On Saturday, the smell of chocolate/peppermint birthday cake, made from scratch.....

brought out the Little Tomiko chocolate junkies at mach 2.



Richie and TT.

Richie and Razor.



Richie and Leanne. Gee, Richie, I know we haven't seen you for months, but, did you have to butt into every picture?

Yesterday, Joseph and Calliope came for a visit. Calliope takes GpF for a ride on the Yammie.



Ya gotta make bread when you visit GpF.

Eating toutons while the dough rises the second time.



A loaf to take to Grandma Slote.



The tree line to the Slate Mansion in Bedrock. You might think that the trees are a little close together, but I measured them. They are exactly two staggers and one reel apart, just in case the Jack gets poured tooo liberally.

I'm behind in answering a couple of emails, I'll get to them soon.

I hope everybody has a happy, healthy 2008.

I hope every one had a great Christmas. Yesterday we walked across the lake to the truck and went to visit the Brown Super kids at Joseph's in laws, the Slote's, and had a super Christmas dinner.

What would Christmas be with out kids and their new toys?



Super Nova practicing with the snow groomer.



Super Princess Calliope.

Papa and blue eyes.



A good meal with good friends. And no one was injured reaching for the dressing! The Slote girls are over protective of Linda's dressing.

Just some more boring old sun set pics from a few days ago.

Yesterday we went to town to visit the Brown Super kids. Because Kita has separation issues, we can't leave him home alone. And since the lake still isn't easy to cross, we had to go 12 klicks on the Yammie with a husky on my lap and a Grasshopper on my back. 24 klicks, round trip, would be a little too far for a 13 year old dog. By the way, Happy B'day Kita. And after all that, I forgot to get pics of the Super Kids. I'll fix that Christmas day.

Saturday evening.




The Whiskey Jacks are getting friendlier.

A sun dog yesterday morning before the little snow storm.



Grasshopper making a snow angel.

On Saturday I tried to go across the lake on the snow machine but I hit some slush and decided to wait a couple more days. Mr. Slate did bring our mail across. Two reasons that this was possible, 1) No one would miss Mr. Slate, 2) It wasn't Mr. Slate's sled.

Sun up Wednesday.

The remnant of an Alberta clipper passing through. Thanks Jason.



The snow is slowly piling up.

Grasshopper made it back from town Tuesday. Dan and Kathleen escorted her home for her first solo trip in the dark past the moose, wolves and killer bunnies.

"They" are calling for -24c temps tonight, so, tomorrow I think that I'll get Grasshopper to practice her sword dancing on the lake. If the ice survives, Sunday we might start marking trails on the lake to Frasertown and the Kelly's.

Sunday evening.

Yesterday morning, ice fog in Fennell's Bay.

Yesterday was a great solar day. Today is overcast but warm at -3c. Grasshopper has gone to town today with Kathleen which means she had to snowmobile 12km around the lake. Soon the lake will be safe to sled on and the trip will only be 3/4 of a kilometer.

Awesome end to an awesome day, Wednesday.

Short post today. Grashopper had a bunch more firsts this week. First time on the back of a snow machine, first time driving one. First time falling off, too. First time falling through the ice on the lake while trying to get some pics of the shore line in winter dress. It wasn't deeper than her boots, but her butt got wet.

We got another few inches of snow, but no cold temps. The lake is slushy with holes in the rotten ice.

P.S. You can't blame me for this latest snow fall. I think that some one, (initials TT), with a brand new sled prayed to the Blessed Virgin White Snow Queen.

We have snow! How much? Chest deep, on a Husky.

We didn't go to town today. Thought that we would wait 'till the city folks relearned how to drive in snow. We packed down the sled trail to the Notman road. So, maybe we'll go tomorrow, although they are calling for more snow over night. Ouch! My time is up.

-25c this morning and SUNNY!!! We have had little solar charging lately. It cleared in time for sun set last evening.

So, it's Dec 1st. One more shopping day before Christmas! This afternoon I'll take the Yammie out the driveway to pack down the snow so we can get the truck out to the other side of the lake. Monday we'll go to town for one last trip before Xmas. OUCH! I guess my time is up, talk to you later.

Gotta talk real fast, Grasshopper is going through Internet withdrawal.

Tuesday morning -20C, SUN!!! But it only lasted long enough for a couple of pictures.

Grasshopper is trying to get the Whiskey Jacks to take food out of her hand. You can see one just under her wrist. Today they did take food out of both of our hands, but they don't like the sound of the camera shutter. It may take a while to get good pics.

Ouch!, I guess it's time to go.

Sun set from a few days ago.

Hard to tell, but there is a flock of ducks flying off into the sun set.

It's been busy for the past little while. Saturday we broke ice all the way to Frasertown to do a repair on the water heater, THANKS RAZOR. That evening we were invited to the Kelly's for supper. Grasshopper thought we should drive around instead of breaking more ice. So, on the way home we got stuck on the big hill on the driveway and had a ten minute walk home. Sunday morning was taken up with bringing the old goat home.

Yesterday we put the boat into dry dock for the winter and took the dock out.

We have had no sun lately, so I will check emails every second day. If I don't answer your mail right away, it's not that I don't care, it's just that I don't care enough.

OH, OH!!

Woke up this morning to a temp of -15.5c. The boat was frozen in. The ice was out to about 1/4 mile.






So this afternoon I took the old LTL bergie bit maker out for a test drive. Try that with your Zodiac, Tim. I went over to Frasertown and back. You'll notice that the pilot is missing from this picture. Both he and Grasshopper didn't feel like a boat ride today???? They are calling for warmer temps on Monday, so that's the day that the boat will go into dry dock.

Yesterday we went to town and are pretty much ready for slushy season. We'll make one more trip to town when the truck goes to Frasertown for the winter.