Sanding the Driveway

    While it is nice to no longer shiver under the Arctic Vortex, above freezing temperatures present their own problems.   All the snow on my driveway that wasn’t thrown off by my snowblower, was turned into “hardpack” by driving over it.  That makes an okay driving surface until melting temperatures come, then the surface metamorphose into smooth ice, making driving and walking on the driveway treacherous.

    My drive has just enough slope on it, that when starting out after turning around, vehicles without four wheel drive, have a lot of trouble starting up the slope when it is slippery, so every winter when the temperature rises above freezing, I have to spread sand or ashes from the wood stove to give traction.  The grit in the sand gives traction and the grains of sand and ash absorb heat that create an irregular surface on the smooth ice that also gives traction.

    I always fill two 5-gallon buckets with sand during the summer to use for this winter melt.  Of course I have to be a bit stingy putting it on, because I don’t want to run out before winter is over.

You can view my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Warming Up

    It felt like a touch of Spring outside yesterday.  The temperature climbed above the freezing point for the first time in weeks with a +2°C (35°F).  While that might not seem like a blast of warm air for most people, after our bout with the frigid temperatures of the Polar Vortex, it does seem quite mild.  It is amazing how we acclimatize to temperatures, and when things return to more seasonal temperatures after a period of extreme cold,  it does seem positively balmy.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

"STOP, Kona"

    Because Kona always lets her instincts over-ride common sense, we pretty much always have to keep her on a leash.  One scent of a wild animal, the sight of a person or a vehicle that is unexpected, and Kona goes berserk, erupting into loud barking, and sprinting like a crazed cheetah toward the offending object.  When that happens, her sense of hearing shuts off and she becomes totally oblivious to our yelling for her to stop.

    We do realize that as a young dog, she does need to run and she loves doing it, but she is so fast that there is no way she can “open up” with me trying to run beside her while on a leash, so we try to take her somewhere that we can let her off of the leash and be free, but safe at the same time.  The airport is such a place, but we can’t use it now that there is so much deep snow on the ground.  The other place we can let her go is Horseshoe Lake Road, which is plowed and a confined space with deep snow on each side.

    Lately it seems that every time we go there and take her off the leash, someone else, or a vehicle shows up.  Kona’s keen eyesight spots the intruder almost immediately, and because we have let her off the leash, she rockets toward the foreign object barking like crazy.

    Yesterday when we went to Horseshoe Lake we discovered that although the road was plowed, the parking area was not, and so we just parked along the road.  We got out, freed Kona, and walked down the road.  When we had walked the half of a kilometer (1/3rd of a mile) to the end of the road and turned around, Kona spotted OUR car, sitting on the side of the road, way off in the distance,.  She thought it was an approaching vehicle and immediately she jolted and began racing toward it, barking her objections like a maniac.

    Fortunately, she was in no danger from a moving vehicle, and eventually she slowed to a walk as we ran to catch up to her.  I took the photo using my zoom lens when we got closer to our car.

View my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Beaver Mt Through A Veil of Snow

     I took this photo Friday afternoon as I was driving out of McBride.  I liked the effect of seeing the mountain through the light snow that was falling.

You can see my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

Shadows Across the Snow

    This is what our front yard looked like yesterday after we got another dump of snow.  I took the photo because I liked the shadows from the birch tree stretching toward me over the blanket of snow.  The indentation you see running across the shot is our sidewalk.  I wasn’t able to deal with the snow (shovel the sidewalk, clear the driveway) yesterday, but as soon as I am done writing this, I will get to it. 

Check out my paintings at: davidmarchant2.ca

 

Lonesome Dove: A Favorite Book

The theme for December’s Book Club at the McBride Library was “Reread your favorite book”  When I was faced with choosing an old favorite book to re-read, I was stymied, unable to think of anything.  I have read so many good books and trying to pick out a favorite seemed impossible, then looking through my library on my iPad, I came upon Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry, and I instantly knew my problem was solved.

I had never been keen about reading a Western, but once when visiting my mother, an  avid reader, I had finished the book I had brought with me, and my mom suggested and praised Lonesome Dove suggesting I read it, and she still had the paperback.  

