Saturday, May 7, 2016

Occupying ourselves

Sun-seeker Buddy - he asked for a cold one right after this picture was taken


We have been glued to the television this week following the fate of Ft McMurray and hearing from friends who live there.  At this point in time the airport has been saved as well as most of the downtown core and the bridge that connected the two sides of the town.  Based on the huge nature of the fire it is almost unbelievable that only 20% of the structures in town have been burned down, over 1600 +.  No one has died except in a car crash on the highway during evacuation.  Pretty unbelievable and likely one of the largest successful evacuations in history with over 80,000 done in mere hours.


We donated a large sum of money to the Red Cross and Canadians have donated over $30 million to the Red Cross for this relief effort which the government is matching dollar for dollar.  We also made a donation to the SPCA there as many pets that were saved have been displaced and more will be found as days go on.  I also donated some hotel points to the red cross, we had some that we have had for a few years that were not enough to redeem so this is the perfect opportunity to use them.

People are coming together donating goods, money, offering food and shelter.  Corporations are stepping up to the plate - Labatts beer halted beer production temporarily and canned water to be taken to the evacuation centres in Edmonton.  Westjet airlines immediately sent all of its spare planes to Fort McMurray on Tuesday, the day of the evacuation and airlifted a lot of the patients out of the hospital as well as evacuees to Calgary and Edmonton.  Other smaller local airlines lifted as many humans and pets as they could away from the fire.  Trucking firms are offering up their units free of charge to transport donations and supplies.  Canada has seen other large natural disasters but never a fire as devastating as this to a major city.  I was an insurance underwriter when the last major fire devastated an entire town, Slave Lake which burned everything to the ground.  400 structures were lost in that fire and many of them were seasonal homes.  

We have 2 clients with businesses in Ft McMurray and we still have not heard if any of their structures have burned or are still standing, but we know all their employees got out safely.  We still have yet to hear from our ambulance friend as he is busy trying to take care of firefighters there now that the hospital was evacuated but do know he is ok.
Tomatoes, peppers, chives in bloom, rosemary and cilantro

Container garden on the sidewalk beside the house - out of sight

Cilantro coming up nicely - the butterflies are there to stop the neighbors cat from using it as a litterbox


I have tried to occupy myself this week to get me away from tv and facebook as cannot watch it 24 hours a day.  Ever since we got home we have been working in the yard and bit by bit it is starting to come together.  I have planted a container garden as don't want rip out grass/adjust sprinklers just yet until I am sure I want a garden year after year.  One of our clients is a potato breeder (yes, that is what they call them) and he sent us some seed potatoes that are bred for containers - earthapples.com is available only in Canada at this point but if you want to order a kit you can do so online or they are available in several garden centres in Alberta at this time. They are specialty potatoes meant to be harvested when they are young and best-tasting.  I can't wait, we should be able to eat some the beginning of August as have 80-90 day growing time.  We had all of the containers except purchased four on a Facebook bidding site for $8.  I also planted a few other things that I had older seeds for, not sure if they will come up or not.  I also bought 2 tomato plants and a pepper plant which are in the ground - last year I had good luck with all 3 so let's hope for  a bumper tomato crop again.

We spend most of our time at home as it is both a home and a place of work so we spend a lot of time and effort trying to make it look good.  I still have a bunch of flowers to plant but they are purchased waiting for a cooler evening to plant them.  I got inspired by the amount of flowers in Cordoba so have bought many more than last year for both the front and back yards.

Work is busy again - we have two large contracts pending plus I have agreed to work part-time temporarily at my old job as a long-term employee is leaving them in the lurch.  I like the people there and it won't likely be more than 20-30 hours in the next two months so I can do both jobs.  All the money will be earmarked for the travel fund.  Not so sure I would have done it had it been going to regular bills :)  I do not intend to work beyond the time agreed although they have said they would love to have me back - our company is just too busy for that and I enjoy the life we have and the flexibility of self-employment.

In my next post I shall catch up on posting our grocery tallies from the last two months and update the status of the Christmas fund.  Have a great weekend everyone!



