5C's Que Pasa

This was at it’s worse Tuesday.

I’m sure most of you have read about the fires burning here in B.C. and in Saskatchewan.  Both provinces are being hit very hard and have exceeded their annual fire fighting budget.  Saskatchewan  brought in soldiers yesterday from Alberta and gave them a basic few hour training course before sending them in to help. B.C. has now stated…………

In an effort to manage the situation – as well as an estimated 30 additional fires expected to break out daily – the province has put out a call to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre for an additional 290 personnel.

“We have requested additional help from CIFFC, the co-ordinating agency, for an 10 additional unit crews, 20 additional (initial attack) crews, 21 resource officers, an amphibious skimmer group and a land-based air tanker group,” said Isfeld.

So far 75 firefighters have arrived from Ontario to help us here and soon others are expected and from as far away as Australia.  One of my nephew’s just graduated this past April from a Forestry Technology program as well as Wildfire Management and he is out there fighting these fires.

We are in one of those smoke filled valleys.

It is a tough and dirty job fighting these fires.  We can all help. It is dry out there on the West Coast of the US and up in Alaska where they are having a a bad fire season due to the heat.  So how can we help?  Stop someone from throwing a glowing cigarette butt out the window.  If you know someone who is a smoker ask them to be super careful.  Several of our local fires have been human caused.  Last night Colin had to go out after dark and was driving behind a golf cart when he saw a glowing butt tossed out of it.  It landed next to a very dry cedar hedge.  He followed the people and when they stopped he spoke with them but they denied being smokers.  Hopefully they were embarrassed enough to not due it again. Butt out folks.

The province is under a total campfire ban.  That includes those of you who have fire pits in your back yards.

Is is so hot and very dry that each camper that checks into our RV Park is being given a copy of the evacuation map from the site they will be staying at.  We are so fortunate to have such an evacuation map.  A few years ago after a fire in our park, volunteers along with the fire department created this route and it is invaluable as we are over 500 sites so if something happens it could be problematic.

Hot and dry and smoky.

It’s only July 8th, we have a long summer ahead of us.

You can see Colin seating at his desk at the top of the shot. The girls try everything they can to get his attention to come play with them 🙂

Sorry this was to be last evening’s post but we ended up having the neighbors over for a very very happy hour 😛   We did have a blast but post went missing.  Don’t quite remember finishing dinner….think I fell asleep.

Other neighbor’s were letting yet other neighbor’s use their site for a wedding Saturday afternoon. There were about 80 white chairs set up under tents to the left of the photo for the guests.  Lovely but very hot day.

A few days ago, Colin and I were having a discussion about the upcoming surprise when the girls became involved.

It ended up being a love fest.

Then it just turned into a bonding time with all of us.

Carmeh wanted to move over to where Colin was sitting. She loves being close to him.

So much happiness and caring.

…and love.

Caeli remained with me and would not stop kissing me.

What more can I say?

Back again to the other side of the window seat.

Carmeh finally winding down.

Nap time.

Caeli still on my lap. This was a half hour or so of unplanned time that we will both remember forever. Nice that we passed the camera back and forth.

Yesterday morning we let Carmeh out of her stroller for a bit along with Caeli off leash.  So nice to see her sniffing things.  She got her last minute dose of Metacam this morning and seems to be doing just fine.

I received a final gift of love from my Dad today.  I went through a final pile of papers today from one of the last few boxes I had brought back with me from Edmonton when we were there last month.  I did not know about this last box that my brother had at his place in storage.  I never started this blog till late May of 2010.  Previous to that I would write travelogues with photos that I would email to my parents and friends as we traveled through Mexico.  I guess my sister must have printed them out for my parents to read and Dad kept most of them.  I have a stack of paper with my written words about our travels going back to 2004.  I am so happy to have these.  Not quite sure when ( between 2004 and 2009 ), but at some point our only computer went belly up and we lost all of our archives and so these papers are so very special to have.  Great records of our first trips into mainland Mexico and dates reminding us of various things we have done in our earlier years in Mexico.  Blogs are a great way to record what is happening in one’s life.  That is why I started this blog back in May of 2010 and when I look back at certain events I am overwhelmed by what I have written and the photos we have taken.

Thank you all for coming on this journey with me.

Wishing all my American friends and readers a wonderful day.

