Been awhile.

   Well I don't know about you folks, but I was getting pretty tired of looking at that last story, and its been awhile since I've posted here. I keep waiting for something exciting to happen to write about, then next thing you know you get behind. Behind in what I'm not sure, but pretty soon it seems like a hell of a chore to catch up again. Gets a little embarrassing at times also, people are starting to write or drop in on their way to the hot spring to check on my well being, ...or not.
   I feel guilty checking the statcounter that tracks visits to the site, I see a lot of the same IP's come up time and time again. Of particular note is a reader out there on an Xplornet system coming out of Turner Valley that has recorded over 250 visits to the site here, a majority of those just checking to see if theres anything new I'm sure. So to this loyal reader, whoever you are, out there with bated breath in Alberta, and others like you, I'll attempt a new post, and put us all out of our misery.
    Most of the problem is always where to start, so I'm going to make it easy on myself and start right here, with a tea in the shop listening to the rain.

   

   It was a beautiful dry Fall that lasted almost to mid November.

I was mowing grass into the end of October.

I got my old tractor rescued from the last spot it broke down and gave it a good service, so I'm hoping it will start when I need it for plowing snow.

I got some second hand roofing and put metal sheets on the old tent frame. I've had tarps over top in the past but I had push the sagging snow off from underneath all the time. My tractor has spent about 38 of its 41 years parked outside, but finally got a shed of its own.

I had lots of help with the roofing from the shop-cat Spook.

    I managed to nearly fill my wood-shed enough to last the winter I hope, and got stuff put away under cover before winter. I've got a few more bits coming for my intake up the mountain that runs the generator, I'm going to be swapping out some pipe up there soon and hopefully a little better set up to deal with the cold weather I know is coming.
   So I sit here in my heated shop, with the power on and a cat on my lap and about as prepared for winter as I can get. But I know, sooner or later, life is going to get more interesting around here.
Then I will have more to write about I'm sure.
Stay tuned.

Night Of The Cat.

   For a guy that was pet-less for over 25 years, I seem to have acquired a regular clowder of cats around here. I've got Chyk and Chuk, my over-fed guard-cats that live in the house, and theres the new kitten Spook that lives out in the shop. But there has been another, less obvious member of the menagerie. A mystery cat that has survived by his wits in the wilds for I don't know how long.

