Year 3 Week 51

June 3 to 9, 2007

Keremeos, B.C.

Year 3 week 51

 

Sunday ; Today was sunny and very hot, temperature in the 30's C. / 90's F..

This morning Joanne prepared a picnic lunch and we set off for a day of exploring the Cathedral Lakes area. We drove to Keremeos, crossed the Similkameen River on Red Bridge, then headed up Ashnola River Road. We drove west along the south side of the Similkameen River until the Ashnola River reached the Similkameen. The road turned south, following the Ashnola River up into the mountains. The road was a narrow, winding, rough, dirt logging road. Joanne thought that she had read somewhere that it went up into the Cathedral Lakes area, for 24 kilometres after the pavement ended. I thought I had read somewhere that it went for 32 kilometres after the pavement ended. We drove 35 kilometres after the pavement ended before we decided to turn around.

The temperature dropped a lot as we got higher and higher. We decided that this would be a good drive to take on really hot summer days when we want to escape the heat. Every so often there would be a small, unserviced campground and / or picnic area, operated by the B.C. Forest Service. There were frequent signs warning drivers that the road was mostly for use by logging trucks. Watch out for fast moving, heavily loaded logging trucks barrelling down the mountain. Fortunately, there are no logging trucks on Sundays. When we turned around 35 kilometres up the gravel road, it seemed as if we were in the middle of nowhere. But there seemed to be a fairly steady flow of traffic heading even further up the mountain. Mostly Indians in old beat up Ford pickup trucks. I guess they live up there somewhere.

Back home at Riverside we took Bo for an obedience session, then a long pleasure walk. As we passed his dog pal Spencer, Spencer wanted to come along, so we took Spencer along with us for a long walk. Joanne and I helped Mitch and Dianne replace their extremely heavy fifth wheel hitch in the back of their truck. I helped Spencer's owner Dave move a heavy mattress from their truck into their guest room. We invited Dorothy and her dog Jimmy over to visit. We sat outside for awhile, Joanne, Bo, Dorothy, and Jimmy on the swing, visiting, drinking wine, fending off mosquitoes.

Life is good ! Well ... except for the mosquitoes !

 

Monday ; Today was cloudy and raining lightly all day. I think this is the first day of rain in the 5 weeks we've been here. This is Canada's only true desert area, so the rain is welcomed by all the ranchers, orchards, and vineyards, I guess.

However, the rain prevented me from doing most of the work I had planned for today. I did clean the barbecue thoroughly. And I took interior photos of the trailer for the insurance company. I napped, as did Teddy and Bo. Rainy days inspire us to nap. I finished reading the weekend newspapers. Joanne went to town to buy some groceries.

I spent the evening working on Misty Ventures & Developments Inc.'s corporate income tax returns < sigh >.

 

Tuesday ; Today was cloudy and raining lightly all day again.

Today was another very long, hard day of errands in Penticton. This morning we drove to Penticton and spent a couple of hours meeting with our new Edward Jones investment broker. From there we drove over to Cherry Lane Mall, to meet with our new insurance broker at Valley First Insurance. < sigh > It took 3 hours to get the truck and trailer registered and insured. By the time we finished the rest of our errands and drove home, it was close to 8:00 P.M..

In Penticton I went to Mark's Work Warehouse to buy some new jeans, and use a $10 gift card we got from Safeway for purchasing $50 worth of groceries. My goodness ... I found 3 pairs of jeans in my size in a clearance bin ... for $5 a pair. With my $10 gift card, I bought 3 pairs of jeans for $5 ! ! ! HA ... beat that ! We went to Rona to order the storage shed we decided upon. They had it in stock, so we bought it today. Loading it into the back of the truck was quite a challenge, even after I removed the fifth wheel hitch and tied it ( the hitch ) down on top of the aluminum storage chest / tool box. I wonder how I'm going to get it ( the storage shed ) off the truck tomorrow ? ! ?

 

Wednesday ; Today was cloudy, cool, and windy.

This morning I sorted through all the registration and insurance documents for the truck and trailer. Sheesh ! B.C. sure makes vehicle registration and insurance more complicated than it needs to be ! And I found an address error on one of the documents < big sigh >. My thoughts yesterday while registering and insuring the truck and trailer were similar to the thoughts I've had every time I've checked into an airport counter to board a flight. What could they possibly be typing, tapping away on that keyboard for so long ? Are they typing their Master's thesis ? ! ? With that much typing it's impossible not to make a mistake !

I walked over to the trailer storage area where Ben is working, making the storage area larger, and asked him to help me unload the storage shed package from the back of the truck using the fork lift attachment on the front of his bulldozer / backhoe. He sent one of his employees over with the equipment, and we unloaded the storage shed package from the truck. I reinstalled the fifth wheel hitch in the back of the truck. Joanne did a bit of work on waxing the trailer. Bo had a great play session with Buppy when Gil and Maria came walking by. I made some phone calls, starting work on finding us new family doctors and arranging the annual medical tests we both require.

I watched game 5 of the Ottawa / Anaheim Stanley Cup finals. Ottawa lost the game. Anaheim won the Stanley Cup.

 

Thursday ; Today was cloudy and mild. A good day for working outdoors.

This morning we went to town. Joanne did some grocery shopping. I did some hardware shopping. Bo came along for the "drivey".

This afternoon I washed the truck. Joanne worked on waxing the trailer, a very time consuming, difficult, semi-annual chore. Working on it yesterday and today she waxed perhaps ¼ of the trailer. Our neighbour Stu built a wood platform base for the storage shed he has ordered. I watched how he did his, so now I know how to do mine.

I had a very productive evening. I finished Misty Ventures' corporate income tax returns, both federal and provincial. I reviewed and dealt with 2 incoming batches of forwarded mail.

 

Friday ; Today was sunny and mild.

This morning we invited our neighbour Dorothy to join us as we went to pick strawberries. We drove through Keremeos to the small village of Cawston a few more miles east on Hwy. 3. The strawberry farm was a small hobby farm with a few large strawberry gardens, some beautiful flower gardens, and assorted fruit trees around the yard. And it was for sale. We each picked a large ice cream pail full of very sweet strawberries. And then the farm owner invited us to pick all the cherries we wanted off one of her cherry trees. No charge ! So ... for 10 bucks, we picked 3 huge ice cream pails full of strawberries, and another one full of cherries. I surely am going to like living in this area !

We drove back into Keremeos and stopped for some shopping. I went into Keremeos Building Supplies and bought the lumber and hardware to build a base for the storage shed. Joanne and Dorothy went to the Post Office and grocery store.

This afternoon while Joanne continued working on waxing the trailer, I built the wood frame base and floor for the storage shed. Despite the simplicity of it, this is the first time I have ever built something like this. I really have no experience working with wood projects. Somewhat to my surprise, I managed to build this wood frame base and floor for the storage shed without screwing anything up.

The stock market crash of the last 2 days has been extremely "painful". I hope it's over !

Woo-Hoo ... Joanne made strawberry cheese cake !

 

Saturday ; Today was cloudy and mild, with a few drops of rain.

This morning I prepared the "site plan" for our storage shed and submitted it for approval to the park rules and regulations committee < rolling eyes >. I prepared the documents to request refunds for our Manitoba license plates and insurance. I prepared updated medical summaries in anticipation of setting up doctor's appointments next week.

This afternoon Joanne went grocery shopping in Keremeos, then she continued working on waxing the trailer. I worked on positioning and levelling the shed base. I put very little effort into levelling the base. Hey ... it's a shed ! I pried open some of the wood packaging the shed was packed in to get out the instruction manual and read it before starting assembly. The manual suggests that it should take about 3 hours to assemble the shed. I think it's going to take that long to disassemble the wood crate packaging ! I'm not very quick at these kinds of jobs. My experience has been that most of these kinds of jobs take me about 4 times longer than the manufacturer "suggests". So for me, this shed will probably be a 12 hour project. Not counting the building of the base. And not counting the attachment of all the base rails to the floor.

DSK