Brrrrr..winter has arrived!

Winter has definitely arrived, with temperatures dipping way below zero (-15C this morning) just lately. But it is hard to complain when you wake up to skies like these...
Winter is the most beautiful season around here. It is a shame that most of our visitors choose to come in the warmer months. So..I thought I would take some photos while doing my chores this morning...after I get wrapped up I head out to the beautiful new hayshed, which you will notice is keeping everything (wood, hay, snowblower, bikes) wonderfully snow-free!
Then over to the sheep/chicken barn...
Snowy, hungry sheep...
Yummmm....hay...that's better...
The chickens...deciding if they really want to get their feet cold...and this is Roosty, our new rooster...handsome isn't he?
And back to the house...
Oh yes and Knut must follow me wherever I go...
And more discretely, the kitties want to know what I am up to..."ah...she spotted me...hide!"
"But you are going to feed us? Right?"
"Seriously...where is the food?"
Sorry...my kids laugh their heads off when I talk for the kittens...Erich just gives me a look that lets me know it is really not that amusing :)

Have a wonderful day wherever you may be.

In the Works Dance Studio Recital 2009

It has been a busy time for the girls this past week, preparing for the annual In the Works Dance Studio Dance Recital. Yes, our little town has it's very own dance school with an incredible dance teacher, who choreographs a show for all of her students, every year. There are 6 classes for dancers from 5 years old up to the over 40 crowd :) There is ballet, jazz and a boys only hip hop class. They all did a phenomenal job. This is our school gym, transformed...

And here are our little ballerinas..
The show this year was called Kaimana, which means the 'power of the ocean' in Hawaiian. It was an underwater theme, and the little ballerinas were supposed to be pearls with G. being the 'Mother of Pearls'. She is in white and V is in the blue skirt, second from the left...
This is the finale with the full cast...
It was a wonderful show and the girls had a great time!

Horsefly Goes Country III

Just a little plug for a Country Dance, Arts on the Fly is hosting May 16th...doors open at 8:30pm. If you're in the area...come on down! Music provided by Clancy Wright and the Silverados..come and enjoy the music or dance the night away for just $12.50! Horsefly Lake Provincial Park is a nice spot to camp and is just down the road!

The Horsefly School Computer Club is coming!

Though we've had quite a few years of declining interest, recent numbers may indicate interest in IT careers is growing among college-entry students. I imagine this will rise and fall, subject to the cryptic trends teens follow, but I believe we can still make a difference.

What got me thinking this way was Malcolm Gladwell's conclusion in Outliers that opportunity was as much of a factor in success as skill or talent. Then Horsefly school asked the community if anyone had anything they could teach to supplement their faculty of four. I saw an opportunity to offer an opportunity - let the kids play with PCs in a way their school or parents wouldn't typically support, letting them hack the hardware without fear of breaking things, learning while getting their hands dirty. My vision was a shop class with PCs.

photo credit: Electronics Club 1986 by ExtraKetchup

So far, we've had two after-school PC Hardware classes for the "seniors", which in this school are 7th to 9th grade. I start the sessions with some foundational theory but I've found that slides and theory can only go so far before eyes glaze over. I then follow the theory with the hands-on work, where (so far) we've added and removed RAM, added and partitioned harddrives, and unplugged and replaced cards and cables.

My plan at this point is to run this program for a few more weeks, then open the doors to an after-school computer club. There's been a lot of interest from the "intermediates" (4th-6th grades), and the seniors could then act as mentors. With guidance, they could be introduced to programming, open-source software, architectures, and virtual machines, before they ever hit high school.

The principal has been very open to integrating the program with their curriculum, e.g., crediting the participants for blogging as writing assignments.

I've had amazing support from my employer - EMC's Community Involvement team has provided access to old hardware and t-shirts for the club.

Drip...Drip...Drip

Well, March definitely came in like a lamb around here. We woke up this morning to the distinctive sound of a big melt...

and now this gutter is a steady stream...

I think we've all got a bit of spring fever...the girls spent most of this morning outside...the warm weather meant great packing snow...they had fun creating this lovely snow family...

Even Violet got into the fun...

Spring must be just around the corner...I can almost taste it!

Winter Beauty

While I am getting a little tired of winter, (as are most Horseflinnians...we greet each other with a shake of the head and a 'wow, will this snow ever stop'?), I can't deny just how awestruck I am by the natural beauty of it all. Take for example today's beautiful sunny and impossibly blue sky...
Or wild winter sunsets...

Or the crazy perfection of these icicles...(yes, we must fix those eavestroughs)

Or breathtaking sunrises...

Some other things I am loving right now...

1. Rainer - for delivering a fresh bale of hay for the sheep in exchange for Erich's computer assistance and some RAM - I love bartering! This is our second barter, Erich also mucked out a pig stall in exchange for snow removal services with Rainer.

It's amazing what 95 hp of snow blowing can do!

2. Split wood - Thanks to the snow removal mentioned above...we were able to access some dry wood...
which Erich chopped down to fireplace size and split for ease of use.

3. Making plans for summer - the Arts on the Fly committee have been busy making plans for the summer festival...scouting out acts, updating the website (stay tuned...Erich has volunteered to be the new webmaster)..we also have a family wedding coming up in late July and our good friends from Ontario have contacted us about planning their next/annual visit :)...we've also got a line on the best fishing lake around from some neighbours...looking forward to checking that out!

Dreaming of green...

A couple of times over the last few weeks, talk amongst our friends and neighbours, has turned to seeds and gardens. I have leafed through a few seed catalogues and read this post on a friend's blog and I have to say I am starting to get the fever. Every winter I get the same feeling, when I am reminded that winter doesn't last forever and that spring is around the corner...if you can call 3 (?) more months 'around the corner' :) These pictures say it all...these were taken in July of last year...





