A Day On The Ice

Sorry everyone for the long period of time with no new posts; we just haven't gotten to it.  No real reason, just haven't done it. 

So here we are. Around New years, we went for an outing at Manistee lake (A.K.A Suzanne Lake) wich is about 5 km's from our favorite Lake "North Star" and a half hour from Cranbrook. We had an afternoon of quad-ing and ice fishing.  It was a beautiful day with great temperatures, about +2, but even with the warm temps, the ice we drilled through was about 15 inches thick (note the blue auger with which we use to drill the holes), and the air was cool when not in the direct sunshine, hence the wood stove.  As you can see Dan (Daryl's brother) has rigged it up with ski's so it was easy to pull to where we decided to fish.  We didn't catch any fish, but we had a beautiful outing in the sunshine.  Daryl would like to point out the "brilliance" of the sun behind me and state: "the rainy coast can bite me.  Ha!" 

Perogie Time

As Daryl's heritage is Ukrainian, his family often enjoys things like perogies and cabbage rolls, especially around the holiday season.  I decided that I should probably learn how to make these, and man, they are so much tastier homemade than the frozen kind you can buy at the store, and really quite simple to make.  Tracy, my friend from work, is also Ukranian and frequently makes huge batches of perogies, cabbage rolls and spanakopita (which I think is more Mediterranean but also DELICIOUS) and when she does, it's an all day affair.  She frequently makes 50 dozen perogies at a time and then freezes them so she can just pull them out, boil them and then fry them up with bacon, onions, garlic and sausage.  (I'm drooling just thinking about it.) you can also boil them prior to freezing so you just have to fry them when you take them out.  These are a few of the girls I work with and we had such a fun day.  The spanakopita reminded me a lot of the mushroom filled savoury treats mom used to make at Christmas time with the phyllo pastry. YUM! These were more like the ones she made with the spinach and cheese.  The cupcakes we whipped up really quickly for her son's Halloween-birthday party.

 

Daryl's Complaint

Daryl recently had a birthday, and wanted everyone to know that Karen made him cook his own birthday supper.  (Karen would like to point out to Daryl that smokies are one of his favorite foods anyway...) Also, he got a really cool picture of a burning log that looks like the side view of an alligator's head poking out from the log at the top of the picture.  Happy birthday Daryl, that's all you get this year!   hahahahahahha!

Quick Ride

This past Saturday, we decided to do nothing and went instead for an afternoon Quad ride (aka "4-wheelers"). Cranbrook is surrounded by hundreds of square miles of crown land with lots of trails that anyone is allowed to use.  The pictures of the two lakes is actually Cranbrook's water reservoir.  The pictures are taken from opposite sides.  Karen is sitting by the Kootenay River, which flows into  Koocanusa Lake, with the Purcell mountains in the background.

New Partio

This last month, Daryl has spent his time digging, filling, compacting and laying pavers for the new patio that we wanted in our back yard.  He dug most of it by hand (in 28+ degree weather), but after three weeks of toiling with clay and rocks, a family friend walked by and asked what we were doing and offered us his tractor to use for a couple of days.  This made the digging and filling simple and saved Daryl a tonne of time and energy.  Note the size of the tree trunk that he and his friend Dave wrestled with for 2 days.  All he has left to do now is put the edging around so that the grass does not cave in on the blocks. So far we have enjoyed it immensely.

Weekend in the "Land Of The Maniacs"

Recently, we spent a weekend in Kalispell Montana which is about 2 hours south of Cranbrook, just across the border.  There are lots of great restaurants, plenty of shopping, and tonnes of good deals on just about everything, literally, almost everything we bought was 40-60% cheaper than the regular price here in Cranbrook. Sigh.  I know we should attempt to buy locally, but really, who can afford to do so?  As well as good deals, there are also a lot of different thoughts on how life should be lived down there (yes, that's a shotgun strapped onto the front of that motorcycle).  During the election, we would see signs to "IMPEACH OBAMA" (for raising taxes etc) right next to massive billboards with the 10 commandments on it.  So bizarre.  At Costco, we saw a man and a women get out of a truck which had 11- 2x3 magnets on it with the 10 commandments written on it.  Also, the man and woman were both were t-shirts and hats with the 10 commandments written on them. (unfortunately, I couldn't get my camera out in time to snap a picture).  The sign was on the door of the Harley Davidson dealership.  Karen decided to dress up in the craft store to fit in with the maniacs.



Our Favorite Lake

 



Since the end of May, we have been camping and fishing at our favorite lake (NorthStar Lake) which is about a half hour drive from our home.  We've spent several nights there and caught many rainbow trout which are delicious both pan fried  and BBQ'd with a bit of garlic, salt and pepper and fresh lemon. Currently, because the lake is so small, the fish are no longer worth catching as they've turned "muddy" due to the lake becoming too warm. However, it's still a beautiful lake.