Going to Plan B

The week before Christmas we had tentative plans to drive into Ottawa to pick up a few specialty food items for our holiday season celebrations. While we have found sources in the area for most of the food items that we enjoy, there are still some items that we haven't yet found. There are a few independently owned businesses back in Ottawa like La Botega and Parma Ravioli that we wanted to visit for specialty cheeses, fabulous olives and spinach and ricotta stuffed manicotti. And our favourite bakeshop is still Three Tarts, and we were hoping to get some of their mincemeat tarts.

But before we knew it, our plans for the week were going through some interesting changes. We had found a supplier of firewood, but they wouldn’t deliver it here. So we set out with our truck and trailer to go pick it up ourselves. The wood was apparently in a remote bush location so we arranged to meet up with the seller at her house and then follow her out there. We met up with her and she set off at a rather fast pace and it was all we could do to keep up with her on the slushy back roads. Slush turned to snow, snow turned to ice, and the roads got narrower, and twistier. Then they began to turn into steep up and down hills. Our seller was by now nowhere in sight. Just as we had one of those uh-oh moments and dropped down a particularly steep bit – we came to the end of the road and there she was. Unfortunately the area had not been plowed, and we could see that there was a steep slope through deep snow to a rather forlorn pile of firewood. Rob (wisely) declined to purchase the wood. She left rather quickly, leaving us to try to turn around and find our way back.

The next day we contacted another supplier who kindly agreed to deliver some dry wood within hours. The wood arrived, and Rob got the splitter going and split it all while I stacked it. By the end of the afternoon, we had it all done, just as the first snowflakes of a major snow storm began to fall. Finally, we have some good dry wood!

We woke up the next morning to the aftermath of our first real winter storm here. While Rob set out to plow the laneways and roadways, I went off through the pristine snow for a walk, and brought along my camera. Down here at the cabin it was fairly still, but I could hear the wind in the tops of the trees up the ridge. As I walked up the main road I was the first to leave human tracks, as no one else had ventured out. There was evidence of deer or coyote, but I couldn’t tell which as the tracks were already filling in with more snow.

As the sun shone weakly through the clouds, it was rather disconcerting to notice my shadow appearing and disappearing! Every time it disappeared I felt almost as if I had disappeared into the white snow. What a strange feeling it was.

I was so intent on the oddity of it, that I almost didn’t notice that I had come up the road as far as the open fields. The wind was really blowing, and I could hear the sounds of crows and ravens so knew something was about.
Sure enough, there was a large bird being chased up above the road, and my first thought was that it was a hawk, but to my surprise when I pulled out my camera I could see a flash of white that suggested it was a bald eagle.

I ran down to the main road to see if I could get a better shot. The wind began to howl, ravens and crows in the air were calling and I spun around and around trying to get a shot. A lone truck came out of a total white-out on the road and went by me.

It’s hard to describe what I felt at that point – the incredible lightness of being comes to mind – but as I spun in the wind and snow I was overcome by the strength and incredible beauty of Nature around me and my almost aloneness in it all. The wind subsided, the birds flew off and landed further down the road, where I realized they were feeding on something (a dead deer it turned out) and I began to walk slowly back home. I was suddenly incredibly tired, after all the exhilaration, and just wanted to sit in the snow for a while to think about the last few minutes.

Instead I kept walking, my footsteps out already covered in by the blowing snow. As I walked, the sun came out slightly, and shone brightly through the ice and snow on the trees and I felt rather alone, enjoying all this incredible beauty. Alone yet not at all lonely, just sort of small in this rather large world of ice and snow and whiteness.

Suddenly I heard little putt-putt sounds, and saw a tiny plume of snow. All I could think was Wall-eeeeee …. And I started to laugh and laugh as Rob appeared at the crest of the hill with his tractor and plow. I do love that man.

Rob was kept pretty busy for the next couple of hours as he plowed our roads, and the main road hill and the laneway leading to our immediate neighbour. He knew they would be coming up here for Christmas so wanted to keep the way clear for them. Although someone plows the main road, there was no sign of them doing it any time soon, so one of our other neighbours seemed pleased that Rob was out there and waited for him to finish clearing the way.

When Rob finally returned to the cabin he was cold and soaking wet, and all he could say was "I need a cab". By the time he plowed again later that day, and again the next - he was pretty convinced he needed one. The first day of the storm it was mild and the snow was wet and heavy, and the trees dropped huge heavy piles of snow on top of him as he drove by. By the next day things got pretty cold and icy, and then the winds picked up, so he was covered in ice and snow in no time. We will have to see if it is possible to find one at a good price somewhere so that he can be a little more comfortable when he is plowing!

In the meantime, we kept an eye on the Hydro site to see if there were power outages in the area, and sure enough, all around us the power was going out. Although we had already made sure that we were well equipped, I should have done the dishes and tidied up while I had the chance. Sure enough, after a number of ominous bouts of flickering lights, ours was out as well. Luckily it came back on later in the afternoon. We read later that some people in the area still had no power as of Boxing Day.

With no power in the cabin, Rob and I bundled up and went for a walk to see what the birds were feasting on, at the side of the main road, and to check the road conditions. The wet heavy snow had bent the trees over, and the ice had sealed them there, and although it was incredibly beautiful, we were a bit worried about the branches snapping. The trees are already stressed from our drought this summer. We hope they will be o.k.

As we walked up to the road, the wind was really blowing and we were glad not to be driving anywhere. As I was lamenting that Rob had missed seeing the bald eagle, we looked up and noticed a very large bird being chased by the ravens again. It didn't have the white head or legs of a bald eagle, but it was about the same size. I took some shots, and when we came back I was able to identify it as a juvenile bald eagle! So we did both get to see one after all.

After the eagle flew away we walked down the road to see if we could get close to the ravens, but they flew away at the first sound of our footsteps. Still, we had a chance to hear them "talking" as they feasted, and were amazed at the different sounds they make.

With the high winds the roads were pretty snow covered and icy. We know to bundle up well when we walk, but the wind was still pretty cold on our faces. The skies started to clear a bit, and the wind picked up some more. The light looking up the road was amazing.

Back home we still had no power, but our little Coleman stove had us heating up some spicy hot chocolate in no time. We were glad when the power came back later in the day though.
With only one day left until Christmas Eve we decided to forget any plans to drive to Ottawa and to come up with our "Plan B" for Christmas.