Petcetera

Last Saturday my niece and her family came by to visit. 10-month-old Micah got some one-on-one time with Brody. Can you tell he has his own dog at home?



Brody would have loved to get closer!



But even though he thinks he's a lap dog doesn't mean he's little!



In other news, our old kitty George is sick, and I don't think he's going to be with us much longer. A couple of days ago he felt well enough to be interested in the open window in the living room, though, so I took his picture.



The vet believes Georgie has abdominal tumors. He stopped eating over a month ago and barely drinks anything, even the tuna broth he's always loved. I keep putting it out for him, though, along with fresh water--George has always mistrusted water more than thirty seconds old.

Walk Along the Beach

When the calendar turns to spring, apparently it means it. Saturday it rained most of the day and well into the night, but then cleared off. Sunday after church we decided to head for a walk to one of our favorite places (we have a lot of those!) where the river channel meets the lake. Everything is very low water this time of year, held back by dams in preparation for glacial melt over the next few months.

One of the cool things in our area this time of year is that trumpeter swans rest here on their way back to their Arctic breeding grounds.



More photos are in an album at Facebook.

Winter Walk

It's been a couple years probably since I've posted a photo tour of where I walk daily. This morning it was -15 Celcius (about +5F) and the hoar frost was intensively beautiful. I waited till the sun came up (after 9) to walk Brody and grabbed the camera. We've had only a couple of small snowfalls since the first week of January. Since then, most days have been about the same temperature (cold!) and foggy and/or cloudy. It's nice to see the sun. Here it is peeking through a frost-covered tree at the end of our driveway:


Not far west on our one-mile-long road is what I call The Sentinel. Remind you of anyone you know?



A bit farther west there are trees on both sides of the road:



Our road ends on private property just beyond the irrigation channel, so it's Brody's and my turnaround spot. Here we've just turned back. The neighbors have been enjoying the speedway of the channel!



Here are the neighbor's corrals:



Somebody I know loves the snow and isn't near as tired of the cold as I am!



That same somebody loves to eat rose hips; I'm surprised there are any left on the bushes.



Just about back to our farm.



And when I look south-east again, towards the sun, I see there are still wisps of fog in that direction.



I hope you enjoyed this virtual walk. I'm sure it was warmer for you than it was for me!

Leaflette-on-Etsy

If you have folks on your gift-list who are young or young-at-heart, may I suggest you stop by my very talented daughter's Etsy shop, Leaflette? She has additional information--more photos and a coupon code--on her blog, Hanna's Life is Cool.

If you're not familiar with her art (not sure how that could've happened, being as you're my friend and all!), let me tell you a bit about it. Hanna has always loved to color and draw since she was big enough to wrap her wee fingers around a crayon. Her daddy and I happily bought her artist sets and paints and sketch books and pencils as birthday and Christmas gifts throughout her childhood as she continued to show both talent and determination. When we bought our first computer in 1993, she even figured out how to use that super basic computer program--was it called Paint? or Paintbrush? Where you dotted the pixels by color? (I always thought a person could use that for designing cross-stitch patterns, but I digress.)

I guess that got her started, because she now does all her artwork digitally, though her programs have gotten more complex and her art has matured as well. She has built a website with her art portfolio on it as well as samples of website and blog designs she's done.

About a year ago she began experimenting with printing her art on 100% cotton fabric and making it colorfast. With that process in place, she designed dolls and birds that she prints onto fabric, cuts out, sews, and stuffs. This process makes toys for babies and toddlers that are completely child-friendly and can be machine washed.



She's also selling quite a few prints of her artwork at Leaflette in 4x6, 5x7 and 8x10, ready to frame up and hang on the wall. Or you can purchase them as fabric prints for use in quilts or toys of your own. Here's one of my favorite illustrations: Birder Boy.

Stay tuned in the New Year because Hanna has sold an illustration to a well-known magazine, and I'll be posting up the details when I'm free to do so! Meanwhile, go browse at Leaflette, and maybe you'll find something you'd like to purchase.

More on petroglyphs/ pictographs

Technically the correct term is pictograph for rock paintings. Petroglyph seems to mean rock carvings, though around here and around the web I hear/ see petroglyph for both most of the time. In googling the words pictograph and Kootenay I did find additional information, including this site, which shows this sketch (click on it to see the whole thing):



With a shock of recognition I realized it was the pictographs we found on Sunday, though we couldn't find a *guide* to tell us what the letters on the sketch represent. But apparently just fifty feet south is another (smaller) set, so apparently we have to go back and find them. The other pictographs mentioned on the above linked page (site 76) are the ones we found last month. I've gone back and added a *pictograph* label to keep these types of posts linked. (Wonder what book I'm writing or could write might have these in it?)

We've suddenly become much more interested in the history of our area. Go figure.

Petroglyphs

A month or so ago we found petroglyphs on a geocaching trip. After that we heard a rumor about another set of them in our valley, so we went hunting them this weekend.

