hydetimes

It was snowing pretty hard on our after dinner walk. Had to be dried off and we like to do everything together!

Our buddy Shooter turned 12 this week. All 3 of them got spoiled all day so birthdays are pretty popular in this house. Yummy homemade treats and special dinner! He even got a card in the mail from his best buddy! He recognized Don’s smell and got all excited, even rolled around on the envelope… So cute! We love our Shooter and hope he is with us for many more birthdays.

We were commenting on our after dinner walk today how spry Shooter is and seems to be the picture of health. He sleeps most of the day but anytime anyone says “walk”, he’s ready. He loves his sisters and enjoys the pack atmosphere. He continues to come out of his shell. He’s the most obedient dogs I’ve ever had or known. He’s a really good dog.

It’s melting and fast! Yahoooooooo! Stay tuned!

The kids had a great run at Stanley yesterday… They napped here together for a long time after we got back. So cute.

If anyone thinks we aren’t camping… Think again! The only modern luxury we really have left at this point is electricity. When the well quit at the studio, we still had the dryer but now we haven’t even got that. We do have water but we are worried the well is low so we still haul water for showers, laundry etc. tap water is only for cooking and dishes (and the toilet). We are in another cold snap (-23 this morning) so we are being super careful during it. Barry strung up some twine in the tub and I do a few items at a time… Necessary items only and nothing big. We will go to town and do a load of sheets, towels etc once we get desperate. Luckily we have lots of extras! The worst part of this process is it takes days for it to dry so we have to be strategic with our showers… We use the shower bag from the sail boat, it hangs in the tub too so between loads of laundry, we both shower.

Spring cannot come soon enough!

Went up to +5!!!

It’s been really warm the past few weeks since that last cold snap left us. This morning it was -18 (-12 now) so not too bad but getting chilly again. It is supposed to last only a few days and go down to -27 at night… Let’s hope it IS only a few days! We’ve gotten a few snow falls that have added up to about 8″ after it’s settled… No big snow falls predicted in the next 2 weeks so we might not get much more although March can be a big snow month. We have a lot of snow! I just read an article that the Great Lakes have frozen over (only 12% remains unfrozen) for the first time in 20 years! Brrrrrrr they are having a really cold year! I feel pretty good about our weather when I hear that!

Cold outside = painting inside… Everyone have a great day!

Today is also the 3rd anniversary of our engagement. The wedding is still in the planning stage, it will happen one day. For now we love being engaged! Love you with everything I got Barry!

There is water again! We will need to be super careful, as long as we have a toilet, I’m happy. It won’t be long before we can stop hauling water… Yay! We could not be happier!

Just so you all get a bit of an idea of what hauling water involves… Barry shovels and chops his way through the snow and ice to the water, a hole big enough to stand in (the -40 boots really help). He fills 2 – 6 US Gal jugs with a scoop. He has to do 2 at a time to keep himself balanced when he carries them back because each one weighs about 65 lbs! That’s 130 lbs!!! He has to climb back up the bank and the snow is DEEP and now it’s getting soft so even more of a challenge. I sunk to my hips twice just taking the photos, and I was only carrying a camera. He is a strong mountain man!

Barry painted this beautiful flower for me! I love it! Love you Barry! I made him chocolates this year. First time ever and they turned out pretty good.

This might explain things a bit better…

The fun of living in the mountains… Yesterday morning we woke up to – 27 (for about the 7th day in a row) and no water… Aaaaaarrrrrgggggg!!!! At first I thought the pipes under the house might be frozen but since we insulated the attic, they don’t seem to freeze… Go figure?!? This is very good news since the heater that was under there stopped working anyways. So Barry quickly gathered his tools… Shovel, ax, water jugs, funnel and headed to the creek. He found that there is hardly any water in the creek which means our well is dry… Wow, first time that has happened. For those of you that follow this blog regularly, you will remember that we had a really easy run off and we were happy… But now we are thinking that was a bad thing combined with this long cold spell. We went through this the first winter we were here (human error that time) so we are pretty versed on how to make it all happen… Only difference, no toilet this time so we are having to fill the back of it each time it’s used. This has convinced us to dig a second well over here, we will have 2 because this one works when the power is out, hopefully we will never be without that way. It was only -24 this morning, the real cold snap is moving on. Once it’s warm enough we will use a pump but for now poor Barry has to get in there and scoop it out… In these temps, the water is freezing as he scoops it, a Hose is out of the question. We will have to wait until the creek starts to thaw a bit.

