a Thanksgiving bath

Saturday night in New Denver.  Thanksgiving weekend.  Douglas got the outdoor bath stoked up for an after-supper treat.  Thomson first. Then Molly. Then Molly and Ellen (works better with two). Then Molly and Ellen and Meo (a bit of a squeeze, but great-great-grandfather JC Harris, whose indoor bath it originally was, was 6'6" or thereabouts).  Finally the stoker (solo - Candy was stuck in Vancouver, getting a grip on her first weeks of the UBC nursing program).  Sprinkles of rain, but the water was hot and getting hotter.  The garden-hose thermostat kept us all from getting cooked.  Perfect.

A first for the young-uns.  The bath, set up by Thomas Wright in 1974,  has been out of commission for two decades until Stephen Hornsby made it his May-this-year-visit mission to get it back functioning - mainly to get the smoke to go up the smoke stack instead of into our faces - and it works!  A great treat for all.  To be repeated for others in 2016.

P.S. I seem to have fried the battery in my little camera, coming up with so much light in the dark night.    Or maybe it was the subjects?  Ah well.  

new Harris land - Thanksgiving 2015

Old news (one year old), but still amazingly good news!  These photos have sat in draft form for a whole year, waiting for me to find words and, as they haven't gone stale, I'm posting them in October 2016.

In September 2015, after many years of worrisome speculation about the fate of Uncle Sandy's major portion of the original Bosun Ranch, we managed to purchase a large chunk of the ranch to add to Cole's inherited piece.  In the words of Mike Sweeny: "The purchase of DL1799 remainder and DL2411 has been completed."  Phew!

The "new land" includes: the field adjacent to our inherited piece (photos #1 and #2), the dam on Harris Creek that supplies most of the ranch water, and the mountainside above us as far as you can see (photo #3).  Granted, much of the mountainside is either either clear-cut (by the speculators in 2013) or formidably steep, but we are thrilled.

Photo #1 - the field to "Aunt Heather's Tree"

Photo #2 - the fence marks our old boundary

Photo #3 - to the top of the ridge

Thanksgiving weekend 2015 - Douglas, Molly, Ellen, Thomson, Doco and I were all at New Denver and, with Chris and Julia, we all walked the upper land, south to north, from the dam and cedar swamp to the east end of the Bosun Lake.

Halfway along - in a grove of big cedars and even bigger stumps, near the skunk cabbage patch, where the creek wanders in and out of the ground.

Near the far northern end of our land - at the top tunnel of the Bosun Mine (the bottom tunnel is at Slocan Lake level)

Finally, down a steep gulch to the Bosun Lake

idyllic for some (Thomson) ...

… precarious for others (Doco)

But we all made it down - for a gummy-bear stop in the 'field' at the eastern end of the Bosun Lake, still on our 'new land'

 

All in all, lovely!  Thankful we are!!!

Meo's shoe adventure

Some dozen years ago, on Jenny Chapman's advice, Janet and I each bought a pair of identical (except in size!) Finn shoes - German and expensive.  Mine never quite fit - a size too large?  Stashed away in a bin in our basement, they still looked great - hardly ever worn.  I lacked waterproof shoes, so when the September rains descended and I needed to head out, I thought, "Good. These will do just fine."

Fine to 7th Avenue in the car.  But, trudging off on foot after supper in the dark and the wet to my Celtic fiddle-and-harp "session" at Celtic Traditions, my left shoe began to flap and trip me up.  Huh?  I felt like Donald Duck??  Part of the rubber sole was falling off, pushing the cork in-sole out in front.  No time to turn back, so I removed shoe#1 and proceeded the five blocks in one-shoe-and-one-sock (a wool one).   In our break I inspected the damage - BOTH soles had split across the wide part.  Hmm.  I got electrical tape from Michael and strapped them together to get me home (walk a block, #99 bus, Canada Line, #49 bus, walk a block).  More rain.

With fiddler Sadie I made it to the first bus, but the tape was undoing.  I stood still.  On the walk to the Canada Line, half one sole fell right off.  Chucked that in the garbage on the way by.  Walked gingerly to the train and stood still.  Both shoes looked more-or-less OK from above.  Walked gingerly down the stairs at the 49th Ave station, but the insole slid out the back and remained on a stair above.   Tossed it into the next garbage and made it to the bus.  Stood still again.  Off the bus at Wiltshire Street, I figured I'd pushed my luck on staying upright, so took off both shoes and, carrying the remains, walked home in my socks.  Sopping wet and just a little cold.

Douglas says German technology was taking a hit that week - first Volkswagen-diesel and then this.
JC, what's the state of your Finns?  Beware.

uppers still perfect, but ...

… note the door-mat shining through

what mountains?

… not to mention, what lake?

5pm today, as Doco and I headed down for our daily (3 days in a row) swim -
looking directly into the sun through the tamarack

5:30pm, at the beach - we found the water - the sun still up, but who could tell?
Looks a bit like my last-year's blood-moon eclipse post.

SPOOKY!

The smoke is predicted to be blown away south tomorrow, or maybe rained down.
No fires close. 

a new bedroom emerges

not quite ready for sleepers

Yesterday, Norbert and Chris were constructing a scaffold to stand on to dismantle and rebuild the hay-barn south-lean-to roof.  And voila!  A whole new sleeping spot emerged!  Apparently Tonio has some splendid, wide, 18-foot-long tamarack boards to come next, and there it is.  And, with a new shake roof on top, it will even be dry.  Place your bookings now for next summer!

Doco's crab apples

I have been rather scathing of Doco's crab-apple crop.  Who ever eats crab-apple jelly?  But look at these beautiful fruit!  I added some to my yellow-transparent applesauce and Doco declares it to be delicious.  Last night he picked the tree clean.  There's a bear around (at Ralph's plum tree).  Now the challenge is - crab-apple what?  Any ideas?

a pleased Doco

and even I can see why

New Denver paddle board

Sadly, the windsurfer board that Douglas bought with his first cherry-picking money some 30 years ago disappeared from the forest above our beach on about July 1st.  My fault.  I should have checked that it had been brought up at the end of last season.  Too bad, too, because the kids (of all ages) had so much fun with it.

So, what to do?   My first day back in New Denver, Rowan and I made a trip to the dump and then poked our noses into the new "Valhalla Pure" store, just to see if they had stand-up paddle-boards.  They did!  The perfect one (according to Rowan and Colin) and at a perfect price - store-opening sale!  So, we are now one stand-up paddle-board to the good.

Here is its first Harris-family day.

On the march from 'Valhalla Pure' down the main street to launch in the lake ...

… by Teagan, Emile and Rowan (it's very light)

Preparing for the launch ...

… can it hold three? (Emile with 'the leash') ...

… apparently so, but ...

… submerged in two inches of water, progress around the mouth of Carpenter Creek to our beach was SLOW 

However,  they arrived.  I missed Griffin aboard
(it took me longer from the launch to our beach than it took the paddlers), but here come Lily and Emile

The 'yoga board' was tested by Rachel and Alice ...

… two 'downward dogs'

Next, Rachel ...

… as 'warrior'

and Rowan, vertical ...

… and in pirouette (guess what happened next?)

Finally, and maybe the best use - Emile about to dump the three damsels (Alice,  Lily and Rachel)

Fun for all!

…………………………………………………………………………………………………..
P.S. Eric came back from Castlegar yesterday with a stand-up paddle from Canadian Tire (and his brother, Paul-Antoine).   Paddle yet to be tried, and all the 'young' paddlers have headed up Whitewater this morning for two days.  Maybe Doco and I … ?