Ymir Snow Festival

Ymir Snow Fest is an annual festival here in Ymir. We have this great Ymir community association here and I think I may try to get on the board this spring when the elections are held. There is an opening for the position of secretary. Maybe...

It was a great day for the festival, even the weather cooperated. Kootenays skies are a brilliant blue during a cold February sunny day. 

Pancake breakfast was the first item on the agenda. Theron; the local artisan bread maker served up some tasty spelt and sourdough pancakes. Delicious maple syrup delivery mechanisms! 

The morning started off with both the arts and some sports. We had an amazing woman come in and do some interpretive dance/yoga for the children. The energy was high and both kids and adults enjoyed some movement after the pancakes. The finale was beautiful as each dancer carried a magnificently coloured scarf and danced rhythmically through the hall; the flow of energy was crazy! Hula hoop workshop was next; they even got me up for a short stint. One hula hoop is tough enough, but the woman leading the workshop was able to keep a incredibly large number of them elegantly twirling from different areas of her body. Almost felt motion sickness watching her!  

All day we had three hardworking teams whittling away at three individual snow forms. The snow was shaped into big square blocks. Two of the three were done by our own locals working in groups of two or three. This is King Kong 

This is the Ymir ragnarok monster

The final sculpture was done single-handed by a Nelson resident. The howling wolf; how appropriate! 

But this isn't just a little hippy town; we also managed to get in the sports. In fact, this town is filled with winter sport enthusiasts; put most vancouverites to shame with the amount of physical fitness that happens around here. But onto the games. We had routabaga (turnip) curling, hockey, snow mobiling, a biathlon complete with BB gun air rifles! It was a blast; and even the weather cooperated! Blue skies and temperatures hovering around -2, a gorgeous kootenay day! One of the neighbours, Doug, brought out a remote control airplane and got it stuck in one of deciduous trees. It may be a while before it gets brought down as it is stuck in the top branches of a 40 foot tree!

In the evening there was a dance that started at five pm for the kids. I went home and recooperated for the Wild Wild West dance starting at 9. 

That's a saddle set up for photo shoots! This town loves themed parties. Here are a couple of dubious characters.

Great evening! I volunteered behind the bar and I thought it was a great way to meet more of my community. Which I did. We finally ran out of booze around 2:30am and then I got to dance to the Dj that was playing between and after the bands jams. Keeping with the theme; the band was The Pernell Reichert Band.

The band was great, they really kept everyone on the dance floor. 

Between the bands sets there was another naughtier bunch performing. A local burlesque group; the lovely Rosie Bitts and her troupe.

Too much fun! This little town has so much heart. I wish a few of you could have been here for it. Maybe next year.

Wine is ready to bottle!

Many of you may wonder what I do up here during the long winters?

That's right! This is the Shiraz from spagnols, it is the best! So yummy with great body, someone said they'd pay $15 bucks a bottle. Hahaha!

We bottled some grape wine from Willy over at Willow Creek Farm. He had some organic grapes he was looking to have drinkable! It was so much work because I didn't have a press and the grapes were so small and filled with seeds. I can still feel the sting in my hands from all the cuts from those seeds while crushing and pressing the grapes by hand! It is a bit tart, I added a sweetener and it's palatable, but will be better with some time. It's very light in colour, like a pink grapefruit colour; pretty. 

We also bottled some crabapple wine, Alex and I picked approx 26 pounds of my neighbours crabapple tree. We would have had more but the evening before we picked the tree was ravaged by a bear. He shared, or maybe he was saving some for later.... Lol it is very tasty, but very hard to get all of the sediment out. Even after clearing with a two part process there is a lot of sediment. We bottled anyways because we need the use of the carboys. 

Alex and I managed to get a dozen each of the Shiraz and crabapple and 7 of the willow creek grape. We also have 8 bottles to go to Wild Willy, 6 bottles to my neighbours with the crabapple tree and 2 bottles to the local bottle collector Bob who keeps me in wine bottles! Yay! 

Now for the enjoyment! Over my lips and through my tongue, look out stomach here the wine comes! Oh, and cheers!