October 23 to 29, 2011

Sunday ; Nice weather continues ! I spent most of the day working on the installation of the new water heater. Well ... that's not completely true. I probably spent as much time chatting with neighbours walking by as I did working on the water heater. And tonight ... WOO-HOO ... we have hot water. The installation is not "complete", but the water heater is in place, hooked up to water, propane, 12 volt DC, and 120 volt AC electricity. The only real problem I encountered was ... the sacrificial anode rod drain plug in the new water heater had a welding gas pinhole in it allowing it to leak. Didn't see that one coming !
I replaced it with the one from the old water heater, which will be temporarily adequate.

Neighbours of ours who headed south three days ago have returned. After their first long hard day of driving south ... he broke his arm ! After they had a long and difficult emergency room experience, she .. who had not driven in about 15 years ... took two days to drive back home. < sigh > Shit happens ! Welcome home !

Monday ; HEY ... < scowling > ... why is there pack rat shit on my picnic table ? ! ?

It rained overnight, and this morning when I walked Bo there was a dusting of snow on the top of the mountain. UH-OH ... that means it's just about time to get out of here !

Went into town this morning to get a haircut and beard trim. Then a doctor's appointment to get prescription refills and review my colonoscopy and biopsy results. WOW ... my new gastroenterologist's reports are certainly very thorough and detailed. I'm very impressed with her. I took my prescriptions to the pharmacy, bought some groceries and adjusted the air in the truck's tires before heading home.

This afternoon we began storing things in preparation for departure in a week.

Tuesday ; Today was a beautiful, sunny, mild fall day. I thought that the amount of "finishing" work I had to do to complete the water heater installation wouldn't take me very long today. I was wrong !

Buying new fire extinguishers a week and a half ago during Fire Prevention Week made me think that we should have a fire drill and figure out how to escape through the bedroom's escape window. Today we did that. I went out first, getting scraped and bruised in the process. Joanne dropped Sully out to me, then Bo, then she came out with me helping from below. It took awhile to get it figured out ... feet first or head first ... face up towards ceiling or down towards bed ... but better to figure it out now than in the middle of the night with the trailer on fire ! Sully was not very impressed with the fire drill !

Wednesday ; BRRRRR ... today was pretty cold !

I had such a sore and "wonky" left knee this morning that I had to use my walking stick / cane ( 50th birthday present from Hillbilly Junction, Kentucky ) for half the day. Guess the drop from the bedroom window to the ground ( yesterday's fire drill ) was further than I thought. In the afternoon my knee began to loosen up a little and I was able to walk without the cane, although it was still sore and wonky. I need new knees ! Picked up my prescription refills at the pharmacy in Keremeos this afternoon. Have enough meds now to last me until spring. Had to disconnect the external water hose tonight due to risk of freezing temperatures overnight. And Joanne was complaining that she had to wear socks today. YUP ... just about time to head south !

Thursday ; We woke up this morning to a cold trailer and a furnace blowing nothing but cold air. Normally that means we've run out of propane, but not today ! I spent much of today working on the dead furnace < sigh >. First I removed it from the wall. I learned how to do that about 5 years ago, the last time the furnace died ! I couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. I phoned Leisureland RV and got some helpful advice but still couldn't find the problem. I will take it in to Leisureland in Penticton tomorrow morning, and hopefully they can diagnose the problem and maybe even have it repaired before we depart next Tuesday. BRRRRR ... it's kind of cold to be without a furnace at this time of the year !

There is "evidence" of a pack rat living behind our storage shed. For the last couple of days I have been trying to eradicate the problem with a large rat trap. Two nights ago I whacked a mouse. Last night I whacked a squirrel. I hope I don't have to kill much more of the wildlife around here before I finally get the pack rat !

Friday ; Today was another sunny, albeit fairly cold day. DARN ... the garbage truck did not take our old water heater carcass. We'll have to leave it on our lot and deal with it in the spring.

We left for Penticton around 10 AM, taking our furnace, and neighbour Jeannine. She caught a ride with us to go visit her husband who is in the Penticton Hospital with a broken hand, broken arm, broken shoulder, and two broken ribs after falling in Pendleton, Oregon about a week ago. He will be having surgery on Monday to repair his shoulder, and maybe his arm. We dropped her off at the hospital, I dropped Joanne off at Value Village to browse and kill some time, and I headed to Leisureland RV with the dead furnace. Well ... it was only a dead furnace at home ! At Leisureland it worked perfectly fine ! < sigh > Hopefully that means it was just a short circuit caused by a lot of accumulated dust ( and cat hair ) built up on and around and in the furnace. I will reinstall it tomorrow. Wish me luck !

