good for the most part. We are getting just barely enough rain. Got another 8 tenths last night. Trees are fully leaved and everything is green for some time. We picked up stands and cameras a few days ago and quite a differece from when we started this season. We had a fire go through some of our area. Burned 1200-1500 acres. Went north between 2 bear stands but with all the water bombers and dozers and traffic it did affect bear movement for a few days. It was under controll day 2 and equipement and ground crew were there for another week putting out hot spots. Burned mostly where it was cut 2 years previously. Did't loose much as far as trees go. Could have been a lot worse. There are, at least till yesterdays rain) fires out of control burning in the province. Hopefully there was enough rain to get these fires under control. The kids were all home last week for our annual Madden golf tournament. Teams were into family groups. Alicia, Keith, myself and my cousin's husband Clarence tied with Ashley and Norman, April and Dean for the best score. It was a good day. Some of my cousins I get to see them only on this annual gathering. The next day we readied the pontoon boat and headed for the lake. Dean was the first to catch. A good walleye. Nothing but northern pike after that. We did have a good fish fry. Vicki and I ate the walleye the next day. Now that farming and hunting is done for the time being I will be out more often now. Well I shall go for now. Take care everybody Wayne, Vicki, Keith

19 May 2015The green green grass of home. I'm looking out the window. Hello everybody, hope everybody is well. We are all good here. The birds and the bees are doing well also. Mosquitos have been around for quite a while but today was the first time bitten. I just hate the first time bit. I'll be over it the next time I get bit. Likely tommorrow. we saw Hummimg birds for the first time today. They are busy at the feeder. I,m sure all the animals and birds are here but I haven't seen barn swallows yet. Most years they want to build there nests in my shop. I have to close the door for a week till they find another spot to build. Haven't seen them yet. Had to chase a robin out and another bird I didn't recognize. Today whwn on my way to the pasture, mother and father goose were taking their young ones for a walk. I stayed back as to not rush them and watched as they became seperated somewhat. I did follow on foot . I was filming as I went behind and one of the goslings hid under some grass. I approached quitely and uncovered the little bird, filmed and then it was happy to chase after mom with a stoey of a close encounter. I saw only 4 goslings with this pair. Usually more. Lots of geese and cranes around. I will continue this tommorrow. Take care for now Wayne

New US firearms registration laws in the works!!!!!!!!!    PLEASE check with US border customs as to what this entails.  This is needed to leave the US with firearms.  Your local SCI will have info also.    Leaveing to the last minute is not a good idea.  

23 April 2015 "chorus frogs" was the answer to a radio show's question of "identify this animal".  Hello everybody. Hope this update finds everyone in good health.  A week or so ago one of radio shows had a little contest of identifying animal sounds. I simply thought frogs, called in but the line was busy. It was announced that they were chorus frogs. I learned something new.  The forests and ponds are alive with all of mother nature's creatures, big and small. Just go out and sit and listen. Frogs with their praise of spring is the most beautiful sound known to man. My opinion.  The blackbirds, song birds, geese, cranes and all the other birds. Even crows brag of their arrival and spring. I first saw a frog on the 16th. Heard them the next day. First time I saw them before hearing them. Stu and I were out baiting that day day when I saw a frog swim across a small puddle. Joe and I were first out on the 12th. The 3 of us were out yesterday again and covered a lot of ground. We set up 2 more new stands yesterday as well as baiting the others. We set up 2 more earlier, one of which we were back to yesterday and seen that it was hit good. The bears are hitting the baits pretty good for this time of year. Nice to see. We will put up a couple more new stands yet. Plan was for tommorrow but raining today and maybe tommorrow so that plan is on hold. Looks like a good season coming.      One friend has a picture of a white tail with 3-4 inches of horn growth already. This is early. I wonder what is coming? Can't be anything  but good I would say. This rain will green up the grass for sure. Green already in high sun areas but shaded ground taking longer. April rain always works it's magic. It has been dry, fires in different localities. Rain is welcome.    Our family are all doing good. Alicia sent pictures of the new deck, two levels and all furnished. I recognize the deck fireplace as the one we gave her a couple days ago. Work has kept her busy.Keith and family doing well. Jilion busy looking after Declan and the terrible 3s. Not so bad as that is normal for that age. Curious and excited to be outside with his dog dad on the tractor and in the truck etc. Zoe is growing lots. I tell Declan that she is going to catch upto him if he doesn't eat all his supper. He doesn't seem at all concered. Keith  keeping busy at work and yard maitanance and all that goes with that. Ashley is working same job but under new gov. heading. Funding and policy coming from a different office. Norman will begin seeding about May 1. April and Dean had a home invasion. No circumstance other than April's wallet was stolen. Wallet was discarded outside and only credit card missing.  Dean's work slowed down some.  The cows are all calved but 7. They will be done before too long. Good luck so far with a set of twins to put us 1 ahead.    I will plant my oats in a couple weeks just ahead of bear season which we will start on 11 May.  Not much else to report on. Look for pictures in a couple weeks as we will have some trail cam pictures to put up.  Till next time. Take care one and all. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

1 April 2015  The most talked about subject in the world. The weather!!! We are no different but the weather sure has been. Last couple of days just beautiful. Sun shining, temps near 60 not much wind. Had the snow disappearing fast, what was left and the water running. We knew there was a coll low preasure coming and it is here now. Still about 35 as I write this but cooling to about 25 over night, low 30s tommorrow. Repeat. Snow a bit now and blowing hard. Supposed to quit snowing by midnight. Not going to amount to much but it looks like a storm for a bit. We have been used to some very nice weather for most of March. Back to normal after Easter. Yesterday was the last day of our fishing season. It closes for a month or so then opens again. I went fishing with a couple friends and we did good. We caught numerous northern pike, a couple walleye and 1 yellow perch. We took a frying pan and all the fixins to fry up a belly full. It doesn't get any better than that. We ll be fishing again when the season opens in May. That is also when we do our bear hunting. We will start baiting later next week. We will likely be ahead of the bears a bit but the bait will be there when they get there. All the while as I was fishing I was looking across the lake into the bush and thinking of when I would be back quading the trails to the stands. As it turned out I had to go for a walk up the bank and down a couple of game trails. I wasn't gone too long as we wanted to get off the ice by dark. I found a fresh dropped shed. You always smile when you pick up a shed. We did leave the lake at dark but we had to be careful. The person before us broke through just as getting off. We just pulled over and went around where he went through. One more day it would be a little dicey getting on and offf the ice.    I set a few beaver traps out about ten days ago. I pulled them a few days ago as there isn't enough snow to run the skidoo any more. There was in the shade next to fence rows but getting there was getting tougher and water on the ice now. Joe and his friend Allan will start taking beaver now.  I did catch a few in the short time that I had the traps out. I gave the smallest one to the barn cats. A repeat of when they get deer trimmings in the fall. Growling and carrying on. That beaver didn't last long. Cats are acting all goofy and happy. Spring mostly. Geese have been here for 3 weeks, gophers have been out the same. Crows a while already. Yesterday I hears a robin and the day before a wren and a lark of somekind. Dale and I made a couple trips to the bush to cut poplar for the wood boiler next year. We will put the bigger stuff on the saw mill and take a heavy slab off to allow the wood to dry over summer. Any day in the bush is a good day. One of the days on the way back from checking my beaver traps I saw 2 bucks carrying their horns. This definately later than normal. All the deer I have seen this year have looked good. I am optimistic for the season this fall. Spring is earlier than it has been for a few years. Easter is here this coming weekend and the kids will all be home. Some arriving tommorrow and some on Friday. All here Saturday and all leaving Sunday as Monday is a work day for most.  I ll give you another report after Easter. Tim to check cows. We have 4 baby calves now. Take care everybody. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

