OUR Bush and Disrespect

Most mornings we take our dogs for a walk through what we call 'the back bush'.  It's a few acres of bush, mostly alder and maple trees, some cottonwoods and hazelnuts, and a few cedar and fir.  The undergrowth is mostly salmonberries.

It was logged many years ago, we can see well rotted large stumps here and there.  Over the years we've made a trail or two through it, and it's our bit of 'wilderness'.  I enjoy watching the changing of the seasons as it manifests itself in our 'back bush'.

Back in January I blogged about seeing two hawks hanging around there.  I finally remembered to check out a nest that is about 60 feet up in a cottonwood.

You only really notice it when the leaves are off the trees, and I've always thought that it was a crows nest.  Already the leaf buds are popping open and the trees are greening up.  Before long the nest might be hidden.

Yesterday morning when we walked down the trail, I remembered about the nest, and was thinking about the two hawks, and looked up at it as we went by.

I made my best sqeaky, sick squirrel impression, and up popped a head, and it belonged to a hawk, not a crow.  Cool!

Yesterday afternoon we went back out there and a hawk flew off the nest, before I had my camera ready.  This morning when we walked out there, the hawk flew back to the nest, again before I was ready with the camera.

This morning, while walking, we got a rude surprise.  There were dirt bike tracks down our trail and through the bush field.

Now I have to back track a bit.  About 8 years ago while walking through the trail, I started to notice these blue blob things.  Then I started looking for them, and then I realized they were paintball blobs.  When I looked harder there were wooden blinds and platforms built in trees.  We could see where our neighbours had come through the fence.  Apparently they had decided to use our property to have a paintball war.  Larry went and talked to them and we took down all the wooden structures.  Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  One morning Larry noticed tracks on the trail.  ATV tracks.  We backtracked and found where they had cut the barb wire fence and come in from the next door property.  I was mad, but not mad enough to do much about it, and I guess Larry wasn't either.  I did fasten one strand of wire back together.  It's not much of a fence along that side, some rotten posts and barbwire running through the trees.  We were going to put up some No Trespassing and Private Property signs, but didn't get it done. 

 We heard and saw quads and dirt bikes going up and down the next door field yesterday afternoon.  I made a snide remark about them going into our bush next, so Larry decided to head out there and check.  He was gone quite a while, so eventually I wandered out there with the camera and a bag so I could collect some moss, and a spade to dig up some of the invasive chervil plants.  We were out there for a while, and no unauthorized vehicles made an appearance.  So imagine my shock when we walked out there this morning, and right away I noticed tracks in the grass of the bush field, and then tracks around the trail.  The one strand of barb wire that I had fastened back together was lifted up out of the way.  I was mad, really mad, and said to Larry that if we didn't have the dogs with us, I'd go over there right now.  And then I figured I could just go over there on my own.  So I tromped up to the house (and I had a shovel with me this morning) and pounded on the door.  Unfortunately no one seemed to be home.  I felt like pounding the shovel handle through the window in the door. The adrenalin was flowing.  As I was walking away, I noticed this old No Trespassing sign laying on the top of their deck railing.  It was actually kind of funny to see that. I took it with me, picked up some bailing twine off the driveway, and when I got back to the hole in the fence I hung up the No Trespassing sign:)  When we got back to the house, I looked up their address on Google street view, reverse looked up their phone number and made a call.  No answer, no answering machine.  I tried again around suppertime.  Still no answer.  I was out until late this evening, so didn't get another chance to try, although come to think about it, I probably should call at some ungodly hour.  I will make another attempt to contact them tomorrow.

Not exactly sure who or how many are living there now.  They board horses, quite a few horses by the looks of it. 

We don't want trespassers on their ATV's running over these.

Garage Sale Season

This weekend is the first one this year that could be considered a sure thing for garage sales.  The weather is great, and I figured it might be worthwhile heading out to find some bargains.  Way back in the days before farmers markets, I used to go to garage sales most Saturday mornings.  When your kids are little, you can find everything you need for them at garage sales.  But back to the present, where most of our Saturdays in garage sale season are taken up by the farmers markets..... when I have the opportunity to head out, I jump at it.  Most sales start at 8 or 9, and a random one at 10.  There was one really close to home, that started at 10.  We drove by, but the gates were closed and they didn't have much stuff out yet, so we just kept going.  Their loss. We had earlier opening ones to get to.   We are pickier now as to what we buy, or at least I try to be:)  Although if something is a dollar or less, and I like it but wonder if I really need it, well sometimes I succumb to the urge:)

Here's some of the things I brought home.

