hydetimes

It sure is a beautiful thing when you open the mail to find chq because another one of Barry’s painting has sold!  Congratulations Barry!  You’re living the dream!  

For those keeping track.  He did 2 versions of this lily, the first smaller one was a gift for his Mom, this one was 14″X11″.  This photo is. The first one, he never gotta photo of the second one framed… Crap!  

Barry’s (step) Dad is not doing well, he has dementia and has been hospitalized with no hope of being discharged.  Barry and Darren drove down to see him, with the plan of stopping at their Mom’s on Mother’s Day to surprise her on their way back home.  While driving from Naniamo to Vernon late Saturday night, Darren grabbed a burger at McDonalds and about half an hour later was extremely ill.  Barry took over driving and got them to Vernon.  Darren was showing all symptoms of food poisoning so Barry took him to the hospital in the morning, they rehydrated him and let him go home.  They spent the day at their Mom’s, Darren in bed all day.  Barry drove them home Monday, Darren was feeling a bit better but still pretty sick.  Tuesday morning Barry became sick… Uh oh!  And I mean sick!!  Brutally sick!  We get a call, Ed, (Barry’s mom’s husband) is sick… Uh oh!  Wednesday… I seem ok.  Thursday it hits me!  And Barry’s Mom!   I have a chronic irritation in my stomach lining so I have every organic trick in the book to settle a tummy and for emergencies, gravol.  I was doing it all and wow, this thing was fierce.  So here I am on Sunday, day 4 and I can barely eat but have been getting out side a bit for the last 2 days.  The worst part, I was supposed to start me new job at the Frog Friday!!  What rotten timing!  Cheryl is being very understanding but I’m upset.  I’ve been waiting for this job to start since last October and now I’m too sick to start on time!  Aaahhhhhh!   This sure made it very clear us how easily an epidemic can start and be spread.  They picked it up from their Step mom who was at the hospital with them in Naniamo then drove up thru the province and likely spread to others they encountered along the way.  We immediately quarantined our selves and are waiting the 7 days that we could be contagious to hopefully not bring it into our community.   Barry is outside weed eating right now so he’s back to himself, his shingles are also gone.  I’m 2 days behind him, I’m looking forward to be healthy again… And starting my new job!  
Stay tuned…

We are not in good shape!  I tore my rotator cuff and Barry has shingles!  Not a very happy family this week.  Fingers crossed for fast recovery for us both (and pray that I haven’t contracted his shingles).   Sigh.  

The kids… 

Mini is always good, she is healthy and smart.  She has become more obedient.  We have taught them to come to a whistle and it’s worked really well.  Took them no time to figure it out and they both come immediately.  Mini used to glance at me when I called her, then she would ignor me.  I didn’t like that!  But she’s very good now.  She is also good about me brushing her.  Took 4 yrs but she comes to me instead of running and hiding.  She’s 10.5 lbs now… Bruiser!!  I love her so much, she’s sweet and cuddly and fun and comical and oh so cute!  
Lily is happy and healthy.  She learned the whistle so fast…  Mostly because she’s never too far away to begin with but my concern was different with Lily.  She chases and a few times she has taken off after a coyote and we’ve had to get her to stop. She would react to yelling but the whistle is working even better.  She stops in her tracks.  She is starting to venture out on her own a bit more and spends time by herself out on the deck more and more.  She hated the groomer so much that we only took her once, I have been cutting her with scissors, it worked but not well.  We finally got a good shear with a 1/2″ blade now we shear her like a sheep.  Works excellent and she is so good, she lets us do what we have to do.  She is a pretty girl.  I need to find her a girly bandanna.   Lily used to jump up a lot when we first got her.  She has learned not to jump up but now she squeals and howls and spins in circles … So cute!  

