Hummers and other Wildlife

No, not those symbols of North American excess, but the birds. We finally got a hummingbird feeder up the other day and the hummers have discovered it. So far, we've seen a Black-Chinned Hummingbird and another that we can't figure out. They swoop in to feed and are getting relaxed enough to actually sit on the little perches by the feeder. They are just so amazingly tiny.

We also have a small family of coyotes denning just up the road from our house. We saw the new pups, 4 of them, just the other morning. I happened to be awake at 4 am a couple of days ago, and heard them doing their yelping/singing chorus for just a minute or so. Maybe that's why the deer seem to have disappeared from the neighbourhood recently.

Exploring the Koots 0528

Last Saturday I took the opportunity to have a day off from building woodsheds, chopping wood, wiring, cutting big pieces of wood into little pieces of wood, etc. Catherine had a Library Board meeting in Nakusp (about 100 km away in the Arrow Lakes valley), so I invited myself along to go biking and exploring.

One of my objectives was to find Halfway Hot Springs. The West Kootenays have many hot springs and some of them are undeveloped, called "bush" hot springs. A drive of 25 km north of Nakusp and 11 km along a logging road got me there, but it was fairly busy for early on a Saturday morning and one of the pools was VERY hot, so I washed off the dust and wandered off in search of other attractions such as the falls along the road on the way back to town.

I found the old N&S (Nakusp/Slocan) Railway, which has been turned into a biking, hiking, horse trail, as have many in the BC Interior. Rode along it for awhile, but decided that I'd come back to do it from the other direction: downhill from Summit Lake rather than the other way 'round.

Biked around Nakusp and found the flower gardens along the lake promenade. Not bad for a small town on the Columbia River. This was probably the first time I've actually explored Nakusp and I actually found the town to be quite pleasant. The main drawback is the all-encompassing view of clearcuts across the lake.

On the way back to Kaslo, we stopped briefly in the cute little town of New Denver so Catherine could have a walk after being cooped up inside all day. I chose to lie in the car and read, having already had my exercise. I did, however, wander out for a picture of some flowers and trees in the very nice little garden they have there.

After that, it was the 45-minute hop over the pass back to Kaslo and home, one of the prettiest drives around, as you drop down from the pass and go along the Kaslo River.

All in all, a nice day and good to be away from house construction and yard development for a few hours and to spend some time exploring this wonderful part of the country.

Exploring the Koots 0518

We decided to take part of Thursday off for a short hike: Davis Creek trail, just up the lake from here. Like many trails around the Kootenays, there's lots of elevation gain; I think this one climbed about 500 m in the first 45 minutes. Great views out over the lake and to the peaks across the lake. Unfortunately, once we got up into the mature hemlock forest in about 90 minutes, there was too much snow to make it worthwhile pressing on. Oh well - I guess we'll just have to go back later on. Took time for a leisurely lunch at Lost Ledge, skipped some rocks into the mill-pond lake and meandered back home and back to work.

Those "Darn" Mountains, Again

Well, it just wouldn't do to criticize BC's Department of Highways, or National Parks, OR the Federal Government. So it's got to be the fault of the mountains, eh? After all, with only ONE highway through the mountains (other than two others that are WAY out of the way), serving as really the only land link joining the Kingdom of BC to the ex-Kingdom of Klein, what are a few mudslides? Gotta expect them, eh.

Yup, after a winter of multi, multi-day closures on the Trans Canada Highway (rock slides, avalanches....), the venerable TCH was closed for 2 days recently from a mud slide; it just re-opened today only to be promptly closed again from another mud slide.

I'm beginning to wonder if these are the signs of years of neglect from various levels of "government". Major transportation links almost unusable. Is this poor planning? Or can we just blame this on those "darn" mountains? All I can say is it's a good thing, given the state of Passports Canada, that we don't need passports to leave BC. But of course, the chances are good that if you tried to leave, the roads would be closed anyway.

What am I thinking? Who'd want to leave the Kootenays, anyway?

Mountain View

Thought I'd take a breather from rants about gas price whining, complaints about any level of government and other annoyances. Today I'm going on (as I often do) about the beauty of where we live. Beside a 60-mile-long lake about a mile wide and often as still as a mill pond. Views of rocky peaks and trees everywhere. This lake used to have paddlewheelers steaming up and down not so many years ago. One of the last uncrowded, peaceful places in southern BC. Pretty special, I think.

Gas Price Blues, Again!

