Forest Fire on the Mountain August 17 to Aug 23

 Exciting morning here at the lake as the lightning storm last night created about 14 fires down here on the southern end of Vancouver Island. One of the fires is just over the ridge across the lake from us. Ray and I watched them using helicopters to bucket water and then two bombers came and spent the day attending the fire. By 5 pm they quit and the smoke was now minimal.

Minimal smoke that almost appears like clouds unless you looked through polarized sunglasses.

Freya is not too worried about the fire.

One of the "colourful" boats floating on the lake. 

Tonight we are at our neighbours, Pat and Darryl, for dinner with our other neighbours June and Roy. Again it was just the 6 of us social distancing on their sundeck, each couple at their own table with hand sanitizer. lol

   

We had a fabulous time and lots of wine was sampled. :)

Tuesday morning was very cloudy. Once the marine cloud moved off the choppers started up dropping water on the fire again. We don't see smoke today though so hopefully they are getting it under control although it is listed as "out of control" on the website. 

Once the sun came out and the marine cloud moved off, the helicopters began their flights again. 

Ray headed into Duncan for an 8 am appointment to get the window changed out in the car and came home with the loaner for the 4 hours wait before the car was done. At 12:30 pm we both went back into Duncan, picked up our car and went for lunch at the Brunch on Third little restaurant. We were able to sit outside on their patio. Great sandwiches. Finished up a little shop at Walmart and then back home.

Jason unexpectedly came to stay overnight as his Shaw cable and internet was down on his street and he had a big "Raid" on the computer to attend with his online friends. Great to see him for an hour then he went to get set up for his gaming. In his panic to get here in time, he forgot his power cord for his computer. You should have seen me giving him every power cord I could find to see if we could help him out. It ended up my cord for my computer would work only if he held it carefully in place to keep his computer going. :) So for 2 hours he held it in with one hand and used his left hand on the keyboard. What a procedure. Fortunately his game only lasted 2 hours instead of up to four hours sometimes. :)

Someone else getting a new dock. We certainly see lots of things being towed by us.

We also saw from our deck a runaway unicorn! They left from the campsite next door and bumped their way down everyone's docks ending up in the bay. They had to call to get towed back ... silly girls.

Wednesday morning Jason helped Ray with a few things before heading home. Thanks a bunch Jason. Later in the afternoon Robyn and Amalia came for a dip in the lake before the winds came up with the approach of the rain that has been predicted. Hopefully that will help with the fires. Robyn also came bearing gifts, smoked salmon that Korey just made from one he brought home from the Charlottes.

At 4 pm the piling driver showed up to put in two new pilings for the guys new dock we saw installed last week. Lots of people watching from their neighbours dock.

The rain that had been in the forecast had not started before we went to bed, but we did hear it during the night. Thursday morning had showers and rain. I had turned off our irrigation last night as I knew it would not be needed this morning. lol  A most miserable, well needed day for the forests. Definitely a stay inside day to putter.

As of 12:30 pm today, with all of the rain, all the fires on south Vancouver Island are under control except the one over the mountain from us, Meades Creek. Hopefully this rain knocks this one down too. 

Ray drove into Duncan to do some shopping while I spent time on the phone again .... my kitchen fridge has totally gone "off line" and stopped cooling completely. Arghhhh. Now the panic to move the frozen meat to wherever I could stuff it in the other 2 fridges whose freezer parts are mostly full. Finally after trying to buy a stand up freezer with no success due to Covid manufacture stoppages so no supply ... I remembered our fridge in the motorhome so we got that one going so I could use it's freezer.

More lures to catch those trout!

Friday still more rain ... needed but sure makes it dreary. It was still warm out though at 19C.

Still nice to look out at the lake.

Put the frozen meat from the cooler into the freezer in the motorhome. Thankfully that fridge is working. Off to Duncan to pick up some groceries I cannot get here. I ordered a huge prime rib roast from superstore as it was on sale to be used for our next neighbour get together which is my turn in about 3 weeks.

Wholey Moley it turned out to be much bigger than I anticipated. I brought it home and cut it in half for the party and then the other half  was cut into two. The whole thing was over 20 lbs. 

OMG way too big!

Fridge guy can't get here until Tuesday! He does have the new computer board though so hopefully this will fix it!

Quiet afternoon and evening with rain showers on and off.

Saturday morning it finally cooled down overnight to 10 C. The rain has quit and \once the marine fog burned off it was a nice sunny day although a bit breezy. Temps finally got up to 22 C and we were able to sit down at the dock for awhile in the afternoon. I spent the morning making a fresh peach pie for Ray.

There was a small float plane that kept landing in front of us and taking off again. Must have been practicing as it did it about 3 times during the afternoon.

First landing

Taxing towards the marina.

Taking off again.

Sunday a little cloudy at the beginning but we decided to go fishing anyway. A lovely morning to wash our gear. lol No fish. Saw one caught though by another boat. Came back home around 11 am. It clouded up more, but was warm enough to sit down at the dock for a couple hours before we moved up to our deck.  We didn't try all the new gear yet.....