Halloween or Christmas...?

I arrived out at Nordegg on the afternoon of October 30th.  Hailey and Annelise were already out at the cottage, having arrived the day before.  They went to see a live play in Calgary, before heading up to the cottage.  The evening of my arrival they took a ride in the side by side over to the Nordegg Cemetery.  It was about 10:00 when they headed out.... just a couple of hours before Halloween.  They didn't see any ghosts, but did get caught in the beginning of a snow storm.  They arrived back at the cottage about an hour later, and we put the side by side away in the garage.

When I got up the next morning it was very white.  It continued to snow all night long and by morning we had accumulation of about 4 to 5 inches.  The girls packed up and hit the road for home on Halloween morning.  Hailey had to work later that evening, and Anna has to get back to school.  They told me that the snow gradually decreased in volume the further out of the mountains they drove.

I headed up to the dump around noon and despite the fact that it had been open for a couple hours by the time I arrived, the attendant told me I was the first to stop by.  After that the sun started to break out and it began to warm it.  It remains to be seen how long this snow lasts.

I worked in the afternoon installing a new gate at the second property.  I had to borrow a hammer drill from my contractor, as my little cordless was useless, even with a concrete bit.  I managed to get the posts anchored to the footings, and the gate frames hung, but then ran out of time.  The whole assembly needs a little adjustment to make the panels line up right.  Its hard to do that by myself as the panels are nine feet wide and I can lift up on them and adjust the hangers at the same time.

It got up to a few degrees above freezing in the afternoon, and it was comfortable to work outside.  But nothing like the double digit temperatures that we've been having through most of October.  It seems that winter will be arriving shortly.  The skies flirted between overcast and breaking up all day, but it never got really warm, and the sunny periods didn't last long.  There is more snow forecast through the rest of the week and the temperatures are likely to drop a lot.

I had treats ready to hand out to any kids that came around on Halloween... but none showed up.  Last year when I was out on Halloween there were around a dozen.  I found out that the Community Association had a list of those that were handing out treats, so that the kids didn't waste time going to houses where no one was home.  Many of the properties out in the subdivision are only weekend residences.  Of course I didn't know about the list in advance, so my address was not on it.