Follow me on Twitter

I may only 'blog occacionally, but if you're at all interested in the minutia of my day to day existence (and who wouldn't be) you could always follow me on Twitter. I've never really understood the value of Twitter, and I have to say, I still don't. After tweeting for a few weeks now, I'm at least a little more intrigued by it.

I came from a high-tech background. I was thinking that with all my colleagues that I've worked with over the years, there must be dozens of them that I could follow. I was only able to find 3 of them on Twitter, and all of them had stopped using it to tweet after a few months. I suspect that something similar will happen here as well, but for now I'm tweeting like a little chickadee.

Christmas Day in Sandpiper

At this point, all the followers of this blog are probably reading, "Blah... blah... blah.. Christmas... blah... blah... blah... Pat and Michael... blah... blah... blah... birthdays...". Well I promise for this post to NOT talk about birthdays.

Michael Williams is our close neighbor, friend, and one half of the fabulous Michael and Patrick duo that we keep going on about. Among all of his other talents is his fabulous painting abilities. He's secured a stock of weathered barn boards, on which he paints beautiful Canadiana themed motifs.  On the one that I got Rachelle for Christmas, he has distilled the Hudson's Bay blanket down to it's essence.

When Michael was showing his work to Rachelle, this one came up and she gasped so deeply and sucked so much air from the room that my ears popped from the pressure drop. I knew, then, what I would be getting for her for Christmas. OK, it's a bit of a selfish gift, because I get to enjoy it as much as she will.


We hung it on our loft wall above the main entrance and, as you can see, it looks magnificent.

And what Christmas blog entry would be complete without a photo of a cute kid. This is Colm from next door. He came by all dressed up in his Christmas presents. He got a bunch of tools and this great carpenter's apron. The tools are still back at his house and the apron is filled with candy.

Christmas Eve and Boy am I Stuffed!

We just got back from Pat and Michael's where we celebrated Christmas Eve by eating like kings. We started with Champagne, followed with Sidecars, whilst we nibbled on the most delicious smoked salmon ever, delightful cheeses, and pate.

While all that nibbling was happening, Rachelle's famous Grandma Legros tortiere was in the oven baking to perfection. When it was ready we dug into it, with a spinach, pear, blue cheese, and candied pecan salad.  Mincemeat tarts and Christmas cake followed with coffee.


We laughed like fools, I cried at Joni Mitchell's "River" like I do every year, and we had a beautiful Christmas Eve with two of our favorite people. We are lucky people!

Did I Mention My Birthday Sweater?

It arrived a couple of weeks after my actual birthday because the knitter was so busy with her course work. Once her classes were done she dove hard into it and came up with this incredible piece of art/clothing.

I said that I wanted a Canadian curling-style sweater over a year ago. Since that time, Rachelle has been researching wool, finding patterns, and designing the bands. It's a wildly successful project and I'm now wearing it everywhere.

Thank you to my amazing wife who's artistic craft talents have absolutely no bounds.

Town Day

Rachelle had a few things to do to wrap up her teaching gig at North Island College and I had a whack of stuff on a "must do" list. I also hadn't been off of the island in quite a while, so I took the day off of work and we headed to town. The day dawned pretty nicely and when we go on the 9AM ferry the sun and clouds were stunning.

Mt Arrowsmith on Vancouver Island makes a rare winter
appearance. Normally it's buried behind clouds.

The mountains on the mainland stand out in
the morning sunshine behind shingle spit.

As we were driving across the flats between Courtenay and Comox Rachelle spied this flock of swans just hanging out in a large, wet hay field. Swans are such exotic birds. Anytime that they gather in large numbers, you just need to stop the car and have a look.

We did our errands, spent too much money, had a great lunch with Michael who was also in town that day, got a haircut, and in general had a really nice time off of the island.

Lazy Sunday

No, not the hilarious "Lazy Sunday" immortalized by Chris Parnell and Andy Samberg on Saturday Night Live a few years back. This lazy Sunday was just me being too lazy to do anything involved. After a while, tho, the depths of my own laziness became too much for me. Rachelle agreed to take a break from her essay and accompany me on a quest to find holly berries so I could build a Christmas wreath.

We went through Helliwell Park, sometimes called Hollywell Park, searching for the berries. There has been a huge eradication program this year to get rid of the Holly. It's a nasty invasive plant and sections of the park were in danger of becoming a monoculture of holly. It wasn't too long before we found a tree with berries on it so apparently there is a lot more eradication left to do. Hopefully, though, this will be the last year of being able to get holly berries in Helliwell.

