Tweed:

Best. Happy Snow Day Face.  EVER.

So the weather has decided that if it cannot freeze us out, it will snow us in instead.  After several days of temperatures dropping as low as -12C, it has warmed up to a balmy -2C and covered us all in a very thick blanket of snow, which continues to fall at a somewhat alarming rate.  I realize that all you people in like Michigan, or Alaska, or Antarctica scoff at these temperatures, but us Lower Mainlanders are unused to this kind of cold and snow.

And so are our houses.  On Tuesday, my bathtub drain froze solid – not the water pipes, I mean the drain.  I can have a shower, provided I don’t mind standing in a pool of tepid water that won’t go anywhere while I do.  “Well that’s a new one,” mused my landlord when I called him to whine about it.  He came over and wrapped the pipes in heat tape, and put a heater under the crawl space too in an effort to thaw out the drain.

The problem is, with these old farm houses, a lack of suitable plugs for this kind of thawing effort.  I have no working exterior plugs on the house and last week my stepdad had to come over and drill a hole through my living room wall so I could plug in an extension cord for the chickens’ heat lamp, since they were slowly freezing to death.

Mmmm.  Frozen chicken.  Yummmmyyyyy.

So my landlord had to plug the heat tape and the heater into that extension cord, and last night when I tried to plug in my space heater, the circuit overloaded and turned itself off.  Apparently the chickens can have heat, and the pipes can have heat, but I can’t have heat … unless I decide bathing is overrated, or chickens are overrrated.  In the end, I wrapped myself in yet another blanket and opted to let the chickens live.

They won’t even come out of their house into the coop.  They are just huddled around the heat lamp giving me dirty looks.

It’s like they blame ME for the cold weather or something!

But if it’s my fault it’s this cold out, then TWooie is super happy with me.  Coming as he does from Prince George, he says this snow is more like it and he feels right at home.

Thanks, Food Lady!  Can I have a chicken too?

All the dogs love the snow, although the WooTWoo would appreciate it if I would stop making them pose for photos and let them get back to the business of hunting.

Hunting coyotes.  Can you see it?

Piper’s Most Favouritest Game Ever is the Kick Snow At Me game which started when she was a puppy and has been a fixture in our relationship ever since.

She takes this game very seriously.

And what’s most interesting to me is that she remembers it from year to year.  It’s not like it snows a lot here, or often, so a heckuva long time passes between months where we play Kick Snow At Me, but as soon the snow starts to fall, she’s bouncing up and down in front of me begging me to play.  Sometimes, when we have only light dustings of snow, I will actually make snow balls with my hands when she’s not looking, and put them on the ground to kick at her, so she can leap in the air to try and catch them.

And this is why I love you.  Now kick.

YAY!

As for Dexter, he manages to look stunning in the snow.  It’s like he is the handsomest accessory to any backdrop you place him against!

Seriously.

He just turned 15 months old and he weighs 42 lbs now, still very skinny.  To celebrate the occasion, I bought the dogs a light up, multi-coloured ball so we could play fetch after dark.  The first time I used it, Tweed got it first and all Dexter saw was a disembodied floating blue orb coming at him down the road and he nearly had a coronary, barking and growling and trying to hide behind me.  hahaha.

Are you done telling tales?  Time to play in the snow summore!

Later, skater!

I’m going to try to get down to photograph the puppies again this week, since they are now 6 weeks old and in a few more weeks will be leaving for their new homes.  But I am not convinced I want to try and drive in this snow yet today.  It’s supposed to get warmer and start raining later today, so maybe I’ll attempt it then!

First I plan to go curl up on a dog bed in front of the heater for a while and try and warm up.  Brrrr!!!

And hey, if you are looking for high energy, very trainable, eager as anything Chocolate Lab puppy, we’ve got one at the shelter.  This is Jasper:

He’s just 7 months old and he would REALLY like a home of his own for Christmas.  He’s a super busy guy, very athletic, respectful of other dogs and could really use another like-minded young buddy dog to play with.  I tried to get Dexter to play with him, but Dexter just gave him Mad Teeth™ as he’s too bouncy for a border collie.  But he’s a really nice dog who just needs something to do, and unfortunately there isn’t much for him to do at the shelter as we have no other playful young dogs for him to pal around with.  So if you’re into Labs, come by the District of North Vancouver Animal Welfare Center to meet Jasper!

Also, send hot chocolate!  Brrrrr.