So yes we still have snow, however it is starting to go away….  I think this first picture was a few weeks ago, the garlic bed on the right…. it takes me awhile to get around to writing blog.

The really interesting thing is that last fall we got a large load of chicken manure, and we spread some of it on the garlic, but at the end of the fall, I went around with the tractor leaving piles of manure all of the garden.   So those are the first areas to lose the snow.  So all we have showing in the garden is chicken manure…. and it ain’t pretty…. sheesh. We have had some cold nights recently so still able to walk on top of the snow, however today it is quite warm, and so unable to hike up to get a picture without falling down through the snow.

As you can see there are a LOT of piles of chicken manure, I do not remember there being that many.

But of course we are starting to accumulate something else.  THIS is our driveway, and we might need a bridge to get to the hoop house.

So we had a great day redirecting water….. which really IS FUN….. as long as our house is not going over the bank and we do not have a house so we are  fine with all of this, and it is great to see where water accumulates  …. before we build the house, and do the landscaping stuff.

We have it from several sources that this has “never” happened here. No one has ever seen this much snow… and the story that I am sticking with (clinging to) is that a freak storm hit this area (maybe like a 100 year storm)… on December 31, and dumped a TON of snow on a small area, and we are just living with it now. We are not going to have snow until MID April every year ….???

The guy we bought the place from, who was up here hauling gravel out of here for several years… said he has never seen snow like this.
This picture below is the first time we hiked up to look at the place, and where the  pile of gravel is  on eat right in the picture is essentially where the motorhome is now.  Lot of growth. May 4 2019.

Well ……water is not our only issue right now, we have ….. another …… little ….. issue.

Trying to do my part in the “victory garden” concept,  I have started  just a few tomato plants…and then a few more…  Anyways this is the Old German heirloom tomatoes, that I put out in the hoop house with the heater to make sure they did not freeze.

.. and this was them the next day… SOMETHING had gone along and chopped off all their heads..    The ones on the right.

SO Ken is onto it, and has found on youtube the very best mousetrap, and I do not want to know any of the details.  Just no mice in the hoop house…. so far he has “caught” 8 of them.

So back to planting, I now have about 250 Amish paste tomato seedlings started

not sure what i am going to do with them all, but I figured if I had them all planted, I could figure it out later on. UPDATE  3 days later, I now have 600 seedlings….  Know anyone who wants to grow Heirloom tomatoes this year? Or do you know of someone who knows of someone….etc?

 

I finally have Garlic up… you really have to look hard, but its there.  I am a bit worried they might all drown with all the snow sitting on top of them now .

We were planning on starting our house on April 1st, and although the snow has been quite an issue, it is not the issue that has delayed the start of our house.  We had to create a “covenant” to verify how far the house was going to be from the bank.  So we had to get a surveyor out here, and a geotechnical engineer and a lawyer to create the covenant, to say how far the bank is from where the house will be.  It has been onerous and expensive, and thank goodness Ken has the patience for this kind of stuff, but it appears to be over.

The word we have is….. wait for it…. drum roll… they are going to start digging the basement April 23rd…..

Now I have to admit that there are moments when I consider the concept of feeling sorry for myself, stuck in this extremely small space since last August… and then all the snow.

And then I feel shamed…. what the heck do I have to complain about? We have been living in a 280 square foot home for 8 months, and there are aspects of it that I MUST admit that I am getting tired of.

HOWEVER… I came to my senses and really feel like I am a pretty lucky person.  For starters, we got a huge head start on social distancing. We have been, for the most part, been living in a small space, just the 3 of us for 8 months. We do not feel our life has changed much, with the exception of occasional visiting with people. Living in the country, we rarely go shopping, and when we do we get lots of stuff.  We are loving the great outdoors, now that it has gotten a bit warmer.  We have a nice little grocery store, that has arrows in it to keep people from meeting up with others.  Oh and then this is what I see looking out my kitchen(dining room) window.

Of course work has changed a lot, everything at work has changed, but we are encouraged to do as much as possible from home.  So lots and lots of phone calls and faxes.  I have recently been offered the position of Medical director for Long term care for Interior health west, which stretches from about where we are, to Williams lake to Merrit and Clearwater…  It is kind of weird starting a new job and  doing it all online or on the  phone.

My “project” this week has risen out of reading about the facility in Montreal…… STORY IN MONTREAL NURSING HOME   There have been similar stories in Spain and even up state New York where the facility was understaffed and the situation just became so severe that the workers fled. The situation horrible….  So I am thinking we need an early warning sign here in BC if places are getting badly understaffed and to have a plan for that.

In Canada one of the key issues that has driven the virus to so many nursing homes is that the care aides are so poorly paid, they tend to work at more than one facility. It seem to just make sense to rectify this situation since our society are so dependant on Care aides.

Well that’s all for now, lots more tomatoes to plant

Much love to all from Janet, Ken and Tucker, the dog who chased a coyote this morning.