Our long-awaited Canadian road trip begins Friday morning! So far, I have the following plans: nights 1 and 2 at the Hyatt in Calgary, a visit to the Calgary Zoo and Chinatown, night 3 camping in Banff, night 4 camping in Jasper, and night 5 at a hostel in Banff. I think a trip to the hot springs is in order for that last night too, especially since I am going to try to convince the hubster to go on a 3 hour hike to Lake Agnes so we can eat at the rustic tea lodge that’s there. Nothing is set in stone at this point, but I do need to reserve camp sites soon.

I haven’t been to Canada since I was pretty young and only remember bits and pieces of the zoo and trip to Edmonton. I haven’ taken this much time off from the paper ever so that part is gonna be a little weird, but I am totally stoked for the trip.

This entry has been a long time coming. Even though summer is probably my least favorite season, I still manage to find enough stuff to do to keep me from my blog. So far this summer we have gone camping on the Missouri River (with 2 smanimals in tow), had friends out for the Lesner/Carwin fight (boo to Lesner!), driven through the Judith Mountains with Anne and Duane, and pulled millions of weeds and grass stems out of the flower beds. It’s been a cool July – Grass Range is still green which is amazing and nobody has been brave enough for the swimming pool yet.

The hubster has been busy with the ranch’s new wheat project lately. This is the first year in many that they have planted any new crops and this stuff has gone crazy. So crazy, in fact, that the swather doesn’t even like to cut it. The stuff is so thick that if hubster drives either too fast or too slow (a fun game without a speedometer he says) it gets wound up and he has to cut it out with a knife. Him and his dad are hoping to get 3 tons per acre with this new wheat – a good deal more than the .5 ton per acre the other fields have been yielding.

Here is hubster and the wheat (he’s 6′1″):

And here is the swather taking a breather:

On Friday I went to Billings to have a girls night with one of my favorite people. Today is her birthday so we were celebrating a little early. We had a blast. The karaoke guy that kinda looks like Keanu Reeves was there and he sang Ring of Fire again. That dude is amazing.  We also met someone who did Dude Looks Like a Lady like a champ. Good times.

I am going to Billings tonight to hang out with one of my best friends. We are gonna try out the spray tan thing and then go out for awhile. It should be interesting. The best part is I got on Travelocity to book a room and did the deal where you book the hotel and they don’t tell what hotel you’re getting til you pay. It cost me $50 total and we got the Crown Plaza. It is a huge hotel downtown and the rooms go for about $130 so hell yeah!

I got my hair done today. I went back to my usual blonde and brown combo – but with a bit more brown. I have a new lady doing my hair now and she is awesome. Pardon the cheesy photo:

Last night the weather sucked again. After the siding blew off the house, the power went out in one of the smaller towns nearby because a grain bin blew into the power lines. The wind was clocked at 75 mph.  Hubster came in to town to go to a dutch oven cooking class with me and almost had to turn around and head back. He had to stop in the middle of the highway because he couldn’t see where the road was. Eventually someone else came along and they finished the journey together. He brought my stuff in case we had to stay the night – and we did.

The cooking class was a blast. We broke into a few small groups and each group made something different in their dutch oven. Hubster and I were paired with a junior high science teacher named Steve and his wife Donna. We made chicken enchiladas and they were freakin’ amazing. The other dishes were strombolli, black forest cobbler, caramel cinnamon rolls, steamed veggies with cheese, sausage and egg breakfast souffle and mixed berry crisp. We cooked everything in the high school shop with coals that were heated up in a little chimney thing. Then we ate it all. Absolutely everything was delicious, but the enchiladas kicked the most ass. We even got a little cookbook with all the recipes (plus more) in it.

Our little dutch oven is 10 inches, but since most recipes are for a 12-incher we might pick up another one. It will be nice to surprise Ladonna and Ryan on our next camping trip with our new cooking skills. Last year we showed up with a box of poptarts as they were cooking a three-course meal on the fire.

enchiladas:

breakfast souffle:

veggies:

dutch ovens doing their thing: