Home for the Holidays

Believe it or not, almost all of our snow has melted and gone. We had a week of warm December weather that made a mess of everything, melting snow like it was springtime. We had mud everywhere for a while but now that the cooler weather has crept back in, everything's frozen solid again. But the white stuff that fell in November is 95% gone, leaving a dry, brown landscape pockmarked with areas of icy, white crust. To make things even more interesting, there's not much snow in the forecast in the days leading up to Christmas 2014. So, it could be a brown Christmas this year. That would be very unexpected, up here in the mountains!
It's exactly one week until Christmas Day and I'm just starting to get into the spirit of the season. We have the tree and most of our decorations up, making the house look quite festive.We've been out a couple of times supporting the local economy, buying a few gifts, shopping for Christmas dinner ingredients, and purchasing a bottle or two of "good cheer".
We have again been invited to Brian and Louise's place for dinner on the 25th and have graciously accepted. They have become good friends over the past few years and we look forward to our time with them.
As usual, our little print shop will be closed over the holidays so we'll both get a few days off together. It will be nice to spend some "off" time with my new bride this Christmas. We'll go and visit some of the friends and neighbours that we never get to see enough the rest of the year. Catching up is always fun!
To all you readers, and to those we won't get a chance to tell in person, Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!

Deep Freeze

We received a big dump of snow on Tuesday and then another few inches on Friday night. Now, as predicted, the temperatures have fallen dramatically and the sun has been bright, hanging low in the cold, clear skies.

I spent another day plowing yesterday, trying to keep everything accessible and clear. Last night we attended a Christmas party with the good people from Carol's work. We didn't stay too late as Carol had to work this morning which was just as well as the temperature at the house on our return was -28*C. It hadn't improved much by this morning as you can see from the photo of the dashboard in Carol's car when I started it this morning.

You can see the nice job the new plow is doing in the photos of the house and yard. It rocks!
It is SO nice to have all the wood and hay taken care of this year. We're able to focus the little time we seem to have, doing the things that make life up here so enjoyable - like blogging, for example. I haven't been able to dedicate the time I feel I should to keeping our little blog up to date. Winter is such a beautiful time of year here, I love to share the images that epitomize the reason that we live here and put up with all the little inconveniences that are just part of living on a remote, off-grid ranch.

Snowy Weather

We were just getting used to winter without snow, and then we woke up this morning! Joey was barking at something outside so we all got up to look and sure enough, three deer were picking their way through the deep snow up towards the well. Whoa, wait, what? Deep snow? Yep! There was more than a foot of fresh snow on the ground! And, it was still snowing....hard! Amazingly, both Carol and I didn't have to go to our respective jobs today. We had planned to drive to Vancouver - a business day trip for our printing company - but had postponed the trip yesterday because the forecast was for snow on the mountain passes. We didn't expect that snow to arrive at our house, or in town, but it did! It hit us with a vengeance.
I was looking for a chance to try out the new plow on the Bobcat utv but I wasn't even sure if it would be able to push this much snow. I guess we were going to find out...
First thing was to install the new tire chains on the back wheels. It took me a while to figure them out, but they went on and fit well. Now, would we be able to drive through all this snow to get up the hill beside the house to the spot beside the propane tank where I put the plow assembly. Yes! It worked great and climbed the hill no problem. The Bobcat feels unstobbable with these chains on! Getting the mount to line up took some messing around, but the pins finally slipped into place and voila, we had a miniature, mountain highway plow truck.
From the first pass, I knew we had done the right thing. It was easy to use and - small miracle - it was easily able to push through the deep snow. After making a few runs cleaning up the knee deep driveway beside the house, I took off down the driveway.
Our plow blade is 18" high and then we have a 6" rubber strip attached to the top edge of the blade. That gives us almost 2 feet of material pushing through the snow. Even with all that, the snow was still coming over the top at times. For the most part though, it was working perfectly, pushing a wave of snow off to one side of the Bobcat. I remembered my lessons and made the plowed swath as wide as absolutely  possible - even falling into the dreaded ditch that has trapped our little tractor in the past. Another miracle though, as the Bobcat with the plow just drove along with one wheel 2 feet lower than the other, buried in the ditch, until a less steep part of the ditch alowed us to simply drive back onto the driveway. It was poetry in motion. Well, okay, maybe it wasn't, but it was a whole lot better than having to drag a frozen tractor out of a snowy ditch with our pickup.
To put the cherry on the top of the snowy weather, the folks at Environment Canada are predicting temps in the mid-minus twenties this weekend!

