Stuck into winter

Written by Tom

I’ve been quiet on the blog for the past few weeks as I’ve been away filming the Big Horn Sheep rut on the outskirts of Yellowstone. It’s been a great start to the series but unfortunately for us, we picked one of the coldest weeks I’ve ever known to be filming. 

Up close & personal with the sheep

We were filming in a steep, wind swept, snow-covered canyon in minus 30c for seven days straight waiting for the sheep to start fighting. Fortunately for us they did eventually start rutting which involved hours of the rams sizing each other up, kicking one another between the legs and then suddenly head butting each other when we weren’t looking. It was incredible to watch and once they got started, they seemed to blank out their surroundings which allowed us to get within just a few meters for some incredible footage.

Deep Pow!

Outside of work we’ve been trying to get out on the slopes as much as possible. There was almost a foot of snow last night and I headed up for a morning’s snowboarding with a buddy of ours whilst Shell sadly had to work in the florist.

It was awesome finally getting stuck into snowboarding the famous powder (pow pow!!) of Jackson and now I understand what all the fuss is about. It’s great fun if exhausting on your legs but after the first powder day of the season I’m hooked and looking forward to getting back out on the mountain on Christmas day!

Christmas lights Jackson Style

Jackson has started filling with tourists for the holiday season and everything is looking very festive (much to Shell's delight!). Every building seems to be lit up and despite today being the shortest day of the year, you wouldn't notice it with all the illuminations around town. With Christmas just around the corner it will be the New Year before we know it and we're currently planning a few ski trips to neighbouring States to make the most of the winter. But first, Shell has booked us a table for Christmas dinner at the Four Seasons in town so watch this space for the next update.

Christmas at a Jackson Florist

written by Shell...

So as most of you know, I’m not one to sit around with nothing to do, so I’ve been making myself useful in the lead up to Christmas at a local florist shop in town. Here are my main learnings from the shop so far:

Dozen Red Roses- Jackson Style!

-          -  No shop in Jackson is complete without a shop dog! Ours is called Jack and he welcomes every customer at the door with a wagging tail!

-           - The way that flowers are designed here is very different from what I’m used to back home, hand tied bouquets are almost unheard of, and instead, our main business is short stemmed arrangements in mason jars or short vases. This means that no effort is required to unwrap the flowers or arrange them in a vase on receiving them!

-           -  It’s very common here in Jackson for people to leave their houses unlocked, and when out, people are happy for us to enter their house and leave the flowers on a table for when they return!

            -  Presentation is everything! My gift wrapping skills are fast improving, and here ribbons are used on everything, from arrangements, to gift boxes, to wreaths.  I’ve been rubber stamping gift bags (childhood memories!) and taping ferns onto presents. Let me tell you, we do gift                                                            wrapping in style!

So in the last few weeks it’s been Christmas overload. I’ve unpackaged and ‘ribboned’ about 60 magnolia wreaths that were then shipped off to clients all over the US. I’ve spent several days with my hands in soil potting up amaryllis and paperwhites, and I’ve been merchandising the store as deliveries of different Christmas gifts just keep on arriving. Within 2 weeks of working at the store I’m on first-name terms with the local Fedex driver!

Plenty of space for Santa down that chimney

I’ve also had the opportunity to work on some larger festive projects, as we’re often called on to provide decorations for local shops and businesses. We also spent a few days at a beautiful home installing their Christmas decorations. Just to give you some idea, the Christmas tree took 8 sets of lights and I couldn’t reach the top, even when using a step ladder. My favourite part was decorating their enormous fireplace with these beautiful pines and ilex berries- even if I did have a slight allergic reaction to the foliage- I’m allergic to Christmas it turns out!

The weather here is definitely causing more challenges, one of which was when I spent probably the coldest day of December wiring pine cones onto a garland outside one of the shops in town. At -20c I could only last about 5 minutes at a time with my gloves off, thank goodness it’s got a bit milder in the last week and 2c feels almost tropical now!  

proud forager!

Enough about work, but sticking with the tree theme, here’s a picture of me with our Christmas tree after me and a friend drove into the forest and hiked to find our own perfect trees whilst both our husbands were away. I would love to be able to say that I cut it down myself, but in fact, all hail my lovely friend Joanna for being brave enough to use a chain saw! I’m pretty proud of our girly adventure and our little tree is the perfect size for our mini condo!

Most festive antics to follow soon…

Thanksgiving!

Written by Tom...

This week was Thanksgiving and came with the opening of the Jackson Hole ski resort. One of our friends is writing the blog for the Jackson Hole resort and managed to score us a couple of free passes to the opening day!

