March 13, 2013.  While the rest of the world is likely experiencing spring, we definitely are not.  We have had nights of -17 this past week and today awoke to a snowfall warning.  This is the time of year when people get frightfully cranky, marriages are under duress and relationships of all kinds are stressed to their utmost.  It is generally a good idea to head for warmer climes for a few weeks, just to get through this most discouraging time of year.

Life at Dogstar Farm continues to be semi-dormant.  Dennis has completed his teaching assignment at the college.  The lambs are not due for another 2 weeks and the chicks do not arrive until May.  We are looking at flooring for the upstairs guest room and the basement, trying to find the energy to paint the guest room and actually trying to find energy to do anything besides watching movies and reading books.  It is just that time of year and one has to find the most constructive and healthy way of seeing it through.  Bottles of wine seem to figure in to any equation, which I have found helps pretty well every time.

A bright spot this past week was the arrival of daughter Rebecca and family.  As they are between homes, moving from Terrace to Williams Lake, they spent 3 nights with us.  We had the best time - their positive energy filled us with enthusiasm and just made each day that much better.  On Saturday eldest daughter Bernice also arrived for the night and on Sunday son Thomas arrived with his friend Lindsey and her daughter Autumn.  It was great to get together with almost the whole family again.  Dennis prepared a great meal of curried chicken, rice and salad with banana cream cake for dessert.  During the day Rebecca, Chris, Rose and Ella got the quad and snow-nut out on the lake.

Their dogs got great exercise and everyone got lots of fresh air.  It was very sunny so the pictures are a bit dark as the camera had to adjust to the brightness off the snow.

Here are a few shots of Chris packing their boat with all the dog crates, rabbit crate and frozen food.  It was absolutely incredible the way he was able to fit everything in.

You can see from the pictures that although this is March 12, we are still very much in winter.
Here they are, ready for their Williams Lake adventure:

I was going to get the X-country skis on today, but just now looked out and it is pouring rain.  I am happy to see the rain!!  Can spring be on its way?  My calendar says spring begins on March 20 this year.  I'm waiting!  Perhaps I'll sample some wine while I'm waiting.

Take care, everyone, and bye for now.