I've never made a wreath before, but really, how difficult can it be? As it turns out, it was pretty easy. If I can make one in 45 minutes or so, I'd love to see what Rachelle could do in an hour.

Getting a Christmas Tree - Old School

When living in the city, the only accepted way to get a Christmas tree is to select one off of a lot. Sure, you can get some pretty nice trees from a tree seller, but it lacks the old-time charm of trudging out into the forest with a Swede saw over your shoulder and cutting one yourself. Living in rural spot affords one a latitude to go out and harvest a tree during the day as opposed to having to resort to midnight shenanigans in QE Park when living in East Van.

This afternoon, Swede saw in hand, Rachelle and I met Patrick and Michael at the fire hall to bag us a tree for each of us. It was a drizzly day, but as you can see in the photo, the weather did little to dampen our spirits as we walked through the trail to the old gravel pit.

We scouted out plenty of trees with pretty good potential and settled for 2 of the nicest natural trees I've ever seen. With wreath making in mind, we also gathered several arm loads of cedar, spruce, and fir boughs.

Eggnogs were then served at Arthur's House, putting the cap on a fabulous afternoon. Everyone who has any sort of affinity for Christmas owes it to themselves to take a walk in the woods with a couple of good friends and get themselves a Christmas tree.

HIFR Gets a New Online Look

I feel that one of my primary roles as a chief officer of Hornby Island Fire Rescue is to improve the relationship between the community and HIFR. Being an introverted computer geek, I figured out how I could advance toward my goal without actually having to talk to anyone. I could build a new website!

The Hornby Island Fire Rescue website was decidedly unfriendly. It WAS a great tool as an in house training aid, but there was nothing there for anyone outside of the department. There is a tonne of information that could be conveyed to the community if it was in an interesting and readable form. I think that the new site achieves that goal.

The big question is, "Does it really matter?". Will a new website and twitter feed really get our message out there? One month after launching it, we've got over 75 unique visiters, most of whom are getting to us by typing our URL into their browser or by bookmarking us. While that is incouraging, it remains to be seen if that trend will continue.

Check it out at hifd.org

The House We're Building At Work

This is NOT the house that we're building but 

another one designed by the same architect

The house that we're building at work is already pretty cool and the only drawings that I've seen are the floor  plans and engineering drawings of the foundation. We've been building forms and getting the project ready for a couple of weeks now. Its 2 buildings built on a 5 inch thick insulated concrete slab covered by a single roof. On Friday the 2 slabs were poured with a 130ft concrete pumper truck.

Today I got a look at the roof plan and my jaw dropped so hard I bruised my chest! There are 7 planes to the roof, each at a different angle and pitch. It's absolutely stunning. The ceiling of the house will parallel the roof, for the most part, giving a 8 - 14 feet ceiling height.

It's going to be a big deal to frame, but I'm really looking forward to the challenge ahead for us. It's projects like these that make me feel really good about my decision to leave the high-tech field and take up building.

The house is designed by a Vancouver architect, called Marco Simcic. Here are a few pics of another house that Marco designed.

Sandpiper Morning

I remember when I used to take my camera everywhere. This very blog had several entries a week... sometimes several a day. After a while other things started to take up more of my time. I guess that kind of thing happens when one moves to a new place and struggles to build a house in which to live.

Lately I've been inspired by our great friends Michael and Patrick who have recently moved from Vancouver into our neighborhood. They bought a house and cabin and are running them as a B&B. Patrick keeps an excellent 'blog as part of their website in which he posts some fabulous pictures of our neighborhood as they discover it.

This morning, after I dropped off Rachelle at the ferry terminal, I noticed the fabulous sky that was developing. As soon as I got home I grabbed our camera and headed down to our beach to try to capture the fantastic light. I think I got there a bit late, but while I was there I rediscovered the beauty of the place where I live. Here are a couple of the shots that I took. Thanks, Pat, for making me take notice of where I live.

BD #46 Splash Hit

Patrick and Michael helped us celebrate Doug's up-coming birthday with a roast, baked fries and chocolate marshmellow cake... and a bottle of wine I will never be able to try again... Thanks you two for the treat! And Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband and best friend ever. (see the glowing orbs of angelicness at his head?...)

Our Last Craft Show Ever!

I just got back from the "Out of Hand" show in Victoria. Rachelle had to teach her ceramics course in Courtenay today so she let me out at the ferry terminal on the way past.

We had an excellent meal at a Fernwood restaurant called "Stage", a fabulous sushi feed at "Sen Sushi", and a pretty good meal at the new and somewhat over-hyped "Ulla". I also ate at "The Noodlebox" many times which always brings a smile to my face and warmth to my belly.

