hydetimes

We have been without power since noon and the BCHydro site is telling us we will be out until tomorrow morning at 8am… Ugh!

Stay tuned …

Yesterday we took a trip to Costco in PG and stocked up the pantry… It was like Christmas! We could get snowed in and it would be many months before we would have to worry about food. I have been making small lasagnes (my own versions with butternut squash sauce instead of tomato and different ingredients for some variety) in takeout containers and freezing them. I have lots of wontons frozen and butternut squash soup. We bought 6 chickens yesterday, they will get cut up and frozen. We had a 17 lb turkey at Thanksgiving, most of it is in the freezer along with many loaves of zucchini loaf. I was about to make more goodies to freeze today when the power went out so instead I am blogging about it. Its a beautiful day so we are off to the dump with a load of stuff from under the lean to next to the shop but that is a whole other blog so stay tuned…

Rodents are a big problem this year for some reason and we aren’t alone… Apparently there is a big population and most are having the same problem. We have always had to put traps out in my office and I’m super careful to never leave anything in there they could feed on but they like the warmth so no matter how diligent, we still get mice. We are now having a problem with them in the boot room. Between those 2 rooms Barry is constantly emptying traps. (There is a pile of carcasses on the barrel outside my office that Barry wanted me to put a photo of on this blog but I will spare you all that visual, it isn’t pretty). We also heard something big in the attic so Barry put out some large traps and he caught a pack rat under the house… Might have been the same guy from the attic because he is silent now.

There is a squirrel living in the attic of my office… I am so used to him now that we are living together quite harmoniously. He used to stick his head out of the corner of the ceiling and scream at me from time to time, he hasn’t done that for weeks so I think he has accepted me. I have to tell him to keep it down some days when I’m trying to work and he’s scampering around above my head. He is welcome to stay as long as he doesn’t damage anything… So far he is behaving.

There is a pack rat living in Barry’s shop as well (I will get a photo of him and upload it to this blog, I just keep forgetting my camera when we go down there). The dogs are on his trail but he just scoots up into the rafters and laughs at them. Lily is more concerned about him than Mini. I don’t think we are going to worry about him, he will steal some of Barry’s things but he doesn’t seem to worried about it, can’t take anything heavy so the tools should be safe.

Mini brought a mouse into the house the other day so she too is helping …she was very proud to present me with her treasure. One downside to the doggie door, the dogs can get in without being inspected for unwanted paraphernalia such as tennis balls and dead rodents.

More to come so stay tuned…

Friday the power was out when we woke up and stayed out until 3pm. The winds have been really high and gusty and it brought down a power pole in Cottonwood! Yikes! That’s pretty scary! On our way home yesterday we counted 4 trees laying on the power lines and today the power is flickering so we are fully expecting an outage. Last week Barry built a box to house the generator next to the house and filled it with all the extension cords, extra fuel etc. Between the big one for the house and the little one for my office, we are ready! Last year we had many outages and some for long periods of time and we didn’t have the large generator handy so we only used it a couple of times. This year we expect to have many more with all the dead trees that are ready to come down.

The days have been up to 20 degrees and sunny with big wind. The cottonwood trees are almost bare. The Aspen turn colour after them so they are still full of beautiful yellow and gold leaves… So pretty!

You can see the box to the right… Still needs to be painted. The tin on the front of the front of the boot room is for snow, it will come off in the summer… Maybe.

Lots going on these days… Stay tuned…

It is amazing how a door can change your life! Yesterday Barry got the door all put together and installed and life suddenly changed! The dogs have more freedom although they are still getting used to it and it’s pretty funny watching Mini try to open it from the top every time. And Lily waits for Mini to go thru then she scoots right behind so she doesn’t have to open the flap herself. They are doing pretty for only day 2. I came in from work today and it was warm! So exciting! We are calling it the decompression chamber, hahahah. So happy with my boot room! Thanks again Barry, best gift ever!

October 1st and it’s snowing… tried to get a photo but can’t see much.

On another note, there is a door being installed on the bootroom as I type this!!!!  SO EXCITED!   Photos to follow…

Stay tuned……

Mini and Lily love to tag along no matter what the chore! They especially love rides in the jeep!

We got our wood so fast this year it was crazy! We got huge trees that took a couple trucks to get home so we only dropped 5 trees and it filled the shed! Yahoo! Very nice trees too! The last couple of years I did a few boxes of kindling a head of time but it never lasted much past Christmas so this year Barry is on a mission to have enough kindling to last until spring or better… It can be chilly out there in the mornings chopping kindling to start a fire! He has been splitting kindling for over a week and he has gathered absolutely every wooden box we have on the property. He has brought them all here and they are all full! He is doing the last few pieces of cedar we had at the studio in the photo then he’s done… Unless he finds another container! I would bet we have enough for an entire year!

We always check out the share shed when we go to the dump and over the years we have picked up some useful items like light fixtures, table, chairs, etc. Some just for fun things like our buddy Winnie the Pooh and many dishes and TVs to shoot for target practice. We have also left a lot of stuff over the years. Friday we found a box of veggies so we took a huge zucchini and I made bread… Hahahaha… We can now officially say we have eaten dump food. The bread is absolutely delicious! Going to freeze a bunch.

It was -2 this morning when we woke up! Bbrrrrrr. Even Lily put on a sweater!

I was in my office a couple of weeks ago and I heard a big crash coming from the cold storage. I go to look and Barry is limping away from a pile of boxes all scattered around. We had started to set up for the wedding and there was a pile of large totes full of paperwork I was going to burn. He was in the cold storage and heard a buzzing so went around the building and found this! They were super aggressive and started chasing him! He ran right into the pile of boxes, lost his glasses and scraped his leg all up… Got 1 sting! They were huge nasty buggers! Today I noticed something has ripped the nest apart, probably to eat the dead wasps but we poisoned these guys and I think it figured it out because the carcasses are a till there… Very creepy!

This guy decided to pay us a visit the other night… He was very cool!

While I was away (I have a lot of catching up to do on the blog as you can see… Things are going to be out of order!) Terry Isaac was in Wells for a song writing course. Barry had just met him at a workshop so they hung out while Terry was up here… Nice! Here is a shot of Terry at the final concert… Apparently he is a good singer, hopefully I’ll get to hear him one day.

Sounds like a band! Barry went back to visit Karen while I was away and got a couple of photos. She has done a lot to the old building, it’s looking great! I wonder if she moves away what will happen to her bird buddies?

We adopted this pooh bear stuffie from the share shed and have been having all sorts of fun with him!

For those who missed it and for us to reflect…

Family and friends – we are gathered here today to witness the formal joining in the legal state of matrimony of this man and this woman.

Marriage is not just a legal document. A marriage is the promises made and kept between two individuals. Today, Barry Fraser Curtis and Paula Richele Cooke stand before us in a desire to publicly declare their love for each other and to share with us their marriage promises.

Barry, please repeat after me:

I solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, Barry Fraser Curtis, may not be joined in matrimony to Paula Richele Cooke.

Paula, please repeat after me:

I solemnly declare that I do not know of any lawful impediment why I, Paula Richele Cooke, may not be joined in matrimony to Barry Fraser Curtis.

There having been no impediment declared or admitted, I charge you to give answer to these questions:

Please join your right hands.

Barry Fraser Curtis, will you take this woman, whose hand you hold, choosing her alone from all others, to be your partner in life? Will you live with her in a state of truth and love? Will you support and comfort her at all times, without reservation?
Will you honour and respect her, give her strength, provide for her needs as best you can, grow with her in mind and spirit, always be open and honest with her and cherish her from this day on?

Barry: I will

Paula Richele Cooke, will you take this man, whose hand you hold, choosing him alone from all others, to be your partner in life? Will you live with him in a state of truth and love? Will you support and comfort him at all times, without reservation? Will you honour and respect him, give him strength, provide for his needs as best you can, grow with him in mind and spirit, always be open and honest with him and
cherish him from this day on?

