Christmas on the Beach

This year we made the brilliant decision to stay home. While half the traveling population languished at VYR, we were cozy in our bed - and then in our house - and then on the beach.

We have weathered the well-below zero temps with our water pipes freezing. We have withstood being fully socked in by snow and being carless.... which is just as well because there is nowhere to park little Suzu. And all that dissolved with our first sip of amazing Vietnamese Butter Roasted Coffee - seriously fantastic coffee - on Christmas morning.

Our morning consisted of Champaigne and orange juice, freshly baked croissants with baked brie, rose petal jam and the aforementioned coffee. We had invited up our friends Pete and Judith to join us for breakfast whenever they woke up, which was about three hours later than the cat woke us up... So we had two great breakfasts!

The sun was high in the sky and glistening off the snow. What do we do here when we have a sunny day in the winter? Go to the beach!! We went down to Big Tribune Bay for a walk and to revel in the fact that we live here.

This year brought some wonderful gifts from Santa, the 'Eastern' Chinnerys and the even more Eastern Mama D and my Dad. Doug and I got matching felt jester slippers and one of my all-time-favourite teas (Monks Tea), as well as a gift certificate from Home Hardware from the Calgary Chinnerys. These are the warmest slippers I've ever worn! And this house is the true test!

Marilyn and my Dad lined our bank account with what will probably be a new computer screen and some other techno goodies. We got some very thoughtful (over the top deluxe) goodies from Mama D (Rachelle's mom). And Doug got a rocket set from Pete... but we won't go into that here.

Our Christmas dinner was just the two of us in our little house. It was very cozy, quiet and just what we needed. We are so thankful for all that we have and for all the people in our lives, like my brother Rob who I had a great old chat with this year. Merry Christmas y'all and a Salubrious Solstice too.

Epic Snowfall Ate My Fascia

On Christmas day I went up onto the roof to shovel off the 3 feet of snow that fell over the last few days.(R here: this is what we call a 'widow maker move') I was worried that with the forecasted rain there could be many tonnes of waterlogged snow ready to collapse our roof.

I was pretty careful to install the gutters below the roof line to prevent this sort of thing from happening, but you can only account for so much. It seems as though it was the right combination of cold and snow to not only fill, but overflow the gutters with ice. The ice actually catches the snow as it slides off. The fascia nails were no match for a couple thousand pounds of snow and ice and it pealed the fascia right off the rafter tails.

Seems as though its a fairly common occurrence. It happened at our work site as well, although the snow only took out the gutters and not the actual fascia. At our house the gutters were the stronger unit.

I only fell off the roof once (r here... "only once"...), and that was into 6 feet of snow that I had already dispatched. Damn, that metal roof gets slippery, and when it unloads, there's no outrunning it.

As seen here in these images, Doug is now sporting a little safety gear as per the wife's request... Today is a little milder so the meter long icicles that lined this roof's gutter track have now melted. There are crushed roofs, downed power lines and imploding skylights all over the island. Fortunately our builder and contractor built this place solidly. We sleep soundly.

Christmas Eve

First thing today we were to pick up Judith and head to the Co-op to pick up food for tonight's dinner. When we called to make sure that their espresso maker was on Judith told us that the snow from their upper roof slid off onto the kitchen skylight and broke it.

Al and I were able to clean out the remaining glass, cover the whole with plastic, and install a temporary sheet of plywood.

Hoping into the truck with an hour to spare to get to the Co-op, we promptly got stuck in the snow... twice... We barely made in time before closing. Whew!

Our cat went missing today. I put her out at 4:30 this morning and we haven't seen her since. I followed her tracks in the new snow out to the road, then the tracks were obliterated by a tire track. I think she's disoriented because she can't see over the snowbanks. We're pretty concerned, although cats supposedly have an incredible homing sense.

They finally got the part and fixed our Suzuki. We can get out car out of the Vancouver mechanic for only $1400. Yikes.

Today has been challenging although when the cat comes home tonight or tomorrow it'll all be forgotten and be one of the best Christmases EVER.

9:07PM update: Sterling came home!!! We got back from Christmas Eve dinner at Veronica's and she was here. Merry Christmas everyone.

When Life Gives You Lemons...

... or an excessive dump of snow and resulting icicles... you make Gin and Tonics!

We're expecting another load tonight and then the weather is supposed to break a little. Perhaps we'll have running water again by Wednesday... perhaps....

Mail Delivery Old Style

Neither sleet nor hail nor... how does that go? The vehicle situation here is abysmal. Our truck is buried in a snow bank. Pete blew up the Suzuki in Vancouver. Veronica's car is installed in a ditch nearby. And three Sandpiperites needed to get to the post office.