2 "C" clamps -$1  I can use those to help in some of my furniture projects, or to clamp some of the props on my farmers market table.  Stanley brand.

Bird feeder with easy open metal roof and frame - $1

Cute wire 'egg' basket shaped like a chicken - $1  I am visualizing it lined with moss and a plant growing out of the back


Fabric waterproofing -  50 cents
70 wire ground staples -$2   I use them to hold down netting, plastic or landcape fabric
A small roller thing - 25 cents

Cool Chicago Metallic brownie pan with lift out divider and bottom -$1
Gardening tool - $1
Excellent dog training book- 50 cents
Microwave, doesn't appear to have been used - $15.

A whole selection of magic bullet stuff, including two different blades and cups with sippy type lids - free.  That made up for the toaster that I bought at the same place for $1 and then found out it took forever to turn off, and the only way to speed it up was to pull out the plug.  Also it wasn't insulated and got burning hot.  A good reminder to me as to what the requirements of a toaster really are.




The microwave and maybe a few other things will be for one of two people that I know that will be setting up on their own in the next little while.

The Scenic Route

Do you take the scenic route? 

A week and a half ago, we made an afternoon trip from Oliver to Penticton.  We took the scenic route, and went up Eastside Road along side Skaha Lake to Penticton.  Usually we would take the highway on the west side of the lake, but the eastside was a slower, more interesting and scenic road.  Along the way we made a side trip to Skaha Bluffs park, and hope to go back there one day to do some actual hiking, instead of just driving up to the parking lot and reading the information board.   

Once we made it to Penticton I visited two thrift stores and spent a grand total of $2, and then we had a scenic drive to the Penticton landfill where we purchased a truckload (we were probably overloaded) of compost/mulch for just $20.  We took the scenic route back so we didn't have to drive so fast.  It was such a beautiful day, I snapped a million pictures from the truck window.

Coming in to Okanagan Falls were we had the option of rejoining the highway for the last 15 minutes, or staying to the east of town and driving on Oliver Ranch Road and then rejoining the highway further south.

There are lots of wineries in this area.  I took this photo......

....because it made me think of this painting by David Daase.

I'm not sure if this painting is of an actual view in the area, possibly it is higher up and more to the east of where we were.  When I took the photo we were past all the wineries.

That flat faced hunk of rock on the right side of the painting, and in the center of the photo below, is called McIntyre Bluff.

What a great day for a drive, and what scenery.....

Here's the David Daase print that we have, found in a thrift store of course.  This lake is farther north in the Okanagan. 

Kalamalka Lake

Wordless Wednesday

More on the Projects

Warning...a wordy and not very exciting post......

Unfortunately our planned projects created a couple of unplanned projects.  Larry had the truck canopy door open in the carport, in preparation for taking the canopy off, so we could load some soil into the truck.  He decided to move the truck ahead a bit.  Our carport has a sloped roof, and is quite low.  One handle on the canopy door got hooked behind a rafter, ripped a chunk of wood off the rafter, which wasn't a big deal, but the handle broke in the process.

Then we had problems loading the aerator back into the truck.  Too heavy to lift, and we didn't have enough of anything to make a ramp.  Larry came up with the idea of backing the truck up to the planter that is between the front lawn and the driveway.  The top of the planter is level with the lawn and about 16-18" above the driveway.  We dropped the tailgate right down, used that piece of wood that I had cut out of the door for the window, and managed to drive the aerator up into the truck.  As Larry started to pull away, there was a crack, and the planter wall was moving with the truck.  Because the aerator was so heavy, the truck had sunk, and the trailer hitch had sunk with it and got caught behind the planter wall as Larry pulled ahead.  Fortunately I yelled before too much damage was done, but the wall was leaning out a bit, with a big space between it and the soil and of course it didn't want to be pushed back.

(a photo taken when we were first looking to buy the place)

A few days later, when the truck was weighed down with a load of compost that we had bought at the Penticton landfill, we did it in reverse.  The truck was low enough again that the trailer hitch could be use to push the planter wall back into place this time. We pounded the piece of rebar that had got pulled out of place, through a new hole, and it was all pretty good once again.