Paula: I will

Barry: I call on those present to witness that I, Barry Fraser Curtis, take , Paula Richele Cooke, to be my lawful wedded wife. I promise to share with you all my love and my life, in good times and in bad, and to respect and cherish you, as my wife, from this day forward. Nothing shall become more important than our love for each other.

Paula: I call on those present to witness that I, Paula Richele Cooke, take Barry Fraser Curtis to be
my lawful wedded husband. I promise to share with you all my love and my life,
in good times and in bad, and to respect and cherish you, as my husband, from this day forward. Nothing shall become more important than our love for each other.

May I have the rings please.

Inasmuch as you have made this declaration of your vows concerning one another
and have set these rings before me, I ask that now these rings be used and regarded
as a seal, a confirmation and an acceptance of the vows you have made today.

Barry, please place the ring on the third finger of Paula’s left hand and repeat
after me:

With this ring I wed you for today and always. Please wear it as a sign of my love for you.

Paula, please place the ring on the third finger of Barry’s left hand and repeat
after me;

With this ring I wed you for today and always. Please wear it as a sign of my love for you.

These two lives are now joined in one unbroken circle. Wherever they go, may they always return to one another. May they grow in understanding and in compassion and may these rings symbolize the spirit of undying love in the hearts of them both.

Barry and Paula, I now pronounce you husband and wife.
Barry, you may kiss your bride.

Signing of the register.

It gives me great pleasure to introduce to you, for the very first time, Mr and Mrs Curtis.

August 31, 2014 we got married! It was an amazing weekend with our closest friends and family. We regretfully were missing a few key people but that was the risk we took. We gave our guests a short 3 weeks notice and 17 out of 26 invited made it… Not bad! We were more then excited about how many accepted the invitation! Ok so from the top…

I got home from Cam and Carolas wedding and 3 weeks working away from my family. I had decided I wanted to be married to the man I love. We talked about it when I got home. We had been engaged for over 3 years, it was time, we were both ready. I wanted to make sure someone from my family was going to be here and my parents were scheduled to arrive in 3 weeks for the labour day weekend… This would be a perfect time to do it. We picked up the phone and called the Marriage Commissioner in Quesnel and booked our ceremony for 2 pm on Sunday of the long weekend… We were doing it! We were getting married in 3 weeks! Holy! Luckily I was on a weeks holiday so we had lots of time to talk, plan and get the wheels in motion. First we went to town and got our licence and met with Roseann who would marry us. We felt very at ease with her, she was perfect for us. We called everyone we wanted to invite and started putting it together. The most time consuming part was the party favours we chose to give to our guests. We made little sketch books and did a sketch on the front of each one so we got going on these right away. We had it all organized before I went back to work the following week and with just 2 weeks until our guests started to arrive, we were in pretty good shape which was a good thing since those 2 weeks passed very quickly…

Friday August 29th… Guests started to arrive in the afternoon. It was so much fun waiting for them all and visiting once they got here. We had the fire going and hung out with each group for a while until they carried on to their rooms in Wells. It was drizzly so the tents we had set up were coming in handy. The Granby Cooke men were staying at the studio which made it way more fun for us to have guests right here! We made it an early night, The adventure had begun, it was starting to sink in… We are getting married!!!

Saturday August 30th, 2014… After getting a few things prepped for the big day we headed into Wells to meet up with everyone at the Taco stand for lunch then we all went into Barkerville for the afternoon. We scattered in different directions, did some shopping and saw some shows and then we all met up for a rehearsal dinner at the Chinese restaurant. Always yummy!

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Afterwards we headed home to wait for the last 2 parties to arrive, they were both staying at the ski hill so we needed to get them settled. They arrived safely and within an hour of each other, great timing! It was past midnight before we were headed back home and to bed… We are getting married tomorrow!