Contrary to optimistic media and federal reserve officials, the recession is not over. Actually, I don't know if it's recession, the death of craft, or just not Rachelle's crowd, but we just don't do very well at that show. I suspect that next year we'll stay a bit closer to home and take advantage of the shows that we don't have to take 2 ferries and drive for 3 hours to get to. Also, summertime is where her energies should go in terms of having lots of stock on hand. We'll shift the focus and pack in the idea of those oh-so-depressing craft shows! The quality of the shows slips a little every year so this really is a good time to bail!  

On the up side, we had a great time staying with Garth and Joanna as always. Next time we go to Victoria it'll be for an actual vacation, not a working vacation.

Wood Splitting Workshop

Ya, I read "Tom Sawyer". I loved the part in chapter two where Tom Sawyer gets several boys in the town to whitewash the fence by making them think that it's just not work at all.

“Why, ain’t that work?” Tom resumed his whitewashing, and answered carelessly: “Well, maybe it is, and maybe it ain’t. All I know, is, it suits Tom Sawyer.” “Oh come, now, you don’t mean to let on that you like it?” The brush continued to move. “Like it? Well, I don’t see why I oughtn’t to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?”

So when Michael and Patrick said that they wanted a quick lesson in wood splitting, well I was pleased as punch to oblige.

"Well boys", I says through the stalk of grass in my teeth, "there's a big ol' pile of wood that needs splittin' right over yonder. Why don't y'all grab that wheelbarrow and fetch a load of them rounds. Y'all are gonna need a heap o' practice for this l'il workshop".

After a few minutes waxing poetic on the finer point of using a splitting maul, I handed the tool over to the fresh protoges.

WHACK!!!

"Well Patrick... That was pretty good but just because you split it in one hit doesn't mean that you've mastered the art. You'd better try another one."

WHACK!!

"Nicely done, Pat. Bend your legs more... Try again. Here's a second maul for you to practice with, Michael."

WHACK!! WHACK!!

"Well done boys... Now you guys keep it up. I can see that in another hour or so you'll be ready to do it unsupervised"

"He had had a nice, good, idle time all the while – plenty of company – and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village... ...The boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place in his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to report."

We Won a House

Yes, it's true. We won a Michael Macnamara designed house with a curvy roof and filled with various items crafted by local artists. There are Anna Zielinski, Elaine Savoie, and Graham Herbert, Anne Ngan paintings, a Susan Cain sculpture, a Mitzka Jeric basket, and many other items by many other artists.

Rachelle bought tickets for the house draw this

summer as a donation to ISLA, which is an

organization dedicated to securing affordable housing for Hornby Island residents. I was at the Co-op today picking up some pipe insulation and the ISLA people were gathering on the porch for the big draw. They asked me if I had a ticket for the house and I told them that we did, but I'm not sure that they believed me.

At 3PM sharp, Donna drew the winning ticket from the bag and I'll be dipped in shit if we didn't win!

We could never live in this house though. It's just too small and would be too hard to heat. Actually, the house is a doll house. It's a stunning doll house! Here're some photos and an excellent write-up that you should check out. The miniature works of art and pieces of furniture are truly incredible. Everything is hand made... the dolls, their clothing, the sinks, the cabinets, quilts, the plates, bowls, and cups. Even the soap in the soap dish and the toilet paper are made by hand.

Even though it's an incredible work of art we don't really have the space to properly display it. Right now it'll live on the edge of our loft until we find the perfect home for it.

One of the public buildings on Hornby should have it as on permanent exhibit, we'll just have to do a little investigating and asking around to see where it would best be housed. Left to fate - one of the smallest houses on the island is destined to win the very smallest house on the island.

More Mushrooms

Today it was the highly sought after pine mushroom that was to be our quarry. We went on a challenging hike and it was only after we had given up and were well on our way back to the car that Rachelle spied the elusive beast. We gathered up 3 or 4 pounds of the little devils along with a few lobster mushrooms and a couple of oysters.

Here's Rachelle unable to keep her hands off of the temping matsutakes. We're grilling them on the BarBa with some local organic beef. 

Try This on a Pumpkin!

If you're anywhere near carving a pumpkin time .... have a look at these. Wowie!

Wild Mushrooms and Olive Bread

We kept hearing about all the fabulous mushrooms that are hiding up on the slopes of our mountain but had yet to find the elusive creatures. ...Until today! After Rachelle finished baking the fantastic olive bread that she has been making lately, we headed up the mountain armed with some vague information on where to find some chantrelles.

