The Lake Chicks

We have now affectionately been dubbed "the lake chicks" by the local ladies - "the valley girls," and we love it! We were invited to attend their yearly perogy making day yesterday, and we had so much fun! It was nice to be with other people too, and, I'll admit it, to have a day away from the kids. We left yesterday morning on the snowmobiles, and 45 minutes later were at the nearest neighbor, who was hosting the day. We all took turns pinching perogies for each other and after the day was done - even though the final count is not in yet - probably made not too far under 1000 perogies. Wow. The food was great, the company was even better. We both had a really great time. We left well after dark and made it home quickly and uneventfully. I had lots of emails to send out when we got home to the ladies who all wanted to know we had made it home safely. So nice!

The day before that we celebrated Paul's birthday. A couple of the same ladies we shared the day with yesterday drove out on snowmobiles with their husbands. It was nice to have some company and we spent the afternoon visiting. They also left after dark so there was another round of emails to make sure all had made it home safely. There is a pretty big distance between people out here so we make arrangements with each other about when we are leaving, when we should be there, etc. so that if we think someone has not made it home safely - we can go looking for them, or vice versa.

I don't think it is coincidence, everyone we meet out here seems to be the same. It is as though living out here is like a youth tonic. You could guess their ages, but you would be way off. I hope spending a year out here has some of the same effect! I can't be sure who said this, Tim says Pierre Burton, I think maybe it was Thoreau, but they said something to the effect of " a day spent in the mountains is not subtracted from your life." I have seen proof.

Not all the snowmobile parts came in the mail... The motor is now rebuilt and we are just waiting for idler wheel parts. A new neighbor we met this week is going to Prince George tomorrow and has generously offered to stop at the Arctic Cat dealer and pick up the last few. For anyone that cares... when they rebuilt the motor, Tim and Paul found that, likely at the factory, the rings had been put on the pistons wrong, and we were lucky that the cylinders were not damaged in the process. It turns out they could have gotten away with just doing the rings, but the pistons were put in anyway because we had ordered them - so now we have spares!

Trapping is going well - the boys have 47 marten, and after today - one wolverine. I have never seen one in real life, and they are a little vicious looking, sharp teeth and big feet! Cohen went with Tim today to check traps and even got to see a marten peeking at him through the trees.

While we were away yesterday, the boys re-engineered the toboggan hill. Previously it went from the road above the cabins down to the old road below the cabins. They have made it even longer and a little hairier by adding a bit of a luge track on the bottom that goes around a stump, under a fallen tree around a corner and over some bumps to wind up down on the beach (don't worry - they're safe - there is a berm shovelled up to keep them away from the lake when sliding down). So far, Heather and Paul's snow saucer seems to give the best ride. From top to bottom, Tim figures it is close to 300m long. Some days, the guys take turns running the kids to the top with the snowmobiles to slide back down again. Today the kids ignored the long hill and spent their time on the luge portion of it.

Heather and I were collecting some flora today to start our Christmas decorating. I have always wanted the magazine look, old wooden paned windows with evergreen swags underneath. Hopefully we can find the time to pull it off! Did I mention that I love the windows on this cabin? They are unfinished wood, aged to a honey color, 6 pane windows. Yes they're old, and horribly drafty, our candles have blown out beside a few, but I will just throw some more wood on the fire and keep admiring them. I don't know if I'll like them as well at -40 when they have a thick coat of ice on them, but until then...

It's mail day today - and I have to miss it....

We are still waiting for the parts for my snowmobile, and now Tim has had to rob the choke switch from mine - so hopefully everything will be in the mail today so I can drive this thing before 2010! I don't mind staying behind now and then from the mail day trip. It makes for a relaxing day around here, and I can easily go a few more days without seeing people. Last week, Tim took his big mountain snowmobile and I drove his trapping snowmobile, but because there is several miles of road to drive on, his M7 was overheating and we decided not to take it again.

It has been snowing or cloudy here for several days and it is definitely taking a toll on the solar system. The sun shone for a bit yesterday and we gained some, but it doesn't take long to use it up. Thankfully, we have generators going around here often enough if we need back-up power. We noticed watching the sun yesterday that in a few days it will not get up over the mountain across the lake. Oh well, in less than a month the days are already getting longer again. We have also found with the short, cloudy days that there is not enough battery reserve to run the 12V pump to pump water from the tank, so it is used sparingly. I have been melting snow for dishes and bathing in the kettle on the stove. It works well enough - there only the odd spruce needle melted out of the snow to deal with. By spring we should have most of the snow shovelled from the yard - will that make summer come quicker?

I am making plans for Nola's 4th birthday party next Thursday. What kind of cake? What to make for supper? I think I'll do a homemade pizza party. Heather and Paul and the kids will come over for supper and cake. I can't believe she will be 4! Cohen also discovered yesterday that he has two loose teeth. They are the same two teeth that came in first - and, coincidentally, he got them out here when he was 4 months old. He gained them here and he will lose them here. My babies are growing up.

