Introducing The GOAT to the Kootenays!

Well it has been a crazy weekend that is for sure! Friday we broke new ground for Vista Radio

Kootenays by flipping our second station in two weeks.

Our sister station 1035 the Bridge flipped a two weeks ago to 1035 Juice FM – Nelson’s Biggest Variety and now what used to be Mountain FM is now The GOAT. I totally get the questions and the laughs over the name change, but once you get that GOAT is an acronym for “Greatest Of All Time” it is easy to get behind. I hope you have been listening and like what you hear. If you missed the big launch you can here the moment we flipped from Mountain to the GOAT right here:

Unlike Nelson and Juice FM the GOAT still sounds the same. I have heard so many great comments and people were so excited to get new GOAT swag at my remote broadcast yesterday. I was on location for the afternoon yesterday at Andre’s in Uptown Centre and lots of people stopped in to pick up water bottles, frisbees and pens! 

Don't worry, John and Jenny are still waking up with you on the Morning Herd and I am currently on-air from 10am until 6pm weekdays. We still have all the local content you loved before but now we have a fresh new polished sound!

Make sure you like the new GOAT on Facebook and follow us on Twitter J

The Best Salad I Have Ever Had at The Wooden Spoon Grand Forks

If you read my blog you know it is not a common occurrence for me to order a salad at restaurants. Today I am getting straight to the point of this blog and it is the Wooden Spoon in Grand Forks’ “Grand Chicken” salad. I had the “Grand Chicken” for the first time Family Day weekend when I was in town for the Chamber of Commerce’s big Family Day celebrations. Everyone in town raved to me about the amazing food at the Wooden Spoon so I drug my boyfriend to the hot spot for lunch.

As you can see the salad is huge. So my boyfriend had his panini and then helped me devour my salad. He instantly wanted to order a second one to have a full “Grand Chicken” to himself. The salad has a base of mixed greens with roasted pumpkin, candied chili, roasted almonds and topped off with chicken and feta.

I was finally back in Grand Forks for another great event and had to take our Street Teamer to the Wooden Spoon for another salad.  She picked the “Grand Chicken” salad as well and loved it too! Thank goodness they had not changed their menu; I had been thinking about the salad for months. When I mentioned to my boyfriend that I went back to the Wooden Spoon for the salad he was so jealous. They don’t make food like that at Basic Military Training!

He was also very jealous of the desserts that I brought home with me. I could not pick just one so I brought home a slice of the Ponderosa banana cake and a slice of the lemon yogurt berry cake.  Both of the desserts were amazing! You can see them pictured here in the display window. I would recommend splitting them both with a friend.

If I had to choose just one I would go with the Ponderosa banana cake. It was divine. The chocolate chips on the top of moist, dense banana cake were perfection. Both desserts were amazing! I imagine the lemon yogurt berry cake would be even more amazing with ice cream… yum!

The next time you drop by Grand Forks stop into the Wooden Spoon and enjoy an amazing lunch (or breakfast… yes they are open for breakfast too)!

The Wooden Spoon is open Tuesday through Sunday from 8am until 3pm for breakfast and lunch. You can visit the Wooden Spoon on 3^rd Street, Grand Forks. They also have a patio; it is the perfect spot to have a sunny lunch while in beautiful Grand Forks!

I hope to try the breakfast menu the next time I visit. The homemade cornbread with spinach, bacon, poached eggs and maple syrup sounds amazing; I am a sucker for cornbread!

You can "like" the Wooden Spoon on Facebook here.

Family Day Long Weekend in Grand Forks

After a weekend away back in the city, I was totally ready for a weekend full of fun right here in the Kootenays!

Grand Forks really delivered a perfect way to celebrate Family Day Long Weekend. This is my first February long weekend, in Nova Scotia we don’t have anything great like Family Day weekend to get us through on of the most depressing months of the year. I was so excited to celebrate my first Family Day weekend with like-minded folk in Grand Forks.

