5C's Que Pasa

Officially the extreme heat warning is continuing for another week. After the highs we experienced for the first time last week, todays high of 93F/34C seemed balmy.  The low last night was 63F/17F.  We opened the windows and turned the A/C off.  It was great to sleep in fresh  🙄 air for a change. Today we were so smokey that we could not see the mountains at the end of the lake and the sun only made a few appearances.  On July 1st we were hotter than Osoyoos which for those of you who live in BC know is a very big event, that was a new record of course. Sadly 719 people died from the heat in the past week.

Languishing in the heat. They go in and out every 5 – 10 minutes. That bell system I set up is being used, mostly by Ciela who sometimes will come in one door and go to the other and then ring the bells to go outside again. Carlie on the left has used the bells a few times but mostly follows Ciela. I have to get up and let them out so many times per hour but I do need to reinforce that they are doing the right thing. It’s just that it is too hot to leave them out more than five minutes.

As I wrote on June 29th, the A/C in the Jeep died that afternoon. We needed the Jeep as we are leaving later this week on yet another road trip, the third and last of the summer. We ended up dealing with an unknown company as they are the only ones who could see us ASAP.  It was at least 14 days plus before someone could even take a look. So Colin drove the RV to Freightliner in West Kelowna  as it also needed servicing. He towed the Jeep and I ended up meeting him at the A/C repair shop later in Kelowna. Fortunately I had A/C.  Long story short they did not come up with a diagnosis on Wednesday, Thursday was a holiday. So Colin took my car in early last Friday to hang around and make sure that they looked at the car.  They said they would really try to have it out by end of day. It appears that they say yes to everyone to being their vehicles in but never promise when they would be ready 8-O.

I just now realized that this blog was partially written last Tuesday ( end of the blog ). Long story short the Jeep was ready end of day Friday. Turns out that the freon – not really freon as they stopped using that in 2014 was down 19 ounces! Someone will know what the correct name is. Anyway 19 ounces is a lot. The Jeep now has A/C and it cost us $1,000.00. The coolant cost $20.00 per ounce which was only $380.00 so the rest was all in the diagnostics and labour plus over $100.00 in taxes. Meanwhile the RV came in with a diagnosis of some sort of bypass required as just the tiniest amount of exhaust was coming through which is normal in a semi but not in an RV.  Colin also asked them to check the dash A/C.  Turns out that one of the hoses has developed a leak. So the freon has slowly been escaping. They now need to order a new part. The RV should be ready Monday. We anticipate a 3K repair bill. It is good that all these things are being  discovered and repaired before we head south to Mexico in October.

This is the current fire map as of this morning.  All the red represents various fires in different stages & sizes,  from out of control and a fire of note. The green dots are fires under control.

Back in March we had planned to see friends at Green Lake this coming weekend. It was the start of a 14 day trip for us. If you follow the thick yellow line ( on the above photo ) that comes up from the bottom right ( the direction we would come from ) it travels thought many large out of control fires. The olive coloured dot about mid section sits near Green Lake. The provincial parks were closed on July 2nd.  We are staying in a private RV Park.  However we could not get in touch with them either by phone or email.  Were they evacuated?  New fires keep cropping up, many due to the thunderstorms going through the area. As you can see after we leave Green Lake we were going to cross from left to right to join up with the green dotted route. That is highway 24  with is only two narrow lanes and is part of a current evacuation route. The road from Green Lake to #24 currently goes through two red out of control fires. This morning we made a decision to not travel to Green Lake.  Instead we are going to do the green route up to Clearwater for the first three days of our road trip.  It is not worth getting stuck up there because of the fires. An RV our size towing has very little manoeuvrability plus we can’t back up.  Just not worth traveling that fire route for a few days in Green Lake. We can do it another summer.

We now have a pool, well the girls do.

Hecho en Mexico. How cool is that.

They can jump out on their own.

But they are unable to jump in on their own. Seven inches high to jump up and over and down is too much for them right now. Colin will come up with something when we come back end of the month. The sand box remains their favourite of the two but I love the pool to help them cool down.

Covid and an extreme heat dome. What next?

Thanks to Colin for helping me keep sane. These were taken the day ( June 24th – just as the heat wave commenced ) we got back from Fort Langley but I was too busy to go outside. I appreciate you so much Colin for taking these for me and for all those many extras that you do for me.

This is the first year that I have not worn red. I did however still put out all of our Canadian flags. Our local Canada parade was cancelled last year because of Covid. It was a go for this year but was cancelled because of the heat just two days ago. Yes we are still in the midst of our over the top heat wave. We did get up to 41C/106F today and have cooled  down to a lovely 36F/97F at 8PM.

