SNOW FELL OVERNIGHT yesterday and I spent the day making short trips outside cleaning it away. Listening to the forecast from Sunshine Ray the cold is on its way and if you have outside work to do yesterday was the day. So I pushed back snow from the deck and got the sidewalks clean. The deicer I bought the other day was transferred to a couple of coffee cans and I had to fill them a couple of times till I got enough spread. Duncan has learned a new trick while I was cabin bound. The wife has taught him how to go get the mail. I am not going to make a big deal out of it as I don’t want her, the wife to get a big head. All Duncan does is run down to the mailbox when Mark the mailman shows up. He takes our mail and puts it inside the plastic bag that the paper comes in and holds it out for Duncan. Duncan then runs it up to the cabin and is rewarded with a biscuit, I tell her my training of Duncan to fetch wood from the pile is more impressive. I was going to go down to the mailbox this morning when Duncan ran past me and I stood and watched as he got the mail and brought it back up, OK, it is a pretty cool trick.

Cabin has been a busy place the past few days. The daughter and son in law took their three girls down to the big big city for a long weekend. Their dogs Mia and Buster are here and it is nice to have three dogs running around. It is like a sleep over for Duncan as he and Mia the Austrian Shepherd are never more then a few feet away from each other as they run the cabin and have been told by the wife several times to "Take it outside." Buster is the old man of the group and at twelve he is very comfortable just following me around and sleeping at my feet. I have been taking care of him since he was a pup so this is pretty much his second home. Several times I have made the comment about it being nice having the sound of paws running on the wood floors again and the wife would just give me a glare over the top of her glasses. But I did catch her feeding all the dogs some cookies that she said were old.

Today I have made a few trips outside but I have a hat on and my coat is zipped up. Not real cold out but you can tell the difference between the high thirties and the middle teens. Tonight will be ice making weather for sure as it will be well below zero. Matter of fact in town the outdoor thermometers have been switched back to Fahrenheit from Celsius, it is now cold enough we don’t have to fake it for the tourist. Wife was just in here showing me that she had washed my winter coat and just took it out of the dryer. She asked if I wanted it by the back door or back in the front closet. I told her to toss it on the chair and five minutes later one of the tom cats was sleeping on the still warm coat.

Just got a laff here as Duncan and Mia were let out the door and took off to the edge of the property. I was watching as Duncan was looking a little birdie. I was just going to call out to the wife to look out the window when a grouse blew up out of a snow drift and I could almost hear it take to wing inside the cabin. I snorted a little juice in my noise as I saw Mia jump back as the grouse rattled the city dog. Like a little kid she then acted tough and showed Duncan she was not scared of some bird and strutted some. Duncan just gave her a look and I am sure he just shook his head at her and walked away here at Lake Iwanttobethere