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Looking towards Vancouver from Lighthouse Park
(Wyndham photo)

Thursday August 1st, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

Today..Becoming mainly sunny. Wind becoming southeast 20 km/h. High 14.
Tonight..Mainly cloudy with 60 percent chance of showers. Wind southeast 20. Low 5.
Normals for the period..Low 10. High 24.

Friday August 2nd, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

All morning I dealt with small problems in the honey house and around the place, but around three in the afternoon, I got into the Olds and drove west towards Vancouver.  The forecast for the weekend was cold and wet, so I knew we would be off until at least Tuesday from lack of honey to extract.  I was pretty wrung out from all the small worries and really needed to get away.  I had no definite destination, but planned to visit Brian for a while sometime during the tour.  I had also in mind to go to Salt Spring, and perhaps, Victoria. 

At Big Hill Springs, I ran into heavy snow and thought seriously of turning back, but around Cochrane, the snow turned to rain and from there on, the roads were okay.  I saw a little more snow at Scott Lake Hill, but the sky was blue ahead, and when I got to Banff, the sky was clear.  This year is very different from last year when we had staff working through the long weekend, and people quitting due to the high temperatures and the pressure.

I drove as far as Kamloops and arrived around eleven PM.  All the cheap hotels were full when I got there, and by the time I drove around searching, it seemed that all the motels and hotels had closed for the night.  By midnight, I was about to sleep in the car, but as I found a spot to park and was about to go to sleep, I saw a Day's Inn and gave it a try.  It turned out that they had saved back one room and the people had not shown up, so I got it.  The bill came to $103, which is a lot to spend for six or seven hours of sleep, but I took it and slept very well.

Today..Periods of rain. Wind southeast 20 km/h. High 10.
Tonight..Rain mixed at times with snow. Wind north 30 diminishing. Low plus 1.
Normals for the period..Low 10. High 24.

Saturday August 4th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

Saturday..A mix of sun and cloud. 30 percent chance of showers. Wind becoming south 20. High 15.

I got up, had breakfast and drove to the coast.  I arrived at Tswassen around eleven and by then had figured out that taking any ferries would involve waits or surcharges for reservations.  I had planned to visit Brian and Sandra on the way back from the islands, but decided to forget about the ferries and give Brian a call.  As it happened, he answered the phone and said to come over.  I drove over, and wound up staying for two days.

I had not forewarned anyone of my trip and possible visits, since I wanted to travel light and free, and was not even sure I would get to the coast.  If I had felt like it along the way, I might have taken a sudden right turn and wound up in Lilooet, or even The Cariboo.  I could just as easily have turned south and gone down to the Columbia River Gorge, on a whim

So I wound up at Brian's.  He and Sandra and I spent the afternoon walking on the beach, then the waterfront in downtown White Rock.  We returned to their place and had supper, and I stayed the night.

Sunday August 4th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

Sunday..60 percent chance of showers. Low 5. High 19.

Sandy wanted to stay home and do some tidying, so Brian and I decided to go out for the day.  Our official destination was Lighthouse Park and Dix, but we stopped by the Granville Market and got engrossed in the activities there and it looked for a while as if we would never get to the park.

We did, however, get there and spent several hours enjoying the walk down through the giant trees and sitting on the rocks.  We then had supper  at Dix (a clever version of 'Dick's'), a restaurant my brother built near the stadium and called it a day.

Monday August 5th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

Monday..Mainly cloudy with 30 percent chance of showers. Low 8. High 18.

• I spent the morning working on Brian's computer and left around noon for Alberta

• I got as far as Golden, arriving around midnight

• There were no rooms available anywhere in town.

Tuesday August 6th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

Tuesday..Showers. Low 5. High 18.

• Slept in the car

• Took a hike at the Kicking Horse ski area

• Noticed quite a number of bumblebees that had spent the night in fireweed flowers and were still drowsy.

• Went white water rafting on the Kicking Horse.

• El mentioned that the crop insurance adjusters had been by to do a hive count and Paulo and Kenton were out getting supers to extract.

• Drove home

• Got groceries in Airdrie

• Arrived home at eight-thirty.

Tonight..Partly cloudy with 30 percent chance of evening showers then clearing. Risk of a thunderstorm. Wind light. Low 5.
Normals for the period..Low 9. High 24.

Wednesday August 7th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

• Extracting continues.

• Paulo and Kenton had brought in 150 boxes on Tuesday and continued pulling today. They got about 140.

• They are blowing out the bees and things are slow.

• I went to Three Hills for some small items

• We watched Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles this evening.  It was awful.

Today..Mainly sunny. Wind light. High 20.
Tonight..Partly cloudy. 30 percent chance of an early evening thunderstorm. Wind light. Low 7.
Normals for the period..Low 9. High 23

Thursday August 8th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date

• Extracting continues

• Mark is back scraping to lids.  His uncapping was too hit and miss.

• Paulo and Kenton are pulling honey.

• They brought in 240 boxes today.  They were still not back when I left for supper at 6 PM.

• Bees are still robbing lightly.  Abandonment works, but the boxes must be picked up within an hour or two.

• Sent out our first truckload of honey to BeeMaid --  71-2/3rds drums.

• Crop Insurance adjusters came by with our hive count.  Their count agreed with ours.

• We are 48% done the first pull and have 23-3/4 lbs per hive pulled. 

• We are currently projecting 49 lbs if nothing changes and there is no further flow.

• Recent rains may give us an August flow.

• El & I went to the Mill for supper in honour of El's birthday.  Zeke and Bill leave Saturday for Halifax, driving.

Today..Mainly sunny. Wind light. High 23.
Tonight..Mainly clear. Wind light. Low 9.
Normals for the period..Low 9. High 23.

Friday August 9th, 2002
Last year on this date       Year 2000 on this date
Ellen's Birthday

• CHQR interviewed me this morning

• Jodi has a swollen hand, so is off for the day. Drew is still hobbling with his ankle sting and stayed home again.

• Dennis & I worked on the quonset and got half the north side repaired.

• We also took some boxes of broken combs to EE to be robbed of honey

• Jean and Chris and the Meijers came for supper.  Jean & Chris stayed over.

• Paulo and Kenton brought in 178 boxes and we have about 300 in the shop now.

• We are now only supering hives to 4 high, maximum, as is our custom after August 8th

• The extracting went well with Tim and Ren running two machines each.  This gets the maximum amount of honey out since the machines can run longer.  We are now putting the supers into storage and at current prices, we don't want to leave any in the supers. 

• The output today was a bit light and I gather that the supers were a bit lighter than sometimes.

• We are leaving the supers out for robbing, since we still have some granulation in them from when we were pollinating canola and it is a nuisance.

Today..Sunny. Wind becoming northwest 20 km/h. High 27.
Tonight..Partly cloudy. Wind northwest 30 diminishing. Low 10.
Normals for the period..Low 9. High 23.

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