Trick or Treat?

Happy HALLOWEEN everyone! Today is looking rather snowy outside but still feels like Halloween. Especially after the sugar filled potluck here at work!

Here's a pic of Millie dressed up as an "Orange Ribbon Witch" We got black hair spray and painted her nails black too! She is having lots of fun dressed up today at daycare. They are having a Halloween party in her Kindergarten class for 2 days.. one yesterday and one tomorrow so Millie is lucky to get 3 whole days of Witchiness.
And here's Oaksie, she is going as a witch this year too - only her costume has purple ruffles all around the hat. Her cape is rather gothic and is sheer with purple embrodery all to the ground. She feels really grown up and loves to practice her cackle... Of course this picture was from last night just trying things on.. she was buck naked in this thing.. today she is wearing a black shirt and jeans underneath! Wish you all could be here so we could knock on your doors!


The picture below is of Oaksie and her best friend Kimberly at their Brownies Halloween party from yesterday!

And my sister Tracy.. as a fairy princess! She looks so good, she is a SPARKS leader for Millie's unit.. I am sure they had a great time!

Freakish snow storm..

Well Friday it started to snow about 7 am and never stopped until last night. It was that we slushy gushy terrible snow that just stuck to everything. Collin actually flipped the Jetta onto it's side on Friday on his way home from work. Thankfully, the only damage was to a hub cap.. lucky. I am so glad that he was not hurt.
So here are some pictures.. though they don't do it any justice, of what our place looked like. The snow was so wet and so fast. We got at least a foot of snow overnight! A bunch of our trees were bent right over with the weight. Quite a few of them had the tops snap off and crash to the ground. Of course, this really gave Collin a chance to use the UGLY TRUCK to plow snow. So he was quite pleased. +++ he also got to get out the skidoo and rip around! We were out of power for the better part of Saturday but had a good time anyway. And the kids of course loved it cause it was perfect snow man weather.
So to sum it up - thank goodness for electricity and wood heat, and mittens.. we couldn't have made it without you.

Is it possible..

that I have run out of things to say?

I have not posted since Oct.12 and it is now the 20th and still, I've got nothing. Which for me is a phenomenon that I am not familiar with. I seem to have something to say or some event to talk about but this last week.. nothing but static.

So - I guess I'll just have to post about not posting and call it a day! Have a good weekend all!

Tony the CAT

We have a new kitty! We were really sad when our other cat Charlie died. And so we realized that we still had our other cat Jazzy - who was really aloof and pissy but had just this summer FINALLY turned into a decent mouser and was actually affectionate. The the day we got to move into our place, after 2 1/2 months of living there in the yard, she disappears and has not come back. I think she was eaten by something... so last Friday, Collin & Millie went to the SPCA and adopted a new cat... TONY. He's a 2 year old orange tabby.. he is still a bit shy but he's coming around. Oreo has officially been put in her place and get the full hiss/scratch routine everytime she is within 3 feet of Tony. It's actually kinda funny.

My nephews

It occured to me (after a bit of help ;)) that I haven't really posted all that often about my nephews. Mitchell is 9 and Brendan is 3. They live about 5 minutes drive from us and so we are lucky enough to get to see them all the time. I can remember when I was growing up, we didn't have all that many cousins around. I used to just adore the times when we would go to Summerland to visit Aunt Jess and Uncle Pete. Dono and Jason were so different from us back then and we got along so well as kids that it was THE GREATEST times when we got to hang out with them. We got to torture them a bit too.. tricking them into playing with chickens feet and other stupid Vanderhoof stuff! ( I still laugh about that Dono!).

So it's really cool that our girls get to have that kind of relationship with their cousins on a daily basis. Almost as if they are brothers and sisters. It's very neat. The four of them get along so well (most of the time) that it is cool seeing them together. Are they cute? I guess I get to live vicariously through Tracy as to what it would be like having boys and vice versa for her and girls!

Nechako White Sturgeon - Endangered

Nechako White Sturgeon Recovery Initiative (NWSRI)
Dwelling in deep pools of the Nechako River is a survivor from the age of the dinosaurs - the Nechako white sturgeon. This mysterious creature is the largest freshwater fish in Canada, and has existed relatively unchanged for millions of years – surviving volcanic eruptions, ice ages and climatic upheavals. But the Nechako white sturgeon is now swimming in a current of change that is taking it to the very brink of extinction. It is ranked as Critically Imperiled by the British Columbia Conservation Data Centre and is an Endangered Species according to the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC).
In the last 50 years, the Nechako white sturgeon population has dropped from what some scientists believe was a minimum of 5000 fish to less than 600. And the vast majority of those fish are more than 30 years old. The lack of younger fish means that sturgeon are either not reproducing successfully or that the young are not surviving to adulthood. As sturgeon do not begin spawning until they are 15 to 30 years old, the lack of young sturgeon in the Nechako means that an entire generation is already missing. (An exerpt from the Recovery Website http://www.nechakowhitesturgeon.org/sturgeon/).

As part of the recovery initiative, the local school district works with Fisheries to involve kids of all ages in this process. Earlier this year, a mother sturgeon was caught and since sturgeon spawn only once in a 2-6 year period, they (Fisheries) took full advantage. 5000 juveniles were raised and released into the Nechako River on Oct. 3/4 here in Vanderhoof. My girls each got to number, name & release a sturgeon of their own into the river. It was so cool!



So here go "Squirmy" & "Jackie" to grow into full sized sturgeons! Which by the way are a HUGE fish. Largest ever recorded was 1500lbs. And something over 15 feet long.. YIKES. They are very cool, and very prehistoric.

Fall is in the air

Almost (what seems like all of a sudden) the fall and winter is upon us here in Vanderhoof. The last 2 days have been -8C/-10C. Yikes. It feels like a real shocker. The late summers have been so warm and this little cold snap is a wake up call.

Collin's parents came to visit over the weekend. We had a short but sweet time, went quading lots and warmed ourselves by the fire. We quaded into a few local lake and had a wiener roast over an open fire - it was nice. The first night that we went out there were tonnes of deer out in the fields, I think we counted 10+. It was very cool for the girls to see them all, me too acutally I usually only see a couple a year, so I guess my year's done!
Now we just wait for snow.. though we don't generally have any until after Halloween, we will see - it certainly feels cold enough.
Collin, the girls & I also went out on Sunday and got a nice big load of firewood for the woodstove. It was a great day, we talked and played, and worked out butts off.. in fact I think I have new muscles (or at least some hurt that never existed before)! A full 6 hours of bucking with chainsaws, loading, stacking, unloading, chopping, then stacking again. Phew.. gee only 3 more to go for this winters supply! It's good family time though so I love it nonetheless.