There's Gold in Them Thar Hills!

New retirement plan: We're going to retire to Barkerville. Teresa will paint, sew and sing, and I will fiddle, knit and blacksmith.

Who says advertising doesn't work? On the way up the highway, we saw more and more signs for Barkerville as we approached Quesnel. So we decided to stop in. And stayed 24hrs. There was so much to see and do! And either we were loud and obnoxious, or other visitors are boring. One actor, erm... resident, asked us if we hired out as the perfect audience. And another made several comments throughout the day about "everybody's favourite audience".

They were all a lot of fun. Oh, and we found out that blacksmiths in the 19th century are addicted to Starbucks. But that Tim Horton's is good enough for the road construction crew.

PS. Mum, you can now sign up for e-mail updates. Look for the box to the left (or right, for you non-dyslexics) of the Blog.

My Barkerville retirement plan

An Accident Waiting to Happen

They REALLY need to stop rerouting the roads in my home town. Here I am booting along a back road that I "know well"... at a fairly decent clip... at night. And I go around a turn, and suddenly, it stops. In a cul-de-sac. With rocks along the end. Seriously. A few years ago, I came to town and couldn't find my way home, because they'd rerouted and cut off the roads leading to Clifton Rd. AND moved the entire bottom half of Clifton itself!

That being said, I've had a great visit in Kelowna. And it's been so much fun catching up with friends I haven't seen in years. Maybe we don't have to wait so long next time?

Nostalgic memory triggers:
- reaching the arid landscape just outside Kamloops, and suddenly being hit by the feeling of "home"
- the Ponderosa Pine smell of vanilla on a sweltering day
- the dry heat
- driving through orchards, and automatically trying to identify the apple tree varieties from the road
- driving past the empty lot that used to be KSS
- the juicy explosion of a ripe cherry
- the sweet smell of hay, combined with leather and horse sweat

Happy 60th Dad! And Happy Retirement!

A Family Reunion Portrait like no other

Calgary Stampede

The last two days at the Calgary Stampede have been amazing! There is so much to see and do. The only thing that didn't live up to my expectations was that the country music was a little sparse. I did track down the Calgary Fiddlers. I think I was the youngest in the crowd by at least 30 years. Hmmm....
On Monday we started off the day watching the herding dogs. Wow, are they intense! Some of them just lost it under the pressure though. It was pretty funny *grin*. We briefly thought that one dog was named "Listen" because his owner kept screaming it at him. Sound familiar Dad?
We followed that up with the rodeo. Did I mention that it had been raining for the last week? Just wait until you see all the muddy pictures I post. Other highlights included the cutting horses, the artists at work, and the evening show last night. Watching the fireworks at eye level was incredible. I've only seen better once... the Canada Day fireworks off the banks of the fleuve St-Laurent. A wind spring up and blew them right overhead.
Anyway, it's breakfast time, so I'm off. When I get to Kelowna I'll see about getting some of my pictures uploaded :)

Calgary Stampede Photos 

A distinct lack of connection

So I have discovered the one biggest issue of keeping a blog... you can't update it if you have no internet connection. And as we've been living out of the back of Teresa's Rav4 (surprisingly comfortable! Need to install a shower though), that's a slight issue.
Right now however, we're living the good life at Jodi's aunts... Ever been to Glen Meadows? Yeah... real nice. Day one at the Stampede was a blast. Am exhausted though. Off to play "Apples to Apples" :)

Camp Yukon

Now that the goodbyes have begun, my approaching departure has become bittersweet. There are a lot of people up here in the Yukon that mean a heck of a lot to me! I keep telling myself that it's only for a year.
The farewells aside, I had a great time at Camp Yukon and was sad to cut my time short. It's a beautiful place, with amazing people. A place you can really feel God move in.
Things you forget about camp/memorable moments: tans that wash off (ick!), sneaking off to have your shower so you don't get "baptized" by a bucket of cold water, finding sand in your stuff months after leaving camp, good ol' fashioned kitchen party after chapel (well, the KIDS liked our playing), how a relaxed 30 minute stroll can be turned into an hour of torturous marching by certain kids, when pranks meant for one are accidentally played on another, seeing kids grow year-by-year.
I've posted some pictures on Facebook.

Unplugged and Offline

My travels begin. I'm off to Camp Yukon tomorrow!!!! To commune with our Territorial bird... the mosquito. I wonder if they make archery tips for that? I'll have to soak in as much of the Yukon outdoors as I can while I'm there. No more canoeing, fishing, rock climbing, miles of unpopulated wilderness, wood stoves, dumping kids in the lake, or listening to the loons in the evenings for a whole year. THIS is what makes life worthwhile. (I nabbed a few photos from fb)

Anyway, I'll be offline and unplugged for the next week. I'll be home for Friday, then I'm headed South to the Stampede. Teresa is very excited about me bringing my fiddle. I told her I'd bought a little kiddy bow so that I could play while we drive.

Downsizing

How is it that I am nowhere near being done packing, and my one allotted suitcase is already full? Can it really be that hard to pare your life down to one suitcase worth of material goods?