15 March 2015 Beware of the Ides of March. Julius Ceasar was warned. He was assasinated 44bc. Enough trivia. Hello everybody. Hope you are doing well. Winter is almost over for most. East Canada and north east US has had winter for some time and not done yet. We have had days up to 50, mostly around 40 for highs and lows about 25. Most days are sunny. We haven't had much snow all winter until a couple weeks ago when had more snow. That is near gone now too. Lots of bare patches in the fields and the weather warm and sunny will burn most of the snow off by weeks end. The best spring in 4 years for sure. We will likely get more snow but will be short lived. Joe and I took the sled out last Friday, put on more than a hundred miles and am stiff and sore as a result. Joe too was sore. A lot of time on a sled at one time. Over 8 hours. We did travel through our area and into the next area and came back along  our north border. We did see deer and what we saw were in great shape. Roughly 15 inches of snow in the bush. Varied by how thick the trees were and the amount of sun. Looks good though. Near home on our way back we saw a average 8 still carrying his horns. Lots of deer in the fields again. Our family is all doing good. Everybody is healthy. Alicia and Ashley just got back from Cuba. They were there for a week. Alicia and Norman did some sort of sky dive and landed on the beach right where they were supposed to. Sounds like they had a good time. April is writing some corresondance exams to do with her accounting. Is done that this week. Her and Dean will be home this coming weekend along with Ashley and Norman. Everybody will be home come Easter. Keith and family is doing fine. Declan turned 3 on the 5th. Zoe is growing and crawling now. 4 new teeth. Jilion busy looking after the kids and taking Declan to school time and a few other such outings.Cows are doing good. Were out on swath grazing into Feb. They are home now on winter feed. We will start calving April the first. Cattle market is good. Dogs are very good shape. Youngest one gained weight over winter. Old dog stayed the same. Cats don't like the cat food I used. 3 different kinds. They will be happy in a few days when I bring home a beaver or 2 or 3. I am heading out tommorrow to set some beaver traps. Beaver will be used for bear and the cats and dogs will enjoy also. We will soon be out feeding the bears. About 3 weeks away. Always enjoy spring in the bush. Fresh spring smells, the frogs and all of mother nature's animals and birds singing their praises. The 17th March is St. Patrick's day. Enjoy the day as we will. Not much else happening so I will sign off. Take care everybody. Happy St. Patrick's day.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

22 Jan 2015 Winter over? no certainly not, but we haven't had much winter thus far.Hello everybody. Hope 2015 has been treating you well.  Winter warmed after only 3 weeks of colder weather. Above zero today and more days of the same to come. Every warm day is 1 less cold day and 1 day closer to spring.   Reminder Excalibre's "Hunting the Backwoods" will air again tommorrow at 8am and 7pm eastern  and same times on the 29th. It's on the sportsman channel. Be sure to watch and tell a friend or neighbor. Let me know what you think of the show.  I will keep this brief. Till next time, Take care. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

07 Jan 2015 It's 2015 Happy New Year! Christmas is behind us, New Years is behind us. Our behind is with us and maybe a little bigger than it was a month ago.  Just kidding.  Hello everybody. Happy New Year. Hopefully everybody is doing well and back to normal, whatever your normal is. At least close. We had a quite New Years. The kids were all home for Christmas which was great. 2014 is gone and all that is to come in 2015 is to be looked forward to. New things are coming down the pipe. Maybe even oil down the keystone. One day it will. New adventures including new hunts. Maybe the arrival of a new grandchild, a raise in pay, a promotion, retirement, new hip or knee. Lots to look forward to. A little less winter, maybe an early spring,  ample rain and sun throught the growing season will grow good crops and horns. We are due. I say that modestly. Winter has been real good to us till Christmas. Cooled for a few days, then warm for a few days, New Years cold, and cold till the weekend. That's OK. Could have been cold all through Dec and some Nov. I always feel good when I get to January. New Year, top of the calender, down hill to spring even though it is a ways to go. The shortest day of the year is 2 weeks behind us and although we gain only a minute or 2 of daylight per day, I can already see the difference. It is for sure dark in the am wheen we get up but we  can see the difference in the evening.  Just checked the weather long range. A week from now and for a week, temps in the 20s. Awesome. Nothing too much new with the kids. Ashley's job may be coming to an end. The gov is making changes to  the way the SPCA is funded and adminstered. The position may be terminated here  but added there. Nothing for sure yet. Keith's job secure of course but available overtime not as much as before. Alicia and April go to work same as usual. I nthink by now everyone knows the price of oil has gone down considerably. Gas is cheaper at the pump. We like it. There has been a lot of lay offs in the oil field. Big jobs have been put on hold or cancelled. Budgets have been cut. It is noticable now and will get worse for lots before it gets better. For those laid off higher gas prices and a job is better than low gas prices and no job. Vicious circle sometimes.  Enough about that. The dog is barking. The deer are travelling through or near the yard. This is nothing new. I keep the doors open on a couple bins here so the deer can eat at will. I like to see them around. The other night Vicki says "oh look at the deer in the garden"  When I came there were 2, then 3, then 4. Oh how nice until I said "are they looking at your apple trees"  All of a sudden not so nice. Taking no chances Vicki opens the door and suggesrs they move on. Wink. As soon as the weather warms a bit I will be out sledding. There is enough snow and thats all for ski dooing. So nice just to go out and see whats going on. The deer are out in the fields lots still untill more snow comes. Joe and I will go out to the bush one day and see how things look. Scope out a few new stands for deer and bear both. Speaking of bear, I spoke with Dan Wallace  "Huntin the backwoods" and he gave me the air times of when the bear hunting to is to be on TV.  Check your guide and local listings to be sure just in case I wrote it down wrong or something. Jan 16 8am and 7pm. Jan 22 and 23 the same. Jan 29 8am and 7 pm. For those who have never been here it will give you an idea of what and where and who we are. You'll be able to put  faces to the name. See some of the beautiful country we hunt and the animals that occupy this land that we hunt. You will enjoy without a doubt. Dan, Karl Troy and Paul have been working hard and editing and doing what they do to put this all together. I have seen the show via a link and am pleased with it for sure. The hunting professionals did a very good job putting this show together. Don't take my word, watch the show and see for yourself. Well I don't wish to drag on so will close. Happy New Year, stay warm and safe.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith.  Pictures!!!! Tommorrow never comes. We will get them up. 

