Minus 39

Harriet's Highland Cow pastel picture

Moose on the road

The Mummy and Baby Moose David saw today

Beautiful snowy Yoho Lake

Poor Bess doesn't like the snow!

Our front door!

ok we now agree that Canada can get a bit chilly! There was a weather warning on Friday to Tuesday when a weather bomb and nor-easter happened at the same time. One of these is bad enough but both together means lots of snow and very very windy weather. The snow started early Friday and came thick and fast causing a power cut for the whole McAdam to Woodstock area. Schools closed and the kids arrived home before lunch. I was supposed to be baking for market but had to wait till the power resumed so did a spot of cleaning (I know snow must have gone to my head!) Snow kept falling probably another foot on top of the feet we already had. I got up at 4.30 to go to market and David & the boys had to dig us out! By Monday the wind got up and caused drifts making driving fun also temperatures dropped to minus 39 overnight because of windchill! It was cold, very very cold. We just had to run to the car and shut the doors quick. When we got home on Monday we had some frozen pipes to the sink in the bathroom and the hot tap in the kitchen, thankfully the shower, toilet and one cold tap were ok, we upped the heat and by Tuesday the pipes had thawed.

Isaac has completed his exams this week so gets 2 days off next week before starting semester 2.

Tomorrow we're visiting a goat farm near Woodstock to pick their brains on the finer details of goat farming. David is close to completing our business plan for our new entrants farming scheme. The farm we are interested in buying has gone off the market for the winter as it's under a few feet of snow! It will be back up for sale in March when most people start to market their properties again.

Harriet has taken to painting and drawing which has inspired me to find my watercolours and paint snowy pictures. I also went to visit the local woollen mill and bought wool from the bargain bin and have started knitting woolly hats, I'm already on my third this week!

igloos & snowblowers

David snowblowing our icerink again after another snowfall

igloo building

I shouldn't have said 'things should return to normal', when is family life ever normal?

The kids did go back to school last Tuesday, Harriet was sent home from school Wednesday with 'pink eye'!!!!! (conjunctivitis). We decided it was about time we got a doctor over here, I am told a lot of Canadians don't have doctors especially in the city so I went to Harvey Hospital and one of the local doctors put us on his books.

Tuesday night we had 2-4cm of snow forecast...we actually got 36cm!! so school was closed and the kids stayed home with dad building igloos. Rich has lent us his snow blower for the winter which makes the daily job of snow shovelling much more fun. Finding out about school closures is so easy at 6am the big boss of district 18 makes a decision and it's on the radio, a phone line and the website. Sometimes he'll shut all schools in the district, postpone the bus runs for an hour or close specific schools like Harvey last week when over a foot of snow fell but hardly any in the rest of the area. This does mean that the kids are very eager to be up at 6am checking the weather and websites. Yesterday was another snow day as there was a severe weather warning in place including freezing rain. It was awful the roads we lethal as snow tires are no good in sheer ice but the plows (ploughs) and deicers soon had the roads good. They spray them with some sort of deicer stuff. It is definitely much colder now -18 and colder is fun as your nostril hairs freeze when you go out which feels very strange.

Bess isn't keen on this weather she got stuck in a drift and had to be rescued, she whimpered and laid down refusing to move and had to be carried inside too.

Ice skating is part of the school curriculum! Harriet starts next week every Wednesday afternoon. I go with the class of 3 year olds I work with each Tuesday. When I was told I thought they were mad but it's all geared up for kids skating as soon as they can walk! They have these kiddy zimmer frames to start with or you just take a chair with you, they push them around the ice till they can stand unaided. The girl I work with has been with her family a couple of times and the first session left her chair and skated across the ice, we work well together as I'm at a similar level! The boys have snow shoeing and skiing on their curriculum instead. We have toured the charity shops for skates and found pairs for all of us except David all for about $5 a pair!

David has a fair amount of work on but a lot of it is in the St John area which is about 1 1/2 hours drive away, he forgot his wallet yesterday and didn't realise until he couldn't buy lunch or fuel for the pickup! I had to drive part way to rescue him as it was running on fumes!

The market was the worst yet last Saturday so when I got a call to say it was full this Saturday but I was top of the reserve list I was quite relieved. It was short lived she called back today with a 4' spot for me!!!

Woooooo winter sports time!!!

Fun times learning to skate

Rich & Maeve

Josh using his new skates

making our ice rink

David's new truck

Harriet skiing

Harriet & I made him a sticky chocolate cake.

At last winter has arrived, the lake is well and truly frozen.

Yesterday we spent a couple of hours clearing an ice rink for us to practise on. This was no mean feet with over a foot of snow covering our chosen arena. It's abit pitted where the snow froze to it but will get smoother as the sun melts the surface and it refreezes.

Some friends further round the lake called us to go skating on their rink which was much flatter than ours so this afternoon we've all had lots of fun learning to skate and play ice hockey! Boy do our legs ache tonight. Harriet is making good use of her skis and is becoming much quicker and spends less time in the snow. Rudy & Shawn also tested out their skidoos on the ice having races along the lake shore. The afternoon was completed with hot chocolate and spag' bol' all round.

My first market of 2011 was very slow which was expected as everyone has spent up after Christmas, but at least I'm indoors now so it's nice and warm.

David picked up his new truck on Friday a Ford Ranger Sport, hopefully this will be more reliable than his last vehicle and will last him for years. We bought it from the huggable car dealer who gives out teddy bears with every car!!!!

Isaac turned 15 this week which made us feel really old, we took him out for a meal followed by watching Gulliver's travels at the cinema. The kids go back to school on Tuesday so things will return to normal.

Happy 2011

Our first ice hockey game, those were the mascots not a new way of playing it! UNB 7; McGill 1

What a lot happened in 2010 in brief we; got our Canada visas, finished our house, sold our house, lived with mum and dad, emigrated to Canada, got jobs, moved to Yoho lake, found a church, started new schools, got cars, made lots of new friends and had lots of fun....the list could go on and on and we are so thankful for it all. I wonder what 2011 has in store and I'm quite glad I don't know yet!

On Wednesday Rich & the girls, Kevin & Dianne and Amy & Robin came for an evening of wild party games! The chocolate game descended into chaos, thankfully the present game didn't have too many tears! Jen didn't come cos she'd developed a sickness bug closely followed by Rich & Dianne! We decided not to catch it too and stuck with the odd cough and sniffle instead.

Our first Ice Hockey game was a great experience. The atmosphere was good, our team won convincingly but it was so rough, the way the players crashed into each other and the sides made me cringe and hope non of my children ever take it up!

New Years Eve we were invited to our friends the Warringtons, who have a farm the other side of Harvey. We had a fun filled time together playing the full range of Laver silly party games! We spent New Years day itself sleeping in and playing lots of family games.

Steve leaves tomorrow to stay in Boston before his flight on Tuesday so tonight is a Risk marathon!

David & I will have to work some of Weds-Fri this week but the kids don't go back to school till 11th Jan. Isaac will be 15 on Tuesday....argh.....how old are we?!!!! He could drive next year with parental consent!

Have a happy and blessed 2011 everyone.