hydetimes

A few weeks ago Barry was ploughing and a belt broke… Crap! He is not a mechanic but he does have his ’75 jeep cj that he tinkers with… Pretty basic mechanics. The plough is from the 60’s so it is even more basic. The problem isn’t figuring out what broke, where to get replacement parts or how to put it back together. The biggest problem is everything is so heavy and poor Barry has only me for extra muscle. But we managed! Got it apart, Barry went to town and met ALL the guys who sell parts for this type of equipment and came home with the correct belts (we replaced them all while we were at it). By this time a lot more snow has fallen and it’s getting really deep! It was getting really hard to work on… It was a chore and a half just to get down to it. So on Sunday Barry gave Hildur at the ski hill a visit and asked if there was any way they could plough for us…They were so awesome about it! Len got off the hill from skiing all day, went and ploughed Cinderella Road for those guys and then came all the way over and did our driveway and parking lot and dug out the loader. The next day we were able to get back down there and get it put back together! We fired it up and it ran like a charm… Thank you SO MUCH Len and Hildur! It would have been a nightmare without their help. Kinda proud of us, I actually got grease on me! I was strictly muscle though (Hahahahahahahahaha) Barry figured it all out! His second successful repair!

Stay tuned…

So pretty these days!

We have had more power outages this year than any other year and winter had just begun. I’ve never seen the forest hold the snow like this before though. There are many trees of all sizes bent right over and a lot of them are snapping. Each time we go on a hike, there are more trees across our path. On this picture below… First you have to play “where’s Shooter” then if you look in the top left corner, there is a tree starting to lean into the photo… That tree is bent right over and the tip is touching the ground…we call it the golden arch. Haha. I’ll try to get a photo tomorrow.

So with all the snow, we have been having a lot of outages. Today it was out for 7 hours. We are pretty well organized. I can be back to work in about 10 minutes, I have my own little generator in the office, I just pop it outside, super easy to start, plug one power bar under my desk into one extension cord and I’m back in business. Then another extension cord goes to the house if it’s dark so we can have light.

After the power came on today we took a ride to Wells to get the mail. If there is a break in the line anywhere between Quesnel and the end of the road (Barkerville) then everyone is out, 382 customers so we know if we are out, they are out. On the way back we pulled onto Stanley road as usual to take the dogs for a run. They hadn’t ploughed it for a couple of days and it was really deep light powder. It was like marshmallow land… All white and fluffy. We floated along with the snow drifting over the hood of the truck… So much fun! We stopped to let the dogs go for a run and it was too deep for them! We don’t know why they wouldn’t have ploughed it, it’s the first time we have seen it not ploughed. There is still someone living in the Stanley hotel, there was smoke coming from the chimney… They are totally off the grid so the power outage means nothing to them.

In the mail we got a package of homemade moose and deer jerky from Nick and Stacey! My Oh my is that stuff awesome! Thanks guys!

Stay tuned…

We spent almost all day yesterday without power. It was supposed to be a cleaning day but instead it was a painting day… Yay! The worst part was I couldn’t have tea! It’s super warm out so the fire wasn’t going enough to boil water… Not bad if that is my only complaint! There is a lot of really heavy snow on the branches and trees, a lot is coming down. Outside in the dark was super creepy… SO dark and you could hear branches breaking … a different sound from when it’s -30 and the trees crack. The snow was slowly sliding off the roof so the dogs needed to be escorted outside to be sure they stayed clear and I couldn’t wait to get back in each time… Scared!

I took this photo in the morning and the branch came down later… There is also a huge branch laying by the deck that fell from the cottonwood tree. Today we will go for a snow shoe around the property and see what damage has been done.

Just got back from our daily snow shoe and we found 5 trees down blocking our trail and we didn’t go all the way to the top. We managed to go either under or over all of them but tomorrow will be a clean up hike, we will take saws with us. Most of them were alive so it’s not just the beetle kill that is falling with this heavy snow! We also did a quick hike up to the well, the first time this season, the snow is about 7′ deep with the top few feet powder… Now that was a workout breaking trail in that! I sure feel how strong I have become in the time I have been living here.

