Life On The Ranch: Week 2 Summary

Kelly McKenna
Nov 19, 2020
4 min read

Unbelievably it is our 19th day living at Myra Canyon Ranch and life in Vancouver, BC, already seems like a distant memory.

Week 2 on the ranch was just as busy - if not busier - than week 1. Here's what we got up to.

"Fun" at the Laundromat and Okanagan Lake

We first visited this beautiful ranch back in July as part of our 10 day road trip from Vancouver. Rich surprised me with a stay in the "Cool Bus", a converted school bus for a couple of nights over my 32nd Birthday.

During that visit, we were advised that we could use the washing machine located in the barn if we needed to do so. When we decided to move here for the winter, we didn't even think to question if this would still be the case and therefore got a bit of a shock when we were told that we wouldn't be able to use the washing machine as the pipes freeze in the barn in the winter months!

We found a local laundromat and a week into our stay, we attempted to do some washing. I think it was a classic case of "too many cooks" and we pretty much spent the entirety of our time getting in each others way and at one point our freshly washed clothes ended up on the floor.

We also learned that our laundromat is not yet part of the cashless society and that the one credit card we use for everything will not get us very far. Time to stock up on the "loonies" ($1 coins) and quarters moving forwards.

Nonetheless, we are persevering and going to give it another go this weekend! We also drove to Cedar Creek Park whilst our clothes were drying and managed to get some beautiful winter views of Okanagan Lake so the day wasn't a complete fiasco!

Said Goodbye to our little Poppy Cat

I don't think I'll ever be able to express how grateful I am for the life that we live. The fact that we've been able to live and work in three different countries and travel to multiple others in just six years together simply astounds me.

There are, however, some days when being away from family and friends really does suck. Last week, my sister phoned me in tears to let me know that my parents had to have our family cat of 21.5 years put down due to her declining health.

To try and quantify that, she had been part of our family for two-thirds of my entire life and the news hit me hard. All I wanted to do was reach through the phone, cuddle all of them and never let go.

I'm so grateful for the time we had together and I'll never forget her. Rest in Peace Poppy.

Snow, Glorious Snow!

One of the reasons we wanted to move away from Vancouver, was to experience a more "traditional" Canadian winter. Van is very similar to the UK in that it gets very wet, very dark and pretty miserable and we were ready to see something different.

Kelowna definitely has not disappointed on the snow front so far as the photos below (and the gazillion others on my phone!) show.

I can't believe this is our view! Myra Canyon Ranch, Kelowna, November 2020

A virtual Remembrance Day and another Winery

November 11th has always been very important to me. As a military child, I was raised on freezing cold minute silences and curry lunches in the mess. As I've got older, and haven't always been able to pay my respects with my family, I've always made sure to mark the act of remembrance however I've been able to.

This year, with Covid running amok, we were advised to attend services online. At 11am, Rich and I sat on our sofa and watched the highly emotive live stream from the Kelowna Branch of the Canadian Royal Legion.

Remembrance Day is a public holiday across the whole of Canada so Rich had the day off work. We decided to enjoy the rest of the day, by visiting another winery (there are almost 300 in the region, we've gotta keep working away at them!)

We headed out for an afternoon lunch in the Old Vines Restaurant at the Quails Gate Winery and once again we were not disappointed. Rich treated himself to a steak and I had the daily special, a butternut squash ravioli. Both meals were exceptionally good and proper winter warmers.

Not wanting a repeat of my drunken idiocy from the week before, we decided just to share an "Aromatic White Flight", which went down so nicely that we almost purchased a bottle to take home!

Celebrating Richard's 35th Birthday "Around the World"

Since we got together, we have managed to celebrate Richard's birthday in a different country every year. It started by accident, but after the fourth year it happened, we decided to try and make it a thing.

This year, we were unable to leave Canada and so I had to get a little creative. Through the medium of our favourite things - food and drink - I was able to take Rich to "France" for breakfast, "Mexico" for brunch and "Spain" for dinner. We even had some Irish coffees to go with his birthday cake.

It definitely wasn't his most exciting birthday - I don't think anything will match the trip to Monaco that we took for his 30th - but we had a wonderful drunken day together, and being with people you love on your birthday is what really counts after all (I hope!)