First Snowmobile Visitors of the Season

Today after eating lunch and taking the dogs out for a walk I was just settling in and the dogs all jumped up and went to the door very excited. I let Peace & Bear out and the immediately headed out towards the gate and then I saw the yellow jacket at the gate, so I quickly got dressed again and headed out and there were Brent, Rolf & Jude neighbors from out on the road, they had come up for the holidays from the west side. They said there was lots of snow on the road and there were some single tracks coming this way but they widened things up a bit. It was nice to see them they even brough ice cream & cokes. They said the trail didn't have any trees down just deep snow without much base, for those from the west side it could cause some problems because this is very dry POWder out here. After a nice visit they decided to head back before it gets too dark, the dogs did good and Gizmo even got some much wanted attention, nice to have friends show up at Paradise, especially those that enjoy the outdoors as much as I do. This will probably be the beginning of visits from snowmobiler's for the rest of winter.
We found our Paradise, hope you find yours too. Peace and Happy Holidays from Paradise.

Crazy Winter Weather

This has been the craziest winter I have experienced in the 5 winter's I've lived here. Even though we got early snow Oct 17th and Nov 6th and very small amounts after that we also had lots of rain to melt the snow we had here. Then on Dec 11th this extreme cold and snow started which shut down the plant for 6 days and now we have been back up for 6 days but we've gotten over 73" in that time and the temps stayed below 6 for 8 of those days and then it started warming up Christmas eve, it's been up to 19 for a couple of days and today we already hit 26 which can cause some slides but should help the snow to settle a bit, or it should.
I have to admit that this has been the quietest holiday season as far as sledder's go, we haven't seen not one snowmobiler, not sure if it is because of the bad weather on the West side or the economy or just what it is. Today while I was dragging the trails here at Trinity and out to the road we did see that someone had come up yesterday afternoon because we had gone out around 2:30 and no one had been up by that time. I do know that we had gotten about 3-4' of snow since Pacific Mountain Services last groomed so people are possibly staying on the groomed trails which are usually closer to Fish Lake. The creek is still covered in ice & snow except for where it's cut it's channels and now the water is a couple of feet below the level of the ice bridges. Well if any snowmobiler's happen to come out this far if you would give me a shout just so I can find out what the trail conditions are like coming out here and I will gladly pass along what I find out. These photos are of the creek as of yesterday just to show the difference from the earlier photos when everything was frozen. We hope that everyone has been safe and enjoying the snowy Christmas holidays, spending time with family & friends and spreading Love & Peace to everyone you meet, that is something we can all do no matter what is happening.
We found our Paradise, hope you find your's too. Namaste & Peace

Big Iciciles

These are the iciciles hanging off my roof from these extreme cold temps once I got my power back on. The next photo is of our hot tub and it being buried in this snow, it shows how much snow we have gotten so far. Last shot just shows how hard it's snowing today, Christmas eve and there aren't many sledders that have been out this way so far this year, been pretty quiet but imagine that will change if the weather warms just a bit. We're just happy to be here and at home.

We found our Paradise, hope you find yours too.

There is a Silver Lining

After this past week and being without power for 6 days eating things that didn't require cooking like Tuna and Peanut butter and crackers, I've enjoyed being able to cook which is something I usually don't like to do just for myself but Thanksgiving day a friend of mine Brad had given me some elk meat he got this past hunting season. What was nice was I actually got 2 days of meals from one pkg of meat and it tasted so good, if you've never eaten elk you really don't know what you are missing. There are only a couple of other meats that taste better and are good for you one being Axis deer which is considered the best meat in the world and Blackbuck antelope both of which are from India, but as far as what is native to the US Elk is #1. To me cooking for one person just isn't worth it but on these last 2 days it was very worth it and I appreciated being able to go to the freezer and breaking it out, it was fantastic. Thanks again Brad for sharing this wonderful meat with me, I enjoyed it very much. Now if the Fish & game dept would bring them back into this area and let them establish a herd here would make things just right and reintroduce them to an area that they would have more food and cover to bring wildlife that used to roam here naturally until they allowed them to be killed out, they belong here and I would love to see them here again, to bring back the balance of nature to a pristine area suited for them.
We found our Paradise, hope you find your's too.

Winter has Arrived with a Vengence

Happy holidays to everyone from Trinity. I've had several people ask why I haven't been posting to the blog and so here I am again. These past few months well since August I have been recovering slowly from total knee replacement surgery, spent about 8 weeks at the farm, doing therapy and trying to get ready for this wonderful time of year. Recovery has been slow but steady and some days more painful than before the surgery.
We came home in October hoping to see snow which we did as early as Oct 16th but then it melted and we saw it again on Nov 6 we got around 10" but then it warmed up and started raining and it melted and that seemed to be the pattern through November. We went out Dec 8 to see my Dr before I couldn't and came home on the 9 to a little snow but the promise of more on the way and come it did Friday night we got 18" which was a very dry POWder but not too deep to get around and over the next couple of day we got another5-8" but the temps dropped into single digits which froze everything up at the dam and shut us down, so Sun I went to clear the dam and ran for a while but after spending about 4 hours to clear the snow & ice it only ran for about 3 hours so we spent the night without power and built a fire to stay warm, on Monday 12th I went back to the dam and found worse conditions than the day before, spent almost 5 hours clearing the ice and snow but it froze up faster than I could clear it, I did get enough water to bring the plant back up and while I was doing that had a visit from friends Grant, Ivan & General who drove in which was surprising since I figured they had already groomed part of the way here meaning it is a sno-park for the rest of winter. HAd a good visit and they found out I was say and helped me get the generator so I would at least have some power if the plant went down again. Well they had been gone about 45 min when the plant dropped again and with it snowing pretty good and the temps dropping figured I'd wait and see if it would warm up enough to help thaw some of the ice. It just got colder and I spent most of my days just trying to get the snow here knocked down and trails made which make it easier to get around and keeping the fire going. The temp were the coldest I have ever experienced here by 15 degrees and as low as -8 and hovering around 0 for several days. On Sunday I decided to see if I could get the plant back online and after using a torch to thaw out the wheel so I could increase the water flow and spin the wheels, I got it back up but not knowing how long it would last based on previous trips to dam and not as cold I figured I should sent out messages to everyone I know that snowmobiles and comes up this way especially during the Christmas holidays to know I might need help. Well I'm happy to say that the channels cut by the creek must have formed correctly and giving us enough water flow we have been running since then without even a fluctuation.
The dogs are enjoying playing in the snow and disappear quite ofter especially Bear but then he pops out of the snow looking white and they have a blast. The snow being so cold is not so fun for their feet though and you see them constantly shifting to 3 feet stances. I've included a couple of photos of what the creek looks like and the progression of the ice dams. Well since I know friends read this blog I'll do better at keeping up with writing and telling you what's happening here. Stay safe & warm this holiday season and we'll be sharing our adventures, Peace & Love/
We found our Paradise, hope you find your's too.