A family adventure on Haida Gwaii

feeling guilty...

2011-04-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

... that it has been months since posting. A few things have fallen thru the cracks since September; I have not been to book club in forever, haven't gone to volleyball on monday nights, no prenatal group night (it was a volunteer gig) and no blogging. The past months I have been working, coaching, and studying while squeezing in all the other daily activities. In November I went to Germany with my bff LF and her little man Lucas, over Christmas season there were lots of dinner parties around town, I worked the whole month of January, February was crazy busy with basketball practices and March was the road trip over Spring Break to Penticton for the Jr All Native tourney. Now I have 2 finals left to write for my course, some practicum hours in Prince Rupert and then I will breath a sign of relief. I hope to be done my certification by the end of summer. Looking ahead, I have ACL surgery in 3 weeks, Bri and J are coming for a visit in May (SO EXCITED!) and we have summer holidays planned in July. That's it in a nutshell. Signing off again: we just got a bag of jumbo prawns I need to deal with.... yum!

You know it was a big blow when...

2010-11-01T10:56:00.000-07:00

... there are more seagulls in town then the local birds
... the weatheroffice past 24 hour report says N/A
... the remaining few upright business front signs have finally come down (no more FIELDS roof top sign and the RCMP sign broke through the concrete footing)
... trees fell down on the lines (we have a rockstar Hydro crew and the power stays on through most storms), asphalt shingles on the neighbour's house were flapping (just like on the movie Monster House) and there are a few damaged businesses and houses in town and the village.

During our dog walk early yesterday evening, I learned that even though I wanted to put my head down and push into the wind it is very necessary to keep your eyes up for fence boards, garbage cans, and yard junk that has become airborne. When a house with tin roof started banging around I was ready to turn and cover. The poor geese/ducks at the field (the type of 'bird' is currently under debate. D informed me that they are still hanging around because there is one that can not fly very well) could not land. We walked by with the dogs, not close to them at all but it was close enough for them to take off. There was frantic honking and quacking around as they jostled around in the air, bumping into eachother. So we walked around the field and as we got farther away they wanted to land but the wind would not let them. Their feet were in landing mode, wings parachuting to drop down but they kept lifting higher. So we watched and waited for the wind to let up just a moment and they finally grounded. D gave me a pretty funny goose/duck stance suitable for such weather: feet together, knees bent, butt out, arms/wings bent into a well balanced position. It was very well executed. The wind did not move him at all :)

Jesus feeds 5000

2010-10-18T09:29:00.000-07:00

There might be 5000 people on the island...not sure. But with bread and fish (and cookies) on the table, it reminded me of the story :)

I had a canning lesson yesterday with a fancy pressure cooker (got to check into getting one of those) so we will have jars of fish in the pantry this winter.

And it is a bread/buns day today. I took the dogs out for a walk in the SUN while the dough was rising.

Then B texts me and asks if I am baking cookies too... Vitamin C was added to the menu.

'C is for COOKIE'. Do you remember that song?

House Pics

2010-10-04T13:33:00.000-07:00

Unfortunately this is not what we see out the front window but it is the view about a 2 min walk down the road, not bad eh? Another rain-less day here on the island.

This is 'mine own red house'; to paraphrase Michelle when she had enough of her Hawaii holiday and wanted to go home :) I put a few plants in the ground infront of the window, little root balls from the PoCo house, see how they do up here. There is a great parking spot for the trailer on the side of the house so the driveway is clear to make room for the bball hoop.

This is the view from the kitchen sink window. The grass was about knee height up the hill when we moved in. Wrestler would bound like a deer to chase the ball through the meadow. It was kind of Princeton-esque till the boys went wild with the Husky mower and cut the whole yard. It was a good move since the ground was dry and it will stay cleaner out there once the weather turns. The plan is to fence the entire space up to the back bushes and tier the hill for vegetable gardening. Then we will build a deck off the back of the house for the BBQ and a covered area so the dogs can hang outside more. B loves it when I say 'WE' will do something. I really only do a small fraction of the outside work these days with our strong back boys.

Here is the entire main floor less the main side entrance area and the bathroom down past the wood panel wall. We no longer are squeezing past eachother and stepping over the dogs to get around the wall from the front room to the kitchen. It is so great. And with the wood stove, it feels just like the Princeton lodge. Sorry, I missed the wood stove in the pic. Wrestler is lying infront of it.
The kitchen is minimal but since we operate with minimal stuff up here, it works just fine. I got a new stove and my buns are turning out great. The fridge and pantry are around the corner by the 1/2 visible kitchen window. No TV on the main floor. Should have done that years ago!

Upstairs has 4 bedrooms and a full bath. The extra bedroom is the xbox gaming/guest room.

The basement has a 12x20 space of wrestling mat and punching bag, the washer/dryer/utility sink, all our camping gear/dance regalia/boots/jackets/Christmas decorations/stuff, 2 deep freezers and a cool storage room.

It is small but functional, very basic and practical :)

Disclaimer

2010-10-03T19:11:00.000-07:00

This post may not be suitable for all readers but Maria wanted to know the details :)

B had a successful hunting trip. He took two. That is the verb used by the locals; 'to take' rather than 'to shoot'. It is hanging in the rafters of the shed, right beside the bikes, yard tools and lawn mower. I was really brave and went to take a look this morning; it is hanging with a piece of wood between the hamstrings and knee joint, belly cut open and guts all removed, neck sliced and tongue hanging out. This afternoon I was summoned 'to get the skinning knife'. Since there is a plethora of fancy knives to choose from around the house, (B is a knife collector and has one for every day of the week and one suitable for all occasions) I was instructed to get the special one on the bookshelf used only for such a task. So now there is deer flesh hanging in the shed right beside the bikes, yard tools and lawn mower... ready to be butchered in a few days.

I thank the Creator for the deer that gave its life so that we may nourish our body, mind and soul. Burgers will be on the grill this weekend.

Buns in the oven

2010-10-02T12:49:00.000-07:00

The whole wheat kind: some pizza pretzles and some pull apart bread/buns. So I got to be quick here. Since it has been months since posting I thought I should give a shout out that all is well.
B is off in the bush today with a buddy checking out the hunting situation. It is still a bit early I think to shoot anything, it needs to be cool for the meat to hang (apparently it will hang in the shed beside the bikes which I need to get at almost daily, nice). I think they are going to sight in their rifles and shoot targets. This morning the boys have competed their Saturady chores; bathrooms, sweeping upstairs, chop wood, laundry. After my buns are done I will walk to the store to get some fixings for burgers. Always thinking about the next feeding frenzy around here.

School is going great for the boys. J is right into the grade 8 high school routine with a crazy block rotation I can not figure out and D is doing the grade 7 thing. The kickboxing group has been a bit smaller the past few weeks (about 14 people) but that is good; more space to do new drills. I just finished a 3 week full time stint at work. And I am looking forward to my 2 weeks off in November when I go to Germany with LF and Lucas. So excited! I am refreshing my German from college days with a book from the library. Das ist goot, yah?

And we moved the end of August... that is big news! We bought a stand along PMQ with a huge yard and a great sunny location. This house is so warm compared to our old rental. And the wood stove is a fantastic too! It has been so dry/sunny all summer and now even into Fall. Just that one wild storm last weekend that teased us with what is to come over the winter months. My mom came for a quick visit 2 weekends ago and she filled the freezer with buns and helped me paint the boys bedrooms. Glad to have that done. The big project over winter is to get a fence built. Good thing we have some child labour to help.

got to check the buns!
later,
nicole

busy summer days

2010-07-29T20:48:00.000-07:00

Been awhile since posting... we came south end of June to pack up the PoCo house and get B's knee surgery done. All went well. D's buddy Zus came back home with us so there was an extra boy around to take J's spot. J has been in Halifax exploring the east coast with B's parents. They are having a great time and I have been assured that he will come home in a few weeks.

A few pics to show a snapshot of what we have been up to the past month, in no particular order:

Pure Lake. where the wild boys swim.
sushi lesson.

cleaning fish under the eyes of watchful pros.

just need to get it to the boat this time.

a bear out there.

no crabs today, just jellyfish.

girls on quads.

boys on quads.

D is an allstar fisherman!

you catch'em, you eat'em

2010-06-20T19:53:00.000-07:00

Today was our first time out crabbing this season. The tide was pretty low and the water was flat; perfect crab hunting conditions. We went out with a few first-timers so we showed them how it is done. They yelled for joy, fear, shock, and/or excitement when a crab swam in front of them. Pretty funny. We brought home 4 big guys and cooked them up on the camp stove outside. It is a much better idea to keep the stink out of the house.

Tomorrow, Aboriginal Day, is a busy one in Old Masset... I think there are 7 poles bring raised. Hopefully I can get to some of the action after work.

B and I are getting ready to come south on Thursday to finalize all the house sale paperwork and get everything cleaned out and up to Princeton. The other day, J made is safely to Halifax to visit B's parents and D has spent the last week with at my parents. This past week has been pretty quiet around here :)

You-Tube Video by J's class about Gray Bay

2010-06-10T08:12:00.000-07:00

check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zuZemiFWQo

The boys class had 2 days with these Animation guys from Van to make a video.
I will try to get D's class posted too :)

deer death by knee strike

2010-06-09T17:58:00.000-07:00

An odd post title you say. That was our table talk this evening. While having a traditional dinner of fresh fish and rice, B says 'so I kneed a deer today.'

Another lesson learned that only relates to this place. Maybe I should write an island survival guide :)

The lesson is: While riding a motorcycle, deer are of more concern than other vehicles.

B said he was a good distance behind a van, thinking about passing when a deer ran out behind the van and took a dart in front of B's bike path. B knew that any sudden swerving or braking would throw him from the bike. He had time to take his hand off the throttle, check his mirrors to see that no other vehicles were close, see no oncoming traffic, call on his guardian angel and brace his leg for impact. What followed was 'deer death by knee strike'.

The boys asked why he did not go back and bring it home for burgers.

GRAY BAY camp out

2010-06-05T11:15:00.000-07:00

The highlight of the grade 7 year is the annual trip to Gray Bay; 5 days with no shower or flush and 4 nights of sleeping in a tent. fun eh?
I stayed Monday to Wednesday and B went down Wednesday to Friday. I had the wind/rain/cold days and B got the warm/sunny/cloudy days. nice.

On Day 1 we set up camp, collected firewood, and got the hang of cooking on the fire.

Day 2 started off with a 'good morning' saranade from James and Ian. I got one of the girls songs on video (sorry, the sound is not good) but it was quite entertaining.

We checked out Secret Cove, a 2 km hike from camp, where we played games on the beach and did some exploring; found a bunch of HUGE muscles on the rocks, discovered some bright red sea anemomes and even saw a tiny baby deer hiding in the rocks waiting patiently for us to leave.
A very tiny native plant called a lady slipper. It is about 4 inches tall.

About 2pm that afternoon, a storm blew in and we set up the army tent to wait it out... it didn't let up. We all piled into the shleter to eat dinner and spend the evening.

That night, as I tried to sleep in my tent with the wind blowing 80km/hr, I wondered if there was a Haida word for 'the sound that the wind makes pushing trees continually while waves pound the beach 30 ft away'. It sounded like a jet plane was hovering overhead is the best I can descride it. And there must be a Haida word for 'horizontal rain that forcefully pelts the side of a sleeping shelter'. Also best described as being a virual player in a Call of Duty Xbox game with the sound of gunfire all around. It was a long night. Thankfully all the tents were still standing in the morning, no huge branches came down over night and in true Haida Gwaii style, the morning sky was bright and clear.

I went home that morning for a hot shower and a comfy bed. I had to get back to work for Thursday/Friday.

It is my last weekend before this darm exam and so I must get back to the books.

May long weekend

2010-05-27T16:22:00.000-07:00

A few pics to share from the weekend.

Saturday was Harbour Day. Apparently there was lots of action out on the water with mariner exhibitions but I was running the carnival so I stayed in town. We saw the parade on Main St. Check out the scary pirate ship with the hospital staff.

J jumped on the Co-op float.

There was a fishermans challenge where the guys had to do all these crabbing exercises. No idea what they were doing but it was fun to watch.

On Sunday we headed out camping with the neigbours. We hoped to stay at the Cape Fife cabin (where we went last May long weekend) but it was full of hikers. No room for the crew of us so we went back to the CHN cabin on north beach. A very roomy set-up so it was a good choice, especially since the weather turned.

The boys dug for dinner.Cruised on the quad. Maybe 100m. in the bush behind the cabin was this marsh, just covered in water lilies. Our neighbour and long time local guru (in the pic wearing hip wadders) tells us that this was one of several farmers fields where they raised cattle in the early 1900's. The land was cheap and many people came to try their hand at farming. Those that came for fishing and logging did much better than the farmers. The settlement disappeared when the war started and the men all left. Now beavers have dammed it all up.
the water lily
If you make it to the end of this post I will inform you that we finally sold our house in the old 'hood. Yeah!

And a pic of James because he was so funny checking out every single storm drain on our walk to the park. We was looking and listening for water. He would be sad to find we only have ditches here!

A trip to Van to see the kids!

2010-05-22T16:52:00.001-07:00

It was a quick trip south last weekend to see some of my little buddies.

There was a brand new Fairburn baby to hold, bath, feed, change, push in the stroller... I still got the moves.

The next generation of Hiebert kids to hang with. Rebecca is the social butterfly.

Auntie taught James how to do the slide at the park.

And I went to see my Swisher girls.

We had Harbour Day in Masset today complete with a pancake breakfast, parade, carnival games, fishermans challenge and dunk tank. Pics to follow soon.

Lots happening in the next few weeks. We are going to Cape Fife tomorrow morning, J's class goes to Grey Bay next week (I will go for 3 of the 5 days), I write my exam June 10 and the boys head south for a visit mid June. FUN!

Dinner Menu SOS

2010-04-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

I had a great day today, baking bread with my buddy K across the circle. We made one batch in the bosch and one by hand. She had some multigrain flour to make uber healthy bread and her oven worked 10x better than mine. We made about a dozen loaves and 2 doz buns.

So I went over to pick up some of the bread this afternoon after it had all cooled and she is cooking the most fantastic smelling/looking dinner; lots of veggis, spices, saucy meat. She said that lots of the ingredients she had to buy off-island but it looked like it was worth the effort. I complained I was going home to make meat and potatoes and I didn't even want to eat it.

Any good recipes with curry, something Thai, maybe Indonesian... send me a link to a great recipe online if you got one :) if there are weird spices I am sure I can raid a few cupboards to find what I need; odd vegetables are harder to find. I think the boys are even ready to try some new flavors. As long as dinner includes a meat group, B is up for it too.

A neighbourhood in Malpe Ridge?

