Summer in Prince George

Our summer trip to Prince George was delayed this year due to Covid. When we were planning our summer in June there was still uncertainty on whether the province would allow travel between regions. By the time they opened up we found we needed to be in Oliver to help Reg remove some shrubs and we had a dentist appointment scheduled mid-month. This meant the ideal time to go was the third week of July instead of the first week. Our next issue to resolve was the fires that were happening in BC. It was another busy season and there was road closures between Lytton and Spences Bridge as well as near 100 Mile House. With those closures, the trip via Kamloops and Valemount was more appealing. Usually it's an extra two hours but with the road closures it was only really an hour longer. We planned our meals and stops and the kids wanted to try the Funky Goat which turned out to be a food truck. We were there at noon and had to wait until 1:00 for it to open. Surprisingly, Kerry and Callie ordered a sandwich that took longer than that to create so we actually ate before them.

My brother recently moved to Quesnel and had just purchased a house that we hadn't seen first. Since we didn't travel through Quesnel on our way up we had to make a special trip to go see him. He hosted an excellent breakfast and we spent some time exploring the renovations underway. It's an older home but they have big plans. Within a couple years they should have every room redone and a rental suite. The prices in Quesnel are much cheaper but lack of rental space means rental units are in high demand. A good place for anyone who wants to buy a second property to rent.

As per usual we spent much of our time out at my families lake property. Carter fished and got at least one which is always his goal. I spent much of the time canoeing back and forth to an area where I could gather some larger stones. The lake has been left fairly high for the past several years so beach erosion is an issue. We've installed some rock baskets and we needed rocks. Eric did the filling and I did the rock gathering. We also checked out the old cabin down the beach that was built by a friend of my Grandfather's. The roof has finally caved in so it doesn't have many years left. I really should try to save some of the furniture.

Our trip home was on our usual route. There was more rain up north and the fires near Lytton had burned everything up to the road so they were able to open the road again. You could clearly see how significant the fires near Lytton were. For several kilometers all of the trees had been impacted. Fires in this area come in quick and leave just as quick so they tend to leave the trees standing though it's clear they are likely dead. Lytton isn't usually a town we actually drive through but I think we will try next year. Hopefully they find funding to rebuild.

Daddy's Weekend of Fun

It's not often that Kerry is away and I'm left in charge of the kids. This weekend Kerry was headed to Kelowna to celebrate various birthday's including her friend Kathy's 50th. Leading up to the weekend, Carter was very worried that I was going to be in charge. He felt I wasn't going to feed him which in some ways was likely true. They are each going on 13 and 16 and should be able to handle a few meals for themselves. I also had plans to do something for them on the weekend but I wasn't about to tell them what that was until it was time to go. We started the weekend with some comical shots of the kids hitch hiking in front of our house though that wasn't going to be our mode of transportation. Kerry had gone up with Kathy so we had the vehicle available to us. Our plan was to drive to my work in Burnaby, park the car and then take the Skytrain and sea bus to the North Shore. There wasn't any specific point to the weekend other than to do something we wouldn't ordinarily do when Kerry was home. She isn't a fan of trips on the Skytrain.

The train ride and sea bus were uneventful and I think everyone enjoyed their time at the Lonsdale Quay. We went into the market and had lunch and desert and then wandered around. We found an art gallery that was accessible via donation. Carter isn't a fan of art galleries as he always find something very unusual that he just doesn't understand. Callie enjoys seeing what other artists are up to. The unique item for us was baby Yoda in a native baby snuggly. We also did a bit of shopping for Kerry as her birthday was on the following Monday. I think everyone enjoyed the trip.

On Sunday we started with a TikTok trend specifically aimed to irritate Kerry. She isn't a fan of Tiktok and doesn't understand that its really just the video social media site to compliment twitter as the text based social media site and Instagram as the picture focused social media site. I spend a portion of my day on it but I can really only watch for 15-20 minutes at most before I get bored. The trend we were replicating was pancake cereal which is just time pancakes cooked and added to a cereal bowl. Really no different than taking a regular pancake and cutting it up except that you get more edge pieces. It was labor intensive but good.

Kerry returned on Monday afternoon to two kids that were still breathing so I consider it a successful weekend.

