Christmas in the snow

I arrived at my mom's yesterday to spend the holidays. The dogs are so happy to see almost two feet more snow than we have at home. So I did the obligatory torture photo session.

Craig is growing up so handsome

Bracken is her mom through and through

The group photo did not work out so well. The pups are so hard to get set up. Instead they would rather do this.

Worlds best cat

I am not a cat lover. Never have been never will be. Have you ever noticed how cats gravitate to the person who detests them the most. I am finding out that cats are a necessary evil when it comes to living in the country. The first year we lived here we battled off the mice but slowly year by year we have been losing ground. Finally we decided it was time to get a cat for the shop. Mostly because the mice were eating the dog food faster then the dogs were. What we needed was a cat that was wild as F***. Our neighbour got word we were looking for wild cats so he trapped one for us. Even though this was a barn cat he wanted him to go to a good home. He trapped the cat and brought it over, set it free in the shop and it was a streak of fur. I never even noticed the color or nothing. Kyle and I set out food and a litter box and checked it weekly. After a couple weeks of seeing no cat and the food still being there. We started to think the cat had just gotten out one of the doors and ran away. In the meantime the neighbour was phoning every week asking how the cat was doing. I responded "It's the perfect cat it's like he is not even here". I had resigned myself to the fact the cat was gone and we just weren't meant to have a cat. We would have to go back to trapping and poisoning the mice. Then about two months into the missing cat saga I went into the shop and was almost knocked down by a fly by cat. Kyle and I were both in shock that the cat could have been there the whole time. A very wise cat friend of mine said he was probably out of food that is why we saw him. Sure enough no food and a full litter box. We had stopped checking after a month of no sightings. I now know where he hides as does the dogs.

Here is a pic of his hiding spot.

If you look close he/she is not very good at hiding half his body sticks out.

If you move the plywood you can see him/her


None to please with being on the blog.

The good news is most of the mice have been dealt with and I think we have a very fat cat.

Looks like fun right?

Be still my beating heart

Looks at little dark but who cares it's Russell Crowe. I would have picked different Maid Marian.

What else are you doing you ask

I know you are all tired of my snow moving escapades. I thought I would share what I am doing with the rest of my time. I am reliving my youth.

I bought super Mario brothers for Wii. I have played every moment of down time since the cold snap hit almost two weeks ago. My thumb has gone numb. I have a sore on one finger from the controller. Sometimes family and dogs have gone hungry because I am sitting in the dark playing Wii. Why the dark? Because I started playing when the sun was up and can't be bothered to pause the game to turn on the lights.

As requested

Many of you asked to see a picture of the skid steer. Some other questions you had, yes it has heat. The heater is really good I am always turning it down. It also has air conditioning. Although thing would have gone terribly wrong if I was moving snow with the air conditioning on. The other thing that goes along with the Skid steer is my ipod. I usually move snow until my ipod battery is dead, I am out of gas, or I am hungry.

My new addiction

Kyle has certainly created a monster with my birthday present. The OCD in me really comes out when I am moving snow. Things have to be just in the right spot. I am getting really good at driving the Skid Steer. We have giant piles of snow everywhere.

Moving snow comes with some casualties as well.

Whoops!! Did you know there are no rear view mirrors on a skid steer.

All the animals are happy to be dug out just in time for round two. We here there is snow and wind coming again this weekend.

I am not without my talents. I found out I am gifted at snow sculpture.

I still have one big task to finish. The arena.

However my Skid Steer is DOA this afternoon with a flat tire.

Half time show for the snow storm

I never listen to the weather mostly because in Alberta the weather forecast changes every ten minutes. Well not this time we were told to batten down the hatches. Kyle put up extra straw bales for wind breaks and I brought my sheep home from Jerry's. One thing Kyle neglected to do was put the bucket on my skid steer. Hard to move snow when you have no bucket. Even harder to get out of the shop when the door is covered with a ten foot drift. When you have no trees to stop the wind all the snow collect behind whatever is in it's way. Luckily I had plugged one of the tractors in last night. After the Skid steer was freed from the clutches of the shop I spent the rest of the morning rescuing our cattle from being trapped behind drifts.As a side note all of these pictures were taken with my blackberry. My camera seems to have died. Yeah for me. New camera for Christmas.


There is about 20 sheep in here somewhere.

This year I put up snow fence on the north side of my outdoor arena in an effort to stop the snow from filling it up. Well for those of you that know what a fail is this is a snow fence fail.

The arena is 100 x 200 and the fence is 4.5 feet tall. All of it half full of snow. My round pen didn't fair much better.

Looks like I am going to be digging out for a couple of days before I do anymore working of dogs.

It's Here

Yes, boys and girls winter is upon us.
Tis the season for three layers of clothing and bringing in the dogs in at night. Also the season for donuts in parking lots. That's right you guessed it my baby boy had his first run in (that I know of) with the police. Saturday night I received a call from the local police saying if this was what my son was up to he didn't want any of it in his town. $402 stunting ticket later. Luckily he has been saving up to buy stuff for his truck so he has some cash lying around. He was out looking for job after school today.
Not sure where time has gone. All his shenanigans is making me feel really old. In fact I think I saw some grey hair tonight. Which reminds me to pick up my two cases of wine.
Not much else going on around here. Snow on the ground and probably here to stay.