This Morning's Walk

I'm trying to write more, shorter blogs.  Somehow I doubt I'm going to be very successful, because it seems when I finally get started, that the short part tends to go out of the window.

So we'll start off with a fairly simple one. Pretty well every morning after breakfast, we take the dogs to the back of our property and round the trail through the bush.  First thing is to get Calli in her chariot. 

 See the bell on the ledge behind Larry.  I've started carrying that with me again.  Firstly because of the two bears that were seen just down the road recently, and secondly because we saw a pile on the trail on Monday morning that looked suspiciously like one of those 'cougar marking it's territory' piles.  Jake was having a good long sniff at it, which is what made us notice it, because we may have missed that pile of leaves amongst all the other leaves that are on the trail.  It was a definite pile, with what looked like a clear scraped area around it.  Oh joy.  Anyway, we are going to keep walking through there, me clanging the bell when I remember it, and Larry carrying the Kougar Konker.  We actually had neither this morning, but he had a pitchfork instead.  Yesterday he spent some time with the tractor and a chainsaw out there clearing some of the brush and branches that were overhanging the trail, and that he tended to bang his head on (mostly because he wears hats much more often than me).  This morning he wanted to fork some of that cut  brush off the trail.  He was well armed.

The walk was pretty well uneventful.  This Broadleaf Maple tree took a big hit in our windstorm of three and a half weeks ago.  See the big scar about 20' up? 

 A massive branch came off it, and had the decency to fall parallel to the trail, but not on it.  Very convenient for bucking up into firewood.  I paced the branch out and it is about 75' long.  That should give us a few night's firewood for the winter of 2016/17.  We are heading into the 30th winter at this house, and the 30th winter of cutting firewood for our woodstove, which supplies half of our heat.  We lived here for about the first 10 years with only the woodstove for heat.  We were laughing  during a winter power outage.

Here's the end that broke off the tree, it's about 20" in diameter here

While trying to get Luna to pose on the branch to show the scale of it, (which she doesn't because it just disappears into the brush), I manage to catch a photo of the elusive sasquatch  Larry running off.

Continuing on the trail, that's the backside of that tree in the middle of the photo, and another big clump of maples on the right.

On the way back I stop at the north garden to check on the zucchini.  They've really slowed down now, and are looking pretty sad, and like they are almost done for the year, but I managed to scrounge up three this morning.  The lemon cucumber plants look like they are on their way out too, but there are lots of cucumbers.  Like the zucchini, I'm trying to pick them all at a certain size.  I didn't have a box so just had to fold the bottom of my jacket up to carry them all.  At this point the dogs and Larry have continued back to the house.  I picked a small handful of the Heritage raspberries, a Fall bearing variety, and ate those of course.  I wouldn't like vegetable gardening half as much if I couldn't eat while I was out there.

The second crop of figs is ripening too.  They aren't as good as the first crop, as we haven't had much sun or heat in the past few weeks, so they aren't as sweet and tasty, but that doesn't stop me.  I like to eat.

And this evening when going out to check on whatever Jake was barking at, I saw this!  Looking east and slightly south, over Abbotsford.  I climbed up onto the roof to get a better shot.  Can you see the moon off to the right near the tree and just peeking out between the clouds?

Did you know that there is a Lunar Eclipse this Sunday?  It's supposed to be a sunny day too (here), so hopefully will be still clear in the evening.  The moon will almost be fully eclipsed as it appears above the horizon. It's a Supermoon too! Got to remember to watch:)

Max view in Abbotsford

Sunday, September 27, 2015 at 7:47 PM

Global Type: Total Lunar Eclipse

Abbotsford: Total Lunar Eclipse

Begins: Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 5:11 PM

Maximum: Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 7:47 PM

Ends: Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 10:22 PM

Duration: 5 hours, 11 minutes

Shades of Fall

Today I was gearing myself up for a two market weekend.  It was three weeks since I had been at the Abbotsford Market, and I was due to go to the one this Saturday, or so I thought.  I got an email telling me which vendors where at the market, and I wasn't one of them.  I wasn't included in the Facebook posts either.  Hmmm.  I contacted the manager, and apparently on my application it said my next market was September 26, but if I wanted to come tomorrow, there was room for me there.  In the end I decided to just wait until the 26th, as I couldn't think really remember telling anyone that I would be there this Saturday, and those that get the email and see the Facebook posting wouldn't be expecting me there tomorrow.  Also, the weather is supposed to be the pits this weekend, so to just have one wet market instead of two seemed like a weird sort of bonus to me.  And then I felt like I had been awarded a free day!  Although not really, because then I didn't do the couple of batches of jam that I had planned on doing this afternoon, but went outside and puttered around instead.