We spent the afternoon finishing up our "must buy before leaving Canada" shopping list, including running around to four different grocery stores in a quest for fruit cake / Christmas cake. "Why ?" you might ask ? Have you ever tried to buy Christmas cake in Arizona ... or Mexico ? ! ? That's like trying to buy nopales ( prickly pear cactus "paddles" ... yes, they're eaten like a vegetable ) here !

Saturday ; I spent the entire day working on the furnace, and I'm very frustrated ! And now I'm very behind schedule on our "fall pre-departure" preparations. Having to replace the water heater put me behind schedule, and now the furnace problem has put me WAYYYY behind schedule. And the furnace is not yet fixed ! ! !

I reinstalled the furnace. And reconnected the propane. And reconnected all the wiring. AND ... it didn't work ! So I removed it again. And fiddled with it. And reinstalled it again. And it didn't work again. And on and on and on like that all day ! My current "diagnosis" is that there is a problem with the wall thermostat, which is only a year and a half old. Temporarily, I have "bypassed" the thermostat, and have two lengths of wiring coming out of the wall through the furnace vent. I can turn the furnace on and off by connecting or disconnecting the ends of the two wires. What a "shoemaker" repair ! ! ! But at least I can make the furnace function. It will allow us to depart Tuesday, and hopefully get a new thermostat Wednesday morning at Camping World in Burlington, Washington where I already have an appointment for some trailer service.

While at home we can survive with the little electric space heater for a few more nights. And for at least one night, more if necessary, as we travel and "boondock" without 120 volt AC power, I can turn the furnace on just before bedtime, heat the trailer up quite warm, turn the furnace off, sleep with Sully's 12 volt heater blankie on the bed, and turn the furnace on again first thing in the morning.

I ran out of electrical connectors today as well. So ... the last "reconnection" of the wiring is another "shoemaker" repair. On Monday I will buy some electrical connectors in Keremeos, and hopefully have enough time to redo all the electrical connections.

Some days I hate life !

DSK

October 16 to 22, 2011

Tuesday ; < huge sigh > This evening Joanne discovered a wet floor inside the cupboard under the sink. Looks like it's probably a water heater leak < huge sigh >.

Wednesday ; Beautiful fall weather continues. Spent another long day in Penticton running errands. Had screw in metal valve stems installed on all the truck's wheels. Ordered a new water heater for the trailer < sigh >. Bought a magician's cape !

This morning as Joanne returned from walking the dog, and I was just getting out of the shower, she asked me to go over to help a neighbour who was trying to pull his fifth wheel trailer out of his lot. He had gotten the truck and trailer hopelessly entangled around the large deck they had built against the trailer. He and his wife were frustrated, and the more they tried, the worse it got. It only took me a few minutes to get the trailer out. Seven years, and over 200,000 km. / 125,000 miles of towing our trailer, and all that cramming of 27 foot rental trailers into 25 foot deep campsites in Osoyoos over the last two summers has taught me a thing or two. HA HA HA !

Thursday ; Still nice weather. Many of the neighbours that are "Snowbirds" have left in the last couple of days.

< sigh > Removed the water heater today. A difficult job, but no major surprises. Over the next few days I will do some refurbishment work to prepare for the installation of a new water heater, and allow the water heater space to dry out. In the meantime, we will have to survive without hot water in the trailer. It's always been my objective, when doing repairs on the trailer, to achieve a result that is better than "original". This repair will be no exception.

Friday ; Still pretty nice fall weather. This morning as I was returning from showering in the pool complex, our neighbours Rick and Debbie from the Vancouver area were on their site hitching up their fifth wheel trailer. They had started out from the Vancouver area early this morning and were here to pick up their trailer and begin their inaugural journey south as first time Snowbirds. They are headed for La Peñita, Mexico, a lovely beachfront RV park that we have been to. They were experiencing some last minute problems with their trailer. Isn't that always the way ? ! Not a great start to a day that began in Vancouver and wasn't going to end until late tonight in Pendleton, Oregon, where Rick has an appointment to get new trailer tires tomorrow morning. I helped them solve their last minute departure problems and bade them farewell.

I spent most of today doing preparation work for installing a new water heater. I'm satisfied with what I accomplished. The installation of the water heater will be considerably better than the original factory installation. I've changed the water heater's incoming and outgoing plumbing lines and connections, the 120 volt AC wiring, and most importantly, I've fabricated and installed a new wood platform base for the water heater.

Saturday ; Went to Penticton first thing this morning to pick up the new water heater at Leisureland RV and some installation hardware at Rona. This afternoon I cannibalized the old water heater, and completed the electrical and plumbing modifications. Intermittent rain slowed me down.

DSK

October 9 to 15, 2011

Sunday ; Today was sunny and mild. The weather remains quite nice.

Today was communal Thanksgiving Dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort. But ... we didn't attend. We went to LambFest, a Fall Okanagan Wine Festival event at Bogner's, a very upscale restaurant in Penticton. It was my "birthday dinner".

WOW ! WOW ! ! ! MMMMMM ... oak spit roasted whole lamb, served family style, very generous portions, melt in your mouth meat, each of the first three courses excellently paired with a wine from Hester Creek Winery in Oliver. Now ... we're not exactly oenophiles, and ordinarily don’t drink red wines, but the food and wine pairings were done by the restaurant’s owner / chef and the winery’s owner, and ... they were superb !
A tiny sip of wine with each mouthful of food just ... pulled the flavours out of the foods. Character White with the appetizer, Pinot Gris with the salad, and Cabernet Franc with the lamb entree. OH ... MY ... GOODNESS ! I want to make a reservation for next year ! We spent some time chatting with the very hospitable winery owner who came by each table to chat and serve his wine. This outing was not cheap, but sometimes even something expensive is well worth the money spent.

The only sour note of the day was ... the large, injured Gopher Snake that we encountered on the road at the entrance gate of our RV park as we were leaving for Penticton. It was severely injured but still very much alive. I never have been, nor ever will be, willing to leave an injured creature suffering. Save it if possible, or mercifully put it out of its misery. I killed the snake ! Inflicting sudden death upon an injured, suffering creature never has been easy, nor is it pretty. YUCK !

Monday ; Canadian Thanksgiving & Daniel's 57th Birthday

The Dow Jones index gained 329.76 points today ? ! ? Well ... Happy Birthday to me !

I had a long chat with my sister this afternoon. My brother-in-law has a rather aggressive form of prostate cancer !

Joanne made a wonderful Thanksgiving turkey dinner. And an excellent Black Forest Cherry Torte birthday cake ! Thank you, my dear.

Wednesday ; Daniel's & Joanne's 37th Anniversary

What a crappy way to spend our 37th anniversary. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA ! ! !
I spent the day "cleansing" in preparation for a colonoscopy tomorrow. What a civilized euphemism ; cleansing !

Thursday ; Today was sunny and cool. This morning on the way to Penticton for my early afternoon colonoscopy at Penticton Hospital, my eyeglass case fell off the dash of the truck ( on the passenger side, Joanne was driving, I was feeling pretty ill from 40 hours of colonoscopy preparation ), the glasses slid out of the case, and sustained a very deep, wide scratch on the left lens. DAMN ! Guess that means I'll be getting new glasses in Los Algodones, Mexico in about a month and a half.

My colonoscopy went as well as a colonoscopy can. My new gastroenterologist is a young woman. She has much better bedside manner than my previous male gastroenterologists. And she has a much gentler hand with the endoscope. She doesn't make it feel like somebody is trying to ram a sewer hose and TV camera up my ass ! She used a bit less sedative than my last two colonoscopies ( which were here in BC where they seem to use more sedative than in Ontario ), so I was a bit more alert ... read that as "a bit less asleep" ! HA HA HA ! I was awake just enough to watch part of the proceedings on the big screen TV on the wall, and ask stupid questions, which she graciously answered. She scoped the entire colon, taking 40 biopsies in the process, so I certainly can't accuse her of not being thorough enough ! While there was ulceration in the colon, which I saw on the TV, ( DUH ... why did you think it was called ulcerative colitis ? ), there were no polyps and no evidence of cancer, so there should be no bad news from the biopsies. Well done, Dr. Papay, thank you.

Friday ; Today was sunny and cool. We went to Osoyoos to retrieve our Similkameen Day Tours business cards and rack cards from the BC Visitor Information Centre, Watermark Beach Resort, NK'MIP Campground, and Spirit Ridge Resort. We stopped to have lunch at Ella Greek & Mediterranean Grill, a small Mom & Pop no frills restaurant in Osoyoos. We recently read some great reviews of Ella's. And the reviews were right on ! No ambience, great food ! First time we've had really good Lebanese food since we lived in Ottawa.

On our way home we stopped to pick up our business cards at Forbidden Fruit Winery and at Rustic Roots Winery. We spent some time chatting about our lack of Similkameen Day Tours business success with the very personable and helpful owners at Forbidden Fruit. We realized that we forgot to stop at Bo's "picnic park" in Osoyoos, so to make it up to him we made a stop at Pine Park in Keremeos.

We spent the evening watching a performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore on PBS. HA HA HA ... I love Gilbert & Sullivan's satirical operettas.

Saturday ; Well ... following the advice of some local business owners whose opinions we respect, Similkameen Day Tours now has both a Facebook page and a Twitter account. I'm still not completely clear on why ... HA HA HA ... but ... < shrug > ! I worked on creating a Facebook page and a Twitter account during bouts of insomnia over the last couple of weeks. Follow us on Twitter ; WildernessToWinery@SimilkameenTour.

This morning we headed into town with our three fire extinguishers. A Penticton based fire prevention business was having a Fire Prevention Week promotion in the parking lot of our local grocery store. It was sponsored by our local volunteer fire department. I was going to have our three fire extinguishers checked and recharged if necessary, but decided that it was much better value to just buy three larger and better fire extinguishers that were being offered at a Fire Prevention Week deeply discounted price.

From there we went to two wineries in Cawston to retrieve our business cards.

This evening was Taste Of Our Valley at Victory Hall in Keremeos, an annual celebration of the harvest bounty of the Similkameen Valley. Lots of foods and wines for tasting. MMMMM ! ! ! Adam's Apple, Plumiscuous, and Pearsuasion by Forbidden Fruit, Chardonnay by Robin Ridge, Riesling by Orofino, and Capella by Clos du Soleil were the wines I tasted, along with Parson's Fruit Stand's pumpkin soup, turkey from Van Dieman Turkey Farm, some maple syrup flavoured honey from Orchard Blossom Apiary, peach flavoured barbecue sauce and wild Saskatoon jam from a local gourmet personal chef, some baking from the local grocery store, Joanne sampled some home made pork and beans with sourdough bread from the Grist Mill, local apple cider ... I've probably forgotten some.

What a great place to live !

DSK

October 2 to 8, 2011

Sunday ; Today was mild, sunny in Keremeos, cloudy in Oliver. We spent the afternoon at Festival Of The Grape in Oliver. On the way we went to Oliver Auto Recycling, an auto wrecker / junk yard that told me by phone a few days ago that they had a used 2005 Dodge one ton dually hub cap. < sigh > They were wrong ! It was from a 2002 model, and didn't fit Lanoire.

This is the third time we have attended Festival Of The Grape and we have always enjoyed it. Lots of wineries, lots of wine tasting, food vendors ( today was the first time in at least 5 years that I've had poutine ), arts & crafts vendors, and always ... great musical main stage entertainment. This year it was "RnB Icons", a Motown tribute group. And, of course, there was the annual grape stomp competition. We learned the hard way at the first Festival Of The Grape that we attended not to sit too close to the grape stomp stage ... to avoid stains !

Saw a flock of Canada Geese in a "V" formation headed south today. See ya, guys. We'll catch up to you in about 5 weeks in Central California. HA HA HA !

Monday ; Today was cloudy and cool with light rain in the morning. When I went to do my regular Monday preventive maintenance I discovered ... < sigh > ... a flat tire on the truck. One of the rear tires, of course. Have I mentioned how much I hate changing tires on the truck, especially a dually rear tire ? ! ? Oh, well, better to have to change a tire in the controlled circumstance of the driveway rather than on the side of the road ... in the rain ... at dusk !

Wednesday ; A cool, cloudy, fall day. A long, hard day of running errands and shopping in Penticton. Ninety-five bucks for a hub cap for the truck ? ! ? PHHHHTTTTT ...
I don't think so ! ! ! Joanne suffered with a headache for the entire day.

Thursday ; Joanne's headache persisted into its second day. She stayed in bed and snoozed until it finally eased in mid-afternoon. I changed the tire on the truck ... again.
I had the flat tire repaired yesterday in Penticton and reinstalled it today.

DSK

September 25 to October 1, 2011

Monday ; Today was cold and raining ! I hate cold rainy days !

This evening we had dinner at our neighbour's, Rick and Debbie. This was likely the last time we will see them before they head south in about a month, for their first winter of "Snowbirding". They are headed to an RV park in Mexico that we have been to, a lovely place at La Peñita de Jaltemba, just north of Puerto Vallarta. We spent until very late in the evening chatting with them about RV living and travelling, and gossiping about Riverside RV Park Resort.