The loader is broken down with a blown belt so Barry has gone down to work on that for the rest of the day… I think I will paint… Stay tuned!

This was the result of the photo shoot I posted earlier… Cute!

It has been so warm, it was 3 ABOVE this morning when we woke up! Last night the back of the house slide in 2 pieces … It was so loud and the entire house shook! This morning early we heard the front go. I warned Barry he should move the BBQ and it’s a good thing he did! This will be solved once the boot room gets built.

They are getting pretty good at posing, photo shoots are pretty common around here.

The snow slide off the front of the truck in a blanket and didn’t break apart. Snow is a mysterious thing.

Santa made a stop at Hyde Creek! The kids all got a toy and lots of treats including some yummy homemade treats from Gramma and Grandpa! I was spoiled as usual! I love this miniature diorama that Barry made for me (note the stained glass box) of a scene from a Columbo movie! Hahaha, so cute! I also got a great new vacuum! 3 dogs and 2 people dragging in the forest makes for dirty floors! We spent the afternoon playing the game “man bites dog” …. So much fun and really easy to play with no room! (Thanks Uncs!).

We hope everyone has a happy and healthy holiday season!

The butternut squash and spinach lasagna rolls were amazing! Yummmmmmm!

This photo is going back over a month to our first snow fall of the year. We never noticed before how the snow sticks to it like this but it made us a little concerned about having anything in there that can be damaged by the snow. I haven’t looked inside because the snow is up over the door handle and it would need to be dug out. There might be some drifts in there… luckily there is nothing left inside that can be damaged. Speaking of snow drifts inside… Oh that’s a long story, I will have to blog about it another time, we are on our way to the ski hill for lunch.

The roof of the house didn’t used to slide but since we put tin on it, it does slide but because it’s a low slope, it just creeps slowly and we use a shovel to help it break off once it gets dangerous. Before it didn’t mater where the dogs hang out but now we have to keep them away from this area because chunks do fall. We keep on top of it and them and it hasn’t been a problem but we have decided to put stoppers on the roof in the summer so it won’t slide at all. The house was built to hold the snow load. Makes for interesting icicle formations!

The house has turned into an art studio with art supplies all over the place so I thought the last thing we need in our 400 sq ft house was a tree so this year Santa is watching over the gifts for us. We are planning on cutting all the big trees in front of the house down this spring so we have decided we will find a small tree to plant in the garden out front and it can be our tree, we will put lights on it and we will replace it when getting too big, keep it manageable for the lights. I should probably make a wreath so we can have the pine smell but not this year.

We had to act quickly and make some holiday clothes for the girls… Lily is sporting a lovely table napkin tied in the latest fashion with jingle bells sewn onto the edges. Mini is wearing her new Princess scarf (TSS shirt that was too tight cut down to a scarf) with the bell she tore off the door ornament to give it that bling that all little divas want in a wardrobe. Shooter as always has his jingle bell necklace that he LOVES! Hahaha, fun with the kids!

The second tee shirt I ordered for Mini arrived but it’s a tad too small for her… Too bad, it’s so cute! I have a third coming. They really do help a lot with the snow balls!

We designed and produced some signs for the ski hill… They turned out great!

I now have an app on my ipad that makes blogging a breeze! Only catch is I am using my ipad camera for the most part so the images might not be as clear and vivid as when I use my camera but I should be adding more posts as a result. I am going to start working on the gallery site over the holidays too so I’m really happy I got it worked out. Here is my view today…

Lots of snow! Tomorrow we are having our turkey dinner, early because we got a fresh turkey. I am off work now until Jan 6th so we don’t really mind which day we have turkey. We are having butternut squash and spinach lasagna rolls for dinner Christmas day… I’ll post a photo of them… they sound amazing!