We celebrated with you all today but what we did has to remain a secret for just a few days longer.  All I can hint at is that we celebrated big Oh, and champagne will be involved at some point 😀

Carmeh continues to improve.  She was running in her own fashion on the lawn today.  She has her own gait now where her backside moves from side to side rather than straight ahead but she is moving and with some speed.   Yesterday I decided to start tapering her off the Metacam and she will have her last small dose Monday morning.  We see the vet end of the day Wednesday for the next acupuncture treatment.  Because of her visible improvement we are feeling hopeful that she will be with us for a few more years.  That thought has led us to think that we should perhaps do an ultrasound to see what is happening with her internally.  That way we can possibly treat her with meds for whatever her other ailment is.  I would hate to get to Mexico and have her start developing all kinds of strange symptoms that we have no idea where they are coming from.  Of course she will be limited to ramps only for the rest of her days.

Once again HAPPY HAPPY DAY…..

Basically we spent Canada Day just laying low and relaxing.  Colin chose to do some computer work but did take some time to play the guitar for the first time since we got back from Banff.  Meanwhile the girls and I hung out by the lake under sun umbrellas.  It was a cool 33C/91.4F with a breeze.  So nice to able to sit out in the shade.  Mid afternoon Colin suggested we go for a ride in the golf cart. This is the first thing that caught our eye, the Polaris Slingshot.  A new toy out there for a mere $20,000.00 USD.

We think this is the only one in Kelowna. Don’t know who owns this one but pretty neat with only 2 wheels at the front and 1 at the back. Colin saw one just like it in Culiacan last March.  It was being driven  by a young Mexican couple who were trying to find a place to hold their baby safely!  Only seats two, barely.  Not sure how safe it is to be out on the road.

Next stop, the store/restaurant here in the park. This sign went up the other day and I was dying to try one of these soft serve cones.  Look at all those flavors.  Peanut butter ice cream?

I had my choices down to pina colada, coconut, peach or apricot.  Colin already knew it would be butter pecan for him.  How can one small store serve so many choices?  Well we were about to find out.

From another machine a small container is filled with soft vanilla ice cream.  Those pump bottles in the middle of the shot are all the flavors which are added to the vanilla ice cream per your request and then mixed by that silver rod thing.  Gee, not quite what I expected.

I chose apricot and you can see the light orange colored ice cream in the container. Now we are on the other side of the machine. Here the mixed ice cream sits on top of a sieve of some sort and is pushed through to either a cone or as in this case a cup.

Can you believe I was so excited to taste my new apricot mix that I neglected to take a photo of the final product?  However at $6.85 for two cones you won’t find me back there too soon. The ice cream was very good but time consuming to prepare.  Once Colin’s cone was done she had to clean the machine on both sides and start all over again to make mine.  By then his cone was melting rather fast.  I can’t image how this is going to work over the summer when you get a dozen people and kids all queuing up at the same time wanting to try a new flavor.  I don’t see any profit being made with this new endeavor.  Maybe over time.  The store also has several hard ice cream choices and there always used to be a long line for those.  They are going to need more staff this summer.

Meanwhile the girls were waiting for us in our Canada Day decorated corvette.

We had parked sideways so they could have some shade.  First thing we did was pull over to some shade under a tree to enjoy our treat.  The girls were all over us and of course we had to share.  Well I did the sharing.  I got much more ice cream in my cup than Colin did in his cone.  The girls gave this treat a 10 out of 10 and I gave it an 8 out of 10.  I never did get Colin’s input and he is working late tonight as I write this so I can’t bother him to find out.  He did like the ice cream though.

Back to the beach with my book and some vino.  It really was a great day and I was pleased that the girls just curled up near me and slept.  Because the A/C was off for the first time in days we left the door open so the girls could go in and out via the ramp at will.  Carmeh really enjoyed being outside and sniffing all there was to take in.  I wish I had the time to spend outside with her everyday.  Only in Mexico 😐

Next up was our delicious Canada Day dinner.

Mixed organic greens with radicchio, added tomatoes and poppy seed dressing along with grilled asparagus and sockeye salmon and baked potato.  Accompagnied with a very well chilled Pinot Grigiot.

The evening was topped off with a gift from Mother Nature.

Taken through the window so not crystal clear but still a stunning ending to a marvelous day.