We get some nice sunset views as the sun goes down over Kelowna, the lake and the mountains in the distance.

We also get snow from time to time. We had about 10cm on the 24th of November, which is good news as Kelowna averages only one snowfall of 10cm or more each year. Total snowfall is about 60cms, but this usually comes about 5cms a time, and often melts in between snowfalls.  Up here on the mountain, everything is quite beautiful with the green evergreens and the white white snow.  And the snow stays very white as the air is quite clean up here.  Shall have to try out our new sport snowshoes.  The snow is courtesy of an Artic Air Mass that occasionally comes down from the North to give us much colder than normal weather.  It was -4 and sunny today, and -12 and dark last night – about 10 degrees lower than average.  Had fires going in both the stoves today, in the house and in the shop. 

This rock came out of the garage/shop excavation. I finally got around to shifting it a bit (too heavy to lift) with the bobcat to level and position it as a cocktail table. Works great now.  There will be some minor landscaping done around it next year.

This is a view of the lower parking area, just below the house. One year ago, this entire area was filled with fill, about 200 tons. It has been used all around the house and there is not much, but enough I hope, left. I had arranged to get it moved here a few years ago when a neighbor said I was welcome to it, but I needed to move it that year. It is a combination of rock, gravel, clay and dirt.  This year or next the berm at the end will be gone.

This is a view behind the shop. The foreground are the benches-to-be, sliced with a chainsaw from a tree that we had to cut down (middle of the garage). The benches will be situated in various view points on the property next year. To the left is a pile of firewood for the shop. In the background is a pile of wood that will be burned as soon as we have an ok for a open fire burn day.  Should be a good fire!  Open fires are only allowed on larger properties when the “venting index” is above 55 – I believe this means there is some wind and not much cloud.  Since the start of the open burning season 6 weeks ago, we have only had one permissible day.

The back yard. This is the result of about 50 bobcat buckets of fill.  I will do another 10 or so in the next few days before the ground freezes up and then top dress it in the spring with about 6″ of topsoil.  This area will take about 12 cubic meters of top soil, or about 14 tonnes.

In between jobs, or when I am going up/down the drive with the bobcat, I try to do a little landscaping.  The far side of the drive has been cleaned up by removing dead trees and branches, and loose rocks.  There is still more than needs to be done.  The idea is to smooth out the part nearest the drive and have it revert to natural green vegetation.  The upper part will remain untouched.  The foreground will have a short rock wall enclosing dirt and natural plantings.  Hard to envisage I know – check back next year on this.

Sorry for the delay in postings – been a bit cloudy and there was not a lot of progress than warranted a photo or commentary.  I decided to move the upstairs (my den) higher up the priority list ( Mizuho is being a good sport about the lack of doors, closets and kitchen drawers) so Mizuho and I painted the two remaining walls – one the same colour as the other two and the 4th wall is painted the same colour as the bedroom walls.  It looks orange but it is more of a terracotta.  The three windows on these walls need only the top and the plinth, and some filling, sanding, and touch ups.

The other side of the den-to-be. The ladder is now removed as the windows over the stairs are now all done.  Have decided to contract out the installation of the fir flooring (seen in the background) and its sanding and finishing.  Will need to make a stair nosing and take out the railings.

This is a view of the area in front of the garage and shop (they are at the right, while there is a parking/turnabout area at the left – back end of the truck is visable).  The plan is to dig a a few feet more into the bank at the rear (some sand is in front of it) and then make a rock retaining wall with the large rocks that are too big to pick up with the bobcat but small enough to shove into place.  A job for next spring.  To the right of the photo you can see some the result of some crushed rock and sand that I am using to build up the driveway about 8″.  I found some steel screens with 2″ holes for which I build a frame and that I am using to screen the rocks and get 2″ minus crushed rock for the driveway.  Photo in a subsequent update.

Today was a delightful +5 and sunny. Got the bobcat’s drive belt tighten up, did some backfilling, and Mizuho painted some more trim. Beautiful sunset.

My sister gave us this metal rack to get us started.  The rest of our wine had been sitting in boxes on the floor for the past 4 months, and I wanted to get it all organized and up off the floor.  So last week, I built a wine rack out of fir off-cuts and scraps, based on a rack I had seen at a local winery.  Once that was filled up, our whiskey bottles and canned preserves looked a bit neglected, so I had to build another small shelving unit for them.   Now that that high priority job is out of the way, I can return to interior trim.  Have also finally decided on the colours for the last 2 walls in my upstairs den so shall try to get that painted in the days ahead.  First priority, however, remains backfilling and landscaping before the ground gets hard.