2010-04-10T16:04:00.001-07:00

I'm doing some research for a family on our circle (aka cul-de-sac) planning a move to Maple Ridge this summer. The dad just got a position at Terry Fox and they hope to buy a townhouse in Maple Ridge. Any tips for a great neighbourhood? They have an almost 3 yr old and an 8 month old so they want to be close to an elementary school.
Just thought I would ask....
A rainy wet weekend so far. Made our first big garage sale purchase today. More info to come :)

Easter Weekend

2010-04-05T10:29:00.000-07:00

The long weekend is not even officially over and I am posting some pics. Pretty good eh? Truth is, I am avoiding studying. B and D just did a hair cut and then we are heading out for a walk.

We have had 4 consecutive days of amazing weather. Awesome.
Friday evening we went to Agate in search of scallops. I think washup season is long over. We only found a few shells.

The surf was huge. I was a bit nervous with the boys tempting the waves. All stayed dry and safe. On the drive back we saw a rainbow :)

Saturday we went back to Agate; did some whittling, beach walking, fire stoking, hot dog stick searching...
Wrestler was 'there' just did not come 'here' for the family photo.

Sunday afternoon we took out the machines to the dunes by the elephant cage.

Sunday evening we went to the Sangan with some buddies. Another beach fire, spaghetti in a pot, a few smores. good times.

Cousins

2010-04-05T10:22:00.000-07:00

A few recent photos with the cousins while we were in Rupert.
And the 'little girls'.

almost April... really?

2010-03-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

The longer days are finally upon us... it is not dark till almost 9pm and it was clear blue sky this am when I rode my bike to work at 7:30am; today's weather also included a sudden hail storm followed by pounding rain. A usual day here on the island.

Last week was busy; actually more exhausting than busy. B went to Rupert to say goodbye to his Grandpa, Simoiget Hagbegwatku, which means 'first-born of the nation'. He passed away a few days later. I am thankful that B got to see him one last time and that he was there the following days to spend time with his dad, Grandma, aunts and uncle while they prepared for Grandpa's memorial. In true Mennonite fashion, I was busy at home baking as many loaves of bread and cookies as I could to bring over for the apres-memorial snacks. The service for Grandpa was really great. Many people spoke fondly about him; his involvement in Cadets and mentoring of young people were common themes. He was a well respected Gitksan elder and chief. Grandma has decided to be a gypsy. She gave the boys some great prints and carvings. Ben got some old plates and bowls that he remembered using as a kid while visiting his grandparents in summer. He has several nostalgic plates, bowls, and cups. Interesting that food brings up such memories :) Grandma gave me a collection of old, like really old, handmade baskets. I hope she comes by the island this summer; she can teach me pine needle weaving and I can show her cedar weaving :)

While off-island we did some mega grocery shopping, saw a movie and went to Timmy's. The usual stops. The exciting purchases were a box of seed potatoes to plant in the front yard; on the high side of the yard away from the perma-puddle. D got a flat tire on his bike the day before we left (glass on the sidewalk is bad for tires and dogs) Now we can not find the flat tire we brought along for size. It might have been forgotten somewhere when it came out to pack away groceries. I can probably take the blame... but he has the new tube! I bought a great little cloth bag at the Rainforest Bookstore made in Nepal; very cool. We made our first sushi roll in Rupert and we found a back and forth cheap sprinkler. Why you ask... doesn't it rain enough on the island to water the moss? No, to leave under the truck and spray off the salt and sand after a beach drive.

Good news around here is that B heard from his boss today that his renewal contract just needs to be signed. The other bad news is the PoCo house is still for sale. It has been on the market almost 2 weeks. Our super renter is moving out this week and the 'staging' rental furniture is moving in soon.

Now I am back to work and my Lab Assistant Textbook stares at me to get studying.

I keep meeting people who read my blog and I take it as a sign to get a post up for my fans to read, like you auntie Vi and Ang!

Still waiting for the Schmidt-Burn baby to come. L did not respond to my email today. Either she does not want to answer another email 'no baby yet' or she is in labour!

the boys are home!

2010-03-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

It was nice to have less laundry and a cheaper grocery bill for the week but I'm happy to have the boys home. I think they needed a break from us as much as we needed a break from them.

Some sad news: a Tow Hill Rd landmark called Moon over Naikoon burnt to the ground a couple days ago. It was a museum of beachcombing treasures, a place to buy local artisan creations, and hands down the best coffee and treat stop on the way home from early morning crabbing :) It will be missed.

wicked weather

2010-03-10T17:19:00.000-08:00

This is probably the biggest March blow to come through here in awhile... I thought the winter storm season was over?

It got really cold on the weekend. Even got a dusting of snow that stayed on the ground. Then it warmed up and the wind kicked in. Intense is the only way to describe it; strong winds from every direction, pounding rain, sideways snow. Its nuts!

No float planes or ferries today. Praying for it to blow through by tomorrow morning at 10:40am when the boys plane lands :)

B and I are off for our special chop suey and chow mien dinner at the PAM and then to a movie called Food Inc. at the green church; this sounds like a facebook status, sorry :)

FYI: work is going really well. I will by flying solo next week when I start into my part-time hours. This full time training gig was tough; lots to learn, policies to read, veins to feel. Give me another few months and it will all be old hat.

bad knees

2010-02-27T15:27:00.000-08:00

B and I both saw the ortho doc this week; B is on the list for arthroscopic knee surgery (for his non-bionic or original knee) and it sounds like I have a partial ACL tear that could well heal on its own in 3-6 months. I have a referral for an MRI but in the meantime I will get to know the new physiotherapist (starting next month) and get serious about rehab. Still no game playing for me till I feel stable on me knee. nuts.

And in regards to the tsunami advisory today, there is a warning to stay off the beach in case of a high tide when it is not supposed to be high tide. We now have our evacuation gear easy to find in the basement and as long as we remember to grab the dog food, the 18L water jug, put on a jacket and good shoes, and raid the pantry on the way out the door, we will be fine.

Looking forward to a great hockey game tomorrow!

I need a nap

2010-02-24T18:22:00.000-08:00

First thing I did when I got home from Van was take a nap. I was pooped.

The 'necessary to do' list got done; get a new phone, refresh my wardrobe, find a realtor, pay the roofer

The 'had to wait a long time' people were seen; many family relations, my brand new little niece, my preggo sista LF

The 'specialist appointments' were completed; saw the esthetician and chiropractor

The 'only down south' stops; Sunday service at ERBF, Costco, sushi

I had a great coffee visit at Chapters, dinner at Earls, breakfast with the Swisher girls, cheesecake at the Hankey house, late night chats at the McW's, pecan pie with our Princeton neighbours in Coquitlam, and went to the Schmidt-burn baby shower with the soccer girls.

While I was away it was a non-vegetable eating long weekend accompanied by many hours of Xbox gaming. And with the awesome weather, there was some beach quadding and deer hunting. It was an all guy long weekend, but they still missed me :)

Back to work, back to school, piles of laundry and walk the dogs. Happy to be home.

Stay tuned for the PoCo house for sale announcement. Might be your lucky day to get some great garage sale deals too. We have 2 dog kennels, a big old Sony TV, and a free standing basketball hoop to sell off.

old phone wanted

2010-02-07T20:20:00.000-08:00

So when you buy the cheapest phone available the chance of it surviving an under water experience is unlikely. I have seen phones come back to life from a swim in the lake or a short submersion in the washing machine but mine was not so lucky. Lulu pockets are not the desired depth for keeping a cell phone safe while reaching over and washing the toilet, hence the need to ask around for a 'new to me' used Telus friendly cell phone.... anyone got one hiding in a box somewhere? I have given at least 2 retro phones to my parents and now I am asking for a similar one to come my way... ring ring?

If I am not so lucky, a phone will be added to my list of things to do while off-island. oh well.

You can still leave a message on my cell, send me an email, or even a facebook message. No texts will get replied to. I have to admit, I kinda like not having a phone... I feel lighter, free-er somehow. If the kids need something, they can still call dad :)

Big Decisions

2010-02-01T18:48:00.000-08:00

So there have been a few big decisions to start off the year.

1#) I registered for my first course of the Medical Lab Assistant program through Thompson Rivers University online. I told the boys I needed to see if I could still learn something new and my brain had not turned to mush. That was a good reason for them.

2#) B and I decided that the sale of our PoCo house was in the near future, like sometime this spring. It is not listed yet; got a leaky roof, broken fence and minor touchups to get it into top selling shape.

3#) I just got a new job! Because the lab is so short staffed they decided to have me start training asap while I am doing the course. Works for me. D's only concern was that he could still call me at work and that he has my number :) The best part of the new position is... hands down, wearing scrubs. B says that it's because it is the closest work attire to pajamas. I am sorry my fashion advisors out there, but yes, that is exactly why!

4#) I renewed my gym membership (ok not really a big decision but now I have to go). I did a number on my knee 5 weeks ago playing bball so I am not allowed to play games anymore; no frisbee, volleyball, bball. I have tried to play at 1/2 speed but I can't do it. I feel like a slacker and my knee feels unstable. I am taking it slow in kickboxing class (but no kicks/knees/sprawls for me), ride the bike at the gym, do leg strengthening exercises, and go for long beachwalks. I don't like to be injured :(

Can't wait for my visit south! There are so many people I want to see and lots of things to get done; I hope I can make it all happen!

Granola Bar recipe

2010-01-24T21:27:00.000-08:00

Granola Bar recipe

Sorry there is no picture included like on www.mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot.com :)

3c. quick-cooking rolled oats

1/2c. packed brown sugar

1/4c. wheat germ

1/2c. butter

1/4c. corn syrup

1/4c. liquid honey

1/2c. chocolate chips

1/2c. flaked coconut

combine rolled oats, brown sugar, wheat germ in bowl. cut in butter. stir in corn syrup and honey, choco chips, coconut

press into greased 9in square cake pan. bake at 350 for 20-25 mins or until golden. let cool on wire rack for 10 mins. cut into bars.

Uncle B, I know this might not be the most healthy granola bar out there but it does not come prepackaged and the boys ate it! I even added some flax seed to the last batch.

Also a word of warning: if you have a faulty oven like mine, and typically 425 is actually 350, there is a chance that 425 might actually be 450; evidence being the overdone muffins I made this evening :( I dream of a new oven... and new towels, bedsheets, shoes, and jeans. Can't wait to do some shopping in 24 days!

bread, granola and eggs

2010-01-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

I was just thinking about some of the things I am doing differently now; things I didn't have the time, interest, or care about doing pre-island days.

I am making bread at least once a week: bread, buns, pepperoni sticks, calzones, pizza... it takes various forms. The brand name bread comes in twice a week, super expensive. The Co-op has a bakery but I can make what they make no problem. My oven is the pits but I as long as I am patient and have the whole day, it works ok.

Our pantry has been void of packaged snack food for months. No granola bars, fruit snacks, pudding cups, fruit cups, crackers. They are so expensive and when a bag of groceries already costs $10-$20, why spend another $4 on filler? I have finally perfected making granola bars. I want to try a few variations with peanut butter, raisins or nuts. I'll see what my food critics think of the new creations.

And I love my farm fresh little brown eggs I get from a lady on the other side of town. She has about 10 hens and they are super egg making machines! Whenever I can I stock up on eggs from her. We use almost 2 dozen eggs a week, maybe I need my own chickens. Wouldn't that be fun :)

December 20

2009-12-20T20:22:00.000-08:00

It was a beautiful day on Haida Gwaii; just had to share.

Last week the Tahayghen Boys and Girls Volleyball team brought home the banner; or the 'chip, the cup, first place, a blue ribbon! Check out J's killer serves and digs.

And here are my weaving projects. I hope the little girls like their gifts :)

VOTE for MASSET on GAMESTOWN 2010

2009-12-16T20:31:00.000-08:00

I thought I would post this in an attempt to get some more votes for Masset to get much needed $$$ to rebuild the recreation centre by winning www.gamestown21020.com. Polls close in 19 days!

This town is in dire need of funds to rebuild the recreation centre. There was one built by the CFS in the 70's and it closed the doors September 2009 because the fund to keep the lights on, pool heated, and make repairs had run dry.

I found some base history and the following description of the recreation centre at http://www.troywoodintarsia.com/cfsm/cfsm.htm

-a recreation building containing a swimming pool, theatre, snack bar, gymnasium, weight room, squash court, bowling alleys, beauty parlour and barber shop. In later years a 2 sheet curling rink was constructed-

Because there is no recreation centre, children can not learn to swim in a safe environment (maybe they are supposed to learn in ocean waves and currents and then be comfortable in the water when they are out on fishing boats?), teenagers now hang out on the steps at the corner store (apparently the old rec centre was popular with local youth) and programs are currently scheduled into already busy elementary and high school gym space.

We are a northern community and with December 21 coming up next week, I am very glad that the hours of darkness will soon start to get shorter. Today it was only getting light as the kids went to school about 8:45am and it is getting dark soon after 4pm. Now throw in some rain, fog or storm clouds and there is only dim light all day. For the sake of the dark winter months, we need a recreation centre!

So if you have a minute, check out www.gamestown2010.com and Vote for MASSET (and you can vote for Port Coquitlam too.)

Christmas countdown...

2009-12-06T18:55:00.000-08:00

I feel like it is December 22 with only a few days left to get everything organized; reason being I am sending (via the Pacific Coastal flight) down a box-of-gifts-and-cards for my dad to pick up and play Santa on Thursday. I have almost everything ready; not done the cards which always take longer to do that anticipated, and I have one more weaving project to finish. The little Gitksan dancing girls are getting a very special gift this year from auntie. I work Monday, I have an errand to run in Charlotte on Tuesday, I work Wednesday... Get the picture of my time crunch? I will get a pic posted of my handiwork soon, but don't show the girls :)

After that, the next few weeks are looking good; the boys have their final volleyball game-day in Port on Friday, D's birthday is on Saturday, and the Christmas concert, school pancake breakfast, and my work party is the following week. Good times. B is just laughing with 17 days off over Christmas while I am working the whole time. My co-worker is going back east for the holidays so I am covering for her. She owes me some time off in the New Year for sure. We have an invite for Christmas Eve and Christmas day dinner so that is really great.

Back to my weaving.

Storm by Lifehouse

2009-11-30T16:39:00.000-08:00

All that talk about rough seas... here's my favorite STORM lyrics :)

how long have I
been in this storm
so overwhelmed by the ocean's shapeless form
water's getting harder to tread
with these waves crashing over my head

if I could just see you
everything will be alright
if I'd see you
the storminess will turn to light

and I will walk on water
and you will catch me if I fall
and I will get lost into your eyes
and everything will be alright
and everything will be alright

I know you didn't
bring me out here to drown
so why am I 10 feet under and upside down
barely surviving has become my purpose
cause I'm so used to living underneath the surface

if I could just see you
everything will be alright
if I see you
the storminess will turn to light

and I will walk on water
and you will catch me if I fall
and I will get lost into your eyes
and everything will be alright

and I will walk on water
you will catch me if I fall
and I will get lost into your eyes
and everything will be alright
I know everything is alright
everything's alright

Crazy days...

