Camping At Carries

It's a win , win , situation.We get a free place to stay in the R/V on the lake and Carrie gets free childcare.

I can do this. First I get my dog and a nice comfy rocker. Place it in a strategic place.

Next I plunk Ellie into a bath tub full of toys where I can see her from my rocker.

Then I tell Jack he is allowed to play with his lego for the next two hours in a spot I can see.

It was all I could do to not have a snooze while watching them. I'm a Professional Babysitter.

Carrie has spent the last month building a Hobbit house for the kids. It's really cool. It has a blue concrete front and the rounded walls inside are made from plywood. She bought fresh sod today for the roof.

We all came out to inspect her sod laying technic.

She also built a bed swing in the yard for the kids. I've caught both Ruth and Carrie asleep on it during the day.

Kelowna's Best Park

It's not really an official park but it sure feels like one. Our friend's Rob and Shelly live here.   Just recently some kids call Rob " Ranger Rob " and wondered if he lives in the park. He thought that was funny.

Rob was born on this property. It was all apple orchard that he farmed until he retired 5 years ago and sold off the orchard. They kept the house and 2 acres . Then they pulled out all of the apple trees on the 2 acres they had kept and built this beautiful park like yard.

This is the horse shoe pit.

Rob put in a new garden this year .

Everywhere you look there is something beautiful to see.

It's a full time job. Rob works in the yard for most of the day and when Shelly gets home from work she spends most of her evenings working in the yard as well. It's a labour of love.

We went over Saturday evening and parked the R/V in their back forty. A great way to visit.

After we had appetizers by the wishing well we headed over to the gazebo for dinner.

I woke up to the sound of a blender working really hard in the shed beside our R/V. Ruth got up at 5:30 and went for a walk with Shelly before she headed off to work. Then she picked a huge basket of her Kale which she had offered to blend in our Vita-mixer . She put it into paper cupcake holders that she then froze in Shelly's freezer so that they would have concentrated Kale for their smoothies. It's a great way to keep fresh Kale from the garden.

After Ruth was finished with her Kale project we got ready to head out. We have a camping spot in Osoyoos that we are going to spend a few nights at. But first we have to find Rob say our good bye's.

Everyone Lover Park Ranger Bob.

So we headed down to Osoyoos and this is what we saw.

We weren't impressed.

The beach beside this over crowded camp ground had five million kids .

So this is where we ended up. Back at the kids beach house. Its nice and quiet here.
The bonus is that we like all the kids who are hanging out on the property.

Prepping To Show The House

Again.

We are both tired of doing all the prep to show the house. Ruth was up at 6:00 A.M. and I was up at 7:00.

First thing I did was vacuum the pool. 

Next was to tidy the sitting area  on the deck.

The lower level was full of Ponderosa Pine needles because of a wind storm last night. An easy fix.

Walkways were blown clean

The place was ready for show by 9:00 and so I left to visit a friend.

This was the second visit to our place by a couple from Norway. They have asked for a home inspection to be done. I guess they are serious. Ruth and I are having mixed feelings on selling. We are both big believers in fate so if it sells it must be what is meant to be. We love living here. I think we should be more careful on what we wish for.

Time With The Grandkids

I got back from Ontario visiting my friends last Saturday and Ruth returned from the Island in the R/V about the same time. The kids needed a babysitter so instead of going back to our place we just camped  in their parking lot. It was fun. I love their lake house.

It's a beautiful spot. Like a park.

We went for a walk one evening. It was a real scorcher. I love the push bars that Carrie built out of copper water pipe. It keeps Ellie up to our speed.

Daisy wanted to run down to the beach with Ellie but we couldn't let her off her leash.She wasn't even supposed to be in this park.

My Beautiful Girls. Three Generations.

Ellie loves Daisy. I don't trust her like I would a lab but she's not bad. 

It's a big deal taking Daisy for a walk. Ellie is so cute.

So we had the kids over to the house for a big day. Here they are picking strawberries from our patch.

Jack found a snail with a pretty shell crawling thru the garden.

He found a nice safe place under some bushes by the pond to release it. Can we say escargot?

It's kind of funny when a couple of retired grand parents can outlast two little kids. We'll be going to bed early tonight.

It was a quiet ride home.

I woke up at 6:00 and couldn't find Ruth anywhere. She had been upset after the renters left because her garden was so dry and parts of it had died. It didn't surprise me when I saw her out in the Hydrangea patch dead heading the bad one's and watering the rest.

Gus The Worker

So I stopped in today to visit with my friend Gus. This is a guy who isn't afraid of hard work. His is in the landscaping mode this last year. Stone sidewalks , gardens , 4 hundred foot cedar hedges and unbelievable ponds. He's doing them all. So today when I dropped in he was building a stone retaining wall that is about 75 feet long. Unbelievable. He says it will be done by this weeks end.

His pond is likely one of the nicest ponds in Kelowna. He was losing his fish to a blue heron so he installed a water machine gun that shoots whenever a bird lands near the pond. Very cool. He says he now has around 100 fish in the pond.

I got home just in time to see two buck chowing down on my hill. 

Why won't they come this close during hunting season? They are having a good summer. Nice and fat.

All I hear in my mind is "BANG".

Driving Back To Winnipeg. Almost Missed My Plane, But Got To See An Old Friend

So I left Malachi around 10:00 with plenty of time to spare. I sent a note to one of my best childhood friends who has a summer place in West Hawk Lake (on the way back from Malachi) the day before I left the lake. Len sent me a note that I read about 30 minutes before I left the lake saying he and Jennelle were there and hoped I could drop in for a visit. I would have left earlier if I had checked my email earlier. I knew the times would be tight. I started to freak out on the ride into Winnipeg after I saw them. My plane was leaving in 2 hours and I realized that when still 30 miles from Winnipeg.

I just made it. Glad they let me on. Whew……….

So len and I did lots of fun things as 12 year old kids. We use to toboggan at Omands creek after school and on weekends.When we were about 11 or 12 we found an old set of skis in the garbage. We screwed a board that was 16 inches by 7 inches onto the top and would stand on it while riding down the hills. This was in 1964. The first snow board. I have dated pictures. So one day this guy was watching us and when we came to the top of the hill he started talking to Len. He said we should put a string thru the board and tie it to our ankle so when we fall we wouldn't have to chase it . He asked if we had a name for what we were doing and Len said we called them Snurf Boards. That was a name that Len had made up. 

A couple of winters later Canadian Tire was selling Snurf Boards in Winnipeg. We could have been rich if only we had been older and a little more business savvy. I just googled Snurf Boards and this is what Wickopedia says about them. Now I was 11 or 12 when we did this so that was in 1963 or 64. Remember that while reading this article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snurfer  Every idea has to start somewhere.

I had a wonderful visit with Len and Jennelle. While there his son Rick and his wife Marne dropped in for a few minutes. They have a place just down the road. I haven't seen them for 20 years. Such a treat to see them again. Now they have 2 beautiful teenagers and spend lots of time with the grandparents.

I told Len he was a lucky guy. He agreed.

On the trip back to Kelowna I thought a lot of the adventures we had as kids. Sleeping in the garden shed attached to the garage on the Assiniboine river when we were kids. He made it into sort of a fort out of it. We thought we saw foot prints by the river from a sasquash or werewolf. I know I was scared. 

His mom was always feeding me wonderful Slavic foods that I never would see at my home. His dad was a real cool guy. Such a nice man. He always had time to talk to me. I think he teased me a lot.

We use to skateboard in the parking garage for the Hillsboro House apartments. The caretaker would kick us out. I wasn't suppose to have a skateboard so I kept it at Len's.

Mom would give me 50 cents for swimming lessons every Saturday morning and I would go to Len's and watch cartoons. Just before leaving I would wet my hair under the tap and soak my towel . I never did get caught.

When Ruth and I moved back to the family home in the 1990's the four of us had New Years dinners together for a few years and then go toboganning at Omands Creek until about 3 in the morning. That was fun.

I feel blessed to have had a friend like this in my life.We never did anything bad , just harmless adventures. So many memories are running thru my head now that I think I could write a really fun book that only I would want to read .

 It was nice to touch base with them at their summer place and I hope we can stay in better touch . This ride is too fast.

I also wished I had tucked my shirt in for this picture.

Last Day At The Lake

Barb and I sat around with our computers sharing recipes this afternoon. Nothing I like more than talking about food.

After that we went out to try our luck fishing.We headed out to the south lake but when we came around the point we were greeted with whitecaps and couldn't get the anchor to hold. It was no fun.

We hid behind an island to try out luck in the calm water but the black flies were too thick. No fun.

By this time it was wine time and we hunkered down to watch a terrific lightning storm.

After a very nice pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce dinner ,  Clay , Peggy and Chuck braved the weather and did the 10 minute hike thru the bush to come over for the evening. We played a dice game called Farkel (I think) till almost midnight. It was a fun last night at the lake. Good times with good friends .