Get A Grip

This post is dedicated to my friend, Marilyn, who sent me a pair of "get a grip" boot crampons. After our big snowfall and subsequent rainfall, we've had a sheet of ice on our driveway and everywhere in town. Saturday, I tried out the "get a grip" crampons and they worked really well. I can now walk pretty confidently up and down the Pine Ridge Road, and more importantly, our driveway. We've had a couple of days of above zero temps (remaining that way at night, too) and the ice is slowly going. Thank you, Marilyn, I love 'em!

Up On the Rooftop

After receiving 30 cm of snow on Tuesday night and early Wednesday, this is how Dave spent part of his day. I shovelled off the deck which was at this point covered with very heavy, sticky snow. Most of the winter we've had cold temperatures - at least cold enough to keep the snow light - but when we got the biggest snowfall I've ever experienced, the temperatures rose and so did the density of that snow! As the youngsters would say, "it's puking snow out there." There wasn't much else to do that day - the power was out for about 18 hours. The wood stove heated up our lunch and supper and it was lovely to eat by candlelight. I was able to listen to my ipod and knit and even spent an hour playing the piano. The next day we got rain and now everything is an icy mess. Time to try my boot crampons today.

Ohh - that Jazz!!

My parents just made it home from their Christmas vacation....... one week later than our scheduled plan! They made it in to good old Castlegar (aka Cancelgar) on December 18th - Mum sans une valise. The suitcase did turn up the next day at the airport and I had pretty good service from them - if you call the airport when an airplane is due to arrive a real person will actually answer the phone. Earlier in the day I was trying to track down the bag and had to speak to a person in India with the details.

Scheduled departure date was Dec. 26th at 3:50. We learned at about 10:30 a.m. that all flights out of Vancouver were cancelled. Mum and Dad insisted on going to Castlegar in order to be in town for their new scheduled flight at 10 a.m. Saturday. The next snowstorm moved in on Friday night. Saturday, I got them rescheduled to Sunday at 3:50 p.m. Sunday a.m. it was still snowing and Dave and I felt we had to get them out of Castlegar that day (the 28th) or take them to a different airport. By noon, the sun was brilliant in Castlegar. We left for the airport at 2 p.m. and an unscheduled arrival of Jazz came in at 2:15. At 2:30 we learned that their scheduled flight was cancelled! By 2:45 we were gassed up and on the highway to Summerland and had them rescheduled to New Year's Day, departing from Penticton.

January 1st another snowstorm arrived. All flights were cancelled. They were rescheduled to 9:35 a.m. on Jan. 2nd. The 6 a.m. flight to Penticton was cancelled. Their 9:35 flight left only 10 minutes late. They arrived home!!! I know weather was a big factor in all of this but the other factor is that Air Canada doesn't really want to deliver service of any kind. That's our Solstice Story, 2008.

Gateway to Big Sky Country

Yesterday I went for my very first snowmobile ride. Imagine writing that after living in SK for over 30 years?? I find the whole process of moving the machine to the road, unloading, etc., etc. a bit too time consuming - I'd rather put the skins on the skis and start hiking. The smell was a bit offensive, although it gets better once the ride begins. My rookie driver (Dave) had a bit of difficulty on a couple of the turns - just way too much snow, even for Bombardier. We jumped off twice to avoid turning it over on ourselves and had to dig it out of the snow once. However, it did get me up 8 km on the Blue Ridge FS Road and we snowshoed another 3 km. The sun actually came out and we had fabulous views. Starting at the bottom, I wouldn't have made it up that far.

The ride down was good. I'm enjoying the new "shoes" but like all modern inventions, they don't work as well in deep snow as the old beavertails. They are great for climbing over all the snowpiles banked up along the roads as I "shoe" into and out of town.

Happy Christmas, Happy Solstice

For the very first time we celebrated Solstice as "christmas" and today has been a quiet, unassuming holiday. On the 21st of December, we opened presents with Mum, Dad, Andrea and Demitri, had a ski/walk, cooked a wonderful Ferraro's Foods (in Rossland) fresh turkey and ate ourselves silly. Today, December 25th, we got up at our usual time, had a light breakfast followed by a good walk. After a very "Christmasy" lunch of cheese, crackers and seafood, we've been sleeping, reading and enjoying the fire. There will be cold turkey with all the trimmings (TX beans about to be put into the oven) and perhaps a couple of games of crib to round out the day. Happy return to longer days to all!

Yes, Hell Really Is Freezing Over!

This is our latest purchase - last Thursday we went to Sears in Nelson and bought our very first dishwasher!! The sales were good and last night we actually tried it out. It's very quiet and seems to work. There's still dishes to do, of course, and I feel a bit guilty about all the water we'll use. These newer models are supposed to use a minimal amount of water. It does make the kitchen look much more finished and we only have to add a couple of rows of tile to complete the floor. Now if you don't believe hell is freezing over, read on to the next post about Dave's recent purchase.

Toys for Boys

If you can't tell what's going on in this photo, it's a picture of Dave making adjustments to his recently purchased second-hand ski-doo!! Even though I totally disapprove of skidoos I can't complain too heartily because Dave has purchased very few toys for boys over the 36 years of our marriage. Some people here have told me I'm going to love it because we can get above the "lid" of the mountains and get up into the sunshine. I'll reserve judgement for a wee bit yet.