5C's Que Pasa

A new fire late Sunday about 7PM in the Peachland/Glenrosa area.  Between the heat and high winds it grew quickly.  Hundreds were evacuated.

The sky colour intensified quickly.

It remained fairly bright facing Kelowna but to the side and back of us facing Vernon the sky colour became darker.

…and darker.

It almost looked like night, the sky was very dark, yet facing Kelowna there was a brightness like in the first photo of this post. So strange and eerie to turn your back to the lake and see almost night conditions.

The fire-fighters worked ever so hard all through Sunday night despite the high winds and heat. Monday they continued. Late yesterday the temperatures dropped a bit and we even had a few drops of moisture. It went down to 59F about 6AM this morning and it never rose above 64F. Between that drop in temperature and the decrease in the wind and the very little bit of rain ( I read .7 of a mm )  that we got, it made a huge difference in the two main fires. The fire-fighters were able to build necessary fire guards and get up into the higher terrain to put out hot spots. Today we learned that sadly 80 homes were lost over the weekend due to the Westside fire but they continue to build more guards to protect homes. Also several hundred of those evacuated Sunday night were able to return home late this afternoon.  The past 24 hours have really helped calm the fires. The temps are going to rise a bit for the next few days, hopefully the fires will remain less volatile.  The two large fires are still burning out of control. as are many others. Off the top of my head I think we have something like 260 fires burning here in our province of BC. The government is strongly asking tourists to leave as we need hotels for evacuees as well as to keep the roads clear.

At one point in the last day we only had one of three highways open. One was closed because of fire and another closed because of rock slides. The remaining highway open was affected about 3:30AM today due to a semi accident. Thank goodness my friend Ferne left Saturday. These are the only routes for anyone in Canada to get to the west coast. Alarming! Things opened up later this afternoon. Many neighbours are now packed and ready to leave on a moments notice. We have no fire threat nearby but with everything so dry it is a good idea to be prepared. It can only take an instant to flare up as we witnessed a few times this past weekend. We always have a box near the front door of important papers including our house building plans as well as a USB of home photos ( inside and out ) and of every open cupboard. We have replacement insurance.

We like to sleep with the windows open if we can. If the smoke is not too bad we leave them open. Today when I made the bed I could smell smoke in the bedding 🙁

The girls continue to heal but of course that means they really want to run, jump and wrestle. Yesterday Colin carried one or the other around. When we separate them they whimper. Only one is allowed outside at a time. Today Colin took them for a one block walk and later a longer walk, a golf cart ride to take out the garbage and finally a car ride to pick something up. They are full of energy and refuse to be cooped up but they are still vulnerable. I had no idea it would be so difficult for us. Counting the minutes until they settle ( its 8:50PM ).

Yesterday afternoon I had more vein treatments. The left leg was the usual 40 pricks ( not fun ) but the right leg was a different situation.

Last Monday they found a problem deeper down in my leg. Yesterday the doctor came in and said that I have a varicose vein that was not functioning properly because of the valves in that vein .

Looking at the situation via ultrasound.

This was the difficult part ( at least for me). The needle went down deeply in the vein in a few areas, all the while pumping foam into that vein in an attempt to kill it. Today those areas are very sore and inflamed.  I have been wearing a stocking non stop since 3PM yesterday. As soon as I finish this post I get a five minute bath in tepid water. Tomorrow the support thigh high stockings go on again, yes one each leg.

Special thanks to Inger for puppy sitting for us. I decided to give the girls a 2/3 dose of Benadryl before we left which hopefully would subdue them so that they would not get worked up.  It all worked out. They woke up easily when we came home but did rest more last evening which really helped as I needed to keep still and rest my leg. It has been a busy 48 hours since I last posted.

Covid numbers in our area continue to increase.

Some days are less smoky than others.

Today is day 5 of rest and trying to keep the girls quiet. Last thing we want is for them to burst their stitches. Ciela has become sucky and wants to be with Colin all the time.

Carlie curled up and relaxing. I loved the light in this photo.

Overall the girls are doing very well. I feel so bad telling them no over and over.  We are almost at the end of day five.  Only five more to go. They seem to be in no pain so they want to run wild like greyhounds and more especially to wrestle. I can hardly wait for this to be over so I can just pick them up when I want to cuddle and most important not having to say “no” all the time. To me their incision area is looking great thus far. I think we will all be happier once they can resume their daily walks.

This is Carlie. Ciela’s incision is lumpier, it will probably look like this eventually.  The vet used dissolving stitches that he said will take 120 days to dissolve. I am surprised at how quickly their hair is growing in.

The lake is receding due to the constant heat.

Covid continues to become a problem in our area because of the young non vaccinated.  The only hospital in our city (population of 223,000 ) has started to cancel surgeries because the hospital is full.  There was an online blurb this morning about someone who went into emergency Tuesday afternoon needing surgery because of a burst appendix. He only had his surgery at 4PM on Wednesday and was discharged at 10PM. Unheard of! However there are no beds in the hospital,  He spent his entire stay on a gurney in a hallway. When I had my vein treatment last Monday the RN told me that she had a friend whose baby had Covid and was in hospital.  That baby was only 11 weeks old. Turns out that they went to a wedding and likely caught it there.  The mom despite being fully vaccinated also got Covid but with few symptoms. Someone had organized a block party for today.  Great idea but not the right time to be socializing.  We did not attend because of needing to be here every minute to supervise the twins. We likely would not have attend anyway because of Covid restrictions at this time.

I think that is was much too smoky this past Friday for folks to be boating.

Thank goodness there are not many boats on this lake. I can barely see the boat going from right to left and just a minute later it disappeared  into the smoke.

Today was day 2 of a golf cart ride instead of a walk.

They are well strapped in.

The fire situation remains dire. FYI this is not a true photo. Colin says that is is impossible to take this photo as is and that it has been heavily photoshopped. It started with two photos merged together. A true disgrace to photography.

This is a real photo. Great photo.

I took this Friday the 13th. Somewhat gloomy but I love that bit of pink  sun reflecting in the lake. The smoke was so thick that it blotted the colour of the sun.

The winds are really picking up this afternoon @ 38 mph in many areas. So much smoke in the air and just moments ago a huge gust with large pieces of ash fell. There is a ridge coming from  the north which is going to decrease the temperature but bring with it much wind which we are seeing at this very moment. It is 92F with gusts to 25mph.

It is going to be a wild next few hours and in the days to come. Prayers for those fighting our fires.

Wednesday’s fire sky just before sunset.

Turning my back to that view I get this. The smoke is moved by air currents and  as you can see it is smoky to the east but not as bad as the west.

Wednesday and Thursday we were getting large pieces of ash falling all over. The outdoor water bowl I have for the girls was full of black ash pieces.

The outdoor dog blanket as well. Later in the day it was covered.

Thursday Colin power washed all the vehicles including the golf cart and the patios. The ash makes it all so dirty.

The girls are feeling better.  We can tell by how they can’t stop themselves from wrestling.  ” NO ” is not enough any longer. It really takes two of us to separate them physically. The only way to keep them calm is for each us to hold one or to separate them in different rooms. Their incisions look good and we want to keep it that way. I can’t image having to do this a second time. They are small but they are all muscle and very headstrong. They are now resting 30 minutes and extremely active for two hours 😥 Their fur is starting to grow back and causing a good deal of itching which means licking. So far we are on top of it all.

At least one hundred plus black birds flew around our home yesterday, Thursday evening  and finally landed on the beach.  Hard to see but they made a line along the beach edge.

Strange behaviour as they kept taking off and coming back. Even the girls just sat and watched.

Still Wednesday, August 11th.

At the moment the smoke is socking us in. The BC government just a few hours ago made a statement asking visitors to not come this weekend and if they are here to leave. Weather conditions are changing and winds are expected tomorrow and Sunday much heavier winds. Frightening words…

“Our forecasters and fire behaviour analysts have been working around the clock modelling for the White Rock Lake fire and they are predicting a significant and sustained period of wind through the weekend,” said Cliff Chapman, director of provincial operations with the BC Wildfire Service.

“They will drive aggressive fire behaviour … those impacts include significant growth, challenging our containment lines on all sides and the potential for large spotting distances, where the head of the fire shoots out ember transfer from the fire and creates spot fires in front of the main body of the fire.

“It has a high potential to start fires, it has the potential to spread quickly and as we’ve seen through the course of this wildfire season, it has the potential to impact structures and life.”

Chapman added there is a “direct threat to life and property” around the White Rock Lake fire this weekend.

Covid news in the USA. Locally we are not doing well at all. The push is on to vaccinate. At this point I have no idea which is worse, the fires or the pandemic.

Our usual evening pastime. Carlie loves to sit on me and do what I call ‘suckies’. She bunches a wad of blanket in her mouth and uses it as a soother. At the same time she pushes her feet ever so slowly and gently towards towards my body like a kneading motion.

