The Excavator's Coming

Our building permit placard by the gate.

We headed up to Barnhartvale on Saturday afternoon after first stopping in at the Kamloops Home and Leisure Show. I have to say, after attending the fall version of this show last year, I was VERY impressed by the number and quality of the exhibitors at this show. They filled both hockey rinks and the curling rink at the MacArthur Island Park venue. Parking was a challenge but we eventually found a spot big enough to let the big red truck rest up for a while. We filled in a zillion entries for the various door prizes and made some great contacts for products we would be needing as we move closer to completion on our place. At the Telus booth, we both updated our phones and calling plans to more closely match our usage habits. We are going to save about $70 per month over the "old" plans without giving up any of the services. Good news!
Of course, we had woken to snow in the morning but by the time we got to the property, most of it had melted away leaving the road/driveway a bit damp, but not slippery. As per the TNRD instruction, we posted the building permit placard on the fence by the entrance to our property. It felt good to be getting the ball rolling, construction-wise.

Joey, Alex & Carol exploring the field below the house.

The fields up top are really beginning to come to life. The grass is greening up in some areas and birdsong could be heard everywhere. A woodpecker was tap-tap-tapping nearby and although we couldn't positively identify it, we could see that it was black and white with a red patch on his head - probably a Downy Woodpecker. Joey found a disarticulated foot of a large ungulate, a big deer perhaps, or maybe an elk. Times like that make me rethink the whole "give me a kiss, Joey" thing!


We gathered up some of the wood just laying around and built up a small bonfire ready for our next visit, hiked up to the well location, and followed paths through some of the clearings. Sadly, it started to snow with a vengeance. We had not brought our really warm clothes, so we beat a hasty retreat back to the truck and headed for home. This should be our last visit up before the basement is excavated.

Random pic of me since I don't seem to be here much!