Water woes

One of the unique features of our lives here in the Koots is that we (ie; our community) look after our own water. It's a bit more than the well you might have been used to in your youth. We have two submersible pumps in the lake lifting water to a treatment building where we chlorinate and filter the water as it moves to a reservoir. We're talking fairly major equipment here.

Anyway, the other day, two of the volunteers discovered that the lake pumps weren't coming on when it was time to fill the reservoir. The crew (several of the more experienced neighbours) was called out to troubleshoot. During the examination, a cracked gate valve in the lake pump house was discovered. This meant that the whole system had to be shut down and that two of us got to spend most of Monday morning taking apart some of the pieces you see in the picture to replace the leaking valve.

We're From the Government....

We may be days away from seeing the new Copyright bill introduced in the House of Commons by Industry Minister Jim Prentice. This bill could contain many things that will be bad for the Canadian consumer, for education and for Canadian business. Until the legislation is introduced, we should occupy some of our time by becoming familiar with the issues. One of the best places is Michael Giest's blog. Once the bill has been introduced it will be clear whether the Government has listened to Canadians or to the American Government.

Off the Grid

There are places in rural, mountainous BC where people live, by choice and by necessity, "off the grid". No power poles nearby to supply what most of us take for granted. No phone lines. Communication by satellite phone or radiophone, transportation by boat or rough logging road. This choice of lifestyle comes with many challenges, as you can imagine, and with the advantage to live where you want, lives of semi-isolation, peace, quiet.

We visited some people in one such area during a recent visit to Fry Creek Canyon. The work they've done to develop homes in these areas away from commercial sources of power and away from ready access to supplies is quite amazing.

It was a splendid day with isolated showers and misty, moody views out over Kootenay Lake. It could almost be the Pacific Coast, a feeling I've had many times around this lake and others in these deep mountain valleys of the Kootenays. Snows are melting more rapidly in the hills above us and "creeks" are now raging torrents. The level of the Lake has come up dramatically in the past week as numerous rivers and creeks pour out their contents. Summer is on its way.

That Dammed River

We went for a short hike Friday in Syringa Provincial Park just up the Columbia River from Castlegar. The park is on a part of the River called Lower Arrow Lake, said lake formed by the Keenlyside Dam. There are 14 dams on the river, this dam being the smallest of the lot and one of three on this river in Canada. You might be interested to know that the 14 dams generate a total of about 24000 MW of electricity. Not much wild river left here.

Castlegar is where the Kootenay River (coming from Kootenay Lake) empties into the Columbia River.

Burma - Myanmar - A Dictatorship by any Other Name...

Today's CBC Radio program, The Sunday Edition, takes a look at whether aid should be delivered to the Burmese people regardless of the intransigence of that country's "government". More information is available from the CBC's website. This is a country where it's own government won't or can't help disaster victims and continues to refuse outside help. Do we use the rather tenuous principle of respect for a nation's sovereignty to do nothing or do we move in to help despite everything the military junta is doing to prevent outside aid from getting to the people affected by this disaster?

The Hummer's Return

We got one more sign of spring and impending summer in the past couple of days: the hummingbirds are back. On Sunday, we saw one zooming around the yard so we hurried to put up the feeder, hoping that it would stay around if it found food. So far, so good.

Right now, we have a pair of very tiny Rufous Hummingbirds coming to use the feeder regularly. I haven't figured out how to get a decent picture of something so small, and it won't let me get all that close, so this is the best I've been able to do, so far. We're expecting to see some Black-Chinned Hummingbirds back this year. They were around all last summer, but so far they haven't arrived. The Rufous hummer is a kind of rusty brown with what looks like a black patch under the chin. If the light catches that patch just right, however, it's the most fantastic irridescent red color.

Other birds gathering at the nearby seed feeder include numerous Pine Siskins, some White-Crowned Sparrows, Chickadees and Nuthatches. Other than the hummer, most of these birds don't really need food supplied at this time of year, although spring has been delayed by several weeks. Only in the past week or so has it been decently warm, and then only a few times. Hopefully we have turned the corner and are on the way to more seasonal weather for this area.