rural life...

I've been kind of sick today. Just not feeling good. So what could make me feel better. How about a little fishing?
5 minutes and we are loaded with rods and in the car driving... and driving and then of course... gas light comes on - now I know I'm past the point of return on trying to get back to town for fuel - no way was I going to make it - I'm within about 10 minutes of Sylvia's - so we chug on... no cell service, and what's that... no wallet - AWESOME... yes - that's what happens when you just decide it is time to go fishing and get your rods and gear and not your wallet... so lucky me - I happened to have a twenty on me and so I got 20 bucks in the tank... phew and then we went back to the lake - and we fished it up for an hour. Now what does that mean? Well the boys have been practicing how to cast off the deck with weights and so they are both getting pretty good at it. So they did all the work and I stood around and took pictures, while Max decided to swim and then dig a hole to china and get completely disgustified... wet, disgusting dog... what happens in this situation.. ah well that is when he gets to go on another swim.. but not by his choice....

sleep soon

Alright - I'm going to bed, but wanted to share a few photos...


My brother bought Michael a skateboard... yes - a four year old a skateboard.... but hey - he loves it - tonight he took it on our walk to the mail box (that's right... rural life means we live 1 km from the mailbox - it is not delivered to the door)


Here is Kyle last night helping me clean up the brush in the front yard. It was during this clean up session when I lifted up some discarded carpet and find a nice big wasp nest... wicked!


And here is what happens when there are fires going and lots of smoke in the air and the sun is setting... ahhhhh - there is a cluster fire 23 km from Nazko - 11 different fires at a lake we use to fish at...

what ya doing

So you have five minutes and you want to learn something... something that may change you - go to www.thestoryofstuff.com and watch the video on bottled water. There are other videos too - I watched the bottled water one a while ago and the video actually got me to stop buying bottled water. Not that I was this massive consumer of it, but the short video just makes you think twice about buying a bottle of water.

What else? Well did you know that right now there is an assumption that every square kilometre of the ocean has 13,000 pieces of plastic in it (bottles, containers, etc) and while this assumption seems a bit (a lot) obscure and highly unknown since no one is actually tracking every square inch/km of the ocean we do have a major problem in the Pacific - there is something called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch - this is an invisible mass of plastics waste that is somewhere between the size of Texas and continental US (yes, 48 states worth of plastic waste) It carries high concentrations of pelagic (means open sea) plastics, chemical sludge, and other debris. 80% is waste from the shore - from our coast line and Asia's and 20% is from ships (cruise and commodity). You can't see the 'patch' from space because it represents large pieces of plastic and plastics that are breaking down into polymers.

Did you learn something new?

vent

CNN had a comparison on their website tonight. And what could be so important that it is showcased on the front page of CNN, something about the oil spill - well that was there... how about something on bettering ourselves and our communities - I know - try and hold back your laughter... nope - they had a story about pets that look like Hitler. Yes, I'm serious.

STUPID

happy wood

and today

Adventures

Kyle has been asking to find a salamander (Mom, what does one look like? and since he hasn't seen one I feel like a bad parent for not introducing him better to nature). And I keep telling him that we will find one. Tonight I said let's go try at Bouchie Creek... and was I in for a giant surprise. We get down there and we find about a million little fresh water shrimps - and leeches... GROSS! I hate leeches - I'm all about nature and showing the kids stuff, but freakin' leeches.. ewwww! Of course, I totally let them poke around though and check things out. Max was starting to get crazy though so we decided to go into town and go to Baker Creek to see the fish.

We arrive at the house and give Max, the dumbest dog in the west, a bath. Then we went to the creek, and then we gave Max another bath. You see it was his first time in the creek and he kind of liked it. We splashed around a bit and cooled off, caught a couple of fish and released them... it was a grand ole time... then we get back to the car and I'm chasing Max and I finally catch him and am about to put him the car and as I'm opening the car door I under estimate my space because I'm holding this wet, slow dog and smoke myself as hard as I ever have right in the forehead. Black. Still standing. I must have let out some kind of weird yelp out 'cause the guys think that I've gotten stung by a bee... nope, just smoked myself in the head.

