Back to Manitoba

All good things have to come to an end and so it is with visiting family.  We always look forward to seeing them, but I think they are a little happy to see us go home.  It doesn't matter how much parents try to fit into the daily routine of our kids, we are not a part of their family unit.  They are a unit of their own now, and have their routine and schedule and we tend to disrupt that.  Things like "here let me buy them candy", and "oh it's ok if they stay up a little later on a school night, Midnight is not that bad", and "here let me feed them a sugar filled cup cake",  just tends to go against all that a parent strives not to over do with their kids.  Oh well!!!  I love being a grandparent!!!

We love them all, but there is a time to leave.  We said our goodbyes on Saturday morning and headed east.

It was a beautiful day for travelling with temperatures as pretty as any summer day.  Only thing was that there was a brisk cross wind the entire trip which makes driving not as relaxing as is it could be.  It seems that every time we want to move we are either facing or fighting a head or crosswind. 

Temps are in Celsius not Foreignheat 

We made it to Walmart in Moose Jaw the first night which was a bit farther than we had anticipated.  There is not a lot of reason to quit driving early if things are going good and no one is tired.  That meant we got back to Rivers Provincial Park earlier than expected on Sunday.  We got the Ponderosa all parked up in our temporary spot for a couple weeks, right by our concession.  It is handy here because we will be running in an out unloading things for a while.  We were invited to the outlaws house for supper.  Elaine always looks after us and welcomes us into her home, and is the perfect other grandma for Grace.  Greg cooked a great supper for all of us.  Thanks.

Our site for the summer is just a hop skip and a jump down the road but the Province won't let us park there until May 11th.  I won't even go down the "why" road because it just gets me worked up.  The crew that work in this park are so great and they are so easy to get along with but the people in the ivory offices just don't get it.  OK STOP RANTING LORNE!!!!

Our sight as seen from the MH now (first on the left) 

Close up of the site

The weather has been cold on Monday and Tuesday so we have just been hanging out in the Ponderosa visiting with our kids and grand kid.  We have been going on a few walks with Charlie around the campground and observing as the ice starts to sink into the lake.  I think it will sink in the next few days especially if we get nice temperatures and a wind.  

Charlie loves eating away at the ice that has pushed up on shore.  Its like a big treat to him.

We found him sitting in the site that our good friends Jim and Marilyn like to book when they come here.  They spoil him rotten so he was just going to stay here until they arrive in a couple weeks.  

We have checked out the shack and golf course and made a bit of a plan of attack.  There is lots of work to do and I will try to keep a picture record of what we do.  First thing is some renovations to the Shack itself.  New floor and maybe a "facelift" are in order.  

And of course a bird flew into the cuckoos nest (shed), and broke the plastic. I will replace with plywood this time.

And a tree branch fell on hole number 2!!  I think the park people will fix this for me so I don't break my neck getting up there to cut it down.  They have a chainsaw on a stick.

And like every year there is a little fence fixing to do so the cows don't get out.  

Last year I started replacing the fence with some rustic style logs and it was a hit.  I think I will just continue on with it as the broken part is in the area to be replaced.

The rest is just clean up and mowing.  There were lots of deer in the course this winter and they left a lot of droppings wherever they went.

The rest of the course just needs a good cleaning with the leaf blower and somewhere along the line a little rain could fall to make things green.

And under the tarp are all of the obstacles which need to be placed strategically on each of the holes to make it interesting.

It is actually a lot of fun watching the transformation of the golf course from this lifeless bleak area to a lush green flowery inviting place.  I hope to be able to bring you along with some pictures as mother nature does her thing.  We have a lot of work to do in less than 2 weeks because our opening day is May 11th.  So I have to go and get to work.  See you later. 

The view from our window looks down through the trees to the beach area.  There are lots of geese and ducks out there so it is quite noisy in the evening.

We will be ordering ice cream tomorrow so if there are any flavours you would like when you come to visit us, please let us know.  Please check us out and like us at our CJ's Snack Shack and Mini Golf Facebook page and we would love to have you drop by and visit us. 

Our location for the summer will be at Rivers Provincial Park near Rivers Manitoba Canada.