Spring has sprung!!

Well spring seems to be here although today is a little showery and yesterday was downright horrible. Wind, rain, sleet, snow and quite cold so the poor plants were wondering why they had been put out or indeed if they should show themselves at all! As I said in the last post we have had a very mild and uneventful winter. Not much for storms but the usual rainfall.....well we do live in a rainforest! It may be a bit early but these violas and pansys seem to do OK as long as the wind is not too cold! 20/ As you can see the rhubarb is thriving, the Forsythia is very happy, the apple tree is just showing its pink tips of flowers and the lupins are already out of the tub! The first humming bird is at the feeder and blue skies abound! Don't know how long it will last but it gives a warm, spring like feeling all around. Lots of projects in the pipeline for the coming months so will try to 'blog' about them soon. Till next time...

Heli logging

The weather has not changed that much since my last posting except that it is now warmer. In fact, so far, the winter has been very mild with only a few days of chilly temperatures and a light covering of snow. We are still doing our winter projects and have achieved much in the form of milling lumber and adding to the supply for later use. Towards the end of the year a Heli logging camp was moved in to Darby Channel which is our main route to Dawsons Landing for the mail. They tied the camp up and started preparations for the upcoming logging operation. Shortly after Christmas a second camp appeared so we knew they were serious about logging more of the islands. These areas have been logged over the years before. In the old days it was two men and a crosscut saw spending days cutting down each tree and hauling it out. There have been hand loggers and 'A Frame' loggers as well as road shows and now heli logging, which as the name implies is logging using a helicopter. There are many arguments for and against logging. I will not get into that but will try to give you facts about the type of operation going on right now and you can make your own mind up about the environmental/economic effects. The two camps hold about 60 men in all. They are completly self contained with sewage, water and garbage systems built in. As they are moved from place to place it is easy for them to set up wherever they need too. This time they are using a Sikorsky S64 Aircrane helicopter. It was obviously designed by someone with a liking for giant insects as it 'buzzes' about and hovers over the trees. As you can see this is a single rotor machine and can lift approx 25,000 lb . Previous operations used Vertol and Chinook machines which are both twin rotor choppers. THe vertol lifted under 10,000lb and the chinook over 10,000lb......these are huge and heavy logs!! After the fallers have gone in the bush and 'fallen' the trees they are then chokered with a cable. The helicopter hovers over the tree with a 300 foot cable dangling underneath. The chokermen attach the choker and the helicopter lift the tree out. They can lift a couple of logs at a time and are then swung out over the water to the drop zone and released into the water. Boom boats are on hand to push the logs around and when a suitable sized 'bag' of logs has been made the whole thing is pushed to a holding area to await the tug and barge. The camp is a busy place. The kitchens provide huge, healthy and filling meals. Each man has his own room which is cleaned daily and beds made. There are louges with tV, internet and quite often a gym or exercise machines. Dry rooms, showers and laundry are also part of the floating camp where the guys are on a two week on two week off rotation. The general form of transport is crew boats and Hughes 500 helicopters which buzz around taking fallers into the bush, dropping bundles of chokers and running to the store for beer!! In front of the camp you can see a turbo beaver sea plane. That flys in just about every day and brings supplies and crew. You can also see the Hughes chopper on the top deck. THe log barge comes about every two weeks once the first load is ready. This particular barge is one of the biggest on the coast. It is secured next to the bags of wood and then log loaders are flown in. They work 24 hours to get loaded and then the tug will set off south towards Vancouver and back for the next load. Boom boats push the wood close so the loaders can grab them with grapples. There is also a small crew of limb pickers or branch managers, as they like to be known, who run around and gather limbs that have dropped off. This operation is working in navagable water so it has to be kept clear of debris so we locals don't run into it. Depending on your point of view logging can be detramental to the environment. Having seen clear cuts and areas that have been ruined through bad logging practices, heli logging is perhaps one of the kinder ways. It is far more selective and individual trees can be extracted without damage to the surrounding ones. This also means the smaller trees can grow better. It is a fact of life here in BC and on this coast. Our interaction with the logging companies has been for the most part good and they do respect that we live here too.

Well we are now in to the new year. Christmas has come and gone. The decorations are stored for next year, the last of the mince pies have been consumed and the tree disposed of. January always seems to be one of those 'none' months. We are all renewed for the coming year thinking of resolutions...which we never keep, and wondering what the year will bring. So far for us it has been snowy and chilly!

Early morning views from the front window show ice on the water and smoke from the chimney lingering in the trees.

The saw mill looks mysterious with the sun just peeking through the trees. It is actually a nice time to mill as things are crisp and fresh. Wrap up with layers of warm clothing and saw some decking....a pleasant passtime with satifying results. The sun is quite low in the sky at this time of year. As I have mentioned in previous posts we do have solar panels and still get some power from them throughout the winter. It might only be for a few hours but as the months progress so does the time and intensity.

Frost and ice make for beautiful patterns on the glass. Camera in hand most mornings, I can find some lovely patterns which make for artistic pictures.

The cold weather is due to break in the next week but no real rain is to come! Of course that can change over night!! At least right now there is no wind and so we can enjoy the outdoors without being chilled to the bone! Temperatures are only down to about minus 6 at night and minus 3 in the day.....cripst and fresh!!

England and back!

Since my last posting I have made a quick two week trip to the UK. A family visit to spend time with parents etc. Our last visit in the spring of the year, saw pretty good weather but this trip was a bit wintery! England is suffering a bad year. A very wet summer and now some of the worst flooding in many years. One Town in Wales saw the river flood over 4 feet in 30 minutes!! A sad time for those who lost furniture and possesions. Luckily my family all live on the tops of hills so although the ground was still sodden with water they were not suffering from flooding. I did manage lots of walks in the local area.

