Jack, Kennedy (back), Payton (front), Isobel and Emmett.
A week or so ago we planned a hike. Many of the youngsters at work get Wednesday off. They are hard workers and their days off are valuable.
We departed at 8am and made it to the trail head by 9:30. On the trip was Jack, Payton, Kennedy, Isobel and Emmett. Emmett missed out on the last hike and it was good to have him along.
Slide.
Along also was Dave and his son Jake.
Jake and the beauty of youth.
Dave is a great guide pointing out plants, animals and geological formations. He can also talk while climbing, while I gasp for breath. Very handy while hiking with people more than half your age.
We walked the trail through low cloud, studying flora and fauna, paying attention to the mushrooms that had popped up through the forest floor. A bonus from the recent rain.
Along the trail.
Once on top we headed for the small lake and basin beyond.
Everyone enjoyed looking for fossils, exploring the rock banks, slides and large boulders.
Isobel holds fossils trapped in the shale while getting acquainted with a local resident.
On the way back. We dashed to the summit overlooking the two valleys. It was smoke and dark clouds to the east and spots of sunshine to the west.
To the east, smoke and thunder.
Food was the main topic on the trail back to the truck. What they liked and ‘have you ever had?’ I just tried to keep my footing while my stomach started growling.
Kennedy who never met a rock wall she didn’t want to climb.
A lot of smiles, throughout the day, knowing the next time we saw each other it was going to be about work.
The smoke has returned. We have had several wind storms that have caused the local fires to flare up. The Horsethief Fire has caused Panorama Resort and surrounding homes to be put back on evacuation alert. Still we are better off than many parts of BC and the Yukon where cities have, started, or been evacuated.
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Last week during the Perseid Meteor Shower the skies were free of smoke. Shortly after smoke rolled back in. Lisa is finding it hard to breath.
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The valley bottom, including the town of Invermere, historically was grasslands. Due to fire suppression and development it is now mostly trees, shrubs and buildings. Drought has become commonplace. The trees and underbrush is dryer by the year. It will burn again as it previously has done even without the added effects of climate change. We won’t be able to prevent it.
The last old Moon above the ridge.
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Meanwhile the tourists continue to travel here and can be found at every back country lake, on every gravel road and on every smoke filled patio. Recreating, hard, like everything is fine. I don’t understand. Maybe they are trying, like Jim Morrison said, ‘To get their kicks in before the whole shithouse goes up in flames’. It doesn’t encourage me to hold out hope for where we are heading.
A Perseid just misses Jupiter. Pleiades rises first, soon to be following are the winter stars. Orion comes up in dawn, before long it will rule the early dark skies. They will bring calm and quiet that seems sorely missing right now.
A Perseid streaks above the trees to the left of the falls.
After an evening nap Willow and I headed for the bush. We got out walked here and there, getting our bearings. It’s been awhile since we have been out at night looking skyward.
We were lucky to see several Perseid Meteors. Lucky as well to get a few pics.
Perseus, The Andromeda Galaxy and Cassiopea. The meteors didn’t cooperate for this photo. If I had’ve slipped into that creek Willow would have ran through bush and thicket down the mountain, following me to the Columbia River.
It was clear and the moon, waning into a thin crescent, stayed down until mid morning.
Hounds Tooth, The Milky Way and a bright Perseid.
We saw deer, an owl, porcupine and rabbits. Luckily Willow didn’t see the porcupines.
The second picture of the night captured a long Perseid Meteor.
I can’t see in the dark like I used to. If I was younger I’d give tonight another go. I don’t think last night was the peak.
We were out of the mountains and at work on time at 5:30 am. Willow slept in the truck.
Hoping for clear skies. I will be heading into the bush shortly to spend the night looking for Perseids, with plans to go straight to work in the morning. It should be a short day. I’ll be bushed and Willow will have to hang out at work for awhile.
The moon is close to new so won’t come up until about 4am so won’t be a problem. As long as the clouds and smoke can hold off it could be good viewing.
Judging the peak can be a crap shoot, I’ve been lucky and not so on occasion. The trick is being out where you have the best chance of seeing them. I compare it to fishing. You never catch anything if you don’t put a hook in the water. The truth is, catching them is only a part of the fun.
