Jan 28 - Feb 17 Navigating unstable times on Vancouver Island

Day 1 of the biggest snowfall on southern Vancouver Island since 1946

These have been busy times since coming back to the west. For example, I started this blog entry 5 days ago like this: Today I am in a room full of loudly snoring dogs.  The Pacific ocean out the window to my right, record snowfall for this region piling up on the steep driveway out the window to my left.  Margo is meanwhile at another house sit, 35 minutes away, looking after a little husky named Ari who is loving this weather, quite unusual for the southern tip of Vancouver Island.  

The Victoria airport has been shut down so the homeowners are not able to get back today as originally planned.  I’ll be here for at least another night, raiding their pantry (I’ve run out of food) and taking care of these three big, old, wonderful dogs and the four cats they share this house with.

...and that we share our bedroom with...

...pause for five days... the homeowners of the house sit with the husky had their flight delayed, so we are here another night also, which is actually a relief because it lets us rest a little more.

I'll do this journey chronologically now, enough of this Tarantino-style blogging...

We spent our first week back on Vancouver Island at Margo's aunt Shelley and uncle Rick's place in Courtenay, in the Comox Valley. Our planned house sit had fallen through last minute (the second one in a row on the island), and even though they were sick and Shelley’s mom was in the hospital, they graciously invited us to share their space for a week. This turned out to be a blessing for all of us. We took over all the cooking, which gave them reprieve from the demands of the days in this hectic time. We even cooked for Shelley’s dad who was also in need of some care this week.

Sick uncle Rick, Shelley's dad Henry and chef Luke

Courtenay/Comox is such a beautiful area. It is about halfway up the east side of the island, right close to the ocean, very mild winter weather, with mountain biking, hiking, lush greenery, hummingbirds and trumpeter swans all winter. It is also only a short drive up to Mount Washington where they had a 7’ base of snow. We did some cross-country skiing and fed Whiskey Jacks (birds) from our hands.

There is also a big community connected to Yasodhara Ashram, and we were grateful to be welcomed like trusted old friends into their weekly reflection group.

...with Karen and Francesca, 4 of the 8 ashram alumni who came together for the class

Next we were off to our house sit in East Sooke, 2.5 hours south of the Comox Valley on the southern tip of the Island. I will focus on the positive aspects of this house sit, because that seems to be a better practice overall. The place was beautiful - we could throw a stone into a bay of the Pacific Ocean and we were at the end of a dead end street.

My portable music room with its best view yet

There were river otters regularly swimming by and playing on the rocks out front, all different sorts of ducks, bald eagles landing in the trees out front, tearing apart their prey. The three dogs and four cats, like all beings, had their unique personalities and pulled different heart strings. Pacci, 10 years old and the youngest of two Ridgebacks, was very welcoming and social and became anxious at night time and would work himself into a frenzy of worry. Tau, his dad, was the elder of the group and sometimes needed a push to get up, but once he got going, would lead the pack on walks and always start the roughhousing, with his stiff arthritic body and his lion killing teeth.

Noah, was a Collie, with his beautiful flowing locks, his hyper-vigilance protecting us from sounds outside, passing cars, etc… required the most medicines and supplements of any being I have ever encountered, including humans. The special care that each of these dogs required brought them into our hearts more, the way that caring for someone or something often does.

Because this was a last minute house sit, we couldn’t be too specific about our dates and it overlapped another house sit we’d had booked for months in Langford, a suburb of Victoria. We’d had grand plans of getting to know Victoria and connecting with our many friends there, but the wind and snow had other plans. The day I was to head to Langford to be with Ari (the husky), the power went out during a wild wind storm and a tree fell across the only road out of East Sooke, taking out the only power line.

It took 40 hours for the hydro crew to make it there, because trees had gone down over wires all over the south island. Luckily for Ari, Cam, an East Sooke resident of 49 years took matters into his own hands and limbed the fallen tree so we could drive under it. By the time the hydro crew had arrived, Cam and his friends had already taken the whole tree off the wires and were cutting it up for firewood, “just like we used to do in the old days even though the f@%*ing volunteer fireman who’s just driving around in his truck, not helping anything, told us we’d get arrested if we went near it.”

My power in Langford came back on 20 hours before Margo’s did, so with her phone out of power, I communicated with the homeowners of the Sooke house, then drove back under the fallen tree to pull out the generator and get it going. Margo relayed that she’d slept on the couch in front of the fireplace to stay warm, and had not only awoken to the black cat staring in her face, but had to fend off the 130 pound Pacci, who spent the night in an anxious frenzy trying to climb on top of her to cuddle. After two days and nights with the 7 animals and no power, Margo needed a break, so she braved the elements and traded me places, driving back into Langford through the beginning of the massive snowfall that followed the initial windstorm.

The subdivision we stayed in Langford, where the majority of islanders, without snow tires, left their cars at the bottom of the hill for a few days.

So then, grateful to give Margo a break, I became the one sitting amidst the snoring dogs, with snow piling up and the airport closed and the roads closed, canceling our plans with Victoria friends and starting to write this blog entry.

We spent the last few days together in Langford, resting, slowly returning to emotional balance, going for hikes in the woods with the tireless Ari, having a Valentine’s day outing in Victoria while getting the 3-month old rat damage repaired at the Mitsubishi dealer, squeezing in one dinner date with friends, and getting ready for the next leg of our journey.

Both of us looking rightfully haggard, with Victoria in the background, on our final day before heading back to the mainland with hopes of stability.