The Sun Shines Bright

Over my western Canadian home...

It is a beautiful sunny day. Syd and I just returned from a walk/hike into the backcountry behind our property. The marsh is frozen over now so we can get across it and check out the countryside behind us. It is quite a lovely. We came across a lot of deer droppings and also met our next door neighbour out walking his pyrenees dog.

We have had a couple of good news items to celebrate lately. The property manager rented the suite in the house so we have a bit on income coming from there now. Also having someone in the house will make the insurance company happy.

Also I was able to find a job. Rocky is a small town and there aren't many jobs for women (other than health care and teaching) that pay very much. Most are clerical positions. Business here is related to the oil and gas industry and most of the jobs are too. There is lots of demand for welders, heavy duty mechanics and anyone knowledgeable in this industry. Many of the men work out of town in the 'field' and their wives and kids live here.

My new job is at ATB Financial (Alberta Treasury Branch Financial - is a bank owned and operated by the Alberta Provincial Government) as an Account Manager. I start on December 1. This will help us in a couple of ways. It will help with the finances and will help us meet people in town.

We now should be in a position to weather the current economic storm that is blowing over the globe.

Birdfeeder and the Deer

If you look closely, you can see the deer under Syd's bird feeder looking at us with those big sweet eyes. Look even closer at the second picture and you will see him licking the seeds off of the tray of the feeder. He has 2 other friends as well......

These pictures were taken this morning at about 8:00 AM.

Have I told you about Alberta Drilling Rigs

Two weeks ago on, October 24th, we (Russ, Miranda, Syd, Ina (Syd's sister from Beasejour, Manitoba) and her husband Gib) all headed into Red Deer to have dinner and watch the Vancouver Giants play the Red Deer Rebels.

We were able to visit with Russ's school friend Pete Toigo (Dad Ron owns the Giants). It was great visiting with him and the Giants won the game... Red Deer fans were very hospitable even when we cheered the visiting team.

Shirley ran into her old Red Deer College friend Gary Stafford and had a good visit with him and then we all headed home to Rocky after the game. A good time was had by all!

When we got home, we noticed loud noises from behind and west of our property. It was 'damned' noisy. Well it turns out that a drilling rig had moved in to the west of the house during the day and had begun drilling for natural gas. The rig was about 150 meters west of the house behind the trees. They operate 7 X 24. Boy were we ever shocked and a tad dismayed. We had no idea what would happen next.

But all is well that ends well. A little research with the locals and we found out that the drilling lasts anywhere from days to about a maximum of three weeks. This one was there for 2 weeks. All is quiet again! :) Russ checked it out for us on Saturday and said that all that was left of the rig and equipment was a 3" pipe with a black cap. It had a florescent orange square spray painted around it. The area had all been cleared away and cleaned up.

The folks that will hook the well up to the pipeline came by this morning to tell us that the 'service rig' would arrive later in the week. They would be there for approximately 1 week and they only operated during daylight hours.......

To all of our Vancouver friends:
Note the clear blue sky. Oh and the sun is shining in it......

Syd Leaves for Rocky

Our beautiful new property and home in Rocky promises to be a retirement retreat that we will enjoy for many years to come. We have 3.7 acres backing onto back country and crown land. We are close to the North Saskatchewan River, Crimson and Twin Lakes and half an hour from many other lakes. We are a 45 minute drive from Red Deer where we will be able to find anything that we will need. And BEST of all we are minutes from our son Russ and his gal Miranda. We love it!

Our house in Tsawwassen was listed and put on the market on May 30th.

Syd left for Rocky Mountain House on June 5th. We needed someone to go there and get that house settled and taken care of.

I stayed in Tsawwassen to take care of our home their while we waited for it to sell.

It was the first time in our over 27 years of marriage that Syd and I had been separated for more than a few weeks at a time. It was very hard on both of us.

Syd arrived in Rocky to a garage filled to the rafters with his tools and all of the 'extra' stuff that had been sent to Rocky. He borrowed a bed from Russ and Miranda and used my sewing table as a kitchen table. It was good thing the previous owners had left a couple of lawn chairs because we forgot to send chairs for him.....

The first task was to buy a ride em lawn mower. There is about 3 acres of grass to cut in Rocky! Of course, Russ went along to help pick it out!

Syd was busy and started to lose weight. He had a lot to do to keep up the yard, sort out and put away all of the 'stuff' that had already been shipped. (27,000 pounds)

The Economy Turns

On May the 5th, the movers arrived in Tsawwassen to pack up the extra 'stuff' so that we could stage the house and put it on the market. Mostly it would be Syd's workshop, tools and wood.

Syd had sold his business and the new owner would move all of the business assets and inventory out of the house. We were almost there.

We had interviewed 3 Realtors and were ready to list the house.

BUT things were changing in the marketplace.

BC Hydro was upgrading a transmission line that wound its way through Tsawwassen and had been strongly protested by residents along the right way. A tremendous amount of negative publicity about the power lines was generated in the press by the group Tsawwassen Residents Against Overhead Power Lines (Trahvol). This caused a lot of negative publicity about Tsawwassen .

Gas prices went up and all of a sudden, people were looking very closely about buying property where they would have to commute. The costs of commuting had almost doubled over night.

People were talking about housing prices having reached their peak... and were about to crash. I heard of many people who had sold and were waiting until 2009 to buy their next home.

I was getting nervous..... was our house going to sell in this marketplace?

How the Move to Alberta All Started

One night in February of 2008, I was driving home at 10:30 pm from Electronic Arts, Burnaby where I worked. The day had started at 9:00 am and I was thinking about life... I had a 45 minute commute so I had time... and thought that maybe I should go along with my husband's desire to retire.

He was ready to retire and I was still chasing a dream... and I loved working. But... time was pressing and the next ten years would be the best retirement years for him.

I was working as a Development Director on the NCAA Football 09 for PSP and Wii platforms. I had been assigned to the project when a vacancy occurred and we needed to finish the game by early May in order to meet the Street Date. We had a very short project cycle, the team was already burnt out and the road ahead was guaranteed to be major OT.

So what was I waiting for?

I got home after Syd had gone to bed and the next morning I announced that yes we should just do it.

We were ready. We had been working on the house for the past couple of years, getting it ready to sell. We loved our Tsawwassen home. We had a beautiful rancher on a third of an acre. Our backyard was completely private and backed onto a park.

Our only child Russ had settled in Rocky Mountain House AB almost 3 years ago. He had met a great gal, Miranda and we new that it was a very serious relationship and that they would be staying in the area. So after a lot of serious thought and discussion we felt that Rocky would be the place that we would retire.

In March we headed to Rocky, found a property, put in an offer and had ourselves a retirement home. We took possession on May 1, 2008.