I told Larry that I had seen a patch of feathers in the chicken field.  I had a feeling something might have been going on down there.  Jake had been doing lots of barking, I know there had been a hawk hanging around, but when I went out to check when the chickens or Jake were telling me that things were NOT all right in their world, there was never anything to see.

Larry searched the fence line and couldn't find any evidence that it had been breached.  He even went into the neighbours and looked from their side. It wasn't until he cut some underbrush away that he found two holes under the fence.  We do like to leave some of the underbrush, as it gives the hens somewhere to take cover in case of an aerial attack.  So he got his chainsaw out and cut some lengths of wood and pounded them into the ground to block the holes.  In other spots there are roots or extra wire blocking any digging. 

Since it was time for her ladyship to go out for an afternoon pee, I took her down to the field.  The noise of the chainsaw doesn't bother her, especially since she probably can't hear it anyway:)  The border collies couldn't get into the basement fast enough.

I 'suggested' that well, since he had the chainsaw down there......wouldn't it be a good idea to start sawing up that top of an alder that blew off in a windstorm we had three weeks ago.  

Didn't tell you about that, did I?  

Our power was out 32 1/2 hours in total.  Us and about 500, 000 others lost power.  I was at the Abbotsford market that day.  Thank goodness Cathy was with me.  The wind hit, and it was terrible.  I had been somewhat prepared, and had both the market tents fastened down as best I could.  They couldn't really move around, but the wind was blasting the tops so hard, we had to hang on to the framework to keep them from being destroyed.  People started to pack up.  A pottery vendor had their whole display blown over and smashed.  We couldn't pack up because we couldn't let go of the tents.  We couldn't take the tents down because we needed someone to hold each corner, and there was no one to help.  Eventually we got help and we managed to get the tents down.  The apron rack blew over and aprons blew down the street.  I was lucky, only one jar of jam was smashed, but the heavy apron rack crashed into the elbow of one of the helpers, and he was writhing in pain for a bit:(  It was absolutely terrifying, the force of that wind. The market closed early and we headed home.  We managed to avoid getting hit by flying debris, and then we came to this spot.  Vehicles were stopped on either side, but eventually they each, one at a time, were either brave or foolish, and made a mad dash underneath that tree, including us. You can sort of see there is a big branch sticking out by the back vehicle.  That meant you had to swing onto the gravel shoulder to get past it, which just added to the hairiness of it all.  I was in the truck pulling a trailer, our market trailer, so I just gunned it and bounced about a bit when I had to swing onto the shoulder, but I just wanted to get through there as fast as I could. 

This is looking back after we were safely through. 

So  back at home, Larry worked at cutting some of the branches up and  I hauled them out of the way and made a big pile.  Obviously the chainsaw noise doesn't bother the chickens, or at least this one.

On Monday we had got the two piles of douglas fir (from my Lumberjack Window post) loaded onto the trailer and then stacked in our rinky dink woodshed.  It has been drying for months, stacked in the field.  We have had a summer like no other, hot and dry.

I picked up some branches from that mess and the hens had a great old time scratching where they had been.

And then I went and got a camera instead of using my phone and took a few more Fall coloured pictures.

Here's some peppers that never even got planted in the ground.  They are pretty hot ones, so I might try adding them to the next batch of pepper jelly.

My weird squash.  I can't remember what kind I planted here in the center of the bean poles.  I ended up with two big squash, but they don't look like any of the ones I was supposed to get.  I used seeds I saved from squash we ate.  Not a good idea now that I think about it, maybe?  Maybe those squash were hybrids?  I'm just hoping the squash is edible.  Even if it isn't to us, I'm sure the chickens will be happy to have it.

Loads of green tomatoes still in my tomato jungle.  My gawd, what a mess that is.  Working at trying to get the excess stems cut away and let some light in to the green tomatoes.

Fall.

Orange squash.

Orangey red tomatoes

Orange Chinese Lanterns.

Just in case you were wondering, I have hardly touched my new camera yet.  

That is going to be a winter project.

And a little bit of excitement this evening, sort of. We were walking the dogs around the block (about a mile in total).  We were almost 3/4 of the way around.  A neighbour shouted from his front door that there had just been two big bears in his neighbour's front yard, but now they had gone around the back.  He suggested we turn around and go back the way we came.  Ummm, no.  Put the dogs on leash, and kept on going.  Didn't see a thing, darn.  I wanted to see some bears, from a nice safe distance that is.  Time to carry the bear bell with us again on our bush walk in the morning.

