Listening To The Inside Of My Head

Its been quite some time since I posted on my blog.  Partly because I have been busy and partly because....I have been busy...haha.

It has been so cold here (at least to me) that I think I can hear my teeth chattering on the inside of my head!  We are not planning on decorating for Christmas this year since we will be out of town with family.  We usually take a Christmas photo and post it on our social network page.  But since we will not be around, I thought I would post this for you......

This is me, trying to keep my teeth from chattering in my head!!  And by the way, I'M IN THE HOUSE!

  Chris is sneaking a picture of my calamity from behind me....notice the "Phablet" in the picture?

Stay warm, ya'll!

A Worm Whisperer......

If you have been following me for some time now, you know that I have a desire to beautify my surroundings; particularly my garden areas.  In the complex that we currently live, we are subject to Strata Laws which are the equivalent of a "Home Owner's Association" in the states.   If you have ever lived in that type of a situation, you know that it can be very restrictive at times leaving one to wonder who REALLY owns your home.  With that in mind and having been informed of a change of Strata companies in our long absence, we decided to seek permission to continue our flower garden outside.   It was granted......YaY!

We have been having terrible problems with our Rhododendron that has just about killed them off while we were away.  So, I have decided to do some composting to help remediate the soil for Spring and hopefully we will not have to pull them out of the ground.  First line of defense,  The Worm Factory 360. I ordered this earlier in the year and had intended to take it to the states with me, but the car was too full.

I was excited to open the box and get started on the setup.  Since I had one in the states, it was going to be easy to get this one up and going....

It is a fairly complete kit with all of the things that a person would need to get a healthy compost bin up and running.  Mine is going to be kept indoors, so doing it properly is important.  The kit comes with some shredded paper, pumice, and I threw in some crushed egg shells to help keep the ph levels in the safe zone.

They also include some coconut coir which is the brown square at the top of the screen, a scraper, aerator, container, four perforated trays and a DVD that explains how to set things up and what the composting worms will need to be productive.

They also included a thermometer to keep the little creatures happy......

The coconut coir has to be soaked in water for it to expand.  It becomes almost 4 times its original size. I  I soaked mine for 24 hours.

After the soaking is completed, it has to be wrung out to the wetness of a wrung out sponge, mixed with a handful of pumice rock, shredded newspaper and the eggshell.  Sheets of paper are placed in the bottom to keep the contents from falling through and the mixture is placed in the tray.

Next thing to do was to get the Red Wigglers or Eisenia Fetida to start munching away on some food that had been sitting and naturally composting in a container for them.  Here is a picture with everything mixed into the tray.

Below is a picture of some finished compost from my system in Oklahoma.  This is the material that I hope to have by next January.

If all goes well, I hope to be able to save what is left of my garden that was left unattended during our stay in the states.  My next request from the strata will be for the use of some space that may have been abandoned to start a square foot garden.  I would like to plant some vegetables for myself and also to give away to a local food bank or a shelter for the homeless if possible....:-). Hopefully, I won't have to have a license to do this.

A Trip Through Keremeous, British Columbia.

It's amazing how you can become wired to rise early and hit the road even when you don't want to!  We were up early and hitting the road again before 9:00am.  We knew we needed to get the situation with the trailer lights worked out at a shop and not press our chances of staying out of an accident or getting a ticket.  Best bet was to head out early and stop by the shop that put the lights on our trailer for us before we left on our big adventure several months ago. The sky was beautiful.......:-)

Trying to capture what you see in a small point and shoot camera like the one I have is fruitless.  Nevertheless, here are a few shots of the morning sun coming over the horizon...

I remember when I first came to British Columbia from the United States.  I was fascinated with the amount of Christmas trees that seemed to be in abundance here!

But I still think the most beautiful thing is the sky no matter where you are in the world.....:-)

We came upon the little town of Keremeous.  I promised my friend that the next time I went through her old stomping ground that we would take some pics for her.....:-).

So, here we are......:-)

This is a shot of the main street......

Some of the pictures didn't load in the order that I took them.  I think this one was first, but any way......

We had already eaten breakfast, so we didn't stop here to munch on anything......

This is a shot overlooking the town.......:-)

 You gotta love the horses......Chris called out to them and the one on the left turned his head to see who was making the strange sound.....:-)

There are fruit and vegetable stands everyone in the little towns in the Okanagan.  These pics were all taken in Keremeous....

I like to visit them and see what they are featuring at the time......

Here is a picture of another one which looks like a great candidate for a rock slide........

there were corn stalks and pumpkins everywhere......I don't much like pumpkin anything though......

Chris and I have stopped at this stand many times over the years and bought fruit, veggies and honey to take back with us....

After filling our eyes with all things Keremeous, it was time to hit the road again and start our long trek back to our own town.

The fall colors were amazing and we enjoyed a nice ride back to our own town having stopped to get the trailer fixed and pick up some groceries to put into our empty refrigerator....

Time to unwind and settle in after being on and off the road for close to a year.....:-)
This was the view from my window when I finally got on the other side of it.