We're Ready for Winter!

It is the middle of November, and here we are...ready for winter! Yes, you read that correctly. We are ready for the cold weather and the white stuff that is usually already upon us by this time. That might sound a bit odd, so let me explain.
With Carol and I both working jobs this year, we realized that we just weren't going to have the time to do all the seasonal chores around the ranch that we've had in years past. Last year we struggled through, bringing up hay one pickup load at a time every weekend during the winter. Same with firewood.

When not hauling hay, our weekends would be spent cutting, transporting, splitting and stacking the firewood, that we use to heat our house.
And don't get me started on trying to plow out the driveway. Our little tractor is fighting out of its weight class when it comes to plowing our 2km driveway. We would be much better off with a giant tractor, but until our finances improve some more, we have to "run what we brung" (use the equipment we have).





 So, one challenge at a time. We found a great hay supplier in Armstrong who would deliver all the hay we'd need for the whole winter for less than what we were paying for just the hay alone last year (not including all the diesel burned in the truck). The challenge with this scenario is that we needed someplace dry to store the hay in - a hay shed! We've known that this outbuilding would be required ever since we moved up here, but we just haven't had the time or money to build it. We had to protect our investment in the hay, though, so we bit the bullet and I started digging post holes.
Eight post holes, 4 feet deep, to anchor the 14 foot, pressure treated posts that would eventually support the hay shed. We had decided on an design similar to the loafing shed we built for the horses, but 3 times as wide and 2 feet taller. It would be 12 feet across by 36 feet wide, enabling us to store almost 400 small square bales. I was able to dig 1 or 2 holes after work each day but it was hard work, using a pry bar and a clam shell digger. The ground was very rocky making progress slow. At this point, a miracle happened! Let me explain.

Our friends Bud and Lea Thorson had told us about HelpX, a website that matched travellers willing to work for room and board, with farms and ranches looking for some temporary help. We put our little ranch up as a potential "host" and within days had agreed to host Joanie Lizotte and her boyfriend, Jo, for a few weeks starting in the middle of October. We were a bit hesitant at first, having never done anything like this before. We needed the help though, and it seemed to be a pretty good idea. We shouldn't have worried. The whole experience was great! Jo is a chef and Joanie is not afraid of hard work in the least. The two of them helped us finish the hay shed build; cut, split and stack all the firewood we'll need for the winter; move and re-stack the hay in the new shed; clear our horse paddocks of much of the wood and detritus that has always been strewn around; prepare and serve meals from our kitchen that would rate rave reviews from any high-end restaurant you can name; paint our interior doors; clean up our basement; befriend our dogs and horses; and become our good friends. We only hope that they enjoyed their stay with us as much as we enjoyed hosting them. Thank you, Jo and Joanie!


Our tractor has a snow plow blade that attaches behind the machine and plows a path just inches wider than the tractor itself. It does a great job but has one flaw. Since our driveway has ditches on the sides for most of its length, we have to be careful not to slide/fall into the ditch with the tractor when we're snow plowing. It sounds simple but when the snow is so deep you can't distinguish the road from the ditch, it makes it extremely difficult to keep the cleared path as wide as possible. Since the blade is behind you, the tractor finds the ditch before the plow so the operator tends to shy away from the edge, resulting in an ever narrowing cleared path. Front snow plow blades for tractors run in the thousands of dollars so we needed a cheaper answer to this problem.