There was so much going on Saturday Afternoon on Market Ave. (that is where we were set up) and we got to be in the middle of all the action. 

Now, we were there bright and early around 9:30am to get setup and it was so cold. Unfortunately we set-up about three-feet left of where we should have set up in the sun, but it all warmed up. We broadcast live from inside Jogas and had breakfast while we waited for everything to kick off at 11am.

It was so nice that the cold did not keep people from the festivities, there were fire barrels throughout Market Ave. that were busy all morning keeping people warm. The Grand Forks Border Bruins hosted an outdoor hockey game, even though they had a huge game that night. Christina Lake Golf was there as well helping people tee off on Market Ave. with some winter golf (it was so cool and busy ALL day).  And, the Fire Department put on demonstrations and eventually joined in the hockey game with the kids.

And, there was a free movie at the GEM and bowling at Sunshine Lanes!

Border Bruins outdoor hockey game.

We had great draws going on at our tent and we were giving away (surprisingly popular) bubble wands.

It was so nice to see everyone; I love every trip I get to make to Grand Forks. I love listeners coming up to me and knowing who I am (and even when they don’t they usually ask which one I am, Kate or Jenny).  That doesn’t really happen anywhere else, so it is pretty cool when it does.

A big THANK YOU to everyone who came out, it was so nice to spend the day with you and I hope we made your Family Day Weekend memorable. Grand Forks really knocked it out of the park with their Family Day celebrations. The coolest part of it all was that it continued on into Sunday and Monday, the full weekend! You can checkout more events for the last day of Family Day Weekend tomorrow, all the details are here on the poster.

PS: If you haven’t skied at Phoenix Mountain you should takein the free skiing tomorrow! Here is my blog about my Phoenix Mountainadventures a couple weeks ago.

Time for another big THANK YOU, this time it is to all the sponsors who made this great event happen:

Grand Forks Fire Department

Area D Director - Roly Russel

Area C Director - Grace McGregor

Community Futures Boundary

Boundary Country Regional Chamber of Commerce

Pines Bible Camp

Border Bruins

Phoenix Mountain

Christina lake Golf Club

Roxul

Success by Six

Grand Forks Rotary

Interfor

Sunshine Lanes

Bron and Sons

Buy Low Foods

Thistle Pot Gifts

Value Drug Mart

Grand Forks Home Hardware

Rumours

More thanks to Jogas and the Wooden Spoon for donating gift certificates for us to give away at the our tent!

One last thing, I learned a very important lesson on Saturday. Whenever the Grand Forks Rotary is out with their kettle corn buying one bag is not enough, it is amazing! We bought one bag and had no desire (whatsoever) to share it, next time we will stock up.

Mountain FM Night at Phoenix Mountain

I just wrote about the awesome first part of my day onSaturday at the Rossland Winter Carnival. My awesome day continued with a trip to Grand Fork’s to check out Mountain FM Night at Phoenix Mountain. Now, I haven’t been downhill skiing since I was 15, nearly a decade ago. And before that it had been since I was 11. Skiing, not a huge part of young Kate’s life. I have always loved to ski, I think I would have been seriously addicted to skiing if I had not have started playing hockey and would have had more time for it. But, here we are, I am nearly 25 and have downhill skied three times; and I love it.

Back to Mountain FM night at Phoenix Mountain, well it started a little rough. My boyfriend joined me on the night adventure to Grand Forks and he wanted to test that I really am able to ski by taking me down the bunny hill. This was a horrible idea. It was like my body had forgot everything it had learned skiing in rural Nova Scotia and was intimidated by BC skiing. I had to walk sideways on my skis to get to the bunny hill, it was quite embarrassing. Could it get worse? You bet!

