Animal Memory Trails

    Before all of the snow and frigid temperatures, we used to walk on what we call our “Loop Trail” daily.  At one spot, a small tree had fallen across the trail, so we had to make a detour around the root ball at the end of the tree, then return to the trail on the other side.  We did this for several months.  Kona got used to it.  Then one day I took my chainsaw down to the spot and sawed the fallen tree up, which allowed us to walk straight down the trail.

    I was happy to have restored the trail, but the next time we walked the path, when Kona got to the place where the tree used to be, instead of walking straight down the trail, she again walked the detour around the root ball, like she was used to doing when the tree was blocking the way.  She continued to walk the no longer needed detour each time we walked the trail.

    It seems like her memory had taken precedent over her eyesight.  I have noticed a similar  phenomenon in other animals.

    If you look closely at the snow in the photo, you will see big indentations.  Those were made by a deer bounding through the deep snow.  A decade ago I used to have a herd of Angora goats.  I would put their hay in boxes out in the paddock, where you see the deer tracks.  In the winter the deer would visit our compost pile to eat vegetable scraps, then leap across the fence at the far end of the paddock, then walk up to where I fed the goats and eat the left over hay they had wasted.

    I haven’t had any goats for 10 years and so there has not been any hay out there for that long, but still the deer continue to take that path, rather than a more direct and easier route to the bird feeder which is there next feeding opportunity.  Again it seems like their past memory is taking precedent over reality, which I find very interesting.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Frosted Grocery Windows

    I took this photo of McBride’s only grocery store the other night when it was -24°C (-11°F).  It may not be entirely clear from the photo, but all of the whitish walls that you see are glass with ice frozen onto the inside.  The moisture inside the store has condensed on the cold glass windows and then frozen.  In warmer temperatures, the glass would be clear like the door.  Usually there are all kind of signs, posters, and notices taped to the inside of the glass, but they have been removed due to the freezing.

    This is the normal situation of the store windows when the outside temperatures turn frigid, but even after all these years of seeing it, I still find it an interesting phenomenon. 

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca 

 

Keyless Access Denied

I didn’t expect anything memorable to happen yesterday afternoon.  It was still cold (-24°C, -11°F), but the insurance on our car was about due, so I braved the frigid temperatures and drove into McBride to renew the car insurance for next year.

    I had plugged in our 2016 Outback’s block heater earlier in the morning so it started up without trouble.  I took Kona along with me, so it would break up her day a bit.  Once I got to town I parked in front of the insurance office, went in and got the insurance.  

Once I was done, I walked back out to the car, got in, pressed the START button, but nothing happened.  That’s not exactly right; the dashboard lights did come on, as did the radio, but there was no response from the engine.

“That’s strange,” I thought, so I tried it again.  Again, I got no response, but a message came up on the dashboard that read, “KEYLESS ACCESS DISABLED.”

“What?”

I tried the START button several more times, but again, no sign of life from the engine.  

I couldn’t figure out what was happening.  The battery was clearly working because the dashboard lights and radio came on.  The fob seemed to be okay because if it wasn’t I would have gotten the message “ACCESS KEY NOT DETECTED.”

Luckily I was parked close to the garage, so I walked over there to see if Zach had any ideas about why the Subaru wouldn’t start.  We walked back to the car, and he tried the same things I did, getting the same results.  He couldn’t explain it.  While he was there trying different things, I phoned to the Subaru dealer in PG.  The woman who works in the Service Section Desk had never run into that problem before, but suggested that maybe the battery in the fob was weak.  

I wasn’t convinced that that was the problem, but I walked to the hardware store, bought a new battery and installed it in the fob.  It didn’t really make any difference in starting the car.

    I was getting cold, as was Kona, who had been sitting in the cold car the whole time.  I thanked Zach and told him I was just going to leave the car there, because I spotted Ingrid’s truck across Main St. parked by the grocery.  She lives just up the road from us.  I caught up with her at the end of one of the aisles in the grocery store and asked if she could drop me and Kona off at my house on her way home, which she said she would be happy to do.

When Ingrid came out of the grocery and went to her truck, Kona and I were waiting and piled into the front seat.  Her dog was in the back seat, very curious, and I was really happy that Kona did not go into a ballistic barking fit, instead just touching noses with the dog.   I hadn’t seen Ingrid for over a year, so we caught up on events as she took us home. 