On Saturday we walked along the road where we could see the hillside and plot out possible locations in the right area. There were two sets of bluffs that *might* hold these ancient rock paintings. On Sunday afternoon we headed north on the railway tracks until we came to a cairn. Then we angled down.


We found ourselves on the wrong side of a swamp, but we could just make out the red splotches on the rocks opposite us. See right in the center of the photo? (If you click on the photo, you'll get the big version!) But we couldn't get to them without getting a soaking, and in late November (even a sunny day!) I wasn't keen on that.


So we retraced our steps, found a place we could climb back up to the tracks--STEEP!!!--and followed them through the rock cut and found another trail (fairly easy one) down again on the other side. The ground was a little squoodgy here too, but not under water. We made our way back along the bottom of the cliff, then Jim climbed up to take a few shots. Though I could see the splotches from down below, I couldn't make out the shapes. Jim was calling out, oh, bugs!



Look, there's a dog or a wolf or something!



And a sun...



So of course I had to climb up and have a look for myself! It was a much easier climb than the ones from last month. I was pretty sure I wasn't going to fall and die this time, anyway. (Yeah I'm chicken and afraid of heights. So be it.)



Then it was a long walk back to the truck, and we got home just at dark. But what a cool day!

Geocaching with Jim :)

Today we went for a hike and to find a couple of geocaches. Since Jim got his GPS unit last spring, we've been doing a bit more *tourist in the hometown* stuff. We didn't know these rocks were worth climbing before!



We also didn't know there were petroglyphs in the area. The pile of rock known as Twin Peak One had this one on it:



Here Brody and I are in the *cave* under the glyph:



Then we climbed Twin Peak Two and found this:



If you know me in RL, you know I really DON'T do heights. However, I did climb this rock face to get close enough to see the glyphs. Jim had to haul both Brody and I up! This is the perspective shot: see him standing at the bottom left of the photo? PLEASE be impressed I climbed that rock! You can see the rock drawings on the top right.



We found a safe place on the ledge to wait while Jim got some close-up photos.



Somebody loves it when we get out and explore the countryside around our valley!

Brody Goes Camping!

A little puppy I know had a great time camping. We spent three days at Frozen Lake, a little lake site with a primitive camping site (outhouse and a couple picnic tables) in the Flathead region of BC, just on the Montana border. Two and a half hour of non-pavement driving, and roads that went from good gravel to washboard gravel to pot-holes to rocks to dirt to dirt with grass growing up the middle. Very dusty and bumpy, but good fishing at the other end. Apparently that's what it is all about!

For Brody, he just wanted to romp and play with the kazillion other dogs that met at Frozen Lake for the weekend.



I did get him to stop a couple times, long enough for a photo or two. You'll find more photos at Facebook (and my hubby's Facebook).

Puppy Time

The last time we had a puppy living in our house was 1991. Kyleigh was a golden retriever and lived to the ripe old age of almost 14 before dying 4 years ago. Jim's been wanting a puppy for a couple years now, but with him working at the mines, the timing wasn't right. Well, he's had a local job for six months now, and he began looking for a puppy a couple of months ago.

Meet Brody:


There are a few more photos of him up at Facebook if you're curious.

His mommy is an unregistered black lab, and his dad...well...you know how these things go. He's part border collie and part shepherd and part who-knows-what! Brody carries a lot of the lab as you can see. He's 7 weeks old and is a fat little porker.

And he spent ALLLLLLLL last night crying. Six hours. Yes. ALLLLL night.

I'm tired.

Father's Day

We went for a drive up the lake today in order to hike along Lockhart Creek.



This was a much easier hike than the hike we did a couple weeks ago! It was pleasant along the creek, sunny but in the shade with a bit of breeze.



Then, because we weren't ready to head home yet, we drove up another dirt road and I hollered, "Moose!" just as he disappeared into the trees. Jim quickly set the camera to continuous while I opened the sun-roof and stood up. Then he drove up the road and sure enough, Mr. Moose crossed a meadow beside the road. I took maybe 20 pictures on continuous before he disappeared. I'll just give you one.



From the top of that road we looked down, back over the lake: beautiful! A pleasant relaxing day.

A May Hike!

Since hubby started geocaching a few months ago, we've gone on a few excursions and want to do more. The last couple caches were practically beside the parking lot, and we wanted to find places that required a hike-in. We sure found one of those today!

First we drove up the mountain near our house, a forestry road with many switchbacks. Finally we came to the trailhead and started climbing a 2.5 km very steep trail. Several places there were really good views of the valley below, though. Our farm is in this photo.


I took photos of a lot of flowers along the trail (an excuse to take a rest break a few times!) This is one of my favorites:


Hubby will be posting up photos of the geocaching itself, so check it out! But here is the proof we made it to the top:


And proof that he figured out how to use the timer on the camera!

