Pause

...blog will continue on saturday, I am in Montréal until friday.

Living Quarters

''s.v.p faire votre vaisselle au fur et à mesure''

I actually had to write it down on a piece of paper.

That piece of paper survived three days, the message written on it lasted one meal.

Dishes keep piling up.

As soon as there is anything in the sink, things start to accumulate.

I often do the dishes, then I dry them and put them away.

Jeanne does not rinse the soap off when she does the dishes.

Éloïse doesn't put them away.

It also seems as if I am the only one taking the garbage out and emptying the recycling bin.

And sweeping.

And keeping the general cooking area somewhat under control.

There are dishes to do right now, I am not doing them.

(Because I leave tomorrow morning.)

Florence comes back tomorrow, and she will be the one stuck cleaning.

They even leave the cleaning sponges in the sink.

And they ask why they shouldn't leave them there when I tell them not to.

Ok then. Go ahead and wash your scum-covered hands over the stuff we use to clean the dishes. :)

Am I SERIOUSLY going to have to make a cleaning schedule?!?!!?!?!

Maybe.

That will not solve the ''drinking straight out of the milk/juice jug, eating right out of pots and containers'' problem. It doesn't bother anyone else, that's why it won't stop.

It's disgusting. Especially when there is some peanut butter or nutella smudged onto the jug because someone had some on their mouth.

I'm currently typing and watching flies wander around the room.

Why?

Because apparently a door doesn't need to be closed once opened.

If ever I move out, it will be alone, in a cardboard box, but at least it will be clean.

Champion

I took the highest horse in the stable on a trail ride.

He bucked when we started galloping, so I refused to gallop again.

More clients these days...

Food time now.

9:00AM

So, last night we went to celebrate la St-Jean in Tadoussac.

We basically sat around, talked with some people from Tadoussac and Baie Sainte-Catherine, went in front of the fire to warm up, and then went back ''home''.

It was fun to watch one guy throw up and keep drinking, until we felt sick ourselves and went to sit elsewhere.

Just before leaving, we were told there was a two hour trail ride that had just come up, but we decided to wait until this morning to go because our lift was coming to get us in about 15 minutes.

We knew it was going to rain, so it was decided that the trail would be at 9:00AM.

We woke up a little too early for the time we fell asleep at, and the clients never showed up, so I made eggs.

Jeanne left for Quebec city yesterday, she should be coming back at 1:00PM today.

She will probably go straight to sleep.

There is supposed to be a fire in Baie Sainte-Catherine tonight, I doubt we will be going.

We'll stay in our room until it stops pissing out there.

Edit**:

Clients came back later, Éloïse went with them.

I stayed back in case there was another trail ride.

A lady came with her two grandchildren by the time Éloïse was back, so we both went on that trail.

We didn't know they wanted to see the waterfall and the cave, we had understood ''2 heures à cheval''....So we kind of improvised when we saw they really wanted to go to the waterfall.

As for the cave, it is way too steep of a climb for a rainy day with 2 children and an elderly person.

The lady lost her keys on the trail.

We went to look for them for quite a while, they still haven't been found.

I don't know where they are now, or where they are staying, but they live in the Laurentides.

People need to stop losing their stuff.

The other day a group of teenagers went on a trail and one guy lost his wallet, but we found it later on that day when we went on our evening ride.

We ate pillsbury muffins a few minutes ago.

We also decided not to go to the fire in Baie Sainte-Catherine

Reasons:

1. We're all dead tired

2. We don't really know anyone

3. Yesterday was mildly boring

4. No lift...

Talking about cars, since they have so little to do here, they all fix their cars up.

That's what they do.

At least that is our theory.

Pretty much all of their parents, themselves, relatives...Work on the ferries going from BSC to Tadoussac. Luckily for them, I don't think it's possible for a bridge to be built there for some reason.

Tremble

I was on Skype with Sandra earlier today, and she said she felt things shaking over there, that she was seeing the house in front of hers tremble.

No more than 30 seconds later, I felt my room shake ever so slightly.

Nobody else noticed because they were all outside.

I felt the earthquake too, even all the way out here.

Good Morning

Almost didn't find the cave.

Turned around twice and finally found the right way.

Oops.

I missed a day.

I made myself useful, that's why.

We went to take pictures in a field with Tornade...

I painted tables and mowed the lawn.

Now i'm dead tired.

Late Breakfast

We were woken up by Jeanne who came knocking to tell us it was time to do the groceries.

Éloïse said we were not ready, so she just said it would have to be before noon.

