08 August 2010
Hoisting a Pint at the Smoke & Foam
08/08/10 07:21
First it was water in Saskatchewan, now it's fire in British Columbia. It's been very dry and the forest fire danger is extremely high. There are severe restrictions on off road vehicles and campfires. They are serious about it too. If they find you with a camp fire everyone near the fire gets a ticket (that starts at $345 and goes up from there), not just the one who built it. And if you accidentally start a wildfire you are liable for the entire cost of putting it out even if it's millions. Thursday they caught a 12 year old kid who was screwing around and started a junk car on his folks property on fire. That little stunt will cost them nearly $500. They are VERY serious about the fire danger.
With good reason too. This week over 400 forest fires are burning in the province. There have been no fires around us, but the smoke has been coming across the water and it's been like a bad day in LA. Remember the picture of Mt. Baker we sent a few weeks ago? That mountain is around 100 miles away from us and we could see it clearly. Right now visibility is closer to 1 mile. Still I'd rather have the smoke than be on fire watch. A number of towns in the province have even been ordered to evacuate, and firefighters everywhere are on full alert, ready to jump at a moments notice. Airplanes and helicopters are attacking from above. Ground forces have been mobilized and are trying to hold the line. Reinforcements are coming from Alberta and elsewhere. It's been like a war.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10895107
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/03/bc-wildfires.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/31/bc-wildfires-spread.html
One group though that likely won't be doing much is the fire department in the little town of Oliver in the Okanagan region of BC. You see at the beginning of July the entire fire department in the town was suspended for two weeks for drinking beer. Honestly it wasn't that the firefighters drank beer. People aren't THAT uptight around here. The fire was out and as they are a volunteer fire department ostensibly they were off duty. What was wrong was WHAT beer they drank. You see the firefighters had responded to a fire at a pub and rescued several kegs from the basement. Afterwards they decided that they had to "make sure that the beer hadn't been damaged". So they proceeded to open up and finish off one of the kegs. This, and trying to pretend that the keg "was empty when we got there" was the issue. Also in question was why they carried glasses and a tap when responding to a fire. Whatever the reason, the 30 firefighters are now serving their suspension on a rotating basis with one being out each week till the end of the year. This is, I suspect, both so the town is not without fire protection, and because if more than one of them are off at any one time they'll have a party.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/06/bc-oliver-firefighter-suspension.html
You may not be surprised to hear that beer is a big thing around BC. There are many small local breweries. I told you in February about Dead Frog. That's just one of dozens of labels. It seems like nearly every pub has their own brew. Beer making kits are in every grocery store. People really like their beer. Part of this may be due to the British influence as the subjects of the Crown are solid beer drinkers. The strong British influence has an added advantage. When you go to a pub for a pint you get a Imperial Pint, which is a Good Thing. A pint in the US is 16 oz. Places like Canada with a British flavour (note the spelling) get 20oz in their pint. The exception is of course unless you are in Scotland, where they stalwartly insist they are NOT British, they are Scottish. Just to show how much better than the British they are, the Scottish pint is 60oz. Compare this to Quebec where a pint may refer to what we'd call a quart, that is unless they decide to go metric on you when it means half a liter. Very confusing, but you know how the Quebecois are. I think they do it to deliberately to confuse us English speakers. I don't have a better explanation for the Scottish pint, unless you want to blame the Scottish winters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint
One thing I will say though is that a good pint of of whatever size really takes the smoke out of your throat, something we've sorely needed this week. So we'll raise a glass to toast the guys and gals who put it on the line to keep the monsters at bay. May they make it through fire and smoke, dust and dirt, burned trees and terrified wildlife to come home safe when the work is done. Then we'll raise another one for the crew of the Convair water bomber this week that didn't.
D&M
This was the evening skyline on Thursday about 7:00. That red dot is the sun.
Last weekend, before the smoke came across the water, we went to the Sand Castle Festival in Parksville.
It was spectacular as usual and as usual they do take the definition of "Sand Castle" very liberally.