The 'Ice Queen'

We rather tentatively got on the slopes in the morning, Shell testing her new skis and I had no idea if I could remember how to snowboard. There’s always a doubt that you’ll remember how to do it but after a few turns we were off! It’s pretty amazing to be able to ski in the place where you live and we had an awesome morning on the slopes.

Fortunately our buddy Ryan is compelled to review the local restaurants for his blog so we ended up grabbing lunch in the slope side restaurant of the Four Seasons. If anyone ever comes to Jackson to visit we’ll take you for a drink up there!

Then off we went for Thanksgiving dinner at my boss’s house. It was great with all the Brain Farm team coming for dinner and everyone bringing a dish along too. I’m lucky to work with a really friendly crowd who are all around the same age as us. The food was incredible with a giant smoked turkey, roast ham, 4 types of mac and cheese plus the richest mash potatoes I’ve ever eaten. Needless to say we all went home incredibly full and I didn’t eat again till the following evening!

Spot the beaver!

This week Shell and I also went down to the local beaver pond, which we’re planning on filming for the show. Shell’s really loving looking for (and sometimes finding) the wildlife over here. To be honest I didn’t think we’d see any beavers but as we rounded the corner we found two hard at work fixing their dam! Their pond was frozen over but you could see the channels they keep clear around the edges as they busy away before the snow comes. It was pretty cool to see and hopefully we’ll have some luck when we come back cameras rolling.

The snow's starting to come down tonight so all the signs are good for an awsome season in the snow! If anyone wants a place to stay and to hit the slopes in Jackson then just give us a call. 

Flowers and Feline Adventures

Written by Shell...

So, eager to get back with the flowers and keen to avoid becoming a Jackson lady who lunches, I spent a few days this week in a local florist shop to start learning how things are done over here. The shop is very cute and sells a range of gifts as well as cut flowers. Instead of having a flower stand, the flower buckets are dispersed stylishly in amongst the gifts, making the shop feel quite rustic and whimsical (although challenging for stock management!). And of course, no shop in Jackson would be complete without a trusty shop dog, in our case Jack greets every customer with a wagging tail and regularly pops into the gallery next door for some doggy treats! I seemed to have made a good impression as I’ve been asked back to work next week, and with Thanksgiving and the local Christmas light switch on in the town, I think we’re in for a busy week- I'll keep you all posted.

View from Snow King- half way up

Keen to keep up with the fitness buzz in the town, a friend and I took up the challenge of hiking our local mountain this week. Snow King, as it is known, looms over the south of the town. It’s a popular hiking route and is our closest ski/snowboard spot, with 2 chair lifts and several pretty steep runs. It was a hard hike (I blame the altitude!) and we only made it half way up but the view over the town was great. It’s a view that I’m sure we’re going to become very familiar with once the ski runs opens next week!

We also had our first run in with the local sheriff this week, but don’t panic, it was all the felines fault! We went round a friend’s house for dinner  and as we were waiting outside a lovely ginger cat, purring very loudly came up to us and started brushing at our legs, obviously very cold as it was about -15c. The cat was so loud and obviously upset, that we continued to hear her inside the house.

A warm night for the pussy cat

Thinking that she was probably an escaped pet, we called the out of hours number for the Animal Centre, and after a lot of baiting we managed to get the cat into a cage and agreed to meet someone at the Animal Centre with her. So there we were, in the dead of night at the Animal Centre with the cat riding shot gun in the Tundra and up pulls the local sheriff to save the day! After safely depositing the cat into his temporary, warm home, we couldn’t resist getting a photo with our hero, and trust me he wasn’t shy, even adding in the handcuffs for effect!! We hope the tabby cat gets returned to his owner soon!

 So there we go, just a standard Saturday night in Jackson Hole! 

Back In The Hole!

Downtown Jackson

Written by Tom...

After a few weeks back home we finally made it out to Jackson! We were welcomed with a couple of blue-sky days before the winter suddenly arrived with two days of solid snow. The town transformed into a ski resort overnight and all everyone seems to be talking about is the count down to the mountain opening at Thanksgiving.

Snow King

We’re both really looking forward to being able to get out and ski on the weekends or even before work on the local mountain, Snow King, which runs right into town at the end of our street.

Loving the Big Horn Sheep

I’ve been doing my best to introduce Shell to some of the attractions around town including incredible Mexican breakfasts at Nora’s Fish Creek Inn, Pinky G’s Pizza, Big Horn Sheep on the edge of town and driving in what can only be described as a blizzard looking for other wildlife. 

The Mighty Moose!

