Waiting for the Warm

Spring in Kamloops. It was +18*C in the sunshine on Wednesday, but 2" of snow & -2*C on Friday night. It rained most of Friday evening but we woke to find everything covered in a fresh blanket of fluffy white stuff. We planned to go up to our place in Barnhartvale and were discouraged by the poor weather we'd been having the last couple of days. We were hoping to go up and find the driveway snow free and dry. This morning's weather was telling us it would be much different!
We took all our recycling in to town and dropped it off before picking up Alex. Now, in town, it was windy, but there wasn't even a hint of any snow. In fact, everything looked pretty dry and springlike there. Lots of motorcycles and bicycles on the road. It wasn't what I would call "warm", but it seemed to be getting better by the minute.

Alex and his Mom

We took the highway out to the Barnhartvale turnoff and started to climb out of the valley. We were almost surprised by the condition of the roads. They were clear of any snow and for the most part, dry. We drove all the way up to Campbell Range Road, in fact, before there was even a hint of snow on the road surface. We put the truck into 4-wheel Low and carried on up the driveway. It was wet. However, Jayson's guys have done a good job and the rock and gravel kept the first section easily passable. I was hesitant to go any further than the entrance in the truck but the ground didn't seem too bad when I got out to open the gates so we thought we'd give it a try. There were a couple of softer sections but we had no trouble trundling all the way up to the house site.

Alex and Carol check out the culvert that will be our well.

Everything is greening up once the snow is gone.

The sun was shining and it was a beautiful day! It felt quite warm with the sun reflecting off the fresh snow and with the wind retreating for the moment. We were very happy to see that most of the snow had melted off. Even the stakes marking where the house will sit, had fallen over due to the lack of support. I was able to easily push them down, reseating them into the unfrozen ground. Another week of warm weather and virtually all the snow will be gone. Then we need the ground to dry up so the concrete trucks can get up. It won't be long before it all starts happening!