I really need to find a better way to manage this blog! I guess I don’t update as often as I would like because I post daily on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. I HAVE been giving the blog some thought and I think I have come up with a way to be more consistent. Bear with me as I make the effort to be more present here.

That said, it has been almost a month since my last entry here! What has been happening at the Earthship? hmmm….not a whole lot. Winter has had us in his fierce grip for months now and we are so over it. Maybe 10 days ago? It looked like we were going to finally get a reprieve and then we got a new dump of snow! Then we had 25cm of snow on top of ice; oh what fun! We were already struggling with getting in and out to civilization. Oh, yea, so when I came home from my visit to the Valley back in late January, early February I did a grocery shopping but Luke said, not too much because we’ll go a few weeks after you get back. Yea, that didn’t happen. I made a solo trip to Nimpo and Anahim Lake to buy out their sad produce selections. I left early in the morn, with the roads still frozen solid due to our super cold, sunny days. Well, I got about 15km away from our place and didn’t it start to snow? Groan. Had I have been thinking straight, I would have turned around then and there and returned home but I was on a mission to get produce! You have to understand, a Vegetarian, without Produce is just …. wrong! Besides, I was expecting important mail so I simply had to carry on!

The drive into Tatla Lake was alright. I have a great truck. I picked up the mail; yup, there’s my mail in ballot! I popped over to Tatla Manor and had a quick visit with Joanna and Gerald, using Joanna as my witness for my ballot. I paid her with Apple Butter that I had made the night before in my shiny new InstaPot!  Once I got voting out of the way, talked Instapot for a bit with Joanna; discovered that Gerald, once upon a time, worked for Rivtow which is the company my Dad worked for when he was a logger/boom man! So looking forward to future visits with these guys!  As it was really starting to snow, Joanna insisted I drop in on my way home that I might ring Luke and let him know I was on my way home so if I didn’t turn up within a reasonable amount of time he could hop into the old Ford and come a looking for me and my produce.

I drove in blizzard like conditions to get my tired, soggy produce but at least it was green and was, a few days ago, crispy and crunchy, bursting with flavour and nutrients!! Fortified with the knowledge I would be eating well for the upcoming week I left Highway 20 and happily sang away with the songs on the radio (xiriusXM, for the win!) and confidently made my way home. It had stopped snowing and there didn’t appear to be much of an accumulation so I was feeling pretty good about the drive. Easily made it to Henry’s Crossing and that’s where the trip started to unravel, ever so slowly. There is an incline  just beyond the bridge that makes me a lil nervous and it was now covered in ice and snow. What fun! Sigh. 4 Low, here we go! I crawled up the hill. Now see, when I got home from the Valley all the weight was taken out of the back of the truck and was never replaced; I have to say, it was adding to my nervousness. Anyway, ‘bou got me through the incline, no worries!  Thankfully our closest neighbour lives just three kilometres from the Crossing so he lays some lovely tracks! However!!!! I actually stopped the truck at his turn-off and just stared at the road, willing it to be snow and ice free. Didn’t work. Sigh. 4 Low, here we go; crawled up that hill and a few more and then I got to the one just before the Casselman turn-off and, folks, I thought I was going to be spending the night there or making the long walk home, in the snowy dark, with wolves and coyotes about, leaving my precious produce to freeze and wilt in the back of the truck. Groan. I made a go of the hill. Got stuck. Reversed. Made a go. Got stuck. Reversed. Made a go. Got  stuck. Reversed. Okay, then I just put my head on the steering wheel. Had a conversation with the road that was well sprinkled with the worst swears I could think of. Had a conversation with ‘bou. “Look, girl, if we don’t get past this section then you are camping out in the wilderness tonight and I am going to get eaten by wolves. No pressure. But what do you think we should do?” The both of us gritted our teeth, got settled into 4 Low, Here we Go mode but instead of just crawling we made a F*&%$*g run for it! The two of us yelled and screamed at each other, gave each other encouragement and I am pleased to say, we made it! The rest of the 4.5 – 5 kilometres ‘bou just strutted her stuff! And I let her.

I relished in the limp produce. Made fabulous meals out of the stuff that was now past its prime – I am sure it wilted a bit in the journey home from all the hot air that ‘bou and I created. One thing I did come away with from this trip is that those awful smelling bagged salads hold up well to our conditions out here! While fresh lettuces just wilt and die, die, die a very sad death long before I can nibble on their once crisp leaves. Alas, the produce was gone all too soon! BUT! It was a weekend! Come on, Luke! Let’s go for a drive! Please understand that Luke has not left the Earthship since December so he was pretty keen to hit “civilization”! Luke, confidence brimming about the state of the roads loaded Bear and Sam into the truck. A trip away from the Earthship takes so long that we currently HAVE to take Sam and Panty Mc Pantersen with us; we look forward to having a kennel to leave them behind for a few hours!  Anyway, dogs in the cab, we set out. Huh! Guess I am a better driver than I think because Luke got us stuck to the point of needing to be hauled out on our way OUT to Highway 20! And it was on the maintained section of the dirt road! I’m not going to go into all the details about the trip but I will tell you that that section that I got stuck on 4.5 – 5 kilometres from here? Yea, Luke got stuck there too! We were to the point where we were going to get outta the truck, cut down some trees to throw into the back for some weight but, like me, Luke had a lil chat with ‘bou, cursed the road, got stuck into 4 Low, Here we Go and just gave her! We made it through the twelve metres! We praised ‘bou to the moon and back again and she proudly got us the remaining way home, puffing her hood up in the few tough spots, grinding her way through it!

And now here we are, Spring has sprung but someone forgot to tell Brittany Lake! It actually snowed the other day! We hover around 4C for a high during the day and get to -16C at night!!!!! But the sun is shining!  There is a huge battle going on at the moment; the Earth wants to be free but the Ice wants to keep the Earth encased in his icy grip! Earth sweats channels of water down every hillside she can find, pools into new lakes where there are no hillsides to roll down and then along comes Winter freezing it all up again through the night! And so Luke, Bear, Sam and I wade out in the muck, hoping that Spring will soon win this battle!

PS, we won’t be leaving the Earthship any time soon; at least not until some of the new found lakes have dried up!

Wow! It has been a while since I have posted an entry! So much has happened since we last sat down for a cuppa! One thing that has not changed is that I still rise with the Sun, well, actually, I get up before the Sun! I am happy to report that we have had a fair amount of Sunshine in the month of February; so much so that we have not had to run the generator.

Alright, so what have we been up to since the beginning of January? Well, once we had the road plowed, ploughed? I high tailed it home to the Valley! I had a wonderful 2 weeks of visiting the family, cooking for the family and immersing myself in their company. I spent the first week at Michael and Hayley’s, in their new home. It was very comfortable as I had the pleasure of sleeping in my own (old) bed. When we moved up to Brittany Lake we went from a 4 bedroom house to a single bedroom house! Needless to say we had some spare beds to disperse and one of them ended up with Michael and Hayley. I was super spoiled whilst at their place because they pretty much gave me free reign of the kitchen; absolutely delightful to have people to cook for again! And seeing how they only moved into the place in December or was it November? Anyway, they were lacking in some kitchen smalls so I got to buy pretty, functional things that will be gifts that will continue to give long after I have returned home.
The second week that I was down home I spent in a self contained Best Western unit where I was able to happily prepare dinners for my grandsons. They had a continental breakfast so Benny and Alex were super happy to have their choice of breakfast when they spent the night. The older grandsons didn’t sleep over but they did come along and use the swimming pool a few times. It was so lovely to bask in the company of all the grandsons. I think right near the beginning of my stay the three older grandsons and I took in the new Star Wars movie! Okay, new to me, old to you! We had fun going to the Spaceship movie theatre in Langley to watch the spaceship movie.

