Winter's Last Hurrah

March, 2003

They were pleasant spring days, in which the winter of man's discontent was thawing as well as the earth, and the life that had lain torpid began to stretch itself.

Thoreau

Wednesday, March 5

Journalling has again been the victim of circumstance. I'll blame it on Mike and Dany who were here for a week. We had a great visit. We got 25 to 30 centimetres of snow on Saturday, their second day here, which was just what they were hoping for. Actually, it was, I believe, the heaviest single snowfall we have gotten all winter. I even got out the snowshoes to go down the drive to shovel it out. Fortunately, Sean was out with his snowblower and came over to do my drive as well. I was thankful as there was over 4 feet of snow where the plough had been by.

Mike and Dany spent most of the time out walking, tobogganing, building a quinzee etc. I cooked a turkey on Monday. During their stay we had spaghetti, of course, corn beef boiled dinner, and curry chicken which was lacking in curry. Had home-baked muffins every morning for breakfast. Oh, and I baked a pie. We also drank a fair bit of beer and wine. In fact I only have three bottles of wine left so went in yesterday and started a new batch. Also got batches of Stout and Munich dark lager so I should be all set for quite some time.

It snowed last night and most of today so we have another perhaps 20 cm on the ground. Temperatures have been up and down like a yo-yo. Last Friday, Saturday and Sunday were like spring but then it was down to -30 Monday night, cold all day today and it is warm at -4°C again. Crazy!

I have made bread and cookies so far this week. Evening and some mornings have been carving shit-on-a-stick. Actually I started the day before Mike and Dany arrived. I ended up ordering a good quality beginning carver's set from Lee Valley which arrived within 24 hours of ordering it. Wish I’d started doing this in November – would have been something to do during the long evenings although lack of light might have been a problem.

Speaking of light, my solar panels are doing a great job now that we're getting more sun – power to burn on many days. I’m thinking some supplemental wind power might be good for mid-October to late January when power was hard to come by.

Apparently March break starts today. I kind of miss the excitement of the last day of school before a break. It was always a sign that the end of the year was in sight as well – just don't have all those markers in my life now. Oh well, as I like to say, I'll manage.

...

About 11:30 PM the phone rang and it was Doug Taylor. His opening line was “I know this is an ungodly hour to be phoning but…" Right on Doug, it was an ungodly hour! He may be working midnights but I'm not. Anyway he called to report on the teepee cover estimate he got for me for which he did go out of his way for so I forgive him calling when he did. The cheapest price was approaching $600 and that's just for the canvas – no sewing or anything. So much for that idea. It would be cheaper to buy the one from Montana. The 12 foot untreated cover is US $320, 12 foot marine cover is $408.25 so we're talking $600 Canadian. And that includes steaks, ropes, door cover, lacing, and storage bay. Everything but the poles in fact. There's shipping of course and duties. I did order a book on outdoor living which Doug recommended so I will wait and see what that has for ideas before moving on anything.