Dear Canimites,
The snappy cold of early February finally froze enough of Canim Lake to chase the ducks out and provide walkers and fishers with a pleasant time of it.
In the night sky above at bedtime, Jupiter is brilliant in the south. The two stars just above and to its left are the heads of the Gemini twins, Castor and Pollox.
Venus is now a brilliant morning star, low in the southeast.
Those beetles (again)
In my last column, I mentioned that West Fraser is finding 75 per cent standing dead spruce and balsam in the old forest on the south side of Big Timothy mountain up Boss Creek Road.
The culprits are the spruce beetle and western balsam bark beetle. Trees are killed when the flow of food and water between the roots and needles is blocked by a combination of feeding larvae and fungus carried in by mating beetle adults. The irruption (increase rapidly and in irregular numbers) is new to our area.
Fire department prepares
While most of us are focused on competition in Freestyle Snowplowing, firefighters are quietly beavering away preparing for next summer’s possibilities.
Trucks are being serviced at both halls. Using lessons learned in the Buffalo Creek fire, the tenders are being upgraded with LED lighting, dramatically more visible in smoke, and foam delivery systems.
Being short-wheelbase high-centre vehicles, they have agility for tight driveways and difficult terrain. They will be frontline for grass fires.
People news
• Bernice Schwartz is working at the Canim Lake Store. She has been in area 10 years now and lives at Forest Grove.
• Hisako Arai will be performing in the Festival of the Arts, singing Candada No. 58 by JS Bach with a violinist and a pianist.
That’s all for now. Until next time, here’s wishing you many blessings.