31 Dec 2015 Wishing you health, happiness and may all your dreams come true in 2015.   Hello everybody. I'm sure Santa made it down your chimney and everyone is happy. Kids had the best Christmas ever. Never gained more than 1 pound. OK maybe 2. Nobody is counting till next week.    Just a little update on what is going on here. We had the best Christmas ever. All our 4 kids were home. Not often all are together at the same time. The tree was surrounded with preasents, laughter filled the air, the smell of turkey and all the fixins' filled the air. How could it get any better. I don't know. It was truley great. Amongst the gifts were numerous fishing lures and gear. I think we are all looking forward to when we can all get together for a fishing trip. We have an abundance of lakes nearby and any will work. Santa was well informed this year. We were all pleased with our gifts. Keith and Jilion, Declan and Zoe were the first to arrive. Came on Christmas eve. All the rest came on the 25th except for Ashley and Norman who were sick and came on the 26th early. With encouragement Declan got into tearing paper and Zoe all smiles took it all in. Keith and family were the last to leave on the 28th. Everybody back to work Monday. New Years quiet here this year. The weather has been quite warm, all fall acturally except for 3 or 4 days in Nov. until Christmas eve. Turned cold till yesterday than starting warming again. Got up to about 27 or so F today. A few mild days then seasonable. Can't complain. Not much winter so far and next year is tommorrow. We had 4 deer go through the yard an hour ago. With only a foot of snow the deer can be seen out in the fields most days. Even less snow in the open fields. Just enough to run the sled. Any field that has been worked is rough yet. Not enough snow over the roughness. The cows are doing well out on the swath frazing. Very good shape. Should go 3to 4 weeks yet before I bring them home. Cattle prices have been at record levels this fall. I bet it is the same in the supermarket. Before I forget, the Excalibre Huntin The Backwoods TV shows that were filmed here this past year are set to air in January. Around the 9th on the sportsman channel. Check times and schedules to be sure. I will let you know nwhen the exact times are when I know. We were able to watch via a downloaded link. Awesome it is. For anyone who has not met us or the the Huntin the Backwoods team, don't miss the show. You will like it as much as we did.   I shall go now. God Bless Wish your neighbor a Happy New Year. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

Twas the night before Christmas,  it still is here. At least for a while yet. On this Christmas eve may the family, friends bring the most joyus times of the year. More and more as the years go by it is family and friends that bring the joy and fond memories. May your joy be abundant this Christmas  Wayn, Vicki, Keith

8 Dec 2014 Just in case We wish  everybody a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year filled with all the blessings in the New Year

7 Dec 2014 Hello again everbody. Hope everbody is doing good. Deer season is now closed and is in the books. I'd like to thank my guides Keith, Joe and Alex for all their hard work this season. They take holidays and work their schedules to make this happen. Thanks to Helen for alI  her help in the kitchen. Helen is also responsible for making the birthday cakes for Joe from NJ and Tim from WI. Tim turned 50 up here. Decorations and happy birthday sung by all. Most of all to my good wife Vicki who spends a lot of time preparing for the season baking and cleaning and then more of the same during the season. I am and happy with the way everything went and the deer we harvested. We shot a bigger average than last year which is not surprising. I expected better than last year. We shot from 140 8 points to crowding 160 with another 8. We took a lot of tens, a couple 12s and an 11. A couple 9s also. All were good deer. Sucess rate consistant with other years. Near 90%. We didn't have to hunt Saturday the first 3 weeks. It is seldom that we are done before Saturday let alone 3 in a row. Our 2 best deer were the last and first deer taken. Congratulations to all. You've heard this before and will hear it every year. We have a lot of next year deer. Difference this year is that we left some this year deer out there. Lower bookings this year and the "staying out of harms way deer" we will have some really good deer next year. My favourite to look forward to next year is a ten with 8 inch brow tines. He was a daytime regular till we came a huntin. Move to night. Another 12 did the same. We have some heavy deer left to grow more. A bunch of 8s, a 9, a 4x6, a ten with split brows. Just yesterday when baiting, I saw a 10, cymetrical as can be. Allowed me to record him on my phone video briefly. This will be one to watch for next year. This year I noticed the deer travelling farther than most years. Could be on cam 3 or 4 different stands. We have a 4x4 with a drop tine that really got around. Another next year deer. We took one that you could say was non typical. A main frame with a point off of the beam similar to what a 3rd main beam would look like. A heavy 10 inch point with a sticker on it plus scoreable base points made it a 12. You will have to look hard when the pictures get up. Speaking of which hopefully in a few days. Ya right. I found the pictures I could not find to finish last year. They will be first to get put on.                       A little about what else is going on here. Moved to cows to the swath grazing a week ago. They look really good. Calves are eating and doing well also. All the kids will be home by late Christmas day. As good as it gets I say. My 92 year old mother is doing just fine. She amazes everybody in her life. She beat me at crib yesterday, cooking again. Everbody is healthy. I will sign off now. I hope your hunts be safe and successful. Stay safe, stay healthy, keep Christ in Christmas.                         Wayne Vicki Keith