   Last fall down at the hot spring people reported eyes at night around the campsite and food items missing in the morning. I caught a quick glimpse of it crossing a trail one day there, but that was all. The guys down at the gate have seen it a few times, and it spent some time around the cabin there in search of scraps or garbage bags to tear into, but it remained an elusive creature that would run off when it saw you. It's tracks evident in the snow showing it was still around, I began to take down food for it once a week to help take the edge off, as I'm sure it led a very tough life.
   Somehow, wild-cat finally found his way in the snow all the way up to the lodge about a month ago, I think he probably followed the snowmobile tracks here, his clandestine activities betrayed by a bag of garbage ripped into on the front porch one frigid night, and odd cat tracks around at first light.
Of course I began to leave a dish of food out for it which would be gone in the morning, the dish licked clean. I don't know where it spent it's days, but if caught in the flashlight beam at night it would always bound off taking huge leaps. I managed the catch it by accident a couple times, just a flash as it scampered off to the woods. Anyways, I was glad he was getting a steady meal for a change, as he was I'm sure, and might find himself a spot under the shop or the guest cabin maybe. Even though it may cause some issues with the existing cats, and the fact that I may never get near him, it was nice to know he was warm and dry, a full tummy, and safe from predators. He was usually referred to as wild kitty, but I started calling it Spunk.
So we had Chyk and Chuk, and Spook and wild-cat Spunk.
   A couple mornings ago I came out to the shop at first light to see he had been back as evident by his empty dish. I walked in and before I had time to sit down I heard a strange noise from outside. There are only so many sounds that happen out here, and anything out of the ordinary gets my attention. I heard it again and wondered if it was a raven, then all hell seemed to break loose outside, like the sound of the worst cat fight you can imagine. I ran out the door and through the orchard towards the racket. It was just getting light in the open, but once I got into the trees where the cats were fighting I had a difficult time seeing. Thinking my tom had got into it with wild Spunk I started hollering as I got there and as I stood there trying to focus in on the snarling ball of fur at the base of a tree, I suddenly realized it was a bobcat that had jumped a cat. At the time I didn't know which cat as I couldn't see, but the bobcat is laying on its side holding some poor creature biting clawing and scratching with it's hind legs, and all the time the victim is screaming bloody murder.
If there is one sure way of getting me stirred-up, it is something chewing on my cats.
   I still had on my slippers and thought twice about getting my feet in there but I looked down and spied a branch then picked it up and started in on the bobcat. He jumped up and bounds away and in my rage ran after him smacking at it with my stick. I turned around expecting to see an injured cat left behind, but nothing, the cat was gone.
   I ran back inside where I was greeted by the shop kitten Spook, whom appears to be unaware of any bobcat in the area. I ran back over to house to check that Chyk and Chuk were accounted for. Well, it had to of been poor Spunk. Back outside I see the bobcat has returned to the scene of the attack, hoping to start in where he left off I imagine. I dug out a firearm and put in a full clip, I hunted around following his tracks and catching nothing but a brief glimpse.
   It had snowed just a little the night before, just enough to make tracks and I could put together how it all went down. I could see where the bobcat had wandered around in the night searching for a victim. There was snow in some of his tracks so I knew he had been around for several hours.
When I clomped up on the deck at the shop that morning, Spunk ran out from under and around the back of the shop as he always seemed to do. Unfortunately this time a bobcat had been staking out the area, and him, and immediately gave chase.

 The tracks showed a spirited dash for life before the bobcat caught up to Spunk and there was a violent take-down here behind the shop, evident by the skid-marks and scratches on the ground.

There were some bits of fur in the snow, bobcat fur, so the wild cat Spunk had put up quite a fight.
The snow was flattened out like there had been quite the battle, and looked like Spunk had broken free then ran under the snowmobile trailer which probably slowed the bobcat down a little. Spunk's tracks emerged from the other side at a run and made the mistake of trying to climb a tree where the bobcat jumped up and up and hauled it down to a depression at the base where the two of them where locked in a life or death struggle. From the time I heard the sound that got my attention, it had taken me less than 20 seconds to get to the scene of the attack, which felt like an eternity. I never did see Spunk, but his tracks were there, leading from the scene at a fast rate, passing under the camper trailer, back to the shop and under the deck then emerging from the other end and making a direct line for the guest cabin then off into the woods where he feels most at home.
There was no blood, but I know from experience the damage done by a bobcat attack.
   I'm hoping he is under the small cabin now, warm and dry, and nursing his injuries, which I hope are not too severe. I've been staying clear of there for fear of scaring him off into the woods, if he hasn't gone already. But the fact is, I don't know where he is right now, and he will never seek help. I feel bad for the poor guy, to have lived so long on it's own then when it gets someplace 'safe' it gets jumped by a predator. The poor bugger finally had it made.
I've been setting his food out at night, but so far, it has remained untouched. The bobcat has moved on for now, but it will be back. I cleaned my rifle yesterday, checked the sights, taped a powerful flashlight to the barrel, and I keep it in a handy location. Wish me luck.




If you haven't heard enough about wild critters from the woods, here's more...
http://hotspringlodge.blogspot.ca/2013/04/princess-chyk-monster-slayer.html

The Taste Test, Curiosity Spilled The Cat.

