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!