Life in the Koots

Well, here we are in Kaslo-a little town of 1,000 in the Kootenays, nestled among the Purcell Mountains on Kootenay Lake. Jordan and I decided to come up here for a few months to give Kaslo a bit of a test run, and after 5 days I am already feeling how different the lifestyle is here compared to my home of the last 13 years: Commercial Drive, Vancouver. We arrived here in the evening on Tuesday, and woke up Wednesday morning to a housewarming present. A big, steaming pile of bear poop. A visitor!

It seems that animals are much more a part of Kaslo living than I had expected. We have a very regular morning visit with a blue jay on the deck, and there are packs of wild turkeys walking these quiet mountain roads. Last night as we did a pre-dinner neighbourhood walk, we saw a bear strolling about a block behind us, casually on the hunt for fallen apples. APPLES. Since Tuesday, I think I've been invited to 'come pick some apples' by about ten people. Every second tree is weighed down with all different sorts of apples, and I'm already in the habit of collecting the ones from our tree to make oatmeal or apple crisp. Another regular animal friend in Kaslo is the trusty old deer, and they always make an appearance every time you're driving on the highway up here.

As for food, so many things grow wild and in abundance here! Elderberries, huckleberries, blackberries, rose hips, currants, pears, peaches, grapes, apples, plums. Farmer's markets and homesteading. People can, dehydrate, make fruit leather and share food. Kaslo has a small food bank and processing centre called the 'Food Hub,' where if you volunteer from 10-12 on Thursdays (I was there this week processing oregano plants), you usually leave with at least a big bag of fruit. The centre operates on donations and is a very important resource for the town, in particular for low income families who can access free food from the Food Hub's food bank. Today Jordan and I drove the 46km to New Denver (another lovely little mountain town), because they were having what seemed to be their biggest event of the year: Hills Garlic Festival! I must admit, at first I wondered how much you could really DO at a garlic festival (prizes for biggest clove, and best 'garlic-related' poem), but there must have been 200 vendors. Somehow I feel like I've been spending all my money on homemade sausages, flats of tomatoes and crates of peaches.

Kaslo has a lot to offer for such a small village. There's a craft brewery and a taqueria on the main street, and so much going on. Lots of good places to eat, and a lake about 50 feet off the main drag. Once you meet someone once, you see that same person again four times the same day. We have stopped locking our doors or our vehicle, and down at the beach there are numerous canoes that people just leave there because they know nobody will take them. Right now, I'm pretty in love with this little town. It will be interesting to see how the next few months go, and this is the place where I will be collecting my thoughts!