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From Loon Lake Road - Loon Lake addresses confuse computer system

Monthly community news and happenings from Loon Lake.

I hope everyone has enjoyed our June monsoon season. The rain has made the valley greener than usual by washing away a lot of dust and dead vegetation, and has refilled some of the waterholes as well. Now we are all ready for sun and hot.

Coronation to Jubilee

The Queen’s Jubilee has led my thoughts back to a lovely June day many years ago. It was the day of the Queen’s coronation – June 2, 1953. That was the year there was a school at Loon Lake – located at what is now the Sands Ranch. The Ebert family who owned the ranch then made available two of their cabins – one for the school and the other for the teacher to live in.

The school opened in September 1952 with about 12 children. In those days children walked to school. From our house the distance was about 6 km – depending on which route we took. Going home was often a slower trip than getting to school. On the coronation day we were all given a half day school holiday and a gilded souvenir medal. What I remember clearly is the group of us walking back along the dusty Loon Lake Road throwing the medals up in the air and catching them. The coins glinted so nicely in the sunshine. The coin has long ago been mislaid but the memory of that sunny afternoon walk home remains.

Change of Address woes

A year ago Canada Post informed us that they were changing the way mail was to be addressed to us along Loon Lake Road. They also informed us that after June 2012 all mail not correctly addressed, using the new address, would not be delivered. This meant that we had to inform everyone to change our mailing address to our street number. For some contacts this has been a problem – some don’t have a category for change of address but not moved.

Telus has been the most problematic. I have in frequent contact with them in recent months to correct the mailing address on my bill. Yet each month the bill arrives with the wrong address. At first the city was wrong – the bill was sent to Clinton. When they finally got the Cache Creek part right – it was back to RR 1.

I have now had many very pleasant and long conversations with staff at Telus. They are very helpful and apologetic and they keep saying “we have entered your information into the system, and we keep entering it every time you call – but the system rejects it.”

No wonder the system rejects it. The telephone numbers at Loon Lake have a 459 prefix – this means that Loon Lake Road is in Clinton according to the Telus system. To find phone numbers for Loon Lake residents you need to use the Williams Lake directory and look under Clinton. According to the Telus “system” we are nowhere near Cache Creek – which is true, we are not. The system cannot accept that Loon Lake Road is both in Clinton and at the same time in Cache Creek. Something I also understand – because we are not in either place – we are at Loon Lake.

I wish bureaucracies were as clear thinking as the Telus system. Now I wonder if I will get a bill delivered by Canada Post for June?

Attacking noxious weeds

The TNRD has been working in the past months to reduce the spread of the spotted knapweed along the roadside through the release of several insects which attack various parts of the knapweed. This is a very welcome effort and I hope that the biological controls succeed. Meanwhile everyone is reminded to remove knapweed and Dalmatian toadflax from their property to reduce the spread of these noxious weeds. Be sure to get the roots out and all the flower head so there are no seeds to start more next year. Spotted knapweed is the pinkisk flowering plant along the roadside while Dalmatian toadflax has tall spikes of yellow flowers.

Trees sprouting up

Out in the garden the wet weather has resulted in my  finding a large number of fir and spruce seedlings in the strangest places.  Fortunately the cool temperatures also permit transplanting with some success so I am still moving things about the yard. Fresh picked salad greens are being harvested and the first pea pods and tomatoes are forming. A few ripe strawberries have been seen but the robins have enjoyed them before I got to them. In return I am enjoying the songs of the robin from the tree tops in my garden so I think it is fair trade.

Barbara Hendricks