The Craftiest Workshop

When we moved to Fort McMurray, my husband was able to purchase exercise equipment and be reimbursed through work. He decided to buy a pair of snowshoes and poles.

This week was the first time they got used…six years later.

We got a dumping of snow in Grande Prairie over the holiday season with the most recent 15cm last Thurs/Fri. Before Christmas I had shoveled myself a path through the creek and that was completely covered in snow. I decided that perhaps I should try the snowshoes out and see how well they might create a path.

I literally thought that with snowshoes you could somehow walk almost on top of the snow. No…that’s not how it works. You sink like a stone to the ground through the soft snow. So here I am with one leg buried to about mid thigh and I have to lift the other leg up and over the snow just to take a step. This only lasted for about 50 steps before I hit an unlevel spot and went over sideways. I tried to use the poles to get back up and, putting my weight on the poles, one of the poles snapped. This would be the point when I started to get a charley horse in one of my quads. I lay in the snow for a few moments and had a chat with a Black-Capped Chickadee that was chirping at me. Eventually, I managed to get on my knees and planted one of my snowshoes to use it as leverage to get back to my feet. My husband’s advice, upon my arrival back to the driveway looking harried, was that taking my phone with me might be a good idea in case I could not get back up in the future.

My whole plan with this endeavour was to take some “beautiful photos” around our property from the January 11 prompt on my calendar.

I collected myself and went back out being more deliberate with each step so as not to hit another uneven spot and fall over again.

Everything looked so beautiful with the fresh fallen snow.

This is one of many woodpiles stacked on the property.

You can also see a small ponderosa pine.

We have many planted by the previous owners in the yard.

This is the only remnant of a barbwire fence.

Some moss or lichen has decided to grow on it, still green in the winter.

Our pet cemetery with the crosses almost buried.

We have a few mini sloughs with cat-tails growing on the sides.

I remember these used as decor in our living room when I was growing up.

Here is the creek bed. It is nice for making a path in winter because it is wide open.

There is at least one deer that frequents the area and it also uses the creek as it’s path.

Last picture is of our firepit area with larger pine trees.

I truly love the appearance of the clean white snow. You can almost never see that in the city.

In the end, I was able to snowshoe one nice packed down path from the house, around the creek and back to the house coming back in behind the firepit. The same path would have taken me days to shovel.

The creek runs behind the firepit and to the right as well and then you come out and walk back to the house along our long driveway.

When my path is done it will be like a big figure eight. with the firepit area in the middle; a good km in total.

Finishing my path may be tomorrow’s adventure.