#40 A new paragraph

Hello there,

As mentioned in the last blog, I was allowed to borrow David's camera and tried my luck with the hummingbirds. These hummingbirds were so fast and small that the camera had a real problem focusing on them. So you focus on the feeding station and hope for the right moment. Of course, you would like to photograph the bird without the feeding station, but this is really difficult as I said. Nevertheless, I managed to take some nice photos. 😍 When I went to the deer cabin to see if the blue female was already breeding, the male suddenly landed in front of me. I was so surprised that I had completely forgotten about the branches in front of the bird because I didn't want to move. So unfortunately, I didn't take a photo that I would say, Bam! That's it! I even ran after the bird as fast as I could, after all, I had the camera in my hand. 😂 At some point, however, it flew too far away and that was the end of it. Unfortunately, that was also not the male that is unbelievably blue. The color is so intense and you can already see this male from a very far distance because this blue is so strong. It's crazy what colors there are in the animal kingdom.

On Sunday, I also went kayaking on the lake. It is completely thawed now. Actually, I would like to paddle to the end of the lake, but when I see how far I am after half an hour, I would need at least three hours for a tour. We already took up to 45 minutes with the quad. But it is incredible how deep you can look. Jim, another older gentleman who was also a teacher, is responsible for checking the lake here. So he takes water samples, carries out checks, and also measures how deep you can see. You can look up to 40 feet (about 12 meters) deep in this lake and yes, I can confirm that. I estimated ten meters at one point myself. This lake is really nice.

On Tuesday, I drove with David to Williams Lake. You notice the distances there again. You have to remember so many things, and if you forget something, you have to drive for a total of five or six hours again. I only had a problem with my cell phone number and that was over after a minute. Luckily, David had enough other things to do, otherwise, I would have had to drive to Williams Lake just for that one minute. Another example is: On Tuesday, I also bought the ingredients for a curry dish and on Friday, I wanted to cook it. I unpacked the ingredients and thought to myself, where is the coconut milk actually? Well, in Magdeburg, I would have just walked to the nearest supermarket, here you just eat something else 😅 But I was also a bit disappointed. David comes home so often and says: Here's a bear! There's a bear! - and I always think to myself: I want to see one too! So I was hoping for David's luck with bears and what can I say - we didn't see a single bear! Not one! I then told David that I don't know if I can still trust him. He always claims that he sees one, and on this long tour, we didn't see a single one. I had the feeling that David took my joke a bit too seriously. 😅 By the way, the next day David came for lunch and told me that he saw a grizzly bear today. Of course, I immediately waved it off and demanded proof.....less than ten seconds later, David showed me his photos. In this case, a grizzly bear. Incredibly powerful animals!🐻

Nothing exciting happened on Wednesday, except that a situation escalated. We were running out of firewood. The problem was that although we still have wood lying around, they are either too small pieces or boards that are already planned. So more than 20 boards are already angled for the roof structure and the other boards are for the new support pillars. Now we had a little dead end there. We couldn't build a new pillar because the roof beams protruded too far and had to be sawed off. However, we still needed another angled beam so that Jenny could sit there safely and saw from above, but we can't attach another angled beam because we can't set a new pillar since the roof beams are too long .... 😅 Somehow we managed to get through the day anyway.

On Thursday, Jenny gave me my next own project. I should build the terrace. When we built the huge and hopefully last room, I initially thought, oh yes, this will be a really nice open and large terrace for events. Then Jenny started talking about the roof, and I just thought, not bad either. A covered terrace. And at some point, I realized that it will be another room and the terrace will be built further out. It is slowly becoming a cathedral here. 😂 It is also difficult to build a terrace without wood. But anyway, you have to level the concrete blocks correctly, and that is not so easy in a not quite flat and very stone-heavy area. 😅 However, a new wood delivery came at lunchtime. So I could start building the way I think is right. 😅 On Saturday morning, I cleared out my cabin and moved back to the moose cabin. Because today a new workshop starts here, but I have nothing to do with it, so there is nothing to report, except that I have to pick up a customer tomorrow whose flight was canceled today. However, I also don't know if the WLAN is enough to upload the post on this Saturday evening. 😁 Oh, and the poor woman who will be staying in my cabin with the woodpecker from tomorrow on. That was exhausting last week. Already several times from 5 a.m. That sounds like a jackhammer next to your head. It's not a small woodpecker either, this species can grow up to 33 centimeters. But what was just as annoying was the knocking in the evening. It was much quieter, but continuous. It's super annoying when you hear a continuous knocking next to you for an hour or even longer.

But today I was also at Anahim Lake. This lake + town is close by Canadian standards. Let's put it this way: 111 kilometers is not close for me. 😂 But anyway, today I got to know a few young German people there, which was pretty relaxed. I noticed again that it is a bit difficult to start conversations in a completely unfamiliar group of people. 😅 However, it was quite interesting that everyone was convinced to stay in Canada forever. They apply for one special visa after the next. It was a change of pace, and the next meeting is scheduled for next Friday. And besides young people, I saw something special today. My first black bear this year! 😊 The situation was so fast that I couldn't take a photo as the bear ran across the road just as I came around the corner, (If I had been two seconds earlier, my airbag would have deployed) but such an animal is simply impressive, and I was super happy to see a bear again because now I can cross off another one on my list. Currently: black bears: 4 grizzly bears: 0 🐻 The only problem was that I saw the bear less than five minutes from my cabin, so now I know that it can also pass by here. I also saw a lot of deer, which can also be dangerous. Fortunately, the deer have the white bushy tail, so you can usually see them well. You can also tell that there will be wild horses soon from the horse dung. Because, for some reason, you rarely see horse dung by the roadside, but there is an incredible amount on the road. As if the horses only come to the road for that purpose. On Tuesday, David and I also saw horse dung on the way to Williams Lake, and we agreed that about five horses were standing in a circle and then laid down a pile of horse dung. We had never seen such a pile before. 😂 We also saw two wild foals on the drive. They were still shaky on their feet, and David said they weren't even a week old yet. Today I also saw a few young wild horses. You can always tell very well by the fact that they naively stand on the road before it gets too close. But both trips survived without a wildlife accident.

How's the weather actually? Sometimes I experience winter and summer in a single day here. On Monday, we simply started the day at 3 °C, and the mountains were surrounded by snow clouds all day long. By the afternoon, the clouds moved to us, but fortunately turned into rain and then dissipated. I really don't need any more snow. However, it even snowed a few kilometers further in the next "settlement" this week. So crazy, because this week was hot again. In the morning, still wearing a winter jacket and long pants, and in the afternoon, you can feel like working naked. These are such extreme jumps that unfortunately, I probably also get headaches more often. Oh, pain in or around the head is simply one of the worst pains for me 😅 Fortunately, today's headaches are gone again. But yeah. So we have floods, forest fires, and occasional snowfall - yeah! But now everything is green and it looks really nice too.

By now it's Sunday and I'm about to leave to pick up the customer. It's already incredibly hot now, let's see if I might see something on the drive.

Until then.

Samuel