Did not get anything done on the house in June as we spent most of the month in Greece – 1/3 on islands and 2/3 visiting archeological ruins.  This is a bar near our Airbnb in Plaka Athens.

Amazed and educated from touring the ruins of a 2000 year old civilization.  We saw Verdi’s Nabucco opera at a 2,000 year old stone amphitheater that seats 5,000 people just below the Parthenon with a cast of 100+ and full symphony.  Magical.  Mizuho sang a famous song from this opera called Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves with a choir in Seoul in front of 3,000 people a few years ago.

We visited several monasteries perched on cliff tops at Meteora.  Built in the 1400s when the monks sought protection from marauding Turks.  Originally, access was by rope and pulley with the ropes apparently replaced only when they broke.  Steps were carved into the rocks about 100 years ago. 

Oia Santorini.  White buildings high above the sea with great views.  Lots of tourists, including many Chinese couples having photo shoots – I guess it is a thing.  Worth a visit, but Naxos was more relaxing.

The ancient site of Mycenae.  Built 3,500 years ago with a peak population of 30,000. Linked to Homers poems, the Iliad and Helen of Troy.  Amazing feat of engineering (amazing what you can do with a few thousand slaves and decades of construction)

The Corinth canal.  Nero started two thousand slaves digging this 2,000 years ago but failed.  Finally completed 100 years ago.

Messene – An large site with stadium, theatre, and temples, many restored. Spent several hours here as it is not well known and there were very few tourists. Our red Seat rental car was great.  Smaller engine than my motorbike, 5 speed manual that you needed to downshift to go up a hill.  But got good mileage, under 6l per 100kms. This is the fallen lintel of one of the gates of the 9km wall surrounding the settlement. And built without a bobcat or excavator.

And this is our new car, our 3rd in 30 years.  Decided to sell the 11 year old Beemer (which travelled to 4 continents and 12 countries) as they wanted $9,000 to replace the two turbos, which was about what the car is worth.  Sad to say goodbye to it, but enjoying the new one.

And had another letter to the editor published, prompted by an article in Cycle Canada about some provinces recently permitting Sikhs to not wear a motorcycle helmet, and some climate change doubters.

Back home now and shall be providing some updates in mid-July on expected progress on the garden shed, gates and the fence.  Good to be back.

It has been a busy month!  After doing 12hrs of work with the excavator, it broke a track and rested here for a week before we were able to get a repair crew up. They took out two links (with a grinder, welder and a 50,000 psi punch and all was well.

These are before and after photos of the area in front of the garage and shop.  While we loved the 45 year old 60′ fir (will be used as firewood and mulch) we wanted more room to park and turn around, and I wanted a bit more room and a retaining wall beside the shop.

The stump and trunk of the tree can be seen in the background.  A friend brought over his diesel truck and pulled it down with no problem.  It is now cut up into 16″ lengths, ready for splitting.

All of this will be cleaned up, leveled and pressure washed in July.

This will be a gate, and a retaining wall on the right.  The dirt ramp to the upper area was also moved back a few feet.  Eventually, I will build stone retaining walls on either side.  Eventually.

We had the excavator pull down this hill of dirt that had been moved off the building site 4 years ago as it was hard to access with the bobcat.  2nd photo shows it pulled down and accessible.

Also had the excavator pull forward the crushed rock to make it easier to access with the Bobcat. The dead tree is being cut up for firewood.

We had to build a new road for the excavator so it could pound in holes for the fence poles.  I will cover it in dirt and it will become some valuable level ground that will go back to nature in the years ahead.  July will see cross supports on the end posts, and after the gates and fences near the house are done, the deer fence will hopefully be erected.  On va voir.

The garden is doing well, and the bees love the aliums and the irises.

Still working on cabinet doors. The oiled ones are ready to install and the ones on the right (uppers) are ready to oil.

Next update will be in very late June.

The fruit trees burst into white blossoms during the first week of May, like this pear orchard near us.  The snowpack in the mountains is some 200% of normal, and so there is again a fair bit of flooding in the lowest parts of the valley.  As I write this, the forecast is for 28 to 30 degree sunny weather for the next week so there will be a lot of melting and run off.

The garden, and the Japanese Maple, survived the winter well.

A friend thought our car was so dirty (we usually wash it once a month), he offered to detail it.  Did an amazing job!  I had forgotten the paint had metal flakes.

The big news is that our neighbor brought up his excavator  (with a young woman from Tokyo for scale) for two days to help me with a great many projects – removing stumps, reshaping the hillside, bringing down a few trees, digging out the parking area, making post holes in dirt and rock, moving large rocks, and pulling down a towering pile of topsoil.  All this in 12 hours of working.   An amazing machine and an amazing guy, and likely the hardest-working person I have ever met.  A chef from Austria who owned a couple of restaurants in Calgary, he decided 10 years ago to start a winery.  After  years shaping and terracing the land, he planted 2 years ago five types of grapes on 5 acres.   We have helped him a few times with pruning and staking the vines.

Shaping a cut in the side of the driveway.  I will drop in some dirt in the lower part in the weeks ahead.

This is the easy way to fell a tree – just push it over.  A beautiful fir, but had to go in order to enlarge the parking/turn around area in front of the garage.  Will be used for firewood and mulch.

Placing rocks – He can grab, manipulate and place large rocks with ease.

This is the hammer used to break rock and make post holes – works like a charm, and weighs a few tons.

Mother and Daughter

I have excavator envy

We were 20 minutes from completion when the track broke, luckily not right in front of the garage.  Should be able to get it fixed by the middle of the week.

Shall have updates and photos on all that we did with the excavator at the end of the month!

Spring has finally come to the valley, in all its glory.  Everywhere is green, with white blossoms from the bushes and fruit trees just emerging.  Had a nice visit from sister Susan and Steve, and got a few trees cut down and cut up.  Below is a good supply of firewood, nice and dry, for next winter.  It will all be split and stored this summer.  On top are bird houses made by S and S – very artistic.

Finally got around to cutting some brush and small deciduous trees so that this large rock face can be seen as one comes up the driveway. A bit more trimming to do.

And this is one of four large piles of branches too small to burn in the wood stove.  I plan to run them through a chipper in the fall to create some mulch.

The winter was long and with lots of snow in the mountains, 50% more than average. So there will be again some flooding lower in the valley.  This is a road a few hundred meters below us that we use quite often.

For the rest of the month, we are planning some golf, motorbiking, and fence building – the excavator is now planned for the middle of May.  And there are 11 cabinet doors awaiting final sanding, hinge installation, and then oiling.  The fun never stops.  And the music continues to distract in a good way – listening to Leon Russell these past few days.

Spring is slow in coming.  At least a month late.  We spent a few days helping a neighbor prune his 5 acres of vines; he is going to come up at the end of the month with his excavator to help us put in a deer/dog fence, drop a large tree, and clean up a few areas.  In preparation, I located some gabions from a fellow in Kamloops and he dropped 7 of them off last week.  M and I put them together and are ready for the excavator.  They are much nicer but more expensive than the first batch we got from a local fellow.  The vineyard fellow bought 200 of  the cheaper ones to bolster the terraces he made for the vines, and modified them so he has 400 of them.  He has a lot of rock, and  many terraces.

Have decided to put in a deer fence as the they eat everything we plant.  The fence will be 300′, mostly 10′ poles with a steel mesh but some will be cedar posts and verticals.  It will also double as a dog fence as we plan on getting another this fall.  These are some of the posts and where it will go.  The excavator should be able to pound holes in the rock for most of them, but we will need to figure something out for about 6 of them  as the excavator will not be able to reach them.

Got the posts from a local supplier of orchards and vineyards – 31 posts and 7 horizontal supports.

Part of the fence will be a garden shed (8 x 12), which will house garden stuff, and two motorbikes in the winter.  Have prepped the area where it will go and hope to have it mostly build before the end of the month.  Had to move a bunch of wood and firewood.

Also found a bit of time to do some wine tasting. This is the cellar of Tantalus – we enjoyed a tasting from the cask!

And the big news is we bought a set of ML electrostatic speakers.  I first heard electrostatic speakers 40 years ago and was amazed but underfunded.  They are now almost reasonable, and even better.  The detail and presence is quite incredible.  If you have a chance, try them.  When M heard them (after 5 hours of listening to other speakers), she said “Buy them”.  Have them fed with a Bluesound streamer (Canadian) and fed by Tidal streaming (very high res).  Transforms the music listening experience, and ruins one for poor sound and poor recordings.  Such is life.  And also diverts one from work to listening to music.  Remember doing that?  Will be, as a consequence, working more slowly on kitchen cabinet doors, closet doors, the garden shed and tree trimming for the rest of the month.  And perhaps a bit of golfing and motorbiking.

March was much cooler than usually – the snow was not gone as it usually is at the beginning of the month, and the golf courses did not open until the end of March, rather than the beginning.  We took a short break to fly to Victoria to enjoy the cherry blossoms, a concert, and visits with several cousins and my aunt.  Gave a lecture on government at the University, and found a brochure for the seminar on NK earlier in the month.

Continued work on the front closet, installing maple gable/sliding door stop, and a tall shoe cabinet for Mizuho.  Next will be a cabinet on top of the lower closet cabinet, then sliding doors (still thinking about how to make and install).

Installed some maple/cherry drawer fronts in the kitchen, and Coop installed some undercabinet lights.  Unfortunately, the latest set of drawer fronts did not finish the same as the first set (13 coincidentally).  So, after everything else is done, I will redo the first set and hopefully use them elsewhere.  Building the house certainly has been a learning experience 🙂

And Mizuho set up the Ohinasama dolls. These are over 80 years old (given to her mother when she was 3 years old) and are used to mark Children’s Day in early March but M likes to put them out in early April when spring is here.  Stereo and car update next month, along with some more house progress.

March started out with more snow – we are enjoying one of the snowiest winters on record.  We had 2 feet on the ground at the start of the month.  This is the ice-encrusted downspout chain.

And this is the fog in the valley!

Had a Global National TV interview and then a local CBC radio interview about North Korea.  I am working with UBCO to try to connect it better with the community, and we did a one-day seminar on the issue.  Great fun, interesting, and about 200 in the audience.  The UNI asked me to do some promo so the local CBC radio station interviewed me.  Not sure if link will work but give it a try if you are interested – it starts at 1:22:33  http://www.cbc.ca/listen/shows/daybreak-south/episode/15523798

Former neighbors and all-time friends Cam and Elizabeth came out for a week of skiing – I think it is their 4th time out here.  They are really good skiers!  We joined them for a day, and let them loose for 2 more, at Silverstar and Big White.  Great snow and sunny days.  But Mizuho had a spill and sprained her knee.

We 4 went to the Santana concert (I saw him last about 40 years ago in Winnipeg).  Cam also dove in to help design, build and install the closets in the front hall (#1 on Mizuho’s list) and gave me great guidance on the other few dozen items on the to-do-list.  These will have a top and sliding doors soonish, and some maple/fir trim to make them look like furniture.

These are the remaining cabinets in the front entrance which will have maple doors trimmed with fir.

Another 3 sets of kitchen drawer fronts being oiled and waxed and likely installed later this month.

Have been listening to a lot of music these past few weeks – most of which never makes the radio and much of which never made it to CD.  Spent about 6 hours in a audio store listening to speakers.  About 40 years ago I heard some electrostatic speakers in Winnipeg that amazed me. Finally bought a pair this month.  Update at the end of the month.  Wow!

After 30 months, we finally have some handles and drawer fronts in the kitchen.  13 now done, 11 in process in the shop, and 4 drawers yet to be started.  Maple veneer with solid cherry edging.  Cherry will darken in time.  Much easier to open the drawers.

Mizuho has been busy with covering the chabakos with fabric.  Beautiful!

Managed to get in a ski day at Silverstar,

but have mostly been busy with vehicle shopping as we will need to say goodbye to our super fun 335, and shopping for new speakers (my 40 year old speakers have literally fallen apart as the speaker cones have disintegrated). Should have updates next month.  Found the following in one of our boxes.  It is a handmade umbrella (bamboo, wire, tape and plastic sheeting) that was common in Seoul when I first went there in the 1980s.  It cost about $1 at the time.  A bit fragile but very well made.

At the request of my mother-in-law, I shall strive to do bi-monthly updates. This one is seasonal in nature, the next will be more about the house project.

With the nice sunny weather these past few days, M and I snowshoed up to the top of the property.  It is about 320 meters from the house, and up about 75 meters.  We found a gazebo at the top of the neighbor’s property.

Below is one of our regular winter visitors near the house.

At times, we are above the clouds that form over the lake.  The Okanagan is warmer than the rest of interior BC largely because the low lying clouds in the winter hold in some heat.  We are also typically a few degrees warmer than the valley bottom in the morning, but a few degrees colder during the day.

We have been having many days of above/below freezing temperature. This ice fall on the switchback rock is a delight each time we come home.

And we have had some time for amusement.  Went to a harp concert at someone’s home (harpist was a grain-farmer’s daughter from Manitoba well versed in jazz, classical and traditional music).  I learned a lot about a very fascinating instrument from her.  And we had another wine tasting evening at the Indigenous Winery.

Happy Valentines Day to all of our loyal readers!

A slow start to the year, as my hand is still recovering (physio exercises four times a day); can now grip tools and material at about 70%.  Consequently, I have been planning/drawing next projects, such as a post and beam equipment shed, front hall closet and kitchen drawer fronts.  We are also planning to put in a fence around the back of the house and garage to keep deer out and future dog in and will need to figure out how to do it.  Otherwise, we have been busy snowshoeing around the property (lots of snow this winter and quite mild), and working on indoor projects.  M has been covering chabakos (tin-lined tea chests) in fabric we picked up over the years, and I have been going through two boxes of records and digitizing the tracks I want to keep (while my tastes have evolved over the years, I had a good ear 40 years ago).   After purchasing some used shelving units, I was also able to finally unpack many boxes of books and mementos and set up the stereo.  Am now shopping for new speakers however, as my university-era JBLs disintegrated after 10 years in storage.

Below is a view from south of the property, with Coop’s van in the foreground, and snow covered trees.

Records, newly organized den and a tea box.

And for your viewing pleasure – When Canada and the U.S. hosted a meeting of the Sending States in Vancouver, Global News interviewed me for their national newscast.  They only used one short clip (in which I disagreed with the Foreign Ministers).  Not something I was able to do publically when I was working 🙂