The Sky is Falling!!!

You'll probably want to enlarge this. It's a Chinook line. You can see this in the sky when a Chinook is on it's way. It's caused by the air that ripples over the mountains. It's a straight line cut through the clouds and almost never produces snow or rain.

There is a phenomena in Alberta called a Chinook (the more technical term for it is Foehn Wind). This is when warm air from the west comes over the Rocky Mountains and blows into Alberta. It's usually welcomed with open arms here, because temperatures can rise 40+º in one day. In the morning, it can be -20ºC, you're bundled up and trying not to freeze your hand to the car door when you open it on the way to work, and by mid afternoon, you're  in a t-shirt and rubber boots because it's +20ºC and the foot of snow you got yesterday has completely melted. This is usually when you realize your windshield washer fluid is low or completely out. Something typically discovered as a large semi passes you and sprays your entire vehicle with brown slush.

Another thing that comes with these beautiful, and short lived, spring-like days is something called a Chinook wind. This can range from a warm breeze to hurricane force winds. If you doubt that statement as exaggeration...in southern Alberta in 1962, Chinook winds were recorded gusting at 171 km/hr...or 106mph.

On January 15th, I think we may have beat the wind record here in our little campground. Ok, perhaps that was an exaggeration, BUT...I was sincerely afraid for our safety and doubtful that we would see the morning unscathed. 

The chinook rolled in sometime during the evening of the 14th. When Allan and I went to bed, it was -15ºC. When we woke up at 7am on the morning of the 15th, it was +7ºC. That's a rise in temperature of 22ºC! It was breezy out, but nothing really disconcerting. Just another Chinook day in Alberta. So we thought.

By the afternoon, the winds were gusting. I was at DFI's office doing paper work, and had to return to the campground to pick Willy up for his swimming. When I got into the campground, there was a tree that had fallen across the road between me and our stall. Luckily, it was about 50ft long, but thin, and I was able to move it off the road and go to our stall. Branches were flying everywhere, leaves that hadn't fallen in the fall were filling the air. The trees were rubbing together and groaning and creaking. It was quite eerie. I loaded Willy into the truck and we headed back to town for his swimming and some forest wardens.

Returning home that evening, you could hear the branches of the trees snapping, and we could see a couple more trees that had fallen further down the road. Allan walked around the RV to make sure that we didn't have any trees on it, or any damage from flying branches. We didn't have anything on the RV, but smaller branches had been blown with enough force to pierce the skirting. With everything flying around, we went inside.

The rest of the evening was spent holding our breaths as we could hear trees snapping and falling all around us. I was convinced with every snap and crash that the next one was landing on the 5th wheel or on one of our trucks. God be praised, we made it through the night, and none of our property was damaged.

A small tree that had fallen between our RV (Back right) and our neighbor's (Left)

This stall was occupied up until New years. It's been vacant only for 2 weeks. He'd be happy he left if he saw this!

Another empty stall. That's our RV in the background.

This one snapped across the road. It's about 15ft from my dining room window. It fell parallel to the RV. 

I have many many more photos of many other trees that fell that night. I wouldn't be surprised if there are over 50 trees that came down that night. By the grace of God, no one was hurt. Only one of our neighbours, out of nine, was unfortunate enough to have a tree land on his RV. As far as I know, everyone is ok though.

This is the neighbor who's RV was damaged. You can see where the tree snapped and fell on his place. 

Our neighbour now has a lovely green tarp on his roof. My heart goes out to them. Like us...that was their home. If you look closely you can see that he even has a porch built onto his RV. He's been at this campground for 2 years now. You can also see the tree in the foreground that broke and is now leaning against other trees. Unfortunately, there are many of those around here right now. We are blessed in that we have no property damage, and there are no 'widow makers' (fallen, leaning trees) around our site. Some here didn't receive any damage, but they now have some widow makers hanging over them...literally. 

It was definitely a wake up call that night. Our little piece of heaven is also full of danger. Just when we started getting used to checking outside for bears, wolves, or cougars before letting the dogs out, I now have a new concern, falling trees. I learned the other day that in Canada, the biggest danger in the woods isn't the wildlife, but rather falling trees. When Allan and I buy some land, we will definitely be clearing any trees around the RV that could fall on us. The shade is nice in the summer, but I can live without a sunroof in the winter!

New Hobbies

As I'm sure you saw in August,  with my Cowboys and Indians post, William has a bow and we like to shoot it now and then, or perhaps even go to the archery range where Allan and I will rent a bow and shoot with William. Things are a-changing now!

Allan has mentioned many times that he would like his own bow. So, for Christmas, that's exactly what he got! He was floored. He had no idea that he was getting one, and that's the best kind of present!

