Vaseux Lake, which has been a migratory bird sanctuary for the past 80 years, is a very small and shallow non-motorized lake in southern B.C. The Vaseux Lake Stewardship Association is strongly opposed to the removal of a 1.2 Hectare / 2.97-acre piece of property from the ALR (Agricultural Land Reserve) to be developed into a 35-site commercial campground. The lake has faced many … [Read more...]
Smoky Day on Vaseux Lake
Well, the smoke from nearby forest fires has been teasing us for a while, but it's finally happened, we're experiencing a reasonably smoky day around Vaseux Lake as you can see in the picture below. Fortunately, the smoke now is nowhere near as thick as it was last September when my cousin and her friends were visiting from Holland - we couldn't even see the other end of the lake. … [Read more...]
Thin Ice: Last Walk on the Lake this Winter
I took Jasper out for a walk on the lake ice this morning, only because it was his 7th birthday --- but it will definitely be our last ice walk this winter unless we have another deep freeze. There were huge heaves... ...and pressure ridges and puddles on the lake ice. Worse, the lake was groaning and making other hideous sounds. Moreover, I was concerned about the coyotes … [Read more...]
Coyote Kills Deer
Since we bought the lake property back in mid-2014, I've come across a number of animal carcasses. But until a few days ago, I've never actually witnessed a kill. It was just after first light and we spotted the coyote close to the shoreline. Just a little farther out was a deer, standing on the ice. I immediately knew this was going to be a life-or-death battle, as deer cannot walk on … [Read more...]
Vaseux Lake Search Succeeds
On one of my forays to seek out plantings for my never-ending landscape project at our house in Penticton, Ed and I headed south to Oliver and Osoyoos to find well-established Oregon Grape plants. As usual, I had to pull into Sundial Road on the south end of Vaseux Lake to see what, if any, properties were for sale there. Lo and behold, I saw a 'for sale' sign on a lawn fronting a … [Read more...]