Moving! Take 2

April has been a whirlwind month here in Saskatoon for us 'newlyweds on the prairie'. We've been busy moving and getting our new house ready to live in! James took a week off while we moved at the beginning of April and we were lucky enough to have some good friends help us schlep boxes from the old house to the uhaul to the new house. Thank you Damien and Elise! 

The new house is great- the location is very handy and we like having a bit of extra space. The kitchen is really well laid out and we've been making good use of it. As a treat, James just made English muffins from scratch! I'm going to have mine with some plum jam. 

We've got the house pretty well set up - it looks like home with our piano centre stage in the living room. I don't want to have to move the piano anytime soon though - it was quite the job for the piano movers getting it up the steep front steps. In terms of living room furniture, we're just waiting for our couch to arrive just in time for our anniversary. The rest of the house is all done! 

Our guest bedroom is all ready and we're looking forward to my mum's visit at the end of May. The weather has been beautiful here for the last couple of days - spring really seems to have sprung. Hopefully it will continue to cooperate for her visit! 

Talk to you soon, 

S&J and J&S

Hibernation

I've been like a bear since Christmas. Hibernating. Cozy and warm inside of the house. The house was scented with pine and gingerbread in December. In January the windows fogged up with a constant soup pot bubbling on the stove. February brought warming stews, chocolate cakes, and last summer's strawberries transformed into mousse a la Julia Child. Now that it is March, I've pulled out the pastel table cloth, napkins, and placements in the hopes of coaxing spring from the frozen landscape. And the truth is, it seems to have worked! We definitely don't have cherry blossoms, like some places I know, but the grass is peeking through the slush. The sidewalks are either bare or a giant puddle that invites splashing. On my afternoon walks, I can wear my green rain shell with a sweater underneath and my flowered rain boots. In a fit of optimism, I've put my down parka in the closet upstairs and hope that I won't have to pull it out again until next year. James is thrilled that he no longer has to scrape his car in the mornings. The block heater plugs are unused and stored in the garage. 

Of course, March has arrived gently with above zero temperatures and sunshine. We could very well be in for another arctic blast as she roars out like a lion. But the forecast is good for the next little while and I am hopeful. 

Winter is certainly not all bad. We spent some time up north in Prince Albert while James had a rotation in Obs/Gyne there in February. I went up to visit for the weekend and the town was kind enough to put the Winter Festival on while I was there. While very well bundled, we saw a horse drawn sleigh, a trapper competition, and listened to the tremendous noise of a sled dog race. As the dogs lined up, they were like live wires, jumping and barking - impatient to be on their way. And as soon as the flag waved, they were off like a shot. The sudden silence was magical as hundreds of dogs went to work and tore across the snow and out onto the trail. 

We soon put our own skis to the snow as we went to check out the ski area, Little Red, in Prince Albert. The area up there is full of rolling hills (really! Hills!) and boreal forest. Single track cross country ski trails snake their way in and out of the forest. It was wonderful to get out and into a place that felt wild. For the most part this winter, I've been cross country skiing on golf courses' manufactured landscapes. It's fantastic to be 5 minutes from the trails, but it was particularly lovely to go out into the woods at Little Red. James rented a pair of skis and boots for $6, then skiied around the trails with me, staying upright and enjoying himself. We did have a mini lesson on stopping, but I started using my "teacher voice" and remembered that I'd promised not to use it on him! The rental skis were slow, wax-less skis anyways, so he wasn't in any danger of moving at a great rate.

We'll be moving to a new house in April and are beginning the process of buying furniture, as the new place is unfurnished. It is however, twice the size of our current house! We're pretty excited about making the new place our home and hope that you'll be out to visit us soon. We have space for you! 

Love, J+S and S+J

Snowy Sunday

If any of you have, by chance, been following the weather in Saskatoon, then you will know that it snowed about 15 - 20 cm this weekend. We have exciting, non-snow-ploughed conditions on the little roads around our house, so when James and I went to the gym earlier today we had a chance to test out the snow tires. Result? They work! In fact, they might have better grip than my snow boots, as I slipped a bit as I walked across the gym's compressed snow parking lot and the car was fine when we left! (And my snow boots are really grippy too, so I suppose the tires must be EXTRA good.)