 

Post COVID Trip to Oliver

Our last trip to Oliver was last summer. COVID was in full swing and the province had convinced itself that we could travel again. Since that time there have been multiple lockdowns that prevented anyone from travelling in the province. Now that 75% of adults have at least one shot, we may actually be reaching the end of this, assuming the US doesn't screw things up due to vaccine hesitancy. When we arrived in Oliver we were immediately put to work. Reg has a hedge that was getting hard to control and he needed our help to remove it and add some pavers in preparation for a new fence. It was hot work but the results were very obvious when we were done.

We took our traditional trip to Hester Creek. We picked up bread from Platinum Bench, made up some wine and cheese plates and brought the dogs. Things almost felt normal again. They had a check in so they could take your name but other than that most COVID protocols were gone. We still choose to wear our mask indoors when we can't social distance and the staff would wear masks for the tasting. It was good that we got there early because it was a hot weekend in Oliver with temperatures over 35 degrees. I think the only part of the tradition that didn't happen was Carter and Gampoo running on the grass. They might both be too old for that.

Carter made sure we made it to the lake every day. He purchased a new floatie from the Canadian Tire. I wanted to strap it to the back of the car for our trip back to Surrey but there wasn't a lot of places to attach to. Tuk-El-Nuit lake was very nice and it looks like Oliver is spending a bit of money on their public beaches. They were raking the beach every day and had permanently anchored some floaties off shore. The private campground usually does this so it was nice to see the same treatment for the public portion. 

The local native reserve has leased some land to a new experience just outside of Oliver. It's called the Hub and the plan is for 14 wineries, breweries and eateries to all be in one location. When I first heard about it, we thought it was more of a centralized tasting area which it is, but its more than that. They've got space for entertainment, misters to keep things cool and each location has their own patio. There seem to be rules about where you can drink each locations wine but that might loosen over time. I can see it being a nice place to be for an evening of dining and entertainment.

Our last day ended with ice cream and fire. We were on our way to OK Falls and noticed what appeared to be a relatively new fire. It turned out to be past where we were going so we still got our ice cream. They ordered evacuations later that day. We also almost had to deal with fires on our way there and our trip to Prince George will likely involve dodging road closures. Fire season is bad again this year which isn't surprising considering the heat we had so early in June. It's mid July with no rain for weeks and none on the horizon. This is a tradition that I don't look forward to each year.

 

Hottest Day Ever!

June 28 was an unusually hot day. It reached over 40 degrees in the shade at our house. This would have been a hot day for July or August and was even more unusual for June. Local temperature records were being beat by almost double digits. Things got progressively warmer on Friday, Saturday and Sunday and them culminated in the 40 degree day for Surrey. It got to 36.5 degrees inside the house and even the next morning it was still 29 degrees inside. This is the final straw for us regarding air conditioning. We have a single unit that does a single room but its not enough. I'm not looking to cool things to 21 degrees but we have to be able to cut the edge at night and there are more and more of these hot days. It would be silly to try to get something now so we'll plan to do it later in the fall or early spring. 

It was hot across the province for this week with multiple cities breaking the Canada record. Lytton took top spot and was unceremoniously burnt to the ground the following day. Literally. Climate change is real. 

Last Day at Frost Road

June 25 was Carter's last day at Frost Road. Not only was it his last day, it was the last day of having a Schwab at the school. Kerry had started teaching there 18 years earlier and Callie and Carter both spent all of elementary school there. Kerry's not teaching there anymore so now that Carter is gone we will no longer have a presence at the school that is only about 500 feet from our house. Carter unfortunately got the short end of the stick for his grade 7 year. With Covid restrictions, he missed out on camp and a formal grade 7 graduation dinner. We did surprise him and his friends the following week with an event at one of his friends house. Just dinner and water guns but I think they were excited they got to do it. Some were suspicious but most had no idea it was happening. Hopefully Kerry ends up being a principal there at some point in the future. 

Dance Recital Weekend

For the past 10+ years Callie has had an end of year dance recital for her dance classes. We didn't get to do anything last year due to Covid as the year ended in May and there wasn't enough time to recover from the lock downs that started in March. They had managed to switch to dance at home before the end of the year however no one knew what kind of recital you could do considering you couldn't even get a single class in the same room, let alone a recital hall of dancers and parents. This year they were prepared and had arranged for a stage in Vancouver and they taped everyone's dance as individual classes. 

This was at the end of May and we haven't seen the results as of mid July but hopefully soon. Hopefully they were careful with all the recordings. I wouldn't want to have to redo any of the dances at this point. 

