The things Richard manages to do in his rare days off…!

You might think we’re installing a pool, but this shot is from day 2 of our long-awaited geothermal heating system installation. We only had until next March to complete it in order to qualify for the rebates the government is offering, and of course an excavation like this can’t happen during the rainy fall or spring. So there were the boys – our good friend & geo expert Jason and his apprentice doing the geothermal install, and Richard overseeing a two man excavation crew – working past sundown in –6 degree weather. As you’ll see in the last few shots, it even snowed on Thursday night. Amazingly, the whole operation took only 5 days last week.

I’m so thrilled with the result. First, we are one last part away from our high-efficiency, cold tolerant new heating system. That’s going to save us a bundle on heating, particularly combined with the foam insulation we just had sprayed on the basement headers. But more exciting for me, thanks to an unexpected glitch with the location of our gas line to the house, we switched from a driveway dig to going down the west side of our property, from the southwest corner of the house to the back fence. That meant we finally had an excuse to redo our landscaping!

Richard figures we gained about 8 feet of yard along the whole length of our back yard now that it’s level. It’s messy with rocks and probably full of weed seeds, and we had to sacrifice a lot more plants than I was prepared for, but it has so much more potential. And, the neighbours insisted on paying for the new fence and the retaining rocks on their side of it. Excellent. A blanket of snow – next weekend most likely – will make it all look perfect. Yay!

In these last three photos you can see the pipes of the geothermal system Jason and his young apprentice Trevor installed. In our climate the pipes have to be at least 8 feet below ground level. We dug 12 to 13 feet down, however, because we stacked our loops, with earth back-filled between the two layers. Thus the massive hole. (Incidentally, the Bobcat in this photo got stuck down there, and had to be lifted out with the huge excavator like a mother cat lifting her kitten.)

Originally we were going to dig up the driveway to achieve the 150 foot long trench we needed, but the location of our natural gas line indicated on Terasen's map was inaccurate by 1 to 3 metres along most of its length across the driveway. When Richard started digging he hit the actual line almost instantly and we were lucky that Terasen was able to send someone that Sunday afternoon to locate the line properly and fix the section that Richard stretched when he hit it. With the dig scheduled to start Monday morning, we had to change our plans, fast, digging in the opposite direction.

The change in plans meant sacrificing our admittedly ailing maple tree, one of our apple trees, and several shrubs, as well as my blackberry vine and raspberry canes. All replaceable, however, and the resulting levelled areas mean I'll get my kitchen garden and a flat area for outside dining much sooner than I'd hoped. And plantings like trees will be so much easier to plan on a wider scale now, as Richard was quick to point out when I mourned over my apple tree.

Thank you so much to Jason!

"Grumpy" is highly ironic - Jason is the most easy-going, unflappable person we know, and not even the cold bothered him as he and his apprentice made a weeks-long job for Richard come together in a mere two and a half days. (And one evening they installed our humidifier and UV filter, which had been sitting in boxes for years.)

Richard kept the boys' energy up with homemade chowder, chicken wings, and lots of hot chocolate, and took most of these photos as he worked to record their progress, since I didn't get home from work until dusk and could hardly see what they were up to.

I took the last few snowy photos on Friday afternoon, as the excavation crew was moving the last of the dirt from temporary piles out back in the woods and helping Richard install the posts for the new fence. They needed a bit more, actually, so Richard had them dig out the last section of retaining wall out front around the apple trees there, so we can finish that new rock wall and get around the trees with the mower. The excavators also re-levelled and seeded the ground out back with a forestry mix of rye and alfalfa, so there will be food for the llamas and goats come spring.

All that work in a mere five days, it's incredible. I wonder if we'll be able to be as quick finishing the basement?! That's next.

