The Fat Ewe Farm desperately needed a new truck. I had been on the lookout for months now. The last time I drove to Calgary to see my son and his family, the wheel bearings on the front tire fell off just as I turned off the freeway and it was a wonder I survived the remainder of the drive without losing the tire. It cost a thousand dollars to fix and there was a small leak discovered and repaired then too. 

That truck has been a good truck for the farm, especially with the canopy. I have hauled every sort of farm critter in there, from chickens, turkeys, pigs, dogs, sheep, goats and yup, even an alpaca! The first pigs I had included a pregnant sow who decided she would stay in the truck and have her babies there. So many folks tried to get her out and she would just not go, that is until a pig farmer came along with a cattle prod. One touch with that, she looked at him, and gently swayed down the ramp, finally, after 3 days, leaving the truck! It did smell of pig for some time thereafter, however!
 
But the time has come to say goodbye. The new truck is the same design by a different company, that is an 8 foot long box and single cab. I hardly ever have anyone else in the truck except my trusty border collie, so we do not need extra seats in the back. The new truck has a larger motor, but is supposed to be very fuel efficient. I am going to look for a small livestock trailer to haul the animals around in rather than stick them in the canopy. I am not sure the canopy will fit the new truck since the one I have now is the GMC and the new one is a Dodge. I will see. 
Both trucks are white. I am hoping that the new truck will easily last for the next few years while I continue to play farmer. I do not know if it is strong enough to pull my 24 foot Airstream, but I will find out. Won' t that be a fun adventure? 

I have new signs for the doors for Moose Hills Inn, which passed its inspections this week. Moose HIlls Inn, formerly the Fat Ewe Farm Bed and Breakfast, is now a class 3 facility, which means a full fledged restaurant designation. Plus it is an inn. Yay! The fire and safety was passed as well with the extinguishers being updated and the insurance was updated too. November 5th is when we should be able to open the doors, just in time for the holiday season. New truck, newly reopened bed and breakfast...isn't life grand! 

It is that time of the year again, the time that the ewes and does and their offspring need to be readied for winter. This entails checking for worm loads via the Famacha system, hoof trimming, ear tagging and separating the ram lambs who have not already been separated. Fortunately, I had two excellent helpers, the Mormon Missionaries stationed in the St. Paul area. They choose to serve anywhere in the world and are sent to places where the host families can support them. After six months, they are moved to a new location and finally after two years, they return home either to enter the workforce or to go on to higher education. One of the young men grew up on a very large dairy farm in the USA and was very comfortable and knowledgeable with the animals. It helps that the two volunteers are strong young men too! We managed to get through all the sheep and goats, except for the rams, which we will tackle next Monday. 

I had noticed some lice on a few of the goats. Darn! I am not sure where they come from, but I did get several new to the farm young animals this year, included two young goats. All the goats were treated with Ivermectin for lice, regardless if I was able to see any on them or not, but only the sheep that showed signs of anemia were treated, and that was for worms. Not many sheep had to be treated, thank goodness. I am keeping track of the sheep who repeatedly require treatments and will move them out of the flock, keeping only those who manage their parasites on their own. 

One sheep, Tatiana, the purebred Romanov ewe with twins, has been quiet and strange for the last few days. Today I discovered the reason. She is dangerously anemic and very weak, so finally I could catch her. We brought her out from the pasture in a wheelbarrow (hey, whatever works!) and put her and her twin ewe lambs in the little goat pen where I can observe her often. She will be given 5 shots of a vitamin complex for the next 5 days, and she was dewormed for both tapeworms and barber pole worms today. Because she is so anemic she cannot manufacture enough of the vitamin B complex she will need to recover, hence the need for the daily shots. I said a prayer and shed a tear for her and am rooting for her. I picked some green oats for her and gave her some premium hay and she was eating well. She will need to continue to feed in order to keep her rumen functioning. Tomorrow I will give her some apple cider vinegar for the priobiotics too. My heart is hopeful. 

The goat pen still needs to be cleaned, but today, the last boxes of brought to the sea can were removed and the sea can is empty. It housed furniture and stored items after the flood and has been here 9 months! Last night I worked in the bed and breakfast house until midnight and was there most of the day along with 3 house cleaners who helped do the work that would have taken me another three days. The boxes that were brought in today will be unpacked very soon and then the house will be ready for photos. The grand reopening is October 1st, only 4 months behind schedule. Somewhere in there I have to fit in cleaning the goat pen...somewhere. 

