May 27th to 29th - 100 Mile House

May 27th – Fri – 100 Mile
It rained again this morning so we didn’t do anything constructive. Marg left about 11 to go to Williams Lake with her friend Jane. After lunch the rain quit so we changed from the bucket to the forks on the tractor and went to work removing an old snake (zig-zag) pole fence that we will replace with a page wire fence. There are a lot of trees in the area so Terry had to put his driving skills to work to maneuver the long poles through gaps that were shorter than his load. We had to get out the chain saw and cut some poles in half as they were in an area with too many trees. We got the whole fence removed just in time for chores, happy hour & dinner. We still have to clean up bark, rotten parts and accumulated debris before we put up the new fence.

May 28th – Sat – 100 Mile
I thought a tractor tire looked odd yesterday and it turns out that a young man using the tractor bent the tie rod. Also, Marg forgot to tell us that the same young man had abused the tractor enough that the power steering hose fittings were leaking and she had ordered new parts in Williams Lake. Marg & Terry took the tractor to a neighbor who has a 500 pound press as he thinks he can straighten the tie rod.
Marg was helping with a fund raiser in town this today so I helped Dad finish the planter. After lunch, Dad put verathane on the planter while Terry & I went to town. We went to the visitor center to get some information for Terry’s brother Gary but it was closed. We made a couple of stops to find some mats for our rig to save the carpet from all the dirt we track in while we are here and then came back. Quille arrived about 3:30 with a boned, marinated, rolled leg of lamb to put on the BBQ for dinner. It was supposed to be done on the spit but Marg couldn’t find all the parts this morning. So we put a rack over a pan of water, tented the meat with foil and put it on the BBQ.
Gail and Rick (Quille & Gail’s neighbor) arrived for dinner before Marg got home. The Hospice fund raiser consisted of 15 teams of 4 competing in The Amazing Challenge which was based on The Amazing Race from TV. They started at 9 and the last team did not finish until 3 so they were all very tired. There was a minimum contribution of $200 per team so even though it took a lot of planning and volunteers, it was a good event for Hospice.
We had a thunderstorm & a downpour before the meat was done so Marg turned the BBQ around so it was under a little roof by the back door and we could continue cooking without getting soaked. Terry is not fond of lamb so we had a steak for him and we all enjoyed a great dinner and good company.

May 29th – Sun
There was a little fog this morning but it soon turned warm & sunny and stayed that way – lovely! - so Marg & Quille went fishing at Ruth Lake. We didn’t get much done in the morning but got busy after lunch. Terry & I washed the truck as you could barely see what color it was under the mud. It is amazing how heavy rain does NOT wash mud off a vehicle! Then we mowed & used the weed eater in & in front of the garden and in the picnic area in the back. We couldn’t get the self propelled lawn mower to start so we got some exercise pushing the other mower.
We helped Dad prep some boards for another planter and left him to start building it while we took an ATV for a tour around the property. We found a dead calf twisted up in the back fence so we had to open a gate to interrupt the power to the electric fence, remove the calf and restore the power. When we got back, Dad was not at the shop and his ATV was not at the house so we took another little ride to look for him. We crossed paths and he came back with Sage (Marg’s dog) who had heard him & left us.
Marg got home just after we finished dinner and right behind friends Francis & Nichole. She brought home 3 Kokenee and 1 trout from a good day fishing. Marg made some phone calls about the dead calf and got a return call a bit later. We were kind of embarrassed when the calf turned out to be a moose calf. It was a light tan color and its legs were all tangled in the wires and obviously we didn’t really look too close. It explained why a mother cow wasn’t hanging around as I thought it should be.