Yesterday while the boys were gone checking traps, Heather and I split just under a cord of wood. We work jointly to keep wood supplied for the shop and it makes for a fun afternoon every few weeks to go with the snowmobiles and skimmers to get some wood. You have to make a lot more trips with skimmers than a truck box though... Cohen even pulled a sleigh behind his little 120cc snowmobile and brought his own load of wood back. I wish I'd had my camera!

We will put the Christmas tree up after Nola's birthday next weekend. I will also dig out the box of solar Christmas lights I splurged on so we could have some color outside the cabin. I only wish now I'd bought more! I did not bring any Christmas tree ornaments either so we will keep busy this week and next making some. I also did not bring any Christmas cards, so I have been occupied with making those as well. I just did not get them written in time for mail day today so they will go out next week. this may be the first year ever that I do a form letter for our cards - or could I just sign each card "Love the Hoffman's, check the blog...?"

We may travel out to Manson Creek instead of Germansen Landing next Wednesday to do some visiting. Heather and Paul may also be getting some company so we will meet them that day too to guide their visitor back into here.

We also are anxious to see the caribou go by here in about a month. The helicopter that was flying over here a few weeks back was out here to count caribou and monitor the herd. We heard they are in a valley behind the mountain across the lake. I will have to ask next time how many we can expect, are there a couple hundred, or a couple thousand? They go by here on their way to the Wolverine Range north of here. I hope we can get pictures! A little over a week ago there was one set of caribou tracks on the road above the cabin. Is he lost, or is he scouting out the route? Once we know they are coming we will have to lock the dogs up so they are not trampled, and so they don't disturb the herd too much.

Well, I can feel my toes getting cold so that means I have let the fire get a little too low so I should go and get it going again...

Mail day on the snowmobiles!

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Stopping at the pumps to fill up!


View of the Germansen River bridge from Germansen Landing.


The beautiful little store we get gas, groceries and mail from.

Mail day on the snowmobiles!

Nola all suited up and ready for the trip


Cohen all ready for the ride.


We stopped here on the trail a little over half way for lunch before continuing on.


No, we are not sponsored by Arctic Cat... (unfortunately!)

Bath Day

You might think that mail day would be my favorite day out here - but you'd be wrong, it's bath day. Every second or third day, however the math works so that we are sure to be all bathed up on Tuesday nights for Wednesday mail day, we get to have bath day! Don't get me wrong - I love going out and seeing our neighbors from far away on Wednesdays, but bathing is my happy time. For 30 minutes, my OSB walled bathroom is bathed in candlelight and lantern light and is transformed into a bit of a spa, if you have a good imagination...

After lunch on bath days, I get all the pots and kettles out. I fill the big 6 gallon canner first - that makes up the hot water portion of the bath. It takes a few hours to heat that much water in one kettle, so we wait until after supper to bath to make sure it is as hot as can be. I also fill anything else that will hold water and fit on top of the stove! These are the "warmups" for the water after it has started to cool off. I might as well say it right now so you don't wonder, yes, we share bath water out here. I usually go first though, I don't get terribly dirty out here and I like the water hot! Then the kids go, because they are ready by then. Tim goes last, usually because he is outside working in the shop until late. Let me tell you - during beaver trapping, bath days could come everyday for he and the kids as far as I was concerned. If you have never smelled beaver before (stick with me here...) it has a very distinct odor. The kids get right in there helping with the work so they smell like it too.

We had hooked up a hot water heater from an old camper, but it didn't put out as much water as was needed for baths. We decided it was much faster to heat water on the wood stove in the volume we needed. It also was using a lot of our battery power to run the 12 volt pump to fill the tub. If the sun doesn't shine, the batteries won't charge, and we would have no power for the pump anyway. We decided to save the battery power for using the internet and watching a movie here and there. We had also thought about getting a tankless hot water heater, but that didn't eliminate the pump running, so we just decided to do it the old fashioned way. It's not luxury, but for 30 minutes, it sure feels like it!

Mail Day, Take Two...

We left for mail day today nice and early so we could make it in time for the 1:00 rush and get to visit with some of our far-away neighbors. There is very little snow at the cabins, and so we took the truck - thinking we would squeeze one more trip in with it. Well, 6 or 7 km up the road, the snow started getting a little deep and so we switched it into 4-high. A couple of kilometres past that we were having trouble making it up the hills, so we tried 4-low. We made it a little farther and then decided we should turn around. Did I mention there was close to a foot of snow there? Couple this with an icy layer underneath from recent rain and we were at a standstill. We usually all travel together in one truck, but this time Paul was following us in his truck to park at the top of one particularly sketchy hill, just in case we couldn't make it up on the way back - we would have a back up plan. I'm glad we turned around when we did. This could have been one long day...

