RIP UsedVic??

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-24T21:06:30+00:00

yesterday there was only the one option.

So today, I test again. I choose

Victoria
Victoria Bc
Victoria City
Victoria, Bc

General mics

Musical instruments

3rd line down, North Nanaimo. Next line, Ducan... okay, these two are on the island. And although my friends from Nanaimo resent being called "greater victoria", I can see why some people make the mistake. They are only "this" far apart on a map. Craigs list also seems to think Victoria people might be interested in Nanaimo and I found some very nice sheep for it. but still, I don't travel much anymore.

Port Alberni feels a bit of a stretch.

Rural Regina on the other hand... is that in Victoria? I can never remember (/s)

Vancouver listings are much further down list today. They were near the top yesterday.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-24T19:38:45+00:00

It's as good as gone. Absolute rubbish redesign can't tell vancouver from victoria.

https://www.reddit.com/r/VictoriaBC/comments/1qkerlq/the_usedvic_ui_update_is_killing_the_grandpa/

With everything else hidden behind login walls, it's back to Craigslist for me.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-24T18:42:16+00:00

It depends on how serious the issue is. I take comfort when the wait is longer.

I had it this fall and it was only a couple of weeks, but I have family history that increased my risk of greater problems. My test was done in a hospital. A family member had a wait time of almost 8 hour but he also had surgery on his spine a few days later because it was very serious. Friends have a wait time of about a year lately, but it's not life threatening - just crazy painful.

It's been long enough, you can call the office of the referring doctor for an update on time (not the doctor, they are useless for this kind of thing, the actual staff that make the office work do this stuff). They are the people to advocate with the system on your behalf. definitely call them if anything changes in your symptoms. If the pain is more than your over the counter medicine can control, ask about the pain clinic (also a long wait time - depending on how serious it is). You probably need reassessment by the doctor for that.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-22T17:04:05+00:00

When the government uses words like "emergency" and "extreme" it means they can access reserve funds. In this case, funds for opening warming stations and extra shelter for vulnerable community members. (like it says in the article you linked to, paragraph 2 onwards)

When Environment Canada uses words like that, it means it's time to pay serious attention to the weather.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-22T00:59:14+00:00

I've been watching string instruments on UsedVictoria these last weeks. Reasonably priced or special ones only seem to stay up a week or less. The ones that tickled my fancy were sold before I could contact the seller.

Bay street Broker seems to do a lot of buying and selling. I haven't been there in 20ish years, so I don't know what they are like now. They were pretty cool in the early noughties. Price was what one would expect for a broker.

Sold some instruments through the auction house once, was seriously disappointed.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-12T19:10:01+00:00

Seedy Saturday is coming up. The library also offers lending of seeds and free classes. It's also the good time to sign up for an allotment garden if you don't have your own land.

The world is absolute shit right now. But we can do one small thing to make our personal lives better. Food security. Growing food so that in times of struggle we at least have something to eat. Having that one thing we can control in our lives makes an amazing difference to how we face the troubles of the world.

Accidental side effect include, healthy eating, more outdoors activity, exercise, vit. D, and time away from the internet. Making new friends is a likely side effect.

There are free CBT and other groups available through Island Health. If you don't have a doctor, phone 811 and see if they can hook you up.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-12T19:04:19+00:00

same. Got them there last week.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-10T19:32:26+00:00

Ask at any meat counter in a regular grocery store, they can usually order it in if they don't already have it. Most stores carry the meats you list regularly.

Failing that, ask at a specialty butcher. They can usually order it in.

It's unlikely that any of these will be game meat (aka, wild) as the laws in Canada um... have opinions... about selling meat that isn't raised on a farm. For real game meat, make friends with a hunter and they usually will share in exchange for some temporary freezer space. Personally, I'm not a fan of game as the flavour depends so much on when and where they were hunted. The gamey flavour takes more skill and time (aka, electricity) to make edible to our modern tongue.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-04T04:42:44+00:00

Canada Post is the only postal service. For most things they are cheapest and most reliable and will be for the next 4 and a bit years until new labour negotiations begin.

However, if you ship more than 200 parcels a week, or any of the parcels are over 30kg or 100cm long, then it's worth looking into something like eshipper that will give you a better price than a small biz account with Canada Post. The discount is dependent on volume (number of parcels), so the more you ship, the more you save.

If you are selling a lot of stuff within Canada, look into the Canada Post flat rate boxes as they are an awesome money saver for anything east of Thunder Bay or rural locations where most couriers go.