Of course no trip home would be complete without a trip to IKEA with Anita and Krick! And I had a shopping list; the most important thing on the list was a second bed as the camp cot simply was not cutting it. I am known to have a difficult time sleeping and rather than waking Luke I opt to move to another sleeping space. I tried the loveseat-too short, I tried the camp cot-too pokey! I tried the recliner-gave me wicked back aches. I am pleased to say that I am now able to retire to my own HERMNES Daybed which easily pulls out into a full size bed. Maybe even a Queen? It’s nice. I tried the daybed-size first but Sammy likes to follow me about and he would end up sleeping on my feet which was pretty uncomfortable so now the bed pretty much stays pulled out and Sammy and I OFTEN sleep together on the HERMNES while Luke and Bear bask in the comfort of the spacious King-size bed in the Cave. Now Luke prolly thinks my IKEA purchases have come to an end but I have my eye on wardrobes to replace the single piece of doweling that is strung up to serve as a closet in the Cave; and the industrial shelves in the bathroom simply have to go. But shhhh, it’s a secret; don’t tell Luke!

As mentioned, I stayed at the Regency Best Western in Abbotsford for 5 days; on the 5th day, didn’t it start to…no other way to put it…puke snow!! I mean, man oh man! It was coming down! If my room had not been hired out to a dance team for that 6th night, I so would have stayed put! Ah, well; I have a great truck….oh, I have a truck story! With good tires; I’m just lacking in confidence to drive in the white stuff. I packed all the stuff into the truck, brushed 2 freakin’ feet of snow off poor, cold ‘bou (short for Caribou) and got ready to head out. It took 45 minutes of white-knuckle driving to get me the scant 35 kilometres from the hotel to Michael and Hayley’s, who, lucky for me, live very close to the highway! Well, not so close that you can hear the traffic noise but close enough that it is normally a 3 minute drive from the highway to their driveway. The original plan was that I would return to their place for a night, pack up all the stuff I had accumulated over the trip and head out the Saturday morn. Yea, that didn’t happen! It snowed and snowed and then snowed some more! Wednesday morn I awoke to sunny skies so I bolted! I didn’t even take a few minutes to ring Luke to let him know I was leaving. Needless to say when I contacted him that evening from William’s Lake he was thrilled to hear that I would be home on the morrow!

Now, quickly, before I log out today, that truck story:
With the temps well below zero, the chains coming on and off the truck we noticed that the rear left tire was super low; low enough to prompt the purchase of a portable pump kit. The day before I was to depart to the Valley the tire was looking suspiciously normal. Shrug. Righty oh. Luke said that I ought to make sure I get it checked out at Kal Tire before I made my way down the Canyon. I am pleased to say that the tire gave me no cause for concern along our dirt roads, or along Highway 20; still I brought ‘bou in to Kal Tire in the morning and they gave the tire a thorough checking over. Nothing to report, m’am (man, am I that old?) but please do stop in at the Kal Tire in 100 Mile House to get the tires re-torqued. Sure thing! And off I go; stopped in at 100 Mile, no concerns. Woot! A lot of worry for nothing! And then…..I’m in the middle of freakin’ no where! A message comes up on the control panel ” Tire flat” WTF????? I pulled over as soon as there was a place for me to do so and sure enough. A fricken flat. But not so flat that I couldn’t drive on it. I limped in to Lytton. Nothing there! No one to help a damsel in distress. I found a servo with an ancient air pump and did my very best to get a bit of air in the tire. That accomplished I limped 27 minutes down the Canyon to Boston Bar to the Tirecraft. The fella there checked out my offending tire finding absolutely nothing wrong with it!!! This tire is now giving me a migraine! He assured me that the tires all had the optimal amount of air in them and that the flat was probably due to the fluctuations in atmospheric temperatures. Well, crossed my fingers and set off on my last leg of the white knuckle drive home. Let me assure you, it was white knuckle due to the grief my friggen tire was giving me! I booked young ‘bou into the Ford service centre for routine maintenance with express instructions to check that dang tire!@%$# It’s fine, she’s fine.

And just a random snowy pic to close out this entry.

I remember thinking, back at the beginning of Winter, is it EVER going to snow? Should have kept that thought to myself! Now I am sure that this Winter has not had an inordinate amount of snow; Luke and I are just a couple of …Hillbilly Newbs! There, I said it, John! (My brother-in-law reckons that Luke and I are now Hillbillies. The politically correct term, dear John, is Homesteaders!) I mean even if we were still in the Fraser Valley we would still be knee deep in snow, right? And up here in the mountains there is bound to be heaps more snow, right? We are, afterall, sitting at 1,321 m above sea level and I can tell you that the proof is in how long it takes to boil a jug of water!!! Or a quarter of a jug of water because I do want that cup of herbal tea TODAY!

True to higher elevations we have had what I would consider a fair amount of snow and all future years will be measured next to this one: “Oh, there hasn’t been much snow this year, we only had to shovel ourselves out the door 3 times!” Both Luke and I have shovelled and shovelled snow! Usually the both of us get stuck into it, each taking a section but wouldn’t you know it? It snowed Sunday night which meant a butt-load of shovelling on Monday. Well, Luke was excused from snow removal duties because he had to work! I set out after breakfast and got down to the business of moving all that snow. No worries, I like a challenge and besides, I’ll power through my 10,000 Steps in no time at all!!! Ah, but you see, I know NOT to power through; I know that slow and steady wins the race so I plodded along, setting myself lil goals along the way: “I won’t collapse, dead, until the long driveway portion is done; that way Luke will easily be able to get to the truck to go for help.” Had I have collapsed from the exertion of moving all that snow I can tell you that you would now be planning my Celebration of Life as there is no way in the world that Luke would have been able to do a dang thing. Another reason to always keep in mind, slow and steady wins the race! Oh, and wouldn’t you know it? I left my Fitbit charging in the loungeroom!!! Oh well, I know I did a gazillion and a half steps! And I have the aching muscles to prove it!

Oh, right. I ought to let you in on what “laying tracks” means. If you follow me on Facebook you know I say it often enough! So the deal is, after each and every snow fall one must hop into ones truck and “lay tracks”; simply drive to the end of the lane, along Casselman Road  and hope and pray that someone else has laid tracks on Chilko Lake FSR!!! I’ll tell you that with each snow fall the drive got a lil bit tougher. Now I KNOW that you need to add weight to the back of the truck but I was slow to actually get Luke to act on my knowledge. Two snow falls ago we finally loaded big boulders into tubs that sat right over the rear tires. And it helped! But after Sunday night’s snow fall? Wouldn’t even know that we had the extra weight in there! It was a messy drive with too much sliding around and that is in 4Low, 1st gear! I actually didn’t think we were going to make it back and I was thinking about all the things I didn’t grab before we left: gun, ammo, headlight, another layer of clothes, water, water dish for dogs, snowboots for dogs and, well, the patience of a saint. Really, I need only have had the last thing in that list because Luke handled that rough drive like a pro! Wait, you did say you were from Australia, right? And you have had heaps of XP driving in this white stuff, right? Right? Because I can tell you, I …well… I haven’t had to drive much in the snow and therefore I actually kinda suck at it!