I marked my birthday Thursday with cards and cake at both my workplaces and a few phone calls, but the real celebration will be tonight, as we are expecting the arrival shortly of Dagny and Chris. Despite the frosty mornings it's a beautiful weekend and we hope to take a walk along the salmon run at Adams River, which has become something of a birthday tradition. Richard is making his fabulous turkey for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow night, and something special for my birthday dinner tonight, so we'll need a walk to work off full stomachs. Otherwise it will be a lazy weekend, as all of us are feeling drained, stressed, and in need of relaxation. We haven't seen Chris and Dagny in quite a while, after the frequent visits for wedding prep were over, so I'm very happy they were able to make it here after all.

Work has been crazy for both of us, and if I have to waste my time getting inadequately trained on one more unwieldy, poorly documented, badly designed piece of custom software I'm going to seriously consider applying to take over the damned IT department! Hmph. However, I think we've got a lot more job satisfaction overall than we had in our last positions, and our financial situation has definitely improved now that I'm earning a salary - part-time though it is for now - so I'm cautiously optimistic as I start a new year. If I can just get this house cleaned up, my garden set to rights, and my head back into novel-writing mode, I'll be ready for the real winter weather to begin.

On that note, must take my last birthday cake (almond flour pound cake in case you were wondering) out of the oven and get this place cleaned up for our guests! Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope you have a lot to be thankful for.

We have friends locally that have offered a hand and places to stay should we need it, for which we are very grateful. We spent some time on Friday preparing in the event of evacuation, after our neighbours to the south had to leave their homes. Thankfully so far, the Martin Mountain fire remains well away from our corner of the community, over 8km away. Closer to home, 5km away on the other side of the mountain above us, the Chase Creek fire has grown to 97 hectares but is 95% contained, meaning the fire fighting crews have built fuel-free guards around the perimeter that are holding.

Here is a link to the forestry ministry's website, so if you're concerned you can get the same info we're getting. We're worried for our neighbours who've been evacuated but again, we are in no danger ourselves. We'll know more about the effect of the hard work the firefighters are doing when the winds shift again, forecasted for tomorrow. Thank you all again for thinking of us. Be well.

Here is the first installment of my photos from our fantastic long weekend “UNniversary” campout. I’m a little short on sleep and super busy, so I’ve put together just Saturday breakfast and lunch so far. It was really, really hot (40 degrees on Sunday afternoon as we headed to the river, for example) so everybody just sat around in the shade keeping cool and talking most of the time – not a good weekend for a stroll around the Wildlife Park or sports that didn’t involve getting wet! So the food was what brought everybody together – with big smiles all around. The boys got the grill and deep fryer going, the serving area set up and the canopies overhead for shade, and we were off and running. I think we were better organized than last year, and everybody pitched in wonderfully, so feeding everyone went pretty much without a hitch. And Richard outdid himself on this year’s menu. Everyone gave it a thumbs up!

Why would anyone spend one’s precious vacation hours camped out in somebody’s back yard? That’s the question that seemed to come up a few times in the past month, as we began extending our annual invitation to our long weekend “UNniversary” campout to new guests both from the coast and locally. Certainly as I was trying to paint a picture of the weekend for my colleagues at my new job on campus, the expressions of puzzlement on their faces made me look at our UNEvents with fresh eyes.

When I was a child, camping meant stuffing our old VW pop-top van with all our vacation supplies and catching some sleep at barely-remembered campgrounds on our way across the country from Vancouver to Winnipeg to spend summers with my grandparents. I only have vague memories of actually pitching a tent in the woods somewhere, but I still treasure one night as a girl at my best friend’s house, when a casual sleepover was transformed by putting up the family’s cavernous manila-yellow canvas tent on the back lawn. Our whispers and stash of brightly coloured candy were interrupted by a typical North Vancouver downpour in the middle of the night that sent us dashing inside, leaving the tent to record the hilarity in sticky rainbow-coloured splotches on the floor.

You can have adventures in your own back yard, and wonderful moments of laughter, excitement and true relaxation that keep you going when you return to the daily grind. That’s what we try to create with our UNEvents, something more than just a backyard barbecue on a sunny long weekend. It may look like an overblown backyard food fest from the photos, but I for one felt like I packed a year full of visits into those three short days that phone calls and the odd dinner get-together just can’t achieve.

