Windy today and cold!! Hurricane force winds were predicted just northwest of us on Haida Gwaii ( The Queen Charlotte Islands). We are tucked in safe and warm and happily at work with the wood furnace cranked. Constantly stuffing more wood in the kitchen stove too, keeping the kettle on the whistle.
The animals have all been tended to, David generally feeds the sheep and the fires while I tend to the chickens and water the critters.
Our two dear dogs love to accompany us on our rounds. Jenny the collie is especially fascinated - she loves the sheep of course and feels that all the animals are her personal responsibility. Kali, the little one, always comes with me when I'm looking after the chickens. She and one of the hens had a good visit today when the hen slipped past me and got loose in the greenhouse.
David is finishing rings today for shipping on Friday. Shipping means a trip into town - it's a perilous journey on icy logging roads and one we make only a few times a month during the winter months. It also means getting supplies in for the next few weeks and once we get this close to 'town day' we are getting awfully low on things like fresh produce and milk. It's biscuits and beans for lunch today :)
Arriving safely home from town is always the best part of the trip. It's a full days journey. Preparation for the trip is intense too. We pack extra winter clothes, blankets, tools, anything we might need in the event of a breakdown on that long, cold, seldom travelled road.
But, another day at home before our town trip. Another quiet day on the meadow coming up.
On our trip into town the other day, we see the shops are setting out their racks of seed packets and spring planting supplies and, the catalogues are arriving in the mail. Stokes seeds, Richters Herbs and the Lee Valley Garden catalogue... It will be a few months yet before we can think about popping our seeds in the soil. She's a frozen world on this high plateau!
This past week was looking rather promising ~ like the beginning of the end of winter but not so...
The willows bushes at the creeks edge had begun to show their soft grey buds and tiny blades of green grass were appearing at the edge of the shop and next to the house where the sun beats down...
But it's gone cold again and we've had more snow. We've been keeping the wood stoves and the furnace cranked. This morning the thermometer read 22 below and it's supposed to get colder tomorrow.
David was up on the roof of the house yesterday to clean out the furnace chimney while I cleaned out the wood stove in the kitchen. The colder it is, the more wood we burn, the more upkeep required tending chimney's and the accumulation of ash in stoves.
We have a big old Enterprise Savoy in the kitchen - she's the heart of the house to be sure. 
In the out of doors, the sheep are content - they have their shelters and their summer hay and their warm winter wool coats. 
The girls; Missy and Mrs' are the two BIG ewes on either side of 'Sunshine'. We expect a lamb or two any day now. We'll post some pics of the big event of course and the days and weeks following...
And so it goes ~ we work to stay warm and dream of spring while enjoying every incredible moment of this winter wonderland. The skies are spectacular! 
The moose wander in and out of the meadow, the coyotes too... leaving tracks that tell stories of their nocturnal wanderings.
Life is good.
We build our wood rings and get to know more wonderful people from all over the planet!
There are wooden rings winding their way right now to Germany, Australia, Denmark, the UK, Illinois, Colorado, New Jersey, Texas, Kansas, Virginia and Florida.
It's 7:30am and the forest of trees surrounding the meadow cast their morning shadows sharply against the frozen ground. Truly spectacular. It promises to be a bright sunny day! Shine on and power up!!
