AKA you might be a little crazy…. to drive 4 hours, 1.5 on dirt roads 30 mins on very bad dirt roads, following a convoy of other nuts (rockhounds), in search of tiny stones called “peridot”, which unless you were born in August, you likely have never heard of. Below is a picture from a different convoy, but same idea. Six vehicles ahead of you and at least 12 behind.

This has become out “escape from it all”. Now you might wonder why we would WANT to escape from such a beautiful place, but just trust me, there are times you MUST get away from a house building process. Oh and work too. Because I never know if there will be cell coverage I always get another doctor to back me up just in case. The funny thing with these sites is that you might drive for an hour or more with no cell coverage, but when you actually get to the site of rock finding…. you suddenly get coverage.

You can see the peridot top right… green. We found it is one thing to see it, and quite another to get it out in one piece and even if you got it out, another issue to keep it from flying deep into the abyss… never to be found again while you chipped away at it. We have never looked for actual gems. I had this idea that since I lost the diamond from my wedding ring while rockhounding in Arizona, that I might find a green replacement driving 4 hours to get it…….NOT!!!

As you can see SOME people found nice ones and had the patience to gently chip the little gem out.. I do not think I have the patience for THIS kind of rock hounding. HOWEVER.

We are absolutely LOVING these trips. They have become the recovery part of our weeks and no matter what they are going looking for (except gold) we have been trying to make the effort to get out there. For one thing, the view is always incredible.

This place was called lightening ridge, and clearly the highest peak in the overall area.

in fact SO HIGH that…

There IS a lightening rod at the top of the peak to prevent forest fires.

Anyways, I have not even gotten to the very best part. These events get 40 or so people out each week and it is totally amazing how NICE everyone is.

This is from our most recent trip, Tucker taking a break from “mingling” with everyone else and the dogs. Everyone totally LOVES Tucker on these trips.

Our most recent trip was to Savanna a small town on the other side of Kamloops. So on our way home I stopped at the nursing home …. I changed into my scrubs, and told the nurses that I was dirty,….. but a good kind of dirty.

Ken and I are thrilled to have found this group, it is the vernon rock club, apparently the second largest group in BC. They are all just fun to be with and I am sure that it is just therapeutic for everyone involved. LOVE IT

I am not sure if I have shared how wonderful the flower garden is doing with all of those lavender plants we planted last fall. Beautiful now.

This week it is all about Drywall. A large crew came and got a lot done in one day. It IS a messy business. But ? essential?

We have been reassured that all of this comes off when they finish the floor.

For many walls we are only doing drywall as a fire retardant, because we are going to be putting something else there anyways. But in these fire days we need to be thinking into the future. Apparently drywall gives you about 40 seconds to get out of your house. Which at some point in my life would seem just weird, but now… I am OK with 40 seconds.. We are planning the siding etc for fire “retardenness” not a word, but I like it. (more to come on THAT)

We have been quite concerned about what is going on in California, Oregon and Washington. We had our in 2017, however this seems so much worse. This was yesterday morning… a little smokey. Big machines moving dirt, essentially landscaping.

AND THIS was a little later one

AND then a little later on

So now we are “sharing” the misery of our friends in Oregon. The air smells like burning plastic.

So hard to know just where we sit with mother earth these days, I really feel like she is really pissed off at us. Another big storm threatens Louisianna today…… and yet only 5% of main stream media is even mentioning climate change. (despite the most severe fires in California, Oregon, and Washington) If people are uninformed, and people are trusting in mainstream media, then….. we have a major problem. Main stream media is owned by major corporations….. problem???? Major corporations are part of the problem. They Benefit from the same things that are destroying our planet, so they are not telling the whole story, because they can’t.

So the area landscaped and ready for the concrete patios.

I am sorry, but WORDPRESS has changed into a very fancy site for professionals, and I no longer really know how do anything on this site.

Much Love from Ken, Myself and Tucker