5 Dec 2014 You were right." He'll never get back on that soon." I am back though. I will tell you about the bear hunts we did last year. Last spring Dan Wallace of Excalibre's Hunting the Backwoods sent Paul Payne and Troy Lauffer up for a spring bear hunt. Paul took a good black on day 2 with the Excalibre cross bow. Closing in on 300 lbs. it was a good bear. That left Troy to go after the good coloured bears we had coming in. Troy and Paul sat at one of my favourite stands and filmed a coloured sow with couloured cubs. Others of course too. We had a good brown chocolate coming on one stand a couple good cinnamons on another stand. On stand for the cinnamon, Troy drew on one of the cinnamons only to have him stop just short of a clear shot, pick up a small piece of meat and turn around and leave. So close. I have trail cam pics of this, the piece of meat tossed just feet from the bait site. Another sit at the same sight resulted in Troy having a literally close encounter with a black bear that was just feet from him in a brush blind on the ground. Keith and I sat where the brown/chocolate was frequenting and got to see this bear in person. Beautiful bear but was a no show the next evening when Troy and Paul sat there. Long story short, wrong place wrong time, coloured weren't cooperating. I told Troy that since a tag is good for all season, spring and fall that he could come back in the fall if time permitted. Troy did just that and Dan came also. Two good black bears were taken. First Troy took his black when the less aggressive chocolate was somewhat intimidated by the 4 blacks bears that constantly were at the bait. The chocolate of the same size would sneak in when the blacks would take a break. Mostly at night. Dan shot a couple days later. Similar story. Big brown did come in, the boss, but always running the other bears off never stopped for a shot. One entrance only ten yards  behind Dan, did very much make his presence known, but of course no shot could be made. The bigger black was put on the ground. This bear was a regular and usually came just after shooting light and left before dawn. Coulored win. We did very much enjoy Paul, Troy and Dan. Great guys. We had a chance to do a little elk hunting a few mornings before the bear hunt. Troy's previous elk guiding experience proved to be of great use. We did take 2 bulls. I have never seen such elated guides. I will be back on to tell about the deer season just finished. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

 

25 Oct 2014 Test Test I think I got it. Just like the little train, I think I can. I think I can. My fingers and toes are crossed.  Hello everybody. I will give this a go. Keith and Jilion have got this old boy going again. As most of you know I will not be recieveing any prize for my computer skills. Change is some thing I do baulk at. Bear with me. Don't give up. I hope everyone is well and healthy. We are all good here. Vicki and I both have a cold though. Not too serious. We had record breaking temps in much of Saskatchewan 3,4 days ago. 25 broke one day and 5 broke the next. in the 70s we were. Today high 40s and starting a cooling trend. Next week probably normal. 40 roughly. The deer are not consistant at hitting the baits but they do come and will continue to more as time progresses and temps cool. The past 2 years the deer would eat hay more than usual. I think they knew of the cold winters coming. This year not that much interest in the hay. We are starting with mostly peas because the bears are still around. They don't like peas like oats. We have had more bear pictures passing through our baits this year than ever before. It's all part of what we do. Kind of nice to see, a change up in looking at the pictures. Speaking of pictures, what we have seen so far is a definate improvement over last year. We have had a few cameras up for a month with mostly does and fawns showing up. That's normal. Small bucks showing, then a little bigger and more often. I not going to promise pictures by tommorrow or soon or!!!! You know how it goes. I won't be late if I don't set a date. They will come though. I still have our 2014 bear pictures to put on. That's another story. Good story. I 'm on a roll and will put the bear info on the next journal. You will want to come back. We are busy in the bush, baiting, for a while already. The trucks and quads are ready. I have to take one quad back for small warranty repair and new tires for one of the trucks. We have a whipper snipper equiped with a saw blade in our line up this year. Makes short order of the grass and small saplings and willows or brush that grow up on our shooting lanes. We moved a few stands this year and always are on the look for new locations. "the new and improved"  One thing I have noticed with the deer this year is the non symetrical more pronounced. One side bigger than the other, extra points or stickers, and the like. Good, bad or ugly, I like them. Joe and I have been in the bush the most with Joe coming on days off and some days when working nights. Logan, a student from school helps out with whatever a day a week or so. Brent from Mi is here visiting and I kepp him occupied to say the least. We were out looking for and escaped steer and found a 5 pt shed and a skeleton of a large animal. Moose maybe but likely a beef from 4-5 years ago. No skull. Alex is new this year, young full of ambition. He has always been an avid bird hunter and now wants to get into big game. Keith has been home regular this fall. Guided the fall bear and our Thanksgiving was home. Keith and I went to Big River SK at that time also to pick up a lab pup. Fox red. I would say a smart, well mannered pup for her age. On the way home we encountered a bear.. Ah, ah. Next journal. This is quite amazing. Made my day. Vicki has her garden produce all in. Tomatoes galore, apples by the bushel. Made a pile of pies. You will get to taste them next month. Fresh carrots, excellent potatoe crop. Baking cookies, tarts etc. is keeping her busy now. Alicia is doing well. Had lunch with her and April when I was in Saskatoon last Monday to pick up a truck. Ashley was busy with her job and couldn't make it. They were all home for Thanksgiving supper. Was good to see them all. Dean and Norman cut wood. Ashley and April hauled it to the lodge and Alicia helped Vicki prepare supper. I picked up my recently turned 92 mother and brought her out for supper. She was happy to see everybody. She made the 5 and some hour trip to Todd and Bree's wedding in Sep. Todd is my sister Carol's youngest son. Congradulations Todd and Bree! MY fishing sister caught a 10 lb plus walleye last week. It is at the taxidermist now. I would too. Well I am going to sign off now. If I don't leave I can't come back. Right. I am happy to be back. Driving down the road or quading the bush, or just seeing something of interest I think of my journal and think of how others would enjoy. Now I will work on the pictures. Take care. Wayne, Vicki,Keith

27 Sept 2014 Hello Everybody, we are up and running again. I know you have missed this journal as well as I. Not to worry, I will keep things going. It is now officially fall, calendar wise, but until today we had been seeing temps into the 70's and 80's. Today only 50.  The leaves are falling, the elk are bugleing, and the bugs and mosquitos are all but gone. My favourite time of the year... Years ago, I remember telling my aunt that my favourite time of the year was fall, especially after the ground was froze. This meant that most farming operations were done. Only bales to haul, cover, and move. But it is the perfect time to trap beaver and prime time to hunt coyotes.  Years back at the first sign of fall, me and my old dog Nipper  would be gone hunting ducks, geese, beaver, rats, and deer. Don't tell anybody about the deer!! Back to the present. We have harvested the peas 2 weeks ago and we are cutting the oats now. Yields are good. Just moved the cows onto a piece of land which I had cut for hay. Cousin Dale hauled the bales home and now the cows are on there. We had ample rain all summer and the hay grew back very well. So much rain that the grass is even still green. A couple weeks ago the overnight temperature dropped to 30-32 degrees for 4 nights. Just barely cold enough for frost, not a real killing frost but that will come.  Some areas of Saskatchewan broke record highs on the 25th of Sept. Everyone was home for the long weekend in September.  Kids are all fine. Keith and Jilion brought baby Zoe home for all the family to meet. Our 2.5 year old grandson Declan is very busy and reminds me a lot of when Keith was that age. We all went fishing and Ashley, April, and Alicia all caught fish.  Alicia's was the biggest and gave everyone taste. Everybody had a good time. We are putting on deer bait and cameras now. I will have more pictures from last year and this year posted soon. Take care, Wayne, Vicki, and Keith.

