Well I will try to catch up again....end of May-June 2013

The months fly by when you are having fun but we haven't been settled long enough in one spot that has internet connections.  I need a few days to catch up on all my blogger friends' doings around the world.  It seems when I do have a connection I use the time to catch up on on-line banking, sending birthday cards and answering e-mails.   A fish on the line rings the bell or the campfire needs tending or it is time for a horsemanship lesson, or visitors stop to chat,  or we need to run into the village for milk etc.  Life interferes.  Which rock star said, "Life is what happens when you are busy doing other things." ?  I hope to post on one of our trips to civilization in the village of Lillooet but we are too busy and banking is more important.  Actually the closest spot for e-mail and cell service is the Bridge River Indian Band's Cemetery which is 40 minutes on a switchback gravel logging road.  Go figure.  I feel silly parking in a cemetery to do computer work.  

Feeling Guilty While At My Leisure

I don't know where April and May have disappeared to but I have been feeling guilty about not posting.  I have been so busy travelling and glamping ( glamping is glamorous-camping where you have a generator and hair curler etc.) and fishing and enjoying spring but have not had a lot of Internet connection.  We have some now (one bar) at this fishing camp where I take the grandson, Nolan, each Spring.  But we don't have a connection at the ranch.  The grand-daughter is coming on Sunday for her first attempt at glamping with Nanny and learning to fish.  I will throw in a few photos now and sign off as I have to do this while the generator is running, and have already spent an hour on catching up e-mails.  
Before we left Ashcroft at the start of April, I took my former student, who has a brain growth problem, to church.  She is 17 now and precious to me.
The folk loved her and she asked me to make her a prayer shawl in pink.  Which I did.  I also finished the last one for this year (see below)  and gave them over to a friend who gave all the 14 shawls we gathered to the Bishop to take to the Healing and Reconciliation Meetings with the First Nations.  Every Indian person who finds the bravery to tell their story of how the Residential School system damaged them and their families will be given a shawl that has had reconciliation prayers said over it.  

Then we left for the ranch. 

This sign is a clue that the driveway down to the ranch house is very close.  

While we were camped in at Lee Creek Ranch there were some days of storm and rain.  Here is our Shorty cleaning up the driveway after a windy day that broke whole trees and ripped our canopy on the RV again before we could get it in.  We just had it replaced last year.

   We settled in beside a corral and the machine shops and I raked the yard to make a more pleasant spot for us.  It is about a half mile from the main house so we have some privacy, and lovely mountain water.  That pile was hauled away to the ranch dump.  I hung hummingbird feeders and was greeted by about 20 of them before we left.  It is a chore just filling the feeders.

We stayed at the ranch for a month but had to move out down that horrendous mountain to set up camp closer to our own home about 3 hours east as this is the time for our yearly fishing camp experience with our grandson Nolan.  We were fortunate to be able to move in and set up camp in our favorite spot

 that has a bit more privacy from the road and where there is a cove that offers good fishing just off shore.  We had just setttled in for a week, went to pick up Nolan and came back to get the lines in the water as fast as we could before dark.  He had a bite immediately and then we landed one just at dark when the RCMP came down our camp road with lights flashing to tell us we had to evacuate due to a fire that had been burning for weeks but the wind was now blowing it our way.    I threw the fish in the fridge and we took off leaving chairs and mats etc behind.  We stayed in a friend's backyard that night and then went to another Provincial Park in the morning.  It rained and the firefighters decided to let us back in to our camp.  All of our left-behind belongings were still there.  The helicopters were sucking water up a long hose from the lake to transport to the hot spots.

Nolan was able to go for his 3 days of Horsemanship in the mornings though so he was happy.  He learned how to post when a horse trots.  

There is a lot to concentrate on, almost like learning to drive....keep your heels down, steer but not too sharply or long, balance, push up and down, elbows in, hands near withers, keep eyes forward and back straight etc etc.  

Then we would go for a soft ice cream before heading back to camp.  We had a Scottish fellow, Bill McInnes, from Oban camping beside us.  He was taking a break from 'counselling fatigue' but still seemed to be on the cell phone a lot.  He was very humourous and got on well with Nolan.  