2009-11-30T14:12:00.000-08:00

With the shorter days, low sun in the sky and cooler temperatures, the road out of Masset is a skating rink; or maybe an ice roller coaster with the hills and curves on the way to Port. We had a cold spell a few weeks ago and this pic was the evidence of slick roads; a car with organic matter still stuck in the door from sliding off the road and down an embankment. There is no shoulder room on the roads here. Ice or not, if you leave the pavement you are quite likely to slip down into the water filled ditch, trench, pond...whatever you want to call it.

And the storm season is upon us evident from the empty grocery shelves, no mail for almost 2 weeks and the terrifying ferry crossing last week. Talking with some people that were on the boat, they thought they were going to flip right over and with 10 metre seas in the middle of the night, no one would have survived. People were in the main passenger area, lying on the floor, hanging into the chairs for dear life as the boat goes sideways almost to the point of no return. Several people were injured, some vehicles were damaged, the kitchen was a disaster, the gift shop was all over the floor... and this went on for hours! They were on the boat for 14 hours before it returned to Prince Rupert. The noise of plates breaking and tables, chairs, garbage cans rolling around, the boat crashing down on the waves, the wind howling, the vehicles on the car deck shifting and banging around, people crying... it is something right out of a movie. If this ferry crossing is news to you, it is probably because we are such a small population and so far away from the powers that be no one hears about it or cares for that matter. If this happened on a Tsawwassen to Victoria crossing it would be a different story. I just laugh when I hear the Vancouver traffic reports about a ferry being out of service, or delays at the terminal and the news crew is there interviewing people in their cars who have to wait in long lineups. And the reporter asks if they think another boat is needed for the Lower Mainland-Vancouver Island run on busy holiday weekends... Give me a break people!

The kicker is that our 'new' ferry, the Northern Adventure, was a used boat from the Mediterranean (with a flat hull, no good for rough waters) and a quick purchase by BCFerries after the Queen of the North went down and needed to be replaced. It is not meant for crossing the Hecate Strait where huge waves and big storms can come up suddenly. Sure it has lovely estate rooms and nice viewing decks but when the boat is rocking, who cares! BCFerries has since purchased a brand new boat, the Northern Expedition, but it does the Prince Rupert to Port Hardy run. Apparently this boat is far too big for service to the island... but at least we would get on and off this rock safely! I am getting far too political for this blog. I digress.

It is expected that rough weather will delay the delivery of food to the island. No point going out for milk when there is none to be found. And the craziest thing is that I don't mind it a bit! We have a freezer full of deer and fish, I have a huge bag of grain for making bread, lots of cans in the pantry... I only suffer from a lack of fresh fruits and vegetables; the boys could care less.

found it!

2009-11-11T16:28:00.000-08:00

The garbage can was discovered in the neighbours yard behind a broken fence that also came down in the same wind. A secure lid and can are an essential household item when there are ravens around. I didn't price out a new one at the Co-op but it I would guess it would be a $50 investment, if they have it in stock :)

The cake flopped :(

2009-11-09T20:41:00.000-08:00

I thought the Chocolate Orange Cake looked a bit off. I've made it a 100 times before. When I took it out of the oven it was not quite the right height and the colour was a bit lighter than usual, but the knife came out clean even after an hour in the oven so I thought it was good to go. I wanted to taste it but how can you sneak a piece from a bundt cake without birthday boy saying 'who ate my cake?' It could have been our shotty oven, the tin-y bundt pan I borrowed from the neighbours or maybe the Co-op sale eggs... I served the first piece to B and almost cried. I had invited some of our peeps over and they were all very gracious is saying the cake was 'kinda like fudge cake', 'it's not so bad', or 'it doesn't look raw'. I was so embarrassed. End of story.

The Olympic Torch made it to Haida Gwaii

2009-11-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

The local newspaper wrote that between 7:45-8:00 the torch would arrive in Skidegate but even though this was a well orchestrated event, it was going to start on island time. We watched the sunrise while waiting for the canoe to appear.

About 8:45 we saw the canoe carrying the torch round the corner.

A few other pics and video to check out:

Video#1

Video#2

We parked just past the museum so we could get out ahead of the relay on the road to Queen Charlotte City. In Charlotte was hot chocolate, muffins and very cool bottles of Coke (according to the boys). It was a more structured event with speeches, Olympic 'soundtrack' music, and sponsor tents. Of course, the boys needed a feeding so we stopped at our favorite burger joint. A pic of the starving kids (I had a truckload of boys):

Then a photo op at Balance Rock. No doubt the coolest rock around. Just awesome that the storms can not get this rock rock to budge and roll over!

And a Halloween pic for good measure. J did not dress up this year, but D was right into it with his crew.

6:30am

2009-11-02T17:20:00.000-08:00

We are out the door early tomorrow morning to drive to QC to see the torch relay; gone at 6:30am sharp. It arrives in Skidegate at 8am then to QC for a 9am ceremony. I will post pics when we get back!

Willing to trade cookies for...

2009-11-02T13:16:00.000-08:00

Fish, Scallops, or Deer. This morning I made a sweet trade for Halibut. fish for dinner :)

Where is the garbage can?

2009-10-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

Either it blew away in the wind, washed away in the rain or flew away with the ravens. Regardless of how it went, it's gone.

One Year Anniversary

2009-10-18T10:49:00.000-07:00

Our road trip to Oregon for my brothers wedding finished with a ferry ride back to the island on Oct 4. It's the same Sunday night ferry that we took over here with the U-haul exactly one year ago.

We left the island Sept 17 and drove to Princeton to meet our Swiss cabin dwellers and Lucy, D&C's new puppy.

The boys tried really hard to convince me we should get one of Lucy's litter-mates. no such luck.

A total of 48 hrs was spent in PoCoMoVan. Super busy driving all over to get stuff done and see family and friends :)

Then off to Newport Oregon for the wedding! We had great weather; lots of sun, very little fog, super windy and the waves were huge. There was sandrail cruising, a round of golf, noisy sealions, a fire on the beach and of course a beautiful wedding.

CONGRATS B&J :)

One the drive home D had a good observation. He says 'all my uncles are you and dads brothers. Good thing they get married so we can have some aunts'

Missing from the family shot are my brother M's wife and 21 month old lil'J because #2 child was coming... and here she is:

Here's lil'J shooting some hoops

Now we are back into the groove at home. The boys are playing indoor soccer at school and doing lots of Math homework. B's wrestling and kickboxing classes are getting pretty full. We need to start fundraising and applying for grant$ to get some more mats and equipment. I am trying to cut back my dr. clinic work hours to free up some time to do my postpartum doula stuff and I am helping with a jr girls bball team. Somehow I got roped into more PAC involvement at school just to top it all off.

But the highlight of the week is that today is the 12th and final day of the boys (just the kids, not B, he eats well already) and my cleanse! With the boys we were finding that a treat was no longer a treat if it was a regular occurrence. Time to take hard action and B decided to include a $ incentive; for every day the boys followed the food plan, they would get $2. I was feeling a bit blah about squeezing into my jeans so I had good motivation as well. The cleanse was no dairy, no flour, no pasta, no sugar, and no quick pre-packed snacks in the pantry! The boys had a few cheats along the way because they could not handle the salad and meat meal plan every night. I am hoping that the box of granola bars, fruit cups, and crackers we have in stock will last a LONG time.

I have so many people I want to email tonight... better get to it!

wild wind and the first week of school

2009-09-10T12:51:00.000-07:00

When is wind too windy? right about now! My walk with the dogs this morning was challenging at best. It was difficult walking south into the south easterly but I had a speedy pace coming back. Even the dogs had to brace themselves a few times. I'm thankful our house is in line with the wind, just a howling when the wind hits the front door roof line jutting out. The houses that get the wind straight on must shake, rattle and roll in all the force.

And I am so glad to report that school has got off to a great start and the boys are happy in their classes. D came home for lunch today and did not stop chatting about the new math game he learned. He told us all the rules; I just can't follow. Usually it is J we have the conversation that goes 'yup.. un-hu... sounds cool... ok...yeah...' J's update is that the grade 7's get PE everyday. He said it was a grade 7 privilege. Little does he know that kids can focus a whole lot better after they have let off some energy :)

I am off with my new friend R and baby A to go visit T&S and baby F. I finally have some moms of mat-leave to go for walks with on my days off. Your turn on mat-leave will come soon enough Mrs. F and I will come hang with you too :)

A Historical Event

2009-08-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

The last weekend my parents were here, Aug 22/23, there was an amazing event in the village. 40 years ago, a pole was carved by a 22 year old Haida man and it was raised infront of the Anglican church in Old Masset. The carvers name is Robert Davidson. The Davidson family celebrated this anniversary with a feast complete with singing, dancing, and inspiring words at the Hall. I don't know the numbers in attendance but it was a packed house, maybe 700 people witnessed the event.

It had been almost 100 years since the last pole went up before this pole in 1969. The potlatch ban of 1884 tried to end all things culturally important to the First Nations people. In B's family, songs were recorded in his great grandma's kitchen back in the 50's in an attempt to keep the songs and language from being lost and forgotten. There was a special mask that was hidden in the walls of the house so that it would not be confiscated. There were no more potlatches, feasts, ceremonies, poles, masks, singing, dancing, longhouses... I think Robert Davidson said they had just a couple songs and dances to celebrate the raising of his pole in '69. They had no masks and so a dancer that needed a mask used a paper bag over their head. When the potlatch ban was omitted from the Indian Act in 1951, the First Nations cultural activities were almost lost.

On the Friday night Grand Entrance, there were over a hundred of dancers; beautiful blankets (several raven's tail style woven), lots of cedar hats, 14 (?) huge box drums all painted inside, masks of all shapes and sizes: lots of eagle and raven with the clapping beak, a few killer whale, one mask had huge eyes that blinked, and there were several transformation masks. It was beautiful visual art. The sound of the drums and the power of so many voices singing was very cool. (I had lots of shiver down the spine moments over the weekend). The Haida culture is alive and well!

The drum beat was led by 'Gogeet' (?). The wild man or bigfoot of the forest. He was the first to come out, that is why there are no dancers yet :)

There was a feast both Friday night and Saturday night (fantastic soup!) and dance performances from groups all over the island and from Alaska. Throughout the weekend, Robert and Reg shared some wonderful inspiring words with all in attendance.

Here is the pole today infront of the church. We met there on Saturday afternoon. In the weeks before this event there were a few local guys who worked on restoring it; cleaned it up a bit and added some fresh paint.

Below are ladies dancing with Robert and Reg Davidson leading the singers.

At the Saturday night feast, a gift was presented; I will have to research the details to be sure who it was from and who it was to before posting. It was a painting of a photograph taken the day the pole was raised in 1969. The young men raising the pole are recognizable and so are many of the elders in the background. It gives a glimpse into the past of that historic day. On Monday morning, while I was at work, the painting went up at the Hospital lobby. It was decided this was an appropriate place to display for all the community to see.

My parents left on Monday with a full blown BC Ferry 'get off the rock' experience. The ferry was broken in Prince Rupert for a few days; three sailings were missed with one of them being their reserved spot on Saturday. Once the ferry made it to the island, they had to get in the stand-by lineup. But over night the winds picked up. They got into the lineup about 7am, spent the day waiting on the ferry and it did not leave Skidegate till 8pm due to a 'weather delay'.

Just a few more days of summer vacation... I'm looking forward to getting back into the school routine.

More Family Time

2009-08-27T09:36:00.001-07:00

And then some aunts and uncles came up for a visit. What a crazy bunch of relatives. There was lots of eating, laughing, playing voilent games of 'spoons'... I learned that my stellar card playing techniques must have come from my dad's side of the family. Sorry uncle L, but your sister A had interesting card-playing strategies:)

The guys all went fishing one day, we did some beachcombing, had smokies over a fire on the beach even though I am pretty sure the fire ban was not lifted yet (oops), visited the museum in Skidegate, and hiked Tow Hill.

Here are almost all of us (we left D back on the trail. He had sore feet) out on the rocks at the Blow Hole. Lots of interesting tide pools.

Here is the platform trail through the trees. We spied out mushrooms along the way.

and D is getting pretty strong. I think I saw the balancing rock sway just a little.

Family Time

2009-08-08T09:46:00.001-07:00

Well the family arrived in full force last weekend. My parents drove up, (they are here for 3 weeks and are renting their own PMQ) and my brother with preggo sis-in-law and little J flew up along with Opa (the GREAT grandpa) for a 4 day visit.

Papa and little J taking a walk.
Opa, my dad and I at the beach

At the same time, B's side of the family stayed at our place for their 5 day adventure. There was Grandma, auntie, uncle, 2 cousins and the dog. They never stopped. We barely got in the door from a morning out crabbing and Grandma says 'So what are we doing next? Are you ready to go yet? Where can I go shopping?' We sent her off to Fields and she came home with a bagfull of stuff.

We ate A LOT of crab.

The kids crabbed, quadded, snorkled and surfed like pros.

J and R had fun hanging out.

We also witnessed our first truck being lost to the ocean. We were out crabbing one foggy morning: I did not see the water line till I was about 20 ft away so I pulled a U-turn and headed back for a higher ground. We came upon this guy trying to shovel himself out of the wet sand just a few feet from the low tide line. Things went from bad to worse as the tide started to come in. We pushed, some guys from Smithers on quads pulled, then a truck with Alberta plates came along but by then the water was coming under the truck and he was sinking deeper. It was a case of a bunch of tourists trying to help this guy but they didn't have a local know-how to do it. I showed the video to our neighbour and he says 'what was the problem? I could have got him out'. I left my truck up on the sand bar. No way I was going out there to get stuck beside this guy too :)

A drive to the East Side

2009-08-08T09:09:00.000-07:00

Last week, before all the family started arriving, the boys and I went out to Rose Spit and East Beach with some local friends for the day. This destination is probably the most 'out there' place I would ever go without B along and I would never go without another vehicle. We were going to pick wild strawberries but once the kids got into the water looking for crabs, there was no going pickin'. I did not know that the East side was closed to non-natives so my card carrying boys caught lunch for the gang.

There was good crab hunting in the tidal pools.

A feast on the beach!

And when the tide came in, the sand bar was a good runway from the warm tidal pool water to the cooler ocean water.

Unfortunately, J felt the wrath of a jelly fish and he was quite uncomfortable the ride back home.

