Bye For Now

This is probably my last entry from here, we are packing up and taking down our internet set up any day now.  We have been trying to enjoy every last minute that we have left and the last few days have definitely been enjoyable.  Some good friends of ours from back home came up a few days ago and we have enjoyed showing them around.  I think that they enjoyed their visit too.  This weekend there is a flying club that comes to the lake.  We had heard about this earlier in the year but thought that we would not be here for it, so I am happy that we still are.  I guess we are to expect a few planes to land on the lake and a few to land on the airstrip nearby.  Their evenings are spent around the campfire playing music.  The kids are looking forward to seeing the planes land. 
I have to say that Paul and I are having a hard time leaving, this year has been the best we have ever experienced.  I have never lived in such a beautiful place, with so much to offer.  We are definitely leaving with a heavy heart and we know we will come back to the area.  For one, or claim is still here, and secondly, Paul usually comes up here to snowmobile in the winter.  I think that the kids and I will be including ourselves on those trips from now on.  Other than that, we will be coming up here whenever we can.  My blog will continue once we get back, I know I will have more to say, more to compare to our life back home and more pictures to share.  I should have computer connection again in about 5 days, so bye for now....

Thank You

Before I forget, I want to send everyone another thank you for all the letters, photos, emails, cards, gifts and goodies for the kids that was sent to us while we were here.  I never expected most of them, a few were specific requests that we had asked for.  So thank you to those of you who did the running around for us in town too. Whether it was a needed item for a science project, or a part for the sleds, or just to satisfy a sweet tooth.  We appreciated it all.  The surprise gifts were the best though, an unexpected parcel at mail day.  I think getting my mail when I return home will somehow not be so eventful, maybe I'll have to start some new ritual, just to help keep the memories alive.

Thinking About Leaving

Yes, it is on our minds.  And little by little we are getting ready to leave.  I say little, because we are doing it pretty slowly and very reluctantly.  We knew this time would come, but it came so fast.  Paul's work requires that we head back towards the middle of June, so we are starting to think about getting back into that mode.  Remembering our cell numbers, pin numbers and just getting used to the different pace of life back home.  Summers for us are usually busy, Paul is away from home a lot.  He is doing something that he enjoys, but being away from the kids and I is never easy and after this year, I think it will be down right hard on all of us.  If there were a few different circumstances, I think that we would choose to stay here because we could not ask for a better family life.  I know that our life back home was good too, but being here has changed us and the kids for the better.  We appreciate things much more and see the value in a more simple way of life.  We have done things this year, seen things and met great people that we never would have otherwise.  This area and the people are definitely in are hearts forever.  Will we be back? You know we will at sometime.  For how long?  We'll have to wait and see. 

Water!

We had a good downpour for a while last night and then a steady rain for the rest of the night, our first for the spring.  It was so relaxing to sleep to the sound of rain on a tin roof.  This morning the air was damp and calm.  I could hear the roar of Olson creek across the lake, and as I went to town for mail, you could see the effects of the rain on each swollen creek and river we came too.  After we spent the afternoon in the valley we came home to more water at home.  Yes, our water in the cabin is thawed! Yahoo!  We had left the tap on in the tub, and when Sasha came around the cabin she saw it draining outside(like it is supposed too).  She came running and told me but I had to check for myself, because the little stinker has fooled me before by running out of the cabin and telling me she saw the tap dripping.  This was no drip today, the tub drain could not keep up.  We figure that we have 40lbs of pressure when the creek is lower later in the summer, so right now with the runoff and rain, who knows what it's at. 

I have been very much enjoying the lake now that it is thawed.  We have been having such beautiful weather that most mornings the lake is like glass.  The reflection is absolutely gorgeous.  Having your morning coffee outside looking at that and listening to all the birds is something I will sure miss.  Don't know yet how I will say goodbye to all this.

Here's a Few

The lake went from this ...

To this over night

Here is the mountain that we climbed as a family, when I proved that "Nanny" is not my middle name.

