Fall starts early in the cariboo

I'm just posting two pictures to show that in early September, fall was definitely in the air up there.

We will see what October brings. I've ordered a new camera and hopefully it is here before we go.

Warning

The post you are about to read contains mature(!) adult content and scenes that may be disturbing to some readers. Viewer discretion is advised.

You can also consider this a public service announcement reminding you what you should NOT do when working with tools.

This:

Plus:

Equals:

and this:

Alcohol and tools do not mix!





And, this puts a new spin on feeding raw to your dog:





Alright, now that you are finished groaning and thinking to yourself 'she is a sick girl', cut me some slack. I got it for halloween and it was raining last night. The dog didn't want to go out so we stayed in an entertained ourselves. And, it worked really well to scare the cr*p out of two of my co-workers (the fake hand up the sleeve trick)!



And Gail, if you are reading this, I promise to put it away before you come over.

Rivalry

A 'rivarly' has been going on between Dan, a BC Lions fan, and Paul, a closet Lions fan who comes out as an Edmonton Eskimo fan.  Dan put a lot of thought into a gift for a big day for Paul:

No. 1 is the jersey worn by none other than our infamous quarterback, Casey Printers.  Dan even went so far as to go down to the training facility and got Mr. Printers himself to sign the jersey.  Paul was humbled.  OK maybe not humbled but that jersey still hangs behind his office door over a year later so I am positive he is proud of it.

Over time I have brought home many 'gifts' for Dan from Paul and delivered a few back.

Tonight I brought home something completely different.  Apparently Paul thinks he's gonna finish the rivalry with this:

This Lions beer tastes like sh**.

That's a butt (as in cigarette) can on top and a BC Lions beer on each side.

Here's a few other shots:

Head Felion Inspector! If this dam thing wasn't pink I might get away with it.
(And for you non-football people, the Felions are our cheer team.)

"Partee hat" my *ss.

I'll show you 'special princess', Silvey!

That clear plastic holder on the back has lettering that says "smokes holder".  At least he got all the bases covered.

So, I don't think this ends any 'rivalry' and payback is a b*tch.  We welcome any suggestions!

Apples and Art

My sister in law called me last night.  She said they are living in renovation chaos right now.  Their kitchen is in the living room, they don't have a stove, and drywall dust covers everything. 

My brother is Art - though I don't think I have EVER called him that.  His name is Tweet in our world.  Well, he didn't want to talk to us last night - guess he had better things to do, like watch the microwave maybe? 

So, here's my payback.  Tweet REALLY likes apple pie.  We have an apple tree and a stove that works.  Today I got some of the fresh, no pesticide apples.  These are as fresh as you get, although not polished:

I peeled them, mixed up some flour, sugar etc. and removed my crust from the box.  Here's what came out of the oven:

Dessert was hot apple pie and french vanilla ice cream:

It was really really yummy.  I hope you guys living in renovation chaos get a kitchen back soon so you can start eating some good home cooking.

Carolers

Remember I mentioned stumbling on a bear?  Well, at the time it scared the bejeezies out of me.   I have mostly lost the fear but am much more aware of my surroundings now.

I was taking Brooke for a walk, minding my own business and walking down the driveway.  Brooke was off leash (actually, she's never on leash at the property) and trailing behind me sniffing things out.  We were going for a leisurely walk.  I didn't have a leash, I didn't have a stick, I didn't have anything but my voice.

I rounded the bend and was mostly off the gravel so it was relatively quiet.  Out of the corner of my eye I see something large and black in a small clearing, with its back to me.  I realized it was a bear did what any good city girl would do - yelled in the loudest, deepest voice you've ever heard - whollymother[insert bad word here]. 

Bear takes off and at the same time I book it up the driveway full speed.  Softly say to Brooke "come one girl, lets go".  I get her headed in the right direction and yell for Dan, who is sitting on the deck "there's a [insert bad word] bear".  Once again softly say to the dog "come one girl, keep going".    Dan stands up on the deck, Brooke sees him and she takes off for him.  He says 'did you say something?'   My response as I'm still running up the driveway is a repeated "there's a [bad word] bear, there's a [bad word] bear". 

