Arrived Friday (October 9) 630 pm at our wee cottage in the woods ( 20 min drive NE of Town of Lac du Bonnet, Manitoba). It was going to -7 C. so had to go out to the cottage to protect the water pipes. Cottage is not insulated, has 2 area heaters and a wood stove. So it's basically like heating a tent. Made my notes for my Facebook posts with pencil as pen ink was not fluid! Got the cottage warmed by 930 after Tasha made cookies so the heat of the stove would help to heat cottage. Such a nice thing to a mid-teen daughter to do.Overnight it would likely be not bad if someone got up to re-stock the wood stove. Didn't happen. Tasha is in a contained room with a space heater. No way she'll leave that warmth! We're in the open loft - it's an "A" frame cottage. My strategy was to drink enough wine that I would sleep through the night and not notice the cold. So it was indeed cold Saturday morning. One final note - the only way to survive this cold is for me to cover my head while I sleep. I brought my bright red Festival du Voyageur toque. Wore it all night. Wendy hates it. Guess I should have brought the yellow toque! Lol. Her parting comment as I drifted off was that I'd be hearing from her solicitor. Struck me that that would mean I would be talking to myself!By Saturday at 11 am there was at least 20 cm of heavy wet snow on the ground and it was still coming down. No one had been down the road by the cottage yet. At least we're safe. But won't have enough wine! So much for closing the cottage and getting back to Winnipeg today!
We could have waited out the storm, but hadn't brought any books to read as I thought I would just be in and out to do the closing. Still snowing Saturday late afternoon. I did do some of the outside closing jobs. Not sure why I am punishing myself! The electricity is blinking on and off a bit. Where are those Cdn Forces helicopters that make unscheduled stops for burgers when you want one? I'm in the mood for a delivered pizza and red wine to enjoy in front of the wood stove!
By the end of Saturday afternoon I finished all the outside jobs I'm going to do. Still snowing Saturday evening. 16 inches so far. Went for a walk and took shortcut through the woods. Snow up to my knees in lots of places.
Sunday at about midnight the hydro went out. Didn’t get restored till a bout 8:45 am. So much for the space heaters helping. Wendy and I took turns replenishing the wood stove. Wasn’t too bad but we didn’t feel very rested on Sunday. But it stopped snowing overnight. Some of the trees had snapped from the weight of the wet snow.
As I went out to shovel the driveway so that we could escape this madness, I thought that it was such a strange sight to see the deciduous trees still with their green leaves, but all around the trees was this thick blanket of white snow. Good news though: I won’t have to rake leaves at the cottage this fall. Bad news: they’ll be there in the spring. My best optimistic estimate is that given our last seasons in Manitoba, spring will likely come in July, 2010!!!
Got the driveway shovelled. Not much fun given how wet and heavy the snow was. Then we all finished the closing jobs. Left for home about 1 ish. Worst part was getting out of the development. There were just 2 tracks down the road, but there had been enough warmth so that those tracks were actually down to mud – it’s a gravel road. Came to the end of the avenue the cottage is on and was going to take a run through the piled up snow to get onto the main road, and then noticed that there was a fire truck with its emergency lights on coming down the road. They actually stopped and waved me through. Had to back up by then and take a run at it. It worked. Not sure what the fire truck was doing. Maybe packing down the snow so people could drive, at least until the municipal plows get out.
When we got on the highway we saw that the snow plows had been down and there had been enough warmth that the highway was bare. What a relief! As we drove towards Lac du Bonnet, and were about 10 km from the cottage as the crow flies, there was hardly any snow. No evidence of the road needing to be plowed. And as we got to Lac du Bonnet there was even less evidence of snow. Wendy was so right when she said it was like we had stepped out of winter, and into fall. So why us???? Why did we have to be on the other side of the bad weather!
Arrived home safely about 3:30 pm.
We could have waited out the storm, but hadn't brought any books to read as I thought I would just be in and out to do the closing. Still snowing Saturday late afternoon. I did do some of the outside closing jobs. Not sure why I am punishing myself! The electricity is blinking on and off a bit. Where are those Cdn Forces helicopters that make unscheduled stops for burgers when you want one? I'm in the mood for a delivered pizza and red wine to enjoy in front of the wood stove!
By the end of Saturday afternoon I finished all the outside jobs I'm going to do. Still snowing Saturday evening. 16 inches so far. Went for a walk and took shortcut through the woods. Snow up to my knees in lots of places.
Sunday at about midnight the hydro went out. Didn’t get restored till a bout 8:45 am. So much for the space heaters helping. Wendy and I took turns replenishing the wood stove. Wasn’t too bad but we didn’t feel very rested on Sunday. But it stopped snowing overnight. Some of the trees had snapped from the weight of the wet snow.
As I went out to shovel the driveway so that we could escape this madness, I thought that it was such a strange sight to see the deciduous trees still with their green leaves, but all around the trees was this thick blanket of white snow. Good news though: I won’t have to rake leaves at the cottage this fall. Bad news: they’ll be there in the spring. My best optimistic estimate is that given our last seasons in Manitoba, spring will likely come in July, 2010!!!
Got the driveway shovelled. Not much fun given how wet and heavy the snow was. Then we all finished the closing jobs. Left for home about 1 ish. Worst part was getting out of the development. There were just 2 tracks down the road, but there had been enough warmth so that those tracks were actually down to mud – it’s a gravel road. Came to the end of the avenue the cottage is on and was going to take a run through the piled up snow to get onto the main road, and then noticed that there was a fire truck with its emergency lights on coming down the road. They actually stopped and waved me through. Had to back up by then and take a run at it. It worked. Not sure what the fire truck was doing. Maybe packing down the snow so people could drive, at least until the municipal plows get out.
When we got on the highway we saw that the snow plows had been down and there had been enough warmth that the highway was bare. What a relief! As we drove towards Lac du Bonnet, and were about 10 km from the cottage as the crow flies, there was hardly any snow. No evidence of the road needing to be plowed. And as we got to Lac du Bonnet there was even less evidence of snow. Wendy was so right when she said it was like we had stepped out of winter, and into fall. So why us???? Why did we have to be on the other side of the bad weather!
Arrived home safely about 3:30 pm.
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