July 09 Pictures

2009-07-28T22:37:00.000-07:00

Maybe if I get a bunch of new pictures on here at one time it will make the posting easier: here it goes...

This is an action shot of the jello eating contest at cousin R's 9th birthday party in Vancouver. It was a lovely warm day (before the temperature kicked up a notch). We gave her a North Beach surf shirt, can't find that down in the city :)

We spent an evening at D&C's place. Here's another action shot of the sandal flinging contest... there is a little park behind their house and they were kicking off their shoes to go over the alley and up over the neighbours garage. No shoes were lost in the playing of this game. The boys also tried out the water balloon launcher and balloon rockets that D&C will take up to Princeton for the huge group camp out this summer.
Lounging on the new deck at D&C's place. AK came over for a visit too.

We spent a day at Kits watching the Beach Volleyball Tourney. Uncle B came out from Toronto to referee the event and soon-to-be Auntie J came from Cincinnati to hang with the family too.

J and grandpa had a front row seat at centre court.

We have had fantastic weather here the past week. Every morning starts of foggy but it clears up by mid day. Last weekend we went out at low tide behind the elephant cage. B made a fire, the boys rode the machines and we waited for the fog to lift. Then I got a sunburn :(

And there were super low tides last week; perfect for crabbing. The wind was very light so there were no crashing waves to make the crab catching difficult. It was the best day yet.

The crew of crab hunters.

And we have a freezer full of fish thanks to the two outings B has had. Here is B processing the fish in the backyard.

Here is the catch!

Now I will enjoy my last few lazy days until the waves of family start arriving in town all through August then it will be g0-go-go. From little cousin J at 1.5yrs old to Great Grandpa, we will have fun stuff to do with everyone!

I would rather be...

2009-07-24T17:00:00.000-07:00

rolling pennies
peeling potatoes
pitting cherries
looking for the special lego piece in D's collection of 1000's.

the list could go on... but when there are 2 bags full of delicious cooked crab in the fridge, they must be shelled, packed, frozen and saved for another day. Apparently I should be canning it. no thanks. too much prep work for me. My back is killing me standing over the sink that long. B's pliers came in quite handy though.

I spent hours yesterday cleaning out the freshly caught and cooked batch; I made a hot crab dip and an orzo/veggi/crab salad to take to K's birthday party, where we ate even more crab... I got the leftovers to take home.

I have been using www.allrecipes.com for my crab and halibut recipes. Didn't even think to look on the oracle of all wonderful recipes www.mennonitegirlscancook.blogspot. Since when do us mennos cook seafood? My mom never did :) I just looked on there and there are a few. hmm. I guess we can.

How'aa

2009-07-21T16:54:00.000-07:00

I just got home from a wild weekend in Vancouver picking up the boys. So much to do, so many people to see... and some of you were not even home when I stopped by unannounced :) We will be down again for a bit mid-September so maybe I'll catch you then!

So a big How'aa very very very much to everyone who spent time with our boys the past few weeks: thanks so much for your time, your caring, your spare room, your patience, your driving, your entertaining, your FOOD! They had a great visit with family and friends; reports back were that a good time was had by all, especially little cousin J.

The rest of July will be TBA around here. I am only working a few days a week to leave lots of room for FUN stuff like crabbing, fishing, beaching, camping, wave jumping... Then in August, we will be the official Masset Tour Guides (we should get T-shirts made) with all the family coming through town for a visit. More good times to come this summer :)

Looking forward to HAIDA GWAII MMA class happening tonight. Ben had a really good turn out last week and with the new equipment he just got, classes will be even tougher. I think we need MMA T-shirts too!

missing the boys

2009-07-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

It has been really quiet here the last week. It's quite different without the boys around... there is little laundry to do and few dishes to wash. I quite enjoy the quiet lunch hour at home with B; maybe over summer, lunch would not have been so rushed anyways. I open the fridge and there is always food in there. We haven't even finished the jug of milk and the cheese has almost expired. So while they are in Van, we will enjoy the peace and quiet. My grubby, hungry, noisy, messy boys will be home soon :) but I do miss them.

Schools out for summer!

2009-06-25T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here is a post I wrote last week but it takes more time to add the pics: so here it is, finally.

This is a very popular Guitar Hero song around here today! Yeah!

It has been a busy couple weeks, lots going on... no matter where you live, I think June is the craziest month of the year when you have kids in school. There is not a lot of schoolwork happening, just lots of fun stuff. We are not at the age yet where there is exam stress, but that will come soon enough.

It started off with a Track and Field meet in Sandspit. Only 4 lanes on the field, only 4 schools in the district. The boys won ribbons in a variety of colours. nice work.

Next was Sports Day and every class picked their own team colour. D's class was the pink team. There were a lot of girls in the class :)

We played baseball on nice evenings. Here is proof I was on the field and not sitting in the stands as a spectator huddled in a blanket. When the team was short on players the boys would be asked to play too. They were pretty pumped.

Last weekend we camped at the Hiellen River and caught a few crab. just delicious!

My mom flew in on Monday and has worked all week. She is a real trooper getting right back into the routine after being retired almost 5 years. I think she has met everyone on the hospital, has chatted up lots of patients, and is baking buns with the kitchen crew tomorrow morning. Have you met my mom yet?

Then we had Beach Day complete with a huge game of capture the flag, lots of tug-of-war challanges and hot dogs for lunch.

Yesterday was the awards assembly and both boys were on the stage for 'outstanding academic' awards and J got some math and athletic certificates too.

Today was the last day of class and with that comes report cards: they did great. And the grand finale of the day was a helicopter ride. My friend KM works at the airport and got us connected. It was a last minute arrangement so B was not able to make it but I took the boys and they each had a friend along for the ride. It was my first time in a chopper. J sat in the front and got to chat with the poilet.

There were 100's of sea loins along this sand bar.

I didn't know the end of Old Masset had this peninsula (I think that is what it is called?) We will hike out there and check it out sometime.

The boys had such a great year. School was fun, there was zero homework stress, J played every sport available (D will next year being in grade 6), D matured a lot this year (I think because I was working it forced him to 'stand on his own 2 feet' a bit more) and they made some good friends.

Happy to finally grow flowers and ride my bike

2009-06-16T18:54:00.000-07:00

I was feeling a bit down last week... missing my flowers in the yard in PoCo... We were having beautiful sunshine, saw blossoms on the berry bushes, wild flowers were growing, the bird sanctuary had gone from brown to green... I missed my flowers; so I decided to do something about it :) With a shovel in hand I got some asters from B in the village, M gave me some hostas and astillbe, C across the street donated a few plants (I have to look it up the name. There are some plants growing here I have never seen before, weeds included!) and I dug up some lupins from the side of the road heading out of town. I've never been able to successfully transplant the ones brought home from our travels but there are so many here, they better grow! I brought come crococsmia, daises, black eye susan, sedum, and japanese anemone from back home. The only resident plants here are some cedar hedges, a HUGE poppy plant and a very nice shrub with little white flowers (I have no idea what it is called). I figured if we were still here next year, it would be nice to have a colourful front yard. However, I followed NO gardening rules I learned from my neighbour back in the 'hood because I had limited product to work. I did my best to take into account odd numbers of groupings, folliage colour/texture, height/spacing... and all that landscape design stuff. I just can't get over how big everything grows here. The berry bushes grow inches every day, buttercups that usually are low in the grass grow like flowers on a stem, there is a white wild flower that looks like yarrow but 10x taller and wider, some bigger lupins look almost 4 ft tall... this place has real garden potential. Enough about gardening.

So when I say next year, I do hope we are here another year... we have to see how work goes and then see if we can rent this place longer...? all very TBA but we are not ready to come back to the big city quite yet!

And I am very happy to be riding on two wheels again. My bike had been down and out for months but I got it fixed in Rupert last time we were off-island and it's good to go. Kinda silly to drive the truck 2 mins to work when a 4 min bike ride is the alternative. I even rode out to the baseball game in the village last weekend... when I got there I found out that they were waiting for me to start the game. Apparently I am on the team, as terrible a ball player that I am, but every game I have played we won; 'you are like a lucky pair of socks' they told me :)

Lots happening in the next few days: we are going crabbing tomorrow (a good excuse for B to buy a BIG crab net) and camp out at the beach for Saturday night, on Sunday there is a pole raising in the Village outside the Hall with a feast to follow, Monday is beach day for the school, Wed there is an awards assembly (J's teacher said we should be there) and Thursday is the last day of school! YEAH!

Next week my mom comes for a 'work' visit and then the boys will head to Rupert with B to visit family over there too. I'm looking forward to my quick trip south in July and then having lots of family relations come visit in August. It will be a FUN summer :)

I will get some pics on here soon to prove I am actually playing baseball (I usually play catcher, I can catch ok but I have a terrible throw back to the pitcher. don't laugh LF!), and show you the buckets full of crab we are going to catch this weekend!

Haida never get lost...

2009-05-30T18:53:00.000-07:00

...only delayed. This was the best one-liner of the day :)

Yesterday started out as a cedar bark gathering adventure. Harvesting the bark is step one of making a traditional cedar hat so we wanted to learn how that was done.

It was a beautiful day, not too windy, not to cloudy, not at all rainy. We drove down a forest service road just outside of Port and stopped at the end to get into the bush where the cedar trees grew straight and tall. We walked along the spongy moss covered ground and stepped over downed trees and stumps looking for the perfect cedar tree.

We had to find a tree that was the right diameter, did not have too thick outer bark, not too many branches, no signs of bark twisting and had good inner bark. Quite the check list just to find a tree to take a strip.

We pulled 10 good sized bundles before we started to think about heading out to get lunch back at the trucks... which direction were the trucks again?? We followed the fallers tape, looked for the road clearing, scanned the trees for a nearby lake... all of which should get us closer to food and the trucks but no luck. After doing a big circle and getting back to where we started, we headed into a recent cut block to get a better view of our whereabouts. We spied a cabin...

with a driveway that led to a road... we passed a few other deserted cabins with treasures (we will go back and scavenge around one day)... and we kept following the road that had to take us somewhere...

By early afternoon the kids were now quite tired and hungry so M and I kept going in search of the truck. While walking down the road we saw bear tracks, albeit old ones but I was glad I brought along the axe in case of trouble. Another few kms down the road we found the fork that would take us back to our trucks... only 6 km away. Thankfully some other cedar bark gatherers were coming down the same way, gave us a lift back to the trucks and we went back to pick up B and the kids. They had prepared a lovely fire pit and we roasted our hot dogs for lunch which was more like dinner. So we were not late (planning to be back home by 4pm), just delayed.

May Long Weekend

2009-05-18T22:03:00.001-07:00

Our first May long weekend in many years we have not gone to Princeton with C&D: miss you guys :) ... I wonder how our little cabin is doing: did it make it through the winter? how is the roof holding up? windows? are there critters squatting inside? was there still snow on the ground this year?

The boys had no school on Friday so we packed up the truck and headed to Cape Fife via North Beach Dr. to Rose Spit lane to East Beach Blvd. Our neighbours R&E were our travel guides to get there; even saw a beached fin whale just past Carpenters Rd. Pretty cool (but also kinda sad) to see a whale up close.
The cabin was vacant so we moved our stuff in and not a moment too soon as the wind picked up and the rain came down over night. The kids didn't care it was cold.... they explored around the tidal lake, found a bunch of old net buoys, and played in the 'sinking sand'.

Inside the cabin were 2 of these bunk beds, a big picnic table and a wood stove.

Tonnes-o-logs on the beach.

Off the East coast of the island is where the Naikoon Wind project is proposed. There is a test tower about 6miles off shore and we could just see it.

It was so windy that all my pics were a bit blurry. Had to be the wind, not the photographer :)

Saturday morning we packed up after breakfast and headed back to town for Harbour Days. B had a noon softball game in a gentle rain shower followed by a late afternoon game in a torrential rain storm. No such thing as a rain-out here. They were slipping in the outfield, splashing in the mud at home plate and sat huddled under the roof between innings. But the highlight was the dog that snuck in and grabbed a glove and then took off out of the park... I think the guy got his glove back but it was pretty funny.

Sunday morning was a lazy day with pancakes at home instead of at the festival pancake breakfast. Then off to the flea market and the boys stayed there with some buddies selling caramel apples. Ben and I headed to softball for the afternoon and the boys hung out in town. (above pics are from Sunday; with the cloudy weather there were fans in the stands) I got regular phone calls with their whereabouts; we are at the roller-rink, we had a burger for lunch, we are on the fire truck, we are in the parade, we are at Atwells getting balloons for a water fight, I lost my money; I had $8 in my pocket and now it is gone. Finally back home for dinner and a movie followed by fireworks at the rec. centre field. good times :)

Monday morning was sunny and the motorcycle was calling B's name so he headed off for a ride to Port Clements. The boys and I headed over to the Hospital to watch the raising of the Haida Medicine Story Pole carved by Christian White. It was very cool to see it go vertical and a little bit scary when the pole did a bit of a sway as it reached the top... Ben met us there and found a place holding the rope. I required lots of strong arms to move into place and hold the lines tight.

Carver, Christian White in the dark cedar hat and white T-Shirt

The fellow in the grey t-shirt with his back to the pic (sorry, I don't know his name) was the conductor of the pole raising orchestra. He would yell directions and the crew did exactally what they were told. He got total silence when he gave the order to pull the ropes; "more tension on this side, pull tighter over there"... a fantastic community effort!All in an exciting weekend here on Haida Gwaii :)

There are a couple more poles being raised around town in the next couple months and there is a 40th anniversary celebration of a pole carved by Robert Davidson happening this summer. I will find out when it is... maybe when my parents are here to visit :)

First Campout

2009-05-09T14:01:00.001-07:00

We went camping beside the Tlell River last weekend. Thankfully the weather held and there was only wind to deal with. The tents were blown over a few times until we got them anchored securely. We spent the first afternoon trying to get a HUGE tarp set up in case of rain but the wind worked against us and it kept flying away...

The boys had fun 'hunting aliens' in the bushes around the site. D had his toque covered in moss; he was almost invisible in the brush. J found this tree close by: a woodpecker hole and mushrooms on the same tree!

Here is my fast forward or flash back pic: father and son. I had to laugh.

Friday night whale watch

2009-05-09T13:44:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night we got a call from the neighbour 'Come see the whale in the inlet close to the hospital!" So we pulled a 'Schmidtty' (or u-turn) and headed back towards the village and stopped on the side of the road, along with dozens of other cars, and we got out to see the grey whale. A pic hardly does it justice but you can see the spray... and imagine the sound; it is like water being blown out of a snorkel. And the sound carried so well across the flat water. Almost made me jump if I was not ready and watching to see where the whale would surface. I have been told that whales in the inlet are very uncommon. They often come around soon after or just before an elder passes away. In the few days surrounding the whale visit, there were 3 deaths in town.

