Tennis Court Gardening

On Sunday morning the weeding of the tennis court garden was enthusiastically tackled by a keen group of gardeners. Apparently there were several trips to the dump to get rid of the all the weeds and shrub trimmings. Who would have thought that such a small garden could accumulate so much debris. It looks significantly nicer now with the irises no longer competing with the dandelions for our attention.

Halfway done

Candace and Bruce pulling out the many weeds

Kerry-Anne and Brenda smile for the camera

Tracey digging away

Foreshore Work Party

Well under cloudy skies and dead calm winds a pretty large group of volunteers braved the rising waters of Columbia Lake to help stabilize the shoreline around the decks. Many thanks to all of those who showed up and helped load and unload rocks all morning. I think we got quite a bit done.  The next step will be to bring in some gravel but this probably won't happen until fall when the water is down.

Here is the day in pictures:

Step one, remove flooded paddle boat from the lake and drain.

Brian, having not shovelled enough all winter tries to shovel the water away from the beach.

Dave guiding the rock barge along the lake.

Pulling the rock barge to shore. The water was surprisingly warm.

Rocks, transported from down the lake, are unloaded.

Aside from playing in the dirt, guys like nothing more than throwing rocks. 

The sand from McKersie's looks like it came from a beach in Maui.

What kid (or adult for that matter) wouldn't want to build sand castles in this stuff. Too bad we couldn't get an entire beach of the stuff.

Dave monitoring the burgers.

Foreshore Work Party Weekend

WORK PARTY # 1:
What better way to spend a weekend that working on the beach. So grab some gloves and meet down at the beach on Saturday at 9:00 AM. Here is what we are going to be doing:
- Adding ballast around the deck supports to keep them from getting damaged during high water (which is just around the corner).
- Filling the sandbox with some sand.
- Other general maintenance that needs to be done down there. An email will be coming out later in the week with more information. Grant is leading it so send him an email to let him know you are interested in helping.

WORK PARTY # 2:
If lugging big rocks around makes your knees cringe and back ache, you can always meet on Sunday at the tennis courts for some weed pulling. Donna is looking for some help cleaning out the garden at the courts. Sunday June 12th. Donna had times from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. Now I don't think that there are THAT many weeds in the garden so I am guessing she meant 10:00 am.

On other community notes:

THIEVES:

Yup. We are not immune. Apparently a vehicle that was parked down at the beach had items stolen from it this past weekend. Change, CD's etc. This was during the day so make sure that your vehicle is locked up when you head out onto the water. Same goes for your house.

RECYCLING BIN:

Is history. It left rather soon after the long weekend. I must admit that the site looks much better now that the bin is gone and all of the garbage has been picked up and removed.

TYING UP BOATS:

Don't forget to tie up the boats and pull everything far away from the shoreline. The water will be rising and things will start to float away. A good strong wind, or boat wakes, will dislodge poorly parked toys as well sending them adrift to whatever end the lake the wind is blowing to.

CALF ELK:

The little guy in the photo was found curled up beside the road on the way to the beach. Leave baby animals alone. Generally they are in hiding during the day, even if the spot doesn't seem like the best one to be hiding in. How did he know it was along a major path when he nested down there?

Calf Elk

The beginning of the summer season

Well the May long weekend is finally upon us and that marks the beginning of what will hopefully be a wonderful Summer. It is still definatlely Spring though and it looks like the weather this weekend is going to be a mix of sun, cloud and possibly rain. It is what it is though so get out and enjoy the area anyhow.

The AGM is scheduled for Saturday which looks to be the nicest day of the weekend. You should have recieved a memo in the mail or by email by now on it.

This picture was taken today while on a helicopter flight at work. It wasn't the nicest of mornings for pictures but it is always nice to see the area from another point of view. Columbia Ridge is more towards the top of the picture where the highway goes from straight to crooked.

A couple of things to remember or take note of:

If you are using some of the stuff down at the beach, please pull it right back up on shore. The lake level is going to come up with the spring runoff and when it does, boards and boats left at the water's edge will end up at Coys or Canal Flats depending on the direction of the wind. Pull it up and it will be there to use again another day.

I am guessing the recycling bin will fill up this weekend. If it does, please don't leave your recycling (or garbage) piled in front of it. Take it to the Canal Flats or Fairmont dumps. Each one has additional recycling bins and if those are full, you can always just toss it in the dumpster. Better there than all over the neighbourhood after the crows and wind get through with it. I am all for getting rid of the bin altogether if the mess continues.

Not to freak anybody out but a wolf has been seen in the general area. One of the guys I work with saw it on Coy's hill this week and one of our neighbours on the other side of the highway had an 'incident' with her rabbit and a predatory animal with coarse grey hair. The bunny survived but is a little worse for wear. I have been riding my bike on the other side of the highway and haven't seen any but that doesn't mean that they are not in the area. So be mindful of your smaller pets and children.

Enjoy the weekend.

Nice week heading into a nice weekend.

Well what a wonderful week it has been. The weather has been just spectacular with sunshine on all accounts except for Thursday and part of Friday. Thursday had some blustery winds and I managed a good little windsurfing session out after work before a few rain showers killed it. While still early in the season, the water wasn't as cold as I was expecting.

The weekend is looking very promising with nothing but sunshine in the forecast. Temps are supposed to be a bit cooler but I bet we see some 20's in there before Sunday night rolls around.

Happy Gardeners

Donna and Shelly getting down and dirty in the entrance way garden.

Spring Has Arrived

Well what started out to be a rather bleak and dreary weekend turned into quite a nice day on Sunday. It actually felt like Spring had arrived. Trees are starting to flush and leaf out, grass is turning from brown to vibrant green and even the golden dandelions are making their debut. It looks like the week is going to be a nice one with lots of heat and sunshine heading our way.

Community packages have been sent out so everyone should have received them by now. If not, expect something in the mail this week.

Don't forget about the AGM scheduled for the 21st of May. More on that as the date gets closer.