When you buy a compound bow (which is what Allan wanted) you have to know things like the person's draw length. A draw length is roughly the distance from the corner of your mouth, to your hand holding the bow, fully extended....or the distance from one hand to another when the bow is fully drawn (ready to shoot). The other thing you need to know for a compound is their draw weight. A compound is a marvelous hybrid of old and new technology. It is a bow (as old as time) with gears (new). These gears allow you to pull back a huge weight (resistance, if you will), but then the gears hit a magical point and all of a sudden, the weight or resistance has been reduced by up to 80%. This allows you to hold the bow fully drawn, comfortably for an extended amount of time, say, if you are waiting for that deer to turn just a hair more before you shoot.

I didn't know what any of these things were for Allan, so we went bow hunting (hunting for a bow...not with one, hehee) after Christmas. It turns out that Allan's draw length is 27" and his weight is 50lbs. Well, that's what he chose. He will probably increase it, but he wanted to start 'low' for now. I put low in quotes, because I can't draw 50lb *sigh*. Anyway, Allan found a bow he likes:

Redhead Toxik XT

Willy and Allan went to the archery range and had a great time with it. Allan came away with visions of bowhunting in his head. He was like a kid in a candy store. I must admit, the excitement was very catching, and I mentioned that perhaps one day I would also get a bow. No sooner had the words left my mouth when Allan was online researching good compounds for women. I had to smile. I am blessed to have a husband who's company I enjoy and who enjoys mine. We are always excited to do things together. It really makes me sad when I see couples who complain about having to spend time together. 

Long story short, I also have a 27" draw length, and a draw weight of 42lbs...currently. I've been told I need to be at least 45lbs by next fall so that I can go deer hunting. No one has really asked if I want to go hunting, it's more or less been assumed. Why else would I have a bow right?

My new bow:

Bear Siren

So, armed with new bows, Allan and I bought memberships to the local archery club and headed to the the outdoor range. In January. Yeah...in Canada. Sounds like fun doesn't it? There is an indoor range too, but it's currently off limits. Some major hunter guy passed away and his wife donated all of his 'stuffed' (I don't know the term) animals to the club. There are animals from around the world that are currently housed in the loft of the club. Apparently they are worth a LOT of money. One guy was telling us that the hunting tags for some of these animals are tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. A deer tag here is about $40, if that puts it into perspective. Anyway, they have all these animals, and are scared to hand out keys to the members, in case someone leaves the door unlocked by mistake. They don't want to lose their new trophies. So they have a wonderful indoor archery range and all the members are stuck shooting outside. Let's say that some people are not very happy, so they are working hard at a solution.

Now, with our new bows, I was feeling a little guilty. William has been shooting his long bow for a few years. He has been wanting a compound for a few years. Here we are with our new compounds, and Willy still has his long bow. Bless his heart, he didn't complain or even mention that he wanted a compound waaaaay before we ever did. So...off we go to buy Willy a compound. This is seriously getting VERY expensive. 

We wanted to buy Willy a bow that he could grow into. His draw length is 24.5" and he can draw 30lbs. As he grows though, he will get longer and stronger arms, which will change his draw length and weight. We found a bow that will grow with him, but it weighed 3.8 lbs. That's not that heavy really, but it was heavy enough that he couldn't hold it out at arms length. So, we had to go to a youth bow. It is maxed for draw length and weight for him, but we couldn't go any larger, because he couldn't hold it.

Willy's new bow:

Diamond Atomic

Now that we all have bows, we have been out shooting as a family. Each with our own bow. The nice thing is that it is a common interest and it gets us outside. That's pretty nice when you live in a 5th wheel, being outside. It's the roomiest space we have! My arms have been getting stronger, and it shouldn't be long before I change my weight to 45lbs. I still haven't decided if I want to hunt, but I have a lot of time for making those decisions.

The other thing that I have started doing is making bow slings. I saw some for sale in the store, made from what looked like paracord. I thought...I can make that! So I have been! I'm going to be posting them on my Etsy page once I source out a place to get rubber or leather for attaching them to the bows. I'll try to remember to post when I have them on.

Happy New Year!

Here we are in 2013! Seems a little unreal still, and yes, I am still putting 2012 on everything I date....but alas, I will soon be caught up with everyone else. I'm just a little slow. I think it's allowed. *teehee*

So now is the time to reflect on the past year and make plans for the new year. What a year I had in 2012! Full of ups and downs, and some very major changes. Walk with me as I reflect on the year God gave me...

January:

Took this picture near our old house.

I don't remember a whole lot of excitement for this month, but it was the second month that Allan had been at his new (current) manager-ship. We were still getting used to living 300km apart, but we were very excited and hopeful still about all the new possibilities. Allan was actually home every other weekend and it was something that I could rely on! That was a first for us.

February:

Again, I took this near our old house. An abandoned farm house.

The original plan was to stay in our house until Sam (our oldest) was done high school. At this point she only had the remainder of the current year and one more year of school left. We felt it was unfair of us to pull her out and drag her up north without any friends to finish school.