    A guy is never too old to learn it seems, and more often than I care to admit sometimes find myself in a situation that I could of handled a whole lot smarter like. Take that episode a few weeks back for instance, when I wandered out to the shop one morning before light as I usually do to make tea and read the Internet news. I turned on the lights out there and plugged the kettle in, and heading over to light the stove I happen to spot a small puddle of liquid underneath a motorcycle.
This got my curiosity up as there's nothing I hate worse than something leaking on the shop floor. 

   Funny I didn't smell gas, and anyways, I knew the bike had no fuel in it, and being an air-cooled engine it wasn't coolant. Brake fluid, it had to be brake fluid, but it didn't make sense why it would leak there. A leaky roof? It hadn't rained since before winter, and anyways, how the hell would the roof leak under a motorcycle. I got down on my knees for a closer inspection of the offending pool of fluid, sticking a finger in there to see if it was oil or water. 

It didn't feel like either, really, which only deepened the mystery.

   Like I mentioned, it was early, and I'm not so sure all the brain cells were fully operational quite yet but those that were, were fully engrossed in the variables of the puddle mystery. Pretty soon the other part of my brain, the three-quarters of it that is not quite up to speed yet decides to get involved, it takes control of my arm and dips a couple fingers in the mystery puddle, then brings a sample up close to my nose and I took a few sniffs. 

It wasn't gasoline, it wasn't anti-freeze, it wasn't brake-fluid and it wasn't quite water. What the hell was it? I watched my fingers go back for another dip, then up to my lips, hesitating for a moment before wiping them on an eagerly outstretched tongue to better identify the small pool of mystery liquid. 

Well, it tasted like nothing I had ever tasted before that's for sure.

   So I'm standing there at 6 in the morning swishing this around in my mouth and contemplating the bouquet when it suddenly dawns on me what it was, and you guessed right, it was cat urine. I made a run for the sink and held my mouth under the tap until I nearly choked on it. 

A good lesson learned, and you can bet I will be more careful when licking things off the shop floor around here in the future from now on.

New Years at the Hot Spring

The first morning of the year today and it was a beautiful one, but somewhat on the cool side.

We've had a stretch of cold weather like most of Canada, but despite the adversity so far I've managed to keep the power system up and running and the 'lodge cozy which is a big priority.

We've been snow free out here in the moutains until 4 days ago...

...then it began to look a little more like the end of December.

I've been growing some world-class icicles out on the shop roof.

Seeing there was sufficient snow I took a run down to the hot spring on the borrowed sled this morning to see what as going on this New Years day.

   I took down some cat-food to leave out for the mystery cat, which I set out there in a likely spot I hope he/she finds. My last post (2 months ago) I wrote about a new cat I acquired some people had found wandering near the hot spring campsite, and it turns out there was another, darker little cat that has been spotted hanging around campsites at night and getting spotted on occasion by the guys there at the office. It is three quarters wild and you can't get near it, poor thing. I don't need another one or anything, but I like to help out the little bugger is this harsh weather.

   There were 5 or 6 outfits camped-out and braving the minus 5 daytime temperatures and a few had left already by the time I arrived so it was a pretty good turn out for New Years Eve by the looks of things. They were all treated to a beautiful, bright full moon.

I think the majority of folks were packing-up when I pulled in and there wasn't anyone down at the tubs, so I got a chance to take some pictures. I usually don't take any if people are around.

I did bump into Kenny and Pia though, they read my site here and come out fairly regular for a week at a time.

"It's pretty comfortable in the camper-van." he told me,
"Other than our doors are froze shut."

I stopped in to see Ken at his campsite over in the corner, another Hotspringlodge reader, he and his crew of kids stomped a trail in the deep snow all the way down here the other day just to say hello.

   I could have dressed a little warmer so after a bit of visiting down there I heard a hot-chocolate calling my name and headed back home to stick close to the wood-stove.

Its been a pretty good start to the year, did some visiting, and nothing broke down.
I've got all the sh*t that broke down last year still, but nothings broken down yet this year.
I'm hoping my good luck continues.

Happy New Year all.