By now you likely have heard about the town of Lytton, the one that kept breaking record after record of high temperatures. Yesterday the town topped out at 49.5C/121F, the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada. By 6PM they were ordered to evacuate. Today the town is 90% gone. You can read about that devastation here. It has been mentioned that a passing train might have ignited the spark that caused this fire. Today they are discussing halting trains in BC for the moment because of the extreme dryness.

I have lived here in BC since 1980 and have never seen anything like this. We moved here to Kelowna in 2003 because it rained too much month after month in Vancouver. This past June we have had no precipitation worth mentioning. So when this heat dome arrived the province was already dry. Now we are breaking weather records almost daily and the heat wave is causing rising fire danger.  We already have low water levels due to a dry spring. So much is being affected.

Things such as our garden crops. Personally our peas are dying as it is too hot for them to keep producing. We have to cover our tomatoes with umbrellas to keep the foliage from becoming burnt and dying. It is cherry season here in the Okanagan.  Pickers come in annually from Eastern Canada but this season we are short because of Covid/travel. Because of this tinder dry heat the only way the cherries can be picked is during the middle of the night. The pickers are wearing head lamps. The fruit is ready and ripened to perfection because of the heat but they need to be picked rapido. There is no way they can pick in the heat of the day. Meanwhile other crops are affected such as apples which have become sunburned. Getting irrigation to the orchards has become a challenge because of the high demand for water.  A logistical concern for each individual grower.

It looks like honey production is going to be affected.  You might want to buy an extra container sooner than later.

Not far from us in Vernon there is a Great Blue Heron sanctuary. I cried when I read this, the young newly hatched herons are perishing because of the heat. Thankfully some neighbours have come to together to save them. Still 12 did die yesterday. You can read about that here.

At this very moment we have 101 active fires of which 77 are new in the past two days. We were planning to leave next Thursday but there is huge fire burning near 100 Mile House which is near where we were going to visit. That plan is on hold for a few days. The fire is called the Deka fire.

We can see these smoke plums from the Big White fire right from our home.  This  photo was taken from downtown Kelowna. I never thought to take a photo.

The Sparks Lake fire is near Kamloops. 163 homes near the Deka Lake/ 100 Mile House  fire were evacuated today with more on evacuation alert.

All the news bulletins today are about fires. What is not mentioned is a new fire near Castlegar. It won’t be long before we are living in smoke again.

So sad to read about all of these heat related events. Yet there is even greater sorrow with regard to the daily news coming forth re the Residential Schools. I was not aware that this was happening in my youth. How could I have not known? Did my parents even know or were they just not talking about it? I will never know. This is a link to a what I think is a well written factual article explaining the circumstances re the Residential Schools and what happened. Many of you both Canadian, American and those abroad ( thinking of you Fawzy ) might not understand the reason that is causing a good deal of news here in Canada. This article might help condense the situation in an easily read article.

Certainly not the best of July 1st that I have experienced.

Taken from our yard last week.

I am still very proud to be a Canadian.

Our last day in Fort Langley on Wednesday the 24th was a full one. It started with a 9AM visit from long time friend Ferne who lives in the area and whom we met on the Isla. Our allotted two hours flew by but Ferne had to head off to an important luncheon.  We were so involved in our conversation and the visit that no photos were taken. Suffice to say that we all looked wonderful.

We then headed off for a short walk along the trail next to the RV park.

Both the girls and us were enjoying the moment as we walked.

We just kept walking until we came to Tavistock Point on the Fraser River, at the tip of Brae Island. I think that those are the North Shore Mountains.

The water wasn’t exactly clean so we didn’t let the girls in. A lovely walk in the midst of the forest with glimpses of sunshine.

Then we had to head back. Our short hike ended up taking a few hours.

I was surprised to find that we did 2.36 miles return. The dogs were sleepy.

A long haired dachshund dropped in to say hello. There was some barking involved but not too much. They soon realized that this was a cousin.

Once again we were so involved with our next set of special visitors ( they were all so very unique ) that we totally forgot to take photos. But we had a wonderful few hours together over dinner. Time passes much too fast.

