When Will The Snow Be Gone

 Hi pals,

Here are the guesses for this week:

Here is the yard as of the weekend:

The ice storm damaged the bottom of our spruce

Even with this week's temperatures expected to reach highs of 14C/57F, it seems unlikely all the snow will be gone this week.

Come back next week to be sure! 

Updated Mischief Monday -Ice Storm 2023

Lady accidentally set this to publish the wrong day - it has been updated:)

Last week brought us the worst ice storm since 1998. Wednesday the storm rolled through, killing at least 2 and leaving 1.1 million people without power in Quebec. Half of these people were in Montreal.

On our property, other than a few branches, we had no major damage. However, the power lines that run between Callie's house and the next house were taken down, and a post needed to be replaced. (We are the last house on this line, so if they are down anywhere we are in trouble).

Our power  Wednesday April 5 at 11:27 am, and we set the record of longest time without power of 104 hours (almost exactly). While it is not ideal, Lady and Man make this work (and Lady uses it as an excuse to not exercise and eat all the junk food). With the generator we carried on close to normal. Lady and Man worked Wednesday and Thursday. from home. We still went to Grammie and the Big Guy's for Easter on Friday (they had power and Lady and Man had showers there instead of filling the hot water heater off the generator). It was good they had to go far because with 95% of our region without power, there was no gas to be found for at least 20 km/13 miles from the house Friday. (Fun fact nothing only schools and government offices are closed in Quebec on Good Friday, retail is open!) Saturday they still left us forever to go to a funeral. Sunday the left us for a little less than forever to go play pickleball. We carried on as best we could.

Here are some pictures from the storm and the aftermath:

Icy trees

icicles on everything

While Phod has had a hard time with all the change this brings, Lee has been loving it.

A bed by the fire - how cool is this! 

Wake me when it is normal!

Come back tomorrow where we will talk about our contest! 

Nature Friday - Happy Easter!

Before getting to Nature Friday we want to wish all of those who celebrate, a very happy Easter!

Now for some nature.

In spite all the snow and continued cold weather, the first sign of spring in the garden.

Thanks to Rosy and Sunny for hosting this event. 

Callie's Sugar Shack

Dear pals, 

We finally made it to Callie's sugar shack. It is behind Callie's house and Callie's Man made it all. It is beautiful. Lady has been calling it the adult clubhouse, because when we have visited a few evenings, it is Callie's Man, her great-uncle and sometimes a friend, standing around with a beer chatting as they monitor everything. 

Phod sitting by the door because it is hot in the shack. He has learned he can just let himself out the back door.  This isn't great because the deer are around. 

Callie's people have about 300 taps. The sap comes into big barrels that are brought to the shack and pumped into this big evaporator. The sap is boiled and boiled and boiled and goes through all the parts of this and when finally it gets to the right temperature (which is about 270F), the syrup is poured out into a barrel (you can see it on the right). To get 1 litre of syrup you have to boil about 40 litres of sap. 

Lee has discovered this is a great fire and likes to curl up by it, and is annoyed that is is constantly being feed and she has to move. 

Not pictured here, but once it comes out of this big evaporator, it spends another hour in a smaller propane operated evaporator. Then finally it is bottled. At our second visit about 17 litres had been bottled and about the same amount was almost ready. It has not been a great season so far because it keeps freezing. The colour of the syrup is a light colour. 

This is a very small operation. Callie's great-uncle used to have 3000 taps (just down the road from us) and our former cleaner's family (about a 15 minute drive) has over 15 000! 

Lady refrained from drinking the syrup as it came out of the evaporator, mostly because it was too hot. She can't wait to get some of the new syrup! 

We hope you enjoyed the visit. 

Wordless Wednesday - Birthday Treats

Travel Tuesday - St. Kitts - by the Lady

 Officially Saint Christopher, St. Kitts and the island Nevis, make up one country. It was home to the first British and French colonies in the Caribbean in 1620s and now is part of the British West Indies. With a tiny population of about 48 000 people, this island is home to a veterinarian school and a medical school where many Canadian and American students study. Like all the islands, it relies heavily on tourism.

The Man and I had a really hard time picking a tour for St. Kitts, nothing appealed to us and then we finally did, only to have it cancelled. Of course, most tours were fully by then, so we took what was available. It turns out, it was just the tour for us, because other than these hugely racist Americans (they were over heard referring to the islands as uncivilized, shock that people had cell phones and went so far as to say British people couldn't actually feel physical pain) who we avoided, it was a great tour.

We were greeted by our local guide and started a drive around the island. From the bus window we spied:

A beautiful park that used to hold slave auctions

pelicans

more pelicans

trees of birds

Free range chickens

Our first stop was at the Fairview Great House. Build in 1701, this wood house was originally home to French officers.  

This historical building hosts a beautiful garden.

It also had an amazing bath tub! 

Our next stop was the Ramney Manor House. This was where Thomas Jefferson's 3x great grandfather had a sugar plantation. While the remains of the plantation are around, it now is home to Caribelle Batik. We were able to watch a woman making a piece.

Examples of Batik

The old bell tower that let the slaves know when to go to work and when to leave it. 

The remains of a sugar plantation 

The Samy tree

Our last stop was Brimestone Fortress. This UNESCO heritage sight, was build by slave labour for the British. The fort was used from the early 1700s until it was abandoned in 1854. On a self-guided tour we learned about the British and Black regiments and people who lived here. 

                                  

Looking down at the cemetery 

St. Kitts was a beautiful island and was a lovely last port of call.

I hope you have enjoyed joining us on our trip. It has been great to go through the pictures to share some of the highlights with you.  My next trip is a cruise to Alaska with my mom later this year. If you are interested, I will be happy to share our adventures! 

Mischief Monday - Snow and Other Life Things and Contest

Well it is fair to say, last week was something! Besides work craziness,  supporting 2 friends with children having mental health crisis', Lady's car transmission started acting up (garage one couldn't find the problem so it is at the dealer to hopefully sort this out, and probably wrongly remove the winter tires and put on the summer ones). Then the weight of the snow cracked our deck! Getting is repaired is a spring project. Lady and Man will look into composite.

If this just wasn't enough, the snow continued to fall.

Will it be warm enough over the next week for Beau to have the correct guess for snow to be gone on the 12th?  Here is the forecast for the next week. . . . Stay tuned!

In celcius