Snow yesterday and today

Well it's been a great November but the snow has finally come and more on the way. This last month was a great bonus. Oh well bring on whatever you have now.

A pic from last week at the bottom of Duncan Lake, Mosher Lake to be exact.

Revisiting the horse loggers

My brother in law, Brian up from Lindsay for a few days and I took a trip into the Beauty Lake Road for a look at the horse logging that is going on. They have quite a block of forest to do and expect to be there all winter. These loggers are hired by Domtar to work in areas close to developed sites where the noise of harvesters, skidders, delimbers and large logging trucks could cause problems. They are also very enviromentaly friendly while working too, and it gives Domtar some needed good PR relations with the public.

There are several loggers there that are woking in the area, they all have areas where they work indepedently in the same area. The horses are in great shape and are anxious to work. We talked to a group from Belle Valle that had two horses. One man with the chainsaw and two pullers with horses hauling out the logs. The logs were coming out depending on the size one or two at a time per horse. Logs were fallen and trimmed before being hauled, attached to the chain at the end of the harness and then moved to a location where they were cut to size for the truck to pick them up. This process moved over and over again with little distubance of the ground far from the mess the skidders leave behind, even young trees were unharmed in the process.

Showers but still mild

Yesterday was fairly dark and gloomy but from this pic of Miller Creek east of town you wouldn't know it

Actually I had to use the tripod as the shutter speed was so low.

Weather still holding

November temps have been great, I have used less firewood this November than I have for years. Hopefully the trend will continue.

Yesterday afternoon out cleaning up the snowshoe trail, it's always surprising going in when there is no snow and see the flagging tape so high up in the trees, just shows you how much snow was there. Will still have to spend a couple of more days on it.

Todays pic is taken from the other side of the lake of the small island and the lake with some Lightroom help.

Another good one

Getting lots of late season work done outside, bird feeders up, evestrough cleaned, putting things away and generally enjoying the weather.

This afternoon I was checking the new snowmobile trail east of town. This will allow the trail to bypass Stumpy and allow better grooming down towards Beauty Lake Rd. Just the first kilometer is of this trail is being fixed up the rest of the trail is old forestry roads down toward Sunshine Lake. Some pics of this tomorrow.

Again todays pic is down at Edith Lake looking towards the north over the boat landing.

Is this really November

Almost 2 weeks of great weather in the middle of November, sunshine, tempertures 10 degrees over normal what next. Tomorrows supposed to be better.

Out for some pics today around Edith Lake, here is one of the rapids.

Finally back home

Left on the 9th of November to go to Huntsville to see Kate, arrived hearing good news that she had passed her final exam for her chef's papers. A long time coming and a lot of work, congrats again. The next day on to my friends place near Parry Sound for some deer hunting, hunting in the AM and working on his storage facility in the afternoon. This is some storage shed 90'x40'x23' when this is full he will be able to use his other garage and move around in the house easier. Weather great everyday so we got quite a bit done but far from finishing. On the last day of the hunt I ruined the week by getting a doe.

The same day I was going to Sudbury to see Jeremy, Stacey and the boys at their place in Lively. A day and half there and back to Parry Sound to help with more of the construction. Home finally yesterday around supper time. It sure is great to get back to the quiet and sanctity of Gowganda.

What a nice day

Day broke without a cloud and the temperature just kept going up the rest of the day. It was about 14C by late afternoon.

Fortunately we had planned an ATV trip today what a conicidence. Five machines, Ed and Faye Barnstaple, Mary and Dave Bullock, Gord Clark, Paul Trudel and meself. Up the north power line across to Halliday Lake and back down the Grassy Lake Rd about 84 Km round trip.

At one spot just before Halliday lake a huge beaver dam had flooded the road, making it just about impossible with the depth of water. Just to make the beaver happy we started lowering his pond about 8 inches by opening up some holes in the dam, this was just enough to get the machines through even though it was well up over the floor boards.

Couple of pics when we stopped for AM break and one later at Halliday Lake for lunch, the dogs even enjoyed the ride.

Frosty AM

Out for a load of wood early in the AM and the sun was actually out for a while. All the tops of the hills were frosty like this one. Shortly after this the snow came down so hard you could hardly see through it. The rest of the morning continued with wet snow.

Cool weather with light snow

Still cool with a bit of snow and wind. The weather toward the end of the week is supposed to be a bit better. Very quiet in town not to many moose hunters and few trucks. Just starting to feel like the town is going into hibernation for the winter. Smoke coming out of most of the chimineys these days, you can always tell who is up early in the mornings.

A few icicles in the tamarac beside the garage this AM.

It sure is getting dark here early now

With the time change on Sunday it sure closes in early now. I kept looking at my watch and thought it wasn't working but sure enough sunset comes pretty early 5:01 to be exact. Seems to make the evening so much longer.

Out yesterday with some new equipment called Pocket Wizards. They allow you to remotely fire flashes and the camera with a press of a button. Up to 1600 ft. so it says. Can't imagine ever using it that far away. This will improve (I hope) taking flash pics. The flash will be off camera and will give less of a deer in the headlight look. It will be good taking some pics of flowers under a heavy tree cover for example. Will have to wait for next spring for that to happen.

Stopped for some pics of fall blueberries on a high ridge, and a small beaverpond reflecting the sky.

On another note the Gowganda Website has been removed from Yahoo Geocities as it was closing, the new site is here. Check it out and add to the numbers of visitors. The site is now funded by the GCRA. Thanks