Wilson Mountain Fire

Four and a half weeks ago, two fires broke out at Oliver at the same time.  The last I heard, the Testalinden Fire that I showed you yesterday, was caused by lightening, and this one, the Wilson Mt. fire, was maybe caused by a downed powerline.  There was a heck of a windstorm that passed through Oliver that afternoon, followed by a bit of rain and lots of lightening.  We ran into it in Keremeos, on our way home that day.  

Thursday morning last week I went out for a early morning walk with Jake and Luna.  I walked the three blocks up the hill from our place to check out the results of the other fire.  It had come, in some places, within about 50 feet of the row of houses at the base of the mountain.  I assume that was because that last 50 feet was being kept damp by homeowners and the local fire department.  As you can see the mountain is mostly rock, sand and grass, with the typical low shrubbery of desert type regions, and the occasional Ponderosa Pine.  As we went up the windy little road to the water tower, which is only part way up the mountain, we spooked a small herd of deer that were browsing on that last fifty feet of live plants.  As is often the case with fires, parts were burnt and parts were untouched.

I was sorry to see that the little valley I love to walk through looked like it had been scorched (the path heading off in the middle of the photo)

It does open up the possibility of forging a new, more direct route to the top of the mountain from by the water tower. That's not the top, it's just a rock bluff part way up.  It featured in one of last year's posts I think, Larry climbed up there, and then Luna decided to follow him.

The smoke and a helicopter heading to the Testalinden fire to the south.  That's where the burning was happening the day before.  The evening before we drove past the little airport and there were 8 helicopters parked there for the night. (Do helicopters 'park'?)

Looking over the south east part of town

But already new life is appearing.  I'm betting that come next Spring, the mountain will be covered in grass and Spring flowers.

And just because....some Autumn Crocus back at the house.

Here's the Testalinden fire as seen from the dog park that morning.  A lady came over to talk to us (Calli often attracts attention) and she said that she sure hoped those fire fighters knew what they were doing with their controlled burns.  We had those same thoughts. 

Later on that morning while I was trying to get two batches of jam made before we headed back to Abbotsford, all sorts of sirens went off. I looked out of the door and smoke was pouring up again.  Turned out that the sirens were for an accident up the highway that closed it down for a while.  A woman in a car went off the road and hit a power pole and the wires were hanging dangerously low over the highway.

We decided to head home via the 'back way'.  That took us up to Fairview road and right towards that controlled burn.  We were just another car load of those annoying 'rubber neckers'.

I didn't think we'd be able to get through, that the road would be closed.  No problem though getting to the White Lake Rd, where we turned.  Lots of traffic coming the other way, due to the highway closure.

 

 Looking back south after we are just about to join up with the Twin Lakes Rd.

Even when we got to Keremeos and took the dogs along the old train bed and for a swim in the Similkameen river, we could still see the smoke directly to the east, showing over the top of the farthest mountain.

This is where Calli had her big rock.  She went in the water too and there was a moment of panic when she went a bit too deep, but it was all okay in the end.

Jake says forget all the picture taking, just throw me that stick!

Makes me almost embarrassed to make a big deal out of these fires, after seeing video and reading stories of the fires in Northern California.  Hundreds of homes burned.  A fire going from basically nothing to 50,000 acres in a day.  Even here in B.C., there was a much more devastating blaze less than an hour's drive from Oliver to the east.  Homes were lost there also.  Thank goodness we are heading into cooler weather and a good chance of rain.

The Fire

On Wednesday when we were at Oliver this past week, I was making jam.  Nicole, my sister-in-law, told me I shouldn't be making jam there.  I was supposed to be on holiday.  I wish!  Well in the summer we wouldn't be able to go to Oliver as often if I wasn't willing to do some jam making while I'm there.  I need to do it, either there or here....unless I retire....hmm, don't tempt me!

I happened to look out of the front door at one point and saw this! Holy crap!  Had the Testalinden fire had a revival? The smoke was roiling and boiling just above the house on the right, just like a volcano eruption.  You can see a bit of flame just above the left corner of that house.

It had been a sunny day.  Eventually that plume of smoke went right across the sky and make a thick line from the western to the eastern horizon.

I turned on the radio and after a while they mentioned that there was no cause for alarm, the firefighters were doing some controlled burning on the mountain.  There was no other explanation.  Obviously there were still quite a few hot spots up there, so maybe they were just trying to remove any fuel that was left around those hot spots to prevent a flareup?  That's my best guess.

