Our 50th Anniversary- April 5,1968!

On April 5, l968 Kathryn Powell married Eric Leslie Tycho at the East Burnaby United Church and lived happily ever after.  Okay that’s a fairy tale but it has been a long and successful marriage.  We are both well, happy and active so I guess you can’t ask for much more than that!

Here we are in Quartzite Arizona and it’s April 5, 2018.  An unusual place to celebrate a 50th but then we’ve never been very conventional so I guess it just fits. 

No picture of us because we are all by ourselves sitting behind the RV having happy hour beers with each other. 

Eric and I with family.  My three sisters, Anne, Elisa and Joy standing in front.    Eric’s brother Ian as best man and my two cousins Brian and Gary as ushers. 

            

                The happy couple.

                

                 Cutting the cake.

                

            This picture was taken in Eric’s 1956 Ford Crown Victoria. 

So how did life progress from this day forward.  Well here is a short version.  We lived the first six years of our marriage in Surrey/Cloverdale with our two small children Krista and Erika before moving north to Terrace, B.C. in 1974. 

This would be in about 1970 and that’s Eric’s mother Doris with Krista on her lap,  Eric’s sister Kathryn and me with Erika on my lap.  A long time ago! 

Eric was working for B.C. Tel and we decided we’d like to own some property but we couldn’t afford that in the lower mainland so Eric took a transfer north.  It was an excellant move for us and at that time the telephone company had a large work force in Terrace so we made lots of friends.  We were all young people who’d left family behind and in many ways we became family to each other.  

Our first property of 2 1/2 acres was in the Gossen Creek Subdivision and it was there that we started to farm.  A large garden, pigs, chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits and milk goats.  For two city kids it was a pretty big undertaking but we were young and had lots of energy and interest.  It was a nice small subdivision about 15km out of town and at that time it was considered pretty rural. 

                   

        Another picture from the seventies when Eric’s Mom Doris and Dad Norman came to visit.  Krista on the right, Erika on the left and Eric in behind. 

After four years on a small acreage Eric was ready for bigger and better  things and we moved about 2 miles east to the “farm” in 1978.  40 acres of raw land with services and not much else.  Eric framed a house on week-ends and evenings and in June of 1978 we moved in.   It was all pink insulation and you could walk through the interior walls and neither the outside doors or kitchen cabinets had arrived.  Eric quickly built a chicken house and the goats stayed in a lean-to on the bottom of the property the first winter.  The next few years were a whirlwind of fencing, building barns and plowing and planting fields.  By now we’d added a horse (King) to the family so fences were a must.  There was now a small flock of sheep and a few beef as well as pigs.   We did all the butchering of steers, pigs, lambs etc. on the farm and sold what didn’t use to friends.  We both worked full time off the farm and another full time at home in the evenings and on week ends. 

As time passed the girls grew up and left home and Eric continued on his land aquisition quest when he obtained an Ag lease on an adjacent 100 acres.  He proceeded to log about 20 acres of it and then cleared it for planting hay.  A huge undertaking for one man on his own while he was still working full time.  While this was going on I continued to work full time, tended my gardens and goats and kept him alive while he toiled away.  We continued with small farming including making hay (anywhere from 1000 to 2500 bales) until we started our winter travel. 

In January 2008 we made our first trip south in the truck to check out Mexico.  At this point Eric was retired and I was working part time.  We’d never travelled in the USA and had never even taken a vacation to Mexico so this was a good way to start.  We liked the travel but hated the motels and condos so we started looking at RV’s as we went from town to town.  We decided we wanted a toyhauler so we could take the motorcycle with us and eventually settled on a 32 ft. Cyclone which was the smallest one we could find that didn’t have fold-up furniture with the motorcycle stored in the kitchen! 

November 2008 and we were on the road heading to Mexico.  Unfortunately we dinged up the RV the second day out in a forestry camp site in BC and now we needed repairs.  We ended up spending the winter in Mesa, Az in a park that our good friend Kenny was living in.  Eric and Kenny had worked together in Terrace many years ago and we’d always kept in touch.  In the end it was probably a good thing we didn’t go to Mexico the first year as we were newbies to RVing.  I might also add that of all the people we knew at home we would have been voted the least likely to take up RVing and hit the road south.  We’d done winter vacations in Maui for many years but had never travelled anywhere in an RV. Surprise!

In the fall of 2009 we were off to Mexico.  We eventually make it to the Las Jaibas RV park in Mazatlan, Mexico where we’d planned to end up and….the rest is history. 

Still on the farm at home even though we can’t keep animals with winter travel.  Eric obtained title to the Ag lease and then sold the 100 acres a few years ago.  There is always plenty to do and even though we don’t hay anymore Eric keeps the fields mowed, builds more buildings with the lumber that he cuts on his bandsaw mill and has now even torn down the first small barn from 1978….my how time flies!  I continue to garden.   Summers in Terrace and winters in Mazatlan we don’t think it can get any better than that. 

This is a couple of years ago when we stayed home for the winter and Eric replaced our west boundary fence in the spring.   Straight as an arrow and all by himself….as usual. 

Eric has sawmilled mountains of lumber over the years and these are a few piles that needed edging. 

The little house in 2016 when we stayed home.  Pretty to look at but we prefer the beach!

A couple of Eric’s buildings.  Built by himself with his own lumber cut and milled from trees on the property.

Looking up the long driveway to the house.   Eric clears with a snowblower on the back of our Kabota tractor.

Winter’s nice but….summer is way better!

I would have included more pictures but…they are all at home.  The wedding ones were taked with our daughter Erika’s cell phone and then emailed to us. 

Here’s to the next ????? years!