This
Year Has Been Dry
We have had
a very dry season to date, even according to Environment Canada, which says it
is the driest on record for the Thompson/Okanagan region this year. At our place, we have only registered 44 mm
of rain for this year, which is just over 1 ½ inches. Some of that was melting snow in March and
April. Near the end of this month, we saw the beginnings of a wildfire in the
US across the lake from us, which rapidly expanded into large columns of smoke.
It seemed that
in no time at all that they had a helicopter out dumping water on the blaze,
and within a few hours it was obviously contained.
Still,
wildfire is a huge concern now, and I suspect it will continue to be so during
the summer.
It Has
Not Been Hot so Far…..
Temperatures
have been at best only moderate and we have not really sat outside yet. Nonetheless, they have been comfortable for
activities like hiking.
My hiking
buddy and I have covered a few good trails this month. There is a trail out of a vineyard, called
the Golden Mile Trail, which leads up to a small gold working site where there
was a stamp mill. It was somewhat
primitive, with a mechanical device crushing the rock (the stamp mill--the picture is of the foundation) and an
oven to help melt the gold into a more convenient form to transport. This was built in 1895. They processed 247
tonnes of ore to get gold and silver.
In today’s
dollars, the gold was worth about $103, 235 and the silver about $1055. Most of metal had been recovered by 1898, and
the mill went into disuse in the early 1900’s.
It seemed like a lot of work for not much. There are many areas of BC exploited in
various gold rush surges, and we hope to explore more of them as restrictions
ease.
Another
trail we did we call the “Tower Trail” because it leads up to a communication
tower situated on the road next to ours (Sasquatch) on the highway. This is a bit of a generous description,
because you drive up to the end of Sasquatch and then climb an access pathway
clearly set out by wheeled vehicles, although it is getting naturalized
again. The alternate is at the beginning
of Sasquatch, where you basically walk a paved road up to the tower. Bah!
When Debbie
and I set out, Brian instructed us that we had to flash him when we reached the
tower. We can see our house from there,
so this was an imminently reasonable request.
At the
peak, as a dutiful wife, I called him so he could come to the window with his
binoculars to witness the erotic daring expose.
This was not a success. As I
called him, we were being pummelled with snow pellets (yes, those few white bits on the jacket), and he couldn’t see us at
all until we moved. Life has many
challenges for Brian.
A few days
later, Brian and I went for a hike in an area called White Lake. There are small alkaline lakes in the area
(thus white lake) and some excellent scenery.
The trail was reasonably strenuous, but we apparently missed one of the
highlights. There is an ongoing
grasslands conservation program in the area, which can involve targeted use of
cattle grazing to reduce undesirable vegetation. We didn’t run into the cattle ourselves, but
a couple of hikers we talked to had to do a detour around a herd, and the local
newspaper reported an individual being chased by 4 bulls. We missed that local perk.
We are
now Official Stewards
Two years
ago, I registered with the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society to make a
commitment for wildlife-friendly and environmental stewardship on our property. This hasn’t been onerous, other than my
determination to rid our 3.14 acres of noxious weeds. The battle continues. And will continue because there is probably
20 years of seedstock still waiting to be germinated. It is nice to have a hobby, of course….
The Society
was horrified to find themselves remiss in giving us a sign for our property,
so they brought one this month for us to post on our road.
Wildlife
sightings
We have had
a number of wildlife encounters this month, all of which garnered much
attention.
From the
reptile arena, we had one sighting right by the house. A four-foot Gopher Snake was quietly moving
over the gravel right beside the foundation of the house. Had I not
been specifically looking for weeds in the gravel, I would have completely
missed it due to its wonderful protective colouring. Since I didn’t have my camera with me, I will
show you a stock photo.
The next
day or so, Brian and I went out for a quick bike ride in the neighbourhood; I
almost ran over a 2 foot snake basking on the pavement in the cul-de-sac. I turned around as quickly as I could, but
before I could do anything, this fellow was travelling at lightening speed
towards the vegetation on the side of the road.
Little wonder he could go so fast—he was a Yellow-Bellied Racer. Again, I have to depend on a stock photo.
To save the
best to the last we had a visit two nights in a row from Mom Bear and two
juveniles. This was most likely the mom
we had last year with three cubs. One of our readers said they couldn’t wait to
hear the story of Helen and the Three Bears.
The two
juveniles are healthy and hearty. They
have learned how to climb trees to check out the cable I have holding the
feeders well above the ground level.
Of course,
this wasn’t sufficient, and Mom nailed a feeder to empty; on her second visit she
took it off to the side so she could enjoy it on her own. Motherhood is becoming a bit onerous,
perhaps. The juveniles will be on their own next year.
A
conservation officer had suggested to me to take down the feeders at night and
rehang them in the morning. The next day
I figured I would take them in at 8 pm.
Wrong. Mom and the juveniles showed
up at 7:30 pm. The feeders are now in
until I devise a new scheme, but darn I miss the feathered flying pigs.
The Sad
Saga of the Trail Cam
With two
visits in a row from the bear family, and with the bird feeders removed, it
seemed only natural to put the trail camera on one of the two trees holding the
cables that hung the feeders overhead.
Mom obviously had her route, we were on the list, and there was a sure
thing that I could catch some night shots.
The camera was mounted and the wait began.
Two and a
half days later, when I brought the camera back in, I was amazed to discover I
had 6070 pictures! Yay—there was going
to be a plethora of Ursus observations.
The camera
was set to take three pictures when triggered, because so often wildlife moves
too quickly to be captured in only one shot.
To my
surprise, there seemed to be a lot of pictures of the second tree holding the
cables. Lots and lots and lots. The camera captures the time and I could see
I could sometimes have 6 to 9 shots in a minute. What???*&%&^%&%#
Then I
looked a little closer, and realized I had a critter in the background with a
lot of movement.
Yup, there
was our Canadian Flag. And it was very
breezy for the time I had the camera out.
I wanted to
make sure you would not miss a stellar bear shot, so I went through EVERY ONE
of the pictures. Of the 6070 shots,
there were only 14 night shots without a bear snout in sight. No sacrifice is
too great to make sure this audience is entertained, but I do apologize for the
publishing delay while I vetted all of those shots.
The only
possible cases of serendipity were a couple of nice sunset shots.
Brian is on the move again
Brian is finally getting back on his bike, which gives him huge happiness.
We are getting out again
Some restrictions
have been lifted in BC, including those of indoor dining. As a result, we have eaten in three
restaurants in the last week. Yum. Happy.
Fat.
Travel Plans
In March of
2020, we booked a trip to the Russian Arctic.
Covid obviously put a crimp in that, and we just got notice that trip
has been cancelled for this year. We
hadn’t said much, figuring things were iffy.
Now we will have to plan for some more travels in 2022.
With my quilting friend, Pat, I have continued to finish some projects that have been sitting around. This one was only four years old, and came from a kit I bought in Hawaii. I never buy kits, but this one had some marvellous fabrics I would never find in Canada. The name of the kit was “Tropical Snowball” and my innate cynicism couldn’t deal with that concept in any way. I substituted dark green fabric for the white fabric with the kit, and now have a “Hawaiian Flower” quilt that is as cheerful as it can be. In all the years of quilting, I have only made one quilt strictly for myself before; regrettably that quilt was stolen from the hospital when I had given it to Mom after her stroke.
After last
month, I will not deluge with many more wildflower pictures, although there are a
couple of highlights I would like to share with you.
On the last
day or so of May, our Lupines started to open up their blooms. This year’s crop seems plentiful, so
hopefully I can look forward to posting pictures of their glory for our next
blog.
Thank you
for visiting, and we hope you are doing well.
