So the progress on our house…… has beeeeeeen SLOOOOOOOW.  We have been back for a month and a half, with our motorhome parked at Dylan and Sarah’s place. A few weeks of house sitting over in Armstrong, in a luxuriously large house (wouldn’t anything seem large after 8 months living in a motorhome)    There have been many slowdowns with regards to the house, but the easiest one for me to explain is the snow with a capital S.

Permits and covenants etc etc are Ken’s job.

So walking on top of 3 feet of snow, after getting home…. circa Feb 5th…

Then a guy used this machine to clear the road going up to where our property starts.

Then it snowed more….

AND MORE………….

This was a scene in Armstrong while we were there…..  What a wonderful town Armstrong is, farming…..

So then we got our tractor (which has been in storage all winter) delivered… and we started to make some progress…

and a little more progress….

From above…. you can see we have cleared up to the second Sea Can

and then a little bit of tobogganing down the hill on a garbage can lid.  This place is going to be an incredible place for tobogganing and XCountry skiing.

Then we made some MORE progress….

AND then Janet got a little too “enthusiastic” with the tractor and BROKE IT..

So now the left front tire of the tractor is going left and the right front tire is going right…. But Ken is ON TO IT and we are moving on.

So while Ken worked on the tractor, THIS little dude was checking out the hill.

OH…. and his mom.

So we are now trying to lay low, in our motorhome, waiting for the weather to warm up and a large machine to finish the clearing to get our motorhome back up to the property.

I am back to work at the nursing home, and we are preparing for COVID 19.  I am the medical director of a large nursing home in Kamloops and I also have many patients there.   Ten days ago… I was “advising” that we need to screen all visitors for recent travel, and to stop allowing patients out of the facility out into the public.  The facility, sadly enough, had to wait for “official word” from the health authority, which came 2:30 on a Friday afternoon of the weekend before spring break.  Thankfully now we have locked down the facility and closed all ways in, except one door and there is someone there to stop anyone who does not need to be there.

Long Term Care patients are the ones most likely to die of this virus, as they are frail, and immunocompromised.  They also present differently than others with many given health issues.  They tend to have a cough when they are having a heart attack, or get chest pain when they have pneumonia.  I have been trying to find data on the Washington nursing home patients to find out what were their first symptoms.  I have found SOME data, that they tend to become more confused, and increased need for oxygen, but no cough or fever.  These patients tend to be more confused when anything happens so their confusion, tends to be confusing.

I dearly hope that this virus goes away soon, and that our facility does not have one case.  But my biggest fear is that we get a case of COVID 19 and because these people present differently, we miss the diagnosis……. and a patient might end up infecting other patients, and/or staff.   Nursing homes do not have all the protective gear that is being used in hospitals now, and I feel concerned for the staff.

Dementia patients do not cover their cough, nor do they maintain the “social distancing” that is being asked of the rest of us.

I truly admire the nurses at the facility, and their commitment to do their job in times like these.  I only hope that we can be vigilant enough to diagnose a case ASAP before anyone  is put at risk.

These are trying times indeed, and times, I think, we need to stop and think about how we can individually decrease risks of transmission of this virus.

Much  love, janet Ken and The Tucker dog (checking things out)