Halloween has come and gone.  Today we decided it was time to put poor Ben out of his misery and put him in the the ewes.  Before that could happen we had to catch our lone ewe lamb from amoung the ewes and get her out of the pen.  I tried grain - no go.  We tried moving them into a corner - nope.  They charged us or jumped over us.  Dennis tried to lasso her, to no avail.  After slipping and sliding around the pen we finally gave up and went inside.  Dennis made popcorn and I made cinnamon buns.  We spent the day watching season 1 of Downton Abby and eating.  It was just one of those kind of days. 

We had one neighbour kid come trick or treating.  I gave her a bag of goodies for her 2 brothers too.  That was it. 

Dennis hung up our 2 ghosts in the tree at the gate, then put the porch light covers on that look like pumpkins.  A few decals on the door and we were good to go.  But here are some pictures of Rebecca's house which was all decorated when I was there.

Isn't the cat hilarious?  I laughed out loud when I saw it! 

Rebecca has some nifty decals - they're really cute and stick well to the window.  Time for me to upgrade mine!

It looks like Amigo will be arriving back here tomorrow.  His people have to move to town as they are just unable to manage out here in the winter.  It is too bad, but that is just the way it goes.  So, we're now on the lookout for a new home for Amigo.  He's a great dog so we'll make sure he gest some great people!

You'll note that the above picture was taken prior to the dump of snow we got a few days later.  Autumn is so incredibly wonderful here, but this year it was cut short.  It annoys me when I wait a whole year for fall - no bugs, no scorching heat, just fresh, crips air and beautiful colours, only to have it snuffed out with a foot and a half of snow.  Well, nothing we can do about it so I'm off to bed.  We'll see what tomorrow brings.  More lamb rodeo, I expect.

Rather than focus on the incredible amount of snow we have falling, I am going to publish a few pictures of warmer, happier times.  These were taken several years ago but should warm everyone up a bit:

 

 

 

 

 

One of Dennis' favourite things to do is to eat outside in Mexico.  He loves to just sit and have a beer and a meal while watching people and soaking up the sun.  I'm not sure why we don't retire to Mexico.  I think it will be something to work on over the next couple of years.  At least for the winter months possibly.  We both LOVE Mexico - the weather, the culture, the people.  I think this early winter has pushed our plans of winter travel to the forefront! 

Still snowing.  Snowed all day.  Right now it is 11:14 and still snowing.  Snowfall warning in effect for Bulkely Valley and Lakes district.  Today was spent mostly shovelling snow.  Dennis has a blade on the quad so does the driveway and road up to the hay shed with that.  The gates have to be hand shovelled - all 6 of them at this point.  There are actually 11 gates but right now we're just doing the necessary ones. 

 

 

My van has the privilege of a covered garage but the truck and land cruiser have to be dug out. 
The dogs seem to enjoy the snow - I wish I enjoyed it as much as they do!

 

 At least we have our wood in.  We did hope to get another cord but who knew we would get a dump of snow this early?  We should have enough wood but can always get more on a nice day.  This picture doesn't show the whole wood shed, but there are about 6 cords in there:

 

Remember that lovely view from the kitchen window?  Well, here it is now.  It will stay like this until April, more than likely.  Winter has come too early this year.  Oh well.  I am going to try to, if not embrace it, at least get through it by getting out on the snow shoes and skis. Plus, I have my handy dandy snow-nut for sliding down hills.  When the lake freezes we will have to try pulling it with the quad.

Oh yes, that picture of the woodshed - you can see the snow has blown in as there is no door.  That is a project we will do this week, I hope.  Since the barn doors worked so well, we thought we would build one for the woodshed too.  Well, to phrase it more honestly, I thought Dennis should build one for the woodshed. 

Ok, more tomorrow.

Yowsa!  Yowsa!  There's a whole lot of shakin' goin' on!  Around 8:03 we were watching tv in the basement.  I felt the couch moving and thought a dog was re-arranging himself and bumped the couch.  But all dogs were sleeping on their beds, sound asleep.  The pictures were swinging on the wall and the door was moving back and forth.  It was the weirdest sensation.  It felt like the floor was moving beneath me, but I was the one moving, on the couch, on the floor.  It seemed to last for a long time, perhaps a minute.  Of course, the phone started ringing as neighbours called to see who felt what.  My concern was to phone my daughter in Terrace once we found out the epicentre was near Masset on Haida Gwaii (aka Queen Charlotte Islands).  The quake registered 5.5 in Terrace and 7.7 at the epicentre.  The coast is on tsunami alert.  Very scary, indeed.  All was well in Terrace other than being rather shook up!