Our Little House on the Snowy Prairie

I've made a little Christmas wreath and have hung it on the door. Some of the neighbours down the street even have their Christmas lights up already. I will consider putting ours up soon, but I think it will have to wait until after 25 November. My next project is to make some cornstarch clay ornaments - I tried making some salt dough ones, but they were fairly misshapen and childlike. (Of course, this is not a problem at all when I am making them with a class of kindergartners or Grade 1's!) I am hoping that the cornstarch clay will have a bit more of a polished look to it. 

My Paper Wreath

Speaking of Kindergarten, I did not get the K and Gr 12 position that I interviewed for last week, as I did not have enough high school experience. This was not at all shocking to me, as I have only ever taught in an elementary setting. The superintendent, however, was very kind on the phone, and said that I'd interviewed extremely well and if the position had only been elementary, then it would have been mine! Then he proceeded to tell me that there will be some new elementary postings coming up soon and suggested that I apply for those jobs. With any luck (and perhaps some skill) I might get a position in the New Year. 

In any case, I am going to Borden, SK to teach a K/1 class next week and am looking forward to it. Perhaps we can make some salt dough ornaments together! 

James was on call for General Surgery, Friday night and only slept one hour. They were busy all day, then went in to the O.R. in the early evening for an urgent case and didn't finish until close to midnight. This meant, however, that everything else had been piling up while they were in the O.R. and so James had to deal with that before he could rest his weary head. He came home Saturday morning and went straight to bed, not emerging until the late afternoon. 

Last night (Saturday)  we went over to our friends' (new!) house for a Chinese Hot Pot dinner. It's like a broth fondue, so you dip your meat, tofu, wontons, vegetables, and noodles into a simmering pot of broth and scoop it out with a neat metal net when it's finished. Then you eat it, yum! We had a great time inside with the delicious hot pot and good friends, while it stormed and raged outside. It felt delightfully cozy. At least until we had to venture back out into the night and brush the snow off of the car. (Only joking, the snow had stopped by then and it looked like a bit of a winter wonderland, with lights twinkling all over the neighbourhood and the snow sparkling under the lights.)

Hard to believe that 3 months ago the Splash Park was in full swing!

I'm looking forward in going to see the Festival of Trees at the Museum of Western Development (we can practically walk over, it's so close to our house) and also seeing the Parade of Lights at the Forestry Farm. They've both opened up this weekend, so perhaps James and I will visit one tonight! I'm also eagerly anticipating opening up my ski bag and getting my XC skis scraped and ready for the trails. The river valley should be groomed next week, so hopefully I'll get a little ski in. It's nice being able to go and work out inside of the warm gym, but being outside in the fresh air is even lovelier. (I may change my tune about this when it is -40. I will keep you posted.) 

A Subaru in its element. 

All in all, everything is well here. We are well exercised and well fed. The cars continue to start and grip well on the snow. The library is just a short walk away, NETFLIX and HGTV are available for watching, and I've got a good supply of popcorn and hot chocolate. Talk to you all soon!

Love, S + J and J + S

Winterized

Winter has arrived. The snow has stuck and the temperature has climbed down well past zero degrees. With wind chill, it's been averaging about minus fifteen to minus twenty for the past week and a half. However, this means I have an excellent excuse to drink hot chocolate, do lots of baking (bread! brownies! cinnamon buns! pie!), and snuggle up inside with a good book. Or a good Netflix series... All this being said, winter is still a fairly recent arrival. It's not that long ago that we were on the road to Calgary, wearing t shirts with the AC on!

Our back yard now. Notice our lovely rock pile.

Eric and MC's backyard in Cochrane a few weeks ago.
Notice the lovely Rockies in the distance.