I approached the bunny hill, my boyfriend had already reached the top of the bunny hill. I waited my turn while all the kids that surrounded me caught the tow-rope up. When it was my turn I made it about half-way up the hill before my crappy cotton gloves gave out on the tow-rope, I frantically tried to pull myself along with the rope to no avail. My boyfriend waited and watched, I think he tried to say something to me but I was too caught up being embarrassed by the approaching child who was coming up behind me on the tow-rope. Then the rope lost all traction and I start sliding backwards towards the child behind me. The child wisely bailed off the rope and went down half the hill rather than being back-plowed by a twenty-five year old idiot sliding backwards. Part of me secretly wanted to play reverse ski-bowling into the children to see how many I could scramble. The other part of me wanted to crawl in a hole and die.

I managed to hold on to the rope as I slide backwards and then with a massive jolt I began moving forward again and gained a little ground up the bunny hill. I could feel the blisters forming on my thumbs so I let go and skied off before getting to the top. This is possibly the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to me in front of my boyfriend (he missed me eat-it cross-country skiing a couple weeks ago). As soon as I was within communicable distance with my boyfriend he shot off down the hill. While cursing him, I debated how bad it would look if I had as much trouble going down the hill as I did going up the hill. I discovered it could not be as embarrassing and shot off.

We met at the bottom and I made him promise to not make me do the bunny hill again. I used to think there was nothing as embarrassing as being passed by a small child on skis, I was wrong. The most embarrassing thing truly is halting the tow-rope line on the bunny hill while scrambling to hold on and pull your pants up. The poor kids behind me definitely got a little skin show; I need to by proper snow pants.

It has been said that I am relatively fearless on skis, which is kind of true. My first hockey practice when I was 12 years old (I had just quit figure skating to play hockey and had never skated in hockey skates before) I was really proud of myself that I did not fall at all. I was skating astonishingly slow, with flailing limbs; but I did not fall. My father was not impressed, he told me that was not how to measure how well I was doing and that falling meant I was really trying; I guess I took those words to heart because I tend to fall a lot as an adult… especially skiing.

Anyways, I only had one real wipe-out skiing at Phoenix and it was on my first run of the night. After the bunny hill everything seemed to come back to me really quickly. I have a nice little snow burn on my side to commemorate my only real skiing fail of the night on my first run, the tow-rope welts on my thumbs  are much worse. I was much more of a disaster on cross-country skis (somehow).

Thank you to everyone at Phoenix Mountain, you made my first night skiing trip memorable and managed to test my relationship! I think we passed our first trip skiing as a couple, I managed to not embarrass my boyfriend after the bunny hill experience and no one was injured.

I think Phoenix Mountain is the perfect starter hill, I am so happy I warmed myself up skiing there! It would be a great place to take the family and everyone there was incredibly nice! There is a full canteen with everything you could ever wish for food-wise. I can’t wait until Mountain FM night next year, I hope we see you there!

For more about Phoenix Mountain click here.

A Beautiful Surprise from Jayz Wayz Floral Art

A HUGE “THANK YOU” to Jayz Wayz Floral Art in Grand Forks for sending me beautiful flowers yesterday! I absolutely love them! MountainFM/1035 the Bridge Account Executive relayed a request from Jennifer at Jayz Wayz to me yesterday (Led Zeppelin’s ‘Misty Mountain Hop’) and in turn Jennifer sent me this BEAUTIFUL piece! I absolutely love it! There is nothing better than a nice surprise on a dreary Thursday.

Jayz Wayz just opened on Market Ave. in Grand Forks on January 6^th! Jennifer has an awesome story and a huge talent for taking flowers and making them into art. She is also very clever, Jayz Wayz is open Monday to Saturday and they are open late on Friday and Saturday so next time you need emergency flowers for any occasion you know where to go!

Thanks again!

You can find out more about Jayz Wayz Floral Art by ‘liking’ her on Facebook (click here)! 

You can find out more about Jayz Wayz Floral Art by ‘liking’her on Facebook (click here)! 