Then, Aimé came knocking because he was looking for Éloïse. He needed her to help for the carriage ride with clients.

After much lack of communication, the clients left because they were waiting too long, and I left on a trail to the waterfalls with 2 clients (before breakfast, because we had nothing to eat at that point.)

I am getting very tired of everything, especially cleaning and cooking and thinking ahead for all suppers or else we end up eating kraft dinner.

Plus, I really don't like their attitude towards me, I often wonder if they see I have two legs, two arms and a head, because they seem to think I am incapable of doing anything alone. For example, I was back from a trail with 4 other people, the horses were all tied outside (which is not usually what they do, they usually just leave them to stand there and call them in when it is their turn to be unsaddled), and I was bringing them in one by one. Then, I hear Aimé say through the intercom to Jeanne and Éloïse that one of them come help me because he thought I would have trouble.

Also, before Florence left, she said she was tired of hearing them talk behind our backs, because then she had to come speak to us and pretend she hadn't heard anything. I wanted to know what they were saying, I already knew, they were saying that I wasn't really doing anything.

It's true, I mostly sit in my room.

I don't feel like painting tables, cleaning showers and toilets, or being followed by Aimé as I mow the lawn because he also thinks I am unable to do that. The last time I mowed the lawn, I checked the gas tank because I found it smelled strong. Turns out it was still open. Lovely. When I told him, he just asked if I had lost a lot of gas. I really felt appreciated.

As you can tell, I am having so much fun.

3 Musketeers

Florence left for Montréal yesterday, she needed to concentrate on studying for her last calculus exam. She is coming back on the 27th, I think.

So now, it is only Éloïse, Jeanne and I.

We ate chicken drumsticks and pasta last night.

I have to go check what is left in the freezer in terms of meat.

Now I will go mow the lawn.

Woohoo.

Edit**:

Kraft Dinner for lunch, even though we ran out of milk.

I had forgotten how good that crap was, I remember we used to buy cases full of it.

I took some steak out for tonight.

Should be good.

Darkroom

So, I did my schedule for school yesterday, the first class I tried to get was photography.

That's all it said on the schedule of classes.

''Photography''

It didn't say digital or darkroom.

Now I look at the course costs, and I am quite certain it is darkroom.

Which makes me angry, because I did not think that was what I was signing up for.

John Abbott is so great for these things.

How wonderful a school.

At least I have thursdays off...

...to work.

Edit**:

I went on a trail to the cave with Éloïse, now I know how to get there alone.

We have to climb up some steep rocks to get to it, but it's not too tiring.

Tomorrow I will mow the lawn.

Trails

So I had 6 clients today, two for the first trail and four for the second one.

It was the first time I was alone on a trail.

The trail is pretty simple, so it's pretty impossible to get lost.

They gave me a walkie-talkie, and when they tried to contact me, it never got through, so Aimé came to check on me on his 4-wheeler.

...Yeah.

We ate cannellonis for supper.

In Training

I woke up very late, and went to see if there was work to do.

Instead, I was sent to see two horses being trained.

One was two years old, the other was an older pony who was very disobedient.

He actually attempted to jump over the fence of the round paddock and managed to get over it. He almost got tangled up in the wires.

I just stood there with my camera, not taking pictures.

Great photographer.

Later on, I went on a trail ride with Éloïse and two clients to the cave.

I was afraid to go inside at first because it looked like a tight squeeze, but Éloïse assured me it was larger inside.

We lit a few torches and I hesitantly followed.

I was a bit more comfortable inside, I am glad it isn't very deep because I was starting to worry I wasn't going to be able to turn back to see the light coming from the entrance.

It was humid and quite cold inside, but it was refreshing after the climb up.

We are quite certain the chickens are hiding their eggs from us, so tomorrow we will remove all of the bags of grain in the way, and hopefully, we'll find a pile of eggs.

If we don't, our chickens are useless.

Unfortunately, we can't eat them as they are not fat enough.

I cleaned my half of the room again, searched for my riding pants again.

My clothes were finally dry, so I was able to put them away.

One Paintbrush.

So Jeanne came to knock on our door to wake us up to go do some painting.

We took our time, had breakfast, I did a wash, and when we got down the hill where the tables were, we were told there was only one paintbrush.

So I left.

I went back to hang my clothes anywhere I could find. I used a chair, my tripod, hangers, drawers, anything that will hold stuff up, I opened windows to aerate the room. It is too windy to put things on tables outside, otherwise, I would have.

Wood Chuck Chuck

Woke up, did some cleaning before breakfast.

