The Long Road

Here is Republican congresswoman Michele Bachmann on carbon dioxide. I’m relieved to hear that actually everything’s cool - that is we don’t have to worry about all this CO2 stuff because really it’s such a small percentage of our atmospheric gas, and really, the human contribution to this small percentage is also very small, and further, that because it’s “a natural byproduct of nature”, we need it, and all the little critters and plants on the earth need it! So really, we don’t need to erode our nice cushy way of life here to fix it ‘cause it’s not a problem! Phew, glad she cleared that up for us.

Where the hell do these people come from?

Not sure what to call this thing. Perhaps it’s a privacy screen, but we wanted it more as a trellis for support for the grape vines and morning shade. Anyway, pretty cool that we now have a second summer project finished and it’s still April!

Before:
You can see the spindly little grape vines just calling out for some support. Hopefully they will continue to grow up and over, providing nice cool shade from above.

After:

Earth Day is tomorrow, April 22. Just like it is every year. This year by happy coincidence I get to go to a worm composting seminar at TRU. I started with red wigglers last year, but didn’t really give them the attention they needed early on so lost most of my population. This year, it was too good of a deal to pass up. For $20 I get the seminar and $60 worth of worms, worm bedding and the composter. Awesome.

There are LOTS of other things I’m interested in as far as keeping our organic garden going and finding other ways to improve our footprint by decreasing it!

Anyway, happy Earth Day everyone.

Looks like JJ Abrams has put together the perfect amount of cool retro feel and modern sci-fi eye candy. Me Likey!

Yuck!

It’s early in the outdoor project season, but we’ve got one under our belt already. Way back when we stained the siding on the house I remember Craig commenting that the fence is gonna have to be next. Honestly, at that point the fence wasn’t even on the radar. It looked lousy, but I guess we’d just gotten used to it. Time ticked away and the fence got to looking even worse. We didn’t get to it in time last spring - seemed like we blinked and all the plants were up against it. Too late!

Yum!

Determined not to fall into that trap this year, we started early. We began with a good pressure wash. The results? Astounding. It looked like we just built the thing.

Sparkle!

Next step - protect the wood. Now we had a lot of time to consider this. In the end we decided on a product that is all natural, water based, non toxic and mixed on site from a powder. So, no cans, so nasty chemical stain and TINY cardboard packaging. It’s called LifeTime Wood Treatment. Basically it helps the wood quickly take on the grey patina finish that weathered wood naturally gets to after a few years in the elements. I’ve always liked that look, so this stuff is perfect for us. Also it’s a one time deal. It won’t crack and flake off the wood after a few years in the Kamloops sun. Parks Canada has been using this product for years. I think BC Parks might use it too.

So, after treating the fence today, it looks a bit grey, and will hopefully get better and better over time. It is a bit risky as I’ve not used this stuff before, but I’m happy with the results so far. Time will tell.

Before and After

Next up… replacing the eve troughs and installing our rain barrels.

From Mustang Powder - Easter Weekend

Well a BIG thanks goes out again this year to Heidi. She is a part time tail guide for Mustang Powder Lodge cat skiing. One of the things she likes to do is go up to the lodge after their season is over and ski tour. I think it’s pretty awesome that her boss is cool with that. Anyway, this is the second year that she brought us along. Phil - who we met just a week ago - joined us too at the last minute. It was great to get to know him.

One cool addition this year was that we got to actually ride in a snowcat as it was down at the parking lot. Last year we took snow machines in, which was much faster, but this was pretty cool. This year it was “Freya”, their back-up snowcat (the fancy Piston Bully cats are already put to bed for the off-season). Heidi showed off her driving skills by getting us up to the lodge. On top of that, Wayne, the summer caretaker needed a bit of training time in the snowcat, so he took us up onto the slopes on the first day. So I guess you could say that we’ve gone cat skiing now!

The snow was not as good this year as last, but we had tons of fun on terrain mostly different from last year. There was some new snow on the second and third day too which helped.

Anyway, didn’t take a lot of pics, but below are a few highlights…

Because we aren’t ready to give it up yet, we’re heading to Mustang Powder again for a little après-season ski weekend with Heidi. She is so awesome for inviting us along!!

Well, with the forecast calling for highs of 20 and 21 degrees over the next two days here in Kamloops, it is time to try out the beautiful hammock we got over the winter in Nicaragua. Looks like it’s gonna work out just fine!

The Photo Geeks

The guys I’ve really enjoyed taking photographs with over the last few years, Blake, Hubert and Paul and I have started a new project together. As we are in locations rather distant from each other, (Dalian PRC, Vancouver, Kamloops) it has proven rather tough to get together regularly to shoot. So we’ve decided to give ourselves “assignments” and shoot together virtually. I’m happy to present the results of the first assignment. We had a couple of weeks to gather our shots for it and present them to the group.

The topic was “Hands”. Below are the results. I think the boys did rather well… Click on each photo to link to its album.

Blake

Hubert

Paul

Me

Please feel free to indicate your favorites via comments…

I’ll post the results of the next assignment when it happens.