When we went to William’s Lake to sign all the papers and stuff for the purchase of the Earthship Luke and I did a HUGE amount of shopping! You think my Norwex bill was big? ($900) I won’t even tell you how much we spent! Luke went a lil crazy in the sports store; he bought just about every kind of winter sport equipment available! I have been eternally grateful for the snowshoes! We use them almost everyday! A great purchase. He bought us each cross country skis even though neither one of us has ever been cross country skiing and truth be told? I haven’t even strapped mine on yet! Luke did but got no where fast. S’all good, I don’t have a lot of spare time for cross country skiing as I am far too busy shovelling snow! And cooking food that either freezes or goes soft in my very confusing refrigeration system. (That is definitely going to get sorted out this Spring/Summer/Fall even if I have to do it myself!) Good thing I am pretty decent and cooking and easily turn a food disaster into something quite tasty. Whoops, off topic! And finally, Luke bought us each a pair of ice skates! You may or may not have heard that Luke and Sammy went through the ice when we tried to walk up Casselman Creek? We haven’t really ventured out onto the ice since then. Was that New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day? Anyway, it has been a few days and it has been COLD these past handful of days and I thought for sure our Brittany Creek has now got to be frozen freakin’ solid and will easily stand up to a bit of rooky ice skating. To that end, after my morning chores in the house I manned myself with a snow shovel, donned my snowshoes and headed down to the creek determined to clear a lil skating patch for us. I’m getting to be quiet decent at shovelling snow so I was happily going about my business, Bear and Sam having accompanied me, were off in the bushes on the far side of the creek, and I was just in the zone. Then all of a sudden…. C   R   A   C  K !!! Not an actual crack in the ice just a loud protestation from the frozen creek! You can bet I replied with a screech of my own; loud enough that Luke poked his head out of the Earthship to see if I was alright? And good thing I was still standing on solid …ice? packed snow? ground? Who knows? Because had I have actually gone through the ice? Once again, there is no way he could have helped! I am fairly confident that the creek is not very deep but it probably has that icky, mucky bottom that I loathe and THAT is what would have killed me! Touching that! Blech! Just thinking about it is making me squeamish!

I have to tell you, after having been …. smothered under thick, heavy blankets of cloud and snow for what seems like forever, we were so excited to see the sun today! And yea, maybe the mercury has stayed below -16C all day but it has been an absolutely glorious day! The thermal mass of the Earthship basked under the long-reaching rays of warmth radiating from the sun. And so as our friend the Sun goes down today we are lounging comfortably in 20C warmth whilst outside it is now getting colder, -18C. And our batts are sitting at 99%!!!! Oh, the power I am going to burn tomorrow! The laundry hamper is overflowing and there is a layer of dust that removes to be moved by a Norwex dusting wand. And tomorrow morning when I wake up long before the day, I am going to turn on a light! And read a real book and not my iPad! Yay. In the slideshow you will see a dark photo with a few pokes of light…that’s how all of my days start if the batts are low. And it is ever so tiresome now. I am going to revel in light in the a.m.!
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Mr. Sun for coming out to play today!

And it wouldn’t be a post from me unless I ended with slideshow, right?
https://youtu.be/b6A2lnmb09M

Monday January 9, 2017

More Snow

Really? I guess we do live in the mountains now and it is to be expected, right? But to be reading on FB that the Valley has been hit with more snow, that’s not so normal, right? I read back in late November, early December that we could expect a Winter of yore this year and I guess for once the pundits were right.

All this snow makes it difficult for the rookie Homesteaders! But it’s good; we know how to plan for next Winter! And let’s face it; Winter is going to be the most challenging out of all the Seasons, right? Though I am thinking early Spring could be a lil challenging as all the snow starts to melt and make molten lava cakes out of our lane, that bit of road down at…Murray Taylor Creek? It already looked pretty ominous in the late Fall last year! I am sure that Murray Taylor Creek wants Lake status and is going to eat the “road” up to achieve its life long dream. Truth be told, there is already a Murray Taylor Lake. Why doesn’t the Creek just flow backwards and become one with the lake that is already there??
There are a few other spots along the way that have me a lil worried. Oh, I know. A regular truck simply will not do! To live here and have full, year round mobility one must have a vehicle that is part snow-plough, part river-raft and while we’re at it, let’s also give it flying capabilities so we can just fly over the whole mess when it gets too daunting!

To be sure, I am keen to make a trip to the Valley but the snow just keeps falling, both here and there. Now remember we were vehicle-less for many years, all the years it snowed, and there hasn’t been much snow since we returned home in 2010/11. And really, when the snow got to be too much in the Valley you just stayed home. Here’s the thing, I am not a skilled driver when it comes to driving in the white stuff and drive accordingly. It probably drives (haha) other drivers CRAZY! But hey, better safe than sorry, right? My lack of confidence keeps me off the roads and to be honest, Highway 20 is a bit intimidating with all those logging trucks, no centre line, practically zero shoulder, and definitely no shoulder lines… I only drove it once on my own before the snow arrived. Maybe next year I will be better at driving the now scary Highway 20?

The snow that fell last night now needs to be shovelled off the myriad of paths we have created about the Earthship and Luke is working today so I guess I am going to easily get my 10K Steps today! Luke usually knocks off for a lil bit in the late arvo, not too late though as we quickly do a few chores together while there is still daylight. Today’s chore will be laying tracks all the way to Chilko Lake FSR. Groan. Even with the added weight from the boulders we threw in the back of the truck we still seem to have trouble in a few spots. The good news is that there aren’t any real steep embankments up our way; the worst that will happen is we will get the truck stuck and won’t be able to get it unstuck. It hasn’t happened yet so let’s just keep our fingers and toes crossed, hey? Oh, and speaking of the truck, it seems we now have a tire that is losing air!!!! What???? Where does one get that fixed in the boonies? Guess we’ll find out.
We ran the generator yesterday because we were socked in all day before the snow came it. With the generator running Luke surprised me with a small space heater in the kitchen! It didn’t throw off heaps of heat, but just enough to take the chill out of the air. The heater combined with the oven going and soon the kitchen was bearably cold. Meh, once you get busy, moving around and doing things you don’t even notice the cold! We got groceries on Saturday so I had to shift a lot of stuff around to make room for the new arrivals. The day after groceries is usually a big cook day too; cooking all the stuff that sorta, coulda been kept for a while longer but now you don’t need to worry about it. There was leftover Polenta that got fried up into Breakfast Polenta with Blueberry Mandarin Sauce using newly arrived mandarins that already looked worse for wear-you know how it goes when you buy a case of them, right? Then there were a few apples that needed to be cooked up into Apple Sauce, which is now in the “freezer” waiting to be cooked into something amazing! Then there were some potatoes, sweet potatoes and butternut squash that absolutely had to be cooked yesterday so I baked them all off and put them in the “fridge”. I’m thinking a Shepherd’s Pie later this week, making a mash from the roasted veg? Oh, I tried to make Whipped Coconut Cream to go with the Blueberry Mandarin Sauce and Fried Polenta but it didn’t really work so I used that up in a Lemon Poppyseed Bundt Cake! And finally, last weeks Gastropost Vancouver challenge was Tacos so I made Indian Tacos for Lupper. I’ll tell you what; all that cooking generates A LOT of dishes!!! I easily hit 10K Steps without even stepping out of the kitchen yesterday!!

So today is Monday. Happy Monday! We are socked in again today and it is trying really hard to snow but at the same time the Sun is behind the clouds battling to make his presence known; let’s see who wins this battle. I’ll tell you what; it’s absolutely beautiful out there! Yes, the snow is an inconvenience but we have everything we need to stay warm and comfortable in our lil abode. And we really are quite happy with where we are; we just need to be better prepared for next year, next Winter. You know, you read articles where people just pack up and leave the rat race behind not really knowing what to expect. That’s part of the challenge of living, right? To NOT always know what the next moment will bring. It challenges you to really be alive, to really experience each and every moment.

And so now, I leave you, for I am heading outside to live, in the moment!

