We’ve been having a nice February. The weather has been cold, but not extreme. The forecast keeps teasing us with a week of warm weather ahead but it never quite arrives. It feels like it hasn’t been as sunny as normal this winter, but we’re having more beautiful sunny days lately!

My office is in the coldest part of our house, so I’ve taken to working under an electric blanket this winter! Hank has found it a couple of times to lie on the warm blanket.

We hosted a Superbowl party with a couple of friends. Jeff made an enormous pot of moose chili so he could freeze a bunch.

We’ve been out for trivia (came in 2nd this time!) and dined with a friend at the pizza place one night. I got a chicken burger that is done up like a pineapple pizza with a couple slices of ham and a chunk of pineapple and pizza sauce, and the best tator tots in town! Bonus, they give you so much food, I saved half for lunch the next day too!

There has been a tragic loss in our town this month (a baby died tragically), and another really sad loss. We lost a doctor to cancer. She was in her early 60’s, a world adventurer (she hiked the Pacific Crest Trail 8 years ago), but what really affected me personally, she was the one who greeted me at the hospital that night I needed an ambulance ride. She was able to get the Vancouver hospital to move up my cancer removal surgery, which I think saved my life, and she was the one to have Jeff and I into her office after hours one night so she could sit me down and have the “it is time to put your affairs in order” talk. And I’m here now, and she isn’t. While I didn’t know her personally, it seems like everyone in town has similar stories about her. A timely reminder to never stop adventuring and living life to the fullest because it can be taken away far too soon.

We’ve had a Valentine’s Day and Jeff surprised me with TWO bundles of roses!

Our days are getting noticeably longer again. We get to walk Hank after work in the daylight again!

On Saturday they teased us with a warm forecast, so Jeff took his snowmobile out towards the border to see if he could spot some caribou, and just generally to enjoy the day.

I drove out to the airport as the sun rose (this was 10:40am) to pick up our neighbours who had to drive their truck down to Whitehorse and leave it for repairs.

After lunch, I went for a long hike. I did that >8km combination of trails that I last did late in the fall. It made for a great 2.5 hour walk. Lots of incline, lots of snow, and I only met 3 other people the entire time.

You can see the ice road over to West Dawson in the picture above. The ice road (or ice bridge) is in its traditional location this year. One side is used for travel while the other is flooded.

This hike has a good steady climb, and many switchbacks (I love a switchback!). My watch says the elevation gain was 260 metres from where I started in town, up to the highest point.

This stretch is usually my least favourite part, but with all the snow it feels much safer. It’s like a little goat path across the side of the hill and I usually have to just keep my eyes down and do it fast. But now there are big snow banks on either side. I even met a guy and his dog on this part and we passed each other with no problems (but he stepped off a bit for me, not vice versa, because he wasn’t a scared chicken?).

I didn’t even listen to podcasts this time. Just hiked with my thoughts.

But I really need to stop hiking with a pompom on my toque. As the trail gets compacted down from our feet, it also gets taller with each snow fall, and the branches get lower from the snow sitting on them. I was ducking branches but my pompom kept knocking snow on me anyway when it caught the branches.

Here’s the route from my watch tracker. The colour corresponds to my speed, with red being the fastest, blue the slowest.

On Sunday, I got together with a couple of girlfriends for crafting! In our community, new babies get a quilt! The blank squares are assigned out with a theme. I got my first one! I’m going to keep the theme private in case the baby momma sees this, but since I’ve never done one before, my friends Tarie and Janet taught me how!

They showed me how it is done, and now I’ll have a bit more work to do to finish it up here at home.

I haven’t crafted in years! I don’t even have supplies anymore, it all got pitched or sold when we moved. It felt really good! Maybe I’ll need to do more!

While I was out for the afternoon with the girls, Jeff made 5 huge shepherd pie’s for the freezer! I don’t like shepherd’s pie so Jeff’s going to have many feasts!

Before I go, I have a product recommendation for you! A sleep mask! My last online trainer highly recommended the Mantra Pro sleep mask. It seemed ridiculous (mostly for the price), but I have been thinking a sleep mask might be nice for when it doesn’t get dark here, and even more so, for sleeping in hotels (with LED lights shining everywhere) and on planes. But it wasn’t until I started doing this stupid thing when I get all cocooned up at night, face in my pillows and blankets, and in my sleep my dry eye opens and lets the blanket touch it and I wake up with sorer, drier, red eye. Is there anymore more ridiculous?

This new sleep mask arrived a week ago, and it is really nice! I’ve tried face masks before and they are so terrible because they touch your eyelids. This one doesn’t! It has foam around your eyes and your eyes can blink and move around and touch nothing. It is really very comfortable, and completely dark! I just put it on, and fall asleep! And then take it off in the morning!

Here’s the picture Jeff took of me when I couldn’t see what he was doing, and while he was telling me I look like a fly.

What a guy!