Finally it is Spring!

2009-04-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

Even though the trees are still just budding and the perennials are up only a few inches, it now feels like spring.

We have had great weather this week... Started off windy, cool and clear but in the last few days the wind has stopped and out came the tank tops and shorts all around town. I have seen lots of soft ice cream cones, one PT Cruiser with the top down, a couple guys outside working on old quads, 3 houses on our street have fresh cut grass, B has joined a softball team and track and field season has started at school.

It is also razorclam season and today D's class went digging. His buddy R was one of the more experienced diggers and he gave us all the good tips: look for the indent in the sand (even stomp beside it to be sure it bubbles), put the shovel in straight down with the blade on the ocean side, give a quick dig and straight out, toss the shovel and start digging! The clam is really quick and moves deeper but after a few handfulls of sand you can feel it and start to pull it out.

But it almost feels like summer because it is light so early and late! Not sure when the sun comes up (it is bright as day at 7am) but i think the sun sets about 9:30pm and it is light till almost 10pm. crazy!

3 boats

2009-04-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Mrs. L.F. for the great picture and description below. I think she is Haida Gwaii's newest island holiday promoter :)

The Queen of Prince Rupert (smallest one) did its last sailing yesterday. It has been officially retired from service. Northern Adventure (middle) has now taken over for all north routes but will do only the Queen Charlotte run June-Sept. Northern Expedition (largest and farthest away) starts in May on the direct Port Hardy – Prince Rupert run. It dwarfs the two other boats!

badminton, buffet dinner, theatre, playground, and books

2009-04-18T15:17:00.000-07:00

What do all these things have in common?? nothing!

Top of this entry I will cut/paste my note I just sent to family/friends about the boys school playground fundraiser...

The boys school has a big fundraiser happening to raise money for a new playground. The old climbing structure is made of wood and it is rotting away; every week a board is dismantled because it is unsafe. Time to get a new one!

We are doing a raffle fundraiser with fantastic prizes...

1st prize: 1/2 in. silver bracelet by James Sawyer (your choice of design)

2nd prize: 2 prints by Reg Davidson (2 eagle and frog)

3rd prize: Argelite Eagle necklace carved by Vern Williams donated by Sara's Longhouse

Tickets are $5 each or 3 for $10. Draw date April 27. If you want to support our Playground effort, check to see if your online banking has "email money transfer" then I can put your name on a ticket ASAP.

J had a great showing at the badminton round robin in Port this week. 3 and 0. The hours of summertime extreme badminton in the PoCo backyard earned him a spot on the school squad. All he had to do was catch up on the rules and he was good to go. Our school won in overall points so now we play the winner of the south island in the final.

Last night we went to a buffet dinner in the village. It was a fundraiser for the Culinary Arts program. great fun, great food, lots of people!

After the dinner, a few of us went on to see a live theatre show at the hall in town. It was called Here We Speak One Language: A Spring Celebration of Story. It had great music, a creative set, and an insightful storyline. Another full house event.

This morning, I went out for a walk/jog with my buddy K along the loop trail and on the way back through town we stopped to visit the gang at the Masset Firefighters Car Wash (too bad my boys washed the truck last weekend) and I was able to borrow the latest book club book, called "Three Cups of Tea" (check it out on chapters.ca). I have to read it by next Sunday evening and K wants to read it too, better get reading.

I also got an email that my library book was ready to pick up, called "The Shack". I have been waiting since November to get my turn so I have 2 weeks for that one. If reading books is the biggest timeline stress I have around here, that's ok by me!

Almost forgot about Revenue Canada paperwork to file pretty quick. I knew there was something I was suppose to get done :)

n

out of stock

2009-04-11T13:24:00.000-07:00

So I missed out on buying hot dogs buns for the beach fire tomorrow. I got the 'dogs last week when I saw them on sale and thought I should wait to buy the buns. Guess I waited too long. I also walked right past the foil Easter eggs when we were down in Van... thought I would get some up here. They were sold out last week too.

But I learned a new shopping tip today: The bananas that did not sell during the week are on sale for .99 a bag on Saturday morning (but they were already gone when I was at the store about 1pm today). At 1.69/lb I am not buying bananas just to go over ripe to make the boys banana choco chip muffins. B also let me in on something he has heard a few times about keeping mushrooms: clean off the mushrooms, dip in hot water then into a bag and into the freezer. Apparently they will keep for a long time.... I will have to try this and report back. Any other strange food saving techniques out there?

We had a family over for dinner last night. It was a joint food effort, I made the rice and veggies and fresh cinnamon buns (a big hit with the kids) and they brought ling cod and homemade tarter sauce, complete with sea asparagus. It was awesome! Can't wait till my guys get out and catch me some fish! The best line of the night came from the 3 yr old. She looks out our front window and says ' It looks like Prince Rupert'. This family lives out towards Tow Hill and there are no street lights, unlike the big city of Prince Rupert and Masset so it seems.

We are having a quiet day here. J was at a sleepover last night and still has not surfaced at home. B and D spent the morning tuning up the dirk bike and with dry roads and relatively clear skies, they just left for a motorcycle ride to Port.

I will enjoy some alone time, maybe listen to some tunes or do some reading. Just a quiet day in the life :)
n

March pics

2009-04-05T16:25:00.000-07:00

Our trip started off with a week of performances at UBC MOA. An amazing venue the hold the Wi Yah Hani Nah festival; in the presence of these old poles. Here is a pic of our pre-game chat.

The family :)

During the second week of the trip, the boys were in Hawaii (with their little cousins) so imagine some pics of them digging holes in the sand and surfing the big waves. Meanwhile, Ben caught a plane back home (apparently he had all the city he could handle) and I had my eyes zapped. There were no action shots of me putting drops in my eyes 100 times a day or my movie star sunglasses worn in the rain, out for lunch, in the grocery store...

The third week we did some more visiting around the old hood.

Climbing with papa.

Hot tubbing at RD's house.

A week after my eye surgery, I could finally drive and I had a lot of super sized shopping to do. Thankfully the days I did my big shops the weather was good. Did you know it takes at least 20 mins to pack up $1000 of groceries into the back of the truck?

By departure day we were more than ready to get back home, we missed B and the dogs :( The drive was fantastic with my girl L along for the trek. She had never been west of PG before so with all the scenery/towns she slept through, she will have to do the drive again with me one day :)

Sunny skies and cold in Moricetown. The Skeena River was still very frozen.

We stopped in Williams Lake for a visit with friends of L. When 2 girls are chatting and driving, even the most obvious landmarks of 'turn at the blue barn' can be missed. With a trailer in tow, there has to be enough room to turn around even if that means driving 5 km farther down the road to a pull out. Secondly, space must be allowed to slow down this rig from highway speeds or else the 'turn at the blue barn' can be missed.

By the end of the drive my trailer skills were stellar. I parallel parked at the Keg in PG just to find the line up inside was too long and we would not stay. I got us parked in the lot at the hotel and then decided if any more cars showed up over night and blocked my escape route we would be stuck. Fortunately, the hotel front desk lady gave us rock star parking in the bus zone. Nice.

Sunday night we had to unload the motorcycle in the Rupert ferry lot, carry 2 huge white plastic bags of wrestling mats to the passenger baggage cart, and return the trailer in the freezing cold rain/snow/wind and then get back into the ferry line up (it was getting late, after 10pm) for the overnight cruise. Too bad there were no pics of that chaos L?

In Masset, we had 48 hrs so show L all around town (yeah, that takes about 10 mins) even got out to some ship wreaks and Tow hill for some pics. lots of fun.

till next time :)

good to be back home...

2009-04-03T20:39:00.000-07:00

after such a whirlwind trip to Van. It was a busy 3 1/2 weeks. Quite strange to be thrown back into our old routine, I was quite out of practice actually. The first few days at UBC I did not have any food for my crew. Back in the day, I was always prepared to fuel my guys with drinks from a cooler and bag of pre-made sandwiches and bars, even had enough to share, but not this time. We were mooching food off everyone (Mrs. Vickies chips make a great dinner). I kept forgetting to lock the truck doors and I was a bit spacially challenged when it came to parking lots with lines and obstacles.

It was great to see you all and eat some crapes, sleep in the basement/pull out couch, play a few hands of poker, go in the hot tub, hang at the gym, visit in the old 'hood, crash Friday night study, get to a service at ERBF, give some business to our favourite mechanic/chiro/dentist/dr/esthetician/costoc/superstore, meet lil' P.D., hang with our smallest cuz/nephew, and see all my girly friends!

The We Yah Hani Nah festival was fantastic, the boys had fun in Hawaii (even surfed a tsunami), and my new eyes are doing just fine... I could read the 20/20 line off the chart at work today.

Our drive north was smooth sailing with clear roads and great weather, I had quiet passengers plugged into their movies/tunes and my bestest co-pilot Mrs. L.F. kept it all together. I was feeling a bit stressed before we left with my LOADED to the max truck and B's motorcycle on the rental trailer. I am sure we were quite the sight; got a few strange looks as we pulled into the Time Hortons en route.

I may get some pics on here soon. My laptop is down and out for a bit but B said 'I'll look at it this weekend' unless something else comes up. We had warm 14C sunny skies today, maybe it will stick around for the weekend. The motorcycle needs to go for a spin and the boys are looking to ride the quad on the beach. I just want a Saturday morning to sleep in!

Glad to be back in our quiet little town :) right back to school and work for us all. Can't believe it is almost Easter... Last year we found chocolate eggs in Princeton, now maybe this year at North Beach?
n

This weekend was brought to you by the letter "S"

2009-03-01T18:13:00.001-08:00

S is for Sick: J finally caught the bug. He has been down and out since Friday evening; poor kid. If he doesn't improve tomorrow I will take him into get checked. D is just finishing up antibiotics for strep. Don't want to bring any sick germs down south with us.

S is for Surfing: The boys and I had a surf lesson booked on Saturday but just D and I went. D wanted to bail on the class too because he was tired; he had a sleepover at a buddies house Friday night (why bother calling it a sleepover when there is not much sleeping?) After getting the wet suits on (so exhausting... glad I only had one kid to help get geared up) he was just beaming when he got into the water. He had never worn a wet suit before and could not understand how it would keep him warm (NO, he did not pee in it either!) Turns out he still has the moves... it has been a few years since he surfed in Hawaii. He caught the wave and rode it to the beach with a big grin and his red cheeks popping out of his seal-suit. There is quite the group of locals that are surfing North Beach so we will have to look into getting our own gear and join the fun.

S is for Sew: Today was my last full day I had free to get the boys button blankets done. I think I worked on them for about 8 hrs straight. Thankfully I did not run out of thread, fabric or yarn this time. I still have tonnes of buttons to sew on but I have 3 evenings, 7 hrs on the ferry and 2 days of driving to get that done.

S is for Snow: It snowed today. I am starting to get a bit anxious about the weather and road conditions for the drive south. I think we will take the ferry from Rupert to Pt Hardy if the forecast sounds bad.

S is for Soup: With no food in the cupboards, soup was an easy dinner. I made a pot of chicken noodle soup and broccoli soup to help my J feel better :)

We are getting ready for our trip south... back to the homeland. The first time heading back to visit friends and family. My brother has done it for years, living in TO and coming to Van to see us all. Now we are the visitors. I feel like we will be looking though a window at our former life (my 'city life' I call it) but now from a different perspective. We will jump on the crazy train, fasten our seatbelts, and tie up our running shoes for 3 weeks to see you all and then escape back here to stroll down the mossy trail, check the tide, and wear our rubber boots (sometimes even with shorts on!)

sick days to get things done

2009-02-17T09:31:00.000-08:00

Sunday was a glorious sunny, clear day with a gentle cool breeze that I felt through the cracked open window...I was down and out with the flu all day. I can't remember the last time I spent the whole day under the covers. Good thing it was the weekend and B could run the show. By mid day, D had joined me in the sick bed. We were a sorry sight.

Just to back up to Saturday: we went out to look at a few places for sale. Really not much to pick from if we do not want a PMQ (the cookie cutter base house)... just looking to see what's out there. That evening the boys were both invited to buddies houses for a sleepover. B and I had our first evening out with no kids! We went to a potluck dinner with some co-workers of mine at this quaint little house on the water. It was right in town but the entire backyard was a front row panorama view of Masset Inlet. I think there are a few empty lots along the water, we could set up a Princeton-style cabin and watch the waves go by... After dinner we went to a fundraising event for a group called Tidal Elements which provides programs for Tahayghen students to do some hands-on learning. It is a one day/week program that started just before we moved here; this year the kids are planning, designing, and building a playground structure. Pretty neat.

Yesterday I was feeling better but D was still sick. Nothing like a quiet day with the 'baby' sleeping to get much needed house work done. I was moving at a considerably slower pace having zero energy and minimal food intake the past 24 hours.

Today is day 3 of D sick. He is starting to eat some plain rice-krispees and toast, drinking ginger-ale but he has no energy to get off the couch. At least the bucket does not have to be right beside him anymore.

And to update the 3rd dog story, the puppy followed B all the way to work the next day and sat outside of his office whining and barking. One of the nurses on her way to work saw them and commented to me how cute that puppy was following my husband walking to work...wagging his tail, running circles. The city was called and someone came to get the dog. B was pretty grumpy for the next couple days, I will leave it at that.

NEW Dancers of Damelahamid site

2009-02-11T20:09:00.000-08:00

check it out... http://www.damelahamid.ca/ Excellent new site!

We are having a grande festival the week of March 9-15 at UBC Museum of Anthropology, part of the 2010 Cultural Olympiad! You can find performance dates and times at http://www.damelahamid.ca/festival/festival.htm

It will be a fantastic event with Aborigional Dance groups from all over the west coast. Come and join us!

A found dog is better than a lost dog

2009-02-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

Sofie and Wrestler are all good; they are here sleeping on the floor. I think they could find their way home from about any where in Masset. They know the hood pretty well. I am sure that most of the locals know that those 2 black dogs belong to that girl who always walks around town in her green jacket and grey toque.

However, we came across a puppy today who did not know his way home. I am sure he has a home because he looks well fed and has good 'inside house' behavior. It is well below zero tonight, so my dear husband let the dog in and he is now sleeping on the floor too.

If you are missing a dog: Male, under one year old, black lab X (sound familiar??) with white chest, white foot and a white tipped tail, we have your dog. Please come get him ASAP! We are not interested in a 3rd dog at this point, we do not live on a farm :)

I told the boys we will let him out in the morning. When B walks to work, he will take the dog back towards town.

