Family Adventures Who Said A Woman Couldn't Do It? Makarismos does not necessarily endorse the ad appearing above The music playing is "Mission Impossible" OUR MOVE NORTH It was a gorgeous August evening. With a caravan of three that included a 3-ton U-haul rental and two stationwagons and all loaded to the hilt, we travelled some 700 miles in one day from our Alberta home to arrive at our new home in British Columbia. My Dad was to follow a week later with my Dodge pick-up loaded down with bikes, toboggans, and the like. You know, that bulky stuff that just won't allow compact packing. After a long day we all dreaded having to unload the U-haul, but each day out meant more money spent and to me if it "weren't movin'", it was a waste of hard-earned money. We welcomed the helping hands of a family who would be one of our neighbors. Their kindness was greatly appreciated, and to this day we are fast friends. I was sure thankful that I had labelled every box by the name of the room according to its contents. With every move we had made when I was a child Mom had done exactly this and it was so easy for us to settle into new surroundings. I was only following what I had observed. On a few of the boxes I had included a list of the contents that would be needed almost immediately: sheets, nightclothes, washcloths and towels, eating and cooking utensils. All our possessions were moved methodically into the 14'x74' trailer with its 10'x20' two-room addition. Most of the heavy furniture was placed where it seemed a likely place for it to be. The upright piano still draws attention from the very place it first stood --never been moved, except to clean behind and under. Having used only apple and orange cardboard boxes for packing, it was a breeze stacking them neatly ceiling-high in the centre of each room. A narrow aisle left around the outside of these boxes made movement from room to room and from stove to table and from tub to bed an easy feat. The two small bedrooms usually found in a trailer had been renovated to one room. Here the boys settled in. First on the agenda, however was to make the one closet accessible for use by both. My five-year old would take the top rod that was permanently fixed in place for his clothes because they were short in length, and my fifteen-year old would use the makeshift rod we hammered into place. With the school year start date only one month away, I felt it was more important to unpack and get organized indoors rather than to do much outdoors. This plot had been vacant going on three years and the lawn was overgrown with Bayberry bushes, clumps of willow and Aspen poplar, some four feet tall. Clover plants that attracted many honeybees sprawled from one corner to the other. Purple fireweed and wild raspberries grew profusely in half-a-dozen large root piles. Lining the driveway giant ragweed reached heights over six feet. This we were certain of because my sister who is 5'7" posed next to it while we took a picture for memory's sake. We did not have a lawnmower yet and I saw no need to work the area at that particular time. After a winter-kill, raking would be much easier. That first winter was a memorable one. For someone who was an avid "camera-clicker", the only reason I can come up with for not taking pictures of this next chapter in our lives was that I was too busy working, firstly preparing for winter and secondly surviving the winter, and no doubt because it was cold. We had power and natural gas heating from day one. Within a couple of months we had the telephone; it was a party line shared with two other families, but still a very much-needed link to the world outside and my seventeen-year old daughter. She was completing her grade twelve and elected to stay in Alberta with friends of ours. That communication link was vital. We had running water if you could call driving thirty miles round trip for water, "running water". Believe me, we learnt how to conserve water that first year. Every second Saturday like clockwork we loaded up the back of the pick-up with an uneven mix of 3- and 5-gallon empty Overwaitea bulk food pails totalling fourteen and three 17-gallon green Rubbermaid garbage pails. The first were for carrying cooking and drinking water and the latter for wash water that was heated in huge hot-water bath preserving pots over a hot stove. We could handle the weight of the full pails, but not so the barrels. It was therefore necessary to have another barrel at home that was at least two-thirds empty. That way we could almost empty those on the truck to make them lighter to carry in. Each time the thermometer dropped below minus twenty-five degrees Celsius the water would freeze solid before we got home. We would literally "axe" the ice out of the barrels and haul chunks into the trailer. This was always done as soon as we got home whether it was early in the afternoon or late at night. There was no way I was going to lose a barrel because of a cracked bottom. The following summer we upgraded our water system by purchasing two silver barrels, one 45-gallon and one 80-gallon. They were strategically placed so that a 6-inch diameter hose from a water delivery truck could be drawn through an open window to fill each barrel easily. So for the next two years at $10.00 a trip we had our water delivered. We, then, further upgraded to a 22-hundred gallon cistern for delivery of drinking water every second month. To read about the BC Peace Country pop over to BC Peace River Region First Chapter of our adventure To read about some of the superb parks and campgrounds situated in the BC Peace-Liard District, click into these sites:To flow smoothly from one park write-up to the next, click on the NEXT button. At any time, to return to my index page, click on the HOME button. Enjoy your visits to these parks via the net. 115 Creek campground Andy Bailey Park Buckinghorse River Provincial Park Kiskatinaw River Provincial Park Prophet River Provincial Park Tetsa River Provincial Park Sign Guestbook View Guestbook View my old guestbook You are visitor number to this page. Please come back and visit me soon. More adventures will soon be added. Makarismos' Page of Introduction Our Move North Contents Subpage Memoirs Contents ...And Then Some MAIN Contents This page hosted by Get Your Own FREE HOME PAGE
