What's next: Views beneath the surface
The details of daily life on a small island in the Salish Sea
2010 10 31 Sunday Halloween and Sunday. What to do? With only three houses occupied on Crane this season, with an average age of 69, we didn’t expect trick-or-treaters so we didn’t have to stay home, and if we did we knew all we would do was work. I suggested a walk around Mountain Lake, … Read more Ascending Turtle Knob
2010 10 30 Saturday Signs on Circle Road that Gary had finished installing a new septic tank and water line at Fisher’s and taken his power shovel off the island. Pink clouds in a light blue sky over a misty Crane Island airstrip bordered by firs black in the pre-dawn light save for a golden … Read more Yvonne Visits Seattle
2010 10 29 Friday Last week, with our pickup temporarily on Crane and after cutting a number of fallen trees into 16″ sections, I brought home four loads of cut up trees and moved them to the front yard, outside Yvonne’s deer fence, ready for splitting. I already had two stacks I’d split during the … Read more The Pleasures of a Splitting Maul
2010 10 28 Thursday Almost all Crane Island Association members had responded to the invoices I sent out in late August with September 30th due dates. I was now the association Treasurer, having succeeded Mike Shimasaki, our occasional neighbor two lots down. I had returned bills and checks from all but three of the members; … Read more Homeowner Association Dues and Fees
(Sailing Alone Around the World by Captain Joshua Slocum) Wednesday 2010 10 27 For at least five years, six of us, now five, meet each Wednesday morning for ninety minutes of conversation over tea in Howard Barbour’s one room cabin next to his elaborate and productive vegetable garden, just above his house, shop and outdoor … Read more Around the World in the Sloop Spray
Tuesday 2010 10 26 Windy, cloudy, 47 degrees. This is the time of year the thermometer varies only a few degrees day to night. Thirteen years ago when we spent our first weekend in our empty house on Cayou Valley Road in Deer Harbor we thought the big circular thermometer on the porch was broken … Read more Boat Troubles
Monday 2010 10 25 It is raining now, finally, but not much wind. October is usually very wet but hasn’t be so far this year. Tank at 10 feet. First there was the cell phone question. Yvonne would be going to Seattle Friday and staying over with Jeni to go to the Bring Back Sanity … Read more Options: Technical Infrastructure on a Small Island
Sunday 2010 10 24 Some wind this morning from the predicted storm but little rain. Water tank at 10 feet. Suzanne, moderator for the Orcas Island Unitarian Universalist Fellowship the last two years reported that her recent moose hunting adventure with husband John in the Bella Coola Valley had been a great success. They had … Read more Unsustainable Health Care on Orcas
Saturday 2010 10 23 The community water tank is holding steady at 10 feet. No sign of the storm. Because Yvonne is chair of the Deer Harbor Community Club Grounds Committee, she is responsible for the health and attractiveness of the grass, gardens, and plantings around the Community Club building and around the Post Office. … Read more Fall Clean Up at the Post Office
Thursday 2010 10 21 Dawn light gathered to reveal – not much of anything. Overnight fog had crept north from the Straight of Juan de Fuca through Cattle Pass and into San Juan Channel, between Lopez and San Juan Islands. Orcas wasn’t visible, nor Bell Island; morning with a 100′ depth of field. No matter; … Read more Foggy Dawn