5C's Que Pasa

..we had such a day within the last week.  I no longer am precise on the dates and times, suffice to say that it happened last week or so.

There was a lot of wind. Enough wind that for the first time ever some of our plant pots turned over.  Of course Colin is only in his stocking feet….that is why socks for guys cost so much.

Very strong wind gusts.

Sadly I lost some of my Mexican pottery.

This is the second quail piece I have lost over the years.

The wind was strong….

White caps on the lake, as we had today as well, with even stronger winds @ 59km/h.  Certainly not a time to sit out and enjoy our yard.  Actually Colin left @ 3:30AM this morning to drive to Vancouver for a photo shoot.  It was an interior of a home so the rain there was not an issue.  However he does still have to return to do the exteriors once the sun returns which we hope it will.  The weather here is not normal for this time of year but is it normal anywhere?

Today was more unsettled than normal.  Carmeh was up at 4:15AM which meant that I was also.  She went out and did her business.  She woke me yet again before 7AM and went out to eat grass!!  She was missing Colin who left while she was deep asleep.  Caeli lives for food and the odd cuddle while Carmeh lives for Colin or so it seems at her old age of 13.  Carmeh only ate a portion of her breakfast despite my best attempts to sing and dance and to play with her ball.  Colin was gone so she only ate half of her meal.

Meanwhile I decided to have a bath as the weather was not conducive to an early morning walk.  Once out of the tub I was greeted with three fairly large patches of vomit as well as some string like pieces here and there.  Of course they were on the bedroom carpet, the only place in our home that has carpet 🙁   Carmeh seems to live in the bedroom both on the carpet as her play area and on our bed as her resting area.  Grrr.  So I cleaned up as best as I could and know that next week I will be calling our carpet guy in to do a small patch of carpet.  Carmeh seems to not seriously able to cope when Colin is away 😯

I also found out early today that a fellow RVer from the Isla had passed away yesterday.   I have no details at the moment.  Suffice to say that it is a sad moment and that we wish her husband and family all the best.

Shortly thereafter I attended a Celebration of Life for someone who lived here in the park.  He died very suddenly last week @  the young age of 59.  When his partner came home late in the evening,  he found their dog laying over Eric’s body……such love and devotion.  It took her ( the dog ) six days before she started to eat again.  Today was the ceremony of his passing.  I learned more about Eric who we thought we knew, such a very special individual and so very creative.  I came home with much sadness and many many tears.

What was expressed during the ceremony by Eric’s friends and family is that life  is short, so please love each other each and every day.

So my very special readers, be sure to do what you want to each and every day and be sure to tell those that you love, that you do love them.  Life is shorter than we know.  As I always say, be sure to enjoy each and every day to the fullest.

Best news of the day is that Colin finished early and should be home within two hours 😀   Time to express my love…

Longtime friends, Jannose & Colin came to visit for a few days.  Happy hours with them are mostly spent talking about travel and where they have been ( retired now for 9 years ) and where they are off to next.

They were only here for a few days so Colin took two days off so that we could enjoy our guests.  Just another thing we can do now if we want to, in the past Colin would have worked most of the days and taken one evening off.  I prepared a feast for our first dinner.  I do have to admit that I was dragging myself around as we had a very busy and full weekend.  More on that in another post.

I prepared beet salad, Caesar salad and if I say so myself the best potato salad ever.  Colin grilled the salmon and asparagus.  We ate like we might not see food again and then we ate the fresh peach cobbler I had prepared.

Our plan the next morning was to do some wine tasting and have lunch.  Here we are at Arrowleaf Cellars.  That is Okanagan Lake behind us.  Such lovely grounds complete with a picnic area not to mention the perfect view.

The tasting here is complementary if you have lunch or buy some wine.  This is a new building for the winery and it is very modern looking both inside and out.

I only included this photo so that you could see that the lovely view we enjoyed. Had Colin not been working all day today he would likely have fixed my eyes.

Another view shot….

The grapes are close to being ready.

Next we headed towards Vernon and had Kalamalka Lake beside us.  You might say that the winery along with several others are sandwiched between the two lakes.

Our destination for the next five hours was Predator Ridge , Canada’s top golf resort.   Our friends were golfing the new course up there called the Ridge.  Colin and I were just along for the ride in our golf cart and to enjoy the conversation with our friends and the gorgeous views.

My Colin took 99% of the photos but as I mentioned earlier he is working all day and evening so I don’t have access to his photos for this post.

Colin has worked many years now for Predator Ridge providing photos of the lifestyle in the resort from golf, to people hiking, biking, doing yoga, enjoying the great restaurants and the many beautiful homes.  A good many of his photos are portrayed in the marketing by Predator Ridge.  This was the place he had that bear encounter last year.

It was a long course to play and our guests were tired.  I was exhausted and I didn’t even golf.  Next stop was dinner at a local Thai restaurant, small place with a handful of tables but great food.  I had my camera with me but totally forgot to pull it out.  We just kept chatting.  We ended the evening back at our place with a final bit of wine and a delicious apple cobbler that Jannose had prepared with apples from her tree in Alberta. Funny how we both made a cobbler, good thing we had two evenings to enjoy them.

They were off early this morning to continue their BC vacation for another few weeks, visiting friends and family along the way.  Meanwhile Colin was off even earlier this morning for his job and I spent the day catching up on everything.  Looks like we are going to start getting busier.

It may be difficult to fit all the jobs in as the weather has changed. Fall is in the air and so are the clouds.

The rail trail is a very long, 50 KM route of rail line that has been purchased by a bunch of levels of government in order to remove the rails.  In their place a proper trail is to be built for hikers, walkers and bicyclists.

Towards the end of July, early in the day before the heat became impossible, we took the girls for a walk along the trail.  The rail line had been pulled up but there were stacks of ties all along the trail.

The trail is not open yet but many are using it including these ATV’s which are NOT allowed on the trail.

There is a plan in place to develop the trail one step at a time.  The first stage was to raise $500,000.00 which was done this summer and that money is to be used for design and access control.  I am happy to say that I did donate to that first level.

A mere $160.00 will fund the development of one metre of the trail ( 3.28 feet ).

The plan is in four stages.

But the $160.00 covers all four stages for the one metre.

There is a lot of work to do.

Here we are overlooking our park ( Holiday Park Resort ) and the golf course. Our lake is in the background.

We crossed over a lovely stream.  This is the stream that in the spring brings down an enormous amount of water from the mountains and hills and often is the reason for the rise of our lake in the spring.

Can you imagine being able to travel 50km/31 miles along a few lakes?  What a legacy we are able to leave for those coming behind us.

These are the numbers.

So happy that this is happening within my lifetime.  Such a gift to this area of the Okanagan.  It is my intention to alter my will within the next few weeks to give to this marvelous trail.  What a legacy!

Sadly Carmeh began to limp due to the large pebbles and uneven trail and Colin carried her back. Had we continued on, we have been told that there are some fabulous views of our lake as the trail continues lakeside.

Caeli kept plodding along.
The rails ties in the previous photos and the dry brush along the side are serious fire hazards at the moment. One of those rail tie piles is what caught fire a few days ago which is when we evacuated.

Here we are back at the entrance to Holiday Park where we left our golf cart so that the girls would not have to walk so far.

Yes that is a large RV from Alberta hooking up to a large boat.  Hey they make the economy work around these parts 😉

I really can’t remember the exact time but sometime around 11:45AM yesterday, I looked out the window and down the street.  At first I thought I saw some very light wisps of smoke in the distance but decided that my eyes just needed an adjustment from being at the computer.  About 10 – 15 minutes later I looked out again. I am trying to get up every 15 – 30 minutes and walk around a bit in order to keep my back from getting sore.

This is what I saw, the end of our street and the one beyond so 2 short blocks away.

First thing I did was to call the front office.  After about 18 rings the phone was answered.  I asked if we should evacuate.  The girl at the end of the phone told me that the fire department had been called ( I still could not hear any sirens ).  I asked again if we should evacuate, she finally answered that she did not know 😯   She was unable to get in touch with management!  I told her that they were all on the golf course for a tournament and to send someone there on a golf cart.

Things were looking worse. I called Colin who was on his way home. He and I both made a decision.

It was obvious to me that the fire was just behind our park on the soon to be ‘rail trail’.  The rail line had been pulled out this spring but the creosote rail ties were laying along the path.  Who knew how long it would take for the fire department to actually get water on the fire, access was difficult and I knew that with our dry conditions, dry brush along the trail not to mention the rail ties, it was time for me to go.

I decided to evacuate and started to load the car with Colin’s cameras, his latest hard drive, the laptop and the girls.  Meanwhile a few other neighbors were leaving in their golf carts as well as a few in their cars and heading to the front office.  It took about 15 – 20 minute to load the car.

This was the last shot I took before I locked the door to the house. It was then that I heard sirens.  It took a very long time for the fire trucks to show up.  Meanwhile Colin could see the smoke from the other side of downtown Kelowna.  He was concerned.

I had already planned where to meet Colin outside of the park and proceeded to leave and to meet with him.  Besides, who knew how bad the fire was and how long it would take to tame the flames.  As I exited the park there were many gathering to watch the fire which was just outside the compound where our RV’s are stored as well as several storage units.  I met up with Colin and we moved a few miles away and gathered in one car.  Right away I realized that I had forgot to take a hat to keep the sun off my face nor did I take any food for the girls.  I did have water and granola bars.  Clearly I need to make a proper evacuation list.  Clearly the park needs a better way to communicate re whether we should evacuate or not.  There is a clear procedure on how to get out of the park, three different routes, but not on how to tell us to go or not.  Fortunately there is a management meeting in a few weeks and I will be sure that this is discussed and resolved.  There are over 540 units here in the park which means many many people.  As I left I saw vacationing folks enjoying the pools but who would tell them if they had to leave.  Personally I did what was right for us and that is all that is important.

Colin and I and the girls went in my car to check out the fire from the other side of the tracks.  On the bottom right of this photo is a pile of rail ties.

It looks like it was a grass fire ( ???? caused by a tossed butt ) that spread to the rail ties.

I am glad that I left as a just in case.  It is never wrong to be prepared and to act in what one believes to be the correct thing to do.  Between the two of us we had everything back in the house in no time.  It certainly was not my plan for those few hours but time well spent in the just in case scenario.

As the dinner hour came and went the wind picked up.  Our TV is on a swivel and the wind turned it almost 180 😯   Strong, strong winds.  During the middle of the night I became aware of smoke.  I got up to check that the rail ties had not flared up.  They had not but I suspected there was a new fire somewhere near.

Just before 11 PM a fire started across the lake.  So strange that today is the 13th anniversary of the big fire as we call it.  We along with several other RV’s evacuated the evening of August 21st, 2003.  We had taken possession of our site that very day.  We will never forget the sight of the fire coming along the mountain to us.  Hence our healthy respect for fire.

Folks were rousted from their sleep at Bear Creek Provincial Park last night and with no notice nor time to pack anything they were evacuated on foot.  Also campers at Fintry Provincial Park run by fellow bloggers Teresa and Derek were evacuated due to falling trees on RV’s caused by the strong winds.  The same winds that were fueling the Bear Creek fire which at the moment is 30% contained with 52 hectares burned.

This morning much chaos was found around Kelowna, all due to those heavy winds that did gust up to 70km/h.  The yacht club reports close to 200 boats with damage as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars damage to the docks themselves.

Sea- Doos thrashed about and splintered.

Even a float plane was thrashed.  Sadly this is the one Colin is supposed to use to do some aerials in next week.  We really feel for the owner.

It has been a horrific 24 hours in this area.  There is even a structure that was blown off a high hill called The Bluff where rock bands used to perform years ago.  Fortunately we had heavy rain for a few hours this morning, cooler temps and showers the rest of the day.  It has helped with the fire.  There were also fires in a few other ares of the Okanagan last evening.  Not a fun way to end the summer.

Rather strange that our first day of ownership here in the park, 13 years ago would result in evacuation, only to be repeated yesterday.

That same hot air balloon I posted about yesterday just landed in Okanagan Lake 😯   Here is a link to the story and a video.

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/173869/Hot-air-balloon-in-lake

You definitely don’t want to go up with this pilot.

Funny thing is that this morning I commented on how it was good that the balloon wasn’t flying today as it was very windy.