Spring in Manitoba

1. Wake up to a deathly quiet house
2. Realize the power has gone out in the night
3. Get dressed
4. Hear someone’s footsteps creaking across the kitchen floor
5. Investigate to find no one there
6. Light candles

Never a dull moment. I remember when I first moved here, friends from the city thought I was crazy. The wondered outloud how I would be able to stand living way out in the middle of nowhere. They asked if I thought it would be boring. I can honestly say, 25 years later, that there hasn’t been one boring day.

My sister Nance and her husband John arrived on Friday along with their daughter Lace and her boyfriend Ryan. Their middle girl, Kassarah is staying with us for awhile so I have a full house. It was a fun weekend for everyone that included watching the calves being born, eating copious amounts of food and visiting. We told stories and last night the guys watched the Montreal Canadiens lose to the Toronto Maple Leafs. Fortunately there were both Leaf and Canadiens fans in the house which made the game even more interesting.
It started to storm about 5:00 p.m. Lots of wet snow fell so the barn is now full with newborn calves and Mark has just gone outside to feed the cows and spread straw so the older calves and cows have something dry to lay on.

We have no hydro, no phone and the roads are blocked with snow. The only thing in the house that works is my laptop because it has a fully charged battery. Today I’m supposed to leave for Brandon to set up the Cattle Producers booth at the Manitoba Royal Winter Fair.

I hear my company stirring downstairs . . . time to make a fire in the woodstove and cross my fingers the power will be on soon.



LATER: It took an hour and half to get the five miles from our farm to the main highway - the snow is that deep and heavy. Mark had to plough the road using the tractor to get my car out. I was relived that the highways were clear and I arrived in Brandon at 9:00 p.m.

Footsteps in the kitchen: Will elaborate in a future post