Update: When will it melt?

Yes, the snow finally melted in our backyard this week.  The last few small piles stuck around for awhile but the final date was May 6th.  There was a record high on that day of 31C (about 88F).

What do they do with all that snow?

This was a question I asked several times when I would hear stories from former coworkers in Bismarck.  Of course when we agreed to move to Canada, I knew I was about to learn the answer.  Although it did snow some this week, I still think I can safetely say that we have survived our first winter (or at least part of one) and I thought I might share what I've learned.

I believe the snow plows, graders, and dump trucks ran pretty much every day all winter long.  Ethan and I would see (or hear) them whenever we were out.  If the streets didn't need to be cleaned, they would be working to move the snow piles that were created from when they did clean the streets.  The city has several locations throughout town where they haul the snow and dump it.  During the time that we were here, we didn't see our cul-de-sac get cleared but it looked like it had been cleaned at least once before we arrived.  I did hear in the news, that the city was starting on the neighborhood streets but it got interrupted by more snow and finally the snow just started melting. The neighborhood streets are suppose to be a 5 day process and they have a schedule online showing when each neighborhood should be completed. 

We did know that they put down sand on the roads here instead of salt or chemical because of the cold temperatures.  We learned that they are able to recycle some of this sand each year.  The snow piles in the snow melt areas around town will melt down this summer leaving the sand behind.  There is also lots of the sand remaining on the streets and we are told the street sweepers will pick up the sand and recycle it. 

When Wade and I came to visit in September we saw a large building with a huge fenced in area beside it.  Wade was looking at the Engineered Air units on top of the large building but I noticed the sign had the same logo as the buses around town.  What we couldn't figure out was what the huge fenced in area was for.  We know know that this was one of the snow melt areas where the snow is hauled off to.

Corpse Flower

The Muttart Conservatory in Edmonton had a rare flower bloom, the Amorphophallus titanum or corpse flower, so of course we went to visit it.  The flower bloomed overnight Sunday and we didn't hear the news until almost lunch time on Monday.  Ethan ended up taking a long nap Monday so we decided to wait and go first thing Tuesday morning.  This was probably the best time to go anyways because we heard the line was long on Monday and the smell was already starting to fade (although we weren't really sure we even wanted to smell it).  Here is some information from the Conservatory's facebook page and also the facts we were told during our visit:

• On the first day the plant is at its most beautiful -- full bloom, open spathe (the modified ribbed leaves around the bottom of the plant) and super stinky.
• On the second day, the spathe can become a bit wilted due to the amount of energy the plant used to heat itself up and open.
• On the third day the spadix (the tall flower stalk), usually wilts, and the spathe may become quite droopy. 
•  The plant has both female and male flowers at the base of its spadex. The bloom is incapable of self-pollinating, however. This is due to timing: the female flowers are fertile only the first day of the bloom, and the male flowers don't release pollen until the second day of the bloom.
• The bulb of the plant is 275 pounds and will take another 10 years to bloom.
• The corpse flower is the tallest flower.
• This flower grew to be 7'9" and grew in only 5 weeks.

The Muttart Conservatory consists of 4 pyramid shaped buildings with each one having a different climate (temperate, arid, tropical, and a feature pyramid).  We quickly looked through the other pyramids before leaving.  The feature pyramid right now is The Cancer Society Show with an abundance of daffodils and it was good to finally see some daffodils this year.

Road Trip

Since the weather hasn't been completely miserable lately, we decided it was time for our first road trip.  There aren't a ton of weekend trip options from Edmonton but we started with an easy trip first and headed to Calgary (plus it was the weekend of the design meeting so Wade wanted to stop by the hotel and say hi to a couple of the DeSoto guys).  Wade decided to take the snow tires off the Trail Blazer before we left so of course it snowed a good portion of the weekend but luckily the roads weren't that bad.  

Our friends (Andre, Jen, and Erik) were nice enough to let us stay with them for the weekend.  The boys had lots of fun playing and we figured both boys would have withdraws Monday morning.  While there we visited the Calgary Zoo.  They have a nice penguin exhibit that Wade got a tour of a couple years ago so I was looking forward to seeing it.  

It seemed like a good zoo even though we only saw about half because it was a bit cold and windy and we finally gave up in order to get the boys home before nap time.  We look forward to going back on a nicer day to see the rest of the zoo.

Wade let Ethan pick out a new friend so we are looking for name suggestions (Ducky had to crash the photo).

When will it melt?

All the snow in the front yard melted last week (Ethan helped it along a little by crushing this pile shortly after this picture was taken.

 Now the question is when will the backyard melt?  This was taken last Thursday (April 18th).  More has melted since but I think it might still be around for awhile.  Anybody want to guess?

Go Rush!

All three of us experienced our first Lacrosse game on Sunday.  It was also mine and Ethan's first visit to Rexall Place which is also home to the Edmonton Oiler (NHL) and the Edmonton Oil Kings (WHL).  The game was fun and the Rush won.  I think the highlights for Ethan were riding the escalator up and down when he got tired of sitting in his seat and hitting the people in front of him with the free blow up drum sticks.  It was a 2pm game which was a little rough on Ethan but we didn't really know that he would take a nap for a babysitter if we did find one so figured we would just hope for the best.  Of course he was asleep about 3 minutes after we made it out of the parking lot.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter weekend with all our Easter traditions.  We missed being able to spend the weekend with family but we did get to Skype with everyone so that made it a little bit better.

We dyed Easter eggs.

Ethan was really excited about the Easter bunny coming.  The night before I caught him in the hallway an hour after putting him to bed. He had about every excuse in the book including looking for the Easter bunny.

We came home from church to find the bunny had hidden a few eggs.

Although the weather wasn't as nice as it was back in Kansas, it was nice enough we got to play outside some (with the bubbles the Easter bunny brought).

And we finished off the day with a delicious ham dinner with deviled eggs, spinach salad, and bunny dinner rolls.  The dinner rolls have intimidated me for awhile now so I was glad to conquer it even though the bunny part didn't turn out great.