Why We Live Where We Live

If you could choose almost anywhere to live, where would you pick? What criteria helped you make that decision?

Many Albertans we know chose neighbouring British Columbia as a desired retirement destination. Others would love to work there if they could afford the price of homes. Recent flooding aside, BC is usually a great place to live with milder climate, rugged nature and cosmopolitan cities like Vancouver. While we researched several BC communities, in the end we decided BC was not for us. Here’s a recent conversation we had looking back on our move from southern Alberta to Central Alberta - and the reasons why we chose where we did.

A wetland pond that is a 5-minute walk from our home.

(A Note on Criteria)

For a long time, the mantra in real estate was location, location, location. Buying a home used to be an investment with the expected return being a rise in property value. While in some places, this might still be the case, in others not so much. Without being confident of a future increase in home value, savvy buyers now consider location for different reasons, such as climate change impacts. If you’re shopping for a home and NOT thinking of potential risks from aggravated climate events, the risks might be the deciding factor for you: banks and insurance brokers increasingly are denying applicants due to risks inherent in a certain location, like flooding.

Also, we had less use for traditional criteria such as curb appeal and modern layouts. Based on hours of conversations and research, we knew what values underlay our decision to move, values unique to our family and how we wanted to spend our time. While climate change effects are factors everyone should at least consider, a family’s needs are more specific to the family.

So, for those curious as to why we moved to the middle of Alberta, here’s why!

Our ‘cabin’ in the central parkland of Alberta.

First Criteria - Minimize Negative Effects of Climate Change

DARWIN - Because we had a choice where to live and weren’t dictated by our jobs, we had a good opportunity to really consider what future impacts there might be from climate change. Could we move somewhere where the effects are less, or more manageable?

SAM - Yes, it was really interesting to research climate change models and the predicted changes to our natural environment. Scientists agreed that weather would become more extreme in general, including harsher storms, hotter forest fires and higher flooding. So, for example, you found that checking the government flood maps was a good tool to determine if a region had flooded before and was likely to do so again.

DARWIN - Right, that ruled out a house we nearly bought in East Coulee, near Drumheller. Lovely community, but did we really want to worry every spring during run-off? Plus our bank flat out said ‘Nope!’ given the flood risk in the town.

East Coulee, Alberta on the banks of the Red Deer river. Image by Redstar3000 on Wikipedia

SAM - Also, unfortunately the boreal forest is predicted to become drier as we receive less snow and more rain in winter and drier summers. Intense forest fires have already happened in Alberta’s boreal forest, including Fort McMurray and Slave Lake (not to mention the disaster that was BC this past summer) so we wished to avoid that risk too. That helped eliminate some communities in BC’s interior valleys that were prone to not only fire but also earthquakes, landslides and avalanches, many with limited road access to begin with.

DARWIN - Of course you can’t escape all weather events. That’s why climate change is a great equalizer - you can’t buy safety from it. In fact some wealthier homes are right in the path of climate change including those along rivers and the coast.

SAM - Sometimes it’s hard to know what the risks are. Like that community near Chilliwack we visited… and now they’ve experienced flood risk! We didn’t know the area was a drained lake!

DARWIN - While we moved beside a very shallow lake, it’s not fed by spring run off from the mountains and unlikely to flood to where we live higher up and across a road. There is a fire risk with this old nature reserve around the lake, but not as much fuel as with a boreal forest. And when crops are off, there’s not much to burn most of the year here.

SAM - Exactly. Definitely the risk of extreme summer storms with tornadoes and hail, but we can do some things to offset wind damage. So on to the next criteria!

We live on a slowly drying up lake with plenty of rolling hills for higher ground away from any potential flooding. The lake is not fed by rivers or creeks but only snow melt and rain events.

Second Criteria - Access to Infrastructure, Community and Family

DARWIN - An important criteria for us was being nearer to family, especially my elderly parents who needed help with medical issues.

SAM - I don’t know how we would have managed the past year and a half without being so close to your parents.

DARWIN - Being able to stay in our home, aging in place, was also a goal for us. If you have family or friends nearby who can help out, it makes a huge difference. So does access to hospitals and special care.

SAM - We were pretty stoked to discover there are three good hospitals within forty minutes or less, and major care centres in little over an hour. This was very helpful when Darwin was in the process of evicting his “little friend”!

DARWIN - Ha ha! Right. Also helpful when we had to take not one but two pets to the emergency vet after they ate treats that got stuck in their guts.

SAM - Ugh. Don’t remind me.

DARWIN - We can also mail our Affables’ Snacks pet treats after a short drive (twenty minutes) or while doing errands in one of the nearby towns.

SAM - Faster than driving around the city!

DARWIN - Yep.

SAM - We also didn’t want to become hermits, so connecting with local community when safe to do so was one of our criteria.

DARWIN - And pick up some extra local work as well, if needed.

SAM - Yep.

Quick access to family and friends really adds joy to our lives.

Fourth Criteria - Affordability

DARWIN - Being self-employed, cash flow is always an issue. We didn’t want to invest most of our savings in real estate but save it for lifestyle choices.

SAM - It’s really challenging to find something nice and affordable but that is still close to urban centres for services! A good example of this is the mountain town of Canmore. Lots of nature, services, shopping…with homes WAAAAAYY beyond the average family’s buying power!

DARWIN - Plus, since we’ve regularly visited Canmore, we knew it was too busy and touristy for us. Not to mention the lack of sunlight in a mountain valley during the dead of winter! We’re prairie kids and can’t hack the dim days of winter along the coast or in mountain valleys. I guess the massive 2013 floods in Canmore revealed a climate change risk, too.

SAM - It’s a bit of a secret…central Alberta is one of the most affordable areas while still being close to services.

DARWIN - Right! We did consider some unusual places, like a game farm in northern Alberta and an old hotel in the Yukon.

SAM - Affordable places are often in remote areas and are cheap for a reason… you’re too far away from services!

DARWIN - You have to add in the cost of travel to see family…another reason why places we checked out along Canada’s East Coast didn’t work for us.

SAM - We also wanted to be mortgage free if possible. That restricts your options!

Photo by Victor Ballesteros on Unsplash

Fourth Criteria - Lifestyle

DARWIN - Our most important criteria was lifestyle. We wanted to work less (but more efficient) hours per day with time left over to pursue our creative interests.

SAM - Growing our own food as much as possible was a key factor. Experts have been warning for years how vulnerable many of our systems are, such as product supply chains. We wished to insulate ourselves as much as possible from disruption to these systems. Growing our own food got us outdoors, active and producing fresher food. It was an investment in our health.

DARWIN - It was lots of work getting the garden ready this past year since we were starting from hardpan clay, but it sure seems worth it now with product shortages and rising food prices.

Our first garden in the parkland.

SAM - I feel reassured knowing the freezer is full and our shelves are laden.

DARWIN - Remember this next spring when you start groaning about the garden!

SAM - Yeah, yeah.

DARWIN - Being close to walkable nature was also critical. Here we walk on quiet roads through a leafy but mostly deserted subdivision.

SAM - That was a surprising factor I discovered while housesitting on an acreage once…you’re kind of isolated. You can walk around the property or along a gravel road but that’s about it. The surrounding land is all private.

DARWIN - Yes, people often have a romantic vision of living in the country. The reality is farms are working spaces. Utility and function trump beauty and leisure. You can tromp through a crop or pen, or battle the dust of a country road, but it’s hard to beat a lovely park-like setting.

SAM - Which we have here because it’s primarily seasonal living out here.

DARWIN - We get the benefit of a few neighbours for company and safety with the solitude of having a lake resort mostly to ourselves!

SAM - I feel very connected to the seasonal changes here. We get to witness the turning of the seasons through the changes in habitat and the presence or absence of wild critters.

DARWIN - We love it here. In fact, I’m going outside right now!

SAM - Sit! We’re almost done.

We have a variety of quiet roads and pathways to explore all going through a diverse mixture of habitat. To get our daily dose of walkable nature we just open our door and we are there!

Would We Do It Again?

SAM - A good test whether you met your family’s criteria for moving to a location is to ask…would we do it again?

DARWIN - For us, the answer is a resounding Yes! So I guess we made the right decision.

SAM - Yep. There are drawbacks of course. We have horrible, unreliable internet here.

DARWIN - Something fixable at least, with enough political will.

SAM - We also suffered record heat this past summer. We get our share of windstorms and power outages. There’s the storm risk to be reckoned with.

DARWIN - True. We’ve mitigated the extreme heat with row covers on our garden crops and shrubs, at least. Everything survived last summer’s temperatures.

SAM - It will be interesting to see what new ideas and products come in future to combat climate change effects.

DARWIN - Especially since we can’t all hop on a rocket and jet to space.

SAM - They can go - I’d rather be right here!

DARWIN - Me too! In fact, I’m heading outside right now.

SAM - Get the bonfire started. I’ll get the camp chairs!

Photo by Toa Heftiba on Unsplash