Makarismos does not necessarily endorse the ad appearing above The music playing is "Mission Impossible"
It was a gorgeous August evening. With a caravan of three that included a 3-ton U-haul rental and two stationwagons and all loaded to the hilt, we travelled some 700 miles in one day from our Alberta home to arrive at our new home in British Columbia. My Dad was to follow a week later with my Dodge pick-up loaded down with bikes, toboggans, and the like. You know, that bulky stuff that just won't allow compact packing. After a long day we all dreaded having to unload the U-haul, but each day out meant more money spent and to me if it "weren't movin'", it was a waste of hard-earned money. We welcomed the helping hands of a family who would be one of our neighbors. Their kindness was greatly appreciated, and to this day we are fast friends. I was sure thankful that I had labelled every box by the name of the room according to its contents. With every move we had made when I was a child Mom had done exactly this and it was so easy for us to settle into new surroundings. I was only following what I had observed. On a few of the boxes I had included a list of the contents that would be needed almost immediately: sheets, nightclothes, washcloths and towels, eating and cooking utensils. All our possessions were moved methodically into the 14'x74' trailer with its 10'x20' two-room addition. Most of the heavy furniture was placed where it seemed a likely place for it to be. The upright piano still draws attention from the very place it first stood --never been moved, except to clean behind and under. Having used only apple and orange cardboard boxes for packing, it was a breeze stacking them neatly ceiling-high in the centre of each room. A narrow aisle left around the outside of these boxes made movement from room to room and from stove to table and from tub to bed an easy feat.
The two small bedrooms usually found in a trailer had been renovated to one room. Here the boys settled in. First on the agenda, however was to make the one closet accessible for use by both. My five-year old would take the top rod that was permanently fixed in place for his clothes because they were short in length, and my fifteen-year old would use the makeshift rod we hammered into place. With the school year start date only one month away, I felt it was more important to unpack and get organized indoors rather than to do much outdoors. This plot had been vacant going on three years and the lawn was overgrown with Bayberry bushes, clumps of willow and Aspen poplar, some four feet tall. Clover plants that attracted many honeybees sprawled from one corner to the other. Purple fireweed and wild raspberries grew profusely in half-a-dozen large root piles. Lining the driveway giant ragweed reached heights over six feet. This we were certain of because my sister who is 5'7" posed next to it while we took a picture for memory's sake. We did not have a lawnmower yet and I saw no need to work the area at that particular time. After a winter-kill, raking would be much easier.
That first winter was a memorable one. For someone who was an avid "camera-clicker", the only reason I can come up with for not taking pictures of this next chapter in our lives was that I was too busy working, firstly preparing for winter and secondly surviving the winter, and no doubt because it was cold. We had power and natural gas heating from day one. Within a couple of months we had the telephone; it was a party line shared with two other families, but still a very much-needed link to the world outside and my seventeen-year old daughter. She was completing her grade twelve and elected to stay in Alberta with friends of ours. That communication link was vital. We had running water if you could call driving thirty miles round trip for water, "running water". Believe me, we learnt how to conserve water that first year. Every second Saturday like clockwork we loaded up the back of the pick-up with an uneven mix of 3- and 5-gallon empty Overwaitea bulk food pails totalling fourteen and three 17-gallon green Rubbermaid garbage pails. The first were for carrying cooking and drinking water and the latter for wash water that was heated in huge hot-water bath preserving pots over a hot stove. We could handle the weight of the full pails, but not so the barrels. It was therefore necessary to have another barrel at home that was at least two-thirds empty. That way we could almost empty those on the truck to make them lighter to carry in. Each time the thermometer dropped below minus twenty-five degrees Celsius the water would freeze solid before we got home. We would literally "axe" the ice out of the barrels and haul chunks into the trailer. This was always done as soon as we got home whether it was early in the afternoon or late at night. There was no way I was going to lose a barrel because of a cracked bottom.
The following summer we upgraded our water system by purchasing two silver barrels, one 45-gallon and one 80-gallon. They were strategically placed so that a 6-inch diameter hose from a water delivery truck could be drawn through an open window to fill each barrel easily. So for the next two years at $10.00 a trip we had our water delivered. We, then, further upgraded to a 22-hundred gallon cistern for delivery of drinking water every second month.
To read about the BC Peace Country pop over to
BC Peace River Region
First Chapter of our adventure To read about some of the superb parks and campgrounds situated in the BC Peace-Liard District, click into these sites:To flow smoothly from one park write-up to the next, click on the NEXT button. At any time, to return to my index page, click on the HOME button. Enjoy your visits to these parks via the net.
115 Creek campground Andy Bailey Park Buckinghorse River Provincial Park Kiskatinaw River Provincial Park Prophet River Provincial Park Tetsa River Provincial Park Sign Guestbook View Guestbook View my old guestbook You are visitor number to this page. Please come back and visit me soon. More adventures will soon be added. Makarismos' Page of Introduction Our Move North Contents Subpage Memoirs Contents ...And Then Some MAIN Contents