It is still snowing today.  It has been snowing for 2 days now.  It is hard to believe that 2 weeks ago we were in t-shirts and I was grumbling that it was too hot for getting wood.  Next thing we know the temperatures dropped well below normal, freezing the produce in the garden.  Now the temperatures have risen to just below freezing and the snow continues to fall.  I guess that is life in northern Canada.  You never know what you're going to get as far as weather is concerned. 

I had another private dog training lesson to do today in Burns Lake.  It went well.  The dog is a lovely 6 month old pup, boxer lab cross.  His owner is in a wheel chair so it was a new challenge to come up with training methods that will work with the handler in a chair.  Clicker training was the answer as it is hands off and reward based.  It worked very well and we are off to a good start.

The trip home was slow going as the roads are slippery with new snow and temperatures hovering at the freezing mark.  I will be going to town on Tuesday so have made an appointment to have my winter tires installed.  They are on winter rims so it is a quick stop to have them changed.  I have studded tires for winter, on all four wheels.  They are great tires! 

Dennis got the boat in finally.  He had to put stabilizer in the gas and run the motor to get the stabilizer through the engine, then load the boat on to the trailer and haul it in to it's shed.  We should have done this earlier, but who knew it would get so cold so soon?  Oh well, no harm done.  He also got the boat ramp pulled up above the high water mark.  We don't have a dock here.  If the wind storms don't rip it out in the spring, summer and fall, the ice will certainly rip it out in the winter.  We have seen several docks going by in the spring.  We even got in the boat and tied on to one and dragged it to shore, only to have the next storm rip it out and take it down the lake.  We soon learned it was futile to have a dock so built the ramp.  Now we just winch the boat up out of the water each time we use it.  The ramp is moveable so as the lake drops we just move the ramp down.  Works like a charm.

The snow is early this year so we are caught unawares with the garden.  Tomorrow we will try to salvage a few more potato plants and the cabbages.  A neighbour is going to harvest the kale as I still have a lot in the freezer.  A deer ate hers so she was happy to see my kale still out in the garden.  It is good for kale to have a frost to sweeten it up so it does not hurt to harvest it out from under the snow.

bye for now.

Today is Dennis' birthday!  He is 59 years old today.  Not exactly breakfast in bed for him as there is no way I can get up before 6 a.m.  Often he is up before that!  He did get bacon, eggs and waffles though, which is saying a lot for me as I am definitely not a "get busy in the morning" type of person.  Although I over-cooked the eggs somewhat, the breakfast was delicious. 

Today I will basically be in the kitchen preparing dinner for us and two good friends who will come to share a birthday supper.  Dennis is not one for big groups so a couple of guests at the table will be perfect. 

It snowed about an inch over night and it is still snowing, though not a lot.  The temperatures are quite below normal which is frustrating as we still have potatoes, carrots and cabbages in the garden.  We have to wait until the temperatures rise above freezing in order to harvest the rest of the garden.  Another frustrating thing is that 2 of our electric water buckets have quit working.  What the heck?  These are expensive buckets but it seems they must have a shelf life as the one quit working last year and the one we bought a year later has quit working this year.  The element is sealed in the bottom so there is no way to replace the element.  A huge problem because the sheep need a lot of water in the winter so we are breaking ice and hauling water several times a day.  I think Dennis will be working on problem solving the water bucket issue today. 

Just a short note for today to wish Dennis a very happy birthday!  He's going to celebrate his birthday by NOT getting wood!  Sheesh.

Here's a picture of Dennis at my sister Kathleen's place in Mexico - where he wishes he was right now!  Happy birthday, Dennis!

Good morning, all!  I am back from Terrace.  It was a good trip.  The weather was clement going both ways, other than black ice along the Skeena on the way home.  That stretch of highway 16 can be treacherous during the transition from autumn to winter and from winter to spring.  The mist from the river attaches itself to the cold pavement, freezing into black ice.  An unfortunate 4x4 of some sort was on it's roof, front window completely smashed, along the way.  No one hurt, but the vehicle took a beating.  Definitely going too fast for conditions.

On Friday, which was a non-instructional day for my granddaughters, I loaded up the girls for a trip to Prince Rupert.  We were picking up my daughter, Bernice, from the hospital there where she had had her foot operated on.  She had her big toe fused, which is done by cutting the joint ends of both bones off, then screwing in a titanium plate to hold the bones together.  I had the exact same surgery a few years ago, on my left foot.  While it leaves us unable to bend the toe, the pain relief is immediate.  We had this operation due to extreme osteo-arthritis in the joint.  After such surgery one must stay off the foot completely for 2 weeks.  A long time when one is confined to couch and crutches, especially in this neck of the woods where sidewalks are non-existant!  Best wishes to Bernice for speedy healing!

Amigo, the maremma guardian dog that I was looking after, went home yesterday.  He is completely recovered from his neutering and has put on a good amount of weight.  He eats a minimum of 6 cups of dog food a day, along with 1/4 can of tripe and other meat juices and fats that I have left from cooking.  He was a wonderful guest.  He was happy to go home though, and very happy to see his owner. 

Our chainsaw finally gave it's last gasp.  We rushed it twice to the saw doctor.  On Tuesday it was pronounced dead on arrival.  We were hoping to get the final 2 cords of wood without buying a new saw this winter but that was not to be.  So, $534.17 later, we have a new saw and a 6 pack of oil!  Dennis is pleased with the way it starts on first pull and stays running while he's using it.  Getting wood is a difficult enough task without having to fight with the saw to keep it running or to start it.  So, he's out getting wood again today.  There is snow in the forecast for today through the weekend.  It is ugly to get wood in the snow so now is the time!

While daily living keeps me busy enough around here, I am now getting calls for dog training.  People get pups, not always the most suitable for their lifestyles, then at around 6 months old the pup turns into a teenager and the owners don't understand what is going on.  However, if one does not train a puppy, one cannot expect it to suddenly be trained when it turns 6 months old!  It is like sending an English speaking person to a foreign land, giving the person orders in a foreign language, then expecting the person to understand and do as asked.  To be upset with the person for not understanding just complicates things further.  I am happy to be called so I can help improve the relationship between people and their dogs.  Most of the time it goes well once the human understands the dog and how dogs think.  It is so rewarding when the dog's behaviour changes as soon as the humans change theirs!

Yesterday I made and froze tomato sauce from a lot of my Roma tomatoes.  Very delicious and handy to have at the ready.  Today I am making a cake for Dennis' birthday tomorrow.  We will have a couple of friends over for dinner. 

The ewes and lambs are all down by the house.  After building the beautiful barn we just ran out of time and money to put electricity there.  We need power to keep the water tubs from freezing.  This wickedly cold weather was too much.  Even though we would break the ice each morning it would freeze over within the hour.  When the sheep are on hay they drink a lot more water than when they are grazing grass, so the sheep are now in the dog kennels down by the house.   We will put Ben, our ram, in with the ewes in early November for April lambing.  The following pictures are of Ben, taken last year when he was in with the ewes.  He is a very nice, friendly, handsome boy!

 

Time for me to get busy.  Bye for now!

Today was berry picking day.  My friends Naomi and Karen and I left this morning for the back country.  And back country it is!  We live 45 minutes out of Burns Lake.  We went another 2 hours into the woods in pursuit of berries.  We were scouting out huckleberry bushes in cut blocks.  We found lots of bushes, and Karen found a polaski head.

Naomi had a few cranberries in her bucket but they were so few they didn't show up in the picture! Bridget was along as an early warning system for bears.  As usual, she did not want her picture taken.  It was cold and rainy as we were very high in altitude and closer to the coast.  We were in the Morice Lake area.  If you look on a map you will see how close it is to the coast.  The weather there is heavily influenced by coastal systems.

We left the huckleberry patch to seek out high bush cranberries.  Our usual haunt for these berries was inaccessible via Land Cruiser as the road had been deactivated.  We did see a beautiful black bear and a handsome bull moose (no pictures as they were on the run and soon out of sight).  Another fellow we saw was a porcupine.  He did not want his picture taken so the shots are mostly of his hind end.

 

Not the best shots but he was a very uncooperative subject!  I did not want to distress him any further so left him to his business and we went on our way. 

We found another patch of berries so spent several hours in the rain and wind filling our pails.  I wore fleece long underwear with rain gear and my bogs and a toque so I was toasty and dry.  Karen stepped into a swamp hole getting a soaked foot.  Naomi forgot we were climbing in altitude and dressed for weather down at the lake, which was warm and sunny when we left, and warm and sunny when we got home!  Nevertheless, we had a great time and a lot of fun.  It was good to get out into the back woods with some beautiful cranberries as a bonus.

When Dennis was getting wood yesterday he took a couple of pictures to show the area.  He is cutting in a landing where there are debris piles.  When it is windy or he is alone he cuts at debris piles as falling snags (dead trees) is dangerous.  Here is what it looks like where he gets wood:

 

You can see it is very beautiful, making a heavy task a little more pleasant. This place is only a few kilometres from our house.

Fall is really and truly my favourite time of year.  The colours and smells are stimulating.  The air is cool and brisk, there are no mosquitoes or black flies and it just feels so good to be outside.  I tried to capture the beauty of fall with my camera.  The camera does not do it justice, but here are a few photos to show you fall here in north central BC.

The above photo is of the Colleymount Road, just past our place.

The above photo is the view looking south from the kitchen and dining room windows.

The above photo is the view looking east from the kitchen window.  You will notice how calm the lake is in these photos.  This is rare for Francois Lake.  Francois Lake is 100 km long.  Winds can, and do, whip up at any time.  We have had unseasonally warm temperatures this fall, along with no wind.  We have had no rain also, making the lake drop to the lowest level I have ever seen.  The rain we have had the past couple of evenings is very welcome.  We all need the lake levels to rise to protect our water lines from freezing this winter. 

I am off to Terrace for a week, starting tomorrow.  I will not have a computer so will not update this blog until I get back.  I will be looking after my two grand daughters, Rose and Ella, while their parents are off on a trip.  I look forward to the week!  Bye for now! 

Friday, October 12, 2012.  Tempus fugit.  We are hair straight back into wood-getting mode.  Yesterday was a full day travelling to Prince George (approximately 3 hours from home) for an MRI for me, a bit of shopping and lunch, then the drive home. 

The MRI went well.  I was concerned after the last one I had as I was not prepared for the tight quarters of the machine.  I am not normally claustrophobic, but it was truly like being in a coffin.  This time the technician put me in feet first so my head was closer to the opening, plus she gave me a cloth to put over my eyes.  That worked like magic.  They also give you headphones through which they pipe the music of your choice and through which they communicate with you.  The first process took approximately 15 minutes after which dye was injected into my vein, followed by another approximately 5 minutes of more imaging.  The dye helps contrast the scar tissue from the regular tissue.  It was a much better experience than the first time, so if I have to go again I won't be dreading it.

For those who don't know, I suffered a ruptured and broken disc in my back 2 years ago.  I had surgery the following January to remove the piece of disc that was pressing on the nerve which gave feeling and strength to my left leg.  The leg is still numb from the knee to the ankle and still very weak.  Of late I have suffered a lot of pain in the back and weakness in my right leg.  The MRI will show whether or not scar tissue is playing a role in this problem.  I hope the doctor will also come up with a solution.

Amigo, the big maremma pup we are fostering, was neutered on Wednesday.  He is doing well.  He will soon be off to a new home once I am satisfied he is healthy and ready to go.  I will miss him as he is a very loving, gentle, happy dog. 

Yesterday, while we were in Prince George, we had Bella, my son's akita, in a kennel out back.  It is a very large fenced area complete with shelters and water.  The fence is about 7 feet high.  When we arrived home Bella was outside the kennel with her paw stuck in her collar.  She is wearing a martingale collar, which is a flat nylon collar joined with chain, allowing you to tighten the collar somewhat like a choke chain, but limiting the amount of "choke."  It will not break free from pressure, thus poor Bella was caught for who knows how long.  I am thinking she tried to escape the kennel and in so doing caught her foot in her collar.  There was no way she would have ever been able to get her foot free without help as both her pad and claw were caught in the chain.  A lesson for everyone:  ALWAYS remove collars when leaving the dog unattended.  Always!  I knew this and am ashamed to admit I made this mistake.  My dogs never wear their collars unless we are travelling, going to the vet or doing activity requiring a leash.  This is a huge reminder and could have ended up tragically as Bella could have struggled and fought and choked herself to death.  She could have easily caught the collar on the fence when she tried to escape, and hung herself.  So anyone with dogs, please remember this.  Do not leave your dog with a collar on, unattended.  Ever.

Speaking of dogs, I had better get out there.  Time to exercise Amigo for the first time since his operation.  I put the border collies away and allow Amigo and Bella to play together without the border collies trying to organize them.  Sometimes border collies can be the fun police and end up causing fights. 

Dennis is out getting wood on his own.  I offered to come along but he refused my help.  I did help him the other day, and probably mentioned a couple of times how hot it was, which it was!  Now he thinks he should do it alone.  Sheesh.  Well, I have no recent pictures so here is one from a few years ago.  Actually, nothing has changed except I'm older and fatter!

 

 

Ok, I guess a bit has changed - Jenny, the white border collie, has passed on.  And the truck has a lot more dents in it!  You'll have to ask Dennis about that.
Ok, time to get outside.  We had a much needed rain last night so it's time for toques and Bogs!

Here it is Tuesday, almost a week since my last post.  Another beautiful autumn day!  Dennis came home Saturday evening from Nanika Lake.  He enjoyed his time there a lot.  He drove to Collins Lake, then took the Beaver to Nanika Lake.  I cooked at Nanika several years ago.  It is such a treat to get into backcountry that is pristine in the true sense of the word.  Here are some pictures from Dennis' trip:

 

The hunters parked their truck and trailer at the Collins Lake cabin.  While they were gone we had the huge wind storm that blew trees down.  One landed on their trailer:

 

 

It was a pretty big, dead pine.  I hope the damage was not too much.  These hunts cost the hunters a fair bit of money.  Adding a damaged trailer to the bill can really hurt!

Looking back in my files of my trip to Nanika, I found some picturs you may be interested in seeing.  Here is a photo of the cabin where we stay.  The kitchen is a decent camp kitchen.  Water is hauled up in buckets from the lake:

Here are the cooks quarters:

Now, here are a few pictures I took at Collins Lake.  It is a spot one can drive to.  It is on the way to Morice Lake:

I was looking at the date on my pictures.  It was 2006 when I cooked at Nanika.  Another beautiful, warm autumn, like this year. 

Thanksgiving

We had a pleasant Thanksgiving day, with the smallest group for dinner that I can remember.  Son Thomas and grandson Matthew came from Houston for the day.  They came for a late breakfast of bacon, sausage, eggs, hashbrowns and toast, and lots of good coffee.  We then wandered up to look at the barn and count the sheep.  It was a year ago that we lost 2 ewes to a cougar, so this year our vigilance is ramped up.  The sheep are in the pastures close to the Colleymount Road to deter predators.  The nice thing about having Amigo around is that he barks when there is any kind of activity across the road.  I think that is a good thing in that it warns a sneaky cougar that a huge dog could come and interrupt his hunt.  So far so good.

After that we went fishing, touring around the lake more than fishing, but a good excuse to get out in the boat.  It was so warm we were in t-shirts.  After docking the boat, Dennis, Thomas and Matthew played crib while I got the potatoes, carrots and brussels sprouts on to cook.  We didn't raise turkey's this year but I had a half a turkey left from last year.  This 1/2 turkey weighed 20 lbs so was plenty for the 4 of us!  We had enough food for 10 people.  For dessert we had pumpking pies (2) and an apple pie.  Needless to say, we were stuffed!  It was a quiet, pleasant day, one I enjoyed a lot.

Did anyone see the northern lights last night?  They were not really active, but lit up the whole sky.  At one point they came together in an apex over our head, with a brighter light dancing around in the middle.  I love watching northern lights.  Sometimes they are so bright they reflect off the lake.

Today Dennis is off to town to take Simba back to her owners.  We do board dogs now and then.  Simba is one of our regulars.  Right now we have Bella staying for the week, Thomas' young Akita.  She is a beautiful girl and absolutely LOVES Niko, our young border collie with the compromised back legs.  Amigo, Niko and Bella all get along well.  They run and chase and play when out of their kennels, tiring each other out.  It really is good for them to be together once in a while, teaching them social skills and dog games.  One of the things they love to do is to run down the lawn and into the lake, splashing about, then suddenly running back up the lawn and around the house.  Looking after all these dogs is a lot of work, but it is fun too.

