We've now had a look at Robert's house, but what else does a person have to do to survive in a very isolated place in the wilds of Northern British Columbia? There are very few services available close by for people living in this part of the world. Those living in urban areas take a lot for granted. Out of meat? Just run down the the supermarket and pick up a couple of steaks... No milk? Easy. Just go to the corner store. Salad wilted? There must be a farmer's market nearby...
But what about Robert? It's a little hard to run down to the store and buy fresh greens... So he decided he had to grow his own produce.
So, Robert went to work and started to cultivate the soil. He planted lettuce and tomatoes and other assorted greens, but soon discovered the realities of trying to grow produce outside in the Cassiar mountains.
Local residents often talk of frosts any time of the year here. The ground is often frozen well into June some years, and the snow often starts falling again in early September. I saw fresh snow on the Horseranch Range at the end of June last year. Horseranch, at the northern tip of the Rocky Mountains, is only about 40 km from and 500 meters higher than Robert's place. This is the north and this is one of the realities. Of course, if you're lucky, the days and nights will be warm and you can grow your vegetables outside, unprotected...
But, what happens when your crop is destroyed by frost? You could be in for a pretty rough winter. In extreme cases, it might even mean survival....
Robert did what any self-respecting Northerner would do. He went shopping at his local building supply store (the Good Hope Lake dump) and discovered that someone had left a wealth of building materials - including plastic and some old 2x4's that he could recycle. These were the frames for his first greenhouses. Once his first greenhouse was built, he could his produce planted earlier in the year and eliminate some of the frost risk that comes with living in the mountains.