We took a trip to Calgary and Edmonton at the end of October, to visit with some good friends and to to a little bit of shopping at stores that we don't have in Saskatoon. We went to a huge board game shop in Calgary, The Sentry Box, bought winter boots at MEC, and had a jolly good time sitting on couches at IKEA. We also went for lots of walks in the foothills and even took a day trip to Canmore to hike up a mountain. (It's true, we do really miss the mountains.) Thank you again to Eric and MC, Rhiana and Cory, and Jane and Serge for their excellent hospitality, delicious food, and great company. Hopefully we'll be able to host you in Saskatoon sometime soon and/or make another trip out to Alberta. We'll probably need to visit IKEA again in the spring, as we'll be moving and likely need to buy some furniture... 

We took the "difficult" trial to prove that we are tough.

Head west and this is what you'll find!

Now that we're well into cold and flu season, I've had a few days of work. I've been teaching in towns around Saskatoon. The most memorable of these towns (so far!) is Asquith - it has a sign that states that it is "The Centre of the British Empire". Impressive, yes? I've also just had an interview for a position teaching Kindergarten and Gr 12 English, a fairly interesting combination! I'd definitely need to be able to switch my hats quickly for that job! However, I think that to teach English 12 here that teachers need to be accredited - it means I'd need two years experience teaching the course and I'd also need to take a specific class to become accredited. Too bad, because I think it would really be neat combo to teach! In any case, I'm happy that they're interviewing me for full time positions! And I'm enjoying discovering new towns and schools in my travels as a substitute teacher.

James has been really busy with his General Surgery rotation for the past four weeks. He's halfway through it now and is thrilled to have a whole weekend without call! He's been working on cases like appendectomies, abscesses, and bowel surgeries, as well as generally taking care of patients on the surgery ward. He's had a lot of 24 hour call days recently, which is pretty tough, but at least he's been getting a few hours sleep when on call. That doesn't always happen! 

Both of our cars are ready with their block heaters and snow tires - James just plugged his car in, as its been getting cold enough over night to make the car struggle a bit in the mornings. We went for a walk by the river this afternoon and made our own "block heaters" out of merino wool base layers, snow boots good to -50, and down parkas. We're ready for whatever winter wants to throw at us. I'm even excited to break out my cross country skies as soon as the trails are ready!

Notice the ice floes in the river.

Winterized.

That being said, I'm sure that we're both really going to enjoy our trip home to Victoria at Christmas time. Not only will there be family, friends and good cheer, but the weather will (hopefully!) be warmer than - 20! 

Love to you all,

S+J and J+S

Pumpkin Buns Recipe

Pumpkin Buns

These buns are based on Canadian Living's "Crusty Crown Loaf". The turmeric, cinnamon, and pumpkin provides a great twist for Thanksgiving, Halloween, a Harry Potter party, or really any celebration of Fall. 

Ingredients
Pinch        granulated sugar
3/4 cup     warm water
2 1/2 tsp   active dry yeast
3/4 cup     warm milk
1/4 cup     olive oil 
4 1/2 cups all purpose flour (approximately)
2 tsp          salt
1/2 cup      pumpkin or squash purée
1 Tbsp       turmeric
1 tsp          cinnamon 

- In large bowl, dissolve sugar in warm water. Sprinkle in yeast; let stand until frothy, about 10 minutes. Stir in warm milk, olive oil, and pumpkin purée. Stir in 3 3/4 cups of the flour, the salt, the turmeric, and the cinnamon, to form a shaggy, moist dough. 

- Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Knead, dusting with as much of the remaining flour as necessary to prevent sticking, until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. For into ball; place into greased bowl, turning to grease all over. Cover with plastic wrap; let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 hours.

- Grease two rimless baking sheets; set aside.

- Punch down dough. Divide into 8 pieces for large pumpkin buns or 16 pieces for small pumpkin buns. Shape each into a ball, stretching and pinching the dough underneath to smooth tops; place, seam side down, on prepared pans. Cover with a damp tea towel; let rise in warm place until not quite doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes.

- Preheat oven to 400 degree F.

- With a sharp knife (the sharper, the better) score each bun vertically 8 times, to make the bun have "ridges" like a pumpkin. 

