Three Years Later - Some Thoughts on Relocating

I think it's our third anniversary of arrival in British Columbia. I wish I could figure out some "before" and "after" pictures for this post, but I haven't spent any time learning how to do that. I love looking at my vegetable garden and this picture does represent huge changes from our arrival 3 years ago. We had no paving stones in the driveway and the current garden plot was a mess of weeds. Today, I've got the best looking broccoli in the Kootenays!

I'd have to say that the past 3 years have been a huge learning curve. I didn't think I'd be spending time splitting wood, stacking wood, hauling wood, and making kindling. However, I actually really enjoy all of those activities. The first few times we had a big wind while I was here I'd be really nervous. I'm getting much more relaxed about it, but one can never really relax about that. I find B.C. has a huge number of natural hazards. Prairie people would always be on to me about the extreme weather. After 3 years here, I've learned that prairie people don't really have a clue about that. We've got falling trees, avalanches, rock slides, forest fires, floods, and power lines coming down. In this province, people are really expected to be able to manage themselves "off grid" for up to 72 hours. Our longest time without facilities so far has been 24 hours.

One thing that has been really good for me is that it's pretty nigh impossible to plan anything around weather. The forecast is usually wrong and you can't tell what is coming from behind the last range of mountains. This means that one has to be much more "open" to going somewhere regardless of the weather. I've been a bit surprised at how much faith some people put into the forecasts around here. Having lived a very regimented life as a school teacher for 30 years, it's been good for me to learn to "go with the flow" much more. Even the bit of school work that I've done has forced that situation upon me and I actually really like it. Retirement allows each day to be so different, but so does subbing and waking up and deciding it could be a good day for a hike or a ski!