DECISION MADE!

 

After thinking for several years but not finding the right place, we have decided to buy another house.  We are currently in the design process and hope to move into our sectional home by mid-December.  It is located in a 55+ park just north of Oliver, BC and is about half an hour north of the US/Canada border.  Lots of details to be finalized still but we are making progress.  Needing suitable winter accommodation since we won’t be heading south this winter helped us make this decision.  We intend to resume our snowbirding when conditions allow and we are really going to miss all our southern friends this winter.

In other news, we went to Salmon Arm yesterday and as we were driving home we noticed a large plume of smoke to the south.  It turned out that a fire had started around 2 in the afternoon and within a couple hours it had really taken off.  So far no structures are affected but over 300 properties have been evacuated with another 3300 on alert.  Even though I was very tired last night, I drove down the highway to grab some shots of the fire.

We’ve been experiencing record breaking temperatures the last few days so not nearly as much happening for us.  Aileen still walks in the early morning but that’s it for the day.  We are still doing some minor gardening and lots of sprinkler duty. 

We went down to our home site a couple of nights to walk around getting a feel for it and to do some measuring.  The lot is pie shaped tapering to just over 20 wide at the back so it is a bit of a challenge deciding just what we can fit on it.  It was hard to get things done quickly as the neighbours are all very friendly.  There are 102 lots with just one left to sell.  It probably won’t last long since several people have been looking at it.  We are looking forward to this new phase of our journey.

What we saw as we approached Penticton

Later in the evening

The top flame is a tree candling

Karen's yard this morning, our motor home is on the left

Sunflower around the corner on another street

WE HAVE BEEN BUSY

 

Our son Richard and granddaughter Georgia left yesterday after spending nine nights with us.  We had a busy and enjoyable time.  We hadn’t seen them since last September other than some zoom get-togethers on the computer. 

We needed to make a trip to our storage shed in Salmon Arm and I noticed there was a Harry Potter matinee at the movie theatre in Salmon Arm.  We went last Sunday and there were only three other patrons other than Richard and Georgia.  At $5 each, it is pretty hard to make a profit.  No worries about social distancing anyway. 

Aileen and I dug around in storage for the things we were looking for then Aileen did some house cleaning for Kevin.  It needs a lot more than she could give it in a short time!  We had taken our lunch along and ate alongside McGuire Lake where the water lilies were blooming profusely.

Another day we went for a swim in Skaha Lake.  The swim areas are very crowded, no social distancing there so we found a quiet spot down the eastside and had it to ourselves other than a young couple in a float tube who were nearby.  We had some record breaking temperatures while they were here and the air conditioning in the motor home got used a lot.  We had a very welcome heavy rain yesterday afternoon and we are in for much cooler temperatures for  the next while.

Richard and I got out a few times geocaching, sometimes on a drive with Aileen and Georgia.  Richard wanted to go to Keremeos  for some fruit to take back to Victoria so we took the long way.  We drove up to the Apex ski area where we found a couple of geocaches then took the Hedley-Nickelplate Mine Road down to Highway 3 west of Keremeos.  There were lots of switchbacks to drop down well over 4,000 feet of elevation.  It was very dusty but not much traffic. 

I have had both the motor home and the CRV serviced and renewed their licence and insurance recently.  Garden projects have kept us busy including one which turned out to be much more than anticipated.  One of the beds was choked with a nasty weed so we decided to dig it out and replace the soil.  It turned out to be choked with roots from the neighbours cedar hedge plus lots of big rocks.  Richard and I also tackled some deck boards that had twisted and were creating a hazard on Karen’s deck.  Most we were able to turn over and using longer screws, tighten them down flat.  One board had to be replaced.

I seem to have defaulted to the new blogger format and everything I type in the page here is underlined.  I haven't found how to turn it off yet so will just post as is.  Why do these idiots decide to change what works fine?????  My text above I had done in word and copied it in so it is fine.

These water lilies were in Karen's little pond

Bighorn sheep just out of Penticton

Water lilies at McGuire Lake

Western Painted Turtle at McGuire Lake

Carp, I presume, in McGuire ake

Blasted Church vineyards with Skaha Lake in the background

Some of the Hedley-Nickelplate Rd.  Hedley is just around the corner on the right.

Karen in her garden

Just in front of our motor home