- Whisk one egg with 1 Tbsp water; Brush mixture over rolls.

- Score 8 pecans lengthwise and stick the pecan half into the pumpkin bun (to look like the stem). 

- Bake in centre of 400 degree F oven until golden and rolls sound hollow when tapped on bottoms, about 20 minutes for small buns, 25 minutes for large buns. Transfer to rack; let cool. 

Close Encouters of a Poultry Kind

September was a month of juxtapositions in Saskatoon. First, we endured a cold snap that had me rushing to tuck away my summer dresses and pull out my boots, scarves, and mittens. Next, the weather warmed up to well over 20 degrees for the next little while. Our nights are cold, but we're routinely having warm afternoons. During the cold snap I applauded myself for rushing out to the garden and dealing with the vegetables immediately (as in, harvesting the last bits and then pulling them out of the ground, prepping the beds for winter) but then I felt pretty silly, as it heated up again so soon. If I had tucked the vegetables in at night with a blanket and a bedtime story, then perhaps we would have been able to eat some home grown eggplants at our Thanksgiving dinner! 

Alas, I was too hasty in my drive to prepare for winter. Ever since we arrived here last June, I've had a constant refrain in my head: Winter is coming. Whenever I talk to someone about how I'm from Victoria, they first chuckle, then they tell me that the winter is really not that bad, and finally they add, "But make sure you buy a good parka." On the bright side, we do get an awful lot of sunshine hours on the prairies - Saskatoon's motto is "Saskatoon Shines!" after all. 

Nonetheless, I've gotten winter tires installed on both of our cars, I've dug out my merino wool base layers, and I've purchased a down parka. The parka is really cool, as it is a "shape shifter" - it has built in mittens and a face shield. This will be good when I am called out to sub at a school and have to do recess duty at minus 20 degrees. (Recess is only cancelled when the temperature and wind chill are colder than minus 30. School is cancelled with the combined temperature and wind chill are colder than minus 40.)

The kids went back to school here in Saskatoon (and they're back in BC too now, hooray!) but I didn't go back right away. I'm on the sub list for the Prairie Spirit School Division, but haven't had many calls yet. I've been spending a lot of time at Warman Elementary and really enjoying the one-to-one time that I get to spend with the students as a reading tutor. I begin my Special Ed Diploma in January, so perhaps one day in the not so distant future I will be working a Learning Assistance/Special Ed teacher! 

We had a lovely Thanksgiving here this past weekend. I did the full traditional meal, with cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, squash, and brussell sproats, with the substitution of a chicken for the turkey. We had a resident friend (also from Victoria) over for Thanksgiving dinner and had a great time eating too much whipped cream and pumpkin pie! Luckily it was beautiful, warm and sunny on Sunday, so James and I went for a long bike ride along the river, up the Meewasin Valley Trail, hopefully burning off some of that whipped cream! On Thanksgiving Monday we had some friends over for lunch and had the requisite chicken soup, cranberry-chicken salad sandwiches, and pumpkin shaped buns. Delicious! 

Here are a few pictures of our Thankgiving food adventures. Sadly I forgot to bring my phone along for our bike ride so we couldn't partake in the picture taking extravaganza that everyone else and their dog was doing. It made for an interesting swerving course on the bicycles in any case! 

Thanksgiving Dinner, with all the trimmings!

 Pumpkin Buns - I'll post the recipe soon, I promise!

Visitors!

We've had a busy end of August. J began his Obstetrics rotation, I interviewed for jobs, and we had some tremendous visitors - both overnight and for another dinner party!

I'm happy to report that I've been offered a substitute teaching position at Praire Spirit School Division - it's the one that is for the little towns just outside Saskatoon. I've been busy filling out forms and submitting the paperwork, so hopefully I'll be able to receive call outs very soon. School has started here in Saskatchewan. We have a Catholic Elementary School right across the street from our house, so on September 2 I had fun watching the small people whose backpacks are approximately two-thirds of their body size, struggle up to the school and go inside, ready for learning. I know that the situation is not yet resolved in BC, so I sincerely hope that an agreement is negotiated soon. Teachers want to be teaching and students certainly need to be learning!

