April 2, 2017 at Brittany Lake Earthship

Sunday, and it snowed overnight and it’s cloudy and cold and it’s supposed to be Spring!

So we woke up to snow Sunday morning! Shake head. Where is Spring? Spring, Spring, wherefore art thou and WHY have you forsaken me…us? Well, I guess this could be a normal Spring for Brittany Lake but it is a late Spring for Luke and I! We are used to practically wearing shorts by this time in the Valley! We arrived here in October so we have been here just over 5 months; we have a lot to experience before we know what a year in the life on Brittany Lake looks like. And so far, we have heard, it has not been super normal around here. There was that Big Blow in November that downed trees left, right, centre and everywhere in between! And then there was that huge pack of wolves that Luke saw on the Creek. Also, we have heard that this has been one heck of a snowy Winter and I am going to go with that because look at how much snow the Lower Mainland got! Heaps more than normal. Well, the new normal; the amount the Lower Mainland got this Winter is what we used to get in the old days. Oh my! I am old enough to say, “In the old days…”

Luke and I laced up our big people boots and went for a walk with the dogs. We started with a trip down to the Boathouse. One thing I am definitely going to miss about the snow is the ability to see fresh tracks! Check these out; and this furry, four legged friend of ours has an owie on one of his paws.

Someone has an owie
Someone came this way and it was quite recently as the blood had not had a chance to soak into the snow.
They entered the trail from the bush and then hightailed it back into the bush when they heard the noisy neighbours approaching

Now there is a spot along the trail to the Boathouse that always has Bear and Samwise a lil on edge and right on our heels. They often stop, put their snouts to the wind and have a good long sniff, all the while, at the ready to spring into action if the need arises. And then they throw caution to the wind and bounce away, down the trail, their happy-go-lucky selves until the return trip and then they will carry out the whole “I’m super curious about that animal” routine again. What was different on this trip was that down at the Boathouse both the dogs went N U T S!! We could hardly contain them! Luke and I couldn’t see any tracks or anything? The lake is still quasi frozen-not sure it would still hold the weight of an animal crossing it? But you know, Sammy had to test that, didn’t he? And that had Luke and I freaking out just a lil bit! Alright! That’s it! Everyone just settle down! Take a deep breath….that’s it, breathe. Breathe. Righty oh! Onward, ho! We definitely had company today though we could not see just who are company was. I think we would be less cautious if we didn’t have Bear and Sam; they are our babies, our four-legged fur children. If you were on the trail with let’s say, Benny and Alex, you would be just as concerned, no? So we took precautions on the way back up,  stopped at the boys’ curious spot and fired a round into the wind. Whoa! You should have seen Bear bolt! Straight up the trail! And he sure didn’t want to come back to us either! Anyway, we just wanted our neighbour that while we respect we are the new kids on the block we WILL protect our fellas.

On that note, I do think about it, quite often actually. There are all the articles about animals being shot and killed because they won’t play nice in the human neighbourhoods. Well, we are in THEIR neighbourhood! We want to maintain our own safety and the safety of OUR animals so we will make noise and hopefully that will be enough to keep the wild animals away. I absolutely hate the thought of an animal losing its life because I choose to live here.

Okay, off my soapbox! When we got to the top of the Boathouse trail we took the new path which Luke did a bit of work on! No more over and under fallen trees! Bear! He didn’t even appreciate the work, instead heading off on his own lil tangent. Silly ol’ Bear! Once down to the Goat Fence we followed it along to behind the dunny where Luke had once again, added his touch! It was like Pick-Up-Stix in there! Not anymore!!!! Now we just have to go in and clear out all the saplings and blow down – which are now in carryable lengths. Is that a word? Carryable? Well, it is now! From there we went eastward past Clarice’s Couch on to Swan Spit. We thought we would try to summit the next hill over but there is just too much blowdown! Bear simply cannot maneuver his way through it all!

So just after this blowdown is another one that he would have had to jump OVER and there simply was not enough room for him to successfully accomplish the task!
The hill we were trying to get to the top of

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