MSNBC reports that Inuit, while butchering a Bowhead whale recently hunted off the alaskan coast, found embedded in the whales neck an explosive lance tip dated to the 1890's.
This provides an estimated age to the animal of at least 120years.
While the story is very cool and all, why are we still killing these animals?
Does tradition and cultural heritage justify it?
Since I am 1/4 Swedish do I get to plunder my neighbours like a viking 1 week of the month with the blessing of the courts?
After all of the buildup here is the video from Fynlee's recital earlier today.
Now the rest of us can finally start to sleep easy!
Before you go however, we also took the opportunity to take some pictures of her and Zettie earlier today.
Hayden also tried his hand at making a video of his little sister (those who succumb to motion sickness easily should take precautions before watching this).
While things are still fresh I should probably recount the camping trip we took last weekend.
Pat and Chick were kind enough to let us use some of their land so on Saturday morning Sean and I headed out with Hayden, Fynlee, Ethan and Caleb for some camping and exploring.
Despite the wet and grey weather the afternoon and evening ended up being sunny and warm. One of the first things we found out was that if you have a 13 year old to flirt with are friendly with the staff at Dairy Queen they can provide a Blizzard in one of their 1L cups for only a couple of dollars more than the normal extra-large. Even with the 6 of us it was an effort, certainly a pleasurable one, to try and finish.
On the farm, Shayne and Kayley's daughter Sarah was also visiting and her and Fyn made fast friends. After spending some time getting our gear and tents set up we decided to head out into the Porcupine hills for some exploring in the truck.
The goal was to make a loop through Lyndon and onto East Trout Creek road before returning on Highway 520 but wet and muddy roads required us to turn around and take the easy route to the lookout. However, as can be seen in the pictures and video to follow, we still had a grand time.
Caleb also helped me to make a music video of our journey (fair warning - after finishing and uploading the video I realized there is some swearing in the song lyrics around the 3:19 mark):
After safely returning we enjoyed some hot dogs and conversation with the Leeds families before riding on a recently ungoverned golf cart, building a campfire, roasting giant marshmallows to make smores and then retiring to our tents.
Morning saw Sean and I attempt to cook eggs, bacon and pancakes on a coleman stove before an early-afternoon soccer game required us to quickly pack up and head for home.
All in all, despite its brevity, a good time was had by all.
Thought I should take the time to post some of the events from our adventures over the long weekend of this year.
Initially I had planned to have a fairly rigorous off road camping expedition (rigorous as you could get with a couple young kids at least) but a fireban combined with a forecast of consistent rain caused us to tone things down a bit.
We decided instead that we would take to opportunity to camp in grandma and grandpa's backyard in Lethbridge. Hayden and fyn were excited to join me out in the tent while Kirsty and Zettie were able to sleep comfortably in the house.
Surprisingly the kids did wonderfully and slept for three nights in the tent with me. The weather was mixed and it rained consistently for two of the nights but the tent was up to the task and kept us warm and dry inside.
On Friday night we also took advantage of the backyard's firepit and cooked hotdogs and roasted marshmallows to get the full camping experience. Mark and Jenn along with their girls were able to come up to help entertain us and the kids. Judging by the amount of melted marshmallows smeared onto faces and clothes by the end of the evening it seems that everyone had a great time.
On Saturday I was eager to get some off-road exploration in with the truck into the milkriver ridge area so we loaded up and then joined up with the Ehlert's in Mark's jeep to see what kind of trouble we could find. Our main attempt ended up being rebuffed by some private land that wasn't indicated on my copy of the backroads mapbook so we retreated and decided to have a picnic on the shore of the Milk River Ridge Reservoir.
I couldn't resist trying to get into a bit of trouble...
Later that evening Kirsty and I joined Mark and Jenn for some Indian food in Lethbridge while Jim and Sharon were foolish kind enough to watch all the kids. The food and company were great.
Sunday gave us another attempt at exploring some backroads SW of Warner that were clearly marked as public land. This time the previous nights rain foiled us the gravel road eventually degraded into an inch and a half of greasy mud. It was thick and slippery enough that the truck dogtracked and wanted to slide into the ditch on the level sections and eventually the grade became steep enough that the truck would just sit there and spin all four tires without moving forward. Being without food, water and camping gear we decided that discretion was the better part of valour and decided to turn around rather than try any more creative attempts at going further.
Muddy roads:
We were treated to an enjoyable meal that evening at the Ehlert's home in Raymond along with Jim, Sharon and Nana Mossey.
On Monday after packing up the tent in the rain we embarked on an damn fine fine dam road trip guided by Jim & Sharon (who were accompanied by 4 of Mark and Jenn's girls) along westbound highway 505 and across the dams for St. Mary's and Waterton's reservoirs. We ended up with a KFC lunch at Lundbreck falls in the crowsnest pass before finally heading back home along the scenic highway 22.