I made more of an effort at recording our UNniversary with the camera this year, and I know many of our guests did too (many thanks especially to Bob, who quickly showed me a few essential features of my own camera!). It may take me some time to pick out the best and share them here, but before the march of images begins, I wanted to say how much Richard and I love sharing this weekend with everyone, how happy we are at how well it went this year and how grateful we are that so many of you spent long hours in your cars to spend the weekend camped out in our weedy, sun-baked, work-in-progress back yard, despite extreme heat and holiday traffic and other challenges. You are a wonderful group of people, and if we could pull off this event once in every season, instead of once a year, just to see you more often, we would!

Watching the three little girls, Anika, Olivia, and Daneaya, (and their mischievous little brothers, too) playing together so well, I remembered many times as a kid when I’d meet my parents’ friends and their kids at their homes across the province, many seen only once a year at most, and think how vivid the memories of those children and places still are, and in the background of those visions, how happy my parents were to see their far-flung friends again, if only briefly. I find it hard to express how I feel to see the same patterns again, only expanded so that our friends and their children are becoming friends with each other on this one weekend a year. It’s kind of a nostalgia for the future, isn’t it, to look forward to many UNEvents for years to come, with old friends and new ones. Thanks and big hugs to all of you who shared the weekend with us, a resounding “we missed you” to those who couldn’t make it, and don’t forget to put us on your calendar for next year! We’ll be here.

Our annual long weekend camp-out (the UNniversary as Richard has shortened it) kicks off with the arrival of about 15 guests in time for dinner tomorrow night. We're exhausted from preparations - yard work, shed reno, grocery shopping, cleaning, and cooking - but buzzed with excitement to see everyone. Richard just finished a pot roast rubbed with Mexican spices, and several roasting chickens are next in the morning, to be shredded ready for burritos with all the trimmings. We still need to make Richard's Road Trip Salsa and chocolate chip pecan cookies, just to name a few, and a whole lot of other things need to be set up in the yard before people begin to arrive, so we're off to bed and rising early to do the heavy labour before the heat drives us inside. Thank goodness for AC or we'd never get a thing done in the afternoons. Looking forward to spending an afternoon with everyone at the river - maybe the water won't be quite so chilly this year given it's been above 30 for most of the last 6 weeks! Anyway, I won't get my prep photos up before the weekend, just ran out of time, so look for highlights of Richard's yard project along with the weekend's festivities (ie food) sometime next week. Happy long weekend, everybody!

Our annual trip to Marrowstone Island to celebrate Canada Day and July 4th with the Lunds and friends was absolutely gorgeous this year. The weather was perfect, there was more than enough fresh crab in the pots for the July 4th seafood boil, and we were joined by several friends we’d met there over the years but hadn’t seen in a while. On the usual outing to Port Townsend, Richard and I found some bright shiny things in the local cookware shop, I found a great gardening book at the used bookstore, and I picked up another expansion for my favourite board game, Carcassonne. The rest of the time, like every other year, was devoted to the leisurely enjoyment of food, sunlight, sea air, games, campfires, fireworks, and great friends. Saranda, Alston, Brooke and I went on a long beach walk, and they found all sorts of things in the intertidal sand for me to photograph. I don’t think I took the camera out once after that first morning – as usual, too busy relaxing to take pictures! But I’m rather pleased with these, partly because it was reassuring to find so much sea life thriving.

Ooh, I'm playing catch-up, sorry for these being so late: the highlights of our afternoon wheeling the extreme trail at Rockin' the Crib 2009 on Missezula Lake back in June. Richard got one last great trail run out of Mechano and now the Mog is getting all the attention. But that's next weekend's project, I'm getting ahead of myself.

This past weekend Richard and I joined our friends and about 80 other people for a rock-crawling event at Missezula Lake, off of Highway 5A between Merritt and Princeton. We arrived Friday evening and set up camp, and our day of wheeling started early Saturday. Really early for me – I got up for a call of nature and grabbed the camera when I heard a loon out on the lake.

