Spring never came~waiting for Summer....Sigh

It's May 30! And Spring never came. Well, it came in the strangest fashion~cold, snow, rain, some flooding at the fen off Womack and the lake has actually risen up the Access road about a third of the way and the creeks are really swollen. Eek. Our egg lady is near Deka Creek and has about 18-24 inches of water on her property which doesn't help with calving and chickens and turkeys..... We have been untouched by any of that, knock on wood. The house is extremely well sealed and the runoff hits the ditch on the other side of the road first. Which brings me to a story of Buyer Beware~~

There is a piece of property just up from the corner of our road that was for sale. A couple from Calgary came to look at it and bought it. Once they were home the real estate agent phoned to say that she had sold them the wrong property and it was the property beside it that was for sale. Say what, you say? Exactly....it happens more often than not here. The agent said the property that really was for sale was better than the one they looked at. The buyer hemmed and hawed as they hadn't walked around it; but, the price was right and they said okay. On the long weekend they came here to view their property, cut some trees, prep it for their trailer.....they found a bog. Most of the property was under water and the rest was just mud. The culvert carrying the water off the hill roared into their lovely area. Nothing they can do but fight the M of T to move the culvert. This I've got to see. The agent has no obligation at all to them. Which I find morally wrong. If you had the sign on the wrong property, sold the wrong property you would think there was a legal loophole....I mean~there are maps and this agent even lived in the area. Maybe there is a loophole and the owners just don't have the energy. Not sure.

But other properties have been sold incorrectly, including selling a property to a person who built their house and found out it actually crossed a property line. They had to buy the property next to it. I don't know how many times I checked, measured, checked again, all our property markers. The new owners huddled around a campfire for the weekend and it was all very sad.

There are all sorts of little issues rearing their heads as more and more people come here to live full time. Outhouses for one thing~we have one which we don't use except in dire emergencies but other properties use them all the time in the summer. And this year the flooding of outhouses is rampant. That is so not good for the water table and the lake. Ugh. Imagine the runoff charging through outhouses on it's way to the lake and over wells. Ewww. The time will come when this area will have to lose it's rec sites. That will be entertaining.

I don't mind having people here on their property only for short vacations but I dearly wish they would take better care of their places. Some are just derelict looking and others look like used trailer lots. They also live outside as they are *camping* which is so contradictory to those of us that live here full time and tend to spend our time in our homes. Noise levels, machines, big boy toys, just yahoos. Then there are those that take such pride in their property and keep them so clean and neat. There really needs to be more vigilance with property sites. There I've said it~would you have your city yard look like this? I think not~the neighbours would complain and something would actually be done. Our neighbours that come for the long weekends and summer are very respectful with any noise and they don't own big toys. Blessing.

Enough complaining. I love it here. Part timers go home and leave the place to me. The silence when walking the roads is bliss. Watching the deer graze through our property in the morning on their way to the lake is heaven. Building our home is hard but satisfying. The place looks wonderful.

The last room to be mudded is the 2nd bedroom/study. We've moved Bill's office onto the kitchen table [will I ever eat on it?], covered the floor with plastic and I'm merrily (not) throwing mud on the walls, in the corners and on the ceilings. Most of it lands on the plastic or in my hair. I always seem to be able to step in the one large clump of wet mud and track it around the house. I'm constantly barefoot which adds to the picture. Just started the ceiling today....this ceiling was the last one to be drywalled and there must be at least 11 seperate pieces of drywall. They used up all the bits and pieces and then expected someone to actually mud and tape them!! There is only one joint that is dimpled, the rest are all butt joints. Trust me, they are the worst. Now the latest muscles to be wrenched are from reaching across the ceiling. I hate mudding.

Today the thunder rolled across the sky for a few hours. Such a magical, powerful sound. The whole of the Cariboo/Chilcotin had thunder/lightning for the day. There was a little rain but nothing like last week. For this we are grateful. What a week! Torrential downpours and cold. One evening there was snow falling. Gadzooks. Snow. Only in December do we want snow. It took so long to go this year I really don't want to see it before Christmas. Fat chance of that but I want some H E A T!

Bill has spent the last two weeks removing all the beaver dams that we built on the property. All the boughs and twigs have now been burned or went to the landfill. There is an area for wood, etc which they burn during the Fall. Probably not the best for the environment but it keeps the forests standing....I could imagine so many out of control fires happening if owners burned all their rubbish. Bill has also bucked a few fallen trees, thrown the burls onto the wheelbarrow and moved them closer to the woodpile. And managed to severely pull his chest muscles while doing this. So, no heavy work for him for a while til he's better. We have a deck to build so he needs to heal.

The deck! Finally, we will be building the deck. I say "we, kemo sabe" but I mean Bill and our friend B. So looking forward to sitting on a deck and not lounging in dirt. Yay! This should happen sometime in July. Then we stain the house~August and paint the trim. So happy. It will probably not happen in that time frame but this summer/fall for absolute sureness. Promise.