I was sitting on my deck the other day, thinking it was great that Spring was finally here after what seemed like such a long winter. I pulled my bike out of the basement on March 1st, and rode into work for the first time this year. There was not much snow on the shoulders of the road, but it sure was cold. As the weeks have cycled past, the snow has retreated and finally disappeared, and you can see the garbage appear. Yikes... fast food containers, beer cans, liquor bottles, cigarettes and their packaging. As the grass grows, the garbage disappears, but it is still there.

Nonie and Rod Hesketh moved to the Shuswap River Valley in 1952, shortly after they were married. Nonie was born in the ranch country around Merritt British Columbia. She was always, and remains, a horse girl. Rod was born on a ranch in Manitoba and moved with his family to British Columbia where he met Nonie in 1952.

Rod’s dad had purchased the Kit Carson Guest Ranch on Mabel Lake Road, which is now Cedarstein Farm where the Langs live and farm.

I was sitting on my deck the other day wondering what it would take to get all the snow melted from my yard and fields, and decided it was not worth the effort to even think about; the snow will be gone when it is gone.

Sitting on my deck enjoying the cool evening air the other evening put me in mind of the dry summer we all just lived through.

I always liked hot, dry summers, swimming in the river and lake and just being lazy, but this summer was a little over the top even for a lover of summer like me. In fact it is still super dry in our forests and range lands and we still need to be careful, even if the government has lifted the fire ban.

I was sitting on my deck the other day enjoying some late winter sunshine which put me in mind of tuning the bike up and riding to work.
 
Riding my bike to work and home again keeps me in great shape and gives me time to think about problems I am struggling with. It also allows me to get a different perspective of the landscape I travel through. I do not just see but I hear, smell and feel the uphill and downhill of my travels. Often I see otters, beavers and all kinds of water birds in the backwater and main channel of Shuswap River along with deer, bear, lynx and moose in the pastures and fields.

I was sitting on the deck the other day, dressed appropriately, looking up at Proctor's Range looking for deer trails in the snow. I did not see the trails I usually see and began to wonder why. Could it be the wolves that have been coming back into this part of the country? Perhaps the cougars who regularly feast on the mule and whitetail deer, or perhaps even the coyotes who fare better going after deer in the deeper snow we are having this year?