Mellowed in Melwood

So we're home at last. The Great Ontario Moosehunt is over, with nary a moose to be seen, except for the ones on the front of the Moosehead beer bottles.

And we didn't even see very many of them.

Not a bear.

Not a moose.

Not a beaver.

Lots of deer though, and squirrels.

And trees of course.

We went horse riding. Or horseback riding as it's called in Canada.

To distinguish it from horse front riding???

WTF?

We found a horse farm that had a nice lady and her husband who got rid of the kids, sold the suburban detached, bought three hundred acres of the Canadian Shield and 22 horses, and built their own cabin out of their own lumber which they got from their own trees which they cut down and milled themselves.

Pretty impressive.

When I say 'got rid of the kids', I mean completed rearing them, not doing away with them of course.

So we had a nice three hour ride through their land, I was on Sass (of course) and Himself was on Doll, Sass' sister. It was his first time on a horse and he did very well.

Now of course, we have to add horses to the future plans (he doesn't understand the concept of feed bills yet, but he'll learn).

Then we had to go back to the hotel, sorry, resort, because I had to go back to work and attend Ontario's Digital Economy conference.

It was okay.

I am truly shocked at how far Canada is lagging behind countries such as Ireland in the digital economy.

Of course, if you have millions of acres of land with trees, and water, and oil, and potash, and copper, and uranium, etc., you don't really need to be up to speed on the new economy.

We watched the bloodbath that is the global financial meltdown on tv a bit and also the Canadian election debates. Which were fun in a sad political junkie kinda way.

Then we had to get back in the car and drive home.

It was the second time in my life I arrived in Nova Scotia at dawn. It is the best way to do it, even if it is exhausting and I am still so tired from the hours and hours in the car.

Twenty two hours later we pulled into Melwood to see the sun out and the neighbours in the yard.

Thankfully we had brought back wine for everyone so we sat in the yard in the sunshine and then we had a big bonfire when it got colder and everyone caught up with what everyone else has been up to in the last two weeks. Some of the previous occupants arrived too to liven things up, and we called Shelley in Manitoba, so nearly everyone was present in some way.

So, laundry, shopping and clean up today, and back to work tomorrow.

Sigh.