Firsts in the new province

So I am slowly getting use to my new home.  The interesting winter weather two weeks ago  was a good test to my driving skills.  I love 4WD now and can totally appreciate why so many people drive huge trucks with even huger tires,  my sense of "thats a waist of gas/diesel" looking down my nose at people who drive them has now gone out the window to " were can I get tires like that?  with studs and a ski doo in the back too"  after  learning how to drive on an iced highway with no salt trucks in sight since 'well ya know salt does nothing at minus 40' ... the temp was minus 3 when we were hit with freezing rain ... and salt WILL do something at that temp which will help with having LESS accidents on the road  DA's...  I'm thinking of starting a lobbying group for at least some salt with the sand which by the way  makes great muddy  ice  at  minus 3...  At least the icky weather was gone in a few days and driving was back to normal.  Still looking into studded tires for the winter though.

 One other intersting thing I have noticed is that I am very close to both major cities in alberta, calgary and edmonton.  This has allowed me to see family more often and on a last minute schedule too.  Visiting family in ontario could sometimes be a scheduling night mare.  Bracebridge for example is over 8 hours away from were I was living.  With prices of gas in Ontario and having to book off extra days, it tended to cause for alot less visiting time of family and distant friends.  My local family saw me more often of course but even then it wasn't as often as I had wanted. Working seven day weeks tends to cut in on the social life.  Since I have moved here I have visited family in both major cities at least twice each,  its great connecting with them and catching up on life. But I still have to get to medicine hat someday soon too.

Now I have to say not having an Ikea in the same town has taken alot to get use to, I now have to plan when we go shopping and theres no quick stops into Ikea for a little wander and a meal after work any more,sigh,but it makes it more worth while having to plan when and why we are going.  We have our new bed frame and its awesome, sleek simple and it has drawers to boot.
The other bane of my wallet is however that I am way closer to a Bass Pro Shop( an hour and a half away)....  We spent the after noon yesterday wandering happily around Bass Pro, they sell ice cream there if you didn't know.  I now have a list a mile long of cool camping gadgets and wondering were we can put a smoker or a jerky maker in our apt...this trip filled my inner red neck needs for sure and the impulse buy for the day was two red neck martini glasses and a cookbook on jerky...we decided to hold off on the dehydrator till we do a bit more  research on that :)

what can I say ...they called to us...

 For those of you who do not have snow yet ...this pics for you.....all the white stuff is snow by the way and the lake is almost frozen  over too, mind you some of the snow has melted in the last few days but its here to stay it seems . This is my view from my window, not too bad eh?

Oh and our local shire along with several of the fencers have bought new swords, there was a great sale from Cas Hanwei and we decided to go for it, me and kenny included.  Once the new additions are in I'll be taking pics of our first practice with the new blades .