We made it to the Nationswest Fieldhouse in North Battleford, Saskatchewan today to meet up with Brenda and Doug Lehman for some PICKLEBALL! As I looked out upon the courts I saw someone who look a lot like Lee Findlay. In fact, he looked SO much like Lee that it WAS Lee Findlay! What a nice added surprise! Brenda had told him Barry and I were going to come play today, so he made arrangements to be there. How sweet. We had a great time and finally had to call it a day after 2+hrs of play when we could no longer convince a 4th person for “1-more game”. (Probably a good thing since Barry and I can’t remember the last time we played.)
We headed to Brenda and Doug’s home in Cochin. Barry and I were looking forward to spending two nights here with them. Lee and Glenda joined us at Lehman’s for dinner. Brenda had a bison stew all ready. She had also baked a fabulous apple crisp for dessert. Dinner was delicious and conversation before, during and after dinner was delightful! I didn’t realize till then that Doug and Lee have know each other since grade school! WOW.
Brenda and Doug have a stunning place above the lake! This was the 3rd house they’ve built.
Doug and Brenda built this house themselves, and they are still happily married! 🙂
What a beautiful sunset!
June 23 – Doug took us to see the farm. Wow. The amount of land is amazing. Their farm is 1200+ acres! I can’t comprehend that. They retired from raising bison, and grew peas, canola and wheat on their farm. They have passed it onto their son. Once again, as a city girl, I can’t imagine how much work that had to be from sun-up to sundown every day while also raising a family. Though retired, Doug still helps out at the farm when they return home every spring. Brenda continues maintaining a really big, beautiful garden. Her pickled beets are amazing!
Doug used to have a herd of 100+ bison that he raised year after year. He sold most of them last year. The 50 currently here are the ones his son is now in charge of.
The stare down…with the “Bull whisperer”…
Then we went out on the quad and RZR. I knew Barry was looking forward to this. First reason to go out was to check the crops – are they ready for spraying? It feels wrong to drive over the crops, but when it goes for acres, you don’t have much choice. Evidently, they come back rather quickly. It’s not like they drive it everyday or follow the same exact previous “path”.
I wasn’t interested in driving, but at one point Barry encouraged me to drive. He was sure I’d like it. And he’s right. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Wildlife we saw while out were an elk, a mule deer, and a wild black stallion.
AND…then when I was behind the wheel blazing the trail, I saw this…a tree across the path with no clearance on either side! Oh crap! Doug went around us to go down closer to check it out. Confirmed…no way around it.
We turned around and headed down a different path…
Luckily, Barry was filming…and captured this moment…
a MOOSE! a MAMA MOOSE with her CALF!!
I missed the “record” button on my first attempt to video, when she was closer, but I got this…The calf struggled a bit trying to get up out of the water.
Mama grazing and the calf appeared and poked its head out between the trees.
OMG This made my day!!!
Shortly afterwards we saw a hunting lookout tower up on a hill. We drove up to check it out. What a spectacular view up here!!
Now I have to get us back down this steep hill!
Made it! I think Barry saw I was having too much fun, and had a lot more driving time than he expected. He claimed it was his turn again. LOL
Returning to the farm the herd of 50 with calves were right were we could see them. Doug took us closer!
and closer…As long as we stayed in the quad, the herd was OK with us. They were used to a quad being around and didn’t take it as a threat.
Then one of them took the lead and the rest of the herd followed off to the right…
As the herd started running down to graze in a different area, it was pretty impressive. “I feel the earth move…” Doug told me to imagine twice as many doing that. You can really feel it then!
Time to head “back to the barn” to put the quads away.
Doug explained how these worked and the difference between the two, but I just took pictures. LOL The size of those huge tires got my attention.
Doug & Brenda’s “new” toy hauler trailer. It’s parked out front of their farmhouse-their first house they built and where they raised their family.
We headed back to their home on the lake to chill and have a little lunch.
We soon headed out to check out the Cochin Lighthouse.
Doug suggested ice cream afterward. Good motivation to climb up (and then back down) all those stairs in front of us! The four of us climbed all 152 steps to the top of the hill to reach the lighthouse. You can’t go inside the lighthouse or up in it, but it is a working lighthouse (for the lake). The light is visible from Lehman’s deck at night.
Great views from the top of the hill!
Now back down all those stairs! Ice cream is coming. I like the way Doug thinks. 🙂
Ice cream destination…The Dairy Shoppe. Doug said it is the best soft serve ice cream, but the flavors of the hard-scoop took my attention. The ice cream was so good!!
Then Doug drove us around to see a little more of the Cochin area that included the Battleford Provincial Park and Golf Course. What a pretty course!
While driving we noticed how ALL the gophers (Richardson ground squirrels) were standing UPRIGHT! And it wasn’t just in one area.
How weird, but evidently twice a day this is typical. It is called “meerkating”. It gives them maximum height to scan surrounding grasses for predators as the whole colony emerges for a massive, synchronized feeding time. It seemed like time stood still or that we were on a movie set for a new version of “Groundhog Day”! LOL
Pretty cool to see that Doug and Brenda are so important to this town and are so well liked that there’s a creek named Lehman Creek!!
(OK…so it wasn’t named directly after them, but I’m sure it was named after a distant relative who was an earlier settler in the area.
Back home…so beautiful–so peaceful!
June 24
Brenda made Eggs Benedict for us before we left for Saskatoon. Oh they were good! Thanks, Doug for racing out to get that Canadian back bacon! Barry and I thoroughly enjoyed our visit with these guys! We are so glad that we had included a two-night stop with them.
We hated to leave so soon, but we have so much of Canada to experience as we continue our cross-Canada trip! Doug offered for us to come back again any time and stay as long as we’d like! (I’m going to hold on to that.) 🙂
Do I see a side by side in your future? Exploring Yuma is very fun!
Great job Nancy! Unfortunately the bull did not make it.