‘Someone’ is waiting for Colin to come back into the yard. It is frustrating for them to only be able to see our cars in the driveway but not seeing other pets and people walk by helps to curtail their barking.

The thing is, is that we have two pups and that means two spays and all the extras involved. We have had four girls previously so this isn’t our first time. But two at the same times is crazy.

We decided to have Carlie go first as she is more sensitive to things and slept two days after her last set of puppy shots. Plus she was born first. Ciela went second. So she actually was 90 minutes behind her sister in terms of having meds in her body from the surgery.  There were a few things that happened before surgery that upset us and we had a complication when we got home that we discovered as the the girls began to wake up. I have decided that there is no need to go thru the details as it will only upset me all over again plus I don’t want a written record of what happened.

The vet found that Carlie had two baby teeth still in her mouth and so he did an x-ray and extracted two very long teeth. Cha-ching, another $150.00. He also put stitches in where the teeth had been. They also were both microchipped. We came home with Metacam for both for five days post surgery. Ciela had a bit of an issue and was crying out in pain or was she just frightened?

Ouch!

I could not give her extra meds until this morning. I did come home with Trazodone and Gabapentin to take ( mixed together ) to calm them down if they needed to be. She settled with us just holding her.

Even with all the drugs in them and not being awake they gravitated to each other.  I asked at the clinic and they said that they did put the girls in the same crate.

We picked them up early at 2PM and were home by 3PM. They woke up about 9PM within moments of each other. The first thing they did was to make sure that “the sister” was beside them. Thank goodness we trained them on the ramps, that way we did not have to pick them up to carry them outside. The less handling under their tummies the better. So they both went out, one at a time and peed. I could tell they were hungry and I was allowed to give them 50% of their normal dinner meal. Carlie was supposed to get softened kibble because of her teeth.  She refused that but did eat her regular crunchy kibble. Then they wanted to play 🙄

Our greatest problem is keeping them calm and settled. They want to jump, to run, to wrestle which they are not allowed to and most important of all we have to keep them from licking themselves or their sister, etc. We have been asked to keep them calm for ten days and no leash walks.  Difficult with one puppy but two 🙁 Impossible. So he sent us home with the meds mentioned above to sedate them during the day 😯  Well we aren’t going to do that. We prefer to just take the ten days and be with them 24/7.  Perhaps in a week we will take them around the block on a leash, one at a time. One day at a time. I have a feeling that they are fast healers.

I just hate having to put the girls though this, what I call torture. I hope that this will soon be a distant memory for them. How can this not affect them for the rest of their lives?

Last night we thought it best to have them sleep with us in case they were in pain or needed to go out and to prevent them from licking. As they normally don’t sleep with us it was a gong show.  They would lay for a few minutes then jump over to one of us to smother us in kisses. They were so happy to have finally recognized us.  They were so dopey at first when we got home and did not know where they were.  Anyway the bed thing did not work. Also perhaps because they had been sleeping most of the day.  Ninety minutes later at 1:30AM I woke Colin up to crate them. Ciela had been trying to jump off the bed.  In the end she did have to pee. Colin crated them and then slept in bed until 3:30AM but he was worried about them hurting themselves by licking.  He got up and peed both of them again and then ended up with the three of them sleeping on the sofa. I think that I finally fell asleep after 3AM.

By 9AM today we were worn out. Because they are twins they of course want to do things together and roughhouse.  Suddenly we are working at keeping them apart. I ordered some different dog chew bones today which will arrive Friday, that might keep them occupied over the weekend.

So our job now is intense supervision and it really does take both of us. I thought that we could take turns but unless they are sound asleep we are both on duty. For instance if I am letting one out to pee the other rolls over and starts licking. They are learning very quickly because of us shouting ‘NO’.  They so want to wrestle, they have been doing that since birth. So today we were being creative in occupying them but that only lasts so long.  They did sit outside on the front step as they usually do in the morning and just vegged in the smoke and heat.  We of course supervise them being outside. But later in the day they wanted to chase each other as they do all the time. We finally just a few hours ago came up with the concept of letting one out for 5 – 7 minutes and then she comes in and the other goes out. They don’t run then but just walk and sniff about. At one point I caught Carlie standing up on the tomato pots, which is a huge no no re stretching her belly. It is a full-time job which the vet told us it would be but that we have to do it. He does not want them opening up their stitches. To be honest we are both already exhausted but this is our job as parents. Because of the two complications we will be seeing the vet first this Monday morning.

