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| 2007 January - At the Duriez Ranch most of January this year was set aside for hockey, feeding cows, and lawyers (new ranch and outfitting business). Mark started work for us. We are happy to have him. The weather is cold and the snow is deep. Snow plowing was a everyday job to be fit into our schedules.
February - Happy Anniversary Doug and Lanora, 43 years. Mark and Carla go to Hawaii for a couple of weeks. Brian, Lynnell and the boys stay in cold, frigid Canada. We spend February at the hockey rink and feeding our cows. Winter goes pretty fast when you are really busy. Hockey is very busy right now as the boys hockey leagues are winding-up and play-offs will being before the end of the month. March - Congratulations Heath (Lynnell's younger brother) and Cori on the arrival of their third child, an 10 lb 11oz bouncing baby boy, Benson. Hockey play-offs are in full swing. Walker's team wins the S.T.E.P. League "B" side final. Dryden's team goes for a Northern Final Provincial Title and comes up short 1 goal against Kenaston. Dryden's team plays for the S.T.E.P. League "A" side trophy and puts up a tough battle losing in game three to North Battleford. Brian and Mark get ready for calving. They have tons of snow to push and the weather is fairly cold. We are seeing record amounts of snow this year. Our border collie "Tess" has two pups.
April - There is still lots of snow and cows will start calving soon. We are hoping the ground will bare up a bit more. Happy Birthday Brian. Hope everyone has a good spring holiday during Easter break. Lynnell's brother Pat and his family (ValleyView, Alberta) visit over the holiday it was good to see them. The boys walk some deer paths looking for sheds. Their paths are well travel this year as the cold weather and abundance of snow has caused the deer to gather by hundreds to the ranchers feed piles and bale stacks. Warm weather is welcomed in mid April. May - Happy Birthday Walker and Dryden. Still have some calves coming. Grass is getting green. Branding season has arrived. We will brand calves and get the herds ready for pasture and the pastures ready for the herds. At the Duriez Ranch this is probably our busiest month. We start branding on Mother's Day week-end and brand nearly every week-end for about a month with some week nights for smaller groups of calves. At the main branding days we will entertain a crew of 50 people, they come and help with branding, bring their camper trailers and spend the week-end. most of the people have a job but some just come as spectators or for the celebrations after a hard days work.
June - We still have some branding to tend to. Feed crops are being seeded and cows are being chased and trucked to summer pastures. This month we will also be moving Mark and Carla to the Pierceland headquarters. Renovations need to be done on their new home. I said last month was our busy month guess I was wrong this year June will be very busy as well. Happy Birthday Carla. The whole family travels to Valleyview to visit Lynnell's brother's family and celebrate nephew Kelby's high school graduation. Congrats Kelby.
July - Kids are out of school for the summer and are of course happy to have some unscheduled freedom. Lynnell and Dryden flew to Kelowna for a visit with Lynnell's Aunt LaQuinna. Brian and Walker are starting to cut and rake hay at the south ranch. Mark will start haying up north at Mudie Lake as well. Cows refuse to go south in to the pasture a couple of long days are spent chasing them on horseback. Mudie Lake country is very wet delaying haying. Renovations in Mark and Carla's new home are started, the majors being new floors and countertops. The Basement will have to wait till the hay is made. Happy Birthday Mark. Then men take a week-end to play in the Red cross Annual Co-ed Ball Tournament with Team Duriez. And Brian, Lynnell and the boys get away to B.C. for a short week with Pablo's brother Indigo from Spain. August - We'll be busy this month getting the hay and silage crops up for winter feed. Brian is working hard on his lake development project as well as making green feed and helping Mark at Mudie Lake. Brian and Kelly Robinson spend the long week end up North at Mark and Carla's with us. Mark's mom and sister from Foxcreek were there as well. I think Kelly had the most fun, 4-wheeling, horseback riding and wine tasting. It's fun to take a day off once in awhile. Cows are still unhappy and have to be hauled to the far extremities of the pasture to get them out of sight for a while. Sure hope they show up again in the fall. The weather is still unsettled in the Pierceland area making it frustrating for the haymakers. We start basement renovations to keep us busy on rainy days. September - Walker and Dryden are back in school (boy are they excited...not). At the Duriez Ranch in Harlan all is quiet. But things are hustle and bustle at the ranch at Mudie Lake there are thousands of bales to be made and hauled yet and the weather sucks. The days are getting noticeably shorter and the drying time for the cut hay is long. Mark and Brian work on the basement and getting the yard tidied for winter as well as putting time in the hay meadows. September long weekend a group of friends arrive and a pasture tour is organized. Coolers packed, 4-wheelers loaded with salt (for the cows) and people we set out for the back country trying to travel as many trails as time permits. Brian, Walker, Dryden and Mark seem to know the area very well, Lynnell, Carla and the others spend the day some what lost. Happy Birthday Lanora. Congrats Walker on getting your drivers license (please drive safely)!
October - Brian calls an end to what seemed to be the longest haying season in history. The Lake Development approvals are accepted by the R.M just waiting for the go ahead from Community Planning. The guys will start baiting and gearing up for Whitetail season. Fall round up will begin and bales need to be hauled out of the meadows. Many big bucks have been spotted in the area and the females are starting to gather in groups. As the hunting season approaches we look forward to welcoming our hunters. Mark plans to get some Trail Cams out soon. We spent our Canadian Thanksgiving weekend up a at Mark and Carla's with Carla's family. Great time to get Carla's family together as they are plumbers. Surprise there happens to be two bathrooms to remodel over the weekend. Mark and Brian will have to work long hours to get the basement ready for the hunters. November - Mark and Brian have been busy rounding up cows from the pasture and weaning calves. Hunting season is well under way and the crew at Log Cabin Outfitters is enjoying meeting the new faces. Carla has figured out that she is a great cook and did an excellent job cooking and entertaining the hunting guests. Brian finally realizes that it is too cold to stay in the camper at Mudie Lake (duh!) and has basically moved home for the winter. Mark is having a blast keeping up to the hunters and the ranching duties of this time of the year (a heated shop would be great though). Well November has come to an end and we all know what that means; hockey is well under way and Christmas is coming quickly. There seems to be lots of snow already and it has been fairly cold the last half of this month. Brian and his brothers' Lake Project is basically wrapped up for the winter and they are able to start selling lakefront lots at Perch Lake. December - Wow , our year seems have come to an abrupt end. As we reflect on what a whirlwind of a year we have just experienced in 2007; a Ranch purchase and expansion, an Outfitting business and a Lake Development (on their own are all a huge undertakings). Brian and Lynnell extend a huge thanks to Mark and Carla, Brian's brothers Randy and Terry as well as Lynnell's parents Doug and Lanora Eaton for all the support and guidance they offered in these ventures. We also thank our sons, Walker and Dryden for their personal sacrifices and much needed input into our family endeavor. We have enjoyed exploring out new place, meeting our new neighbors and entertaining our hunters from, Georgia, Minnesota and Wisconsin. We can only imagine what 2008 will bring our way and look forward to finding out. Hope your year was as great as ours. We wish to extend our seasons greetings and our best wishes to all in 2008. |
Send mail to b.duriez@bellevista.ca with questions or comments about this web site.
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