Rick and Cheryl on Adventure

  WATER IS THE LIFEBLOOD . . . For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants. (Isaiah 44:3) We discovered a natural spring feeding a cattle trough high up on the mountain. Too bad we don't have one of those on our lot. Isaiah 44:3 is a verse I would like to claim both with regard to water on our dry land and the living water that God would pour on our offspring. From the moment we purchased this property, water has been on our minds. The problem of water has taxed and frustrated Rick’s thinking capacity and challenged Tim’s dream of growing grapes. So I thought I’d begin this blog with some perceptive thoughts and quotes about the absolute indispensability of water: “Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. – W.H. Auden 1 “We forget that the water cycle and the life cycle are one.” -  Jacques Yves Cousteau 1 “If there is magic on this planet, it is ...

  CHOOSING PATHS I instruct you in the way of wisdom and lead you along straight paths. (Proverbs 4:11) If you view a map of our 10-acre property, it’s more than a little confusing. There’s a paved parking lot at the base of a rough road which zigzags up the mountainside, carving our land into three separate parcels. The parking space and road easements are actually cut out of our private land, but we own the terrain surrounding them. We quickly learned that the road is gazetted and appears on Google maps, so anyone can use it. It serves as an access road for Telus vehicles as there is a telecommunications tower above us. The parking lot was built and paved because it is such a popular hiking trail that vehicles were lining the road and impeding passage. We counted a group of 14 hikers one day If you know where you’re going when you climb the trail, it eventually leads to an amazing geological formation called the Keremeos Columns. There’s a small provincial park up there as we...