I am finished at the ski hill for the season.  I enjoyed working there but I’m happy to get my weekends back for a few months before I go onto my next gig at the Frog.  I got a lot of design work over the winter so between that, the hill and the paper, I had very few days off in the last couple of months.  I had 2 colds/flu and was sick for  about 4 weeks in January and February.  Might need a flu shot next year!  We haven’t done much snow shoeing, between being sick, working everyday and  it being the shortest winter we’ve ever had there wasn’t much winter activities at all.  I will be in Penticton in 25 days (but who’s counting).  I missed my trip in the fall so it’s been a year and way too long!!  I will be going spring and fall like clock work from now on.  Feeling a bit of cabin fever, looking forward to some city life.  I finished Lucy and will deliver her next month.  I have gone onto acrylic painting but nothing finished yet.  

  
Enjoyed working with this crazy bunch this winter…

   
 
Barry has been painting a lot.  He has been working on one large piece for 4 weeks.  He still has a few pieces at the Breeze gallery in Quesnel.  Some of his finished pieces…

   
    

We had a very short winter.  We had maybe 5 feet of snow all together (my wild guess) and very little rain… We better have a very rainy spring or we will be in trouble.  We are investing in a big water pump so we can pump from the creek… If we still have a creek.  We do have the other well by the shop, we just need a pump for it so we have options but we need to be prepared.  We had one day in Decmeber that was -20, the coldest “spell” we had.  It’s been above zero everyday of the year so far.  Crazy!  The good side, we will have more time to build, the snow will gone soon.  On the build list this year is outhouse,  rebuild my office, pour foundation for the house extension and if all goes well, a stained glass room off our bedroom.  Oh and we need to make the wood shed bigger so we can empty the studio in to it then burn it down next winter. Busy schedule but we are going for it.  

The hazards of venturing off trail… I was trying to get photos of the pussy willows that were out on March 1st!   I sunk to my knee and was laughing so hard I couldn’t get out… Barry chose to take photos over helping me.  

   
It’s noon and 12* outside.  Mini is out there still barking at the moose.  Stay tuned… 

Yesterday morning Mini was barking at something all morning, we knew something was near but this happens a lot of days.  She can smell something near and we are petty sure her yapping keeps whatever it is away so we don’t discourage her… It’s her job.  Around 10, she went crazy looking up to the parking lot, our cue to pay attention.  It was a huge moose right behind the house.  She came flying inside and Lily went flying outside but stopped at the edge of the house, they know when they are outsized luckily.  He took cover in the trees right behind the house but was a little confused and scrambled around a little bit until he jumped down into the gulch, crossed the creek and up the far bank, that is straight up about 15’high, in 2 steps!   And he was gone.  Mini was tramatized!  She shook  and huddled in my arms for about an hour.  Once she settled down a bit, we went up to investigate the prints.  She bounced about 6″ off the ground with each bark as we approached.  She slowly crept up on the first print which are over a foot deep.  She stuck her head down it as far as she could, pulled it out and gave it hell, barking at it for a minute or 2 before going onto the next print and doing the same.  So cute and so funny.   She spent all day barking at it.  
The first reaction is always to make sure the dogs are safe when anything wild comes around that I followed Liliy outside to call her back that I didn’t grab a camera and missed the shot!  I did get a photo of his track.  

   
 Mini is standing where he came down the bank.  The wood shed is just out of the photo to the right.  Lily is modeling her new haircut.  

Friday it rained… A lot!  So Saturday was super slow at work, luckily we had racers to keep us busy.  Then overnight we got about 6″ of heavy snow.  We were super busy at work, the racers were back plus a lot of other people… Yay!  A busy day!  Once the rush was over, Bryan, the Fry Guy built a snowman outside the lodge with some of the little kids.  

This is the most covered the nutcracker has been all year!  
  

Barry came in for breakfast when he dropped me off and for Valentine’s Day I gave him a heart on his latte.  Everyone got a heart on their day passes today.  Fun day.  
  