Us today, after a picnic supper at Palm Beach

Changes

All lot has happened since I last wrote.  First off, we drove our trucks out of here on May 1st.  It took us going out the afternoon before, to break the trail through the snow up to Lover's Leap, or the summit on the trail we take to town.  That afternoon took quite a lot of pushing and pulling by both trucks and people, but we made it to the high point in about 4 hours and decided to call it a day.  It was quite a warm afternoon and the snow would turn to ice as soon as the tires spun even a little, if we had kept going we were afraid that we would not make it back up the trail from the otherside, because the snow conditions changed quite a bit through the day.  Lesson learned - definitely should have had tire chains. 
So the next day we took off bright and early in case we had trouble breaking through and going the rest of the way to our rendevous point that we leave our other trucks at.  It turned out that it was no trouble at all and we were out in pretty good time.  We then spent the next 12 days in the valley with friends, helping redo the roof on their home.  We had a blast and so did the kids, it was a lot of work but we could not have spent those days any better way. 
After that we came home to find the lake with lots of huge cracks or leads across it.  Over the course of four days the lake changed drasticly.  And last night the ice swept away and we have open water today.  We wasted no time and took the boat out and went for a tour.  There was a few ice bergs here and there but otherwise, clean sailing.  Our loons from last fall were back today too, they must have been on some other open bay on the lake and as soon as they could they were back swimming in front of the cabin.  I was happy to see them again. 
We took the quads out yesterday and made it to the claim, still some deep spots of snow there, but we could still get in.  Paul started working on the back hoe that has been broken down with hydraulic problems since the fall.  We also moved out our saw mill and moved it to another location.  Today, Paul sawed up some boards and was able to finish our stairs going down to the lake. 
With the lake open now it seems like spring is really here and the trees are starting to bud out too.  We are also seeing lots of bears out, which is another sign for us, one to stay close to the cabin!

Quadded Out To Mail

Yep, we figured "What the Heck", let's give it a go, and it was a blast.  There were a few spots that still had a lot of snow and we had to do a little pushing, but with chains on the tires we made it to the trucks in pretty decent time.  The snow was actually quite wet and dropped as soon as you came into contact with it.  Our travelling the trail will only help for the next time, especially the spots that we got down to the gravel, if only the sun would shine a little more.   The rain we got the last few days made a difference up high too, we were seeing bare peaks around us, and now they are all white again. We figure that next mail day we'll drive our little Toyota out with not too much problem.  Paul is itching to try it with the truck, he wants to go tomorrow, he has a new winch on it... if only we had tire chains for it too...

