Wildfire Season and a Drought in Atlantic Canada
It makes for a poor combination, let me tell you!
How much water does a vegetable garden need?
It really depends. What plants you’re growing, what kind of soil you have, what the temperature and humidity is like where you live… there are lots of variables to keep in mind.
Most years, I barely need to water at all. We’re used to heavy rains with flash downpours and weeks of nonstop waterworks outside during the spring and summer months.
These past couple weeks, I’ve been watering almost every day. We haven’t had our usual steady rain. We’re enduring rolling heatwaves and bright sun with very little moisture.
In these conditions, the earth dries rapidly before the plants can properly absorb what they need.
Thankfully, the hose attached to our house makes it nice and easy to stand outside for a few minutes and soak the earth thoroughly enough in the late afternoon. We’ve laid down rotted mulch to keep them from drying out too quickly, but the heat of the sun is brutal.
Today, rather than going out with the hose, I made several trips with a watering can and lightly watered only at the roots of my thirsty tomatoes, pumpkins, beans and peas.
I did this to conserve water and reduce the amount I’m using. This is, unfortunately, a necessity at the moment. The ones I watered are the ones who need it. The rest will survive a few more dry days.
See, our lack of rainfall is not unique to my area; this is a problem across the whole of the Maritime provinces in Canada right now. Nova Scotia, one of our neighbouring provinces, hasn’t seen a good rain since June.
My father lives there. People who live nearby are struggling with empty wells and cisterns because they aren’t being replenished by rain, and the local rivers are shrinking.
That’s what we call a drought. It’s not quite that bad here, but better safe than sorry.
A few minutes ago I just opened one of our windows to test for a breeze.
Holding my hand by the screen, I felt like I was standing by the open door of an oven. It’s stifling outside, an oppressive dry heat. Compared to the comfortably chill air brought by our air conditioner, it damn near choked me to breathe it in.
Or perhaps that was just because of the smoke. The air is hazy at the moment, the wind high above carrying particles and ash from the wildfires a couple hours’ drive north of where I live.
My province is under a ‘no burn’ order because of the dry conditions, but it hasn’t been enough to prevent disaster. Now, our government is begging people to stay out of the forests entirely in hopes of preventing a stray cigarette butt or a spark of static from triggering another calamity.
Out west, the burns are as bad as ever. Some of them are even worse, and 2025 is set to be one of our worst fire seasons in decades.
Sorry, Americans. We know your government is pissy about the smoke ruining your summer vacation, but we’re busy trying not to die or lose our homes right now. I know empathy is not their strongsuit, but we would appreciate a little fucking patience if they can manage it!
“As I'm sure you know, this is not the first year Canadian wildfire smoke has been an issue," the lawmakers wrote, blaming a "lack of active forest management" and arson.
"With all the technology that we have at our disposal, both in preventing and fighting wildfires, this worrisome trend can be reversed if proper action is taken," they stated. — Quoted from a BBC Toronto article by Ali Abbas Ahmadi discussing the letter.
How about fuck off. At least when your country is on fire, we send help instead of bitching to you about how you don’t do enough to prevent it.
That’s your President’s job, right California?
But in all seriousness, U.S. firefighters are here helping to battle some of the blazes, and we’re extremely grateful for them and their hard work. Last I checked, there were a good 600 volunteers pushing back the flames alongside our folks. We appreciate the assistance, even if we’re giving your politicians the middle finger.
And we are. Seriously, fuck them, the condescending twerps.
Fuck them even harder for going along with Trump as he smashes the EPA and ends regulations meant to curb Climate Change and reverse its damage. It’s full steam ahead on making this problem worse and ensuring more and more lives lost.
I’m a little salty about it. Mostly because I’m scared.
Climate Change is Here: The Growing Zones in Canada are Changing
Climate Change is hitting Canada hard.
We don’t go crazy with our water use in this household. We’re not the type to water our lawns or wash our cars or the house siding — we’re dusty and we’re fine with that.
Apart from watering the vegetable patch, the hose never gets much use.
We’ve been discussing the possibility of redoing our roof to capture rainwater in the future, but it keeps getting put off. We’re dependent on our well here, with our village being situated over a great resevoir of groundwater that we all depend on.
Looking at Nova Scotia, I’m getting worried that it might start running low. We’ve never had to fear that before. We still tried not to waste the water, but now we’re actively sitting down to discuss what to do if we start to struggle.
We’ve taken some steps, like replacing our washer and dryer with a new model that uses less water and energy. We fixed a long-time leak in the pipes around our shower, and we keep an eye on the toilet seals to make sure they aren’t running after a flush.
You’d be amazed at how much water little fixes like that can save.
We’ll survive, provided the nearby fires don’t run in our direction. You never know when your home might literally go up in smoke, but if we must relocate, then we will. So long as we’re alive, we’ll make things work.
Don’t get me wrong, losing everything would be absolutely fucking devastating, but losing our lives would be far, far worse. Things can be replaced, people and pets cannot.
We’ve been lucky so far, and I hope that trend continues.
We’ll adapt, and we’ll do our best. It’s all you can do.
Solidarity wins.
I can empathize with you. I live in Colorado. The Western part of Colorado right now have many wildfires at this time. So as part of the weather they show how bad and where the smoke will be for the next day. This to help people plan their day. Two of the fires have merged and now become the fifth largest in our history.
Keep doing what you are doing.
Welcome to climate warming. This will be the new norm for the future, I'm afraid. I've had a roller coaster down here this summer but that could change at any day. Good luck up there.