December 31, 2011

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE !!

It takes two ferries to go up the coast from Vancouver to Powell River. IN between those two ferries is Gibsons, Sechelt and the twistiest, hilliest road I have ever experienced. Period. There are signs that say slow down to 30 km per hour – better do it, you will need to. Some just say SLOW.

We arrived in the region of Powell River in the early evening. Beautiful May day. Looked for our hotel which was a little up the coast. We stayed at the Oceanside resort, which was wonderful. They have individual little cabins, complete with fridge, stove and TV. Its just great. When we checked in the water was a few feet from the deck in front of the hotel. When we woke up it was a couple of hundred feet away.

Take a look.

Try out squidoo.  Great articles on every topic.  Here is my link to this blog!!

http://www.squidoo.com/we-moved-across-canada

December 15, 2011

More on our trip to Powell River to see the prospect garden centre.

We flew into Vancouver and picked up our rental car. It was mid-May and everything was green and warm. We stayed overnight in North Vancouver in a nice little hotel. We used Google maps to get directions from the airport to the hotel. Love those Google directions. They usually work just great. This gives you a feeling of confidence you should not have on those occasions where they do NOT. Once in a while Google sends you to someone's house that you don't know or just drops you in the middle of an intersection somewhere near where you are going. This time we got the driveway option – nice folks.

Its a long day from Ottawa to Vancouver with a 3 hour time difference. So when we finally did check in that evening we just crashed. A new adventure the next day.

From our hotel it was only 20 minutes or so to Horseshoe Bay. The location of the Ferry terminal did escape us the first time up, but we quickly recovered, panicked once and got in line with everyone else.

The line-up for the ferry is a very different experience. Very relaxed once you get there. I guess it is because everyone knows that they are either on this ferry or waiting for the next one. You aren't going anywhere. You are parked. You are waiting. It is out of your hands.

You might just as well open the tailgate, set up your lawnchair and relax. So they do. Folks visit. They walk about. Its great. There is a small town at Horseshoe Bay with a couple of restaurants, artist's studios, and shops. Beautiful scenery. Lovely little park by the marina. Grab an ice cream. You can sit upstairs at the Bay Moorings restaurant and have a snack and a drink. http://baymooringsrestaurant.com/

This is a great place to go even if you are not taking the ferry.

Once on the ferry, which is a little scary the first time, you are parked and can get out of your car. The ferry has lounges, restaurant and a little souvenir shop. Most importantly for our daughter, you can charge your laptop !!

Going up the coast was wonderful. Pictures don't do it justice but here they are anyhow.

Its a 5 hour thing, getting from Vancouver to Powell River. That's if you do not miss a ferry and have to wait for a couple of hours for the next one. More soon.

Thursday December 1, 2011

Here we are in December. No snow here – but back in the Ottawa area, well snow is on the radar.

It is cold and damp here, no doubt. But we can get by wearing a warm hoody. I like that. I like that a lot, in fact.

So back to the background. How did buying a farm to grow seed wind us up here. Well, we didn't really buy that farm on a whim, you know. We had a plan. A five year plan. So that was 2001 and this is 2011 and we are nearly at our 5 year plan. Hmmmmmm.

The plan was to build up the seed business, sell our house and move to the farm a live there. Idyllic life style. Growing things. At the end of the five year plan the farm would include a great growing space for seed, a house and the beginnings of a garden centre and trial gardens/destination spot. Again, hmmm.

So starting the seed business went well. Building it went poorly and took quite some time. The lesson we would submit from this is – everything takes longer and building a business while working – well forget it. We both still had full time jobs in computing and you simply cannot devote the time you need to start a business part time. Not and expect any kind of 'five year plan' to get you there. But get there we finally did. Or at least we got the business to a point where we realized part time wouldn't do it. It was time to sell the house and really change our lives.

So we sold the house. Time and effort of course. Your house never looks as good or gets all the updates you can do until you decide to sell. Its a fact. It gets closest to the house you planned on when you decide to leave it.

When it sold we looked at the farm. What id we need to do to get the farm to a livable state. First we needed to build a house. Yep, it had one. But at 700 square feet of sloping floor, mixed siding and wiring done by Gumby, it wasnt our dream home. It was sort of like camping. It had running water (read as garden hose from the pump in the closet) and electricity (and yes, you COULD have the toaster and one light on in the kitchen at the same time!!). It also had something furry living in the very short dirt basement. YUCK!

So, looking at a couple of years to build a house and start a garden centre, we decided to web surf the MLS and found a garden centre for sale in Powell River. We had enough points to all fly out to see it and did.

British Columbia's coast is beautiful, awesome, incredible. Powell River is the hidden secret up that coast. Zone 8 weather, no heavy population due to the need to take two ferries to get there. Great school. We just loved it

The garden centre we went to look at was run down, large, and on a beautiful spot on a little lake. More on the trip next time.