#55 Keep doors and windows closed

Greetings,

Here's something for your ears: https://tinyurl.com/yryj76eh

The wind and smoke that arose on Sunday were stronger than expected. When I was in charge of entertaining the guests in the evening, the sky became increasingly dark and the smoke swallowed up the sun. This was the darkest smoke I had ever seen. It is always interesting how quickly the temperature drops and the environment darkens when there is no direct sunlight. It is as if Mordor is beyond the mountain range and we are Minas Tirith and the dark clouds envelop you. 😂

That evening I had a brief situation in which a customer (oh surprise, he came from Germany) corrected me. I explained to the English couple that they were only allowed to go onto the lake with a life jacket, but also that they should be careful on the shore as the sand can be very treacherous. The good gentleman then immediately interrupted me and explained that it wasn't sand, but the segment of the glaciers. Then I thought to myself: Yes, I also know that we don't have “normal” sand in the glacier lake, BUT it's all about the “warnings”. No matter, in the end he was right.

Monday started with...really...digging. I actually had very little hope that I would be allowed to drive the Jeep to Williams Lake. Our fridge was almost empty and Daisy's dog food was empty. However, the Jeep is David's current gold piece and after speaking to Jenny over the phone, he absolutely forbade me from driving the Jeep. I'll put it this way: With the truck (which is more expensive in many aspects) I lived through a lot more in the winter. 😅 But David didn't want it that way and unfortunately I didn't have a long ride in the jeep. By the way, this one is in my personal top three biggest wastes of money here.😂

Since I wasn't allowed to go into town, it was time to dig again. The temperature jumps here are still very serious. When I start at eight o'clock, it's usually between zero and one degree Celsius. 🥶 If the sun appears between nine and ten o'clock, the temperature rises at a rapid pace and by ten o'clock at the latest I'm working on much more summery things. Around nine o'clock (I had already changed my clothes there), the German customer came and simply started “teaching” me. First I would have to change my shoes, then I would need a much larger shoe with a longer style and then it would all be very easy. He knows how it works because he did it for ten years in Münster.

I'm not a big fan when people suddenly start giving me helpful tips all the time. The man definitely had a slightly different surface in Münster and his “Then you just have to go a little past the stone with the shovel” is rarely possible with the stones here. I made it clear to him that I didn't need any further tips. I think he felt a bit attacked, although the statement he took negatively was about the construction site as a whole and didn't mean him 😅 But anyway, he went to breakfast and then Jenny came out and said that I was so stubborn. She used the German word and was really proud to be able to throw it at me now that she had just learned it. I don't want to dismiss the fact that stubbornness is a bad trait that runs in my family, but that I was stubborn just because I didn't want to accept the "great" tips from the customer was a successful start to Monday. 😂 Towards the afternoon the smoke came again, which usually disappears overnight and then returns during the day. This time the smoke was very high up, so at least the mountains were still visible. ❤️🏞 However, the sun was hidden again and so we had that twilight light again. It's really like using sunglasses with orange/yellow lenses.

On Tuesday all the guests left and David came back. I continued to dig at the hole. It was really a relief when I finally found the right height for the cement block, as there was always a stone somewhere that would take the cement block out of its horizontal position. On top of that, it was really hot, really hot. Sweat was just dripping from my nose.😅🥵

Wednesday was actually a semi-smoking-free day. The only “disadvantage” of this was that the sun shone directly on my workplace. The smoke had made it a little darker for the last few days. That's why I got part of the parasol, although it was very hot underneath, but at least less sunny. Incomprehensible when you think about the fact that early in the morning it was still zero degrees Celsius. That day also saw the (almost) last windows arrive for the large event room (also in the top 3 wastes of money) and luckily the truck was able to move to the back and the loading ramp fit perfectly with my patio as the large window only goes through Pushing could be moved. In the evening there was still some smoke, but it was barely visible, so after a long time I was able to see something different again. The stars! ❤️😍Oh friends, the luminosity of the Milky Way here is always impressive and when you think that we are just a little fart in this galaxy, it gets crazy, but that's a different topic. 😂 I didn’t expect to actually be able to see the stars. However, (I think) there is always a bit of smoke at the moment, so they always look a bit blurry, but that doesn't diminish the beauty of the stars.❤️

