Saturday, July 29, 2006

Paintin' Maniacs

Well, actually, it's Art that's doing the painting. I'm just kind of watching and taking pictures. Of course, I help where I can, but the hard part is all being done by Art. This is going to be a month of painting. We're doing our house, the Endako Hall (in preparation for a big party there on the Labour Day weekend), 2 different parts of the hotel in town. And mixed in there will be 2 trips to the coast and 4 batches of arriving visitors. And that's just the month of August. Phew!

Here are some "in progress" shots of the house so far. 2 sides done, 2 to go plus the roof. All the dark brown is becoming "biscotti" and the yellow roof will be hunter green.And what a job juggling those ladders around! We also had to put all that plastic up to protect the logs that we finished last summer.

We are wondering about those steeper roof panels on the side.....should we paint them biscotti or hunter green?

I also love Art in his orange panti-hose hat.....oops sorry....dew-rag.
The painting had to be put on hold, though, because we are leaving in the morning to go to Vancouver and Victoria. We are picking up my Dad and bringing him up here for a visit, so thought we might as well get some painting done (oops, look at that .... more painting) on our Burnaby house. We were hoping to have this place done before my Dad got here, but we just ran out of time. Besides, it's pouring buckets out there right now.

Sunday, July 23, 2006

You followin' me?

This drowned rat doesn't seem to recognize her own shadow. And here she is enjoying a cool breeze while she takes a little nap.It seems that every day Xena is bigger than the day before. She doesn't look like much of a puppy anymore, but is sure turning into a beautiful girl.Here, she and Art are playing a game of tongue tag .... it looks like Art lost that round!

North of 60

Last year in August we took the trip of a lifetime. We went to the Yukon with a bunch of fellow rockhounds and spent about 3 weeks exploring new lands. It was a wonderful time and we had the good fortune of hanging out with a great group of people. Our "wagonmaster" was Win (aka the Jade Queen) and we thank her greatly for the fantastic adventure. She sent us these t-shirts just the other day. What a nice surprise. Thanks Win!

Saturday, July 22, 2006

It's too hot out today

Poor Xena. She seems to hate the heat as much as I do. One thing she sure does love is water, though. I can pour the hose right on her and she almost sighs. I've noticed that her toes are webbed, which I believe is a Husky trait (or maybe all dogs have that....I really don't know).

I miss very few things about the city, but one thing I do miss are Starbucks Frappuccinos. So, I picked up an electric ice crusher for $1.00 at a garage sale, found a recipe on the internet and today made truly fabulous Frappuccinos. They were super delicious and sure as hell didn't cost $7.00 each to make.

Art is taking advantage of the warmer weather and getting ready to paint the top half and roof of our house. Today he pressure washed.When he was done, he wrote this valentine on the side of the old shed.....He's so sweet!

Happy Birthday Echo

Happy Birthday to you....
Happy Birthday to you.......
Happy Birthday dear Echo........
Happy Birthday to you!!!!

I know it was yesterday, so I'm a day late. Sorry 'bout that. I hope you had a great day. Love ya loads.

Drat...foiled again

I guess I'm just slow on the uptake, but I found out how to stop the spammers on my blog. Or maybe I'm just naive. I've been doing this blog all this time and thinking "how nice....it's fun, it's free, there's no advertising, no one bothers me....no 'catches' ". Then the jerks of the world find a way to exploit it, like they exploit everything else that they possibly can, just for exploiting's sake. Is it any danged wonder that people get cynical?

So, I started thinking about it and noticed that other peoples' blogs have this thing called "word verification" when I go to leave comments. Now I understand what that's for. Spammers can't get past it with their automated little programs. So, I just turned that little feature on and let's hope that's the end of it. Until, of course, the fargin iceholes find a way around.

No more ranting now. Back to the fun.

Friday, July 21, 2006

Death to Spammers!!!

Or worse! My blog has been hit by a spammer a couple of times now but last night was the worst. Everytime someone makes a comment to one of my entries I receive an email. This morning I woke up to 236 emails! They're all drivellous (if that's even a word) crap and I resent it big time. Now not only do I have to clear out all those emails from my mailbox, but I also have to go into each and every entry on my blog and delete those comments.

