January 2022
I think it’s safe to say many people are beginning 2022 with some trepidation. What a year 2021 was, between what can only be described as pandemonium with an added zest of weird and dangerous climate events. I’m referring to our scorching hot summer replete with wildfires caused by both Nature and humans interacting with her. Then there was the atmospheric river rains that caused massive flooding and landslides that wiped out all the land routes out of BC’s Lower Mainland. This, and sudden hoarding of all kinds of consumer goods by disrupted supply chains and made it impossible to find things like oat milk anywhere. At the end of 2021, we Vancouver Islanders were plunged into an ice-age style freeze-up where temperatures dropped as low as -15.
Ok, Albertans, you can stop sniggering from behind your scarves and balaclavas at that, because -15 (heck, anything sub-zero) really kicks us into a spin, out here on the coast. Especially when there is snow involved.
Drifting…
In Black Creek, the roads were so covered with ice that any trip to the store to refill with propane (a frequent activity for me) felt like an arctic expedition. Even going slow in 4×4 with fantastic snow tires on her, Blue slid very gracefully down the road sideways at a slight left turn.
Fortunately, the only person around was a guy in a big Dodge Ram Truck who was intent on riding my bumper until I drifted. Do Dodge Ram truck drivers take lessons in obnoxious driving before they are allowed to drive one? Anyway, I was luckier than a lot of people who wound up in ditches.
The roads were so bad that we didn’t even have garbage pick-up here in the Creek for a month, and Canada Post put out a notice that mail would be delayed due to weather conditions. No more “Through Rain And Sleet And Snow, The Mail Must Go Through” motto for them.
Warm and cozy in the Arfpod
Our little condo on wheels stayed warm and toasty, thanks in part to skirting I improvised from dog training pedestals, dog exercise pens and plenty of tarps. This helped block the icy winds from gusting under the Arfpod, although nothing could stop the pipes from freezing.
Luckily, I made a batch of stout at the local U-Brew a while back. It’s dark and strong and tastes a bit like brown sugar. I bottle in refillable 1.5 ltre bottles which when empty, are useful for filling with water from the house when the pipes freeze. Not proud of my ability to drink stout but… it was good stout so I had plenty of empty bottles to fill with water when the pipes were frozen.
It was an incredible year and if there weren’t a lot of pictures, no one would believe it happened.
