February 16th Week ... Basement is finished.

Well almost finished. lol Other than blinds, kitchen backsplash  (Jason is doing for us at Easter) and the deck tiles ... we are done. Saw the back end of the painters this morning.

The Big Melt is On!

As the temps have warmed, we left the last 2 inches of snow to melt. Threw some Alaskan Snow Melt on it and it's doing a pretty good job of clearing it. All the main roads have been cleared and salted as it does get to the minus temps overnight.

Friday night our new kitchen table for the basement finally arrived. We had the guys carry it downstairs for us. They were only supposed to take it to the door, but they graciously did it. After dinner, Ray and I got it out of the box and put the legs on. It is stunning. Love the live edge. The basement is now done and ready for family and guests. We have a one bedroom suite available at Kristi and Jason's house for us and so now they have one at ours.

Just love this table.

Everyone sure likes the finish we have on the floor ... us too.

Saturday morning woke up to the heat pump in defrost mode again. With the overnight temps about -2 C, the dripping water from the upstairs dormer roof has it all frozen up again.  We proceeded to pour hot water on the sides later  and out the bathroom window. I think it was worse before we put the snow guards on the roof to prevent huge hunks of snow and ice coming off the metal roof. Apparently last year a huge lump came down right on top of the heat pump. Now it collects the snow on the roof, forms icicles and then as these drip,  they land directly onto the blades of the heat pump and freeze it solid so they can't turn.

Called Exchange Energy yesterday and sent them a picture ... they will be having a confab with their guys as to how to solve the problem with a roof/overhang. Need to get this solved as we are planning to not be here next winter. We now monitor the heat pump daily to keep it ice free.

The extended forecast is for four more days of snow starting next Friday, so I will make sure all the previous snow is shoveled off the driveway and sidewalks if it does not melt in the meantime.

Sunday after the fog burned off it was a spectacular sunny day. By the time Ray did the "dump run" I had our fire going in our outdoor wood stove to enjoy the sunny day. Finally the sun is high enough in the sky to give us a couple of hours of sun in the backyard.

An absolutely beautiful afternoon. I have taken this picture many times ... but not with snow. lol

Our neighbour decided to take his aluminum boat out to his dock with his son to shovel the snow as it has started to list on one side.

They started a campfire too as they had all of the kids this weekend. At 3 pm we came in as the sun had gotten too low in the sky to shine on us. Freya sure enjoyed the fact that we stayed outside for 3 hours throwing her stick.

Monday, Family Day. Ray and I headed into Duncan at 8:30 am to get in and out of town before it became busy on the highway. I had grocery shopping and he had Canadian Tire Shopping. On the way back we had a bit of snow flurries. Back home by 11 am watching all the traffic going to town. lol The sun came out after lunch. We both just lazed about occasionally getting up to do odd jobs and Ray giving Freya a short walk.

Tuesday, Pat and I went to Nanaimo for a Costco run and I had a doctor's appointment. The predicted flurries did not amount to anything fortunately. We were up and back home by 1:30 pm so Pat could pick up her grandchildren from the school bus.

Ray was asked by Greta our glass etcher to take a picture of her work installed in our front entrance. Here it is. A much better picture than I took previously. lol

Wednesday, Ray played around making the trim for the small vault area in our great room. For some reason this area was never trimmed out and you could see the cut drywall edges and light coming through the beam and wall join. This has been driving Ray crazy since we first noticed it last June. Now with his functioning "man cave" i.e. workshop he can do some odd jobs.

Later in the morning we decided to head out into Duncan as it was such a beautiful day with the sun out. On the way back just before coming into Lake Cowichan this vehicle was completely in the ditch for no apparent reason. The roads were clear and dry and this was a completely straight stretch??

Traffic was reduced to one lane with a flagger to stay out of the wrecker's way.

Later in the afternoon we sat out on our sundeck with the heaters on and the propane fire table. It was nice to get some fresh air and Freya enjoyed being outside in the snow. Saw this guy go by in his inflatable zodiac. Burrrr.

Poor Freya. We were watching a TV show and there was a sound of fireworks and that was it. The shaking and crawling on your lap started. I put on her Thunder Jacket and wrapped her up with a blanket on the couch and she was fine. After half an hour she unwrapped herself, we took the jacket off and that was it. The jacket certainly seems to work.

Thursday, another cold morning at -4C but sunny. Possible snow to come overnight tonight. I don't see much change in our temperatures in the long range for the next two weeks. It is not until March 7th before the overnight temperature warms up to 0C! I went for a walk with Ray and Freya to the park.

Now that's a stick!

Later on I decided to make Ray a Seafood Feast. Cioppino. What else to do on a cold blustery day.