Although the weekend was not a normal recital weekend we still made the best of it. Since the dances were at different times in Vancouver, we drove down as a family and stayed for the day. We went to my old neighborhood of Kerrisdale for lunch and later to Greek Town for an early dinner. Kerry and Callie just happened to have been talking about how they wanted toone day eat at a restaurant that had been on 'You Gotta Eat here' and as we were walking around we found just such a place. Apparently they had filmed breakfast there and although we were having lunch/dinner we weren't disappointed. You really gotta eat there. 

The Marvel Puzzle

On March 23, towards the end of Spring Break, Carter and Kerry started on a new challenge. Carter had recently purchased a new 3000 puzzle. This blew past our typical puzzle size of 1000 pieces and apparently puzzles get exponentially more difficult as you add more pieces. It took more than a day just to find the outside pieces and get all the pieces flipped over. We had to expand the size of the dining room table and add a second and third table to the dining room just so we had enough space for to both lay out the pieces and have a place to build the puzzle. It didn't help that the color palette of this puzzle was somewhat limited with a lot of red, green and black.

Things started promising with the first 500 pieces or so put in place. This included the easy parts like the sky and the Marvel sign. After that there was a significant drop off in production. Kerry and Carter did the vast majority of the work. I did just enough pieces so they couldn't claim they did the whole thing themselves. After a large break of about a month things picked up again and they managed to finish it on May 11th. To get a sense of just how much effort it was, I tried to do a dismantling video and got bored after 2 minutes. We don't recommend doing a 3000 piece puzzle. 1000 pieces is where its at.

The Beginning of the End

On April 26th it was my time to get vaccinated. The clear front runner based on efficacy was the Pfizer or Moderna but Canada was having trouble getting those into the country. They did have plenty of AstraZeneca available so they were starting to offer it to the younger age groups. I figured a shot in the arm of something was better than nothing and we'd probably need boosters next year anyways so I signed up. The process was seamless, right from the sign-up process to the day of the vaccination. You got a time slot and had to show up within 10 minutes of that time. A quick form to fill in and an electronic check in process and they sent you to sit in a row for your shot. 

They came to you and after you were done they wrote your time to leave on the glass divider between you and the next person. They also gave you a card to take home with what you received and when. Although vaccine passports aren't a thing, you can also go online and see what you got and when and can print out a form as proof of vaccination. Not necessary for moving around the country but I think we will need it when we go to the US.

It's now July 3rd and I just got my second shot as well. This time I went with Pfizer and some studies have shown that mixing and matching is as good if not better for immune response. It will be a few years before they can figure out if I will grow and a tail or an extra eyeball. Another couple weeks and the kids will also have their second shot. Once the whole family is vaccinated, we just have to wait to decide where we want to go. Unfortunately it might not be until next spring break but at least we're getting closer to being able to go places without a mask. Its been a long haul. 

 

Don't Let the Dog in After He Gets Skunked

This post is just a quick lesson for our future selves. If your dog gets skunked, do not let him run around the house and when you catch him, do not bring him upstairs for a bath. Also, you should have skunk shampoo ingredients on hand. On April 22nd Oliver was out for his last pee before bed and started barking. Kerry could see the skunk but couldn't get Oliver to come in. He eventually ran into the house and jumped on the couch. The skunk got him full in the face. Kerry grabbed him and took him to the tub but it was too late. The couch took 2 weeks and dry cleaning to address and Callie's bathroom and Oliver's face still smell like skunk when they get wet 2 months later.
 

Our Second Covid Easter

This was our second Easter during Covid. The vaccine is available and Kerry has her first shot but the province is still pretty much closed. We remain working from home and you can't travel outside of your health district, meaning no one can come to or from Prince George or Oliver. We did still do our own thing for Easter Sunday though. The kids woke up and looked for chocolates from the Easter Bunny. At this point I'm not sure we're ever going to be allowed to stop that. Carter is getting much more competitive so perhaps we'll stop when one of them gets seriously injured.

We also had a traditional easter dinner of turkey, potatoes, stuffing, buns and Brussel sprouts. I would have been fine without turkey since there are a lot of leftovers with 4 people and no Uncle Ronnie, but Carter really wanted a giant turkey leg for Easter. Callie made the buns and did a great job. Things are looking much better for next year. Covid should be done by the summer and we should be able to have regular family holiday events in the fall. 

