Sorry I'm late, I can explain.

I went on a little trip with the boys today. What a great time. We went to Martin river for lunch. On the way back, I broke the exhaust on my machine. And my machine hit slush at about 60 kph and stopped dead. I didn't. I ended up head first in slush, water up inside my helmet. I was the last one in line, so no one witnessed the event. I think that kept the ribbing to a minimum. All I could think of was the machine sinking in slush. So without checking for a broken neck, or other body parts, I rolled to the machine and nailed the throttle and hung on until I reached solid snow, and then climbed back on. Running down the lake, trying to catch up with the boys, blowing slush bubbles in side the helmet, and no one notices I can't see where I was going. Finally they stop to figure out where we are and what was the shortest way back to Little Tomiko. I then had a chance to drain my helmet and clean the slush of of my glasses. The rest of the trip home was uneventfull.

On the way to Martin River we stopped at a frozen water fall.


The crew.

From inside the water fall.

Good night, I think I'm going to crash now.

Sunset last evening. It's getting harder to get original pictures. Don't worry, you don't have to see another sunrise picture, I slept in today.

Should I call the municipality about plowing my road? You can't see my "gate" or stop sign.

Winter is finally here, -30 this morning. I went to town this morning and got George his food. When I got back to Don's, I helped shovel off the roof. I was shoveling near the septic vent. Listen, if Tina says her s__t don't stink, she's lying. On the way back home, Kita decided to go check out Dan's place again. I had to circle his cabin 3 or 4 times before I got the dog's attention. Sometimes having a deaf dog sucks. Tomorrow, Don is taking me on a snow machine ride to show me some of the local wild life. I wonder what her name is.

What a great day. A day like this makes up for a week or two of bad weather.

Had fun at the tournament last night. I had a great partner. He is 79, looking 50'ish. I'm 50'ish, feeling 79. We ended up in fourth place, if we had won the last game, I think we would've won. On the way back, at 1 in the morning, Kita decided to chase someone from across the lake, making his trip about 3 times longer.

So today I hauled 120 gallons of water. I went to shovel the snow aside to drill a hole and found water. I guess this shows the insulation value of snow. The temp went down to -24 last night and only got up to -16. The trails that we made yesterday were good and solid.

I looked up Husky in a dog book one time. I'm pretty darn sure it said working dog, not supervisor dog.

Going to town tomorrow, need cat food. I really like my fingers and toes. They didn't have any diet food last time I went to town.

I dropped over to the poker run H.Q. this afternoon.
Here's view of my place from across the lake.
I didn't do much today, except for the Molly Maid thing. I can actually walk around without stepping on plumbing parts or tools. When I do the Reno thing, I just let things stay where I drop them, probably cause no one is around to nag me to clean up. And if the weather is bad, I'll cut a 2X4 in the middle of the kitchen. It does get a little frustrating after a week or so. I'm not quite done yet though. Because I put the new water system where the dryer was, I now have to put the washer where the water was. And put the dryer where the washer was. Basically just a hole in the wall and a new propane line. Well, I'm off to win a euchre tournament tonight. I'm not sure who my partner will be. I hope he's not too big a load to carry.
P.S. I had a great shower this morning, real good pressure and temperature. All the work was worth it

The Big Guy says he's sorry for the bad weather, sun rise this morning.

Well, if He's so sorry, why are they calling for another 5-10 cm tonight? We are right on the edge of a heavy snow fall warning. It was a beautiful day, though. On the bright side, I pressurized my water system today. Only one leak. The hot water heater seems to be working better. I didn't completely fill my tank because there is slush on the lake. Probably ok if you don't stop your machine, but I didn't want to get stuck again. They are calling for -16 c tonight. Hopefully that will firm things up for men's weekend. On another bright note, my byes from the rock won the curling gold medal. My son, the Newfy half of me is right some proud! I think there'll be a glow in the east tonight.

Welcome to Frank's snow report. Yup, I'm thinking of changing the name of my blog. If you can't beat em, join em.
I think Kita agrees.


If I had waited till now to take this pic, the tree in the foreground wouldn't be visible. Thankfully there's no wind or it would be a real mess. We only got 2 cm overnight, but they are calling for 5-10 cm now. The sun did come out around 11 am, sorry no pics. By the time I recognized what it was and reached for the camera, it was gone. On the plus side, I did finish the water system. I haven't filled it yet, I think I'll wait until I can find the lake.