Our Bobcat ATV is excellent in the snow so it made sense to look for a solution based on that vehicle. I found a Canadian wholesaler for KFI products - UTV Canada, in Edmonton. KFI is the US manufacturer of the great winch mount we bought and they make an awesome line of snow plow products that have mounts to fit our Bobcat. I was able to order a complete kit - 6 foot plow blade, adjustable heavy duty UTV push tubes, and a mount for the push tubes that includes a 2" hitch receiver. I also ordered a set of heavy duty chains for the Bobcat to keep things moving when it gets icy. So far, we haven't had the opportunity to find out how all this gear works! Hopefully, we go all winter without knowing, but I suspect that is just not going to happen! Stay tuned until after the first big snowfall.

Married!

Wow!

We did it!

A beautiful day.

A beautiful venue.

My beautiful wife!

It was the BEST day!

Hitchin' post

We're getting a good dose of Kamloops hot, summer weather. Temps are predicted to hit the low 40's early next week with the high 30's being the norm the last few days. Even up at our place we've been seeing high 20's dipping into the teens overnight. It's about bloody time! I love the summer...the sunshine...hot days...warm nights...very little snowplowing! The dogs have both had their summer haircuts recently. I've included a picture but as many of you know, Joey hates being photographed, so I snapped this one as she was leaving.
Seriously, though, we are already starting to think about prepping for winter. Wood needs to be cut, split and stacked. Hay needs to be sourced and reserved for fall delivery. Annual maintenance on our equipment has to be done in the next few months. Come to think of it, I'd better get the snow tires off the car, for a few months at least. But, hey, before all this talk of winter, we've got a wedding in September to prepare for! Yep, if you didn't know already, Carol and I are getting hitched on September 13th. Carol jokes (?) that she chose the date partly because we can celebrate our anniversary every once in a while on Friday, the 13th. Hmmmm...

Anyway, we have a small group of friends and family travelling to Kamloops to help us celebrate. Thanks to our good friends, Bud and Lea Thorson, the wedding will be outdoors at Dreamscape Ranch with our friend, Roy, officiating the ceremony. Dress is cowboy casual, with jeans, boots and hats encouraged! We're providing wine with dinner and maybe some beer or whatever afterward, but BYOB will be the order of the day. Dreamscape Ranch is a "Bed 'n' Breakfast" so a few rooms are available for those needing accomodations. We're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather or we may be saying our "I do's", in the barn. Think good thoughts, everyone.
We're working hard at our jobs and trying to fit some time in to finish a few house projects before the big day arrives. It's still more than two months away, but it feels like we're rushing to get things done! Speaking of projects, we built a raised garden bed this year and planted a bunch of different stuff to see what thrived and what didn't. Well, we just had some lettuce and radishes the other night...grown on our farm...in our little garden! Very cool and yummy. We can't wait for the peas, carrots, beets and peppers to be ready! Sadly, none of our tomato seeds survived. We'll have to do a better job next year of starting them indoors and growing them to a more robust size before moving them to the garden. If this garden does work out, perhaps we can add another one next year as this one is only 16 feet by 4 feet.

Holy Crap, Martha....He's Still Writing That Blog!

