Okanagan Centre’s Front Porch meeting will be held on Thursday, May 23rd, 2013 at 7 p.m. at the Okanagan Centre Hall.

There will be a presentation by RDCO By-law Enforcement regarding weeds and noxious plants, an update on District activities and projects and an opportunity for you to ask questions or voice concerns.

Follow this link to the full Agenda. 

Eijiro Koyama

A Day with Dad on the Farm

As certainly as dawn crept over the hills

he was awake. No clock rang by Dad’s bed;

Only that inner sense of knowing at the barn

the cows were waiting to be milked and fed.

But first the kitchen fire was carefully made,

Heaped high with wood from the bin beside the door;

The huge tea kettle filled, and placed just so

there would be water hot for breakfast time and more.

Upstairs I lay, half dozing, half awake,

knowing that soon I too must face the day;

Then footsteps, and the clank of milk pails came;

And I could hear Dad call, “Wake up!” no more delay.

‘Twas quite the same, some toast of homemade bread,

and jam, from prunes that grew across the creek.

And milk, and tea, we’d eat together mostly,

through summer’s sunny hours, and winters bleak.

The old cream separator’s hum, I hear it now,

As round and round, the boys would daily turn;

and from the separator’s spouts the streams would flow,

Skim milk for calves, and cream for butter’s churn.

This chore, twice daily, we the girls would do,

To wash and dry the separator parts

Shake out the disks, put up the pails to dry,

We did it like all else, with all our hearts.

The fresh turned soil that called for seeding time,

And Dad and hired help obeyed that call.

With heart and hands and head, bent to the need

They toiled, rejoicing as the seeds would fall.

The love of earth, the love of life itself

Was in these men who toiled unselfishly;

‘Til call to lunchtime came, to break their toil,

And bring a midday rest, relaxed and free.

Before night milking time, Dad homeward came

and laid his tools back in the shed once more.

Then off to milk, the cows must know his steps,

with pails in hand he tended to this chore.

We filled the bath with water from the creek,

The fire fed with wood we’d gathered ’round.

Dad first, the order never changed, we last.

Then on the steps, pick spears his socks had found.

The day near done, bathed, fed, and time for sleep;

A little reading rests the wearied mind,

Some apples from the cellar, crispy fresh,

Before we leave the toils of day behind.

Day in, day out, the months and years have passed

And chapters written thus in Dad’s life span

Have yielded life itself to us who come

Behind; to do our very best, we must, we can.

The little ups and downs we cannot know,

And greater things these pioneers of old

faced, solved, and worked to a successful end.

Eijiro Koyama

We know so little, so much yet untold.

The paths Dad trod, now dim, the footsteps still;

But memory lingers strong in us today;

We catch the gleam of a silvered brow held high

That dared to face the future, come what may.

Photographs from the Sakuji and Sachiyo (Kobayashi) Koyama collection

• What: Front Porch Meeting for Carr’s Landing
• When: Thursday, May 16, 2013, at 7:00 p.m.
• Where: Carr’s Landing Fire Hall

Agenda items include updates on Pelmewash Parkway, Integrated Community Sustainability Plan, Integrated Transportation Framework, Water Master Plan, parks, weeds, budget and other items specific to the Carr’s Landing Ward. There will also be an open forum for public concerns and comments.

Please check out the District of Lake Country website for the full agenda.

• What: Pelmewash Parkway Design Open House
• When: Monday, May 13, 2013; 5 – 8 p.m.
• Where: Lake Country Seniors’ Centre, 9832 Bottom Wood Lake Road, Lake Country, BC

Drop by anytime during the Open House and peruse the ideas and sketches that have been generated so far by our community members. Add your new ideas.

It is important to keep current with this process. To check out the input that has been collected to date check out the Pelmewash Parkway website. 

The Lake Country Museum and Archives will open with expanded summer hours from Monday, May 13th through to Labour Day weekend, seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Museum and OK Patio Café are located at 11255 Okanagan Centre Road West, Lake Country, BC.

For more information phone the Museum at 250-766-0111 or e-mail lcmuseum@shaw.ca

If you haven’t been here before, check out this little treasure on the shores of Okanagan Lake. If you’re a regular — Welcome Back.

2013 hours for the Cafe are:

• Monday to Wednesday      9 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Thursday and Friday        10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday         8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Oyama’s Front Porch meeting will be held on Thursday, May 9th, 2013 at 7 p.m. at the Oyama Community Club.

There will be a presentation by RDCO By-law Enforcement regarding weeds and noxious plants, an update on District activities and projects and an opportunity for you to ask questions or voice concerns.

Follow this link to the full Agenda. 

There were many already in the community whose gestures of kind help and friendship eased the way for our grandparents and parents during the early settlement years. Mr. W. R. Powley lent his team of horses, “Nip” and “Tuck”, to Eijiro Koyama so that he could bring his family from Coldstream to Winfield. Mrs. Campbell-Brown of Amory Ranch, Oyama, taught Kimie Koyama to speak, read, and write English. Others taught the women about Canadian customs and food preparation while orchardists and farmers provided employment for the men. Over the years these connections evolved into lasting and endearing friendships. We who followed that first generation of Issei will be forever grateful.

Seimatsu and Kimie Takenaka with children Harold and Adelaide

Seimatsu and Kimie Takenaka with their children Harold and Addie, outside Grandpa Koyama’s house in Winfield, 1939. The photo was taken prior to the Takenakas’ move to Fintry, where Seimatsu worked for Mr. Stewart at the Fintry Estate before returning to the McDonagh orchards in Winfield.

The Takenakas had eight children: Nancy (1935), Addie (1937), Harold (1938), Judy (1940), Grace (1942), Gerry (1943), Lawrence (1951), Ron (1956).

(L-R) Kimie Takenaka (nee Koyama), Harold Takenaka, Adelaide Maehara (nee Takenaka), Seimatsu Takenaka.

Photographs and text from the Lake Country Heritage and Cultural Society’s virtual exhibition, The Japanese Canadian Pioneers of Lake Country, BC. 1899-1939 will be located at some of the Okanagan events during Asian Heritage Month.

For a schedule of events see the downloadable PDF in our EVENTS section.

For more information or to purchase event tickets visit the Asian Heritage website.

Join us this May to celebrate the diversity of Asian Cultures in our community.