Cheers!
p.s. It’s snowing 😛
Oh, and I’ll leave you with a few pics!
https://youtu.be/SkV-B154Ht8

Today the Sun got up with me but he seems pretty determined to snuggle under that big, thick grey blankie of his!  Not sure why he doesn’t want to get up? If it’s because he is cold, doesn’t he realize that if HE gets up and shines bright then we’ll all be a lil bit warmer?? Silly ol’ Sun! To combat the cold this morn I did light a fire at 5:00a.m. I was trying so hard to stay warm without lighting a fire! I snuggled into the recliner is layers of clothes, big fluffy sox, a hoody pulled over my head to keep in what warmth I managed to generate and a fluffy fleece blankie to no avail! Cold still managed to creep into my bones so I made the executive decision to go ahead and light that fire! Come on, baby, light [that]fire! That’s a song, right? Even with a fire going, it took forever to heat the loungeroom. In going to the kitchen I saw that the outside temp was reading -13C and inside a chilly 11C. Ever so slightly warmer than yesterday, if you can call those temps “warm”.
Right. Well, I do have the power to warm up the kitchen for a lil bit by baking something yummy and then opening the oven door once the product is ready. It just so happens that as I was freezing my buns off in front of the fire I came across a recipe for Blueberry Almond Scones. Now, please understand; it’s dark out, my bones ache from the cold and lack of sleep, the kitchen is even colder than the rest of the house and I am willingly going up there? SMH (Shake My Head) But I also know that if I get moving then I will work out the aches in my joints and will warm up in the process! Plus we’ll have something yummy for breakfast! Win/win situation, if you ask me!

East doesn’t get a mention because, well, the blue sky forgot to show up in the East today!

Onward! I took my aching self up to the kitchen an set about warming the place up! In the barely dawn of (7a.m.) morning I set about throwing together the ingredients for Blueberry Almond Scones, only having to light a candle so I could read the numbers on my kitchen scale. I’ve been making scones for as long as I can remember and I’m pretty sure I can make them in the dark! Had I have pre-scaled the butter last night I would have been good to go! Obviously my favourite part about making these scones was that I got to turn the oven on! Once the scones were tucked into the pre-heated oven I got started on the Breakfast Polenta; thought I would run with the Blueberry theme this morn and nothing goes better, in my opinion, than Blueberries and Polenta. What’s Polenta, you ask? A cooked cornmeal cereal that is quite versatile; you can change it up depending on what liquid you cook it in;(I used Almond Milk this morn) change it up with extracts, with add-ins; you can make it savoury or sweet. This morning my brain was still half frozen so I forgot to add sweetener but did add a dollop of Coconut Oil and Vanilla for flavour. See? I did say “half frozen”. Besides, the frozen berries that I used to top the Polenta always seem a lil sweet to me? The oven and the boiling liquid had achieved what I had set out to do, warm up the kitchen. Alas the warmth did not last for the duration of my writing session! And now I’m freezing again so I think I’m going to head downstairs to warm up in front of the fire before heading out for a walk with Bear and Sam.

Before I go, I will leave you with a pic of the wonderful HOT breakfast that we had this morning that warmed our insides and our lovely lil kitchen.

First off, Yay! Fitbit is telling me I got 8 hours sleep last night and I LOVE that! I was just saying to Luke last night that I thought I had reached my capacity for sleepless nights and yesterday I posted on FB that I felt I had an 8 hour sleep just around the corner! That said, I still feel very tired today but as Luke always says, a single 8 hour sleep is not going to render me ready and raring to go after weeks of sleepless nights. Taking that into consideration I decided to have a quiet day today. The problem that I have with “quiet” days is that I don’t get 10,000 Steps in! Currently sitting at 5,316 Steps and I haven’t left the house except to go to the dunny this morn.

Anyway, I came up to the kitchen to get stuck into my 15 minute writing sesh; that was over 2 hours ago! I started clearing off my table in the office yesterday; some of the paper and stuff ended up on my office bench in my kitchen and I looked at that pile of crap numerous times yesterday thinking that I had to find time to get it sorted out. Well, heh, it was the first thing in my line of vision when I came up to write so I tackled that instead of writing. In finding homes for that pile of stuff a bunch of other stuff became homeless so that in turn got me stuck into sorting out the “office” drawers in the kitchen. And that in turn rendered some of my kitchen stuff homeless! I’ve spent the morning scrambling to find everything new homes.

One of the boxes that I dumped out contained old photos. Brought a smile and tear to my heart. S’all good! I now have a lovely family photo of Anita and her family on my fridge where Krick and her boys were…are…reigning supreme! I think Anita’s family photo was actually taken at Krick’s wedding! I also came across a card that Anita sent me when I was living in Australia and since it is a picture of a lovely lil faerie digging in a cookie jar I thought it should get a frame and live in my kitchen. In fact, I came across a lot of lil notes that Anita has sent me over the years; a lot of old Mother’s Day cards and they, like the old photos, always bring a smile and a tear to my heart. Anita, after all, is my first born. The first born always captures a special spot in a mother’s heart, right? Now I know that every mother thinks that HER child is unique but you know, I had so many people tell me that Anita was unique. So many people! I suppose that is largely due to the fact that she was surrounded by adults! I was living at home with my family when she was born, my 3 brothers, 2 older, 1 younger, my lil sister and my parents; everyone wanted to take her everywhere! I went back to school after Anita was born so she spent a lot of time hanging out with my parents, hence Anita’s close connection with her Grandma; but that’s a story for another time…
Anita also spent heaps of time with my Dad. I think he had a back injury shortly after she was born and wasn’t working a lot. He WAS working on being sober. He went to countless AA meetings and if he was on Anita duty, he just took her with him. And my brothers were also attending meetings back then too. I’m not sure if they took Anita with them? Could be. Anyway, one time I came home from work at Towne Cinema (only 2 screens back then) and was told a rather adorable story:
Mother and Dad had gone out to a meeting and taken Anita with them. Now I don’t know if you have been to an AA meeting but it follows a set procedure and one of the final things they do before closing with the Serenity Prayer is to ask if anyone else has anything to share? Well, my darling 2 year old Anita marched up to the podium and declared, ” Hi, I’m Anita and I’m a lil girl alcoholic!” I don’t know if she followed that statement up with any qualifying stories but she was crowned the Cutie of Kinghaven!

The Universe works in mysterious ways, hey? I had a lovely Messenger chat with Anita the other day and then yesterday/today the Universe dumped her in my lap. I am eternally thankful for my beautiful daughter, Anita. Thanks Universe for bringing the two of us together! I have always loved being her Maman. Sure it got challenging when she was a teenager but tell me what teenager hasn’t driven their parents crazy at some point in their lives and I’ll award you with ….”1 millllllllllllion dollars!” (said in my best Dr. Evil voice)

Peace out, folks
Remember to hug your kids! And your parents, if you are lucky enough to still have them around. And if you do but they are far away? Give ’em a call!

So it snowed heaps yesterday. It started snowing in the late morning, early afternoon…sometime after Luke and Sammy’s fall through the ice. Oh, you didn’t hear about that? Yea, Luke and Sammy fell through the ice when we were out snowshoeing on New Year’s Eve. We had decided that we were finally going to go and discover Casselman Creek! Bear was well rested and had not been out much so he was in good stead to go for a walk; Bear is usually the reason our adventures are cut short these days as he doesn’t seem to cope with the cold weather despite that thick furry coat of his! Sammy, short-haired lil fella is game to go ANYTIME, anywhere on the condition that we move really FAST!