Springtime

I think that it is safe to say that spring has made it here.  We have been having quite nice +10 ish temperatures and the odd snow flurry but otherwise beautiful spring weather.  Paul and I took the quads out on Thursday to check how the road out was for travelling, other than with a sled.  We had all decided to opt out of the last mail day, thinking that we would give the trail another week to melt before trying it with quads.  Paul and I couldn't wait, so we gave it a go and got stuck quite a bit.  The other end of the lake got more snow than we did all winter and that is where there is still some accumulation.  If you get a tire off of our packed trail, the snow sucks you right in.  There is probably still 18 inches in some spots and here in the yard we have almost nothing, and it is only about 9 kms down the road!  Now that we have made a track through it though and if the sun shines on it, we may get a better result this week on mail day if we decide to go out. 
We did get some company on Friday, a friend came out from the valley.  He had to drive his truck on the road as far as he could and then unload his sled, besides the part of the trail that I just spoke off, he had to travel the lake too in order to make it here. 
Yesterday we took the kids on a hike and did they ever surprise us.  It started out as a hike along the creek that supplies us water, beautiful little creek and easy walking.  The trail started to gain quite a bit of elevation in a short time and we started to get into snow.  Since we were all in hiking shoes we veered off to find a not so snowy route.  We came into an opening and looked up, there above us was a straight shot right up to the top of the mountain that is right behind our cabin.  The reason it was such a nice path up was because it was an avalanche shoot, one that is south facing so all the snow was pretty much gone, and of course so were most of the trees and brush from past slides.  The kids took one look up there and wanted to go all the way up.  I, on the other hand thought there is no way that the kids will make it the whole way.  Well like I said, they never cease to surprise us, they were so excited to walk the whole way up a mountain, that they were like two little mountain goats, and made it up there in pretty good time.  Paul had Laney in a backpack and I brought up the rear with a backpack of provisions for our little mountaineers.  Once we got closer to the top it got pretty steep, but it didn't phase them, I on the other hand, had a problem.  I always knew that heights were not my favorite thing and this proved it, mountain goat I am not.  Well the effort was sure worth it, we got an eagle's eye view of our surroundings.  We could see the whole lake which is about 15 kms long, the spots on the lake that are opening up because of creeks flowing in, the whole mountain range to the south of us, the road to our gold claim to the west and everything in between.  It was quite amazing, we were all pretty proud of ourselves, no horsepower involved only human power. 
After a few days of play it was time for some spring work.  We have been working around the yard cleaning up a bit more and doing some maintenance that wasn't a priority in the fall.  On thing that was on all our lists, was to fix the steps down to the lake, or I should say rebuild them.  So today we tore out all the old material, cleaned up and brought in more logs to make a new set of stairs.  It should look pretty sharp once we are complete. 
Speaking of work, Sasha and I are trying our best to have her schooling pretty much done for the end of May.  I think that we should be on schedule, but these nice spring days sure do make it hard.  Come to think of it, we had such nice weather all winter long, that it has kind of been an issue the whole time we have been here.  So we have been taking school outside as much as we can, it makes it more enjoyable for both of us, and keeps the progress happening.  Good luck to us on finishing!

A Few Firsts

I have put over 2000 kms on my sled now, and it would be safe to say that the kids have logged that many kilometers too.  Anywhere that I went so did they, and we are not driving out of here with trucks yet, so they will log on even more.  We are at the in between stage that we figured would happen.  Where the quads get stuck on the breaking up trail, the sleds could easily still travel, but there are stretches where there is 100-600 meters of gravel.  So we are staying put and just waiting to see what happens, the nights are not freezing now and the snow in the yard is disappearing fast, it is just the parts of the packed trail in the shade that will  determine how long until we can get out the quads.  We were just thinking the other day how at first Delaney didn't even want to sit on the quad, she was very restless, and now she can do a 100km day and not bat an eye.  Of course you can bet if the sled is running and she's on it, that a sleep is involved too, so that helps. 
We celebrated Sasha's 7th birthday last week.  Actually she celebrated it a few times with different get togethers, but last week was her actual day and we spent it at Manson with some friends, one of whom shared the same birthday.  Usually when we get together like this we have a potluck meal, this time I brought something very out of the ordinary, at least for us.  Some of you may think I am becoming bushed but I think I can safely say no, just trying something new.  This trapping season after we caught our first lynx, we were asked by some of the locals if we ate it.  We hadn't and didn't even give it a thought, but apparently it is quite good cooked a few diferent ways.  And after we thought about it, Paul and I remembered some other trappers telling us the same thing.  So anyway, after Paul caught the second lynx of the season, he kept the edible portions of meat in the freezer and we figured that this would be as good of time as any to cook it up.  So I made a stirfry out of it, just as you would chicken and that's pretty much what it tasted like too.  The people we shared it with enjoyed it, some of them hadn't had it in quite a while, and others it was a first time for them too.  So there, now I can say I have eaten lynx.
We also spent a few days last week taking a Basic Fire Suppression Course.  Another first for me, I have never taken a course like this before.  Now Paul and I are certified to help assist in wildfire fighting if the need arises while we are here.  They are predicting that this year may be a doozy, since we came into the winter from a dry fall and having probably at least 4 feet less snow through the winter than normal.  Another factor is all the beetle kill trees in the area, or the "Red and Dead" as they are referred to, these trees can make for an even worse fire season.  So lets keep our fingers crossed that we won't need our newly acquired knowledge.       