​But there is light at the end of the tunnel finally. Things are coming together and life is crazy busy, but wonderful. I hope you can come to the grand reopening of Moose Hills Inn. Love to see you there!

There are so many interesting people to meet and spend a little time in conversation with. As the owner/cook of Moose Hills Inn and the Fat Ewe Farm, I pride myself in taking a little extra time to learn about the guests. 

The Prospero Theatre group is here for a few weeks. They are wonderfully accomplished in the theatre arts, very skilled in their craft and have a host of other experiences to help them in their work. One owns a professional stilt company, teaches stilt walking and has a lot of performing experience. One is Inuit/Dene and comes with  a skill set exclusive to having been the child of a trapper in the far north, then in mid stream, changing paths to become proficient in using theatre as an outreach tool for other First Nations children. The third member of this party is a gifted Shakespearean actor and businessman and is the impetus behind the group's success. For these two weeks, Prospero is working with the students at Frog Lake, a venue they are finding equally rewarding as it is challenging. 

I am privileged to speak with these folks as I serve them breakfast and supper. For them, I try my best, do my utmost and create tastes that please the palate and the senses, or so they have told me. For that I am grateful and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn more and get to know them as individuals. Each is unique and I am humbled to be in their presence. Moose Hills Inn is indeed happy to have made their acquaintance. Watch for their interactions in your community somewhere in Alberta. They bring humour and openess to the children they expose to theatre, with a flair I can only imagine based on the personality of each of them. 

And that is what I love about being the hostess at Moose Hills Inn! 

I have a servant's heart. It seems most of my life, I have been caring for some one and I do enjoy that. One of the aspects of the Inn that gives me great joy is cooking for my guests. Cooking is easy for me, similar to any design oriented art. Ever since I was able, I derived great pleasure from making and serving food to guests. As a young girl, my mother would ask me to make lunch or bake for her friends and I thought it was a great honour. 

So, now at the Inn, I am so pleased to be able to bake and cook for my guests and to serve them and please them. I very much enjoy coming up with concoctions for their dinners, special appetizers, soups and salads and of course amazing desserts, too. But, for me, it all must be made from scratch. I do not open a can of anything, nor a package. The food is fresh and even condiments such as salad dressing and barbecue sauce are home made. Mayonaise, mustard and soups, even cream is whipped fresh for the from scratch Belgian waffles - everything is clean eating! 

I try to use organic food whenever possible. The meat comes from the farm for the most part, except the bison, which is a local grass fed product. I did manage to grow some vegetables this year and next year's gardens will hopefully produce more. There is a crock of home made sauerkraut in the making, picked eggs in the fridge, pumpkin muffins in the freezer and home made organic sour dough buns ready to eat up. 

The guests who have eaten at the Inn have given me excellent feedback and all but two comments have been excellent. The other two were "good". I know I cannot please everyone, but I strive to. If I had a chance to ask the folks who left the 'good' comments, I would ask them how to change that to excellent and I would attempt to do it. 

It is my pleasure to serve my guests and make the food from scratch with love. These old arthritic loving hands have a desire to please and to serve and my heart is of that ilk as well. After all, love is what the world is all about, isn't it?

For the last two nights, the Inn has had a biologist and agronomist as guests, along with the two attending the library conference. The gent is retired from Fisheries and Wildlife and is a quiet, very knowledgeable person. They left some materials they use at their presentations, for me to read, but I had no idea that the fellow was the author of some of these. It does make sense though. He is passionate about keeping the water of the EArth. I am too. 

It is difficult to teach people here about protecting the water and that is odd, because they have had a quarter of a century of low precipitation, which resulted in former resort style lakes becoming just sloughs. Who wants to swim in a stinky quagmire other than the mud hens? Now, there has been rain, and lots of it, resulting in the water levels rising, though it will take a bit of time to return the lovely lakes to their former glory. Riparian areas are the areas that are around water, not just lakes, but even farmer's dugouts, and they need to be protected. So, Cows and Fish is not a government organization, but a private group that fund raises to get the word out. I very much enjoyed chatting with them and will read all this information. I have already been through the Invasive Plant Identification Guide and sure enough, the farm has lots of these plants already here. Some will interfere with the stream and beaver pond, given time. There is a chance to learn more and find out how best to manage the plants and the water systems on the farm. 

