Uncategorized

I’ve started letting Mini sit on my desk if she wants to. She sure feels special. So cute! She has mellowed a lot and wants to be snuggled more, yay!

Got an early birthday present when we found a set of $1000 pots and pans 70% Off!! Wow are they amazing! Changed the way I cook. Stainless steel with copper layer in the bottom. Cooks nice and even and stays super hot for a long time. Love the glass lids too.

And also Donn in a box…

As usual we fed the masses at the Mount Everest Challenge. Beautiful warm day. 108 competitors so we were busy.

Hildur and Scott the new manager at Troll.

This was fun, felt like when I started out in my garage.

Wrapping a snowboard for Troll Mount Everest Challenge. We donated it as a prize and Len and Hilder decided to keep it!! They want us to do one each year.

Every time we go down the driveway Jack has to join us. We have to lock him in if we don’t want him to come.

Apparently Lily’s butt makes a good pillow. Taken pre hair cut.

Lily got her spring cut a bit premature, it got chilly again and has been snowing! She welcomes cat snuggles these days.

Loving my office even more as we settle into it. Second winter but first one with the stove and laundry operational. Laundry is a breeze, we had that dialled in when it was in the miner cabin.

The stove however we are still learning about and had a big break through this past week. Of course there is no user manual with a stove that was built in the 1920’s so we have been gathering information as we go. When we first got it, the grate was set for coal so Barry got them moving and changed them to what we thought must be the wood setting… worked much better. There are 2 doors on the front and the one to the fire box was screwed shut. Inside there was a solid metal piece that looked like it lifted out. After visiting Hildur one day and checking out for stove, Barry realized this was the coal setting… we lifted the solid piece out and unscrewed the door and our lives changed forever!! It feeds easier, it breathes and burns better… wow! Yay! That little stove is amazing! We feel so fortunate to own it. Now I think I will be able to cook some stuff on it. Before it was too hard to hold a temperature.

We turned the boot room into a splitting room, it’s just so much easier to have the chopping block under cover. I fact we like it so much, the boot room will be getting s boot room of its own that will be the wood splitting room, won’t be insulated or have a door. This building keeps getting longer, I will be entering up at the well!! Hahaha. The boot room will get insulated and finished like we had planned.

You can see my little chopping block, both sides are lined with wood, the stove takes smaller pieces so I spend a fair amount of time chopping… good exercise.

The blue barrel we use to melt water for laundry, it has a cattle heater in it to melt snow then it is pumped into a tank inside.

Pretty view from early December…

So much going on with work too.

I started the year at Troll but had to step away in January. There is an employee (who was there last year too) who I really don’t get along with and he was making things very miserable for me so I decided it wasn’t worth it. I am looking forward to going back next year when he’s gone. Still doing a lot of work for the hill so in close contact with them… Barry is snowboarding today. It’s been nice to have some weekends off. :).

Back Alley deSign is getting really busy and it can’t keep up with everything so I’ve had to put in my notice to Jafa. I will work until April for them, I went down to part time at the beginning of the year so I am able to work on more BAD stuff. I also have jewellery to make and neck tubes to print and pet portrait commissions waiting and Frog snot to make and, and, and… the list goes on.

In January I went to a gift show in .Toronto with Dave and Cheryl for a week. That was a great trip… except it was minusamilliondegrees with the wind chill factor (-30’s). We found lots of good products, it was worth the trip. My seasonal 5 month job has expanded to closer to 8 months with the new store… I like that! We are also opening something in the old Frog building, maybe a Christmas store.

Ian who builds the log homes was already on Barry about coming back as soon as the weather permits so Barry will be right back at it with the log homes in Wells then he will jump on the saw mill to get things going for our LIVING ROOM!!! Foundation is ready! We are excited!

Barry’s has a show at the Quesnel Art Gallery in September so he is busy painting… he has completed 2 and both have already sold… doh! He can’t paint them fast enough!

So as usual, lots going on! Stay tuned for some new projects we are launching…

It’s been a pretty good winter, we went all the way to February 1st before we saw really cold temps. It did reach -33 and was cold for a few weeks. Amazing how I’m getting used to it.

These are random winter pics, the first one was a -33 days… I love the ice art on the windows.

This was December…

I took these yesterday…

My heart aches too much to put into words how I feel about this little guy but this blog is important to be sure he is remembered. Love you Jess and Scott.

I am really enjoying being a crazy cat lady!

I spend my first moments every day with Jack. He gets his drink of water (photo below) then the fun really begins while I wash and brush my teeth. He loves bubbles! I try and make as much bubbles as I can and he has the best time playing in them. It sure is a nice way to start the day, hard to be grouchy with this big guy around! He is so awesome!