The plan is starting to crack and fade. There are major holes in it. Yes, we were seeing Allan more regularly than before, but he was now on call 24/7. He was before...but not tied to a phone. Now he was. We felt like we never saw him, even when he was home. After several family meetings...it was decided. We would move north come summer. Sam would stay with my mom to finish high school, and we would sell the house. Ugh. I wasn't happy about leaving my baby girl behind...but I needed my husband, Willy needed his father, and Sam was almost an adult...*sigh*

We started to clean out the house and yard and get it ready to put on the market.

March:

Peyton

Oh what a month March was. One that no one in our family will forget. We had the house ready to list near the middle of the month. The realtor was coming on a Thursday to go over everything with us, photos paperwork, etc...

On the Wednesday before the realtor was to show, I got one of the worst phone calls I have ever received. My mother-in-law, Jane, called to say that Peyton, my 5 month old niece, was on her way in an ambulance to the hospital. She wasn't breathing...they think it's SIDS.

It was SIDS. That beautiful little angel passed away while having her afternoon nap. I still have a hard time with it and try not to think too much about that day. I've had people I love pass away before, they were all hard in their own way, but this was the first time I had to deal with the death of a little one. One who should have outlived me. It's not easy for me as an aunt....I can't imagine what my brother and sister-in-law went through and are still going through. As far as I know, there is nothing worse that someone can deal with on earth, than the loss of a child.

Needless to say, between losing Peyton, her funeral, and everything tied with it...we didn't list the house. The realtor was put on the back burner.

April:

First week of April, the realtor came and went over everything with us. Took photos of the house and the yard, and basically told us that we would have no problems selling. The price was right, the time was right, the house was great, perfect!

A week later...with no viewings, the realtor was back-peddling. The market was slow...the price is a little high, maybe drop it a bit? Fine...we dropped the price.

Another week later...perhaps drop the price some more? The market is still slow...but it will pick up soon! Yeah... uh huh....we dropped again.

May:

The house has been on the market for 30 days...we dropped the price twice, and have had 2 viewings. That's it. Time to start having open houses. This isn't good, as statistics show that less than 2% of houses are sold through open houses....I guess we are getting desperate.

We find a beautiful acreage up north that is everything we want. We put an offer pending sale of our house on it (I mean...we're doing open houses, it should sell soon, right?), and the owners accepted our offer! Oh we were so excited! Things are moving now, if only we can sell our house, all will be well in the world!

The owners got another offer and accepted it, unless we could meet our requirements within the deadline, which was selling our house, and obtaining financing. We had financial approval! We had 3 days to sell our house, which we didn't, so...we lost the acreage. As my son would say....sad panda :(

June:

June, the month of Father's day, Willy's birthday, and when the kids finish school. We are supposed to be moving soon (that's the plan, right?), but we still haven't sold the house. We have, however, found another piece of land that we love! This one doesn't have a house, but it's beautiful. We put an offer up pending the sale of our house, and the owners accept. Our house has been on the market for nearly 60 days now...it should sell any minute....right? Wrong. Two weeks later the owners accepted another offer and we lost the land. Sad panda :(.

It's now getting close to the point where we need to decide, and quickly, what's happening. We have two months until the kids are back in school. We haven't sold the house, and the only offer we got was $30,000 below our asking price. We were at the point where we probably would have accepted it, had we not hit bottom already with our asking price. We couldn't go down any further, not from greed...we had to pay lawyers, pay off our mortgage, and real estate agent...and then we might have a downpayment left for the new house...maybe. Drop it 30K and we would have to pay out of our pocket...which was empty anyway...not an option.

So...we start looking into other ideas.

July:

Our house hits 60 days on the market. Time to remove it, or renew it. We removed it. We are off the market, but we have a plan. Oh yeah, and what a plan it is!!

We have decided to buy a 5th wheel and live in a campground while renting out our house!! It's genius! Perhaps a little strange, definitely unorthodox, but it's a solution. So, we go 5th wheel shopping, and find us a 2013 Avalanche. It's beautiful! I didn't know you could buy holiday trailers with ceiling fans and dvd players, and surround sound! Oh how little I knew then. *heehee*

August:

Our old holiday trailer and our new home.

Basically from here on out, everything has been covered in the rest of the blog, so I will leave it at that. What an adventure this year has been. The only real difference that arose in our plans was that our house hasn't been rented. That's right...we are still paying for the house. The nice thing though is that Allan's company is paying our lot rent right now until we can everything figured out financially. They are truly a good company to work for.

Current Plans:

(Some old MLS photo I got from google ;P)

As last year shows, the best laid plans don't always work out, but it's still good to make them. God decides in the end what will and won't happen anyway, but we can always try.

For now...our current plans are to sell the house, we will put it on the market again soon, and to buy some land. We will then put the 5th wheel on the land, run utilities to it, and live in the 5th wheel on our own land, not in a campground. That's the plan anyway....we'll see what happens ;)