him Cola. He spends some of his time
sleeping alongside Walter, our young
Morgan. We were adopted by a cat
who came to us from the forest fires
that swept through the country a few
years ago. She lets us call her Sage.
There is a big deer population in the
valley and they quite enjoy nibbling
on our plants, both vegetables
and flowers.
We had to put in a floating dock at
the lake because the water fluctu-
ates too much for a permanent dock.
We usually count on some of our
friends to help us take it out in the
fall and back in early in the spring.
It’s Linda’s favourite place. A tractor
is another necessity, as we do get
some snow in the winter.
We have a lot of company, mostly
during the summer months. We seem
to gather in one of three places; with
the horses, at the lake or around the
camp fire where we cook most of
our meals.
When we’re alone, Linda is often
on the lake and I’m on one of my
horses, riding the country. It can be a
tough life out here in the frontier.
We bought our property in the
ranching country of Nicola Valley
between Kamloops and Merritt on the
old highway in 1999. It is situated
between two large ranches in the
valley on Stump Lake. Linda wanted a
vacation property on a lake and I
wanted to be on a ranch. We often
kid that it is Linda’s lake and my
Ranch.
We completed the barn with our
living quarters in the fall of 2000. We
did some fencing the following year
and moved our horse, Dancer, to the
property. Later we added two more
horses. Two years later we finished
Linda’s pottery studio and moved all
her equipment and supplies up from
her studio in Langley.
Of course no ranch would be
complete without a dog so, we
bought a Border Collie and named
