New neighbours

New neighbours on Wiltshire Street, met first by Eric Glon (photographer and friend).  A pair of flickers in a hole in one of the flowering plums, four trees up the street.  At first we thought the peeker was a young one about to fly.  Then Colin said, "maybe it's the mother".  Bird books consulted and now we see that, for the past four days, the father has been coming to feed the mother.  And this morning Eric saw the mother fly.  Next we hope to see the young being fed.  Stay tuned.

Some days later.  It turns out that after Eric saw the one bird fly we never saw any more flickers in the hole at all.  I guess it was a young one being fed after all.

february snow - backyard birds and flowers

Spring thought it was here, but more white stuff came ...

… not much drinking (or bathing) today

Back-yard witch hazel in full bloom ...

… a chickadee - our most constant diner

With sun on the witch hazel, another of Meo's bird photos … find it?

… and a junko - hardy fellow

Front-yard witch hazel - I love it!

New Years in Montreal and Ottawa

Two wonderful weeks with our Montreal and Ottawa families - from Boxing Day night (and Lily's birthday) in Montreal to Teagan's birthday and New Years in Ottawa, to Twelfth Night and a few more snowy days in Montreal

OTTAWA

three cousins at 'Rat-a-Tat-Cat" and many other games ... 

… on the speed-skating oval at Brewer Park, just open and a bit bumpy ...

… but skate-able ...

… and good for visiting

"Geocache" found, just 'up the hill', but frozen solid in the crotch of the tree.
Maybe, come spring ...

MONTREAL

Alice joining her mum on guitar

Rachel and girls made a backyard ice-house - see the 2-foot sticks to judge when to stop digging on the inside (1-foot thick walls).  One evening, with rugs on the floor and lit by ice-lanterns, six of us packed in (Rachel, Alice, Lily, Gabriela, Doco, Meo) for campfire songs - "sur la route de Berthier", "my logger lover"…  Seen below, on a trial run, Doco reminds me of Pooh Bear in Rabbit's hole - but he did make it out with no 'shrinking pause' required! 

Doco on the inward journey ...

… and the outward ...

… phew!

What with snow and freezing rain, much of our visit was snuggled up with books or games, with an occasional outing to Rue Laurier ...

Doco and Alice and 'Asterix'

chocolate chaude at "le lapin presse", for Alice and Meo

January 10th and, alas, first day back at school for Lily and Alice,
and back to Vancouver for Doco and Meo

Christmas Day in Vancouver

Christmas Day in Vancouver with our Vancouver family - at Jericho Beach, not warm but glorious.  A treat!

Breakwater trio, with downtown Vancouver in the background

the gang - plus Candy, photographer

he can still lift both sisters, but for how long?

what a bunch!

Halloween 2016

A friendly Jack'O'lantern (by Rowan) watching over a convincing Professor McGonagall (Ellen)

water!

Nothing like having no running water for four days to have one appreciate it when it's back!  

Thank you thank you thank you to Chris for finding the huge leak just outside the basement door with water gushing into the basement, and to Mick for coming in all of his spare moments from the depths of the Brouse Lodge septic system to get us up and running again.  

When Doco dug down to the pipe to find the leak, he didn't recognize it as pipe.  Maybe some undersea creature?  So encrusted with rust and pebbles.  No doubt where the leak was, though!  Spewing water inches from the basement wall, but it could have been spewing anywhere along.  We think the pipe has likely been there for 100+ years.

Water spurting - you can imagine the look on Mick's face

Pipe somewhere under the crust 

Douglas set to, digging out the rest of the pipe to the shut-off valve for the house, just beyond the outdoor sink.  Two wet, cold, 7am mornings.  Some holiday!

In the course of repairing the house pipe, the water had to be turned off in front of the squirrel barn - and that valve broke!   Problem #2.  No water then to the clay house or to the garden tap (our bucket source) or to the fire hose.  Yikes.  More wet digging by Chris and Mick to get that valve replaced.  (Thanks to Silverton Building Supply for having one.)

So that we can perhaps know what's what when it's all covered up again …

In the hole-photo (below), the main line comes from top (angled from the right).  There is a "T" turn-off to the right just above the large tube. Then, from left-to-right the valves are: 

1. The large tap-valve in the tall, blue (looks white here), capped tube controls the line to the rest of the Bosun Ranch (no one needed to touch it!)   

2. The actually-green small tap-valve controls a small line that goes off toward bottom-left, to who-knows-where?  It 's broken, but is it on or is it off??  It could be useful to control a new stanchion in Mick's garden, but … ????  Plan is to replace it next dam-cleanout time and then see what gets wet!

3. The red-and-white tap-valve controls a bigger line to the garden, outhouse, ranch house, and orchard, with a branch off just below the valve to the clay house (smaller white pipe crossing on top).

Therefore, according to this upstream/downstream map, either the ranch-house valve (red-and-white) or the rest-of-ranch valve could be shut-off and the other would still have water (and did).

We had arrived on Tuesday night (Oct 4), Douglas and Molly and Ellen on Thursday night and we had water at 10 am Saturday morning - in time for Thanksgiving.  What luxury!

Mick has just been here today for finishing-up planning.  We have arranged to have Chris dig more out around all the valves, then make a box, to be covered by cedar logs so the valves can be accessed more easily when next needed!  Phew.

There is still more plumbing to finish up the job - when Mick has more moments - but we have enjoyed our past ten days of water.  As part of the restoring-to-order, Chris has rebuilt the basement door, which now works!  And he is about to make a flat entrance pad and a step up.  All much appreciated by those who frequent the basement several times a day!

Snow on the mountains

… but not yet on the ranch - still very green

Under Idaho Peak, the snow was halfway down the mountain - it had been falling as we drove Douglas, Molly, and Ellen to the plane the afternoon before:

New Denver - main street

Diana and I walked the Mori Trail, along below the New Denver main street and around Bigelow Bay: 

view west, across the Lake - tons of snow

view north, up the Lake - no snow

view south, down the Lake - half snow

One more day and much snow had melted.  Just the top of Idaho Peak was still white:

Even with no snow on the ranch, it is nippy.  The heat stove has been getting good use in the old ranch house, and Doco and I are snug.