Friday morning we were supposed to get a snow event but it did not start hear until around 7am and was done by 10:30 am. I didn't even have to get out my new snowblower.

Fat flakes, this is Freya 10 seconds after brushing her off!

By noon the sun came out and melted all of the new snow. Chris from Coulson's arrived at 8 am to replace the rotted patio door with the new and newly stained door. This turned out to be a real finicky project and took Chris until 10:30 to finish.

A little cold with the door completely out. lol

That was our week at Kyle's Kottage.

Week #23 - Painters to finish this week.

Jason texted later Friday night that they had made it safely to Big White in Kelowna. for the bachelor party. They had an hour's delay as they were first at the scene of an accident before they could carry on... helps I guess to have doctors on board in the car.

Saturday morning we woke up to frigid temps with the wind blowing pretty good. A good thing we took Kristi's dogs... as of 8:40 this morning Kristi's ferry is just floating down Howe Sound,  It cannot dock at Horseshoe Bay as it could not make the final corner due to the wind. Apparently they are hoping the wind will die down temporarily so the ferry can get turned around to face Horseshoe Bay. As it turned out Kristi's ferry could not dock at all. The breakwater at Horseshoe Bay broke up and a bunch of boats broke free from the marina and floated into the ferry dock. The ferry after Kristi's was turned around as well. Kristi did not off-load in Nanaimo until after 1pm after being on the ferry since 6:15 this morning.



Two BC Ferries sailings are returning to Nanaimo after being unable to dock in Horseshoe Bay due to dangerous wind conditions.

Ray and I took a drive into Duncan to look at snow blowers. We are contemplating buying one as there is a bunch more snow in the forecast for the next two weeks. It was nice of our neighbour to shovel the inch we received.  With this "climate change" stuff and more unusual weather patterns and events, I bet we get more snow in the winters and Ray can't shovel and I don't want too. When we arrived at Canadian Tire, the power was bumped and their generators started. Nothing of interest there, so further down the highway we go to the Rona store. Power is completely out and nothing of interest there either. Quite a bit more wind down that end of the island. Back home the sun was out and the winds have died down substantially.

Kristi arrived at 6 pm. The dogs are thrilled to see her, not to mention Ray and I. lol  Made her favourite pasta, pesto linguine with a pork rib roast. Ate and talked until 9pm, when we all went to bed. Kristi's dogs wake us up a couple of times each night by touching us while we are sleeping.  Just  to make sure we are still there??? lol  Kristi needed her sleep as she had only 7 1/2 hours of sleep in a 48 hour shift.

Sunday morning dawned a beautiful but cold day ... the coldest yet at -10C! And there is another snowfall alert.

A low pressure centre forming just offshore this morning will move eastward onto southern Vancouver Island this afternoon. Snow amounts of 5 to 10 cm accompanying the low will begin in Greater Victoria and the Southern Gulf Islands this afternoon and end this evening. Snowfall over the Inland Vancouver Island will mainly be confined to the Lake Cowichan area. Rapidly accumulating snow will make travel difficult.

Yikes, I guess Kristi will be leaving for Nanaimo this morning before this happens. Down in Seattle where Ray's cousins live, they have issued a "State of Emergency" due to getting 10 inches of snow on Friday.  They have not dealt with this very well (people from North Dakota might say, oh boo hoo!) and more snow to come today. The news said they got the whole amount of annual snow in one day.

After Kristi got up, she went for a run with her two dogs. While out she received a call from her girlfriend that she went on the ferry with yesterday. Leila booked the heli-jet for Kristi and herself for 1pm to Vancouver today ... needless to say Kristi moved like lightening and headed back to Nanaimo. The big panic is that they were going to Vancouver for Leila's wedding dress fitting yesterday but she was able to reschedule it for today, so they need to get there. Hopefully the impending storm does not cause problems. Kristi took her dogs with her to drop off at home but her office girl (MOA) will let the dogs out if Kristi does not make it back due to weather. Jason is supposed to make it back to the island sometime tonight as well. Did not manage to get one picture of our wonderful daughter ... too busy talking.

Freya exhausted after her "pack" left for home after 3 days. lol

 Ray was busy putting up towel rods in our master ensuite and filling any "dings" in the walls as the painters are here for touch-ups tomorrow. Of course he managed an additional ding while installing the rods! I made us Navajo tacos for lunch, especially since he likes to put jam on the left-over fry bread. A good meal on a cold snowy day. It's leftovers for supper anyways, Kristi forgot to take her portion with her in the flurry of activity this morning.

The "King in his Kastle"!

 At noon the snow started ... at 12:30 pm this guy was certainly brave going out today.

