Once again, it's been a long time since our last update and we are chugging away at making our abode more convenient and modern.

2008/09 was exciting and interesting. I will try to keep the wording down from my usual extraneous ramblings of the past to allow you to “see” more of what we have done.

It's interesting to set goals and see the outcome. We have managed over the 3 years to tame the goals to more manageable ones and lengthen the “dream list” to over a mile now :)

Friends on a local cattle drive during mid October 2007. Horse back riding is one of the local sports and I had hoped to join them that summer on trail rides. As it turned out I didn't do much… But it is now 2009 and I was able to do more riding. The plan is to ride all winter if the conditions are right.

Here's Andrew working on the floor of the pump house while the dog has a nap. Too tiring watching I guess :) Anyhow, things are done as simple and inexpensive as possible. He's used a load of gravel to make a level area and dovetailed pressure treated timbers for the foundation. Also had to make air holes for venting to allow moisture to escape.

Shows proximity of house to pump house.

Here we have the new pump house with the door about to go on. The two water tanks are inside now. For awhile we had the luxury of a garden hose to the porch until it began to freeze, then we are back to hauling water into the house, arrrggghhh…. The small window on the right is the bathroom window on the northeast corner of the house.

Winter time 2008 and the solar panels are soaking up the sun, although here they are being inspected by a curious visitor, a young moose. She and her mother bedded down by the horse's bale of hay every night and our horses even managed to get along with them.

Most people have watch dogs, we have “watch” horses. They keep themselves amused focusing on what's in the trees. Usually deer, moose, bear or coyotes wander by and of course I always have to look to see what they are looking at. Unfortunately we lost Buck (he's on the right) last fall, the vet felt it was cancer of the bowel. He hadn't been himself for a few days and then he was gone, it was all very fast. We do miss him…

Feb 2008 Andrew checked the smoke (ventilation) index and it was the perfect day to burn logging debris.

The house and solar panels. On the right is the pump house that holds the water tanks. We are still packing water in and out of the house but hope to install the pipes to connect the two buildings soon. Andrew has started working on the cover that will protect the plumbing to the house. If the cold spell is done for this winter, we may have running hot and cold water this spring. Amen to that!

Here's the inside of the house showing the kitchen and dinning table. Notice we have no running water and the buckets under the sinks. The wood stove is the black item on the left and the gas stove is in the right corner of the walls. It's necessary to have two stoves when one heats with wood. We did use wood heat one summer and we never ate so many salads and sandwiches. Then we progressed to a camp stove and the BBQ before ordering the gas stove.

Burning debris left over from logging in 1999.

Cow moose and her calf, probably the same ones who were checking our solar panels out this summer.

Here's the bathroom in the corner behind the wood stove on the left, the kitchen is on the right of the wood stove. Notice the light on the ceiling, that's new. Andrew installed some lighting at the back door and living it's nice to see things again.

Here's my Ranger friend and I in front of a large tree at the Victoria government building. We were there for a Canadian Rangers exercise for a week, and well…

Then I broke my leg on an exercise…. These are the Snowbirds in Victoria for Canada Day. I watched them from my room while convalescing.

When I was able to walk again I did some touring. This is Craigflower School, the first schoolhouse in B.C. Built in 1855 it is the oldest school house in Western Canada. It is very quaint inside! Upstairs was the private quarters of the school teacher, usually a young woman not yet married. And can you imagine, it had no indoor plumbing :(

Gotta love progress :)

Hatley Castle on the shore near Victoria. I have to ramble on about this one as it is the most magnificent castle I will ever see. It is a 40 room mansion built in 1908 by James Dunsmuir, a wealthy industrialist who had his start in logging the area. James had this castle built and only lived in it for 12 years before he died and the family inherited it. They only lived in it for 18 years and found they could not maintain the upkeep required for it, and sold it to the government. In this picture the government is having the trim painted brown. It is interesting as Andrew and I are BC Rangers and the headquarters used to be stationed here, hence the green color of the roof. It is now being changed to the original color of brown since it became the campus for Royal Roads University. It's still in the military, but the castle is now open to the public for viewing. The college building is just behind the castle, and the president and vice president maintain their offices in the castle.

Andrew spotted a Rhino mower in the Bargain Finder and here he is trying the mower on a small field of clover. Worked fine so we moved on to trees, lol. That mower has saved us 30 acres so far that would have all grown back into trees.

Our dogs on the trail. We have made trails all over the property to use for ATV'ing and horseback riding. It's great to come home from work and hop on one of the above and toodle around the "yard".

Here we are ATV'ing with friends in the Rocky Mountains. We had put on many miles by then, thanks to oil and gas exploration. In the 70's there were miles of road made and since then most of them have been kept open by ATV'ers and hunters. Oil and gas is now back and have made the area scarce of animals and hunters lately though.

Here is one of the fields we mowed that was full of small poplar regrowth.  This is looking north to the edge of our property, where old growth trees begin.

Here is an old seismic road on our land that was kept open since 1980.  The land we cleared is to the right.  Those hills are the edge of the rocky mountains, about 10 miles away.  We ATV'ed this summer up to a rocky viewpoint about halfway up the ridge.  ATV'ing looks easy but it's not. Those trails are rough and one has to hang onto the handlebars pretty tight.  And after a few trips like that, I found ones double chin disappears, lol.

There used to be a ladder where the stairs are now. While I was away recovering from the broken leg in Victoria, our Ranger Patrol Leader came over and helped make and install these stairs, which I am ever grateful for, thanks Mike!

Andrew filling the woodshed, an annual tradition since we use only wood to heat our home.

Our neighbour Darrin loves to quad.  This day we had made it to the edge of the rockies and drove up a rough trail to get this beautiful view from the ridge. Our place is down there, somewhere…

Andrew is drilling for water here. His father Clarence has loaned us the machine so we can drill for water ourselves and possibly save a pocket full of money. This summer Andrew drilled to 80 feet, but found nothing. Cold weather has returned so next summer he will continue the drilling.

We went for a drive one day, looking for Christine Falls and Crying Girl campground.  There are so many logging roads that it's easy to get lost, and here is where we ended up, on top of a ridge. The road was blocked from here to protect sensitive caribou breeding grounds to the north.  We jumped out to inspect the plant life and found a few plants that I recognized as alpine, one being the pink mountain aven. So we knew we were on high ground! Next summer we hope to do some camping out here and explore more.

I believe this is alpine mountain aven.  All our plant books are still in the semi trailer that holds our stuff that won't fit in our wee house, lol.  My goal, again, will be to empty the trailer next summer. It was supposed to happen this year…

This is Dennis flying us out of his Wicked River Outfitters camp located on Williston Lake, shown here.  He and his wife Debbie and family; Steve, Tammy & Tricia, had their annual horse drive into camp and Andrew and I were invited along. It was a trip we enjoyed immensely! Just imagine riding a horse and herding horses through the rocky mountains along narrow valleys, and crossing rivers sparkling like crystal glass.

From our rustic log cabin looking towards the main cabin. Did you notice the homemade barbed wire security bars?  Keeps bears out, good enough for me.

Williston Lake view from Butler Ridge. We ATV'ed up to this viewpoint on one of our many trips this summer.

This is another of our trips up to a rocky viewpoint of Butler Ridge.  From here it would have been a grueling hike to reach the summit. It was cold & windy that day and all hands went up for turning back after lunch, lol.

Williston Lake is beautiful to look at but it does have its problems. This is a sand storm blowing off the lake. The erosion is still happening even after 40 years.

With our neighbors Kim and Darrin we ATV'ed to the wind power project at Dokie Ridge. Here we are at the base of one of the wind towers. Think I'll Google to find out more about this project.

There are artists everywhere, lol. This is waiting to be installed on top of a tower. The project is on hold right now while funds are being procured; that's how we are able to quad on their roads.

Here we all are at the entrance to the Dokie Ridge wind power project. (The wind tower behind the Inukshuk is the one in the previous picture).  It is the first wind energy generating facility and was set to open October 2008 in the Peace Region. “The 180 MW Dokie Wind Project is a joint venture partnership of Earth First energy and Creststreet Capital and is expected to produce enough electricity to power 53,000 homes”.  Inukshuks rock, hey!

And back at home, we have a full wood shed for 2009/10 winter.  Andrew was able to dig a trench for water runoff. Next summer it will be much drier around the house. We also were able to purchase the used tractor this summer and it sure has come in handy. With a bucket we can move dirt and snow out of the way easily as compared to the smaller 8N Ford we have used in the past.

Now this might not look funny, but it is making me laugh.  It is actually a match between man and horse. The stall on the left is where Andrew feeds Brutus, the horse on the right.  The horse on the left, Beau, is the one Andrew is competing with.  Beau has figured out how to unlatch the gate and then eat the other guy's food. So Andrew went out and “fixed” it so Beau couldn't get in.  Well, guess what?  Here is Andrew with another attempt at locking Beau out and now we wait for another “break in.”  So place your bets on Man or Beast!!  But before you do, notice how attentive Beau is to the fixing of the gate latch…

Well folks, that's it for now. We will be working on the inside of the house this winter and I hope to add another update before summer.