Djoeke

All last fall I was begging someone,
anyone,
to come and help us with our winter lambing this year.
Nobody,  could be conned into experiencing our Northern Alberta Winter.

All except, Djoeke.

And he,
well he landed with his nose in the butter...

Djoeke came to us through a number of organisations,

he comes from the Netherlands,
so we all got to improve our Dutch!

He had no experience with  sheep,
or horses,
or chickens,
butchering,
feeding grain

nothing really when it comes to ranch life...

But, after 4 weeks he has embraced this life style..
He knows what it feels like to stand among a whole flock of ewes with a pail of grain in his hand,
he knows how cold it can get when cutting net wrap off the bales,
he understands that his specialy rated -35C boots just don't cut it here,
he knows how to butcher a lamb,
dispose of an egg eating chicken,
feed dogs,
move ewes and lambs,
fill grain hoppers,
weigh lambs,
fork hay,
bring water to the steers (not elephants),
carry over sized guardian dog pups to the pasture,
and has an intricate understanding of what the Alberta Chainsaw Massacre job entails.

So, all in all,
things are going well.

He can  often be found:

stalking moose,
dumpster diving in the grain silo,

trying to tame the local whitetails,

making snow angels,
tobogganing down slippery slopes,
playing "super hero" on the hay bales,

ice fishing with the lads,

riding my horse

or simply enjoying some quiet time at our Outhouse.

So, he is actually quite fun to have around.
He and I share the same silly sense of humor.
Our favourite coffee past time is looking up hilarious auto correct text jokes on our phones..

 or, watching silly you tube films.

His favourite film also happens to be my all time favourite film...

So, I think when he leaves our ranch next week I shall miss him.
  We have spent some time talking about dreams and aspirations
and have come up with a plan:
He is going to become a stinking, rich architect,
(who is going to design my mountain cabin)
and I,

in exchange for teaching him about ranch life,
 can take my future vacations in all his houses scattered around the world..