Lily and Shooter LOVE lying as close to the fireplace as they can get… They get so hot! They take turns switching from the bench to the floor… So cute!

Today Barry went to town alone and left these 3 behind…They were not impressed! I’m gonna take them for a snow shoe to cheer them up!

When the weather is warm Mini collects balls on her belly (go back a few weeks to see the photo) so I ordered a couple of tee shirts for her online ($1. out of china!)… they really help and she looks so CUTE!!  Looks like she is wearing a Tutu… cracks me up!  She loves it too… she is a diva!

It started snowing Tuesday and hasn’t stopped, it is Friday morning.  It is hip deep in most places and almost waist deep in some… it is super fluffy so will probably settled pretty fast, it is supposed to get pretty warm tomorrow.  We plowed yesterday and it’s already half way up my calf  today!  The Nutcracker is buried!  YAHOO!!! Loving it!   This is also perfect snow bath conditions for Shooter!  He rubs up against the snow banks and fresh snow falls all over him, he gets completely buried… so cute!

Last night as we drove home we spotted 2 hunters gutting a moose only a km from our place, it was probably the guy living on our land :(. We are sad!

We were in the lodge at the ski hill putting signs together when a critter was spotted.  It was an Ermine!  The cutest little gaffer!  They have 2 cats that live in there  to keep the mice down but they move them out while they are open for people with allergies instead they let these little Ermine hang out and they keep the mice away, they are really good little hunters!  So this little guy was trying to get outside, we managed to help him out, he was the cutest little guy with his little black tip tail!   We have them on our property but I didn’t know they were called ermine.  The first year we were here there was one by the old trailer that used to be at the top of the driveway … These ermine only get to be about a foot long.  This was a small one, maybe 8″ so probably a female.  I also see them running around on the other side of the creek in the winter from time to time.  They turn brown in the summer so they would be so hard to see.  I did a blog about a tiny stoat we saw on the creek in Barkerville a couple of summers ago, that was a smaller version of this guy… I will find the photo and post it.  So cute!

I did not take this photo, I borrowed it from  www.borealforest.org.

some of my old photos just need to be reposted… LOVE this one!

A few weeks back, before the snow started, we had a visit from 2 old miners who have purchased the claim that is at the top of our property.  There are new rules these days, you have to prove you are active on the claim or you can lose it.  They were mostly here just to get a bit of proof.  Barry climbed up to the claim with them, they had the coordinates marked on their GPS so they knew when they were on it (Chris and Barry had climbed a lot further into the claim when they went up looking for it).  They had pans with them and Barry helped them get a few pan fulls of dirt from the banks but they found not even a hint of the yellow… black sand but no yellow!  One of them was a little older and had a hard time getting up there, the other man was in better shape and didn’t have too much trouble.  They said if they were to work the claim (very unlikely) they would come in from above, not through our land.  There is a road up there from when they did some logging years ago, they could branch a road off of.

On thing we did learn from these men was more about the shovel heads we have found on the land.  Some of you might remember when the cottonwood tree fell across the creek, we found an old shovel head in the root ball.  After doing a lot of research we found out it was from the late 1800’s because of the rivets.   This is that shovel head…

Right around the same time Barry was building the pad for our woodshed and parking lot taking dirt from the gravel pit at the entrance to the property.  After working the gravel for sometime he found another shovel head but it was flattened from the loader… this one had come out of the gravel pit.  Because it was flattened and didn’t look like much, Barry stuck it at the end of the new bridge (cottonwood tree) and dubbed the bridge Lost Spade Crossing (see the spade behind Barry’s elbow) …

These 2 old guys spotted the old spade and explained that this one is even older than the riveted shovel, it was before they started using rivets circa 1850.  Wow!  Nice score.  You can see sort of with this photo how it was put together…

So this not only gave us information about the age of the shovel but also tells a different story for the land.  For that shovel to come out of the gravel pit, we are thinking it is probably a tailing pile, not a natural deposit.  Very interesting!