I made it back from town with no problems. Fresh milk in the coffee tomorrow. The milk that I'm using has an expiry date of April 07. I froze it you goof. But I have been rationing it and using some of that UHT milk that doesn't need refrigeration till you open it, but it had little lumps in it. You just strain them through your teeth. Just a small price to pay to live in paradise.

The river overflowing the Gibson's road.


Kita was upset that he didn't go, he scratched up the ground and buried his water dish.


The ice breaking operation yesterday was a pretty good start. The circle is broken and half of it has drifted to the right. If I wasn't surrounded by wimps, we could have the ice gone in a couple of days.




PS1; Yes Nancy, that's me. First winter.

PS2; You all remember "Bic", who lost the battle, and hence the war. Well, it's been reported that he can no longer sleep north to south. He now wakes up with his feet hanging off one side of the bed and his head off the other. TSK,TSK

PS3; For rent, one A frame cabin for those who lost the war.

Another beautiful day in paradise.


I went for an atv ride this morning. I have an appointment in town tomorrow and wanted to do a test run. I took Kita along thinking I would let him run out to the Gibson's road and then put him aboard the bike. That way he could go to town too. I had a little trouble close to the house, in the spot that I got my GMC stuck to the frame a few years ago. At the first right turn, there were moose tracks every where. See ya later Kita! I had one other tricky spot but made it out to the road. I then went to the A5 road and checked on the Birkby and Milne homsteads, AOK. On the way back I got stuck close to the house and had to use the winch to get out. So, if I leave early enough, getting out won't be a problem, but getting back might be. When I got back, Kita was in the yard, jumping around like he was ready for a run!? I guess I can't take him to town tomorrow. If you hear crying tomorrow, it'll be Kita. Maybe I should tie him up over the spot where I'm going to put the new water line so he can start excavating.

In the afternoon I went for a canoe ride. Kita, who LOVES boat rides wouldn't get in the canoe??? Wimp! Such a nice day and I didn't see another person on the lake, I don't know why. Wimps!


HMCS Little Tomiko opening up the shipping lanes






The bottom of the ice is hard as a rock and sharp as a knife.




I had stepped on the skidoo track and dragged the canoe inside the circle. A bergy bit broke off, but the wind blew it back, trapping me inside the circle.

0 degrees at 7:00 A.M.




9 degrees at 3:00 P.M.




We'll be boating soon. I guess that means the summer residents will back. More humans! Not that the humans I see in the winter are boring, but a change is as good as a rest, they say. For Nancy, if you go through the narrows, I'm the only one in the bay on the right.

This morning I shoveled snow off of the rest of the wood pile and got the tarps off. I'll let the ice defrost before I finish splitting and stacking. I dug out the seats for the boat, so it's all ready to go, not that I'm anxious or anything. I just figure that if you can't go on the water you should be able to go in it. Then I spent time cleaning you know where. It's getting better every time, a place for everything, if I can remember the place. And that was the whole day.

I think I'll go for a ride tomorrow morning and check out my 3 km driveway.

7:00 A.M.




3:00 P.M.




The wind took turns blowing out of the north and south all day pushing the ice in and out. It's funny, I think the only thing holding it all together is the ski doo tracks. The round track is one I made when the ice was a little slushy, so I could haul water the next day, back in February I think.

The first thing that I have to do tomorrow is clean up the garage again. Old story, hey? I was doing a little project and needed my hot glue gun. After throwing stuff around for forty-five minutes, I finally found it. After another twenty minutes I found the glue sticks in the first place that I had looked for the gun. Being so disorganized wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have such a bad memory.

It's been very quiet today. I wonder if aliens came and beamed everybody up? Other than that, nothing going on, oh wait, I saw a Great Blue Heron fly by today. I like herons, they bark like a dog.


Not my picture.

Last evening.


Today seems like the reverse of yesterday, nice this morning, calling for rain this afternoon.


I finally checked out the water pump on the out board, AOK. I came in early this afternoon, not so much because of the weather but because of human beens. Lots of noise out here. It sounded like somebody was trying to beat the crap out of his back hoe. I think that somebody was in the bay across from me (I don't know what the locals call it, I'm going to name it Fennell's Bay) using a chain saw. So much for peace and quiet and the noises of nature. Speaking of nature, did any Tomiko residents see the four geese this morning around ten o'clock? They weren't Canada geese, only one of them honked and not very often, snow geese? Speaking of birds, my son is in California, doing whatever he does, and has posted pictures of birds from that area on his blog (link to his site on the right--->)

It cleared up nicely this afternoon.



It rained all day yesterday and by last evening you could have canoed on top of the ice. Today the water has drained through the ice.





I was actually in the water this afternoon, I hauled some water to check my outboard motor and see if I had to add another "wrong" to Greg's instructions. I do. The water is high, almost over my green rubber boots right at the shore. I usually have any where from 1 to 8 feet of sand beach.

