Sunday, May 1, 2011

final days






Well we are back home. Safe and sound. A little more snow here than we would like but what do you do? Thanks to Ben for the ride to Rupert today. Sorry Liam puked on your bunk. I guess it was a little rough. We hitched a ride on Ben's tug. Took us about 3 hours to get from Oona to Rupert..a little rough leaving the harbour but other's wise a fine trip. Kinda wet and foggy though. Not worth taking any pictures. Now that we are home I got the camera working and have included a few photos from the past few days. Jana was busy in the sunshine stitching together some curtains for Eric's room. Also spending some quality time with her daughter in the most comfortable spot around. We had a big crab feast on the beach the last night. Sun was shinning and no wind. The kids collected all the crabs that they could, they also painted driftwood. Sydney mostly painted herself. The crab was delicious. There was a little concern that the crabs were "soft" Apperently crabs occassionally molt out of their shells. They grow a new shell with in the old shell. But the new shell is bigger and "soft" Meaning they haven't filled it all out with meat. So we did throw some big ones back. But still had lots to eat...mmmmm.
In case you are wondering we only caught one mouse on the final night and the squirrels live on. Looking forward to May Long weekend and some more fun...this time I am not bringing tools..just a fishing trip!!!

Saturday, April 30, 2011

war on mice

So I feel I need to write a little on our furry little friends around here. The squirrels have been a lot of entertainment. They are quite friendly and not scared of people at all. Twice I hit one with a broom today. Also sent one flying about ten feet by slamming down the other end of a long board. But they don't seem to get the message. The kids love watching them out the windows as they climb in and out of jana's compost bucket. They actually chewed through the plastic to get in. Other than the one early morning where they ran around on the roof they haven't been too much of a bother. Not quite ready to borrow a gun from the neighbors. But the mice on the other hand.

Well we have seen two in the cabin. One running along on an overhead beam. The second surprising jana when she opened the cutlery drawer. Last year we would watch them in the evening skitter around on the porch outside quite regularly..but not this year. So it was kinda of surprising to set the traps two nights ago and catch two mice. So I figured I better set the traps again...then I caught one more mouse. We did hear some crawling on the roof..though and I found a spot where the mice had chewed through some styrofoam to gain access. Well last night I decided to make a bucket trap..you know the kinda of one that is resetting..a can on a wire in a bucket of water with peanut butter smeared on it. I could not believe that i caught nine mice last night. nine yes nine..thats alot. how many can there be around here..nine. Anyways we will try again to night...hopefully make a dent in the local population.

Sorry no photos our camera it's out of batteries and we have exhausted all the ones around here. Took them out of my gps and dad's radio. We did have some fun today though. Cleaned-up the cabin. Getting Eric's room all ready..put up a couple shelves..jana finished the curtians..hung the door. built the bed. Looks pretty sweet. Then to start packing. Tomorrow morning we are heading home. By four everything was shipshape and time to party. The Vanderhiedes came over for one last meal. Fresh crab on the beach....mmmm. A great evening around the fire on the beach. Dead calm clear and sunny. Kids painted driftwood, paper, jana's garden and each other. They also taught Sydney how to put crabs in her pockets. Because thats what all kids do when beach combing. Lots of fun and laughs. Once again we wonder why we are leaving.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Eric's a Door



So I am trying to build a door for Eric's bedroom. Tried to glue a bunch of 2x6 together. it didn't look so hot in the back of my truck. The glue didn't stick. The boards fell apart. I took a lot of ribbing about it from the Oona river peanut gallery,...But after a few deck screws and some more glue....I think it is salvagable..time will tell. Jana sanded it and put some teak oil on it. While I painted the wall and floor of Eric's room. Jana also has been getting up early and working in the evenings sewing some curtains for the room. If the paint is dry tomorrow we will put it all together. Eric do you want me to build a queen sized bed or double?