Anyway, we set out, actually a lil braver than we have been in the past and walked hmmm…20 metres away from the creeks’ edge; as we got closer to Casselman Creek the ice we were walking on made a huge cracking sound so we headed closer in to the shore and stuck to the shoreline thereafter and a good thing to because as we progressed up Casselman slush started to appear in our tracks. You know me, I got up onto shore and continued on, trailing behind Luke, Bear and Sammy. To my horror, I watched first Luke fall through the ice and then lil Sammy! Lucky that Luke was close to the shore and got away with just one foot fully immersed in the cold, mucky, icky, sticky sludge. Sammy was a few metres away from Luke but he also went through the ice and the lil fella panicked like crazy! I seriously thought I was going to have to throw myself onto the ice and fish him out; he was out a lil deeper than Luke and his lil legs couldn’t touch the creek bottom. My heart was in my throat as I watched my poor lil guy struggle. To be sure, all of this transpired over a 3 minute period but still…
Lesson learned! Well, I was already pretty cautious but Luke is a bit more of a dare devil! HE learned his lesson. On our way back home we stuck to the actual shore along Casselman Creek, stuck to the lakes’ edge until we got to Brittany Creek and then got a lil more daring again-we have been traversing up, down, over…not under…Brittany Creek for weeks!  We got into the house, laid out Bear’s bed in the loungeroom in front of the fire where Sammy recuperated from his encounter with the icy cold waters of Casselman Creek. Bear was a lil jealous of all the attention Sammy was getting so Luke rubbed soothing ointment into Bear’s paws; Bear, satisfied!
I was going to share with you the link that Luke went to regarding rules for frozen bodies of water bearing activity but he was all over the map in his research! One of the things that he read is that closer to the shore is actually more unstable so that’s kind of freaky! That’s where we tend to stick to; having said that, at least if we do get into trouble at least the water is not deep and we will be able to get ourselves sorted out pretty quickly. Imagine if that break through the ice had occurred in the middle of Brittany Lake!! The outcome may have, probably would have been more than just a wet boot and a wet dog!

Enough about that. On Wednesday last we took a lil drive to Anahim Lake. Curiosity I reckon. And Luke needed fuel for the chainsaw(s) and the generator. And he had been poking around the internet and found they had a couple of “trading posts” there. So off we went! Chains on the truck, and good thing to because getting out was a lil hairy in some spots! So what is it? We have a kilometre long lane to the Earthship from Casselman Raod; don’t get excited, it’s not a road in the sense you are used to- it’s really just a dirt track in between countless pine saplings, some tottering trees that survived the forest fire of 2012 ( I think that’s when it was) Wait! I have the internet!
Okay, I looked it up and it was in 2003 and if you feel like reading about it, do so here:
http://fonv.ca/media/research/Roads_To_Nowhere.pdf
I liked the title, Roads to No Where and that is where we live! And there are a few pics on the document and darn it, they look like our road!!! A rough track through the forest! So have I told you about how to get here?  Well, let me reverse tell you, all up it is the aforementioned 1 km up our lane, 3-ish km along Casselman Road, 10-ish km along Chilko Lake FSR, 30-ish km along Tatlayoko Lake Road and there you have it. But here, let me tell you, in more detail about the route to our place.
You take Highway 20 to just before Tatla Lake, turn left off the highway onto a narrow paved road which quickly turns into a lovely maintained dirt road; I don’t know the names of the roads which is largely due to the fact that I assume these dirt roads don’t have names! (In rereading this post, it turns out I do seem to know the names of the roads!) Anyway, follow that lovely dirt road for about 30 kms then cross over “the big bridge” as it was first described to us; for you folks back home, it’s like the bridge you cross over on your way up to Cheam. Or that lil bridge over Chipmunk Creek. Oh, I know;  not quite as big as the bridge over the Chehalis River! Got me? Okay, so that big bridge is over the Chilko River which is where we go to get our drinking water.

Oh, I forgot to tell you to turn left at the Cochin Refuse tip sign. Luke says there is a sign that says Chilko Lake, Tsuniah Lake….humph…that sign has eluded me? I don’t recall it at all! Guess that is why I was so freaked out the one time I did the drive to William’s Lake by myself! Luke didn’t give me any road names he just said turn right here, turn left there, follow that road until….Anyway, then you go along the Chilko Lake FSR for 10 km before turning left onto Cassleman Road and that’s where things get dodgy.  And DON’T forget to turn here or you end up on an…adventurous drive toward Tsuniah Lake with only sketchy places to turn around.  Casselman Road  is a really rough road and I think it must be Murray Taylor Creek that looks like it is just biding its time before it swallows the road! So not looking forward to the Spring thaw. (Dethaw, according to Luke) Righty, so you travel along Casselman Road for about 3 km and then there is a left turn; there’s not much of a chance you will miss this turn because to continue straight along you would want a beaten and battered off road vehicle that you would trust to get you anywhere – if you’re not driving something like that, you won’t even consider going straight!  Ah, but the lane to our place? Holy crap, it is rough as guts! We will do our best to tame the wild beast as time and weather permits over the Spring, Summer and Fall of 2017 in order to entice more of you to come and visit. Oh, and when you do visit, don’t be surprised if we throw a pick, shovel, D-saw or hammer and nails into your hands and put you to work; I promise, you will be well fed…on the groceries you will deliver to us…and we will have somewhere comfy to sleep and you will sleep well! Oh, our lane is 1 km of teeth jarring expanse you will be happy to be over and you WON’T want to leave once you get here because, well, you will have to driver over that!
hmmm…a comparable, rough as guts FSR that you might be able to relate to? The upper reaches of the drive to Cheam but minus the ditches, except for that Murray Taylor bit but it’s not so much a ditch as it a drive through a gigantic puddle, and there isn’t a grade to speak of. Hope that helps you put it into perspective. The previous owner told us we would likely enjoy the drive more during the snowy Winter and while it can be dodgy, he was definitely right about that ! It seems to be heaps more easy to drive on the compact snow!

Well, now that you know what our lil drive from Highway 20 is like you can better comprehend why we don’t venture out that often! But I digress; our trip to Anahim Lake. So the Trading Post we pulled into was a rustic place, popular as, though! Luke filled the truck with fuel as well as filling the chainsaw jerry cans with premium petrol. While Luke was out pumping fuel I ambled through the 4 aisles in the shop, picking up this and that which eventually led to my having to search out their adorable lil shopping trolleys!  I was completely delighted to find a small assortment of fresh produce; a big deal to a Vegetarian! They also had a limited supply of deli meats which I got for Luke; a very limited choice of cheese from which I selected a marble cheese as we already had cheddar, havarti and mozza at home; I picked up their last case of mandarin oranges!!! Oh, yum! They also had a single litre of eggnog left which I knew Luke would totally appreciate! So we spent a few dollars at the Trading Post and you know what? It was fun!
On our way back we had to stop in a Nimpo Lake Trading Post as Anahim didn’t have any distilled water which Luke needed to fill the batts. I went in to the store with Luke; big mistake! I remembered all the things I like to have on New Year’s Eve so I picked up olives, kalamata olives, Triscuits, Socialbles, Sweet Pickles…okay, salivating now just writing about my New Year’s fare!

The Charcuterie Board I was able to build with ingredients bought at Anahim and Nimpo Lakes Trading Posts. I won’t tell you how much I spent but I will tell you it took us 8 hours to drive there and back again! But well worth it!

I have so much more to tell you about but like I said at the beginning of this post, it snowed heaps last night and all our hard work removing snow has been rendered undone! Luke is out there shovelling like crazy but I suppose I better man another shovel and give him a hand. Besides it’ll rack up my Steps quickly! Oh, and to your delight or chagrin, one of my New Year’s resolutions is to write more.

Until next time, folks, Peace out!

So, I am going to be quite frank with you. This was not an easy Christmas to get through and it wasn’t just because we lost so many famous people this year and the news of Carrie Fisher’s heart attack super fresh was just a stark reminder that we are ALL mortal.

