The Lull...

We are caught in a lull here...winter is over, but spring hasn't quite yet sprung. The snow is all but gone; just a few hardy patches where the sun doesn't quite reach yet. We still see the odd flurry of snow, but any accumulation is short lived. Our nights are still very frosty for the most part.

With the light snow cover this year, there is very little standing water...I am hoping this bodes well for a relatively light year for mosquitoes. Behind our property stands a marsh...this time last year the water at our fenceline was nearly to the top of my trusty gumboots...this year there just soft wet ground. There are other areas where we have temporary ponds in the spring; this year one is completely dry, the second is just mud, and the third has about four inches of water instead of its usual two feet. I hope the summer is not too dry...we don't need another year of forest fires in the area.

The ice is off the local lakes already. Mike and I drove past Horse Lake as we went into 100 Mile House on Good Friday...the lake was ice covered with a small accumulation of snow. When we returned about an hour later, the lake was bare with white caps from a howling wind.

The ice came off our most local lake, Irish Lake, on the weekend. This is about three weeks earlier than usual, and a full six weeks earlier than 2009...for some reason, we keep track of things like this.

In other news...we plan to build our house this year and are awaiting bids from local contractors. Mike spent a few days plowing and removing rocks from an area of the pasture we are improving...we seeded it on Sunday, and put an electric fence around it to keep Buck and Rupert out. It's not quite warm enough to germinate yet. I'm hoping for some rain, but may have to water to get things going.

All the critters are well, as are Mike and I. Mike and Cody are off to Virginia and Maryland after 10 days at home. Things are quiet here without them.

Things to Do on a Saturday in February...

You can trudge through the snow, carrying a section of newspaper and some dry cedar kindling and light up a great big stump pile...


Or you can just lay down in the snow and chew on a log.

It's up to you.

The Critters (most of them, anyway)

Here are a few moments captured yesterday afternoon.

Lucy and Jasper roughhousing. Lucy does pretty well for an arthritic old lady, whose hip dysplasia is apparently so bad that her xrays could be those of a dog who can't stand up.

Victorious Lucy pins Jasper by his throat. That's Rudy off to the side. He doesn't join in the play fights...he just continually shrieks encouragement at the top of his lungs from the sidelines.

Here's Buck at his scruffiest. He doesn't look like the beautiful sleek golden horse who lives here during the summer months.

Rupert, tucking into his meager ration of hay. He thinks he's being starved, but as you can tell, he's still looking rather over nourished.

Feeding the Birds

Early this winter, Mike made me two simple log bird feeders by boring several 1" holes in each, and attaching a hook to suspend them . I stuff them with a concoction of peanut butter, suet, & mixed seeds, much to the delight of the chickadees, nuthatches, sapsuckers and woodpeckers who visit them almost constantly.

Yes, right...where was I?

We are still here, still alive, still well. Please pardon my absence from the blogosphere.

A quick recap of the last few months:

Snow came late to the Cariboo; there was none to speak of until late November, and there has been very little since. Today is the first really snowy day we have had for many weeks. I don't know what the total accumulation has been for the winter, but with weeks of mild days, it has added up to very little on the ground. Williams Lake, an hour north of us had no snow at all last week when we were there. The winter of 2009-2010 has been by far the mildest since our move here 4 years ago. Oh, and just before the snow came, Inman Road was paved.

Mike & Cody are in Saskatoon today...tomorrow they will make their way to Winnipeg. They were home last week, and left on Tuesday. They had almost three weeks at home over Christmas, and an unplanned return home in November for two weeks when Mike was quite ill. Some heavy duty antibiotic therapy and my expert (but sometimes unwelcome) nursing skills got him mended and back to work again.

As for me, I have been hobbling around for several months with plantar fasciitis, which feels more or less like someone is driving a railroad spike into your heel with every step. Not too pleasant. Anyway, to make a short story long...a few weeks before Christmas, and after consuming several large bottles of ibuprofen, I finally decided I should do something about that, and found a podiatrist in Kamloops (a two hour drive away) and dutifully showed up for my appointment. He did foot castings and I made an appointment to pick up my orthotics last Monday. My first clue that all was not well should have come when he asked me, "So do you go by Beatrice, or Bea?" "Karen," I replied. "Oh, right." The orthotics felt roughly like someone had sliced a lacrosse ball in half, and inserted half, round side up, into each shoe. "Weird," I thought, but what do I know about how they should feel? Everyone says they take some getting used to. I gamely limped around, and managed to keep my shoes on till we got home. The podiatrist called around 5 pm to sheepishly advise that I was in fact, in possession of Beatrice's orthotics. I acquired my very own pair yesterday, and hope for the best! I hope that Beatrice has hers now, and that her poor fallen arches get some relief.

The animals are well, all of them. Rupert is on a diet, much to his chagrin. Buck is beginning to lose his winter coat and is oh, so itchy. Molly has been going out some nights (that's how mild it's been, last year she didn't set her princess toes outside until mid March) and yesterday morning left the first mouse of the year on the doormat. The dogs are fine, and are awaiting the return of their bedding from the washer and dryer.

There you go...all up to date. Enjoy the weekend.

Happiness is Rolling in the Dust

Rupert enjoying a good roll on a sunny afternoon.

A Treasure Map

During our first fall in Lone Butte, I ordered and planted many varieties of garlic. To keep track, I painstakingly recorded each variety on a bright orange piece of paper, which I promptly lost...not to be seen again for two years. By then I had no idea which variety was which.

This year, I'm making my garlic map here in cyberspace, where I won't lose it. At the end of summer I'll be able to look back and see which varieties did well, and which I won't grow again.

Row 9 Persian Star
Row 8 Persian Star
Row 7 Northern Quebec
Row 6 M M M M M NQ
Row 5 Majestic
Row 4 Dan's Russian
Row 3 Dan's Russian, YP YP YP YP
Row 2 Yugoslavian Porcelain
Row 1 Magic

Now all I have to remember is that I actually recorded what I planted!