Now I will say goodnight but also feel badly when I look at all the pictures from the last few months, because I have shared so little with you.  Some humorous things have happened just about every day.  Maybe I can write about them next winter when we are trapped inside during a blizzard.  

back to civilization and the rain forest

We were in at Lee Creek Ranch for a week and then had to leave for a few days to go to Chilliwack near Vancouver for Old Man Watching to have his half hour complex care check.  It is a five hour drive on mostly secondary holey roads.  His blood pressure was good and his diabetes is under control.  He picked up $400 worth of pills (our share after the insurance deduction) but that will keep him stable for 3 months so it is worth it.  There is a big difference in the stages of Spring from the ranch to the coast. The magnolia that sister planted when our mother died in 1983, was in full bloom.

 Daffodils are finished here, but only 3 were blooming at the ranch.  The rhodies are blooming all over town.

We stay with my sister when we come to visit with the general MD.  It is a fancy Bed and Breakfast and free for us too.  Although we usually take her out one night for dinner.  However, she loves to cook and being a widow takes any opportunity she can to feed folk.  She feeds her handy man, Marcel, whenever he does work for her.  Actually he is good company for her for a glass of wine by the pond in the late afternoon.  Today he is installing a water filter in the basement.  Chilliwack has lovely tasting water but the city fathers decided it should be chlorinated so sister was furious.  She hates the taste in her tea.  So Marcel was called in to improve the taste.

 The wisteria isn't leafing out yet.

  The camellias are in their full glory.  Tomorrow we are heading back out to Lee Creek Ranch.  I will be out of contact for a long time.  I causes me a kind of withdrawal but will fill the gaps crocheting prayer shawls and reading.

In and out of civilzation...a long catchup

It was 6:30 on Easter Monday and we were both going into the old people mode. We are back living in our RV for the spring and summer and probably until mid October or Halloween. We are feeling our age and this setting up for camping and packing boxes out to the motorhome was a pain. Literally a pain, as my back was sore in the night. Part of that is from the fall I had and the ligaments not working fully yet. It took us an extra day to move out of the Blue Sage Bed and Breakfast, but the landlords were so easy about it all. I had cleaned all the windows and floors,vacuumed under and behind furniture, washed all the cobwebs off of the walls in all the rooms, wiped out the kitchen cupboards and fridge and stove etc etc etc as the King of Siam would say. So maybe they could afford to be generous about an extra free day. I tried to do one extra job or two each day over the last few weeks. I planned on the calendar to wash the bedroom curtains and rehang them all one day but needed a friend with 2 good legs to help. I made a list and kept checking it off until my list was finished. I am an inveterate list-maker. But a retirement party and Good Friday and Easter Holy Week Services took up too much of our days and I think the bottom line is that we are almost 76 and 69 and everything takes longer to do, even folding the laundry. We were an hour away heading to our first camping spot and campfire, when I remembered I hadn't told the landlords that we had left the bedroom windows open to air the rooms, and that none of the doors were locked. Goodbye and I guess it isn't our problem any more. We worked hard to leave the suite pristine.

Our first stop out of Ashcroft, took about one and a half hours to drive to until we were set up and ready to build a campfire.  Marble Canyon Provincial Park is along-side of two small turquoise lakes that are still partially frozen over. We have camped here before and held our first Crones' Campout July weekend here 5 years ago. Old Man was raised on a ranch on the plateau above this area, and used to spend idyllic summer days with his sister and brother riding their horses down to these three chained lakes from their home halfway up the mountain. Old Man had a pinto pony but no helmet or life jacket and often eschewed saddles. He and his siblings just grabbed food and rode away for the day on their horses. Nobody would worry about them unless they didn't show up for dinner. These days their parents would be arrested for negligence. Sometimes we might have too on our own ranches/farms as we were busy and expected our children to be intelligent enough to cope with life on their own if they weren't with us working. Amazing .... they were smart enough to stay alive.   