I know that I know that I knew that it would be tough to be away from family, again, for Christmas. But, I guess I didn’t know how difficult it would be. And here’s another thing, and I’m not complaining, not at all, but it is bloody…deafeningly…quiet here! You sort of get stuck hearing that bloody voice in your head because there isn’t any other noise to drown the F#$%@er out! But, on the plus side, sometimes that F#$%er has some pretty decent things to say too. And stuff that makes sense even if you don’t want it to make sense. Get me? It’s about finding that peace, isn’t it? The peace within that will match the peace without. And isn’t that kind of what Christmas is all about? Peace and goodwill to all? Well, you can’t give peace to others if you don’t have it yourself. One can always pretend to have inner peace and talk the talk but until you actually WALK the talk, you haven’t really found peace. Sorry.

So why come to an isolated place like Brittany Lake? I have to tell you, I know there is peace here. Not just physical peace – in case you have forgotten, we are in the middle of freakin’ no where! But there is psychological peace to be found here too. You’ve heard the story:  I now live right over the mountain from my first childhood home, the first home I have memories of and they were all good. Well, almost all good but I don’t want to shatter the dream just yet. It is here that I can hear the thoughts, hopes and dreams of that lil girl and I can help her to make some of her fairytale come true, right? And that is a damn good reason to live in the middle of freakin’ no where with an amazing husband who has the fortitude to live in isolation with me. And our dogs. Who deserve to live the life a dog was meant to live, not cooped up in some bare land strata where they were chastised for barking now and again. And our quiet kitty, Billabong. I know I don’t talk about him much, but he’s here and he is being a good mouser and he can even be cuddly, from time to time. I think that is a secret though so don’t let on that I told you.

Anyway. Christmas Eve was great! I spent the day in the kitchen cooking far too much. Luke did some chores after getting off work early and even brought in the cutest lil Christmas tree! And it snowed. All day long. So I don’t really know why I bothered to cook because the truth of the matter is that we would not be going to the Christmas social that our neighbours had invited us to.
Christmas Day, it all came crashing down. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was the Cold Room. It has been finicky since we arrived. Not keeping stuff cold, keeping stuff too cold so I bought frozen stuff! Now it isn’t keeping stuff frozen but it is freezing the fresh stuff. I just want to bang my head on the Cold Room door until the answer miraculously comes to me! So with food gone off, AGAIN, there wasn’t a lot to cook for a Christmas Dinner so I just didn’t. And that was my downfall. You and I both know that the kitchen is where I find my comfort. I should have just cooked something, anything, anything at all to keep the Blues away. But the Blues came crashing in. Buggers. Christmas Day was VERY quiet. For me. Luke kept himself busy doing household chores. Very busy.
By late afternoon I was pretty fed up with  myself so I strapped on my snow shoes and went for a walk. Alone. On the frozen lake. And it was windy. And snowing. And it was enough to blow the Blues away. And I found a tree full of Whiskey Jacks. I sat with them for a lil while. We had a talk about …. stuff. They’re great listeners!.

Boxing Day was a whole new day. The sun came out! So yes, maybe Luke didn’t need to run the generator on Christmas Day but if there is one thing you can never be certain about, it is the weather at Brittany Lake! I collect weather from three surrounding weather stations and not one of them ever seems to coincide with the weather that we have. It’s a phenomenon! Oh, as I walked up to the dunny that morning, all the snow slid off the roof of said dunny. Upon entering it, I noticed that that last wind storm had done some damage; there was only one screw holding the back of the roof down!!! Anyway, just thought I would mention that in passing. I went into the house, told Luke about the situation and then I went to the kitchen and made a couple of lil bird feeders; I knew there was a reason we had packed 2 kg of bird seed with us to Brittany Lake! Bird feeders in hand, I strapped on my snow shoes and away I went to find the Whiskey Jacks. Bear and Sam came with me and maybe that is why I didn’t see a single one. Not to be disheartened, I placed the bird feeders in a couple of trees and headed back home. Just as we got to the trail to the house we saw Luke heading down; guess we were going for another walk! Brought Luke down to the Whiskey Jack Tree which is just beyond Swan Spit. And then Luke did a brave thing-he crossed over the lake! Right there! I always sort of head back to the mouth of the lake where it is narrower and I am more certain that the  lake is actually frozen there. I was slow to follow but when I saw Luke, Bear and Sam clustered together out there I thought their 500 combined pounds versus lil ol’ me? I took a chance and I am here typing to you today so obvs it went well. We really wanted to go and do some exploring up Cassleman Creek but Bear’s health is not the greatest these days so he dictates what we can and cannot do. Anyway, we turned around and came back home, this time along the edge of the lake and creek, like I’m used to.

We came into the house and I made us some hot drinks to warm up and was happily fussing around in the kitchen, talking to myself as I worked. Honestly a cuss word or two may have slipped out and I said to Luke, “Hey. I’m feeling heaps better; I even said a few swears!” We laughed.

Today, I will just leave you with a few pictures of our snow covered oasis. If the dang wind would let up, the trees look so pretty when they are covered in snow! Oh, but we like the wind! It tops up our batts!

https://youtu.be/C6rsr4bN-SE

We have well and truly been tested moving into the Earthship at this time of the year. And we have heard from a few locals that this is the wettest Fall they have had in years and years and years. And the blowiest! Oh my, there was that big storm a number of weeks ago that felled a gazillion trees and then about a week and a half ago we had another big blow. An appraiser was heading out to check over the property so we were meant to go and check for blowdowns last weekend; we were thankful to have not encountered any! Which is not to say that there weren’t new blowdowns, just someone else tended to them! On our drive out we ran into our “neighbour” – he hails from just this side of Henry’s Crossing (Chilko River where we get our drinking water); he was over at the fork in the road, ready to go and check it out as he will soon be moving his cattle up here. He said he has about 100 of the fellas who will feed off the land until they clean the place out and then he will move them along. It will be interesting to see how Bear and Sam go with having some four-legged neighbours.

Oh, speaking of four-legged neighbours: we have seen a wolf and a few coyotes. The wolf was brazen as! Just standing there on the frozen creek, looking up at us, checking us out. He wasn’t very quick to move along either and when he did he only went over to the other side of the creek and had a lil play in the long grasses. Well, I suppose he could have been hunting some small critter, but really, with our cold temps these days, who would be out in the cold?? Luke actually got out his big ol’ gun and fired a few shots into the ice to let the fella know that while we don’t mind him being here he mustn’t mess with Bear and Sam. Meh, Wolf was not the least bit phased by the gunshots. But, nor have we seen him since. I only hope that he has not seen us since either!

The coyotes? They entered the creek up in the Dead Marshes then ran along the creek out onto the lake. They weren’t quick about it either. They stopped, practically in front of the Earthship, had a lil tousle before carrying on. We haven’t seen the pair of them since that but have seen a lone coyote playing/hunting out in the Dead Marshes. I wonder where his den is located? Over by the old barn? In the tumbledown forest just off the Dead Marshes? Curious to know where he lives but not curious enough to go and look.

So yes, has that wolf seen us and us not him? To that effect we have started clearing along the Goat Fence that surrounds the Earthship. I went back to see what Luke was up to and asked him if we should maybe start a fire? He said, “Yea, that’d be good but there’s no way you’ll get a fire going with all the snow covering everything.” Perhaps he failed to realize just how tinder dry everything is under that dusting of snow? Four pieces of paper later and I had a roaring fire going!  The great thing about the stuff that needs to be burned is that they have all these spindly fingers of kindling protruding off them that are all too quick to be consumed by the fire! Just have to manage the fire, keep pushing the branches farther in as the spindly ends are consumed. I have discovered that I love making fires! I absolutely love how they sound and they smell pretty lovely when the lil lodgepole pine saplings are heaped on. Sorry, lil pines, but there are far too many of you for all of you to grow to maturity.

