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!