Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: trucks

On 27 August, I finally made myself do a new drive that I hadn't had the courage to do before, going south of the city. This morning, I have just added another 8 photos taken that day. The trip down south was not a huge drive and many of the roads were familiar ones. Just the last part was what made me afraid to try. I am so glad I did this, as I had longed to go to this particular Ranch for years. A couple of years ago, a friend and I drove south from the city to get to Kananaskis. Somehow, he missed a turn-off and we ended up going some distance south instead of west. I loved the scenery that we were driving through and I noticed the Ranch off in the distance. I was determined that, one day, I would drive there myself. Done! The working Ranch I wanted to see was the Bar U Ranch. I have seen so many photos online of the scattered sheds/barns and I was sure I would find plenty to photograph. "Bar U cattle literally fed the world. The ranch fed workers building the first transcontinental railway and waves of immigrants flooding to a new land. It fed Canada’s first Indian reservations, the first patrols of Northwest Mounted Police, our nation through the Great Depression and our soldiers through two World Wars. Bar U Percherons, “the work horses that powered North America,” built our cities and roads and pulled our trolleys and fire wagons, from New York City to Victoria, British Columbia. One of the first, most successful, most enduring large scale cattle ranching operations in Canada, the Bar U in its hay day ranged 30,000 head of cattle on 160,000 acres of grassland, and was world renowned for its stock of 1,000 purebred Percherons. Located deep in the southern Alberta foothills, on the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains, the Bar U, from 1882 to 1950, was a force to be reckoned with. While other large Alberta ranches succeeded for a time only to go out of business, especially after the killer winters of 1886 and 1906, the Mighty Bar U persevered to eventually become a kingpin in a business empire that included a variety of ranches and farming enterprises, as well as meat packing plants and flour mills." www.friendsofthebaru.com/bar_u_legacy.htm By the time three and a quarter hours had passed by at the Ranch, including sitting on a log around a camp fire, drinking hot coffee and chatting with a couple of ladies who were telling me about camp life in the old days, I felt it was time to start heading back home. I returned via the rough, gravel, very dusty backroad that I use when I drive to Kananaskis, hoping that I might just see something of interest, but out of luck. Thank goodness for Albums to keep photos together, and thank goodness Camera Roll is now finally back and working. Thank you, Flickr staff, for rebuilding this very useful tool for us.

Hard to believe that this is WINTER! What a wonderfully mild winter we have been having. However, I looked at the weather forecast for the next little while and saw snowflake icons on far too many days! I came across this beautiful red barn and old windmill on 19th February 2016, when I was exploring some new backroads SE of Calgary. The reason I wanted to make this drive was that friend Phil S. had posted a few photos of a beautiful little white country church; one that I hadn’t seen before. He told me where to find it and this was enough motivation for me to drive some roads that were new to me. Thanks so much, Phil! The church was the Davisburg Community Church. From this location, I drove SE towards the Blackie area and covered some of the same roads and backroads that I drove on 15 February. It turned out to be more of a barn day than a birding trip, as all I saw were several Pigeons and a number of Magpies. I really wasn’t looking for birds, though, as my attention was on the road and which direction I was going, trying not to get lost. The sun was shining early on, but more and more clouds gradually moved in, making quite a beautiful sight over the distant mountains. After a while, I realized that I could perhaps just make it as far as the Saskatoon Farm in time to order a home-made pizza to take home with me. However, when I got there, I was told that they had stopped making these several months ago. Instead, I decided to stay and have a meal there - quiche and sweet potato fries. Made a very pleasant ending to an enjoyable afternoon.

This old, wooden grain elevator was seen on 14 April 2014, when my youngest daughter and I spent the day driving some of the backroads SE of Calgary. There used to be a row of five elevators here, but now only one remains. "There were 1,651 elevators in Alberta in 1951, but by 1982 a total of 979 elevators remained. The 1990s spelled the death of the wooden “country” or “primary” elevator. At the end of the 1990s, as the full impact of both of the ending of the Crow Rate in 1995 and further impending rail abandonment was felt, the pace of demolition accelerated at an unprecedented rate. At the end of the 1996-1997 crop year, there were only 327 elevators left. Alberta’s largest cooperative grain companies, the Alberta Wheat Pool (which amalgamated with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1998 as Agricore) and United Grain Growers, ultimately formed a new corporate entity known as Agricore United in 2001, issuing issued public shares. Demolition of country elevators has continued, and in 2005 there were only 156 wooden elevators of any kind still standing, only a handful of which are used by the grain trade. The Government of Alberta has recognised the significance of the traditional wood grain elevators, and has designated 12 as Provincial Historic Resources. They are located in the following communities: Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley (3 elevators), Scandia and St. Albert (2 elevators)." www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf www.bigdoer.com/8049/exploring-history/prairie-sentinels-...