Watching the Alaska Travellers go by

The chores have started, however slowly, as our renters are still in the big house.  We managed to get the lawns back in order, or should I say the hay field?  There has been an incredible amount of rain here, as it seems all over, and the grass is long and thick.

This weekend is the upcoming Canada Day weekend, and we have decided to get back on the road and go up to Gingolx, on the coast.  There is a terrific festival there called Crabfest, with two days of music and entertainment. Yes, it is right next to Alaska. The festival is the highlight of the Nisga'a village year and brings in much needed income to their tiny wee village. We are happy to oblige.

Our little rented lot near the golf course is good, although noisier than we are used to, as it is very near Highway 16.  We can sit and watch all the RV units heading to Alaska - the road is very busy! We heard on the radio today that so many roads are washed out on the other route through Fort St John, so maybe this route will become even crazier. 

View from front door of RV

We have great friends here, and thanks to Al, who contacted Art and Gina, the owners of the lot, we have this great place to hang out for a bit.

Off to the dentist today for both of us, and we'll check another item off the To Do list.  So many items, man, that list is long.........

Busy month ahead

We are in the north country, going through what were once valued possessions, and deciding what to keep in storage, and what to let go.  Funny how being away for 7 months, and then returning, how some of those items just do not seem that important anymore.

A lovely weekend was spent at the local Tyee Provincial Park, visiting with friends, enjoying a meal together and catching up.  The downfall with the Park, is that it has terrible cell reception, and therefore, no internet reception. We don't like to be incommunicado!

We have a great place just beside the Golf and Country Club.  Don can walk to the clubhouse for Men's Night on Thursday, and we are close to everything. 

Anyone want to get in on cleaning out a huge 4 bedroom, 3 bathroom, 2 car garage stix and bricks? A busy month indeed!

Packing up

Busy around the lot front, packing up and organizing for our trip north.  It looks like the weekend will be rainy, so we may not take the shortcut on the logging road. That could prove to be really muddy. An evaluation will have to take place right before we leave as to what route we go.

Donald has been busy raking the gravel where we had the rock wall built, and setting up the automatic timer on his irrigation system.  For some reason, it is not watering at the times he wants.  Ok, more reading of those instructions.

We are also busy making appointments, logistics and plans for the north country.  We have invitations for ' camp outs' with friends, and it will be fun to catch up on what people having been doing since we left in November.

We also are having a visit here at the lot with some friends, on Friday. They were our next door neighbours from when we lived in Jasper, Alberta.

As much as we are settled in here, and it is so very peaceful, it will be good to get back on the road.  We're just not looking forward to the massive amount of 'work' we have to do up north.  More on that later.

Go Canucks GO!!!!!!!!!!(please, again, just one more time boys)

The day after the big Dig

Ah, no noise!  The excavator was not that noisy, really.  However, he has left it here for the weekend, as it was getting close to hockey time by the finish of the job, so there was not time enough to bring around the truck with the big loading bed. We are so keen to rake the gravel and get the job truly finished, but alright, I guess for the sake of the hockey game we can wait a bit longer.  Good thing I said ' please' yesterday on the blog posting, because the Canucks won - whoo hoo!

good view from RV

We are off to Chase today in order to renew the plate sticker for the fifth wheel and do some grocery shopping.  This is for Paulette and Jana - a gift that was mailed in the midst of our Canada Post mail strike, and yet made it to the destination faster than if there wasn't a mail strike. Go figure.  Happy 50th Birthday Kelly! ( SIL ).

Kelly's Runner

A couple of little Coffeepot buttons

Man, I can hear the boy raking outside..... gotta go.

Arg Arg! Big Machines working!

Who else but a Canadian would buy rock?

Look at the size of those big rocks! These are not the size of the first load we had for landscaping - there is no moving those puppies around by hand.  The lot next door to us is about 8 feet lower than we are, so we needed to build a wall of some sort, and reclaim some more space here.  The suggestion from our friendly neighbourhood contractor was to have these monster rocks from their quarry put into place, and then angled a bit with each layer, to have a load of fill on top.  So, a day and a half later ( can you say 'ca-ching'?$$ ) we have our space. 

Almost 'Before', aka starting the work

seeing some progress

Ta da!

We're thinking there's room for a couple more Rv's!  To top it all off, the Tree Peony has graced us with a couple of blooms, that are at least 10 inches across. Liking that.  Ok, off to watch the hockey game. Go Canucks ( please ).

Just doing

When you come ' off the road' for a period of time, I always think I don't have much to post or talk about.  It's not that we are not doing anything, except most of the things we are doing are daily chore type activities. Boring!  Let's see... there is still an ongoing scuffle with marauding squirrels, which we seem to be winning with the addition of metal poles to hold the feeders and olive oil applied to the poles every couple of days.  Then there is the battle with slugs, which we seem to be getting ahead, with tins buried in the garden and beer being the liquid of choice in the tins.  The slugs were attacking the Black Eyed Susan leaves, so I had to do something, as I don't use pesticides, etc.

Donald is puzzling out and laying the parts for the irrigation system. This will hopefully save some of our gardens while we are gone.  It is very hot and dry in the Shuswap in the summer.  You would never know it now with all the rain.

Then, he added some new black dirt and seeded grass on the septic field.  When the field was installed, the black dirt was dug up, the pipes etc. were laid, and then they backfilled the clay dirt on top. Yep, grass does not grow well on clay.  The nice rock wall is Donald's handiwork.

I am cleaning out the 5th wheel and packing away items into our wee shed, some quilting, some card making and am about to start a cross stitch project for the new grandbaby.

The trip up north is coming very soon, with a stop for appointments on the way, and we may have an awesome place to park ourselves while we are in the northland.

Oh yes..... guy stuff..... BIG machines here at the lot for the next few days as we reclaim some land, and build a wall.  Ar Ar Ar. Pictures tomorrow. Perhaps big machine pictures are more interesting than flower and bird pictures.

Evening Grosbeaks on the new poled feeder

Solar Bulb Squirrel

The lines are drawn. Kim picked up some great solar lights in the US to go into a specific tree here, and they were great. Looked like a Christmas tree at night.  And now? Destroyed. By a rodent.

Donald: She's eating the solar lights.
Kim: who?
Donald: the squirrel.
Kim: don't be silly.
Donald: you watch. She's nipping the wires clean and running off with the white bulbs in her mouth.

Scene Later: Squirrel runs off into the forest, with the last of the bulbs in her mouth.
Result: the lines are drawn. It is war.

Memories of lights in the tree

Today's chore:  on the search for 2 metal poles to attach the bird feeders to.