Maya's birthday





This year we had another birthday party on the beach for Maya. but we could drive to this beach. It was a nice afternoon . Jana had put together a treasure hunt for the kids that took them all over town. They loved the surprises. After that we had dinner and cupcakes by the fire. Liam and Lily spent hours filling there pockets with crabs. While Maya used her new swiss army knife to shave off wood for her first attempt at lighting a fire.

Now a little about Sydney. This little girl is growing up real fast this week. She is becoming quite the character. She learned how to put two words together...like "my bowl" or "bye mom" or "no Bee (her name for Liam)" There is some words she can't say..like lily and liam and Shannon. But she tries or makes up another name for them. She could say Ben quite good..but not shannon....so we taught her to call shannon "Ben's Mommy" it worked..and she (plus all the other kids) giggle away.. fun stuff. Who knows what she will learn next week.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

back to work





So enough easter egg hunts and potluck dinners. Time to get back to work. Time to get back to my big cedar. So after cutting it up for a few hours it's not quite as big as it first looked. Still well over two feet at the butt. I managed to cut it up into 3 decent logs. Should make a few boards if I can ever get it over to Ben's mill. The log has a pretty serious scar on it. Ben had seen it a few days prior and assumed it was rotten. I also was very surprised that it wasn't. But it is quite sound inside. I had to use Ben's big chainsaw with a long bar to cut the tree up. (he doesn't like it if you plunge it into salt water..make sure you rinse it off) I cut 7 - 6" slices off the butt. Then towed them over with the skiff. Now I got to role them up the beach and we can use them for our path building projects. The rest of the logs are tied to shore and when the time is right I will tow them to Ben's mill.

Spent a bunch more time on Eric's room. Insulating the walls with styrofoam and covering it up with some cedar and pine t/g that I had been given. Looks good. Now Jana is busy making curtains. Wow..with curtains this will be the best room in the place. Gonna have to charge extra for that.

technology


In the the last couple years we got cell phone service out here. This has been a big plus. No more hiking out to the pay phone to find out hockey scores. This is also how we can get the blog done. This year I have a made a few changes. I purchased a little $60 antenna that plugs in to my aircard. This really boosts my internet speed and signal availbility. Last year I had to hike down to the beach every time I needed to go online. It also took a lot longer to upload photos. Also the battery in our 13" Macbook wasn't very good so I had to lug the generator around with me. Now I can do it all inside the cabin..nice and warm and dry. Way faster too.
Bought a new generator this year. A Honda 2000. Perfect little unit. Quiet and sips the gas. It has been working great. Can't say enough good things about it. Easy to start. Light weight. Anyways I still had to run it all the time for the computer to work. But we finally got our new laptop battery in the mail. So now when I run the generator during the day for my powertools it also charges the laptop. So far this has been working just great.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Oona River Quiz

Oona River Quiz

1) Who is older?
a-Maya
b-Lily

2) How long a walk is it to a road?
a- 1 mi
b- 10min

3) What's the most amount of crabs found under one rock?
a- 13
b- 37

4) How many buckets of clams did people dig off our beach this week?
a- 7
b- 2

5) How many buckets of gravel did Jana haul up from the beach for her trails?
a- 9
b- 17

6) How many buckets did Jon haul?
a- 18
b- 0

7) Average bed time?
a- 11:30
b- 9:00

8) Average awake time?
a- 5:30
b- 7:00

9) Number of Days with snow?
a- 2
b- 5

10) Number of Days Jana wanted to go to Hawaii?
a- 2
b- 5

11) How many prawn caught total trip?
a- 2
b- 3

12) Number of High tides in a day?
a-1
b-2


two weeks

So we have been here for just over two weeks so I thought I would give a little account of our resource usage. I emptied our cooler today..it still had ice in it. Didn' t think it would last that long..guess it tells you what kinda of weather we have been having. So far we have used up