Naiomi, my neighbour and owner of Nanika Lake Guide Outfitting, came today to borrow a crate to take her dog, Haida, to the vet.  Naiomi stopped in on Sunday to borrow some graham crackers, and mentioned that Haida was not well.  We decided she should see the vet and as Naiomi was up to her eyeballs in hunters and cooking, I offered to take Haida in to the vet.  Poor Haida was painful in the forward part of her stomach, vomiting and clearly not well.  The vet prescribed some meds for her stomach but it seems she is now worse so Naiomi is back to town to the vet.  It is difficult to determine what is wrong so maybe they will do blood tests today.  We couldn't do blood work on Sunday as the couriers were not working Sunday nor Monday.  So, we'll see about poor Haida.  She is a mixed breed but looks like a yellow lab.  She is a sweet, sweet dog.

Last night Amigo was barking and looking up to the sheep enclosure. It was pitch black, so out Dennis and I went with our flashlights. We counted the pairs of eyes and all was well. Sheep don't like to be surprised in the dark, so they were stamping their feet and huffing. I wondered what I would have done had there been a cougar there. Next time I take the gun which will be more effective than a flailing stick.  I would love to be able to train Amigo to stay with and guard the sheep.  I don't know if it is possible now that he has bonded with people.

I think we are now up to date.  Not exciting stuff, but busy all the same.  Today I am going to finish my generator platform and try to resume digging up my herb bed.  I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving weekend. 

Wednesday - half way through the week of running this farm on my own.

Finn, my border collie who stole the lamb roast, is still having stomach issues.  I bring him up to bed with me so I will hear his request to go outside, if he needs to.  Last night I awoke, not to his whining, but to the most horrific odour known to humanity!  I couldn't believe this skunk-like rotten smell was in my room.  The only one responsible for this malodourous event was curled up on the plush dog bed next to my bed.  Out he went, pronto!  When he came back in I put him and his bed in the spare room.

While dealinig with Finn, I heard a beep, beep, beep coming from the basement.  So, at 1:30 a.m. I traipse down two flights to the basement.  The infernal freezer alarm is going.  I absolutely HATE the person who invented this nefarious device!  Here's how it works:  if the power goes out, an alarm sounds (the beeping) to let you know there is no power to the freezer.  Um, yah, I need that.  As if I don't know the power is out!!  This beeping continues until the power is restored.  So, during a long outage, I go down and remove the battery that powers this alarm.  So, you say, just leave the battery out!  Wrong!  Once the power is restored, if the battery is not in place, the freezer commences beeping to let you know there is no battery installed.  This is absolutely, without doubt, the most insane product I have ever had the misfortune to own.  I tried to disable the alarm, even cutting the wires, to no avail.  I just had to get our neighbour electrician to come and re-connect them correctly (I had a bit of a fit of temper and pulled them all out).  So last night, the power is on, the battery is in place but I cannot shut off the alarm.  Finally, in desperation, I get another 9 volt battery and try to open the battery door.  This is not easy, of course not!  The tiny little plastic door is flat with a silly tiny button one has to push and pull at the same time, it appears.  Finally I get the only device at hand, the sissors on the dog table, and stab the little door like a crazed lunatic.  The door yeilds to my insanity and out pops the battery.  I replace the battery and voila!  the beeping stops.  By now my blood pressure is through the roof.  Crystal, our old akita, has left her bed by the freezer and hidden in her crate, and all dogs avert their eyes as I gasp my way upstairs.  A pox on the person who invented this device and on their household!!!

Back up the two flights of stairs and back into bed.  Of course sleep eludes me so on goes the light and out comes the book to try to stop my continual hexing of Sears, their employees, and any electronic alarm inventor. 

The wind storm Monday night brought down trees, one in particular landed on one of our fences.

Since this fence holds the ewes from the large paddock,  it needed to be removed.  The wind also blew the tarp off our large hay stack.  With rain in the forecast (more likely snow) I had to get the tarp back on the hay.  The hay stack is at least 40 ft long and about 10 to 12 ft wide.  I knew I needed help.  As luck would have it a neighbour called and asked if I needed help with anything.  Next thing I know there are 2 men and 2 women, complete with chainsaw, in the yard.  In minutes the tree was off the fence and the tarp was firmly tied down over the hay.  It is good to have friends and neighbours who will help in an emergency. 