We were so happy to get into a site and start a campfire and just sit in the sunshine that actually had some Spring warmth. We had Marble Canyon campground to ourselves. We talked and made plans and read and daydreamed while watching the geese and ducks who have returned from their trip to Disneyland in the south. Unfortunately, not much of the lakes are thawed yet. It is Indian TV for us to watch the geese slide into a landing and slip off the edge of the ice to float in the wee bit of water around the lake's edges. We did manage to BBQ a pork steak outside, but ate inside where it was warmer. 

Then in the late evening the generator power died to the house parts, so in the morning we had to hand crank the slide-out back flush to the RV wall outside, and go to town to see what was draining the batteries.  They were new batteries too.  That cranking is like working with an old Model T Ford and takes forever. Some blown fuses and strained connections were fixed and batteries charged up and off we went.  But after Old Man's afternoon nap the power was gone again, not in the motor but in the housing electric unit. So again we had to hand crank the slider back flush to the wall. My shoulder and right arm were sore that evening. We went back to the village a half hour away and the same fellow looked at the batteries and boosted them and is perplexed as the batteries are new. Dedicated RV service centers are far away from us. We needed to solve this problem before we went away back into the Lee Creek Ranch. We were also in a canyon where there was no Internet or phone cell service so we couldn't phone AAA.

On the third morning the electric charge was still up so we carried on to Lillooet and were the only campers at Fraser Cove where we have also stayed for a Crone's Camping weekend a few years ago. The sturgeon fishermen entertained us. We prefer Indian TV to real TV anyway. I found free campfire wood, so was delighted to start a fire and sit in the sun and work on a new prayer shawl.

                                       

Thursday April 4, 2013

Megan, the widow of cousin Layton, had sent us a note on e-mail to say that the road into her ranch was graded and logging trucks weren't using it yet. She had taken Shorty, her 73

year old Indian worker, in to town for medical appointments for his arm the day before. She said they didn't meet anyone on the road at all.   From our camp by the river we could see way up the river valley to the road that would take us over the furthest mountain. We headed out after grocery shopping and only met the Conservation Officer who flashed his lights so I had to stop. He just wanted information about what we were up to. Megan says he is an information-gatherer/snoop. Now he knows that Old Man driving behind me in the RV and I are going to the Christie Place to help with haying. He didn't think I fit the profile of a bear hunter out-of-season. We laughed about that. He was very handsome......and personable.

Friday and Saturday and Sunday

We settled in and hooked up electricity and water on Friday. Megan took us for a tour to show us the hay fields and water lines and irrigation system. She also took us to the cattle feeding pens that needed clearing out. Old Man had to shoot a horse for her and haul it away. She couldn't bring herself to do it. She had already started harrowing so Old Man took over that too for hours each day. All of these responsibilities on her own must be over-whelming. She broke down in tears one evening because she didn't know how to work a chainsaw. We will settle into the rhythms of this chunk of earth over a few weeks.

Cousin Vicki and Ole drove 4 hours from Vancouver to serve a turkey dinner as a late Easter treat. They made French toast in the morning and went off home. They know Megan needs her privacy. I try to check in at the big old house a few times a day, and Old Man connects to talk about work.  It is an isolated spot and we don't have Internet and my cell doesn't work.  Megan has a satellite so we can connect if we have to.  Here are some views of the ranch.  Spring is in the air.

This is the view across the river from the main house.  We drive down that road to Lillooet and then drive north on the west side of the river for 2 hours before getting here.

            

Old Man likes the Big Boy Toys.

good bye

Easter Monday we will be "On the Road Again" with Willie Nelson playing on the CD as we pull out of town.   We are leaving in the morning as soon as I clean out the fridge and we take out our personal grooming things to the RV that is parked outside.  I am getting excited about it.  Tomorrow night I hope to be poking sticks in a fire.  It is a soothing thing to do.  I really am a campfire girl and even love the smoke that follows me around the circle.

We had a wonderful Easter Day.  It was uplifting to have forsythia and lilies again on the altar, after the 40 days of Lent where only greenery is used.  