This is what it looks like this morning...

Notice the fence in the first picture? You can just barely still see the fence posts now...most of the fence has disappeared under the snow.

For now I will keep 'dreaming of green' and thoughts of delicious, crunchy sugar snap peas will have to get me through to April? more like May, when I can get my hands back in the dirt!

First snow fall

Wow, two posts in one day...maybe I do have too much time on my hands ;)

We had our first snowfall of the season last night and it looks so beautiful. The girls were out playing in it before school this morning at 7am and managed to scrape together a snowman last night with the first few flakes.

Thought I would share some photos...








Waiting for the school bus this morning...

"Arts on the Fly"

For those of you involved with non-profit organizations, you will know that the Fall season usually means Annual General Meeting time. Even in our little town, this is the case. To give you a bit of a rundown on the various clubs/groups/activities in town, I thought I would write out a little list...

• The Community Club - recently had their AGM, they are responsible for monthly Bingo, a children's Halloween party with fireworks!, the Old Fashioned Christmas potluck dinner, the New Years dance and the May Day parade.
  
• The Historical Society - run the museum in town (yes we have a museum!)
  
• PAC - Parent Advisory Council- Horsefly School
  
• Exercise classes - a local massage therapist runs gentle movement classes and muscle sculpting and cardio classes out of her clinic
  
• Dancing - dance instruction is provided at the community hall for children including ballet, jazz and a boys hiphop and for adults there is jazz.
  
• Fencing - offered at the school, once a week throughout the fall/winter
  
• Fall Fair Committee - committee that coordinates the annual fall fair in August
  
• Quilt Club - quilters meet once per month through fall/winter
• Arts on the Fly committee - annual music, arts and dance festival in Horsefly...more on this to follow...
  

And the surprising thing is I may have missed some. It is pretty incredible what this little community has to offer. With all of these activities I decided I had to prioritize what I would become involved in. This year I decided that PAC would be a good idea, since the girls are just starting out in the school. Next, I decided it was high time I got myself into some form of exercise and I know it will be difficult over the winter, so I decided to try the exercise classes...so that is two times per week. Then finally, I thought just for fun, I would get involved with the Arts on the Fly Festival. So a little bit about that...

We missed the festival last year as it was scheduled on the same week-end as the Zirnhelt Family Reunion ( which we definitely didn't want to miss!). But we did see the stage and the preparations for the festival and it looks like a first class affair. This is the third year of the festival, which is run completely by volunteers and was created by a handful of Horseflinnians who had a vision of an event which would both promote tourism in the area and fulfill their zeal for All Things Creative. As I think we have mentioned before, the Cariboo is an interesting mix of cowboys, farmers and artists and Horsefly is certainly not short on talent. Many of the performers and exhibitors are local but the festival also features other musicians and artists from BC, across Canada and internationally like last year from Argentina.

So mark your calendars...this year's festival is set for the week-end of July 3rd and 4th. Hope to see you there!

PS Speaking of local artists...I came across this site in my travels Inspired by Imagination which is Florian Krumsiek's site, his photography is gorgeous...my favourite is the bales of hay in the mist...check it out!

Since we're talking about animals...

The other day I was on my way to the crawl space door (to continue the plumbing work required to move the toilet so there's space to add a bathtub where before there was only a shower) when I heard Violet barking rather ferociously.

I was concerned because it was coming from the north side of the property, and our neighbour on that side had mentioned some dogs had been harassing her horses. We didn't think it was Violet because she normally doesn't head that way.

I found her about 50 feet from the property line, barking and pacing around a tree. That's when I looked up and saw it...

I ran back to get the camera. At first I thought it was a cougar (we'd seen one this summer about 20 minutes away from here), but seeing the short tail, I realized it was a lynx. (It might also have been a bobcat, but the tail seemed too short.)

I watched for a while. Violet was beside herself trying to find a way up. While she was looking away, the cat jumped to an adjacent spruce. I left after this, and about an hour later Violet came back to the house. I have no idea how the cat got past her.

Where the deer and the antelope play...

Well okay, just the deer so far. We have seen lots of deer on our property, usually though it is their back end as they are taking off into the bush because of our maniacal dog, barking her head off or if she is off leash, chasing them.


On Sunday morning, I looked out the window and this little darling was walking around our garden fence...no doubt figuring out how to get in. She stayed for a while, looking up at the window at us every few minutes.


She must have come up the driveway, because maniac dog was on the front of the house and didn't hear her. I am amazed at just how long their legs are compared to their bodies. Eventually, Farlee, bless his heart decided to be a guard dog for a change and did his best to chase her off. She easily and gracefully leapt off into the bushes....such a beautiful thing to watch. I know, I know...I probably wouldn't be so happy if she had actually made it into my garden, but for now I am just enjoying their harmless visits.

Take a drive out to the country with me

As I was on my way to the post office today, I was struck by just how beautiful everything looks in our little town right now, so I decided to take some pictures on my way home, to share with you all.

Okay, well to be perfectly honest this bridge is just past the post office, but it just has to be part of this tour to get a real feel for Horsefly...


This is the Horsefly River, which runs through town...

These lovely looking bovines, always regard us lazily as we go by...my favourite is the brown and white longhorn...I just can't stop myself from opening the window and giving them a mooooooo!


Now the road switches to a dirt road and we head out of 'town' on the Horsefly-Quesnel Lake Road...which looks like this


This is the road just before our driveway...that heads up to Big Bear Ranch...

And these two gates are across the road from our place and I just love the look of them...


Oh, here we are at our driveway...I'm not sure if this picture does that beautiful yellow tree justice...it is awesome.

Hope you enjoyed the ride!