July 1 and July 4 - I celebrated neither!

Last week was an interesting one.  Monday and Tuesday I was working on the chalets as usual, but a cold rain started to fall on Tuesday afternoon while I was pressure washing one of the chalets, and so by quitting time, I was soaked through. I had on a water-repellant jacket, but it certainly wasn’t waterproof. As I was coming out of a hot shower the fire alarm went off in the lobby of the main lodge. Smoke had backed up from the fireplace in the coffee shop. I left the lodge at 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning in the rain for a 500-mile round-trip to Terrace. Saw four black bears grazing along the shoulder; well one was dead, but the other three were enjoying the clover. I did some shopping for the lodge and myself, ordered new bifocals at the Wal-Mart and then picked up a new chef at the Terrace airport. Two more stops, for a printer cartridge and two cannisters of pressurized grizzly bear deterrent. Mace for bears! This is for any of the staff who like to jog or hike around the area, but feel insecure without it. On the way home I had to stop at Kitwanga for gas and picked up another passenger, Rosa (originally from Chile). She is working here as a housekeeper. Saw two more blacks on the way home. The three of us just made it back to the lodge for 6 p.m. supper. On Thursday afternoon, we had a staff meeting; mostly concerning the hierarchy here at the lodge but Franz also took all of us outside to show how us how to shut off the water main, the electrical main, and the propane main line in case of emergencies. He also demonstrated some of the fire-fighting equipment that we have here in our small village. Later that day, I was asked to drive an elderly Englishman about twenty miles north to help him retrieve his luggage from the little rental car that he had crashed into the ditch earlier in the day. Friday was a shorter day, for I took the lodge van up to the Bob Quinn lake airstrip to meet Franz (one of the owners of the business). Saw a sow black bear and cubs near Little Bob Quinn Lake. Franz drove down to Smithers (220 miles) that morning and then he flew back in his little airplane (home-built from a kit). Then I went home for the weekend, hiked down to the old homestead and filmed some Canada geese (with babies) on the beaver pond that used to be my garden. On Saturday afternoon it started to rain. It didn’t stop until some time in the middle of the night. I spent this time in bed, recharging my internal batteries. On Sunday morning, I harvested a pile of fresh produce for the lodge and carried it up the hill and out to the road, then I returned to the cabin and loaded up some of my carvings and extra clothes to take to the lodge. Franz met me at the airstrip, so I didn’t have to hitchhike back to work.