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Pulled some of the garlic today. It is Russian Red hardneck and looks good. Big bulbs that take up almost my entire palm.
The grasshoppers wanted no part of them. They were planted last October and had to be dislodged with a pitch fork and thoroughly shook to dislodge the soil.
Now I have to figure out what will be seed and what we can eat. Good gardeners say to save the biggest heads for seed.
It was a good year for garlic, despite the challenges the garden endured.
In the end, like most things, it comes down to luck. All you have to do is show up and put a line in the water.
I’ve made a terrible mistake. In the spring when the grasshoppers were eating the garden I started planting things that they didn’t seem interested in. They ate every carrot so I didn’t replant them figuring it was pointless. The grasshoppers left the small zucchini plants alone. So I planted more of them. Now I am overrun with yellow, green and patty pan zucchinis.
It has become impossible to manage. I can’t give them away. A small one today is a wooper tomorrow. I’ve made a terrible mistake!
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The skies cleared last night. It’s the first time in weeks the mountains have made an appearance. It lifted everyones mood.
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It is busy at the resort. Everyone is frazzled. Moral is good. It is an amazing bunch of workers. Most are young adults from throughout the country. They are expected to work hard and without exception they all put in a full shift.
I have worked in places, including the government, that that wasn’t the case, and the people there were getting paid twice what these kids make.
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A coworker showed me a photo they took of four woodpeckers in the same tree. Two woodpeckers in the same tree means a cold winter.
Wasps, this year, have been building nests under ground, that means a cold winter.
My good friend Scotty from the Secwe̓pemc First Nation used to say, it will be a cold winter because the white man has a big woodpile. Damn, we used to laugh.
Shit! My woodpile is over flowing.
It could be a cold winter.
Scotty, if you are listening, kick me in the nuts and take the duck!
Willow has been a pain in the arse lately, catching scents through the open windows at night. She does a low bark, woof, woof, not at her usual full volume.
She seems to do it as I am just falling asleep after getting up to pee. Her woof reminds me that she has our back and I also need a drink of water. While up I put her out. She sits on the step. Not getting down to pee or shit. She just watches.
I bring her in, and go back to bed. Before long it’s woof, woof, low, just enough to get my attention.
It could be ghosts she is nudging me about, spirits I can’t see, or a skunk outside the window. She has never been able to tell the difference between a mouse or cougar and treats them the same.
Still, I’m blind to both and appreciate assistance, regardless of annoyance.
The valley bottom is thick with smoke. Plenty of fires burning. So far nothing threatening. Just a lot of smoke making it hard to breath for people with lung issues. Plenty of people walking around with masks.
Jimmy says he has to smoke a cigarette just to get some fresh air.
Morning in the valley bottom.
The Resort is busy, as is the valley, on the long weekend. I am on my fourteenth straight day and it will keep up for awhile.
We have been furnishing a house to be made into a BNB. Our job is to put together furniture made in China. It is amazing stuff. You start off with flat box with panels and a freezer bag of assorted hardware. When you open it up and take everything out all you can think is, FUCKKK! But somehow it all goes together. None of it is high quality. The wood is manufactured from sawdust and glue. The veneer has been printed on an inkjet printer and the vinyl fixed to the ‘wood’. It all fits in a flat box that can be stacked miles high in a shipping container. That’s some crafty engineering.
The garden is out in full force. The smoky air acts as a flat filter giving the same light to the bottom of the leaves as the top. It is like the plants are in a green house.
Sundown by Lisa.
The youngsters at work, from the UK and Ontario, have their belongings in their vehicles just in case they have to make a run for it. They haven’t seen anything like this. I tell them, it is good to be prepared but not to panic. I don’t say it, but it can get a lot worse.
The moon through smoke.
The Albertan tourists and second home owners keep flocking in like nothing is wrong. They bitch that the pool isn’t crystal clear, like they haven’t noticed burnt ash has been falling on it nightly.
The Columbia below the benches.
It will keep up for awhile like it always does. August has become a bitch.
