a day in the New Denver museum archives

      Yesterday, Doco went searching in the New Denver museum photo-archive for pictures to go in his next several Slocan booklets.  I had borrowed Steve's scanner and was technical assistant for the day.  Actually quite a useful assistant, as I unearthed a pile of "missing" photos, in a tattered photo-album in a jam-packed drawer.  Many of them have never before been used.

      Here see the hunter at work

      And some of our "finds"

"Slocan Lake from the Bosun Ranch" and
"On the Three Forks Road"
(about 1925)

      For "Industry and the Good Life around Idaho Peak", here is Industry

"Johnson (standing) and Erickson (kneeling) about 1928"
(champion drillers who practised on the rock beyond Aunt Heather's tree)

Miners and their cabin near New Denver, BC

"Stuck in the Rambler slide"
(on the way to Whitewater)

"Three Forks ca. 1913"

"Loading ore at the Bosun wharf"

"Payne mine concentrator, Sandon, BC"

      And here is the Good Life

Boating party on Slocan Lake

"Denver from the Glacier trail ca. 1908"
(great climbing gear!)

"Sandon and Denver football teams, 24th of May 1906"
by the Bosun Hall, New Denver

St. James Hotel and Hoben's store, New Denver
(Douglas and Candy's New Denver lot)

"The launch Manxman at Bosun wharf"
(Note the flimsy trestle for ore cars.)

"Parade in memory of the late queen [Victoria], Feb 2nd, 1901, New Denver, BC"

P.S. It may not be Rome! (see harristhomson.blogspot.ca)

Rowan at UBC - part 2

 Rowan, thanks for the photos!  Though how did you get to be featured in the UBC photo of the first football game??  Good to see that UBC won't be "all work and no play".

A fine place to work 

And a fine place to sleep (whenever there's time) under a
fascinating set of 24 Indie rock songs,
each interpreted by a different artist. 

Now I see where Chris' dog, Chewie, gets her name.
Note the hanging bicycle.

……………………..

P.S. I still haven't figured out how to put the words and pictures where I want them!

PEARS

The pears took us unawares!  I had been ignoring the 100-year-old tree-full.  Then yesterday we found half the crop on the ground.  Oh dear.  Julia and I sprang into action - boxes of pears on offer to any passing souls, three bags of frozen pear chunks for "bicycle smoothies" at next Friday's "Harvest Day" at Lucerne school,

and 14 quarts of preserves.  Phew!

 

Today I found the dehydrator in the cold room - never before used by me - and filled it with slices of pear.  It is blowing away, happily I think.  But we're still not to the bottom of the pear box, and the Italian prune-plums await!

last New Denver market for 2014

Friday was the last New Denver market of the season.  Small and wet, but still lovely.  The voles have been fewer and Mick and Ruth's squashes have been thriving.

BC folksinger, Jon Bartlett, weighing Mick's fine squash

Eloise Charest and her cedar baskets.  I bought two more!

Eloise has given our family a DVD of the documentary "Jamais sans nos enfants" ("Never without our children"), the story of the orphanage that she, her mother, and her sister created in Cambodia.  Fleeing the Khmer Rouge in 1975, they insisted that the 60+ children be allowed to come to Montreal with them, and they did.  I'll bring it on our travels.

fall burning

Doco has been itching to get at the burning pile.  Too dry.  But after a day and a night of pouring rain he could.  In a few hours it has almost vanished.  Whoever comes to visit exclaims on the remaining piles of kindling - old barn shakes and new-shake trimmings.  "You aren't burning all that good stuff are you?"  Off they go with a load, and the piles shrink.  All most satisfactory.

pine-mushroom hunting

It had poured in the night and Julia thought the fall mushrooms would be emerging.  I smelled a treasure hunt, so off we headed, mushroom basket in hand.  Aunt Susie invited us to our first stop, the fairy-ring above Loch Colin, just past the cabin.  Susie's mushroom book at the ready, we identified fairy-ring mushrooms as "edible and choice".  Who knew?  Marasmius oreades.  

Julia and I carried on to the cedar swamp beyond the dam and up the mountainside above.  Our main goal was the fragrant pine mushroom (I think they smell of old socks), known to be on this mountainside and expected to emerge about now.  Armillaria ponderosa, "White Matsutake".  We found ONE (only).  Actually, I did and was very pleased with myself.  Just a round white knob emerging through the moss - the stage most coveted.  In October, the pine-mushroom hunters will find basketfuls on this hillside, but not yet.

our pine-mushroom find

can you smell it?

We (Julia) found lots more kinds.  Here is a sample:

Russula delica.  According to our book, "Edible, but of inferior quality".
Lactarius deliciosus. "Edible, but don't be deceived by the species name, as quality varies with subspecies".
"Zeller's Bracelet" or Tricholoma zelleri.  "Not recommended".  
"Stumpies" or Naematoloma capnoides - a crowd of fifty or more small brown heads jammed together at the base of a large Douglas fir tree.  "Edible and highly regarded by some, but easily confused with the noxious Sulphur Tuft".

About one kind that we were considering, the book said: "Poisonous - do not try it intentionally."
I was NOT the person deciding.  Maybe more mushrooming with Julia at Bannock Point on Friday??

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.