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The 2007 Blog is still available at http://www.sticksite.com/blog/indexOLD.html but will soon be removed.
Some have told me that they enjoy this blog. So far, these people have told me that they read it: David L, Dr. Ken B, Don P, Ken N, Ruben M, Jim P, Anton L, Yuki Y, Rollie L, Roger R, Alan, Peggy S, and.......?
This is the third year I'm doing this blog; shall I continue?
Saturday, May 3: The gravel road was dry. No trees showed the slightest hint of green yet. At the cabin we were surprised to find the yard almost clear of snow and we drove to the door. The yard was very wet though. John arrived a bit later; he told us of a moose encounter which he had gone through. Last fall I had lost my saw in the bush but had put up ribbons. We walked in there in 6 inches of water and I walked straight to the lost saw. On our walk up the road I was amazed at the chorus of frogs. This is my first spring season with hearing aids and I had not hear that sound in 40 or 50 years. I am amazed. I had no idea this was such a noisy world. This week I was quite thrilled to receive in the mail, a book "Diamond willow" from the author Helen Frost in Fort Wayne, Indiana. http://www.helenfrost.net. in the flyleaf I read this: "Twelve-year-old Willow would rather blend in than stick out. But she still wants to be seen for who she is. She wants her parents to notice that she is growing up. She wants her best friend to like her better than she likes a certain boy. She wants, more than anything, to mush the dogs out to her grandparents' house, by herself, with Roxy in the lead. But sometimes when it's just you, one mistake can have frightening consequences..... and when Willow stumbles, it takes a surprising group of friends to help her make things right again." THANKS, Helen!
Sunday: I set up the rain barrels and promptly drenched myself with rusty water. The road is washed out again a hundred yards beyond my driveway so I set a couple of small trees in the holes with ribbons.
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Whoever put in the culverts last year clearly did not intend for the road to be fixed permanently. We knew this would happen. In the afternoon I hiked looking to get a picture of a bear. Lots of water everywhere; no bears. Also, I found what I like to call "a bear's summer cottage." This was a small area where a bear has very obviously spent a lot of time. Poop all around it. It was not fresh; all the poop was oats and berries from last year. This would be a good spot to look for a bear late summer. I got a few sticks and one more Diamond Willow fungus. Later bear-hunting guide Shawn Pinkett and a friend came by to say Hello. He is not happy with the way logging and oil patch work is taking over the area where his camp is. I'm reading a very exciting book; the kind of book that is hard to put down. Seems to me everybody should read it. It is:
We drove to the east end and looked at the ditch. There was a buffalo cow with new born calf outside the fence there.
Monday: In the morning I took a long walk in my east quarter, to look for bear tracks and deer sheds. At one point I found a coyote standing 35 yards away, looking at me. Unusually unafraid of me. I found two more Diamond Willow fungi (on the same willow) and a couple of nice Scout Sticks. And I found the remains of a deer's leg, freshly chewed and the skull of a young buffalo.
Also found a matched pair of heavy 5x5 Whitetail antlers. A bit chewed but quite nice.
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Tuesday, May 6: time to go back to GrPr.
@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@Friday, April 11: This trip I put the camcorder on the dashboard to record a video of the whole trip with it plugged into the inverter. No problem; it recorded until I turned it off at my driveway, almost 2 hours later. There is still about 18 inches of snow around the cabin so no game on the field. We did see deer on the way up and twice I had to brake for them. There is a new herd of buffalo next door. Looks like there are many hundreds of them. The temperature most of the way up here was around +8C.
Saturday: Another beautiful day. The yard is getting wetter by the minute. By 9 AM it was about +8C already. Nothing really to do today so we relaxed all day.
Sunday: another warm day; snow is melting FAST. More water on the yard every minute. We got to talking about maybe making a stone BBQ out on the lawn. We collected some pebbles to, possibly, make a little model first. This could be an interesting projects so we'll have to Google for ideas.
Nothing worth taking pictures of, this trip. No doubt that will soon change.
@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@Monday, March 31: Marie and I left shortly after 9 AM; got some groceries and went north. The road was mostly like summer driving conditions. I put my camcorder (30 Gb hd) on the dash to record the drive but before Rycroft the battery died. Next time I must try it using the inverter and cable. Beno had, on Friday, come back from his 4-month "walkabout" all over Europe. I had brought up a golf bag on wheels to haul sticks; I got it on Freecyle where, incidentally, recently, somebody was giving away some Love Birds. I emailed them asking, "Do they taste anything like chicken?" but they did not answer me. The chalet across the road is "up" now. Huge.
Tuesday, April 1. NO fooling! Beautiful day, just a bit above freezing again. I cut the tops and bottoms off all the 2-litre milk cartons I had here for the PUT-PUT BOATS I've been obsessed with recently. All the details on that at http://www.sticksite.com/putputboats/ and at http://www.sticksite.com/putputboats/metal_boat.html. I walked over to the chalet. Hal or Al was the foreman, from 100-Mile House. He guided us through the whole structure. It is 5500 square feet on the main floor. There are a lot of buffalo in the next field. All I've seen on my field so far this trip is a coyote. Snow is about as deep as it was last trip; 27 inches or so.