What a Sight!

On Friday Paul took a trip aross the lake to climb a mountain that we have admired all year.  He took the sled as far as he could and then he made the rest of the way on foot.  Being a little too much for the kids to tackle, we stayed back and watched with the spotting scope.  One thing that we didn't see that he did was the view and a Mountain Goat.  We are hoping that as the snow melts, we will be able to pick the goat out amongst the rocks with our spotting scope from the yard.

Yesterday we went out to enjoy a hike and the spring day and we caught a glimpse of a lynx ahead of us.  We were walking on the old road that follows the lake and we spotted it ahead of us.  It came down from the upper road and walked along the lake for about 50 ft and  then heard us and took off up to the higher new road again.  We hiked up there and saw his tracks take off into the bush.  Sorry no picture for this one, but I'll remember it for sure, as this was the first lynx I've ever seen alive in the wild.

Catching Up

If you will, let me go back about 4 weeks and catch up on what we've been up to around here. 
In the later part of March Paul, the kids and I went out to Prince George to bring in the remainder of the furs that we have for sale this trapping season.  We had a few other errands to run and some "fun" time planned for the kids at the area swimming pools. On our drive out there we got to experience spring.  The roads were pretty dry and there was next to no snow left.  When we got to Prince the people were actually wearing flip flops, and there we were still wearing long johns and winter boots!  So after a few unexpected and surprise visits at our hotel room from family members, we did all we had to do in town and got ready to head back.  One thing that every trip out includes, is a grocery trip to stock up on fresh produce.  So usually the morning before leaving I go out and buy all that our coolers can carry of unripe produce, I buy unripe so that I know it will make the trip back in here.
Back at the lake we were and are very much still having winter, just last mail day we went out (still with snowmobiles) and parts of the trail had 3-4 inches of fresh snow.  The weather changed in March from leaving our calm winter days behind to bringing us lots of wind and a little bit of everything that mother nature has to offer.  We have had snow, sleet, sun, and even thunder and lightening one night a few weeks back.  But lately the sun tries to shine, the south facing banks are bare, our nightly temperatures are around -13 and we are warming up to +10 or so during the day.  Our trail is most of the time frozen rock hard when we travel it, with the daily sunshine making any fresh snow disappear and leaving the hardpack there.  Paul and his dad put bolts through our skiis, they work by cutting through the surface ice and spraying snow back to the track.  Makes quite a difference with the heating up problems and has made travelling the trail better.  The few times that the trail wasn't frozen, it was melting and getting a little soft.  But not quadding material for us yet, we don't want to tear up the trail in the soft spots and leave the ruts to freeze, ending up with a rough trail.  So for now we'll keep on sledding until we see some sure signs of break-up here. 
The cool nights are good for our deep freezes.  We are not having to run the generator for them too much yet, so that is good.  We are trying to get down to just one freezer each, which shouldn't be a problem since our stockpiles of food we brought in are getting down.  One thing we still use the generator for on a weekly basis is for laundry.  We brought in a normal plain jane washer that we used to have in our cabin before we had a problem with frozen water.  Our water line from the spring about 450 ft up the hill froze off somewhere about a month back, that means we now haul water to the cabin and have made our laundry services portable.  Think Drag Queen turns Laundry Maid.  Paul rigged up one of the drags to haul the generator and the washing machine and he now hauls the unit up the hill and does the laundry directly at the water source.  Siffening the water with a hose directly to the washer.  And just so you know, all our detergents and cleaners we use here are all environmentaly friendly. 

So this option provided the kids with another form of entertainment too, Sasha and Aron take turns delivering the finished laundry down the hill to the cabin by GT.  They also haul water that way too, but they have learned to be heavy on the breaks because the load behind them can be very heavy.  Paul enjoys it too.