The church was full and we had our precious Father Dan to lead us through the service.  (He only comes to our village a few times a month for Sunday services, so the lay people handle it all the other weeks).  He has 4 parishes he works in and is in charge of Ministry Development, which means he helps train and encourage lay people to do priestly chores.  He plays guitar and taught us lovely Mozambique and South American chants.  The children were given rhythm instruments to keep the beat for us.  Children love to get in on the ACTIONS.  

My friend and former student, Melissa came to pick me up this morning for the walk to church.  She is a social person.  She is a twin, but she alone got all the physical problems and a floating brain growth that is causing her more tremors and instability as she ages.  She is 17 now.  She loves the people at church as they talk kindly to her and treat her as an adult.  She is 17 but looks so tiny next to Father Dan and our door greeter, Ken.  Father Dan's 

homily gave me a whole new slant on the tomb story and on what was going on during the meetings Jesus had later with followers.  I have some deep thinking to do out at the ranch.  But without the distractions of phones and internet I may be able to catch up on my contemplations, reading and books of cross-word puzzles too.  Melissa went up to the rail for a blessing and Dan knelt right down beside her.  After his few sentences with his hand on her head she said (she has a loud voice)   "I feel better already."  So there we were at the communion rail, all smiling and trying not to laugh out loud.  Somehow it was delightful and appropriate on a Hallelujah day.  Then when I got back into my pew she leaned over and said, "You know, Dan is really good at doing blessings."  That made me laugh and cry with delight.  What did she think he had been trained to do at theology school?  She probably doesn't know how much training they have to have.  But he really is good at connecting with children considering he only has two teenage daughters.

Below is one of my Crone friends who rides around town in the better weather on her special bicycle.  She brought me a crochet hook I had dropped on the floor at her house when we had our Friday Crones gathering for yakking, wine and appies.  She has one leg that doesn't work well due to polio, and another that was damaged by an exploding glass bottle.  She is a lovely, cheerful soul especially considering her trials.  We are all so happy to be getting out our clam-digger pants and sandals these days

Good bye and I will write notes in Open Office and then send a long catch-up blog when I get access again to civilization.  On the road again....in spring when the flowers are blooming even in the mountains.  Our road will be gravel not bluebells or daffodils or tulips but lovely too.

Good Friday and finally some sunshine

Yesterday morning I held my coffee as usual while at the front window looking out on the street.  The lovely early sunshine filtering through the forsythia told me it was time to prune the roses.  Spring really is here.  Yesterday we walked down to the complex by the cemetery.  It is a 55+ strata-type where you pay a monthly fee to never have to cut grass or prune trees again and get your building power washed etc. etc. etc. by a maintenance crew.  We are hoping our house will sell and we can go into a place like this.  All we really need is 2 bedrooms, a livingroom with space for armchairs and a gas fireplace, plus laundry room, one-car garage and a sunny breakfast nook.  Bathrooms are good too.  I could see us settling there as we practiced living simply and with fewer 'things' in the |RV.

 This morning I walked over to the United Church as we were sharing the Good Friday service with them.  The manse is on the left.

 The cross was draped in black with a crown of thorns on top.  A table at the front held many stones for us to write prayers on slips of paper to hold them down and that will be shared on Easter Sunday. 

 For some reason I wrote a request for healing for all people affected by ethnic cleansing attacks.  Maybe it was triggered by all the bullies in the Good Friday story readings.

On the way home I had to take a picture of the local dog catcher and plumber who had his car in the middle of the road to wash it.  

 I

 laughed with him as he said there wasn't much traffic in the village and they just go around him.

We are busy packing up our belongings to haul them back out to the RV and put them away.  I am looking forward to fishing for trout if I can find a lake where the ice is melted.

Village life again

We are winding down our winter session of living in the village of Ashcroft, which is a 10 minute drive from our house in the northern village.  Old Man Watching was born here 75 years ago, on the steps of the old Lady Minto hospital, and hopes to die here.  Some days I feel like helping him with that request, and then he will say something hilarious, and I get over it. 

We have a lot of organizing to do before going out to help at the ranch in the "bush"  (sage hills, cattle range land, forests and gullies actually).  

Over the winter I have become more involved with different activities and my calendar just filled up.  Soon, everyday I had commitments.  I will look forward to being in the bush where I don't look at calendars and forget what day it is.  

Our special Deacon, Lois, was voted the village's Citizen of the Year.  She too is slowing down, becoming deaf, but so many still depend on her.  She did a funeral for a friend's husband last weekend.  Cliff Moore was a naval man so the Legion were involved and Lois is the chaplain for the local Royal Canadian Legion.

Tanya Wong, beside Lois, was voted Citizen of the Year for our home village of Cache Creek.  Tanya works hard for the disabled children's societies and for the community.  I was so proud of both of  them.  So of course I had to go to the Rotary luncheon for them.  All these food celebrations are making weight loss impossible.  Getting out to the bush may be a big help.

For the last two 'Soup's On' days I went down the street to the church hall to help set up and prepare and dish up individual portions of salads/vegetables/fruit/desserts etc. at 9:00.  The tables were set and the 2-4 soup choices were heated to government regulations.    We must always have one vegetarian soup as so many folk want that, even the street people.  We are happy to give them choices.  

Then I took on the job of greeting at the door.  My leg is still not back to normal so I could sit on the foyer bench in between greetings.  Some come before the door opens at 11 but the door is never closed, so we welcome them in. The head cook was Gerda on Friday and she made a wonderful lentil, barley and ham soup.  So (as a joke) I wrote on the chalkboard that we were a sponsor group called Gerda's Galloping Goddesses, although we were really all a cell from St. Alban's Church.  The customers like to know who is cooking each time.  Then wonderful, wandering, but not-quite-homeless, Mike, came to help with dishes and to do the heavy lifting, so I quickly changed 'Goddesses' to 'Gleaners'.   Although 'Big Mike from Wales'  said he wouldn't mind being called a goddess.  Gerda is from Germany and works hard for this soup kitchen at 78 years of age.  She organizes one lunch a month.

We did glean a lot of free desserts and salads and a big vat of soup from folk who dropped off donations.  That was a good thing as it is Spring Break from school, so we fed over 90 people and ran out of everything.  The last latecomers at ten to 1:00 only got to have a bowl of soup and a bun.  Two other latecomers forfeited their bunny-decorated desserts to the last arrivals and there were some apples left over for them.  Actually the last folk get to take home all the leftovers so we seldom have any.  Some of the homeless (and old, lonely, senior bachelors) wait until the end to visit for that reason.  We have a lot of donors of plastic bags and plastic cartons of different sizes and they get well-recycled...filled with food.  

When you look at this crowd you can't tell who are the ministers and who are the ministered-to.  That is not a focus although it happens.   The first in line here is the United Church minister but she didn't arrive until after 12:00.  All are welcomed in and thanked for coming as they leave.  We have welfare folk who can't donate and folk who just like to get out every Friday and visit with friends.  Some put $10 in the pot and some put more/less or nothing.  Any profits go to the food bank.  It is amazing that every few months we can vote to send $300 or more over to the Elizabeth Fry Society and the Food Bank.  One of our church men put tissue flowers and butterflies on the walls for Spring decorations.  The visitors/eaters noticed that nice touch.   It is just a good social time for all, especially the old age pensioners who find it difficult to buy fresh fruit and vegetables.  Hcre they get a choice of cleaned and cut up and prepared fresh food.   I noticed that this week folk seemed to linger longer over lunch and enjoy the socializing more.  Maybe folk are glad that winter is almost over.  Next week the Free Evangelical's Church group will be doing the lunch for Good Friday.  

I will stop in after the community Good Friday 11:00 AM service. 

 It took me 40 minutes to clear the tables, sweep the floor and wipe down the table tops with bleach/soap water.  We need to leave everything tidy for the next group.

This is the last time I will help with this worthy project until after Halloween next fall.  I will miss the joyful working with friends in the kitchen.  I will also miss talking to some of the folk who hide in the community for the rest of the week.