Home for the Holidays

Believe it or not, almost all of our snow has melted and gone. We had a week of warm December weather that made a mess of everything, melting snow like it was springtime. We had mud everywhere for a while but now that the cooler weather has crept back in, everything's frozen solid again. But the white stuff that fell in November is 95% gone, leaving a dry, brown landscape pockmarked with areas of icy, white crust. To make things even more interesting, there's not much snow in the forecast in the days leading up to Christmas 2014. So, it could be a brown Christmas this year. That would be very unexpected, up here in the mountains!
It's exactly one week until Christmas Day and I'm just starting to get into the spirit of the season. We have the tree and most of our decorations up, making the house look quite festive.We've been out a couple of times supporting the local economy, buying a few gifts, shopping for Christmas dinner ingredients, and purchasing a bottle or two of "good cheer".
We have again been invited to Brian and Louise's place for dinner on the 25th and have graciously accepted. They have become good friends over the past few years and we look forward to our time with them.
As usual, our little print shop will be closed over the holidays so we'll both get a few days off together. It will be nice to spend some "off" time with my new bride this Christmas. We'll go and visit some of the friends and neighbours that we never get to see enough the rest of the year. Catching up is always fun!
To all you readers, and to those we won't get a chance to tell in person, Merry Christmas, and a very Happy New Year!

Deep Freeze

We received a big dump of snow on Tuesday and then another few inches on Friday night. Now, as predicted, the temperatures have fallen dramatically and the sun has been bright, hanging low in the cold, clear skies.

I spent another day plowing yesterday, trying to keep everything accessible and clear. Last night we attended a Christmas party with the good people from Carol's work. We didn't stay too late as Carol had to work this morning which was just as well as the temperature at the house on our return was -28*C. It hadn't improved much by this morning as you can see from the photo of the dashboard in Carol's car when I started it this morning.

You can see the nice job the new plow is doing in the photos of the house and yard. It rocks!
It is SO nice to have all the wood and hay taken care of this year. We're able to focus the little time we seem to have, doing the things that make life up here so enjoyable - like blogging, for example. I haven't been able to dedicate the time I feel I should to keeping our little blog up to date. Winter is such a beautiful time of year here, I love to share the images that epitomize the reason that we live here and put up with all the little inconveniences that are just part of living on a remote, off-grid ranch.

Snowy Weather

We were just getting used to winter without snow, and then we woke up this morning! Joey was barking at something outside so we all got up to look and sure enough, three deer were picking their way through the deep snow up towards the well. Whoa, wait, what? Deep snow? Yep! There was more than a foot of fresh snow on the ground! And, it was still snowing....hard! Amazingly, both Carol and I didn't have to go to our respective jobs today. We had planned to drive to Vancouver - a business day trip for our printing company - but had postponed the trip yesterday because the forecast was for snow on the mountain passes. We didn't expect that snow to arrive at our house, or in town, but it did! It hit us with a vengeance.
I was looking for a chance to try out the new plow on the Bobcat utv but I wasn't even sure if it would be able to push this much snow. I guess we were going to find out...
First thing was to install the new tire chains on the back wheels. It took me a while to figure them out, but they went on and fit well. Now, would we be able to drive through all this snow to get up the hill beside the house to the spot beside the propane tank where I put the plow assembly. Yes! It worked great and climbed the hill no problem. The Bobcat feels unstobbable with these chains on! Getting the mount to line up took some messing around, but the pins finally slipped into place and voila, we had a miniature, mountain highway plow truck.
From the first pass, I knew we had done the right thing. It was easy to use and - small miracle - it was easily able to push through the deep snow. After making a few runs cleaning up the knee deep driveway beside the house, I took off down the driveway.
Our plow blade is 18" high and then we have a 6" rubber strip attached to the top edge of the blade. That gives us almost 2 feet of material pushing through the snow. Even with all that, the snow was still coming over the top at times. For the most part though, it was working perfectly, pushing a wave of snow off to one side of the Bobcat. I remembered my lessons and made the plowed swath as wide as absolutely  possible - even falling into the dreaded ditch that has trapped our little tractor in the past. Another miracle though, as the Bobcat with the plow just drove along with one wheel 2 feet lower than the other, buried in the ditch, until a less steep part of the ditch alowed us to simply drive back onto the driveway. It was poetry in motion. Well, okay, maybe it wasn't, but it was a whole lot better than having to drag a frozen tractor out of a snowy ditch with our pickup.
To put the cherry on the top of the snowy weather, the folks at Environment Canada are predicting temps in the mid-minus twenties this weekend!

We're Ready for Winter!

It is the middle of November, and here we are...ready for winter! Yes, you read that correctly. We are ready for the cold weather and the white stuff that is usually already upon us by this time. That might sound a bit odd, so let me explain.
With Carol and I both working jobs this year, we realized that we just weren't going to have the time to do all the seasonal chores around the ranch that we've had in years past. Last year we struggled through, bringing up hay one pickup load at a time every weekend during the winter. Same with firewood.

When not hauling hay, our weekends would be spent cutting, transporting, splitting and stacking the firewood, that we use to heat our house.
And don't get me started on trying to plow out the driveway. Our little tractor is fighting out of its weight class when it comes to plowing our 2km driveway. We would be much better off with a giant tractor, but until our finances improve some more, we have to "run what we brung" (use the equipment we have).





 So, one challenge at a time. We found a great hay supplier in Armstrong who would deliver all the hay we'd need for the whole winter for less than what we were paying for just the hay alone last year (not including all the diesel burned in the truck). The challenge with this scenario is that we needed someplace dry to store the hay in - a hay shed! We've known that this outbuilding would be required ever since we moved up here, but we just haven't had the time or money to build it. We had to protect our investment in the hay, though, so we bit the bullet and I started digging post holes.
Eight post holes, 4 feet deep, to anchor the 14 foot, pressure treated posts that would eventually support the hay shed. We had decided on an design similar to the loafing shed we built for the horses, but 3 times as wide and 2 feet taller. It would be 12 feet across by 36 feet wide, enabling us to store almost 400 small square bales. I was able to dig 1 or 2 holes after work each day but it was hard work, using a pry bar and a clam shell digger. The ground was very rocky making progress slow. At this point, a miracle happened! Let me explain.

Our friends Bud and Lea Thorson had told us about HelpX, a website that matched travellers willing to work for room and board, with farms and ranches looking for some temporary help. We put our little ranch up as a potential "host" and within days had agreed to host Joanie Lizotte and her boyfriend, Jo, for a few weeks starting in the middle of October. We were a bit hesitant at first, having never done anything like this before. We needed the help though, and it seemed to be a pretty good idea. We shouldn't have worried. The whole experience was great! Jo is a chef and Joanie is not afraid of hard work in the least. The two of them helped us finish the hay shed build; cut, split and stack all the firewood we'll need for the winter; move and re-stack the hay in the new shed; clear our horse paddocks of much of the wood and detritus that has always been strewn around; prepare and serve meals from our kitchen that would rate rave reviews from any high-end restaurant you can name; paint our interior doors; clean up our basement; befriend our dogs and horses; and become our good friends. We only hope that they enjoyed their stay with us as much as we enjoyed hosting them. Thank you, Jo and Joanie!


Our tractor has a snow plow blade that attaches behind the machine and plows a path just inches wider than the tractor itself. It does a great job but has one flaw. Since our driveway has ditches on the sides for most of its length, we have to be careful not to slide/fall into the ditch with the tractor when we're snow plowing. It sounds simple but when the snow is so deep you can't distinguish the road from the ditch, it makes it extremely difficult to keep the cleared path as wide as possible. Since the blade is behind you, the tractor finds the ditch before the plow so the operator tends to shy away from the edge, resulting in an ever narrowing cleared path. Front snow plow blades for tractors run in the thousands of dollars so we needed a cheaper answer to this problem.


Our Bobcat ATV is excellent in the snow so it made sense to look for a solution based on that vehicle. I found a Canadian wholesaler for KFI products - UTV Canada, in Edmonton. KFI is the US manufacturer of the great winch mount we bought and they make an awesome line of snow plow products that have mounts to fit our Bobcat. I was able to order a complete kit - 6 foot plow blade, adjustable heavy duty UTV push tubes, and a mount for the push tubes that includes a 2" hitch receiver. I also ordered a set of heavy duty chains for the Bobcat to keep things moving when it gets icy. So far, we haven't had the opportunity to find out how all this gear works! Hopefully, we go all winter without knowing, but I suspect that is just not going to happen! Stay tuned until after the first big snowfall.

Married!

Wow!

We did it!

A beautiful day.

A beautiful venue.

My beautiful wife!

It was the BEST day!

Hitchin' post

We're getting a good dose of Kamloops hot, summer weather. Temps are predicted to hit the low 40's early next week with the high 30's being the norm the last few days. Even up at our place we've been seeing high 20's dipping into the teens overnight. It's about bloody time! I love the summer...the sunshine...hot days...warm nights...very little snowplowing! The dogs have both had their summer haircuts recently. I've included a picture but as many of you know, Joey hates being photographed, so I snapped this one as she was leaving.
Seriously, though, we are already starting to think about prepping for winter. Wood needs to be cut, split and stacked. Hay needs to be sourced and reserved for fall delivery. Annual maintenance on our equipment has to be done in the next few months. Come to think of it, I'd better get the snow tires off the car, for a few months at least. But, hey, before all this talk of winter, we've got a wedding in September to prepare for! Yep, if you didn't know already, Carol and I are getting hitched on September 13th. Carol jokes (?) that she chose the date partly because we can celebrate our anniversary every once in a while on Friday, the 13th. Hmmmm...

Anyway, we have a small group of friends and family travelling to Kamloops to help us celebrate. Thanks to our good friends, Bud and Lea Thorson, the wedding will be outdoors at Dreamscape Ranch with our friend, Roy, officiating the ceremony. Dress is cowboy casual, with jeans, boots and hats encouraged! We're providing wine with dinner and maybe some beer or whatever afterward, but BYOB will be the order of the day. Dreamscape Ranch is a "Bed 'n' Breakfast" so a few rooms are available for those needing accomodations. We're keeping our fingers crossed for good weather or we may be saying our "I do's", in the barn. Think good thoughts, everyone.
We're working hard at our jobs and trying to fit some time in to finish a few house projects before the big day arrives. It's still more than two months away, but it feels like we're rushing to get things done! Speaking of projects, we built a raised garden bed this year and planted a bunch of different stuff to see what thrived and what didn't. Well, we just had some lettuce and radishes the other night...grown on our farm...in our little garden! Very cool and yummy. We can't wait for the peas, carrots, beets and peppers to be ready! Sadly, none of our tomato seeds survived. We'll have to do a better job next year of starting them indoors and growing them to a more robust size before moving them to the garden. If this garden does work out, perhaps we can add another one next year as this one is only 16 feet by 4 feet.

Holy Crap, Martha....He's Still Writing That Blog!

We have very busy lives these days and we never seem to have enough of that most precious commodity - time. When I sat down to write this post, I couldn't believe that almost 6 months has passed since I last took quill in hand to update all of you (okay... both of you) regular readers out there. I'll try and bring you up to speed quickly.
Winter is finally over! The news this year had been filled with one story after another about the harsh weather all over the Great White North (Canada) , and the USA. We were no exception. We had more snow than usual up at our place, although we didn't have any long periods of extremely cold temps. It just seemed that winter went on and on and on. Into the spring, or what most people refer to as spring, the cold kept clawing its way back onto our little mountain. We'd get a few warmer days and then the snow would once again cover the ground. Anyway, it's done now. It hasn't snowed for almost a month. Roll on summer!
Carol and I are getting married in September. It's been a long time coming, but we're finally gettin' hitched! September 13th, is the big day and we're hoping to have a great time with a group of close friends and family. It's not going to be some high falutin' affair, just some friends, food and fun. We'll be sure to post some pics.
As we noted in an earlier post, the economy here has been cruel to our little printing company and we've been forced to take on second jobs to pay our bills. This is where all our time is going. We're both basically working 7 days a week right now - either at KPA or at our other jobs. It makes for some long days, but there are some good perks. My security job sees me walking a lot - sometimes as much as 15 kms per shift. I feel good. I've lost a few pounds and have some "wind" back.
We've put in a raised vegetable garden at the house and are hoping to reap the rewards. We started a bunch of seeds in window boxes in the house and just moved them outside. Hopefully some of the stuff will actually grow and give us some fresh veggies later in the year.
Our horses are doing great. We're down to 4 now - Acorn has gone back to the KTRA (Kamloops Therapeutic Riding Association) and is being re-homed. They had been paying for his food and upkeep (we were providing the labour) but the new board there has changed plans and no longer wants to support him financially. They asked us if we wanted to keep him as our own but we declined. We love him and wouldn't let anyone have him destroyed but on the other hand his feed is expensive (he can't eat hay because of his teeth being completely worn away) and he is too old for one of us to ride him. We miss his happy face and wonderful attitude but are happy to report that one of the local farriers is going to be taking him. Good luck, Acorn!
Spring and summer make us really appreciate our solar powered house. We rarely (if ever) have to run our generator for anything other than equalizing the batteries. The rest of the time we rely on clean, quiet, FREE sunlight to power our little house. Very cool!
Brian and Louise stopped by for a few minutes last night. Yesterday, they moved their entire herd of 80 cows and calves and 4 bulls up to our property. They will spend a few weeks mowing down the grass here before being moved to another pasture further up the hill from us. They will be back again later in the fall before heading back to their home range. Of course, the horses and the dogs were very impressed with their new neighbours with many hours spent staring at the big bovines.
Joey is at the dog groomer's today getting her annual brush cut. She always seems so happy after having it done as I'm sure it's much cooler than the very thick, double layer of fur she grows over the winter. Ben is ...well, being Ben. Just about as happy as a dog can be...all the time...constantly. It's exhausting just watching him sometimes. I don't know where he finds the energy! He keeps busy digging up mice and voles, running and attacking Joey at every opportunity, stalking imaginary game in the woods, or running after one of us on the ATV.
We moved our bird feeders around the front of the house this year so we can see the birds on them. We have lots of junkos, yellow-headed blackbirds, grosbeaks, sparrows, finches, cow birds and even crows attend the feast on the feeders. It only takes them all a few days to empty our 4 feeders. Then they make us feel bad as they hunt through the grass below for any missed or dropped seeds, forcing us to go and refill them again. We have been lucky again this year and the swallows have returned to Carol's little birdhouse. It's wonderful to watch them zooming around catching mosquitoes. Go swallows! We also see a variety of woodpeckers from giant pilated woodpeckers to little yellow bellied sapsuckers. Great gray owls, ravens, sandhill cranes, red tailed hawks and even eagles visit frequently. It's wonderful to have such large birds, so close!
Coyotes regularly patrol through our forest. We like to see them but don't like it when they come too close to the house. We worry about the dogs being lured out and attacked so try to discourage the coyotes when they become too bold. Moose, elk, deer and bear are residents in the area, too but it's still special when we get to see them up close, as is often the case.
I have promised Carol that I will make a real effort to get our window trim and baseboards completed before any visitors arrive for the wedding. I'm also secretly hoping to get the staircase done as a birthday present for her, so please, don't say anything to spoil the surprise! That would leave just the pine tongue-and-groove ceiling boards to complete and the house will be finished. Well, okay, there are a bunch of little finishing jobs still to do but it will be more or less, done!

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!