SMOKE AND FIRES

Well, it has been quite a different month of August.  We were thinking how nice the weather was until a few days into the month when the fires in the area broke out and our air quality deteriorated.  It started with the Rock Creek fire which is about 40 km west of us and it only smoked up our valley in the late afternoons.

Smokey Sunset

Then not long after that, the Stickpin fire in Washington State started and that one had a big impact on our community.  At first, the smoke was a column south of our valley mountains and then it started to settle in the valley bottom by the end of the day.  The winds disappeared and the smoke settled in as thick as fog for over a week.

During that smokey time, the fire was growing in size and was about 4 kilometres from the Canadian border.  The BC Wildfire service made an agreement with the US Forest Service and sent firefighters and equipment to build guards to keep the fire south of the border.  It was so smokey that the helicopters and tankers were grounded for many days.

Meanwhile, the area of Grand Forks south of the Kettle River and the south end of Christina Lake were put under evacuation alert.  We live north of that zone and a bit west so we weren’t concerned about evacuation although we had prepared a few things “just in case” shortly after the fire became aggressive.

Stuart’s Mom was visiting during the smokey days and it wasn’t all that much fun to just hang around inside most days.  It was sure nice to see her, though and spend time together.

The garden is producing lots of peppers and tomatoes these days.  Need to find creative ways to use them.