A recent item on the CBC Sunday Morning show and an article I saw in Kelowna's newspaper both raise the issue (again) that consumers are being gouged by the big oil companies. I'm getting sooooo tired of these stories every time gas prices go up.

Sure, I like paying less for gas and I will always go where gas is cheapest, or the retailer gives me a discount of some sort. I've been know to carry gas with me so I can bypass places where prices are higher. That being said, here's my real rant:

Why does everyone seem to think that gas HAS to be cheap? Why are there these continuing stories that try to insist there is (must be?) a direct link between crude prices and other costs plus markup, and the price of gasoline? We have NO right to cheap gas. Retailers and oil companies are free to charge whatever the market will accept, just as all other retail stores selling other things do. (What's the real cost of producing a CD or DVD?). I don't know why oil companies even try to justify what they charge (pick your fable - not enough refineries, Hurricane Katrina, suicide bombers, fear of a recession, fears of inflation, whatever). The real reason is that demand remains high. High demand, especially when there is a somewhat restricted supply, results in high prices. Simple as that. It's called the Law of Supply and Demand.

If people want to see gas prices drop, they need to reduce the demand. Drive smaller cars (and trucks), drive less, drive more slowly, use public transit, use your bike. However, I don't see ANY of that happening. None at all, not in any significant way, at least.

If people don't like the price of gas, then they should do what they'd do for anything else - DON'T BUY IT.

No Place Like Home

Just returned from 3 days in the Okanagan (Kelowna, specifically). Nothing against Kelowna, other than their insane traffic problems and how crowded it is, but I'm really, REALLY glad that I live in the West Kootenays. I woke up this morning to the sound of a gentle rain and, othat than that, complete silence. Well, there were other sounds: a Pileated Woodpecker attacking a nearby tree, a Hummingbird zipping past the open window, and Powder Falls, a mile or so away on the other side of the lake. I suppose there would have been a time when the Central Okanagan would have seemed like a great place to live, but not to me, not any more.

Imperfect Past; Idyllic Present

I've been shaking my head while reading Gwynne Dyer's semi-recent book - Future: Tense. The coming World Order. Not that what he writes is all that surprising, I suppose, but I guess I'm still astounded by how badly formulated American foreign policy continues to be. Even more astounding is how many voters accept and believe in what their government is doing. You can fool some of the people all of the time, all of the people some of the time ....

My "recreational reading" notwithstanding, today was one of those stunning West Kootenay Days. Blue skies, mild breezes, snow on the peaks across the lake.... A peacefulness disturbed only by the occasional snarl of a chainsaw, the whine of the miter saw, some acrid smoke from a burning brush pile, the clank of mallet on wedge as Cath splits wood. Yes, it's house-building and land-clearing on the daily agenda. We should have started this 10 years ago!

We're from the Government....

... and we're here to help you....

Right in the middle of the developing mountain view springtime is this news from the centre of the BC universe: our honorable provincial legislators have (at least most of them) decided that they should receive a 29% increase in their income. We wouldn't want to be accused of knee-jerk reactions, so let's review the issues.

The honorable members haven't received much in the way of increases for 10 years, from what I hear. Our representatives do work long hours and many of them need to support two residences. On the other hand, this government (Liberal, they say) is the one that cut the salaries of nurses in this province by 15% and can't manage to find the money to upgrade decrepit, unsafe schools. We won't go into the way recent negotiations with the province's teachers have gone.

So, I have a suggestion: It's my observation that BC has the highest sales tax of the 3 western provinces (yes, even higher than Saskatchewan). Perhaps it's time for a payday for BC residents as well as our honorable legislators. If they can manage the BC economy well enough to allow a decrease in our sales tax, then how about they vote themselves a salary increase as a bonus for a job well done. Oh, one additional thing...most of us in the sticks (ie: anywhere outside of the Lower Mainland and the Island) would really appreciate knowing that our representatives are listening to OUR concerns for once. Health care in the Interior, for example?

OK - I Give Up

My kids both have blogs, my un-technical partner has a blog, Quirks & Quarks has a blog and so I'm giving up and starting one (this is what my partner calls FOMO). Mostly now for testing out some things, but perhaps I'll eventually get into this. Frankly, I see this as a more modern variation of the somewhat older saying: "If no one wants to listen to you, what makes you think they'll want to read your T-shirt?"

I'm sitting here looking out over Kootenay Lake at rugged peaks on the other side of the lake. Can't beat the view.

Anyhow, I have some rock walls to build and a life to live and it's Saturday afternoon....