hydetimes

Thursday I started a new job at the Goldfeild Bakery in Barkerville.  It’s a long story why the career change and those closest to me know the details so let’s just say it was time for a change.  Time to get off my ass and do some more physical work.   I loved it!  Thursday was a bit overwhelming, so much to remember.  Friday was just a lot of fun.  As I remember the prices etc more it will become more and more fun.  Everyone is smiling and friendly, including my coworkers.  Barb, the owner is a very laid back sweet lady… Extremely hard working and an amazing baker!  I will be able to learn a few things from her!  Bernice is her right hand and will be who I work with the most.  We worked alone together Friday, got along great and seemed to work really well as a team.   It’s going to be fun working with her, she’s pretty casual.  Christina is a younger girl who comes in for 2 hours in the morning and helps open up then works in the photo studio for the rest of the day.  She’s so cute and sweet and a really hard worker.  Also Barbs daughter Mia trained me for a few hours Thursday morning but she is expecting a baby almost any day so I don’t think I’ll be working with her much.   The job is until the park closes at the end of September then I will be off for the winter which will give me time to do some paintings!  I might see if I can get a few shifts a week at the ski hill during their season, I would still have a few months off at either end.  I am also designing the Tongue in Cheek coffee paper weekly so I get to keep my hand in the graphic design world… It is a lot of fun so I’m excited to be keeping it.  If any of my readers want to check out the paper go to tongueincheek.ca.  I started at the end of April so any issues May or newer were designed by me.  Some funny stuff if you are looking for a chuckle.

 
Jason hand painted the sign for the bakery among others in the park.  
   
The adventure has just begun so stay tuned… 

Khloe is at a really fun age, her and Uncle Barry have a lot of fun together.  He finally has an audience for. His puppet, Doc Cam.  

  
The dogs sit by patiently as they rough house…

 
But as soon as there is an opening, Mini gets right into the action.   

 We see a lot of Darren and Khloe these days and we really enjoy their visits….stay tuned…  

We have been getting some crazy weather this year, check out the huge hail!  

its always so fun to have Nick and Stacey come to visit, the only problem is they never stay long enough.  This time they camped in their truck next to the house so we had lots of time to visit.  It was great fun.  I debuted the “Redneck Fondue” it was very successful!  Basically we used the camp fire in place of the fondue pot.   We used weenie roasting sticks but had steak and smokie chunks… So Delish!   We cooked veggies on a grill over the fire and even had a pot of chocolate fondue on the grill with all kinds of fruit, wafer cookies and of course marshmallows.  We did get rained out for part of it but we didn’t care.  They stayed in the studio the night before they left only so they could quietly sneak off in the wee hours but their new rig worked great!  The bug tent came the day after they left, bummer, we could have used it … Next time!  
   
This photo was actually taken during the weenie roast we had for lunch… It was an outdoor day!  

And Barry letting off the first lantern of the season!  
  

Stay tuned… 

Nick and Stacey picked up their painting of BooBoo when they visited.  She was a challenge but a really good learning curve for me.  They want to do Peanut, their other pug and I have a boxer to do next… More wrinkles!!!  I’m happy with BooBoo but more importantly, Nick and Stacey are happy with her.  Lucy is next to stay tuned… 

Lily is pretty happy with the tent, can ya tell?  We have a lot of ideas how to make it really comfy so I’m sure it will be an ongoing project.  Stay tuned… 

Once again Barry got me the best birthday gift… A brand new huge bug tent!  It is 15×15 with straight sides so really roomie!  The old one that was here when we moved here was only about 10×10 with sloped sides so we are truly noticing a huge difference!  We have a summer studio/ living room.  

We took the time and built a pad for it then laid down an old tarp for a floor.  We are very pleased!   We will be spending a lot of time in it!  I will post photos once we get it all set up, right now we have 2 lawn chairs and a little TV table but we are exhausted so tomorrow we decorate?  
   

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She’s a happy puppy, love our Lily girl.   

We don’t like sticky season!  They are absolutely everywhere and we just keep bringing in more every time any of us goes outside.  This little one gets them on her feet so she sits down to get it and then her bum is covered.  We love it when the cotton flies, it seems to take care of it.  Come on cotton!  
  

We have got a huge population of rabbits this year!  We noticed a lot of them up and down the highway on our walks and in the past few days they are all over the property.  This morning I was on the deck drinking my tea and 2 went hopping by.  Of course Mini and Lily follow them… Not really chase, more like follow… To the edge of the ditch that runs along the driveway, they are such good dogs, they stop there and let the rabbits keep going.  One hopped out of the ditch right in front of Mini and headed down the driveway so of course she followed it so Barry and I walked to the top of the driveway to get her back and more came out of the ditch right next to us and hopped by.  Crazy!  They have been living in the thicket between the driveway and the bat cave since we moved here, they must realize we are not going to harm them, even the dogs aren’t trying to catch them, they playfully bounce after them… So cute!  All of them are much bigger than Mini and a lot are even bigger than Lily.  Their feet are still white so they are easy to spot but they will be all brown soon and harder to see in the bush.  I love me some bunnies!  Trying to get photos but they are quick, nothing good yet.  
Stay tuned…

Sandy and Gordee Hucman are now the proud owners of Barry’s “Canoe” painting!  So exciting when one sells!  Thanks Hucmans, enjoy! 

Outside painting, no bugs yet! Yay!  
     
 

Yesteray we had a crazy wind storm here!  We lost power at about 2 pm and it is still out now at 10 am… The Internet is telling us we will be out until midnight tonight but we have learned that we usually get it back a lot sooner than what they say… Sometimes however, they update and extend the time so we are keeping our fingers crossed that we get it back today.  Apparently we are not alone, most of Prince George, Quesnel,  Williams lake etc are all out, all the way down to Vernon… And we didn’t check the coast but I’m sure they have been effected as well.  

