Return of the Fox

On May 30, 2020May 30, 2020 By colleengbergIn Countrified Blessings, Entertainment2 Comments

I find I am getting excited and anxious to welcome back our mating fox pair. It may or may not be “obvious” in the image below, but look closely for the stretched out “u” that represents a well-worn path leading to a hole at the base of one of the spruce trees along our windbreak. This tells me they’ve come home and getting ready to mate.

This has been their den in earlier years but not for some time. She had them under one of our steel bins last year very close to the house but I doubt I would be that lucky two years in a row.

So, I will be crossing my fingers, eyes and toes that I get to observe and photograph and just hang out with a precious fox family in a few months time.

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…. The above post has been sitting in my “draft folder” since December 27, 2019 in the hopes I could deliver a post featuring that our fox pair did indeed mate and raise a family of kits. I’m ecstatic to write today that they did and they did indeed make their home under these trees of our shelter belt…again, not far from the house.

I’ve been highly distracted from ranch chores with these cuties running around but once again, self-isolation shows its benefit-side because I now have all the time in the world to blend my photog life with my ranch life!

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I Took A Trip

On November 8, 2018November 8, 2018 By colleengbergIn Entertainment, My FaithLeave a comment

I took myself on a trip this spring. I came away from this trip with the life-altering realization that I had made my life unnecessarily complicated and busy. My journey took me to a special world amongst some of the most amazing creatures on earth…grizzly bears. Just seven other guests, two crew members and I boarded two float planes from Prince Rupert into the exquisitely serene and incredibly beautiful Khutzeymateen Grizzly Bear Sanctuary…a land where grizzly bears are fiercely protected and where they can never, and I do mean never, be hunted… it’s the law!

I struggle to find the words to describe the experience of viewing and floating amongst these gracious creatures. I say gracious because they allow us to enter their environment and click away with our cameras yet they carry on in tranquility. They must feel that they are indeed protected and that we observant and excited humans are no threat to them. They continue to eat and roam and swim and simply carry on with their peaceful lives as they accomodate us mere mortals.

We all realized, at the end of our time in the Khutzeymateen, that we were privileged to share this time with these beautiful bears and with each other. It’s a really special thing that goes on when you live only on the water (either the sailboat/ketch or Zodiac raft) with 9 strangers and depart four days later as dear friends. Friends that share a common desire to view, photograph and learn about the grizzly bear and respect their precious and beautiful environment.

Returning home I knew I had to make some changes. To slow it down…for heaven’s sake, after all, I’m retired! That meant letting go of some things, completing other things to finality, focusing on what’s really important (Faith-Family-Farm) and allow myself to breathe. It takes a get-away to wake up and figure things out. And it has taken until around now…5 months since Khutzeymateen…to write these thoughts and share them in my blog.

Sparkle

On February 11, 2018February 11, 2018 By colleengbergIn Agriculture, EntertainmentLeave a comment

There comes a day when you just have to dress yourself up and head to town. And such a day happened this week. There was an early morning breakfast meeting in town featuring an inspirational entrepreneurial speaker. A farm girl has no trouble getting up at 5AM to get to town for a 6:30AM Meeting. I’m so glad I did too.We heard from Rachel Mielke, CEO and founder of Hillberg & Berk. Check out her website and you will see why I came away oh-so-inspired….www.hillbergandberk.com

She not only crafts a line of enchanting and sparkly jewellery ( which she began humbly at her kitchen table in Saskatchewan), she is an enchanting gal in her own right and encourages us all to find our own inner sparkle.

And so, I came away from the breakfast meeting that morning inspired to find that inner sparkle and infuse positivity upon this ranch. This ranch where we toil and chore and struggle through droughts, extreme weather, BSE, political directives, regulations, consumer misconceptions, market prices and all the uncontrollables that drive this agricultural industry that is our livelihood.

What better way to signify this personal agenda than to get me some of this jewellery from Hillberg & Berk! I was thrilled to find out our own local jewellery store carries her collection and I could acquire some sparkle earrings right away. I love love love to shop local so big thanks to Vermilion Jewellers.

Her collection includes many many colours and shades but I chose vivid red…the color of empowerment, action, courage and determination. I find I have to count on these qualities out here on a daily basis. My chore time attire of coveralls and Daniel Boone Hat will now be enhanced by my new red sparkle power “balls”. Because if a woman ever needed to be empowered, it’s those of us on the ranch working alongside their husbands and families as we care for and feed our animals in as safe and humane way as we possibly can.

Love To Write

On January 2, 2018 By colleengbergIn Entertainment2 Comments

Where to begin when one has essentially abandoned her blog except for two posts over an entire year? I am stunned to be sitting here at my desk and opening my blog to see that – yes – I only entered two posts in 2017. What kept me so preoccupied? so detached? so uninvolved? so distracted?

It’s no one single thing and I won’t over-analyze the situation but I will spend this first day of 2018 to recommit to this blog once again. As a child I was very diligent in keeping a diary and then a journal in my later years…meticulously handwritten epistles of my daily events and deepest thoughts and dreams. I came across some of those literary pieces of work recently during a major purge session in the basement and was happy to be able to reacquaint myself with the gal I used to be and realize that she really hasn’t changed one little bit way down deep inside.

I love to write. Always thought I would be a journalist or an author “someday”. For these reasons alone, why would I not continue this blog?

We were in Las Vegas a few weeks ago…yea, FlickaRancher Does Vegas…and it took that getaway from the ranch and the duties and the chores and the routines and the schedules and the appointments to realize I really do love my hard-working, purposeful, chore-ridden life here on our ranch with hubby, cows, horses, dogs cats. But, for the first time ever, I let myself be treated really nice too and spent the entire first day there in the spa which included massage, facial, manicure, pedicure, hair and makeup. What an awakening that was for this rancher gal…I may let this habit continue, who knew??

So the writer is back and she might even have her nails done and some makeup on while she shares a story or two.

Photo Challenge – Chaos

On November 8, 2016 By colleengbergIn Entertainment, Photo Challenges3 Comments

Nothing could be more full of Chaos than a wild horse race at a stampede. Teams of four wanna-be cowboys rope a bucking horse, then the others try to hold him/her still while the fella that drew the short straw attempts to mount and ride for a few minutes in the stadium. Entertaining indeed!

Vacation

On August 5, 2016 By colleengbergIn Agriculture, EntertainmentLeave a comment

So when my hubby and I finally take a vacation…..where do we go? Well to hang out with more cows and more horses and more bulls….we go to a stampede!

The Ponoka Stampede in fact! A two and a half drive from the ranch. We drive away from our peaceful, comfortable homey ranch to set up our trailer in this conglomeration of others seeking “time away” a “change of routine” a “break” some “rest and relaxation”.

We really did end up having a great time away from “the routine” and we truly enjoyed the socializing and the entertainment that we are blessed with on a daily basis at a professional rodeo type event….I find myself wanting to be one of these guys though…right in the arena catching the action WAY more closeup than my telephoto allows me from the grandstands.

Ends up though that there really are lots of photo opportunities to satisfy this rodeo-photographer-wanna-be even from her perch in the stands.

I’m afraid this “vacation-mode” compelled me to take a short vacation from my blog! Operative word…”short”. That’s what a vacation is for. To get recharged with gusto to carry on!