Brrrrr!

I know, I know, I know! It's been more than a month since I updated this blog and you're all chomping at the bit for some good "building-a-house-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" stories. Well, to be honest, apart from the weather it hasn't been all that interesting around here.
The images in my last post showed beautiful fall weather with lots of sunshine warming the house against the forest backdrop. Take one of those images and picture it in your mind, only now there's a foot of snow everywhere and the temperatures are hovering around the -20*C mark. That tells the story pretty well! The cold weather has hit with a vengeance rarely seen this early in the winter. Heck, it's only the first week in December and we usually get our coldest weather in January and February. Yikes! That's not a good omen.
The winter weather has signalled the beginning of the "repair season". All the jobs I kept putting off in the warm weather are now coming back to haunt me. The 4wd on the tractor is not working, rendering it almost useless for plowing. It probably wouldn't be a terribly difficult repair in the good weather, but it's a major disaster to try and do it at -20*C. Our truck had suffered a catastrophic failure in its front axle, rendering that vehicle 2wd only as well. We had Rob at Canadian Tire fix it up for us by doing only "the bare minimum" to fix the problem and keep the truck safe to drive. Of course, 3 days after we got it home, the power steering pump failed. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to steer a big truck like that when there is no power steering? Forget trying to park in any tight spots. You just can't do it. My arms are still aching and I haven't driven it for 2 days!
I just re-read what I've been typing. I didn't realize what a whiner I've become!
It's not all been terrible. The dogs and horses are doing great. The house is working well, staying warm and dry and we've even been making a little power when the sun does peek through the clouds. We always have to rely more on our diesel generator at this time of year. The days are so short and even if it's clear and sunny we don't make quite enough power to refill the batteries. The 10kW Aurora Generator we have works great and has never failed to run when we needed it - even in the frigid cold weather. We recently added a small portable generator that enables us to heat the horses' water troughs when the weather gets very cold. It says it will run for up to 8 hours on a tank of gas (1.3 US gallons or 5 litres). We'll see if that's true! The Bobcat ATV is fantastic - starting every single time and doing everything we ask. We need it to haul all the feed and water for the horses twice a day so it's nice to have something that just works! We highly recommend these to anyone in a similar situation to ours. We love it!
With December a week old already, it struck me that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away. With all the cold weather challenges this week, I forgot to feel "Christmassy", if that's a word. With all the animals to look after, we won't be travelling this holiday season. We'll try to get out and visit some friends and neighbours but our families will have to do without us again this year. This is part of the 'down' side of living on a farm with animals that count on you to look after them. I really love looking after the horses. They have such wonderful personalities and make me smile when I go through the feeding routine with them. Whiskey still seems to be so happy! He canters beside the ATV (albeit on the other side of the fence) when I head down to the diet pen after throwing the 3 "boys" (Whisky, Mystery and Acorn) their hay. He often jumps up, kicking out at the air like a bronco, he is so excited about getting his bowl of yummy stuff! He is too cute! Mystery makes him move from one bowl to the other and then back again, while he tries to decide which bowl has the better stuff in it (they both contain the identical amounts of the mash!). Acorn has become quite the character, loudly nickering (sp.?) at me to hurry up and put the mash in his bowl! Jake and Sierra (aka "the big guys") are in their own paddock. Jake is NOT happy that they get fed last! He paces around with his head down and his ears pinned back, nickering his annoyance with this obvious insult to his status as Herd Leader! Poor Sierra just lets him carry on while he waits patiently for the ATV to get a little too close to the fence, whereupon he quickly stretches out and grabs a big mouthful of hay if I'm not careful. He always looks so pleased with himself.
Our business is plugging away but facing some challenges in our struggling economy here. Both Carol and I are taking part-time jobs to help out. Carol is back at TD Canada Trust. She worked for them a while back and they jumped at the chance to have her at their newest branch here in Kamloops. Being me, I'm doing something completely different and have been hired by Palladin Security as a Security Officer. I've been busy completing a bunch of courses and now have my security licence. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
I haven't taken any pictures recently but will try and capture some images this weekend. Carol is coming home tonight after being away on a course in Vancouver and we have lots going on this weekend. The wood shed is calling me....