Finally!!

On Good Friday my parents came in for a visit over this long weekend.  The weather had been very snowy with quite low cloud cover and yesterday was no different.  At lunch it started to break and Sasha spotted some dark figures on the ice across the lake.  We all went scrambling for cameras. binoculars and spotting scopes, all the while trying to be as quiet as we could, so that we did not scare off whatever it was over there.  Within a few moments we got everything together and saw that a few caribou had finally arrived.  There were only five in this small group and we did wonder if more did cross through the poor conditions and we just didn't see them.  So we watched as they walked along the far shore for a moment, then they started across the lake right toward us.  We had the wind in our favor and tried to get the kids to stand as motionless as possible.  We were able to get a few pictures taken before the next squall moved in.  They ended up walking about 3/4 of the way across the lake directly toward us, then made a 1/4 turn and walked parallel to the shore until we could not see them any longer due to the snowfall.  We are definitely keeping our eyes to the lake now, hoping more caribou will come our way.

Also since mom and dad were in, we tried some fishing on the other side of the lake where Olson Creek comes in and actually dad and Paul are still there.  Here are some pictures of this morning.

 

It looks bad, but the ice is a thick where I am standing as anywhere else on the lake, which is over 24 inches.  Nothing so far, but one darned trout jumped in the open water by the creek while we were standing there fishing.  From my experience that is usually not a good sign for catching.

Trip To The Top

While on a trip up to what we call the top of the mountain, Paul and I with Monique(his sister), Tarron, Graycen, Aron and Delaney and took a few pics.

Paul on his sled

After a trip to the top, Paul took the boys up there too.

Texting in the Bush

Out here we do not have cell service, but ingenuity we do.  Paul's parents, sister and her kids came out for a visit for a few days and we have had a great time visiting.  The kids decided to send a message to their dad via Northern Texting Service... see message below

We sure do wish he was here.

Nice Rack Hey?

Just yesterday we headed out to our trail head for a "Block Party" weiner roast with some of the people from the valley.  The plus temperatures that we have been having are nice but they are also playing havoc with our plans to go out to the valley.  So yesterday we met our friends at the trail head, where we connect to the main road.  We have made a fire pit there for lunch stops on mail day and our friends who came to visit from the outside use the spot to park when they come in.  Anyway we have been using the lake to travel since our trail is hard packed and frozen and does nothing for our sliders on the sleds, (even with our little trapper sleds we can smell them heating up) so the lake offers us more area with snow.  We usually stick near shore and yesterday was no different.  As we zoomed along in typical Yamaha Bravo fashion, I noticed a set of horns right near shore.  They measured 43" and looked as if they had dropped from the sky, there was nothing else there but a pelvic bone.  The kill had probably happened in November or so and the animals have either hauled the rest away or this was hauled out on to the lake when the snow was harder.  Anyhow we were quite happy with our find.

Also yesterday, Sasha decided that she wanted to drive her little 120 sled out to the weiner roast, so we thought that was fine and I pulled a skimmer that we could load her sled on if she got tired.  The fire pit area we made is about 25 km from the cabins and the determined girl that she is, she drove the whole way.  It was +7 when left home, so about all she had to worry about was sore thumb.  We were pretty proud of her.  We visited there for 3 hours or so, then headed back and she made 'er back here no problem.  That was her first solo trip and she did awesome.

Here is us going for mail  2 weeks ago.

On The Line

The last couple of weeks in February myself and the kids had a chance to go on the trapline with Paul.  Our beautiful weather gave us an excellant opportunity to see the areas that he was trapping this year.  The first trip we made, we went with him to the "Top of the Mountain Trail" and we couldn't have picked a better day.