As you know, we had the first ever trial on the WWW. and the guilty party was indeed properly convicted. Well, now it seems that the poor innocent victim has settled out of court before a punishment could be handed down. Oh, these women with their evil feminine wiles. Nothing more to say about that, except "WHIPPED!", right Rich?

Sun set last evening.



Windy and foggy and lots of rain today.



Boring report today. You probably don't want to hear that doing laundry, dishes, vacuuming, and making bread takes almost as much time as replacing an impeller. I would have vacuumed George but he was sleeping on the top bunk. Hey, I don't criticize how you do your house work. Besides George likes it. Spaghetti and extra hot Italian sausage for supper tonight, and tomorrow, and probably the next day. That's one meal that hard to cook for just one.

Last night I was doing crossword puzzles,(no, they don't have pictures Rich) with the TV on as background noise. I hear this young lad say "I don't want to become an old naked guy with a scraggly beard living in the woods." Where do these TV people come up with these ideas? Reality TV? I don't think so!

PS: In answer to Greg's whining Email, you do not have to have a Blogger account to make a comment. But since you are only a programmer, I'll get Rich to explain it to you.

Here's how were doing so far on the ice.







I have to send a big thank you out to Greg. Thanks to Greg it only took me 7 hours to replace the impeller in my out board motor(60 HP Evinrude). Here's how his advice went, wrong, right, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, right, wrong, wrong, right , wrong, wrong, wrong. It's hard to believe that his Dad has been building boats for 75 years. I guess they wouldn't let him in the family business so he became a programmer weenie.

It was rather windy today, and I guess one time that I went into the house I didn't completely close the door and the wind blew it back open. George escaped but I managed to catch him before he wiped out all the moose, wolves and bears.

They are calling for rain the next few days, which is a good thing. It should help get rid of some ice and it will give me a chance to do some house work. I still haven't made bread and I'm thinking of using a shovel instead of the vacuum cleaner.

Foggy start to the day.


It turned into a beautiful day. It was quite hot when there was no wind. Kita must have walked 10 miles looking for a spot that wasn't too hot, too cool, or too damp. It was such a nice day that I had to call a pal at the place that used to pay me, just to rub it in. I did some more clean up around the yard and got the boat and dock ready to go. Come on Mother Nature, get with the program!



Yesterday two flocks of Canada geese flew north and today another flock. Lots of little birds, butterflies and a zillion houseflies around. This morning there were 4 or five pileated woodpeckers swooping around, too fast for pics. I've never seen them in groups bigger than one. I don't know if there was a turf battle going on, but what a racket they made. Rich says that they make the exact same noise as Berlin when he gets home at two in the morning. For the past 2 weeks I've been hearing an owl. He starts hooting about an hour before sun set. He is never in the same spot, maybe he is looking for a date.(hmmm, HOOT! HOOT!) My son , Joseph, is a PhD candidate at the University of Michigan, studying avian phylogenetics( don't bother looking that one up Rich). He is thinking of doing his doctoral research on owls.

Last evening.


Kita and I were out early this morning. He's looking towards Frasertown.


Quiet day today because it's, let me look it up, yup it's Sunday. I opened up the air vents to the crawl space and tried to tidy up a little around the yard but stuff is still frozen. The spiders were every where. Yuck, I hate any thing with more than four legs. And there are a few two legged critters that I don't like either.

The verdicts are in:
Case number 1; 37 guilty votes. There was one innocent vote from a silly lady, but since we should never have given them the vote, we'll just ignore this one. (my blog, etc). So the verdict is unanimous. The punishment will be decided at the next soiree. ( that's French, Rich)

Case #2; It's been decided that Kita is too kind and gentle to have done this deed. The decision is that George, aka Mack the Knife, must have squeezed his 20 pound fat body out through a mouse hole and made the mess to incriminate Kita. His motive was to have all the dog food for himself. Editor's note: I think he lost a pound, he still doesn't like his food.

I didn't plan on another post today but I got my chores done. I put away the snow machine and snow suits and took out the bug jacket. AND I don't have to cook supper. Life is really good when you score left overs! The temperature dropped quickly last night, -10 at 7 this morning, and did strange things to the lake. Hills and valleys, cracks and craters.







Hey, I don't make up the news, ok sometimes I might, but mostly I just report it.
The jury is coming in with their verdict.

Juror #1 " I think I know the identity of "TT", I think her name is Czarina".

Juror #2 " If a man can't put his boots where he wants, he might as well be a eunuch"
(look it up Rich)

Juror #3 "A man with out his gun cabinet, well just isn't a man."

Juror #4 "I think "TT" should be thrown into the lake. If she sinks, she is a witch, if she floats, she is guilty".

Editor's note: Kinda hard to do that test right now. (Was that you Rich?)

So far it's not looking too good for "TT", but keep the verdicts coming in.

PS Some answers to last night. Yes, I am a new guy on the lake, bought the place in April 1990 so this is only my 16th anniversary. The previous owner was David Lindsay.

Sun set from Frasertown.




