The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Sunday, May 1, 2016

Back at the park!

So, we're back at Cabri Regional Park. This will be our third summer here as park managers. The first year that we arrived there were no leaves on the trees. Last year, things were a little greener. But this year, spring has arrived early.

In fact, it looks like we're heading straight in to summer and might be bypassing spring completely!

First order of business yesterday was to get the water turned on at the house. Our house and the canteen, use water from a cistern that is trucked in from town. The rest of the campground uses lake water.

Not much of a job really, just turn the pump on and check for leaks. I had blown out the lines last fall, and sure enough everything went smoothly.

Kevin, and the old truck.

I got the old work truck running and moved out of the way. Pumped the gas a few times, and the old 1965 Chevy fired right up!

Up at the shop, the little blue car seems to have fared well over the winter. No sign of mice at all. I renewed the registration and insurance yesterday online. $397 for five months. Not bad. Today I'll get the battery installed, check the tire pressure, and fluid levels and he's pretty much ready to go. The little blue car will be 10 years old in June and he's still using the original battery!

Ruth was busy moving our stuff from the motorhome to the house, and cleaning up and vacuuming cobwebs from the winter. Ran a cleaning cycle through the dishwasher and washing machine. Not as much mouse activity in the house this year either. Maybe because it was a fairly warm winter. 

As I said, things are greener than normal for this time of year, and the grass in our front yard needed cutting already!

Kevin, cutting the grass.

There, that's better!

Only one problem.

The water level in the lake is very low. This means that it's going to be difficult to get the water to the campground turned on unless things change, and the lake doesn't normally start to rise until June.

There's normally six feet of water where Ruth is walking!

Our beach!

Our boat ramp won''t be used for a while.

We could use some rain!

But, that's totally out of our control. They are forecasting the water level to rise with spring runoff coming from the Rocky Mountains west of here, but that won't happen until mid June.

Onto other news...a great horned owl has re-occupied the nest. We don't think it's the same owl though...possibly an offspring? There was one baby the first year, and two baby's last year. This year, we've only confirmed one so far, but we think there may be two. 

A fuzzy head sticking up out of the nest.

We'll get some better pics of the little one growing up over the next couple of weeks. 

And so, cleanup begins. There are lots of branches down, but doesn't seem to be as many leaves around. Probably because there wasn't much snow, so they blew away. Anyhow, we'll get started on that today and hopefully the park will be ready for opening day May 20th. Last year we were on our own, but this year we've managed to find full time help and we have a girl starting with us on Wednesday, I think.

Oh, and check out the weather forecast for this week...!


Is that Miami's forecast? Nope...it's Cabri, Saskatchewan! Wow!

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May 1st means that mosquito season is just around the corner. We use ThermaCELL products and have no problem recommending them to rid yourself of the little buggers!


And in Canada...





16 comments:

  1. welcome back to Canada!! enjoy your summer jobs!..looks like Spring has sprung!

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    1. Thanks Sue and Doug! We are looking forward to our summer here, we are sure it will be another good one. Yes spring is here, actually it looks more like summer already!

      Have fun at your park as well this summer.

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  2. Coming back to a spot we've worked for a few years feels like coming home. I'm sure you have the same feeling. We have a 2000 Pontiac Grand Am with over 200,000 miles on it that we store for the winter and use in Wisconsin in the summer. It also fired right up. We were commenting on how we don't recall ever replacing the battery in it. Maybe we did, but we don't remember when. Our red-tailed hawks are back in the nest in our park for the third year, too. Our park also had many branches down this year, but less leaves. Maybe the winter here was similar to there. Have a great summer and I hope the water levels rise soon.

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    1. Yes, it does feel like coming "home" but we would still prefer to be out there on the road traveling! :-)

      Don't you just love it when you can come back and start up the old stored vehicle and have it start right away. Guess that's why we still keep them around.

      Nice that you have the red-tailed hawk back again as well, it is fun to watch the family grow. And, I do think that we both had much the same weather over the winter, it certainly makes the clean up job a little easier.

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  3. Welcome back to Canada, like your weather forecast we hoping for that here soon.
    Nice that things are going well for you.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks George! I am sure that this weather will be headed your way, it usually does. :-)

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  4. A beautiful park, no wonder it draws you back. But your lake looks more like one in CA (California) than CA (Canada) - wow that is low! Hope the snow pack is sufficient to regenerate it.

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    1. This park is like an oasis in the desert, when you are up above driving in the direction of the park you would never even know it was here. All there is up there are fields and the only trees are the ones planted around the farmhouses but as soon as you start to head down to the park all of a sudden you see tress, grass and water. :-)

      Yes, the water is really low, apparently it has been this low before but this is the first time that we have seen it like this and we thought it was low last year! Hopefully it will come up with some of the mountain runoff.

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  5. A year sure has changed the employment market in oil rich Provinces such as SK - likely the reason why it was no problem to find help this year. I hope you get some rain!

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    1. Yes, the oil/gas industry has taken a bit of a beating this past year so that definitely made it easier for us to find someone full time. I think we will have a good "team" here this summer.

      "We" don't really want it to rain but they certainly do need some rain here.

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  6. It must be nice to be back at your summer base and have everything working smoothly. Enjoy the nice weather :-)

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    1. It is nice to be back but I am sure it won't be long before we start to get antsy again and want to be hitting the road and off on some new adventure! :-)

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  7. Looks like you're off to a good start. I see our parking spot there in your header picture if I remember correctly! Good memories. Beautiful area.

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    1. Yep, we sure are and that spot of yours is just waiting for your return, Chris! ;-)

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  8. Holy crap the river is low! Better be lots of snow in the mountains!

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    Replies
    1. VERY low! That's what we are hoping for, that or lots of rain and we really don't want lots of rain, maybe just a little bit. :-)

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