It's early December
by now which is hard to believe. The winter has brought regular rain
which has turned the ground into a soggy mess and stopped us from
being able to do certain kinds of work, occasional freezing
temperatures make for added challenges with water systems and our
friends from the city have finally stopped coming up to visit and
help on projects. The biggest effect of winter however is the short
days. Getting dark at 4:30 is a real productivity killer when it
comes to what we do up here, 90% of it outside. It makes me wish for
the long days of summer when we could work outside until almost 10pm.
That said, the increased inside time means there is no excuse not to
continue playing catch-up on the blog here and this post is about way
way back in July, when we were right in the middle of those long
summer days.
Every time I see
this photo (and the rest of the series) I'm still blown away. I was
actually on my 4,500 mile Western USA road-trip when this photo was
taken (that post can be found in my previous post here,) but
I'll tell this story anyways. So my friend hit a deer on the road at
night because they are so prolific here on Shaw Island and seem to
have a suicide wish. Anyways, the guts were taken out, then Brendan
and Nick dumped them in the meadow with a motion sensing game camera
on the pile to see what happened. They were dumped out at night and
then in the morning the gut pile was discovered by the birds of the
island. The first was a lone raven, then a group of turkey vultures,
then within minutes a group of bald eagles took over and feasted.
Eventually the birds managed to get along, as many as 14 at a time,
and share the gut pile. In less than an hour it was completely gone.
The series of photos
is amazing, and can be viewed Here.
Due to my road-trip
I'd been off-island and away from home for nearly a month. Coming
home to the beautiful, green meadow again was a real treat.
The big spring
project was to expand the planting area for the farm and upon my
return it was full of wonderful and delicious veggies. It's great to
see this kind of progress and so satisfying to see crops growing.
Jon and Brendan
hanging out at the 'dining car' and overlooking the empire.
The early season
crops were all planted at the Ben Neivis property and much of the
later crops were planted at the Old Copper property. All spring this
section of garden and a part of the original farm had been too wet to
plant, but by now it had dried out, been amended with compost and
planted with squash, kale, chard, lettuce, basil, peppers, tomatoes
and more. In this photo we are installing the tomato cages to tie
the plants to when they grow large enough. The irrigation was all
done with drip tape, and the black plastic helped keep things warm as
well as suppress any weeds. It was a very effective solution and the
whole area produced amazingly well.
Back in April Nick
and Ellen got 20 baby chicks and by this time they had grown a great
deal and now had a coop of their own with a large protected outdoor
run. They run around the property freely (but go inside at night)
happily scratching in the dirt as chickens should, and produce more
eggs than any of us can possibly eat!
Without a tiller of
our own yet, we borrowed one from the Sisters of Mercy, just one of
the groups of nuns on Shaw. It hadn't been used in years, so we
cleaned it up and tested it out for them, at the same time using it
to accomplish a little work that needed doing. It's great to have
such a community here helping each other.
With summer here the
ball field needed watering to be green(ish) for the big 4th
of July softball game coming up, so part of fire drill for a few
sessions was spent watering the grass, haha.
Jon making the CAS
boxes for the farm. The wood is from cedar trees I cut down in order
to widen the road, then Jon used his band-saw mill to turn the logs
into lumber and then into boxes. I think the trees were cut, wood
milled and boxes built within a quarter mile radius, it doesn't get
much more local than that.
Nick and Jon
washing, weighing and bundling radishes to sell.
Walking around Reef
Net Cove to explore the beach on a cloudy northwest day.
Returning home to
Shaw from work on Orcas, the island to the north. I always love it
when I'm put in the front of the boat!
In my long quest to
prune all the trees around the house and other buildings, this is one
more done off the big list. You can see my shadow about half way up
the trunk of the tree.
Fire truck washing
and barbecue at the community center.
This is what it
looks like when I do work for people on island, my Baja Bug covered
in chainsaws and tools. It is pretty absurd but it works and puts a
smile on my face every day.
One thing that the
Old Copper property has that I really enjoy is all the bulbs in the
ground. Every spring and through summer all sorts of beautiful
flowers pop up in seemingly random places, adding a splash of color
and life to previously empty lawn.
Hanging out with
friends on Jay's 'boat', also known as the Blind Bay Ychat Club, or
among us as the Party Barge.
