This guy stopped by for a quick visit tonight.

I turned 60! I’m not gonna lie,it hurt a little bit! But this amazing gift from my buddies Dallas and Angela and sister Deb eased the pain a lot! I had never been in one and always wanted to. The pilot was so nice and took us on a beautiful tour around Penticton. We went down thru Ellis Canyon and landed on this tiny outcropping. Pretty spectacular! What a fantastic day! Thanks ladies!

Wells BC buildings. These were drawn over the winter with alcohol markers and blending pencils. I LOVE this process and am already working on more! These are for sale at the Frog and are selling well. Blank inside.

We woke up today to about 5 inches of fresh snow and it is still coming down… up to about 8″ now!  This is nuts!

We just realized we missed the old girls last birthday! She was 16 in February. We also missed the cats birthday, April 1st they turned 6. What is going on with us? Forgetting birthdays!

I am going to try and post at least once a month.  I was just faced with the option of shutting down the site and realized how much I really enjoy doing the blogs and how it is so nice to go back and look at the old posts.  I should go back and see how many times over the years I have said this… I’m pretty sure it would be a lot!

I don’t have time to do an update so I will add a few photos for today.

Barry’s Snowboarder painting (sold).  This is his most recent he has done 2 this year already and they have both sold.

The Ace of Clubs – (sold) Also painted this year

Last year he painted this guy… 12 Foot Davis!  (sold)

That’s all I have time for today… see you all soon!

We have had a very mild winter this year. We are just coming out of 6 days of -33 at night and in the -20’s during the day. It is 7pm and it is -16 so that tells us the snap is over. It will only get down to -20 tonight. Before this cold snap we hadn’t see anything colder then -10 overnight an a lot of our days are zero or above. Our snow pack is low, MAYBE 3’ settled on the ground. We also have had snow on the ground since the beginning of October! Very unusual.

Starting the count already! We went to Quesnel this morning and there were 2 moose together past Troll on the side of the road. It looked like Momma and a yearling. We don’t see them too often in the winter. These 2 were belly high in snow with tufts of snow on them. Their dark fur looked so beautiful against the white snow. Such a Canadian scene. I ❤️ moose.

Having lunch today and this little guy showed up on the deck. Jack was in the office. Donn and Lily were asleep in the living room and Mini was a sleep outside in her bed up on the perch. This guy went right up next to Mini, woke her up and the chase was on! The ermine took off towards the miner cabin and gone! Hahaha. We see his tracks coming from the creek. He was so lucky Jack wasn’t home. Cute little guy.

We played outside with no flashlights tonight.

Full moon over Lodge #1

We felt Lily needed a spa day. We booked her into a new place called Lucky Pennys. They gave her the works. While we were waiting for her, we went shopping. She got a new sweater that hugs her bum to keep her extra warm. We got her a new memory foam pad to go under the beautiful super soft blanket we got her from the The Frog. It was so nice picking her up and she was not freaked out. They loved her and obviously she loved them too. She hated all the other places we took her so we didn’t want to take her too often. We felt we were traumatizing our child so we only took her twice a year. Now she will have a spa day every 3 months.

We love our Lily! 💕

(Because we live on Dragon Mountain). The room is not finished but we are living in it and loving it. It has changed our lives in a huge way! We have room to live! We were able to move the fridge into what is now my pantry (the old living room) so the whole house feels so huge! We were able to move some of the shelves and the TV out of the bedroom so even that is very spacious now. The natural light in the living room is amazing and so great for art. I have started drawing on weekends, it had been a while. Very inspirational space!

If it is light out we watch the TV but as soon as it gets dark…

The big screen comes out. This is so awesome!

The pantry is amazing too! I am so much more organized and I am enjoying meal planning so much more. With Covid lockdowns and this new space, I really stocked up this year. Two freezers full to the brim as well. We are in full on hibernation mode!

We have so much more to do to finish this new space and then we will renovate each room. The kitchen will probably be last but it is so much better already and we slowly find better ways to situate things.

The fireplace is good where it is, it used to get so hot in our tiny home but now it seems it’s just the right size. We will find out better once it’s -30 but we are confident it will be cozy in here. We have plans for a ceiling fan in the living room which will really help.

We also did this, it is so pretty. People have told us it’s like a burst of happiness on an otherwise dark corridor. We have a few more buildings to light up.

Can you see Barry?

Everyone loves the big windows ❤️

There are only 2 photos in this collection that do not have a cat in it. Can you find all the cats?

My little baby had a big scrap with something the other night. You can tell by the fang marks it was something bigger then an ermine. She had a bloody nose and her face was all swollen. He tears had a bit of blood in them the first day. She was hurt pretty bad. She didn’t meow for a whole day, it hurt to do anything (she did eat). She had saliva or something smeared all over her and she didn’t even start to clean it up for a day. She is pretty much healed now, she has one wound on her forehead I haven’t been able to look at too closely yet but she is back to herself, a little scarred up and a little more snuggly. The morning it happened there were some big guts on the ground so It looks like either her or Jack ate whatever it was she scrapped with. She did win the fight… little toughie!

The bears are sure getting fat! The leaves are changing colours and their black coat pops off it as a back ground. Such a pretty time of year.

No bear photos but this is my view this morning…

It is pouring rain outside… a perfect time to drywall! We bought this lift second hand so Barry can do it by himself and not have to rush with a rental. He is going to use it as an easel for larger paintings as well so it will get put to good use. SO EXCITED! Life changing!

Boy, everyone sure wakes up fast when there is a weasel running around the house in the morning! Cute little ermine. Barry managed to get it outside. That was a few days ago, this morning Donn’s face is swollen and she has a bloody nose. Must have gotten into a good scrap with something bigger then a mouse… could have been that weasel. There were larger guts on the floor this morning, I think she won the battle. I don’t like this! I don’t want my babies hurt but it’s all apart of living in the wilderness with cats who were hired to keep the rodent population down. I would make a terrible farmer!

We are SO CLOSE to moving in!

It’s been a while! So few critters this year, I’m not sure why. All four of these were this week. I saw the bear at the bottom of the canyon this morning and he was FAT! Fatter then I’ve ever seen this time of year. Good berry season!

She had 18 flowers all together, this photo is 17 flowers. They sure last a long time! I am looking for another one with a different colour, this was so much fun to watch.

So beautiful! The siding will match my office. The black door and windows will really pop! Tomorrow we will pick up insulation, once it is dry walled we will open up to the rest of the house. We will move the pantry into the existing living room until we renovate the kitchen. This will empty out the boot room! We are using the couch from my office for now but we will eventually get something new and comfy. This one is not comfy but tons of pillows help.

We are beyond excited!

Notice the deck is made with 6 boards!!