When I choose photos
for my blog, I look over everything I’ve taken over a given period,
usually hundreds or a thousand, sometimes more, and try to get that
down to 40-50. It’s quite a task, and as always many details are
left out, but I aim to include a representative sample of my life.
It is usually progress on whatever is important at that moment,
nature and how it is changing depending on the season, some wildlife.
having fun with my wife, lots of tree work and finding a way to tell
a coherent story. These days I’m leaning more heavily on the
photos than the writing, getting lazy I guess, but I still feel the
urge to document and share. I have actually been doing this since
before social media was really a big thing, and I only post on
Facebook once or twice a week at most, usually a nature photo I took,
maybe some tree work or an activity with friends, but this blog,
which started out to just document my travels in South Asia
originally, soldiers on. When I started writing new posts after my
trip across Africa, I actually started titling my documents ‘back
in the USA post __’ because I thought being back home would be
temporary and I’d be on the road again shortly. Then I fell in love with an
island, a lifestyle, and a girl. Now I have a new place to call home, a new life, a
wife and a business. Huh. As I type this, I am actually in Iceland,
after spending two weeks in the Netherlands with Marijke and look
forward to sharing that trip here eventually. I was also hiking in
Utah fairly recently which was stunning, climbed Mt Baker with
Marijke, my dad and Marijke’s brother Stijn and am trying to fit the new business into all of that. Anyways, this post covers about a month of spring, has a lot of
bird photos and not a single tree work photo. See for yourself:
When I left off,
Marijke’s mom was staying with us in our home, and after a few days
it was time to head down to Seattle for more family time. I brought
down the new truck for my parents to see, and we had a great visit.
As often happens we
went on a walk through Kubota Gardens.
We were also near to
Volunteer Park, so we found our way there as well. Margriet was very
impressed with the trees.
Once that visit was
over and we returned home, I found myself spending a lot more time
than I used to in the office at my computer. A byproduct of starting
a business I guess, and I spent a lot of time procrastinating by
watching the birds at my feeders that were just out my window. A welcome distraction, but the
pigeons who have discovered the feeder are not so welcome....
This huge truck, one
of my favorites from the large list of cool old vehicles on the
property, has spent the past few decades just below the top of Ben
Nevis hill. That era finally ended recently, when it was
brought down as part of the property clean up, and a new owner for
this piece of rolling art is being sought out.
A foggy morning as
we look out the windows.
I probably mention
this every year around this time, but my favorite color ever is sunlight coming
through new spring maple leaves. I won’t pretend this photo
captures it at all, but because I’ve put so much work into opening
up space for the maples around the house again, I have had the
opportunity to watch them leaf out and flourish, and enjoy it
greatly.
My friends Brendan
and Caitlin staying with us and enjoying a meal together.
This time of year of
course is the annual Beltane party. Friends came up from far and
wide, dressed in white, to eat, drink, dance and celebrate the new
season.
Jenn cooking the
awesome stew.
Some of the crew.
Marijke and myself
at the finished maypole.
And as always, the
feast is the most important part. Many of our friends are great
cooks (I am not one of these people) so the food at our parties is
always excellent.
After eating, most
people find their way to the top of the hill. This is the actual top
which is on my friends property, just opposite where the big truck
was just taken from and the property where Marijke and I live. Nice
to have such a good neighbor and neighborhood!
No party is complete
without a bonfire and this evening did not disappoint.
I swear I work hard,
but the photos in this post sure aren’t showing it! It was a nice
afternoon, so Marijke and I went out for a little boat ride, a
wonderful way to wind down after a long day.
So I don’t have
any real work photos, but I haven’t forgotten the ferry pictures, I
seem to always wind up with one or two of those. But it’s just so
scenic, how can I not?
Seals, in their
usual spot on the edge of Bling Bay.
A while back, when I
got the truck stuck in the mud actually, I took down a huge dead
juniper and saved some of the wood. In hindsight I should have taken
a lot more, but I dried it slowly, sanded it and put a coat of poly
on it to show off it’s colors. One is currently hanging in my
hallway, the other I gave to my old boss Austen as a going away gift.
“Sup?” Found
this little birdie as I was weed whacking along the road and yes, I
moved it safely out of the way.
That very same day,
Marijke and I decided to go for a wander around the property. At 80
acres, there are still corners we haven’t really explored and we
set out to do just that. As we wandered through the woods and
towards a mossy bald, I spotted a baby owl, just sitting on the
ground. Being a favorite animal of Marijke, she was very excited to
see a baby up close.
Owls are amazingly
chill creatures, and it didn’t seem bothered by our presence one
bit (we did avoid touching it or making any quick movements of
course). After a minute of checking it out, I noticed the mom was
actually sitting in a tree just about 15 feet from us, hardly paying
us any attention and also seemingly unconcerned with our proximity to
it’s baby.
