Jowl Dropper

Waiting for my garden

2007-04-11T10:31:00.000-07:00

I shovelled way the last chunky pile of snow that was lurking in a dark corner. The ground still freezes, my grass is brown and my gardens are filled with scruffy dead plants. If I didn’t have pictures of my beautiful flowers from last summer I am not sure that I would believe that they ever existed.

I moved into this house last June. Believe it or not that is early spring. We don’t plant things outdoors until the last weekend in May or the first weekend in June. I planted some snapdragons and nicotinas in large green pots by the front door.

As the days and weeks passed I noticed some small green spears poking up through the earth in my garden. I was shocked when these spears can into full bloom of rich and beautiful tiger lilies.

A few weeks ago I bought some seeds and soil and those little peat cups and plastic trays. I bought nasturtiums, salvia, thunbergia vine (black eyed Susan), purple morning glories, heavenly blue morning glories, cosmos (lady birds) and coreopsis. This weekend I am going get them started and plant them in the ground outside in six weeks.

Cruise and Wait and Cruise and Rise

2007-04-08T15:27:00.000-07:00

Easter has never really had any religious meaning to me. As a kid it was all about the Easter bunny scattering a trail of chocolate through out the house for my brother, sister and I to gorge ourselves on sometimes resulting, in my case, in vomiting from over consumption. Since moving out on my own he or she (I suspect the Easter bunny is a she – who else would distribute that much chocolate?) seems to have lost my address.

The other major indicator of Easter is the plethora of delicious homemade hot crossed buns from a recipe has been handed down from generation to generation on my mom’s side of the family. The last few years (since moving to the other side of the country from my parents and not being able to raid their hot crossed bun supply) I have joined in on the tradition and have baked my own. Now I am a vegan so I had to tweak the recipe a bit but when I follow the directions correctly (I have a habit of messing up the wet to dry ratio creating barely edible hot crossed pucks) I make a pretty darn good bun. I question the integrity of those small strange candied fruits and choose to replace them with dried cranberries and blueberries.

(the dough pre-rolling pin)
I don’t have a rolling pin but have found in past years that wine bottles work great! We drank all the wine the other night and actually took all the empties to the bottle depot. I was worried that I would have nothing to roll the dough out with but in the dark recesses of the back of the fridge I found one of those skinny bottles of dessert wine. It is a homemade dessert wine and I am afraid of the hangover potential lurking inside the bottle waiting spew on me from morning to night so I have not tasted it yet. I imagine one day when a bunch of friends are over and we have drank the liquor cabinet dry we will break into this bottle. Until then I think it is a handy little rolling pin.

I think I will head out on my cruiser while I am waiting fo the dough to rise.

The Finished Product!!! I think this is my best turn out yet. The only problem is...i ate too many!

Hazelton Hounds

2007-03-27T23:46:00.000-07:00

This is Chip. He is great. He is like a little dog stuck inside of a big dog’s body. I don’t mean that he is yappy or snappy or annoying but that he leaps and jumps and plays like a puppy and has no idea just how big he is. He knocks over beer, bumps into furniture and steps on your feet but is so nice and so cute and so sweet and has a pretty groovy owner too. And Mia is Chip’s partner in crime. She is funny and sweet and silly and loves her Papa so much. She likes to play and has some really stinky farts (unless it was Mike trying to cover up his own stinky butt). I mean look at that wiggly little tail. How can you not love her?

What a great ski!!!

2007-03-27T23:27:00.000-07:00

I had a great day. I got to go skiing with 5 dogs and 5 people. It was so great.

Then we ran into Heather on the lake with her three dogs and the chaos erupted. It was so great.

Toby Misses Mom

2007-03-18T23:35:00.001-07:00

Toby suffers from separation anxiety. She is my roommate’s dog and Leah, my roommate, is in Vancouver for a week and a half visiting her sisters. Toby is upset. When Toby is upset she likes to chew things. Yesterday while I was at work she decided to take her anxieties out on my bras. She chewed up every single one of them except for the one I was wearing.
Although I am very upset with this little dog I also understand where she is coming from. Life can be really upsetting sometimes which causes some of us to be destructive. I myself tend to get self-destructive when I am really upset.