So off I went visiting last evening. Much like grocery shopping, it's not just hop in the vehicle and go. The snow on my 3 km driveway was soft and wet and the machine kept wanting to slide sideways off the road. There were 2 spots where water was running across the road and I had to skip across the mud. The Gibson road was in really good shape. I sledded to where the loggers plowed the Notman road and chained my machine to a float the loggers had parked there. Trailerpark Dan and his much better half picked me up there and drove me to Frasertown. I had a great time seeing humans for the first time in a couple weeks. Eventually we even had supper. Say what you want about Rich, most people do, he does a pretty good job on the old deep fryer.

Cossack Rich doing his thing. (These southerners break me up, you would think that it was cold.)



Now on to the Little Tomiko Lake crime report. It has come to my attention that somebody, we'll just call them "TT" for now, until proven guilty, is planning on removing the last little bit of manliness from somebody that we'll call "Bic" for now. It seems that "TT" wants to remove the most beautiful gun cabinet you've ever seen, that is in the best location ever, to a place that "TT" put "Bic's" boots! Now I ask you to support Prime Minister Harper's quest to bring back capital punishment as this case is the perfect example of how crime has denigrated,(look it up Rich), our society.

A beautiful gun cabinet. Every MAN should be so lucky.



Crime report #2.Whoever came up with the saying "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned", didn't own a Husky. I chained Kita to the deck last evening. Not a happy camper. He shredded a piece of carpet I had put out for him, dug a hole and buried his pillow and dug up my old water line and chewed it up. When I went outside with him this morning, every time I looked at the mess he made, he would get this real guilty look on his face.

It was a dark and stormy night.





Just a short post today, going to Frasertown for supper. Hauled the boat to saftey this morning. The leaning tree was leaning because the roots are being pulled out of the ground. As the ground defrosted the tree leaned more. I took the 4 wheeler for a test drive in the deeper snow in my yard and got stuck, so I will take the snow machine out the back way, no lakes to cross. Don't worry about me, I think Razor is cooking!

Snow last evening.



Nice day today, sweater temp this morning, long sleeve T shirt when the sun came out around 10:30. And tan your butt this afternoon. I've gone as far as I can on the wood for a little while. No place to stack the wood and still 4 feet of snow on the back of the pile. I could shovel an area to lay down more pallets and shovel the pile, or I can wait until Mother Nature takes back what she brought. No decision there.



Now it's time to answer some fan mail. Some people think it is rude of me to pick on them. This is an equal opportunity blog, no one is safe. My blog, my rules. To prove this, when ever I make my first mistake or, if I ever make a fool of myself, I'll pick on me. Whoa! Hold on there before you flood me with those salacious comments,(look it up Rich), remember Blogspot probably has limited resourses.

No pretty pics today, just a dull, flat grey day. Kind of reminds me of Halifax every day until about 11:00 am. This was yesterday afternoon.



The phone rang off the wall, well twice, with people checking up on my injuries. The foot reattachment surgery seems to be a success. It was suggested that I use whiskey EXTERNALLY! Vodka maybe. Speaking of vodka drinkers, and Rich, here's some fluffy, pink clouds from last evening.





I split quite a bit of wood today. That wasn't the plan. You see, when I've been telling you that I was splitting a little every day, it was a little bit. I went to the Jack school of chores where the motto is "What doesn't get done today, can wait till the year after next." All day it looked like it was going to rain any second. So the plan was to split until the rain started and then go in and make bread. No bread today.

Kita and I went for a walk out my driveway. There is still about 1.5 feet of snow on the road. We only went as far as the gravel pit. I called him over and told him that it was time to go home and took this picture. I turned around and, no dog. I guess we can use this pic for an APB. If anybody finds him, tie him up to the yardarm and kick his butt. I think he ran off the last time I took his picture.



Never mind, he just came back. Hey it's snowing! Yipee!

Cough, cough, wheeze, stay with us Frank! I'm a little anemic today. George got me good last evening. He's been pretty good with me since I bailed him out of solitary confinement back in January. A few little nips or grabbing my sock, but nothing that required a blood transfusion. Last night he got my ankle with all his weapons, blood spurting, skin and flesh torn to shreds. If I survive it will be a testament to polysporin, compress bandages and rusty taxidermy sewing needles. (See TT, I told you I can do surgery.) But don't worry about me. I found a forked branch to use as a crutch. I even managed to split a little wood today, although the crutch interfered with my aim with the splitting maul. I was going to go for a walk with Kita to check out my driveway but have you ever used a crutch on 2 feet of snow?

On the bright side, it snowed last night. Since nobody responded to the poll, I told Mother Nature that everybody I knew wanted winter back. My blog, my rules.





P.S. There's a cool program that you can download for free from Google called Google Earth. (http://earth.google.com/) Nephew Brenton showed me this. You can fly around the earth and zoom in on locations or addresses. Some of the major cities are in 3D. You can find me at 46 33'36.93"N 79 27'02.70"W