Wildflowers

 Lupine showing at lower elevations, paintbrush in my yard starting to bloom.

Growing paintbrush:

Paintbrush needs the roots of a host plant. I put seed at the base of tufts of grass and other plants in the fall. If you want seed, you can buy it online, or remind me in the fall and I will give you some.

Road Block

 

About the weather.........

Still sunny this morning. In my decades in the Tree Fruit Industry I saw more cherries than I care to remember. I gradually regained interest in apples and peaches, but do not care to ever eat a cherry again.

One thing I do know, is if we are going to get wet weather, it will be when the cherries are ripe, and when the older varieties are most susceptible to cracking from moisture in the stem bowl.

Right on time, the forecast is for a chance of moisture, leading up to heavy moisture Friday night into Saturday morning. 

Hey - it is worth it for the swag and the burger!

10:00 Saturday at the lodge. Sign in, and receive a coupon for a burger, and a ticket for the swag draw. Some of our swag got lost in transit last year, and this year we have that, and more.

Presentations by our local FireSmart Team, and the RDKB.

Barbeque and social time - meet your new neighbours.

Hwy 33 Corridor

Still a few people who think 110km is slow, but not much traffic today. More property owners have placed 1000 l totes at the end of their driveways with buckets - hoping that a tossed cigarette may get extinguished before the fire takes a run at the hillside.

Lots of freshly cut hay - hopefully enough time to get it all baled before the weather change on Friday - we may get significant moisture. 

Fuel

Monday am, bottom of the hill 1.729,

Monday pm Kelowna 1.509

Tuesday am Kelowna 1.809

Tuesday am Costco 1.459 

ER Closure

 https://www.castanet.net/news/Oliver-Osoyoos/621278/South-Okanagan-General-Hospital-ER-closing-Tuesday-night 

Saturday

There is plenty of info, courses and videos on firesmartbc.ca . 

What is different about Saturday, is the opportunity to meet face to face with a FireSmart assessor, someone from BC Wildfire, and members of your community.

I'll have a complete guest list later in the week.

We have plenty of new folks in the village - we all need to work together to protect our community.

Some things you may not know:

• In 2021, one structure protection specialist said they could not save the village, there are too many trees, and houses are close together
• Several structure protection specialists have stated that if you have done the work on your property, and it won't take them long to do a couple of last minute things, they will try to protect it. If you haven't done the work, and it would take them a long time to try and protect it, they will move on in order to protect as many homes as possible.
• Precedent was set in Fort Mac - insurer of a FireSmart home sued the insurer of an adjacent home that was not FireSmart, and caused the ignition of the other.

I do not accept the statement, "well we have insurance." What good is your insurance if the whole area that is our happy place is incinerated?

This area was incinerated in 1930.

Veteran wildfire specialists all over the Province have stated that they have seen extreme wildfire behaviour in the last few years - the worst they have encountered.

There is heavy fuel loading in the forest.

Some articles will tell you that if the fire is extremely hot, it can eliminate the things in the soil that are required to support new growth.

You have a FireSmart group and a Community Association who have been working hard to get grant funding/projects on the crown land around the ski area. 

If you drive up from Highway 3, you can see the park like spacing left after removing ground and ladder fuels along the road corridor.

There is a prescription in place to carry that work all the way up to the ski area, however we do not know when the funding may be provided for that.

Our village needs a lot more work. An ember landing in a pile of pine needles is going to ignite.

Take a look at Australian Kendal's place. He consulted with his 9:00am ski buddy, and hired Andrew and Larix to clean up his property. Next door Bruce and Jan have done their own clean up.

Debris Removal

Long before "FireSmart" became the term, I started the first community burn pile some 35 years ago. It was in plain sight, and easy to monitor.

I will not comment on why we lost the burn pile down the road, but two of the reasons we lost the gravel pit were an opinion that the site was not suitable, and someone dumped construction debris there last fall.

When I was on the FireSmart board, I arranged one day of chipping in the village. The workers doing the work were harassed multiple times. I won't organize that again.

Our options now:

• Saturday and Sunday 9:00 -5:00 - take your branches and forest debris to the container in the parking lot. No Stumps, no logs.
• Check the RDKB info and haul what is permissible to Rock Creek

Organize some others for tree falling and debris removal together. Andrew falls trees, Larix Tree services climbs them, has a bucket truck, a chipper, and a machine with a rake to clear up the forest floor. Andrew comes from Midway, Larix comes from Greenwood. A few properties booked together can save moving equipment.

If you are taking down trees and don't want the firewood, place logs 3 - 6ft long at the edge of your property and others will take it - put out a sign or post on FB, or send your listing to unbaldy@gmail.com .

You can contact the winter snow removal contractor to see what services they might provide.

Better Mapping

Fire to the northeast of us is now listed at 7.6 hectares - due to better mapping, not significant spread. Now listed as "being held."