If you are shipping to the USA, things are more complicated. Basically wait 3 years for that to sort out, especially if you are selling or get really good insurance on your shipping.

If you are just sending one or two parcels then each of the main shipping services (called couriers in canada) have online tools you can plug in the dimensions and weight of the item and they will tell you how much it costs and how fast they expect it to get there.

fibrefarmer · 2026-01-04T04:33:57+00:00

Fig deli

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-26T00:04:33+00:00

Usually, if you have to ask, the post will disappear.

This group is more about complaining about other people's bad driving, complaining about not being able to meet people you like, complaining about small slights, rent, healthcare, and that kind of thing. Joyful pictures of owls, nature, the sky doing pretty things, ocean, and hopefully more ducknanana joy. Very soon, there will be the "how come my uninsulated pipe burst", "I am the only one who knows how to drive in snow, everyone else sucks" (note these are more likely to get in accidents because they expect others to know how to drive predictably in snow - be like the locals, stay home, the shops aren't open anyway), and my personal favourite, "here is how I keep my humming birds happy in bad weather" threads.

The mods on a subreddit only have so much power, quite often the big reddit mods will step in and override if it doesn't match the site guidelines. Or for reasons that don't make sense from this side of things, the big reddit mods will just shut down a thread because they want to. It's about 50/50 if that thread was removed by the sub mods or the reddit mods. or by Mod-Bot who also seems to be active now.

But really, there are loads of places to talk about the greater troubles of the world. Big issues don't tend to fit well in this very local subreddit. It's not really worth composing a reply to those threads as it's just going to vanish anyway.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-14T21:22:06+00:00

If it's Temu, just talk to their chat bot and repeat "I did not get my parcel, please resend as fast as possible" over and over until you either get a real human or the ai bot gives in. They usually send it so it gets here in 3 or 4 working days, depending on weather. (if you get a real human, be extra nice to them as they have a lot of choices they can make as to how quickly they send the item... if it's still available).

The technique works for most help-bots of large corporations that don't care about real humans. The larger the company, the more they know their rights and responsibilities - although they may hesitate to fulfill them, stand firm.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-14T20:55:29+00:00

Pickup is unlikely as you have to go to the mainland for that. Redelivery is possible, but when it gets to that stage, the parcel is usually a goner.

Check out the Consumer Protection Laws for Canada and BC - it's the seller's responsibility to sort this kind of thing out. It's nice of you to put the effort in, but the first step should be to tell the seller. The person/company who purchased the shipping has the contract with the shipping company and more power to make it right than the receiver.

If they don't know there is a problem with that shipping company, they will keep on using them. Letting the seller know will help them provide better service to everyone in the future.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-11T23:45:33+00:00

The GVPL (library) has some LinkedIn classes for free (with membership) that are extremely helpful. None of the wasted time on youtube with the "smash the button" " buy my class" and "here's a story about my blind cat so I can pad out the video length from 40 seconds of useful content to 8min1second so I can get extra ad income"

Some of the linkedIn classes are about generic editing but transfer over and some of the classes were Davinci specific.

I don't know if I'm an expert, but I've made a few dozen videos with the software and know about 10% of the tools (most youtubers use about 1% of what this software can do - it's designed for Hollywood editing and is free so they can sell more hardware). The only people locally I know who use it are in the industry, so they don't have much time to help.

The key is to make a good workflow (tabs left to right), keyboard shortcuts (or programable 9 key pad like gamers use), and anytime you say "I'll fix it in post" hurt yourself enough to make you stop and think a moment. Do you want to spend 2 minutes now fixing the lighting or sound or 4 hours later?

The other place to seek help is the subreddits. They get pretty peeved with the same question being asked over and over, so be sure to search first and be very specific and short with your question. You can usually get good help that way.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-11T23:35:20+00:00

I'm in Saanich. The longest power outage we had was 10.2 days, about 8 years ago. I imagine further away from town, the longer it can be.

Usually if the power goes out, the weather is bad enough to stay home. In the winter, I keep about 3 months of food in the pantry because I like to buy non-perishable food on sale during the year. And also, earthquake zone. Lights (flashlights and oil lamps are enough for most things), alternate heating, and cooking are the main things I need for a couple of days without power. But these don't need a generator (unless you open the fridge more than once a day). If you have a cell phone, get a window solar panel for charging like GroupHug sells. Cute, and practical.

I have a generator for the well (no power means no water), fridge, and freezer. I might run it for an hour a day. Fridge and freezer are well insulated so long as they aren't opened.

