The answer probably depends on:

a) How tough (or crazy) you are.

b) How long this warm streak continues.

Generally, we need at least a week of highs in the 20s to really warm up the lake. It’s not unheard of that people would be swimming quite comfortably in Sproat for May Long weekend. This years May Long was a little earlier than normal, so anyone who decided to go for a swim probably regretted it. (And my deepest regrets to the wife and family of the man who perished on Taylor Arm last weekend).

We also haven’t seen the last of the spring melt. Still lots of snow up in the hills, so your best bet is to stick where it’s nice and shallow so the days sun can warm the water. Swim out any distance, and you’ll probably have some cold feet!

We’re looking at 4 or 5 days of very nice warm, even hot, weather. Hope everyone can get out and enjoy it.

After a bit of a bummer of an end to the May Long Weekend it looks like at this the next few days should bring us some nice warm weather. Up into the 20s again with very little chance of precipitation.

We managed to finally get our garden squared away, it’s all tilled and mostly planted. Too much procastination this spring but luckily we had some potatoes and lettuce that came up on their own out of last years dregs without us needing to lift a finger so that was a nice little surprise. Next it will be time to plant the grape vine and maybe find a home for another fruit tree.

Gardening season means watering season. I will have a look at the river forecast center report on water resources for the summer later this week but we all know that water is becoming a lot more precious in the summer months around here. And if you live in Port Alberni, you pay for every drop as well.

We’ve done a few things to limit our water use that have been successful.

1. - Two Rain Barrels from Home Hardware, we hand water as much as we can. They are 40 gallons, you’d be surprised how fast they deplete once you start using them, but on the other side, it only takes about 5-10mm of rainfall to completely fill them.
2. - We were passed a box full of “RainBird” watering system components. I’ve installed pipes that will service our main garden, our biggest flower garden, and our front yard gardens. These systems are very easy to install and I managed to install most of it in only about 2 or 3 days of work. They’re really nice because you can both be sure what you want watered has water, and you only water what you want. We used about 15% less water last year and I credit it mainly to the watering system. I have yet to combine it with a water timer, but that will be the next thing… then it will be fully automated and we’ll be able to water in the early morning hours when there is the least amount of evapotranspiration.
3. - We don’t water our lawn. Aside from any residual it might get from the gardens, we never water our lawn. Generally the backyard doesn’t suffer too much, but the front yard does dry up. Oh well.