I was very worried about what I was going to do about the Subaru.  I could hardly drive it to PG to get it fixed, if I couldn’t get it started.  Towing it to PG would be outrageously expensive and dicey considering all of the ice road conditions on the highway.  It was all very depressing.

Back home I did an Internet search for “Keyless Access Denied” and found a couple of other people that had experienced the same thing, but there was no solution given.  Their Subaru just started as normal after some period of time.  I wasn’t very reassured since there was no reason as to why it had happened in the first place, but I did get some hope that maybe with some time the problem would disappear.  

I then went out and plugged in the block heater on my pickup truck deciding that later, when it’s engine warmed up, I would go back to town with my wife  and try using her fob to start the Subaru.

After supper, that’s what we did.  The Subaru looked pretty lonely sitting there, but there were a lot of lights from the insurance office shining on it and the sidewalk.  Miracle of miracles, when I sat down in the drivers seat with my wife’s fob and pressed the START button, the Subaru started up as normal.  

I was so relieved when we got the Subaru back home in our carport, but now I don’t trust it, and that is a bad feeling to have for a vehicle.  In the other Internet incidents, it seemed that it was only a one-time event, and I certainly hope that will be the case for me, but I will find it scary to drive the Outback anywhere for a while.  If only I had some explanation for why it happened I would feel more secure about driving it.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Kona In Socks

    When it gets really frigid outside it doesn’t take Kona long to get cold feet.  She starts lifting a foot off of the snow or sometimes just sits down, not wanting to walk any further.  I then have to pick her up and carry her back to the house, which is sometimes awkward on the narrow snowy path.  To solve her cold feet problem my wife came up with the idea of putting some socks on her, held up with blue elastic bindings.  This extends the time Kona can comfortably be outside, but getting the socks onto Kona’s feet is a time consuming process, so often, with false optimism, we just take her out sans socks.

    Taking Kona outside to do her business becomes a frustrating ordeal when it is cold (-25°C, -13°F at present).  It wouldn’t be so bad if she just went out, quickly did what she needed to do, and then came back into the house, but life is not that simple with Kona.  First, she has to be kept on a leash or she will run off, tracking some wild animal back into the woods, that means each time she needs to go out, we have to put on all of our winter gear, coat, hat, boots, and gloves, then lead her along on of the snowshoe paths I have made.

    While she’s in the house, Kona will suddenly realize that she needs to pee, so she will paw us and look us in the eye, but then the moment she gets outside, she forgets, and starts to focus all of her attention on smelling all of the deer tracks.  After a few minutes, she has cold feet, doesn’t want to walk, and needs to go back into the house to warm up, her need for peeing forgotten.  Needless to say this is extremely frustrating after we have spent the time getting all dressed up to go outside.

    Adding to the frustration is Kona’s peculiar excretion habits.  For some reason, she can’t just go out and poop or pee; she is extremely picky about where it can be done.  She has a strong impulse to do whatever business she has, in fluffy snow.  However, each time she tries to step off of the packed path into the 18 inch (45 cm) deep snow, she sinks up to her chest, so she gets frustrated, returns to the path and proceeds further down the trail, not realizing that she will face the same problem no matter how far down the path she goes.  Then of course, the cold feet start to be problematic.  

    Eventually she will ignore her deep-seated impulse for fluffy snow and will do her business on the path.  The whole situation of taking Kona outside has been frustrating for both her and for us.  Fortunately snow muffles the sound and we have no close neighbors, so our constant pleadings, “Kona, just pee.” and “Come on and poop, Kona,” just go out into the frigid air without disturbing anyone.

     The cold temperatures will be with us for a week, so I sure hope Kona will eventually figure out she needs to just concentrate and be quick about what she needs to do out there, so she can quickly get back into the house.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Better Throw Another Log On The Fire

    This morning we woke up to the coldest day of the year (I hope), it was a frigid -38°C (-36°F).  Our house’s inside temperature was 16°C (61°F), which is a bit cooler than we like.  I resuscitated the coals left overnight in the wood stove and added some birch firewood to warm things up.

    Needless to say we are keeping our outside activities to the bare minimum.  We periodically have to take Kona out so she can do what she needs to do, and I have to resupply the bird feeders with suet, sunflower seeds, and peanut butter.  Other than that we are restricting ourselves to inside activities.

