Saturday morning we awoke to a blizzard. Great big snowflakes were getting blown sideways in the warmish easterly winds. The temps were hovering around the freezing mark so most of the snow was melting, but we still had an inch or two on the road as drove off to pick up Alex. Knutsford appears to have its own weather system because by the time we got to town (Kamloops) not only had the snow stopped, but it was 8*C and almost sunny. The roads weren't even wet so the snow hadn't visited the city at all that morning. Alex wanted to do some grocery shopping (i.e. take advantage of our vehicle to shuttle the groceries back to his place) so we hit the specials at Superstore and Safeway before heading out to Barnhartvale.
We usually expect the weather up at our property to be similar to that in Knutsford as the elevations above sea level are nearly identical at 1,040 metres. Today, however, that was not the case. No snow had fallen and both Robbins Range and Campbell Range Roads were in pretty good shape. The first part of our driveway through the Crown Land quarter section was quite good as well thanks to all the crushed rock that Jayson's guys had installed in the swampy areas. The gate had dropped down onto it's proper position on the hinge so I could tell that the ground was thawing. That would prove foreshadowing as the lower portions of the driveway proper were getting quite soft and muddy. Thank goodness for our 4x4 truck! There were only a couple of tense moments when we slowed as the tires lost grip before the big diesel just sucked it up and pulled us through. It was a confidence inspiring ride. The upper portion of the driveway still had some snow and ice covering it so the ground hadn't thawed as much underneath. Joey normally flies up the hill leading our vehicle all the way to the house site. Today, with all the gooey muck, she had slowed to a walk by the time we got to the top.
We only spent a few minutes enjoying the view this day as we had to get home and rescue the bread dough from the bread machine. We were making dinner rolls today to enjoy with Carol's awesome spare ribs and had to get them out of the machine before they rose too much rendering the machine an unusable, gooey mess (don't ask how we know this!).
On the way home, we took Campbell Creek Road, eliminating a return to Kamloops before heading back to Knutsford. Alex hadn't been down that way before and it is quite a scenic little valley. After hitting Hwy. 5A, we turned left up Jackson Road. Our current place is also on Jackson Road but the road is not maintained past our place, so this lower 7km section can be dicey.
I could tell by Alex's giggling that he was enjoying my efforts to keep the truck moving up the hill. To say it was muddy would be a major understatement. There were times when there was so much water streaming down the center of the track that I fully expected to see kayaks enjoying a romp down the rapids we were ascending. The mud was horrific covering the truck with a coat of runny goo - very attractive. It was a white-knuckle affair at times, wrestling the big Ford up seemingly endless climbs through the slick muck. Eventually, we did make it safely back to Roy and Patou's place (our landlords). The snow had even stopped up there!
*Friday night, we received the first of the framing quotes. We have only invited a couple of companies to bid the job as we weren't comfortable having just anyone do it for us, but instead met with a couple of builders recommended to us by people we knew and trusted. We are expecting the second quote on Tuesday this week (March 15th). Both builders have indicated that they are ready to go now, as soon as we have our building permit. So it looks likes whoever we chose, work on the basement will be commencing in the next 2 or 3 weeks. That's very exciting!
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