Wildife

Part of the appeal of living in the remote wilderness of the Kootenay's is the frequency and variety of wildlife that can be seen. Our only disappointment so far is that we never got to see the teenage black bear living in the area. We suspect it was him that knocked our BBQ over one night early in our stay (unless Pete has taken up sleep walking). And with the cold and snow having set in, we're guessing he's nesting somewhere in the mountains and not to be seen until spring. Dang!

Oh well, here are some pictures of what we have seen!


We see at least one of these white tails through here every few days. We've had as many as four holding caucus in the back yard at once.


Never have I seen these before up close, and suddenly, we see them almost every time we drive to town. Amazing!


Look at the size of that thing! Our good friends the Schwieger's brought their boat and took Pete fishing for three days on Kootenay Lake. They caught this 23lb rainbow trout! Unfortunately, it was 24 hours before the start of a local fishing derby, wherein this catch would have been in contention for the win. Their next two days on the lake saw nothing near this big.



This ball of fur is the home owner's outside kitty, Lojzik. While she looks all cute and cuddly, don't be fooled. She plays a fierce game of staring-until-I-go-outside-to-pet-her. I haven't won once.

Not pictured here is me. I can be bumped from the category of "human" to "animal" when I get up in the morning and my foot aches. Luckily for Pete, I easily return to my human form with doses of codeine and dill pickle potato chips.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!? #$%@!&!!

Who wrote that bloody awful song anyways? I'm going to find him and give him a face wash.


Snow is not supposed to come to this area until around Christmas, but we have been getting it in buckets. Maybe it's not such a bad thing to be laid up with a bad ankle, watching all the snow fall while sitting by a warm fireplace. But you can bet that we will both be cursing tomorrow as we drive to Vernon to get my cast changed.

Only 27 more sleeps until we trade white snow for white sand! I guess we can handle it. =)

Pop Goes the Ankle

It always amazes me how in just one quick second, things can completely change from good to bad, and the best laid plans can be completely wiped out due to a wrong turn or a misstep.

It especially annoys me when I am the subject of said misstep.

All of my plans for hiking, kayaking, biking and otherwise just getting out to enjoy my beautiful surroundings were wiped out in one fell swoop on Tuesday evening. More specifically, they were wiped out in one loud POP, which was the sound of my achilles tendon rupturing as I dove to get a volleyball during one of our rousing community games.

I thought something had fallen on the back of my ankle, or that some madman had just taken a swipe at me with a crowbar. I crumbled instantly, let out a string of expletives (to the delight of the young children on the bench beside me who had come to watch their parents play), and was finally drug to the sidelines by Pete and another player where I winced in pain while Pete ran to get the stuff we needed before we made the half hour drive to the hospital in Nakusp.

The doctor immediately called ahead to the Vernon hospital to get me an appointment with a specialist the following morning (Nakusp, being only a town of ~1,500 people, has very little to offer in terms of medical services). Pete and I were up at 5:30 in order to make the first ferry and the two and a half hour drive to Vernon the next day. After then waiting two hours to get in, two doctors looked at my ankle and declared my achilles to be a mess. They then also gave me two options: surgery or not. Historically, most doctors would recommend immediate surgery to stitch it back up, but recent studies show that surgery is no more effective then progressive casting for healing. So I opted to stay out from under the knife; I don't want to risk any complications with having a surgical wound when I am meant to be on a plane to a third world country in six weeks.


And so now, here I am, laid up in my first of three casts. This pretty purple one will last three weeks, then it will be replaced with another that will have my ankle adjusted to different angle. Finally, the last one will hopefully be a walking cast, so that I will be walking onto my Honduras-bound plane without crutches.

In one instant, everything is gone. My dreams of kayaking every week - gone. My plans to do several outstanding hikes in the area - gone. My goal of making an effort to be more swimsuit-ready for Honduras, gone. Everything is also infinitely more difficult, especially given that this house has many stairs. I am living in one of the most beautiful places in this country, and I am forced to only enjoy it as far as my crutches will take me. I am sad, bitter, and a bit of a downer these days.