9 May 2014 Hope this update finds everybody healthy and happy and enjoying spring. I was reading last years update to compare with this year but Mays last year update was on the 17th. 8 days earlier than last year. The snow is gone for a month already, at least 3 weeks ahead of last year. The frogs were out in April this year. All the birds of spring are 3 weeks earlier than last year. Geese were here in March. We have had cooler than normal weather but also had good breaks in March and April and beginning of May. We are just another warm day away from the leaves to push out and grass to resume growing. We started May quite warm, grass was beginning to grow, trees budding and then it cooled off putting off advancement till a few days ago. Temps are are good again. We started feeding the bears a month ago already. They are hitting the baits good now. Some a little slow but overall good. Things are looking good there. They look good this spring. Only a few rubbed a bit. We have openings if there is any last minute interest. When we first went out we saw quite a few deer, then it slowed down and now we see lots again. They go where the food source is the best for that time of year. You can see them during the day in the farm land as well. They all look. A friend of mine has cameras out for bear and got a couple pictures of bucks sprouting new horns. 3-4 inches already a week ago. Got my peas loaded up ready to plant and will likely seed in about Monday. Canola will follow and then the oats. Cows have all calved but 2. They will calve the end of May. Late but much the same every year. Everything went well, calves are strong and healthy. Never had to assisst any. We did loose one calf, not sure what went wrong there. No obvious reason. All the family is good. My mother fell and broke her hip a month ago. My sister and I took her to the doctor and it wasn"t till 2 days later that they decided that her hip was broke. She could get up and hobble to the bathroom on her own but one morning couldn't get off the pot. After summoning help they took another x ray and it showed the break. She then went to Saskatoon and had surgery on the 12 th of April. After the usual short stay she returned to the hospital here for 2 weeks and is now home again for a week or more. All the nursing staff and doctors are quite amazed at this 91 year old woman making the progress that she has. Often as not you may not get home so soon after surgery. I hope I carry the same long lasting and tough genes. I'm sure I do. LOL Anyway I better get out and feed the cows. Every day when I feed the cows I have the company of our sassy barn cat. Anyone hunting deer with us last fall will remember this black and white cat with the attitude. Dean and this cat would have their little conversation every evening in the skinning shed. The cat is quite vocal especially when enjoying a meal of deer. I think diiferent pepole filmed this cat with her constant growling while eating. Not an ordinary cat. Where was I? Oh ya , on my way to feed the cows. Take care everybody. Stay safe and healthy. May your gardens grow green and tall. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

1 Apr 2014 Missed March. How did that happen. No excuses. Hey everbody, hope winter is over for you. It is April now. Watching the news and in conversation with the good folks from PA, Ny, WI, MN and across the north and eastern states, VT also, there has been a lot of colder, longer winter. Storms and snow. All more extreme or record breaking than normal. Her we had a pretty normal winter. Colder than normal but only by a few degrees. Snow amounts normal and not a bunch of wind with snow like last year. We did have a big wind middle of Feb for half a day but nothing too bad since. First half of March was real nice as far as weather goes. Warm, no snow. The sun and warm temps took the snow down to about 6-8 inches. Cooled off till now but the sun continued to take the snow down. Long daylight and strength of the sun is powerfull this time of year. There isn't going to be much run off this year. Not much snow and because it cooled off just as it was about to run.    Last time I talked about deer still carrying their horns, well I saw it for myself a week ago. 2 bucks, 1 had 1 horn and the other still had both.  A neighbor 10 miles east said he sees deer regular still with horns. Not stressed to have their horns this late. Not true for all but a good sign just the same. Vicki and I will go for a drive around the country side when time permits and we see lots of deer. The snow is down in the fields and thats where they feed more now. The deer look to be in great shape for this time of year.   We will start baiting bear next week. Looking forward to this season. Always good to be in the bush for whatever reason. Don't need much of an excuse to go to the bush. I ran out with the sled the other day to check on beaver to trap. I have 5 houses I hope to trap. Nusance beaver causing me problems. They make good bear bait too.   I will go sledding tommorrow again too. Weather is warm again and the snow will be down enough that I will half to put the sled away for the summer. Picked up 1 of my quads from the shop and the other one in a week or so. Had them in the shop over winter so they would be ready for spring. Sold the calves a week ago. Record prices. Nice I say. Prices won't likely stay that high but will likely be good for some time as the beef numbers are down. When someone sells it seems no one expands by that number to pick up the slack. Less supply, a little more demand. All the kids are doing fine. Alicia has been playing indoor soccer and coaching basketball. I talked to her about her award and it is for the work she did in catching a phone fraud artist. Hard to catch up to with no fixed address, bank unanimously on the cell phone. She persisted and percivered and got a lead and followed and the result was he was caught 2 provinces away.  Keith, Jilion and Declan are doing well. Keith is keeping busy of course, with work and some work in the basement on days off. Keith will be here for bear season. Jilion and Keith are expecting again. Near 5 months now. Congratulations. Jilion looks good. Declan has feet and knows how to use them. He is a busy boy, always quick to have boots in hand to go outside. He espescially like the tractor, always loves helping dad to clean the yard. He likes the dump truck and the F 350 too. He likes anything outside. It will be nice to see them at easter. Ashley and Norman, April and Dean will be home easter also. Always good to have the family together at anytime. With everybodys schedule it's hard to have all together at once for more than a day but it is good just the same. Ashley is keeping busy with her job traveling the country following up on reports of animal neglect and abuse. Norman and his family are getting ready for this spring's farming. April is busy with her accounting job. Always busy this time of year with tax prep. Dean too busy with his electrical job. They changed out the flooring in their kitchen and dining room. They all came back 2 weekends ago and finished the laminate in our basement. Looks good. Vicki's microwave quit. I found a burnt out fuse in it,, Finally found 1, replaced it and all was good till I pressed start and poof. Done Time for a new one I guess. Vicki is missing her microwave. I am taking the pontoon boat to have it serviced and checked over on Friday. Fishing season opens on the 5 or 6 of May. We will be fishing come bear season. I am done work up north and am home now so I can get ready for bear and farming. I did not find the card I was looking for so will be contacting you to get pictures that hopefully you took with your camera. If your picture is not on the website please send me one if you have. That will be quicker than waiting for me. You know me. Always setting records for fast.  HA HA  I am behind on all my calls. You can call me if it's been too long.  Cows are waiting to be fed so I will go. Take care everybody. Stay safe  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