The sky was about as blue as a sky can get and as you can see the sun was shining, which hasn't happened much this winter.  Our 3 little trappers had the time of their lives, loving the chance to see what exactly dad did when he was out on the line.  Then a week or so later we went with Paul to pull traps, since the season for most of the animals that we are trapping was ending.  This trip we decided to stay at one of Larry's cabins at 20 mile and stay a few days to break up the trip.  We had 160 km of line to cover and with the kids we figured that we should do it in 2 days.  We loved the little cabin, it housed the 5 of us perfectly and the area was so nice to be at, we could have stayed longer.

This trip took us behind Larry's the first day, and it was new country for me to cover.  I always think that it is so amazing when we travel to the back country like this and see signs of some trapping Larry did years ago. We can tell where his old trail was and even where he put some of his sets.  He of course, didn't have a snowmobile to haul his butt around as we do, he relied in his dogteam and snowshoes to cover the same territory. 

The second day we travelled back up to the top of the mountain and we were seeing fresh wolverine sign a good part of the way near the top.  Both Paul and I new that there was a set ahead that housed some bait and was set especially for a wolverine.  We saw the tracks go to 2 or 3 marten sets and then simply walk by.  As we approached we saw something that I didn't think I would ever see...

A wolverine was right there in front of us, amazing.  Both Paul and I had never seen one until coming here, since we have not caught one of these at our trapline in Alberta.  We have wolf, lynx, marten, weasel, squirrel, mink and fisher, but wolverines no such luck.  This was pretty exciting for us, never mind the kids, they are pretty lucky to see all these things at their ages. 

Well that pretty much topped off our trapping season, there are still a few animals open, but we are pretty happy with our outcome so far: 4 wolverine, 2 lynx, 150 marten, 2 weasels, and lots of squirrels.  We heard the wolves this morning, so maybe that will be the next bg thrill, to see or hear from more of them.

Company from Home

We got our first visitors from home Wednesday and the kids were soooo excited to see faces that they knew from back home come all this way to our neck of the woods.  We had a quick visit from my uncle back in December, and that was equally exciting, but this time the visitors were able to stay.  Four friends and relatives of ours and Tim and Martina came in to go sledding with Tim and Paul.  We went out for our usual mail day expecting the guys to arrive any time in the afternoon, and that they did.  Three of the four guys have come here in the past with Tim and Paul to go sledding at the claim cabin and were surprised to see what an easy trip they had ahead of them this year.  In years past they unload on the side if the road and load their sleds and skimmers and take off breaking trail in all sorts of deep snow conditions.  Sometimes they were even forced to unhook, take what they needed for the night from the skimmers and just try to get to the cabin so they could get some sleep.  Wearing snowshoes while driving the sleds because if you had to get off for some reason you sunk past your waist.  This year was quite a different story as the trail they are using is the trail we use on a weekly basis. And this one is not neglected in the least from the Drag Queen and is very nice to travel.  So within minutes we were all packed up and headed to our home.   They ate supper with us then moved on to the claim cabin for a few days of fun.
This mail day I also put in a grocery order and found out that my kids can actually get excited over fruits and veggies.  I have been trying to use up the frozen and canned that I brought in along with supplementing that  supply with a little fresh stuff from the store  But we all know that fresh is the best, and when you are over 3 hours from the nearest grocery store with an ample supply, we tend to go without a little more than I would have back home.  And taking it home here is a different story when travelling by snowmobile.  We have 3 of the good 5-6 day coolers that we warm up in the cabin overnight, then we put hot water bottles in them to keep them warm for the trip and to keep the produce from freezing before we get home.  And this grocery order was primarily produce and a little dairy, so I didn't want to see anything get ruined.  We were just talking about an article that one of us read that said 40% of produce bought is thrown in the garbage at home.  Well I can honestly say, not here.  The wasting of such a precious thing does not happen at our house, the kids have been eating nothing but the fresh stuff since we got it home.  They devoured the strawberries as soon as they spotted them and I could wash them, then moved on to the grapes.  I think I'll have to put in orders for freshies a little more often! 