Judith had multiple packages to get from the post office today and I had a couple to pick up as well. Turns out Veronica also had a Christmas package waiting, so we made a group trek to the post office with two sleighs.

We walked and sledded down hill to the post office and then saddled up with our packages to come back. It was a great glistening walk in the snow.

When I came back home I went to get the camera in the house and was followed out to the road by a snow-locked cat (you know who). She made a break for it and then didn't know quite what to do. She sat howling at the end of the road while Veronica played with my camera.

This isn't a lot of snow by eastern standards, but it has paralyzed most people on the island. Our water pipes are frozen and that's a real inconvenience. But some people's hydro is out, their pipes are frozen and they don't have a wood stove. My personal cup is more than half full. We're having a Merry Christmas, how 'bout you?

Big Snow on Hornby

There was an epic snowfall on Hornby Island over the last 24 hours. It was so big that we didn't even go to work today! Here are some shots.

An' it just keeps a comin'!!

Now I know that out East, this is no big deal. But in these parts, a foot of snow could crush some of the houses built of driftwood and adobe. The lights have flickered on and off this afternoon but, touch wood, did not cut out all together.

Doug came home early. Snow day at work. All of their vehicles are stuck in the snow and all of Doug's coworkers were rescued by Rob, who is loving the role of Snow Savior.

The trees are heavy with this recent snow fall and usually that means branches come crashing down on the power lines. That's not going to happen here though.... we have a protective cloak of invisibility that Doug installed in the spring. There's no place like home. There's no place like home. There's no place like home.....

9:40PM update: There is now somewhere around 3 freaking feet of snow outside and it's STILL coming down! The cat can't figure it out. Pics to come tomorrow! That's if we can get out of the house.

Global Warming My ASS!

It started with a half a foot of snow on Saturday night. I had managed to dig 7 of the 12 footings for Rachelle's new studio before coming in due to cold, dark, snow, and general weariness. By morning there was more snow than I had ever seen on Hornby. We've only been here for a year and a half, mind you.

The snow always signals the end of a cold snap or the beginning of a cold snap. We've now got -14 temps at night and -3 during the day. Before things got really depressing we managed to get out for a walk on the beach where we saw ospreys EVERYWHERE. It was astounding how many we could see at any one time. It seemed like every tree had a giant bird or two.

Now before anyone gets all uppity and feels the need to post some wise-ass comment talking about how cold or snowy it is in their particular burg, let me ask you this: Have your pipes remained unfrozen and do you have running water. If you answered yes to either of these questions, then keep your smug crap to yourself.

The weather is not forecasted to warm until the new year, by which time the pipes will have burst. Instead of pouring footing for the studio I see several days of digging a trench in which to bury our incoming water lines, something I should have done in the first place. Live and learn...

It sure does get hot in there

I just got back from my Fire Attack Level I course in Comox, more commonly known as "Live Fire". The Comox Fire Department has a fantastic training facility and some top-notch trainers, evaluators, and fire technicians, and as a result, is the "go to" place for training around these parts.

They've plumbed natural gas into a dumpster, a car, and an old propane tank. They turn on the gas, hit it with a spark and put the firefighters to work. The concrete building has no gas, but is used as a simulator by burning wooden pallets in a room.

We started with a few hours of classroom learning, then put on our gear and tackled the car fire. What followed that is something I won't forget for some time.

12 of us crowded into a 10x10' room with a stack of pallets against one wall. The instructor lit up the pile with a tiger torch and we watched how fire behaves and affects the atmosphere of a room.

I ended up close to a corner of the room where heat tends to intensify and after about 10 minutes I was getting really hot. The air that I was breathing was getting hot and my forehead, where the facemask was pressing against my balaclava, was starting to feel pretty burned. When we finally left the room my Lexan visor had melted and was pretty much impossible to see out of.

We ran through all sorts of different scenarios over the weekend which really gave me a new found confidence in being able to control a room and contents fire. I'm still pretty tired as I head off to work, but as they say, there's lots of time to rest after you die.

I'm an official firefighter

After 150 hours of training, an equal amount of practicing, over 100 callouts and endless rolling of firehose I have been made an official firefighter. Aside from the pleasure of not having to be called "rookie" or "probie" any more, I get a small stipend for every practice I attend and will qualify for the benefits package when it arrives soon.

In a couple of weekends I head to Comox for a 2 day session involving live fire. There's a training facility there with a specially constructed concrete building that gets turned into a towering inferno. The idea is that inexperienced firefighters like me can get a good feel for what searching or attacking fire inside a hot building feels like.