I did purchase onesies for the girls to wear rather than those huge awful cones.  However I really don’t want their incision to be rubbing against cloth even though it is soft. In a few days we will use the onesies but right now they are too fragile and I want them to heal for a bit. They are being very good about not licking and I am so impressed with them listening to us. Right now they just want us to hold them and to be able to wash our faces 😀

Last nights smoky sunset.

I hope you get the double meaning.

It has been so hot and dry that leaves are falling off one of our trees. We have given it and the other tree lots of deep watering.

We discovered this past winter that this casement window was not set right ( probably since the house was built )  and we had a large area for the cold air to pass into the house. Colin stuffed it with aluminum foil last winter. We have been looking for a repair since the spring but no one wanted to come out. I found the name and phone number of a fellow we used two years ago for a small project. He was here within the week and had it totally repaired for $80.00 cash.

We are at the stage of non stop tomatoes and cucumbers. Now the beans have begun to appear. Still no zucchini. Anyone can grow it, why not me – this year?

We have two pots of tomatoes here in the yard that are called patio tomatoes. They don’t get very tall but they cluster very tightly together as they grow plus they split like the three bottom ones.  No idea why.

The fires are mostly doing better but tomorrow things will heat up and dry out again.  Our city, Kelowna, is in that dark brown area make D4 – Exceptional drought. What next?

If you are interested in reading about that twice in a century event click here. Between all the new Covid cases and this article, I have chosen not to read it. I can’t take much more.  By now you probably have read the article based on numerous scientific studies released earlier today.  Earth’s climate is getting so hot that temperatures in about a decade will probably blow past a level of warming that world leaders have sought to prevent, according to a report released Monday that the United Nations called a “code red for humanity”. Too much negativity in one morning for me but if you want to read the article just click here.. Does this mean that I should just start to spend all the money we have and enjoy life to the fullest because in 10 -20 years life may be unbearable?

Carlie has had problems digesting her food for a few months now.  I came to the conclusion that she eats too fast which causes her to vomit all she ate within five minutes. We saw the vet who said it could be caused by many issues. We decided to get a dish that slowed down the eating to see if that helped. and it has.

We got two of course.

They both love and seem to enjoy their new bowls and have slowed their intake but for the first time ever they are always hungry and want three meals per day ( 1/4 scoop kibble per meal ). I was surprised by how much Ciela enjoyed her purple dish.  Before they free fed and only ate one to two meals per day but sometimes  Carlie would eat everything quickly .Carlie has not been sick since we started this program last Friday.

It has become a game for them.  They have been very good at only eating from their puzzle dish but here they are both looking for the last two pieces of kibble. So we have purchased the 3rd bowl in the series and soon will start switching out the puzzle bowls. Amazing how fast they figure out how to get food quicker. Now they only check out the others dish when a very few kibbles are left.

To make a long story short, I thought that Carlie had been bitten by a bee.  I was out doing a poop pick up Friday when she screamed. Once inside I put her on the bed so that I could examine her easily. I could find no evidence of a bee sting or anything else. Carlie just wanted to be on top of all the pillows on Colin’s side of the bed  ( no idea how she knew that was his side ) and it was evident that she was very stressed and in pain. She just wanted to sit up there with her head under the pink blanket. Meanwhile Ciela was upset about her sister and ever so quiet.

I did call the vet and they said to just let her ride it out. Needless to say that when Colin got home she got the royal treatment for the rest of the day.

Sunday I made a shrimp stir fry. Love the meal but so much prep. FYI we use frozen wild shrimp from Argentina purchased at Super Store. I refuse to eat farmed fish.

Well worth the effort. So tricky to get everything perfectly cooked at the same time. It depends on the thickness of how each veggie is cut.

This morning the girls were out on the front step as per their usual routine. Carlie on the right in the shade and Ciela sunbathing on the step down.

Love how she is using a dinosaur fossil for a headrest.

This afternoon I had a treatment for the veins in my right leg. These are the cotton balls that covered 44 injection sites, there were more that did not get the cotton ball bandaid.  I have been doing this treatment for close to ten years now and I am furious  ( because of how they are changing appointment schedules ) but today is not the post to discuss this. Likely next week when I need to have a blockage dealt with. Sadly my next appointment might not be until December ( will I even be here ) because they have so many new patients and referrals that now everyone has to be spaced out. So the older patients like me get kicked to the curb?

Love this one.