And that is just another joy of having a hospitality industry….the amazing guests are so fascinating. 

You know, I really enjoy the hospitality aspect of this business. I get to meet amazing people, such as the guest who has graced me with his presence the past two days. Gourmet meals were prepared both evenings and I was invited to share the table, the best part yet, since that means the guest is open to conversation, and he was. 

He has some influence with the group he advises and promised that he would post the Inn as a recommended place to stay in Alberta! Yay! And also that he would like to do a write up for Trip Advisor hinting that he is going to give five stars. 

Now, what could be better? I love my farm, The Fat Ewe Farm, communing with nature, playing with the critters and such, and I love my business, Moose Hills Inn, and serving folks in all ways I can. The gentleman had a tendon problem in his foot. I have quite an extensive background in care and prevention of injuries and was able to alleviate some of the discomfort for him as well. He was dually impressed and suggested that I hang a shingle, but Alberta does not recognize my credentials and forbids this, so the service is free. 

I also managed to finish cleaning the pens and filled the hole in one pen and stabilized the post, so tomorrow I can begin to build the sheep and goat fence feeders. The goats were given hay, but the little ones do not know what to eat much of the time until the bigger ones begin to munch on it. Hopefully tomorrow they will have the feeder finished and can test out the new hay. Many of the goats will be going to the auction this year and I have been toying with butchering one or two for meat. It seems like such a crime to do so though. 

Tomorrow I am up bright and early to cook breakfast and then this guest will be going back home when he is finished his day's work in St. Paul. I am pleased to have made his acquaintance and I do feel blessed and happy with my little life out here in nowhere. I do. 

The Fat Ewe Farm and the bed and breakfast are going to be two separate sites and the bed and breakfast site will host the new name, Moose Hills Inn. The mountain, if you want to even call it that, that the farm sits on the base of, is Moose Mountain and to the east of the farm, there is crown grazing land. Moose Mountain and Moose Hill are right here in Lakeland country, right where the farm is. To reflect the upscale atmosphere in the facility, it will be renamed then, Moose Hills Inn. Hopefully, people will look into our delicious meal offering with a taste of the farm fresh to the plate, and our client meeting rooms where the guests can host their client meetings right here at the inn. 

The furniture is authentic antique, the draperies are silk, the carpets, luxurious wool and the beds are to die for - organic real foam rubber from trees mattresses with divine organic cotton sheets and organic wool or down duvets. The pillows in the Master Suite are shredded foam rubber from trees as well and the Sunshine room has a variety of organic foam rubber pillows as well. There are organic linens and towels and organic cotton robes. Slippers are an option for those who prefer them. 

There is a water dispenser on both floors with hot water, hot enough for tea, and cold water from our farm well that has been filtered through an activated charcoal filter, but retains the majority of the minerals. Both floors have microwaves for client convenience and mini fridges are in each room. Though the inn does not have television, there are two dvd players available for those who prefer to watch a movie while relaxing. Internet is usually available though in storms can be intermittent, in which case, our guests have tethered their cellular networks to their computers and never missed a beat. 

The inn is located on a working farm, with dogs that work at night, however; the house is well insulated and built into a slope making outside noise inaudible for the most part. Roosters crow, not just in the morning and a gaggle of geese may waddle by the deck tending to their young. The farm is a budding permaculture farm and also a rare breeds farm. Our Jersey cow is just about to give birth and although we cannot share her milk, we can enjoy it ourselves. The chickens and ducks lay copious quantities of fresh eggs daily, but due to regulations they cannot be served at the inn. Patrons, can, however; purchase the eggs at the farm gate. We also offer farm raised duck, goose, chicken, lamb and pork for the farmhouse suppers and local bison on occasion. 

We are excited about the new name, Moose Hills Inn, and hope to serve our guests with the same quality service as always, just with a slightly different approach. 

