11/21/2014

Winter

10/31/2014

Sunrise


Caught this sunrise reflection on the trees as I was feeding cows this morning.


This truck is a workhorse around here. Hauls bales and then feeds bales.

9/10/2014

And Again

The second snow of the summer.


Snow pics from Calgary.

9/09/2014

First Snow of the Summer?




Yep, September 8th.

Good grief.

8/14/2014

Greenfeed


I go round and round and round and round and round and round and round and round.....


7/29/2014

Cool Water


Forecast
Tue
29 Jul
Sunny
29°C

Wed
30 Jul
Mainly sunny
29°C

Thu
31 Jul
Sunny
29°C

7/16/2014

Hay



Smoke from nearby forest fires in the background.

Now that the hay is off we need rain!!


"The Spreading Creek Wildfire RWF-034 was detected on Jul 3, 2014 and was started by lightning. This fire size is now a total of 8, 406 hectares, with 6, 121 hectares within the Rocky Mountain Wildfire Management Area and 2, 285 hectares in the Banff National Park. The Spreading Creek Wildfire is classified as being held. This means that given current weather conditions and resources, the wildfire is not anticipated to grow past expectant boundaries and all values at risk in the area are being protected.


Environment Sustainable Resource Development (ESRD) is hard at work on this active fire and has the following resources on site; 119 firefighters, 8 helicopters, and 1 dozer group."

Alberta Government

4/28/2014

Fast Food for INTJs

In Canada we have a coffee franchise that is an institution, maybe even a religion, Tim Hortons.

We Canadians flock to this institution like ducks to water, myself included.

When you have an institution for a franchise you really don't need to do anything, people just show up, over and over.

However if the institution is run by humans, humans who must not be INTJs, they do funny things.

Now this is technically a fast food restaurant, and what do we want in a fast food restaurant?

Do we want quality?

No.

Do we want a vast menu of items?

No.

Do we want to become friends with the employees?

No.

We want our "food" fast.

That's it.

That's all we ask for.

Fast.

Maybe consistency, but that's just a bonus.

Fast.

That's it.

So back to the humans running Tim Hortons, they in their infinite wisdom have decided that all their employees should tell us their names before they take our order.

Huh?

As in welcome to Tim Hortons, my name is Suzy, how may I help you.

Now you may say Solfest come on that doesn't seem so bad.

Just wait there's more.

The humans at "Tim's" (notice how the customers shorten the name in order to save time) have placed digital screens on all drive through order units.

Great idea, I see my order as I order it in order to insure the order (that's all a lot of orders) is correct.

Beautiful.

However after the unnecessary and time consuming personal introduction Suzy now repeats my order back to me.

What?

INTJs do not like to repeat themselves.

Now you may say again Solfest that doesn't seem so bad.

Well you're wrong, its bad.

Now after the unnecessary personal introduction, the very nice visual confirmation of my order, the unnecessary repeat of my order, Suzy then asks me to review the screen and tell her if my order is correct.

By my count this is now the third review of my order.

I should mention my order was a large black coffee and a blueberry muffin.

Oh I almost forgot to mention Suzy informed me after my order that Tim's now has 3 different kinds of blueberry muffins, so which one would I like.

At this point I remember I have a plastic knife in an old McDonalds bag on the floor of the truck and I am considering entering the facility and killing everyone in sight.

With my plastic McDonald's knife.

However at that point I also realized I am eating fast food way too much and if I exert myself with the plastic knife slaughter I may have a cardiac event.

I stand down and inform Suzy I want the blueberry blueberry muffin.

She relents.

As a Canadian institution Tim Hortons is very busy, always, and everywhere the drive through is lined up through the parking lot and quite often out onto the road.

The place is busy.

Time should be the most important factor in all Tim Hortons executive decisions.

My time should be their utmost concern.

Apparently it is not.

I should also mention that this particular order occurred at 5:00 am.

I want a coffee and a muffin, take my money, and don't talk to me.

Thank you.

4/07/2014

1/07/2014

Warmth

In a last ditch effort to stay warm we decide to just burn everything.


1/06/2014

Bad Government

The Chinese teaching Americans how capitalism works.