By 2pm it came down really thick. As fast as I shoveled the driveway, the snow returned. We probably have an inch of snow so far in 2 hours. Can't wait to get a small snowblower tomorrow hopefully.

My "helper" NOT!

At least an inch of snow so far, maybe more. The top cap of the deck is 2" higher than the tiles.

Ray wanted to put up a Canadian Flag at the house since we got here... and today's the day.

Yup, definitely snowing.

At 4 pm the driveway needed to be shoveled again. 4 more inches fell. We now have six inches of new snow and it is still coming down with really big flakes. As fast as I shovel the driveway, it becomes totally covered again in minutes. We took the car out and turned it around so we have a straight shot out of the garage should we need to go out. You can barely even see the other side of the lake.

Hard to tell we just shoveled the driveway.

Just checked the driveway at 5:30 pm... another four inches since shoveling at 4 pm. Ray tried to help once by just pushing snow but leaving it at the edge to lift up.  No go for him after a few minutes, so I'm the designated shovel operator. I went back out at 7 pm and shoveled for the third time, took an hour. If any more falls I will worry about it tomorrow. The temps held at -3C all day so the snow at least is very light so far.

Monday morning I called an equipment rental dealer in Duncan who sell Honda snowblowers. By 8:30 I purchased one and Ray left to get it about 9:30, when the roads had a chance to be cleared. Forecast is for another 15-25 cm (5 - 10 ") tonight and tomorrow. While he was gone I shoveled some of the snow off the deck away from the doors and down the stairs in case we need to leave the house via the deck, safety first. :)

Our painters arrive at 8 am this morning to do all of the touch ups downstairs and stain our new fir doors. They will be back tomorrow to finish. Some of the jobs will have to wait until spring as it is too cold to paint the garage.

When Ray arrived back at 11:30, our neighbour Darryl come over and helped get the snowblower running. I called over first thing this morning and told Pat not to let Darryl shovel ... I had a snowblower coming. :) My deal with him is, I bought it and he gets to use it ... as well as doing my driveway. He loved the machine, a kid with a new toy. The machine works well in 8" of snow at his house. Our driveway was pretty clear from me shoveling it last night.

Okay let's see how she runs!

And Darryl is off.

I did give it a go on our driveway to make sure I can manage it and it is a piece of cake and easy to move.

It seems to be working well.

Made short work of his snow. I did show him how to adjust the hopper so he does not keep hitting his neighbour's house. lol

Since it worked so well we will let the snow accumulate overnight now and fire up the machine tomorrow morning.

Tuesday morning I was out at 7 am using my new "toy" to get the 8 inches of new snow off the driveway before the painters arrive at 8. It certainly makes short work of the snow and sure beats shoveling it! Received a text at 8:30 from Pat next door ... Darryl will be over after breakfast to clear my driveway! lol Told her I had already done it. :) He came over later and used the machine for his driveway and did another run on ours as it had snowed another inch since I had done it.

It is hard to believe that I shoveled the snow away from the doors yesterday on the patio and made a path to the stairs. This is what awaited me this morning.

What path???

The painters (Andrew and Mona) arrived at 8 am to start today.

Mona preparing to paint the stairwell.

Andrew staining the top of the posts we had the corners chamfered for safety.

More doors getting done today and more paint touch ups. These are my pantry doors and the new bedroom door. It needed the original stain as for some reason they did not open the door from the jam when they pre-stained it so 1/2 " of door and all the sides missed getting stained. My pantry doors are getting the old stain too as they have already been marked up by being so close to the stove with me cooking. :(  Safety reminder, no bare beer belly cooking of bacon after seeing how far it travels!

I invited them for dinner tonight as well as Pat, Darryl and their two grandchildren. What else to do on a snowy day? Tuscan Chicken on the menu. This is what it should look like when I am done except I need to use two pans to cook enough for 8 people.

Ray worked on laying out the bed for downstairs and put his shop stool together. It took him three days to complete the bed with his back.

Ray and I are getting there. I cannot clean all the floors and get rid of the dust yet as it will fly and stick on the door painting project. Ray can't do any sawing projects either.  Andrew needs to put a second coat on all the doors, so this project will take a couple of more short visits.  The oil stain takes all day to dry after one coat and he cannot turn the doors to get the other side while one side dries. All of the touch ups and baseboards are done though.

We had snow flurries on and off all day with no accumulation, however at 3:30 the blizzard effect began again and now the snow is sticking. Forecast  more snow of 15-25 cm overnight. Don't care now I have my snowblower. 

At 5 pm our company arrived. We had a wonderful visit and my Tuscan Chicken turned out well.