On a happier note, it is a long weekend and we are painting! We spent all day yesterday and the paint is already flowing this morning. Barry is working on an elephant and I’m doing an abstract… Something I’ve never done….

Stay tuned…

the day after update…

We woke up to -13 (I missed the fancy ice formations on the windows) and we are supposed to go up to above zero everyday for the next 2 weeks so we are hopeful this will pass quickly. Fingers crossed!

Sunrise and sunsets have been amazing!

The cold snap is hanging around longer than any other cold snap has hung around. Nights are down to -29 (we haven’t seen -30 on the thermometer). When it gets up to about -15 we take the dogs for a short walk. Today Shooter needed a hand for a bit… Too cold on his toes! Every day we have a new design on the windows, today was a nice one! I worked in the house all week… Too chilly in my office. It’s a long weekend and we plan on spending it painting for the most part.

Stay Tuned…

This is our second cold snap of the season, it was -27 when we got up this morning! Ouch! The sun has been out so it’s beautiful during the day… It warmed up to -10 in the afternoon, that’s not too bad. I have set up office in the house with my laptop. There is no sense fighting the cold in my office, it’s cold when I get in there in the morning and doesn’t warm up until around noon. It’s kinda fun working inside for a few days. Couldn’t see outside this morning…

Mini is the perfect dog for this climate. She has got SO MUCH HAIR! She has grown muck lucks on her feet too… We call them grinch toes cause the hair gets so long. I’ve seen her flip the hair under her foot so she is standing on it. There is a small mat on the edge if the deck, it is known as Shooters mat… She was out sitting on it for over an hour in -20’s this morning and when she came inside, she didn’t even feel cold… She has perfect fur for these temps. She can’t figure out why nobody else wants to hang out with her or go for long walks.

Today is the first anniversary of Lily joining our family. We don’t know when her birthday actually is so we are calling this her birthday. We also don’t know how old she is but we are guessing she is turning 5 today (Stacey if we are wrong, let us know). In the past few months, Lily has really come into her own. She pushes her way through the crowd when she feels it’s in her better interest instead of waiting to be invited. She is always the first dog to join me in the kitchen, she has figured out I like to throw veggie bits to them and sometimes I even drop something really good. She has become a huge lover of popcorn night and is always front and centre. For the longest time she wouldn’t leave the house alone or stay out after the others had gone in, now she is being a lot more adventurous and comfortable spending time alone. She is still half a step behind Barry no matter what he’s doing, she doesn’t let him out of her sight if she can help it… She sits in the front window when he leaves without her and waits faithfully for his return. She is the most loving dog either of us have ever known, she loves to cuddle and give big hugs. We love her so much and we are so happy she is part of the family.

With her bone that only she gets… Mini was so jealous!

We went to the dog sled mail run again this year. It was a beautiful day! Warm and sunny, they had a really good turn out. We sent a few letters out by dog sled so it was fun to go watch the activities.

While taking the dogs for a walk, Barry noticed something VERY different about the studio today!! The snow slid and took out the power pole! Yikes!!! We are patiently waiting for BCHydro so we can go assess the damage.

Stay tuned…

update – the day after
Today BCHydro came and disconnected the power completely, took the meter and coiled the line up on the pole on the highway, the account has been cancelled. We were in town all day and got the call late that it was safe to go over there so we still haven’t gone to assess the damage. We can’t do anything until the snow melts so it sits as a big storage container… No water, no power but we do have a fireplace. We will pack it up and empty it out then torch it next winter when there is a lot of snow. We will rebuild with a one story building to take its place, gallery and studio under one roof. The plan has been for some time now to build a bath house by the shop, it would house the pump for the well, hot water tank, washer, dryer, a bathroom with big deep tub and some storage. It can be hooked into the power from the shop. We have a big generator we can take over there so we have some power, it is now our “off the grid” studio. These are the thoughts for today but we can’t do anything until the snow melts so we have a few months to sort it all out. We figure we can light the gallery with oil lamps if needed… Or add some more windows. We will figure it all out as we go along. Some fun, huh Bambi!

Stay tuned…

It was 7 above today and so beautiful! We tried going for a snow shoe but it was so soft it wasn’t very dog friendly so we ran them around down at the shop instead. It sure feels like spring but we still have 2 months of winter! We got a few inches of really sticky snow over night and the trees were caked in it. As the day warmed up the cottonwood tree started to drip and it actually looked like it was raining! It was crazy! It was so blue and then this fog rolled in down the valley… So beautiful!