       I was very unenthusiastic about doing so, because of the stereotype I had of cowboys and shoot-em-ups, however, I was without a book to read and was desperate, so I began in on Lonesome Dove.  The story had been turned into a miniseries on TV, something I was unaware of, and so I started with a blank slate; without any preconceived perceptions of the story or its characters.  

      I quickly discovered that the book’s title (which I hate) came from the name of a small, dust-blown,Texas town situated in the desert, located beside a near-empty shallow river that marked the Texas-Mexican border. 

The settlement was a ramshackle, well-past-it’s-prime, western town consisting of about ten buildings.  The first part of the story takes place in Lonesome Dove, in the stifling desert heat on the porch of the Hat Creek Cattle Company house, or in the old saloon.  The novel’s characters center around Call and Augustus, the owners of the Hat Creek Cattle Company, the handful of cowhands they employ, the saloon owner, piano player, and Lorena, the town prostitute (whom all the males in town are in love with), and later Clara, the woman Augustus can’t forget.  

Both Call and Augustus, who in their prime had been heroic Texas Rangers famous for fighting the Indians, are now older men, living very stayed lives, running the non-impressive cattle company.  Jake Spoon, a previous employed cowhand, who is fleeing after accidentally killing a dentist in Arkansas, returns to Lonesome Dove and mentions to Call, the money that can be made by being the first to herd a big head of cattle to the wilderness of Montana.  

       This suggestion intrigues Call, who is the serious, no-nonsense partner of the company, and he begins to set his mind on doing just that, much to the chagrin of his lazy partner, Augustus, and the other cowhands including Jake Spoon, who was the one who suggested the scheme, who would all rather just stay in Lonesome Dove and stare at, dream about, or have a visit with Lorena.

Call has his company sneak over to Mexico one night to steal a big herd of cattle and horses, most of which the Mexicans had previously stolen in Texas, and then Call begins to organize a big cattle drive to Montana.  It is on the this cattle drive where all sorts of unexpected incidents occur, some which are  very shocking, and others touching.  The cattle drive occupies most of the middle part of the novel.

Larry McMurtry, who died in 2021, was a talented writer, famous for creating stories that became the films: “The Last Picture Show” and “Terms of Endearment”  I really like the way he has written Lonesome Dove.  His style is easily read and is both descriptive and humorous, but mostly it is the characters he has created that I enjoy so much.  The characters in the novel have become real, memorable, and endearing to me.  I think Augustus and Clara are two of the most memorable characters I have ever run into in a novel.

      The cowhands are just a group of flawed and lonely individuals, all secretly lost and struggling.  Call is insular and quiet, Augustus, drives everyone crazy because he just can’t stop talking and commenting on everything.  Lorena, who has had to live a tough life, just wants to escape her present situation in the one horse town, and dreams about going to San Francisco.  Clara, the woman Augustus never got over, chose a life with another man.  One of the things I like so much about the novel is how of all of these tough looking cowboy-types are actually more like kids, shy and scared of women. 

    If you are prejudice against reading a Western like I was,  maybe you should give Lonesome Dove a read.  You might, like me, discover some unforgettable characters and be entertained with a novel where unexpected things, keep you reading.

View my paintings at:  davidmarchant2.ca

 

Snow Deep Enough, Kona

    Yesterday afternoon when I took Kona, our fearless hunting dog, out for a walk, there was a deer at the bird feeder.  Luckily, the deer sensed the fearsome canine that had suddenly made an appearance in the yard, and it bounded off down the snowshoed path, then left the path, bounced through the deep snow, and leaped over the fence.

    Kona, who had by this time, erupted into a fit of loud barking, began a pursuit, although the deer was long gone.  When Kona got to the place where the deer had left the path, she too headed into the deep snow.  It did take her long to figure out that being in the deep snow didn’t work for her as well as it had worked for the deer, so Kona came a stop, struggled to turn around, then looked over at me with her eyes asking for help.

    So then it was my turn to wade into the deep snow, which came over my winter boots.  I picked Kona up and carried her back to the packed snow of the path, where she could again walk.  The exciting hunt being over, we headed back to the house.

Take a look at my paintings:  davidmarchant2.ca