You know, life just isn't fair.
Sunset, last evening.

Sun rise this morning.


All day today.

I think even Kita has had enough.

Any body that has known me for a while knows that when I worked, I kept a log book. I kept track of all the nice days that I worked, and all the crappy days that I didn't work. The idea being that when the Big Guy called me up there, or down there, I would show Him all the days that He owed me. When I retired, I stopped using the book, thinking that things would even out. But I think it's about time I blow the dust, or snow, off that book.
P.S. I didn't quite finish the water, distracted by shoveling snow and watching a bad hockey game.

The sun is still trying to come out.
OK, so everybody knows that winter is my second favorite season after fall. I like snow, but I'm starting to get OVER JOYED with snow. We got another 3-4 inches since yesterday and it's snowing again. The temp is -1 c. I think there should be a law that the temp should be either -20 or +10. I didn't do too much today, I think I popped a couple of caps on my 24 pack yesterday. I did put flagging tape on the clothes line to protect it from cowboy snowmobilers. To give you an idea of how much snow we have, in the old days I used to reach up to hang a hanging basket watering thingy on the solar panels to take my shower. Glad you missed that one, eh Tina! Now I can lean my shovel on the panels. Tomorrow I will get back on the water system. It's pretty much just putting in all the connectors.

There's a sun up there somewhere.

Here's a pic of the snow banks on the Sand Dam road. Oh, and my co-pilot too. He usually jumps into the driver's seat when I get out. You should see the looks I get in parking lots when I open the door and say "Can I drive" and Kita moves over.
So, I went to town this morning. I had 2 empty jerry cans, 2 empty water jugs and an empty 100 lb propane tank in the sleigh. It seemed like I was towing a truck. It was ok when I was on my old trail, but with the drifting, I couldn't see where it was. I ran all over town getting stuff and visiting a friend. Yes, I do have a friend. Any way, on the way back across the lake, with every thing full, I couldn't get up to a decent speed. When I hit the hill on to my property, Yeah, you know it. I got stuck. With shovels and ropes and pure strength I got every thing up the hill. My 6 pack should be a 24 by now. I went back on the lake and found that there is slush which was slowing me down. The snow on top is powdery and fell back on the snowmobile track so that you wouldn't see the slush. We need a good old fashioned northern Ontario cold snap to firm things up. But as I look out the window right now, I can't see the other side of the lake.

-15 this morning, but the wind is howling. Luckily, I'm pretty well protected in my little corner of the universe.

I went to visit my truck today in preparation for a trip to town tomorrow. I have to get propane, drinking water, mix for my 7up and some fittings to finish the water system. And dog food, don't forget the dog food dummy. The snow on the lake is about 2 feet deep, with deeper drifts. Kita would get up to speed and run into a drift and come to a plowing stop. After a few of these, he just slowed to a trot. There is some slush deep down and when we got home Kita had some ice balls frozen to his feet. I tried to help him take them off but he hates any body touching his feet. Speaking of the dog, I need to teach an old dog a new trick. With all the deep snow, his patrol trails and trails to his "out house" are deeper than he is tall. Let's just say that he needs to learn how to use toilet paper. I bet you never thought that snow would cause that problem, did you.

A really nice evening last night.
A cool, clear crisp -25 this morning. A beautiful solar day, except that I turned my panels to the east in the morning and forgot to change them during the day. I was playing around with the water system and watching the Olympics on tv. I think my "sometimers" is progressing to alltimers. Speaking of that, I found the dog's pillow yesterday with the snow blower. Don't laugh. I usually bring it in every night to defrost it. But it was kind of nasty the night before last, and that's the excuse I'm using. The pillow is OK, just torn in one corner.
This is Gypsy, I think she's a Newfy. She lives on the other end of the lake. I don't think she likes the snow as much as Kita. I got the pic by email from Bryan. I should stop some of my projects and go visit.