21 Feb 2014 Did you really think I would update sooner? I did. It has always been said that time goes by faster as you get older. I must be getting older, as time certainly goes by quick. I hope this finds every body well.Got an email and it ended "see you in 3 months"  Wow, in less than 9 months we will be at it again. I am behindas you may know. I will catch up one day. Only a few more pictures to send in. Acturally I put all pictures on a card to down load so I would have them all in one place. Good idea isn't it? I thought so but now that particular card eludes me. I am now going through my camera, what is on my computer Keith's card,and Joe's and Reg's. Taking a while and trying to keep them close to being in order. I have sent some pictures out to each but have more to go there also. Enough about that.    We still have winter going on but is close to normal. We have a warm break a couple times a month, which is good it will be nice when the warm weather stays. Not too far away any more. I was out in the bush close to home cutting wood and I was pleasently surprised that there was as little snow as there was. Not much more than a foot. Out in the field it varies from 4 inches -2 feet. The wind does that and thats the reason it's hard to tell how much snow there really is. Lots of deer where I was. I think the deer are doing fine. One of my neighbors says there are deer carrying horns yet that he sees regular. I have been feeding them at home and haven't found any horns yet either. I will shed hunt once the snow goes down. Doesn't mean they would like to see spring any less than we would. We have 1 calf born about Feb 1. Cousin Dale and his son in law Tim brought the cows home off of the swath grazing and in checking the next to make sure they had them all discovered that 1 cow stayed behind with her then week or so lod calf. Mother and calf are doing fine and we will leave her there till the snow goes down and she comes home on her own. She has a big bale of hay to live on so will be fine. The rest won't start till April.  The kids are all doing fine. Ashley and Norman, April and Dean were home for the long weekend last weekend and installed about the basement with laminate flooring replaceing the carpet that was down. Carpet was not nice. Keith was seen by someone at work that had him shave his beard. He got away with that for a long time as  you know. He looks a lot different now. Still Keith though. Alicia just got back from Ontario recieving an award for solving a big case. I will give you a few more details on that later. Pretty impressive though. Vicki is fine, regular winter routine. Go to work, shovel off the deck if it snows or the truck. Visit her mom or my mother or her sisters once in a while. She can't wait to get out on the pontoon boat again. I am looking forward to that too. Come bear season we will get out. The other day a neighbor and I went out for a tour on sleds and I brought a coyote home. Just like old days. We plan to go out again when we can. I hope to trap some beaver this spring too. Lots too do and it likely won't all get done. Be the first time. RIGHT  Well I will sign off for now. Take care everybody  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

21 Jan 2014 Did I die? Did I fall off the face of the earth? Did I end up in solitary confinement? None of the above. Happy New Year everybody. I am alive and well. Tell you what has been taking place. Last year my webmaster informed me that he would no longer be looking after my website. This left me to find another. Not the end of the world but between me procrastinating and all the business of after season and research I am back on finally. There is so much to report on that it will certainly take numerous updates. I will update often in the next short while to get caught up. Pictures will start comeing on starting in the next few days. Hope everyone is healthy is this new year, happy and looking forward to the prosparity that will hopefully come on. But before I go any further I would like to Thank all my clients who hunted with us this past fall. We had to hunt hard and put our time in this year. Thank you for the understanding from all. I would like to Thank my guides, Keith who takes holidays and works mutuals to be able to come and help. He is away from his wife Jilion and son Declan for much of the season. A sacrafice in it's own. Joe, who also takes holidays to make the guide season happen. Joe has three years in with us now and continues to do well for us. Joe sold his house and is renting a place just 2 miles from the lodge making it easy to get back and forth. Next year Joe and his wife plan to build in town. Good luck Joe. Reg helped us out last year on his days off getting to meet everyone and learn all the stands and the way up down and around camp and the bush. This year Reg came on full time guiding all but 1 week. Reg helped for the pre season baiting and cleaning the trails etc. Keith, Joe and Reg all plan to be back next year and are schudeing time off accordingly. I would like to thank Shane and his staff of M.R. WEBSITE for getting this website up and going quickly once I got my act together.  The website is as it was before to get it going quickly. A few changes may come later. Now a little about the season we just had. As you all know Saskatchewan was not up to  what it's reputation would suggest.  Last winter was relatively normal, not a walk in the park but tolerable. What happened was that spring forgot to come. Winter hung on.The warm weather that comes with March never came till April. All the deer had to look after body condition before building horn growth. Green was late because spring was late. Any deer that I found that didn't survive were young deer. Some may remember the rut of 2012 wasn't fast and furious as normal. More bred later than normal which resulted in more young fawns this fall. These are the first deer to not survive. We did se a lot of deer this fall. Does and bucks alike. Most of the deer we took we mature deer, carrying good mass but short beams and tines kept the scores down. I was happy to see the mature deer taken. Could have been better but always room to be worse. Now looking forward. Dec. was winter cold except for 2 short stretches of warm weather, and now January is treating us quite well different days reaching 30f and more on occasion. Today cold and tommorrow warm. It has been sunny mostly of late, days are longer, and the warm of the day is 6-8 hours compared to the 1 hour warm highs of Dec. and Nov. This warmer weather and wind has taken the snow down somewhat and with the rest of January and into February being nice, winter for the most part be behind us. I look forward to a better year next year. The sun is shining and I will feed the cows and then head off to work.  All the best in 2014 everybody, Take care  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