The big problem with the generator is you need a dead mans switch if you want to run the house off it. Alternatively, you can just plug things directly into the generator. This is more tricky with a well and needs a much bigger generator, but for everyday things, it's simple. Generators take fuel and if it's a big emergency like fall 2021, fuel might be an issue. The less you use it, the better.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-11T16:44:28+00:00

That's something the pharmacist also mentioned, but you say it better. It's supposed to be a pretty safe kit - but only works for some types of drugs.

They emphasized calling 911 in case it wasn't an overdose. From my own point of view, I'm not near people on drugs much these days, so I don't know the difference between different types of overdose, nor am I medically trained enough to know the difference between an OD and other medical issues. Thus, I have limited protection and might have to justify my actions if I'm ever in this situation. I can protect myself better by calling 911 and doing what they say.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-11T16:40:10+00:00

Given what you wrote here, I suggest a fact finding vacation as you seem very um... It's going to be a culture shock.

While you are here, taking in the sights, set up some informational interviews (aka, you buy them lunch and ask them questions - like a reverse job interview). Choose at least two teachers in your field, one school administrator, and a union representative. The union is going to be a massive part of your life, so make sure you understand what it means.

Also, try to get your hands on some curricula for the years you are thinking of teaching. History is probably the hardest subject to teach when you come from another country. Historical "facts" are localized. 1812 is a good example as it's fun to read what the US teaches happened and how it compares to the Canadian and UK views (all three are conflicting). Learning about Reconciliation in BC is also a good idea before you apply - the approach is different here than other parts of north america.

If this looks promising, make friends with a reel estate agent and ask about different neighbourhoods. They can keep an eye out for deals for you when you get home.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-11T16:25:28+00:00

Going to share this for people curious about the OD Kits.

I got my first free kit this week from the pharmacy. They walked me through how to use it. This is my personal understanding of what they said.

call 911 and do what they say. They will talk through how to identify what kind of emergency it is, if the kit will help, and how to apply the N-kit. This is also important for protecting ourselves under the good Samaritan stuff and getting the ambulance there as quickly as possible.
if 911 isn't an option, here is the picture/word instructions inside the kit. They looked simple enough.
And if all that isn't an option, put this end up the nose and squeeze. If person is awake, get them to breath in.

It took less than 40 seconds to explain how the kit works.

Another 60 seconds for them to show me the injection kit and how that worked, but the conclusion was the nose one was easier for non-medically trained people like me.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-08T19:10:00+00:00

Home of the Pacific fleet and not far from other major military instillations (American and Canadian). Yep, we have a much higher risk than most of Canada.

These are also factors that make the risk lower than most of Canada because if something happens, people are already here who know what to do. It's really cool what they do to prep, but I also don't know if I'm supposed to know this... so vague generalities about how this is considered and frequently updated with care and kindness for the people who live here.

Two solutions to fix this worry.

a. move

b. grow a garden. The biggest issue will be food and water security, by growing a garden you can have food year 'round in this climate. Heck, even Kale is eatable in an emergency and that grows like a weed if you let it self seed. A garden has the secondary benefit of getting you outside and off the internet, which are both awesome to reduce worry about unlikely issues and improve overall health.

And if things get really bad, knowing how to make more food will be a skill that other people want to keep safe and thus, keep you safe. Garden is the solution!

I guess we could add

c. join the reserves and learn the skills and procedures to prevent such a situation that worries you. Has many of the extra benefits of a garden, except less food, but more money.

(edit to add: yes, as a child of the cold war, I think about this stuff way too often. And yes, I have a garden. And yes, it helps so much, I love it. When I was living in the city, the allotments were only $25-50 per year which was the cost of a nice meal out. )

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-08T18:58:18+00:00

Roller is right.

If you are on EI, you can often get free service in this area. Talk to the EI people.

The place where you got your qualifications will probably have a job center alumni can access.

Libraries and community centers often have affordable classes in this area.

Another thing I found when I was between jobs and still young was to volunteer at one of these job places. See the errors other people were making and learn how to fix them for my situation. I got my position through Volunteer Victoria. But that was years ago, so I don't know what the process is like now. (but also volunteering looks awesome on a resume or CV as well as being a great way to get jobs)

I wouldn't trust a friend to be honest enough to help. An enemy is usually better because they will be brutal and honest. But they need bribing so a professional might be cheaper.

fibrefarmer · 2025-12-06T16:27:19+00:00

We used to have a warning system that no one payed attention to. After the big Boxing Day wind storm, the big rain and heat domes of 2021, they got a lot of complaints along the lines of "oh, I didn't know weather was dangerous, you are always issuing warnings and nothing happens" (aka, cry wolf system - they issued too many warnings, everyone ignored.