Back to the freezer - if anyone out there has the foolproof way to disable the alarm, I am waiting to hear from you!  I purposely do not buy electronically controlled devices, but this was all that was available and we needed the freezer immediately.  We had a heater once that would power itself off during a power outage.  When the power came back on we had to press the re-set button.  Consequently, it was of no use where it was needed, which was under the house to keep the pipes from freezing.  Same with slow cookers that have all the electronic buttons.  If the power goes out, they do not come back on.  Anyway, I am interested if anyone else has the problem with built in electronic alarms and what you do to keep yourself sane.

To end on a positive note, here are some pictures of the road to our place in the fall.  These were taken by my sister Maureen on her trip out here.

 

The above picture is Mount Colley, otherwise known as Colleymount.

People often wonder what life would be like, even for a short while, without electronics and all the communication devices we rely on every day.  I got a taste, again, last evening when the power went out due to a wind storm.  The picture doesn't show the powerful wind, but this is the lake in front of our place.  You can see the turbidity of the water stirred up by the fierce winds:

  A tree was blown down on the lines cutting the power to all of us along the lake.  I was on the phone at the time.  In the middle of a neighbour's rant about the difficulties of pig butchering, the phone went dead.  I was on the cordless phone so without power our call was cut short.  I smiled as I knew she was not finished her rant, but now she, as I, had the power outage to focus on.  At first I was annoyed that yet again the power failed.  I worked myself up further thinking about how BC Hydro had sent crews out to clear the lines.  They removed all the saskatoon bushes along our property, much to my chagrin, but left large aspen and spruce. I went out to the generator but noticed the battery was removed, so that was not an option.  As I scooped water from the lake for Ben, our ram, (no power, no water pump) I thought about how I could turn this power outage into something pleasant.  After feeding the dogs I got my head lamp and battery powered lantern, some crosswords, a sudoku book and an Alexander McCall-Smith book I had been planning to read.  I spent the evening with the dogs laying around me in the kitchen, doing crosswords.  I had the corded phone plugged in so was able to receive a call from my sister, which was a pleasant diversion from the complete quiet.  It is amazing what you hear when all electric items are unplugged - no fridge humming, no buzzing of any sort.  It was a pleasant evening.  I found I was very tired by 9:00 but tried to continue to stay awake until 10:00 so I could let the dogs out before bed.  I was happy to get to bed, read my book by lamp light, and soon was off to sleep.  One thing I noticed was that I was so completely relaxed.  I wonder what role being on a computer or watching tv before bed plays in sleeplessness.  I am going to try it again tonight.  I will turn off the computer and not watch tv.  I will spend the evening reading or doing crosswords or sudoku.  We'll see if I sleep as well as last night. 

 I was awakened at 6:00 this morning by Finn who was desperate to go outside.  Of course he was!  Sunday night, while I was at the hospital, Finn opened the gate from the basement to the main floor, managed to somehow reach some roasted lamb that was on the back of the stove, and consume the works.  There wasn't a shred of evidence, no bone, no slobber, on the floor.  Just the empty dish on the stove.  I was expecting some stomach issues with him so made him sleep upstairs with me last night.  A good thing too.  Now he needs to be washed before he's allowed in the house.

Amigo is doing well.  I put him on a long line each day and let him out to play with Niko and Finn.  Rhaq is confined to house since Amigo is still intact, Rhaq sees him as something to fight with.  Amigo continues to put on weight.  Not an easy thing since he is totally not food oriented.  Anyway, here are some pictures of this lovely boy:

 

Another picture of our weather - pretty Canadian to always focus on the weather, eh?  Anyway, this was very stunning after a rain storm the other day.  The picture doesn't do it justice, but gives you an idea of the beauty here:

 

The shadow in the upper right corner is the lens cover that gets stuck when I turn on the camera.  I usually notice it but didn't this time until the picture was done.   
Next is a picture of some red aspens down near a friends place.  Usually aspens go bright yellow, which in itself is beautiful.  The red is unusual so I took a picture: