The Okanagan has quite a food/drink focus – long growing season, 150 wineries/craft beer and cider brewers/distillers, a cornucopia of fruits and vegetables. And at the end of September, there is a weekend rib-fest for us carnivores.

In early October, there is a week-long wine festival – this is a view of the opening wine tasting event where some 50 wineries were offering their wares for tasting.

Our neighbor invited 25 of the neighbors for thanksgiving and we dined on roast lamb grilled all day on charcoal, smoked turkey, halibut from Haida Gwaii, roast veggies and on and on.  We hosted a dinner for 12 the night before to celebrate our German neighbor obtaining his Canadian citizenship.  Have also been busy working on the house and getting ready for winter – should have an update on the house in a week or so.  And this also marks our two year (and one week) anniversary of starting construction on the house – what a long, strange and satisfying trip it has been.

View of roof lines.  Hope to get cedar and stain it then install it as soffits still this year, and to decide on and install lighting.  Possible but not probable.  B in law Steve and nephew Seth, who are here for the weekend with my sister for the wine festival, are in foreground.  Gazebo will be stored for winter.  Been busy the past several months with outside work and busy the past week with clearing dead branches, moving some rocks and dirt and doing odd jobs to get ready for the winter.  Wine Festival Gala last night and tomato sauce canning and log splitting today.

Moved the TV downstairs and like it much better. We only have netflixs but that is more than enough for us.  This room is now all done, except for the trim around the wood stove which will be done this week, and the trim around one of the bathroom pocket doors.  Still need to put some art on walls and hook up the sound system. 

Guest suite bathroom mirror and tile on the wall done by Coop.  Ties into the shower tile as you can see.

Trim around guest bedroom and bathroom doors is finally done, as is the trim in the basement (except for one pocket door).

Finally got around to building some sheet goods (plywood) storage in the shop. I can now bring home 4×8 sheets on the truck, slide them off and into the rack, and then slide them onto the saw table when needed. Also got a few pipe clamps for the barn door I built (photos in next blog).

And finally got the leaded window installed between the shop and garage.  A bit of trim on the shop side left to do.  Sister Susan gave me the window about 30 years ago and I had been looking for an application ever since.  You can see a bit of the barn door on the right.

Cleaned up a lot of dead branches around the property and had a burn on the weekend. When the fire died down we roasted some marshmallows.  That’s my nephew on the left and me framed by the fire (sort of a burning man motif).

We have been having a nice fall, with lots of red skies. And have been having a lot of visitors, from Japan, Saskatchewan, Vancouver and the U.S., and have thoroughly enjoyed them all.  Work – fun balance has definitely shifted to the fun side.  Have more than twice as much wood dried, cut, split and stored as last year and got 7′ fir blanks that I will make into stair treads.  On the fun side, M and I have played a few games of golf, I had a couple of motorbike rides to the U.S. and around the far side of the lake to Vernon, I am now the chair of the Kelowna Roundtable (we bring in speakers on public policy issues twice a month) and M and I (mostly her) are the Arts and Culture coordinators for the Kelowna Newcomers Association.  We have also been going to concerts (many more on tap in Oct and Nov) and wineries. and have been eating a lot of local veggies, most from Ogi’s, a Japanese couple from Kagoshima that have been here for 46 years and grow amazing veggies and a great many Japanese varieties.  We hope they will continue their good work for many years to come.