We got a little snow last night, about 25 cm they say. With all the wind, some of the drifts are deeper than your crotch. I had to go out this morning and clear out the door ways while it was still snowing. The propane tank is waiting for the next trip to town. The afternoon turned out to be nice and sunny.
I noticed the birch trees are in bud already.
Progressing slowly on the water reno. I had a few battles with the old 60 gallon tank, but I won the war and it's now sitting out on my back step. I think I'll take the rest of the afternoon off and watch the ladies hockey game.

Light pollution! I took this pic last evening around 7:30. It is the lights from the big city of North Bay bouncing off of the clouds. I'm not sure how far it is as the crow flies, obviously not far enough. It kind of looks like Dante's inferno.
This is more like what it should look like out here.
We are under a winter storm warning again. It's snowing right now, can't see more than a couple of hundred meters. They say we could get another 30 cm. I might have to put flagging tape on my clothes line so that snowmobilers don't hit it. I'm not worried about someone decapitating themselves, I just don't want to have to fix the clothes line again. George broke it one time when he went after a bird.

Snow this morning, only an inch or so.
The sun popped out this afternoon. Kita will sometimes sit for hours and stare across the lake. I have no idea what he is looking at, or waiting for.

Okay, I have to type fast. I've been knocked off the net once already and yesterday I got heck for posting my blog a little late. Fans? I wonder if there is such a thing as blog bunnies. Any way, I watched the hockey game this morning. Weird watching a game with a hot coffee instead of a cold one. Then I managed to tip the cabinets over and cut the bottom off. Thanks for all the tips. I used a hand saw. Yes Jack, people still use hand tools.

Moon through the snow. Yeah, I know, it's getting harder to come up with original pics.
I've got a mess going on now. I managed to reinforce the floor in the porch with everything still in there. But today I put down new vinyl so everything except for two wardrobes had to come out. The wardrobes can't fit through the door. While trying to get the vinyl under the cabinets, I found a new problem. The ceiling slopes down to the wall and with raising the floor 2 inches, the cabinets now won't go back to the wall. Don't laugh! Now I have to figure out how to cut 2 inches off of the bottom, without being able to tip them over.
Maybe a chain saw will work.

-14 this morning, -5 right now and snowing a little. Were supposed to get 10 cm tomorrow. I went to town today and got some stuff for my new and improved water system. The bag on top of the load is my grocery bag. Now you know why I make my own bread. In the first pic you'll see Kita coming home. He's always a little slower on the return trip, he peaked out at just over 30 kph on the way over to the truck.

Another nice sun rise.
Temperature at -17 c this morning. It's been cloudy most of the day. I finished reinforcing the porch floor today. Off to town tomorrow to get some stuff to start changing my water system.

I've got neighbors!
If you look close, almost in the center, you can see smoke coming from a neighbors cabin. I took the afternoon off and just rode around the lake. Poor old Kita is all wore out. Hopefully he can find a little more energy cause we've been invited out for happy hour.

Moon light serenade. I took this picture last night at 11:30 with no flash.
The heat wave is on, only -24 this morning. Looks like it's going to be another nice day. The solar batteries are loving it. I think I'll take Kita for a run later on.

I feel sorry for those of you who can't enjoy the beauty of winter. Woke up this morning, (actually slept in till 7:30!), to -25 c and bright sun shine. Just a gorgeous day. Made bread and started to reinforce the floor in my side porch. I'm going to change my water system and the floor will have to support a ton of water.

I didn't do too much today. My back is sore so I only finished shoveling off the garage roof. The other day I only went down to an ice covered layer, about 10 inches under the ice. The dog was looking up at me like he was saying "What, don't you think there's enough snow down here?"


View from the garage roof.


If you look at the snow bank, you can see the weather we've had over the winter. At the top you can see the snow that we got last weekend. Then a layer that we got the previous weekend. Then you can see the freezing rain that we had a few weeks ago. The yellow, vertical line is an unusual phenomenon that the locals call a husky stratum.

I just couldn't resist it. The first blue sky since............I can't remember.


What a great day. I almost feel like I wasted it by going to town. Poor Kita is passed out in the sun shine. He followed me to the truck and when we came back, I had 2 loads, so he ran 4 times across the lake. I tried to go fast enough so he wouldn't make it all the way the middle 2 crossings, but it took too long loading and unloading that he would catch up. Hey, if you ran that far, you would need a pillow too.