Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day! I have decided to post a Blog, with photos, of our on-going adventure. This first part is old news:

Update from the Okanagan

Life has been a bit hectic for this girl from the farm who never wanted to go back but has. We thought we were retiring "out in the Okanangan"!

Decoa and Jeff have finally realized that maintaining a vineyard is no different than farming and neither one ever wanted to farm!!!! I know they are wondering where the ‘romance in the vineyard’ is! From the outset, machinery has broken down, weather has been an issue, meals need to be prepared and two little boys need a lot of attention, plus all the usual household jobs. Jeff’s oldest daughter had Grad ceremonies on Fri night during planting and Lara, Jeff’s youngest daughter, turned 11 so we had to make birthday cake and celebrate.

June 1 (first day of planting grapes)started out at 27 C, followed by two very, very hot days at 34C, followed by two days of cold and wet – temp at 12C on Tuesday. Since then cool (18 C) and cloudy has been the norm but more ideal for planting. However, the baby grape vines are all in the ground, over 10,000! And all planted by hand – there is no other way! Initially Decoa, needed me to baby sit for about four days during planting – its been much more than that.

June 1 was also our moving in day – into our new house. This was set back about 5 hours as I needed to go with Decoa and the two boys to Oliver to pick up the Reisling grape stock. We did stop for ice cream on the way home. Kylie and Brian drove over from Vancouver to help out Fri, Sat and Sun. Gord arrived Sat night and by Sun afternoon we were moved in but not unpacked and were back helping with the planting. I have managed to get a couple hours of unpacking daily. The frig and stove arrived while we were in Alberta last wknd, internet and TV were connected June 12, the first full day we spent in our house. As well, I was looking after Centel and Barret’s house and yard (they were in Scotland and England for three weeks), and the Watson’s outdoor plants – takes about an hour to water it all, and Decoa’s and my tomatoes and containers. Thursday we drove to Edmonton as Gord had a baseball reunion Friday and Sat. Sun & Mon he had plans to golf Kananaskis again but was snowed out.

First Storm: While we were in rainy Alberta last weekend (June 14 – 18), a deluge of rain fell in the Okanagan Valley on Sat, June 16. Decoa and Jeff had a ‘bit’ of mud and water come sliding into their house – all the basement flooring needs to be replaced and walls need to be painted! Quite a bit of erosion on the property. Some of the containers of tomatoes now have sand, Jagger’s little wading pool and trike were buried in mud and the back patio was completely under sand. …but little Jase just keeps smiling and is now doing the “ bum-bump- crawl”. It looks weird but he’s happy and he moves.

Yesterday, June 19 was Gord’s birthday and for the first time in many, many years we were all together as Centel & Barret arrived back from UK in the morning. Lots of room in our new home for everyone. Cake on the deck was super!! No mosquitoes, yet.

I am enjoying my new home – just wish I could spend more time here and would like to get it all in order. It’s been more than 7 months since most of my stuff was packed up so what fun to open up boxes! This week I’ll be ordering window coverings, closet organizers, deck furniture and more sorting etc.. We won’t be doing any landscaping until the house next door is finished in August. VERY SMALL yard so we do need to think about what we want to do.