We were also having trouble with our TV, or more likely the signal that our aerial was picking up.  We spent a frustrating hour yelling back and forth to each other as Larry moved the aerial around on the roof, and I was inside watching for the best picture,  to no avail.  I got fed up with that and we moved the tv outside.  The truck was parked next to the house, with the step ladder in the back.  Larry was up the ladder and I was watching the tv which was sitting on the roof of the truck cab, since the cable cord connecting the tv and aerial was only so long and we had to keep them connected.  Someone walked by and made a jokey comment about what we were doing.  Nothing solved though, most of the time we still had some flickering happening.  A few days later, there was a knock at the door, and a guy from Telus was there to tell us that they were putting fibre optic cable to the houses in the neighbourhood, at no charge, did we want it.  So I signed the dotted line, and most likely opened us up to a future flurry of 'great deals' from Telus to get phone, internet and  tv service.  We are thinking that we will probably go for internet, and use that to watch some tv shows.  Just hate to put out the monthly payments for something that we aren't always there to use.

The biggest project in my mind this last trip, was to make sure I didn't fall.  I've had a few bad falls in the last 8 months.  The first one was last summer at Oliver.  We were crossing the main road, pushing our bikes across the crosswalk.  As we got to the other side , I put my foot on the nearest pedal as we were moving and started to swing my leg over.  Right away I knew my foot wasn't on the pedal properly, but because all my weight was on it, there was nothing I could do about it.  It slipped off and I buried my knees into the pavement.  Of course the humiliation was the worst, and the pink scars on my left knee keep me reminded of that.  Now I make sure the bike is at a standstill before I try to get on.  Then I fell here, tripped on a root hidden under leaves on the trail through our bush.  I think there's another fall in there somewhere, but I can't remember that one.  The last three have been the worst, mostly because I have fallen on the same body parts all three times.

In December I was at the farmers market in White Rock, walked outside to go to a vendor, took a shortcut behind a dumpster, stepped on some uneven ground, lost my balance and went down.  As I was going down I sort of turned, and whacked the back of my shoulder on one of those metal pipes filled with concrete that are there to stop cars from hitting the building.  That was a bad one.  My shoulder hasn't been the same since.  My chiropractor said if I had hit it on the front, it would have broken.

Then in January while in Oliver, walking in the evening, I stepped on a patch of snow alongside the road to get out of the way of a car, and down I went, on that same right hip and shoulder.  I had a very ugly bruise on my hip.  In February, in the back yard in Oliver, I stepped on some paving stones that were on a slope and were frosty, and yet again I landed on that right hip and shoulder.

This trip, when we had put that sheep fencing stuff up to keep the dogs off the back lawn area, I thought about falling not falling every time I swung my legs over it.  There were one or two close calls, but I survived the trip unscathed, thank goodness.  Hopefully time and not falling on it again will fix my sore hip and shoulder.

Here's a project I started during our January trip, and finished in February.  There was nothing wrong with the table, but I had seen some nice makeovers done on some tables, and I wanted to try it. One of those projects I wished I hadn't started.  I got it all sanded in January, out in the shed in the freezing temperatures.  It took forever, I sanded it down to raw wood.  In February I put the first coat of stain on, and found out that while the table top felt lovely and smooth, there had actually been something stuck on the sanding pad on the sander, which left all these lovely little swirls.  So then I had to sand it all back to bare wood again.  I was using this horrible water based stain, that seemed impossible to spread on evenly, so the air was a little blue at times.  Thankfully it is all used up now, and I'll never buy it again.  The table top is a dense wood, lots of little pieces finger-jointed together, so you don't get an obvious grain showing.

Before (the base was the same as the table top)

After

Now I need to paint the chairs to match:(

Phew, sometimes I really ramble on. Congrats if you made it to this point without being bored to tears!

Projects

This is what the back lawn at Oliver looked like at the end of March last year.

And below is what it looked like at the end of March this year (insert very sad droopy face here).

Last year we weren't quite sure how to deal with things.  Since we were only there about once a month, did we water the heck out of it while we were there, and then hope it didn't grow too much in between visits, or not water it at all and see what happened?  We knew it would die back, and then come back in the Fall when the weather got cooler and there was more rain.  Didn't happen, the coming back part that is.  Obviously some of the grass was more resistant than the rest, but the green patches towards the back are much more sparse than they appear from this angle.

(That white thing in the foreground is the back door, and one of 'my' projects)

The first day we were there, we took the dogs for a walk and then stopped at a garden center and asked for advice.  The garden center had just been put up for sale.  There seemed to be no-one around, but then I noticed a lady waving me over to the house.  I was invited into the kitchen, and her husband told me how to go about reviving our lawn.  I also heard all about his medical issues, a heart operation he went to Victoria for, that didn't work, how he was 80 years old and couldn't do much now.  Obviously the reason for the For Sale sign.

