New Saltspring Home

Last weekend I helped my parents move from Saturna island to Saltspring Island. These are both Gulf Islands but for comparison, Saturna has a population of 350 and an area of 31km squared. That's tiny. Saltspring has a population of 10,500 and an area of 183km squared. That's more normal. Delta is the same size but with 10 times more people.

So anyway, I took a lot of ferries! On Saturday I took a ferry to Long Harbour on Saltspring (it has 3 different ferry dock locations) and then a bus to my parent's new place. I had about an hour to hang out there before anyone else showed up, so I walked around the outside.

At the top of their steep driveway was a shed and a doghouse. My little sister Emily insists my parents have now promised to get them a dog. Currently all they have is a cat.

Most of the house is raised up on a rock so you have to
go up some steps to the porch to get into it.

The porch wraps around 3 sides of the house and is nice and wide. Their house is much smaller than the last place, but will get way more sun because it's up on top of the bluff it's built on. Also, they have way more land. My dad is already planning a disc golf course across it. I'm not sure how that's going to work because some of it is quite steep and it's all covered in bushes.

So next I walked down these stairs from the house.

I went down and down and down. Apparently a stream will flow down the hill under these steps in the winter and there will be a little waterfall or two.

At the bottom of the steps is a little cottage/shed that Emily will eventually move into. Right now I would call it a shed because it is a single room with no insulation. However, it does have a window and electricity. On the side of the little building is a covered outdoor shower. If it's not going to be used, she could always put a desk out there and work outside.

So eventually my parents and Farley showed up with a van load of stuff for the house. Also, my other brother Ben showed up with his new girlfriend to see the place and help unload.

Between the many windows in the living room / dining room is the wood stove.

Adjoined to the living room is the kitchen. It has much less cupboards than their old place and the stove and oven are separate. Also downstairs is my sisters' room that they will share until the cottage is fixed up. It has a skylight and Natalie, who will eventually get the room to herself is going to put her bed directly under it.

In the bathroom there is a big jacuzzi tub (jets included)
with windows right there and a skylight above it.

Upstairs and sort of overlooking the living room is my parents room and their bathroom.

It has a ton of windows like the rest of the place.

It also has glass doors that open up onto the living roof. Yes, this part of the roof is growing and so you are supposed to walk around on it by only stepping on the bricks.

So after unloading at home, some of the stuff in the van was meant for my dad's new classroom so we drove over to the middle school.

One thing going in the classroom is his very first computer from the 90's, a Macintosh Classic. I remember programming in Hypercard on that thing and playing games on it. It still works.

After the school we got some pizza and took it to Fulford ferry dock to eat. Then we took the short ferry trip (5 nautical miles) to Swartz bay, Vancouver Island.

We spent the night at my grandpa's place in Sidney, except for Ben who took the bus home to his place in Esquimalt (suburb of Victoria). The next day we got up really early to go to Saturna, but I will leave the move story for the next post.

Camping at Jones Lake

One weekend in August we camped at Jones lake (aka Wahleach lake) near Chilliwack. It was an awesome trip if a bit ridiculous at the start and the end and perhaps in the middle too. We left Friday afternoon and somehow we only took one pot, my stove, and Q's BBQ and no other means of making food. I was the only one with any silverware, a plate, bowl and cup. We stopped in Chillwack to buy groceries for the weekend (way too much!) and picked up some plastic stuff and a new frying pan.

Jones lake is run by BC Hydro and we chose a campsite near the spillway, a part of the lake meant to flood when water is released...from some direction. I'm not sure if the lake rises and floods the area or if the water comes from the other direction.

We set up the tents and made some food but it was quickly too dark to do much.

There was a fire ban and without a fire there isn't much to do in the dark.

The next day we may have slept in a bit. I have no idea since we don't keep track of time when camping which is awesome. So once everyone was up we had some breakfast burritos sitting in a circle around our imaginary campfire. Then we decided to follow the road some more along the lake and go on a hike among other things.

At one point there was a big dip so we all got out of the car except for Murray to put less weight on it. Then we stayed out for a while and Rob started to steer the car because he could see the pot holes better.

On our hike we followed a small dirt road away from the lake which got less and less used. On the other side of a washed out part where there was a creek it was barely a road. Then we came to another creek.We walked up it to this waterfall. I decided I wanted to climb to the top of the waterfall.

So I had to climb way up and around it in the bush. I think the others were trying to make a dam below the waterfall while I climbed around. I was wearing shorts so my legs got really scratched up but I eventually made it to the top. Gordon took some good photos of me standing on top of the waterfall that I'll have to get a hold of. So then the guys had to wait for me to climb back down.

We kept walking the trail but it turned into little more than an animal trail. Still it would have been cool to follow this trail until the end and see where it goes. We seemed to be getting closer to a glacier way off in the distance. Rob really wanted to find the end of the trail so we kept going but eventually we left Murray and Q behind and I convinced Rob we should turn around.

When we got back Q was up a tree. On the way back down Gordon rolled his ankle on a rock so he had to hobble down the rest of the way. Even though we'd been running through the forest chasing Rob, he didn't get injured until we were walking back in a section where it was easy to see where you stepped. So eventually we made it back to the car.

Back at camp we decided to skip right to dinner since it was later in the day, but first we played a game of Settlers of Catan and had some spinach dip. I came very close to winning the game but my luck had run out.

The team of Q and Gordon almost stole the game in the last couple rounds. At one point Q rolled one of the dice right into his drink. Nice one! Anyways, Murray came from behind and won the game by jumping up from 5 points on his last turn.

Q also tried to open his beer using the fire pit (they should be good for something) but he kind of failed cause he broke the top right off the bottle.

So later that night some of us wandered over to the dam. We found a pipe that brought water up and over it and down the other side. It went into this box which Rob and Q investigated with their flashlights.

A little ways away water shot out from a pipe at a weird angle. Rob and Q put their hands in it. The water was warm but we never did get to swim in it.

The next morning it was raining so we packed up before it got worse. Back in Surrey we dropped off our stuff at our houses and then went to Delta to play Risk at Rob's mom's place. It was Risk 2210 and it lasted a long time. I was dominating it but I didn't play very smart in the middle of the game so the domination happened very slowly. Eventually we gave up on the game finishing anytime soon.

Hiking the Chief

Once again this summer we hiked the Squamish Chief except this time we went to the 2nd peak. I had never been there before. We made one mistake though.

Our mistake was eating a whole bunch of food we bought at the grocery store...

...right before trying to hike up to the top of this.

It was a little crazy. My stomach felt like there was a giant stone in it.

We had to stop for a break. Rob's ass was dirty cause he was wearing a leaking camelbak and then I guess he sat down somewhere.

At a later break spot Rob climbed up this rock.

I also climbed the side of the rock but I used my knees which scratched up my legs a bunch.

On the way up the 2nd peak there are a couple narrow parts where some chains offer help.

People were coming down so we had to wait for them.

Here's Adam waiting waaay below.

Here's Rob after hiking through the next narrow section ahead.

The view was just an awesome from the 2nd peak as the 1st.
Also, you can get a good view of the 1st peak.

At the top there were some skinny chipmunks and one
ran right across my back while I was looking down at the view.

Rob and I hiked a little further along the peak to look down from the other end.

Everyone but Adam ran out of water by the peak,
so we hiked down pretty quick to the stream and then took a break.

From there we were pretty quick to get to the parking lot too.
Perhaps next year we will tackle the 3rd peak.

Family events in July

So as usual I am behind on blogging. One excuse is that my camera just spent a week at Murray's house. Anyways, at the end of July most of my family was over here so we got together.

We went to see the fireworks in English bay when Mexico was putting on the show. As usual the beaches were completely covered with people.

That's why we watched them from the grass. Our area still got quite crowded but not until the hour before the show. I biked to Vancouver from school and it took me a couple hours. They also had all their bikes there from biking around Stanley park during the day. We walked over to a Panago and a grocery store and bought some pizza and chocolate milk.

My youngest sister bugged us for about an hour to go swimming with her. In the end, she went for a swim by herself.

The fireworks were the best I have ever seen. There were many different kinds and they all matched the music. I didn't get any really good photos though.

They had times where they shot up lots of golden ones that joined into a giant cloud of glittery gold dust. Getting home after the fireworks was the usual pain in the ass. We walked our bikes to the van that wasn't far away, but then we waited in a lot of line-ups to reach the highway.

A few days later on July 31st was my mom's birthday.

We spent the day at lake Sasamat, where we ate a picnic lunch and relaxed on the beach reading books, playing cards and playing Robo Rally.

My youngest sister, my mom, and I also went for a swim all the way across the lake. After a bit of a rest we then swam back. It was very good exercise and a good idea before the feast that night.

Back at my grandmas we had a big birthday dinner followed by multiple desserts. Rebecca and Eric brought a variety cheesecake which had slices of New York cheesecake, raspberry cheesecake and turtle cheesecake. I had a piece of the turtle and it was amazing. My grandma made an angel food cake to balance things out.