Woke up about 3:30. The bedroom smelled like smoke so bad I got up and went outside to make sure nothing was on fire. The moon was orange in the west. Everything was okay. Thats the way it is. A few fires burning close by. Nothing threatening.
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Fire fighters are up from the United States to help fight the fires. They drive army style trucks with the name of their squad on the side. Forest fire fighters are called Hot Shots in the US. They must be contracted by the BC or Federal government to help out and we could use all the help we can get. I am sure every local citizen is grateful for their service.
I looked up two of the firefighter crews, they were from Idaho and California. Hopefully those areas won’t be short if fires break out there.
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Invermere’s Mayor dusted off his Covid Speech, tooling it to the wildfires, welcoming ‘Our Alberta Friends’ to the community, regardless of impending threats.
Agreed, things are not as bad as they can get, so why let a little thing like smoke, flames and breathing clean air deter tourists from spending money in the valley grocery, galleries, cafes and hardware stores.
A reminder our politicians are clowns, concerned about they and their friends monetary interests instead of doing the right thing for people and the environment.
Not surprising. We should be used to it by now.
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The kids came over today and helped in the garden, picking veggies and filling their baskets with peas, giving the old wrinkled ones to Willow or Grandpa.
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Plenty of wasp nests this year to be dealt with at the resort and home. Tomorrow morning when it is chilly and they are docile I will try to move them. Almost impossible when they are protecting combs and laying eggs. Most will end up dead. Unfortunate, if it was up to me, we would mind them, knowing we will get stung occasionally as the price of sharing. We have become intolerant of the natural word, considering even ants and some plants a nuisance.
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The next five or six weeks will be busy. I have started working 7 days a week. Saturday and Sunday should be shorter days. The overtime will come in handy in a tourist hotspot where prices continue to increase. Not that we are complaining it is the same everywhere.
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The winds are up. The trees are swaying one way and the clouds are going another. Never good when the bush is on fire.
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I wrote the above last night but didn’t publish it. I thought I may have been too judgmental of the Mayor of Invermere and wanted to think about it overnight. I did soften it a little, even taking out the word ‘shill’.
When I arrived at work this morning the staff parking area was filled with two large trucks pulling wake boats. They were from Alberta. The word staff used to describe them was entitled.
The outside pool and hot tubs had a skim of ash and burnt needles floating on the surface. Things can get worse, no matter how hard we look on the bright side.
If someone asked me what has changed with the weather, I’d say, it’s windy now especially when it is hot in July and August. You can almost feel the moisture being sucked out of the ground. I can’t remember it that way when I was young.
I may be wrong. I am often called an imbecile by plenty of folks because I’ve never travelled. I can’t argue with them. However, I know what I see, the garden backs me up as well as the lake and mountains. I feel sorry for them, they are changing, some would say dying or even burning. I feel sorry because of the abuse. Still, they will be here much longer than we will.
We had word a fire was threatening the power supply to the valley. I thought about the food I have in the freezer. I thawed a leg of lamb and made vindaloo for the clan. Not a summer meal, but cooler than roasting it in the oven.
Several fires have started near by in the past couple days. The Horsetheif Fire came over the ridge this afternoon. It looks to be moving quickly. Edgewater, a community 25km north of us, is reporting burnt ash and needles falling on decks and vehicles.
The wind driving the fire is blowing south/east while a thunderstorm came in heading north/west. A double whammy.
Meanwhile, I am on my perch, where I’ve always been, the imbecile that I am, listening to tourists from Alberta race up and down Main Street in loud cars, RV’s and motorcycles.
This weekend I encountered a group of old bastards about my age, there must of been thirty of them, riding Indian Motorcycles all dressed in chaps and leather vests with the Indian insignia. I couldn’t help but think looking at these dip shits that we are all doomed.
It won’t be coking coal making steel that is our demise. It will be rich fuckers getting on planes, entitled to do as they please, without consequence, that will catch up to us.
Not that anybody’s listening, if you want to make a difference, stay home. Don’t bring millions of dollars worth of toys into a place you know nothing about just because you can. Stay home and make a life there.
Palliser Pass 