My apologies for the delays in postings, but we finally got
internet a couple of days ago and we are now live again.
It’s been a month since we took possession of the house, and
finally this weekend we have enough stuff sorted out so that we can relax.
The unpacking only took a day, but it took 3 weeks to put
away almost everything. Now we have to
pull it all out again and reorganize it!
In the meantime, we were starting to learn some of the
foibles of the house. Here’s our living
room with a beautiful wood-burning fireplace made by Napoleon in Barrie,
Ontario. Ironically, in Moonstone we
were fully pleased with Pacific Energy products made in BC!
Trees are sparse enough on this property that we will buy
firewood here, and I don’t think Brian will mind a bit.
I have mentioned the spectacular view here, and we are still
dumbfounded every day by the variety of sights.
Sometimes we can see for miles, sometimes we are right in the midst of a
cloud, and other times we look down on a cloud in the valley, which is
apparently very typical of Okanagan winters.
The lakes don’t freeze, so when cold air flows in it creates a lot of
fog.
We have created a corner in the living room where we have
our morning coffee and afternoon tea, and we have watched both deer and a
coyote from the window.
I tried to get pictures of the mule deer on my game camera,
but so far no luck. There are 5 that
hang around, a buck and 4 does. When we
mentioned this to our next door neighbours, they immediately said, “But those
are OUR deer!”
The coyote blew into the yard this morning, very agitated
about something. It was looking down the
hill, barking and howling. Then it would
run a little up the hill and then bark and howl from a higher vantage point. I don’t know what was distressing it, but was
wondering about a cougar, which is not improbable.
Osoyoos is a lovely little town of about 5000 people. There are no parking meters on the street,
and everyone in the stores talks to you.
They have a nice park along the waterfront (not a good day to take a
picture) with a fountain that goes year-round.
A number of waterfowl hang around all winter but none wanted to
pose. A lot of people walk all-year
round, because Osoyoos gets an average of 5.3 cm of snow a year and generally
what falls does not stick around.
Things are different on the mountain. I should mention that we are near the peak of
Anarchist Mountain, shown here.
We are about 2600’ feet above Osoyoos and definitely get
much more snow. Temperatures are about 5
degrees cooler up here, which will be nice in the summertime.
Driving up here from Osoyoos is another story. Our driveway is about 100 yards from Highway
3 which goes straight across Southern BC from Hwy 3 (the Crowsnest highway),
which stretches along the south part of BC from Alberta to Vancouver. The road is heavily used by trucking. A little down from our house is a brake-check
pull-off for trucks, with the following impressive sign regarding the road into
Osoyoos.
I might highlight that there are six hairpin turns over a 16
km stretch, as well as 3 runaway lanes.
The road is well-maintained by highway crews, but there is mountain
weather here, and conditions can change in an instant. We have found that the yellow “Suggested
Speed” traffic signs are to be treated as the Commandments. Brian came upon a recent wreck of a car that
missed the first hairpin turn heading uphill.
The driver was obviously uninjured and standing talking on his
cellphone, which his poor vehicle had intimate contact with a very large
boulder. Yesterday, I drove up the hill
to find the cab of a semi-trailer engulfed in fierce flames (with the local
volunteer fire department out in full force).
I am sure we will find other events like this common on the road.
After the dearth of posts,
I won’t overwhelm you by making this a 10-page epistle, and will save
other tidbits for the next one. Cheers!
(PS I have joined two wine clubs so far, so you may guess
what information may follow next.)
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