Thursday started with a really big cloud of fog. I was supposed to pick up a car from the workshop and was really surprised because the fog suddenly stopped before I reached the highway. In addition to the cows and wild horses, you can now clearly see autumn in nature. Many trees are already mostly colorful, which really makes nature look different here. On the way back I noticed that the fog and smoke only “sticks” to the mountain range here. I was gone for about three hours and in all that time this cloud barely moved. However, the weather here can change minutely and at some point the smoke suddenly disappeared. After work, I didn't want to miss the chance to kayak on the mirror-smooth lake in a nice calm wind. It's just amazing how quickly the weather can change. After a few minutes I saw light clouds of smoke floating over the mountain and then the wind and the waves came and then I paddled back again. 😅 The decrease in visibility could once again be observed very well and after 1 ½ hours the mountains slowly began to disappear.

Friday was the worst day in terms of smoke. The danger of forest fire is favored by three points.

• Thunderstorms (approx. 60% of forest fires are caused by lightning strikes),
• Wind (can “carry” the fire or embers over 100 km) and is undisputed in first place
• human stupidity.

The fire, which is “nearby” here (80 km), was actually under control. The wind on Sunday apparently caused it to get out of control again and since then it has been driven by the wind again and again. And let me put it this way, we are getting the ashes from a forest fire over 80 km away. The wind is already a clear danger. The forest fires in the Okanagan Valley, for example, which were in the international news, were able to spread so quickly and widely largely due to the wind.

As we started work on Friday, a front of smoke was already approaching us. This intensified at lunchtime and the “ash snow” came from around 2 p.m. This was truly the strongest smoke by far. On my very subjective air quality scale, Friday received a 2/10. The visibility was very limited, it smelled of smoke, it was snowing ash and I actually felt the smoke in my lungs, so I was happy to finally be off work..... oh and you smell like it too Smoke, as if you had sat around a campfire for a while. Logically, you pay a lot of attention to ensuring that all doors and windows are closed. When I went to dinner, the difference between my "cabin air" and the air outside was really abnormal. At some point you prefer the somewhat stale air in the cabin.😂 The problem was also that the smoke only moved very, very slowly because there was hardly any wind and even though the photos at the lake look extremely yellowish and unnatural, I have to say : Yes, that's exactly what it looked like. It's all so yellow, it stinks and you get ash in your eyes or nose/mouth all the time. The lake was also clearly marked by ash. It is full of ash, which accumulates on the edge of the lake and forms a black border around the lake.

Sometimes I actually thought I was wearing sunglasses. It's crazy. 😂😎 It's just as crazy how dark and cold it gets. While the sweat was just dripping from my nose, a few minutes later I suddenly had goosebumps due to the darkened sun and almost wanted to put my sweater back on. The sun here makes such a difference. Imagine how cold it got when the dinosaurs died out when the sun was darkened for so long. 😅

On Friday I finally finished the terrace. Unfortunately, you can see a construction error more clearly than expected, the origin of which I only noticed much too late and was then categorized in my head as “didn’t matter”. 😂

Saturday morning was the complete opposite again. Hardly any wind and clear visibility. However, at 1.3 °C in the morning it was also crisp and fresh. Unfortunately, the typical smoking pattern is becoming more and more common and so he came back at lunchtime. Before everything disappeared into the smoke again, I wanted to take a quick spin in the kayak and once again the weather showed me how quickly it can change from calm to windy. That's why I was back quickly and with the wind came the darker clouds of smoke, which continued to darken as the evening progressed and caused one mountain to disappear after the next.

That's it.

Now I'm sitting here in my cabin and hitting the keys.

I hope it was somewhat entertaining despite the smoky theme.

Until then.

Samuel

PS In Germany it was national warning day. In one photo you can see the Canadian warning that you get, for example, in cases of missing persons or something like that. That was probably similar to yours. :DI received the message shown at the Amazia Farm and we were all sitting in a circle there and suddenly we all received the same message and it was this ad.