August 31st, 2014… The big day!!! This day is a bit of a blur. They guys were at the studio in the morning doing stained glass. People started arriving around 10. We had a weenie roast at noon. The weather was nice, it rained a bit in the morning but we were prepared for what ever might happen. We spent a few hours setting things up and then at about 12:30 I went to get ready, next thing I knew I was walking towards everyone on my dad’s arm. Barry looked so handsome and happy. The ceremony was underway, every time I looked at Barry his lip was quivering, I had a hard time holding back the tears. It was all so surreal… I was getting married and I couldn’t be happier! We were told to hold hands… Barry was so nervous he was squeezing my hand very hard! The ceremony was really short, it was over so fast! Time to sign the registry then get the party started! The sun shone brightly for the ceremony, a great sign since it rained almost the entire weekend.

We ate, drank and had fun until about 10 pm when I couldn’t stand up anymore, time to crash! Most guests had made their way home, only a few people left when I said goodnight. Barry came to bed a few hours later and we sat up for hours talking… We were so happy and excited. The next day it felt like I had run a marathon! It took almost a week to not feel tired anymore… Not sure how you would leave for your honeymoon right after!

Thank you so much to our 17 guests for making the trip, it’s far for all of you and we really appreciate your making the effort. If we had it to do all over again, we would not have changed a thing… It was perfect in our eyes!

First I will apologize for not having any photos and I promise I will go back one day and get lots of photos, the one posted below is one from Barry’s archives.  I also felt a little presumptuous pulling my camera out in this woman’s home although I think she would have been totally fine with it!

The Stanley Hotel … that actually isn’t called the Stanley hotel it’s the Lightening Hotel, I find out after having it wrong for 4 years!  Last summer I did a post (might have been on my old blog that was lost) about the Stanley hotel going up for sale for $275,000 and selling within a week.  We were so surprised!  Here is a building that was built in 1863 with no amenities and no chance of ever getting any on a road all alone in the middle of no where sells that fast for that much money… Wow!   Big things started to happen.  The land was cleared and a big snow shed went up, we thought miners had bought it because there was a fair amount of mining going on in that area already so it made sense.  We drove by often, about once a week in the winter to take the dogs for a run on the road by the cemetery.  There were huge dogs and we saw men around so never stopped in.  Finally one day a few weeks ago Barry decided to stop and met Karen who insisted he bring me around so first chance we had, we stopped so I could meet Karen…

We pulled into the yard and were greeted by a 130 lb white absolutely gorgeous dog… Clyde.  I don’t remember what breed Clyde is but he is one of a matched set and his better half is at Karen’s 220 acre ranch in Horsefly watching over her heard of sheep.  “Is Clyde friendly?” I ask… “Well he will be okay with you but don’t let your little dogs out, he will eat them”.  Okay… Note to self, give Clyde a wide birth.  She starts showing us something at the side of the house and I immediately get distracted by the make shift pen and rooster she has… Beautiful rooster!  Then 3 crows show up… Her pet crows!  She found one a couple of years that was injured and he became her pet (he was up on the mountain side when were there)and then a few months ago someone dropped off 3 baby crows that had lost their momma.  She nursed them and nurtured them and now they are grown up and they are her pets.  (Didn’t catch their names).  The bugs were thick so she invited us inside.  This building is all original and beautiful!  She has 9 solar panels outside that gives her enough power to have the basics.  She said she could run a frdige and stove if she wanted to but she doesn’t.  She has internet… No phone.  So… Here was Karen living by herself all winter and nobody knew!  She had been admiring this property for over 20 yrs and actually went around telling people it would be hers one day so as soon as it went on the market, she grabbed it.