Today was +10!!!  Hoping for some more snow so it’s doesn’t get too icy.  Stay tuned… 

Today is bread day but for some reason Tim didn’t come this week.  We usually get a phone call on Monday for our order which we never received so we assumed they were closed this week, lots of colds and flu going around.  He shows up just before 8 every Wednesday.  This morning at 10 to 8 Mini was in the window barking and spinning waiting for Tim .  She knew today was the day but not from us, we were both still in bed asleep (my day off today).  It’s almost nine and she is still barking and looking for Tim, waiting for him at the top of the driveway.  How the hell did she know today is bread day?   She is very upset that he didn’t come.  Lily just goes along with whatever Mini does so it’s been pretty noisy this morning, so much for a quiet day off.  

We are continuing to have a warm winter.  We have about 3′ of snow on the ground, so low for this time of year.  The parking lot in front of the shop is a rink most of the time and we could be skating on it.  The rest of the plowed areas have been pretty good so far.  It’s been snowing a bit this week so the hill conditions are getting better.  I am working tomorrow, it will be busy with half price lift tickets for family day.  Expecting it to be crazy.  Between the ski hill and designing, I haven’t had a day off for a long while.  Today we have Darren and Khloe visiting.  

Happy birthday Craig. 
Finding ice formations. 

Big moose passing through.  

Stay tuned… 

January 28th, woke up to pouring rain and a huge skating rink… Again!  This happened in February last year and we never recovered from it, spikes were mandatory for the remainder of the season!  Aaaahhhhhh!!  This is not a good thing!   We are hoping and praying that this turns around and fast!  La Ninia is a bitch!  

Heard a tree fall as I was getting into bed last night, had intentions of hiking around to find it this morning but It will have to wait.  

Everyone think SNOW!!  

Barry has his art work on display at the Breeze Gallery in Quesnel.  He sold one piece already!!  So proud of him! 
  
 

It has been pouring rain all day and it’s +3*.  We have had very little snow, maybe 2 feet and this just melted a bunch of it.  We both have bad colds so have been spending the week trying to shake it.  Feeling better today.  Tomorrow I work. At the ski hill.  It is the sled dog mail run this weekend so tomorrow will be busy … Or rather it should be busy.  I’ll try and get some photos if I get a chance to see any of it.   Stay tuned… 

At the end of the bed next to the popcorn bowl! 

We have the porch lit up with blue LED lights I tore out of a sign years ago.  With all the snow, the whole front yard and down the driveway glows blue and the icicles look like glow sticks.  Pretty cool!  Barry’s icicle garden looks like light sabers.     First 2 are taken just as it was getting dark.  

As you can see we have very little snow.  
  
 
  

The first year we were dating I bought Barry this puppet.  We call him Doc Cam after a friend.  He would always play with Khloe when she was here, he was extremely excited to have a child for an audience, makes it a lot more fun.  I found this awesome princess puppet made by the same company when I was helping at the Frog before Christmas so we got it for her.  She absolutely loves it!  They played puppet for hours and then she played on her own for hours while we played cards.  So much fun!  She’s at a great age!    
  

New Year’s Eve was fun with Darren and Khloe spending the night.  We played cards and had a few drinks then I went to bed at about 11:30…almost but no cigar!  Everyone else stayed up and brought in the new year.  New Years days was bright and sunny and warm.  A tree fell in the parking lot a few days ago so we bucked it up and had a great fire.   Hot cocoa and roasted marshmallows… Fun times!  

Barry has decided to grow icicles… Hoping for a bumper crop! 

This morning the weather network says its -12 at our house but in fact it is -23!  Going to be a beautiful sunny day which means we will have bright moonlight tonight for New Year’s Eve.  Darren and khloe are coming to spend the night with us, if it isn’t too cold we will have a bonfire and roast some marshmallows.  

Working in my office today, only +5 so I have my propane heater going and will hang out in the house until it’s closer to +20.  Nice to be working my own hours!  

Happy new year everyone!  May 2016 be everything it wish it to be plus more!  

Stay tuned…

Something I had never done until last week was work at a ski resort.  Hildur has me working mostly weekends bartending but it’s been the holidays so I just came off 4 shifts in a row.  Once the kids are back in school I will go back to weekends only.   Mostly we serve specialty coffees and just a bit of beer, wine and liqueurs.  Yesterday was screaming busy and I ended up selling lift passes for a few hours on my till because the lineup was so long at the main ticket booth.  They hire from around the world so we have a few auzzies, German and Swiss people working with us.  The photo is James, the other bartender, he is from Australia and we work together most of the time as I am only there when it’s busy.   Everyone is super nice and friendly so it’s a really fun atmosphere.  Really enjoying bartending again after being away from it for over 25 yrs!  

