Rattlesnakes and Beavers

Penticton regional airport is probably nearly twice as busy and in terms of land area a 1/4 the size of Newquay airport. But, Newquay is an ex RAF station with one of the longest runways in the UK rumoured to have been built to accommodate any emergency or mid air scare experienced by the very first Concordes headed out across the Atlantic or by the space shuttle program having been found short and needing a convenient port in a storm. 

The daily business at Penticton is the perfectly on time Air Canada and Westjet turboprops and the usual executive jets bearing mostly US registration marks with the occasional bland unmarked Gulfstream jet. 

A lot of helicopter training gives the place the feel of a Mash station back in the 50s which is brought up to date by the random arrival of a military specimen such as an F18 or the C117 heavy lift monster.

This week we had an ex Cityjet Avro RJ 85 now employed as an heroic fire bomber joining the ranks of our fire fighting fleet. Nicknamed the Whisper Jet and built at Hatfield, north London she looks pretty slick lined up next to the chunky heavy and rather dated looking Convairs.

Today, however, we had an unusual arrival in the form of a de Havilland Beaver floatplane which landed on the lake and taxied right onto the beach. Strange how a plane can "land" on water?

Anyway, went down to the beach at dusk to speak with the pilot who told me many things. The plane is the same age as me, built in December 1954 and has flown for over 30,000 hours! It has eaten 12 engines and goodness knows how many miles flown. But tonight it had been sold again to a company in Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic circle and was on the beach to collect its cargo and an awful lot of fuel which I witnessed being carried down the beach in big red cans.

The pilot also told me he would be leaving at about 04.30 - 05.00 and heading north for a very long time. I agreed to be on the beach to see him off at the dawn.

Alarm set for 03.50, coffee machine loaded I went to bed....oh, on the way back we called into the beach bar for a sundowner.....or two.

The alarm sounded and I trickled out of bed, reset the alarm and treasured the allowance of 10 minutes in slumber until the recall......which I did not hear, but I did hear the sound of the Beaver struggling to lift too much fuel off the lake and very close to my trailers roof headed north. Darn it!

The day after was another stifling hot day so once more onto the beach to cool in the clear warm lake, only to be met by a rattlesnake!  Lyn, her training kicking in, sped off to find Terry the maintenance man who reluctantly put down his coffee, his cigar, his girlfriend and raced his beach buggy to face the venomous reptile. "Stand back" he told the children taking selfies in turn and promptly and if I may endorse, heroically,  captured the snake on his shovel and removed to a more conducive environment. 

I never heard of anything like this happening down Portreath beach?

And what of that bland unmarked Gulfstream?  Thats another story!

Pissed off.

Every now and again we get a waft of something horrible up through the underfloor heating vents. If you can imagine a sealed container full of urine left in the sun for a month, take off the lid and take a noseful, thats close to what Im getting.

So I dismantle the heating unit and lay mouse traps and poison to catch and/or kill any pissy critters but still the waft finds me here and there.  

Next Im up on the roof clearing the soil pipe vent tube with high pressure water.

Still got the smell.   I try flushing and cleaning twice a week and twice as much disinfectant as usual....no luck.

Now, under the floor is a 57 gallon holding tank from the toilet which has to be emptied, flushed and sanitised weekly.  Covering the tank system in is a sheet of heavy duty plastic sheeting to keep road dirt and anything from entering the underside. Looking underneath at the sheeting there is a big downward hanging bulge which I attacked with a Stanley knife, didn't think that one through did I?

Soaked by my own liquified excrement is probably the best definition of getting ones own back.

After much showering, flushing the holding tank with bleach and hundreds of gallons of water, I discover a small split on a joint on the tank. Fortunately someone makes and supplies a repair kit for $20.  Kit applied, leak remains.....now Im pissed off in more ways than one.

Lyn calls in the expert, Terry the maintenance man who has a look and points out the only solution is to have the crack in the tank "plastic welded". 

So thats where we are now, trying to find somewhere to buy a plastic welding kit......losing interest right about now........tomorrow is another day.

Still, a walk and paddle on the beach makes it all see far away.

Canada at war!

Floaties and floaters

Penticton is a self appointed city, no cathedral but that's not a requirement it seems.  The city sits between two very large lakes, the Okanagan to the north and Skaha to the south. We live on the shore of Skaha lake right next to and very close to Penticton regional airport.

Connecting the lakes is a man made channel called the channel, at just over 4 miles long and 50 ft wide the flow never exceeds 2mph. So, all the cool people buy themselves inflatable chairs, lilos, dinghys, tubes etc to float along on a hot summers day and know these devices collectively as "floaties".  The local trade in floaties is big with many outlets selling all manner and all combination of mentioned floaties.   One can go with a small single seat job for those hoping to find romance or just have no friends right up to a six seater with a floating cold store for your beer or wine!                The channel will be full of floaties on the weekend............

Today, Saturday, Penticton hosted Scottish day so we thought we might like to hear the pipes and drums and what better way to get there than cycle along the bank of the channel for the 4 miles downtown.

On our way back in the searing heat I thought maybe we ought to get some of these floatie things and join the cooler people drifting south on forthcoming weekends, I pondered on which design of floatie and settled on the small dinghy type as I have a fear of the water and saw a certain element of safety about the dinghy shape. 

As we joined and cycled in the hard shoulder of Highway 97 south, a two lane "fast enough for me" for about 1/2 mile I was suddenly aware of a big object in the air, bearing in mind we were passing the end of the runway, for a second I thought helicopter. Then I saw an inflatable dinghy type floatie crash onto the highway.    Two thoughts at once......

1. If a car travelling along the highway at 60mph swerves to avoid the floatie, we will die!

2. Bugger me, Ive got a floatie!      

The floatie had detached from a vehicle travelling at 60mph, become airborne and landed for my consideration.  Having placed my bike against the airport fence, checked for any fast approaching traffic....clear, dashed into the highway and claimed my prize under maritime law. 

Lyn said later she had never seen anything so funny as me hanging on to the dinghy and trying to cycle off as fast as possible before the rightful owner could stop and returned to rescue his craft.

But scarily, doesn't it make you wonder?  Not 20 minutes before I was imagining myself the captain of my very own floatie and it fell from the sky, just like that!

Funny old world innit?