Wednesday, 24 September 2014

old hay barn gets a new roof

Or at least gets rid of the old one

Rayan and Norbert removing the last of the nails

      All the old shakes and rafters are off.  Our burning pile is huge!  It's raining today and Doco is itching to set a match to the pile.  New rafter poles are cut and peeled.  New shakes are split and neatly stacked.  Many more shake-bolts standing by, if needed.  With school back in this week (hurray!) and Rayan's work-day shortened, the choice hay-barn sleeping quarters won't likely be ready for Emma, Ian and Scraps' arrival next week (for 2 months).  Fortunately there are other choice nests, not all occupied.

Monday, 22 September 2014

New Denver's "climate-change" march

Not to be out-done by New York City, Julia organized our New Denver brigade, to parade up and down the highway by the web-cam at the junction.  Were we captured?  Lots of toots anyway.

Julia: "Slocan Lake loves 100% clean"
Sally: "We're only issued ONE"
Morgen: "We love this EARTH our home"
Randy: "Keep warming?  We'll be toast" 
Doco: "Save our alpine glaciers"

Sue and Steve have just arrived today, having been at the Vancouver march yesterday.
Susie's favourite: "There's no planet B"

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P.S. One more photo


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And we did make the front page of the Sept 24 "Valley Voice"



maybe not the last swim


It was such a perfect day, who could not head down to the Lake for a swim?  

Doco considering the prospect
Meo in it (Doco swam too)
Sept 20th, and the water was warmer than in mid-July.  Only one canoe and one kayak came paddling by (we were out by then!).  So lovely!  

(Note to future sojourners: New Denver is glorious in September - or at least it can be.)

Friday, 19 September 2014

Meo and Doco back to New Denver



Here's what was waiting for us as we arrived at 5:30 on Tuesday evening, Sept 16th, for a long-2-week stay.  The sun shone, about to disappear over the mountain.  Chris Chodat had cut the grass.  Norbert and Rayan had gathered shake bolts and split shakes for the hay-barn roof.  Will's tagetes and zinnias still bloomed most gloriously.  No pack rats (yet).  One bear had been over the orchard fence and now Chris Bokstrom has the solar-juice turned on.  Chris had made garden soup for us, to eat with him in the clay house.  How lucky we are!





"our" chicks at 9 weeks


For the chick-watchers in the family - all four are still alive and kicking at 9 weeks


Two young-uns being put in their place by three old hens



Rowan at UBC!


           Rowan kitting-up for her very first game as a member of the 
UBC Women's Field Hockey Team 
September 5, 2014


Unsuspecting

How many bits does a goalie have to put on?

Helped by team-mate, Sophie


Doco finds a fridge



Here is Doco's story

Dear Oxford family,                                                                          Aug. 30, 2014.
I know you are having many adventures about which we are hearing fine stories, but you should know that Meo and I are having adventures too.  I am going to tell you about one of them, a real adventure, not some imaginary tale.   The name of this adventure is “Doco Finds a Fridge.
                                                       Doco Finds a Fridge 
"When we got back from New Denver it turned out that we needed a new fridge in the kitchen.   The old one wouldn’t get cold enough and food was spoiling.  So Meo and I set off to find a new one.  The first place we went had no small fridges (you will remember that with the wood stove, the usefulness of which is occasionally questioned by those with very little imagination, we have no space for a big fridge), but did offer the advice that Home Depot had a small fridge.  So we went to Richmond and found it -- on a shelf some fifteen feet above us.  Eventually a forklift manoeuvered it to the floor where, unboxed, it seemed ugly, flimsy, and smaller, even, than our present fridge.   We returned home fridgeless, but with a new plan.  We should move the microwave to the counter, and get a taller fridge.   Without the microwave shelf, we had 60 vertical inches to work with.  
Meo made lunch.  I went to a German kitchen appliance shop in Kerrisdale.  They sold vacuum cleaners.  After lunch, Meo said she needed a nap.  I, more given to such doings, went to the web, looked up small fridges, and found hundreds.  They were all too small.  I then tried mid-sized fridges.  They were more promising.  I soon found what seemed an ideal fridge, a Danby, 58 and-a-half inches tall, 23 and-a-half wide, all fridge (no freezer), and smart.  Meo woke up, heard the good news, and was delighted.  Moreover, she remembered an appliance warehouse in North Vancouver where we had previously bought a fridge and where she was pretty sure we could find the very model.   We would go there.
Meanwhile, she asked me to take several plastic containers to the basement and put them in the fridge, which I did and noticed that this fridge, too, was a Danby.  Presumably a larger model, but how much larger seemed worth checking.  I did. Height: 58 and-a-half inches; width: 23 and-a-half.   This was very odd, so I took my computer to the basement to compare the fridge on the screen with the one in front of me.  Well, they turned out to be identical.  I had found the fridge we need in our own basement. 
This happy discovery has saved us a good deal of money, and allows us to put the small kitchen fridge in the basement where it will serve to store vegetables.  We are very pleased.   The whole search -- the whole adventure -- could not have worked out better.  It just shows that one can have adventures without going away, and that if one worries away at problems solutions can often be found."
I hope your adventures are as interesting.   Doco
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P.S. For Colin, who alerted us to the not-cold-enough fridge.  Cousin Luke came for dinner.  We hauled the small kitchen fridge out from the wall to remove the base-board, in preparation for THE fridge, only to find its back covered in a half-inch of dust.  Doco vacuumed it and transformed it nto a cold-enough fridge.  However, I now have my heart set on an upstairs-downstairs trade, when we have sufficient muscle at Wiltshire Street.  meo
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And here is the fridge (with friends)
still in the basement