5C's Que Pasa

First off, thank you all my wonderful blog readers who sent comments on my last post.  I learned some things.  First off be very very careful what type of ice cream you buy.  One thing I discovered, thanks to your posts, was that I did not buy the type of ice cream for Colin’s birthday that he normally purchases, which is Chapman’s, one of the best brands here in Canada.  I totally goofed but his palate figured it out.  I don’t eat a lot of ice cream so I had no idea.  That was quite the experiment 😐

This is what we are living with this evening. Poor photo, sorry.

I received an email update today on Baby Romina whom many of you helped with a donation.  She did get to the Shriners Hospital in LA and was assessed.  Turns out she is too young at the moment but they want her back next year for a new evaluation.  I honestly can’t give you an update to the amount of funds that were used.  It is too difficult to go back & forth from here with translations, etc.  I will be sure to check the details once I get back to the Isla.

A shot sent by Romina’s Mom from LA.

So yet another 13 fires in the last 24 hours.  One started yesterday afternoon, just off Hwy 33 next to Rock Creek.  Chris, you and Juan drove through that lovely area last June.  Truly a lovely area of B.C.  Sadly that fire has grown to 2500 hectares in 24 hours and possibly more, it is too dangerous to evaluate.  Even worse is the loss of homes and other buildings.  Tragically an entire RV Park was evacuated with mere moments of notice.  Some left with only their bathing suits.  All the RV’s have been reduced to nothing but ash.  That fire is out of control.  The highway is closed making delivery of food and basics impossible.  One family in Grand Forks, a community East of the fire,  has 13 evacuees living in their home.  Heroes in my mind!  But it is worse yet.  A US fire has crossed the border into Canada which has resulted in folks being put on evacuation alert.  This fire is not too far from the Rock Creek fire.

Today we not only have smoke in the air but in our lungs.  Once you open your door you are engulfed in the smoke.  It is like your own yard is on fire.  Think campfire X 100.

Hard to photograph but that grey stuff is smoke being brought down to the ground by the wind and a few drops of moisture.

Saw this little guy perched on the roof next door.  The first Cedar Wax Wing I have seen this year.

The red color is from the smoke and the fire.  This is facing East at 5:30PM. The acrid smell of smoke filled the air.

Not long after the skies became black. Even thought it was cooler outside than inside we left the A/C on as the smell was very strong.

We were fortunate to miss the hail and the rain.  However I am certain that the wind did damage to the many fires still burning.  I just checked the online news and things are not going well at the Rock Creek fire.

It is horrible, out of control and the call has gone out for help to us here in Kelowna. Folks are trying to round up the many horses in the area and get them here. Water buckets and hay are needed. So very very sad.

Worse yet is the likely possibility that the fire was human caused 😥

Colin and I were out together earlier today and on the way home we saw a beautiful doe that had been killed laying near the side of the road, not far from the centre of the city.  So very sad.

From that my thoughts went to how quiet things are in our house.  The phone hardly ever rings now.  I used to be on the phone at least twice per day with Mom or Dad.  Now it is so quiet.  Life is short.  Be it death or nature like a fire changing things, it is so important to try and live in the moment and just enjoy.

Oops, two new fires near Oliver……enough for tonight.

Picked these up at the farmers market this afternoon. Nine freestone peaches for $7.30. Time to find an orchard to purchase from.

For Colin’s birthday I had purchased an apple pie and ice cream as well as the lemon meringue pie.  Both pies were delicious.  However Colin did not like the after taste of the ice cream.

At 7:30AM today we left the ice cream in the sink to melt with the idea to throw it away. Here is that same ice cream 12 hours later.

It shrunk less than 3/4 of an inch but did not melt.

Pure chemicals and plastic.  Garbage 👿

The local fire is out so to speak.  Sadly 5 hectares were burned in the short amount of time before it was contained.  It is still smoldering but there were firefighters on site all of last night.  We rested easy.  The entire crew did a great job yesterday afternoon.  Today has been yet another hot day with highs of 36C/97F.  We are way over the normal highs for this time of year.  However it is not exactly blue sky and sunshine but rather a white sky.