I know, I know, there are definitely worse things in the world that can happen, and there are people that are much worse off then I am; whining and lamenting of my situation is pretty pathetic.

But it's my blog, and I'll whine if I want to!

(Ok. I think I'm done now.)

Enjoy the Silence

We have gotten a few people ask the same question over the last week: "So, are you really bored yet?"

The answer: a booming and resounding, NO!

There has been no other point in our lives where we have been in this situation of total and utter nothingness. No commitments, no work, no mortgage, no scheduled activity, no deadlines, no expectations, and only a far distant end in sight. It is a very beautiful thing, and something we have only ever had in small 7 or 14 day increments in the past, as far as our work allotted vacation would allow. And while we were in traveling around South America and our own country, there was a constant requirement to keep moving, keep exploring and keep finding things to write to you about!

So now we are very thrilled to just sit. Or stand, or kayak, or walk, or bike, or nap...whatever we feel like doing. We are relishing in the beauty of our situation, and making the most of every second of it, however we see fit. There has not been one single moment that we have wished we were some other place doing something else. And we are so extremely fortunate to live in this pristine and beautiful piece of the world, withdrawn into nature and truly nourishing our minds, bodies and souls.

We have been keeping ourselves busy, and in my case, a wee bit too busy at times. While we came into this with no deadlines or other commitments imposed on us, I have somehow managed to rope myself into some. Excited to put this inspiring setting to work through my writing, I searched online for some opportunities to stretch my fingers and maybe make a few dollars doing it at the same time. Well, I found some, and then some more. I applied for a few different jobs and managed to get offered and accepted for everything I put my name to! It has been a little overwhelming to get organized for all these tasks, but I have managed to get a rhythm going for it and I am sure I will be able to do it all in time. While none of these jobs pay very much, I am enjoying the challenges, and getting a chance to try different kinds of writing. Watch for me soon on timepostoffice.com and suite101.com, and others that are to come!

When I'm not pounding on the keys, Pete and I have been cooking up a storm. Buns, cinnamon buns, perogies, hummus, granola mix, coconut cream pie, carrot cake, and cookies so far. We are scouring every online recipe resource to try to come up with "best ever" of whatever we are making. I can't explain this inner "Martha" that seems to be bursting out, but I guess this is just our form of "nesting" that is emerging now, seeing as this is the first place that has really felt like a home in a year and a half. (Thank goodness for the friends that are coming to see us soon, and can help us eat all this food!)

YUM!

Thank goodness, also, for the grand outdoors, and the perpetual autumn of this area that is encouraging us to get outside and get active. The yellow leaves still hang beautifully from the trees, and when it is not raining we have rushed outside to enjoy them. There is no fresher are then what we have here, literally. There are types of lichens and mosses that grow only where there is completely pure air quality, and they grow here, in abundance. There is no industry to emit poisons nearby, no cell phone towers to give off radiation, there is only the pure mountain air. And we try to ingest it every chance we get, and in very big gulps.

Lichen and mosses = clean air!

And then there' s the Tuesday evening drop-in volleyball league! This small town of Burton is home to just a handful of people (similar to where I grew up), and the whole town seems to show up every week for volleyball. The games actually get quite competitive (for us novices, anyways) and it is a lot of fun.


So, as you can see, you don't need to worry about us and boredom. Stop conjuring up images of ax murderers driven insane by the remoteness and silence of our situation. We are busy, we are productive, and we are likely still in our pajamas as you read this.

We have never been happier!

"Good" Boredom

“I’m bored” said Peter, as he bounced down on the bed beside me, disturbing my nap.

Uh oh. At that point, we were only 2 hours into our ~1,440 hour house sitting assignment. We had assured ourselves before accepting this assignment of caring for a house in the middle of nowhere that we would find plenty to keep us occupied. We loaded up on books, movies, craft projects, Spanish assignments and exercise goals. And here he was, on day one, hour two, complaining about boredom.

