The Malloys at Home: Sunday September 3rd Update

This week started off with excitement early in the week. On Tuesday afternoon, we heard there was a new fire in the BX area, fairly close to our B&B, (and an area we consider attractive for housing). At 6 pm, we had our pre-dinner libation while watching helicopters bringing in big water bags to help douse the fire, and thinking about what we could stuff in our cars in the shortest period of time. Apparently, a resident became a local hero—he had a tractor with a water bin in the back and a fire hose. He drove right through the gates of the burning property and had it contained by the time the fire department arrived. Two helicopters and a fixed wing aircraft came in to douse the area, and were wrapping up Wednesday morning.

Vernon is now officially in a level 3 drought as of September 1 (meaning serious ecosystem or socioeconomic impacts). July has been the driest since weather records started in the early 1900’s, and August the second-driest on record (because of a huge rainfall of .8 mm during the month). Normally Vernon would receive about 90 mm of rain total during July and August.

The deciduous trees are showing the worst of the strain; their leaves are all curled and limp.

Since we have arrived, we have had 27 days of 30+ temperatures, and 18 days of 20+ temperatures. We went out hiking yesterday and ended up enduring temperatures of 34.8C. The dryness makes this heat much easier to bear, and now, temperatures below the 20’s cause us to put on lots of extra clothing to overcome the chill!

This week has been far more exciting than the last one. First big event was the Armstrong (popn 5000) Interior Provincial Exhibition or IPE. This was its 118^th year. All the good things were featured. The midway, the rodeo, riding competitions, animal exhibits....

Preparing the animals for display was a far more serious business than I ever anticipated. In the cattle barn, everywhere there was "cattle-primping" including washing, shaving and blow-drying their coats.

Of course, I loved the petting barn. There were two 3-week old miniature goats, who looked normal up close. Then you got a perspective on their size compared to a teenage girl who had one sitting on her lap.

There are always whimsical items for sale.

Saturday featured a hike in one of BC’s many attractive provincial parks: Fintree. We climbed a steep set of stairs to get some views of Short’s Creek and the waterfall, which creates its own microclimate because of water spray.