Late July

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.

***

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.

***

Invermere’s Mayor dusted off his Covid Speech, tooling it to the wildfires, welcoming ‘Our Alberta Friends’ to the community, regardless of impending threats.

https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/invermere-mayor-welcomes-tourists-despite-two-nearby-wildfires

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

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.

***

The winds are up. The trees are swaying one way and the clouds are going another. Never good when the bush is on fire.

***

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.

Travel

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.

Fireweed

Lisa and I headed out early to avoid the ruck. The town put on Valley Appreciation Day. It used to be called Visitor Appreciation Day. Before that it was called Alberta Appreciation Days. Alberta tourists/2nd home owners, making up the majority of visitors to the Columbia Valley. Regardless of the name it is a good day to get the fuck out of the valley bottom.

The huckleberries are under there somewhere.

We took to the mountains in search of huckleberries. We had success. The huckleberries were out and small. We stumbled onto a few good patches to fill our buckets.

Willow rustled rodents. Her tongue swollen and panting. She is a good dog. Lisa says I have to mind her better as she is getting old. I don’t have the heart to shut down her fun even if it’s for her own good.

Getting a swim in the creek. Perfect to cool off.

Lisa kept picking after I reached my limit. We creeped down the mountain in the afternoon, knowing town would be clear, cautious never the less.

A very fine day.

Early Morning

We call it smoke but it’s smog and we better get used to it.

Up early. Tough week. I let my temper get the better of me a couple times. Luckily I am only caustic with my tongue, not like before.

It would be easy to say they got what they deserved. Tourists, rich, entitled, put in their place. But it makes me sad. So it can’t be good. I used to love putting a bully in his place. Punching up has hurt my family immeasurably. I am a fool not to go along. Look how good the people who punch down do.

The garden is up. Plenty of smoke on the horizon and on the water, early morning. The spuds could be ready, who knows for sure, the grasshoppers have eaten the blossoms.

July Garden

Even Willow was powerless against the grasshoppers.

The garden is doing it’s best after being ravaged by grasshoppers. The grasshoppers are still around in abundance but not eating as much as when they were small. When we have vegetables from the garden for dinner I remark my thankfulness that the grasshoppers were kind enough to leave it for us. They were ravenous bastards.

No carrots this year. Almost everything had to be replanted. Strangely they didn’t like peas, which are about 6 feet tall and covered in pods. The tomatoes, they mostly left alone. Same as the zucchini. Everything else was at their mercy.

The cannabis is coming and I’m about to trick it into thinking it’s dying so it will flower. The grasshoppers ate it as well, but it fought back on its own. The grasshoppers who indulged were last seen, wearing dark glasses, listening to jazz, riding vans, driven by a ladybug, down to SF, Haight Ashbury, to find themselves. I’m happy I could, at least, convert a few. The stoned grasshoppers remaining are degenerates, happy to listen to Led Zeppelin overflowing from the gardeners earbuds. They are hard to motivate, but great to have a conversation with once you get them going, unfortunately they still like to snack.

We will miss the carrots. I planted zucchini in many of spots in the garden that the grasshoppers destroyed. We are going to have ‘chini coming out our ears. I won’t be able to give them away. My friends will see me coming and scatter.

Old Tracks

Hind and front. Glad we came along later.

Before bed I thought I’d better make sure the garden gate was closed. Walked outside into a warm evening. I never walk anywhere without boots. The garden is only thirty paces from the basement door. I figured I was safe to go barefoot. Half way there I stepped on a wasp and got stung in the crotch of the big toe and the tall one next to it. Damn. That’s seven stings this year! It could be my new record.

I remember when I was about four, one morning, I took a stick and knocked down a nest in the shed. I was stung on the nose. That night I was with my Dad picking raspberries at my Aunt Elenor’s place and got stung on the ass.

Dad thought it was hilarious I was stung on the nose and ass in the same day. He laughed telling Mom when we got home. I couldn’t see the humour in it at the time. Now I am a Dad and Grandad it is damn funny. I can’t help laughing when I reminisce.