This track was right outside my office, they are getting more and more used to us.  It dawned on me the other day that if there is a lot for the predators to eat, they will be less likely to come after our dogs… Hopefully.  Barry saw a wolf on the highway within our property lines the other day so good thing there is a lot of other critters for them to snack on.  It’s also reassuring knowing the forest across the highway is chalked full of critters.  Love seeing that!  It all works in our favor.  We have moose tracks but haven’t seen him yet.  
  

Stay tuned…

Lily has totally healed and is back to her old self.  She loves chasing the ball and wasn’t allowed for about a month so she is so happy to be able to play again.  She was a great patient and only got caught licking her wound once.  If she even sniffed it we would throw the cone on her, she caught on to that pretty fast and left it alone so she was able to go without the cone or a covering which she preferred.  The day she was supposed to go get the stiches out it was freezing rain so we cancelled the appointment and I took the stitches out.  Having a brother who plays hockey gives you experience in taking out stitches.  We cherish our Lily and realized how much we really love her when she was injured.  We are very happy she is all better.  

She had 3 legs shaved from the operation so I gave her a good hair cut to even it out so now she wears Hershey’s old sweater to keep her warm… She loves it!  Fits her perfectly too!  

When we first took her to the vet, Barry was putting her back in the car and a lady recognized her, turned out her father had bred lily and she said she has such a distinct look she knew it was her right away… Small town stuff!  

This year we had Darren with us for Christmas.  I cooked a ham and we had kale salad (new recipe and so yummy), stuffed mushrooms, roasted carrots and mashed potatoes.  I got a kitchenaid mix master so we had to have some eggnog with whip cream… OMG is that good!  And a million calories!  The mix master was the highlight of the year but we got so many nice gifts! 
 Nick and Stacey made these awesome gifts out of antlers.  Nick made Barry the keychain, so cool, looks like a big tooth. And Stacey made my pendent.  She used earrings she’s had for many years for the charm and now we have matching necklaces, such a nice gift from the heart.  They are selling these now and I’m hoping we will be able to carry them at the Frog on the Bog.  

Barry got the first season of Kojak so we started watching that…. Who loves ya baby?  Hahaha, he has some really funny lines… classic!   He also got the first 2 Ian Flemming, James Bond novels from the kids… Casino Royale and Live and Let Die, he’s really excited to get reading them.  If he likes them I’ll slowly buy him the full set, there are 12 all together.  I can’t wait to read them  too!  

We hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas!
   

I haven’t been posting because I’ve been having problems with my app that I use to blog with.  It seems to be working a bit better today so bare with me… 

It looks like we will be having a white Christmas, we weren’t sure for a while there, it wasn’t looking good which is strange since so many ski hills around BC opened early. Troll opens tomorrow and I’m working my first shift at the bar, looking forward to that! Time to pull out the snow shoes as well.  The snow was so deep today that Mini couldn’t follow Barry down the driveway so Lily stayed with her, after all it is her job. Barry shoveled this strip so they had some where to go until he plowed.  
  
   
  

Darren is off work so he will be here on and off for the next few weeks. He will go pick Khloe up on Boxing Day and bring her out so looking forward to having a kid around this year.  

It will be years before we get our gallery rebuilt so we decided to rent out the sign space.  We also got the gig to produce the sign so extra bonus!  We did a bunch for the ski hill as well, I’ll post those once they are installed.  Getting lots of work!  
   
 

Lily is so cuddly, she is our teddy bear… So much love!  
  

Her leg is almost totally healed.  She wears a light sock at night and when we aren’t with her just to keep her from licking otherwise she doesn’t have anything on it.  Only 3 small spots left to heal, she’s almost home free.  

Stay tuned…