My friend Barry has a house right on the Bow River down in Bowness, which is an interesting community mix of hood and people with money. Those with resources buy a lot or two backing onto the river, tear down the older homes on them and build lovely places. In the summer I had a great Yamaha motorcycle, but I was (for some baffling reason) checking Kijiji … Continue reading A Day’s Ride

Once again, my wife Erin is an avid green thumber. Only puppies make her happier than pulling weeds and watching things grow. About all I do in the yard is mow the grass, but my neighbour Jackie has managed to beat me every single year we’d been here with having grass slightly greener than mine. It’s not a competition but it is, you know? And the grass … Continue reading The Racket

In a recent camping trip to Grande Prairie, our family rediscovered the beauty up north. The country is so different, the people quite redneck, and literally everyone owns a pickup, multiple ATVs and horses. First of all, I love me some rednecks. I was curious what the definition of redneck was so I looked it up, only to find it related generally to poor, uneducated white folk … Continue reading Side by Side(s)

So when we went back a year in time to cave-living with the recent baffling shutdown, Venue’s live experiences (and every church in the province) were deemed both unsanitary, non-essential and unconstitutional by the powers that be, while liquor stores and the ever present Walmart, which hold people’s bodies, souls and minds together so well remain open, the Kope family decided to go camping for … Continue reading Long Haulin’

My wife has a green thumb. She loves spending an afternoon outside grubbing around in the dirt and comes in with wild hair, tired but happy. I hate getting my hands dirty, which is a bit odd as I had a life in the trades for quite some time. But when my hands get dirty it irritates me, and when I decide something bothers me it really … Continue reading Orphan Horse

I like buying and selling stuff. The growing number of motorcycle paraphernalia in our garage was beginning to alarm Erin, but I enjoy tinkering with things. Once every week I take a look around with my Richard Kope (dad) practicality lenses and think: “I should sell something.”So I post ads on Kijiji and FB, ask more than what I paid, end the ad with “Make me an … Continue reading Irish Horse Trader

So my wife Erin had a Venue women’s zoom call on the topic of Warrior Women and decided some of the gals should go tribal and paint their faces for it. I came home from something and Erin materializes in front of me with wild hair, face painted all crazy, and a hunting gleam in her eye. It was pretty hot, but a little scary. Also she … Continue reading Who Runs the World?

Sunday morning before church my wife told me “Lloyd the fish is dead”. Another fish funeral with an iPhone playing a bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace on the funeral march to its watery grave with the family in tow…My wife loves animals and has no problem whatsoever explaining that she likes them more than people. Not that she doesn’t like people, but she likes animals even … Continue reading Lloyd the Fish