A Few Projects Paul Has Been Working On

These are the 2 drags Paul has built for him and Tim to pull behind their sleds.  The "Drag Queens",

 make the trails smooth like highways.

 

Here is the Teeter Totter

These 2 benches for around the campfire were made from a curved tree hanging out over a bank.  Pretty nice work.

Over 1000

Well I have offically put 1200 kms on my sled so far this year, and Paul is over 4500 kms on his.  Paul's higher numbers are due to the trapline days, when he goes out checking and I stay home with the kids. 
We, along with the friends from the valley, finally punched through the trail we were working on and have used it already a few times in the past few weeks.  It was a lot of hard work but worth it, now we can come out on part of the road in the valley near our friends house.  We are then about 15 miles from town.  We moved our truck to near that spot and have it to travel the rest of the way to town and make our many visiting stops that we do on mail day.  The kids like the break from the snowmobiles and enjoy the truck time.
Speaking of mail day, Martina and I were staring wide-eyed at some of the other ladies mail.  On some of our recent visits with them, we couldn't help but notice their gardening catalogues.  And low and behold, they are already receiving their orders.  We are so envious of them.  Most of the ladies in the valley have quite nice garden spots and with a farmer in the valley, even have black dirt and manure!  
We have one more week of trapping for marten, wolverine and a few others, we are at 147 marten and 3 wolverine now.  All the other numbers are the same.

Everyday Things

Our weather here has been very nice since the new year, ranging from -15 to -8 at night and ranging from -8 to 0 during the days.  It has been very overcast with the clouds hanging low on the mountains, in fact there are some mountains that we have not seen the tops of for many days.  We wish that if it was going to be so cloudy that at least we would get some snow to go with it, but not so.  We keep waiting for this big dump that will leave us with snow, snow, snow.  But this year has left us just waiting, as the levels are much lower than normal.  We have plenty for snowmobiling and snowshoing, but not the amounts that the mountains are known to have.  The other day I took off my snowshoes and stood beside my sled, when I stepped off the packed trail I sunk down to where the footboards on the sled where level with my hip and my feet were not on firm ground yet. 
For most of December and probably a good part of January, we got direct sunlight for only about 3 hours, in the late morning and over lunch.  Then the sun moved behind the mountain that is directly across the lake from us, and we had only sunlight, not direct sunshine.  We figure that once we see the sun through the clouds again that it should be well over that mountain now and we will be back to having sunshine all day long. I decided to leave my solar Christmas lights up, since during the Christmas season as I mentioned, we only had sunshine for that short time and the lights did not last long at night.  I'm hoping when the weather clears, the kids will be able to enjoy them again.
The past week we have been working from our end to open up an old trail that will lead us to the west end of the valley, where all the folks live that we visit.  Opening up this trail will cut down on the road riding we have to do when we want to visit people who live at that end.  Plus it is something more for us to do.  Working on the trail consists of  us snowshoing a trail for the snowmobiles and cutting any deadfall or brush that is in the way.  Move the sleds up and keep going.  We are following maps and the advice of the man who made this trail 20 years ago for his dog sled.  They are also working from their end.  Each day we go out we stop and listen every now and then to see if we can hear their sleds or chainsaws.  We email each other at the end of the day and give each other GPS co-ordinates and a description of where we left off.  Such as the approximate size of a meadow, a trail maker we may have left behind, or a description of a valley or ridge that we may be close to.  Tomorrow we are going out again and with any luck we will finally meet up. 
The trapping is slowing a little, but still very good numbers, 128 marten now.

