Happy Holidays 2013

Another Christmas is upon us! As I get older I find that this holiday tends to sneak up on me each year. When we are children we are intimately aware of when Santa is coming to town. Reponsibilities, jobs and just life-in-general divert our attention to other "more important" things as we grow into adulthood. Around here, the horses and dogs still need feeding; firewood still needs splitting; solar modules need to have the snow cleared off them; fences need mending; driveways need plowing; etc. etc. etc.
It's good to take a day or two and put things back into perspective. The Christmas holiday gives us a chance to take a breath and appreciate the important things.
I am so lucky to have an awesome, healthy son, a beautiful daughter-in-law and two amazing grand daughters, all living in Alberta. Carol's two wonderful kids are both happy and healthy and doing well in Ontario. It is difficult being apart from them at this "family" time of year but we think about them often and love them always. If we had a wish, it would be that they could all come and share a Christmas with us. Until then I guess we will have to make do with texting, Facebook, email and Skype!
The short days mean that we don't make much power, even on sunny days, so we end up running the generator quite regularly to keep the batteries charged up. All systems in the house are working great, though. It's nice to see our planning paying off. We have the house decorated for the holidays and it makes everything seem so warm and friendly. We are very lucky!
A first for us this year is that we will be joining our friends (and neighbours) Brian and Louise, for Christmas dinner on the 25th! Brian has recently had back surgery and is recovering nicely. He had been waiting for a while for the operation so we're optimistic it will make him much more comfortable in the future.
The logging company has recently been up burning all the enormous slash piles in the Crown Land they logged off last summer. It was very creepy when we drove home last night. The entire landscape along the bottom of our driveway was on fire or smouldering. Even from our house, you could see the trees starkly silhouetted against the orange flames and embers of the burning piles! It was all very un-Christmaslike!
I find I'm rambling a bit so I'll take the opportunity to end here.
Carol and I want to wish all of our friends and family, a Very Merry Christmas and the Happiest New Year! We'll post up a few pictures over the holidays.

Brrrrr!

I know, I know, I know! It's been more than a month since I updated this blog and you're all chomping at the bit for some good "building-a-house-in-the-middle-of-nowhere" stories. Well, to be honest, apart from the weather it hasn't been all that interesting around here.
The images in my last post showed beautiful fall weather with lots of sunshine warming the house against the forest backdrop. Take one of those images and picture it in your mind, only now there's a foot of snow everywhere and the temperatures are hovering around the -20*C mark. That tells the story pretty well! The cold weather has hit with a vengeance rarely seen this early in the winter. Heck, it's only the first week in December and we usually get our coldest weather in January and February. Yikes! That's not a good omen.
The winter weather has signalled the beginning of the "repair season". All the jobs I kept putting off in the warm weather are now coming back to haunt me. The 4wd on the tractor is not working, rendering it almost useless for plowing. It probably wouldn't be a terribly difficult repair in the good weather, but it's a major disaster to try and do it at -20*C. Our truck had suffered a catastrophic failure in its front axle, rendering that vehicle 2wd only as well. We had Rob at Canadian Tire fix it up for us by doing only "the bare minimum" to fix the problem and keep the truck safe to drive. Of course, 3 days after we got it home, the power steering pump failed. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to steer a big truck like that when there is no power steering? Forget trying to park in any tight spots. You just can't do it. My arms are still aching and I haven't driven it for 2 days!
I just re-read what I've been typing. I didn't realize what a whiner I've become!
It's not all been terrible. The dogs and horses are doing great. The house is working well, staying warm and dry and we've even been making a little power when the sun does peek through the clouds. We always have to rely more on our diesel generator at this time of year. The days are so short and even if it's clear and sunny we don't make quite enough power to refill the batteries. The 10kW Aurora Generator we have works great and has never failed to run when we needed it - even in the frigid cold weather. We recently added a small portable generator that enables us to heat the horses' water troughs when the weather gets very cold. It says it will run for up to 8 hours on a tank of gas (1.3 US gallons or 5 litres). We'll see if that's true! The Bobcat ATV is fantastic - starting every single time and doing everything we ask. We need it to haul all the feed and water for the horses twice a day so it's nice to have something that just works! We highly recommend these to anyone in a similar situation to ours. We love it!
With December a week old already, it struck me that Christmas is less than 3 weeks away. With all the cold weather challenges this week, I forgot to feel "Christmassy", if that's a word. With all the animals to look after, we won't be travelling this holiday season. We'll try to get out and visit some friends and neighbours but our families will have to do without us again this year. This is part of the 'down' side of living on a farm with animals that count on you to look after them. I really love looking after the horses. They have such wonderful personalities and make me smile when I go through the feeding routine with them. Whiskey still seems to be so happy! He canters beside the ATV (albeit on the other side of the fence) when I head down to the diet pen after throwing the 3 "boys" (Whisky, Mystery and Acorn) their hay. He often jumps up, kicking out at the air like a bronco, he is so excited about getting his bowl of yummy stuff! He is too cute! Mystery makes him move from one bowl to the other and then back again, while he tries to decide which bowl has the better stuff in it (they both contain the identical amounts of the mash!). Acorn has become quite the character, loudly nickering (sp.?) at me to hurry up and put the mash in his bowl! Jake and Sierra (aka "the big guys") are in their own paddock. Jake is NOT happy that they get fed last! He paces around with his head down and his ears pinned back, nickering his annoyance with this obvious insult to his status as Herd Leader! Poor Sierra just lets him carry on while he waits patiently for the ATV to get a little too close to the fence, whereupon he quickly stretches out and grabs a big mouthful of hay if I'm not careful. He always looks so pleased with himself.
Our business is plugging away but facing some challenges in our struggling economy here. Both Carol and I are taking part-time jobs to help out. Carol is back at TD Canada Trust. She worked for them a while back and they jumped at the chance to have her at their newest branch here in Kamloops. Being me, I'm doing something completely different and have been hired by Palladin Security as a Security Officer. I've been busy completing a bunch of courses and now have my security licence. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
I haven't taken any pictures recently but will try and capture some images this weekend. Carol is coming home tonight after being away on a course in Vancouver and we have lots going on this weekend. The wood shed is calling me....

Lookin' Good!

With the siding and exterior trim complete, we turned our attention to cleaning up the yard. We have been experiencing some wonderful fall weather with sunshine and temps in the mid to high teens (Celsius). While I have been finishing the siding, Carol has been burning all the scrap in our burn barrel and re-stacking and organizing all the "good" lumber. We cut up several damaged and/or rotting skids so they would fit into the barrel and moved all the left over siding to a neat stack behind the house. That in itself is no easy feat, requiring three tractor loads of siding piled on a skid suspended beneath the front end loader bucket. Man, that stuff is heavy! At least we know that our house will never blow away in a windstorm with all that weight on the outside walls!

After 2 full days of hard work this last weekend, we have the yard completely garbage and scrap free. With all the trim and siding getting final coats of paint after installation, the place is looking great - just like the image we've had in our mind's eye! We've even managed to disassemble and store all the saws and tools in the basement before the snow comes. That puts us way ahead of last year!




As the weather was so nice on Sunday, we decided to let the horses out of their paddocks so they could eat some of the lovely grass that is still growing in the open areas on our property. Wow! You'd think they won the lottery by their reaction! In fact we let them stay out on the pasture all night. That may not sound like a big deal, but this is the first time we have ever let any of them out of their fenced-off fields. It would be difficult for them to escape right off the property as the gates are closed but the perimeter fence that may be down in any number of hard-to-reach places that we haven't seen. Needless to say, Carol was more than a little concerned about them being out...alone...in the dark! So, this morning, still in the dark, when we couldn't see the horses in front of the house, we loaded up the ATV as usual and went down to the paddocks to feed them. No reaction at all, until Carol unchained the gate. The quiet morning was interrupted by lots of calling and cantering hooves as our 5 boys tried to prevent us from giving away their hay and mash to someone else who may somehow have sneaked into their paddocks during the night! They came romping down the driveway, through the gate and galloped past me on the ATV to where Carol was dispensing breakfast. I closed the gate behind them and Carol quickly sorted them out into their home fields and they quickly set about enjoying their meals. Once again, all was right in the Gull Lake Ranch horse world.

"Winter's Coming!"

It's been a long time coming, but finally, we installed the last piece of fibre cement siding last Sunday afternoon. Yes, we still have a few pieces of white trim board to install, but we ran out and need to pick up another couple of lengths of the Smartside trim boards. We are thinking that Home Depot carries it so it should be no problem. We had to rig our two ladders so I could safely clamber up the roof while securing everything to the to small triangular areas on the upstairs exterior walls. It worked well and took the drama out of working on the 45 degree sloping roof. That roof supplied most of the challenges with the siding, requiring cuts to meet that angle and also accomodate the 20 degree slope on the second floor roof.

I have to say that the house is looking great! We're so happy to have the outside finished. Now, we can dedicate ourselves to finishing the yard cleanup that Carol has been working on. She has been busy whittling down the last of the construction garbage, sorting it into "garbage", "dump", "useful" and "burn barrel" piles. She has also been splitting firewood. We have lots of logs at the house but most of it still needs to be split and stacked ready for the long, cold winter months. This coming weekend is Thanksgiving and we are hoping that we will be able to finish both those projects over the 3 day "holiday".

In the immortal words of Ned Stark, "Winter's coming!" We are already seeing some temps in the minus numbers (Celsius) overnight. It doesn't seem that long ago when we were trying to beat the heat! The seasons seem to change so quickly up here. Snow can't be far off. I'll have to take a serious look at winterizing the vehicles (ATV, tractor, truck, etc.) over the next few weekends. I have several oil and filter changes to do as well - generator and tractor. The list just never seems to get any smaller!

Busy Month

The end of August and the first part of September has been a very busy one for us. The Labour Day weekend saw us attend Loni's (one of our employees) wedding up at Sun Peaks. We got to stay over at the Delta Sun Peaks so it was a nice respite from working at the house.
We had another wedding to go to on the 14th of September back in Ontario. Kirsten (Carol's niece) and Charlie were finally getting married so we were taking the opportunity to have a short vacation. Now to most people that might not be a big deal, but when you have a farm property with horses and dogs, getting away for any length of time is an exercise in logistics and planning. We had arranged for Carol Fox, a friend we met through my Carol's volunteering at the Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association, to house sit for the week that I would be away. Our Saturday night in Sun Peaks would be a good "dry run" for Carol to see the house, meet the dogs and horses and generally just make sure she would be comfortable up at our place for the time we were in Ontario. It seemed to be a good fit and the dogs and horses were happy to have Ms. Fox serving them their dinner!
We still had the rented scaffolding at home and were pushing hard to finish up the last of the siding before we went back East. It made for some long, hot days but we did finally get everything up that we needed the scaffolds for. There are still two small, triangular walls between the two roof lines that need doing but we need to work off ladders to get at them so they could wait. The front of the house doesn't require the scaffolding to be quite as high as the back (due to the grade being lower at the back of the house and the deck on the front of the house) but the overhanging eaves prevented us adding the fourth level of scaffold. This left me nailing the last few pieces of siding and trim at the very peak while standing on the top step of our kitchen step stool! It felt very precarious but because of the solid footing afforded by the wide scaffold planks it wasn't all that bad. I WAS, however, very pleased to put the final nails in and get off the stool!

Loni & Eric Chipperfield

Charlie, Kirsten and Carol's dad, Alex

So, in the last 4 weeks, I've been to two weddings in 2 different provinces, flown back and forth across the country, installed half the siding and trim on our house, and somehow managed to work full-time for 3 of those weeks at our print shop. Yikes!

Siding...again!

It's been a year or so since we started putting the siding on the house. After lots of other projects hit the top of our "to do" list, installing the siding finally came up again. We had installed everything we could safely reach from ladders and our little mini scaffold last summer but had stopped when we realized that we needed to rent proper scaffolding to finish it up.
We bit the bullet and called Rogers Rental, one of our clients, and picked up several sections of the good stuff. Starting last weekend we worked on the back of the house. It is the tallest and largest area that had yet to be done so seemed like a good place to start. Now, when I say, "siding", I'm really talking about all the operations needed to install not only the Certainteed fibre cement board, but also all the trim around the windows and other penetrations. This includes metal drip mouldings that need to be there to meet the requirements of the Building Code. Yes, that darn building code thingy again! I have to thank Jon Eakes and his excellent website and video showing exactly how to fold the tin properly to create the required drip mouldings. I find that it takes longer to perform the trimming operations than to actually install the fibre cement siding. All the little fiddly operations force me to climb up and down the scaffold cutting this piece or that to fit the particular area I'm working on. When you add to that all the wasps that we have out here this year, the gusting wind that seems to pop up every time I'm doing anything remotely scary almost 3 floors above the ground, or just the sheer weight of all the boards, I seem to be sweating from the moment I start in the morning until after supper when we finally pack it in for the day! It's definitely not what I would call "comfortable" work!
I do most of the "high" work but Carol has been awesome when I need the extra hands or eyes. She was right there when we were installing the highest part at the back of the house. I know she was way out of her comfort zone, but she did and went wherever we needed her to be. Well done, Carol! When she wasn't up on the scaffolds, she was pulling weeds, cleaning up the giant trash pile behind the house, organizing all the materials or preparing lunches or snacks and drinks. She is an excellent "helper" and I couldn't do it without her.

Kamloopa Pow Wow

The beautiful Kamloopa Pow Wow facility

In Kamloops, we're lucky to have a rich First Nations heritage. This past weekend, Carol and I went into town to attend the 35th Annual Kamloopa Pow Wow. Just across the bridge from our office, the First Nations peoples have a wonderful facility available that was designed to host a large Pow Wow, or meeting of the tribes. Attendees travel from as far east as Manitoba, south from the USA and all parts of BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan. The 3 day event is hosted annually here and is a spectacular display of colour and traditional native dress. The Pow Wow centre is a beautiful wooden structure, circular in shape, with an open centre and covered seating all around the perimeter. On the outside of the center, artisans set up temporary shops where visitors can purchase everything from t-shirts, to jewellery,
After a drum roll call, where groups of drummers from each attending band beat a rhythmic tempo accompanied by singing and chanting, the Grand Entry sees all the flags and standards enter the circle. These are followed by the chiefs and dignitaries and then by representatives from every band, all dressed in traditional outfits with everyone dancing to the rhythmic drumming. The scene is awash with swirling colours and textures while the centre ring fills with more and more dancers. I don't remember seeing anything like it before. Spectacular is a word that comes to mind! It made such and impression that I had to post some pictures and tell you about. If you are in or near Kamloops on the BC Day long weekend, make sure you plan on attending. You won't be disappointed!

Google Earth imagery update

I don't know if anyone uses Google Earth but in case you do, a few months ago they updated the imagery available of our property with data from last summer (2012). Since I had tagged our house location, Google actually alerted me about the updated data. Now, instead of just empty fields and the trace of Sinclair Road, you can actually see our house! Granted, the horse fencing and the loafing shed are not there but at least you can see the house. I have included a frame grab from Google Earth for those who don't use the software so you can see our quarter section (outlined in yellow) and the location of our house relative to the rest of the property. You can see the house near the upper left corner of the yellow outline.

The "new" driveway we made is the distinctive line running from the gate (in the upper right hand corner) across the property and past the pond (small dark circle almost half way up the drive). Sinclair Road can barely be made out as the much fainter track that meanders along below our driveway. The excavation that carries the 2" water pipe from our well to the house is evident going through the trees directly below the house. The fields we keep the horses in cover about 3/4 of the large open area to the right and above the house. If you zoom in, the evidence of the excavation for the septic field is obvious to the right of the house.
If you have the Google Earth application and want to see the property in there, simply copy and paste these coordinates into the program...

50°33'59.13" N 120°01'34.55" W

Visitors!? Yep, all the way out here!

In a nearly unprecedented occurrence, my niece, Kelsey and her boyfriend, Dan, came out to visit us for a few days! Upon hearing they were coming and after the shock had passed, Carol and I decided it might be time to vacuum the place and get some sheets for the bed in the spare room. We have been working in the ensuite bathroom to try and finish it all up. We needed to put the baseboard trim and door trim on, trim out the window, "fix" the painting mistakes (blotches of wall paint from errant roller passes), hang pictures and install towel bars. When I first tried to trim out the pocket door, my finishing nails were too long, getting in the way of the sliding door and jamming the whole thing up. As I worked to remove the too-long nails, I somehow managed to detach the door track from the framing and screwed up the whole thing. My only option was to cut a big hole in the drywall so I could access the track attachments, screw it all back together, repair the drywall, repaint the wall, and finally, attach the trim using shorter finish nails. "Why do things the easy way?", has become my motto working on this house, it seems.
Having gone through all that, and after filling the nail holes and sanding everything smooth, we were finally able to put the finish coats of paint on the trim. Wow, everything looks so nice! There's a lot to be said for having rooms "finished"! One down... every other room in the house left to go. Yikes!

On a roll, I trimmed and painted the window in the spare room so it would look nice when our company arrived. After buying a new vaccuum cleaner a few weeks ago, the house wasn't in too bad a shape. We did give it a good going over just to make sure. Having guests come to stay sure has a way of moving "housework" to the top of the "To Do" list!

Both Dan and Kelsey are paramedics (EMR's/EMT's/medics/???) with the City of Edmonton and are fortunate enough to be able to organize their days off so they can have 4 or more days together every once in a while. To take full advantage, they were working until 3pm on the Friday, and then driving out to Kamloops. I met them shortly after midnight on the Trans Canada Highway in town so they could follow me up to our house. If you've never been up here before, suffice it say that you don't want to drive up here in the dark as your first experience in finding our place. It would probably be a long night for you (and for us!). As we finally arrived at our gate, I got out to let Dan know to continue up the driveway as I closed the gates behind us. He opened his window and as I leaned in to give him the message, Kelsey, eyes as big as saucers, exclaims, "Holy shit!"
I'm happy to say that after that initial shock, I think she had a great time over the 3 days they spent here. Carol took her riding on Sunday and Monday, with the latter being a 2 1/2 hour adventure through the forest behind our house. Sierra had tried to take advantage of Kelsey's inexperience on their ride on Sunday, but was a great partner for her on the Monday ride, behaving himself the entire time. Jake got spooked by a VERY scary rock and the four of them barely managed to escape with their lives - if he was telling the story!
We also spent a lot of time exploring on the ATV's. Dan brought his quad and with ours, we had enough space to fit a couple of dogs, and the four adults. It made for some fun adventuring. The weather cooperated big time and we had comfortable, sunny weather for almost the entire weekend.
I mentioned the dogs earlier. There is a little story there. Buddy, Kelsey and Dan's golden retriever, is a sweetie who gets along with everyone. He and Ben spent the weekend playing together. Sadly, our other dog, Joey, has a hate on for strange dogs and Buddy was no exception. Even with her muzzle on she was very aggressive so she had to spend most of the weekend in the laundry room, where her bed is located.
We ate some awesome meals over the three days, BBQ'ing a small turkey on Saturday, ribs on Sunday and leftovers on Monday.

It was a busy but fun "long" weekend. It was nice to spend some time getting to know Dan, and it's always great being with Kelsey. She has grown to be a very nice young lady and I'm proud to have her as part of my family.

A Few Photos

 On the way in to the office this morning they were cutting all the logs to uniform lengths and re-stacking them into neat piles ready to be loaded onto the logging trucks.
















This is a couple of shots of the new loafing shed. Nothing special from a construction point-of-view - just 4x4 treated posts, 2x10 and 2x12 frame with 5/8 plywood sheathing...oh, and a corrugated galvanized tin roof.







The shed measures 12 feet by 12 feet and has a 3 foot roof overhang on the open side. It is almost 9 feet high at the front and more than 7 feet high in the back.




 

It's kind of difficult to see the round pen in that mess of rails and fence posts, but trust me, it's there! Almost 30 cubic yards of crushed shale has been compacted to form the base. It will be topped with around 20 cubic yards of dust-free sand.
The round pen is actually a 14 sided polygon, loosely approximating a circle with gates forming two sides of the polygon.
You can see our (new to us) horse trailer off to the side. The trailer's small tack room gives us handy storage and access to the saddles and bridles when we want to ride.





Whisky, taking a  break from eating (rare event!).

Fathers' Day weekend

Happy Fathers' Day to all the dads out there! I often think of my dad, but especially at this time of year. Not only do we celebrate Fathers' Day, but his birthday is June 14th. Dad died almost 20 years ago of ALS and I miss him very much. He would have been 81 this year.
On a happier note, it was great to get a call from my son, Justin. We don't speak often enough but I love him very much and appreciate it when we can chat and catch up on his growing family.
Carol called and spoke with her dad, Alec, at about the same time I was talking to Justin. It's hard to celebrate when you're far from family, but it does make those times special when we do manage to get together.
We worked hard (as usual!) over the weekend and managed to get a few tasks accomplished. I was up early on Saturday to be at the rental shop to pick up a plate compactor we had rented. The crushed shale we used for the round pen base needed to be compacted before a layer of sand goes on top. Once compacted, the shale does not absorb much moisture so a gentle slope was necessary to shed any rain that falls. That was one of the reasons we chose to put the round pen where it is. From the west gate, the ground falls away about 12" to the east side of the pen. We had put some 2x12 lumber between the posts at ground level to contain the shale and sand. I would estimate that we have a compacted base roughly 6" thick. Ron is bringing up the sand this week and once installed, it should be around 4" deep. This will be plenty to give the horses some very solid footing to work with regardless of the weather conditions.
Our farrier, Jordan Camille, was up on Sunday morning to trim all the horses feet. He asked to work from the round pen and seemed quite impressed with it. He did comment that the rails might be too low for breaking colts but since we never intend to do that, it is not really a concern for us. Being that Sunday was Fathers' Day, Jordan had asked to start early so he had arrived a little after 7am! He was done by 10am and on his way back to his wife and two boys, Tyrell and Ryder, shortly thereafter.
After a cup of coffee, I went out and finished painting the loafing shed in River Run. We had one coat on the exterior already so I did a single coat on the interior and finished it up with a second coat on the exterior. It looks nice colour matched to the house! Once we finish trimming the house windows and doors, we can put some of the white trim on the shed to dress it up a little.
For Fathers' Day, Carol made up a nice brunch for us which we managed to scarf down easily after our busy morning. She has also been hard at work cleaning up the junk piles around house. She's been burning the scrap lumber and some of the smaller pieces of wood we've removed from the ground in the paddocks. We also took a pickup load of scrap material and garbage to the landfill. Anyway, it's making a big difference! All the garbage in front of the house is now gone, and so is one of the two piles off the side of the house. It's looking much nicer! We still have one giant pile of crap in the back beside the driveway, but we're hoping to get rid of that one over the next few weeks as well. Our burn barrel is working round the clock trying to keep up!
We got out for a wonderful trail ride yesterday afternoon. We timed it perfectly between 2 thunder showers. Having the horse trailer with it's built-in tack room parked down by the paddocks worked much better this time. We tacked them up in the new round pen after locking everyone else in The Vale. We had left all the gates open which made it easy to get out of the paddocks safely and without much fuss. Jake and Sierra are much better when they both ride out together - not so much calling out. The four of us all had a great ride with Carol leading on Jake and me following on Sierra. We went out by the well, turned east down the narrow field past the grassy pond and then carried on down the hill. After a few hundred meters, we turned south and climbed up through the trees to an open pasture. We were concerned how the horses would react when turned for home but needn't have worried. Jake and Sierra were both real gentlemen the whole time. We had scouted a few places to trot and were successful when we made the attempt. Apart from a few head tosses by Jake once on the old Sinclair Road, the two of them couldn't have behaved better. What a wonderful ride for our first real "trail ride" at Gull Lake Ranch! We comfortably rode them back down to the paddocks and into the round pen to dismount and untack them. Whisky, (our young guy) must have missed the big boys because as soon as he saw us coming down the trail on our way back, he took off galloping at full speed from one end of his paddock to the other (a few hundred meters). It took him quite a while to settle down even after we let them all back together. We suspect he must have been happy to have his feet all trimmed up and comfortable as they were quite a mess before Jordan got to them. Whatever, it scared me a bit to see him running so quickly over the uneven ground, but wow, he's very fast!

We finished the day up with Carol's famous BBQ ribs. Yummy!

Logging Pics

I'm amazed at how quickly the loggers can make the trees disappear. I suppose that I shouldn't be too surprised - they did tell us that they would take between 2 and 3 weeks to log off the quarter section of Crown land that our driveway runs through. This is an area 1/2 mile squared (almost a kilometre square!). It has only been a few days and enormous tracts of forest have disappeared, replaced by neatly stacked piles of logs, ready for transport.
Emotionally, I am more upset about it than I thought I would be. It's very sad to see those beautiful trees reduced to something represented only by a line on a spreadsheet of some enormous company, yet leaves the local wildlife with less of the precious habitat they need to survive and thrive.
Anyway, I rationalize everything by remembering that it's not my call, and on the other hand, I'm happy that this will leave our road in better condition.
The photos don't do justice to the enormity of the change in the landscape. Keep in mind that all these images were thick, dark forests only a week ago. New sight lines have already allowed the sun to shine in places it has been unable to reach for many years.

It will be interesting to see the landscape again in even just a few more weeks. To their credit, the loggers are leaving many trees - those too big or too small to be economically harvested in this manner. Sadly, a lot of the very small ones get destroyed just the same, collateral damage under the relentless march of the giant machines as they harvest their larger brethren.

Logging Update

It's a little later than we anticipated, but Interfor has started logging the quarter section of Crown Land next to our property. No chainsaws and axes for these guys! It's all done with enormous pieces of mechanized equipment. I haven't taken any pics yet, but will get on it so you can see how it all works. We first heard the buzz of the equipment working on Sunday afternoon and already they have clear cut some enormous swaths through the forest. It's amazing how quickly they can take down the trees! They estimate only 2 -3 weeks to cut it all, followed by 2-3 weeks of hauling the logs away. I made that sound like a linear thing, but the reality is that the hauling starts up very soon after the cutting starts and both tasks are carried out at the same time. So, if that really happens that way, we should have our peace and quiet back in a little over a month. We'll see...
We haven't been standing still at home either. Since the restrictions came off the roads a few weeks ago, we called Ron Hall, our trucking company friend to have him haul up some gravel and sand for our round pen. We estimated 3 truck loads of crushed shale and two truck loads of sand would do it. He brought the crush up last Wednesday and Carol and I spent the weekend moving it from the driveway, through all the gates and fences and down to the round pen. I have the tractor parked by the pile of material and use it to put two bucket loads of the gravel into the back of the Bobcat ATV. It has a powered dump box so we simply manoeuvre it to the spot we need the stuff and push a button to dump it. Of course, we still have to rake it all flat but at least we're not having to shovel it out of the back of the pickup!
Next up we have to compact it down with a tamper and then put a few inches of sand on top. Ron tells us that the compacted shale will withstand lots of abuse and moisture giving our horses some solid footing to work on. The sand is special in that it is supposed to be "dust free". I guess time will tell.
Wednesday also saw Dr. Jennifer Jackson, our large animal vet, out to see the guys, float a few sets of teeth and get everybody vaccinated. I have to say that was the first time I have ever had my hand in a horses mouth...up to the elbow! So much to learn! Jennifer seemed very happy with all the horses so apparently, we're doing a satisfactory job of looking after them!
It was also good to see our friend, Morgan, again. He is now a technician and assistant to the vet, and seems to be enjoying himself. Way to go, Morg!
We finished building the loafing shed and have the first coat of paint/stain on it. We got it to match the siding colour on the house so it looks like we meant it to look that way!
Last weekend also saw the arrival of the cattle on our property. Brian and Louise brought them down so we now have 2 people, 2 dogs, 5 horses, 25 cows, 25 calves, 2 yearling bulls and a bunch of wild animals all living at our place. It's a busy place these days!
I promise to get some pictures up in the next few days and apologize for being tardy in that regard.

Busy Building Westeros

Busy is a good way to describe the last few weeks. We've had a spell of great weather, sadly finishing a few days ago. We saw highs in the upper 20's and low 30's with overnight lows in the teens - lots of sunshine and just gorgeous for this time of year!

We have finished all the electric fences; built a functioning round pen; installed rails on the fence in front of the house and started installation of swinging metal gates to keep the cattle from getting into the house and yard. Spring means the return of Brian and Louise's cattle and since we removed the electric barbed wire that surrounded the house last year, we needed to complete the new fence that replaced it. It also meant that we had to move our remaining hay from the stack on the other side of the road to its new spot under the deck by the basement door. Of the 150 bales we bought last year to feed the two horses we had then, we have 50 left. We did lose a few bales to mould where water had settled on the bottom of the platform we had the hay stack on. It sounds like our efforts are timely as one of our neighbours, Holly Campbell, had called last night to warn us that her cattle were now out on the range and that we should take measures to keep them out of areas we didn't want them in. Apparently, "finishing the gates" has now moved to the top of our lengthy priority list! It seems to never end.
On the "good news" side of things, we have Jake and Sierra moved up to our place. They actually came up several weeks ago but it's been a while since we have updated the blog. It's been fun to watch the herd dynamic as they all try to find their place in the pecking order. Jake is definitely the "alpha" and has displaced Mystery as the overall leader of the herd. The herd itself is now formed of two mini-herds - Mystery and Acorn representing our original group (minus Whisky who's at Camilles' Horses for training) and then Jake and Sierra, the "new guys". They all get along reasonably well with a minimum of ear-pinning and gesturing.
As we have 3 fenced fields that we can keep them in we have named the fields to allow discussion of horse placement without having to use terms like, "the field on the far side without shelter but that does have lots of grass". Being that we are currently enjoying the TV series, Game of Thrones, we have chosen names from that series. Winterfell is the paddock that has lots of shelter (but the poorest grass) where we had the guys spend last winter. It's closest to the house and easy for us to get to in the snow. Riverrun, is the smallest of the 3 fields and has no shelter at all, but it boasts an underground stream that gives it the best grass. The Vale, is the largest of the fields with some sheltered areas and some lush grass where the underground stream runs across a corner of the field. It is the farthest away from the house.
We have currently allowed the horses access to all three paddocks but will move to a rotational grazing system as the summer progresses. This will give the grass time to recover in one paddock while they eat down the next one. However, for now, they have all chosen Riverrun as their favourite, seldom venturing out, even in the rain and wind we had the other day. I've learned that horses are piggies when it comes to food and they have simply picked the best feeding area!

Round Pen

Jake and Sierra are headed home next weekend so we've been busy making preparations. The dogs had chased a chipmunk under my truck last year and while trying to catch it they managed to rip out all of the trailer hitch wiring. When we bought the two horses, they came with a 2 horse, angle haul trailer that is in pretty good condition. The brakes and floor had been replaced and all the lights were working. Steve did a good job keeping it in good condition so there wasn't much for us to do other than take care of our tow vehicle.


It took me a week of evenings laying out in the mud under the truck bumper, but I managed to repair the damage and wire a new plug fitting onto the rear bumper and install a plug-and-play trailer brake controller . We picked up the required size tow ball and hitch and easily installed them into the receiver hitch on the truck. We wanted to test it all out towing the trailer before we had to bring the boys home with it. Saturday was a cold and snowy day and we had decided against outdoor jobs, but focused instead on the trailer and a couple of shopping stops, so up to Dreamscape we went.
Steve had parked the trailer there when he delivered the two horses. We backed the truck into position, dropped the trailer hitch down onto the ball, hooked up the chains and electrical connector and checked out the lights to ensure they were working correctly. We did find a grounding problem with the left brake light, but apart from that, everything worked fine. We towed the trailer down a very muddy and messy Long Lake Road and over the Roy and Patou's place. They have a nice area large enough to turn the truck and trailer around and the trip would be good practice. After driving over, Carol took the wheel coming back up to Dreamscape Ranch. She did great! I handled the "backing up" chores this time but I'm confident that she will learn to do it in no time.
In town, we picked up some "horsey" things at the Horse Barn that will complete the tack we need for Sierra, in particular.
Carol was busy this week, riding Sierra, getting confident with him and brushing up on her riding skills. I will be riding him this week for a lesson and then a trail ride and Carol will be giving Jake the once over. It should be a fun week, in that regard.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch (I've always wanted to say that!), we needed to put up all the rails on the round pen and do a little fence wiring work to finalize our other two paddocks. We will be needing everything once everybody gets home. I forgot to mention that Whisky, is away at Camille's Horses, having Jordan and Candice give him a proper start with a month of training. He is joined by, Chance, Lea's little rescued colt. Those two will be done early in May, but until then, we will have to make do with our two retired guys, Mystery and Acorn, until Jake and Sierra get home.
Sunday, dawned sunny and dry, and although it stayed cool all day, the sun was out so our round pen work went well. Of the 12 sections that comprise the pen, we completed 9 and managed to get portions of the other 3 ready to go. It will only take us a few hours one evening this week to finish it all up. Well, other than the tractor that is! Yes, you read that correctly, our tractor is disabled (the left front wheel axle broke and the wheel fell off) and is stranded inside the round pen. I was leveling the ground in preparation to put some sand down to improve the footing for the horses. While removing the dirt, I was manoevering the tractor, with a full loader bucket of dirt, and had the tractor in 4WD - apparently a big no-no. A nasty crunching sound, followed by the LF wheel departing its' normal place on the tractor, left me stranded exactly where I was at that time. The parts are ordered and will be here in a few days.

Snow's gone!

What a difference a couple of weeks can make. Easter weekend saw temps approaching the mid teens up here at the ranch. That nice warm sunny weather even hung around for several days after the holiday, the result being that almost all our snow is gone! Hard to believe if you know how much of the white stuff we had, but it's true. All the horse fields below the house are greening up with new grass shoots and even the muddy areas around the house are drying up. There are some very wet, soggy areas where the snow above is melting and running downhill, pooling in a few select areas.
The driveway, where we had all the crushed rock put on last summer is doing great! There are a few spots where we will need to add some more gravel but it has kept things much less messy than years past. Drizzling showers and cooler temps have moved in over the past few days but the water is being absorbed into the ground for the most part. Yay!
Last weekend we finished the drywall work in the upstairs bathroom (around the pocket door) and finally got a coat of paint on the entire room for the first time. It's been 9 months waiting to see the final result and we're almost there. We ran out of paint and had to get another gallon, so we will be waiting a little bit longer to see the final result. We have picked up trim for the windows in there so we can finish that room completely when we get to it.



Okay, so why haven't we done it? Finished it off? The answer to that question is simple. With all the new horses, we haven't had the time! I'm teasing you a bit here. As you know, we have 3 horses up here, but none of them can actually be ridden - 2 are retired due to age or injury, and the other one is a 3 year old who had just started his training. We have been looking for a horse that I (Mike) can ride. It would have to be a well-trained, tolerant horse that would accept a beginner rider (me) and be strong enough to carry a short, fat guy trying to look like a cowboy (again, me!).  Last week we got a phone call from Steven Mintz out in Vernon. He had a horse that might just fit the bill, in fact he had two of them, and he even had a trailer to pull them around with. We jumped in the car on Wednesday afternoon and drove out to have a look at them. Steven's place is just north of Vernon and only about 65 min from our house so it was worth the look. When we arrived we saw the two horses and couldn't believe it - they were beautiful!

Jake is a 15 year old palomino, foundation quarter horse and Sierra is a 12 year old bay paint. Jake stands around 14.3 HH while Sierra is the taller one at 15.3 HH. As a beginner, if I'm going to get on and off a horse to open and close the dozens of gates that litter the trails up our way, I would need to be on a horse that is relatively short and Jake fit the bill perfectly. The great news was that Steven wasn't asking the earth for these guys. We drove home very excited at the prospect of having a couple of real, rideable horses! Knowing next to nothing about horses we called our friend Lea (Dreamscape Ranch) the following day and asked if she would be interested to come and look them over for us. Lea suggested bringing Sara (her ranch manager) and Ray Scott (local horse whisperer/ex-cowboy/trainer/friend) along for a collective opinion, and oh yeah, could we go that same day, as she was going away the next day? We all met on the highway, jumped into Lea's new crew cab pickup, and off we went.

The weather was grim but Steven wasn't letting it get in the way. He has a great barn with a large area that could be used like an indoor arena so we could ride the horses around in there enough to get an idea of what they were like. I say, "we" in that sentence but what I meant was "they". Our panel of experts buzzed around the horses like flies on a hot summer day while Carol and I watched, tossing in the occasional "wow" or "isn't that one pretty" comment just to show that we weren't total greenhorns! The drive home was an hour long recap of the days events reaching the consensus that we should definitely buy these horses! Oh, and I would need to get some lessons from Ray.
We called Steve when we arrived home and made the deal. He would deliver them (in the trailer) to Dreamscape Ranch on Saturday morning. Yay!
Saturday was cold and windy but apart from a brief delay for an accident on the highway, we all arrived at Lea's place as expected. The Thorsons, as we knew, were away in Revelstoke for the weekend but Sara had the paddock ready for our new boys. They came off the trailer in great shape, excited at the change in scenery and a bit anxious. We showed them to their new digs, signed some papers, gave Steve some money and it was done! Ray and Sara will be putting the guys through their paces for a couple of weeks, getting them tuned up and ready to work. I will have Ray give me some lessons and when we take them home, we should be able to go riding. You read that right folks, riding horses on our ranch!