Sunday afternoon on the farm

Hello everyone,

Life is quiet and serene here on the 965 acre Triple G ranch which is located 10 kms east of the small village of Fort Fraser, B.C. and 25 kms west of Vanderhoof, pop 4,400 on hwy 16 West. It is a cow/calf operation and they run about 80 mature cows with a corresponding number of new calfs. The ranch is pretty much self sufficient in terms of feed for the animals ands provides a good living for Dolores, her mother (90 years old), Milton her older brother (67) and her son David (41). Dolores plants a 3 acre vegetable garden annually and most years they raise chickens for meat, which are often referred to as "freezer guests". One of the calfs is butchered annually to provide beef for the coming year.

I drove here Thursday April 24th from Vancouver a distance of 920 kms. It snowed really hard between Hope and the Toll booth on the Coquihalla Hwy a distance of 60 kms and the road was slushy and quite slippery. For those of you who don't know, the Coquihalla is a high mountain highway between Hope and Kamloops. The Surrey Summit is 1,444 m or 4,743 feet above sea level. Hope is at sea level .

As I drove north from Kamloops on Highway 97, the weather was mixed, rain at the lower elevations with snow at the higher points along the road. The last 255 kms from Williams Lake to Prince George was all in brilliant sunshine. From Prince George to Fort Fraser was mixed sun and clouds. It was a long trip but, a relatively easy drive. I left Surrey ar 9:30 AM and was here at 7:15 PM. I made good time.

I have helped Dolores with the chickens, she collects about 90 eggs per day from 3 chicken koops. The koops need to be cleaned everyday and new feed and water is given to the birds. It has been an eye opener for this "city slikker". I have also helped prepare the flower gardens for spring planting.

That's it for now. More at a later date.

Rick, aka Lumpy