    Forty years ago the winters in the Robson Valley used to give us periods of -40° (that’s the same in both Centigrade and Fahrenheit) luckily that hasn’t happened for a long while and hopefully won’t.  The cold temperatures we get are a “Dry Cold” and fortunately when we do get them, normally it is deathly still outside, with no wind, so while very unpleasant, it would be a lot worse with dampness and wind.

    I am looking forward to having this cold snap to move on.  This has been quite a year for temperatures in the Robson Valley with summer’s “Heat Dome” (40.4°C, 104°F) and now the “Polar Vortex”.  A bit of temperature moderation would be greatly appreciated.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Horses Sharing Salt

    There’s really not much I can say about this photo; it is pretty self-explanatory.  I do like the togetherness and the various colors of the horses.

 View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

McBride's Community Christmas Card

    What you are seeing in the photo is half of McBride’s Community Christmas Card which is hung up on Main Street every year on the hardware store fence.  The other half hangs further down the wall and I couldn’t get it all in the photo.  Every year residents can donate $5 ($10 for businesses) to the McBride Hospital Auxiliary and get their name up on the card.  I am not sure when the Community Card started, but I remember being surprised when seeing it on our first Christmas in the area.  I had never seen anything similar to it before.

    Something like the Community Christmas Card only really works in tiny communities like McBride.  We donated our $5 and you might be able to make out our name in the middle of the sign on the right.

You can take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Got Our Snow, Now Comes The Cold

    We got a foot of snow (30cm) overnight and now the next thing we can look forward too is some frigid temperatures, culminating on Sunday night with a predicted -35°C (-31°F), something I am not looking forward to.  Winter has definitely arrived.  I suspect there is 18 inches (45 cm) of snow on the ground at present.  I was sure happy to have a snowblower to deal with the snow on my driveway.  I also used it yesterday to clear away 4 inches (10 cm) of snow off of the drive.

    I have gotten out my snowshoes to make paths  in the field so that Kona will have someplace to do her business.  She generally likes to do it in untouched snow, but last night when I took her out, she tried to get off of the path into fresh snow to have a pee, but sank up to her chest, so then intelligently, she changed her mind and decided to do it in the path.  

    Once the arctic temperatures arrive we will no longer have to give Kona’s legs a warm shower to get all of the snow off of them, like we have to do when it is close to the freezing temperatures.  When it gets colder, the snow no longer sticks to her legs.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Firewood: My Annual Worry

                 Even though I always think I have put away enough firewood for winter, once winter is upon us, I always start to worry that I won’t have enough to get me through.  I normally I start burning the Aspen, Willow, and Cottonwood in the late fall, because they burn quickly and don’t put out a lot of heat.  That part of my woodpile disappears quickly. 

    Once cold weather hits, I start burning Birch.  It is a very dense wood that burns slowly and puts out a lot of heat.  That is what I am burning now, but the hole left in the woodpile from all the other wood does make it seem like I am going through the firewood to quickly, and there is still a lot of winter left to go.

    We are supposed to get some really cold weather this weekend (-34°C, -29°F on Sunday night).  Obviously, that will make even the Birch disappear quickly.  

    Every winter I worry about whether I will have enough firewood to get me through and every year I get through with firewood left over.  I hope that will again be the case.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

    Our dog Kona is extremely rambunctious and runs us ragged.  I just went down stairs and she was lying by the stove close to her ball.  I was so happy to see it.  Normally when she is snoozing, all it takes is for one of us to move and suddenly she is up, looking us in the eye, eagerly waiting for us to instigate some kind of activity for her.  Don’t get me wrong, we spend a good bit of our day, seeing that she gets plenty of attention and activity.

    I have always assumed that the old saying, “Let sleeping dogs lie.”  meant that if they wake they could get aggressive and harm you.  Now for me the saying means:  As long as she’s sleeping, I also am getting some peace.   Sleep, Kona, Sleep.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Thinking About Spring

    Yesterday while shoveling the driveway I noticed the winter sun low in the sky, shining through the trees.  I stopped my work, dug out my iPhone and shot this photo.  Tomorrow will be the Winter Solstice, so as days pass, the sun will begin slowly rise higher on the horizon.   Knowing that gives me hope that somewhere down the line, winter will end and spring will arrive.