Back home now and supposed to be getting ready for the Christmas Holiday! I have to admit that Christmas has become far too commercialized for my way of thinking and it was a pleasant surprise that although Xmas shopping was getting up to speed in the UK it was not as 'in your face' as here in Canada. Have got the decorations down from the attic and made the first batch of mince pies. The Xmas cake was made last year and I still have a pudding from then too! Yes they last for years if wrapped and kept cool. In fact they are more mature that way. The snow line is getting lower. We did have a slight covering a few days ago but it has now gone back up a few hundred feet.

Not sure if the Sea Lions are ready for the upcoming festivities......do they even know about it? They were quite content to be on their rock.

A trip to the local beach is great for the dog to stretch her legs and for Robin to try his skills at making money!! Haven't made our fortune yet....but watch this space!! Till next time...

Well here we are again. The summer jobs are over and we are now back to the fall/winter mode. The weather is following suite. We had a wonderful, hot and sunny summer and now turning cold and wet. There is fresh snow on the hills not far away and the temperatures are dipping towards 0!! The fishing lodges that we caretake for the winter are safely tied in place and things are generaly quiet in the neighbourhood. We go from a few hundred people to about 10 permanent resident all in about a week! There are a few logging camps in the area but their numbers come and go and we don't class them as being 'Inlet people'. THe wildlife has also changed. The bears that were frequently seen have gone to find fish in the creeks. The ducks are collecting in the quiet bays to wait out the worst of the weather and there are flights of snow geese heading south. The garden is put to bed with a good mulch of seaweed to keep it warm.

These are goose neck barnacles. We don't find them right round here but these were attached to a bouy that was found nearby.

We had a visit from one of the freight boats to deliver timber for a lodge. THis boat is a pusher tug and barge. When they need to manouver they attach the tug to the back of the barge and push it around. The rest of the time it is towed in the usual fashion.

Of course beach trips can be very exhausting!! I was a constant duel as to who got to the lounger first!!

At the end of the summer we made a trip to town. It was our usual grocery buying and visiting trip. Shelves of groceries make boring pictures but this is more interesting. This is Brentwood Bay on Vancouver Island. We were taking a small ferry across to Mill Bay. It was really just a shortcut but oh so scenic! The weather has been wonderful and even for British Columbia was pretty special. Record temperatures, no wind, calm seas and never ending sunshine! now that is what I call a summer. The trip home across Queen Charlotte sound, which can be pretty dangerous was calm and sunny. Hard to belive that if you continued past this boat you would eventually hit Japan. This is the Washington State Ferry 'Columbia'. It does a scheduled run from Seattle to Alaska each week.

So that was our summer. Hope to report something interesting next time.

Floatation!!

As you can imagine one of the important features of having a floating home is that is stays floating!! Over many years logs used to make the floats become waterlogged and get eaten by torredos (ship worm). This is a slow process but does 'undermine' things. There are many ways of extending the life span of a float, add more logs, put barrels filled with air under or large blocks of styrofoam. These blocks of foam come in blocks 8 feet long by 4 feet wide by 4 feet deep. The trick is getting them under! First the blocks are wrapped in old fishing net and sewn on like a parcel. The reason for this is to be able to hold it in place whilst going under water....more explanations later. Just try holding a piece of styrofoam under water. Even a small piece will try its best to remain on the surface so imagine a block 8x4x4!

In the picture you can see a block floating next to the float that it is going under. At this point the block is attached to another float housing a winch that will pull it down into the water.

From here you can see the tug boat next to the 'A' frame. The 'A' frame is a large winch called a donkey. It is used for many jobs of lifting and pulling and invaluable in this area. The blocks are pulled under the water by the winch through a pully set in the ocean floor. When the block is under the water the float it is going under is pulled into place and the block is released to 'pop' up underneath. These blocks provide a huge amount of 'lift'. Approx 64lb per cubic foot. For those science brains out there you can work out the total but for the rest of us all you need to know is the float gets lifted adding many more years of use.

The usual is to try to put an even number of blocks under the float. That gives even lift all round and makes sure the eggs stay in the middle of the pan! It is also usual to put an extra piece under an area that is going to hold something very heavy. For instance a recent float was to house a container for storage on one corner so extra blocks were placed there to keep things level. So there you have a technical posting about living here. Hard to explain but I hope you get the idea!! Stay on an even keel!! Till next time....

Spring flowers and Humming birds

I suppose late spring and early summer merge into one round here. Not a particularly spring like spring but the flowers seemed to do Ok. The garden is all in tubs and containers. We manage to grow a few flowers and veggies in the greenhouse. The soil is quite poor and has to be supplemented with lots of manure, fertilzers and peat moss. The peat moss gives it some breathing space. My prize plant is an apple tree which produces quite well, especially when it is talked to, which I do most days!!! A few seasons ago I planted some tulips. They seem to survive throughout the winter even when it gets well below zero.

The scenery around here is various shades of green. It is quite amazing how many shades there are at different times of day and the location of the sun. A garden, even a small one, gives a little splash of colour. One problem is the wind, so during the winter many of the containers are moved to a more sheltered spot. During the summer months they are in full sun! That means watering is a priority first thing in the morning to prevent dehydration.

The greenhouse is a good place to get some lettuce growing. Also I like to have a few tomato plants and this year there are three purple brocoli plants. The hanging baskets are planted and awaiting the warmer weather before being hung outside.

Another sign of early summer is the humming birds. They appear as early as april and seem at the moment to be very active.....that might have something to do with the high test sugar water they drink all day long. They are amazing in flight and are the only bird that can fly backwards!

The weather is getting warmer. The bay is alive with people working on the various lodges in preparation for the upcoming season and the wildlife are stirring looking for food. Here's to a good summer.