A Weekend in Review...Happy Birthday!

This weekend in Australia was a long weekend with the Monday off. We opted to take our holiday and not go into work. Apparently it is the queen's birthday! Happy birthday queen! I suppose we would send our cards to the governor general and he/she would pass our best wishes onto the queen. Haha... She is 84 this year and her real birthday is on April 21, 1926. Not sure why there is a public holiday in June for this occasion but Aussies like to squeeze a holiday at any excuse!

It has been nice to have the three days of rest; Saturday we drove up to Cairns to get some errands done and to watch the new Robin Hood movie! Not a bad show. The city seemed to wipe us out, that and the windy windy curvaceous Gillies range taking us down off and then back up the to Tablelands as we dropped altitude to reach the coastal city.

Sunday was a big day. We chainsawed, cleaned, and burned. Monday we finished felling the last tree in obstruction and rested for the remainder of the day.

Terry was nervous at first about the fire and the felling, but soon we had more trouble keeping the fire going and getting a 'backpacker' to cut your trees is thousands of dollars cheaper than calling in the pros: Overall it was a successful weekend. I hope you all had a good one too.

Peter&Sarah

The new view!

Felled trees & another brush pile.

In the citrus orchard with Ester.

Deputy Terry watching over the burn!

Taking it all in...

Looking back at the house (Sunday afternoon)

Niece's Art stacks up! Nice going Grace!

Cool hats....Cool chairs

Again with warm light

Kayak Photos

I got these photos from Gary Chapman and maybe some from the students. There may be more to come.


Granite Falls


Some boys giving you a perspective at how big it is


Our campsite at the base of the falls. This was near the end of the Indian Arm


Old lighthouse beacon. Didn't seem to be functioning at the time. We found a lot of of old steel and things - probably an old forestry area.


Doesn't get more west coast than this!


Me and some of the boys trying to build a bridge with rocks so we could cross. Took too long, so we crossed up higher. Very cold water! Joel Woudstra is to my right.



The falls again


Looking down the arm - the land on the right is an island.


Place we stopped for lunch

Some Spring Cleanin'

Well were a few days into June and finally the sun decided to show its face. Today was the first sunny day in awhile. It's going to rain tomorrow.

This past weekend I had the privilege to go along and chaperon FVC's grade 12 LEAD class kayak trip up the Indian Arm. This is the same class Rachel was in last year. We stayed overnight at a campsite near Granite Falls - a massive waterfall fed from the mountains. All together I think we kayaked around 40km (20km there and back). We started at Deep Cove, where we rented our kayaks, and went all the way up to Granite Falls located near the top right of the arm.

We saw a few jellyfish, seals, eagles and a deer. I'll try and get pictures from the school as soon as I can and I'll post them. The weather was overcast, which made for excellent conditions. It was a great trip and definitely reminded me why I love BC.

There still has been no word of a job for myself, however I am subbing again on Thursday for 2 periods. So in the meantime I've been keeping busy along with much help on projects around the house.

The Infamous Steps! This was done a few weeks ago.



Dad and I rented a masonry saw to finish them off. As you can see they need to be TSP'd to get the green color out. Definitely had to do a bit of 'fudging' to make things work too.



We had the saw for the long weekend so we also took out the slippery wooden pad in front of the shed and built a small brick landing.



The garage needed some lovin' after the Kabala garage sale (Mom is working on that post). So yesterday Dad and myself tackled it and built a shelving unit. Nothing special but it works.



Nails: 10$
Lumber: $40
Having a clean garage and a happy mother: priceless
For everything else there's Dad's Mastercard

Today I organized the shed too a bit and burned a bunch of crap while Dad was at work. The good lumber was either used or moved into the shed.

The yard on a sunny day



Burning



Some random photo of Rachel doing something with cards



Evening clouds while Jeff and I were shooting some puck around. We've been practicing for Hockey Day at Fraser Valley, which is this weekend.



So that's a little update for now. Rachel and Jeff have been working pretty steadily, as well as Pops of course. Mom has been feeling under the weather and has been in bed mostly for the last 2 days.

Hope you guys are doing well. We'd love to see some more photos if you have time and quick internet! Nice to skype with you too.

Love the BC Brouwer's