I ask Kyle to check my face, see how it looks, I'm checking for blood. No blood, just pain. So I drive us home. On the way Michael starts gabbing about the incident, telling me how he thought for sure that I was stung by a bee and then he says "mom, you are sure gonna have a chicken bump" - a chicken bump, a what? And then I put the lines together - a goose egg... lmao - holy I pulled over and had a laugh - that kid is sooo funny. So friends, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a chicken bump in the middle of my forehead tomorrow and laughs to last a life time.

fire

Well tonight the guys are all sleeping in the tent trailer (that is for sale - FYI) - we built a fire tonight and they had hot dogs and s'mores - I ate blueberries and marshmallows - mmmm toasted marshmallows... mmm - so my favorite thing. We tried to go fishing at the lake (3 minutes or less from here) to find it is disgusting and you totally definitely for sure need a boat to make use of it.

So what am I doing? Well I'm in the house, getting ready to sleep and just wanted to send out a quick hello and also send out a fire warning. I'm sitting there tonight, roasting weiners (LOL) and I can smell something. I'm sitting there thinking about, what is that smell, man, that is familiar and it doesn't smell like weiner at all. I know, says my brain, that smells like the last time you washed your jeans in cold water in the sink... then my brain comments - that's funny - why would you be smelling that right now - it is at this point that I realize my pants are on fire. That's right friends - another first in the life of April, burning pants... the fire popped and it threw a chunk of a log onto my pants, small enough that I didn't feel it land, large enough to start my pants on fire... so I only blew on it once and then remembered that fire plus oxygen equals more fire and then put it out.

Lucky for me I had a fire man sitting across from me
Kyle - 'mom, your pants are on fire'
Yes, thanks, I can both smell and feel my leg burning
Kyle - 'mom, stop, drop and roll'
Wicked - glad everything they teach them at school has a practical use

Ah, yet another priceless moment.

jasper

I can't believe how much a single hour of time change has done to me on this trip. I head home soon enough though.
Tonight I got to see baby elk dancing around and chasing each other - it was crazy. They are huge. Tonight I was also reminded of how lethal dairy is to me. I had this amazing vegetarian meal - I mean - AMAZING! - and I said no cheese - great... no problem - then she says we put a little milk in the mashed potatoes and I go - oh that will be fine - can't be that harmful - HA - I barely make it back to the hotel - I mean barely - my stomach was done and ready to kill me - it was all ugly and terrible and I'm still sick from it - four hours later.

It poured today and snowed - snowed like you wouldn't believe.

Anyway - I'm beat - and I got electrocuted tonight so my hand hurts and I need to just sleep.

(How did you electrocute yourself... ah - well I decided to force an electrical cord into an outlet upside down and didn't realize I was messing it up completely until I was getting shocked - awesome... gotta be a first for everything)

aaaaaaaaaaa

Queen of the Universe Land of Stupid

So I'm eating lunch, eating lunch, enjoying a yummy bowl of soup and it is in the first couple of bits that I remember... what is in borscht... beets, carrots, potatoes... cream... aahhhhhh - and I had a conference call in 30 minutes. Luckily I didn't consume piles of it - it was a 1/2 a cup - but a tbsp of sour cream had nearly done me in a few weeks ago so I was nervous. I definitely had problems with my stomach for the rest of that afternoon.. I just need to pay better attention to stuff. blah....

tuesday

Alright - so I've left a few details out lately... and I haven't had evening internet in a while... that's because we are moving. We are still living in Quesnel - we bought a house in Bouchie Lake (10 minutes ish out of town). The guys love it. We've seen deer every night on the way home and last night we saw a crane. We are sleeping at the new place (sans fridge/stove/microwave) and then eating at the old house at least for a week - we have new kitchen stuff coming later this week and with any luck we'll have most of the furniture moved by the end of the week and then I'm on the road again - off to Jasper for a conference.

What else.. well as my sister texted me... 'um, did you get a dog - send pictures' - well in fact, we did get a dog. I don't love him, I'm actually in full on dislike of him. He has destroyed multiple pairs of fancy shoes of mine and is on a rampage to destroy more. We agreed a long time ago that when we got a new house, we'd get a dog and so we did and so I'm learning to adapt to life with a dog. His name is (hold onto your creative seats) Max - Michael named him and has definitely fallen in love with him, he is a maltese/pomoron. Kyle wanted a lizard - I should have agreed. I'll post photos - just as soon as I take one of him - that's right - me, the photo taking fool, hasn't taken a photo of him - not one... it is that kind of hate/hate relationship. Anyway - I'll post a photo of him eventually - maybe...

Ok - so that was a brief update - I'll load photos as soon as I take a few and once I have evening internet at the new place.
Love to all of you. :)