20 litres gas for Generator
30 litres gas pickup
2 litres gas chainsaw
10 litres gas skiff
1/2 20 pound bottle propane for fridge
3 mini propane bottles for stove/oven
5 rolls toilet paper
1 roll paper towel
2 packs baby wipes
45 eggs
5 4l milks
11 1l juice cartons
2/3 bottle whiskey
1/3 bottle rum
9 beer
29 arm loads firewood
5 blocks of butter
2 packs bacon
1 bottle whipping cream (still some left)
1/2 mint chocolate bar
2 trips to town for baths
5 loads laundry in machines
2 loads laundry done in ocean

Easter Egg Hunt



Easter Sunday in Oona consists of an Easter Egg hunt and a little more kite flying. All the kids gather at the old schoolhouse waiting for 11:30. Then they are allowwed to enter the field and begin the hunt. Liam was the oldest little kid (they get let in 30 seconds early) He cleaned up..he wasn't quite sure what was going on at first...once he clued in..the race was on...but by the the end most kids had a big basket full of eggs and such anyways. Way more than I expected. At least we aren't short on sweets around here anymore.
After the egg hunt we had some visitors. 9 adults and 2 kids hiked over for the afternoon. Some of us hid inside from the wind while the others combed the beach. Was fun to have the place full for a few hours. We love sharing and hosting in this little cabin. It was the biggest group we had sitting around table yet. And they all fit. No problem. If everyone stayed for nap time it might have gotten a little squishy.




Saturday, April 23, 2011

kite flying




12 hours wandering the town. That's how we spent a gloreous sunny easter weekend day in Oona. We left at nine..back at nine. Just wandered around jumping on trampolines and eating. Visited the Vanderheides first off...kids got there first taste of easter chocolates there. Followed by some egg painting and kiting assembly. Then off to the schoolhouse for the annual kite flying competition. Must a been 20 kites trying to catch some airspace. A few wrecks and a few funny entaglements. One kid lost his kite..which proceeded to fly away to "who no wheres" but just when all hope was gone of recovery the trailing handle snagged another kite line...zoomed up it and became a dual kite...worked quite well. Liam's Owl kite won price for "best bird kite" Syndey won youngest competitor for her attempts.
After the kite flying everyone just chilled for an hour two around the fire and in the park..waiting for dinner. Then a great Oona potluck ensued. Lots of people..lots of food. Ham, Tuna (fresh off the tuna boat docked in the harbour), Shrimp, Roast Beef, Many Salads, Breads, Key Lime tarts, Strawberrries,Mangos, Brie, Cupcakes and more cupcakes, Cookies, Jello, Sausages, mmmmmmm mm
We are all full and off to bed. Our kids were beat...lots of fun in the sun today no trouble falling asleep tonight.

Friday, April 22, 2011

new stepped decks




todays project..more decks..always need more decks...reasons why

#1 easier for kids to get around
#2 keeps everything cleaner
#3 with all the rain and heavy traffic the ground slowly becomes a big wet spongy mess.
#4 easier to pack stuff in and out
#5 fun to build..don't need much foundation work
#6 good way to use up all the extra lumber kicking around
#7 somewhere for jana too put her flower pots
#8 nobody wants to work inside when it is gorgeous sunny out anyways

Thursday, April 21, 2011

two prawns






production is up now I got two prawns...couples weeks I should have enough for a meal. Also went and scratched my head by the big tree awhile. Cut most of the limbs off last low tide..now to cut it up. All I could get was the top off. I am kinda scared to cut the root wad off. Afraid it is gonna squish me. Tomorrow on the low tide I will take another look at it.

Made some good discoveries on the beach this morning. We had lots of visitors. One group came to play with Liam's new horseshoe set. They also found a big bunch of almost edible crabs burrowed in the sand. The other group was busy digging clams. They had a couple buckets full. Never seen anyone do it..seemed pretty easy and was right in front of our cabin. May have to try it. Not sure I like clams though...need Josh here to make his famous clam chowder.