I guess I could understand his sentiment, a little bit. The house was eerily quiet, with the home owners having left that day. We had just had two full days with them in their beautiful home – they showed us the area and introduced us around. A pair of fellow travelers, there was much to talk about and many stories shared. We were excited that this “job” had introduced us to two new good friends, and we were sad to see them go.

But still, a declaration of boredom only 2 hours in was concerning! Until I looked over, and saw that Pete said it with a huge smile on his face.

“It’s a good boredom. I have lots to do, but nothing that has to be done.” That’s better.

That is precisely the point of our stay here. After more than a year of running around from place to place and activity to activity, we now have 2 full months to sit still and enjoy ourselves and our surroundings, while also taking some time to “plan” (hate that word) for our future. We have no obligations beyond caring for the home – we don’t need to be anywhere specific at anytime. And our first week here has encompassed just the pure enjoyment of these facts (we’ll worry about the “pl@%ning” later).

We’ve had long walks in the pristine fresh air with nothing but the sound of the creek beside us. We’ve spent hours rotating between reading, writing, and watching the leaves fall outside. I’ve baked buns. We’ve watched the entire seventh season of Entourage. I’ve fed my new addiction of making jewelry (and created a forum to sell it! Check it out!)

Most enjoyably, we’ve gotten to do our number one favourite thing of kayaking on nearby Upper Arrow Lake. We spent one beautiful morning on the water with the entire lake to ourselves. For both of us, this is the definition of a small piece of “heaven”, and is one thing we hope to do quite regularly while we are here.

And so while officially we have nothing we “need” to do, we have a long list of everything we “want” to do. This might be boring to you as a reader, but to us, the good boredom is the best part.

Sittin' on houses

From the frigid mountains of British Columbia to the scorching beaches of Honduras - Peter and I are about to take our roles of "homeless vagabonds" to a whole new level.

I will credit our family and friends for encouraging this behaviour. Since returning home from South America, we have been completely spoiled with shelter, food, drinks, entertainment...you name it, we got it...from our very generous benefactors. Who needs a home when we have such an amazing network of people to take care of us?

Realizing that we do not want to rely on this generosity forever (in case it should run out!), but knowing that we are not yet ready to "settle" and be committed to anything that cannot fit into a backpack, we began to explore new options. We debated another bout of backpack slinging, and researched the continent of Africa as our next destination. We sketched out a route of eastern Africa to the Middle East to Eastern Europe to Russia across Siberia to China. Yeah...we got tired just thinking about it. Our desire for a full-fledged traveling adventure is currently outweighed by our exhaustion after almost a year of such travel in South America. We need some more downtime to allow our full spirit of adventure to return.

And so our new plan (and career?) is born. It encompasses our desire to explore without the weariness of continuous travel. It allows for enjoying the comforts of a home without the roots of owning it. We have become professional homeless bums. We are house sitters!

For at least the next 8 months, we are committed to easing the minds of home owners who need to be away from their home for some time. We will begin with a 2 month "job" in the Kootenay's of British Columbia at this beautiful house.


No TV, sketchy internet, and we will be 30 minutes from the nearest town. We have loaded up on books, movies on our laptop, craft projects and more to keep us occupied during our stay at what some friends have dubbed The Overlook Hotel. We couldn't be more excited for this downtime, and to explore the surrounding natural beauty strapped into our hiking shoes or via kayak.

But wait - we COULD be more excited! After our 2 months in the beautiful mountains of BC, we will have just a few days to put away our sweaters and load up our bathing suits. Our second house sitting job is going to take us to the picturesque island of Roatan, just off the coast of Honduras. While the home owners wait patiently in the US for this house to sell, we will ensure that it is well cared for and maintained. We will have the opportunity to improve our Spanish, continue our passion of volunteering, and...well...live in PARADISE! Because the home is up for sale, we could be in Honduras anywhere from one month to indefinitely, but are committed for 6 months if it remains unsold.

Does life get much better than this? These are obviously once-in-a-lifetime opportunities which we are again excited to grab hold of and enjoy to the fullest.

Homeless vagabonds, we be! And it ain't such a bad thing.