I'm relieved that the pressure of 2 nights of fire practice per week has come to an end, and pretty proud of what I've accomplished. Thank you, tonnes, to all the other people who donated time to train us, test us, organize the whole process.

We're all happy to be home.

Relaxing under the quilt Marilyn made me for my birthday is my exhausted husband. And relaxing on top of the quilt is our relieved cat. Circle Craft was a long haul and instead of taking a day off, Doug went straight back to work. So this is ten days into two-weeks without a day off for him. I fortified him with pork roast tonight. He should be ok.

Our cat, Sterling Silverfoot, was fed by and under the guardian eyes of Peter and Judith. Being a shy and skittish type, Sterling never actually surfaced while PeJu were here. We thought she might snub us for having left her in the care of strangers - as cats are said to do. Not a chance. I've never seen a happier cat! She won't let me out of her sight and she is getting a lot closer to Doug - as seen here... And don't think Doug didn't miss her too. He actually paid $6 for a teeny packet of dried shrimps and halibut at a specialty pet food stall at Circle Craft! Sterling, of course, thinks they're divine. Can't you tell?

Day 5 at Circle Craft

Feet sore... Tired of talking...

Customer: (for the 19th time today) Its just like Belique!
Doug: (thinking) Shut up and bore someone else with crap you know nothing about
Doug: (saying out loud) That's very interesting; Someone else said the same thing a little while ago

There's a curious breed of OCD people who troll craft shows and pick up literature from every booth, never even looking at the art. You can see them coming; eyes scanning the shelves, searching for the elusive rack card. Once the promotional material has been spotted, they zone in like a heat seeking missile, snatching the card and moving on to the next quarry. I swear I'm gonna mess the next one up by moving the holder at the last second.

Went to the Dayton Boot Company yesterday expecting to pay $300 for a pair of nice sturdy casual boots. Tried on a nice pair with a price tag of $320. Liked them fine. Clerk says, "They're one of most popular boots. I don't know WHY we're discontinuing them. That'll be $100, Sir". Woah!! Guaranteed forever. Incredible construction. Made in the same East Van shop for the last 60 years. "Wow! That's great! I'll take 6 pair!" was what I wanted to say.

Tonight when we're released we're meeting Jeff and Sarah at Aurora for a celebratory birthday meal. Will be fun!

Day 2 at Circle Craft

Yesterday was the busiest I've ever seen it. The combination of holiday, opening day, and rain definitely brought the crowds.

This morning at 7:15 there was a knock on the door and room service came in with a great breakfast of bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrowns, a large fruit plate, and a nice selection of pastries. It was all courtesy of Scott and Siobhan in celebration of Rachelle's birthday. It was a perfect birthday present, and incredibly well thought out and executed!

I'm manning the booth this morning while Rachelle basks in spa attention courtesy of her Mom and myself. They're about to open the gates to a decidedly less massive crowd this morning. GTG...

Back in Vancouver

Here we are... downtown Vancouver... setting up for the huge monster that they call Circle Craft. I'm at a free internet kiosk with no way to upload photos of the amazing scenery that is beside me. Its a sunny day with the mountain tops covered in the clouds. A classic Vancouver fall day.

There are container ships purposefully motoring by, float plane taking off and landing every few minutes, and lots of people drinking coffee.

I've set up all the shelves, moved the heavy stuff, and run to the shops to buy the things that we forgot. Rachelle is loading the shelves with all her work.

Last night we stayed at Jeffo and Sarah's place. Tonight its the same routine, then we move into our suite at a downtown hotel. Things have all gone pretty smoothly with the exception of Rachelle leaving her bank card in the bank machine on Commercial Drive. Banks make it poretty easy these days to replace the plastic, so it was no big deal.

Tomorrow the show starts with paying customers stampeding to get in at opening time.

Klondike Kabuki

Halloween is a kind of national holiday on Hornby. Every year Hornby residents create some phenomenal outfits and crazy creative concoctions. Doing our part, we dug up the bits of costume we had hanging around and came up with work boot wearing samurai, Kodiac Kenichi, and his Klondike side kick Mesh Stocking Michiko. Believe it or not I managed to dance for four hours in those authentic geta (wooden sandals).

Final Electrical Inspection Passed

Dan, the inspector was by a week or 2 ago to do the final inspection on my house wiring job.

He came with his little gadget plugs into a socket and tells him if my neutrals are neutral, hots are hot, and if everything is properly grounded. It also has a cool feature that will trip a properly wired arc fault or ground fault breaker.

Everything worked properly and he left me with this document saying that we're all legal and can continue with our building. To that end, today I packed R40 insulation into the ceiling and Rachelle loaded up the walls with R20. We got it about half way done and are on schedule to finish tomorrow.