This serene, wild landscape epitomizes what I love about rock-crawling: we get away to some of the most beautiful wilderness locations in North America, from desert canyons to wooded hills to glacier-carved mountain gullies like the ones at Missezula. Scrambling up and down the trails, camera in hand, I get to see stunning plants, wildlife and rock formations, and most importantly, my man with a huge happy grin on his face...

At this event, called Rockin’ the Crib, a short drive down forestry roads from the lakeside campground brought us to many different trails, one of them – newly christened Manana – with enough challenges to make even Richard drool. Below are the Olsons in their rigs, and Richard being spotted by Chris on the Manana trail later in the afternoon, after a massive but short thundershower drove us back to camp for lunch and a siesta. After the late run Richard served up pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner and we got to know our hosts, Rich and Kelly from crawlinbc.com, and caught up with old friends. It was a great day.

This is just a preview, with a small selection from my 90 best of the day to follow soon. Dagny has pics of our camping setup (we fed the entire group breakfast using our mobile outdoor kitchen equipment on Sunday morning, it went great), and Rick G has alternate camera angles with his pro camera that I’m dying to see and hope he’ll let me post here. So I really do need to pick just the top ten or so. Sigh. It’s so hard to choose! I didn’t do any driving this time – much as I wanted to run Manana with Richard spotting, Mechano currently has no driver’s side door, which is less security than I’m comfortable with – so I went crazy with the camera instead, and Richard and Ben’s runs gave me lots to work with. Ben and Chris, if you want any of the shots in the upcoming posts, let me know and I can send you the full size files. Some great shots if I do say so myself. Stay tuned!

Chris and Dagny tied the knot! On Saturday, April 18th, after a whirlwind of preparations coordinated by yours truly, these two wonderful people were married in a little chapel in Burnaby Village Museum, and partied the night away afterward at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts, in the gorgeous spring setting of Deer Lake Park.

The lateness of spring this year was a surprise to all, but it was just what the wedding coordinator ordered: all the park's blossoming trees, daffodils and other early spring flowers that would normally be finished by mid-April were at their peak. It was a beautiful afternoon, and they make such a perfect couple.

I wish I had more photos of my own - this one comes from Dagny's sister & bridesmaid Marla - but I had enough to do without wielding a camera. I was wedding coordinator and matron of honour, Richard was both groomsman and emcee, and we had our hands full. Luckily, Dagny and Chris had a talented pair of photographers following us around, so I look forward to showing a few of the formal photos as soon as Dagny gets them. (For once I'm even excited to see a few of me... I've never been this dolled up before. And mmm, my man looks damn good in a tux.)

So there you have it. What was once referred to as the Olson Vortex is now an ever-expanding spiral, growing in love and friendship, humour and happy memories. Here's to the bride and groom!

One of the things I miss most about living on the coast is the long, green arrival of spring. During my last visit in mid-January, my sister and nieces and I went for a walk and could see the tips of crocus, snowdrop, daffodil and even iris poking up out of soft dark earth.

Here, winter is lingering as usual in February. Overnight lows of –10 are preserving the ice and snow, and while in the city there are only patches in shady corners and the packed, concrete-like piles around curbs, here the two feet of snow that arrived early in December has barely begun to recede. Friends in Kamloops tell me green is returning to their flowerbeds at lower elevations, but most of my garden is still crusted over with snow. The narrow bare patch in the courtyard under the eaves is vaguely green, bleached weeds left over from late fall, but it will be four weeks at least until the lilies beneath poke fresh green tips out of that hard soil.

For a second I considered pruning. The shoots on the fruit trees got ahead of us last spring, and my apricot buds open in mid-March. But it was –12 last night, there are flurries in the forecast all week, and let’s face it, at –6 right now, my hands are going to be useless with the heavy loppers. Next Sunday is March 1st, (the start of planting season on the coast – we start May 1st) so if it’s a little warmer, maybe I’ll work on the apricot.