Larry had gone to the library, and also did some driving around to get pictures.

From town it looked pretty spectacular.

 

And from higher up even more so.   

See the plane dropping water, and see that house in the middle at the bottom of the photo?  Do you think they were a little worried?  I would have been.

That evening the mountain was really spectacular.  The photo doesn't do it justice.  We drove up by that orchard again and tried to figure out how to get a decent picture.  None were totally successful, but this one of Larry's came close.  A tripod would have helped.

 In what may be a smokey picture overload, this story is to be continued.

Kind of about Calli

I'm so far behind with my blogging, and when it gets like that it's hard to know where to start.  It's been a busy couple of weeks.  My sister came to visit for 10 days, we did loads of 'thrifting' and made a quick trip to Oliver.  She went back to Ontario on a Saturday, then there was the Sunday market and on the Monday Larry and I headed back to Oliver to meet a couple of his brothers and their wives, one from Kelowna and one from Alberta, and we met at Wyndson Cottage.  It was a nice visit, Larry gave them a tour of the area, and it seemed really strange to have five other people all at once in our tiny living room.

Here is my lovely sister standing up by the new highschool.  When we went to Oliver we thought we'd make it a bit easier for Larry by taking Calli with us.  The weather was cool enough that we could leave her in the car if we made stops along the way (at thrift stores of course!), and Calli would have the whole back seat to herself and would just sleep the whole way.  Wrong!  I don't know if it is her advanced age ( 15 years, 7.5 months) or she is just uncomfortable or stressed or what, but she had her head up and panted until we finally made a stop at Bromley Rock and took her for a walk.  After that she put her head down and stopped the panting, but never did really go to sleep. 

Notice the smoke on the mountain.  One of those fires that started four weeks ago is still not totally out.

So Calli got her couple of walks a day and slept most of the time while we were there.  The day we were heading back, we made a stop in Okanagan Falls.  A school friend of Cathy's had managed to find me on Facebook and I connected her with Cathy, and by coincidence she was now living in Kaleden which is only 20 minutes from Oliver.  We had a great visit with her in an OK Falls coffee shop.  Afterwards we took Calli to the dog beach there, which had changed since our last visit, and wasn't as nice now, but was still good enough to give Calli a bit of fun in the water with her ball.  My thinking was that it would tire her out and she'd sleep on the way home.  I don't think it went quite that well, but she was better than on the way up.

I just had to make sure I didn't throw the ball out too far so that she had to swim.  The tires on her cart float at that point, and since she puts more weight on one side than the other, it tips her onto her side in the water, and, well let's just say that is NOT a good thing.

This was on the second trip with Larry, we were heading down to the river to go for a walk, and Luna and Calli had ended up like this.  It looked cute, but Calli is totally uncomfortable.  Luna is the queen bitch, and Calli knows it, and she would like to not have to touch or look at Luna in this situation.  In fact it makes it very awkward at times in the back seat trying to get Calli in a position where she is comfortable and is not knowingly too close to Luna.  Luna will sleep with her head on Calli's back, but Calli would never do that to Luna.  Anyway, it was just kind of cute to see them like this, but you can see how Calli is looking away.

On the way home on Thursday we drove to Keremeos (45 min from Oliver) and stopped at a few fruit stands.  Calli had been panting heavily all the way, and almost whining.  We stopped just on the edge of town by a campsite we had stayed in 4 years ago, and walked down the old train bed to a spot where we could access the river.  It was one helluva steep trail to get down to the river, and it was a bit dicey with Calli.  We had walked along further to try and find better access, but no luck.  Anyway, we made it down without any one falling and the dogs had a swim in the river.  Calli was happy because she was able to get herself an enormous rock.

The bigger the better she says!

Thank goodness it was easier to push her back up the steep trail that it was to get down it.

 When we got back to the car we fed them all and loaded back up.  Got Calli settled down with a pillow (she likes her pillows!) and she was quiet the rest of the way home.

At the other side of the car Luna wanted a pillow too, but made do with the arm rest.  Jake was the peace maker somewhere in the middle.

PS  Not the safest travelling arrangements for the dogs, but the best we can do in our little car.  When we take the truck in the winter, Callie travels in a crate in the back, and Jake and Luna are in the stowage area behind the truck seats.

To finish off, here's another shot of Luna laying next Calli.  This is Calli's bed, but this day Luna, for whatever reason, figured she would lay there too.  Once again Calli is not impressed.