Front Shingles Done

I finished fastening up all of the cedar shingles onto the front of the house just in time to go back to work. There's still 3 more sides to do but I feel pretty good about what got accomplished. It took a week to put up the soffits, window trim, door trim, box the support beams and put up the "water board". That was followed by a week and a half of stapling shingles onto the side of the house.

I suppose that there was more pressing things that should have been done like insulating or installing the sewage pipe but I really felt the need to take on a beautification project. Driving into the driveway of our plywood and tarpaper shack every day was starting to get to me.

Above the waterboard will be vertical board and baton style siding. I'd love to get a start on that, but...

The next project is to build Rachelle's studio. It's going to be a similar structure to the addition that we put on the house last fall. It'll be a 16x20 room with a shed roof and lots of windows and a large overhang where the kilns will live. I can reuse a lot of the drawings and calculations that I drew up for the addition.

Flooring and framing party, anyone?

The House Gets a Major Face Lift

This is week 3 of Doug's 'vacation'. He's been working tirelessly on beautifying our house. The doors and windows were trimmed with cedar. He put up the water board (strip that runs the width of the house) and then, two days ago, began shingling the house.

These are yellow cedar shingles that smell vaguely of frankincense (guess the background). Doug was well prepared for this job from having shingled a couple of houses with the work crew.

The transformation of our house is fantastic. It's gone from tar paper shack to cute island home. And in a timely way, today he recieved a pair of overalls and a toque in the mail from brother Scott and friend Paul respectively. Outfitted for our ever chilling weather, he soldiered on to a near finish of the whole front side.

My husband can do anything.

Darrel Does Hornby

Our friend Darrel never leaves Whiskey Creek. He is a full-time potter and it's impossible to pry him away from the wheel. Somehow we managed to convince him to come to Hornby.




















We did the usual tour of Helliwell Park (Rachelle featured here sporting an excellent 'Bride of Frankinstein" 'do) and Big Tribune Bay. The bonus waiting for us on Big Trib was a singular apple tree loaded with tiny tasty apples. We stuffed our pockets and our cheeks with the delectible fruits.

We had great meals, good laughs and went to the Firehall for a small banquet hosted by the volunteer department. We played snooker and cards and managed to show Darrel a pretty good time. All of this happened during Doug's time off, so we were able to spend full days in a gang of three and hook Darrel on Hornby!

Jeff and Sarah Hit Hornby

Our good friends, Jeff and Sarah, visited us from Vancouver this weekend. We managed a couple of hikes as well as a mountain bike ride. A couple of good meals, mixed drinks and great conversation were also had over the weekend. Then Sarah had to get back to the lab on Monday but we kept Jeff and forced him into hard labour.

The overhang covering the deck was needing a two-man team to finish the soffits, so that's what Jeff and Doug did this weekend. It was two full days' work and they barely broke for lunch. But the deck is now almost completely done and it's another feather in the work party cap. Thanks a ton Jeff.

Trip to Squamish

Friday was my last day of work before a 3 week vacation. Al and I decided to take a couple of days early in the vacation and go to Squamish to do some climbing. Squamish in late Sept can be a bit dodgy weather-wise but we hit a perfect 2 day weather window.

Mid week on the shoulder season all but guarantees no competition for the popular routes so we pretty much had the run of the place. We climbed a bunch of the classics that are usually full of people and had them all to ourselves.

Squamish climbing has a lot to offer and we got a good sample of lots of moderate variety. We climbed slab on "The Bottom Line", awesome sustained laybacking on "Diedre", experienced gripping exposure on "Merci Me", and some beautiful handjamming on "High Mountain Woody".

We wrapped it all up with a blitz up the Chief's backside trail to get some killer views from the top.

More pics here

12th Anniversary

Our wedding photos are buried in a mound of boxes. But this 20-year-old one will do. We are 28 and 23 years old. I was leaving for school in Spain within a week. I would only see Doug for two weeks in the 12 months I was gone. Ten years later, after 5 years apart, we tied the knot.

And if we can make it through a winter in a half-built house - we can make it through anything. Ain't love great?

Circumnavigation and Fall Fair

This time of year brings mixed feelings. We're lamenting the end of summer but excited about all the fall goings-on. The plethora of pot lucks; the whack of work parties and the crap load of craft shows. So this year's summer went out with a bang and a splash.

On Saturday the Hornby Island Fall Fair started at the civilized hour of 11a.m. with a parade of locals and their farm animals, crazy floats and agricultural entries. This is a gathering that sees most of Hornby Island's local population coming together in one place. Food, music, dancing, and catching up with neighbors has everyone smiling and exuberant.

