blogx
musings of mark since 2001

Didn’t take long to save up enough for an inexpensive older van, version number one of the nomad mobile is a 1986 Ford E150 that came from the factory with a fibreglass roof for extra headroom along with a propane refridgerator and heater. The original fridge and heater have been taken out and using portable models instead, but the break-down table and fold out sleeping arrangements are intact and functional. It’s real nice to be able to stretch out at night when not house sitting, the Mazda Motel can get cramped after a few days.

The drive train is in pretty good shape for being over 20 years old: an oversize transmission attached to a “straight six”, one of the real work horse engines Ford produced. Good tires on the back, fronts will need replacing before winter and the starter motor has seen better days but still manages to crank it over with some TLC and a prayer. There is some rust of course, it’s a Canadian vehicle driven on winter roads so inevitable but not so bad that things are falling apart and this is just van version one so if I get a couple years out of it will be happy.

This evening I’m parked almost at the top of a hill near the edge of an ecological reserve on Bowen Island, the sun has made it’s path across the sky and the scenery is much nicer than at Cates Hill where I was house sitting earlier in the day. Was to be about a two week gig, but their vacation has been cut short with a death in the family and the house will be filled with relatives tonight. The same house sit may continue and at any rate they are paying for the entire time anyways wether there or not, which is really nice of them.

Just finishing up an eight day gig on the very western side of the island, and tomorrow night will be on the eastern side near Hood Point. Advert should be in the Undercurrent tomorrow to fill up the month of August, already a couple spots taken mid-month and it’s looking like the last couple months, with back to back house sitting gigs and few days empty in between. Have been hoarding the income lately, should have enough saved up by the end of the summer for a different vehicle. Always wanted a van that was camper-ized stealthily (looks like any old van) and now there’s finally a need for it - to be able to get away from the house sitting when/if it gets a bit much, and it’s the perfect thing for those in between days, or maybe even camping

Got the Windows IIS7 web server running localhost the other day on the Vista partition of this HP laptop, and yesterday downloaded Visual Basic 2005 and Visual Web Developer to match and installed. Kept getting errors saying I must update with two patches and even a link to them, but downloading the patches and running brought compatibility errors.

Fired up again this morning, and there was a Window update and one of them was the two patches again along with a Defender signature file. This time the patches installed as expected and right clicking and choosing “Run as Administrator” on either VB program it starts up and runs with no problems.

Managed to get the first web site built out of the tutorial, creating a “Master” page which is basically a template file and somewhat getting the projects wire-frame that I’m actually supposed to be working on display like it should using VB and IIS and the whole .NET environment thingee. Not bad for a few hours in the morning; brain exploded just before lunch so went down to the Cove for a coffee and say hi to Norma for a break. Getting back to the dog and house, the afternoon was spent in the sunshine vacuuming out the car for all the dog hair and preparing for the owners to return tomorrow sometime.

Jeez, Kurt Vonnegut then Uncle Walt and now George Carlin has bit the dust too. One of the side effects of getting old is having people close to you go away at a greater rate, hurts sometimes but the cycle of life on this planet has been going on for quite a while and most likely will continue long after the humans have left.

Waking up at the Chilanko Rosa Ranch, in the little cabin out back just before 5:00 am, listening to the birds having a morning chirp outside the window. Clothes on and outside for a smoke, Stephen is already walking around with coffee cup in hand and there’s more in the pot, w00t! Lazy type morning with the event not until two in the afternoon and lots of time to get ready, breakfast is porridge, mmm.

Did the chores with Lorraine and we had a nice talk, everyone mentions Nives losing her husband and seems sometimes they forget that he had a sister that was close too. She has lost her husband, my Uncle Vernon, a few years back and also survives both parents and her sister Hattie, my Mom. She asked me if I ever thought moving up to the Chilcotin, and couldn’t really give a definitive answer making up excuses like the lack of high speed internet (dial up is slowwwly available). Never much cared for the idea of raising cows with all the calving and branding that goes along with the job, did like the feeding and herding around to different pastures as the seasons roll by though. Having just a haying operation and selling the hay to other people that raised the animals would be a good gig for me, work hard part of the year and during the long winter months have time to play on the internet etc.

Chores that had to be taken care of every day are feeding the chickens in the morning, putting the milk cows and their calves together for breakfast, getting the sheep and lambs out of the barn and into an outside pen, and throwing some hay over the fence into the bull pen. Doesn’t take that long, a little less than an hour and back up to the house where the production line for the sandwiches and other goodies for the Memorial are ramping up. There aren’t any caterers in the Chilcotin, food is handmade and mostly locally grown so the cream that was served with the coffee was freshly skimmed off the milk in the morning from the milking yesterday.

The service was at the Alexis Creek Community Centre, and when we arrived shortly before 2:00 the parking lot was already almost full and the mosquitos were thick in the air. We waited and swatted and talked outside while cousin Rainy got everyone seated inside, and then made our entrance, filling the entire front row of seats.

The priest at Alexis Creek is of the Christian bent, and is known for not having long drawn out sermons while speaking the language of the ranchers he communes with, zeroing in on the crux of a subject. This time was no exception with an eulogy focused on Walt’s tenacity and genuineness of the land and animals he tended. Mr. Bayliff also got up to talk, a few songs were sung and the formal part of the service was over. Everyone stood to sing one last psalm, and then the greetings and talk of days past began. Managed to find a few people that I recognised and had a couple chats, but for the most part felt like an outsider there and unable to speak the language. Did a little better going outside for a smoke, at least a little in common there other than knowing Walt but time outside is limited to how long you can stand the mosquitos.

Around 4:00 the event started breaking up and people going home, there was still a spreading of the ashes to go through back at the Willow Springs ranch and dinner with the family. Hopefully I didn’t insult anyone by not attending that part, earlier in the day was asked if I was going to be there for the ceremony and had surmised that by that time, my limit for this sort of event would have been reached and and said no, and having guessed correctly and started saying my goodbyes as well. Made the mistake of saying goodbye to Lorraine and Nives first and after those two people the tears were welling up, so made my exit and jumped in the car.