Dan mentioned the story to our friends the Wilkies at Pressy Lake.  They had prepared their dogs for bears by putting bear bells on them.  Sheena kindly donated Emma's bell to Brooke. 

See the yellow bell on her collar?  She gets that put on as soon as we turn off the highway.  However, she's learned to stalk the chipmunks and can move without ringing that dam bell if she wants to.  That defeats the purpose, I want noise when I'm out.  So I went and bought my own:

This goes in my pocket and is with me every time I'm outside.  It hangs off my watch (very noisy, which the dog hates) off my belt loop, or just off my finger.

So, by now you are wondering why this post is labelled "Carolers".  Well, because when I am out with the dog we make a lot of noise with our little bells.  We were coming up the driveway one day and Dan said 'you sound like Christmas carolers arriving'.  He probably prefers to hear the 'carolers' than the cursing that was coming out of my mouth on bear day.

By the way, I went back the next day to the same spot I was in and walked to approximately where the bear was:  17 steps! 

Scotty tells me I should consider myself lucky to have seen a bear and that I will probably never see another one.  (Earlier that very day Scotty and I were walking in the bush and he was telling me what to do if I come across a cougar. - Didn't occur to me that those same instructions applied to a bear)  Thanks Scotty.  That comment about being lucky to see a bear got me thinking though.  One year we were vacationing at Lac de Roche with a bunch of people and a few dogs.  It was morning time and we were all sitting outside having coffee.  Dan calmly stands up and says 'grab the dogs'.  Us dog people just grab the collar of any dog nearby.  50 feet away is a bear.  We moved up to the deck.  Same thing happened later in the day.  Next morning we watch the bear circle a tent with people sleeping in it.  That was a bit awkward - do we yell and wake them so they come out face to face with the bear or just wait and watch.  We waited and watched.

Then, another time, we were at Timothy Lake, morning time on the deck having coffee and Dan calmly says again 'grab the dogs'.  Sure as heck there's a bear walking down the fence line.  Dan certainly maintains his cool compared to my reaction!

ATV'ing

Well, I actually got to ride the ATV this trip and let me tell you - I gotta get me one of these!  What fun.  Dan gave me five seconds of directions on how to accelerate, stop, shift.  Good to go from there.  Your right thumb works the accelerator - seems simple enough. 

Before my short lesson though Dan went out on the bike with the camera.  We have milesandmilesandmiles of trails accessible right from our property.  The local snowmobile clubs have put together some great maps of the trails. 

Here's a few shots of the trail that goes from our place to the lake just up the road (in a roundabout way)

This is the lake, the other end from our place:

I mentioned earlier that we had a small fire behind our property.  Fire might be the wrong word.  Lightening hit a tree and it started smoldering from the ground up.  The weather was very dry at the time and forest fires were bad.  Fortunately, the guide from the guest ranch was out on horseback with some clients and came across the tree smoldering.  The guide raced back to the ranch, they called the fire department and headed back to the tree in question. 

The day this occurred we had been out and arrived back in the early afternoon.  On the drive down our road, we passed two truck loads of firemen going the other direction.  Getting out of the truck I noticed a helicopter fly over us, fill up at the lake and leave.  Two minutes later, another helicopter filling up and leaving.  I stopped to watch and see if it was the same helicopter returning each time - it was.  I started to worry because the helicopter wasn't going very far and was returning quickly.  I suggested Dan go down to the ranch and see if they knew anything and I'm thinking to myself that we may have missed an evacuation order!  I also suggested to Dan that he not stay and chat - I wanted to know what the he** was going on.  Dan jumped in the truck and headed down the road - I stayed at the trailer and tried to decide what I should pack in the truck if we had to leave quickly (I settled on coats, the dog food and the beer cooler!).  Dan returns and while he's parking I ask what is going on.  He says 'just hold on, I'll fill you in on what the fireman told me'.  My reaction: Whollyhe**, I better grab our coats etc.  Turns out everything was under control and the helicopter was making sure the area was really soaked down.  The volunteer fire department had taken care of the tree.