Colin began to pack up as soon as they left. Thursday morning could be a problem. It was announced on  the 18th that Jasper National Park was opening ( it was closed for major renovations last year ) on Thursday the 24th for reservations.  I was on the phone 5 -6 hours when we booked Banff  ( back in March ) and did not get what we wanted. I did some research and it turns out that if you get up at 3AM or so and log in you are in a queue to make your reservation. It took every fibre of will power to get up at 3:30AM and log in.  I was up again at 6:30AM ( reservations opened at  7AM MST ) It turned out that I was 4857 in the queue.  Colin continued to pack up as I monitored where I was in the queue. We had an 11AM checkout and really needed to get the Jasper reservation done ASAP so that we could get on the road back to Kelowna and home. By 9AM I was done and we got the only possible reservation left. Our next and final trip of the season is from July 8th – 22nd. We are going to have some very fun adventures and see places that we have never been.

We were ready to pull out at 11AM and the girls were ready to roll.

Sleeping positions were soon assumed.

Mount Baker is always majestic. It is a 10,781 ft active glacier-covered andesitic stratovolcano in the Cascade Volcanic Arc and the North Cascades of Washington and very visible from the Vancouver area.

Lot’s of these signs along our route.

A variety of sleeping positions on the way home, one on the dash and one between my legs on the recliner.

They were constantly on the move. We hope to have them travel on this dog  bed set between us on a stool as we drive.

It was yet another long drive ( 6ish hours ), we did drive into the park gates here about 4:50PM. It was so hot that we could hardly breathe. We drove 468 miles round trip. We knew that the heat was going to be increasing in the days to come so we pushed ourselves to empty to RV by 8PM. Colin cleaned the RV on the Friday and did some repairs ( it only got t 99F ) and I did laundry, etc. By late afternoon the RV was back in storage. We took Saturday off to do odd chores and hide from the heat. Sunday as I have previously mentioned we got our second Pfizer shots.  We both had sore arms but no other side effects.

Back to real time, it has been hot 🙁  I’m sure that you all have heard about the heat dome over us. Basically it is like we are being baked in an oven. I was shocked to read that there were 233 deaths ( many related to the heat ) between last Friday to 3PM this past Monday. Not everyone has air conditioning and many ( if they can afford it ) are checking into hotels for the night. I heard of someone who lost power in their home not too far from us here in the park and they spent the night in their car so that they  ( and their pets ) could be cool. Another lady today was asking if anyone could loan her a fan.  Her RV kept blowing fuses because of the heat and she had two small pets. These are unheard of conditions, a first for Canada. This past Sunday we reached 109F, Monday we were at 113F and today was the highest at 117F. I want to add that many many areas of BC and of course Canada have no air conditioning mostly because it never gets hot enough to need it. This is why this heat wave is so dangerous.

Of course today would be the day that the Jeep’s A/C stopped cooling. All four of us were headed to the upper Mission area for hair cuts etc. We didn’t even go a mile when the heat became unbearable, the girls were in distress as was I. So we headed back home.  It took close to an hour to find someone willing to look at the Jeep tomorrow. So later in the afternoon today, Colin towed the Jeep behind the RV to West Kelowna to Freightliner to have them repair an exhaust leak.  It needs to be repaired before we leave on the 8th. He then dropped the car at the only place in town that could fit us in re the A/C. I left the girls here alone at home and met Colin at the car repair facility and back home we came. It was a long and hot and stressful day.  Right now at 11PM it is still 95F.  Our normal high at this time of year is 22C /71.6 F and at night it cools to 12C/53F.  We are so far off the charts 😯 I actually forgot, Colin did an outdoor photography job today complete with thick socks and steel toe boots, long sleeves and so on. I suggested to him yesterday that he start earlier re the heat. Instead of 8:30AM they got going at 7:30 AM and even then it was sweltering and oppressive.

It breaks my heart to read this.

Of course the extreme heat and dryness is going to lead to forest fires.  So far the fire crews have been right on top if it all.  The red is extreme and the orange is high. We are all praying that the temps will cool down and so the possibility of fire.

Last Tuesday, the 22nd we enjoyed a family walk in the park. Lots of trees and shade. The girls are loving all the new things to sniff.  Our site had no sun until noonish and then we were in full sun. We took note of a few sites that will be better for us next time we visit.

I saw this on a few trees during our walk. They are water bags that save newly planted trees – deep water saturation helps reduce transplant shock and drought stress. They only need to be refilled every 5 – 7 days. Great idea.

It was a short walk as we were preparing for guests.  Colin had to be clever in order to figure out how we could all be in shade. It was a high of 88F which is warm for this time of year, the beginning of the current heat wave. The lighting made it difficult to take proper photos.

Karen and Dave are next to the RV and Pat is on my right. Pat and her husband John along with Karen Dave and us RVed together at Mr Moro’s in Guasave for certain in 2005 as well as another year or two either before or after. We recently saw Pat last week ( for the first time in a long while ) here in Lake Country but this was the first time we have seen Karen & Dave for at least 12 years. My memory is vague as to those dates.  2005 stands out as that was the year that Cloii died on February 2nd.

