Back on The Wagon Again

Yes! that's about how it seems, as on September 3, Alberta got a nasty shock as the Premier announced that we would have to be masked once again in all public areas. 

The City of Calgary went one step further and declared a State of Local Emergency (SOLE) which would empower the city council to re-introduce some further restrictions. So, "back on the wagon again" seems an appropriate title for this blog.

As Time Goes By

It's been a long time since we were able to have guests or friends over for supper, but now Alberta has had the COVID restrictions removed on Jul 1, we decided to invite friends around. So, on Jul 23, we had two couples to our home for drinks and supper. We all thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, chatting and generally catching up with what was happening in the world today. We even ventured into concepts of what the world should be doing to improve its lot, but that's a story for another day, and it could take a long time.

We followed that up on Aug 18 entertaining two good friends for supper and then, on Aug 20, we had 12 of the family over for supper and a celebration.

By God, I think We've Got It.

Spring has finally morphed into summer. The grass is green, the rains are here and, the blossoms have mostly come and gone. The leaves are out on the trees and everything looks great.

Albertans have finally reached the 70% vaccination mark so on Jul 1 (Canada Day), Alberta removed all restrictions on the COVID issue.  Alberta is the first Province in Canada to fully open up after a year and a half long wait. There's no doubt, we have been through a bit of a tempest lately, especially with the vicious return of the third and for some, the fourth wave of the COVID virus.

The number of new cases of COVID has diminished incredibly. I believe we can see the light at the end of the tunnel but, even then, the Premier of Alberta is in a very tenuous position politically. There are many who don't agree with his policies. I hear it through the chat shows on the radio every day so I wonder what will happen if people have to hold their noses to vote in the next Provincial Election which I think is not far away.  Jason Kenney, may want to try to gamble on the fact that he's seen as the good guy, opening up the Province, but that remains to be seen 

Maybe we have acquired a herd immunity now. Only time will tell, once people have been to the long anticipated Calgary Stampede and mixed again. I hope for everyone's sake that this works out. 

The age where people can get vaccinations has now been lowered in Alberta to allow younger kids down to 12 years of age to be immunized. It's been too long for most people but, on the other side of the coin, employers are starting to scramble, looking for employees once again.

Many former employees are quite happy to continue on the Canada Employee Response Benefit (CERB) payments until they run out in September but then, watch the job applications mount as the competition for jobs increases dramatically. 

Spring has Sprung

 

Well, as they say, March came in like a lion and kind of tiptoed out like a lamb..... Well, almost. We have enjoyed the most wonderful weather in Calgary, some days with temperatures reaching 22°C but earlier on it was cold. Of that, there is no doubt.

The snow has all but relaxed its grip on the Province but we should be cautious about being too hopeful, at least not right now, as we who live here in Calgary know what can and does happen in April and May. 

While firing up our Yoder BBQ yesterday, I glanced at the trees at the rear of our villa and sure enough, I detected small buds beginning to swell on the branches. I guess another month and we might be lucky with some green leaves on the trees.  

el invierno esta aqui (winter is here)

Yes, winter has arrived, and we are in the grip of cold spells but overall, it's not as bad as we expected once we had moved back to Alberta from BC. We have been down as low as -40°C this winter and some more snow will undoubtedly arrive as I compose this but that's Alberta. When you live at an altitude of almost 4000 ft above sea level, it's to be expected.

Our window coverings have been delivered and installed so our lives have changed to a more secluded setting rather than having people being able to look directly into the fishbowl effect we had for the first month or so. 

We are still waiting for our furniture to be manufactured and delivered so we can rid ourselves of the stuff we were kindly loaned when we ordered our furniture from them. 

A New Day Has Arrived

November arrived in Courtenay, British Columbia. The grass had slowed down its growth rate and things were slowing down in general.  

Donna and I were kicking our heels wondering what to do next (which is sometimes the case as the retiree readers in this blog group will know) but it can also swing the other way where there are not enough hours in the day to accomplish everything one wants to do. 

We were reviewing the latest listings and sales in Crown Isle where we lived when it dawned on us that virtually everything was SOLD. A very unusual occurrence.  There was only one home listed below the $800,000 mark.  That was a brand new home and we knew it had just had a price increase to $834,900 with no landscaping, fencing, window coverings etcetera.

We talked for a while and discussed real estate (yet again) It's hard to break a habit when you have been in the business for over 26 years. Was this the time to capitalize on a sale, place our home for sale and make some gains? 

It was pretty clear to us that this was an opportunity to test the market.  Donna had said she missed the kids and grandkids in Calgary and seeing as the market was way up in Courtenay  (around $300,000 mark from when we had purchased five years earlier) and somewhat depressed in Calgary, we quickly decided yes it was probably the right time to make a move and some money.  We would have to work quickly to accomplish our goals if this was indeed going to be the plan. 

We knew exactly what was required.  I had rudimentary self-taught knowledge as to how to build a web page. We were well aware of how to frame a legally binding contract after the hundreds or thousands we had written for buyers and sellers over the years. We could sit our open house (which very few Realtors out in Courtenay do mainly because the demographic is older and does not want open houses), so we formulated a plan, had a sign made up and, posted the home for sale.

I had been building a website for our home mainly by trial and error for over two years as practice for building a web page just in case this should happen. The site showed reasonably well, so we activated the page on the internet and added the listing to another website which gave us access to the MLS. 

No sooner had our home hit the internet (literally within minutes), we got a call from a buyer in Parksville, an hour south of Courtenay. They asked to come up and look at our home. They had just sold and moved out of their condo. They had been looking in our district for over five years and this really tweaked their interest.

The potential buyers arrived right on time. They spent a long time inside then left but called back a couple of days later asking to come for a second look. They arrived, looked around for a fair amount of time then, sat down at the kitchen table and, said "Let's do it. Let's write up an offer"  

We had all the documents prepared in advance. It took less than an hour and we had settled upon a price, terms and, conditions that were satisfactory to both parties. 

Possession was going to be a slight issue as they wanted a quick occupancy. No kidding, we had three weeks to pack up the house, interview movers, get them in and arrange everything else but, we could do nothing until the conditions were removed so we had a waiting period to contend with.   

The time drifted on but eventually, all conditions were removed leaving us just five days to pack up and give vacant possession. That's not an easy task when you have a 2075 sq.ft. rancher or bungalow as they call it in Alberta to deal with.

The moving company we chose was from Parksville. When I asked if they supplied free moving boxes their reply was "we could have as many as we needed". They also supplied packing paper and rolls of tape to seal the boxes, so we drove to Parksville and filled our KIA to the brim with flattened boxes of all types and sizes.

It was a hectic time packing up the house. We packed all the boxes ourselves and with fifty or so packed boxes in the garage (which the movers said saved us a minimum of a thousand dollars packing them ourselves), plus two completely empty freezers and a host of other stuff, the movers arrived and set to work loading. It took them a whole day to load.

We were extremely impressed with Atlas Van Lines and Suzanne from Parksville. She came and gave us the quote. The movers turned up on time on Friday, moved everything from the house and garage into the moving truck and then into storage. 

The vehicle was weighed before and after loading so the moving company knew exactly how much to charge as they go by weight. They subsequently rounded down the rate as we were slightly lighter than anticipated. 

We will miss the very private back yard we had and of course the neighbours who were wonderful.

We had cleaned up ahead of time, so once the movers were gone, it was an hour's work and we were out of the house. We stayed overnight in a hotel in Courtenay. The following morning we jumped into a very tightly packed vehicle and headed to Nanaimo for the ferry to the mainland.

For the journey back to Calgary, we had the forethought to purchase four new snow tires which in retrospect was wise, especially for the drive over the Coquihalla and Roger's passes as they were well over 6,000 ft and snow was in the forecast. The "Coq" as they call it is not the type of place to get stuck in the snow. Those of you who have driven to Vancouver from Calgary or the BC Southern interior will know that.

We had a huge white cooler almost the width of the KIA, which we packed two freezers full of frozen meat and fish into. Wayne our very good friend drove up to Campbell River and fetched us a ten-pound bag of dry Ice to place into the cooler. The guys at the Ice place said it would keep everything frozen for three days no problem..... They weren't wrong.

After an overnight hotel in Salmon Arm, on Sunday we proceeded to Calgary without incident although the two passes were deep in snow. 

As we drove over the Great Divide at Lake Louise and along the Trans-Canada Highway heading East, the skies cleared and we had our first glimpses of "Big Blue Sky Country" once more. The sun beat in through the windows onto our faces and it was feeling good to be back in Alberta although to be fair, we will miss the Comox Valley, rain and all. 

We have left some very special friends there in Wayne and Donna and Terry and Beth, but they all know they are always welcome at our home here in Calgary. Goodness me we have enough space to house all of them at once, and we know the feeling is reciprocal. 

Katherine met us at her door. She had kindly plugged in her spare freezer so we unloaded the cooler right into the freezer.  The meat and fish were as frozen as when we had placed it into the cooler in Courtenay the previous Friday.

We were at Kath and Roddy's for three weeks, but not wanting grass to grow under our feet, we were out looking at homes the day after with Rob and Diana McIntyre from Century 21. 

Rob and Diana were neighbours of ours when we lived in Cranleigh Close, Cranston six years before.  They had also looked after several of our clients and family since we retired and were living on the Island. 

The river just a 200 metre walk from our home

We had decided that gardening and snow shoveling was a thing of the past so opted for a Villa style of home. It was not long before we found one in Cranston's Riverstone down by the Bow River. It was ideal. Just a two-minute drive from Kath and Roddy and the kids and another eight or ten to Jason and Lucia and their kids. Once we had confirmed that the river had not reached the area we were considering, we placed an offer into the builder through Rob. It was accepted after a bit of bartering.

Our home and contact information
15 Cranbrook Landing SE, Calgary, T3M 2L8
Tel: Donna 403 630-7414
Ken 587 891-7414

We moved into our brand new home on December 5th. With 1450 sq.ft on the main floor and a totally developed basement. The home has three bedrooms (one on the main and two down) and a marvelous basement and recreation room giving us 2500 sq.ft. in all (so much for downsizing). We then called back to Suzanne in Parksville who arranged for the move of our furniture to Calgary. 

We are very happy with what we got. It offers us everything we could wish for. It has a gorgeous kitchen with a huge amount of counter space and lots of storage in different parts of the home.  We believe it will be our home for a long time. 

There are lots of pathways to investigate right at the river's edge and the river is so close, I can fly fish off the bank a mere 200 meters from home.  There are lots of walking and bike paths right on the river's edge which is nice. 

Once I get this monkey off my back (i.e. the hip replacement issue which is still bugging me even after two years) we should be able to go out and do some walking and discover some new areas.

One thing we found out is that we brought way too much with us that we could have sold off in Courtenay.  We have some gardening stuff, a wheelbarrow, tree trimmers, shears a mattock, and some other stuff we won't be needing anymore so we will just list in on Calgary buy/sell and get rid of it in time.

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On a slightly more subdued note, I lost my mom in 2020. She passed away in her sleep at the retirement home in the UK close by my sister's home bless her. She had been ill with respiratory issues and had recently fallen and fractured her hip and had other issues as well. Her knees were both in bad shape. Unfortunately, the doctors explained she was not well enough to undergo surgery to rectify the issues. Because of the worldwide situation regarding COVID, no-one could attend the cremation service.  Rest in Peace mom. Your pain is over.

COVID-19 has been on all our minds since last January. When it first appeared, we were headed to Mexico for two months right after celebrating Kath's 40th birthday in Cranston. We did however cut the trip short by a month in order to get back to Canada as they were talking of closing borders with this fast-spreading virus, something we were unaware of when we flew down. 

Luckily for us, we have remained untouched by this virus so far Now, with the rollout of the vaccines, we may be able to benefit from vaccination by the spring as we are both in our 70's but first, the Health Care Workers and doctors and nurses should rightfully receive it first. 

Christmas was a pretty somber time at our household as we are sure it was at everyone else's who is towing the party line, observing the social distancing rules. New-year was much the same in fact, we were fast asleep by 9:30 pm.

While working on things to do, I decided to purchase a sliding miter saw to build my workbenches for the garage. It pays to keep occupied over this time so it was a timely thing to do.  My workbench is now done, in fact, I have built two. One for each side of the garage. Onto the next project. 

We are looking forward to seeing this virus lose its grip and being allowed to visit and entertain again, but we believe it's going to take some time before that happens. Who knows.

We are looking forward to a trip... somewhere.... anywhere would do right now as cabin fever sets in, but we are prepared to bide our time to be on the safe side. Certainly, Las Vegas is calling but we aren't prepared to take any chances in light of what's happening south of the border right now.

So, onwards and upwards.  We must concentrate on staying positive and not be complacent about having to keep our distance. 

We like many of you, are waiting for the vaccinations to be doled out to those deemed necessary who should have it. It seems Canada is slower than most other countries, but hopefully, the pace will pick up as we head to a rumored Federal Spring election.

It's a great pity, some of our illustrious government leaders have been talking through the sides of their mouths, asking the public to stay at home, then taking off on trips themselves. It's really sickening to hear this. Apart from it being extremely irresponsible, it is somewhat comforting to know that some have resigned because of the public backlash or fired for these actions from public pressure on the Premier who was slow off the mark to object to this type of behavior from people in trusted positions. Maybe that will hurt him in the next Provincial Election judging by what I have seen on the jungle telegraph (Facebook).

Well, that's our update for now. We are so looking forward to life getting back to normal although to be fair, we don't see it happening in the immediate future, in fact, we may still be wearing these masks until the latter part of 2021. Who knows? We really hope not. We would love to be able to entertain our friends and family for a good sit down supper and look forward to that happening, but until then, we wish you all a safe and prosperous new year. 

Doing Our Bit To Evade COVID

Our summer arrived and, during the three or so months, it gave us many wonderful days to enjoy the fruits of this great season.

We spent endless hours in the yard cutting lawns, weeding, trimming and generally making everything look good so we could enjoy the yard during the summer months. It has not been the very best summer we have enjoyed here so far. We have had a lot of windy days and wind, combined with the rain has (excuse the pun) put a damper on some activities. 

After the Summer Solstice, which this year was Jun 20, the sun has begun to sink ever closer towards the horizon.  At the Autumn Equinox, approximately September 21, the sun will sink below the horizon, and the North Pole will be in the twilight until early October, after which it is in full darkness for the Winter. It's a fascinating subject, for sure.

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July 12, this year saw me, my good friend Wayne and his brother Ken depart for Winter Harbour, a very remote area on the Northwest corner of Vancouver Island.  We drove to Port Hardy and from there took the short drive to Coal Harbour where we put their boat into the water, parked the truck and boat trailer and took the hours ride to Winter Harbour. We stayed in a Bed and Breakfast for the duration of the fishing trip. It rained quite heavily on the way to Winter Harbour but the forecast was for calmer seas and better weather the following day.

The next morning, we were up at 4:30am and out on the water after a quick breakfast by about 5:15am. It was just getting light when we left.  The forecast was good, so we thought we might target some Halibut about eight and a half miles offshore. I had never caught a halibut but the other two kept jibing me about how difficult they are to get to the boat once hooked. Yeah, yeah I thought. We shall see.

That day, we brought about 11 Yelloweye Rockfish into the boat. Yelloweye are a protected species of fish and if caught, must be returned to the Ocean as soon as possible.  They live way down on the ocean floor and have a swim bladder inside them and when they are brought to the surface, the swimbladder expands. The boat owner must have a way of returning them to the deep without harming them. Wayne and Ken have a clamp they clip on the jaw of the fish, set the release at 200 ft and then hook the device to a downrigger with a cannonball on the end weighing 15 pounds. They then lower the cannonball and the clamp automatically opens at 200 ft down and the fish will hopefully swim away. The Department of Fisheries and Oceans require the release mechanism to be immediately available to despatch the fish back to the depths upon being caught. These fish can live for over 150 years and are a delicacy in various places in the world. We estimate we put back around $1000 worth of Yelloweye.

Below is one of the smaller Yelloweye fish we caught. Most were around 10 to 15 pounds in weight. If you look carefully you can see the swimbladder expanded in its mouth.

We had no luck at all with Chinook Salmon. Ken did hook one which we thought was about 25 pounds but it slipped off the barbless hook as we were trying to get it into the net.

By day three we were having incredible luck with the weather so we set off for the Halibut grounds again. That is where the guys taught me a lesson....... A BIG lesson.

We dropped our lines onto the sea bed. We had found a shallow area about 240 feet deep about eight and a half miles out into the ocean. That's where we anticipated the Halibut would be. We dropped around 450 ft or Anchor rode which stopped us drifting away. No sooner had I lowered my bait to the floor of the ocean, I had a bite. I wound it in. It was my first Halibut, fairly small around eight to ten pounds but good eating nevertheless.

 

Ken hooked two larger Halibut right away and then we hooked some Ling Cod, also good eating. Below is the days catch just before we filleted and froze the fish.

And now for something completely different. On the last day, we headed back out to the area we had been to the day before, using the GPS, we located the exact spot.  I tackled up and dropped my bait to the ocean bottom and almost immediately, I had a hit. 

Oh my goodness. When I struck to hook the fish, the rod went rigid and the line began vibrating. What On earth was it? Had I hooked the bottom or what? Then the rod began to shake and I knew I had a monster on. 

Both Wayne and Ken have hooked into 70 and 80-pound Halibut and there is no question, the larger ones are heavy and slow to bring to the boat. But I was hooked into something both of the brothers believed was a 200-pound+ halibut. I could not for the life of me hold onto it.  In the end, all three of us each had a go at bringing the Halibut in but no luck, so all three of us got on the rod and nothing. The fish was taking out the line as if the tension had been released when in fact, it was locked right down. In the end, the 150-pound test line on the reel gave way and the line broke. 

Now I know what they were talking about when they said, "You'll soon learn that halibut fishing is not something you will look forward to"..... What a day. Even if we had brought it to the boat, it was way over the limit and we would have had to have let it go.  I can only liken it to trying to wind in a three seater settee from the bottom of the ocean.  

We trolled for a short time after for Chinook Salmon but they were elusive this time around, so we decided to cut our trip short by a day and return to Courtenay.  A fun time for sure. And what an education.

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It's really hard to comprehend where the time has gone but, Donna and I celebrated our 27th Wedding Anniversary at home on Vancouver Island August 7th.

That same day, we were delighted to have a friend from Calgary, Elver Leon arrived with his friend Roy from Barry, Ontario to help us celebrate our Wedding Anniversary. Elver brought with him his new fishing boat which he parked in our driveway before heading out to Port Hardy to go fishing with his friends.  It's really lucky that we have a 40 ft. long driveway, large enough to park a full-sized Greyhound bus or RV on.  I had planned to go as well, but time did not permit as it conflicted with our timetable. 

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The flowers are all but out now and we think the front and back yard looks great. 

We had lots of weeds, clover and buttercups and moss in the lawn but our treatments have rid us of all of those items and the lawns look good now

We have worked hard on the flowerbeds adding Crocosmia, Hydrangeas, Lillies and all sorts of different items

We have trimmed and shaped the trees and bushes. 

They look good

We ripped out the awful hedge we had and the white fence.

Finally, we removed the white metal fence in the front of our property which was an annoyance to both of us as it created a sort of barrier and we did not like that.  We also took out the hedgerows where the earth is now. I am going to lay my own concrete to fill in the remaining areas which will add more space to the front patio.

I filled in one of the beds and concreted over the earth. It will darken as it ages.

The weather has been fantastic on the island over the past couple of weeks, sometimes into the low thirties which is hot for here as the humidity climbs because of the ocean effect and we don't have central air conditioning.

August 20 arrived along with my 72nd birthday. We had a lovely sit down supper, just the two of us but Donna did a lovely job cooking.  That day, Wayne and I (actually Wayne did all the grunt work) replaced the lower batons on the front patio which was one heck of a job but, it looks nice now.  After three days of torrential rain, it looks like a nice day so I propose to calk and paint the batons if they have dried out.  

The batons replaced but before painting

   

The finished product just awaiting a second coat of paint

Yesterday, Donna and I went to Siefferts - a farmers vegetable outlet where we can get really farm fresh home-grown veggies and fruit. It occurred to us that we did not have much to do and so we picked up five pounds of beets and a few more mason jars and switched on YouTube on the TV and watched how to pickle beets.

Here's the result.

Donna returned to Siefferts yesterday and picked up ten pounds of pickling cucumbers.  She spent most of the day preparing icing them and pickling them in 12 large Mason jars with some dill and garlic. 

I was just outside this morning and although it is not cold, It feels as if fall is on the way. Some of the flowers are starting to look leggy after getting hammered by heavy rains over the past two days. Some baskets were hit quite hard and have died back so we might give them a few days and if they don't come back, we will begin the process of emptying the hanging baskets.  

It's 19°C or 66.2°F so I won't rush into giving the batons a second coat of paint as paint should only be applied at a minimum of 18°C so I will let it warm up some before attempting that.  

We are anticipating that in October, subject to weather and the COVID issue dying down, travelling to Calgary for a visit.  That's of course, subject to there being no snow on the Cocquhala as it can get really treacherous on that stretch of highway and we no longer have the truck. 

It looks like Fishing is on the cards for two days of next week before the large Salmon leave. Hopefully, we can re-stock the freezer with some more fish. We still have enough salmon, Ling Cod and halibut, enough to last us another year but extras do no harm.  We will fish for Salmon and Ling Cod next week. 

Well, that's about it for now so we will bid you all goodbye and enjoy the rest of your summer, but most of all, stay safe and maintain your distance from others.  It's just not worth the risk and it does not look as if this is over anytime soon.

Please remember, if you are ever out this way, we are always up for a visit.  We would love to reconnect with old friends and family.

Our home in Courtenay

A day out on Elver's fishing boat close to home

Ken and Donna 

PS - A couple of local shots taken by others but from very close to home.

Sunrise over the Strait of Georgia

The Aurora At Campbell River A Half Hour Drive from home

Another Sunrise Shot