Nasty black ice

Our winter took a bad start with black ice. We could not drive up the last bit and had to put on our snowshoes. It was slippery as h...! Even the deer could not make it across the road without falling. Unfortunately my car was still on top of the mountain, when it was raining ice. Sliding my car down the hill was a pretty scary situation. But thanks to SUBARU-Power we made it. Today Nicole could not resist to shovel some snow, since it is really powdery and light.

Oh deer!

Almost every day we get lunch and dinner walking by ;-)
We wonder how long we still get excited about it. For now it still is "jööööh", when they are around. As long as they don't touch our garden next year! Our little farm will be growing from next spring anyway. We will get some chickens to look after. How thrilling, fresh eggs every day!

Visitors!

The day before the first snow fell, my sleep was interrupted by familiar noises. A look through the window confirmed the muuuuh, muuuuh.... cows in our garden!

Indian Summer

Since Highway 97 is closed due to a potential rockslide, one of the detours leads through Canada's backyard. Truly beautyful sceneries and - I found my Rally-gen again. The dust was just flying off behind me...

Top of the world

After cutting some firewood for the winter a few days ago, it is already here!
We enjoy the view from up here day and night. The nights are so quiet that it almost scares you. The boxes slowly get emptied and everything finds a spot. The internet antenna is up too and obviously works well.

Wine, wife and chant

At this years Okanagan WineFestival we hosted 4 dinners with different Winemakers from the Valley. We tried to use a lot of local grown products, that pair well with the wines and their flavours. Among the various creations were a barrel smoked squash soup with a hazelnut ravioli or false frog legs with crunchy beans and a garlic vinaigrette or the home-made duck prosciutto, caramelised pecans and blue cheese dressing. Another favourite was the duck confit with ratatouille and balsamic glaze. For dessert we did a vanilla-poached pear, exotic crème anglaise served with a churro.

location, location, location!

I finally managed to drive up the other side of the hill and get both lakes on the picture on this beautyful fall-day. From November 1st we will have to drive all the way up to the red arrow, but it is worth it!

loghouse for rent

While Nicole was browsing through the newspapers last week, she stept on following ad:
2BDRM LOGHOUSE, rural upper Carmi. Must own 4x4 vehicle for winter...
so we called and could visit the same day. The view is just breathtaking. The whole Valley lying beneath us while standing in the middle of nature. We could not believe our eyes. This is the house! And while I was updating this blog, the new landlord called and said that if we still wanted the place, we can have it. Do we still want it? Hell yeah!

boxes everywhere

Our current situation in the bedroom, until we sorted out the most needed stuff. It is getting colder now and we might need the winter stuff pretty soon. So, pack away the shorts and t-shirts and put the hoodies on the shelf.

Ironman Canada 2008

Last sunday, Peach-city held the 26th Ironman Canada, with thousands of volunteers. It was an incredible event!
The start was at 7am at Okanagan lake with a 3.5km swim, followed by a 180km bike run to Oliver over two mountain passes and back to Penticton. After the bike track, the athletes went on the marathon running course 42.2km to Okanagan Falls and back to Penticton. Some of the runners got wet a second time, due to heavy rainfalls in the evening. The event lasted until midnight. All the remaining runners where then collected by the "Bäsewage".

Small boxes in a big truck

After a waiting period of 6 months (thank's to the SWISS MOVING SERVICE LTD) our stuff finally made it to Penticton. All it needed was a few stamps from customs at Kelowna Airport the night before and the following morning was delivery time.
The thing now is... we don't really have the space for all the stuff, so there are boxes all over the place. And of course some stuff doesn't work here due to different standards, such as the BBQ gas-hose or the X-Box. It all goes into little projects now and challenges to be solved.

The channel floaters

The whole summer long, thousands of people float down the channel between Okanagan- and Skaha Lake. Floating devices filled with ice and beer and the party starts right there!

Wicked wig party

This was the farewell-party for Bettina from Vernon, who returns to Switzerland and comes back in October. Everyone had to wear a wig and it turned out to be a really funny party, oh-yeah!

