September Sept 17 Weekly Update

There may be hope on the househunting front.  We asked for an expansion of our search and have come up with two possible homes in the Osoyoos area.  (Not anywhere close to Vernon….in fact, close to US border….is really desert country……)  There are two homes we have viewed twice, and will see again tomorrow.  With any luck, we will be in a position to be more clear on our next steps by the weekend following.

In the meantime, we have had some fun activities this week.  Our friends, Rita and John were in Penticton, and we joined them for a couple of days to fit with our Osoyoos househunting trip.  I’d show pictures, but how many meals do you want to see?  Isn’t that for Facebook users?

Vernon hosted the BC 55+ games this week, and Brian volunteered to assist at the cycling event.  He participated in setup and breakdown and couldn’t get over the spirit of the riders.  There were men’s 75+ and 85+ categories:  the participant in the 85+ won his round because he was solo.  Regardless, observers and participants cheered loudly for everyone, and the spirit was tremendous.  One observer had ridden his motorcycle from Kelowna to see his 75 year old sister participate in her race.  Needless to say, Brian will go into training for next year once we are settled.

The city put on a number of events for the games, including a downtown “Taste of Vernon” to see some of the vendors and services.  The weather was beautiful and the crowds good.  Note that most of the participants are of a more experienced age.

One might notice that the line-ups were at booths featuring wine or food.  Us 55+ are not stupid!

There was also a Pipes and Drum Band as well as Highland Dancing!

The littlest (and least experienced) dancer in the middle followed a principle well-developed in clogging.  Even if you can't do the right steps, keep the feet moving and you will fool many of the crowd.

We went for a walk yesterday, back to a trail we had done about 5 weeks ago.  The smoke situation had much improved.  Consider the picture of a scene from our first trip from the same the second time:

BC lifted its state of emergency due to wildfires yesterday, but the fire situation is still extreme.  Everything is brown and crackly.

So much for this week--maybe there will be more news for the next!!

Sunday Sept 10 Update Little Things

No new things on the house front, and we are extending our scope to Penticton and Osoyoos this week with showings on Tuesday.

In the meantime, although we have had (amazing) 7 mm of rain this week, the deciduous trees and shrubs are suffering, choosing to lose their leaves rather than trying further.  Everything is brown.

I have started putting out more food choices in our front view and have the red squirrel and the dark-eyed junco mooching out front.  The eastern dark-eyed junco is grey and white while our BC version (Oregon sub species) has some brown as well.

The bird seed I am strewing should attract California Quail as well (judging from their calls they are all around) but there is not evidence, yet................

The next week should be more interesting with house showings, travel to the southern Okanagan, etc.


Temperatures are under the 30's this week and I am freezing...

With the rain, the smoke has cleared, and we have had a chance to see the lenticular clouds generated in mountains today......

Sunday September 3rd Update

This week started off with excitement early in the week.  On Tuesday afternoon, we heard there was a new fire in the BX area, fairly close to our B&B, (and an area we consider attractive for housing).  At 6 pm, we had our pre-dinner libation while watching helicopters bringing in big water bags to help douse the fire, and thinking about what we could stuff in our cars in the shortest period of time.  Apparently, a resident became a local hero—he had a tractor with a water bin in the back and a fire hose.  He drove right through the gates of the burning property and had it contained by the time the fire department arrived.  Two helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft came in to douse the area, and were wrapping up Wednesday morning.

Vernon is now officially in a level 3 drought as of September 1 (meaning serious ecosystem or socioeconomic impacts).  July has been the driest since weather records started in the early 1900’s, and August the second-driest on record (because of a huge rainfall of .8 mm during the month).  Normally Vernon would receive about 90 mm of rain total during July and August.

The deciduous trees are showing the worst of the strain; their leaves are all curled and limp.

Since we have arrived, we have had 27 days of 30+ temperatures, and 18 days of 20+ temperatures.  We went out hiking yesterday and ended up enduring temperatures of 34.8C.  The dryness makes this heat much easier to bear, and now, temperatures below the 20’s cause us to put on lots of extra clothing to overcome the chill!

This week has been far more exciting than the last one.  First big event was the Armstrong (popn 5000) Interior Provincial Exhibition or IPE.  This was its 118^th year.  All the good things were featured.  The midway, the rodeo, riding competitions, animal exhibits....

Preparing the animals for display was a far more serious business than I ever anticipated.  In the cattle barn, everywhere there was "cattle-primping" including washing, shaving and blow-drying their coats.

Of course, I loved the petting barn.  There were two 3-week old miniature goats, who looked normal up close.  Then you got a perspective on their size compared to a teenage girl who had one sitting on her lap.

There are always whimsical items for sale.

Saturday featured a hike in one of BC’s many attractive provincial parks:  Fintree.  We climbed a steep set of stairs to get some views of Short’s Creek and the waterfall, which creates its own microclimate because of water spray.  

The temperature got to 34.8C, AND there was no smoke to obscure the sunlight.

In fact, see the amazing picture of a cloud over Lake Okanagan.

The rest of the trail meandered over very dry rocky land,   Most was mundane until we turned a corner and found an inukshuk family picnic underway.

And for the finale, see a couple of signs posted in a cafe in Armstrong:

Cheers!

Sunday August 27 Update

Warning:  Boredom Ahead

There is absolutely nothing to report about this week.  We have now gone through about 180 real estate listings, with none to our taste.  Places have too many horses, are too old, are ill-kept, have at least two outbuildings (especially large shops), or are 600 miles from the nearest services.  We are starting to get concerned because time is running on.  We are hoping more listings come on the market after the September long weekend, but in the meantime are pretty frustrated.

So, just to keep some spark of interest in this otherwise boring blog, I have chosen to show you a little geology and a little wildlife.

In regards to geology, we had occasion to hike the Enderby Cliffs trail, a rather gruesome ascent of 2000 ft in about 7 km, which meant it was perpetually going up.  I was looking at the rocks, and was perplexed to find what I thought was lava.  Well, apparently I was right.  These cliff formations came from lava-built mountains that were subsequently ground down by glaciation to the rounded hills they are today.

Here’s an example of the big lava boulders as well as small rocks showing signs of the gas pockets you find in explosive lava.  These were all interlarded with rounded glaciated boulders of Canadian shield granite, brought down from the north.

I will show you pictures from the lookout point at 2.3 km compared to the lookout point at 7 km.        

                                                                

If you look carefully at this picture of the Enderby Cliffs, and see the shrub on the right, at the topmost of the red leaves there is a small yellow band where we stood getting the second lookout picture.  Needless to say, I did not stand close to the edge.

The forest varied as we climbed, including damper cedar areas as well as dryer ones.  (All the grass is dormant because of the heat and dryness.)  One of the prevailing species is Ponderosa Pine, which grows to huge heights and diameters.

For the brief wildlife bonus, welcome to our front door chipmunks, which are Western Striped Chipmunks.  They are only a third to a half the size of the eastern ones, and are more stripey.  Also, they don’t seem to understand the use of cheek pouches—most of the time they eat the peanuts offered or carry them away one at a time for stashing.  We have two juveniles sharing the same area because they are siblings.

The red squirrels here are a more greyed brown version of the eastern ones, but are equally bodacious (no picture yet). 

And finally, I have to show you an unique sign that I have never seen before, just to the east outside of Vernon.

If anything becomes more interesting, I will post!  In the meantime, back to snoozing…………..

Weekly Update Sun August 20

Again, nothing on the housing front.  We did a couple of drive-by's and had a showing, but nothing is attractive yet.  All the pundits expect more listings after the Labour Day weekend.  In the meantime, our landlords have already promised to accommodate us over the winter if required--they are lovely people.

Our routine is as follows:  we go to the gym (Iron Heart Gym!) for 4 days a week.  It is an extremely well-equipped gym, with a clientele of seriously fit people, including some of us old farts.  It is actually quite inspiring.  I go for two yoga sessions and two workouts a week, while Brian is pushing weights 4 times a week.

One or two days a week, we go hiking.  (Or Brian goes cycling...)

This week, we went to Kalamalka Park, which is a major park in the south part of Vernon.  Unfortunately, it was smoky, which prevented us from getting great scenic views.

The forest was interesting, because it was predominantly Ponderosa pine on one side (with grasslands) and Douglas fir stands on the shady side.

Today, we went to the Enderby Cliffs.  This forest was cedar and hemlock, and the views were a little bit better.

All I can say is that all trails are steep.  And sometimes the downhills are even tougher than the uphills.  One day I will show you a picture of me on the trail, but not yet.

A side note--BC trucks can be very impressive.  And huge.  They look like mobile homes without the home part.  The only thing they seem to be missing is mud.

Our last rainfall since June 20 was .8mm of rain.  Today, we had a few dots on the sidewalk, but nothing greater.  BC is now in the midst of its worst wildfire season ever, and there is still much time to go.

Next weekend will be much more exciting because we plan to attend the 118th Interprovincial Exhibition in Armstrong BC.  IE--the rodeo!  Stay tuned for the excitement, the drama, the people!  Our engulfment in BC societal norms will be tuned up to a new level!

Weekly Update Sun Aug 13

There is absolutely no developments on the househunting side, so I will have to focus on other topics.  (Apparently, market supply is very low.  Vancouverites are selling their little houses for a cabagazillion dollars, and come up here with loads of money to buy anything they want.  Vernon is popular both for summer homes and winter homes, and locals are afraid to list their houses for sale because they can't afford to buy something else.)

The days have continued to be hot and hazy, and things are tinder dry.  All the grasses have gone into dormancy, and the only green things on the landscape are the conifer trees.  Poplar trees are losing their leaves to drought stress and it is unlike that fall will have any colour here at all.

Given the lack of other topics, I will now talk about birds.

It turns out that the hummingbirds have not all deserted yet.  After three days of marked absence, the females started to returning, and looking for the feeder.  I immediately caved.
This is a female Calliope hummingbird sitting in the holly bushes in front of our patio.

In the meantime, I have been doing a little bit of volunteering at a nature centre here, and one of their big draws is falconry displays.

One of the regular displays is a flying display.  People gather in an outdoor seating area and birds are flown from post to post in front of the audience. They fly red-tailed hawks (below) as well as turkey vultures, and peregrine falcons. 

A prime event is the Raptor Encounter, where people pay about $70 a person to get a chance to hold a raptor on their arm.  A couple of birds were featured, including an American Kestrel and a Spectacled Owl (South/Central America).

People come away enchanted.

We had our first visitors here, our friends Doug and Gisella Cavill, from Gabriola Island.  We were forced to explore a couple of pubs together.  Overnight, miracles of miracles, we had a brief rainfall, which cleared the air and cooled the temperatures.  This morning we could actually smell the vegetation.  However, as the day progressed, the winds picked up, the smoke returned, and it is unlikely that much headway was made against the forest fires.  Hopefully more rain will come soon.

I'll keep tuned!

Sunday, Aug 6 Update

All of the talk is about the wildfires in BC, and we are seeing more smoke all the time.

Our view from the front door when we arrived……..

Our view from the front door this afternoon……..

The fire hazard is extreme because this area has had no rain since June 20.  The first level of water rationing has been set in effect, which so far limits when people can water their lawns.

Our tiny patio is wonderful—we sit out every morning and then late afternoon—to be entertained by baby chipmunks and hummingbirds.

There are several kinds of hummingbirds here—Black-chinned, Calliope, Rufous and Anna’s.

When we arrived, there was furious activity at our hosts’ two large feeders.  I eventually got a little one of my own, but by that time, all of the males had disappeared to go south.  

Nonetheless, I got a decent picture of a female black-chinned, who was subsequently joined by a female calliope.

Five days ago, the females and youngsters emptied my little feeder in one day.  Two days later, they all disappeared.  Rats!

No luck in finding the dream home yet, after going through 128 listings, visiting two more places and driving by 3.  However, our landlords have just assured us that we can have our little apartment for September, which helps take off the pressure.  Bells will ring and whistles will sound when the right place comes along.