The moon

2009-02-09T19:49:00.000-08:00

On my drive to work this morning, I pulled over to spend a moment with the moon. It was full and bright; hanging just above the tree line on the horizion. I could see the dark and light areas on it's surface. It gave off a beam of light that lit up Masset Inlet like a strobe. just awsome. If I had said 'yes' to a fancy new camera for Christmas, I would have taken a postcard perfect picture. I will do my best to caputre something to show you this moment tomorrow morning.... another cold, clear night out there :)

We are rationing...

2009-02-07T21:55:00.000-08:00

...from now till we head off-island; I want to eat our cupboards bare! However, I am most concerned that I misjudged the amount of flour left. Today I baked the weeks supply of banana choco chip muffins, applesauce muffins and sandwich buns; I am down to a 1/3 bag of whole wheat flour and about 6 cups of grain in the pantry. I will cry if I have to spend $25 for a bag of flour before we head south... I won't let this happen again :)

This afternoon we went out to North Beach (in the wind and misty rain) in search of more agates for the rock polisher. We want to bring a bunch with us to give out to everyone back home. One of the coolest things to do here is drive on the beach. Where else can you do this?? Anyone?? But beach driving has to be done right or bad things happen. Many trucks have been lost to the ocean out there. The neighbour showed us some crazy pics to prove it. If you drive on the soft sand you can get stuck, stay out of the seaweed or get stuck, watch out for scattered logs, river crossings, always park pointing downhill in the gravel, and most importantly check the tide charts. If you get stuck way out there, it is a long way back to get help (or cell coverage) and if the tide is coming in, you are a goner!

We stopped at the Trout House for lunch and had the most amazing meal. The burgers are huge and delicious! This place is a must stop for anyone coming to town.

This evening D and I went to see a film in town called 'Garbage Warrior'. A very interesting documentary on sustainable living off the grid ( right down to growing food in a greenhouse of sorts) and using alternative building materials/methods. neat stuff.

http://www.garbagewarrior.com/

It's getting late... night now!

n

odds and ends

2009-02-02T21:19:00.000-08:00

I feel like I have been neglecting my faithful blog readers (dad) with exciting things to tell you all :) life is getting usual, normal, a wee bit busy...

Here is what I can come up with:

1. I can't even start to explain how wonderful it is to work 2 mins from home. I leave the house at 7:56 to start at 8:00. Awesome. One thing I have found I need to creatively add into my daily work schedule is grocery shopping. Before work the Co-op is closed and it locks up at 6pm so there is no after dinner shopping time. I am going to try to get there tomorrow over my lunch hour. I will come home to meet the boys for lunch, run over to the store to get a few things for dinner, drop it off at home, and get back to work. A 2 min commute is where it's at!

2. I am having some issues with my knee. I have never had a knee injury before so this is cramping my style. I tweaked it at bball about 6 weeks ago and it has not let up. I find it strange that I can still do my thing (running, bball, volleyball) and it doesn't hurt a bit but if I sit for a while it seizes up and I put on my old lady walk. not good.

3. D makes the very best-est choco chip cookies. Amazing how when you follow the recipe exactally, they turn out fantastic.

4. On the weekend I made a deer recipe I got for Christmas. The best part was the marinating deer in red wine over night. delicious.

5. B's youth wrestling class starts up tomorrow. It will run tues/thurs from 6:00-7:00 for all you local peeps reading this. call QCIrec to resister. The good deal I found on some new wrestling mats turned out to be a no-deal. They had 'incorrect' online pricing. When I saw the online price was different from their hard copy catalogue price, I placed my order online and got a confirmation of the purchase. They called me a few days later to say the actual price was $70 more/mat, the catalogue price. I have had a few emails with the guy but they are not backing down. Any suggestions? We are planning to down size our order and tie the mat boxes to the roof of the truck to save the $350 shipping cost.

6. We made scallops for dinner! The neighbours were out at the beach on Sunday and gave us some to try. They were almost as big as the palm of my hand. B had about 6 big ones and the boys and I shared the rest. We will have to get out there one time and do our own scallop picking along the beach.

7. There is no turning back to regular gaming once you have played XBox live. The boys are looking for some 'friends' to verse (that is what they call it).

8. On Sunday night we went to M's mom's house and had a Sushi spread like I have never seen before. There must have been 200 Sushi pieces with all sorts of local seafood. J was looking for the Chicken Teriyaki Roll.

That's all I can think of right now... signing off, I'm tired :)
n

blogging touble

2009-01-25T18:10:00.001-08:00

I have just spent the last half hour+ getting a post ready and I can not 'post' it. yeesh.

The quick summary is we had a fun time with nana visiting over J's birthday week this past week.

Went driving on the beach and found moonshells (pic insert here), made ice cream cake (pic insert here), played in the snow (pic insert here), hiked up Tow Hill today (pic insert here).

Counting the weeks till we come visit family and friends: 6 week countdown starting now!

Are you guys out of the fog yet?? We had a bit of snow the other day followed by clear sunny skies today (pic insert here). A perfect snowboarding day if I had my board to walk up and ride down Telegraph Hill. But I did see cars parked at the surf spot today on the drive back from Tow Hill :)

FRIDAY has a new meaning for me

2009-01-16T21:43:00.000-08:00

I just finished my first full week of work and I am exhausted! whew. Just hanging out tonight watching the documentary "The Long Way Down" (thanks Mike!)... maybe it will get us thinking about exploring Africa next :)

We went out to see the surfers last weekend; the waves were pretty good. The volleyball gang I play with on Monday nights are all getting their surf gear and I think I will have to join the fun pretty soon.

So I had trouble loading the video and just got back to it today... JANUARY 21, a big B-day around here for the firstborn son. We have been in party mode all week with nana here to celebrate. We had a pre-birthday dinner yesterday with steak and mash potatoes and tonight was home-made ceaser salad, brocolli soup and deer crock-pot and rice. All J's favorites in a 3 course meal. Now we (I better pay attention) are watching a movie called 'Express' and then we will have ice cream cake (I made it!) for dessert after. later,n

out of house reply message

2009-01-08T21:57:00.000-08:00

It was my first day of work today... all went well! I left the house this morning just before 8am with the boys breakfast and lunches made, J had instructions for dinner (he made his famous spaghetti) and I came home at 4:30 to a happy house and a great smelling dinner on the stove!

I think I need an 'out of the house' autoreply message on my gmail account.... I wasn't going to turn the computer on this evening, but here I did; now it is late and I am wiped. Welcome to the working world Nicole!

back to school/work

2009-01-05T10:24:00.000-08:00

Holidays can't last forever... we had a great 2 weeks of relaxing, visiting in Rupert, playing Guitar Hero (we are finally trying HARD level), reading (D discovered truck magazines, J has almost finished Chronicles of Ancient Darkness series, B got a bunch of books for Christmas), playing in the snow, and eating! With all these boys around I was cooking 3 meals a day, yeesh.

Yesterday I got a good start on D's new button blanket; I need to make both boys new regalia before Spring. Note to Mom, I need more material/buttons please...

When we were off island we did the usual huge shop and got lots of produce/dairy/meat... but with NO FERRY all of January, I already notice unusually bare shelves at the grocery store. In a few weeks, the question at the store will NOT be 'What should I get for dinner?' but 'What is there to get for dinner?' Note to Nana J, when you come up for a visit if you would like to eat something other than meat/potatoes/rice, please bring some fruit/veggis...

In the next few weeks there is lots going on.

B is working out the details to start up an afterschool martial arts program
J will start school bball
There is a Steve Nash youth bball league in the planning stages. The boys and I will get involved in that
I am ready to start work and make some $$$ to get my eyes zapped in March. YEAH!
Nana J comes to visit and bake chocolate chip cookies with D!

I am baking buns today and the boys will come home for lunch. I plan to get to the gym in the afternoon, see how it goes.

Almost all of the snow melted with the rain over the weekend but this am it was snowing again, it's cold out there :) have a good day!

Happy New Year 2009

2009-01-01T15:43:00.000-08:00

So now it is 2009 eh? how time flies... We went to the neighbours house last night and we all made it till midnight. J and D had fun hanging with the kids there. This morning we woke up to MORE snow. When we saw the neighbour had his quad out giving sled rides we had to get ours going too! The boys and B spent all morning a the school field playing around. We probably have close to a foot of snow now. Nobody here has snow gear, snow shovels, sleds, ice melt..... and nobody cares, it is great! Our street has yet to be plowed today, I bet the city crew is off for the day :)

Here are the dogs at the field:

Trying out the skim board behind the quad:

Quads and sleds on the field:

A walk to the land bridge this afternoon:

I will get a few Christmas photos up soon. D wants to vs. me at Guitar Hero. Rock on!

2008 is almost over

2008-12-30T20:58:00.000-08:00

Back on-island after spending Christmas with B's aunt/uncle/cousin/grandparents in Prince Rupert. We had the ferry all to ourselves on the trip over (maybe 8 other cars onboard) and it was the smoothest crossing yet. It was an afternoon voyage which was new for us: usually we spend the 7 hr ride sleeping overnight. We arrived to snowy Prince Rupert! yeah! On Christmas Eve there was a party mid afternoon at uncle B's store (at Harris&Wick Jewelry, we ate sushi!), I went to Evening Mass with auntie M and grandma, back to the house, ate some more and watched movies. On Christmas morning we slept in till 9am (cousin T was sleeping on the futon in the living room so we did not want to wake her too early. Our boys are such great sleeper-iners it was never a problem) had then we had the traditional Christmas W family breakfast of eggs benny; it was fantastic! We had a lovely Christmas dinner with about 15 of us of the H or W relation. After, we went over to another W family house to eat dessert and play shuffleboard. We had a mini tourney: our boys were really good at it. On boxing day there was more hanging out, reading books, playing games... us girls went to see Benjamin Button. It was ok, reminded me of watching Forrest Gump. While in Rupert I made several trips to the grocery store to get pantry/freezer food, we stocked up on dog food, and finished getting the last of the gear needed for fishing. The boys went sledding on the golf course one afternoon with their dad and auntie M. She had to make some calls around town to collect snow gear and sleds but it all worked out OK and they had some fun in the snow! Over the trip I had lots of down time to read my PoCo book club read 'The Time Travellers Wife'; I'm about 3/4 of the way through. We took the Sunday midnight ferry back to the island (B and I were fully dosed on gravol. It was a rocky night sleeping on the airmatress with D. J got the bench) and we arrived in snowy Skidegate. The roads were compact snow but it was really dry and not too slick so we made decent time up-island, picked up the dogs and got home about 9am. Needless to say we had a lazy day yesterday unpacking, doing laundry and napping :) B has another week off work. He does not go back till the kids go to school. We have about 6in of snow here and more is on the way. It is so flat there is no problem getting around and with no traffic or rush hour, the weather never causes any problems. It was particularly quiet around town this week because there was a big Basketball tourney 'The 36th annual Christmas Classic' in the Village. D and I went to watch the final this evening. Masset vs Skidegate. We lost :(

Not sure what our plans are for New Years tomorrow night... we got some dry ribs, pot stickers and Strongbow ready to go. I think we will rent a movie, play some cards and pretend we are in the cabin in Princeton :) Maybe we do some skype-ing too!

That's all for now. Our lights have been flickering, I will download some pics tomorrow.
XO n

last week of school in 2008

2008-12-19T11:00:00.000-08:00

I thought I should get another post up before next week when the festivities start!

My parents left Monday to snowy Vancouver and we have had cold, breezy weather here all week. No rain and no snow. The air is really dry, which I think is quite unusual for this time of year.

Thanks for all the Christmas cards sent our way... the fridge is covered with cards and photos. Nice to know you are thinking of us :)

Last night we had the boys Winter Concert at school complete with some songs and poems about baby Jesus. It was quite refreshing to hear about the gift of Jesus to the world at a school Christmas concert.

D's class sang 'What a Wonderful World'. So it goes 'I see trees of green, red roses too... ' (can you hear me singing?) and a few kids hold up their green trees and red roses made of big cut-out cardboard... 'skies of blue, clouds of white...' And D and a few others standing in the back hold up these big puffy white cotton-ball clouds on long rulers. The whole stage was filled with visual props by the end of the song. I was pretty cool.

J's class sang John Lennon's 'Happy Christmas' song along with the CD. I think we hear this song at a school concert every year... on wikipedia is says this song was recorded in 1971 and it is a protest song about the Vietnam war. I do not think elementary kids are taught about the Vietnam war or about Lennon. I find it a bit political to be a kids Christmas concert song. I dunno, just my 2 bits!

This morning I went to school early to help with the Pancake Breakfast at 9am. I was the egg cracker and scrambler. During the food serving, I was the syrup dispenser so that there was less syrup over-use/mess/stickiness everywhere! I have not helped with a pancake breakfast at school before but I was quite impressed to see fabric table clothes (the school has a washer/dryer) and we used real plates (the staff room has 2 dishwashers). Saving funds and keeping garbage out of the landfill on the island. great!

I am going to B's work lunch today in the village, should be fun! Maybe I should put on my tacky Christmas sweater, flashing earrings and Santa hat?? oh, I forgot to bring that box up here, too bad :)

If I do not get another blog up before Christmas... have a relaxing holiday with family and friends and enjoy your time together. XO n

'For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace'
Isaiah 9:6

December update

2008-12-13T20:07:00.000-08:00

It has been over a week since the last post... I guess I have not been at the computer much lately :) Should I dare say I've been 'busy'? The evenings of the first week of December I had volleyball, basketball, a PAC meeting and a family Wii nite. I also had to finish weaving a basket, figure out my Christmas card picture, and get ready for my parents visit! Last weekend we drove out to North Beach with a few other beach rigs to have a hot dog roast and do some agate picking. It was a non-windy day, overcast clouds, about 7C; hard to believe it was December.

My parents arrived on Wednesday and we are having a good time. We've baked pies, (Wrestler got 90% of the cherry pie one afternoon when we were out), played cards, went for a walk in the rain, had lunch at Seabreeze... seen all my daily stops around town. Yesterday we had D's b-day party and it was quite the housefull! He had 3 of his buddies over for burgers/hot dogs/chocolate mousse cake (that my mom brought from PoMo) and we watched the new Narnia movie.

This morning it was crisp and clear and we had lots to do since today was Christmas at our house! B made a big breakfast then we (everyone but J and B) checked out the craft sale in the village and the one in town, back home for lunch, put the turkey in the oven, and then we went out to Tow Hill to see the blow hole at high tide and drive North Beach for a bit. High tide was a couple hours ago so it should be ok....sure it was windy and cold but the sky was blue. A great outside day! At the trailhead to get on the beach the water was still high. The wind was howling the waves were crashing in, there was no beach to drive on and the high water had totally eroded the trailhead onto the beach; it was barricaded with logs and stumps... no driving today.

