A very fun and busy year for us up on the mountain. The house project has morphed into a lifestyle – we built a firewood shelter, garden/motorbike shed, 100m of fencing and three gates; felled several dead trees and cleaned up branches; got 11 tons of 1″ round stone and placed about 1/2 of it around the house; terraced and leveled several parts of the yard; and build some more rock retaining walls. Details at hill.daihime.com. Still lots to do next year, but that is next year.
Got a new vehicle, amazing new speakers (Martin Logan Electrostatics), and a used electronic drum kit :). Dave had a dozen interviews (CBC, CTV and Global) on North Korea and Saudi Arabia, and Op-Eds in the Global and Toronto Star, and a letter to Cycle Canada. He taught a 3rd year course on trade policy at UBCO and we helped our neighbor prune his vines and harvest his grapes, played 9 holes of golf together each week with a group, and saw several plays and concerts. Found time to travel – a month in Greece, visit to Washington to see former counterparts/colleagues, old house and high school, visit to Toronto to officiate at nephew’s wedding, car and motorbike touring around BC (Adam’s River salmon run, Whistler, West Kootenays and Victoria).
And Mizuho had a trip to Japan to visit and bring back a puppy, Taisho. He is a treat and channels the spirit of both Daisuke and Hime.
We hope all is well with you and yours in your world, and that we have a chance to see one another in 2019.
David, Mizuho and Taisho (ascending order of pack priority)