The hotel is drafty, there is no insulation.  It is built with squared off logs and was never chinked (term for stuffing wadding between the logs for insulation) and she had only one stove so she totally froze all winter (we had a brutal winter).  She has sheep so she is now going around and chinking all the walls with wool.  The house has 4 bedrooms upstairs … Apparently a bit of a brothel in its day.  The windows are situated in the bedrooms so when you lay in bed you look right outside… Very nice!   Poor Karen was so lonely all winter, she said she took to drinking!  She had such a bad experience that she is selling it!  What a drag!  She has been a rider her whole life and wanted to open a trail ride /bed and breakfast business, she has horses and all the gear, it would have been great but she said she can’t do another winter there.  After talking with her for a few hours it became apparent that she had realized over the long, hard, cold winter that she is indeed 68 yrs old and maybe it’s time to slow down a bit!  She is going to sell both properties and she has her eye on a little log cabin on 13 acres that a little old couple has done up nicely and will need little to no work… Time to kick back!  She is a very interesting lady!  I am leaving for almost a month on Wednesday but we have a date when I get back, I’m going to go and spend an afternoon with her and I’ll get some photos.  The house is fascinating, the contents are fascinating (full of antiques), the history is fascinating and Karen is fascinating!  I can’t wait to get back and spend some time with my new friend… I am so sad she is leaving!

Stay tuned…

Little trivia we learned from Karen… A lot of time you will see a door on the second floor of a building that has no balcony… there are a few in Barkerville and the Lightening Hotel has one (you can see it in the photo), I always wondered why. It turns out it is so the stage coach can pull up close to the building and all the luggage on the top can be easily thrown in the doorway and distributed to the rooms from there.  So smart!!!  Makes perfect sense but it never dawned on me.  The things you learn!

Mini totally Camo’d in my chair!

We did some art work for the Billy Barker Days again this year and were Bronze sponsors. The sponsor appreciation dinner is always fun, Barry gets to do the honours… Yay. This year JP Winslow aka Mr Teach from the Waterwheel show in Barkerville was the entertainment, we had never heard him before so that was fun! The festival is this weekend and it looks like they got rained on today… Bummer! Not sure if we will make it into town for it this year, I leave on Wednesday (for my Terry Isaac workshop… Very excited! ) so I have a lot to do to prepare.

Always fun to see our friends from Alberta! Stacy made me a hula hoop while she was here, I’ve been hooping faithfully since! We had 2 bear on the property while they were here as you can see from Stacy’s photos.

Nick and Stacy came for a visit, we had lots of fun as usual. We met them in Wells and had dinner at the fish and chip place in the parking lot of their hotel and one of the guests caught our eye… Mr. Rippley was most unusual. This couple had a bunch of birds … Birds that you might normally see in a house hold like a cockatoo and rooster…we didn’t those birds but we did hear a rooster crow during our dinner and thought that was odd. These people found Mr. Rippley as a baby and he became part of the family. They were traveling from the Kootneys to Stewart, a trek they take every summer then back again before winter. They also had a little dog that played with him and distracted him to steal his food… So cute!

As usual we headed into Barkerville for the Dominion Day activities (and cake!). They have a fun little parade with pipers and RCMP in full dress. They always have fun activities for the kids and this year Mr. Grimsby and the boys got to help out which you always know is going to be funny! For the first time they have a Billy Barker wandering around town… He even looks like him! He is the little guy up on the flat deck wagon… Cute! Canada Day is always a lot of fun and it’s our anniversary too… 6 years! Fun date day!

Lots more to come, stay tuned…

The other morning I was at work & I heard Mini all of a sudden get that bark that I know she sees a critter so I go flying out of my office and Barry came flying out of the house at the same time yelling at her to come, we corralled her and got her in the house… All he said was a big cat came up the bank and crossed the driveway and was still in the trees between the driveway and the bat cave. I walked over and spotted him in the trees, he just kept walking calmly like no one was there so I followed him for a bit then Barry came with his camera so I fell back hoping we could get some shots. He was in the trees by then, too bad! He went up the path behind the woodshed and he was gone. He was AWESOME! He had huge paws and was pretty big… His back was at least knee high. So beautiful! A rare thing for him to be so brazen from what I understand and he was right in our yard!

Cool stuff happening, stay tuned…