So off to the hiking trail and the blow hole we went. The trees were swaying, branches were flying, Wrestler jumped into the river and 2 mins after had ice forming on his fur... no hiking either. We stopped at Agate beach and found a wind protected place to check out the wave/wind action. B made us a fire but we could hardly feel it. The boys found a few agates and razor clam shells. Did I say it was really cold and windy??

Back home for our turkey feast. Nana was surprised at how much J ate. He is as tall as her now so he must be growing! We gave/opened gifts (the boys were excited to give theirs, they worked hard on them :) finished the apple pie and b-day cake, played some more cards and now the guys are racing in some Xbox game, nana is reading and I get to send a blog.

So that is the last 12 days around here.

This December I have missed my baking days, wreath making, cookie exchange, 'moms and kids' party with my friends....miss you girls.

But we've got a few cards in the mail this week and I put some decorations up around the house so it is starting to feel like Christmas around here. It is has been cold and icy; it definitely feels like winter. There is one more week of school and the boys have a Christmas concert on Thursday evening and a big breakfast at school on Friday. B has almost 2 weeks off over Christmas/New Years and we will be heading to Rupert to visit the family there.

that's all for now,

XO n

weather forecast, tow hill, puddle

2008-12-01T09:09:00.000-08:00

Clear blue skys this am, a bit chilly but no frost on the truck. Looks like Mon to Wed will be outside running days... see forecast below. Yeah!

Forecast for Monday Queen Charlotte, Canada
Link
There is a 0% chance of precipitation. Partly cloudy. Cold. Temperature of 3°C. Winds N 25km. Humidity will be 73% with a dewpoint of -1° and feels-like temperature of -1°C. High: 3°C Low: 2°C
Forecast for Tuesday Queen Charlotte, Canada
Link
There is a 0% chance of precipitation. Partly cloudy. Cool. Temperature of 3°C. Winds N 16km. Humidity will be 76% with a dewpoint of -1° and feels-like temperature of 0°C. High: 3°C Low: 2°C
Forecast for Wednesday Queen Charlotte, Canada
Link
There is a 0% chance of precipitation. Partly cloudy. Cool. Temperature of 6°C. Winds E 15km. Humidity will be 75% with a dewpoint of 2° and feels-like temperature of 3°C. High: 6°C Low: 3°C

We went to Tow Hill yesterday afternoon and showed B the campsite at Agate Beach that the boys and I and cousin Mel stayed at 2 summers ago. But it is tough to find Agates there, all picked over by the tourists! We hiked in to the blow hole at high tide, just a the right time to see the spray then stopped for brunch at the Trout House. We had heard about the great burgers there but since it was Sunday, they were serving an all day brunch. Maybe next Saturday we will go for burgers.

There was also a lesson learned about puddles this week. 'you can not tell much about a puddle by just looking at it' as quoted by J. Never thought that the word 'puddle' could have a negative association with it. It is such a cheerful, cute word. Like 'cuddle'... Just glad I was not there and glad it did not happen to me! I have learned my lesson to be wary of puddles through their mishap. Thankfully it was not salt water and that the truck made it home in working condition.

we are out of dog food

2008-11-27T12:08:00.000-08:00

Yesterday J had a volleyball tourney in Port so I decided to head south to go watch a game and pick up some dog food at the vet/ranch/pet food store in Tlell, about 60km away from Masset.

On my drive, the wind was howling, tree branches were flying across the road and I could see the waves crashing. It was hard to stay vertical while getting close to the bank to get some photos.

It was a wild and crazy day on the coast with gale force winds.

J had a good showing at the vball game. He was serving, setting and passing the ball with excellence (see pic below of J passing) must have got that talent from his mother or possibly uncle Bri.

Snow day on Nov 21.

My boys! It seems their 'bonding time' is when they are doing dishes. They are either fighting or goofing off. This was a goof day. Sometimes it gets quite rowdy in there, dad asks if they need to do dishes alone, but I say no! They are forced to work together and cooperate. Only one day they did not pass inspection. I tell them if there are dirty dishes in the dry rack then they both are to blame!

Olympic Torch Run is coming here!

2008-11-25T09:42:00.000-08:00

On Nov 3 2009 the 2010 Olympic Torch relay is coming to Haida Gwaii! Maybe I should apply to be a runner...?

And on Feb 11 2010 the run will be in the Tri-cities... maybe we can see it again? Our dance group is performing in Vancouver the first week of Feb 2010 so we are south for that. See http://www.damelahamiddancers.org/ for more info. Our next big festival is March 9-15 2009 at UBC.

A deer in my kitchen!

2008-11-25T09:11:00.000-08:00

DUE TO THE CARNIVOROUS NATURE OF THIS BLOG, VEGETARIANS PLEASE BE ADVISED

I know I have witnesses out there when I stated my involvement with the whole hunting deer, hanging, butchering, packaging would start when the meat was taken out of the freezer to make dinner... yup, should have got a butchering lesson from Opa before we came up here :)

B went hunting last weekend (with J) and the deer hung for the week and then we got the call to come get our meat. B thought he was going to leave the deer with his fellow hunter (our freezer was already at 80% capacity) but no, it was ours. With the first deer, B had help butchering with his hunter buddy's mom who has probably packed up 100's of deer. She chopped it up (B pretty much watched) in about an hour.

So last night, I helped B get the kitchen clean and set up, he started cracking bones and I went online to do some research and get some 'game cutting' tips, even found a You-tube video. There was a lot of carcass in the kitchen and the whole process was going kind of slow. Since I now had some on-line knowledge, I figured I could help a bit. B got all the meat off the bones and hacksawed the ribs and passed it to me then I trimmed down the gristly bits and packed up stew meat, a few roasts, some steaks. The freezer is now FULL.

The dogs were so good; they could smell there was something dog-heavenly happening in the kitchen but they sat at the kitchen entrance with perfect behavior in hopes that it would pay off with a treat. It did!

what they do at the beach...

2008-11-23T12:42:00.000-08:00

I took the boys to the beach the other day.... we were going to go to check out some dunes (D brought the skim board to try surfing/sledding/sandboarding down the dunes) and look for rocks at Agate beach (J wanted to add to his rock collection). We left town with just under 1/4 tank of gas; I was too cold to get out of the truck to fill up, it had not warmed up yet. We drove a good 20+ minutes north; I am not sure how close we got to Agate beach but when the truck said 40km left in the tank, I figured we should turn around and head back.

So we drove back towards town to find a place where we could find dunes and rocks.

We headed down a side road towards the beach. They boys were getting nervous because now the gas gauge said 'fuel level very low' so we decided to park and walk the rest of the way. We put our rubber boots to good use as we trudged through the muck before we got to the sandy road and saw the water.

The boys made a B-line for the beach and I hung back to watch...

There are no steep dunes here so the skimboard is useless and D leaves it up on grass. He heads off to the waters edge and watches the waves. The tide is heading out (thankfully) and so he is not caught unexpectedly with a bootful of water. But with the strong wind, the waves are still giving a good crash about 10ft from the shore. D picks up rocks to try to hit the wave just as it breaks... I watch him throw it long or too short but when he makes 'a hit' he looks back and grins.

J heads off away from us with his eyes glued to the ground. He picks up handfulls of sand, washes the fine grains away and collects all these small crystal-like rocks. He finds a tri-coloured rock and calls me over to check it out. I hold it for him (it is a really nice one!) and he keeps on his agate search. He finds a crescent moon shaped perfectly white sugar agate and tosses it towards me to see. He now knows the difference between a real agate and a sugar agate so the sugar ones are no longer as exciting. After about 15 mins, he finds a good size agate even though he was sure he wouldn't.

D comes over to see what J has found. D bends down and picks up a white rock close to me "look what I found J. A half moon sugar agate". J yells back, "I found that one already" I had a little giggle.

We drove back to town to get gas and head home to make soup for lunch.

After lunch J, and I went to the library with a mission to find a book about rocks. He found a reference book and read that diamonds can be found at the waters edge. He believes the crystal-like rocks he found could be diamonds!

I found a book I had almost bought at the gallery a few weeks ago "The Golden Spruce" by John Vaillant. I will give my book report when I am done. So far, it is bang on with everything I have seen, heard, smelt, felt in this temperate rainforest. Right down to the line "You have the feeling that if you stop for too long, you will simply be grown over and absorbed by the slow and ancient riot of growth going on all around you." I have tried on several occasions to get a good pic of this description but I have been unable to capture it. I will keep trying!

First snowfall of the year

2008-11-21T21:39:00.000-08:00

This morning I looked out the window and saw white stuff... not sure if this is a strange happening this time of year or not?? Snow covered the truck, grass, road, rooftops.... I was impressed with the 'stickability'. The boys went downstairs to get their snow boots to find they were too small (why I thought last years would fit I'm not sure) so they wore their new 'quading, hunting, hiking,' boots and it seemed to do the job. I took the dogs out about 10am and it was now raining, much harder than it looked, and my pants were soaked in minutes. My rain jacket got 2 thumbs up and my new rubber boots with a drawstring at the top and thick felt liners also got 2 thumbs up. We had a good walk. Sofie went crazy running in the snow but I had to keep Wrestler on leash, he is still hobbling on 3 legs. The meds are in the mail from our vet (Wrestler says thanks nana and papa beard) so he will be feeling better soon.

With wet pants in hand I went downstairs to do a load of laundry to find water on the floor close to the washer/dryer. I put on my plumber hat and found no leak at the laundry tub, no leak on the washer, no leak in the roof... I pulled the dryer away from the wall and the vent hose looked a bit weighted. It was full of water! The dryer vent is literally at ground level outside so the melting snow and rain water was flowing into the basement. It didn't help that the roof gutter was overflowing directly above the dryer vent too.

Then I put on my landscaper hat and dug a trench in the sloppy backyard to try and get the water flowing away from the house. Hopefully that helps.

I have been doing well at staying with my exercise routine (now that the dogs can not run with me, I am not running in rough weather anymore) so I headed to the treadmill at the gym. However, on the way there I put on my ambulance driver hat and gave a ride to a teenage girl who got hit by a van in town. I didn't see it happen but her boyfriend(?) was with her and the driver of the van. She did something to her foot, maybe broken, not sure.

I made it to the gym and did my run and came home for lunch. J was supposed to have a volleyball game in Port this afternoon but it got called off this am, something about buses in the snow in Port had problems.

By 3pm the snow was %90 gone... I wonder if it will snow again tonight?

a busy weekend

2008-11-18T09:37:00.000-08:00

J went on his first hunting trip last weekend. They packed up Saturday morning with the quad, sleeping gear, a tent, a cooler with food and under sunny skies they headed out. They drove 3 hrs to 'some great hunting place out there' and unloaded at a hunting cabin equipped with bunks, a wood stove, plates/cutlery, spices... it sounded like luxury 'camping' to me. Ben said he did not know what time they packed it in on Saturday but they were out on the quads late into the night and up early again Sunday morning. They were home Sunday evening with muddy quads and 4 deer strapped down on the trailer. It was a successful outing.

D and I had a quiet weekend: did some bikeriding, crafting, movie watching... on Sunday I played in a basketball game with the village womens team against a jr boys team. It was good to get out there for a run and my foot 'issue' didn't cause too much trouble. And since I played bball (I had not done that in over a year) I figured I should give volleyball a try too. Last night was drop in at the high school so I went to check that out... I have not played in over 10 years. I think I did ok; but by the end of the night I came to the conclusion that to go for a ball which requires a knee to hit the ground , it is a painful move to get back up. I may have stated in the past that knee pads are 'whimpy' so I guess I will be sporting purple knees if I keep playing. If my feet moved a bit faster, I could get to the ball and not have to put a knee down... not going to happen!

Family photo

2008-11-12T11:59:00.000-08:00

All the cousins are related in some way or another:) They were waiting patiently for dessert!

Weekend pics

2008-11-12T10:21:00.000-08:00

This is the along the Skeena in Kitselas Canyon. We are standing in the dry river bed that would be a raging river in spring.
Climbing on the canyon rocks. We were careful...

This is Grandpa's pole; it is very old... Sorry, I had to cut the pic out. It has a copyright. Here is a sketch:

l l

//\\//\\////\\ l l ////\\\\//\\///\\/

Grandpa's fishing hole.

Skeena means 'River of Mist'

back on island...

2008-11-11T20:12:00.000-08:00

We finally got home after our first trip 'off island': We hit the road Thursday evening to catch the 11 pm ferry. Even the drive to the ferry had a typical island feel to it... we rescued the same guy twice in his rental truck. The first time he flagged us down on the side of the road b/c he was stuck just off the road in a turn-around area with a tire fully submerged in the mud. Ben got the towrope out and we gave him a pull. So then we are following him down the highway, he was driving cautiously and staying below the speed limit, but he thought we were flashing him (which we were not) so he slows down and pulls off the side just to slip off the soft shoulder into the ditch. We pull over in front of him, get the rope out again, pull him out and he leave him to drive behind us. No more chances! We had to drop off the dogs at the kennel at the vet and get to the ferry. It was the usual sail and the rockiest (sp?) thus far but we got some sleep and arrived in Rupert for breakfast at the W house (B's relatives). We picked up grandpa and grandma H and headed to Terrace to meet the G (B's relatives) family who came up from Vancouver. We spent Friday and Saturday doing all the city things we needed to do: got groceries, ate in non-Chinese food restaurants, saw a movie, did some Christmas shopping. The guys also shopped at CDN Tire for a good hour checking out cammo gear; they wanted to be prepared for their hunting trip on Monday. We also went to Kitselas Canyon where the Skeena River narrows and carves through the rock. Very cool. Sunday was B's birthday (he got lots of special attention) and we drove to Hazelton to visit the J family (more of B's relatives). Lots of second cousins there so the boys had fun hanging out with them. Monday morning bright and early (a clear cold day) the big guys (not J and D) went hunting moose. They had lots of time to practice walking quietly and slowly but no moose were found. We were on the road by mid afternoon with a truck FULL of groceries to get back to Rupert for the ferry. We boarded on time at 8pm to leave at 10pm but with and extreme marine warning we were not going anywhere. The ferry sat at the terminal till 7am when we finally headed out. I am still rocking now as I type this at 9pm. It was wild out there and by far the rockiest ride! Thankfully the boys were good to watch movies the whole time and didn't feel sick but B and I will definitely Gravol up next time they are forecasting rough water. The boys told me that up in the cafeteria at the front of the boat they rode the waves down and up and the waves crashed up over the windows. B and I were one deck below and the water would open up into this huge swell and the boat seemed to fall into it and then pop back out on the next wave. Still makes me feel whoozy! I will get to my email inbox tomorrow. I also have to make B his chocolate orange cake tomorrow :)

FYI: the Terrace Canadian Tire is the best CDN Tire store I have ever been in! Very helpful and knowledgeable staff, tonnes of good stuff to buy. Too bad they do not sell groceres or it would be our one stop shop!

