Winter Days

 

Even though it's deepest winter, it is encouraging that the days are becoming noticably longer.  Several weeks ago, I was feeding Buck and Rupert by illumination from my car's headlights at 4:30 pm.  Now there is still plenty of light at 4:30.

We've had frequent snowfalls over the last couple of weeks, and I've been honing my snowplowing skills on a regular basis.   We have more snow piled this year than any other, and it's still not even mid January.  

Rupert

Buck Enjoying A Sunny Afternoon

Rudy

My Christmas gift from Mike this year was a fantastic digital SLR camera, which will take lots of learning how to use.  Paddy, our daughter Jen's ancient poodle, who was rescued from the streets of Suncheon, South Korea, posed for me on boxing day.

Into the Deep Freeze

The weather turned to winter late last week, and today we are into the -30's. On Friday, we had steady snow all day, accumulating about 6". The winds kicked up overnight, and we woke Saturday morning to 2' snowdrifts, and a winter wonderland. We woke this morning to -36C.

We are staying inside a lot in this extreme cold. The dogs venture out to do their business, but are ready to come back inside after a couple of minutes...too chilly for their feet. Buck is unperturbed by the cold, but Rupert isn't impressed with the extreme days of winter. On Saturday morning half of Rupert's pen was chest deep in drifted snow (keep in mind that Rupert's chest isn't that far from the ground). Mike scraped it all with the tractor, making getting around a lot easier.

Mike spent a couple of very cold hours yesterday afternoon plowing the driveway, around the house and creating easy access to feed Buck and Rupert.

Our woodstove is going around the clock, and things are warm and cozy inside.

The camera has been found and charged...I will get Mike to take some outdoor photos tomorrow...it's just becoming light when I leave for work, and it's twilight as I make my way home.

Mild and Mushy

That about sums up the weather recently! It didn't even freeze last night...no scraping required when heading to work this morning. There's a couple of inches of snow on the ground, but nothing much to speak of. Very unusual conditions for this time of year. Colder days are forecast, but still above normal temperatures.

All is well in our little corner of the boreal forest. We are awaiting the return of Michael and Cody...they'll be here either tomorrow or Wednesday, and will be staying home till after Christmas! They have been east for the last little while, in Ontario and "La Belle Province". We decided it was hardly worth being home for a week and then going out for less than two weeks, so they will be home for four weeks. Jen will soon be joining us too!

We are heading into the darkest days of winter...but only a few more weeks and the days will begin to lengthen again. To be honest, I have hardly given the receding daylight a moment's thought. I've been incredibly busy for the last several weeks, winding up one job, juggling a teaching contract, and starting a great new full time job. Actually, I guess I have paid the early darkness some heed, as I'm now serving dinner to the equines of the family by illumination supplied by my car's headlights when I get home from work!

Soon I'll have to face the fact that it's getting to be "deck the halls" and "fa la la la la" time of year again. There's a trip to Kamloops in the offing on the weekend for truck maintenance, so I think we may do some shopping then. 'Tis the season!