Long Weekend/Tourists

A good long weekend all in all. Lisa and I got out of Dodge early on the busiest days.

No shortage of entitled idiots from Alberta. They were everywhere. I believe they are something we have to accept like, dry summers, grasshoppers, wasps and forest fires.

Speaking of grasshoppers and wasps. The grasshoppers are everywhere, hitting you in the face and jumping ahead of every step.

On Sunday unloading wood I rearranged the woodpile. The grasshoppers started jumping. Before I knew it. I had disturbed a nest in the woodpile. Got stung about six time on the hand before I realized they weren’t grasshoppers. Angry bastards. I had to split the load of wood 20 feet away from the woodpile. More hauling later. My hand is sorer today than yesterday.

Still those fucking tourists are more of a nuisance, I swear to God/ 😉

Canada Day

Lisa and I were up early and heading for the bush to miss the tourists and second home owners, who are out in force.

Once we made the corner after the first bridge on the Kootenay we were free and never saw a soul, except the most important, a black bear, a murder of crows circling something dead, plenty of deer, bucks in velvet, a shiny muskrat and birds singing songs, so beautiful, that I will never understand no matter how hard I try.

We picked up a load of wood. Tomorrow I will split it. It is birch so the sooner the better. It will keep us warm. Summer is when you should think of winter.

Picked a litter of lettuce in the garden. The grasshoppers have wings but aren’t eating like they were when they were small. As far as I can tell they don’t like peas or tomatoes. Everything else has taken a shit kicking.

We sure have a good country. I may bitch at the folks running it. The country and citizens are so strong even the politicians haven’t been able to screw it up. 🙂 Aboriginal people are seeing a future where injustices are acknowledged. There is no making things right. There is no returning justice. MY small spot on this land belonged to someone who didn’t agree to sell it to me.

Our future is dependant on immigration, that’s a good thing. The ideas and hard work coming from abroad will make us strong.

Whenever I meet someone wanting to make Canada their home I think of my Grandfather coming from England in 1912 looking for a better life.

I live in this time in history when immigrants made my life easy in my youth and will help me in my old age. How lucky is that?

Most of the creeks are still high. I followed a spring, out of nowhere, a hundred yards through a grove of birch, then disappeared underground to cripes knows where.

The country is alive and beautiful. I can’t contribute like I used to. I don’t expect much. That’s how it is when you are happy.

Somehow we have to grab rocks, but instead of throwing them, we have to lie down on them and feel the warmth.

Rain

The rising sun catches the ridge in the west. Dark storm clouds above, shaded valley bottom below. Taken about 6am from the garden.

Came through a good bit of rain. It was welcome. In the mountains it was snow.

We planned a trip into the high country last Wednesday, but postponed it to this coming Wednesday. The youngsters from work were disappointed. I didn’t welcome trudging through a foot of wet snow on the mountain side. The truth is I’d end up sliding on my ass coming down trying to dig my heels in yelling whoa!! It can be fun, but I’m too damn old for such hijinks. I didn’t want to lose face so told them the scenery would be better when it cleared.

The doe deer are busy with their fawns. A few days ago I freed a fawn that got caught in fencing. Today Jack shooed one from the pool court back to its mother. It was held up under patio furniture and was starting to gather quite a crowd of guests. Jack said he had done it plenty with lambs back in England. He is a good man that Jack.

***

Some warm weather is expected. The recent rain has done its best to cool the bush. That’s more than we can ask.

Storm

Bog Orchid. Although common I have not seen this species for several years.

Lightening with plenty of rain, so not so bad. We have postponed a hiking trip with some youngsters from work, because of snow in the back country. They’ll enjoy it more with the sun shining on the blue glacier water and I will not have to slip and slide off the mountain in 12″ of wet snow. There was a time I wouldn’t have been dissuaded by weather. That day is long gone.

Palliser Pass

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