While my Dad has already blogged about spring’s arrival in Southern Ontario, we are a ways off up here in the Yukon.

After starting today at -34C, it peaked at -16 around supper time, but that’s the warmest it will be for the next 7 days. However, the sun is magnificent, and the forecast is for sun all week!

Last week we had several nights in the minus forties. Jeff had the week off for a bison hunting trip on snowmobiles with a friend, but it was just too cold to enjoy the idea of sleeping in a tent. They postponed a few times, and then just cancelled their plans altogether. At least he had a nice week of rest and relaxation here at home.

Annoyingly, those cold overnight temperatures froze our tub drain a few more times. The fastest way to thaw it is to unscrew the covering of the overflow drain, and put a little tube down there to the drain, and run hot water through the tube from the sink tap. I’m glad our friends taught us that trick. The first time it happened, no amount of salt, hot water, or plunging was going to help. We used RV antifreeze a few more nights in that p trap to keep it thawed. It froze dozens of times this winter. Not sure if it is that much colder this winter, or when our house was relevelled, maybe something shifted and exposed that drain more under the house. Not sure.

I’ve shaken off my winter slothness and I’m on week 3 or 4 of hitting the dumbbells much more consistently again. This year I’m trying a new coach. I’m using the Ladder app on my phone. I picked a program/coach with shorter workouts than I have done previously, hoping I can return to good, consistent habits. I didn’t do well just picking a program from YouTube every day to guide my workout. Too much choice is never the way. With this app, the hassle of figuring out what program to do each day is eliminated. I just open the app and press play. It works really well with Spotify, too, so I can listen to my own workout playlists. The app does a good job at turning the music down just long enough to hear your coach talk through the next exercise or give you form cues. My coach kicked my ASS last week on a leg/glute workout. I felt that one for days! I’ve got a promo link for a free 30 day gues pass if you are interested in trying Ladder!

It’s March break for the kids here this week, but we still have almost two weeks until our town’s Thaw di Gras spring carnival. After that we should be seeing warming temperatures.

As the winter presses on, there are still winter chores to do. Jeff swept the chimney on the weekend. When you burn spruce, you need to keep on top of it. Fortunately, we have a straight shot up and out from our wood stove so Jeff just removes some screws, slides the telescoping pipe upwards, and then cleans the chimney from below. While he sweeps, I hold the garbage bag below catching all the creosote. There never is that much. Usually it burns off into flakes and then will ride an updraft and spread on the yard. Here’s looking up the chimney pipe.

Fortunately we haven’t run out of firewood yet! It’s been a long winter of steady burning.

Jeff shovelled off the top of the camper this past weekend again too. We’re eager to see how the camper sits on our new truck! Camping season is only a couple months away now!

And that is about the end of what’s new! OH! One more thing! I’ve locked-in a work trip to Singapore in a couple of months! I’ve never been to Asia before! If you’ve been to Singapore, please share tips on things I should see and do while I’m there!