The week following that was pretty quiet with Luke and I each tending to our daily routines. Luke working at the computer, me nagging at Luke to get back to the computer and get to work and worst of all, after dinner, asking Luke how much more work he has to do at the computer before he can call it a day? He grumbles at me but dutifully goes back to work, in the dark, because let’s face it; Mr. Sun has not been our friend.  When we don’t get any sunshine we really have to conserve energy.  In the last post you will recall that we have decided to have our big meal of the day in the afternoon? I’m so glad we made that change to our day; it’s kind of…depressing…doing the dishes in the dark.If the sun does not show up at all then it is too dark to do much of anything by 4:30! So, so, so dark! If the Batts are in the 80’s then we are in for a candlelit evening in front of the fire. Well, I get to sit by the fire; Luke’s visage is illuminated from the glow of his computer screen!

Last weekend saw the beginning of Christmas baking but whom am I kidding? Who is going to eat everything? Think I’ll just stop…right after I make Rum Balls. Oh, and my Christmas baking was rudely interrupted by EVERYTHING in the Cold Room freezing! I had to cook everything up! Silver lining? I haven’t really had to cook any meals since then. I made Cream of Celery Soup, Butternut Squash Soup, which was an interesting experience: I “roasted” the squash, wrapped in foil, on the wood stove; it did a great job of it! What else? Oh yea, a great big batch of Vegetarian Bolognese using up every bit of vegetable I had in the Cold Room.  There was also a great big bag of carrots so I broke down and made Carrot Cake!!! Well, Carrot Cupcakes complete with Cream Cheese Frosting and boy, are they good! Now that everything is cooked up they are all happily chillin’ out in the Cold Room again. Literally, chilling! And any Christmas baking done up to now is also out there, freezing. The one awesome thing about the Cold Room freezing is that next shop at the Big Smoke I am going to buy TONNES of frozen berries and frozen peas! Tonnes! Okay, maybe not tonnes, but A LOT! I find myself really missing fresh fruit. I know frozen fruit isn’t “fresh” but it’s fruit! You may be assured that I will also buy as much real fresh fruit as I possibly can! Meh, if I buy too much fresh stuff, I can just cook it up into something, right?

Nice seque onto the Greenhouse. Much to my chagrin, things are not going so well in there: some of the plants are covered in aphids, the cauliflower froze to death, some of the herbs are beginning to protest the freezing cold temps, and Billabong thought “Wow! Now that’s a big kitty litter!” But, despite all that we had a salad from our fresh outta the Greenhouse Garden yesterday and it was good. To be fair, I certainly would not qualify myself as an expert gardener; in fact, back in the Valley, I barely managed to keep my kitchen herbs alive! It’s all a learning curve, folks. I’m sure I will learn to maintain a garden to the same degree that I am able to build a fire out of just about anything; at least that is my hope. I have googled how to get rid of the aphids, which reminds me, I have to look it up again to make sure we get the required ingredients for the magic potion that will rid my poor lil plants of their blight. I might also mention that the lil fellas are FREEZING! Last night I went to bed and had a much-needed sleep but for the three nights prior I was getting up at midnight and keeping a fire going for the plants, all night long. Now just because I was up all night did not mean I got to sleep all day…still stuff to do! Luke put his foot down one day and told me to SLEEP but it just didn’t work. Oh, dear…that was the day…

You see, Luke should not ought be bossy about me sleeping; it leads to nothing but trouble. I’ll sleep when I need to, thanks very much. After spending hours in bed, trying and trying to sleep, watching boring movies on my 2003 iBook…just going to let that set in…my 2003 iBook, back when Apple cared about their customers and built things to last! Anyway, Andrew Webber’s Phantom of the Opera was my chosen lullaby but it didn’t work. So, unable to sleep, I got up and made like I was headed to the dunny but really, I went and started one of my most impressive fires to date! Luke eventually came looking for me and quickly got stuck into piling debris onto the fire. Now, you need to understand some stuff: the ground is covered in a thin layer of snow, not so thin you can see the ground, but not so thick that you can’t see the ground-you with me?; there are long, spindly branches EVERYWHERE; there are rocks everywhere-big ones, lil ones, pointy ones, smooth ones; loose ones, ones frozen to the ground- now normally I love rocks but these ones, so far, have been nothing but a nuisance and a …DANGER!

Those long spindly branches could be just that, a branch or they might be the long spindly top of a bigger, but not so big, tree. Normally I just pick up the spindly end of the tree and walk it along to the fire; it’s how I do my upper body work. Okay, this one tree in particular was a bit frozen to the ground on the root end so I thought Luke and I might be able to tackle it together, right? Well, Luke tried to maneuver it on his own and he was doing fine until he got tripped up by a hidden rock!!!!! Luke lay splayed out on the ground, pinned under the tree he was trying to move, writhing in pain, which I could deal with but when he stopped moving and wouldn’t answer me I got a bit worried. Oh, and my first aide instructors should know that had that have been my final practical exam? I would have freakin’ failed!  Luke’s internal fracture (had he had one) would have been jutting outta his skin by the time I was done tending to him! Florence Nightingale, I am not! Sorry, mate. Anyway, Luke was finally able to get up and my best help was giving him my alpine poles so he could hobble back to the Earthship; good thing the accident occurred in the top quarter of the orchard! Literally, 100 steps from accident site to the door; we got Luke inside and the first thing I could think of was, he needs an ice pack! But we don’t have any ice!!!! Luke calmly pointed out that there was an abundance of snow outside that could be made into an ice pack. Obviously the shock was getting to me, not Luke. I got Luke settled with an ice-pack, elevated his leg, gave him the strongest drugs I could find in the house, gave him a shot of my precious Bundy Rum (used for baking only…and now, medicinal purposes) and to calm myself, went back outside to do Luke’s chores otherwise we were going to freeze that night!  And just to make sure that tree did not threaten our health again, I went over and showed the bloody thing what-for! Okay, Luke got it pretty close to the fire but I still had to do some manhandling to get it on the fire. Unlike Luke though, I am very careful about where to put my feet-you fall once in your lifetime and injure your tailbone and you forevermore watch where to put your feet. That tree is now ashes and Luke’s knee is on the mend.

It’s a good thing Luke’s knee is on the mend because he really HAD to get outside this weekend to cut more firewood as the temps are really starting to drop. I don’t think we have seen the upside of -10C this past week. Now we don’t mind the cold so much because we have a lovely fire to keep us warm and sometimes the Sun does poke out and warms us through and through….too thoroughly, really. It can be -20C outside and 26C inside! And when I am in the kitchen, cooking up everything the weather has frozen, it gets uncomfortably HOT. One day when I was in the thick of cooking, sweating like crazy, I simply had to strip off! The rest of the day was spent cooking in a nighty! Luke dared me to go outside, dressed only in my nightly and my kitchen clogs- I gladly accepted the dare and stepped outside to COOL DOWN! I didn’t find it the least bit disagreeable and even went up to the Crow’s Nest to snap a few photos of the sunset.

Anyway, so we humans are coping well enough with the cold temps. Bear and Sam have let it be known that they are not huge fans of the cold. Their paws get too cold. We do what we can for them but honestly, it won’t improve until they get lil booties; on the list for our next trip to the Big Smoke. At least Bear has a lovely thick fur coat whereas Sammy has short hair, which he seems to throw off with every step he takes! I have printed off a pattern for a knitted jumper for him, and we’ll get him a lil coat too, one that will keep him warm and dry on our walks. Which they still enjoy! Despite the cold! Yesterday we walked along the creek, then the lake’s edge to Casstleman Creek. We would have gone farther but the dogs’ paws probably needed a thawing out and we heard a vehicle so we thought we would head back.  The dogs were thankful to warm their paws but went out again as quick as they could; they love being outside! And the vehicle? Who knows? Our neighbour dropping off his cattle? That’s what we thought but we haven’t seen any cattle, so who knows. I do wish people would drop in and take some of this baking off our hands. Clearly I am going to have to see if I can get on in a kitchen at one of the nearby resorts.

