More of today...

Our beautiful view today!

The kids jumping off a big rock at "Big Rock Meadow"

Some pics from our trip today...

Our claim cabin where we mine for gold in the summer.

Family pic!

Wolverine tracks on the way up to the top of the mountain. The kids and I had walked across here while Tim brought the snowmobiles safely across a bit of a sidehill area - an avalanche chute.

It was very bright up there - we're all squinting! Top of the mountain family pic.

We're Still Here!

No - whatever roared at Tim through the trees has not gotten us... Tim went back a few days later on the nearby logging road to see if whatever it was had left any tracks, but he did not find any. It is possible that whatever it was had woken up near there and didn't have to cross the road to leave a trail, or maybe Tim's bushed!

We have been having beautiful warm weather here. Lots of snowy days were in the forecast but that has changed and we are enjoying sun. The only drawback to the warm weather is that it deteriorates the condition of the 25km of trail we need to go on to get to the main road. If the temperatures drop below freezing at night the soft trail turns to ice and travelling on that with the snowmobiles can lead to the runners heating up. Travelling back in late afternoon/early evening is usually not a problem as the snow has softened by then. We also have the option of using the quads if the morning is cold because the trail is packed enough that they will not break through. Getting home on them though could be a problem after the day warms up - so we are kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place right now!

For all intents and purposes, spring is here now. All that remains is waiting for the snow to melt. The ice will not leave the lake until late May/early June though. It was strange driving home late last night with the snowmobiles and seeing moths flying around! We spent a very enjoyable mail day out yesterday visiting at the homes of friends and enjoying all sorts of homemade goodies along the way. Heather and I (for Paul and Tim) are making a home-brew beer kit that the boys received for Christmas. We have the help of a local lady who is an expert at this - we are doing it right at her house. For 4 mail days in a row we will go through all the steps, the last being bottling.

The boys have pulled the two trucks out here that we kept at the lake and have been tinkering the past few days. We should start placing bets when we can drive out of here with them. The snow is melting fast though - each day there is more of the yard showing and as I look out the window right now to Mount Germansen, parts of the ridge are now exposed that have been covered with snow most of the winter. I think Heather and I would both agree that spring fever has set in... I know we won't be here to enjoy it, but I am going to clean out the flower bed here and start some flowers for it. It just wouldn't feel like spring for me if I wasn't doing some landscape improvements of some sort!

The kids with their new "mini kites"

We went out for mail day yesterday and had a great visit with friends from the valley. We can now get around a little easier as we have left our truck parked at the trailhead - so we only need to make it that far now on snowmobiles (about 25km). The primary (and just recently found - secondary) clutch went on Tim's trapping snowmobile so it has been sent out with Paul to see if it is re-buildable. It did it's job though and lasted as long as it needed to - it had about 4800km put on it this winter!

We were sitting around the cabin the other night when a bright flash of light filled the room, in the time it took Tim and I to ask each other what that was - we heard the thunder. Yes, we had thunder and lightning in mid-March during a snowstorm. Very strange.

We had another strange occurrence today while we were sitting down to lunch. The dogs started to bark and so we looked out the window on to the lake to see a snowmobile zipping by... A little strange for us in the middle of nowhere. He didn't stop though - just kept right on going! And no, we're not bushed... yet.

Tim went up the road today to take down the remaining squirrel snares. He and Cohen were just past the end of the lake, removing the snare and pole, when Tim heard a roar through the trees. He couldn't see anything when he looked. Tim is not much of one for drama, he brushes most things off with a logical explanation, but whatever this was scared him enough to get Cohen back on the snowmobile and out of there in a hurry. A grizzly? Possibly. Tracks will tell the story though if we are up the road any time soon. There is/was one denned up that way - his were the tracks we took pictures of last year and posted on here. Maybe his winter slumber is done and he woke up on the wrong side of the den...

The kids had fun last night when we got home going through a parcel received from the outside. It was almost like Christmas in March! Thank you!

We also want to send a big hello from the mountains to Mrs. Gunn's Grade 2 class. Keep up the good work guys!

In like a lamb - so will it be out like a lion?

March greeted us with warm weather, in fact we were above zero around that time for about a two week period, so we wonder if March will leave us with the mountain snow we have been so patiently been waiting for. We have had a very mild winter with little snowfall, which, if we were on the "outside" would be considered a bonus. We came to live in the mountains, however, with visions of snowstorms that would dump a few feet overnight - which normally happens up here, but not this year... It has been snowing all day though - the longest time it has snowed since the end of November, when we received the majority of our snowfall.

