A truly great day

I have to tell a bit of a story on Jackson first.  

He has been working hard at school, as usual.  One of his tasks was to write down what he was good at.  He quickly came up with quite a list, read it over, and then added one more.  

"Horse riding" 

And then announced that horse riding is not nearly as fun as people think, but he would write that down in case his parents saw his work.  

It really made me laugh when his teacher told me the story, but in a head shaking kind of way.  He really doesn't get to do a whole lot of things 'just for fun' (beside plain play of course) as everything we do on the ranch has work attached.  We don't ever ride for the pleasure of riding (besides in the mountains, but there is still a destination and certainly lots of work when we get there).  Quads are for work also.  Snowmobiles are essentially work machines as well around here, although occasionally they can be convinced to pull a sleigh or a skier at the same time.  Several years ago, Jackson was asked if he wanted to be a rancher like his dad.  He said "no, I want to do something where I get time off, like weekends or something."  

So....Jacksons birthday was January 1st, and his present from us was to go skiing.  So just he and I made a trip in to Williams Lake, for the sole purpose of having fun.  Crazy eh?  We stayed with some good friends Thursday night and headed up to Mt Timothy Friday morning.  Unfortunately, Jackson starting getting sick on our way in and puked all night.  I could not believe the misfortune!  But, by morning he was up, relatively healthy and determined to c

ontinue with his trip.

I had booked him a private lesson for 10am so we got our skis rented and cruised the bunny hill a few times to get our legs under us.  The instructor was impressed with Jackson abilities (even though it was technically only his second time on a mountain) and they soon headed up the lift together.  

I'm here to tell you, it was the weirdest feeling.  I'm often alone, and certainly I don't always have my kids with me, but I pretty much ALWAYS have something I SHOULD be doing.  Standing by the lodge, watching my son and his instructor head up the hill almost gave me a moment of panic.  NOW what do I do?  Pretty funny actually.  After a moment, I came back to my senses, realized there was absolutely nothing to be done but enjoy this beautiful day and headed up the lift myself.  It was so great.  Got a couple runs in by myself and then it was even more fun to ski with Jackson for the rest of the day.  He had a blast, gained a pile of confidence on his skis and did amazing.  And all I did was follow him around and enjoyed the most relaxing day I can remember having in a very long time.      

Though we were in shade most of the day, it was beautiful!  The Mt Timothy staff were pleasant and helpful and the mountain itself was perfect.   

  We have pretty much all of the mature cows over at Five Mile now and certainly the feeding routine is well established.  Everyone is enjoying this 'slower' time of year though and just trying to relax a bit.  Paul and Chloe have headed off to the States, so the house at Six Mile is eerily quiet.  Thing will begin to change again by the end of the month, and we will be back to pretty much a full crew by the middle of February.  Scary to think calving season is coming around so quickly!  WHAT?  I've just started recovering from last year!  

The trail ride season has booked up amazingly quickly this year.  In fact, there is just one spot unconfirmed for the entire season!  And I've had an inquiry on that.....  

Take care all, 

Punky