    I do have a snowblower, but the last couple of snowfalls have been light, only 2 or 3 inches (6-9 cm)  of fluffy, down-like snow.  That’s not really enough for my snowblower, and its easy to remove with a snow shovel.  Of course we could easily drive through that much snow, but every time we do the snow gets compressed into ice, and over time, that ice gets thicker and thicker, and would build up over the winter, becoming very slippery during the spring melt, making the driveway difficult to use.  That’s is why I always try to get it off while I can.

    We are presently going through a cold snap.  This morning it was -26°C (-15°F).  It is forecast to get colder later in the week. Ugh.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

So That's Where The Cat Is Hanging Out

    Other day after cleaning out a closet, we we came upon an old quilt my aunt made that needed to be aired-out.  I took it upstairs and draped it over two wooded folding chairs.  It had been there for a few days when we noticed that our cat Lucifer was disappearing for hours at a time.

    Several times during these absences, I got worried and even opened the door to call outside for her, afraid she had followed us outdoors and then couldn’t get back in.  Every time I did call outside for her she would suddenly appear on our staircase that led up to my office.  I couldn’t figure out where she had been, then the other day I happened to bump one of those folding chairs supporting the quilt and heard an irritated “Meow”. 

      I bent down and peered into the cubbyhole made by the quilt and there she was, warm and snoozing in her new-found resting place.  I always admired Lucifer’s ability to find warm, soft, snuggly places for her naps.  

    I am sure that by now the old quilt is now thoroughly aired-out, but I hate to put it back into the closet since it is being used.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Barn Sign

 

    Some of the people that drive past our place might notice this big sign on the barn and wonder what it is all about.  Here is the story:

    I worked for 23 years for the BC Forest Service in the Robson Valley Forest District.   For most of that time I had the job title of Draughting Technician.  I was the one who drew all of the legal maps showing where roads were to be built, the areas that were going to be logged, and maps of other things like new Recreation Sites.  I enjoyed the work, but my job description also included doing graphic design, ie making posters and signs, and periodically I had to design those things.  I especially enjoyed putting the creative side of my brain create those items.

    In 2002 I was asked to design a highway sign for our Forest District.  The sign in the photo is what I came up with.  I submitted my design and three highway signs were ordered.  During the time they were being made, the BC Government decided to eliminate our district and lump its big workload into the Clearwater Forest District.  It was quite a shock to hear that our jobs were being eliminated and our Forest District work would now be done out of an office three hours away.

    The Robson Valley Forest District signs, when they arrived completed back to our office, were of course, no longer needed.

    As my co-workers scrambled around trying to plan some kind of employment and future for themselves, I was extremely lucky, because I was old enough and had worked for the Forest Service long enough, to quality for an early pension.  There were three of us in our office that were able to retire.

    The office held a retirement party for us and instead of giving us something like a gold watch, they gave each of us one of the now obsolete Robson Valley Forest District signs.  Receiving one of the signs made a bit more sense for me, since I was the one that designed it and had a place to hang it, but I always wonder what happened to the other two signs that were given out to the retirees.  I’m not sure what they were going to do with them.

    Because my sign is hung on the side of the barn that faces the road, I don’t see it all that often, but whenever I do, it makes me remember how much I enjoyed those 23 years working for the Forest Service.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

The Hero Rabbit

    Every year I put out and sell a calendar featuring trivia and my cartoons.  (What few I have left are for sale at McBride’s Whistlestop Gallery).  Anyway, for years now, every time I hear or read some interesting trivia, I add it to my database which I use for the calendar.

    The other day I got a phone call from someone who had purchased the 2022 calendar and wanted to know more information about the trivia which was on January 29th.  It said, “Comatose man’s life saved by his pet rabbit, 2004).  She peppered me with questions about the event, but unfortunately it was something I had read back in 2004, so I couldn’t really answer most of her questions and told her that I really couldn’t remember the specific details.  

    After she hung up I felt bad and I too was curious and wanted to remind myself about what exactly happened.  I did a Search and found the news article.  Here is the link:

        http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cambridgeshire/3441337.stm

    If you are too busy (or lazy) to read it yourself, here are the basic facts:  A diabetic man fell into a coma while watching TV and Dory, his large pet rabbit, jumped on his chest and started thumping him furiously with it’s feet.  This caught the attention of his wife, who immediately called the ambulance, which took him to the hospital where he was saved.