We had appetizers followed by a very late lunch or early dinner. Karen made Eggplant Parmigiana as the main course, it was very gourmet. Sadly my convection oven burned the cheese on top. Next time I will lower the temperature and put it on the bottom rack. It was still delicious.

Karen also made a lime cheesecake from scratch. It  was melt in your mouth heavenly.

Pat brought a lovely  fresh tuna and avocado salad ( bottle of vino blanco )to share and I filled in the blanks. You can see our large green patio umbrella in the background. It was a last  minute decision to bring it along.  Good thing we did. It was used daily in different areas.

It was a great reunion for us all.

The girls fit in perfectly.

This was the first of three sets of visitors to our site and they did very well with all the new people and were so quiet and polite.

In real time, today, Sunday the 27th, we are in the midst of an inferno of a heat wave. It seems that records are being broken over and over. Environment Canada announced that Lytton, B.C. hit 46.1 C / 115F by 3 p.m. today, a new national record for all of Canada. Colin recalls that we were in India with temperatures up to 45C/113F. The high here at home reached 42.7/109F! We were also asked to increase the setting on our air conditioners as there is danger of this entire area of loosing power. Yesterday we had three power outages in the area. So we are much warmer inside today at 85F – not intolerable but not comfortable. The thing is that tomorrow and again on Tuesday the temps are still going up. Because of the extreme heat many schools are closed tomorrow, Butchart Gardens in Victoria is closed until Wednesday and several “cooling centres ” are being opened to allow those in need to come in and cool down. According to CORD Emergency, cooling centres will have supplies of water, masks and hand sanitizer, and physical distancing measures will be in place. Masks are mandatory in the cooling centres.

As you can see, today I got my second vaccine shot. Colin was right behind me. Yes I am wearing a mask. We both got Pfizer each time. Only fourteen days to being fully vaccinated. We were fortunate to get the Pfizer as it is running low here at the moment. Moderna may be the only choice for a week or more.

Taken recently in Mazatlan. The water tanaca is melting in the heat.

So if we find it hot, think about your pets. 52C is 125F which means that if the air temperature is 25C / 77F then it is much much too hot to walk your pets.

We are finally cooling down at 8PM, down to 106F. So far my arm is sore to lift but hopefully that will be the worst.

PS, I did another new post yesterday in case you missed it.

In real time we are back from Fort Langley. We got back about 5PM this past Thursday. All is well. Now back to last Monday the 21st.

Colin did some helicopter aerial photography early Monday morning. We had a PO with the City of Vancouver that never was used because of COVID. It worked out perfectly to get that job done first thing on Monday.

Hovering over farmland in Delta looking towards Boundary Bay.

Enroute to Katie and Louie’s we drove past the Alex Fraser Bridge. Quite the structure.

As it was being built Colin was hired to climb to the top to take construction photos. In the above shot you can see two separate towers on the left ( is is the same on the right but you can’t see the second tower ). Once up there Colin walked along a cat walk to the second tower. No elevator to climb those 505 ft so he had had to climb the tower crane carrying all his heavy camera equipment.

Fuel is rather pricey, we are only at 145.9 here in Kelowna.

Katie was so happy to see the new puppies.

The view from their front patio. The dark roof on the right used to be our home before we moved here to the Okanagan.

Katie loves all critters and has this non stop urge to keep feeding them. I had to be firm about no human food but that cucumbers and carrots were okay.

We could not believe that it had been 5 years since we last saw each other.

Their back garden area is  lovely and was refreshing in the heat.

Aha, a critter dropping by with her two kits to check out what the noise was all about. I only had a moment for a quick click of the camera so missed the babies.

Extra TLC and hand feeding of their kibble.

Katie is so very happy.

The girls just soaked up her love.

It was difficult for me, well for all of us, to leave Katie and Louie. It was just dark as we got back to the RV Park in Fort Langley, about a 50 minute drive. We were all tired and had a good sleep that night. We promise to come back to Vancouver sooner that later.

Meanwhile today ( Saturday ) when I was working on this post it was 104F. We are fortunate that our A/C is keeping up. I heard that some streets here in the park has no power this afternoon. Tomorrow will be hotter yet.  Environment Canada has issued a heat warning, a  dangerous long-duration heat wave with little relief at night. Records are being broken all around us. The girls are doing well but prefer to be outside which was fine yesterday but today we have to stay with them as it is much too hot to leave them unattended.

Our week continued with many visitors, the rest of the story coming soon.