llama-llama-ding-dong

We visited our friends Brian and Jane Pinkerton on our way home yesterday. It was our first visit to their llama farm in Mt. Lehman (Abbotsford). The time flew by so fast, no sooner were we there and we had to go. We had a quick lunch and then went out into the yard to admire some darned nice rocks they have "just laying around". Brian was quick to dig us up a bag full of Jerusalem Artichokes, so we'll be planting some of those in our back yard. I've heard they are one of those wonder foods that will keep us young and healthy. I'm all for that!
We didn't actually meet any of the llamas, but they were in various corrals around the farm and they were very curious about who we were. I could see them poking their heads around corners, sneaking peeks at us.I can hardly wait to go back so we can spend more time and get the grand tour. I've added a link (in my "links" section) to their website, which is FULL of really fun stuff about llamas, if you'd like to check it out.

It's a Dog's Life

Art and Brutus taking a break from a busy day of napping. Brutie's mom might be mad when she sees this picture, coz I'm not so sure she's allowed on the couch, but grampa Art spoils her rotten.
Tomorrow, it's off to Kamloops for a day or 2 of bugging the relatives there. We're going to stop to visit our friends Brian & Jane in Abbotsford along the way. They are fellow rockhounds who (whom?) we met on our Yukon trip last summer. They have a llama farm and we are very excited to see it for the first time.

Sniffle, sniffle, koff, koff

Had a fun weekend at the Rock & Gem show. I particularly like the silent auctions, where some great deals can be found. I did come away with a few bags full of treasure, some good books and maps (I'm such a sucker for maps), stuff to craft with and some very nice "display" specimens. I even bought a bunch of rocks especially for tumbling, so I guess I should get those tumblers going one of these days (I have 3, but have never fired them up). Art came down with a bad cold, so one day wasn't too much fun for him. He's pretty much over it now, but today is my turn. Yuk!
For anyone who's interested, there's another Rock & Gem show coming up. It's a good one! More info at http://www.lapidary.bc.ca/gemshow.html

Rock & Gem show this weekend

Our rockhound club is having it's show this weekend. It's a great source of stuff for all you crafters out there. Art and I are the "security guards", which means we get to camp out on the gym floor for the weekend and protect all the rocks while they sleep. Too much fun!! See you there.

HASTINGS CENTRE ROCKHOUNDS
March 18 & 19, 2006
"Annual Show"

Saturday10am-5pm

Sunday 10am-5pm
Hastings Community Centre
3096 Hastings St.E,
Vancouver, B.C.
For more information contact: Diane Bowman

The progress of Xanadu

Here are some before and after pictures of what Art and I lovingly refer to as Xanadu. The before pictures were taken nearly a year ago, as we began the cleanup of this badly neglected log house. I think it's an astounding difference. This spring and summer we will finish the job. The logs still need their final coat of sealant and the top half of the house will get painted. The dark brown section is metal shingles and we will paint them a light brown (biscotti, I believe it's called). The ugly yellow roof, which is also metal, is going to be a gorgeous hunter green, to match the flashing that we put around the midsection. We did a little "test run" on the porch roof, so you can see how it will look. It was a LOT of work. All those logs were hand ground, then chinked, stained and bug sealed. We had to stop in September when it started to freeze outside. These first 2 pictures are of the east side, with a little of the north side (back porch).

















The next 2 pictures are of the south and east sides. You may notice the staircase in the after picture. We didn't intend to do that but when we were grinding the logs in that front corner of the veranda we found the logs completely rotted out with a huge ant nest inside. It was quite a dilemma until Art's brother, who just happens to be a log home builder came up with the solution of cutting away the damaged area and putting in the staircase. He also donated the lovely burls that we put in along the veranda to replace those posts. We may put burls under the veranda, too.















The next 2 pictures are of the south and west sides. Quite a vivid change!















And finally, the west side. I kind of like the difference between all the green of spring and the white of winter. The last picture was taken between Christmas and New Year's. Our friends, Mike and Barb Rockey were visiting. That is their truck and camper parked beside the house (see....we're not the only nuts who like to camp in winter). They were up in September, too, and helped tremendously with a lot of the work we were doing.
There was an equal amount of work done on the inside of the house, too, with all the logs being hand ground, chinked and stained. Later, I will post some of those pictures. I hope this helps a little bit for those who have been wondering what the heck we have been getting up to lately.

We're so proud....

Mr. Kevin Church, CGA. Our son-in-law. He's smart, he's cute and now he officially has letters after his name. He's worked long and hard for those letters and we are very proud of him. Looks good on ya, Kevvie!!
(by the way....only WE are allowed to call him that).

Ah....those sunbeams

This is our kitchen (a little dark, I know, but I will post more pictures later). Can you see the 2 cats flaked out in the sunbeam? They LOVE that shelf. Art built it just for them, with carpet and everything. I tried to get a close-up, but black cats are very hard to photograph. You can see the view they have pretty well, though. The other day they were sitting and looking out this window and both suddenly started growling. Then they ran away and hid. When I looked out there was nothing there but fresh coyote tracks in the snow just under the window. Yikes! He must have been licking his chops.

A logger's work is never done

This was taken a couple of days ago. The snow is a little deeper now and I think Art is probably dressed a little more appropriately. Anyhoo.....he followed Mabel's trail into this grove of skinny little trees in search of some nifty looking curtain rods for our living room. Looking forward to seeing how they will look. He's so creative. I woulda just bought, say, curtain rods from a store.

Waddya mean it's cold out????

This picture was taken on Jan.25th. There wasn't much snow on the ground then and I just couldn't resist showing off the new Crocs that I had gotten for Christmas. I LOVE CROCS!

Tuesday started off as a nice enough day.....

This is what we woke up to......the view from our veranda. A beautiful crisp morning of about -12C. We went for a drive to Fraser Lake (about 12 km away), and felt some weird steering problems with our truck when going around some of the big curves. We got out a couple of times to check, but couldn't see anything obviously wrong. We were on our way home and at the last minute decided to stop for the mail. As we were pulling away, there was a loud clunk. I looked in the passenger mirror and saw the rear wheel flopping all over the place, like the axle was broken. We stopped immediately and got out. Here is what we saw.....exactly how it looked.....before we touched anything !!!!!

Holy quacamole, Batman! The danged wheel fell right off !!!!! I think the parallel timeline split off right there.

Art's brother rescued us and has since fixed the wheel lugs. We are so thankful for him. I don't even want to think about any of the "what-ifs" and saying a million thank-you's just doesn't seem to be enough. If ever there was any doubt that we are living in God's fur-lined pocket, there sure isn't any more.

Just another day at the Cat house

Blackie to Jo: "No, no, that's not how you do it. Watch, Ill demonstrate: Press Control, Alt and F7 and then upload your Visa number to my FTP site. " Chickie to Jo:
"What ever, I'll write code for cat treats".