20 comments:

  1. Thank you for making a donation to the Red Cross. We are hearing from the Fort Mac families how overwhelmed they are for the generosity, not just from our local communities but from across Canada and the world! Did you know your donation is matched dollar for dollar not just from the Federal Government but also the Province? So $10 becomes $30. It's amazing!! Thank you!!

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    1. I didn't actually know that - quite a big thing actually :) Nice to know our donation went 3x as far. Usually we make a Christmas donation somewhere but we moved it up several months this year.

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  2. It's hard to imagine a whole down gone. Even if a few buildings survive it will be an immense job for them to get back on their feet. I planted three barrels of Yukon Gold potatoes. They do well in pots and even get full sized. I went back to planting potatoes up on the hill, but this year I'm trying some Jerusalem Artichokes. The make sunflowers above ground, so they should be pretty as well. Just too far away to see. - Margy

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    1. I've never eaten artichokes much - you will have to post how they do. I actually found some wild asparagus at the beach the other day and wondered if you found any in your area. First time I've seen it around here.

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  3. Thank you for the update on the fire. I don't watch the news anymore so I haven't been keeping up with what's going on out in the world other than snippets on Twitter and Facebook which is usually just a daily pounding of the election circus. It was very generous to donate your hotel points. What a great idea. I didn't know you could do that. Buddy looks so comfy relaxing on the lounge chair. I love your container garden. We're going to fence in part of our backyard so that may be something I may consider trying.

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    1. If Buddy knows how to do anything well it is how to relax lol. Actually you can donate a lot of useless points, I ended up donating a bunch of airline points that were expiring in December to another charity. For this disaster Best Western had emailed me that I was allowed to donate my points - great use for something that I wouldn't use otherwise.

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  4. It's so terrible to watch the coverage of the fire. Sending all good thoughts to everyone impacted.

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    1. Fortunately, it appears mostly just loss of homes, not of life and for that we are all grateful. That town is a huge employer for families all across canada that commute to the oilfield so hopefully things will get somewhat back to normal soon and they can begin to rebuild their lives.

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  5. Great post on the the fire situation. Last I heard donations to the Red Cross were over 40 million.

    Love the container garden idea. Good luck with it.

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    1. I just don't have the energy for a regular garden but this is much easier - no weeding!

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  6. I sprinkle red pepper to keep cats and other critters away. Of course, you will have to reapply to ground after a rain.

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    1. Even better, said nasty cats (I generally love cats by the way) owners just sold their house so no more kitties roaming the neighborhood - yay! If the new owners do that I will march over and say something but since these neighbors were here long before us I didn't.

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  7. After the horrific scenes on the news I was surprised that only 20% of the city had been razed to the ground. I'm glad the donations are so generous and hopefully things will reach a semblance of normality before too long.
    Lovely shot of Buddy. xxx

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    1. The fire is still being fought but away from the town now - they are trying to get the power grid back up and gas connected/sewers fixed for those that still have homes. For those that don't many don't want to come back which is completely understandable after what they went through. Buddy is such a cutie - I fear I post too many cute shots of him here.

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  8. We don't get much coverage here in Quebec, but I saw the devastation in the newspaper. It is surreal! It is a tragedy but I am confident the town will be rebuilt eventually because Canadians are resilient! My prayers are with all the people who are going through this.

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    1. I'm surprised by that - every channel here - cbc, global, ctv, can't get away from it! Much less tragedy than could be certainly and this week they got a bunch of pets out! More happy endings than originally thought.

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  9. I had to get myself off the laptop too - it gets to be overwhelming and I'm always waiting for the next update. Fire fighters did an amazing job saving 90% of the city - very inspiring.
    HAH - you're waiting for cooler weather to plant and I'm waiting for warmer!!

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    1. It has been so warm, but now we have sun and cooler 20 degree days so much better. Everything is planted - my tomato plants have grown a couple inches since I planted them. I hope they produce like last year.

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  10. Wasn't sure how else to contact you, but I'm seeing Victoria to New York City for under $350 return CAD, taxes inc. in September. If you're interested, shoot me an email at karead7@gmail.com

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    1. Wow, that is a great deal! Unfortunately September is usually our busiest month business-wise so we usually don't travel then. Thanks for thinking of me :)

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