The only wildlife I did manage to find however was a street dancing moose mascot at the local hockey game! Seeing as I can’t go to the rugby over in Jackson, I’ve decided hockey might be the next best thing. After a few beers during the game on Friday night I can’t quite remember if I enjoyed the game or not so it’s probably only right that I go again and again.

Shell’s starting her first day shadowing the staff at the local florist tomorrow (more to come on that I’m sure) and I’m hoping to buy a Subaru with a mere 200K miles on the clock and ‘fire damage’ listed in its history. Needless to say it’s a bargain!

If anyone’s tempted by a weeks skiing in Jackson then check out this video and you’ll be on the next flight out!

See ya’ll soon. Tom

Going West

Written by Shell...

Howdy and welcome to the blog of Cake Boy and flower Girl. We hope to keep you all up to date with our adventures as we spend some time in the crazy little town of Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Just in case you were wondering where on earth we are!

Well we arrived here safe and sound last Saturday 9^th November after a very unwelcomed diversion in Goose Bay… where? I hear you cry. Goose Bay, New Foundland, Canada! ‘We’re experiencing engine trouble’ is never what you want to hear when you’re 30,000ft in the sky, but thankfully that was as dramatic as it got. It did however result in an 8 hour wait in the plane on the runway at Goose Bay whilst we waited for another plane from Atlanta to come and rescue us. After a very icy, slippery mission run between the planes in minus temperatures and gale force winds we were safely on our way again!

So after a very long journey we were relieved to arrive in little Jackson Hole airport. Everything was ready for us, our car was in the car park with the keys in the fuel cap and our ‘condo’ was open with the keys on the table- so I’m figuring that Jackson is a pretty safe place to be! The condo that we’re renting is great, it’s small but it has everything we need, including a waffle iron, a ski rack and a massive TV- all amazing!

I spy a ski run!!

The weather here is mixed at the moment and feels very much like the beginning of the ski season in Europe when everyone’s enjoying the last little bit of Autumn sun but looking forward to the snow and the fun that it will bring! On Sunday we drove to Teton Village, which is the main ski resort about 10 minutes away where everyone’s busy unpacking and getting ready for the resort to open in a few weeks. There’s a bit of snow on the slopes but it seems unreal that we’re going to get a big dump of snow in the next few weeks in time for it to open on Thanksgiving Thursday. Brace yourself!

On Sunday I also got to meet some of the Brainfarm gang as Tom’s boss invited us round for what’s now become a regular Sunday event of dinner and Homeland. Everyone’s very friendly and there seems like a proper family atmosphere amongst the guys at Brainfarm, a highlight of the evening was Curt and Tiffany’s 4 year old daughter singing, well kind of shouting ‘Thank you God... for giving us food’ in a Superman kind of way whilst saluting! I’m looking forward to getting to know the Brainfarm gang more, although I’m still not sure that we’re cool enough to fit in, my jeans aren’t baggy enough and my baseball cap isn’t big enough!

So this week Tom’s returned to work at Brainfarm, which I’m sure he’ll tell you about another time, but so far involves meeting the Elk Man and the Wolf Lady! Which has left me to roam the planked sidewards of Jackson Hole in search of work. I’ve got a few things lined up so keep your fingers crossed for me, but I’ll let you all know when things are more certain. So as well as searching for work, I’m also filling my days attending yoga classes, buying scrapbooking materials (I have big plans!) and being over whelmed in the American supermarkets. You’ll all be pleased to hear that I’m finally learning to cook and so far this week I’ve had several achievements including beef bouginoun, butternut squash soup, and the infamous altitude sponge, which I think with a little tweeking can be perfected and bring much happiness!  

I’ve definitely noticed that there’s a big health buzz in the town with lots of organic food, herbal teas and yoga centres on every corner. All the women here take time to attend fitness classes of some kind and this is definitely something I want to get into.  I’ve attended my first yoga class today which was pretty hardcore and involved me being upside down a bit more than I planned to- I’m sure I’ll feel that later!

Last night we decided to take some advice from our friendly phone sales lady and go in search of some live

Music at the Wort Hotel

music. They call local music here ‘Bluegrass’ and it’s proper country and western! The bar was full with a mix of girls wearing beanies, guys with hoodies and then your proper locals with handlebar tashes and Stetson hats. Noone was afraid to get up and have a few swings on the dance floor and I’m sure there were even a few ‘YeeHaas!’. That’s definitely going to be a regular night out if I have anything to do with it, and I might even get Tom dancing!

But the funniest thing was going to ‘The Whole Grocer’ (Jackson’s equivalent of Waitrose) the next morning, and seeing 5 people from the bar the night before- damn this town is small!

Howdy for now! x

PS. If you fancy following us on Twitter we are @tomstephens9 and @fromameliabrown