Thanks for hanging out with us.....:-)

See you next time!

The Long Road Home- Day 4

It was a very cold, and very foggy morning. The frost on the car was a clear indication to me that I was going to need something on my head if I was going to keep the heat in and not freeze my patootie off!

If you look closely, you can see the frost on the car.....

The doors were almost frozen shut.  You could hear a "crunch" when you pulled on the door handle.

 Chris decided to run the stuff out to the car through the door so that I didn't freeze with the window being open for so long while trying to get ready to go.

We grabbed breakfast along the way and traveled on down the road toward our next destination.....the scenery was just breath taking along the way.

There we were.  Traveling along, chatting and somehow discovering that we suddenly had no lights in some of the parts of the car.  The dash was fine, but no lights in the glove box, no lights in the ashtray or clock, etc.  

We took the car to a shop and they didn't have time to work on it and we didn't have time to stay over.  I should say though that before we left Oklahoma, Chris took the car to be serviced and they said the high beam light was out.  We thought it would just be a simple thing of changing the bulb, which he opted to do along the way. Little did we know.  Chris changed the bulb and it still didn't work.  We checked the fuses and one was out.  We (he) replaced the fuse with the spare that we had.  NOTHING.

Needless to say, it was a very cold few minutes trying to get it all sorted out.  We never did get things working.

An now, we are about to drive into some serious fog......

And it looks like it's going to get pretty hairy for a while.

We know we wanted to get to a shop and have it diagnosed if possible before we cross the border, but that might not be possible.

After what to me seemed like some nerve bending moments without tail lights, we began to emerge from the fog.

coming out of it was a great relief, but we still had several hours of driving ahead of us that would probaby take us into the night.

 We came upon St. Regis, Montana and decided to take a break.

It reminded me of a mini Cracker Barrel store with all manner of things including this huge fish tank that you know who decided he was going to get into through a whole in the middle.....ha.  I think he is a pretty good catch....:-).

They had several other tanks that had the ugliest looking trout you ever want to see.

After leaving St. Regis, we traveled on toward the next destination.  I really enjoy all of the fall colors.  Unfortunately, after I got over my "awe" of what I was seeing, I had often missed the shot I wanted to take with my camera.

And then we hit the border of Idaho......we are getting closer to BC with each passing day.

However, somebody was needing some "pick me up".  So, we stopped to grab some coffee at a drive through espresso shop.  Mr. McGrumpy.......:-(.  Poor guy was hanging on by a thread, but insist on driving anyway....

We placed our orders and took some pictures of the little placards outside on the wall.

here is the menu, but I ordered off of a another menu that they had posted.  My drink was called a "Brave
Bull".  It was two shots of espresso, with coconut and almond.

 Mr. Chris is deciding if he wants a cookie to go with his java.....:-).

After driving along for a while longer, we crossed the state line into Washington and it went past so quick that we didn't even get a chance to get a picture.  But here we are in Colville, Washington. We both were in agreement that if we moved out of Canada, having a place here would be great.
  

This is a shot of the main street.....

About ninety five miles down the road is a little town called Oroville, Washington.  Five minutes away from the Canadian border. We decided to stop here for dinner and have a decent "hot" meal for dinner.  I was TIRED of road food.  This park was across the street from the restaurant.

What a beautiful place......

Try as I may, I was not able to capture the beautiful that I was seeing through my little camera....

 Here are a couple of other shots of the town...

I love how all of these tiny towns have murals on their walls that tell the story of their beginnings.

and more beautiful trees.....:-)

The water looks like glass in the distance.....

And some of the trees look like someone stuck them in their to fill in a hole.....

this is one of my favorites......:-)

Ms Vickey and Maj seemed to be hanging in there although they are both very filthy now from all of the road dirt they have accumulated during the trip.

Time to eat!  I nice hot meal would be great.....

You know who beat me to the door.....haha.  We were pretty hungry!

I was glad to see the fire place inside as it was a bit chilly outside.

This will be my last American meal unless I cook it myself for a while.......:-(. I'm missing my home already.

We had a couple of things to do before crossing over.  The declaration form had to be filled out for one thing.....

Our food came and we were glad to see it.  Chris ordered a salad of some sort and I order some Jamaican pork with coconut shrimp, rice and grilled veggies with pineapple.

The last thing on the list to do before crossing over was to change the sym card in my phone back to the Canadian carrier.  I had secured it to the card that my T-mobile sym card came on.  It was just a matter of peeling it off and popping it in once I got the other one out of the phone.

We hurried and ate dinner since  we needed to get back on the road before the sun set.  We still had that tail light situation going on....

After going through a "Not a Nexus Line" interview at the border, we crossed into Canada two days ahead of schedule.  We made a side trip to visit Chris's 90 year old mother and spend some time with her before making our 6 hour trip to our own home.  So, this is where we will be for the next few days.  

And so ends The Long Trip Home.  We enjoyed having you with us in the  United States, the European vacation and the gardening that took place in these past few months.

Thanks for coming along with us!!  See you next time!