Whenever we go to Wells for the mail we stop and let the dogs go for a run on Stanley road… They certainly can’t get into any trouble!

My morning commutes to work have been so pretty lately… Very pink.

Another day without power… Went out at 6 am… Supposed to be back on at noon. This is crazy! I have decided I do not want to live off the grid… This is as off the grid as this girl wants to be! And just so much snow!

7 pm and still in the dark!

UPDATE… The day after… the power came on last night at about 11 so it was out for 17 hours, the longest stretch we’ve had. Today it warmed up a little, plus 2 so the trees have started to shed the snow. It’s dangerous out there! There is a lot of ice chunks falling, I got hit with one on my way to work this morning… Ouch? Happy to say we have had power all day (so far) and I think the worst of it is over… Yay!

Stay tuned!

It is 10 am Sunday. We have been without power for almost 12 hours! We knew this one was coming…There were a bunch of trees laying on the power lines when we went to Wells on Friday for the mail and then yesterday there were 2 trees on the lines between here and the ski hill. We went for lunch to drop off an order, we asked how Friday went with no power from 7 am until 2:30! Their bunny hill lift is electric so it doesn’t run in a power outage and they can’t cook! They had 25 little kids that had never been on skis before so using the big lift was not supposed to be part of their day. Hildur and Len and a bunch of their staff spent the day taking the little kids up the big lift and down the face… They got some extra special attention and probably learned a lot more than they would have had the power been on! Lucky kids!

So here we sit again with the little generator chugging away outside… Good thing we got more gas!

Oh and… We got a lot more snow over night and it’s still coming down pretty hard! Yahoo!

Stay tuned…

So a quick update on the studio… The toilet hasn’t worked for a couple of years… No problem, the outhouse works. Now the pump on the well has given up the ghost … Crap! There isn’t much we can do over there so all of our art supplies have slowly been migrating over here. We have a heater in the bathroom so things don’t freeze up but otherwise we only light a fire if it’s really cold… It stays above zero most days. Every time we go over there we end up grabbing something else. Today we decided to bring a book shelf from over there so we can tidy up the house… It’s getting kinda out of hand! So… We haven’t ploughed all the way over there all year, we decided we can snow shoe and use the sled. We can get the truck to about 100 metres from the studio so the rest of the way is really deep (see photos below, they are all taken at the studio). So we get our snowshoes on and bring the big sled we use for firewood with us. Load the shelves into the sled with Barry pulling and me pushing, we almost ran (I was running, he was walking) that 100 m. with this bookshelf. I think I should be getting into shape!!! So now the studio is just a big storage locker. The foundation is rotting and 2 of the walls are sinking… Barry and Chris shored them up in the summer but it won’t last too long. The plan is to rebuild something smaller, one story and torch this building … It’s not worth trying to salvage. Well have a big marshmallow roast that day and invite everyone. I made reference to snow drifts inside a few blogs back… I was talking about the back door, since they lifted the wall, there is about a 4″ gap at the bottom and there are snow drifts inside… Hahaha… Oh so much fun! We will replace the water pump because that is our laundry facility… We did it in town the other day and it was $32.00! Oh! My! Gawd! How can people afford that! We might bite the bullet for a few months and wait until there isn’t quite so much snow! We are thinking of building a bathhouse /laundry facility / pump house together so it might be worth waiting… Ugh! Well see how long we last.

Stay tuned….

We have a lot of snow! I can’t believe how much snow we have it’s only the middle of January. We would be in trouble if we didn’t have the plough! We talked about getting a snow blower before winter but decided it was an luxury we can do without… We now think the snow blower as more of a back up to the plough… We could have used it! And there is so much snow! Hahahaha, did is say that yet? Darren said one year there was so much you could walk off the roof onto the snow! I have wanted to be snowed in since I got here! Might happen this year.

Before Christmas I was in the waiting room at the doctors and this kinda crazy looking woman started telling that we are going to have a warm winter with a lot of snow. She said there were ants on the ground right up to the first snow fall… A Sign of warm winter. Also something about the butterflies were larger. She said the bees nests were up higher in the trees which means there will be a lot of snow… 22′ up in the tree to be exact! She was obviously a mountain woman her entire life. She was from somewhere near Kersley and lives in the middle of now where (it was a little bit of a wait to see the doc). Anyways, she did look crazy, she had the scariest looking finger nails I’ve ever seen! But I’m starting to think she might be right… Very interesting!