     If you don’t have the calendar and want to read my trivia, I do post the calendar page of the current month’s trivia on the top of my website under with the banner  “This Month’s Trivia”.

See this month's calendar trivia at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Pond Outflow

    I walk Kona on the path that circumvents our pond numerous times a day.  On Tuesday when I was doing it, I noticed how picturesque the pond outflow was with its marshmallow-looking snow and it’s mostly frozen water.  I also noticed how low the sun is on the horizon.

    Next week is one of my favorite days of the year, the Winter Solstice.  To me it is important because it signals that the amount of daylight will slowly begin to increase.  Of course it also signals the official start of winter, which isn’t very inspiring after all the cold weather we have already experienced, but just to know that more light will be coming, keeps me optimistic.  

    This photo was taken at 11:00 AM and as the day progresses the sun will move toward the right rather than moving upward.  That is the path it travels during the winter in the North.  It comes up then moves sideways above the eastern horizon, so it doesn’t have the intensity that it has during the summer when it is more overhead and its light is more direct.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

    

 

Pre-Christmas Cold Spell

    It is not unusual for the Robson Valley to get a blast of Arctic air before Christmas, so I am not surprised that we are experiencing cold weather now.  Last night it was -22°C (-7°F).  That’s not the coldest pre-Christmas temperatures we have gotten in the past, but it is the coldest that we have been so far this winter.  

    As you can see in the photo, which was taken yesterday, the sky is totally clear and sunny.  Normally when we do get really cold weather we are fortunate in that we don’t get any wind, and it is always the wind that makes gets you.  You can also see in the photo all of the various paths we have made in the snow when we have taken Kona out for her walks.

    Today so far the sky is overcast, so maybe things will warm up a bit.  I’m not all that crazy about really cold temperatures.

    Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Snow On Weeds

    In the low-light of yesterday afternoon, I was walking Kona around the pond when I noticed these snow-covered weeds sticking out of the snow.  I thought it was an interesting image, so I had Kona stop and she patiently waited while I dug the iPhone out of my pocket, kneeled in the snow, and snapped this photo.  There is about 10 inches (25cm) of the white stuff on the ground.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Tree Textures

    The other day when I glanced across the road I was struck by the various textures of the different tree species growing on the slope.    Having the dusting of fresh snow helped accentuate the different patterns.   It helped that the trees were being highlighted by winter’s sun which is low on the horizon. 

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Fun In The Snow

    Well, snow used to be fun when I was a kid, but not so much anymore.  Yesterday my wife packed her sewing equipment into the car and drove off to spend the day with other quilters as part of the “Quilting Weekend”.

    After I finished writing my blog, I put my coat and boots on to walk the dog on the loop trail.  I normally have Kona on a leash for the walk, but first I wanted to put out some peanut butter for the birds and Kona usually hangs around me to get a few peanut butter licks from the knife.

    Just as I was about to do the peanut butter I heard the phone ring inside, so I went in to answer it.  It was my wife, who was in town and had driven into a snow drift that was a lot deeper than she suspected.  The car became high-centered (so much snow piled up under the car, lifting it a bit, so there wasn’t traction in the wheels).   I told her I would drive in with my pickup to free the car.

    When I went back outside to discover that while I was on the phone, Kona had disappeared, but I heard barking way over at the neighbors, so yelling at Kona to come home, (which she ignored) I trudged through the snow through the woods, over to the neighbors.  When I came into sight, Kona figured that maybe she should go home, and did.  I put her in the truck, threw some shovels in the back and headed to town.

    The car was really high-centered, so I began digging.  The snow under the car was compact and hard, making it difficult to get the shovel in there to dig it out.  After getting some of it free, I had my wife try to back out as I pushed, but the wheels just spun.  I thought I would try to just pull the car backward using the tow rope and the truck.  There are hooks on the front of the truck to attach the tow rope and my previous Subaru’s had hooks on them for the same purpose, but alas, I could find none on this car.  I couldn’t really even find a place I that I trusted not to break or bend, if I tried to hook the tow rope to them, so I put the tow rope back into the truck and grabbed the shovel to continue digging.  

    Finally I got all of the problem-causing snow out from under the car and we were able to back the car out of the snow.