A Sad Story

2007-03-05T10:52:00.000-08:00

Yael Wand is a wonderful musician. She recently put out her second album and has been touring the province of British Columbia with amazing cellist, Christina Zaenker. Yael’s husband Jason flew down south to Vancouver to join the tour and accompany Yael on the epic drive back up north to Smithers. While they are both away I am taking care of their dog Story. Story has recently had a bout of bad luck. She fell out of the back of a truck and broke her back left leg. A metal plate was implanted to hold the bone together but it pulled away and made everything more uncomfortable. Now she has some strange sort of contraption on the outside of her skin making her look like a crazy cyber-dog. She has finally settled and is laying down and sleeping a lot but earlier she was pacing and panting and standing and staring at the floor. She keeps trying to worm her way behind furniture but she cannot turn around and she keeps getting the metal contraption caught on things. I will hear a shuffling, scuffling sound and find her stuck behind the couch. I have to go and move the furniture so that she can get out and then try to move it back in a way that she cannot get behind it. Poor Story. Yael and Jason should get home some time today.

Three Days of Sun Fade into Grey

2007-02-25T14:10:00.000-08:00

The days are longer. It is beginning to feel like spring although I know that we have at least six weeks of winter left.

Leah’s sister Sarah is visiting for a few days. She is full of piss and vinegar and smiles and sunshine. It is cool to see her and Leah together. Hear is a picture taken Friday night of the three of us with our dogs.
It really makes me miss my girls. They are scattered across the land and I fear we will not get together until someone else gets married. Ruthis’s wedding in 2004 and Yael’s wedding in 2006 seem like the only occasions that brought the whole crew together since University. Julie’s wedding is planned for September 2008 so I guess that might just be the next big reunion.

the Winter Wind

2007-01-24T08:10:00.001-08:00

It is ten to eight in the morning and there is a hint of blue in the sky. There is now light in the sky at 4:30 in the afternoon. These are improvements. The days are getting noticeably longer and I am happy about that. I feel my winter funk slowly slipping away. Next year I NEED (as Chad says) to spend November, December and January on the other side of the equator. I have been thinking about Africa but if I cannot afford to go there I will settle for Central America. Last night I was cruising the net and got pretty excited about traveling across the north of this great continent. Maybe flying to Europe (a little cheaper I think) and then taking the boat from Gibraltar to Morocco. From there well…it is so hard to say…I think Mauritania, Mail, Algeria, Libya, Egypt and then I hop skip and a jump across to Jordan finally ending up in Israel. I have to end in Israel. I cannot even be admitted entrance to any of the afore mention Muslim countries with an Israeli stamp on my passport. It sounds a little crazy but I guess it is like that whole Cuba-USA thing. Lame, lame, lame, lame, lame, lame, lame.

Woo-Whoo Happy New Year

2007-01-07T23:19:00.000-08:00

The nights are long but are getting shorter with every turn of the earth. I am grumpy and coming down off of excessive amounts of Christmas chocolate. I don’t make New Years resolutions yet I find each January I can’t help but think of ways I would like to shape and change my life. Unfortunately most of these thoughts and ideas are so shallow. I look into international volunteering opportunities, you know to tie into my interests but they all seem to have religious affiliations and cost so much money. I mean I don’t want to be a drain on an organization or on the community but I don’t think it needs to cost that much…I don’t know.

I feel like need to make some fundamental changes in my life…I need to figure out how to make myself feel better about my existence on the earth because currently I wonder why the hell I am here. There has to be more to it than serving people chicken wings and beer, skiing, feeding my dog and making an occasional piece of art. I’ve stopped reading the paper and rarely listen to the CBC any more.
Maybe if I make a list of goals I can at least accomplish a few of them. I don’t know…I feel kind of like the last year and a half of my life has been a bit of a waste. I do not want to feel this way anymore.