Thick mossy spots between fallen trees seem to make the best breeding ground for these golden beauties. You have to look quite closely because they tend to be a bit covered over. We were careful to cut them instead of pulling them out by the roots. We also left some behind rather than decimate the patch. A small bag full was plenty for a full meal of organic, local, hand-picked wild mushroom.

We plan to dry cook them in a fry pan so we don`t drown them. A little olive oil and our own garden garlic to finish them off... with a little of our bread and a salad (with local greens and some wild greens from our property). Life is very very very good.

About that olive bread... There is this amazing recipe for no knead bread from the New York Times that Jeff and Sarah re-introduced us to. Ever since then, Rachelle has been experimenting with it until she has perfected the best olive bread ever! Who needs bakeries!!

Vacation Climbing Trip

I remember fondly the years that I could pull down 5.10 after a single day of climbing. Now it takes me 4 days of climbing to start feeling confident on harder routes, and by then I'm too worn out to power through the hard stuff. That didn't stop Al and I from climbing 44 pitches over three and a half days.

We, and a supporting cast of hangers on, blitzed up to Squamish from Vancouver for several days in a row and climbed as much granite as our bodies and minds would let us. Calculus Crack, Diedre, Banana Peel, Over the Rainbow, bits of White Lightning, Broomstick Crack, Ultimate Everything, Laughing Crack, Klahanie Crack, Urine Too Deep, and Quarryman all succumbed to our mad granite taming skilz.

On the left is Al showing Klahanie Crack who's boss. On the right is an indication of who won the battle between me and a crux move on "Ultimate Everything".Check out the socks. Rachelle knit them for me while I was away!

It was a fabulous time, physical and mental scars notwithstanding. I'm pretty happy to have a day or two of not climbing before we head off to climb some trad routes close to Hornby Island, but I'm also pretty excited about the idea of returning next year.

More Summer Vacation

A couple of days ago I went SCUBA diving between Denman Island and Vancouver Island. There is a pretty nice wall there with quite a tide flow so the invertebrate life is quite plentiful. I never did see the pair of wolf eels that live there, but I was able to find an Octopus, lots of fish, an abalone, and lots of crazy worms, sponges, starfish, and other weird things.

Later in the afternoon we climbed back onto the boat and headed across the Lambert Channel to Eagle Rock for some swimming, snorkling, and cliff jumping. The sun was hot and the water was warm. I always have a great time at Eagle Rock, and Wednesday was no exception. Thanks to Amanda for the photos of Rob and I.

Either tomorrow or Monday Al and I will head off to Squamish for a few days of climbing. Hopefully the somewhat dodgy weather will shape up to a warm but cloudy week.

Oh ya, I've done some shingling, too. I'll take some photos of that later.

How I'm Spending my Summer Vacation

It's been way too long since I've done stuff other than work on my vacation. Our crew took 3 weeks off and I'm trying to make the best of it. On Monday I went for a nice long ride up on the mountain and it felt great! I think that the last off road ride I took was over 6 months ago, but I was feeling strong. I went for almost 3 hours and hit a lot of trails. No pics, though. I was having too much fun to stop.

Yesterday was a highlight. I walked from our beach all the way to Ford Cove along the coast.

	The walk starts as gentle and easy treking along some featured sandstone. I picked low tide as a time because I knew that there would be some scrambing under boulders a bit further on.
	There are plenty of opportunities for bouldering along the way. Problems range from easy stuff that even I can climb in my crocs to some completely horizontal roof problems. The rock is surprisingly solid for cobble.
	The cooperative community of Downes Point is fascinating from the water. This is how one resident has extended his studio deck out over the cliff. I might have been tempted to use a combination of cantilevering and some diagonal back bracing, but whatever floats your boat.
	This coastline is probably the least traveled bit of coast on the entire island with, I'm guessing, maybe 2 or 3 traverses per year. Once around the Downes Point corner, I saw no one until I got to Heron Rocks a couple of hours later.
	The cobble boulders eventually give way to clean sandstone and the remains of an old quarry where the sandstone that was used for the provincial legislation building was mined. On the other side of the sandstone in this picture, there are house sized sandstone boulders leaning up again each other at the base of a vertical cliff.
	The tops of some of these boulders have the amazing featured sandstone which is quite unique to the southern gulf islands.
	The boulder scrambling gives way to the extensive shelves beneath the Olsen Farm. For anyone who's been to a Hornby Festival show or a fall faire, that big field in which they take place is just above these shelves.