Wednesday: back to GP. @_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@
Sunday, Feb. 17, 2008: We arrived shortly after noon and stopped at John's for a cuppa. I showed off my hearing aids (my first ones ever) and explained to him how much embarrassment they had caused me; all these years I had thought that my farts were totally silent......! At the cabin the trail was almost completely drifted in so we spent an hour shoveling snow before we could bring our stuff from the van to the cabin.
While Marie got some supper going, I shoveled to the bird-feeder and to the outhouse. The temperature was around +6C outside. No wildlife to be seen. There are a lot of buffalo across the fence again. It was nice to have Marie change the dressing on the wound of my cancer operation; it is awkward to do it myself. The operation was on the 13th; details at my page at http://www.sticksite.com/cancer/.
Monday: Today I have to load up some Rails for a customer. There was a tremendous load of snow/ice on the roof so I opened the trap-door to the attic. Later in the evening huge chunks, weighing many tons were crashing down, trembling the whole cabin. The snow around the cabin seems to average about 27 inches deep.
Wednesday: Another beautiful day. We took a walk of about 2 1/2 miles north on the road; a snowmobile track made it possible to walk there. We did jump one moose but did not get a look at it. Later, Gilles came by for a visit. He left me 6 "shed" antlers which had been dropped on his yard. At the moment, 8 PM, we are watching a total eclipse of the moon. I'm having problems figuring out how to set the camera though. This was my main reason for wanting to be up here at this time.
I loaded up 40 Diamond Willow Sticks which have ROT in them. Many of them would have made "SUPER STICK" grade but for the rot. I'll auction them in April. Details at http://www.sticksite.com/rot/.
Thursday: Back to the city after a cuppa tea with John. I had showed off to him my new $1,800. (each) hearing aids. He did not know that I had a very old, cheap, non-working aid in my pocket. As I came in the door, I took out my "real" aid on one side, and stuck in the "bad" one. While we chatted, I grumbled about my hearing aid always needing adjustments. I got up, walked to the firewood box and took two pieces of firewood back to the kitchen table. I laid one piece on the table, pulled out the "bad" hearing aid and laid it on the firewood and slammed it with the other piece of firewood, hard enough to crush it. John nearly yelled at me, thinking I'd crushed an $1,800. hearing aid.
@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@Tuesday, Jan. 15, 2008. It had snowed a little yesterday so to give the roads a chance to improve a bit, we left about noon. The road was mostly fine but snow covered in places. The temp at the cabin was -8C; we saw no wildlife until we got to the cabin. I loaded up the remaining scout sticks and shoveled the paths, then brought in some firewood. I filled the bird feeder and put Canola into the birdbath for the White Winged Crossbills. Soon they arrived and this time, for the first time, I was able to get some pictures of a female. Across the road nothing is happening but there is a big hole dug for the chalet foundation. I had just completed an order for 25 Scout Sticks and am working on one for 100 sticks; having run out, I had to come and get more. The bird pictures are for my birds page which lives at http://www.sticksite.com/birds/
Wednesday: -13C this morning. The snow is 18" deep so it is a good time not to venture too far from the cabin. I loaded up 15 "Regular" Diamond Willow sticks WITH bark still on for a special order. The usual deer and moose around this morning. I tried to take pictures of a moose kicking up snow to get at the canola underneath.
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Thursday: time to go back to the city. The temp is way up to 0C this morning. Marie went to the outhouse and when she came back, two moose resting 150 yards from the cabin were startled and jumped up. We had not gone 1/4 mile when we had a flock of 50 (?) Sharptail Grouse land near the road.
@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@_@Tues. Jan. 1, 2008: We got to the cabin around noon; the temp on the trip up ranged from -13C to -20C. I shoveled out the path from the van, parked at the end of the driveway, to the cabin. Took 2 - 3 hours to get the cabin warm enough for human existence. I took 52 Scout Sticks and 7 Rails from the JOG (John's Old Granary) and put them into the van. There has been a good demand for my Scout Sticks and I wish I had been able to harvest more of them last summer. I had a few empty bottles from salad dressing etc so made 2 more fly traps. You can see more of those on my Cottage page at http://www.sticksite.com/cottage/. They work so well that I'll use all empty, plastic bottles for that purpose. Today is the day that my annual "Super Stick Auction" started. This means that the 24 best sticks from my 2006 stick harvest went onto my website at http://www.sticksite.com/best/. I got up at 6:10 AM to upload that new page and will now wait for offers until the end of the month. The cordless, battery-less fan is a big help. No game visible at all. There is 18 inches of snow on the lawn.
Wednesday: This morning there were some animals back in the field; 5 deer at this end, 3 moose a bit further east, then 3 does and 2 large bucks, and another moose at the far end. The snowplow came up the road as I was taking some pictures at the end of the driveway. We chatted awhile.
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I found one of the "Brownish" wasp nests and brought it in:
Clearly, some different kind of "wasp" made these brown ones. I wonder what bug did it.
Thursday: A cool day so we stayed in all day. There were about 15 deer and moose visible from the window this morning. Temp was around -15C in the morning. John came by in the afternoon.
Friday: time to go back to town.