Sometimes I Feel Like People are Staring at Me When I am Buying Grapes

2006-12-05T23:16:00.000-08:00

I do not concern myself with cleaning my fruits and veggies pre-consumption. In fact I feel that ingesting bacteria and other micro biotic weird stuff on a regular basis boosts my immune system in way that a hyper-hygienic, flu shot infused existence could not even hold a candle too. Therefore I am not afraid to taste test grapes at the local Safeway. I taste the red and then the green and then the red globe and the black grapes prior to forming decisions about my purchase. I want to like what I get and to me taste testing is a form of insurance, although I always end up purchasing the red ones unless I can get my hands on some concords. I love concords. They have a flavour unimaginable for a grape or any food at that matter. Sweet, tart, fresh and juicy all within the skin of a mini grape. I also like to open the zip lock bags of grapes and put together the ultimate collection of perfectly ripe fruit. I mean you are buying them by weight so why is it so strange to do this?

Underground Howling of Barkerville

2006-12-03T17:11:00.000-08:00

You may know that dogs are not aloud to hang out in Barkerville but behind the scenes a few special dogs have been cruising those ghost town streets and trying to control the out of whack, tourist fattened population of Whistle Pigs (also know as Richardson’s Ground Squirrels.

This is Story. She has made her way into the hearts of the Barkerville maintenance crew. Right now she is living a bit of a double life. She has one home in New Barkerville, a grouping of houses that were moved from Barkerville in the 1960’s when this ghost town became a provincial park. They did not want people living on the site so their homes were moved about one kilometre outside of town just passed the cemetery. Recently Story broke her little dog leg. She actually has some sort of metal think bonding her leg bones together. Sad but true she would set off a metal detector. She looks ort of pitiful and limpy but she is a tough dog through and through.
And then there is Pokey who is the sweetest creature ever to have existed. I loved him so much that I made and hung prayer flags in his honour from the top of a mountain in Wells. It has now been renamed Pokey Summit. He grew up in Barkerville but moved to Wells at the age of seven to be with his true love, Moutou.

The Dogs of Wells

2006-12-03T14:29:00.000-08:00

Looper
This sweet and wiley husky fell off of the back of a truck passing through Wells and decided to stay. She likes to cruise and catch small mammals as an after breakfast snack.
Mickey Finn
The niece of Pokey this dog acts more human than a number of homosapiens I know. She likes snacks, massaging backrubs from the best massage therapist ever, Kate Sulis, and loves the big white door.

Hey-Guy
His name may simply be Guy but because we always see him roaming around and call Hey Guy! to him his name, at least in mine and Jen’s books, has become to Hey-Guy. Bizzi Girl
This is Bizzi Girl. She is busy. She likes to wear hats and pearls when she goes out shopping. Sometimes she also carries a handbag but that is only when she needs to bring her cell phone. She is the descendant of Duke Squark a howly jowly bloodhound and Sasha Pinkerton, a Jack Russell terrier that rides the big rigs with her papa. Bizzi has had a busy life. Born in Wells she moved to Grise Fiord, Nunavut at a young age but returned to Wells a few short years later. This September she decided to follow her people, Bogles and Mao Tse-tung, to Quesnel.
Molly is a sweet dog but she really truly has a pea brain. She likes to chase cars and can run faster than any dog I have ever met. She had early onset hip dysplasia and had the nerves in her hips snipped so they are still weak and sway from side to side when she walks but they don’t hurt. She lives with the one and only Judy Campbell. Judy is the real momma of Wells. She moved to Wells in 1973 and bought a house for less money than she paid for her chain saw. She is part of the Trails Society, The Historic Society, The Friends of Barkerville, The Friends of the Hall, Island Mountain Arts, The Wells Barkerville School and the list goes on. She has sharp teeth and hates Tofu.

Smithereen Canines

2006-12-03T14:06:00.000-08:00

This my dog Moutou. I love her. She is fluffy and silly and likes to bark. She also likes roll in dead things, play in the snow and go on road trips. She grew up in Montral but after 6 years in BC she has lost most of her french and only has a hint of an accent. Next is Baby Tobes. She is the smallest but her crazy personality is full power. She likes to chew things, especially underpants. I know I should actually learn from this and not leave my shit laying around but I just can not seen to get that straight.
Poe (short for Pony Princess even though he is a boy) has a very sweet face but I have chosen not to show it to you. He really is best known for his sheep butt. Fuzzy-wuzzy with absolutely no hint of a tail. Although he is an American, originally from Alaska and recently relocated to Whistler, he is a Smithers dog through and through. He is a bit of a Houdini and likes to sneak out of his yard. Often times he can be found around the back of the Sausage Factory on Main Street. Once he even snuck into the Alpenhorn Restaurant where I work. Everyone loves Poe but he is not alowd in the restaurant. Health inspectors seem to have problems with furry quadrupeds in public eating establishments.

The Telkwa Pack

2006-12-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

Gus is a man…actually he is more of an adolescent. He is like Kurt from the Sound of Music. I think the word they used was incorrigible. He lives in Telkwa with a lot of really nice dogs and really nice boys. Kai is his big brother. He is a real man, and a cool one at that. He doesn’t try he just is. Johnny lives with them too. He has a big smile and loves the loves. He reminds me of Moutou but is much bigger, browner and a boy. His last name in Zyp. I think that is the best name that I have ever heard of.I think this dog’s name is Cassidy. She was living in Telkwa with the last three dogs but decided that Golden is more of her scene. I can’t really blame her. Golden is a nice place and her people were going.

Victoria Hound

2006-12-03T13:48:00.000-08:00

This is Abindar Doggiewal.

She has a pointy snout, tiny little pencil legs and a turd body. She is and happiest when she is with her momma Meghan and is probably in a bit of a state since her momma finally got her skinny little butt off of this continent and is spending 6 months working on some sort of internship in South Africa and Abbey is living with Russ, Meghan’s boyfriend, in Victoria.

desire to inspire or just perspire

2006-11-27T12:22:00.000-08:00

This is the last piece of art that I have made. I made it about a month ago so I should really get rockin’ on a new piece but sometimes it is so hard to get these things started. I have a few neat ideas but nothing too inspiring. What is inspiration anyways???

Well…Webster’s Dictionary defines it as follows…

Main Entry: in·spi·ra·tion Pronunciation:
in(t)-sp&-'rA-sh&n,

Function: noun
1 a : a divine influence or action on a person believed to qualify him or her to receive and communicate sacred revelation
b : the action or power of moving the intellect or emotions c : the act of influencing or suggesting opinions
2 : the act of drawing in; specifically : the drawing of air into the lungs
3 a : the quality or state of being inspired
b : something that is inspired
4 : an inspiring agent or influence

The sun is finally out after a few weeks of snow and grey so I think I should go out there and see if I can draw anything in that I can eventually spew out.

Snow and Parties…Always a Good Mix

2006-11-26T20:52:00.000-08:00

The winter has really set in here with ice and snow and temperatures dropping to –22 degrees Celsius. I have been bundling up in at least four layers to brave the cold. With the cold comes many a party and not just any parties. No, no, no…dress up parties.

The Prom Party

By the way, the guy in this photo’s name is Logan. He is from Whistler, loves to fish and snowboard, is planning to go to Central America for a few months this winter, drives a red Toyota Four Runner, is 6 foot 6 and is very nice. I think I left my amazing purple Bolivian scarf in his truck. If anyone knows him can you please find out if he still has it and please contact me at this betharama@animail.net. Thanks!

The Gender Bender

A chaotic annual event at which women dress as men and men dress as women. There is live music and every body dances. I would love to give you a full on description of this chaotic event with photos and quotes and all of that stuff but I can’t. Words and images just do not do it justice. So will leave you with this one image of a Kim Mitchell look alike being hit on by a perky pink haired girl and seriously suggest that you put the Gender Bender on your agenda for 2007.

