Felix and Laura Help_77 and 78




Felix and Laura, from München, (Munich) Germany were travelling in between their veterinary practicum in Ontario and returning to Germany to complete their final exams. They were scheduled to arrive a week earlier than they did, but I stalled them because the annoying mosquitos made outdoor work very difficult. They arrived almost a week later (July 22) and the mosquitos were still crazy. Despite this they were real troopers and help out a lot. Felix took care of the noxious weeds around the place and laid more stones on the path in the garden. Laura cleaned the barn and helped in the kitchen. Both prepared the groomer for painting, and braved mosquitos to pick raspberries and peas and weed the garden. Together with Caro and Loren, they cleared trees from the sides of the driveway.

Felix and Laura were avid hikers and were taking advantage of their location to hike a many National Park trails as possible. They had already hiked several trails in Banff and Yoho, including the Iceline Trail. On their days off they hiked in Glacier Park, including Balu Pass as they travelled to Revelstoke. After leaving Golden they were headed towards Clearwater and Wells Gray Park.

Our best memory of Felix and Laura is one that makes us laugh. One evening on route to the Wwoofer House, they heard a commotion in the chicken coup. ‘Something was after the mother hen and her 5 chicks!' The predator had got one of the chick and was after another, but once Felix and Laura arrived it sauntered off under the coup.  After rounding up the chicks, Felix and Laura returned to the house to explain what had happen. Felix not knowing what could have transpired, said, ‘it didn’t seem too frightened of us, and it was black with a white stripe down its back.’  Now studying veterinarian medicine, they had obviously heard of skunks, but not until I said ‘you are very lucky, had that skunk been threatened, you wouldn’t have been allowed in any house until you’d been bathed in a special solution.’

Needless to say the chicken coup has since been fortified, and we still have 4 chicks.  The skunk has been back as we smelled it in the neighbourhood, but he hasn’t been able to dig into the coup.

Johannes WW_75

Johannes from Wuerzburg, Germany, sent us an email on June 7^th, saying he was already in Golden at the Backpacker Hostel. It had been raining so much over the past week, so Loren and I were not working at the woodlot and as a result Loren was working on the WW Bunkhouse. When I received Johannes’ email on the morning of June 8^th I immediately told Loren about Johannes’ impressive offer for help. Johannes is an experienced Electrical Engineer who had ww experience and claimed to be very handy (this of course was very true). I then phoned the hostel and invited Johannes out so he could decide if he wanted to spend some time at our place.  Johannes had his own vehicle (a little white pick-up he had been given while staying at the hostel in Vancouver), so within an hour he was at our house. Lucky for us, he decided to stay and that afternoon he started helping Loren.

 

Johannes fit right in.  He is very patient and sage, for a man of his age and very handy with Loren’s new cordless power tools.  Johannes pretty well spent most of his time working with Loren on the bunkhouse, paneling the ceilings, putting down the floors, hanging doors and putting up trim, as well he helping with the mowing of the lawn and working on the rock path in the garden.  Needless to say by the time I had returned from a week away the bunkhouse was close to liveable and the yard was tidy. And shortly after that Johannes moved into one of the bunkhouse rooms.

 

Because the snow was so late staying in the mountains, there wasn’t much opportunity for Johannes to go hiking, but despite this, he made the best of it.  Barbara from Goldenwood Lodge had arranged for a ww gathering. And this is how Johannes, Therese and Isabell  met Julia.  One day Johannes and Julie rode the bikes all the way to the washout below Mummery Glacier, almost 80 km return, and while we were at Susan Lake Johannes, Julie, Isabell and Therese hiked up to the remainso f the Susan Lake fire watch tower.  Of course Johannes was following the German Football (Soccer) Games, and on two occasions took Isabell and Therese into town to watch the games. 

Late in the afternoon on the last day of his stay, Johannes installed a bed platform in the box on his truck and fixed up the potential leaks on the door of the truck canopy.  Then the following morning shortly after Isabell and Therese left, Johannes departed, driving off in the little white pick-up to meet a friend and seriously hike the mountains and explore towards the north. Three good-byes a morning is always a bit much, however because Loren and Johannes got on so well, I imagine that we will visit with Johannes before he leaves Canada.

Since Johannes left I have had two emails, one said that he had done plenty of hiking, and made good use of the ‘scrambling’ book Loren had loaned to him.