On regular shift days, J gone from quarter to seven in the morning until after six o'clock in the evening. During call shifts, he's at the hospital for a bit over 24 hours. He's adapted and gotten into the swing of things and is generally feeling very useful and like he's chosen the right specialty. He loves it! He's been getting to do deliveries (lots of deliveries!), assist with C-Sections, assess new patients who come in, and check on the post-partum mothers. Before he started the rotation we had to go to a certain big box store and buy him some Croc-like rubber shoes - the ones WITHOUT holes, mind you. He needs them for the inevitable dump of amniotic fluid. Hence the lack of holes and the easy clean material!

Our first visitor this August, was my dear friend M. We go way back to Grade 6 when I first arrived in the Comox Valley. She's living in Alberta now, so we rejoiced over the fact that we are now just a straight and easy (if long) drive away from each other. The weather cooperated beautifully while she was here, so I took her on a gorgeous bike ride up the river valley. We stopped off at the Farmer's Market on our way home and picked up some gorgeous veggies, local cheese, and a delicious rhubarb wine, made by Living Sky Winery right here in Saskatchewan. By the time that we got home, we were so hot that we had to go and run around in the Splash Park that is across the street from my house! There were a few young teenagers who really enjoyed throwing buckets of water at us, but we didn't care as it cooled us down! 

M stayed until Friday last week and then it was time for her to return home. J and I did a quick house clean and turn around, then got ready for our dinner party with his resident colleagues on Saturday. This time we had an Indian menu - J made Tandoori chicken, rice, and naan, and I did the veggies. The other residents brought some fabulous appetizers, like bocconcini, tomatoes, and basil, and a crab dip, as well as a fantastic dessert of triple chocolate brownies. Everything was delicious, but we're all going to have to triple our work outs if we keep eating at this rate!

Then on Sunday, J's mum D and her friend appeared after doing the long drive from Victoria to Saskatoon. They did it in three days like we did and made very good time. They drove J's Subaru out here, so now we have two cars! (Just in time for cold weather - J has been biking to work throughout the summer, but when the weather turns he will drive.) The four of us took a trip out to The Berry Barn for perogies, farmer's sausage, and Saskatoon Berry pie on Labour Day and toured about our new city. On Tuesday, we went out to the Prairie Harvest Cafe to enjoy supper and even ordered Maple Bacon doughnuts for dessert. I was the only one who actually liked the Maple Bacon doughnuts, however! (They reminded me of French Toast with bacon and berry sauce.) D and I took a trip out to the Prairie Spirit School Board office for me to deliver my papers and get set up for their automated call out system. The office is in Warman, SK, which is a bedroom community of Saskatoon. It took us about 20 minutes to drive out to Warman, which is a faster commute than I was doing to get out to the Saanich School District from Fairfield, when we were living in Victoria. This being said, in the winter, it will probably take a bit longer than 20 minutes. 

Yesterday I put D on the airplane to return home after going to London Drugs to print off a few wedding pictures for her. We really enjoyed her visit and are looking forward to our visit home at Christmas! Being so far away from home is the one bummer about being here... However, we are definitely making friends and keeping busy. I've finished our wedding scrapbook and am ignoring the weeds in the garden. We've got cucumbers like crazy, green peppers, and an eggplant that I'd originally thought was a zucchini! We're going to be busy tomorrow with J's car, as we now need to go through the Saskatchewan registration process with it. Luckily it only needed some minor repairs before it could be certified for Saskatchewan roads. 

J and I have a BBQ to go to tomorrow evening. The staff (re: Attending Physicians) are throwing it for the residents and apparently over 70 people have RSVP'd already. Tonight I'm going to take it easy and kick back, re-reading Barbara Kingsolver's Animal, Vegetable, Miracle. If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it! It's the story of her family's year of local eating.

Talk to you all soon!

Love, S + J and J + S