The fun part of
starting my business is buying all the cool new tools I’ve always
wanted but could never justify before! I’ve made a number of large
orders and tool purchases including this one, and there is more on
the way.
And speaking of
more, how about more birds? This is the nightly show out our window
and it never gets old.
One day while
Marijke and I were working together I came across some snakes and
needed to move them out of the area where we were working. Being the
little boy that I am, I caught one and showed it to my wife, only to learn she had
never held a snake before! I had her take off her work gloves to
really feel it, and she was quite intrigued by the way it wrapped itself and moved around her fingers.
Back in Seattle on a
social visit, and happened to cross paths with my sister Robin who
lives in Montana.
Games with friends.
No mainland visit is
complete without a huge haul of supplies and this didn’t
disappoint. I returned with the lumber to start building the chip
box for my work truck, a few weeks worth of groceries, a lawn mower, a gas
pole saw, new blower, wood cart, and much much more.
I’ve never had my
own lawn to mow but the house does and it was getting long. On a
whim I stopped by a place called ‘The Shop’ in Mt Vernon and
found a well used but freshly tuned up Toro for $80 and couldn’t
say no. It does a good job, and it’s satisfying to look out at a
nice patch of grass beside the house, even if I’m mostly using it
as a work space instead of using it to relax on…
Marijke’s symphony
group was having it’s final concert of the season at the Orcas
Center and then a dinner for all the members at the Outlook, so I
tagged along.
I enjoy finding life
in funny places, and while cleaning out my gutters one evening found
this frog hanging out up there…
And as I got to the
gutters on the other side of the house, I came across this bundle of
recently hatched spiders.
My business
paperwork was finally in order and while I haden’t even begun
building the tool box in my truck, there was work to be done so I
loaded up and began working. It is still very early in the life of
my business, just a few months, but it really is a good feeling to
work for myself and be responsible for every step of the process. So
far everyone I’ve worked for has been extremely happy, and work is
coming in at a good pace.
It is the time of
year for the broadleaf stonecrop to bloom, and the tall stalks and bright yellow flowers really add a
fun splash of color to the old quarry.
Our lawn was looking
pretty empty and boring, just grass with a few doug firs, so Marijke
spent the afternoon making a little garden space with rocks, logs,
moss and ferns.
I usually spend my
weekends working on my never ending project list, but this time we
decided to spend the day having fun. While it is a bit of a journey
in my little 9.9hp boat, we decided to go all the way around Shaw and
to Friday Harbor. The weather was perfect, so why not!
A great blue herron
standing in Blind Bay.
The north east tip
of Shaw has a stunning view of Mt Baker, and with the timing of the
ferry just below it, I couldn’t help but include this photo…
Victory, a beer in
Friday Harbor! From there we returned to Shaw, enjoying the scenery,
the fresh air and our circle around the island.
Of course the most
important tool for doing tree work, besides the truck to get you
there and the saws to cut the trees, is a chipper to deal with the
material you put on the ground. I’d been watching craigslist,
Equipment Trader, and arborist specific sites for a while now and was
always coming up empty handed. For some reason, it is amazingly hard
to find a good used chipper in the northwest. Eventually I found one
on craigslist that was all the way in central Montana, so I hit the
road for a long, solo, last minute road trip! The above photo is in
Washington at one of my favorite views, crossing the Columbia river.
Montana was really
georgous. I haven’t been out that way in a while, and although
this sure wasn’t a sight seeing trip, I enjoyed it a great deal
just from the driver seat.
After driving for
750 miles straight and sleeping in the cab of my
truck in a Walmart parking lot, something I’ve never had to do
before, I found the chipper and checked it out. Everything was as
expected, so I handed over a pretty big check, hooked it to my truck
and was suddenly the owner of a 2008 Vermeer BX1000XL chipper with
only 1,500 hours. It is a 12” chipper, has a great auto feed,
super adjustable discharge chute, 85hp Cummins diesel and weighs
4,200 pounds. To be honest it is a lot more than I was expecting on
spending, but in the end I am really happy to have this machine and
it ought to serve we well for years to come.
Once hooked up, I
turned right back around and drove to Seattle, all 650 miles. The truck handled the extra weight no problem, just as I
expected.
I started this post
taking about showing my parents my new truck, now it was time to show
them my new chipper. My mom made a great breakfast, and my bad had a
few branches in the yard he wanted me to cut and chip, so after that
was taken care of, I drove my new chipper to the ferry home.
Next post will have
some tree work photos again, especially playing with the chipper, but
is mostly about hiking in Utah and two nights in Vegas. It’s a serious change of scenery,
so look for that in a little while.