The Snow Boot Ball
We transformed the Alpenhorn (the restaurant I work at in Smithers BC) into a winter wonderland by hanging glittery snowflakes from everything possible and a spinning Polar Bear Shaped Disco Ball from the ceiling. Glittery sparkles of light danced around the room as the bands, Pedestrian X and Foxy Autopsy belted out original tunes and funky covers to a bunch of snowboot wearing dancing folks all stoked to start a new season at Ski and Ride Smithers. We also call this the Oller Festival to celebrate Oller the Nordic God of frost glitter and skiing which he invented.. He may also have invented yodeling. There is no concrete proof about this but I suspect it is true.

The Mexican Fiesta

Yesterday the Bulkley Valley Folk Music Society held a fundraising dance at the Glenwood Hall in Driftwood. My girls and I decided against dressing up in sombreros, ponchos or as Mexican peasant girls and suited ourselves up as a Mexican Gang raring to raise a little hell in Northern BC. We danced, shot Tequila, laughed and made it home virtually unharmed.

Vessie Poo

2006-11-26T14:19:00.000-08:00

Our dear friend Vesna has left for her new life in Whistler. Her and her husband Jake are renting out an apartment above the garage of a Country Mansion in Pemberton and will spend pretty much the whole winter skiing. I already miss them so much…especially Vesna. We were a trio. We had so many good times together. Here is a little photo action showing some of our many adventures.

I Miss You Vessie!!!

I Wish I Had My Camera

2006-11-13T20:12:00.000-08:00

Today I experienced yet another first. A friend is taking down a summer mining camp. I helped unpack a bunch of leftover food from the back of his pickup and into his garage. Roughneck after roughneck and an entire freezer full of cereal, sugar, bacon, salad dressing, dried beans, frozen veggies, cool whip and frozen pig bum. Yes a pig bum. When I woke up this morning I had no idea that I would be looking at the backside of a frozen hog in a garage in Telkwa.

Northern Living Check List

2006-11-08T10:23:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been to Canada? How about British Columbia? How about ‘Northern BC’ (anywhere north of Vancouver). Well I live in Smithers. It is somewhere close to the geographical centre of the Province of B.C. but is always referred to as the North. Here is a list of living essentials in case you choose to head up to this region.

At least one woolly toque, preferably with earflaps (if you don’t know what that is you are clearly not Canadian and should consider doing some research before crossing the border)
Thermal underwear (merino wool and poly propylene are recommended)
A fleece jacket
A BIG woolly sweater
Fleece pants
A stretchy skirt to fit over the fleece pants
A long and colourful scarf
Cozy mittens
A layer of gortex to cover all of the above
And a BIG bottle of Whiskey

One Small Motor and the Polar Bear Dances

2006-11-07T15:26:00.000-08:00

My mission today was to buy a motor. Not just any motor but a little motor. One that circles around and around at a slow pace. Something that I can hang my newly finished disco ball from. I live in the north in a small town. There is heaps of snow on the ground and the sun is ont the other side of the earth lighing up Africa or something from 4:30 pm until about 9:00 the next morning. During these long evenings I divide my time between partying my butt off and holing away in my homey cave making funny things like a disco ball in the shape of a polar bear. A little odd I know but I made it with the Snow Boot Ball in mind. This party marks the beginning of winter and skiing and snow. We make some sort of offering to Oller, the Norse god of glitter, frost and Skiing nd dance and drink and carry on into the wee hours of the morning maybe even until the sun leaves Frica and comes back to us in Canada. Anyways there will be live music and an outdoor dance floor and a bunch of snow lovin’ kooks wildly dancing in their customized ski and snowboard boots. I though a disco ball would improve this event and why not make one shaped like a polar bear? So three days and 16 finger cuts later I have a polar bear disco ball named Wallace. It seems that disco ball motors are difficult to find in these parts and no one seems to want to deliver one to Canada. I went to the local hardware shop where Dick, the owner and operator hooked me up with a rotisserie; you know those things to cook chickens over open flames? Slow moving circular motions…I’ll see if it will do the trick.