Swans

There were about a dozen trumpeter swans on Horse Lake this morning, mingled with a couple of dozen Canada geese. With mist rising off the lake, ice forming at the water's edge, and snow on shore, it was an eerily beautiful scene. Didn't have the camera handy, unfortuately.

Minus 18 first thing this a.m. We've pulled out the "forty below" socks.

Looking out from the kitchen window this morning

 

Up a Tree...

Molly came outside with us this morning to help with the horse/donkey chores. She spent a few minutes checking Rupert out, and then disappeared. We heard her crying, and eventually located her...about 30' up a spruce tree.


She was pretty unhappy about her predicament, but eventually with a little coaxing she began to make her way down. She spiralled around the tree, hanging on to each lower branch.


Evenatually she was withing grabbing reach, and got brought back inside - much to her displeasure.


Beautiful morning here. Minus 17 when we got up this morning, and about minus 6 now.

First Real Snow

I woke up to about 4" of snow this morning. It's wet and heavy like coastal snow, and I don't imagine it'll last too long, but it's very pretty. Mike has been working back and forth between Prince George and Houston all week, and will be home tonight. 

Happenings!

Our friends Bernie and Nadine have come to the rescue to help get the porch roofs on, and the shop put together before winter. Here's how things were looking on Inman Road on Sunday afternoon. The west porch now has a completed roof, and we have three sections of the shop assembled - that's a LOT of nuts and bolts, people.

 

Burning/Learning

Learning to use our woodstove to create warmth without nearly dying of the heat has been a bit of trial and error. We've had nights when we found ourselves awake at 3 a.m., drenched in sweat, all covers discarded...and nights when we've had the furnace come on.

We seem to have found a happy medium by lighting the fire shortly before we go to bed, and letting it burn out overnight. With current outside temperatures, the residual heat is keeping the house warm through the day too. Last night I didn't light the fire at all, and though the house was a bit cool, it certainly wasn't cold. I burned three logs first thing this morning, and we're snug and cozy.

I'm sure with the dropping temperatures, we'll have to do some adjusting...but so far, so good.

A Small Spruce

 

Buck's field, viewed from near the road

 

A Wounded Foghorn?

Rupert has rediscovered his voice. He's been largely silent for the first few months he's been with us, except for a few squeals and snorts of excitement when it was dinner time. In the last three or four weeks he's been asserting himself by braying at the top of his lungs when he feels that we're not being quite diligent enough in catering to his every whim. For want of a more accurate description, I can only describe the noise as "a wounded foghorn". He's just way too cute. 

Fire and Rain

I spent a happy afternoon pulling logs and branches out of the forest and burning them. We got a good rain yesterday, and everything is damp, so there's little risk of sending Lone Butte up in smoke. It didn't warm up much today, but as long as I'm wearing a quilted work shirt and gloves, I stay toasty warm.

First Anniversary of the Inman Road Chronicles

I've kept this blog for a year. How life has changed for us in the last 365 days. I wonder what the next year will bring?

Working to Live, not Living to Work!

I started my new "regular" job this week. I have a great part time position which works out to .416 of full time, and is essentially two evenings a week. It gives me most weekends off, and two stretches of 7 days off every five weeks.

I'll be earning less than I used to, but our living expenses are much less than previously, so it all works out. Our property taxes, for example are about 15% of what we paid in New West. We both have much shorter commutes, and our hyrdo and natural gas bills are teensy compared to before, thanks to living in a small home with a woodstove.

It's all good.

I am a Snapdragon What Flower Are You?

Happy Thanksgiving!

This pic is actually from Christmas 2004, but I like the cranberries.

We did the turkey thing yesterday. This morning Mike sawed up some huge trees that have been on the ground for a long time, and I started splitting them. We took the afternoon off, and have been lazing around the house. A little downtime is a good thing.

Minus eight when we got up this morning, but it soon warmed up. After a trip into town to buy new snowtires for my car, Mike spent the day spreading the two loads of gravel we had delivered earlier this week. We're trying to avoid a repeat of the spring mudfest we endured this year. I puttered between my bonfire and splitting and stacking wood. The splitter we bought is fantastic.

Dinner tonight was courtesy of the Iron Horse Pub.

Raised Garden Beds

Constructing our raised beds was the project de jour. We had a headstart, because my dad pre-cut all the wood for us in August. We built and filled the one on the left about three weeks ago, and planted 10 varieties of garlic. Exotic garlic, with names like Dan's Italian, Persian Star, Siberian, Baba Franchuck, Fishlake 3, Susan Delafield, Asian Tempest, Sicilian Gold, Thai, and Wildfire! Tres gourmet, oui?

Today we built, lined, and filled the remaining four beds, and will be all ready for planting wonderful veggies in May. I'll be spending the winter perusing seed catalogues for short-season varieties, because apparently that's what you do when you're snowed in.

Mike also created a flower bed for me, just outside the gate, on the right hand side of the driveway. He used the tractor to move some very big rocks to form the garden borders, big ones at the back and smaller ones at the front, and then filled it with topsoil. I'm going to plant daffodils in it, as deer won't touch them.

 

Weather Woes

Well, weather HTML woes. A few days ago I switched this blog over to Blogger Beta, which will enable me to do cool stuff. In switching over, I lost the HTML coding for the weather forecast thingy I had on the right, and haven't been able to find it again...I think I got it via Environment Canada, but darned if I can locate it. I put the Weather Network's forecast onto the blog this afternoon, but it's hideously inaccurate...it says it's 12 degrees outside. It's about 3 degrees, actually. I need to look harder for the one I had.

Exactly When Did I Turn Into a Crazy Cat Lady???

 

Brrrrr...

It was a tad chilly this morning...minus 7 when I went out at 7 a.m. to feed Buck and Rupert. Time to get out the warm socks and sweaters!

Mike started his new job today! He's driving for DCT Chambers between Williams Lake and Cache Creek and/or Langley.