Roadtrip - The Road Home - Day 3
After the huge fun of the gig, all that remained was the final push home, through the rest of Washington State, across the border (much easier this time) and through the Okanagan Valley to the cabin. I hadn't realised it before, but Washington State is famous for its apples, and this was pretty clear as we drove past orchard after orchard laden with lots of juicy fruit. It's not all there naturally though, irrigation from the Columbia being a huge factor in whether a farm will survive or not.
Where's the water being used?
Washington (and also Oregon although to a lesser extent) have one of the more bizarre farming practices I've seen which is heating the crop to prevent damage from frosts. Apparently this is a pretty old practice and used to be done with smokepots and windmills leading to a whole bunch of smog and unpleasantness during the cold winters. These days the heat comes from gas but the windmills are still used to push the heated air over the crop and keep it from snapping frozen.
Windmill heaters...
The Okanagan Valley (we're back in Canada now) is a pretty little area that produces a huge amount of Canadian wine that we've been appreciating over the past few months as we make an effort to try out the local stuff (we're spoiled from all the good Australian wines I guess). Lots of fun twisty little roads through this part of the world and I think we'll be back for sure to take a little closer look at the place and possibly even go on a winery tour or four...
So we finally made it back to the cabin after two weeks of road tripping, worn out but excited about all the new stuff we'd seen, the experiences we'd had and the chance to spend some time with the southern arm of the family. In the meantime, Ken and Bonnie had been busy at Adams Lake and the biffy was almost totally finished. And it's pretty luxurious too for an outhouse.
Fancy new biffy...
The finished product...
The only thing left was to build a retaining wall around the high side which Col and I managed to pull off in a really fun afternoon of Tetris with logs!
Solid - I think you'll agree...
On the way out we even managed to spot some sockeye salmon spawning in the creek near the marina where the boat is kept. These are really really good eating (especially when smoked on a cedar plank on the barbie) and the colours are just insane! But when they're flashing the crazy colours, only the ravenous bears and cougars feast on their flesh because after the whole spawning process - swimming in from the coast, putting on the pretty colours for the mating ceremony, etc. - their flesh becomes mushy and not-so-delicious.
Sockeye salmon spawning...
So all in all a pretty extensive trip, lots of good times and some cool photos to bring back with us...we'll have to do this again some time!
Where's the water being used?
Washington (and also Oregon although to a lesser extent) have one of the more bizarre farming practices I've seen which is heating the crop to prevent damage from frosts. Apparently this is a pretty old practice and used to be done with smokepots and windmills leading to a whole bunch of smog and unpleasantness during the cold winters. These days the heat comes from gas but the windmills are still used to push the heated air over the crop and keep it from snapping frozen.
Windmill heaters...
The Okanagan Valley (we're back in Canada now) is a pretty little area that produces a huge amount of Canadian wine that we've been appreciating over the past few months as we make an effort to try out the local stuff (we're spoiled from all the good Australian wines I guess). Lots of fun twisty little roads through this part of the world and I think we'll be back for sure to take a little closer look at the place and possibly even go on a winery tour or four...
So we finally made it back to the cabin after two weeks of road tripping, worn out but excited about all the new stuff we'd seen, the experiences we'd had and the chance to spend some time with the southern arm of the family. In the meantime, Ken and Bonnie had been busy at Adams Lake and the biffy was almost totally finished. And it's pretty luxurious too for an outhouse.
Fancy new biffy...
The finished product...
The only thing left was to build a retaining wall around the high side which Col and I managed to pull off in a really fun afternoon of Tetris with logs!
Solid - I think you'll agree...
On the way out we even managed to spot some sockeye salmon spawning in the creek near the marina where the boat is kept. These are really really good eating (especially when smoked on a cedar plank on the barbie) and the colours are just insane! But when they're flashing the crazy colours, only the ravenous bears and cougars feast on their flesh because after the whole spawning process - swimming in from the coast, putting on the pretty colours for the mating ceremony, etc. - their flesh becomes mushy and not-so-delicious.
Sockeye salmon spawning...
So all in all a pretty extensive trip, lots of good times and some cool photos to bring back with us...we'll have to do this again some time!
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