CNC Open Day

The College of New Caledonia held an Open Day for the public to visit the college and see and experience the various courses available.

One fun activity to generate interest was an attempt to enter the Guinness Book of Records for the largest number of people balancing books on their head. Can you spot the girls in the photo from the Prince George press?

We haven't heard whether or not the attempt has been accepted - apparently there is no entry at this stage so they/we hold the record!

In the Biology department they were showing you how to extract DNA from strawberries. The girls helped to crush the strawberries before ethanol was added by the "scientist". Both were given two small vials to store and keep the syrupy precipitate that contained the strands of DNA.

We reacted chemicals and burnt compounds in the Chemistry labs and electricuted or propelled things in the Physics lab. In the Forestry rooms we learned all about the Lodge Pole Mountain Pine beetle, seen attacking Katie, that is eating billions of trees in British Columbia!

Plerpule

Our local bear pays one last visit before winter comes and he has to hibernate until spring.

He's named Plerpule, by the girls, because he leaves purple poos on the tracks around here and on our back lawn.

Is there any fruit in this tree? All I can smell are the nuts stored away by the squirrel.

OK, how do I open this silly little gate? Eric should have built this gate with a latch that can be operated from both sides by someone with paws as big as mine!

Having Fun

Proudly showing off their hand made and decorated Christmas houses. Judys' friend Tracy and her two girls, Sheriden and Fallon, showed the girls how it was done. Libby presented hers to Aunty Judy.

Buggy riding behind miniature horses. There's no seat belt or windscreen!

Riding and steering the horse all on her own!

Next, we'll have to buy the girls horses!

Steer the horse slowly towards Aunty Judy.

Whatever you do, don't kick your heels back just now.

Time to prepare for Halloween. Find the biggest pumpkin you can, hollow it out and carve holes for eyes, a nose and a mouth. They are supposed to look scary, but they look kind a pretty and decorative really.

Gold Panning

Gold panning at Fort Langley. We can all retire now and live comfortably off our vast wealth from 6 grams of suspect gold! Yeah, right.

We'll bring it home to show you.

Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day with Judy and Tim in Abbotsford.

Just like Xmas dinner in NZ! Except cranberries instead of strawberries. No pavlova though.

Night bare-back horse riding.

Horses don't come with any night lights or reflective safety gear!

What was that flash of bright light for?

I know where I'm going - I just follow the lady infront.

Cranbrook Hill Greenway

Cranbrook Hill Greenway is a trail through native forest and swamp from the University to the Otway Ski area.

The 18 km run started early in the morning before the frost had time to thaw. In fact, frost formed on my clothing as I ran in the shade.

One section is called Stevens Corner so I had to stop and have my photo taken there. I didn't see any wildlife except silly Canadian runners and walkers.

Just after the half way point we were offered a selection of fruits, chocolate, water and even beer or a dram of whiskey. I had a beer of course!

Where Have All The Apples Gone?

Where have all the apples gone?

There used to be hundreds of apples growing on this tree!

What have you done with them?

Where have you hidden them?

I can smell them in the air. You have picked them all and stored them somewhere, haven't you?

Are they over here?

All I can smell are boring vegetables. Oh well, I'll go and check the neighbours trees.

Bye.

Faro

Faro is the neighbours' police dog. He's an extremely well trained tracking and drug sniffer dog. Faro is a Czechoslovakian name as all the Canadian police dogs are bred from Czech Alsations.

Autumn/Fall

Our first introduction to winter, hail. The girls thought it was snow at first but still enjoyed running around in it, picking it up and squashing it into balls to throw at each other.

The nights are regularly down to sub-zero temperatures while the days warm up to 10 - 15 C. Therefore, most mornings, we get fog - it's worse downtown.

Arriving at school you can just identify the school building in the background. The footprints in the frosted grass break the blades of grass so that when it thaws it leaves trails of yellowing, dying grass!

Otway X-Country Skiing

The girls biked and I ran around the tracks of the Otway cross country skiing trails. The autumn colours were beautiful.
Otway has miles of trails for all levels of skiers and even has lights for night skiing. Bring on the snow!



We had to wear winter gear and gloves due to the cold but it did mean that the mud was semi frozen.












Libby practices her shooting for the winter biathlon. We are waiting for the snow to start the real training.







Katie is also keen to do a biathlon.

Afterwards we inspected the targets to see how they show a hit and how they reset the targets. It was the first time either girls or Sue had seen a real bullet or known how they are made.


We then ventured out for an hour along the Cranbrook Greenway trail.
Katie had more confidence down the hills than Sue did!

X-country Races

Katie lines up with the other 9 and 10 year olds (called the Pee Wees!) for the inter-school cross-country running races. There are 3 races held at different schools around the area. They are about 2-3 km long with a few slight hills but always on grass or gravel roads.









Katie starts off slow while most of the others sprint off.
She then gradually catches up and overtakes to come 6th in her last race.

These are the 5 girls in her age group form Hart Highlands School.
Each member of the school is given a school logo "HUSKY" T-shirt which they wear at any inter-school activity, monthly school assemblies or whenever they like.
Every runner gets a ribbon as well as a drink and biscuit afterwards.
The girl in red is the fasted, then Katie - height doesn't matter.

Bears

Bears are to be respected. They will run away from you if they have time. However, if you frighten them, surprise them or corner them, they will defend themselves very well! They can run faster than us and have very sharp powerful claws!









There is no point climbing trees to get away from bears! This bear is about the same height as me but heavier - more fat and fur.

I've seen a bear (probably them same one - they are territorial), while out running, three times.

I now carry a bear bell, which jingles as a run, to warn the bear of my approach. It gives them time to prepare to run away if we spot each other. One time I ran to a spot and turned around to return home along the same trail. I hadn't seen any bears so was more relaxed in running back, but within 2-3 minutes I ran into a bear. Well, we saw each other 10 metres apart. He must have been just off the track and waited quietly until I had run past before crossing the track!



This is what our local bear thought of me when he came onto our property during the night to feed off the apple tree only to find that I had already picked all the apples!

A Walk In Our Forest

We all went for a walk along the track adjacent to our house. It borders the houses on the ridge and the forest between them and the city.
A view over the forest towards down-town.
There are gravel roads through the forest with various tracks and trails connecting them.

Several tracks have mountain bike trails along them. They are challenge enough to just walk along, let alone ride a bike on. They are made from logs and usually down steep hills.

Libby cautiously walked up a ramp but was surprised to find that as soon as she stepped past halfway the whole ramp rotated downwards.
Every log is a challenge to the girls.
Nothing scares them!
Sue declined the challenge - she kept an eye-out for our local wildlife.
There he is. The local black bear that lives in the forest around our houses on the ridge. We think he is about two years old. Being autumn, the bears are eating as much as they can and move in close to civilization to feed off our fruit trees and any food rubbish that people do not keep shut away. We have to keep our rubbish bins in the garage. No food in the compost.