Big Thanks to Michele and the B.C. Lung Association

I do not eat sugar, I do not eat wheat. One of my many weaknesses to break these trends in my eating patterns (it is not a weight loss diet thing, therefore I hate calling it a diet because of the stigma attached with that word) is Cinnabon. I have resisted that sweet cinnamon smell that haunts the malls of North America every time since I put on my wheat/sugar free pants, but when it is delivered to our door I cannot resist. Indeed life does need icing.

A big THANK YOU to Michele from the B.C. Lung Association for delivering an amazing Monday treat (on the most depressing day of the year), this is the type of Holiday treat everyone can use! Seriously, it was the highlight of our day here at Mountain FM. This is the first Holiday season here at Mountain FM so this is the first time I have experienced this miraculous annual delivery of this sweet surprise, Michele says she does it every year. This has taught me a valuable lesson; all annual future ‘holiday’ treat deliveries I do will happen on the first real back to work Monday of the New Year.

Again a HUGE thank you to the B.C. Lung Association for their annual treat, for more information about the B.C. Lung Association and their work like the Christmas Seal campaign you can check them out here http://www.bc.lung.ca/campaigns_and_events/public_service.html.

Now, it is Tuesday and there still are Cinnabons in the fridge… it is 5am… and there is still extra cream cheese icing to top them left in the fridge too. Fat Kid Kate would have just eaten the tube of icing and been content, but she has learned her lesson the hard way about doing that… but, that’s another (pretty scarring) story for another day. 

George Longden on the 32nd Annual Community Christmas Dinner

If you are like me and have no where to be Christmas Day for Dinner you should head to the 32nd
Annual Community Christmas Dinner. It sounds like a great event and a huge tradition for the Grand Forks community, this year Greenwood reisdents are welcome (as your community dinner is not happening this year). This is a massive accomplishment for the community of Grand Forks, it is put on completely by volunteers. Oh... and I almost forgot to mention Santa will be there for the kids! 

For more information visit the Mountain FM events page listing here. 

Michele from Rara Avis Dancers on the 10th Annual Dance Extravaganza

The Rara Avis Dancers are getting ready to present the 10^th Annual Dance Extravaganza (and Yuletide Market) on December 5^th. I spoke with Michele from the Rara Avis dance troupe about the events history and what people can expect this year. On top of the show there is also a Yuletide Market, you can drop by the Grand Forks Secondary School at 5:30pm to check out the market and doors for the show are at 6:30pm. The Dance Extravaganza begins at 7pm. You can purchase tickets at Thistle Pot Gifts.

For more information about the event visit Mountain FM’s event page here.

Preseason Interview with the Grand Fork's Border Bruin's Head Coach Nick Deschenes

Here is a clip from my show Tuesday, August 20th 2013.

I had a great little chat with the Grand Forks Border Bruins Head Coach Nick Deschenes about the up coming hockey season in the KIJHL. In this little audio tidbit we talk about the upcoming Main Camp, the Preseason Exhibition Games and the beginning of the regular season. The Border Bruins are a Junior B hockey team that plays out of Grand Forks in the Kootenay International Hockey League.

Back to the Wild West in Grand Forks for Moonlight Madness

Jenny Fines and I had a great time down in Grand Forks today helping celebrate ‘Back to the Wild West Moonlight Madness’! It was such a great time, we met so many families out taking part in the western themed event.

On top of events like horse and buggy rides, family movie screenings, street hockey, cow milking contests and a pancake breakfast there was a great line-up of artists taking to the stage to perform.  Our setup was outside Work & Play and we got to see TONS of people find steals of deals on jeans and summer wear, there were so many happy customers!

The highlight of the day for us seeing a good-ole-fashion bank heist, don’t worry it was just for fun. You can watch the video of that below.

But our younger friends LOVED the mist tents. At first I thought everyone was just really sweaty from the heat, it was really just that everyone was getting their shot at the mist tents, young and old.

Overall, I must say it was a great first trip (for me anyways) to Grand Forks. I can't wait to go back and visit again!