    I was pretty exhausted by the time we got home (my wife had decided not to spend the day quilting after the ordeal with the car).  I still wanted to clear the driveway of snow with the snowblower, even though I was tired and my clothes were wet.  I was able to get snowblow my driveway clear and then I went to the house, took off my coat and boots and collapsed on the couch.

    My wife, who was feeling sorry for me, fixed me a great sandwich and soup for lunch.  It had been a hard morning.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Hidden No More

    Animals don’t like to advertise the location of the places where they are raising their young and so they hide them.  Often these places are often hidden among the leaves of trees.  When winter arrives, the leaves disappear and these animal constructions become pretty obvious to an observer.  Of course, in the case of bird nests, it doesn’t really matter since the birds and their offspring have long since migrated south to warmer climes.

    I keep spotting the bird nests in places I have walked past countless times during the summer, totally unaware of their existence.  Same goes for this wasp nest, which I failed to see until all of the leaves dropped off of the willow that supported it.  

    Nature has so much going on that we are never aware of, secrecy is one of the reasons why some species have survived for so long.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Our Very First Takeout Pizza

    We love pizza.  We love it so much that we generally eat a pizza every week.  It has become our habit to make one every Friday night.  We have been doing that for close to forty-five years.  Of course if we make one ourselves every week there has never been much of a need to buy one and bring it home. 

    There are a few places in McBride with pizza on the menu, but there again, when we go out to eat, we don’t order a pizza.  Now however there is a place in town whose main menu item is pizza, and we like to support local businesses, and since we didn’t have a meal planned for yesterday, we decided that we would just get one from Main Street Pizza and give it a try. 

    I realize that getting a takeout pizza is a very common thing and whenever we visit family down in the states, usually takeout pizza is ordered for one meal, and we always loved it, but even though we have lived in McBride for 44 years, last night was the first time we have ever had a takeout pizza in our house.

    It was sure easy, economical, and tasty, and driving home with it in the car was torture.  Because of our different desires in taste, we bought a half meat eater and half veggie.  I made the mistake of specifying that I didn’t want any pineapple on my side, so it ended up a little sweeter that I wanted, but like I said it was a tasty treat.  

    I am sure our first time for takeout pizza won’t be our last.

    

    Years ago I did make two videos of how I make our thin crust pizza which you can see on youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kb0KES-GB8A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9X32-P5M-k&t=95s

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Sundog

    The other day when we were doing our morning walk on the Loop Trail, we noticed that a bright “Sundog” just above the peak of one of the mountains in the Cariboo Range.  A sundog is a rainbow-colored patch of light that appears on the left, right, or both sides of the sun at 22°, when the sun is low on the horizon—just after sunrise or before sunset, for instance. 

    Sundogs are created by light being prism-split into colors, when it passes through plate-like ice crystals in high cirrus clouds.   The red band is on the side nearest the sun.  They can appear worldwide at anytime of year, but are most commonly seen during the winter.

    In the past when they were very bright, some people reported that there were three suns in the sky. 

My paintings can be seen at:  davidmarchant2.ca 

 

Elaine's Kicksled

    Yesterday we took our afternoon walk at the airfield.  When we were at the far end of the tarmac, I noticed something way off at the opposite end coming toward us.  I started to reach for Kona to put on her on the leash, but at that moment she saw the object too and took off toward it, barking.

    Luckily it was Elaine, who had encountered our barking, but friendly dog before, so she stopped and gave Kona the pets that she was craving.  As we got closer, I saw that Elaine had a kicksled.  A kicksled is a Scandinavian conveyance that is propelled like a skateboard, but with two skis, instead of wheels.  It also has a chair in the front, for when the kicker wants to sit down and rest.

    It wasn’t that much of a surprise to see Elaine on a kicksled, for years she has worked in the field of outdoor recreation, so she is usually outside hiking, skiing, or kayaking.  She told us she has been wanting a kicksled for a long while, but they are difficult to find, because they are popular, but in short supply.  She had a friend make this one for her, using a pair of her old cross-country skis.

    It is difficult to see anything but the tip of the skis in the photo, but she is standing on them.  When the kicksled is moving, one of her feet will be on a ski, while the other pushes her forward through the snow.  Yesterday at the airfield, the conditions were perfect for gliding through the snow.    I suspect it would be a bit more difficult pushing forward, when the snow gets deeper.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca