October 7 update

October 7 blog update

 

September 24 ; This afternoon we took Bo for a long walk, as we do every day. As he was squatting, doing his business, a snake ( probably a Western Yellow-bellied Racer ) slithered underneath him. YIKES ! I jumped, Joanne shrieked, Bo was oblivious. HA HA HA ... just about got bit in the butt there, Bo.

September 30 ; Today was cold, windy, and raining lightly. Too bad. Today was the Festival Of The Grape in Oliver. With disappointment we didn't go, thinking that attending an outdoor event on a day like today would be pretty miserable. Last year we attended Festival Of The Grape, and enjoyed it thoroughly. Yesterday we attended the Celebration Of Life memorial service for our excavation contractor, neighbour and new friend Ben Nendick, who died a few weeks ago of cancer.

October 4 ; This week was the Okanagan Wine Festival, with special events all week all around the Okanagan Valley region. We were very disappointed to be unable to attend the Festival Of The Grape in Oliver last weekend, but today we went to Oliver to attend an Ice Wine Discovery tour at Inniskillin Okanagan Winery. A tour guide walked us up to the Dark Horse Vineyard owned by Inniskillin, where they grow the Vidal and Riesling grapes for ice wines. While she explained the ice wine making process, I threw rocks for the vineyard's resident Border Collie, Boonjie, to retrieve. Whenever I would divert my attention to the tour guide, Boonjie would place her "retrieve rock" on top of my shoe. HA HA HA !

From the vineyard we walked over to a building filled with barrels of fermenting, aging wine, for tastings of Inniskillin’s white wines, red wines, and ice wines. I was surprised to learn that the toasted oak barrels that the wineries use to store wine during fermentation cost the wineries $800 to $1000. I was surprised because we regularly see local ads for the sale of barrels or barrel halves for use as planters. After a few uses, the wineries sell their used oak barrels for ... $30 ! Wow ... talk about depreciation ! We tasted Inniskillin's Vidal and Riesling ice wines, being taught by the tour guide the "correct" ways to drink ice wines, sampling them with some ideal food pairings. Again I was surprised, to discover that ice wines pair perfectly with Blue Cheese. We had Blue Cheese on crackers with Vidal Ice Wine. Perfect ! I don't like Blue Cheese, but when "washed down" with ice wine, the taste is superb ! We bought 2 bottles of Inniskillin Vidal Ice Wine. We'll serve one of the bottles with Blue Cheese and Joanne's freshly baked apple pie, as dessert on Monday when we have ( our third ! ) Thanksgiving dinner with our neighbours.

Between Oliver and Osoyoos we stopped at a fruit stand to buy some of Joanne's favourite apples, Aurora Golden Gala, grown only in the Oliver area. My favourite apples are the Ambrosia, developed and grown only in the Keremeos area. Between Osoyoos and Cawston we stopped at Forbidden Fruit Winery to buy a bottle of my favourite ice wine, Pomme Desiree ( French for Desired Apple ). It's for a special celebration when we reach Land's End at the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula of Mexico next March.

October 5 ; Today while walking with Bo, we found a dead snake on the road. I picked it up to bring it home to discard it in the garbage. It had obviously died from a bite behind the head. I wonder what bit and killed it ? None of the little dogs in the park, except for Bo and maybe Spencer would be bold enough to bite a snake. And since we were walking with Betty and Spencer at the time, we knew it couldn't have been either Bo or Spencer. Maybe a squirrel ? Or a marmot ? I went onto the "snakes in B.C." website to be identify the snake with certainty. It was a Gopher Snake, commonly referred to by the locals as a "Bull Snake". Gopher Snakes are constrictors that resemble rattlesnakes, but obviously without the rattles.

October 6 ; Today our friends from Vancouver, Dwight & Jennifer, drove out to spend the afternoon with us, and have Thanksgiving dinner. We walked around the park and chatted for awhile, then drove into Keremeos so that Jennifer could buy some fresh apples. We drove around the village a bit, showing them the local orchards and vineyards, and stopping occasionally so that Jennifer could take pictures.

Back at the trailer, we chatted, and had an early Thanksgiving dinner, before they left for the 4½ hour drive back to Vancouver. Thank you, Dwight and Jennifer, for driving all the way out here to visit with us.

I learned from our neighbour Stu today that the fatal bite wound on the dead Gopher Snake we found yesterday was probably inflicted by a Rattlesnake. Apparently Gopher Snakes and Rattlesnakes don't get along well, especially when "arguing" about the occupancy of a wintering den location. Gopher Snakes can kill Rattlesnakesby constricting them to death. Rattlesnakes can kill Gopher Snakes with a poisonous venom bite. Guess the Rattlesnake won that one !

Bo "escaped" today and ran over to visit with a couple who were looking at a nearby lot, contemplating purchasing it. As he ran over to meet and greet them and their Jack Russell Terrier, the other dog attacked Bo, not surprising behaviour for a startled Jack Russell. When faced with "fight or flee", a Jack Russell would choose "fight". Bo, of course, was more than willing to go a round or two with a "Jack". Stupid, ****ing Terriers, both of them ! The short fracas left Bo with a broken harness.

October 7 ; Tonight we attended a potluck Thanksgiving dinner for all the residents of Riverside RV Park Resort. A couple of the park's residents provided turkeys, and everybody else contributed Thanksgiving dinner fixings. Joanne made a wonderful wild rice casserole side dish, one of my favourite recipes of hers. We shared a small table with new lot owners in the park who got married a few weeks ago and have just returned from their honeymoon in Las Vegas. Chatting with them during the evening made us realize that some of us are Riverside RV Park / Similkameen Valley kind of people, ... and some aren’t !

DSK

September 23 update

September 23 blog update

 

September 15 ; We spent the day at the Similkameen Sizzle Pepper Harvest Festival in Keremeos. The afternoon event was at Memorial Park. The day started at noon with a chili cook off. We had a sample of each of the 5 entries, then voted for best chili and best decorated booth. We watched a cooking demonstration by the executive chef of one of the more upscale restaurants in Penticton. After his cooking demonstration we ate a few large samples of his creation, a pasta, shrimp, and pepper dish. It was very good. We listened to a zydeco band for awhile, then joined some neighbours of ours from Riverside RV Park Resort for a beer at the legion. I don't know why they wanted to go to the local grungy legion when there was a beer garden set up in Memorial Park, with a zydeco band playing in the park. Oh, well.

In the evening we went to Victory Hall for the Similkameen Sizzle Dinner and Dance. Dinner was a pig roast buffet. The pig had been roasting on a barbecue in Memorial Park all afternoon. Obviously, I had to opt for the vegetarian chili alternative to the roast pig. I can't digest pork. Dinner was a bit pedestrian, but, hey ... this is Keremeos. After dinner the zydeco band that had played in the afternoon played in Victory Hall. It was terrible. Not the band's fault. Their "sound man" was an amateur, and an idiot. Despite numerous complaints, including two from me, he kept the sound at such a loud volume that not only was conversation impossible, the sounds from the different instruments and vocals just morphed into a lot of garbled noise. Before the end of the first of their three sets, about three quarters of the people had left. Us included !

Vicki is doing fine. She has rapidly evolved into a little baby princess cat. When we're in bed, she sleeps on Joanne's chest. When we're not in bed, she spends most of her time snuggled under the covers propped up against Joanne's pillows. Still no takers for adopting her. Wish us luck !

 

September 18 ; Say goodbye to Vicki. This morning we drove to Penticton and took Vicki to the B.C. SPCA animal shelter. I'm very ... disheartened, I guess. She really captured my heart. And for the first time in about 20 years, we were unsuccessful at finding a home for an animal that we rescued. I feel ... like a failure ... as regards Vicki. For the 14 years that we were in the pet foods and supplies business, it was relatively easy to find homes for rescued animals through our stores. And we even managed to find a home for Rain, the stray cat we rescued in Livingston, Texas a couple of years ago. But, alas, not for Vicki < huge, sad sigh >. Well, it's a small consolation that the brand new animal shelter of the Penticton branch of the B.C. SPCA is a very nice place. Whether she is adopted to a new home, or ultimately has to be euthanized there due to cat overpopulation in the shelter < another huge, sad sigh >, she will live happily while there, I'm sure. Their cat adoption facility is 2 large communal cat living "rooms", furnished with a bunch of over stuffed sofas and chairs, lots of tall scratching posts, lots of sunny windows with ledges, and an outdoor screened, shaded area, furnished the same as the indoor areas. The nicest cat adoption facility I've ever seen. I expected her to have to live in a cage, becoming increasingly more stressed until she becomes "cage crazy" and has to be euthanized because she becomes unadoptable. A common problem in cat shelters. But as nice as the facility was, it broke my heart a bit to have to leave here there. Goodbye and good luck, sweet little baby cat. I’m sorry that I wasn’t able to do more for you. At least I prevented her from becoming a coyote snack.

We ran errands in Penticton, then I went flying while Joanne completed our shopping errands. I flew from Penticton to Oliver, landed, took off, and flew back to Penticton. Upon take off from Oliver, I had to climb at maximum rate of climb to 4000 feet to clear the mountains in front of me, to return to Penticton. Flying into and out of Oliver's short field, surrounded by mountains, is quite challenging. And the weather was deteriorating rapidly, so I had to do just a teensy bit of "scud running" in the mountains. WOO-HOO !

This evening our new Escapee friends from Colorado, Tom and Marion, came to visit us, and stay overnight. We had dinner with them in our trailer, then visited all evening. Our lot is big enough that there was no problem parking their 40 foot diesel pusher motorhome on our lot, still with plenty of room for our picnic table between our trailer and their motorhome, even with their living room slide extended. And still had room to park Lanoire.

 

September 19 ; This morning we loaded Tom and Marion into Lanoire and set off for a 4 wheel drive adventure driving up Nickel Plate Mine Road, up the back side of Apex Mountain. This is about the fourth time we've done that this summer. It's become my favourite local "thing to do" when we have visitors. The scenery is spectacular.

When we came down off Nickel Plate Mine Road we headed for Forbidden Fruit Winery, on Hwy. 3 on the other side of Keremeos, just past Cawston. Forbidden Fruit Winery is a small "Mom & Pop" winery, as are most of the wineries in the Okanagan Similkameen region. They grow all their own organic fruits, and produce handcrafted fruit wines. Their wines are superb ! Especially their dessert ice wines ! We sampled some of their wines in their tasting room. Then we went over to their "shed" to see the plum pitting operation. They were pitting plums for their first attempt at making a plum wine. When we walked into the shed we were surprised to see that the plum pitting process was done by hand. Five people painstakingly pitting plums. It was going to be about 2 days of work for 5 people to pit enough plums to make their first batch of plum wine, about 1000 bottles.

We had a wonderful picnic lunch, prepared by Marion, sitting at a picnic table on the edge of the orchard, on the banks of the Similkameen River, on a sunny day, each of us with a chilled glass of Forbidden Fruit wine. Tom had a glass of CHERYSH, a blush cherry wine, Marion had a glass of ADAM'S APPLE, an off dry white apple wine, Joanne had a glass of PEARSUASION, a dry white pear wine, and I had my favourite, POMME DESIREE, "a delicate sweet iced wine made from fall apples with aromas and flavours of caramel, cotton candy, and lavender". Are you salivating yet ? A picnic at Forbidden Fruit Winery is now going to be added to my list of favourite local "things to do" when we have visitors.

After lunch, Tom and Marion bought a couple of bottles of Forbidden Fruit wines, we drove back to Riverside RV Park Resort, and they left, headed west for Hope then on to Vancouver before heading back to Colorado.

September 22 ; Well ... my sentiment for today was ... HUH ? ! ?

We spent the day at the annual open house of the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory at White Lake, up in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, between Keremeos and Oliver. What an odd place for 50 scientists to be working. It was certainly an interesting day, although there wasn't much about the place that I comprehended. Our next door neighbour, Stu, came along with us.

DSK

September 14 update

September 14 blog update

 

On Friday, August 24 we went into Penticton in the evening for the Ironman Canada Triathlon Street Party. The Ironman Canada Triathlon is an annual event in Penticton. This year, the 25th anniversary of the event, on Sunday, August 26, about 2600 triathletes will swim 3.9 km. in Okanagan Lake, then cycle 180.2 km. from Penticton to Osoyoos to Keremeos to Penticton, then run a marathon, 42.2 km. from Penticton to Okanagan Falls and back to Penticton. SHEESH ! On Friday night, Penticton's downtown streets were closed to traffic for a big street party that stretched for about 4 blocks through the downtown area. There were 4 music bands playing on free stages set up about a block apart. There were demonstrations of belly dancing and fire dancing. There were clowns and magicians and all kinds of other entertainment. We wandered around for awhile, had a very nice dinner at a Greek pizza and spaghetti restaurant, then spent the evening wandering around, listening to bands, and watching exhibitions of belly dancing and fire dancing.

Our friends Cathy and Jan Emrick left here a few days ago, and went to an RV park in Surrey for a few days of sightseeing in Vancouver. Rather fortuitously, they did not choose the RV park in Surrey where a horribly gruesome accident took place a couple of days ago, while they were in Surrey. A hot air balloon caught fire on takeoff, rose into the air as it burned, then crashed down into a blazing inferno in an RV park. Three RV's were destroyed by fire. Two people in the balloon gondola died. The others in the balloon gondola survived with burns and injuries sustained from jumping out at the height of a 4 story building. YIKES !

Tonight ( Sunday, August 26 ) when I walked Bo about 11:00 P.M. there were coyotes just outside the front gate of our park, howling at the full moon. I wonder why coyotes howl at a full moon ?

This afternoon ( Monday, August 27 ) while were walking with Bo, we met our neighbours Gil and Maria, their little dog Buppy, and their visiting pair of 12 year old nieces. They were walking up from the riverbank, having spent some time panning for gold on the Similkameen River. I was surprised to see that the result of their efforts was a small amount of black sand all flecked with shiny gold dust. Cool ! Apparently the Similkameen has quite a bit of gold dust in it, washed down from the gold mines upstream.

September 3 ; this Labour Day long weekend we worked on our screen tent / gazebo, a mouse ate a 5 inch hole in the upholstered seat of our yard swing, and Joanne was stung by a yellow jacket wasp on the inside of her leg < sigh > ! We were very saddened to learn that our excavation contractor, neighbour, and new friend Ben Nendick died this weekend of cancer. Only 2 months ago he was working here in the park developing new lots. Farewell, Ben.

September 5 ; we received an e-mail from our Escapee friend Julie in Pennsylvania. Her little dog Tansy has died. We send our condolences to Julie on the loss of her beloved pet.

September 6 ; HEY ... I just got stung by a yellow jacket wasp ! Second time this summer for me, and once for Joanne ! ****ing little buggers !

September 7, 8, & 9 ; This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday we attended the Pentastic Jazz Festival in Penticton. We drove there and back each day. We had initially planned to take the trailer to Penticton for the weekend, then continue from Penticton on Monday to the Escapees B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 Fall Rally at Fintry Provincial Park, but we couldn't find a satisfactory campground in or near Penticton. The Pentastic Jazz festival was really a lot more than just traditional jazz. Blues, zydeco, a bit of rock and roll, lots of big band, Dixieland jazz, swing, jump and jive. There were about a dozen different groups playing in 5 venues, continuously rotating. Each set in each venue was about 75 minutes, then a 15 minute break until the next group. One could stay at a particular venue all day, or move around between the venues on the festival's shuttle vans. We did a bit of both. We saw about 10 performances, as well as the opening and closing ceremonies, which were also performances featuring most of the musicians. Near the end of the festival on Sunday afternoon, we met and sat with a couple of our Escapee B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 friends.

September 10, 11, 12 & 13 ; We've spent the last few days at the Escapees B.C. Okanagan Chapter 33 Fall Rally at Fintry Provincial Park northwest of Kelowna. We had a very good time with the local SKP chapter members, most of whom we had already met at the spring rally. We made friends with an Escapee couple from Colorado who joined our chapter's rally as guests, as they drove through the area on their way back to Colorado from Alaska. Fintry is a very nice provincial park. It has inspired Joanne and me to contemplate some B.C. camping trips next summer.

One of the activities during the rally was a hike to view a waterfall in the park. We hiked a short distance, then climbed 391 steps up to view the waterfall. One of our group's members was lagging during the hike and climb. I volunteered to "hang back" as a "tail gunner" to ensure that she didn't get left behind, alone, in an area with a bit of a bear risk. Mary was slow, but managed to complete the hike, the climb up 391 stairs to the waterfall viewing area, and then a long, circuitous hike back down bypassing the 391 stairs. I was impressed with her determination. I was more than impressed when I found out later that she's ... wait for it ... 80 years old !

September 14 ; Say hello to Vicki ! Last night I was having difficulty falling asleep. Around 1:00 A.M. I went outside for a smoke. I sat at our park bench, staring up at the Milky Way. When I looked down, a small animal ran across the road and stopped at my feet. YIKES ! Was I ever startled before I realized it was a kitten. What's a kitten doing running around our park in the dark at 1:00 A.M.? It took me half an hour to catch her. She was obviously terrified of being outside, alone in the dark, but was also terrified of being caught by a stranger. When I finally caught her, it took me another half an hour to calm her down. And my hands were severely scratched and bit. I'm a bit paranoid about cat bites ever since a bite by our previous cat Toby put me in the hospital for 2 days with a severe infection.

When I finally had her calmed down, I was at a loss as to what to do next. I contemplated putting her in our storage shed. I went inside, woke up Joanne, and explained. I gave the kitten to Joanne while I went to do first aid on my shredded hands. By the time I was finished, both Joanne and the kitten were fast asleep under the covers. The kitten remained asleep under the covers, snuggled against Joanne for the rest of the night.

This morning we examined her closely. She's only about 4 months old. I determined that she was probably born around Victoria Day, so I named her Vicki. She seems in good health. Clean ears, no mites. She spent most of the day lounging around on our bed. She seems desperate for safety and security. Poor baby ! We found out from other residents in the park that she has been roaming around our park for the last week. I'm surprised she didn't become a snack for the coyotes ! We haven't been around for the last week, so hadn't seen her. Other park residents tried to catch her, but were unsuccessful. We took her along with us when we took Bo for a walk this afternoon, to see if any neighbours would be interested in adopting her. No luck so far. She's not afraid of Bo. Teddy ignores her for the most part. She's very cuddly. What a sweet little baby cat ! Reminds us very much of Teddy when we got him 15 years ago as a kitten.

My conclusion is that she was "dumped" at the gate to our park. She's healthy and well fed. She's obviously fond of affection. She's obviously fond of sleeping under the covers. She's obviously neither feral, nor a "barn" cat. There's no homes nearby. There's no farms or ranches nearby. The only way she got to our park was to be brought here ! "Hey, let's get rid of that damn kitten by dropping it off outside the gate of that new "old folks" RV park."

DSK

August 23 update

August 23, 2007 blog update

 

Well, August has been a very nice, hot, dry month so far. Just a few days of rain and / or cool temperatures. We've done some exploring of the local area, and attended some events. We went to Naramata to attend the Naramata Faire. Naramata is on the east side of Okanagan Lake, across the lake from Penticton. We attended Kars Under The K in Memorial Park in Keremeos, an annual "show & shine" event for classic and antique cars. We went to Penticton for PeachFest, and watched the Peach Festival Parade.  We attended a "Bard In The Park" evening performance of Taming Of The Shrew in Skaha Lake Park in Penticton. We were joined by Gil and Maria, neighbours of ours. Joanne prepared a lovely picnic dinner for us which we ate in the park before the performance.

The "orchard" area in our RV park has kept us well supplied with fresh fruit. And Joanne has been baking lots of fruit desserts. MMMMM ! The cherries were finished around the end of July, but since then we've had lots of apricots, plums, apples, and peaches. Our park had its first potluck dinner recently, following a "Bear Aware" presentation by a provincial conservation employee. Black bears have been coming to eat the apples that fall off the trees in our park's orchard. Some of the lot owners are ... concerned. Hey, guys ... take a look at where we live. We're on the banks of a crystal clear river, surrounded by mountains, tall Lodgepole Pine and Douglas Fir trees all around us, Bald Eagles soaring overhead. You can't have your cake and eat it too ! If you can't accept an occasional rattlesnake or bear, move to downtown Toronto ! We're hoping that now that we've had a potluck dinner at Riverside RV Park Resort, they will become a regular social activity. There is much lot development and construction work happening in the park. Many lot sales took place this summer, and there became a backlog in lot development and construction. The contractor whom everybody had been using became sick, and work stopped for about a month, creating a backlog. Ben, the contractor of choice, became ill a couple of months ago. Unfortunately, he has cancer of the liver and / or colon, with a very bleak prognosis. He won't be able to return to work, and has now turned all his work over to another contractor, who is very busy trying to get caught up on the backlog of lots awaiting development. We will miss Ben. In the short time that we knew him, we came to like him. He's a nice guy. He owns a couple of lots in the park himself, and so was a "neighbour" as well as our contractor.

I've done some flying out of Penticton Airport. My first solo flying in almost 4 years ! Yup ... just like riding a bicycle ! But I continue to be intimidated by flying in the mountains. I'm going to stay within the Okanagan Valley at least until I attend Southern Skies Aviation's mountain flying course in the fall. And I don't think I'm going to do any night flying.

Joanne's elbow continues to heal slowly. The pain is minimal. The range of motion continues to increase, but there is still a long way to go to restore full range of motion. She does her exercises daily, with me nagging her to do them, and coaching her through them.

A few days ago we were visited by Cathy and Jan Emrick, Escapee friends of ours from Texas. They have been full time travelling RV’ers for about 4 years now. They spend their summers here in Canada, and have explored all the provinces and territories extensively over the last few years. They are much more knowledgeable about Canada and Canadian geography, history, politics, and society than most Americans. Well, and probably most Canadians as well. We first met Cathy and Jan a couple of years ago at Rainbow's End, the Escapee headquarters and RV park in Livingston, Texas.

They arrived Sunday afternoon and visited for 2½ days. Sunday evening and all day Monday it was raining lightly, on and off, so we spent that time sitting in our screen tent "gazebo", just relaxing and chatting. On Tuesday we drove up Nickel Plate Mine Road, halfway up the back side of Apex Mountain. Jan did some nature photography. It was the first time we drove back "down" Nickel Plate Mine Road, giving me a completely different perspective, seeing the scenery from the driver's seat, heading downhill. As we drove back towards Keremeos, I saw a "wild" apricot tree on the side of the road. We stopped and picked apricots. They were small, but very sweet ! Joanne made a lovely apricot crisp dessert with them. We drove over Red Bridge to the "opposite" side of the Similkameen River, then up Ashnola River Road following the Ashnola River, again just to explore and take photographs. Jan and Cathy treated us to dinner at Arleigh's in Keremeos. So far we've eaten at Arleigh's three times. The first time was great. The second time was terrible, and made me reluctant to return. This last time was a combination of both. Good food and good service, marred horribly by many flies in the restaurant. Cathy and Jan left yesterday, Wednesday morning, heading for Vancouver and Vancouver Island.

DSK

July 31 update

July 31 blog update

Happy Birthday to my brother, Russell.

Well, we have just finished saying farewell ( at 10:00 A.M. ) to the Carlson family who were here visiting with us for the last 3½ days. Joanne's sister Lorraine, her husband Doug, and their 2 little daughters Madeleine, age 8, and Amelia, age 6, drove 4 days across the Canadian Prairies and Rocky Mountains in blistering summer heat to visit us here in our little piece of paradise.

They arrived late Friday afternoon. While Joanne, Lorraine and Amelia unloaded the Carlson's car and brought their stuff into one of the two "motel rooms" in our park's office building, Doug, Madeleine and I went wading in the Similkameen River to cool them down after another long, hot day of driving. We discovered that we could wade completely across the river onto the island in the middle. Then we took the entire family to the orchard area in our park to pick fresh fruit off the trees. Unfortunately, the Bing ( sweet ) cherries were just a bit past their prime, and were dried out from the heat. The sour cherries were still okay, but they're really only good for baking, not eating fresh. Well, Amelia actually liked eating them fresh. We picked and ate some fresh apples. I took the girls to see the small patch of little Brittle Prickly Pear Cactus growing in our park. Uh-oh ... thanks to Uncle Dan's exploration, all 3 of us ended up with teensy little cactus quills embedded deep in our fingertips. Doug and Lorraine have now imposed a new rule on the girls ; don't touch anything Uncle Dan tells you to touch. HA HA HA ! Doug and Lorraine were surprised that the Pica Pica incident in Costa Rica a few years ago didn't teach me anything. HA HA HA HA HA ! Hey ... one can't learn about life without touching and smelling things. We ended the day by having "Christmas in July" and giving them some gifts we had purchased for them during our travels over the last year. I read the girls a bed time story from my book of Indian legends. This story was about the creation of mankind by Man Maker / The Magician, and how Coyote's interference resulted in "mistakes" that resulted in the creation of dog, white man, and black man. The correct result was "red" man.

On Saturday we drove to Keremeos and went to Farmer John's Petting Zoo. On the way we stopped on the side of the road and I found some wild sagebrush so that the girls could experience the wonderful fragrance of wild sage. At the petting zoo there were rabbits, guinea pigs, peacocks, goats, sheep, donkeys, llamas, ducks, turtles, and ponies to be fed and petted. The girls seemed to really enjoy this outing, Amelia in particular. She said that handling baby guinea pigs was the highlight of their time visiting us. She handled the baby guinea pigs very well, and exhibited quite an affinity for animals. We went to Pine Park in Keremeos to have a picnic lunch Aunt Joanne prepared, then we drove around the area looking at orchards and vineyards, so the girls could learn where fruits really come from. We looked at apple trees, peach trees, pear trees, cherry trees, apricot trees, and grape vines. We drove west on Hwy. 3 about half an hour to Bromley Rock Provincial Park where we spent the afternoon frolicking in the Similkameen River. We played in the shallow parts of the fast flowing river, on the rocks sticking out of the rapids. Not a typical beach outing ! And the cold river certainly cooled us down on a hot day. We watched in amazement as teenage boys jumped off the top of 60 foot tall Bromley Rock into the river below. YIKES ! Made Doug and Lorraine grateful that they have girls ! Madeleine and Doug said that this experience of wading, swimming, and playing around in a wild mountain river surrounded by jaw dropping mountain scenery was the highlight of their time with us. We ended the day with another Indian legends bedtime story for the girls by Uncle Dan. This one was about Coyote's creation of the Big Dipper constellation. After I read them the story, Joanne and I took the girls outside to show them the Big Dipper.

On Sunday we headed off for Uncle Dan's favourite, a four wheel drive adventure driving up the back side of Apex Mountain. We drove a few miles west on Hwy. 3 towards our neighbouring village, the little gold mining town of Hedley, then headed up Nickel Plate Mine Road through the Upper Similkameen Indian Reservation. It's a narrow, very winding, rough, steep trail up the mountain, with amazing views of the Similkameen Valley below. We stopped a few times for photo opportunities, and I think one of the photos may end up becoming the Carlson's family Christmas card photo. Shortly after passing the Nickel Plate gold mine we arrived at Apex Mountain Ski Village. We ate the picnic lunch once again prepared by Aunt Joanne before riding the chair lift to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain, at an elevation of 7200 feet we wandered around awhile, taking pictures and enjoying the views. Amelia expressed some discomfort at riding a chair lift to the top of a mountain, and being on top of a mountain. Lorraine, however, said that it was the highlight of her time with us. We rode the chair lift back down to the village, and drove down the "civilized" road on the "front side" of Apex Mountain back towards Keremeos and "home" to Riverside RV Park Resort. As we drove through Keremeos, Doug expressed an interest in exploring the "other" side of the Similkameen River. We crossed the Similkameen on Keremeos' famous wooden Red Bridge. We drove west along the north shore of the Similkameen briefly before turning south to follow the Ashnola River up into the Cathedral Lakes region. We stopped at a small unserviced campground along the Ashnola River to spend some time exploring. The Ashnola River is smaller than the Similkameen, and is truly a rugged, wild, little river running down out of the mountains. Madeleine and I built a small Inukshuk on the shore. Late in the evening we went to the clubhouse in our park, where Amelia and Madeleine learned to play shuffleboard while Doug and I shot a game of pool. I forgot to read the girls their Indian legends bedtime story.

Sunday morning we headed for Penticton and a day on Skaha Lake Beach. We stopped in Keremeos, and while Joanne wandered around the village window shopping with Doug and Lorraine, I took the girls to the playground in Memorial Park. Halfway to Penticton we stopped for another of Aunt Joanne's picnic lunches at Yellow Lake, a beautiful, emerald green coloured mountain lake. I wonder why it's called Yellow Lake ? We spent the hot afternoon playing on the beach, in the lake, and the water park at Skaha Lake Beach. Penticton Airport is across the road from Skaha Lake Beach. I offered to take the Carlson family on a sightseeing flight in a Cessna 172 over the Penticton and Skaha Lake area, but they weren't interested. After an early supper of East Indian food purchased for us by Doug and Lorraine in Keremeos on the way home, it was time for my "finale". For Amelia and Madeleine, and all the grandchildren visiting grandparents at Riverside RV Park Resort, I presented Uncle Dan's juggling and magic extravaganza, featuring Danylo The Great. HA HA HA ... I had a great time being a somewhat silly juggler and magician. I hope all the children enjoyed it. I read the girls their final Indian legends bedtime story about how Coyote's mischief resulted in the creation of winters.

We enjoyed their visit. We thank the Carlson family for coming all this way to visit with us ! It was my objective to give the little "city girl" nieces some summer, outdoor, mountain, Uncle Dan adventures that they won't soon forget. I hope I achieved that.

DSK

July 22 update

July 15

 

Today's excitement was ... I assisted some neighbours in capturing a rattlesnake, then I relocated it. While we were walking Bo, and chatting with a neighbour, Ron, another neighbour, Betty came running down the road with her little dog Spencer, screaming in terror about a rattlesnake in her rock wall. Ron grabbed a rake, and we headed for Betty's. Her husband Dave was standing by their rock wall looking perplexed. There was a large, apparently very angry rattlesnake tucked in amongst the rocks, rattling its tail loudly, and flicking its forked tongue at us. Another neighbour, Jon, arrived with a big stick. Ron with his rake, and Jon with his big stick, began to try to get the rattlesnake out from the rocks. I headed for home to put on a pair of welding gloves, with leather gauntlets almost to the elbows. I thought maybe if they flipped the snake out onto the road, and held it down with the rake or stick, I could grab it and toss it into a garbage can.

By the time I returned a minute or two later, they had managed to flip the snake out onto the road, and then into a garbage can using the rake. I volunteered to relocate one very angry rattlesnake. I drove a few miles down the road, and released it on a dirt road leading up into the mountains. Boy ... it sure seemed angry ! I guess being whacked around with a stick and rake, then being trapped inside a hot plastic garbage can for awhile will do that to a rattlesnake. HA HA HA !

It was neat. I've never had the opportunity to hear an angry rattlesnake before. It sure can make a lot of noise with that rattle on its tail. And while I knew that this area is the northernmost "finger" of the Sonoran Desert, I didn't know we have rattlesnakes here. Watch out, Bo !

 

July 18

 

Today I resumed my life as a pilot at Southern Skies Aviation in Penticton. I have only flown once in the last 3½ years. To the surprise of both me and my flight instructor / examiner, my flying skills are not as rusty as we both expected them to be. I flew 1.1 hours in Cessna 172 C-GXTN ( X-ray Tango November ). Southern Skies' two Cessna 172's are both much older models than I am used to flying, so many of the controls and instruments are a slightly different design, in slightly different locations than I am accustomed to. We did upper air exercises over Lake Okanagan between Summerland and Peachland, steep turns at 45 degrees of bank, slow flight, stalls, and full power climbing turn stalls into incipient spins. Just like riding a bicycle ! We did a simulated engine failure forced approach. Aced it ! We did some touch and go circuits, including a high, hot, sideslip approach, and a full flaps approach. I will need at least one, maybe two more dual flights to be proficient enough to be allowed to sign out the aircraft for solo flight, and won't be allowed to fly outside the Okanagan Valley until I complete their mountain flying course this fall. I had a very brief mountain flying introduction / orientation at Boundary Bay ( just outside Vancouver ) in 1986 when we came out to see Expo 86, but ... well, that was 21 years ago.

Next summer ... aerobatics training in their Citabria. Woo-Hoo ... loops and rolls !

 

DSK

July 8 update

July 8 blog update

 

Okay ... due to many requests from readers of my blog, I will occasionally update my blog throughout the summer.

My last regular blog entry was on June 22. That evening, after I wrote and posted that entry, we had an "accident" that resulted in the loss of the awning on the side of the trailer. The wind gusted so strongly that the awning flipped up over the trailer. The awning arms smashed into the side of the trailer , then also flipped up over onto the roof, smashing the air conditioner shroud. The awning was severely torn, and the arms were bent and broken. The entire awning assembly, worth about a thousand dollars, was a total loss. And the air conditioner shroud, worth about a hundred dollars, as well. When it smashed onto the roof, it sounded like an explosion inside the trailer. The air conditioner vent on the inside ceiling of the trailer flew off when the awning hit the roof.

It could have been a lot worse. We have spoken to many RV owners who have lost awnings on their rigs due to strong wind gusts. And they have ended up with holes smashed through the sides of their rigs, or the roofs of their rigs, from the very heavy awning arms flailing around as the awning flips up and over the rig. All we lost was the air conditioner shroud. We have decided not to replace the awning. We rarely use it, and when we do, it inevitably needs to be retracted due to winds, usually in the middle of the night.

On July 1, we attended the Canada Day celebrations at Memorial Park in Keremeos. One of the activities was an exhibition of "dog agility". After the demonstration, dogs in the audience were invited to give it a try. I took Bo through a dog agility course for the first time. He loved it, and did great. We decided to enroll in a dog agility class at the local kennel in the village of Cawston. Yesterday ( July 7 ) we attended our first, and likely last, dog agility session. Bo had fun, but Joanne and I each had a litany of complaints, and will likely not be returning. Amongst other complaints, I didn't think it was worth the money they were charging. And Joanne was really angry that Bo got bit by the Border Collie that belongs to the kennel owner. She believes, quite rightly, that if the kennel owner's dog isn't well enough behaved around visiting dogs to resist biting them, he shouldn't be allowed to mingle with the visiting dogs. We're not sure exactly where Bo was bit during the little scuffle, but he was yelping for 10 or 15 seconds afterwards, so it likely hurt a bit. We think he was bit on the face, but there's no apparent damage. Maybe you should keep your nose out of other dogs' groins, Bo.

And now the big news ! On July 3 Joanne fell and broke her elbow. We were in Penticton for our weekly day of errands in "Pen". It was our last stop for the day, at a grocery store. As we walked from the truck to the store, Joanne stumbled on a bump in the pavement. She landed very hard on her knees, scraping them severely, then pitched forward onto her left wrist, and then, finally, onto her face, landing with her left eyeglass lens against the pavement and scratching it deeply. I picked her up and took her back to the truck where I did first aid on her shredded, bleeding knees. She just wanted to go home and lie down, but I insisted we go to the hospital because of the severe pain in her left wrist and elbow.

We were taken care of quite well at Penticton Hospital. The wait in the Emergency Department was only about 45 minutes. A doctor examined Joanne, then sent her for x-rays. The x-rays indicated a fracture of the head end of the arm's radial bone, at the elbow. Nowadays they don't apply a cast on an arm with a broken elbow. After 6 or 8 weeks in a cast, the broken elbow often heals with reduced range of motion. So they put a sling on Joanne, and sent us home with instructions to see our family doctor the next day. Our only complaint about Penticton Hospital's Emergency Department was inadequate explanation after the x-rays. The doctor never returned to see Joanne. He just sent a nurse in to apply a sling and send us home. The nurse was not able ( or allowed ? ) to explain the diagnosis and answer our questions.

The next morning I phoned the Health Centre in Keremeos for an afternoon appointment, then we drove back to Penticton Hospital for Joanne's scheduled mammogram, made a bit more difficult by the broken, painful elbow. In the afternoon we saw our new local doctor. Joanne's wrist may also be broken. If not, it certainly is severely sprained. We are to return to the Health Centre in Keremeos in a couple of days for another set of x-rays.

Joanne is in a lot of pain. She has difficulty sleeping, and her tossing and turning keeps both of us awake much of the night. She does some simple exercises, like slow, gentle arm swings, to decrease the risk of loss of range of motion in the elbow as it heals. I act as "Nazi coach" through the exercises, a role I also played a few years ago following her cancer surgeries.