[Snowtractor]

...Ya'll wondering on the lil'cowpoke and the spread eh? Weeeell golly!
We are still in limbo really, still ahve the house in smith , living in a 700sq foot place here and waiting for the land we bought to close on decemeber 15th. We do have a house plan in place, to be built in Manitboba and shipped here and save money and time?! Crazy. For you overseas peoples, that is having a house built 1700km or 1100 miles away rom where you live and then hauling the 60foot by 30foot structure on a truck to where you are.
Basement digger and builder are lined up and garage plans are finalized. Now we need to sell the Smith house or we will end up with 2 1200 a month mortages and a 1200 buck rent while we wait for our house to be built and a car payment and of course Shamus's 500 a month sitter, not to mention incidentals. But once the house goes, and we are in our house 2400bucks is removed from the minus column and things should be fine.
Shamus and Melissa are still sick with the move and I seem to be finished with the sick every week thing. Moving to a new area and getting exposed to new bugs sort of thing. It will be an interesting year and everything will settle down and then we can travel etc, maybe get out to Ontario and boot Stinkray in the butt while Alex holds him in a headlock.
We do love the area and the people have been helpful and very friendly, though they'd run you down as soon as look at you whe they are behind the wheel. I mean when the boss tells you " that is why we bought you a 4x4 , no guts no glory" instead of plowing a road to a well for you...it says something. I say BANZAI!
The house sitter in Smith has been replaced after my visit there last week, windows were left open in -27 a tons of lights were on, things plugged in, freezer breaker was off. The freezer must have been off close to 2 months and the smell was unlike anything I have experienced . So through out a 700 dollar freezer and paid 400 for heating oil, and 160 for electricit ,etc.So she is gone and the house is now tight , cool and dark .
I just view it all as Edson challenging us to see if we really belong here. So far we have surmounted all the interesting and unexpected tests and will be laughing next year at this time.
Shamus is sitting watching wiggles in this picture I took a few minutes ago , driving Daddy snakey of course.
Oh, there is more but that is the essence the rest is for over beer in my future new garage.
yours
Sean