Right now Tim and Paul and some family and friends are at their yearly snowmobiling weekend up our claim cabin. Every year there are breakdowns and this year is no different... Or is it? Yesterday after Tim's brother broke down, Tim was able to come here and take parts off of his trapping snowmobile to fix it. Today after Paul's friend broke down, they were able to come here and trade in the one with the problem for another. All the boys also had a home cooked meal here before they left Wednesday night and showed up to a warm cabin after driving on a groomed trail to get there. Normally they show up to their drop off point late in the day, and break trail to a cold cabin, some years arriving after midnight after problems on the 46km trail. There has also never been the option of spare parts and spare snowmobiles around!

We also try to let everyone understand how remote we are - this hardly seemed so when our guests met us on the road on mail day. We had snowmobiled out to our "halfway camp" where our trail meets the main road. We have a firepit and some benches there to have a quick lunch before we continue on to mail. This week one of our friends from up the road came for a visit at our "camp" and then chauffered us to get our mail and eggs. We thought when we got back to the "camp" we would have to wait a while for the snowmobilers to show up - but they were already there waiting for us. Other friends, expecting we would have a long wait came down to visit us and then the guy taking the mail out joined the party too. We hardly felt remote that day with 4 extra people to visit with there!

Heather and I and some of the local ladies are starting to plan a powderpuff run out here. Just a day snowmobile trip around here. Just for fun. There are lots of laughs to be had when everyone is together.

I was also thinking about packing up a few books and going up to the claim cabin by myself for a few days as a mini holiday. Now that trapping season is almost over there will be more time to do things like that. We will also take a family trip up there for a few days and tour around in the backcountry a bit. There are so many places around here to see this winter and time is flying way too fast so we had better make the time. I guess that is a good sign - time flies when you're having fun!

The Wolves Are At Our Door...

Not the proverbial ones, real ones. Last Wednesday when everyone went out for mail, Nola and I stayed behind to relax. We went for a little walk around the cabins and I found that the wolves have been to our beach just below the cabins. If you know us and have been here for a visit - you will know that is close - too close! The dogs didn't even bark - it must have been in the middle of the night on Tuesday and they slept through it! I noticed on my walk last Thursday that a wolverine was behind the cabin a couple hundred feet. It had walked down the main road a ways then turned down the trail that comes to the back of our cabin. Before it got too close it turned off into the bush again. The dogs did spend some time barking on Wednesday while everyone was gone for mail so it is possible that is when the wolverine wandered through. It is one of my favorite things out here to go out for a walk after a fresh snow and see what critters have wandered through. The wolves seemed to have moved on for now though, Tim and Paul went for a drive east of here on the snowmobiles and saw a moose kill that will occupy them for a while.

I am also honored to share that Heather and I have had our blogs featured in a publication put out by the Edmonton Journal. It went out on Monday, February 8. We received our copies in the mail today and it was so exciting to see our print "IN PRINT." It was also exciting to see pictures I took as a part of the article as well. For anyone who reads this as a result of the "Country Asides" article - we have one correction - we are from just outside Grande Prairie, Alberta, not Bonnyville. It was so neat to read from a paper how our dream has played out over the last several years.

We left yesterday and took the newly reopened trail out to friends who live at the end of it. We stayed the night there and had a great visit. We have spent a few days working - and this is hard work - snowshoeing in thigh deep snow ahead of the guys to break trail for them as they are cutting, then doubling back behind them to clean up the limbs they cut and the downfall they cut out of the way. The guys have the hard job too of sawing snow laden limbs from trees and getting "dumped" on all too often. Heather and Paul worked very hard on the trail while we were out at the end of January. Even though it is very hard work, I am glad that we got back in time to help out with it. It was very rewarding to drive through a near 40 year old trail in country we have never seen before and enjoy all the new scenery. I don't know how I will go back to driving a vehicle on roads to get where we need to go. I much prefer driving a snowmobile on trails to reach our destination now.

The Things You Stumble Across...

When Tim was out checking traps Monday he noticed something he had not seen before. There is a marten set at the end of a logging road, and about 15 feet from it is a brushpile. He noticed when re-setting the box that there is a hole in the brush pile, surrounded by ice. A bear den! A little scary that he had been there many times before and not noticed. With the lack of snow and the warm weather, the bit of snow covering the hole must have been melted away by the bear's breath inside. I know I won't be going back there! He figures it is a black bear den as he has been by there many times with a noisy snowmobile and not disturbed it. When he was on his way out of there, he went off the trail a bit and got stuck - he said he was a little nervous when he had to turn his back on the "hole" to get himself out.