This particular day
was actually the longest day of the year, the reason for the get
together, and we ate, drank and made merry knowing while there was
still a great deal of summer to be had, they days were already
starting to get ever shorter.
Summer is the time
for friends to visit (everyone wants to come when the weather is good
and I don't blame them!) and it was a busy summer for sure. There
was literally never a week without one or five or ten guests. I
guess it's the 'Field of Dreams' tactic, if you build it, they will
come. None of us who actually live up here return to the mainland or
the city much and instead our friends come up to us! Here one of my
good friends Dan is eating a breakfast of eggs, bacon and pancakes I
cooked for us.
Inside of the Shaw
Island General Store, the only store on the island.
The deer up here are
prolific and often fearless. I wasn't joking about that one that got
hit by the truck at the beginning of the post...
Nothing quite like
our favorite barefoot lawn games with our favorite people.
Old Copper at night.
Back at Ben Nevis
where about 2/3s of the crops are planted things are coming along
well.
Trail building with
Dan. I've mentioned it before but the Ben Nevis property contains
the highest point on the island and we intended to build a top notch
trail to the top.
After planting the
garlic in the winter it was finally time to harvest the crop. Other
than having to do regular weeding due to a major thistle infestation
the crop has been very easy and low maintenance once in the ground.
We gathered boxes, pulled the garlic and filled two or three trucks
full.
The initial garlic
curing process was started in the greenhouse. Last year there were
some issues in the curing process, bu this year everything worked
wonderfully and the crop was very successful.
When you start to
see reptiles out you know it's summer!
In the end of June a
lot of friends came out on the same weekend, so naturally we put them
to work.
I've written about
it before but in addition to climbing trees for work I try to climb
for fun as well from time to time. Because I have two complete tree
climbing setups I can teach friends the basics and bring them up
trees as well; in this case bringing my friend Kevin (who had never
done this before) about 120 feet up a fir.
Putting people to
work in the garden.
Jon running the saw
mill while I cut up pieces for various projects.
Moving wood to the
burn pile for a bonfire that night.
I told you we had a
lot of friends up!
One nice thing about
doing tree work is that you get to work at different places all the
time. Todays job was for a customer on Obstruction Island, a tiny
island off the southeast of Orcas Island. It only has 12 or so full
time residents and the only way to bring a vehicle over (which is
restricted to special purposes) is with a private landing craft. The
boat beached itself on the shore, they laid out rubber mats over the
sand so I wouldn't sink in, I put the truck in low-range 4x4, crawled
carefully off the boat then floored it to get up the steep and
slippery 'road' onto the island. Not your usual commute to work!
After a long day of
work on Obstruction Island I actually left the truck for my boss to
pick up another day (due to the schedule of the landing craft) and
the people we worked for took us back to Orcas Island using their
very nice boat. It was a beautiful day and this was our view of Mt
Baker from the boat as we ended our day.
Ah yes, the bat.
It's not totally wild out here but we certainly live closer to nature
than most people. I was opening my wood stove to burn some paper or
something and much to my surprise a small brown bat fell out! I'm
used to seeing them fly around at night but in my wood stove, in my
home, during the day was a new one for me. I took a few photos and
carefully moved it outside.
Harvesting in the
garden. Things are really starting to get in full swing at this
point.
Ah yes, the bird. A
day or two after I found the bat, I found a bird stuck inside my
cabin. Because the door was open (as it usually is during the
summer) it managed to fly inside, got confused by the window and then
got stuck between the window and the back side of my desk. To show
it's gratitude for rescuing it, the bird thanked me by pooping on my
speaker and desk...
For another day of
work my boss and I headed over to Lopez Island for some work at a
property on the north shore. It was great fun climbing the big firs
right on the coast with my boss Austen and because the 4th
of July weekend was coming up we got to watch people bringing out all
their fancy boats to the islands from the mainland.
Loading up the
weekly CSA box for delivery on Shaw. We had so much wonderful
produce the biggest challenge was getting it all to fit in the box!
This photo is about half way through the process of loading them with
what we grew and while I can't remember exactly, there was probably
something like 20+ different items.
Independence Day
weekend was in full effect and on the 3rd of July there is
a fireworks show in Deer Harbor on Orcas Island. To take full
advantage, we all climbed aboard a friends beautiful sailboat and
headed out to BBQ and enjoy.