Today we are trying our hand at yogurt making - Heather with a yogurt starter we received from a friend, and I am trying it from scratch, using acidophilus capsules instead. We will compare the two when they are all done. They weren't thickening much off the bat so they may have to sit overnight before we can cool them and add any sweetening and flavors. It was very easy to do so if it works, this may become something I would do regularly. All it cost was just over a cup of powdered milk and a couple capsules of acidophilus. We also received some sourdough starter from one of the ladies in the valley last week so tonight I will get the bread started and be able to bake it tomorrow. That should go nice with some soup for lunch!

Tim went up today to remove the wolf traps from around the moose the wolves killed. There are a few reasons he did this. One, a trap was set off just a few days after putting them there, possibly by a wolf because they had been back and if a wolf set it off that would be enough incentive for them to abandon the kill entirely. Two, when he went to check it the other day there was a golden eagle feeding on it (and many ravens!) and he did not want to accidentally catch an eagle in one of the traps. Third - the boys were cautioned - and thankfully - that a grizzly could claim the kill at this time of year as they are coming out of their dens. A friend from the valley told us that she has seen grizzlies in the river flats below their house in March. That could be a dangerous situation and one I am sure the guys would want to avoid at all costs.

We had a fun mail day last week - since the end of the line for us was when our trail met the road which this time of year is ice and exposed gravel - not passable with snowmobiles. Everyone from up the valley met us for a weenie roast at our little "halfway camp" on the side of the road. It was great fun and nice to get to visit with everyone. For anyone not from the area to come upon that and see so many people gathered on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere would have been a bit of a shock!

Beautiful snowmobiling just over an hour out the back door!

When Life Gives You Lemons...

Make lemonade! The water coming down from the spring has frozen somewhere along the way in the pipe underground - so we had to find a new way to do laundry! The hose to fill the washing machine is siphoning directly from the spring. Paul and Tim lifted the washing machine into the frame Paul built for it on one of the trail drags. When we are not doing laundry it will be stored in the heated fur shack to keep the pump from freezing inside it. The water froze in the hose coming down from the spring just as it was time to fill the washer for my final load - so that one goes undone for now. We will have to pick warm days to do the laundry on - there should be lots of those in the forecast if the last two weeks are any indication - we have been above zero every day! This was a fun way to do laundry and kept the kids busy in a new place to play. I think I'll bring a lawn chair up next time, maybe a hot chocolate with some Bailey's and a book - sounds almost spa-like - doesn't it? We had visitors out from Germansen Landing today - such a nice surprise! We were asked today if there has been anything at all unexpected in our time here. I can honestly say I never thought this year would see us doing laundry on the side of the road! We take it all in stride though - I see this as a fairly minor hiccup along the way. I also just noticed some squirrel tails sticking out the back of my snowmobile... We are a little more redneck out here than usual!

Mother Nature Can Be Cruel...

We heard through the grapevine that a fellow that had been out this way yesterday came up on about 9 wolves trying to take down a moose just 4km up the trail. Tim went up and followed the trail today that the cow had left in the snow. The wolves did succeed - she had walked about 300m out into the bush before they found her again. I have heard about wolf kills in many books, but to actually see one was a real eye opener. The wolves are back almost as if on schedule. They (whether it is one or two or more packs) seem to frequent this area once every 3 to 4 weeks. Maybe time we will get to hear them howl - hopefully they don't get as close as they did the last time they were by. The moose should keep them busy for a few days yet...

Saturday morning update... Tim heard the wolves howling just after 7:00 this morning. I went for a walk out on the lake to see if I could hear them again. What I did see though was one set of wolf tracks next to where I had walked last night. It was early enough that the snow was still soft enough to leave their imprint. We had the noisy generator running last night so it might have came close by then.

Things have been pretty routine here - we are contending with the warm weather - it is really not as welcome as you might think! The warm weather has made our beautifully groomed trail very hard packed. The sleds run a risk of overheating on this so we decided not to chance it and go for mail this week. Luckily, friends from Germansen decided to come for a visit so they brought out mail and much appreciated fresh eggs. There are no great amounts of snow in the forecast, but we could use a pretty good dump to put the trail in good condition again. We have received our "less than 1cm" as forecasted today already.

I have finally hooked up our Sirius satellite radio in the cabin and I am loving the clear, commercial free music that doesn't cut in and out with the sun or cloud, a light breeze, or a squirrel changing trees a mile away. The most reliable station we get is 890CJDC out of Dawson Creek which is where my parents live near so it is nice to hear what is going on there. We have though, tuned in Nome, Alaska and a station out of Washington. We also get 790 CFCW, 800 Penticton, INEWS 880, St. Paul, Drumheller plus more stations speaking Mandarin and Punjabi than you would think there would be out there! There was also a station that sounded like it was coming from the Vatican... It was definitely Italian with a "message." I don't know if it is possible but I think I may have also tuned in a station from Russia one night...

