• Living with Bears
• Living with Cougars
• Wildlife Encounters

Although we can commute to the city easily, and do, country living poses some unique challenges. Not least of which is lousy internet, predators roaming the woods and regular trips to the dump. But when the deer visit, the mountain view dominates the horizon and it’s like living in a park, here at the end of civilization – well it’s our home.

Climate

Chinook winds reach 100 km/h and can raise the temperature 20°C in 3 hours.

Driest month: February.

Wettest: June.

Hard frost: mid September.

Last frost early June.

Growing season: 90-100 days.

Extreme high: 33°C.

Extreme low: -45°C.

Daily average temp. (°C): Jan. -10,  July +13

Average rainfall: 385 mm.

Average snowfall: 247 cm.

Some things I’ve seen . . .

Critters

Mule and white-tailed deer (lots of them), bighorn sheep, moose, coyote, wolf, fox, red squirrel, flying squirrel, snowshoe hare, beaver, muskrat, black and grizzly bears, cougars, lynx, bobcat, weasels, skunks, porcupines, raccoon, moles, mice, wood rat, bats, marmots, Richardson’s and Columbian ground squirrels, wild horse.

Birds

Evening grosbeak, pine grosbeak, black-capped and mountain chickadee, white and red-breasted nuthatch, common redpoll, junco, robin, goldfinch, pine siskin, purple finch, tree swallow, mountain bluebird, rufous hummingbird, killdeer, hawks, barred, great grey and saw-whet owls, stellar, grey and, blue jays, hairy, downy & pileated woodpecker, raven, ruffed grouse, magpie, common snipe and Canada geese.

Insects

Mosquitoes, wasps, cluster flies, moths, bumble bees, bark beetles, june bugs, spiders and ants. There are other creepy crawlers, but I can’t identify them.