Was lazy most of the day, then went to help move some wood from one big pile to a neater one.

Then, we took three Haflingers on a trail, I took Sisi, Jeanne took Ruby and Éloïse took Major.

Florence stayed back to do some work. We went to the village and back, my stirrups were annoying because they were unequal, and when I fixed them, my saddle started sliding left and right. So, it was mildly unpleasant, but it was still very nice outside, a light breeze and the fields all golden with sunlight.

Groceries were done today, which is a good thing because I ate pizza for breakfast/lunch because there was no bread or nutella left. Only porridge, which i've been eating for the past few days and refused to eat again because I didn't like it in the first place (even when mixed with marshmallow.) Éloïse likes to eat nutella right out of the pot which makes me die a little inside because we run out so quickly.

There are fruits and vegetables, and I am eating those fruits and vegetables, so don't worry Jacques, I will not come back dead from lack of vitamins.

I am also abusing of sunscreen, so I think I am the only one who hasn't had a sunburn yet.

The benefits of sunscreen have been proven by scientists. Woohoo.

A picture of other saddle pads I decorated earlier...

Knock Knock

Every morning, we always wait for that knock to come wake us up for something to do...

So, every time we hear footsteps in front of our door we pray it's a camper going to the showers.

**Edit:

Today Éloïse and I were given the day off.

We went to Tadoussac...By bike. If I see another hill to climb on a bike, i'm going to rip my hair out.

We walked as slowly as we could around the town, visited the touristic rip-off shops, ate, and left.

I took this because I know Jacques is obsessed with this drink:

Music

We went to the Festival de la Chanson in Tadoussac last night, it was ok, I didn't know any of the artists but the music was good.

I woke up late this morning for the first time in a long while.

I have to go outside and face the real world now.

...yeah.

We will probably have a camp fire tonight, i'll bring the guitar and attempt to sing something somewhat decent.

hhaahhaah

**Edit:

We had some help to get our fire started, they put gasoline to help it start up (they seem to have many uses for it other than running their cars...)

I brought my guitar and my camera, sang the first song I learned and the first song I wrote, and took some very low quality pictures due to the lack of light.

We cooked sausages on the fire, then marshmallows.

Then bread, nutella and peanut butter, though I skipped the peanut butter.

Earlier, we went on a trail ride and the three others all took Haflingers, but we ran out of moderately safe/sane ones to ride so I took Fric again.

On the last gallop I made him go full out, it was pretty intense, all their little ponies couldn't keep up.

We also went into the river with the horses because the hill to get there was dry enough for us to descend without them slipping.

Me learning Dust in the Wind by Kansas.

Éloïse, Jeanne and Florence.

Beauty and Champion...

On wednesday night we took them on a carriage ride to the village...

I brought my camera, most pictures are blurry, though.

Yesterday I went on a trail ride with Florence and 2 clients to the waterfalls.

It was pretty long.

Last night we went on another trail ride, this time with Amélie who was riding Style (who had only been ridden about 5 times, ever). He got himself all tangled up in a fence, Jeanne sat on his head, he ate grass, and we waited for someone to arrive with something to cut the wires from the fence to get him out. Apparently he has done this a few times already.

Today we stained the deck, (and my hands).

Carriage ride on wednesday:

Bleh

I'm getting way too lazy about this blog.

Today we woke up a little earlier than usual because we had a lot of stuff to get done...

I did some mowing, then some painting.

I had to wash my hands with gasoline because they were full of paint. (Jacques, calm down I didn't breathe it.)

Then...We rode the horses in the outdoor ring.

I rode Fannie.

None of the horses were ever properly schooled so it was pretty chaotic.

3 of us tried to make Kate gallop, only one succeeded.

And then we took Champion and Beauty out on a carriage ride on the 138 and through the woods.

I was there looking like a complete tourist with my camera.

It was cool.

Too lazy to upload pictures.

Food time.

Needle and String

So I've been sewing little pictures next to the names of horses on their saddle pads. So far i've sewn one for Fric, Tornade and Belle...

Éloïse and Jeanne are doing some more painting of numbers for camping grounds.

Rainy Days

You guessed it...It's raining again.

Éloïse and I are sitting in our room being bored.

Jeanne is being trained at the office, Florence is gone to help bring some horses.

....now she is listening to Justin Bieber, so I will get my guitar out and drown the music out with some crappy strumming.

Edit**:

Failed attempt at a trail ride, we went about 50 meters away from the barn and it started pouring like crazy...We turned back, played hangman for about 5 minutes and decided it wasn't worth riding in the mud.