Proof that Heather and I really are here. You would never guess by the few, ok, no pictures of us on our cameras! This is us cutting trail on Sunday - no Superbowl for us!

In lieu of a downward shot of prettily painted toenails in the sand - here are my wool sock, pac boot and snowshoe clad feet. This is a little more suited to my lifestyle anyways!

Update On The Wolves...

We spent yesterday breaking trail through to friends that live north of Germansen Landing. It is a trail that he used to use his dogsled on in the 1970's. The trail was well "blazed" but had grown up with alders and had many trees fall across it over the years. Paul had snowshoed ahead yesterday while we were on the trail and met up with the other fellow's snowshoe tracks, so we knew we were close. Today just after lunch the group that was working on the trail from the other end punched through the last section of trees and arrived here at 1:40. One of these days we will take the trail from this end and go for a visit. They got back to us tonight - the total driving time is about one hour on the snowmobiles and about 19 miles one way.

Last night after getting home, right around supper, our big dog, Rocky, barked a bark like we had never heard before. He has a "someone is here/walking by" bark, a "coyotes are howling" bark, and a "Bear!!" bark. Last night we heard for the first time his "wolves are a little too close for my liking" bark. Cohen was worried so he went upstairs and "fired" a few times out the window with his pop gun. Tim went and locked the dogs in the shop because they were pretty excited.

This morning when Tim left to check traps he saw how close the wolves had been - at the top of the driveway! They marked the area pretty good and we are not sure how long they stayed, but they continued on east above the cabins and the dogs have been calm all day. I just want to hear them howl - from far off - I don't know if I want them that close to where we are for the sake of the dogs. It looks like we may have to keep the dogs locked up while we are away from the cabin.

A Day In The Life...

The most common question we answer from family and friends is "What do you do all day???" The answer is this: "Lots!"

We don't usually set an alarm clock, so the day starts when we are ready to wake up. We go to bed fairly early, so morning comes anywhere from 4:30am (for Tim on some mornings!) to about 8:00. After we are up - we have breakfast. If Tim has to wait for us to get up, he usually reads. After breakfast, on an ideal morning, the dishes would be done right away, otherwise they might sit until after lunch - remember I have to heat water - sometimes melt snow - to wash them!

After breakfast, we do school. We usually do that 3 or 4 mornings a week and it takes about 2 hours. After school I usually go for a walk and then it is time to make lunch. Tim spends this time outside puttering around. There never seems to be a shortage of things to do out there. The kids also head outside after school for about an hour before lunch. Sometime throughout the day we also split wood to fill the box inside the cabin.

After lunch the kids play outside and I usually use this time to do something I need to do inside like bake or clean up, or even just read a magazine. On a well planned day, supper is started mid afternoon or so, and the rest of the time is spent working on that recessed with some time spent outside. Although we have gained some daylight here in the last few weeks, up until now we had to turn the lantern on around 4:00 to finish supper. After supper, the dishes are done and the kids play with Dad. At bedtime (usually between 8:00 and 9:00pm) the kids are read a story (or 2 or 3...) or we make up stories, each child taking turns adding to it. Last night Nola's character in her story was "Princess Flying Rockstar" and she drove a pink dirtbike, and was being chased by wolves or bears (vivid imagination!)

On a day where the guys are checking traps, they are gone from about 8:00am until nearly suppertime. On these days after school is done the kids usually watch a movie (using the generator or battery backup on the laptop) and I get a break. Checking traps takes two days of the week up (changed to one starting today.) The days they are checking traps are usually saved for baking as well. Each day after checking traps is spent in the shop skinning and stretching the animals. One day a week, weather permitting, (always a Wednesday) is spent going out for mail and visiting. We are travelling by snowmobile right now so everything takes a little extra time. We also spend one or more days of the week doing something like getting wood, or taking a little side trip with the snowmobiles.

We also get asked a lot if we eat our meals with Heather and Paul. Not all, of course, as we each have our own houses, but we do share quite a few, either wiener roasts in the yard or on the trail, there also seems to be a birthday or other special occasion that we share each month. We also play games pretty often like Crib, Joker's Wild, or the favorite right now - Mexican Train. On these nights we often throw together snacks and finger foods so we don't have to cut our game short.