It's a lousy photo,
but the show was launched from a barge in the bay with all the
spectators floating around it. It may not be the same scale as the
fireworks shows I grew up watching on Lake Union in Seattle, but it
was a lot more fun.
Without a doubt,
Independence Day is the biggest event on Shaw Island. We have an
extremely small community out here but for the 4th of July
it seems everyone and their
friends show up. Last 4th
of July I was in Seattle, as I had only returned from my year and a
half crossing of Africa the day before, so this was my first here on
Shaw and I must say I was impressed.
The
big events are the parade (which lasts about 10 minutes and goes from
the Community Center to the state Park, the barbeque, the softball
game and the next days market, dessert auction and raffle. As a
member of the Shaw Volunteer Fire Department I had the honor or
driving our 1958 Chevy fire truck in the parade, throwing candy out
the window for the children along the way.
As
mentioned, the parade ended at the state park where parade awards
were passed out (second hand sports trophy’s) for 'best of' in
different categories and everyone ate hot dogs and baked beans.
The
annual soft ball game. Judging by some of the unfamiliar faces and
amount of home runs hit, I think there may have been a few ringers
from other islands (or *gasp*
the mainland!) on the teams....
Our
own private BBQ after the game, with Sam manning the grill.
That
night we all headed through the woods to Reef Net Point, where there
is a view of the fireworks show that takes place on Lopez Island
across the water. To keep ourselves busy both before and after the
show, we had our own large stash of fireworks to light off from the
beach.
At
the community market the next day we had a farm stand, with Ellen,
Jon, Jenn and Nick schmoozing and selling delicious veggies to our
fellow islanders.
The
auction inside had probably half the islands entire population and
was a ton of fun.
That
night we tried to play pick-up-sticks but Boomer kept disrupting the
game. In the end she ended up laying down where we were trying to
play, so the new game became trying to pile all the sticks onto her
before she moved.
With
the holiday over and our friends gone it was time to get back into
the garden and back to work.
On
the top of Ben Nevis Hill some night hawks had laid two eggs and a
few of us had been watching them for weeks. It was very cool since
the birds lay the eggs on the ground, and to distract predators from
the eggs the mom who would be
sitting on the eggs will move away from the nest,
pretending to be injured. This is a technique to get
predators to chase the mother
and distract it
from finding and eating the
eggs. Other
than us watching it, this
must have worked because in early July the two eggs hatched and two
amazingly cute chicks were born. Brendan
said the birds were so soft it felt like holding a dandelion seed
head.
Back
at work on Orcas. Here Austen is using the mini excavator to feed
the chipper wood from some trees over a parking lot that were
becoming hazardous.
As
always, food is important to us and here is Jon cooking up some
delicious pizza for a late night feast.
Speaking
of Jon, he was about to to get some ducks. To prepare for their
arrival he build this great little duck house with a roof that easily
lifts up to collect eggs and clean out bedding.
What
would summer be without swimming? After work I met my friends Kelty
and Sophie in Moran State Park for an afternoon at Cascade Lake,
where we hung out at the Lagoon. Talk about a perfect day.
Friends:
Jay, Sazzy, Sarah, Cylus and Polly.
Jon's
ducks arrive!
Afternoon
eats.
As
I said, what is summer without swimming? It's great on the property
to have such a big pond that we can swim in, even if there is a leach
of two!
As
many of my posts do, this one also ends with a trip to Seattle. With
much of my family and friends back in the city, I find myself making
somewhat regular visits. Summer weather in the islands is usually
absolutely perfect and this day was no exception, making for a
wonderful boat ride back to the mainland.
This
summer I'd really hoped for the opportunity to have my grandmothers
to come out and visit to see where I live and what I'm up to out
here. Unfortunately it didn't happen, so I did the next best thing,
stopped by for a visit, showing these same photos and telling stories
in person. My grandmother Rosemarie for example had a recent
surgery, so I visited her during her recovery. Maybe we can make it
happen this upcoming spring or summer, I certainly hope so.
That's
it for this edition. I've got a lot more I want to share (and still
a few months of catching up to do before I'm up to date) and now I've
go the time and more importantly the motivation to share it again. I
think the next post will cover life all the way into the Fall season,
after that probably one dedicated to my tiny home, then a trip to
Alaska, winter life and finally up to date with my current and very
exciting project and life change. Stick around, there is much more
to come and thanks for reading.