The first thing he told us to do was to rent an aerator.  So Larry did that.  When he brought it back he said that he didn't even know if we could get it out of the truck, it was that heavy.  I sort of laughed at that, was sure that between the two of us, it would be no problem.  It was unbelievable how heavy that thing was.  We pulled it out and tried to slow it's decent to the ground a bit, but I knew there was no way to lift it back in.  Larry plodded back and forth, heaving the beast around on our tiny front lawn, and then did the back 'lawn'.  Advil was his friend for the next few days.

In the meantime, I knocked the hinge pins out of the back door, maneuvered it back and forth until I could tip it enough to get it through the doorway, and then wiggled it over to a small table and a saw horse that I had set up.  It didn't weigh as much as the aerator, but enough that I couldn't carry it on my own.

I have often thought that I wished the back door had a window.  All of our exterior doors here in Abbotsford have windows.  I like being able to see out before opening the door.  Last time we were in Oliver, I verbalized it to Larry.  We hung a mirror on the back of the door.  I might not have been able to see out, but at least I could make sure I was presentable before I went out there.

When we came back home I looked on Craigslist.  There was a window for $20, about 20 minutes away.  I didn't do anything about it, but did check once or twice to see if the ad was still posted.   Then one day I saw that it had been updated and reduced to $10, so that was enough to make me take action.  We drove to Mission, bought the window, and took the dogs for a nice walk at Heritage Park while we were there.

The job went fairly well.  I got the hole cut, checked that the window fit, made some adjustments to the hole on one side of the door, and put it back on the hinges.  That made it easy to put the window in, and the project was completed without breaking the window, cutting a finger tip off, or dropping anything heavy on my foot.  Success!

So now we can look out and see this.

And Luna can look in to see why we are taking so long.

The lawn dirt patch got aerated, we brought three truck loads of some soil mix back to rake into the holes, and grass seed was spread.  We kept it damp and hoped it would germinate before we had to leave, but no such luck.  I was on my knees with a magnifying glass, hoping to see a little root coming out of the seed, but unfortunately there was nothing.  We were hoping the forecast would be for a few showers after we left, but again we were out of luck.  The weather has been warm and dry there since, so the seed will probably dry out before it germinates.  We decided it would cost more to drive back than it would to reseed.  I think the weather just wasn't warm enough yet.  Well the daytime temperatures were, but the night time ones were around the freezing mark.  Maybe we'll get a pleasant surprise when we go back in a few weeks, fingers crossed.

Our last morning there, I rescued this little tree that had been dumped, next to where we had parked the truck for our walk on the dyke.  It had been there a while, but still showed green when you scratched the bark on the little branches.  I put it in a pot, and in a sheltered spot, watered the heck out of it....and time will tell.  

It's my frugal gene working overtime again.

The Pit Stop

Some of you may have already figured that out, but we have just come back from a week in Oliver in the Okanagan.  A great trip as usual.  It's a four hour drive.  Usually we have to stop at least once for a pit stop, at the pit toilets in this case, and to give the dogs a chance for their own pit stop and leg stretch.  I think this was our nicest pit stop so far. Have I said 'pit stop' enough times yet?

This was at Bromley Rock.  It is a campsite/picnic area along the Similkameen River east of Princeton.  We have camped there a few times.  We are assuming that Bromley Rock is the hunk on the other side of the river.  It is a popular swimming spot in the summer, and braver, or maybe more foolish souls than I jump off that cliff.  The water was pretty icy still, so even the dogs weren't too interested in getting all wet.  Dogs aren't allowed down there in the summer, well actually it just says 'NO DOGS'.  Since it wasn't swimming season, there wasn't another soul around, we clean up after our dogs, and it was just too nice to resist, we took the dogs down there.  Or more like they took themselves down and asked me what I was waiting for.

Looking at Larry coming down the hill after his visit to those pit things.  Calli has found herself a rock.

He came down and got the kids running.  Too bad it was out of focus, I love it when I capture one of them in that greyhound/jackrabbit position.

Luna, like the typical bratty younger sister, has stolen Jake's stick.  When she carries it like that, it always makes me think of a kid running with scissors.

If you want to read about the fun we had at Bromley Rock campsite a couple of years ago, you can find it here.