I have given up my rye bread making career almost as fast as it started. What I wound up with were loaves that could have passed for bricks. I will write my aunt for a recipe - she has offered her sourdough starter recipe and I will see if she has one for rye bread too. I might hurt someone with the ones I have been turning out!

In a BC Trapper's Association magazine I was reading recently, there was an article about Fisher Stoves, particularly the "Baby Bear" model. Apparently this particular stove is much sought after among BCTA members for trap cabins. It is small, easily modified, and puts out good heat. Fisher Stoves were originally built in the US during the Arab Oil Embargo as an alternative way to heat your home. There are models called the Baby Bear, Mama Bear, Papa Bear, Grandma Bear and Grandpa Bear (that makes me want to go to A&W!). In the cabin we are in here is the Mama Bear, identical to the Baby Bear, just bigger and it can definitely cook us out of here if we let it! I hope I didn't bore your socks off with this - it was interesting to me. I like to know all I can about my surroundings - including the fixtures in them!

The back of the cabin we are living in after Tim, Kent and Rolf tore the old "lean-to" addition off the back. The floor of the current addition is already started. The roof of the old addition is in the foreground with the tarpaper and moss on it.

Kent and Rolf lending a (much appreciated!!) hand in the building of the addition.

What the inside of our cabin looked like when I got here after Tim had brought out two truck and trailer loads of stuff we would need for the year. Everything is taped and well sealed because at this point the packrats, mice and squirrels still haven't accepted that they were about to be evicted!

Some glimpses from last fall...

The whole side of Nola's face swollen from a run in with a wasp nest while we were picking huckleberries.

Quite possibly the most perfect loaves I have ever made!

Feeding the whiskeyjacks - they have become quite tame and the ones at our claim cabin come out as soon as Tim, the "whiskeyjack whisperer" arrives with treats for them when checking traps.

(no worries - she was only "posing" without a helmet - not driving)

Trapping Season Ends Today... For the Most Part

Marten, Weasel and Wolverine (count 163, count 2 and count 4 respectively...) season ends today - Lynx (count 2) ended February 15. There are a few that remain open anywhere from March 15th to May 31 - but none that we are really trapping - Squirrel, Otter, Beaver, Black Bear and Wolf. Any that are not mentioned are not abundant in the area. Tim and Paul are out collecting traps and boxes - it will be a long day! The trapline is 215km round trip - so even split up - it still means a great distance!

The owner of the trapline has only ever trapped with a dog team - can you imagine travelling those distances? He speaks very fondly though of those times and it sounds like it was quite enjoyable. The distances he travelled, and others we know that used to use dog team, are amazing. Of course it was not all done in one day and would have been broken up over several days - but I still think that would be quite a feat. Another thing that was mentioned was how much work keeping a dog team is, that it really is a full time job. The amounts of food needed to feed a team for a winter are also very large. Books I have read had the owners feeding the dogs 5 pounds a day each during working times (dried fish, moose, caribou - even cooked rice and oatmeal when meat was not abundant). We really do have it easy! It is amazing that back when people travelled by foot and by dog team - that nothing stopped them. If a trail needed to be made into somewhere for easy passage - one was made. Nowadays people pull up on a quad or snowmobile and if it isn't accessible with a machine under them - they turn around. This is a good thing, though - if not - there would be a lot of useless destruction of forests, etc.

The "caribou people" are in the area starting today. I am hoping we will hear about where they are and what their numbers are like. My kids are just wanting to see the helicopter! They fly low enough that they can get a good look at it.

It is a strange time if year here. It feels warm enough that it almost seems like spring is coming, yet we know from the calendar that there is still a long way to go! Tim was here last June when the ice went off the lake and there was still a lot of snow around - so we know how long it is capable of staying. We are told by the locals that this is an exceptionally bad year for lack of snowfall. I hope that Mother Nature makes up for it in the next few months! As far as we can see into the forecast right now though - there is nothing but warm weather and the only precipitation called for is rain, and yes it rains even up here in the winter! I am hoping for one of those movie portrayed blizzards where the wind picks up and howls all night long and it snows for days! It is OK to hope for that at the lake - no one has to drive out and if we do have to go anywhere - the more snow, the better for the snowmobiles!

The kids got to have a "treat" (they think) that they haven't had in a long while - store bought bread. There was some left over from the snowmobile trip that the guys had brought in, and grilled cheeses made on it yesterday brought rave reviews! There were also grapes and bananas brought in that have been treated like candy. We have more candy stashed than we can stash fresh fruit - so now that becomes the treat. Isn't that strange...