I will try to get some pics posted tomorrow...

night now

hunting update

2008-11-03T16:07:00.001-08:00

In case you are itching to know how B finished up his first hunting adventure... he got home after a long day in the bush at 9:15pm with news of a buck for the freezer. The deer was left to 'hang' overnight (at someone's house) and B was going to go with his hunting partner tomorrow to do the next step of meat preparation (whatever that may be??) however, a call came in this afternoon that a bear was very interested in the free deer dinner so the guys went out just now to take care of deer business. I told B that everything up until the deer meat coming out of the freezer to make dinner was his thing and he is doing a great job! If there are any deer recipes out there (I know the Schmidt house has some), please send them my way!

surfin and huntin

2008-11-02T11:05:00.000-08:00

I am having a blog catchup day today... so here is another post for today's event:

B left at 5:30 this morning to go hunting with a local guy out in the bush past Port Clements. He took along enough food to last the whole day but he should be home sometime soon.

This morning, I took the dogs for a good walk around town (Wrestler's knee is bothering him again, the dog will not take is easy). I am starting to think my new running routine has catch up with him. When I am running, I take both dogs out for a warm up around town, then I bring Sofie home and run out to the village with Wrestler. Am I out-running both the dogs? It can't be possible :)

This afternoon I finally had my surf lesson out towards Tow Hill; it is just like surfing in Hawaii but also very different. I had never worn a wet suit before and it was crazy to get it on. Took me a good 15 mins to get it on and even longer to get it off! There were 9 of us dressed up like seals out there along with 3 instructors. Our lesson dues were going towards buying kid size boards and wet suits to start a kids surfing program. Cool stuff. They said that surfing on Haida Gwaii is a really new thing and it is starting to gain interest. While I was out surfing, the boys were hanging on the beach and playing in the river... last time I looked over, their pants were soaked up to mid thigh, their sweatshirts were equally wet and it was starting to rain. There was a fire going up on the beach so I hoped they were hanging there. When the rain really started coming down and I was exhausted (and had very cold toes, must have had a hole somewhere) I went back in and there was no sign of the boys. So I hike out to the truck and they are sitting in there, stripped down to their ginch and freezing cold. DID YOU BRING US SOME DRY CLOTHES? they ask.... I hope next time they come surfing too and show papa Jeep their rad skills in Hawaii :) All you need to surf is a good wet suit and a board... no lift ticket, membership fees, admission... hmmm. Maybe a new family activity??

SORRY no surf pics for me. The instructor did take one but it is really fuzzy... there was a guy out there doing promo photos for the kids surf program, maybe he got a good one!

Baskets are done!

2008-11-02T11:03:00.000-08:00

The boys and I had our weaving lesson with M last weekend. She had the red and yellow cedar bark already prepared into strips and we had to bring along a square form to weave the basket around. It was tough work on the hands; lots of pulling and holding. The boys were dedicate weavers.

And when we were finished, it was quite the accomplishment!

quadin and bikin on the dunes

2008-11-02T10:59:00.000-08:00

D is ready!
J would make the sand fly behind the bike!

Last weekend we took the toys out to the dunes just outside of town. My surfing day was cancelled (due to high winds) but the boys figured the weather would not stop them from going out! They rode for a couple hours while I went for a walk, with heavy wind resistance, and then I sat in the truck and read my book.

sounds

2008-10-24T14:56:00.001-07:00

I just asked D what he thought of that sound: the sound of the float plane as it banks over our house and gains elevation after takeoff. He smiles and nods as me. I agree. It is very cool. (we must get that from Papa Beard) It is the only man-made noise around here and the link to the bigger happenings of the world out there, if I choose to go for a ride. I had no idea 'the economy is in crisis' or there was a 'bomb threat on the Pitt River Bridge' unless I decide to watch the news... I think I'll just listen to the sound of the plane.

Weather warning?

2008-10-22T09:27:00.000-07:00

B and I are not really '6 o'clock news' watchers or overly interested in the weather forecast. However I wonder if we should be or need to be... apparently there was/is an extreme weather warning and I had no idea about it.

For my local weather forecast; if I see blue sky then it is time to walk the dogs because now is my chance, if there are clouds then rain could come soon so walk the dogs sooner rather than later, if I see the trees swaying I know it is windy and if I hear the wind howling and Wrestler is sitting on my feet then it is really windy and going outside could be challenging, if there is strong wind and rain then do not go outside at all.

Yesterday afterschool it was just 'really windy' so D and I walked to the library. It is close by but much harder to get there then get back home. I told the librarian we were new around here and asked on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the strongest, what kind of wind was this? She said it was pretty close to 10. Not much you can do outside when you can hardly stand up straight without falling over!

n

Drive on the beach

2008-10-18T18:44:00.000-07:00

We had a chance to go for a drive on North Beach to Rose Spit and so of course we went! It is an outing where 2 vehicles (hopefully 2 4x4 trucks but we did see a Subaru out there) are needed, there should be several hours of daylight, and the tide needs to be going out

The waves were pretty good, even saw some surfers out there. Below is a photo by J on a bumpy beach drive. The truck lurches forward on the hard sand and drags in the loose/rocky sand.

Can't seem to get these pics in order, so here is our view heading back south to Tow Hill.

This is a pic looking northeast to the end of the island. This really is the end of the road. Out at the end of the land there is a long break of rocks where the waves crash. To drive around the point is sketchy and the trip back around the other side of the spit requires a longer day with more supplies in case of getting stuck for an extended period of time. We were not going that far.

Again, this is out of order. This is the landscape the last few kms before the 'end of the road'. Wide, flat area with thick blades of long 'grass'. This is the Rose Spit Ecological Reserve.

At a few points we stopped along the way and did some beachcombing. Haida Gwaii is the place to find agates and so we had to collect a few. The rocks we thought were agates were actually the more common 'sugar agate' and not to be called 'agates'. I will do an agate blog sometime and maybe I can show the difference.

Ben's co-worker, M, is quite the rock collector. We went to her house today and got a lesson on all her finds. She has agates, argilite, and a sphere shape ball of lava. All treasures she has found on the island. J had quite the chat with her. She has an agate slice with rings of different colours and crystals in the centre. very cool. Maybe J will be a geologist someday??

Bike ride

2008-10-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

This is my bike ride route with the dogs in the am. We head away from town to the Delkakla Bird Sactuary. This 'road' is the emergency land bridge to get out of town if the main road bridge is not drivable. Along this trail are raised lookout platforms to do bird watching. I did more bird listening. Lots of sounds I haven't heard before and I can not find the birds making the noise!

Above is my bike ride route to see Ben at the office in Old Masset, shown in the distance. Old Masset aka: the village, is about 2 km out of New Masset aka: town. Below is the office. Casual work environment only!

SKYPE is very cool!

2008-10-16T09:38:00.000-07:00

FYI: SKYPE is a free download to talk computer to computer over the www and you can use your webcam to see the other person while chatting.

Yesterday, SKYPE and I had lunch with my sis-in-law E and nephew J, the boys were online with their buddy McW and my guys even started wrestling around in the living room while talking (the same activity they often do when they are chillin out together). Then we visited uncle B and we almost had a 'brotherly fight' break out on our side of the computer screen; like the boys needed uncle B to break it up! It was like we were really hanging out with you guys.

These video calls are pretty neat in that you almost feel like you are talking to someone in the same room with you. It is just missing the 'gimme-5' or a really big hug.

thinking of you all,
XO nicole

Field Trip #2: Dunes

2008-10-14T16:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend we went driving on a secondary road; I will call it Beach Ave.

The road took us past the back side of the Masset Canadian Forces Base. It is a very secure facility with 'no trespassing' signs along the main highway and along the beach there are barbwire fences partially intact to keep us out. The base was built to contain a listening antenna; to keep an ear on international communications.

The boys had fun running down the dunes and wondered why I would not let them roll down them too. (I am patiently waiting for my washer/dryer and I am not doing more laundry than necessary. We already had the chat about wearing the same outside pants several times before they go into the wash. We have also chatted about boots in that they must be worn at all times when not in city limits of Masset).

Below is a panorama video: trying out a new feature on my camera!

I will call it Haida Gwaii

2008-10-13T20:21:00.000-07:00

I just found this article in the QCI Observer Oct 13 (the Islands local paper):

Old Massett sign project encourages Haida speaking

submitted by Jusquan Amanda Bedard--Residents and visitors to Old Massett or New Town will notice a great addition to the community - Haida street and office signs, shaped like a traditional Haida canoe. This project, spearheaded by the Xaad Kihlgaa Hl Suu.u Language office and funded by Gwaii Trust, encourages everybody to learn and speak the Haida names for streets and offices, after all, we are on Haida Gwaii (rarely referred to as the 'Queen Charlotte Islands' anymore), so let's speak Haida as much as possible!

I wondered about the Queen Charlotte Island name vs Haida Gwaii. B tells me it depends on who you talk to as to what name you call the islands. I have decided to use Haida Gwaii: to show the Haida people respect for living on their land.

My first Haida word is 'Haaw7aa'. The 7 shows a emphasis on the w sound. It means 'thank-you'.

The boys are also learning Haida at school so they will teach me new words too.

n

Field Trip #1

2008-10-11T16:33:00.000-07:00

This is a Haida Canoe which is not on the tourist guide map. The tree was falled (?) and the canoe shape was carved. Work would have stopped on this because of the split down the middle. It was no longer suitable to be made into a canoe.
This tree was a few metres away from the canoe and the large test hole (this is a CMT, culturally modified tree) must have determined it was not a good canoe tree.
HHFG believe this stump was where the canoe tree was cut from, see the canoe shape in the background.

We drove about 15 mins out of Port Clements to see this Haida Canoe.

Maybe tomorrow we will do a drive to the north coast area...

the scary vacuum

2008-10-11T14:03:00.000-07:00

That Wrestler is a piece of work. So we got this brand new space age looking vacuum (we have a house full of carpet now) and he is terrified of it. We got it going to do a test run and it was really loud and 'scary'. Wrestler disappears upstairs while we are vacuuming and then will not come down when we are done. We call him and he comes down the stairs only to turn and go back up. Then he starts whining and comes downstairs and then goes up again. Then I see the vacuum is sitting (turned off) at the bottom of the stairs and he will not walk past it. So I move it to the living room entrance and he comes down and very cautiously goes way around it to get to the kitchen. silly dog.

almost unpacked

2008-10-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

our 1/2 duplex
the boys school
our street. we are the last house on the straight stretch on the left

Our place is to the left of the blue house. We walk down this path to get to school; the boys think it is less than 100m from door to door.

Inside Pics coming soon...

Just a few more boxes to unpack and we are officially moved in and organized. I have enjoyed some peace and quiet this week with the lazy dogs around to keep me company. Wrestler is still getting into trouble: eating food off the counter getting 2 breakfasts out of B and D. B says he is looking like a sausage again :)

J and D are getting settled into school and I went to a PAC meeting our first day, just to get a feel for what goes on there. There are some similar and some different issues than I experienced with the 'big city' school. Lots to figure out and learn.

B is at work usual hours. I brought him hot leftovers one day and I have stopped by to say hi every day on my dog walk around town. Never been able to do that before.

Masset has all the usual necessities available within a 5 min walk from the house. Main street has a bank, post office, 2 grocery stores, a few restaurants, a cute cafe (I got a tea 'to-go' the other day), the volunteer fire stn, RCMP building with 4 vehicles, the cable shop, a home hardware store where I believe you can order from 'the Source' flyer to get electronics, a library, an Autoplan agent, recycle depot.... any thing else you need?

The dr/hospital/pharmacy is in an old CDN military building and is quite dated and looks kind of like a M*A*S*H clinic. Masset is getting a new health centre about 2 mins out of town towards Old Masset. It is supposed to open the end of the month.

Next week one day I plan to take a drive south to Port Clements to see what is around there. I heard there was a good local produce store and I want to look for this Cedarview Community Church address. See what I can find! There is also a book club that meets next week at a cafe in old Masset, got to check that out.

Since the rec centre closed the end of Sept, QCI recreation programs are all over the place at different sites. Tues/Thurs pm is aerobics at the boys school and there is 4hr surfing clinic one weekend at north beach I want to check out!

We are adjusting well to the slow paced lifestyle around here. Everyone we have interacted with is friendly and helpful. Drivers give the 2 finger off the steering wheel wave and walkers say 'hello'. Still not sure if totally gives us away that we are newbees when we walk around with dog-poop bags :) I don't see anyone else with bags?

my observation of the week:

There are grassy rolling hills around the base houses, the old barracks, high school field and they look great: freshly cut, no ruts, can even see the lines of the mowers. So we decide to take a short cut across some grass and quickly find out why no one else walks on there... the ground is totally saturated and every step you sink into the mossy 'grass' and even when you walk up to the top of a hill to stay day, it is still WET. The lesson is "always walk on sidewalks"

I have also done a duck and cover maneuver at least 3 times. The ravens sometimes fly really close and their wings are VERY LOUD: it actually scared me the first time. Maybe because there are no other background noises or because they are so much bigger than birds in the south? idunno.

There are always puddles even if you did not see it rain. The rain may have dumped when you were inside for a few hours and with the storm windows you can not hear any rain through them. Then when you look outside the sun is shining again! We have had fantastic weather this week, just a bit colder than we are used to.

till later,
nicole

testing 123...

2008-10-08T11:28:00.000-07:00

We just got the internet hooked up yesterday and are now online in Masset, QCI. We are again connected to the world at large!

The boys started school today and they are coming home for lunch so this is a short and sweet first entry. To summarize our adventure so far:

my u-haul packing crew was awsome and THANKS SO MUCH for your help

the drive up was slow and steady. the boys were split up the whole way, one with me in the truck and one in the u-haul with nana/papa Harris so there were no 'issues'. the dogs also travelled really well. The only trouble I had in Rupert was a flat on the trailer which Ben was there to fix for me

the midnight ferry was smooth sailing. I stocked up on gravol and didn't need to open the box

the deep freeze full of food was still frozen when I got here

the rental house is nicer than I was expecting it to be. 3 levels with steep stairs, new paint, newish carpets, decent appliances.

the school is also closer than I thought it would be. we can see it down the trail from the front door.

the weather has been a mixed bag of rain, sun, rain, sun, rain, sun... there are always puddles on the ground

we took a drive 2 mins out of town to the dunes on the beach. So peaceful and beauiful I can not describe (pics will some soon).

signing off for now... more interesting observations and family experiences coming soon.

nicole