First Impressions

Original post edited by request.

There is about 2 feet of snow everywhere with drifts, like the one in the foreground, of 4 to 5 feet. On the roads (all unpaved) there is packed down snow that has become ice, so that each drive is over a sheet of ice and you have to be careful not to spin into any of the drifts on the side of the roads which were originally made by a snow plow, but now get a few inches bigger with each snow fall. One of our trucks careened into a snow bank in January. We call that corner "Kevin's corner", after the driver at that time.

It takes about 45 minutes to get from the Hotel in the town of Cold Lake (which is one of the newest cities in Canada) to the range and the building where we are working. The first day we say 2 deer, but no other wildlife sightings so far. Will update as possible. No moose have been found so the "Moose Milk" harvest has been thin.

You can see the current temperature in the upper right of this blog. Dealing with the cold seems impossible when you think about it in Ft. Walton and you know the temperature is 60 degrees or more lower than Florida. However, dealing with it is more than just making sure you have enough layers on when you go out, it is also making sure that you can get some or most of those layers off inside. The biggest concern for the first 2 days was what to wear.