This is a time of collective sighs of relief from the frenzied summer together with a kind of collective thank you for the bounty that this island provides - agricultural, cultural and geographical. People who live here love this place and that really comes through at this fair. It seems to be one of the top two festivals - the other being Halloween.

Our second personal celebration was the circumnavigation of Hornby Island. We have been thinking about this trip since we got here, and now we've done it! It took 6 hours of travel time on the water with a one hour lunch on a midden beach by the ferry dock.

We left at 8:30 in the morning from Whaling Station Beach. There was a fairly strong wind so we decided to head south away from the wind and hope it died down by the time we started up the Lambert Chanel on the west side, which is the straight between Hornby and Denman Island. We stopped for our only break at Shingle Spit near the ferry dock. By the time we'd finished lunch, the winds had all but completely subsided and we continued up the west side and up over the northern island.

The north side is an extensive network of rock beaches that were filled with sun bathing seals and shore birds we hadn't seen before. As we rounded from the north to the east side, back down to Whaling Station, what seemed like a hundred seals dove from their perches into the ocean. We were sorry for having disturbed them but were entertained by their grunts and barks behind us for about mile.

We arrived on Whaling Station at 3 in the afternoon where we were greeted by Pete and Judith! They'd been visiting with Pete's parents, who have a house at Whaling Station, when they saw us dragging in on our last legs. They walked down to the beach and congratulated us on our first circumnavigation - and then carried our kayaks up to the car! These guys are true friends.

Thanks for the Socks

I've been so lucky with socks over the last few years. My mom knits beautiful sock, as does Rachelle. Our good friends Russell, Stephanie, and Alex were over a month or 2 ago and Steph brought Rachelle a pair of sock that she had knit. Stephanie only had make ONE of mine, tho, but she promised that she'd mail them both wqhen they were done.

True to her word a package arrived last week in the mail containing two beautiful and PERFECTLY fitting socks. Thank you so much. We love them!

Banded Alder Borer

We saw this guy just as we were cleaning up after pouring a "rat slab" at one of the houses that we're working on.

He's sitting on the end of an axe handle maybe sizing it up for a meal as they eat dead hardwood including ash. Apparently, they're quite common around here, although its the first one I've ever seen.

More info here.

Weekly updates become monthly :-(

Sorry, everyone, for the extended period of silence. I thought I could keep updates coming every week, but apparently there's too much to do here in the summertime.

I finished the deck last week. I was getting tired of wiring and plumbing and wanted to bang some nails and cut some wood. Months ago I put up the floor joists for the lower part of the deck but never got around to continuing once the electrical inspector got involved in our project.

I used regular old 2x6 spruce for decking since the deck is mostly covered and less likely to rot. The spruce is super cheap right now as a result of the horrid state of the lumber industry. The trim pieces are some of the 1x8 fir that Remi milled from the logs that we kept when we cleared some of our land.

In the deck photos you can see a door casing. Today I installed our front door. We then popped it out of the casing so we can paint it. The pink colour that's on the casing is just the primer. The door will actually be a terracotta kind of affair.

Once the door is on and trimmed we can start siding and frame the inside structure to house the fridge and the bathroom.

OK, this has nothing to do with our building but I have to share it with you. I was at the recycling depot the other day and came across this amazing creation. Yes, its exactly as it appears... a home-made band saw!

I have no clue who built it, but its amazing. It's built almost entirely out of plywood with some metal bits. The motor was probably poached from a table saw and the pulleys look like alternator parts from a 70's vintage American car.

Crazy innovation!

How I Spend my Day at Work

The house that we're building at work is a pretty nice place down near Grassy Pt. The owner's wanted a finish that was more urban than we're used to around these parts so all the yellow cedar trim gets painted "Black Russian", the Hardyboard comes pre-finished, and the red cedar shingles get dipped in a waxy, oily, stinky, toxic goop. Guess who has that job.

	Here are some of the 120 boxes of red cedar shingles that need to be dipped, dabbed, and sauced.
	Ian, the boss, had a great idea and nailed a bunch of horizontal 2x4's to the wall at just the right distance apart to make a rack for drying the shingles.
	It takes about 4 hours to fill the rack with 5 1/2 boxes of coated shingles. Ya, its light work and I'm not really complaining, but it IS pretty tedious and wearing a respirator and heavy rubber gloves for that time on a hot summer day starts to get annoying after a while.
	The results are pretty nice though. You can see how its going to look when its done. Its definitely not "Hornby" style, but its pleasing none-the-less.