Settling in at Ocean Falls

August 29th - September 8th  (Note that the date on this is from two months ago.) 

Well this blog sure has changed, and with it our lives.  Last year at this time Jason and I were enjoying a true cruising life, with being at anchor every day, primarily feeding ourselves off of the food that we could gather and catch, and exploring.  Now we are living a very different chapter in our lives, and although Covid-19 and the restrictions that have been put in place have put our freedom and cruising life on hold, we are also very happy with where we are.  

We are getting to experience a type of life in an area of the world that most people would never consider.  We have endless exploring opportunities at our doorstep and thanks to the generosity of people that we have gotten to know here in Ocean Falls, we have the use of a lake boat, an SUV, and a house, and we have made friends with people who also enjoy exploring.  The vehicle that we are currently using is, however, being sold and although we had originally offered to buy it, it was already spoken for.  Because of this, we are currently trying to find a truck to purchase, which is easier said than done when we live in one of the smallest, most inaccessible communities in Canada.

At this point in our lives I think that this blog will probably become a lot less consistent.  I will still try to write from time to time, but as we settle into a routine of work and a more standard living I will have a lot less of interest to write about.  We have been doing a lot of wood gathering, splitting, and stacking, but there is only so many times I can write about that.  

We have also been doing some local, small exploring trips. 

We went out by boat with two friends and got dropped off at an old logging road in the Fog Creek area. 

It was in an area up the Dean Channel that is only accessible from the water.  

We hiked up the old road checking out the area for the prospect of deer hunting in a couple of months.

We are finally onto the short shifts with work; 8 days on and six days off.  These are the shifts that they had always done in the past, but it changed to the two week shifts when Jason and I started back in April.  The first 8-day shift sure was nice, as it flew by.  After being used to the 15-day shifts, 8 days felt like a blink of an eye and it was crazy to think that when it was our last day, it would have only been halfway if we were still on the long shifts.  It was very nice!

I found some crazy statistics about the weather here for the month of August that I found quite interesting.  In August 2020, Bella Bella got 341.5mm of rain.  In August 2019 they got 117.3mm, and in August 2018 they only got 25mm of rain.  That means that in August 2020 we got close to three times as much rain as last year; no wonder it seemed consistently wet!