July 28 - August 4th 2016 - Paska Lake

The weather's not been great but we managed to keep ourselves busy with fishing and visiting with our neighbours this past week. I managed to get out in my new lounger again floating on the lake and Ray's able to fish most days. I even managed to get out in Ray's boat and caught a fish. The guys were laughing at me as the electric motor is a little hard to control until you get the feel of it and I did donuts trying to unhook my line from the end of my rod!

Look at that line whipping over my head! I don't think I've the right technique yet!

Chris and Paul ... we caught a big one!

Got one!

There've been quite a few thunder and lightening episodes with downpours but fortunately they only last a few hours and then you are able to go outside again. Freya's lost a pound from all the shaking she does during these.  No problem with a fire ban this year! 

After the long weekend I collected a bunch more firewood left behind from empty campsites to keep us going and be able to save some for our next destination. The campsite is pretty packed for the weekend but sure emptied out Monday morning.

On Monday, August 1^st, the sun's out so we took a drive to Ashcroft to eat lunch and visit the just opened for the season, Desert Hills Farm Market. Jonathan, Paul and Giselle's son, asked to look after Freya for the day. She's adopted their family anyways, as they all throw the stick for her! The drive is only about 45 minutes on Highway 97C and most of it seemed to be beside the huge open pit copper mine, Highland Copper. This is the largest open pit mine in North America, not very picture worthy. The hill going into Ashcroft goes down for miles before you reach the Thompson River. The topography sure turns to desert from high mountain pines as you start down into the valley. It's also 5 degrees warmer in Ashcroft than in Logan Lake.

Ashcroft

The market is very pretty. They have goats, old farm equipment, a picnic area with hot dogs provided, a raspberry patch for kids (and adults) to pick a few berries, as well as the store to buy produce. 

Hello down there!

Field of green peppers

Paul and Giselle invited us over for Barbecued Ribs for dinner on Monday night … yummm.

Thanks a bunch for dinner guys!

Tuesday we took the coach into Logan Lake to dump (black tank full) and refill with water to last 3 more days. Did not want to bust a gasket climbing up and then down into Merritt! The plan is to stay at Claybanks RV Park for 2 nights (Friday and Saturday) so I can do my 3 weeks worth of laundry and then go up to Peter Hope Lake for 3 weeks.

Little Paska Lake

Bye, bye Paska Lake ... maybe see you next year!

As it turned out, Tuesday I noticed our fridge was not cooling and staying at 55 degrees. The freezer is still okay though. I checked my manual etc. and concluded the fan isn't working which was nothing that I could deal with. We contacted a repair guy in Merritt and he told us to stop at his house at 9 am Friday morning (the day we were leaving for Merritt anyways) so he could check it out and order parts if needed. He determined the fan isn't working as well. However, it could be caused by the fan motor itself or the computer board. We ordered both and if it isn't the computer board we will keep it for a spare as apparently these things do go. We didn't want to delay waiting another 2 days for parts if it turns out that we needed the computer board. I now keep a block of ice in the fridge so all my condiments will keep but got rid of milk etc. and bought a styrofoam cooler to keep milk, beer etc cold. So now I have 4 days to get the laundry done instead of 2! Yeah me. Thankfully Claybanks has space for us for the extra 2 days and possibly 2 more if we need it.