21 Oct 2013 Hey everybody, where have you been. I,ve been to the city to visit the queen. Part of an old nursery rhime from a long time ago. I know we are all waiting for updates on the deer and looking for pictures etc. We have been baiting for nearly two weeks and put out some cameras. The baits are being hit well, I am happy with that. We see just as many deer now as other years so that is good. In the deer I have seen there is a good buck to doe ratio. As far as pictures we will be getting them next trip out and will put up more cameras.  I know it is hard to wait, it is the same for me. I had a really good elk on the one camera that I had out and one camera that gave me nothing. I hate when that happens. A few trim boards to put up in the lodge and it is ready, Vicki is working double time to get it cleaned and polished and ready. I appreciate the calls and messages that are coming and the inquiries for 2014. I apologize for not answering alwalys in a timely manner. With baiting etc. and renos after dark I get behind a bit. Cousin Dale has been out helping me. Got the fall cultivating done and bales hauled. He helps out a lot. The kids are all doing good. Alicia got the pins out of her thumb last week and is gaining mobility and strength back. She may have to retire from ball but hopefully not. Ashley and Norman are building a garage, sheeting the inside now. The delivery truck lost the door to the garage on route so they are waiting for a new door to come. April and Dean are settled into their place. April is takeing more classes to do with accounting so is busy studying after work and weekends. Keith and Jilion and Declan are all doing well. Declan is growing fast and likes to hang with Keith in the garage and especially likes riding on the tractor. They were all here for Thanks giving last weekend. Vicki put on a big dinner which was much appreciated as we all had an appetite from working hard in the lodge. Well I will carry on, Reg is here anxious to get going. Take care everybody and we,ll see you soon.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

24 Sep 2013 Fall is quickly approaching. The leaves were falling off of trees pretty good today. The weather has been just super the last 5 weeks or so. No rain, sunny and warm Harvest has been under way with every day like the day before. Sunny and warm. We have only one night with frost to mention. Good for this time of year. Some cool nights of course and some mornings with a lot od dew.   I hope everybody is well and good. Allis good here. Alicia is the only exception She was playing ball in Calgary and fielded a line drive bare handed and caught the ball on the end of thumb nail This resulted in her breaking every bone in her thumb. She has wires and pins holding every thing in place for a number of weeks. She will lose her nail as well. She is dealing with it well. The team wanted her to continue playing as no one knew how bad it was. It was bleeding so they let her sit on the bench. We are done with harvesting. The crops came off in good time and dry. Yields were good and the prices are lower as a result of the good yields. At least for now. I have bales to haul and some fall field work to do but that will be done in a week or so. I put out 6 cameras a while back in search of elk to hunt. One of these cameras has regular elk coming so I put up a stand and bait it regular,There are 2 bulls so far, afork horn and another with 4 points on each side.   Hopefully I will have time to sit before the season is over.3 of the other have only a few deer, a bear, and one had a few moose pictures. One decent 4x4 deer. The other cameras haven't been chequed since I put them up. Busy with harvest.    The lodge has it's new spray insulation, Turned out good. I am now putting on the v joint. Looks good. It will take some time yet. Keith and Jilion and Declan were home last week for 3 days. 2 of those days we were combining and the last day we got Keith's pontoon boat ready and then took everybody out on the water. Worked good. Declan enjoyed it too, able to move around freely. Jilion had a big fish on but it got off before we could see it. Next time. We didn't have much time out there but it was good. We have lost a lot of daylight in the last couple of months. Never used to get dark till 10. now its near dark at 7;30. My dear old mother is haveing her 91rst birthday on Saturday. We are haveing a small gathering for her. I think the girls will be home then. Grandma always likes to see her grand kids. Ashley says that Norman will be done harvest by then. Well good luck with the season coming and may all your pumpkins be in before frost.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

16 Aug 2013 Hello everybody. Hope everyone is healthy and mostly happy. Need a little un happy to appreciate the happy. I'll start with weather of late. Beginning of July saw hot weather. Then a spell of normal weather, temp wise. We had ample rain. Last real rain was about July 20th for our fair. The chuck wagon races were cancelled due to having too much rain on the track making it muddy and unsafe. The demolition derby went on though. It took a little more smashin and crashin but we got it done. April played ball as the ball went on as well.A lot of July was below normal in temps and some of August as well. Now we are getting the hottest days of the summer. Not much rain lately and crops are maturing fast although many are behind due to the lack of typical hot weather in some of Aug and July. My crops will be fine but some are late. My haying is all done except for about 5 acres of slough hay that I cut where it was dry enough. It should be dry enough today to get that done. The peas will be the first to harvest, end of August. Oats and canola to follow. The cows are doing well. Vicki and I have been to the pasture regular checking and I usually take a few pails of oats to treat my cows but the last time took only salt and forgot the oats. If looks could kill. I have some cows that really like the treat and are upset with me when I don't deliver. I'll not forget next time up there. I saw one bred four or five days ago and will be too late calving and she will go to market along with another that hasn't calved yet and won't. I kept another 5 yearling heifers to breed to keep up the herd numbers. We have been working on the lodge and a fews hours of cleaning I am ready for the insulators. Once that is done then the v joint will be put on. There will be an obvious change next time you see it. I was drawn for mule deer in our home zone so will do a little scouting for them. I have a few places in mind where I have previous hunted and will check out a few more. Reg drew an anterless tag as well so we are good to go. I didn't draw a moose tag so will be hunting the regular season. That's no problem though. Elk season is a month away. Bull only regular season. They will sometimes still answer a call then. I have four cameras out now and will put out more this weekend. I am putting the cameras on game trails that I suspect elk are traveling. I have only checked one so far and have 2 bulls. Two moose and 3-4 does. I may get to one camera today. I'm hopeing to get some buck pictures also so I've got an idea of what kind of deer might be out there. I will try to some pictures on the web site. My computer and I don't always agree on where the pictures go when I down load and when I go to send them they are not always where they are supposed to be. One of my computer savy kids will get this straightened out for me. I will go now. I will be back sooner next time as there will be more updates to report upon. I saw an otter a week ago. Not too usual to see them. What I would like to see less of is beaver. Thay are getting too thick as no one traps them much and their numbers are too high. They are fine when they are where are supposed to be but when they over populate they find a puddle some where and dig a trench and build a dam and make a pond. This roughens up my trails, floods them, making it difficult to get around and cut trees for me to cut off the trails. I think Bruce, Monte and I may have to do a little trapping when they come. I'm venting a little frustration. Last update I asked for licence plates for different states so I could hang them on a wall showing the states and provinces just like a map so to speak. Well yesterday I recieved a package from Pat from NY containing plates from 6 different states. Awesome. Thanks Pat. Much appreciated Pat. Well I better get to work. Everybody take care and I'll correspond again soon. Forgot to mention. The kids, Alicia, Keith and Jilion and baby Declan, Ashley and Norman, April and Dean (who have recently purchased a condo) are all doing well. I'll let you know how harvest hunting goes soon. Wayne, Vicki, Keith

I bet you didn't expect this to be so soon.  Go to www.enviroment.gov.sk.ca/ click on hunting and angling licence and follow prompts I applied for draw moose amd draw mule deer, will know in two weeks how that turns out.