Or maybe, given the odd weather patterns we’ve had this season, I’ll be photographing a fresh foot of snow or more hoarfrost needling the trees. One day soon we’ll enter that short but ugly brown mucky phase where weak sunshine finally reaches raw earth, and then I can finally walk through my garden in sneakers instead of snowshoes, looking for that first hint of spring.

Here are a few more wintery photos from the past few weeks.

A decadent dinner chez Richard, with filet mignon, half an Alaskan King crab leg, tiger prawn, and perfectly steamed broccoli (hollandaise optional): $27 a plate.

Spending the weekend with Richard between business trips: priceless.

And just try and find a meal like that at a restaurant for less than double! Can’t believe February is half over already… an update is coming soon.

Happy New Year! As Bev pointed out in her comment this morning, I’ve been away from the blog for a while. Writing has been on my mind more than usual and I’ve got no end of photos I’d love to share, but it’s been hard to find the time. The holidays were a whirlwind (a blizzard?) from the 12th of December when Dagny, Chris and our first major snowfall arrived, to the 5th of January when we collapsed in a heap, holidays over. Since then we’ve been struggling to keep up with everything. I’m going to post a few photo highlights of our holidays here, finally, after an update on the latest goings-on.

So far the New Year has been about work: finding it, in my case, and getting things working smoothly, in Richard’s. While I try to get my writing & design business off the ground, I’m also hunting for part-time admin work to keep funds coming in. This coming week I’m working with my two sisters to get a new website going for my business, and design all the other promotional material to go along with it. I’ll be posting the link to the new site here soon. If you know anyone who’s looking for a writer or editor, send them my way!

Also taking up my time has been reorganization of our office since the arrival of new furniture on the 31st. Richard has joined me in working from home, so we’ve transformed my 14’ x 16’ study-like space into a professional office with two walls worth of desk area including a peninsula that seats two or three for meetings, two much better designed computer stations, a new printer, and more storage coming soon. (His new employer covered the cost of his half of the furniture and the printer, thank you Cubex!) Now it feels like coming to work. Richard’s colleague Andrew was here Wednesday evening through Thursday night and they were able to work comfortably for several hours at one desk while I was at the other. It’s probably the most used room in the house! I’ll post pics when the last of the furniture is installed at the end of the month.

Earlier today, Richard was outside getting familiar with one of the pieces of equipment he sells at his new job. It’s a municipal tractor for sidewalks, currently with a powerful snow blower on the front. He practiced on our driveway and our neighbours’. Ironically, now that they’re beginning a tour across the province showing off the winter equipment they sell, it has stopped snowing pretty much everywhere, although there’s no shortage of it lying around here still. I’ve been breaking in my snowshoes making tracks in the back yard where the snow is up to my knees. Most of our family and friends on the coast are sick of snow, but we’re looking forward to the next round, especially now that Richard is back to selling snow plows and salt spreaders again. I hate to point out, but it is only January, people.

Aside from work, the main other activity taking up my time is exercise. I’ve been working out with a belly dance DVD every morning, trying to get back in shape so I can return to dance class starting February 5th. I see my naturopath next week for some more work on my tailbone and the torn ligaments in my foot (which is why it has taken so long to heal since the break) and hopefully some more acupuncture for my hips, and then I should be able to make it through one or two classes a week without losing the ability to walk. It’s been almost a year since I was last in class and I miss it and the troupe a lot. I look forward to getting back into it with a much healthier lower back this time around. And I’ve got more motivation: to fit into my gorgeous dress as matron of honour at Chris & Dagny’s wedding, only 3 months away!

Now for the holiday photo journal. This is in order, pretty much, from when we left for Calgary on the 17th until Ben & Adrie’s visit for New Year’s. I didn’t get pics of everything and everybody but I did make more of an effort to pull out the camera, at least on Christmas Eve. We had a great time with Richard’s new colleagues, with our families, and with the few friends we were able to see over the holidays. To everyone we didn’t get to spend time with, we hope to see you soon!

