August 2021

 

August brought some unexpected events, right from the get-go.

On August 2, one of the residents of the mountain invited the Anarchist Mountain Fire Department (AMFD) and its volunteers (including me) for a party to thank the firefighters for their hard work.  The host happened to be a scout for the Tampa Bay Lightnings; and he was allowed to bring the Stanley Cup home for a day.  Guess what was the feature attraction?!

 

In addition to the cup, the host circulated a Stanley Cup Ring.  The thing must have weighed ten pounds and was a jewellery store in itself.  The guys wearing these do not need knuckle-busters.

 

This month we shifted attention to our house.  When we moved in, the house and the garage had two entirely different stucco finishes.  The garage had a nicer texture and colour, but the house no longer was satisfactory.  Enter the stucco crew, which included 3 healthy young men.  A week later, we had a new house!

Before:

 

After:

 

During this period, we also had roof repairs done and Carmine continued to work on the steam room.  At times the driveway looked like a truck lot.

 

The fire situation in the province remains grim.  Two new human-caused fires in our general area were added this month; the province has experienced 1566 wildfires to date this year.  (Apparently this year, about 70% of the fires have been human caused.  Yikes!)

 Our district, called the Kamloops Fire District has had 438 of those fires, and currently 11 of those are considered of note.  A wildfire of note is very visible and/or presents a threat to public safety.  Of those 11, 4 of those are considered out of control, including the Nk’Mip fire which forced our evacuation for a while.  Fortunately for us, this fire has moved away from us to the northeast. 

A friend and I hiked up a trail just across Highway 3 from us, and we could get a good view of some of the burned area.  In the picture, the burned area just looks a little balder, but the striking note comes from the bright gashes of new roads cleared for heavy firefighting equipment.  Where the equipment travelled, the dry ground was literally pulverized into dust, and I got a great picture of snake tracks in the powder, right down to the belly scales.

By the end of the month, we were seeing much less smoke and could see sunsets again.

 

On August 20, we flew to Ottawa for Brian to have a reunion with his 3 siblings while they interred their mother’s ashes.  It is very rare for the four of them to get together, so it was a good chance to visit.  We also caught up with some of our Ottawa friends.  While we were there it was warm (30’s) and humid, which was a novelty to us desert people.

 In the latter part of the month, three fires cropped up in Washington State just below us, and smoke was very visible from the closest one.

 

The US seem to have more interesting names for their fires; the one of smoke above came from the Chickadee Fire.  Another one not visible to us was called the Muckamuck Fire. 

 From the wildlife standpoint, we have had the usual deer coming through to graze—these two were just at the margin of our patio.

 

The insects have made themselves known:  we have had a large number of praying mantis on the property.

 

Massive grasshoppers abound.

Mother Dusky Grouse produced a nice clutch of youngsters.  They were difficult to see in the grass, but it was easy to get a picture of her surveying the domain while the chicks hunkered below.

 

I keep mentioning our Mexican Restaurant, Su Casa.  Denis, the proprietor, who is a character, built little matching picnic tables for the chipmunks.  They were obviously a hit.

 

Temperatures dropped dramatically August 31, and it is clearly fall here.  We have settled back into a more normal pattern after July’s thrills.  And on the 31^st, we capped off the month by having the septic tank pumped.  Now that is living!

Thanks for visiting!  We hope you are avoiding the Covid 19 delta variant and continue to be safe and healthy.  Cheers!