Merry Christmas and Happy Holiday Wishes
From Harley and his friends!

(Harley video at bottom of this posting!)

Twas the week before Christmas, and all through the mountain passes, nothing was stirring, - except for perhaps a few avalanches.

Some came down on their own, and some needed a little help. Some of the avalanche paths have the Trans Canada Highway in their sights, so they get some special treatment.

Finally a clear, sunny day, and the helicopters were buzzing. Some flitted from mountaintop to mountaintop, trying to get the mostly 'out of order' mountaintop radio repeaters working again, after their solar panels had been covered with frost and snow for weeks.

On the avalanche front, after we closed the highway and railroad as a precaution, another helicopter added a touch of explosives in key avalanche start zones. Creating smaller avalanches under tightly controlled conditions is much safer than risking a much larger, unplanned slide that could block the highway or knock a train off the tracks.

The first photo is of the closed highway looking towards some of the avalanche paths. If you squint, you might just see a couple of puffs of white up on the slope. Those are the explosives going off.



The next photo is showing a closer view, and if you squint once again, you might just be able to make out the helicopter, which is the speck to the left of the snow puffs.

As planned, nothing actually reached the road, but at least now the holiday travellers would have one less obstacle to reaching their destinations.

I, on the other hand, had some days off, so I headed out to my 'other' place and was welcomed to the neighborhood by some Christmas decorations on our gate.
If you are still squinting, you might just see my house in the distance?

(Don't forget, you can click on any photo to see a larger version. Less squinting, eh!)

Notwithstanding the "Harley video" at the bottom of this post, Harley was content to stay indoors and relax most of the time.

I, on the other hand got out to explore a bit, and hiked around checking out some of the nearby bush areas. Lots of deer around, but they were all just a bit too camera shy to stick around for the photos.




And I also drove around a while and came across the remains of some one's hunting or holiday camp. Some of you may not recognize the truck without the camper on it?

Rest assured, the camper will be going on again early in the new year, and we will be hitting the road south again as soon as possible. Yahoo!


Okay, here's what you've all been waiting for! If you have dial-up, that 'waiting' my be more than just a figure of speech.
Here's the famous (some might say lazy?) cat playing with his Christmas mouse, and then, thanks to generous readers Terry & Marie, Mary & Merle, he is checking out the latest shipment of ...

Catnip!