Media tells us that this is the result of Washington state fires of which 2 very large ones are within 100km/62miles of the Canadian border and we are only 76 miles North of that.

In the last hour the sky is a white blue with smoke.  Three more fires have started in the last 2 hours in the Penticton area which is midway between us and the US border.  Hope you are alright Gerry and Sue.  Thinking of you.  Another two have also been started NE of us.

Meanwhile after the fire became contained yesterday late afternoon, we had some activity on the lake.  Not as exciting as the helicopter sucking up water, but interesting nonetheless.

The orange glow comes from the sun reflecting in the smokey haze.

Love the colors.

We could never ever be bored living here.

We don’t even need to leave the site……but we do 🙂

It was the perfect evening to cook up a wild sockeye fillet or two. Colin marinates it for a few hours in his special sauce and then later pours the remainder of the liquid over the fish.

Between the cedar plank and the smoke we do get some great salmon.

Heading back to the dock.

One last ski.

OMG this was the best ever, ever, ever! I indulged with sour creme on top of my baked onion on top of my potato. Every bite was better that the last. I ate every morsel on my plate. Too bad you weren’t here as we had enough for two more.

The girls were more than happy with their romaine lettuce spines.

Just now as I am about to post we have a sudden non forecasted wind storm with some lightening.  There are whitecaps on the lake and the trees are bent over.  This can only spell disaster for the new fires and those fighting them not to mention potential new strikes from the lightening.  I see us not leaving here as planed to head south Oct. 20th or so.  We do need to make some pesos before we leave but nature is affecting us as it is affecting many hundreds of thousands of others in the world.

I don’ think you can see the Persied meteor showers through the smoke.  I have spent many an August night over the years laying back in a lounge chair watching the spectacle.  When we lived in Vancouver we could sit out in our hot tub and watch the event, not as brilliant due to city lights but spectacular nontheless.  Tonight promises to be the best viewing night, alas for us.

…in the hills out back of us, like right there.  If it came down the hill we would have to evacuate but it is burning up the hill.  It has been burning for 2 hours now.  Lots of activity with helicopters dropping off ground crew, planes dropping retardant and a helicopter dropping water.

At one point it was a rank 2 to rank 3 with trees involved but all the air support has dropped back down to a ground fire.

Sorry I missed the entire retardant drop but got the tail end.

This guy came to the fire with water.

Then flew over to our lake.

Where he proceeded to suck up more water right in front of us. He was very very close to us and flew directly over our roof top. I could see the pilot most clearly.

A much clearer shot by Colin.

Back to the fire to drop the water, again by Colin.

The brown in the foreground is my neighbors roof, just to show you how close we are.

The fire is affecting the flight path to Kelowna International Airport.  One flight has been turned back to Vancouver.  However a few other helicopters brought in some firefighting ground crew which have made a big difference.

Latest online update as of 10 minutes ago.

While it has been exciting to watch all of this up close, I would rather forgo this type of excitement.

This flew over twice this afternoon but I don’t think it was involved in the fire.

The entire day has already been smoke filled yet the forecast said mostly sunny.  Not good for our business of photography.

Meanwhile water restrictions become even more severe.  Those who live on the Sunshine Coast are now prohibited from watering anything unless they use left over dishwater or bathwater.  Here in Kelowna we are a bit better off with watering being allowed 2 days per week.  I have read that this is Alaska’s second worst fire season and of course we all know how poorly California is doing not to mention other US states.

How long can we go on like this?  Will there be anything left?

Not sure but may as well give it a chance; my balloon’s deflating. It’s now or never. If you see my Contessa, Please tell her you saw me depart. By the way, Carmeh is with me.

PS  Has anyone seen my husband and my dog Carmeh?  He hijacked my blog.  Did you read what I had previously posted 👿