More Snow

Our house and trees coated in snow.

I have to clear away the snow from the driveway nearly every day. You can see the piles of snow to either side of the drive. Luckily it's only a short drive.

The view of the back yard and adjacent forest.

It may look very pretty but the temperature out there is about minus 20 degrees! That's OK until the wind blows - then you feel the cold!

However, it does mean that the moose are more inclined to venture closer to suburbia. They don't come very close and I wasn't going to get close to it. They are as big as bulls and have a similar untrustworthy habit of charging!

Sledding

Between the trails at the Otway Ski Area is a downhill bumpy slope not often used by the cross-country skiers. Look out because the young have taken it over for sledding.

Thin sheets of plastic are all you need - plus a lack of fear.

Go Libby.

Sit down, lie down, any way you like. Skiers coming up - look out!

Where are the brakes?

This piece of plastic doesn't seem big enough!

RCMP

Since the girls have learned to ride horses with Judy they now feel confident to join the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with Germain and his dog, Faro.

Where as I haven't had the equestrian training so I'm limited to the position of general thug. Meanwhile, the police dog is keeping his eye on me. Don't move.

Who said don't move? And who exactly is not supposed to move?

He had already bitten off one arm!

Good boy Faro.

Cross Country Skiing

The girls first attempt at cross country skiing. The beauty of X-country skiing is that you don't have to go down hills or ride up lifts to enjoy it, you just shuffle forward at your own pace.

Sue is keen to ski off into the forest at Otway.

We slither away from the Otway ski lodge at a brisk pace!

Luckily, two friends from Sue's work are ski instructors so they take us out for lessons on what to do and what not to do.

It's very easy really - you just slide your foot forward and bring the other foot forward. The skis have either short lengths of skin with fine hairs sloping back down the ski or the skis have a scaled surface which stops the skis sliding backwards.

There are miles of tracks all over the place which are labelled for their degree of difficulty. Where's the map to lead us out of here?

Remembrance Day

Judy, Libby, Katie and Sue trying to keep warm at the Remembrance Day service at the War Memorial on November 11th.

The Memorial is the two stone columns pictured to the left. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are there in their red uniforms along side the defence forces and various community groups. It was about -5 degrees so standing still for so long was an impressive achievement - especially for the young Scouts and Guides!

Hammy

Our resident squirrel. He's named Hammy after the squirrel in the film Over the Hedge.

He clears away the scraps off the patio. Any large nut like pieces he takes home for storage for winter.

Balance is not a fear of this little fella!

He quite happily walks to the very end of the branches of the trees shown behind.

Snow doesn't stop him either except that he has to dig down into the snow to find his hidden treats. The girls leave him a daily dose of Dads muesli - he prefers the nuts, then the oats, and lastly, the dried fruit.

Ice Skating

Ice skating at The Coliseum. The girls attend lessons each Thursday evening at the local skating club and we all go skating on Saturday or Sunday.

Katie showing her good gliding skills.

You can see the range of abilities in the background - adults falling over, kids whizzing around at full speed, mothers pushing prams, couples holding hands!

We are definitely the learners. Torvil and Dean have no threat from us!

The girls going through their exercise routines at their skating lessons. All the kids wear helmets. The boys tend to wear full ice hockey helmets because they learn to skate fast first, skate into their friends next and stop last.

Halloween

Buy the biggest, roundest pumpkins you can find. Cut the top out carefully so that you can replace it at the end. Remove all the seeds from within and then start carving out your Jack-o-lantern face. Finally place a candle inside and light it!

The finished product.

They were displayed at school before Halloween night then brought home and placed either side of the front door for the big night.

Katie dressed as as butterfly and Libby dressed as a giraffe with their hand painted pillow cases. They walked around the neighbourhood with Mum and knocked on the doors of about 30 houses trick or treating. As you can see, the ground was covered in snow so the Halloween lights and decorations gave the evening a magical atmosphere but it was rather cold!

