On The Road...

Karen and Cody are joining Mike on a trucking adventure...we leave for almost three weeks in the wee hours of Monday morning! We're leaving the farm in the best of hands, and going who-knows-where.

The Inman Road Chronicles will be on sabbatical for a few weeks...but I'll still be blogging. Follow us on our travels at The Ravenwood Diaries ! First post will be up Monday night.

We Seem to be Living in Narnia

Here's what's at the back of the wardrobe.

Oh. Joy.

It's doing it again. It's almost May.

Winter Called...Again

We had one last visit from Winter before she packs up and heads to Palm Springs, or wherever the heck it is that she hangs out in the off season.

Saturday morning was -14, we had snow all day, with biting winds and a windchill factor of minus plenty. Just as cold this morning, but without the winds. It didn't get above zero today.

Winter seems to be having one last kick at the can everywhere. Yesterday, my dad sent these pics from their place in the eastern Fraser Valley. Poor little birds! The orange one is a male rufous hummingbird, the green is a female. The hummingbirds haven't arrived in our area yet, but it won't be too long. We get rufous and caliope hummingbirds in profusion during the summer months.

Happy, happy birthday Mom!

Various and Sundry things...

Toady Amos was neutered yesterday, and last evening was peaceful bliss as he slept off the lingering effects of anesthesia and analgesia. Today we are back to normal, except with me trying to keep him quiet and somewhat subdued. Um, it's not working very well. But I'm doing my best. Only four weeks till Mike assumes custody of the Toad, and my life returns to normal. Then I'll miss him to bits!

This afternoon while I was giving Buck and Rupert their hay, I looked at their heated water tub, and thought to myself, "Self, any time now you can put away the heated water tub, and replace it with the regular one. Spring is springing, and it's not that cold at night now. At worst, there will be a light skim of ice on the water in the morning. I'll put that on my to-do list for tomorrow." And in I came to look at the weather forecast online for affirmation that the nights are indeed not that cold anymore. Weekend lows are predicted to be minus 15. I give up. And I'm not switching water tubs till July.

In eleventh hour drama, on the way home from work, I reinsured both vehicles a whole 8 hours before their insurance expired. I may procrastinate, but I get things done eventually. I only procrastinate when things are going to cost money, however. Expecting nice refunds, I did our income tax returns and e-filed them as soon as every annoying T slip had arrived.

What else? The seeds I planted on Saturday that I neglected to report are sprouting nicely on the window sill. (Lee Valley couldn't make good on getting my grow lights to me before May) So far I have lettuce, radicchio, and cauliflower happening, and am waiting for the leeks, basil and rudbeckia to emerge.

No photos today; the camera needs charging.

Old Man's Beard

A Study in Chartreuse

I think I'll call you..."lunch"

Surprise attack!



Moving in for the kill...


The pack shares the meal.

(No Cody's were harmed in the making of this post)

In The Garden..

The warmest temperatures of the year, and accompanying Chinook winds have changed the surrounding scenery here on an hourly basis today. The raised beds are almost completely clear of snow, and the rock garden is beginning to emerge. The new garden patch remains completely hidden though. There is water pooling on the driveway, and my homemade river is raging! At a glance, the property is still very white, but things are emerging hourly.

Rock cress (aubretia( ready to bloom in the rock garden! There are no sign of snowdrops yet.


Strawberry plant just unmulched to expose healthy green leaves.

My biggest surprise today was the survival and apparent thriving of the Italian parsley!

The Egyptian onions also made it through the winter. No hint of the garlic yet, but it won't be long before it shows itself.

Tomorrow is forecast to be a few degrees cooler, though still warm enough to do lots of melting. After that, it's back to +5/-5 temperatures for a while again.

Pining for the Pines

A few of the remaining dead pines on the property, victims of the pine bettle epidemic. We cleared about 2 acres last spring, the remaining few will come down this year. The smallest dead pines are falling over unassisted, rotting at the roots.

The standing dead trees host fodder for the multitude of woodpecker and sapsucker species that live in the area, and will eventually warm us in the winter as firewood.

The very young pines are surviving, though we don't have that many on the property.

Survivors

I was thrilled to find that my oregano and thyme have survived the long winter when they emerged from under their snowy blanket this afternoon! It's too early to tell about the sage just yet.


There's a small patch of wild juniper in our front woods. Not very common in this area, but prolific up near Williams Lake.

Cody Amos, Cute and Famous

Here's Cody apres beauty salon...and not quite as poofy as when he first got home. Between then and photo, he'd been out in a snow storm, and lost some of the bouffant-ness on top of his head!

Colder today, and very little melting going on. We're having frequent flurries, and I'm hanging on to hope that the weather guy is correct in his warm weather predictions for the weekend.

Emergence!

This, people, is the monumental emergence of my first raised garden bed from under the snow! Rejoice, rejoice! This one is the garlic bed.

And this, the Inman Road river, which currently flows from the northwest side to the southeast side of the driveway, and its sole purpose is to divert meltwater from the driveway. It was created with a very ancient adze, and is maintained with the heel of my gumboot. Things are starting to get good and melty during the daytime, and the lessening snow mass is very noticeable. The weather guy is even predicting double digit daytime temperatures for the weekend - this is a very, very good thing.


Lucy and Cody. Cody just had a very traumatic experience...he got tangled up in a wild rose branch from his chin, and all along his undercarriage to his tail. He was hysterical and very uncomforatable, but eventually I was able to get him gently restrained on his back and snip away at it until it was all gone. He has his first appointment with Robert, the groomer tomorrow, and hopefully won't come home looking too poofy!

In the miscellany department, in the last week I've done two trips to Kamloops; one to pick Mike up, and another trip Saturday to take him to pick his truck up from the dealer. On Saturday morning we decided to go to Kamloops via Highway 24, and met blizzard conditions at Lac des Roches!

Thanks everyone for the birthday cards, calls, emails & FB posts on Saturday...I had tea and birthday cake for breakfast, and we had a great Japanese meal in Kamloops to mark the occasion.