We were without power already when it got really windy so we were playing cards at the table to pass the time until we could carry on with what we had planned for the day.  I looked out and saw that it was raining branches in the fron yard, we went out ( dogs on lock down) onto the deck and we could hear trees falling up and down the valley… It sounded like they were exploding and at one point it sounded like dozen went at the same time… It was really scary!  I was looking up above the parking lot and I watched 2 trees fall (photo of them below).  We hunkered down in the house and about and hour or so later it cleared up, the storm had passed but the destruction left behind was wide spread and apparent.  We went for a building check and thought we had better make sure none of our trees were on the lines.  We found many trees down as you can see on our snow shoe trail but luckily nothing had hit any buildings and none of our trees were on the lines!  All good news.  

So now we wait until the power comes back.  We are planning a wieny roast for lunch, get a Bon fire going outside
   
 

The Bread Peddler does Pizza on Wednesday nights. Last night we happen to be in Wells so we thought we would get Barry one… I can’t have tomato sauce so I haven’t been able to eat pizza … Really ever, it has always made me feel sick. Kate and Tim made me an absolutely delicious pepperoni, spinach, kale and feta pizza with no sauce and it was the yummiest! This is extremely exciting!

Stay tuned!

We have an upside down old Wooden coke box in the living room that the dogs use as a step to get up on the wood box. I made this step for Shooter many years ago so he could get up on the bed. I cushioned it and covered it in fabric that matched my head board. Well over the years it has gotten stained so I bought a swatch from the remnants bin. It is white! The old fabric was gold. They won’t use the step now! Do they not want to get it dirty…. I highly doubt that is their thinking. It’s not slippery…. It’s just white. and it’s both of them! So weird! We will see in time if the decide it is worthy otherwise I will have to get new fabric and redo it again… I wonder what colour they prefer?!? Strange spoiled little brats!

We were happy to be a part of the second annual Mount Everest Challenge at the Troll Ski Hill. Once again we were asked to design and produce posters, t-shirts and stickers.

We also had a great time serving hotdogs and drinks to all the competitors… A lot of really nice people, it was warm and sunny so everyone had a lot of fun.

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We had lots of fun and will be back again next year for more fun.

Stay tuned…

Take a look, grass growing in February! What a beautiful day!

And check out the nutcracker!

Stay tuned…

Today was so warm and sunny I had my office door wide open for a few hours this afternoon! It is February 20th! Love it but Barry has reminded me that there will be consequences at some point and Pine Beetle comes to mind immediately. I have worn my winter coat only 3 times this year! We went to town yesterday and the sides of the highway have grass growing! No snowbanks like usual for this time of year… Grass growing! There is a lot of dirt showing in the forest as well. The ski hill has a lot of brown spots on it… Sad for the skiers! They have their Mount Everest challenge this Sunday, fingers crossed they get some snow! We will be manning the bbq at the event so stay tuned for that action!

This was interesting to us… Nature using the golden ratio to create beauty…

Sorry for the crappy photos!

Stay tuned…

If you look back to this time last year you will see photos of the gallery with snow up to the window … Check it out now!

And the creek is open!

We are lovin’ it! Stay tuned…

Just because they are so darn cute…

I was in my office at about 9 this morning, I could hear Mini on the deck barking like she does when her bark suddenly got frantic and I could hear another dog screaming… I jumped up to the window and could see her barking up towards the well and no Lily in sight. I threw my boots on and went outside… The screaming was even louder, it was more then one dog. I ran to the house yelling for Lily and telling Mini to get inside… Lily met me at the door and so did Barry. Phew… Lily was safe. The screaming had stopped and Barry had the music going in the house so he didn’t hear it. We left the dogs inside and went looking down the driveway. We saw some fresh coyote tracks but nothing out of the ordinary. Back to work… Dogs on lockdown. A few hours later Barry came in to say they were screaming again… Ok, phew, I’m not hearing things! It was for sure coming from up the property and toward the studio. Back to work, dogs still on lock down. A few hours later Barry comes running into my office and said… You gotta come hear this! Coming from the opposite direction is the sound of 2 moose calling each other… One would call and the other would answer… It sounded like it was coming from the picnic table about a kilometre down the highway. As soon as I got my iPod ready to record it, they stopped. A little while later I could hear them from inside my office. They had moved closer, we think they were traveling up Lightening creek across the highway from us. One was closer than the other. Every Time I clicked the record button, they would stop… Like they knew! Did not get a recording of them… Crap! It was a very eerie sound and even more so after hearing the “dogs” screaming earlier. (It was likely coyotes, not wolves).

Crazy day… Oh and it was 12 ABOVE today! Yay!

Stay tuned…

So another thing has gone sideways… Literally… At the studio! Now we can’t even have a fire so it is officially just a cold storage. We are going to seriously have to get our stuff out of there this summer before the whole thing falls over! It is a good thing we didn’t plan on living in that “house”… I use the term very loosely! We have a few other choice words for it.

Stay tuned so you don’t miss the big burn happening sooner than we thought. Me have a long list of people who want to attend. It’ll be a party!

Barry is defiantly a cup half full kind of guy and finds the fun in whatever Mother Nature throws our way… Sledding in the firewood sled on the solid ice!

Barry opened his shop the other day and found this….

About 3″ of solid ice! He rarely leaves anything on the ground but of course the one time he didn’t put away his extension cord, it gets iced over! It is perfectly smooth… It would make an amazing indoor skating rink! Maybe one day we will actually flood it and see if we can skate in there… Would be fun!

Stay tuned…