A Few Things

There are a few things we have been asked a lot lately, the first being "Have we seen the caribou yet?".  The answer is no, not yet.  Apparently they actually don't come around here until later on, more like the end of February or beginning of March.  Not December as the parks guy told us last fall.  Yeah, I know, we thought he would have been a reliable source too.  We have been waiting patiently and I know many of you have too, waiting for pictures but there was just nothing.  Not even tracks anywhere.  We have learned in the past week that we still have more waiting to do,  so again I'll let you know.
The other question is "How did it feel to go out?"  Yes, it had been three months since we were anywhere but in this area, and probably close to 2 months since we had been in a vehicle and had to deal with traffic.  I'll admit to you, Paul did not do well, he wanted to be back here by the 2nd day, he didn't enjoy the shopping and running around that we had to do in various towns or cities along the way and on our way back home again.  It felt very strange to be in a vehicle, can you picture not being in one for that kind of time period?  We did though very much enjoy seeing our family and friends, even though we did miss seeing some. 
We simply can't believe our time here is pretty much half over now, it is flying by.  I know our time will be up before we know it, then what? you ask.  Paul and I have to learn how to deal with the outside world again.  I've been told that the transition back will not be so fun or easy to slide into.  But we'll think about that later, until then we keep on doing what we are now, and lovin it.

Rain in January

After a successful trip out on Boxing Day and returning the first week of January, we are getting settled again and unpacking all the goods.  We also all came back with a cold which was to be expected, though I must say it was nice that none of us has had a single sniffle up until now.
We also came back to a huge turn in the weather.  Tim and Martina mentioned that it did not warm up past -16, and that was for only one day.  The whole time we were out they dealt with mostly -20 temperatures during the day and -30 at night.  We also keep the heat going in each others cabins while they are out.  The water comes from our cabin to theirs, so keeping the fire going in those tempuratures is important.  Our stove can last 6-8 hours before it needs more wood. 
But now we have been having +5 daytime tempuratures and -1 at night.  The last 2 nights it has actually poured and the days are bringing drizzle once in a while.  Our snowmen lasted one day.  The lake looks like it would in May when the ice is rotten and ready to go out.  There is so much water under the snow that you actually push this huge spray of water in front of the sleds, so lake travel is out for now.  Our rink has been self flooded, it actually more resembles a wading pool.  This type of weather actually makes it hard to decide what to do in a day without getting soaked.  The kids go through lots of mitts and get quite wet, the snow is so saturated with water.  After lunch we noticed the clouds breaking so we headed out to our sawmill that we have set up at the gold claim.  After snowshoing around and packing down a spot, we dug out the mill and moved it to a more workable area.  The claim is at a higher elevation than the lake, by close to 1500 ft.  So the snowfall there is a lot more, but overall this year we are still under the normal snowfall levels.  We had not gotten much snow that amounted to anything since November, otherwise it has been a few inches here and there.  And this last change in the weather is making what we have drop. 
So we sawed up a few boards, just enough to build a drag for our trail to smooth out the humps and bumps that it is getting from all the use.  We eventually hope to saw more lumber for next summer and some projects we have in mind.  The first being a tent frame or two for our wall tents, some bunks for inside and then if time and lumber permits, a storage shed.
Tim and Martina are on a trip out right now and they have taken out the dried fur for the first sale of this year.  We won't know for almost a month what the results are.  When the fur is taken in, the fur depot staples everything we bring with a bar code and those codes are registered under our trapping license and trapline numbers.  Then all the fur from potentially all around Canada (if the other trappers choose to send to the same Auction House) gets sent to Winnipeg.  The furs are put into lots, which means they are split up according to type, size and grade of the fur.  Then the fur lots are auctioned off to fur buyers, who are domestic and mostly international buyers.  Each lot price is entered at the sold value and if you have barcoded fur in that lot, then that's the price you get, and so on.  The prices are not what they used to be, and every year there are fluctuations.  Sometimes we even have fur left unsold and it will be kept until another sale date, there are usually 3-4 a year.  We are still trapping as the season is still open for most animals.  Currently we are at 94 marten, 14 beaver, and the same for the lynx and wolverine, 1 each.  We have actually decided to hang on to the wolverine in case we want to get him taxidermied.  I think the squirrel numbers are around 65.  All in all, they are pretty good numbers.