Wednesday ; The weather was nice today, sunny and warm, and I felt like having a fall "explore day". We spent the afternoon doing back road and off road exploring. We explored up and down the Ashnola River, including a trip to the Ewart Creek trailhead and the Cathedral Lakes Lodge base camp / pick up point. Those were Joanne's desires.
I wanted to attempt to drive from the Ashnola Campground to beyond Hedley, driving on the south / "other" side of the Similkameen River. We had attempted to do that a few years ago, from beyond Hedley, travelling in the opposite direction, but we were stymied by an abandoned "Indianmobile" blocking the trail at a point that was so narrow we couldn't get around it.

WOO-HOO ... it wasn't easy, but today we were successful. We crossed the Ashnola River behind the Ashnola Campground and followed the "road" until we reached Hwy. 3 at Gold Mountain Road a few miles beyond Hedley. On the way we met a pickup truck travelling in the opposite direction. It was signed, belonging to the Lower Similkameen Indian Band. It was a couple of the LSIB "Watchmen", patrolling their "rez". They stopped us and sarcastically asked if we were lost. I told them we weren't lost, just taking the "scenic route" to Hedley, and asked if that was okay with them. From the looks on their faces it was obvious that they thought I was some kind of a crazy white man, but okay, they gave us permission to continue. A little further along we came across three Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep grazing. Twice we encountered closed gates. Fortunately, neither was locked, just closed and chained, so I could open them, drive through, then close them again.

When we got back home I discovered that today's adventures resulted in a lost hubcap on the truck. DAMN ! I lost one once before, in Baja California, Mexico, about 3½ years ago. I replaced it in Yuma, Arizona. They are so expensive ! DAMN !

Friday ; Happy 15th Birthday to Sully

This morning on the way into town to buy some groceries and fresh produce
( mmmmm ... it's fall harvest time ! ), we stopped on the side of the road and cut stalks of wild sage. Back at home, later in the afternoon, I arranged and tied them into a sacred sage bundle. I hung the bundle inside the trailer and ... WOW ... what a strong fragrance ! Let's hope the sacred sage bundle does its job and dispels negative energies. I always did love Native lore !

And ... I'm very glad that we got Sully two years ago today at the Penticton SPCA shelter. He's such a sweet fellow.

Saturday ; Today was cold and raining. Which caused us to change our plans for today, the first day of the Fall Okanagan Wine Festival. It had been our plan to attend a BC SPCA "dog party" fund raiser event at See Ya Later Ranch, a winery near Okanagan Falls. But we didn't want to attend something like that on a cold rainy day. So while we didn't attend that event, we did attend two other Fall Okanagan Wine Festival events, both at wineries near Keremeos.

We went to Robin Ridge Winery for their archery competition to determine who will be the Robin Ridge Robin Hood. We expected this small family winery to be near deserted because of the poor weather, but ... noooo ! It really was quite busy. Congratulations to Tim for the gold medal win at a recent international wine competition. My archery efforts did not result in me being named Robin Ridge Robin Hood.

And we went to Rustic Roots Winery / Harker's Organics ( produce stand ) Harvest Moon Festival, a very busy exhibition of Rustic Roots wines and Harker's Organics fruits and vegetables, with live music, and food prepared by the chef de cuisine of one of the Osoyoos upscale resorts.

On the way home we stopped at St. Laszlo Vineyards and bought a couple of bottles of wine. St. Laszlo is the first and obviously oldest winery in the Similkameen Valley. It is not as popular as the newer, larger, and more upscale wineries. But we like St. Laszlo, the owner Joe, his very nice grape wines and fruit wines, and the very reasonable prices. One bottle will be for Thanksgiving / my birthday next weekend, and one bottle will be to take south with us for American Thanksgiving or Christmas or New Year's.

Yesterday I phoned a restaurant in Penticton to make a reservation to attend their wine festival special food and wine event next weekend. It was to be my birthday dinner. The event was sold out. Today Joanne phoned them again, and ... lo and behold ... they gave her a reservation. Either there had been a cancellation, or the fellow who took my phone call yesterday was ... ? ! ? Anyways, I'm very glad that Joanne was able to make a reservation and I'm looking forward to a special birthday dinner. Maybe the moral of that story is ... don't take "no" for an answer. At least not the first "no".

DSK