Week ending Apr 9, 2015 Oliver

Good Friday was a fairly lazy day. John finished putting the insulation under the trailer Joan did a bit a housework. Yesterday Joan had roasted a 1/2 turkey, so today was leftover day. Nothing is better than leftover turkey. Just to keep you updated on our mail delivery - no mail yet, according to the tracking system, since our package didn't arrive by end of day yesterday, as promised, they do not have any idea when it will arrive. We are here until the 15th, we are hopeful it will arrive before we leave; after all it was only supposed to take 1 day. Men's curling finals have started, so our weekend entertainment is organized.

After watching curling Saturday morning we went for a walk in the neighbourhood. The apple and cherry trees are starting to bloom. Very pretty.

 There are ponderosa pines in the area, one of our favourites. When we got back to the trailer, we contacted our UPS store in Cochrane today. He can not find out anything more than we know - our package is not here yet. But he assures us it will arrive - no one seems to know when. Monday we are hoping the main tracking office will be open and we will be able to find out a more definitive delivery date.

Sunday was world curling finals.  Between games  we took the opportunity to do a walk along the Okanagon River. We discovered a wetland that was dedicated to the protection of the great basin spadefoot, which is like a frog or toad, but a bit different,  and the western painted turtle. Generally these amphibians are seen in the evening, and as we were there in the middle of the day we did not see any of them. We did see lots of red winged blackbirds.

Blackbird

Monday around noon our mail arrived, only 6 days after the promised arrival time, but at least it is here.  While John worked on replacing insulation under the trailer Joan waded through a load of mail. Since this is the year we both turn 65 the gov't wants all sort of forms filled out. The one that amused us the most was the one that said because you are 65 please fill in this form to obtain your Alberta seniors benefits. One of the first items they require is a copy of my birth certificate. I guess they needed to prove their records were correct? Other forms really were just repeats of info we had sent them in our previous correspondence within the past year. Tempting to say "see our last application" But that would be expecting too much. It is no wonder the gov't spends so much money on administrative duties. We were thankful that the library was not too far away, so we were able to get the required photocopies.

Tuesday and Wednesday was spent filling out forms. Only one more left to do now and that is for the US gov't declaring that we are not a resident of the US and therefore not required to pay tax on our income to them. I am beginning to think that the gov'ts all have shares in pen manufacturers.

Thursday was a beautiful day with bright blue sky, we chose to do a hike to the top of Oliver Mountain.  We are happy to be done with forms and back out hiking and enjoying some exercise.  It was a very steep hike. We struggled our way up until we found a nice spot and had lunch sitting on a rock looking over the Oliver valley. Coming down off the mountain was easier on the lungs, but harder on the knees.

Oliver and Tuc El Nuit Lake from Oliver Mountain