04 July 2013 Happy independence day and happy past July 1rst. It's about time, what the heck. Time to update. No kidding. Hey everybody. Hope everybody is fine, sun shing in your world, healthy and happy. All is good.  A little on what is going on around here.   Bear hunting; We had limited bookings and some of them had to cancell for different reasons so I had Sandy and what could come with him come in the fall. Brother Ricky and company were coming then any way. I did feed the bear just to let them know that I was thinking of them and that I care. Reg helped me different days. He saw two one day when baiting. Quite close. Always a rush. We had cameras up for a while and got some pictures. Would of had more if I would have turned the camera on. The mosquitos were so bad when I put the camera up. Too much in a hurry. I stil have three cameras to pick up. Reg and I did see a nice blonde or yellowish bear while baiting also. Nice coat. The weather has been bang on for quite some now once we got to May. We had enough rain in May and warm weather that the grass and trees etc. came quick and lush. The hay crops and field crops are all looking good to excellent. We didn't have any frost like we usually do in May. That allowed everything to grow with out being slowed down. We should have a good Sasatoon berry crop as well. My favourite pie is Saskatoon. This last week we had teps that reached 90 and days in the 80s. Eveything is so lush and growinf so fast. We were roughly a week behind seeding but this kind of weather the crops will not be any later come this fall. Peas were sprayed with fungicide to prevent disease. They look excellent. 2 weeks ago we had rain on and off for a week or ten days, amounts near five inches. This is also contributing to the crops doing so well. I have fertilized where I will seed my swath grazing and will work the ground today and seed it on Sunday. Lots of moisture and heat so it will be a good crop. The cows will be happy this fall. When I was out there I found a calf elk. It didn't make it, for what ever reason. Looking forward to harvest. Last night I took back Steve's semi to his yard and he gace me a ride home. We toured some of his crops and back roads and saw numerous deer. We saw fawns too. Hard to see them as the grass is higher than than they are. We saw a doe with twins. Her winter couldn't have been too bad. I saw a couple bucks a week ago, pretty good horn growth I thought for this time of year. Next weekend I hope to pick up the bear cameras and put them on deer trails. and maybe get a few velvet pictures and see what is out there. The elk in the fence here at home have super racks. Hopefully our deer weren't nhurt too bad last winter.   Calving I think is done. There is one cow that hasn't calved and I don't know if she will. She was the last one to calve last year. She has a one way ticket to market coming soon. The rest of the herd is doing well. The last time Vicki and I checked the cows the second last to calve had here calf. A black white face just like her mother. Alicia is keeping busy with some renos and her job desription has expanded some what. She is working with some special crime unit using her financial know ledge to assist them. I will see her this weekend and might get more info. I think any info wiil be vague as it is likely sensitive. Ashley and Norman are busy as usual. They had a 60th wedding anniversary to go to on Norman's side of the family in June. It was very well attended and turned out good. They came here the next day. This was the day after our annual Madden golf tournament and reunion. That too was well attended and turned out good. A lot of cousins that come, I only see once a year. Always good, plenty of food and drink and stories and visiting. This was originally started for my aunt Dorothy's birthday quite few years ago and she is now 92, in attendance and doing well. My 90 year old mother was also in attendence and doing well also. They are the only 2 that came of that generation. There are 4 but the other 2 did not attend. Keith and Jilion were on the winning team. Again. It seems who ever is on the team with Keith is on the winning team. Keith and Jilion and Declan are doing well. With Jilion back to work it is hard for them to have off together. I think we are all planning to get up to Keith's in Aug when it works out for us all. April and Dean are back from the EU and had a good time. No hiches or gliches, good weather and saw some very memorable sites. They toured Amsterdam, Germany, Italy, Sweden and Ireland. I think I am missing 1. There was a lot history in Germany they said. Italy was good and Ireland so green. They rode the train and stayed in hostils. Some places expensive (the real tourist places) but most was quite reasonable. April said the trip didn't cost as much as she had anticipated. That is good. Alicia and one of her friends, Ashley and Norman, and April, Dean are coming up this weekend. They have a camper and cabin at the lake and they plan on renting a pontoon boat tommorrrow to fish. Vicki and I will go along and have a fish fry with them. Partly sunny, partly cloudy, chance of showers, seasonable temperatures. It will be a good day no matter what. Together with family is as good as it gets.   On a new subject; Saskatchewan Enviroment is implementing a new system to purchase licences. First everyone is required to get a HAL number. HAL stands for hunting and angling licence. This can be done online at no cost. Takes about 15 minutes. A hunting licence cannot be purchased without a HAL. I will put up the www address in the next update. Today I have to go back and get it and I don't want to try and save etc. I will just put it on later. I will get some more info on the best way to get our hunt licence and keep everyone informed. Once reading this please get your HAL and let me know. I will also be phoning later on. I asked Bob to be the first to do this and he said it took about 15 minutes.  One more thing, I am starting a licence plate collection to put on the wall, from all the states and provinces, so, if you can and it is not too much trouble, could you bring me a plate from your state and maybe a neighboring up when you come. An old, used, retired plate. I picked up a Wyoming plate in tourist type place.  Please and Thank You Any questions, about any thing please feel free to call.  I will go now. Take care and stay safe.  Wayne, Vicki, Keith

17 May 2013 The grass is green, the trees are green the frogs are singing their praise the sun is shining, life is good. Hope everybody is fine and enjoyinglife. The weather has been great for some time. Steady around 65-70 for some time now.  For most it seemed like a long winter, since we had some snow in Oct. We used the ski doo when we were first out to bait the bear. All through April the weather was nice. Mostly sunny, warm even had April showers. It was enough to keep the snow retreating slowly and settleing. When it warmed it was really warm and the remaining snow was short lived. The ground had very litttle frost from the blanket of snow which covered the land before it had froze. This allowed the snow melt to soak in not that much running water till the end when it warmed way up. Because there was so little ground the frost the ground warmed early and that is why all the green on schedule. We are busy seeding and should be done in 3-4 days if all goes well. Seeded some green peas this year. The price has been at record levels this year. I will share with the deer though. Canola also. Prices ther too has been goood and prices are slowing climbing. More than 14 per bushell now. Oats is next. The oat price has always been steady and I use them for feeding cows and deer too of course. A month from now I will seed my swath grazing for the cows.     I can't see where the deer population has been hurt much. Maybe because we had so many deer last year and still see lots that we don't notice a shortage by any means. The fawns are always hit the hardest. I always saw dee