There seems to be little time leftover for crafts and hobbies, of which I brought a lot of supplies for and have spent next to no time using.

As you can see - it doesn't take long to burn through a week - and the weeks are going way too fast in my opinion...

Wolf "Leavings"
We found that they completely tore apart all of their scat, leaving mostly only hair behind. I am not sure why they do this - maybe looking for bone pieces that they can eat again? If anyone knows - please share...

Where the wolf pack rested and played on the trail and bank.

I found today where the wolves had followed a snowmobile track just below the cabins. They were closer than we knew! They made a wide berth around the front of the cabin, all eventually joining up on this trail and following it a ways down the lake to the west of us. I also found today where they had played and rested on the lake just west of the cabins maybe 200m away, if it had been during the day - we would have been able to see them from the cabins.

The spot where the wolves played and rested just down from the cabins - one of our dogs - Tiggs - did a lot of sniffing around here checking it out. All the tracks criss-crossing one another are from the wolves.

Got Wolves?

We do! Tim and Paul went out today to help a friend in the valley lay linoleum in their kitchen. When Tim got back tonight he said there was wolf tracks just down the old road less than 1km east of here. They first played on the road and hillside about 5km east of there at km 21. Tim says it looks from the tracks like a frolicking good time (my words, not his, guys) was had. There were tracks up the bank then what looks like sliding/tumbling marks back down. I hope it doesn't snow tonight! I want to take the snowmobile tomorrow and get some pictures. They then walked west toward the cabin and finally moved on to the lake less than a kilometre away from here. It was a little too dark to see how far they went out onto the lake and whether they crossed it or just made a wide berth around the front of the cabin on the ice. Maybe at that distance away they smelled us or heard a generator and decided to take a detour. We will never know. I do have a little faith now that we may get to hear them howl if they are back in the lake valley again. For the safety of our dogs it is good that they did not come any closer. We have been told by a previous resident that the pack will send a female out as a decoy to lure a dog out and when the dog gets far enough out the pack will cut off his retreat route and get the dog. She almost had it happen here one year when a new pup was lured down the trail by a wolf. Their older dog was making quite a racket and she went out to see what was going on. She saw the pup taking off up the trail and a black wolf sitting up the trail a ways. She was able to call the puppy back and all ended well. I hope we don't have to deal with that here for the sake of our senior citizen dogs.

The sun has not shone here for days, so the generator runs daily to keep charge in the batteries. We were away for last week and it was a pretty cloudy week. This week has started much the same and we are either looking forward to days on end of sunshine, and if we can't have that then we would rather have heavy snowfall. If it is cloudy, the clouds might as well be letting go of something. Looking at the Mackenzie forecast it looks like there may be some sun coming. That would be nice. None of our solar lights have not been on for quite some time now! The sun is now coming above the mountain across the lake again so when it does decide to shine we will get full benefit from it.

While we were out and seeing friends and family - we were asked many questions. We were more than happy to answer them in an effort to help others that don't already, understand why we would leave a perfectly comfortable life to come do this. For most aunts and uncles, the general consensus was that they had to live like this (hauling wood, melting snow, etc.) when they were growing up and would not go back to this kind of lifestyle. That is more than understandable. Everyone did agree that it was a great adventure and everyone looks forward to new postings on here. I'll definitely keep up with them now.

There was a small misunderstanding while we were out that we clarified today and had a good laugh about. I asked Heather where the skunk was that they had gotten while we were out, I was curious how big they were, etc. After a confused look, she said there was none. They had sent us an update that I was sure said they had gotten a skunk. It turns out that she was trying to say that after a day of checking traps that they had been skunked. So we are still at 1 lynx, 1 wolverine, 139 marten (128 for sale, 11 damaged in the traps by wolverine and other marten) many squirrels and zero skunk.

Back from trip number two out...

You may have noticed that I haven't posted in a while... Just over a week after we returned from Prince George we got the news that my Grandma had passed away so we were back on the road to Alberta for a week or so to attend to that. It was a sad occasion, but she had a long life of 87 years that was well lived. We also got to see all of our family and extended family and old friends that we had not seen for quite some time. It was nice to see all the people who came out to say goodbye to a truly wonderful lady. For all our family - we may not feel Grandma's presence for a while, but rest assured, she'll be around when the snow leaves the crocus patch, when the robins arrive in spring and with the first blooms of summer...