The weather here in Trail has been very odd this year. The past 5 days have been very cold (just above freezing) today it’s sunny and 70F. In any case the tulips are starting to bloom - at least those our vistor last night didn’t munch on.

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You’re in for BIG surprise. We had visitor in our yard last night. He checked out our car as this footprint
was right beside the car and aimed at it.

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Technorati Tags: Smokey the Bear, Bear in the city

Just as Diane and I were settling down to sleep tonight we heard some explosions nearby. We got up to investigate and found that a garage just down the lane from us was on fire. Several of the neighbours, as well as myself, expressed the opinion that it might be a crystal meth lab. If that’s the case, and I say if, I hope the bastard(s) were inside when it blew.

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Technorati Tags: explosions, on fire, crystal meth

There’s a forest fire burning near Fruitvale about 20 kilometers from here. Adam I hope you’re place is not in its path.

CBC An aggressive wildfire burning near Trail, B.C., was creeping closer to homes on Saturday, fuelled by wind and low humidity.

The South Pend d’Oreille blaze now covers at least 20 square kilometres and is moving northeast, officials said.

Smoke from the fire, sparked by lightning last Sunday, could be seen more than 200 kilometres away on the weekend.

Most of the scorched land is on the Canadian side of the border, but a few dozen hectares have burned in Washington state.

About 40 people living in the Pend d’Oreille Valley near the U.S. border remain on evacuation alert and B.C. Hydro is monitoring a dam and substation in the area.

Fanned by strong winds, the fire jumped a river on Friday night.

Ali Grieve watched from her home in nearby Fruitvale as the fire spread. She called it a “pretty spectacular display of explosive fire.”

“It actually took my breath away,” she told CBC News. “I could see the flames on top of the ridge. You always think your community is safe and protected. It was on the edge of our doorstep last night.”

Elsewhere, rain and cooler weather will likely mean a forest fire burning near a ski resort in Kelowna will not get bigger this weekend, officials said.

Fortunately today the wind died down and it has been raining off and on since late last night so that should help cool the fire and allow them to get it under control. We have been inundated in trail with a lot of heavy smoke from this fire over the past few days. Diane tried to drive up to Nelson on Friday going via Salmo and had to turn back the smoke was so bad.

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We had our neighbour Jack over for a drink in the back yard this evening and he told us an interesting story about our house. Our house and the one on either side, including Jack’s were built by a local jeweler. Apparently he told one of his daughters that he had buried some money in the basement. Now, the basement here is mostly “finished” in that it has concrete walls and floors except on one end and half of one side. In those spots the wall is only 5 feet high and set back from the foundation by about 3 feet - no rhyme or reason for this structurally. That three foot space is filled with dirt and rocks. Apparently the daughter made several trips to the house during the residency of the lady we bought it from and tried to find the cache, with no success. Sometime in the next few years Diane and I are going to push that wall out to the foundation in order to get more room in the basement. We’ll see then if we find any money

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The picture above was taken a few minutes ago from my front porch. The local landfill is on fire. It’s about 500-600 meters away, but contained.