Love the expression on this dragon!
Yes it's a guy on a Wooly Mammoth knocking over Stonehenge.
The Missing Links: Cavemen playing golf. This was our favourite.
The Golf Cart (note the cigar and beer)
Remember all of this is done with damp sand. It's absolutely amazing.
With good reason too. This week over 400 forest fires are burning in the province. There have been no fires around us, but the smoke has been coming across the water and it's been like a bad day in LA. Remember the picture of Mt. Baker we sent a few weeks ago? That mountain is around 100 miles away from us and we could see it clearly. Right now visibility is closer to 1 mile. Still I'd rather have the smoke than be on fire watch. A number of towns in the province have even been ordered to evacuate, and firefighters everywhere are on full alert, ready to jump at a moments notice. Airplanes and helicopters are attacking from above. Ground forces have been mobilized and are trying to hold the line. Reinforcements are coming from Alberta and elsewhere. It's been like a war.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10895107
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/08/03/bc-wildfires.html
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/31/bc-wildfires-spread.html
One group though that likely won't be doing much is the fire department in the little town of Oliver in the Okanagan region of BC. You see at the beginning of July the entire fire department in the town was suspended for two weeks for drinking beer. Honestly it wasn't that the firefighters drank beer. People aren't THAT uptight around here. The fire was out and as they are a volunteer fire department ostensibly they were off duty. What was wrong was WHAT beer they drank. You see the firefighters had responded to a fire at a pub and rescued several kegs from the basement. Afterwards they decided that they had to "make sure that the beer hadn't been damaged". So they proceeded to open up and finish off one of the kegs. This, and trying to pretend that the keg "was empty when we got there" was the issue. Also in question was why they carried glasses and a tap when responding to a fire. Whatever the reason, the 30 firefighters are now serving their suspension on a rotating basis with one being out each week till the end of the year. This is, I suspect, both so the town is not without fire protection, and because if more than one of them are off at any one time they'll have a party.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/07/06/bc-oliver-firefighter-suspension.html
You may not be surprised to hear that beer is a big thing around BC. There are many small local breweries. I told you in February about Dead Frog. That's just one of dozens of labels. It seems like nearly every pub has their own brew. Beer making kits are in every grocery store. People really like their beer. Part of this may be due to the British influence as the subjects of the Crown are solid beer drinkers. The strong British influence has an added advantage. When you go to a pub for a pint you get a Imperial Pint, which is a Good Thing. A pint in the US is 16 oz. Places like Canada with a British flavour (note the spelling) get 20oz in their pint. The exception is of course unless you are in Scotland, where they stalwartly insist they are NOT British, they are Scottish. Just to show how much better than the British they are, the Scottish pint is 60oz. Compare this to Quebec where a pint may refer to what we'd call a quart, that is unless they decide to go metric on you when it means half a liter. Very confusing, but you know how the Quebecois are. I think they do it to deliberately to confuse us English speakers. I don't have a better explanation for the Scottish pint, unless you want to blame the Scottish winters.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pint
One thing I will say though is that a good pint of of whatever size really takes the smoke out of your throat, something we've sorely needed this week. So we'll raise a glass to toast the guys and gals who put it on the line to keep the monsters at bay. May they make it through fire and smoke, dust and dirt, burned trees and terrified wildlife to come home safe when the work is done. Then we'll raise another one for the crew of the Convair water bomber this week that didn't.
D&M
This was the evening skyline on Thursday about 7:00. That red dot is the sun.
Last weekend, before the smoke came across the water, we went to the Sand Castle Festival in Parksville.
It was spectacular as usual and as usual they do take the definition of "Sand Castle" very liberally.
Love the expression on this dragon!
Yes it's a guy on a Wooly Mammoth knocking over Stonehenge.
The Missing Links: Cavemen playing golf. This was our favourite.
The Golf Cart (note the cigar and beer)
Remember all of this is done with damp sand. It's absolutely amazing.