Ordering Some Groceries

February 7th (Friday) 

This morning we headed out fishing again. They say that “perseverance pays off,” but at this point I am not convinced. The snowline had come way down the mountains overnight, and it was a cold, drizzly rain in the morning, but the winds were calm, so we headed out first thing. Because of our drift rate, we were not able to both be fishing, as one of us had to row, so we took turns fishing with the baited hook. After a couple of hours the wind started to pick up, so we packed up our fishing gear and headed back home. We had only felt one nibble, and something had managed to get the head off of the bait, but otherwise, all had remained on our hook. On our way back home we pulled up our prawn trap, and it was empty except for one little crab. So, we packed it up and brought it home.  

It sure was nice to get inside into the warmth, and we settled down with some hot tea to do our Spanish and then to have some lunch.  

At 15:00 we met Dorothy and Gladys at the post office. It was Dorothy’s day off, but she had come in to meet up with us. We got a full tour of the municipal building that used to be the old courthouse, which had jail cells for both men and women. We also spent a bunch of time looking at some old pictures of Ocean Falls, with Gladys and Dorothy explaining the layout of the old town.  

The reason that we had met up with them, however, was for us to be able to place a grocery order. The residents of Martin River and Ocean Falls can have food brought up on a barge every two weeks from either Richmond or Port Hardy. We used our Save-On-Foods account, which my mom had set up for us, to pre-order from this week’s flyer. We will get to shop from next week’s flyer as well before items will be shipped up to us on the next barge, which will arrive in about three weeks from now.

It is an interesting system that they have set up, in which we order online from Save-On-Foods; the items are taken off of the shelves at the end of each flyer week and kept for us, either as frozen or shelf items. We do not order any perishables until the last week before departure. A delivery company then picks up the boxes from Save-On-Foods and takes them to the barge in Richmond on the day that the barge is loading. The barge then leaves Richmond, and, weather depending, makes its way up the island to all of the little communities along the way, including going up Rivers Inlet and going into Shearwater, before it comes here. When it gets here we will pay for the freight cost, which will be based upon the weight of our order, in addition to a certain price per pound for frozen or fresh items. Having been able to get onto the order with Dorothy and the others will help us to resupply, and to not have to go to Bella Bella to resupply until we are actually leaving the Central Coast. Because of our lack of luck with fishing, prawning, and crabbing here, we are in need of more food.  

However, shopping that way was definitely more complicated with having to factor in the estimated cost of freight per pound, and considering if the item was in fact a better deal from what we could get it for in Bella Bella. For items that we could get on sale through Save-On-Foods it seemed that it was definitely cheaper, however, if the items were not on sale it was less certain, and we had to decide if we were better off to wait if it was something that we did not need right away. 

Dorothy had brought us a gift bag with a butternut squash and spaghetti squash, both from her garden, as well as some apples. It was very thoughtful and generous of her. We had some of the butternut squash with dinner, and it was a beautiful, rich, orange colour, with a lovely aroma. It tasted delicious!