Home on the Hill

I have been wanting to see what the N.E. corner of our property looks like on the ground. I have seen google map shots but have never stood on the ground. Armed with my Garmin 60 Cx and trusty pathfinder dog Xena off we went. There is a small lake about a mile away I have never seen and I wanted to see what the joint looked like from the top of some cliffs a half a mile away to the East so we added them all to the trip. This is the route I took: And the google maps version: The red numbers in the snag show which of the pictures below were taken. If you want to go along on this hike I would suggest a change of socks. Long sleeve shirts and pants that go all the way down. Like to the boots. Long legged I mean. Not what you were thinking. the elevation change isn't a lot but there is a fair bit of bushwacking. (1) This is the little unnamed lake that was on the itinerary. Surrounded by 200 feet of muskeg. Definatly not any good as a swimming lake. Altho Xena the wonder dog ...

Well lotsa tires anyway. We spent the day weeding out the garden and re planting the tires that had been chocked with pig weed. This is the North end of the garden with a view across the valley. The plywood holds the timers, the white pipes encircle the shut off and isolator valves for the garden and the black conduit is the water and power for the soon to be moved chicken/green house. The cabbages and squash are doing well. I am taking the lids off during the day but at night I put them back on to hold in some of the heat. The spuds have grown over the tops so they get to chance it. Soon -like the next couple of days the tomatoes will have to survive the night without tops as they have overgrown the tire stacks. If I go higher I won't be able to reach in to weed. This is the infamous pig weed. Fortunately it is very easy to weed as it doesn't have a big root system when it is small. But it is a prolific grower and easily crowded out the white onions for light domination. It ...

This is a picture Jo-Ann took at 7 a.m. this morning. She says it was a degree colder when she first noticed it. She put the furnace on which means it was fairly nippy in the house too. According to my calendar it's the end of June. Walking outside rates a light jacket or heavy insulated shirt. Yet the grass still grows. I see a profusion of wild strawberries everywhere and camomile starting to turn areas of the pastures white. No wonder the tumbler tomatoes in the hanging baskets don't seem to be doing well. It think today they come down and go in the tire garden for a warm vacation. This weekend I am going to go on a hike to the North East corner of the property as I haven't seen it yet. A neighbor tells me there is another gravel pit there. I can always use that stuff.

Actually it's a combine. When we were coming through Fraser Lake two nights ago we noticed that our combine was parked in the museum parking lot. We had donated it to the museum so that others could enjoy it. I don't know how old it is but I have never seen one that was built with wood so I think it goes back a few years. Now that it's gone it frees up the "Red Shed" so that I can move it over to the garden for use as a green/house winter chicken house. I have water and power over there so I will be able to install some grow lights and a wood stove. It is hovering around a cold windy 9C here today (48.2 F.)The covers stay on the tires today. I will have to add some more to my Tomatoes as they are over 2 feet tall and growing. The spuds are growing great guns. I planted some spuds in a large plant container on our balcony and it is only a couple of inches high compared to the couple of feet in the tires. Quite a difference. I Heard that some gardens were lo...

We got back from a trip to the Coast that lasted a lot longer than we had planned. While we were at the coast I got word that an elderly Aunt had passed away in Flin Flon Manitoba . I had an Auntie and uncle living in Summerland who wanted to go to the service but weren't up to the drive so I chauffeured them to Manitoba. I haven't had a lot of contact with my Auntie's so it was a wonderful experience getting re-acquainted and catching up on some family history I hadn't been aware of. She didn't hold the fact that our moose was named after her against me! When I was in Creighton, which is just on the Saskatchewan side of the border, I re-did a hike of an trek went on when I was eight. At the time I thought it was a world class Marco Polo adventure that took all of a long Northern summer day and felt like a 50 mile hike. Well according to google maps it was only about 2 kilometers as the crow flies and about 6 to avoid the muskeg and walk on the ubiquitous rocky ...

I know I haven't been updating my blog for a while. I have been down to the coast and then off across country ferrying one of my Aunts and her husband to Flin Flon Manitoba for a service for another Aunt who passed. I used to think the life of a road warrior would be an exiting one. I also wanted to sail around the world in a ferro-cement sailboat. Both fantasy's are now squashed. After this It's back to Summerland B.C. and then home. I have a friend of mine baby-sitting the joint and singing ballads to the chickens but I can't wait to get back and see if the radishes are up..Knew I should have installed a web cam..