Once their bags were 1/3 full and their fingers cold they retired home to inspect their goods. The candies they didn't like were given to Dad to top up his supply to hand out to the 100+ kids that knocked on our door.

Our Hash Run

After hashing with the local hashers we offered to set a New Zealand hash run. I made a dribble dropper, surveyed the route, planned my trail and guess what? It snowed. So much for blobs of flour to mark the trail. I had to resort to the Canadian method of tying coloured tape to the trees.

As it was such a slow process cutting and tying tape and running/walking in the snow I laid the walkers trail the night before and the runners trail in the morning. At 11am about 30 keen hashers appeared. Luckily the weather was perfect and everyone was prepared for a good cross-country hike!

They were a little puzzled with my check-backs and false trails but they all managed to find the PS for refreshments except the walkers that left with the runners but then headed home when they felt they were venturing too far from home.

Standard NZ BBQ food was served from the balcony while the hashers stayed inside for the warmth.

Winter Schooling

Off to school in the snow.

For once the girls are keen to leave for school, to walk through the snow, to play outside in the snow before school opens and to play in the snow at recess.

The playing fields may be covered in snow but the kids still play soccer - although the ball doesn't roll, it stops dead!

They roll big snow balls to build forts. The boring teachers don't allow them to through snow balls but the boys do it secretly.

The school provides "magic carpets", sheets of plastic, to use as sleds to slide down the small hill. However, you have to wear snow trousers to use them so, as you can see, our girls are not participating. Guess what we bought the next weekend?

Katie and I took the scenic walk home along the track in the forest adjacent to our house. The local bear is fast asleep now, so adventures in the forest are far more relaxing. It's strange to think he is lying quietly in his own little den somewhere not too far away.

Snow

Snow started falling on the 25th October and has been falling off and on since. The temperature has stayed below zero for most of the time and we've even had sprinkles of frozen moisture - tiny bits of frost, not snow. Light snowfall is called a flurry.

There is now about 30cm, 1 ft, of powder snow everywhere.

Each day I shovel away the snow off the driveway and each day more arrives. The thin layer of snow that is not fully cleared freezes over, even during the day, so the driveway is constantly slippery. In fact, the compacted snow is less slippery than the ice. The main roads and steep roads are cleared but as our road is flat it is left as it is. Therefore we don't get the dirty look of the other cleared and gritted roads.

This was our view on the first day of snow. Because all of our windows are double-glazed, we don't need or have curtains (only venetian blinds) so we can view the scenery all day

and all night.

One beauty of the snow is that it absorbs the road noise of vehicles driving past. Everything seems so much quieter!

I probably should remove the snow off the patio and furniture but we all like to sit inside and look out at it. It makes you appreciate the warmth inside.

Of course the girls are out playing in it as much as they can - until they get too cold!

Pope Mountain

At Fort St James, 1hr 45min drive northwest of Prince George, is a run from Lake Stuart to the summit of Pope Mountain, 1472m elevation.

We started on this side of the log shown in the picture and ran about 3-4 km to the forested hills and then about 6km up the mountain to the peak.

The trail through the forest was beautiful with frozen dirt tracks to run on amongst various pine trees. Parts of the track were quite steep so I couldn't actually run all the way.

The views at the top were astounding. This one is looking westward over Stuart Lake. The whitish stony line at the bottom of the picture is the limestone gravel path up to the peak.

Looking northwest up Stuart Lake. It's about 50km long and 10km wide. The island is called Battleship Island for obvious reasons!

My photo was quickly taken as proof of my feat and then back down into the forest out of the cold breeze.

Pinchi Lake and Tezzeron Lake to the east. The small looking hill to the right is the Murray Ridge ski area.

Back in the shelter of the forest a camp fire awaited, warming hot chocolate or cider, and a home made biscuit to re-energise you to run all the way back again.

At the finish line we had to jump over the log on the beach to cross the finish line!

After 2 1/2 hours some people had to soak their feet in the freezing lake water to recover!

We were lucky with the weather - a week latter it snowed 20-30cm snow which blocked the only access road and cut off power to most people in the area.