Another 30 minutes or so got me to the store at Ford Cove where I started to hitchhike back home. Three cars went by before someone picked me up and drove me to within 100 meters of our house.

At times it's a pretty scrambly walk but anyone who is interested in spending a couple of hours on some of the most amazing coast on the inside passage should check it out. It'd be a great outing on a crisp winter day, too. Come on up, stay a few days with us, and lets go walking.

Just in from Victoria

I've had it with crappy boots. The end of a day of work is like the end of a day of climbing. The only thing that keeps me going is the thought of taking off my boots and giving my feet a break. I figure I have to spend another few years in this profession so I might as well buy 1 pair of boots that will last me until the end of my construction career. I did a bunch of research and laid down a $450 bet that Viberg is the boot to buy.

Sure, there are a few spots that bind a bit, but I think that it'll loosen up and mold to my foot in no time. I can now, hopefully, say goodbye to wet feet, blown out sidewalls, delaminated soles, and steel toes that cut into my feet.

Along that same vein, my experiment with a cordura tool pouch ended unsatisfactorily. I'm sick of fixing the damn thing and it never really was that comfortable. A trip to the Cumberland Slegg Lumber yard on my way to Victoria had me loving the CLC Signature leather tool bags. I dropped an embarrassingly large wad of cash on the cashier's desk and walked away with them. I justify the purchase in the same was as I did the boots. It is something that I wear 8 hours a day and I will never need to buy another one.

As I mentioned, I had to go to Victoria to get the boots. It was a 3 hour drive on one of the hottest days of the year. I picked up the boots the next morning and drove back to Hornby on the second hottest day of the year. There were ferry lineups, crammed highways, and stressed tourists, but as soon as I got home I unpacked the car, grabbed the snorkeling gear and went for a swim at Ford Cove with Rachelle. It's enough to make you never leave this place.

Huge thanks to Garth and Joanna for putting me up over night, and feeding me huge quantities of premium food, premium beer, and super extra special premium scotch. Now it's back to work tomorrow with some new toys.

Shakes, Soil, and Cats

This week I started to shingle the studio. Now that we have drywall, the next obstacle to getting insurance is the lack of siding. We'll have enough shingles to do the studio and part of the back wall of the house. Hopefully, by fall, if I do a bundle or 2 a week, we'll have both buildings a bit more weatherproof.

Jed delivered 8 yards of some pretty sweet topsoil today. It's actually a mix of topsoil and composted fir chips and seems incredibly rich. Just what we need on our gravel lot. It's sitting right where the lake forms in when the heavy rains hit in November.

I'll shovel a bunch of it into some beds, then spread the rest around in an attempt to keep the lake from forming.

Everyone loves a nice, cool pile of bedding sand at the end 0f a hot day.

Salt Licks and Sunshine

Wow! Over a month since the last 'blog entry.

Today we walked out to Downes Point, a sculptural rocky stretch minutes from our house. All along the way Rachelle collected sea salt from dried pools in the sandstone. And at the edge of the shelf, we stopped for a picnic.

We ate deviled eggs made with local organic eggs and filling bits, potato salad with 'taters grown

down the road, veggies with dip, and white wine left over from Rachelle's opening on Friday night.

I went for a swim and got my Ormus dose and too much sun. Sure was fun though. Now I need to hydrate and get ready for framing in the hot sun tomorrow.

Newest Addition to the Studio

This project began a few months ago. Doug and I sat down to think up a plan for an interesting front door for my studio. Many hours were spent fitting, sanding, planing and varnishing the door in Rob's fantastic wood shop. Since the door had sat in that shop for a solid 3 months, we figured it was time to get the project wrapped up.

My part was the acrylic moon snail capsule. These moon snails were collected from our many kayaking trips and waiting for an artful application. The wood was assembled, and loving worked into this beautiful original door by my better half - by far.

The door combines my aesthetic with Doug's in a way I hadn't expected. We notice the strongest expression of this difference in our campfire style. Doug will stack neat even pieces of like-sized sticks in an architectural manner... me - a loose knotting of dried grasses with a chaotic stack of varied branches... The fire burns all the same, but the approaches have been dubbed "Chaos Girl" and "Structure Boy". This door is also a Chaos-Structure combo. The loose tumble of moon snails tucked tidily into this geometrically balanced medley of yellow cedar and cherry wood.... I think it's a great combo.  Just like us.

We'll add the handle later. Doug wants to design a wooden latch and is looking at some designs by local builders. The door sits above the ground waiting for a small deck and steps. That will happen in the fairly distant future... We have a deer fence to put up and another water catchment system to build before that happens.... Oi..