We have very busy lives these days and we never seem to have enough of that most precious commodity - time. When I sat down to write this post, I couldn't believe that almost 6 months has passed since I last took quill in hand to update all of you (okay... both of you) regular readers out there. I'll try and bring you up to speed quickly.
Winter is finally over! The news this year had been filled with one story after another about the harsh weather all over the Great White North (Canada) , and the USA. We were no exception. We had more snow than usual up at our place, although we didn't have any long periods of extremely cold temps. It just seemed that winter went on and on and on. Into the spring, or what most people refer to as spring, the cold kept clawing its way back onto our little mountain. We'd get a few warmer days and then the snow would once again cover the ground. Anyway, it's done now. It hasn't snowed for almost a month. Roll on summer!
Carol and I are getting married in September. It's been a long time coming, but we're finally gettin' hitched! September 13th, is the big day and we're hoping to have a great time with a group of close friends and family. It's not going to be some high falutin' affair, just some friends, food and fun. We'll be sure to post some pics.
As we noted in an earlier post, the economy here has been cruel to our little printing company and we've been forced to take on second jobs to pay our bills. This is where all our time is going. We're both basically working 7 days a week right now - either at KPA or at our other jobs. It makes for some long days, but there are some good perks. My security job sees me walking a lot - sometimes as much as 15 kms per shift. I feel good. I've lost a few pounds and have some "wind" back.
We've put in a raised vegetable garden at the house and are hoping to reap the rewards. We started a bunch of seeds in window boxes in the house and just moved them outside. Hopefully some of the stuff will actually grow and give us some fresh veggies later in the year.
Our horses are doing great. We're down to 4 now - Acorn has gone back to the KTRA (Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association) and is being re-homed. They had been paying for his food and upkeep (we were providing the labour) but the new board there has changed plans and no longer wants to support him financially. They asked us if we wanted to keep him as our own but we declined. We love him and wouldn't let anyone have him destroyed but on the other hand his feed is expensive (he can't eat hay because of his teeth being completely worn away) and he is too old for one of us to ride him. We miss his happy face and wonderful attitude but are happy to report that one of the local farriers is going to be taking him. Good luck, Acorn!
Spring and summer make us really appreciate our solar powered house. We rarely (if ever) have to run our generator for anything other than equalizing the batteries. The rest of the time we rely on clean, quiet, FREE sunlight to power our little house. Very cool!
Brian and Louise stopped by for a few minutes last night. Yesterday, they moved their entire herd of 80 cows and calves and 4 bulls up to our property. They will spend a few weeks mowing down the grass here before being moved to another pasture further up the hill from us. They will be back again later in the fall before heading back to their home range. Of course, the horses and the dogs were very impressed with their new neighbours with many hours spent staring at the big bovines.
Joey is at the dog groomer's today getting her annual brush cut. She always seems so happy after having it done as I'm sure it's much cooler than the very thick, double layer of fur she grows over the winter. Ben is ...well, being Ben. Just about as happy as a dog can be...all the time...constantly. It's exhausting just watching him sometimes. I don't know where he finds the energy! He keeps busy digging up mice and voles, running and attacking Joey at every opportunity, stalking imaginary game in the woods, or running after one of us on the ATV.
We moved our bird feeders around the front of the house this year so we can see the birds on them. We have lots of junkos, yellow-headed blackbirds, grosbeaks, sparrows, finches, cow birds and even crows attend the feast on the feeders. It only takes them all a few days to empty our 4 feeders. Then they make us feel bad as they hunt through the grass below for any missed or dropped seeds, forcing us to go and refill them again. We have been lucky again this year and the swallows have returned to Carol's little birdhouse. It's wonderful to watch them zooming around catching mosquitoes. Go swallows! We also see a variety of woodpeckers from giant pilated woodpeckers to little yellow bellied sapsuckers. Great gray owls, ravens, sandhill cranes, red tailed hawks and even eagles visit frequently. It's wonderful to have such large birds, so close!
Coyotes regularly patrol through our forest. We like to see them but don't like it when they come too close to the house. We worry about the dogs being lured out and attacked so try to discourage the coyotes when they become too bold. Moose, elk, deer and bear are residents in the area, too but it's still special when we get to see them up close, as is often the case.
I have promised Carol that I will make a real effort to get our window trim and baseboards completed before any visitors arrive for the wedding. I'm also secretly hoping to get the staircase done as a birthday present for her, so please, don't say anything to spoil the surprise! That would leave just the pine tongue-and-groove ceiling boards to complete and the house will be finished. Well, okay, there are a bunch of little finishing jobs still to do but it will be more or less, done!