Baby, it's cold outside!

Minus 34 this morning. Rupert was a little uncomfortable with ice balls forming around his muzzle, so we gave his whiskers a trim and he looks much better now!

What to you do when it's minus 26 degrees outside?

You throw the front door wide open to cool down the house, because it's plus 28 inside!

Happy 26th Birthday, Jennifer

You're beautiful, inside and out. Wishing you an equally beautfiul day.

Horse Lake, Yesterday

Almost time for freeze-up on the large local lakes. The small ones are iced over already. I drove by Horse Lake on my way home from work this afternoon, and you couldn't even see it because of the blowing snow. A chilly, windy -24 degrees here. The woodstove has been keeping the house cozy all day...it's on 24/7 at the moment. 

Saturday

Are you kidding? It's too cold to come outside!

It was like waking up inside a postcard this morning. After a heavy snowfall last night, everything looks beautiful. It's -20 outside, and chilly...but in the Cariboo, the air is so dry it doesn't feel that cold. As long as you have a couple of layers on, and warm boots and gloves, it's fine.

Buck and Rupert have gone high tech. I bought them a heated water tub, as it's almost impossible to keep them with a ready supply of water while it's so cold. We cut a hole in the fence, and have half the tub on Buck's side, and half on Ruperts...at $100+, they're not getting one each.

Rupert spends most of his time standing inside his shed, and as usual, Buck is snubbing his in favour of standing out in the weather. They each got a warm bran mash for dinner tonight to warm up their insides a little.

 

Thursday Pics

Hay hooks & lead rope

Old Man's Beard

The garlic bed mulched with spruce boughs

Stray firewood. It will get burned next winter.

Pre-Winter Pedicures

Greg came today to take off Buck's shoes for the winter. He gave Buck and Rupert each a slight trim, so they're good for the season now. Happily, equine hooves hardly grow in winter where it gets quite cold, so I can start saving now for next spring.

I'm just in from work, and it's snowing hard. The plows/rock & small boulder trucks haven't been out just yet, and the lines on the road are covered...no one else had been along Hwy 24 since it started, and I had to pick my way along by keeping an eye on how far from the edge of the road the car was.

How I spent the early afternoon on a snowy/drippy day...

I baked. Spicy pumpkin pecan muffins. They're delicious!

Winter Buck

This spring we spent a week building a loafing shed for Buck so he could stay out of the weather. It faces south to avoid cold north winds, and is a great shelter. He won't use it. He'll stand beside it, using it as a wind break, but won't spend time inside. On Sunday when we had the most recent windstorm I put his noon hay inside, sure that he'd go in and enjoy his lunch. He ignored it for about half an hour, and then dashed in, grabbed a mouthful of hay, and fled back out to chew it. He spent the next hour bringing one mouthful at a time outside. I think it's about not letting Rupert out of his sight.
Oh well. The opportunity to stay warm and dry is there - if he'll choose to go in. 

Awwwww...

 

Holy Crap it's windy!

In the midst of a huge windstorm...I have no idea why the power hasn't gone out! Today's agenda: fix the fence, watch the Grey Cup. That's about it.

Things that went "CRASH" in the night...

The dogs and I went for a post windstorm walkabout this morning to check the fenceline for more windfalls. Three trees have come down on the fence from the nextdoor neighbour's place. I was able to lift two small ones off, but one requires cutting off. Several trees snapped in the wind, and a few were uprooted and came down.


It's a clear, beautiful morning here.

Yarrow

Y 

Windfall

It was a wild, windy night last night, and the wind is still gusting. A pine came down across our fence this morning. Mike cut it off the fence when he got home this morning, and we've done a quick patch job for now. We'll repair it properly on the weekend when Mike hasn't been up all night. 

More Monday morning pics

Images of a snowy Monday morning

It's a bit tricky getting a stump pile to burn when it's covered in snow. With lots of paper, a dribble of gasoline and several million small twigs, I've managed to reduce a humungous pile of stumps and branches to a big bed of ashes this afternoon. For a while, it was hard to tell if the white flakes floating down were made of ash or snow.

It's snowing heavily at the moment...time to start an indoor fire.

New Ride...

We're officially "Cariboo" now. No two wheel drive vehicles anymore. Yesterday we traded in the pickup for a new 4x4...and today we took a road trip through Gateway, Buffalo Creek, Forest Grove, past Canim Lake, Drewry Lake, Hathaway Lake, Sulfurous Lake, Horse Lake, and home (hence the dirt!).

"Summer" has receded, and we're back to below zero most of the time. There was about half an inch of new snow overnight.

In other minor news, when Mike went out to feed Buck and Rupert yesterday morning, Rupert's pen was empty and the gate open. The escapee was located in the hay shed, happily stuffing himself with a timothy/alfalfa mixture! I guess I didn't latch his gate properly the night before.

I'm hoping to light up some burn piles tomorrow morning, weather permitting.

Spring Has Sprung...

At least that's what it felt like this afternoon. It was a warm sunny day, and if I didn't know that we're well into November, I'd swear it was April or May. No jacket required when the dogs and I went for a romp in the big field before I left for work...I made a few burn piles out of logs and branches to be lit another day.

I'm home now...Buck and Rupert are eating their bedtime hay in the moonlight, the dogs are settled in for the night, the fire is lit, and I'm off to bed. Mike will be somewhere near Spences Bridge as I write this, and will snuggle in beside me sometime around 2 a.m. Drive safely. xox

A Productive Day...

We worked outside all day...Mike moved the pile of topsoil to higher ground while I restocked the woodshed. We reorganized the garden shed, moved Mike's bike inside, tarped the trailer and did various other pre-winter chores. Molly spent the day following us around, going up and down trees, climbing on the logs in the woodshed, and generally investigating anything and everything she could think of.

Very little to post about. The weather has turned warm and wet, and things are sloppy and muddy. We're good around the house, thanks to Mike's gravel spreading spree last month. Tomorrow we'll finish the pre-winter outside chores; most important is tarping the travel trailer.

I spent part of the day reorganizing the kitchen. Still haven't adapted well to such a drastic downsize, but I feel a bit better about where stuff is now.

Here's a peek out the back door just before dark today: