Monthly Review of July

My month of June in review:

1) Photo of me: My crazy hair and my son cheesing it up because he scored some black licorice.

2) Current candle scents: I have the same candle this month as I did last month and I didn't even burn it once this month. I still don't know what it is called. I am so boring, but I did THINK about getting a new candle!
3) What I am currently reading: Right now I am in between books but I just picked up seven from the library. I think I will read a George Pelecanos book next.

4) Newest music I added to my playlist: new music from Rob Thomas
5) Movies I saw: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince
6) Something yummy I made this month: our family "shakes" - raspberry banana! YUM
7) The last place I ate out: Wendy's
8.) Something that made me cry: Nothing in June.
9) Something that made me laugh or gasp: I gasped yesterday when the driver of the Purolator van almost backed into me and THEN the driver was incredibly rude. I was parked there first AND he saw me before he started to back up.

10) Something I looked forward to this month: I am looking forward to seeing my niece and nephew!
11) Something I am thankful for: A paycheck
12) Something I want to remember about this month: Playing with the water hose with my son and watching him figure out what I was doing. He pointed at me and gave me a cheeky grin. It made me laugh out loud.

13) A photo I took this month: This is the car that the new neighbours burned in their firepit - which is still burning by the way.

countdown is on

I have 33 minutes of work remaining before I head home for the long weekend. My spousal unit arrived unexpectedly at work with the baby in preparation for going to some garage sales so I know how I will be spending this evening! They will be back to get me pretty soon and I'll be off like a dirty shirt!

Yesterday when we were in the city we went to the library and each signed out at least 7 books. I love to go to the library with my spouse because we each head off the the areas we love respectively but when we come together I always love to see what she has chosen and try to get some of hers read before they are due back. She picked up what looks like a good one - a biography or autobiography of Jane Goodall. I would be dreaming to think I will get anything read this weekend, but I can hope right? I need to get back to working on my thesis but right now I am enjoying the break a little too much.

We even managed to get to the theater when we were in town yesterday and we caught the new Harry Potter movie. I will focus of the joy I felt just being in a theater and having popcorn and and a drink and not focus at all on how disappointing the show was! I guess for someone who is as much as a reader as I am it would be almost impossible to do justice to Harry Potter on the big screen after having read and imagined things so differently. Oh well! It was another nice getaway!

HUGE congrats to my friend and her husband who received the referral for their adoption this week and have a 6 month old baby boy waiting for them. I am more than thrilled for them and can't wait to follow their parenting journey!

middle of the week update

I can't believe it is only Wednesday. I feel as though I have worked for a month straight with no break. Tomorrow I have some things to do in town and so tonight my spouse and I are dropping the boys off, heading out of dodge and GOING TO A MOVIE.
That's right people, you heard it here first. We are going to a movie. In a theater.
Miraculous I know. Sometimes our lives are just so spontaneous we amaze ourselves. I don;'t even care what movie we see. I have no idea what movies are playing. I don't care if it is Rocky XVII or Mary Kate and Ashley Take Manhattan. I don't care. In less than 8 hours I will be with my spouse, IN a theater, watching something on the big screen.
It's nice that I can get so excited over these small things isn't it?

ten on tuesday : ten favorite sounds

Ten favorite sounds for Ten on Tuesday which you can link to here:

1. My sons laughing

2. My dogs snoring

3. SILENCE in our yard (which isn't really silent, it is actually quite noisy, but silence from traffic and farming etc.)

4. The sound of the dishwasher - this means it is working! Unfortunately we haven't heard this sound in a while.

5. My son calling me "MA"

6. The Indigo Girls

7. Rob Thomas

8. My mom's voice on the telephone

9. The birds in the yard (see number 3)

10. Rain

Weekend Outing

My spousal unit read in the paper that a town near us had opened a small water park for the kids. The weather FINALLY heated up this weekend enough for us to decide it was worth packing our kids into the vehicle and taking a little jaunt. Anyone who has followed this blog for any length of time will know that my oldest is the WORST traveller. He absolutely DOES not travel well at all, basically he screams the entire time he is in the vehicle and so we are quite "discretionary" when it comes to deciding to travel with him anywhere.

So the weekend came. It got hot. Both our boys LOVE to be in the water. The van has air conditioning. So we decided it would be completely worth it to go to the waterpark and check it out.

We piled into the van. We endured the screaming. We got to the park and got unloaded and covered with sunscreen. My spousal unit carried the baby to the water and dipped his toes in and he SCREAMED blue murder. Well that was enough for the oldest to decide he wanted nothing to do with it.

So we spent some time sitting in the very scarce shade, watching other kids play in the water!
They have this little thing set up that is called the kiddy car wash and it resembles (in a vague way) a car wash. The kids run through it and get splashed as they go. Right in the middle there are three posts ( I will have to upload a photo to better illustrate what it looks like) and they posts are supposed to be the spinning sponge things that wash the cars. Unfortunately they are not sponge, they are metal. VERY HEAVY metal. These posts squirt water right into the kids eyes if they happen to be the right height, so the kids run in, get squirted in the eye, shut their eyes, keep running, and on more than one occasion, they SMASH right into one of the posts. In the short time that we were there it happened three times. I was just waiting for blood and bone to come protruding out of small people craniums and I was grateful that my son was not interesting in running through because if he had been, it would have been HIS head split open.

You can tell the designer of this play area does not have small children!

some of what is happening in our LPH

I have been blogging a little about what is happening in and around our yard. This is what it used to look like if you were standing in our yard facing east. The Barn (which one day will be red) is on our property, and the property line which divides us from the farmer who owns the rest of the land around us is about 25-30 meters behind the barn. The bins you see are on his property. (Well, they WERE on his property, you will see what has happened as you scroll down)

This second picture is taking standing at those sheds and now I am facing north. This is what it looked like a little over three weeks ago.

On our property again. In the photo above these sheds seen below were right in front of me.

Now you can see the sheds are gone and the trees behind the sheds are gone. In this great big pile of trees are also some car parts and other "extra" treats that were not "cleaned" up, just moved out of the way with the big CAT.

Before the sheds came down the trees behind were cleared and a large pit was dug in the ground to push the stuff into to burn. This is behind where the sheds were.

The dugout.

There are 2 dugouts side by side. The one on our property is to the south of this one, and even though they aren't "linked" when spring runoff comes there is nothing separating the two and everything from this one will leach into ours. The farmer insists he didn't put anything "illegal" into this. He has now tried to fill this in and is about halfway done, he has only buried what you see below (and the fridge that he dumped in). I think he is a little upset that my spouse is a "stay at home" mother because he would have gotten away with a lot more if we hadn't been home to see what was happening.

This is some of the stuff that was in the trees. The two trucks were taken away and the old car was put into the pit to burn once the pit was dug. They are starting to move the wooden sheds, getting ready to burn them.

FIRE! This fire is still burning and it has been 72 hours since it was lit. It's not shooting flames like this anymore but the smoke is still pouring out of the pit. I guess that's what happens when you burn tires and all kinds of chemicals! Unfortunately it is very close to the house. Too close for my comfort.

This is what the fire pit looks like today.

The tin storage bins have been moved and they are now on our property. We were asked if they could put them there because the man currently leasing the farm needs them this fall and so they wont be ready to move until the spring. I originally said yes they could, but I am having doubts now as they seem to think they can put ANYTHING on our property now - including the old cement mixer and other piles of junk.

Also in the picture below you can see a little orange flag. That flag marks where our property begins. They "measured wrong" as you can see and they tore up the driveway which comes from behind the barn and around the yard in a big circle. They said "sorry!"

So they have "cleaned up" the property. We are hoping they will just go away, but unfortunately the tress that are left are home to a LOT more "things" like you can see below. If they ever decided to take out more trees and "clean up" some more we will endure this all again.

The last few weeks have been a fiasco in and around our place and so far it doesn't look like any end is in sight. Yesterday they dragged more stuff onto our property and they moved the markers we put to indicate what was our land and what was theirs. I think in this case good fences will make good neighbours and so it is our plan to put in a fence along the back of the property. Hopefully this will also stop them from using (and messing up) our driveway with the HUGE machinery.

We can hope right?

Pet Peeves

Occasionally the topic of pet peeves will come up in conversation. Whenever the topic is brought up I have difficulty thinking of things that REALLY annoy me on a consistent basis. I know this is difficult to believe if you are someone who knows me - because I think I am irritated a lot (lol),
but I honestly do have a hard time thinking of things on the spur of the moment related to this topic.

So when I was in the grocery store this week and the bagger was "helping" me to bag my items I thought to myself, I really need to write this down somewhere so the next time someone asks me what are pet peeves I can look it up and give an answer.

PEOPLE WHO BAG MY GROCERIES drive me insane!

I know they are there to help and I am pretty sure that some of them take their job very seriously, but most of them don't WANT to be bagging, or if they are bagging it is so they can talk to their friends at the till and not to pay attention to my groceries as they go into the bags.
When I am loading my groceries onto the little turntable thinger I pay attention. I try to put items that are the same together in groups so they can be packed together. I keep my veges and fruits and breads until the very end. I put all the baby food jars together and all the cat food cans together. So when I get home and I have SOS cleaning pads in the same bag as my strawberries, not only am I confused, I AM MAD!

I have no idea how the super sized can of tomato sauce always ends up ON TOP OF my bananas.
In fact, I'm pretty sure one time I didn't even BUY a can of tomato sauce and one STILL ended up crushing my bananas!

I don't understand how when I buy a birthday card it ends up in a bag all by itself, but my baby food jars all end up in one bag. All 100 of them. Just so that the bag can break as I try to lift it out of the cart and into the van and so they can break and roll all over the parking lot. Thank goodness my card was in a bag all protected and didn't get any baby food spilled on it.

The other day I stopped at the deli and I purchased a rotisserie chicken. The thing was so hot the girl could not even close the bag because of the steam. So when I get to the checkout the bagger asks me -- "Do you want the chicken in with the cucumber?" I wanted to say "Oh, yea, there is nothing I like more than cooked cucumber with my chicken". I suppose I should be glad they asked and didn't just do it like they normally do.

And just one last thing.

I go through the grocery store with a baby in the front of the cart, most of the time strapped in (as the "help me" person at walmart likes to point out). When I get to the check-out and the bagger puts my groceries BACK into the cart, is there anyone who can offer some insight as to why they put grocery bags into the spot where I put my baby?
I still have the baby with me. The baby is not invisible. How am I supposed to push the cart AND carry the baby? Funny how I can't find a "help me" person then. Maybe they are all in the back snacking on cooked cucumber.

ten on tuesday: ten things I still want to accomplish this summer

Usually I participate in "ten on Tuesday" weekly. When I went to check the topic for today it was "favorite places to eat" and I am fairly certain that I have completed this topic more than a few times already and it simply does not inspire me at all today. Sorry to say I am skipping this topic this week :(
I think I will write instead about...... ten things I would still like to get accomplished before the summer is over.

1. Painting the barn
2. Prepping the garden spot for next summer
3. Planting more bulbs
4. Setting up a hanging spot on the south side of the Quonset for hanging baskets
5. Digging post holes
6. Putting up some fencing so we don't have our land "accidentally" farmed by the new neighbours.
7. Fall pruning
8. Chainsawing some dead trees before they fall on the house
9. Clearing out some more old and dying caragana
10. Playing! We have definitely not "played" enough this summer!

Miracles all around

Sometimes it is hard to believe the miracles that happen all around us.
Here is the newpaper report of a miracle that happened this week in my part of the world:

Thursday July 16 2009
A TODDLER who drove his battery-powered toy truck into a river survived by clinging to it as he was swept almost eight miles downstream.
Demetrius Jones, who turned three yesterday, was rescued from swirling 10ft deep water, insisting that he wanted to get back on his "boat".
"He had told his parents that he had made his truck into a boat and rode down the river," his grandmother, said.
The baby driver had been camping with his family at Peace Island Park near his home in Forst St John, BC. He was staying in his grandmothers caravan while his parents slept in a tent.
He slipped out early in the morning to go for a ride on his red miniature Chevy Silverado. When the rest of the family awoke, they found no sign of him and sounded the alarm. Other campers said they had heard the boy driving his toy. He was wearing just a diaper and a T-shirt. Campers and friends started a search, everyone expecting the worst.
"We wouldn't go near the river because I said to my son, 'If he's in the river, he's gone', and all I could think of was, 'I'm going to be burying my grandson'," Ms Neudorf said.
The RCMP joined the hunt. But it was five men in a boat who found Demetrius, nearly three hours after he had disappeared.
Don Loewen, one of the rescuers, said: "We spotted something that looked like some rocks or an eagle."
The "rocks" were the black tyres of the overturned toy truck sticking up out of the water. "And what we thought was an eagle or something was the little boy's blond head."
The men manoeuvred their boat towards where Demetrius was kneeling in the upside-down truck. It was half-submerged and Demetrius's legs and hands were underwater.

"We started wrapping him in our floating coats and started rubbing him and rubbing him until he got warm." Police said the infant seemed oblivious to the danger he had faced. "He seemed pretty excited to be dealing with the police," Constable Jackelynn Passarell added. "I don't think he realised the gravity of what had just occurred."
Demetrius was taken to hospital and treated for the first stages of hypothermia, and released soon after. Apart from some sore muscles, he was unshaken by his experience. "It was a heck of an adventure for him but he's pretty much his old self," Ms Neudorf said.
"His trucks mean the world to him and I think that's what saved him -- he wasn't letting go of the truck for love or for money."
The truck was retrieved from the river "and still works like a charm".

3 years

I just realized I started blogging in May of 2006.
That's CRAZY.
I visited my "first" blog a minute ago. It's still there. I think my posts back then were more interesting, I am getting dull in my old age!

what do you want?

My spouse and I were watching Oprah the other day talking about her issues with weight and how weight issues were REALLY symptoms of issues in other areas of your life.
So my spouse and I, as we do, had a discussion about it. Dr. Greene said that you need to ask yourself what it is that you "REALLY" want. I said to my spouse "what do you think it is that I REALLY want?" After a moment of thought she said, "You want to go home."
I have to laugh looking back on the moment because I swear to you I thought I was going to burst into tears.
I DO want to go home.
The problem with that is that my "home" no longer exists.
The country has changed and aside of it being different politically, it is completely unsafe for me to even consider visiting at this time. If it WERE possible for me to visit, It would not be returning "home" because nothing is the same there as it was when I was growing up.
I wish I could call Dr. Greene and Oprah and ask them what the hellfire you do when what you want is not only out of your control but completely impossible and will never happen in your lifetime. What then? I suppose I will have to get some ice-cream and go ponder.

Thursday Thirteen:

My life seems to be a little crazy right now and I feel like I am going from one crazy thing (home and the dispute over land etc.) to another crazy thing (school and not getting the classes finished that I planned and expected to) to yet another crazy thing (work through this transition).
The weather is bad, the baby is teething.... I guess my point is that I have been fairly focused on things I would not describe as "positive".
So I am going to try for a minute to bust out of my frame of mind and post some things I am grateful for...

1. I am grateful for two vehicles that are currently working.
2. I am grateful that I am 2/3 of my way finished with my masters program.
3. I am grateful that I have a job.
4. I am grateful that every day when I walk into my house my little boy is ridiculously happy to see me.
5. I am grateful that I am feeling better this week.
6. I am grateful that I have been able to finish reading some books in the last week that are completely unrelated to school.
7. I am grateful that there's only 12 more days until I get paid. (that could actually be a negative thought - see how easily I slip back into my negative patterns of thinking!)
8. I am grateful for music.
9. I am grateful for my family.
10. I am grateful I have only three more things to think of because this is getting difficult.
11. I am grateful I had a free lunch today :)
12. I am grateful that I got my paper turned in and graded and didn't fail :)
13. I am grateful to be back in an office where my plants are THRIVING!

ten on tuesday: 10 favorite songs from the 80's

I am a HUGE fan of music and to pick an entire decade and only choose ten songs from it is extremely difficult, but I will do my best.

in no particular order:

1. Billy Joel: We didn't start the fire

2. Micheal Jackson: Human Nature

3. Information Society: What's on Your Mind (pure energy)

4. Roxette: The Look

5. Tone Loc: Funky Cold Medina

6. Edie Brickell and the New Bohemians: What I Am

7. The Police: Every Breath You Take

8. Corey Hart: Never Surrender

9. Glass Tiger: Someday

10. Cindy Lauper: All through the Night

OK. I think I could have done at LEAST a top 100 songs from the 80's I can do top songs from 1989 ALONE. That was too hard.

neighbours

You know, we moved out of town. We thought we had our own idyllic little spot on earth, even though it is only six acres and the place needs LOTS of work.
It is ours. We are happy to be there. Our boys love the yard and we have made some happy memories there. We don't plan on going anywhere soon.
Then the land around us was sold. To a JERK. CAPITAL J. CAPITAL E. CAPITAL R. CAPITAL K.
He has already dumped chemicals into the dugout on our property. First of all it is totally illegal to dump chemicals in that way, second of all - IT'S OUR PROPERTY.
They are trying to "clean up" the place, which I commend them for, the place has been used for illegal dumping for more years than I know and it's downright dangerous, but they don't care what they do with the junk apparently as long as they get it away from their place.
It is starting to get ugly and we aren't going to sit back and take it. ARG.
Why are there people like this in the world?