Oh yea, the cold temps.  So yea, that froze then drainpipe out of the grey water pond. Which means we have had to be extra careful of our water consumption. To be sure, we can still USE water but that also means we have to empty the pond, by hand and I can tell you that a) buckets of water are heavy b) buckets of water can splash c) grey water smells bad. S’all good though, Luke rummaged about in the sheds and he has fashioned a system that will drain the pond for us. We’ll have to properly sort the current system our come Spring.

And I already told you about the Cold Room freezing over, so there it is.

I can say, we are both looking forward to a trip to William’s Lake in the, hopefully, upcoming week so we can replenish our supplies. You can be sure I am going to stockpile coffee, almond milk, coconut milk and McCormick’s Stock like there’s no tomorrow! And as much fresh fruit as I think we can safely keep for 4 weeks!

Luke is looking forward to Surplus Herby’s and all that they have to offer. He is also going to look for a lil lady sized power saw and a lil ….hmmm….gun of some sort for me. Not that I think I could ever shoot an animal; especially since we truly are in THEIR home but I suppose I could shoot off a round or two to try and frighten off an animal. If nothing else, Luke would be alerted to the fact that Bear, Sam and I are in trouble.

Oh, and finally? I am looking forward to a trip to William’s Lake so I can have a LONG, HOT Bath!!!!!!

Until next time then!

Cheers!
I’ll leave you with a few photos…

So I notice, as you probably have too, that I have been a little quiet here on the blog-site? You must be wondering what we have been up to?

So, since our last walk across the Dead Marshes we haven’t done a lot of exploring until yesterday. Our days have been pretty low key; get up, pray to the sun gods, make a fire, tend the fire, make coffee when the clock finally signals that it is no longer an ungodly hour to perform said task; wait, wait, wait until Luke and the dogs get up; celebrate their waking by making breakfast! Go out with the dogs for a lil scout about the place. Then, make a great big, fat fire!!!

After the morning routine I’ll go out and putter around in the orchard, clearing up some deadfall, clip down some lil fellas; there are far too many of them to allow them to grow. Well, truth is, they are growing so tightly together they would never amount to anything anyway so off to the fire with them. A few select pines will be allowed to remain, ones that are already established but the rest have to make way for fruit trees. I have lately been thinking that I might also put in some raspberry-type bushes, blueberry, gooseberry, currant bushes- we’ll have to see what the soil is like and what it will support. And whilst Lumberjack Luke is cutting down trees, we will have to collect a fat lot of them to build us a fence to keep Mother Nature’s critters out of the orchard. Somehow I don’t think Bear and Sam’s ritual Bark-a-Thons will keep the animals at bay.

As I mentioned, we often, well, daily actually, pray for sunshine! Even if, as dawn grows to day and the stars fade away to a bright blue sky, we still have to pray to the sun gods as we have discovered that those bright blue mornings mean absolutely nothing! A blink of an eye and the clouds, appearing out of no where, sock us in! Then again, other mornings we get up to gloom and doom and then VOILA, brilliant sunshine! So we have learned to live with what we get, moment by moment. And what and how we do things really is determined by the sun. I posted on Facebook this morning that I would love Mr. Sun to stick around long enough to dry the load of laundry that has been hanging since our last sunny day which was…bah! I can’t even remember when it was!  Oh…shhhhh…there is Mr. Sun now, poking out over in the south east! We mustn’t scare him off…I’ll type a lil quieter now, if that’s alright with you?

So yea, that’s a big thing; when to do laundry. Or as is the case, when NOT to do laundry. Next trip to the Big Smoke and we are going to have to invest in more socks and underwear!  And I know that using the shower uses fuel but I think both of our bodies are making a stand and demanding a return to daily showers! Another big consideration is how to cook. If the sun is shining I am free to use any of the lovely electrical small appliances stacked up in my “appliance garage” and the cooking is free and easy! Well, almost; there is still the matter of all the washing up and let me tell you, when I get to cooking/baking, there is scads of washing up to be done! If Mr. Sun does not grace us with his presence then I use the stove and burn precious fuel; I try to keep stove-top cooking to a minimum but, truth be told, I find that a bit….no, a lot…difficult. You see, cooking/baking is WHAT I DO. It is what keeps me sane. It is what I LOVE to do. Okay, as I typed that a thought went fleeting through me head: “I’m going to have to find a new hobby to keep me sane” and I think I have an idea what it might be! I’ll tell you about that in a minute but first I HAVE to tell you about the Lunch I cooked yesterday. Oh yea, we have decided that large meals will be at Lunch Time which allows me to cook by daylight and not candlelight; my eyes will thank that decision! Right, Okay, so people on Facebook have been posting Sweet and Sour This and Sweet and Sour That; I can’t even tell you the last time I had Sweet and Sour Anything! One of the pitfalls of being a Vegetarian in a non-Vegetarian world. So I googled it. And folks? Yesterday I made absolutely delicious Sweet and Sour “Meatballs” using Chick Peas. Which also afforded me the opportunity to try that aquafaba Meringue recipe I have seen floating around Facebook. What’s aquafaba, you ask? The liquid drained off of the Chick Peas. And yup, the Meringues are AHMAZING, but the Star for the Day was definitely the Sweet and Sour “Meatballs”; I’m salivating just thinking about them!

I have to say, the thing I liked best about the aquafaba Meringues is that they didn’t taste like egg-whites! I don’t even like the smell of egg-whites. I am thinking with aquafaba, French Toast may be back on the Menu after a 36 year absence!!! But first things first, the “meringues”

Okay, went off on a food tangent there! Sorry ’bout that. Nah, I’m not! It’s what I am passionate about. But I digress, I was saying that we had not done a lot of exploring since the Dead Marshes. Well, actually, I have done a lot of scouting on my own, just here by the Earthship- down to the Lake Point, down the front just below the orchard (where I had my last big fire) and along the trail to Moose Hollow. By scouting, I mean, assessing the amount of work that needs to be done to make the dream a reality. Seriously, sometimes I come in from my scouting trips and just curl up on the recliner because I am that exhausted just thinking about it all!
Anyway, yesterday when I got up in the wee, dark ungodly hours of the morn it was snowing. And it was still snowing when everyone else woke up. A lil snow was not going to stop us from going for a walk though. To the Boathouse. We haven’t been over that way in ages. Luke bought a giant D-saw that he has been dying to try out; guess he didn’t like it that much as he left in behind in the Boathouse! I think Luke was scheming the whole time; what he REALLY wanted was to walk around the lake! It HAS been freezing, rather below freezing most days this past week so I reckon the ice is thick enough? To be safe we could just stick close to the edge, right?

What fun! So nice to have finally seen more of the property…I think. Man, I think the blow downs and dead fall around the Earthship was thick, you should see the other side!!!! What a tangled web. I wouldn’t be surprised if Shelob was in residence over on the other side; it did have a bit of an eerie feel to it. Or maybe that was me just being a scaredy cat? I have to admit, the ice didn’t sing out once! Bear thought he ought to give me some grey hairs though since Benny and Alex are no longer in residence to oblige; our dare devil dog would wander out onto the lake! Again, I’m pretty sure it’s frozen solid enough but, well, you  know, Bear is not known for being a lean fella.

Next up? I look forward to the lake being frozen through and through so I can go and check out the lil islands! On that note, I will leave you today with this lil slideshow.

Enjoy!
https://youtu.be/JiWh9KGby0U