Hi, my current WIP is set in BC and I was hoping for a bit of help. If you can help with any of the following, thank you. 1. My male mc is born, raised and still living on Vancouver's North Shore, currently living in West Vancouver. I'm just wondering are there any phrases etc that would or would not use. He's in his 30s. 2. Which towns or venues are an up and coming band likely to play? The band in on the verge of big success, so at least some would be clubs/theatre. 3. Is there an air ambulance in BC? 4. Are farms in BC crops or livestock? What crop or livestock is it likely to be? 5. Which area of BC are farms? I don't want to name a real place if I'm completely in the wrong place. 6. I have a character beIng held captive in an out building on a farm so I'm trying to describe the buildings on a farm. A. What would a farmhouse be built of? Here in Britain it's often brick or stone. B. Are out buildings metal, a bit like warehouses or are they stone etc? C. Would out buildings ever be more than one storey, have a basement?
I live in northern BC and I haven't experienced Vancouver, but I can help you with a few of your questions. 3. There are air ambulances. I don't know if this could somehow fit with your story, but you can also look up North Shore Rescue. 4.- 5. Hay/beef cattle would be the most common combination. Check this out for more info about specific regions https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/industry/agriculture-seafood/agricultural-regions 6. My barn has a ground floor and a loft. It has a timber frame and rough plank siding. If I wanted to hold someone captive (which I don't btw), I would probably keep them in the root cellar. (I sometimes worry that I'll lock myself in by accident and be forced to survive on raw carrots and potatoes until someone finds me!) a)An older farm house would probably have a stone basement/foundations and would likely be a log house. Timber framed/log house are still quite popular, or lumber framed with vinyl/cement board/stucco siding. b)outbuildings would be lumber if the are older (keep in mind than old in BC isn't nearly as old as in Britain). If you're interested in a more rustic setting, this might inspire you http://www.cottonwoodhouse.ca/Default.aspx c) I don't think outbuildings would commonly have basements, but one could certainly be added to meet certain needs, such as keeping someone captive...
Thanks Quanta for the info. Just a few follow up questions. How do you access the root cellar? Are the stairs uniform in height like internal house stairs or is it more rough and uneven? Can the sounds from basements travel into the rest of the house? Am I correct that the road to the farm would be gravel and rough in places? In my subplot the daughter is being held by her dad at an old farm but with help escapes, so trying to work out where this could be.
I've driven through the majority of BC going up to and down from Alaska and I only have these things to add. VC is a lot like Seattle in terms of layout and general feel, like a scary amount and the majority of the entire territory is very very green (at least between june through august) and I remember seeing bison and elk in the northern half near Yukon. On the winter side of the year central and northern BC can see some terribly cold temperatures and brutal winds if that can help at all. As far as the local music and culture I had only done a few days of stays at a time so best I can add is most people are really friendly. Hope that helps.
Root cellars are usually built into the side of a hill so the door is usually on ground level, but stairs wouldn't be impossible. If you search pictures on google, you'll see that there are so many different designs that you could invent one that will fit your plot. A basement would need good soundproofing to prevent noise from going through the ceiling to the main floor, but I'm sure it could be done. Generally, a farm could be right off the highway, or a gravel country road or a logging road. These two could be rough.
If you google Robert Pickton, a serial killer from Coquitlam, BC, you can find all sorts of aerial photos of his house and pig farms as well as some new development homes being built on the border of his property.
I think Pickton's property wasn't being used as much of a farm by the time those photos were taken, so it's a good source for the building materials and styles, for sure, but the general air of decrepitude in those photos probably isn't too common.
Quanta thanks for the root cellar tip I think it will be perfect. When you throw something away do you put it in the garbage or trash? Is a dumpster the same in Canada as it is in U.S.? I'm thinking of the big ones that are often in alleys. Do many farmers have guns? Do you know the main reason for having one? I assume shotgun?
Ontario, not BC, but I'm going to assume there aren't too many differences. Most of the farmers I know have more than one firearm. Usually a .22 rimfire for weasels and other varmints, another somewhere in the range of .30 cal for larger nuisances, like bears, and putting down any too sick or too injured animals, and a 12g shotgun generally only if they hunted geese or other water foul. Some have more, my aunt's "husband" had over a hundred when he died, but some have less, or none at all. My dad has a 12g, a double barrel 12g, a Cooey .22, and a Winchester 1894 that takes .30-30 rounds. I personally had an SKS rifle, then traded it for a Mosin-Nagant, then I sold that and had a crossbow until someone borrowed it recently and hasn't returned it yet. I liked the surplus rifles because if you bulk ordered ammunition, you could get it for about a nickle a round.
I'm in Ontario also, and the farmers I know are a bit less gun-focused than the ones the Hooligan knows, but I agree that pretty much every farm would have at least a .22, and probably something bigger. You'll have to look at the details of the part of BC you set your story in. There are some really remote ranching areas where I'd expect the ranchers to want a gun big enough to take down a grizzly, since... well, since they might have to take down a grizzly. But there are also farms that are quite close to the big city where the farmers wouldn't have to deal with anything bigger than a coyote. And depending on how close to the city they are, they may not be allowed to fire guns even if a coyote does threaten. Like, the vegetable farmers in Richmond or the guys growing cranberries in Burnaby probably aren't armed. ETA: And Canada's fairly bilingual with a lot of the UK/US language. Garbage or trash - either'd be fine. And, yes, those big bins in alleys are called dumpsters here.
Yeah, two thirds or more of our TV and radio comes from south of the border, so even someone said something that wasn't very popular locally, chances are everyone would know what you were talking about anyway.