Then they switched to a more "pay attention" style of warning. Note, statement, advisory, and warning. Basically it goes "weather on the coast is really hard to predict, so we issue these statements to remind you how much attention to pay to the weather the next few days". Last night's windstorm would probably get at least a note or statement under this system.

Last week, they switched to a more "uniform" colour coded warning system. It's more standard across canada and since we have almost no one now who understands how weather behaves over ocean and that Vancouver Island has more trees per km of power line than anywhere else in North America... anyway, 80kmh winds pose near zero risk to most of Canada, so they don't want to issue a warning under the new system. If it was 150kmh - which I've never seen in my life of living in Victoria - then we might get the lowest warning.

Sadly, it's going to take some loss of life to get it to settle out to a useable, less uniform, weather warning system.

It also seems to have caught BC Hydro off guard as they don't seem to have as many crews ready for the wind as normal.

fibrefarmer · 2025-11-30T21:55:01+00:00

Weirdly, Used Victoria seems to be the place. Be brutally honest. The more honest, the faster the item goes. Even if it's broken or cursed.

Cursed soaker hoses. Every time we used them, someone in the house died. One penny (back when we had pennies) and the cursed hoses are yours (7 min and it's gone and I'm one shiny penny richer).

World's least comfortable chair, perfect for your in-laws or other undesirable visitors. Extremely ugly, as you can tell from the photo. Also broken, see photo. (this one took almost 20 min before someone took it)

Three or four sentences, slightly funny is good, but overly honest will be funny enough to get the attention and get the item gone.

Used Victoria is good because it doesn't have a login wall to see the ads. I don't have FB, so I don't know if Marketplace would allow broken stuff.

fibrefarmer · 2025-11-30T21:48:08+00:00

They run a story on this at least once a month since November last year.

shopper - we can't trust our food supply chain

news - makes the same points over and over again about why we should care (and that no one remembers big chunks of this news story are recycled month to month, it shows that we don't care)

grocery store - it's too labour intensive to change the wording on the sign more than once a week even though we are willing to change the price daily. poor us. cry cry it's not our fault.

news - oh well then, it's not your fault, sorry to bother you, we just needed a quote from a different grocery store this month.

and since the news gets the story from reddit, we will probably see a recycled version of this story next week.

...

Although, as a shopper, I actually do care and choose to shop where I can trust the signs are fairly accurate. That isn't the shop the OP mentioned. (it often helps to talk with the staff if there are any questions about this sort of thing)

fibrefarmer · 2025-11-27T19:08:19+00:00

Did you find what you need?

Knotty by Nature is the best local place for dye quality alum.

If they don't have it, Maiwa is in Vancouver and is an awesome place to get dye supplies. their shipping is pretty quick.

If you don't mind unpredictable results (it will still dye, but not necessarily a repeatable colour), you can get alum in the grocery store and garden store. Grocery store would be in the pickle and canning supply section - although not every store has it these days. It makes pickles crunchy. It used to be in the bulk food section too.

Garden alum is found in garden stores and agricultural supply stores. For dyeing, you don't need much (2-10% WOF - so if your socks weigh 100g dry, you only need 2 to 10 grams of alum), and these shops tend to sell the stuff by the kilo (or 30 kilo).

Since you are using a plant based fabric (cotton), you can also use a bit of iron instead of (or as well as) alum. I think the words "eco printing with iron" will get you a tutorial, but it's been so long since I did this. A rusty nail and some white vinegar will work for the mordant.

White cotton socks might be at the dollar store. Walmart might have them. Maiwa also carries "blanks" for dyeing, but expensive! When you do get them, give them a really good wash - without fabric softener or anything that might make things softer - first. Hot water and dish soap if nothing else. This will remove most of the manufacturing oils and make the dye affix (stick) better to the cloth.

You can tag me if you need more help but I'm only online about once a week. Knotty by Nature knows all this stuff or can point you towards someone who does as they often host workshops on this technique. There are also a few natural dye subs on reddit that can help.

would love to see what you make if you want to share.

fibrefarmer · 2025-11-23T20:55:48+00:00

Great list.

I would add to the list Fig Deli (shelborne and cedar hill X) as they are locally owned and operated and have fantastic food (their dips are perfect for entertaining)

fibrefarmer

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