Greetings from Victoria :)

So here I am, writing to you all from my brand new (happy) MacBook! :) Ah....here's hoping for a long, content relationship.

Friday we started out on the road beforae six am, me and my girls. The road trip was going along nicely, let the (sedated) kitty out for a walk at Osoyoos. She wasn't all that impressed with harness, leash, or the walk.



It was very pretty along the lakeshore there, though!



The trip become much more interesting after that. We heard a funny sound, like tearing rubber, maybe, shortly after Osoyoos. We pulled over but couldn't see anything wrong (we were thinking tires), so assumed we'd run over a stick or something that got tangled for a sec before being flung off. We went merrily on for another three hours. Jen was driving up the last summit (Hope Princeton) when she mentioned seeing a flashing light on the dash. I got her to pull over and leave the car running for a few minutes to cool down while I dug out the car manual to double-check what was wrong. Indeed, coolant light, which I had met before last year or so. We popped the hood. Yes, could see the coolant container low. Popped the trunk, yes, we had a jug of coolant. (Thanks, hon!)

The three of us stood by the car with the manual out making sure we were doing the right thing when a semi pulled over in front of us and a guy in a pickup did a u-ey and came back to see if he could help. The coolant issue was relatively quickly solved, but one of the guys noticed that we had belt problems. One belt (I'm forgetting the names here--water pump, I think) had come right off, and the alternator belt had torn--we were missing almost half of it (must've been that rubbery sound by Osoyoos! Oops...) The one guy went digging in my toolbox, then in his, came up with the tools to put the dislodged belt back in place and tightened it back up. The other belt was deemed *good enough* to get us the rest of the way down off the mountain and into the town of Hope. We took it easy and made it down.

Once there we were finally back in cell service and I called hubby to report our adventures and ask for advice. Should we try to have the parts replaced in Hope or did he think we were safe to carry on. He figured we were okay if we took it easy. So we started out on the last couple hours of the drive to the ferry landing. I must say taking it easy on the freeway is almost the same thing as a death wish. Some of those semis swerved around us with inches to spare. Nasty stuff.

Made the 7:00 ferry and on into Victoria in the evening. The car made it! Yay!

The next day I lost power steering while driving but made it back to the house alright. There it sits until further instructions from hubby, who will call Victoria Volkswagen and see if they can fix it this week. Otherwise he *gets* to fix it when he flies in on Saturday.

More adventures have followed those, but none so traumatic. More later!!

Fun Workshop!

I got back Sunday afternoon from a fun weekend in Couer d'Alene at a writers' workshop hosted by Idaho Writers' League. Had a lot of fun with my car-and-room-mates, Viv and Bonn, listening to Randy Ingermanson instruct on various writing and web-building skills, and just hanging out.

Here's Randy with *The Canadian Contingent*



We also had individual critiques on five pages (which we'd sent in ahead of time). I've found a few good ideas to tweak up the opening scene of Quest to Be Queen, thanks to the discussion with Randy.



Good times. Now I have a few days to re-group before heading out to Victoria.

Meow?

Or perhaps more like hiss, spit, and snarl.

George is our almost-thirteen-year-old cat. He's a very pampered kitty who loves to play, though he may be maturing at last. I mean, this is the first Christmas he did NOT remove and ornaments from the tree to play soccer with in the dead of night. (We always tie our tree to a hook in the ceiling since he brought the whole thing down on his head during his second Christmas season!)

He loves our open stairs, loves to play tag. He nearly always swats without claws, unless he has been provoked over and over and really is annoyed. Here he is playing with my son:



But last week his little world got a fly in its ointment. We are fostering our son's cat for the next few months while he and his wife are in South America. King George the First is Not Impressed.



The little lady, Princess Lelu, is unsure what to make of George. George is ignoring her for hours on end and then going after her with much snarling and hissing. She's spending a lot of time on the stairs because it is The High Ground from where she can see everything. (For now, we're keeping the bedroom doors closed upstairs, so there's really no place to go up above.) So he'll rush up the stairs past her, and she'll come down. But he gets bored up there pretty quick, and as soon as he comes down for another nap (or snoop!) she runs back up the stairs and sits where she can see everything. At the moment, she seems able to sit there for quite a few hours at a time.



Today is the first time they've been left home alone for more than an hour or two. I wonder how much fur will be on the floor when I get home?

Adventures in Snowshoeing Dec 30

You've seen photos of this railway trestle bridge before. It is one of our favorite places to hike and snowshoe. We also like taking the raft or canoe along the river channel in the summer.



Hubby worked hard to get this shot the way he liked it. Yay for a good macro!



This is also his shot on his new camera, a Nikon D40x.



This one I took on my three year old Fuji E500. It eats batteries and the flash is iffy, but I still like the quality of the shots I can get with it.



There he is setting up cat-tail shots.



The cat-tails were mighty cool.



And yes, we WERE snowshoeing!