#49 Smoked

Hello there,

It's crazy how quickly time flies, another week has already passed. However, not much exciting happened as I spent most of the time working.

I had Monday afternoon off and sat in the shed while it was getting windier outside and eventually started raining. If I had known that it would only be a few drops, I wouldn't have bothered getting up. But I went to my car to close the windows. The problem was that I might have left the key in the ignition, and when I tried to get into my car in the evening, the battery was completely dead, of course. Luckily, one of the workers here is a mechanic and was able to help me with that, even though we had just installed the battery on Sunday. 😅

This week was all about the washing station, pulling weeds, and planting new lettuce plants. Unfortunately, I didn't break any new records at the washing station, so I had to settle for second place. 😪 It's really frustrating how if even just one person in the chain is too slow, everything falls behind. But second place is okay. 😁

Pulling weeds is also quite a task. Sometimes it's like a guessing game because you can't see which vegetables were planted there. But with all the weeds, progress is slow, which is not necessarily a bad thing because it feels like you haven't done much, but a lot of work time has already passed. 😁 For example, I once needed over an hour for half a row.

Planting the lettuce was relaxing again, as you work like a machine 😎 and only need about two or three seconds for one lettuce.

In the afternoon, I always cut and cleaned garlic. As I already mentioned last week, I have to separate the garlic into four groups. The very large cloves are used for the next season, the normal ones for sale, the small ones are separated again, and then there are the bad ones. Eventually, I got the hang of it, so I could trim and clean a garlic clove in less than ten seconds and managed to clean over 100 pounds (1 pound = 454 grams) within three hours. In total, I cleaned almost 600 pounds in six days, and I get one dollar per pound. Yeah!🤑

On Saturday, while I was cutting garlic, it got really windy, and since I had set up my tarp above me to avoid sitting in the sun the whole time, I suddenly smelled smoke. I looked under my tarp and there it was... smoke. Within a few hours, an unbelievable cloud of smoke appeared, and the farmer's son told me that there was a fire in Osoyoos (about 30 kilometers away). This fire quickly got out of control and destroyed over 200 hectares within four hours. I was really surprised at how the fire could get out of control so quickly. After doing some research, I found out that the fire came from the state of Washington in the US and had already burned over 1000 hectares there, which is why it was immediately declared "out of control" as soon as it crossed the Canadian border.

For some people, it was their first experience of a forest fire, and you could tell that some were worried. I understand that, especially since the fire had burned over 800 hectares by the evening. However, as the wind had decreased and I could only see the red light on the horizon but not the flames, I personally didn't worry too much. I was only concerned about the highway closures, as they might force me to change my next route. But I don't want to deny that it is indeed a larger wildfire, as parts of the town of Osoyoos have also been evacuated. According to the government, about 1500 hectares have already burned on Canadian soil by Monday noon.

On Sunday, the smoke continued, and since the Osoyoos airport is in the evacuation area, it was also evacuated. At least that's my explanation for the excessive air traffic. Due to the smoke, the planes couldn't fly as high, so one plane after another flew over our heads every few minutes. After a few hours, the last plane was also evacuated, and it flew really low, which was quite impressive. Once the planes were gone, the ones who put their lives in danger to save others arrived: the helicopter pilots. The number, speed, and low altitude of the helicopters made it clear that the shit was hitting the fan just a few kilometers away. For me, this day added another new experience regarding wildfires: snow. But it wasn't frozen water, it was ash. It's quite annoying when everything gets covered in ash, especially since ash poses a great danger. If a larger ember is carried by the wind for several kilometers (for example, the 30 kilometers to us), it can potentially start another fire there. So far, we only have smoke and ash here. Meanwhile, the fire is somewhat contained, so it's not spreading as fast.

On Sunday, a colleague of mine had his birthday, and since I had already shown him a few card tricks, my gift was to teach him two more. It was hilarious to see how enthusiastically he presented them to the others, and even though he had only learned them ten minutes before, he did a great job. That's why I gave him my deck of cards so he can further refine his tricks. 😅 But the guy is just so funny. He is here with his girlfriend, and both of them are such kind-hearted people that I really enjoyed spending time with.

In the night from Sunday to Monday, I had another visitor in my car. Around quarter to two, I woke up in the middle of the night and heard something sneaking around. It was quite loud, so I thought maybe it was a coyote sneaking around my car, but it was too loud even for a coyote. Plus, I heard it crawling along under the car, and I really wondered what kind of animal it was. When I turned my head, I saw the animal... in my car... It was Emma, one of our cats. 🐱 She must have jumped onto my car and crawled in through the open window to make herself comfortable in my car. But I didn't feel like petting her and letting her play around in my car, so I got her out after a few minutes. 😅

On my last working day on Monday, I spent my time at the washing station again. That's when the lid of the spinner fell on my big toe. Thanks to the "appropriate" work shoes, flip-flops, my loud cursing could be heard for a moment. 😫

Afterwards, I went into town again to buy beer for everyone as a farewell gift, and on the horizon, you could already see the wildfire or rather the smoke clouds. Back on the farm, it was back to the garlic, where I finished my last row of garlic, but I also got two blood blisters here - a real Monday. 😅

And that's it. Today, on Tuesday, I had my last shower, did my laundry, finalized my route, and wrote this blog for you.

I'll be in touch soon.

Samuel 🙌