Take two - Tim and Cohen, Heather and Paul and their kids suited up when we got back here and left on the sleds. They had quite the outgoing load - several jerry cans and a 100lb propane bottle on the skimmers. They should be pretty loaded on the way back in too as we are all expecting several boxes. Nola stayed with me and we are sneaking in a movie. I don't expect them back until well after dark.

My snowmobile is still awaiting parts (hopefully in one of the expected boxes!) It will still be out of commission until at least November 25, our next mail day out, because Tim has been parting mine out to make his brand new again. Now mine needs idler wheel bearings and bushings, and an unidentified part we can't find yet on Royal Distributing's website. I should get to drive it by spring...

On our partial journey out today we saw lots of animal tracks. Wolverine, moose, marten, rabbit, squirrel and fox. On my list of things to see this winter, along with wolves, is a wolverine. Hopefully we'll sneak up on one ambling down the road while out on the snowmobiles.

There has been a helicopter making lots of tours over the area - we have been told it is BC Fish and Wildlife doing animal counts. I am not sure what they are counting - wolves? Moose? Caribou? All of the above? We were told by a BC Parks officer a few weeks back that there should be a herd of Caribou going by the cabin on December 20. I can hardly wait - I will definitely be trying to get some pictures of that! They must be very predictable animals if they can pinpoint the date like that. Here's hoping they keep their yearly appointment...

It is starting to snow right now - hopefully they make it back before it gets too heavy!

Was it a Bird? Was it a Plane?

Neither. It was a meteorite. It was shortly after supper last night and I had just blown out the kerosene lantern to let it cool off so I could refill it. It was quite dark in the cabin. All of a sudden, the inside of the cabin lit up with the quickness of a lightning flash. Tim had been looking out the window and said the mountain across the lake was completely lit up for a second. I just saw the reflection on the back of the cabin wall as I didn't happen to be looking out the window at that time. We had no idea what it was. Had a plane crashed? We hope not. Was it lightning in winter? Stranger things have happened, but there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Was it a space ship? Doubtful. Did we both have cabin fever already? Maybe... After talking to Paul this morning, who just happened to be reclined at the time and was able to see all of it, we found out that it was a meteor. It came from the sky behind the cabin and continued on over the mountain across the lake. He could see the meteor itself and the tail behind it. Exciting!

Tim and Paul were up the trail a couple of days ago and there were wolf tracks just a few kilometres away! I don't want any close encounters with them or anything, but I would love to hear them howl, and if they are that close and start up a chorus - we should be able to hear them from here. Previous residents were able to watch a pack cross the lake ice. Now that is something I would like to get a picture of. Maybe if we're luck enough we will get to see the same scene pass us by.

Wiener roast on the trail while out setting up squirrel poles.

My homemade bird feeder. The only birds visiting so far are whiskeyjacks.


Rose hip stashed in a spruce tree by a squirrel.


Nola on a GT snow racer behind the skimmer, behind the snowmobile.

I think Mother Nature may be confused...

As I write this, on a warm and rainy November night (yep, you read right), I keep wondering when this mountain winter will arrive that we have all looked so forward to. Don't get me wrong, we have been spoiled and have enjoyed the last few weeks with warm days and a little flurry here and there, but Mother Nature, you can bring it on. We're ready for you.

We have been busy the last week, two days were spent out on the trail with the snowmobiles and skimmers, punctuated by a wiener roast. School takes up the better part of a morning. The boys have been busy preparing the beavers they have caught. Heather and I split and stacked a load of firewood for the fur shack. We even decided to skip mail day this week. We are all expecting parcels and thought we would give them one more week to be certain they have arrived. We still could have driven out this week as there is only about 5" of snow and if this rain keeps up we will still be able to drive out next week. We were told to pack a chainsaw the next time we do go out though, whether it is by snowmobile or truck, as a big windstorm went through and it is quite possible there are trees across the trail.

Tim took my sled 53km up the trail the other day to the end of their line. It is fan cooled and better suited for the slow pace they keep when breaking trail. We found as a result of this trip that the motor needs to be rebuilt. At least it didn't break down completely on the trail. Pistons, rings and gaskets were ordered online last night and are already en route. Did you know you can buy just about everything on the internet? Did I mention there is also a new windshield for my snowmobile coming in that package? Tim went too close to an alder and now there is only half a windshield... I couldn't even be mad, because it took care of him too by giving him a fat lip.

We heard news today of a grader being rolled down a ravine onto its roof north of Germansen Landing. Thankfully, the operator is OK and will recover. Things that happen like that near civilization are bad enough, but when they happen about 4 hours from medical help, they can be that much worse. Thankfully this one sounds like it will turn out OK.

Halloween Day 2009