Naramata by bike

Following the KVR (Kettle Valley Railway) it took us all the way to Naramata where the lake was awaiting us. The ribbons of steel that made up the Kettle Valley Railway are gone. All that is left are 16 km of track, the odd station house and out buildings, a few relics and the history. The Kettle Valley Railway was the tie that bound the Kootenays to the rest of British Columbia. The Kettle Valley Railway started at Hope and went all the way to Midway, zigzagging throughout the south western sections of B.C. From Hope, the KVR made its way through the Coquihalla River gorge. It continued onward to Princeton, West Summerland, Penticton, along the south side of Okanagan Lake and finally south to Midway, for a total of 525 km.

Ya-hooo from the Calgary Stampede!

What an event - thousands of people gather together for the so called "greatest outdoor show on earth". From July 4th-13th the Calgary Stampede takes place in the middle of downtown Calgary. I was driving there by myself, because Nicole was in Horsefly performing at some festival. And since our stuff, including the tent, is still on it's way to Canada, I had to sleep in the car. I chose to stay on the Calgary West Campground. Its convenient and quiet location next to the Olympic Park was perfect for me. It was an 8-hour drive to Calgary, but it was worth it! You get to drive right trough the Rockies and you even enter into a different time-zone.

The first bear on camera

The last bear we saw, disappeared into the woods before we got our camera ready. But this time it worked. The bear did not seem to be bothered and enjoyed his breakfast at the side of a busy road.

Two days in Vancouver

You could spend a lot of money in two days. It is even easyer to spend it in Vancouver. And that's exactly what I did. I bought myself a new pair of glasses. We looked around in the whole city and finally found a little store on Burrard, who had exactly, what I was looking for. The frames are from MYKITA Berlin and they are aaaawesome! www.mykita.de

We also visited Vancouver Aquarium, where they proudly presented the 8-day old Beluga wale. Unfortunately, we where not the only ones who knew about it...Loads of schoolbusses with screaming kids also knew :-(


Cute little otters floating hand in hand around the pool, surrounded by noisy kids. They don't seem to be bothered.


Cliffdivers at the Lynn canyon, near the suspention bridge. The water is still freezing cold and the air was only 18°C.

The only Canadian "Äntli"

Corinne sent us the letters, to properly name Nicole's car. It is rolling as "Äntli" now through the Okanagan and only Swiss people know, what it means...

The logs are up!

This week, Darin managed to lift all the logs up the wall to give the Patio it's final touch. There is still a lot to be done to complete the picture.
With the Bridge-tournament in town this week we get quite busy nights. At least I am able to watch the Euro games, since we only start at 2pm every day.

Still performing

Mission Dance Centre had an audition at the Sutherland Hills Residence with performances of the kids and the company members. A very sad place to stay at but the elderly people certainly enjoyed the show.

Catch the rabbits!

Kelowna has a real rabbit-problem. They are running freely and in dozens in the middle of the city and there are no real enemies around to reduce the population - exept for the cars who run them over by accident sometimes.

Visit to the Chute lake

Hiking in the Chute lake area, along the old Kettle Valley Railway. Better take your mosquito spray along next time! It was very humid around the area but still peaceful and good fishing grounds.

View from above

View over the Naramata Bench with the Giants Head Mountain in the back


Penticton with Skaha- and Okanagan lake



The deer is not too shy around here, so close-up meetings are quite possible. But still no bear in sight!

The campers

After almost five months of travelling, Josianne, Lorenz and Sean reached the Okanagan with their camper. Their journey will take them to Montreal, that's another 4'000km down the road, before they return to good old Switzerland. Thousand of stories are waiting to be told and some just rest in their memories.

Sean is playing at Skaha lake, scaring away the sand-flees.

Watch out for these bulls!

A few minutes from our place, you feel like in the wild west. The forests seem endless and the cattle runs freely through the bushes. But I would not get too close to this one...



And then, there are these cart robbers - unbelievable!

Our new home

Here we are, we finally managed to post some pictures of our new home. We are living in the basement and our living-/eatingroom and the kitchen are faceing the beautyful backyard. It is really quiet and the landlord's wife takes good care of the garden. We are free to help ourselves with all the growings. We started to make our own bread - always fresh and the way we like it :-)

Vlad, our slovakian landlord likes soccer and prepares well for the EURO 08. He also tries to train me, but I am a sort of nut case when it comes to soccer.