The thing I absolutely love the most about owning a bed and breakfast is the amazing people that cross my path. Amber is a young lady from Rocky Mountain House area, where she works in security with her father's company. Amber's main man is working here however; and she has come to visit with him on three occasions so far and graced me with her company. I do not get to see as much of her beau, since he is up early and gone to work before Amber and I have breakfast. 
Amber is a thoughtful, sweet young lady of eighteen. Thoughtful, I mean, in the way that she brought a lovely, lively bouquet of flowers for me on this last visit. How very, very endearing! Having recently returned from a trip to Hamilton, Ontario, to meet her boyfriend's family, she had interesting tidbits to share with me about the excursion. 
I really do appreciate the chance to get to know Amber, for she is a wonderful young woman. That is the joy of the bed and breakfast, my path crossing with those travellers who come to pass through my doors and share my table. It is my pleasure to serve them and to be of service to them in all ways that are good. And I simply adore Amber! She is a sweetheart!

While I was giving Mamma Sheep and Llamas water, a white car pulled up to the gate. The man who got out the driver's side was wearing a uniform and the woman with him had a jacket identifying her place of work, Victim Services. The man was a Constable from the RCMP. He asked if they could see the bed and breakfast, but did not say why. Hmm, a police officer and Victim Services worker in official regalia asking to see the bed and breakfast with no explanation...I began to wonder. 

Of course, I invited them to drive up the driveway and park outside the B & B as I trailed behind walking. They were in good humour and friendly, but gave me no more inclination as to why they wanted to see the bed and breakfast. As I showed them around, the officer seemed very interested and viewed all the rooms. He asked about the capacity and prices of the rooms. Still with no indication as to why the official visit, I am now really wondering. Perhaps Victim Services got a complaint, but from whom? 

Then the officer explained that he was checking out the place on behalf of a member coming up tomorrow, who needed a place to stay for the weekend. Whew! He really loved the place too, as did the lady, who was along out of curiosity more than anything else, so she said. She was a sweetheart and he was very nice as well. He said now that he is familiar with the premises and since they are close to Elk Point and St. Paul, he would let the detachment know in both towns, that the bed and breakfast is lovely and welcoming.

Then we went outside and viewed the animals. The woman absolutely loved animals and said she wanted to be me. How flattering was that? I gave her a big hug. When I took them to see Dominique, the little lamb, Karin Llama was giving her kisses. Both of the guests very much enjoyed the farm and said they will come back to visit. Now, wasn't that a stellar end to the story?

It was always in the back of my mind. When I retired, I was going to own a bed and breakfast. My family and friends got used to me saying things like that, and they knew I usually made dreams come true, so they were not surprised when the time came that I was opening the bed and breakfast. The location was what shocked everyone. I left the beauty of the Pacific ocean and quaint little city of White Rock, BC, near Vancouver, for Elk Point. There is not much happening in this area if shopping is the number one pass time. Fashion and clothes are only moderately up to date. Glasses and accessories, like most everything else, are ten years behind the times.
But then, why Elk Point?
I did an internet search for the options I desired: a creek, barn, out buildings, two houses (one for me and the other for the bed and breakfast), highway access but privacy too, and services available. A few properties in my price range came up in northern BC, quite a few just north of Edmonton and more in the east. I did not want to move to the east coast, could not afford my first choice, Salt Spring Island, and so, I chose a farm in Thorhild county, an hour and a half north of Edmonton. That venture did not work out, after installing a well and power, because Waste Management was pushing a Class 1 landfill bordering my land. How could I have an organic orchard next to a dump? So, I searched again, found Elk Point, bought the farm and moved to it within 30 days.

A year later almost to that date, the bed and breakfast opened. The first year was poor with few guests, but I persevered and the second year, last year was quite good. This year, I expect to have double the guests of last year and so far, that is proving to be the case. Now, there are repeat customers, corporate accounts that send their people to the bed and breakfast regularly when in the area and even a few locals, such as the recent guests who were attending an 80th birthday party. It is quite wonderful!

I so much enjoy the guests and love to hear their stories, interact with them and share some of my own history if they ask. Currently the consultants from the Yukon are back for four nights, leaving tomorrow. They usually order dinners and sometimes bagged lunches and baking to go, so it keeps me hopping. They are great guys and I always look forward to serving them and chatting. Now, I feel as though they are my friends, too, and that is lovely. I can't think of anything I would rather be doing at this juncture in my life. The social interaction of the bed and breakfast, the pleasant care taking of the livestock on the farm and soon, the permaculture orchard and gardens, are the goals I had set for my retirement. Two are underway and functioning well, and the permaculture gardening will be implemented this year. For the next 10 years, I plan to run this way and when I am 70, I may actually retire. Until then, tally ho, let's go! Such fun, such fun.