Bathroom Reno Completion (Almost)

In the fall last year our toilet broke. We bought a new one but quickly discovered that it had been leaking for a while and we would need to remove the particle board floor around the toilet. At this point of course it made sense to redo our whole bathroom. Covid was in full swing and everyone's vacation funds were being turned into home renovation funds so contractors weren't cheap. The guy up the street with a similar house layout to us indicated he had asked for a quote and been told $35k to $40k. I figured we could do it for about half of that so we started purchasing materials before Christmas including the shower, vanity and fixtures.

There were two pieces that I didn't really want to do. The first was the plumbing. Our house has the old Poly-B pipes that are prone to sudden failure and needed replacing. It was going to be easier if we did the half of the house that included the bathroom now so we hired a contractor to do that and install the shower and drain for the tub. The other piece was the tile. I've done tiling myself before but its not my favourite because if you screw up you can't just sand it smooth. You have to rip it out and start over. We tried several options for someone to come but in the end none of them called us back or gave us very high prices. Kerry and I set aside a weekend and made the attempt. I placed the mortar on the floor and she back buttered the big tiles. There was a lot of swearing but we survived. It took about 4 months from plumbing start to all fixtures in place although it is July and I'm not quite done. I'm working on a cabinet to store toilet paper for the apolocolypse and unfortunately it seems the plumbers didn't install the drain correctly so I have to figure that out. Should be done by the end of the summer.

A Covid Christmas

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, were bubble members only because Bonnie Henry said so. Merry Covid Christmas! Things weren't looking too bad going into October and my work had even asked that people leaders return to work for one day a week starting in mid November. By the time mid November came around however we were into the hundreds for daily Covid numbers and that continued into December. By the second week of December Bonnie Henry was starting to drop hints that Christmas would be different this year. We had considered having Kerry's parents come down with the intention of both households quarantining in advance but with a travel ban and only one family per house hold rules in place it was decided that our Christmas would be much smaller. No family visits, no big Christmas Dinner and no fondue. Having said all that, we did still go through the motions of Christmas with a fresh tree and lights on the house though admittedly I had a few strings that needed work and I decided it was easier to just not put those ones up.

My grand mother passed away before a few years ago and one of the the things she always did was a lot of Christmas baking. Since she was in a home for the past few years of her life we hadn't had her short bread for several years. When she was still alive I had her tell me the recipe with the goal of one day trying to replicate it. Shortbread is a simple recipe but there are many variations so I was glad I got both the proper ratios of ingredients and the steps she took. This year seemed like a good year to give it a go. There were a few steps like how long to beat the butter and sugar that I didn't have so I borrowed some steps from Anna Olsen. The end result was better than I expected and pretty close to what I remember. The only step I didn't do that I think she did was to use a fork to flatten the shortbread before cooking. I know she did that for some of her recipes but not sure about this one. I've carefully documented all the steps and am glad I can replicate this piece of her.

The next Christmas event was exchanging gifts with Kerry's brother and his family. They only live a few blocks away and they would typically come over on Christmas day and we made this happen despite Covid. We had a gift exchange in the drive-way. We even had a bit of snow. The six foot rule was adhered to at all times with the help of a gift exchange piece of cardboard on the front planter and we all made sure to wash our hands as soon as we got inside. I think this exchange would have been Bonnie Henry approved.

The next tradition that was ruined by Covid was the Christmas day dinner. We would typically have Kerry's parents and her brothers over but this year we kept it to just Uncle Ronnie. He lives alone and effectively works alone as well so he was allowed to come to Christmas dinner. Bonnie Henry felt it was important to that single people get together with family. We had a turkey that was the free gift from Superstore and we had a few crackers left over from last year. It was similar to a regular Christmas but not quite the same.

For the past 20 years I've Participated in the Kilden family tradition of a fondue during Christmas break and for the past several years that has included the Duke family. The day shifts around depending on when people are available but once again it was our family only. We decided we would do it on New Years eve. Only one pot and with less people in the pot it went quickly. We started around 5:30 and were done by 6:15. The only good thing is that meant the house didn't smell of oil the next day.

We wrapped up Christmas with a new tradition that hopefully we don't have to repeat next year. We met up with Kerry's parents in the parking lot of Manning Park Lodge to exchange gifts and food. Kerry's parents always bring down lots of treats for Christmas and they had made them hoping they could come. We ended up with enough food to last us weeks. The one nice thing about the visit was we got to see real snow. There was several feet at the lodge and it almost felt like a real Christmas.

Here's to hoping Covid wraps up before next Christmas.