What I want to know is....why? What is the point of it all? What does this idiot gain? All I want to do is share some stories with my family and friends. I'm not bothering anyone. It's an invasion and I resent it (did I mention that?). Get lost....you loser!

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Weeds or Flowers?

I am learning things. Not only has my interest in birds been sparked, but so has an interest in photographing flowers. There are lots and lots of wildflowers growing in the fields here and they are just so darned pretty. My favourite flower is the daisy and there are acres and acres of them all around me.Now I've learned that these particular daisies are a noxious weed called Ox-eyes and the farmers hate them because the cows won't graze where they are growing. I guess that's why the cows haven't been hanging around too much this year. There's also a very pretty orange flower and some yellow ones called Hawkweed, which are also a big problem, apparantly. Shows what I know. To me they're pretty and worthy of picture taking.

The other thing that I've learned is that this plant, which I always thought was Chamomile, is called Pineapple Weed and is not Chamomile at all. Honest, I looked it up.This is Chamomile. Looks a whole lot like the Ox-eye Daisies above, doesn't it? These are also growing here, so it's a little confusing.Oh well, no matter. I'm not farming, so what do I care? I'm more interested in the beauty of it all and believe me, there's plenty of that.

Monday, July 17, 2006

The dog days of summer

Aren't these ears a hoot? Everyone that meets Xena gets quite a chuckle at those ears.Here's one taken on a hot day just recently. Art got tired of sharing his creamsicles with her, so now she gets her own. I can't believe that I was quick enough to catch that tongue!This is Duke. He is an Akida Saint Bernard cross and is the sweetest big bear you ever met. Xena was a bit afraid of him, only because of his size. Duke belongs to our neighbours Shannon, Russ & Lane.Have you ever seen that comic strip with the evil Yorkies? Well, don't you think this looks just like them?.....only looking from the outside in (of course our little angel is just perfect .... not evil at all .... HA!)And here is Xena playing with one of her favourite toys. It is really a child's toy, called a "Hippity-Hop", which the kid sits on, holds the big ring handle and bounces around. Xena loves it.

A day out

Yesterday we went on a fieldtrip with the Burns Lake rockhound club. It was a great day. Here is where we stopped for lunch.....the Cheslatta River rec site. Pretty impressive, although apparantly these are just the "itty-bitty" falls. The real ones are about a 15 minute hike away. We didn't go there. Maybe another time. Anyway, this is near the Kenney Dam about 100km south of here.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Happy abba-dabba-day...Oat

When my niece, Jodie, was little and learning to talk, that's how she would say Happy Birthday. Oat is Art. Too cute, I thought.

Anyhoo..... Happy Birthday, Art. Too bad you have to work today, but we'll take tomorrow off. We're going on a fieldtrip with the rockhound club and will be exploring some exciting new territory. It's a trip we've been anticipating for a long time.

PS....I think you look very handsome in your new hat....

Wednesday, July 12, 2006

The haul

Because all those rockhounds had to drive about 60 km to our place on Sunday, I drew a map and emailed it to each of them. Then Art made some fun signs and posted them along our road and driveway. Here are a couple ......


















He also got quite a haul from the auction. After all the bidding was over (it was a silent auction), there was a bunch of stuff still left. So, the prices were slashed drastically and Art just couldn't resist. All these grinders and motors, 3 buckets of rocks (some very nice stuff indeed) and some jewelry making hammers ...... all for something like $30.
Today has been a real monsoon-y day. Art is over at Tom's, helping him dismantle a log house and load it onto a truck. I wonder how that's going. Pretty soggy, I imagine.

Monday, July 10, 2006

Take a break

Today we are taking a much earned day off. We have been slogging it for a couple of weeks now, getting the place spiffed up for yesterday. The Burns Lake rockhound club came and had an auction and barbecue. There were about 20 people, lots of equipment to bid on, a big pile of rock to sift through and purchase, tons of food for noshing and lots of great fellowship. It really was a wonderful day, making all that hard work very much worth it.





So, Art and I promised ourselves that we would take today off, but you know, I think we have forgotten how to do that. It feels weird to be just sitting here and not have somewhere to go or something to do. I sure never had a problem with sloth in the past. I'm sure I could get the hang of it again, though, if I gave it some time.