12 of 12

I am posting this a day late because we have no computer at home right now, but all the photos were taken on the 12th (yesterday) and all of them were taken around the house, cause that's where we were all day!

2pm

We started out the afternoon checking out the flags posted by the gas company. You have to "call before you dig" and someone called and they came and posted their flags on our property. We have recently found out we have new "neighbours" who intend to farm the land right up to our property line. Don't get me wrong, we have no objection to farming, but the way in which these people have introduced themselves into our lives has left a lot to be desired. We still don't know why the flags are on our land - I hope no-one thinks they are digging here!

2:30Pm

Someone thinks he is a cook. No BBQ today :(

4pm

Somewhere after checking out the flags, after naps, but before our walkabout and lawnmowing, we tried to do some weeding. I had a little too much help and ended up moving on to another task and left this weeding for another day.

5pm

This is the neighbours land. The cement truck has been here since we moved in. Apparently it will be removed int he next week or so. While I don't really like it, and my spouse hates it because the cats crawl underneath it and get covered in grease, it is part of the "landscape" which I have grown accustomed to and I have to admit I will miss it - a bit.

5:10 pm

There is lots of this "stuff" around. It is actually what I went on my walkabout to photograph, bu my son insisted that I push him on his trike and then he didn't want to go through the tall grass, so we ended up taking a shorter walkabout and not the one I intended. Hopefully these chemicals will be disposed of properly and not dumped in the dugout like the last batch!

5:15 pm

This is an old grain storage container. All of these are being taken down by the new owners who have much larger, and much newer grain storage on another property. We think they are kinda cool and we will miss them (more than we will miss the cement mixer).

The bottom of these are all cement and will take some work to remove, but apparently that is the intention! Lots will be happening in and around our place this summer and next to prepare for more planting space.

5:17 pm

Inside

5:20pm

Old door.

I don't know how well this picture shows it, but the bottom of this is completely worn through.

5:22pm

New lock on the old door

Somehow I don't think this lock would stop anyone from getting in and stealing the rotting canola!

5:30pm

A look at everything that will soon be gone.

6:00 pm

Nature is already taking some of this down, but the plan as we have been told is to put this all into a big hole in the ground and burn it.

6:45 pm

"X" marks the spot.

Back on our own property, the electric company has come through and marked the trees for removal that are interfering with the power lines. This is one of four marked to go.

Too bad it isn't one affected by the pine beetle :(

Monthly Review: June

My month of June in review:

1) photo of me: This is my son and I flying a kite in our yard this month. This VERY WINDY month.

2) current candle scents: I have the same candle this month as I did last month and I didn't even burn it once this month. I still don't know what it is called.

3) what I am currently reading: Ia m currently reading a book by T. Jefferson Parker entitled "California Girl". I like T. Jefferson books because they are usually a quick read and can generally keep my attention, however, I am having some difficulty with this one.

4) newest music i added to my playlist: I haven't added new music, but new "old" music from MJ - whom I think is a magnificent artist and I am sad about his death.

5) movies i saw: Taking of Pelham 123 - IN the theater!

6) something yummy i made this month: salad

7) the last place I ate out: Subway

8.) something that made me cry: I don't think I cried in June, and if I did it was about time off that I have lost as a result of this transition to working with a new company and being screwed by my former boss.

9) something that made me laugh or gasp: My boys make me laugh.

10) something I looked forward to this month: I looked forward to the END of the month when this transition is FINALLY over and we can move on with our lives and jobs.

11) something I am thankful for: My job in this wacky economy and TWO vehicles that FINALLY work.

12) Something I want to remember about this month: not one darn thing.

13) a photo I took this month:

A sleepy headed boy who thinks he should be held if we want him to go to sleep.

Friday Fill In

1. When I heard Micheal Jackson was dead I felt sadness for the life he lived.

2. Not getting sick is the best medicine.

3. It's late, but the kids are still awake and all I want to do is roll over and go to sleep!

4. Listen to music and sing always.

5. My eyes have seen some insane sights .

6. Rotten potatoes smell strongly.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to getting off work, tomorrow my plans include going to the library,and volunteering at the carnival and taking the boys to the petting zoo and Sunday, I want to read a book!

State of the Economy

It is weird being a working adult, responsible financially for a family and living through a recession.
There are people in my immediate family who have been laid off, who are waiting to be laid off and whose hours are cut back at the places they work. I have a cousin who has been laid off, a friend who has been laid off, and there seems to be no end in sight.
I am grateful EVERY day that I have a job and that as far as I know it is a secure one. Having said that... we are currently going through a transition and we are leaving one institution and joining another. The pay dates don't match up and we are being changed from a bi-weekly paycheck to a monthly paycheck. The change for me will be quite dramatic as I have to adjust all kinds of payments to a new pay schedule. We get our last bi-weekly payment from our old employer today. At the end of the month I THOUGHT we got a paycheck for the entire month of July and so I was bracing myself to live one month on 1/2 a month's pay and then at the end of the month breathing a sigh of relief when the monthly payment came in. I only JUST figured out (with help of co-workers) that the pay at the end of July will only be for the first two weeks of July and so I have to go for the month of July and the month of August on 2 "1/2" month paychecks.
Ok, Suzie Orman. I get it. I needed to be better prepared for this.
This is a HUGE kick in the teeth though. ARG.
We will be living like the contestants on Big Brother and eating Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches! This sucks

Happy Independence Day

Happy Independence Day to my friends and family in the USA.
Have a great one!

Thursday 13: 13 facts about Canada

In honour of Canada Day - which was yesterday - here are some facts about Canada for all of my non-Canadian readers...

1. The electron microscope (1938), the snowblower (1925), the baby food, Pablum, (1930) and the zipper (1934) were all Canadian inventions.

2.Canada has the world's longest designated street. From its start in Toronto, Yonge Street runs 1,178.3 miles (1,900.5 km).

3. Canadians are long-lived. A baby girl born in Canada today can expect to reach, on average, 81 years while a baby boy will live to about 75 years. From Health Canada's website: http://www.hwc.ca/datahpsb/nhrdp/english/healthofcanadians/index-e.htm

4.Canadians are funny people. Comedians John Candy, Julie Byrne, Dan Ackroyd, Rick Moranis, Martin Short, Jim Carrey, Mike Myers and Leslie Nielsen are all Canadian-born.

5. Canada's quality of life is unmatched. The United Nations quality of life index which measures standard of living, education and life expectancy ranked Canada first of the 173 countries surveyed in 1992, 1994 and 1996. http://www.stentor.ca/scripts/dbml.exe?template=/stentor/body.dbm&page_id=landopp1.html

6.Canada's largest gum manufacturer, O-Pee-Chee Co., sells more than 7.5 million pounds of chewing gum annually - enough to blow a bubble twice the size of the earth!

7. Canada is home to about one-quarter of the world's fresh water. Almost 75 percent of the country's electrical power is produced through hydroelectricity.

8.Joseph Armand Bombardier invented the first successful snowmobile on June 29, 1937. Bombardier is now the world's fourth largest commercial aircraft manufacturer and creator of the Global Express, the world's first corporate jet designed for high speed, long-range travel.

9. The National Film Board of Canada is the world's largest government film unit. Since its inception in 1939, the NFB has won almost 3000 national and international awards.

10. If Canada was divided equally among Canadians, each person would receive a piece of land roughly the size of 27 baseball fields, or about 365,000 square metres. In the US, each American would get about three baseball fields, in Japan just one-quarter of a baseball field, and in Hong Kong, less than a quarter of a baseball diamond.

11.Canada has earned the reputation of "Disney North" due to Oakville, Ontario's Sheridan College. The school's animation program is considered the best in the world.

12.The Ice Hotel in Quebec, known as Hotel de Glace is created every year using 400 tons of ice and 12,000 tons of snow. It melts away every summer and is recreated every winter.

13. Canada has just one desert, located in British Columbia, towards the southernmost corner of the Okanagan Valley in Osoyoos. It is only 15 miles long, with over 100 rare plants, and over 300 rare animals. It is also the only desert in the world that has a long boardwalk, for people to walk on!