When Dan was out on the bike he took some pictures of the tree.  In this one Dan is standing on a piece of the wood - his size 9's look pretty small here.

This one also gives you an idea of the size:

And this shows the damage:

We are pretty happy the guide found the tree, the guest ranch owners jumped into action and that we have an awesome volunteer fire department.

If you look closely at this picture, you will see the bark is missing in a twisted fashion.  This tree was hit by lightning too:

As I wrote earlier, I had my five second lesson on riding and Dan suggested I take the bike out on the trails.  He gave me directions: follow the trail, at the fork keep left, if you go right . . . . , put your foot on the fender if you're going through a puddle.   Well, I better just try this thing out before I venture in the bush and get myself lost.

Brooke didn't think this was a good idea.  Soon as I jumped on Dan's bike she gave me what for:

A little bribery (cookies) and she was alright with this idea.  So, let's go for a run girl:

I returned with Brooke and took the bike out on the gravel road.  Not my brightest idea but I got it up to 30 miles an hour (50 kmh), no helmet, riding on gravel and new to this.  Dan says 'try the trails now' so off I go.  We've had some rain so there are some serious puddles.  Dan says just follow the tracks around them and put your foot on the fender to keep dry.  Alright, I'll give this a try.  Off I go, putting along.  Around one puddle without a problem, second one down the trail a ways is a huge one.  I see the tracks go around to the left so I follow.  BIG puddle - it takes up the trail so my tires are going in.  I lift my right foot to put it on the fender, hit my right arm with my knee which results in my thumb pressing harder on the accelerator.  Instead of just letting go of the accelerator, I turn quickly to the right - through the puddle, find myself on the edge of the trail so turn quicly left and find myself on the other side of the trail - still moving fast. (zoom zoom)  It took about eight seconds for the brain to click in that I should release the accelerator before I kill myself!  At that point I decided it wasn't a good idea for me to be out alone in the bush riding this machine that has potential to seriously injure me.  I got the bike turned around, maneuvered the puddlelake safely and went back to the trailer.  Despite this small mishap, I still want my own ATV - just a little smaller and less powerful than the one Dan rides.  

Just back from another week in the cariboo

We left the holiday Monday.  I am NOT a morning person and I'm finding that I don't sleep well up there.  I am getting better but not great in the truck - but I can't sleep during the drive either.  Dan will tell me 'have a nap, I just did'.  Nice.  He is always the driver - but I often assist from the passenger seat because this is what I have to put up with:

Yes, he's in the driver's seat.

Once we are up there, neither Dan nor the dog have trouble napping either:

One morning when Dan was up before me, he watched a deer cruise up the side of the driveway (yes, Susan that very same driveway you could be sleeping in!) and head to our meadow behind the shed.  Dan grabbed the camera from in the trailer and was able to get some pictures.  He had to use the zoom feature so they aren't the clearest but you do get to see our very own Bambi:

and:

We had pretty good weather for the most part.  A bit chilly at times:

No snow though.  I was told by Leroy at Bridge Lake Store that the locals consider August 15 the change date.  Anytime after that and snow is not a surprise.  He also told Dan on his last trip up that we can just give him a call and he'll give us a snow report before we head up in winter.  I'm looking forward to a snow trip - somewhat.  I'd like some snow, just not three feet of it!

We have lots of pictures from this trip and a few stories, so check back.

"He has quit smoking"

You may have heard about the two year old cigarette smoking toddler.  If not, just google 'cigarette smoking toddler'.  The kid was up to two packs a day - started smoking at 18 months old.  His mom says he has quit smoking.  He went to rehab and they occupied his time with oddities like playing with kids his own age.  Wow, what a concept. 

There is just something so completely wrong with a two year old who smokes, not to mention the parents who encouraged it to begin with.
 
That story got me thinking.  Now I need to figure out what to do about Oscar: