August 15 to 21, 2008

August 15 to 21, 2008

 

Friday ; Our friends Erbon and Lorraine from Ottawa arrived today. I wanted to welcome them with a "B.C. dinner", hoping to successfully copy the "salmon sandwich" I had at the Aboriginal Village at Peach Fest in Penticton last week. Earlier this week I had purchased a whole salmon. Prior to Erbon's and Lorraine's arrival I filleted the salmon into six large boneless chunks, then prepared and cooked a half dozen round slabs of bannock. For dinner I slowly barbecued the salmon, seasoning it lightly with a Cajun seasoning mix from Louisiana, and slathering it liberally with margarine ( we don't use butter ) as it barbecued. When it was ready I heated the bannock rounds on the barbecue and served the salmon on the bannock. It was very good !

 

Saturday ; Tonight we went with Erbon, Lorraine, and our next door neighbour Stu to the first, hopefully annual, Similkameen Soirée held on the grounds of Crowsnest Winery near Cawston, the next village to the east from Keremeos. As we were driving there around 6:00 P.M. the temperature was 101° F. / 38° C.. There are seven wineries in the Similkameen Valley, between Keremeos / Cawston and Osoyoos. They are always involved in the Okanagan wine industry events, but because they are a little further from the population centres of Penticton and Kelowna, they get a bit less attention than the wineries a little further north, in the central Okanagan Valley. The seven wineries decided to start up a Similkameen Wine Festival with this Similkameen Soirée event. The seven wineries set up tasting tables, each featuring their products. There was a four piece band playing music softly. The Crowsnest Winery's restaurant prepared "finger food" appetizers. The fairly large crowd wandered around the beautiful vineyard grounds, tasting wines, munching on appetizers, listening to music, and chatting. I chatted with a woman who had previously lived in Ottawa, and had been a customer of ours at our PET VALU store in Orleans. Small world ! Like most of the wineries around here, Crowsnest Winery's grounds are manicured lawns on the edges of the vineyards, statuaries, fountains, and picnic tables all around. Very lovely setting, and a very nice event, particularly for a "first time" learning experience for the seven wineries involved. Erbon particularly liked some of the products of St. Laszlo Winery, and wants us to take him there in a few days to buy some of their wines.

 

Sunday ; I'm typing this at about 5:30 P.M.. Since we arrived back at Riverside RV Park Resort about an hour ago we have been watching a helicopter with a large bucket hanging down beneath it refilling the bucket with water from the Similkameen River beside our RV park. It is fighting a forest fire a few miles south of here. We can see smoke rising up over the mountain top. Twice in the last hour forest fire suppression tanker planes flew over from the north, dumped their loads of retardant foam on the fire, and returned back to the north, probably to Penticton where two forest fire fighting tanker aircraft are stationed.

This morning I found a baby finch sitting on our bird feeder. Strangely, it did not seem to mind my presence. I walked up and looked at it closely, from perhaps a foot away, before it fluttered down to the ground. Obviously it could fly, since it was on the feeder, but once on the ground it just hopped around a bit. I wondered if it was sick or injured. I picked it up and examined it closely. I couldn't find any obvious injuries. I took some pictures of it and replaced it on the feeder. Its eyes looked sleepy, somewhat like the eyes of budgies that we've had looked when they were sick. Good luck, little finch !

We took Erbon and Lorraine on a "back road" adventure today, driving up the back side of Apex Mountain on Nickel Plate Mine Road. We stopped frequently to take photos of the vistas overlooking the Similkameen Valley. We drove up the road all the way to the old Nickel Plate Mine, then beyond to Apex Ski Village where we joined the "civilized" road from Apex Village down to Highway 3A, then back to Keremeos. We did some sightseeing in and around Keremeos before returning to Riverside RV Park Resort.

We have just returned from the swimming pool, at 7:00 P.M.. The helicopter and tankers continue to fight the forest fire over the mountain across the river to the southwest. The sky over our RV park is becoming black with smoke. I'm fascinated watching the helicopter with the bucket underneath refilling the bucket in the Similkameen.

Great ! ! ! I discovered as I was reading a book in bed late at night that I have poison ivy rash all over my right elbow !

 

Monday ; Yesterday evening there were two tankers and one helicopter fighting forest fires in two locations across the river. One fire was small, and one quite a bit larger. This morning two helicopters returned to fight a fire across the river in a third location. I guess these fires were the result of the electrical thunderstorm with much lightning yesterday afternoon. The two helicopters were rapidly and repeatedly refilling their buckets in the river, one after another. I walked down to the far end of our park's property, to our "burn pile" beside the river, to watch the helicopters and take photos. < blink > WOW !

We prepared picnic lunches and set off to have a picnic and explore along the Ashnola River. We drove to Keremeos, crossed the Similkameen River at Red Bridge and followed Ashnola River Road along the opposite side of the Similkameen River until the road turned south following the Ashnola River. We drove up towards Cathedral Lakes Provincial Park, stopping at a couple of B.C. Forest Service campgrounds, having our picnic lunch at one. We returned to Keremeos, then went to Cawston, to St. Laszlo Winery. Erbon bought a case of assorted wines.

We returned to Riverside RV Park Resort shortly after a violent thunderstorm with high winds and hail had blown through. The winds ripped the awning off one of our neighbour's fifth wheel trailer. Been there, done that ... we're sympathetic ! There were a lot of broken branches, and some yard furniture blown around. This is the second day in a row that we missed storms blowing through our RV park. One of the helicopters ( C-GGAT / Golf Alpha Tango ) was continuing to fight the forest fire to the west across the river from Riverside, refilling his bucket every eight minutes. Lorraine and I walked over to the "burn pile" to watch the process, which I'm fascinated by. We sat on the bank of the Similkameen right where the helicopter was refilling, watching the huge bucket drop into the water and fill about 50 feet in front of us, and the helicopter directly overhead. While Lorraine and I were scrambling along the rocks on the river bank trying to get to the best spot to sit and watch the helicopter we came across a large gopher snake and took some pictures of it.

As I was typing this, at 5:30 P.M., there was a knock on the door. It was the owner of St. Laszlo Winery. I had mentioned that we live at Riverside RV Park Resort. He was looking for Erbon. HA HA HA HA HA ... he had made a mistake on Erbon's credit card transaction, overcharging him $1400 ! ! ! Hey, Erbon ... the morale of that story is ... read the transaction slip before signing it. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !

 

Tuesday ; Today was cloudy and cool with intermittent rain. That's somewhat unusual weather for here, especially at this time of the year. We took Erbon and Lorraine to visit Hedley today.

 

Wednesday ; This morning there were many baby finches on our bird feeder, some smaller than others. I discovered that the very small, very young Pine Siskins ( a type of finch ) do not yet fear humans. HMPH ... fear of humans must be an instinct development level that they have not yet reached. How odd !

This morning we drove into Keremeos to see the gathering of the antique and vintage cars that were briefly on display. The Fernie to Victoria Rally of the Antique Car Club Of Canada was going to be in Keremeos for an early lunch break. After quickly viewing the vehicles we drove to Okanagan Falls where I had a meeting with my "employer". I received the details of the magician gig that I have on Saturday in Oliver, and I had a lesson in balloon animal making. From Okanagan Falls we drove to Penticton for a picnic lunch, then Joanne was going to run errands while I went on a Mountain Performance Course training flight. We had our picnic lunch sitting in the truck, watching the very heavy rain fall. The visibility across Skaha Lake was pretty much zero. I suspected that the weather would result in my training flight being cancelled, and when we got to Southern Skies Aviation, that was indeed the case. < sigh > That meant that I got to spend the rest of the afternoon running errands, instead of flying. Oh, joy ... another Wal-Mart trip ! ! !

Erbon and Lorraine had driven their own vehicle into Keremeos to see the antique and vintage cars, then spent the rest of the day running their own errands in and around Keremeos.

We all went to Hedley for dinner at The Hitching Post Restaurant. As always at The Hitching Post, the meal was excellent. We returned home, and while chatting with Erbon and Lorraine in our trailer, I demonstrated some of my magic, and my new balloon animal making prowess. My balloon animal making needs work ! Late in the evening Bo began to choke on something and / or his stomach was heaving heavily. We were unable to resolve the problem. He was desperate to go outside and eat greenery. I finally allowed that, and the problem eased a bit. All we could do was soothe him and calm him until he was relaxed enough to fall asleep. I hope he will be okay by morning.

Very late at night our neighbour's little dog Jimmy showed up on our doorstep. He had run away from home, for at least the third time this summer. I took him home. Mike and Dorothy were not very pleased with him !

 

Thursday ; Bo woke me at 4:00 A.M., once again desperate to be taken outside. His stomach was again heaving heavily. He ate more greenery. By late morning his discomfort had passed and everything seemed okay. Poor Bo ... must have eaten something disagreeable when Erbon and Lorraine walked him yesterday afternoon while Joanne and I were in Penticton.

Erbon and Lorraine left this morning, headed west for Hope today and Vancouver tomorrow.

DSK