Rainmaker Parade

Wade has officially started to get stressed about not being at the farm to help with the spring planting but Ethan and I are enjoying having him around to enjoy some spring activities.  Saturday we headed to St. Albert (a suburban town on the northwest side of Edmonton) to check out the Rainmaker Parade.  The parade was in conjunction with the St. Albert Kinsmen RainmakerFest which is a festival and rodeo although we decided to just stick with the parade (we figured we'd wait till we are in Calgary to check out a rodeo and there are lots of other festivals in Edmonton that we will have a chance to check out this summer). 

This was Ethan's first parade and although he didn't know if he would like a parade, when he could see it coming down the street he got excited.  It was a pretty chilly morning but the rain held off for the parade to finish.  The only downside to the day was that the klutz in me came out when we were at a playground waiting for the parade to start.  I fell and managed to hurt my knee so hopefully I won't be down for long.

Another trip to Muttart

Ethan and I bought a year pass to the zoo and a few other city attractions including the Muttart Conservatory.  This week we stopped by to see their newest exhibit in their feature pyramid - hydrangeas. 

 

We peaked in to look at the corpse flower.  It's changed a lot since last time.

I let Ethan run off some energy in the adjacent park. 

 It looks like they moved the previous feature exhibit of tulips to this park so we'll have to go back in June or July to see the hydrangeas outside. 

 And Ethan was cooperative so I snapped a few pictures of him also.

Jurassic Forest

Saturday, we made a trip about 45 minutes north to check out Jurassic Forest. It is a 40-acre prehistoric preserve with gigantic, life sized and startlingly realistic dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs were animatronic and were setup on motion sensors.  It was fun having Ethan on the look out for dinosaurs as we walked down the paths. It was a very swampy area so the mosquitoes were out of control but that's what bug spray is for.  

Victoria Day - May Long Weekend

I'm still trying to figure out the holidays here and although Wikipedia helps some, it does still confuse me some.  There are national holidays along with provincial and territorial holidays although even the national holidays can vary by province. 

Back in February, there was Family Day which is an Alberta holiday (along with several other provinces) but Wade did not get it off probably because it wasn't a national holiday.  Wade did get Good Friday off but federal employees also get off Easter Monday which he did not get off.  He did get this last Monday off for Victoria Day.  Most people refer to it as "May Long Weekend" so I wasn't even sure what the holiday was until it got closer and I saw ads.

Victoria Day is celebrated on the Monday on or before May 24th and is in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday (the Queen when Canada established dominion status in 1867).  It is also the date that the current reigning Canadian sovereign's official birthday is recognized.  The confusing part is that it sounds like not all of Canada celebrates Victoria Day.  It is not a holiday in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador plus some of Quebec celebrates a different holiday.  On thing that wasn't confusing is that Victoria Day is informally considered the beginning of the summer season in Canada (similar to Memorial Day) although to me it doesn't seem much like the start of summer since the average high temp is around 70F plus the kids are still in school and will be for most of June.  

As for us, we had a great 3 day weekend.  We made a trip just north of Edmonton to Jurassic Forest, attended a BBQ, playing mini golf, and had a picnic in a park. 

Snow Mold

I had never heard of it but I guess it is a real thing.  We only saw it under the last couple piles of snow.  In my opinion...just something else to bother at least one, if not all, of us.

Update: When will it melt?

Yes, the snow finally melted in our backyard this week.  The last few small piles stuck around for awhile but the final date was May 6th.  There was a record high on that day of 31C (about 88F).

What do they do with all that snow?

This was a question I asked several times when I would hear stories from former coworkers in Bismarck.  Of course when we agreed to move to Canada, I knew I was about to learn the answer.  Although it did snow some this week, I still think I can safetely say that we have survived our first winter (or at least part of one) and I thought I might share what I've learned.

I believe the snow plows, graders, and dump trucks ran pretty much every day all winter long.  Ethan and I would see (or hear) them whenever we were out.  If the streets didn't need to be cleaned, they would be working to move the snow piles that were created from when they did clean the streets.  The city has several locations throughout town where they haul the snow and dump it.  During the time that we were here, we didn't see our cul-de-sac get cleared but it looked like it had been cleaned at least once before we arrived.  I did hear in the news, that the city was starting on the neighborhood streets but it got interrupted by more snow and finally the snow just started melting. The neighborhood streets are suppose to be a 5 day process and they have a schedule online showing when each neighborhood should be completed. 

We did know that they put down sand on the roads here instead of salt or chemical because of the cold temperatures.  We learned that they are able to recycle some of this sand each year.  The snow piles in the snow melt areas around town will melt down this summer leaving the sand behind.  There is also lots of the sand remaining on the streets and we are told the street sweepers will pick up the sand and recycle it. 

When Wade and I came to visit in September we saw a large building with a huge fenced in area beside it.  Wade was looking at the Engineered Air units on top of the large building but I noticed the sign had the same logo as the buses around town.  What we couldn't figure out was what the huge fenced in area was for.  We know know that this was one of the snow melt areas where the snow is hauled off to.