Darryl, Andrew, Severin, Mona and Pat.  Missing Ashton upstairs watching TV.

The boys were exhausted with their snow day and Mona and Andrew were tired as well ... everyone was out the door shortly after 7pm. Another busy day and the snow is falling harder ...

Wednesday morning I woke up to another 6 inches of snow. I was out the door by 7 am firing up the snowblower. It finally quit snowing though. I did our driveway and sidewalk and took a break to come in for breakfast. Mona and Andrew arrived at 8 am to paint again, hence why I got our driveway done before they arrived.

After breakfast I was back out the door to shovel a path on our sundeck and clear off the stairs. Next up, I headed with my machine over to Pat's. Darryl headed to Victoria for work this morning at 5am so they needed to be dug out. Took me another 45 minutes and they were all clear too. While I was busy. Ray took some pictures of the snow.

No fishing today!

My stick's under there somewhere!

Our Chalet!

Andrew and Mona were finished at noon today and Andrew will be back tomorrow am to put a second coat on the 3 last doors.  Ray took me out to lunch at Jake's, special todcay beer and burger for $12. I was not into making anything since I spent most of yesterday afternoon cooking. lol Once back home, it was hot tub time. I got pretty stiff sitting down at the pub after working so hard this morning. Ray's back is pretty sore just from a couple hours in the basement the last couple of days.

Our lunch view. The lake is way down.

It will be a quiet afternoon for both of us. No snow forecast for today but it is supposed to start again tomorrow afternoon.  The roads out of Lake Cowichan this morning were horrendous Darryl told Pat.

Thursday, a cold clear morning at -9C. Our driveway is a sheet of ice. By 10:30 am round three of the snow began. I took a quick run to Home Hardware for the Alaskan Ice Melter stuff and threw it down on the driveway. I took two steps out there last night for Freya's last bathroom run and slipped and landed on my butt. Good thing it was me instead of Ray. Fortunately nothing hurt other than my butt. lol The snow is already sticking, so I imagine me and my snowblower will have a date first thing tomorrow morning. :)

Andrew was here at 8 am for only 45 minutes while he put a second coat of oil stain on the 3 doors that require that stain. He will be back tomorrow for the final coat and hang them. Ray finished putting the bed together and then it was my turn to clean the room and set it up with the bedding. It looks awesome. You have a great view of the lake from the bedroom window. The cellular blinds are ordered and will be installed in a couple of weeks to finish off the room. Ray is going to take some better pictures using his camera and tripod when the basement is totally put together. My live edge kitchen table should come tomorrow. Excited.

Here is our cozy little living room. We are getting blinds for the two side windows as well to add privacy from the neighbours but leaving the front window exposed to the view.

Ray took these next pictures walking Freya this morning. Definitely a winter wonderland.

This is our road up to the gate.

Tonight we went out for our Valentine's dinner at the Farm Table Inn. Ray and I decided to dress up and take a "new picture" of us in this house.

Kristi and Jason were planning on coming for the dinner, but cancelled yesterday due to the snow forecast.  The highway was not too bad as long as you went slow. We only had to drive 5 km to Skutz Falls.  Coming back was compact snow and limited vis with the thick flakes.

Dinner was awesome, way too much food for me so Ray will have a great lunch tomorrow.

Farm Table Inn

Ray having his non-alcoholic Pina Colada

While their chickens roamed outside the restaurant, Oscar the cat came in to warm up.

My 4th dish, dressed up as a chicken, as Ray's lunch tomorrow.

Every dish was delicious including their homemade bannock bread with garlic rosemary butter. A lovely outing. Many thanks to my Valentine.

Friday morning and only about 2" of snow came down overnight and by 7:15 am it was raining so I don't have to use the snowblower. Having spread the Alaskan melting stuff, it is already quite slushy and should melt in an hour or so. With the freezing temps, our heat pump froze. Looking up I can see why, the dormer window upstairs icicles drip right down on the heat pump. We may have to put a small roof over it for next year to prevent this in the future. With Ray's help, it did not take too long to unfreeze it using hot water. I was dumping it from our bathroom window directly on the top of the unit to melt the ice on the blades, while Ray worked on dumping hot water down the sides of the unit to open up the airflow. I have turned the fan on to run all the time right now instead of auto to prevent it freezing up again. Isn't google wonderful!

Last day for Andrew painting our doors this morning. he was in and out under an hour. He will come back tomorrow morning to hang them. I will be glad to have my pantry doors back on. Glad that job of the painting is all done. Now we will wait for the snow to go so the guys can finish with the last 10 deck tiles to be installed.

That was our week of "Snowmageddon 2019" as many people are calling it. lol We are such wusses here in southern BC.