O Tannenbaum - our tree was beautiful.

Did I mention I went crazy with my new glue gun?

My first trip through the Rockies in winter.

A mountain I remembered from childhood holidays.

Wonder of wonders, a white Christmas in the Cove.

Making snowmen on Christmas Eve morning.

My sister & nieces sled through the Xmas Eve snowfall.

My nieces shimmy in the belly dance hip scarves I gave them.

Richard shows off a new set of tools.

A family tradition: carols with Erika on piano.

Our drive home Boxing Day was fine. Unlike this guy.

Richard and Jason made the boys a wild toboggan run.

A few things I have to paint you a picture of because I never got out the camera:

December 23rd, dinner at Adrie & Ben’s, a million pairs of eyes watched us from snowmen of all sizes and poses covering every inch of their townhouse. We added one more for the garden. I had no idea Adrie had a snowman fetish!

Christmas Eve morning in Deep Cove, my sister Erika and our nieces Lael and Niamh and I went outside, swathed in woolens and armed with carrots to make a couple of snowmen. The second one became a snow bear, after Niamh took a bite of its unfortunate nose and then lost it while trying to wade through snow higher than her waist. Lael and I got stuck trying to get up out of our wingless snow angels – we couldn’t move our arms.

Christmas Day morning, Lael brought out a new gift, a special set of playing cards, two sets of the alphabet illustrated with animals doing activities like a purple polka-dotted pig painting a letter P. We try Memory and Monkey’s Uncle (a version of Old Maid), and then she and Richard play Big Big Fish, the same as Go Fish but instead of a stack of cards, you spread them out in a fish pond. Cheeky Lael (encouraged by her equally cheeky uncle, of course) replaced the reply “go fish” with inventive ways of saying no using the letter of the requested card. Do you have a raccoon roller-skating? asks Richard. Roll away, Richard Racoon, says Lael. Her replies got far cheekier than that, and so quick! If we weren’t playing a game I’m sure her mother would have been horrified at the insults. My parents sat there laughing their heads off. I couldn’t come up with anything to draw a laugh, until asked for an “N”. Um, nnnnn… I said, struggling for words…nnNO!

Christmas Day evening, we arrived at Richard’s sister’s place for a big potluck dinner with family and friends, at which mashed potatoes were not on the menu. Richard was hugely disappointed, until he saw his Christmas present: a sack of potatoes on the kitchen counter. He got exactly what he wanted – he made them himself.

Boxing Day despite the weather, a few people joined us for Christmas Sushi. We didn't get organized enough before the holidays to get the usual crowd, sadly, but you might be glad you missed it. Chris developed a drinking problem, and Dagny nearly called off the wedding. Not once but twice he knocked over a full glass of ice water right into her lap. Richard and I tried very hard not to laugh.

December 28th, the Rocksons were visiting. After young Alex went out with three pairs in his first turn at Go Fish, we decided to teach him how to play Crazy Eights. Richard helped him sort his cards and run through one game to learn the rules. The 5-year-old won. Then Richard left to cook dinner, and by himself Alex beat us all again, twice. His last card was a Crazy Eight every time. Beware boys with dimples. I love cards and Richard rarely plays, so it was also a treat to play Rummy after the kids went to bed that night.

Oh, and one more anecdote from Ben and Adrie: driving through Vancouver during the worst of the Christmas snowfall, they saw a man whose car had been buried at the curb by a snow plow. He was digging it out with a 9”x13” baking pan. Ah, winter.

Wishing all our loved ones a Merry Christmas and a joyful and abundant New Year.

We survived our drive to and from Calgary - wow, the Rockies in winter are spectacular - and are about to set out into this winter wonderland again. See you for Christmas sushi at the usual place Boxing Day, we hope, and if not, see you in the New Year. We'd love to have you over to play in the snow. All two feet of it (so far). All the best, Richard & Anita.