I also decorated Tornade and Tequila's saddle pads by sewing little images next to their names, which Éloïse had done before. I'll get a picture when it stops pissing rain.

Oh, and it turns out the farrier was talking complete nonsense, talking about the DNA of his horseshoes.....?!

Festivol

...I didn't make a spelling mistake in the name, that is what the fair was called...It was bird-themed.

As soon as we woke up, we had to go get the horses ready to bring to the fair for trail rides. I had a quick breakfast and went straight to the barn.

We went back to the ranch after by car, I brought some money and my camera.

There was a waffle and pancake stand...I had both. First I tried a cheese and egg pancake, then I had a dark chocolate covered waffle. Then a hot dog. I think I will be having a light supper tonight.

There was a farrier who has making his own horse shoes. He spoke english so I went to talk to him. He was slightly insane, but he seemed to know what he was talking about.

I took my first clients on a trail ride to the waterfalls, they didn't speak french, that is why they sent me...It was a bit long, I took Tornade. She is too slow for clients, I brought a twig to make her move a bit faster. I only have a problem with her when walking. Her other gaits are fast enough.

I took Cassy for last night's trail. She's the skinniest horse here. Apart from keeping her head a bit high, she was fine.

More on facebook...

(I'm having some problems with uploading the pictures, that is why they're too big and not centered...)

Bored.

We were woken up because we needed to take some horses to a small festival...We got a lift back but we will have to go and bring them back later. We went through the woods to avoid the busy road.

Then I did some cleaning for an hour.

And now i'm bored, and I don't feel like doing anything.

Edit**:

A bit more excitement, we went to take the horses back from the festival, nobody wanted to trot the whole way...So we basically galloped all the way back. It was pretty insane. Good thing I had Tornade, she is very calm so she did not go absolutely insane and try to pass everyone.

It was fun.

Lazy Days

Still not much going on today.

We will be testing the outdoor ring today with Fric and Sisi...Probably not another horse, i'm not sure we will all fit. I'm getting lazy with the pictures, also I really have nothing left to photograph.

Florence showed me a bit what to do in the office. Now we are waiting for the phone to ring. She is doing some math. I am sitting here being lazy.

Tables

So, I helped assemble a few more picnic tables.

I think I will be the one who mows the lawn.

As long as the bugs die down, I will be happy to continue.

I wonder when they will start training us to work in the office.

The groceries were done this morning, so no starving yet.

I don't know which horse I will take for tonight's trail.

If we are taking pictures, we will bring Tornade, she looks nice and is relatively calm.

If not, I might take Fric again, or I might try Champion (he's huge.)

Éloïse took him yesterday, and I was at the front and was galloping with Tornade, and she yelled to stop because her stirrup had flown right off into the long grass. And then my left rein detached. Lovely.

This is what our room looks like (I am staying with Éloïse) :

Edit**:

We went to take pictures on a trail.

We also climbed all the way down to the ''beach''.

It was muddy and very difficult to get to but we made it.

My Hands

Are frozen.

Went on a trail ride with clients this morning, just after waking up. Sort of boring, we just walked all the way up to the waterfalls. I took Tornade again, I'm beginning to realize she is rather on the slow side. I will probably switch for tonight's ride.

It's quite cold.

I'll get over it.

No pictures yet, it keeps raining on and off, I'm not risking getting my camera wet.

--------------------------

Edit**:

So...We're sort of running out of food. I don't know when we will be going grocery shopping next. We thought there were chickens, turns out they ate them last year. No fresh eggs for us then.

We went on another trail ride, still to the waterfalls. I took my camera out just before going, I wanted to bring it but I didn't, thinking there would be someone else with us, but she didn't show up.

More fixing the outdoor ring...

I don't really want it to get busy. It's nice like this.

Turquoise Paint.

So...We painted some more tables.

And lunged a young mare.

A small part of my scalp got devoured by small flying insects. I guess this is where the hood of my sweater comes in handy.

It's cloudy and slightly chilly.

We went on a trail ride yesterday evening, and two of the horses had only been ridden twice. Ever. Obviously we were not the ones riding them. We are not insane.

And we saw a bear.

Tornade (favorite horse so far/ ''le plus gentil'')

Tornade again.

Fric.

Took him on a trail the first day, was slightly agitated, he's ok though.

**Edit:

I mowed the lawn with a little tractor. It was fun, but I was getting even more eaten alive by little bugs...I don't know what they are. All I know is that they are evil. They are like piranhas. My blood must me tasty.