The house looked so pretty before the guests arrived, I thought I'd best take advantage (because it may never look this good again) and make that video I've been promising my Mom. So I walked through with the camera and did a little filming. I want to get that completed and sent to her before my Dad comes for his visit at the beginning of August. He and my big brother, Rusty, are planning to drive up and spend a few days.

It's a little bit cool here today (about 8 C). I can't believe that I actually had to light the furnace this morning. It's the 10th of July and I'm stoking wood into a fire! Not that I'm complaining .... I'll take this any day over tropical heat. It's just weird, though.

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Where to start?

How 'bout with something pretty. I found this in our garden. I believe it is a peony bush. There are 2, actually. I like the pink flower beside it. It adds a "pop" to the photo, I thought.Besides the myriad of wildflowers, I'm finding lots of planted blooms all around the place that I didn't know were there. I also don't know what most of them are. I've been taking pictures though, especially now that I've found the "tele-macro" feature on my handycam. Great for flowers and bugs.

Here's an Emperor Gum moth that we found in the windshield washer dispenser at the local gas station. It has a huge 6 inch wingspan! I did a google and found that it is native to Australia, so I sent an email to the Forest Ministry over there.Found this old bucket at the dump. Thought it would make a nice planter.Bought a second-hand washer and dryer. "Works great" the person told us. Well, not quite. The dryer runs, yes, but blows only cold air. Not too helpful when you are actually trying to dry the clothes. So, before getting into a hassle with the neighbour we bought it from, we went to the dump looking for parts. Wouldn't you know .... sitting right there was the exact same dryer. We took it home, stripped the needed thingamajigs and voila, the dryer now works. I'm very happy! Now we don't have to pack 14 loads of clothes off to the laundromat once a month.Got my red car back from Tom last week. We had it and Betsy Ford shipped up here from Burnaby last September. Tom spent the winter tinkering with it and using it as an extra vehicle. I felt a little bad taking it from him because he has kind of fallen in love with it, but it's nice to have my own wheels. It's also good, I think, to not be stranded, in case of emergency. It's a few kilometres to the nearest helping hand.My new friend, Lane (he's almost 13), has just graduated from Grade 7. He invited me to his school play, in which he played the lead role of Hamlet. That was a big deal to me and I was thrilled. I video taped the whole thing, so will pick out the best pictures and post them here real soon. He also invited me to his final baseball game in Vanderhoof. He is quite an athlete, so was disappointed when his team lost. He played well, though, and I'll post those pics too. On that same day, our grand-niece Jamie (she's 8 1/2) also played a game of baseball. For a bunch of little gaffers (some were really little), they played quite well .... and with heart! It was fun to watch them.


The Endako Community Hall had it's annual Yard Sale on Sunday. Art and I donated a bunch of stuff that we found in our sheds, and I also came home with some treasures.











I did find this set of ruby glass which I think I'll try to sell on ebay. I think it might be worth a little more than what I'd have gotten at the Yard Sale.These figurines were donated by someone. Are they Hummels? I kind of like this picture. I just put them on the BBQ to take the shot and happened to capture a hummingbird, too.If you check out Art's blog http://home-on-the-hill.blogspot.com , you will see the work he's been doing on our veranda. Here's a pic of him about to get his hands dirty (but playing with the equipment first).

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

One year on the Dole

I just realized ..... yesterday was the one year anniversary of my last day at BC Housing. Boy, did that go fast! I guess I am now officially a bum.

We just had a dilly of a thunderstorm here. As for that wish I made earlier today for some rain ..... it came true. But only a little bit.

Smoke on the Water

Finally, a reprieve from the cooking heat. It's been about a skajillion degrees here for almost a week, but today it's starting to cool off ..... (thank you God). We've gotten up at 5:00am the last 2 days so we can work outside before it warms up. With company coming on Sunday, Art and his brother Tom have been spiffin' up the veranda (pictures to follow).

There's a forest fire burning somewhere nearby, leaving a haze in the sky (kinda reminds me of Vancouver), which is getting thicker as the day goes on, and that sickly smell of smoke. I don't like that smell. A forest fire almost got our house when I was a kid and it scared me quite a bit, so that smell brings back an anxious feeling. I very much doubt that we are in any danger here, because all the trees are around the perimeter of the property, very far from the house. It's been very, very dry here. We really need some rain.