Donn has become the biggest snuggler and I could not be happier! She still needs her space but when I pick her up, she turns on her biggest purr and snuggles right in. Barry can still barely pick her up for a few seconds. She’s Mommas kitty. She does the weirdest stuff…

I bought them a teepee for Christmas thinking Donn would like it because she loves a good hiding place,

Jack got in it immediately and uses it. So cute!

We had another dog scare, this time it was .Mini. Her and Lily run as fast as they can everywhere, it’s always a race. Barry was checking the property and they went flying down a path and by the time Barry got to them at the end of the path Mini was limping. He hadn’t heard a yelp or anything but she was defiantly not putting any weight on it at all. We tried to keep her quiet and waited a day because this is happened before and by the next day she’s OK. But after two days she was still favouring it in a big way. This was of course during the Christmas holidays. Dave Copp who owns Lindsey veterinary in Penticton is related to Hilder at the ski hill and he has a cabin there. He was up for Christmas and agreed to have a look at her. He wasn’t able to really touch her because she was so freaked out and worried about him and the strange house she was at, he gave us a few scenarios of what it could be. Worst case she would need surgery because it would’ve been something torn in her kneecap best case she’s twisted it or pulled something and in a few weeks if we keep her very quiet she may be OK. So as you can see by the first photo we put her on a huge lockdown. This is a live trap that we use to remove larger critters off the property that we don’t want to kill but need to be removed. So she had to be in this live trap for a few days and then she started showing some improvement so she got put on the leash which was tied to a 2 1/2 pound weight which she could not pull. Hahaha, little peanut. That was the best babysitting system ever. So it took about 4 weeks in total and she stopped limping all together. Phew!! Dodged a bullet there! So now she isn’t allowed to go on the trails if the conditions aren’t perfect. She’s just too small and sometimes there is a layer of thin ice that she breaks through and that is dangerous for her little bones.

We came home from shopping in town on Friday and Lily was not herself. She squeals when she sees us and after a day away, she goes bananas. Immediately we noticed she was barely moving around not even barking let alone squealing. We checked her out and discovered her jaw, chin area she yelped if we went anywhere near it. She ate her dinner slowly, did all her business outside and was drinking water so that was all good. She went to bark at something and only a yelp came out, she did not try barking again until the next day. She didn’t want to go up or down the stairs to the bed, like she was not steady and knew it. Her eyes were dim. As far as we can guess she took a header and did a face plant on the floor from their bench in the window. All 4 of them get up there and it’s a tight fit, Mini screams at the sight of our truck and cats go flying. We think in all the commotion and with Lily’s eyesight starting to go she missed a step and went headfirst from the top. There is an upside down wooden Coke box as the first step that you can’t see in the photo that she may have even clipped with her chin, it seems to be her sorest part. Friday night she slept on the floor and I woke up about every half hour and could hear her snoring so I knew she slept good. She was moving a round better Saturday morning so we knew she was on the mend. About mid afternoon she suddenly snapped out of it. Her eyes brightened, she was lifting her head to look up and she had her wiggle in her bum back. We could tell she was a bit sore still but we had our Lily back. This photo is today, she is back to climbing and running and barking. Lily is one big solid muscle and it’s a good thing. If she was a frail little dog, she probably would have broken something. Just the day before this happened I was watching her outside and she still starts her run with that cute little puppy playful bounce. Her and Mini RACE each other everywhere so she runs hard a lot… especially on days they are being teased by a squirrel.

We have to “elderly dog” proof our house now. We put the chairs in place until we can build a railing. She isn’t totally blind but she has lost a lot of her sight. She has also lost some of her hearing so we have already started using hand signals more with her. She is perfectly healthy otherwise, our old girl. We think she will be 13 in February.

All the animals love this little mouse that came from Dad. They all have their time with it. Here it is Donn’s turn.

Ever since Jack was a kitten he’s liked to watch Barry paint and swat at the brush, problem is he’s a big cat now and when he swats at the brush, he draws blood! Crazy cat!

We are settling in to the Hydeaway, it’s like a little apartment. So cozy with the stove. The animals all come up and spend the day with me when I work. Cats too! We installed a baseboard heater so we don’t have to worry about it freezing. We love this building!

Me at Halloween! Nobody recognized me.

Barry painting the windows at the Frog.

First try at cookies in Salle… I need a thermostat for inside the oven… I’ll get used to it. They were sure yummy!

We had so much rain and snow about 3 weeks ago that our water was like spring run off… this is the first time we’ve had that happen! The creek was raging! These jugs were filled only one day apart.

Coming home from Wells one night we saw 4 and from Quesnel a few nights later we saw 5. Both trips in the dark and Most of them were right on the highway. So dangerous, you really have to slow right down and watch for closely for them this time of year! My sole job is to watch for wildlife.

Jack has always loved to cuddle Lily and tonight he started grooming her… Lily wasn’t crazy about it but she didn’t leave, just pulled away a bit. He loves her, it’s so cute!

My favourite time of year :). No bugs!