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.