Also found my best beachcombing discovery of the season. A 2x12 cedar 25foot board..yes 25 feet. Surprisingly long..All I need is 40 more and I can re-do the boardwalk to the road, where I park my truck.


Tuesday, April 19, 2011

one prawn




so after an hour in the row boat I managed to get the prawn trap in. All that work and one prawn..it was a big tasty bugger..but only one. Actually can't even tell you how it tasted because Jana added it to her rice paper wrap. She assured me it was quite good and I can go out every night and get her one. It was nice to get out in the boat...so refreshing out in the rain. Hard to tell if you are sweating or it's just the rain...blasting into every orriface. Sorry no picture..so caught up in the experience just forgot the camera.

The kids had a great time this morning...lowest tide yet...Hit up the kelp beds. Only a few times a month do the kelp beds get exposed. Under every big slimy leaf is all kinds of creatures. Ones you rarely see. Big sunfish, red flowers that shrivel up when poked, spider like crabs..... endless entertainment...er..well it ends in an hours as the water comes rushing back in.

Started on Eric and Bethanys room. Was planning to make it as dark as possible with minimal windows. Wanted to keep my final 5x5 window for another side project..but I was running short on plywood. So only here would you decide to put a window in because you are short one piece of plywood. Jana is very excited about the bright little room.

Monday, April 18, 2011

today in "quotes"






Jana "is that snow?"
Liam "I want rice, broccoli, pancakes, juice and peanut butter for breakfast"
Sydney "Bobby" (she has a book about Bobby the Bee)
Jon "yup that's snow"
Jana "those holes drilled in the floor...really make the upstairs warmer"
Sydney "Maya"
Jon "was snowing so hard I didn't dare come out in the skiff"
Liam "Every time we got outside it's starts snowing"
Sydney "More" (crackers with peanut butter and honey)
Jana " Quesidillas for lunch"
Jana "GO TO SLEEP!!!"
Sydney "ning a ning a" (what she calls her blanket)
Liam "looks like a perfect time for finding pinching crabs"
Jana "GO TO SLEEP"
Jon " Liam can you bring me the prawn trap"
Jon "&8%^ this is a big tree"
Jon "not snow again"
Syndey "waaa waaa (wakes up from nap crying)
Liam "hey guys it looks like a perfect time to find pinching crabs"
Jana " you kids can have a picnic here it's mostly out of the snow"
Sydney "waaa waaa" ( Liam didn't share the picnic snack)
Jon "Hey Jana..thanks for helping me build this bench"
Liam "anyone want to go look for pinching crabs"
Syndey "pee" (potty training still working..mostly)
Jana "Beans and Potatoes for Dinner!!"
Liam "hey guys I got an idea..lets go look for pinching crabs"
Jon " ok..but only flipping 2 rocks"
Liam "4"
Syndey, Jon, Liam "thanks for dinner mom"
Syndey "Bobby, Bobby.Bobby"
Liam " I peed in my pants a little bit.....cause I was having so much fun outside I forgot"
Jon "%^&#$$%"
Syndey "ning a ning a"
Liam " Syndey keeps waking me up"
Jon & Jana "Go to Sleep"



the big cedar tree experience




so today after one failed attempt (due to blizzard like conditions) I managed to bring some lumber around the point to ons tweede huis. I needed some 2x4 so I could finish framing the "spare room" for when Eric and Bethany come. Anyways I had notice this green tree floating around in the bay. You can see it way in the background on the photo of us unloading lumber. So I went to check it out. It was big. I hooked a rope to it....and tried to pull it nothing. The boat just zig and zagged back and forth but no forward. While I was messing around trying to tie a longer rope on..the wind changed. A little storm rolled in and started blowing us into our little bay. So I decided to push it instead. That actually worked. Still painfully slow progress. The other driftwood around us..was passing us..even though I had the motor pushing. This thing is big and has a heavy..massive root wad on it. I am not sure where this big cedar tree came from..but it is mine now. Kind of like having a whale on the beach...tomorrow morning on the low tide I am gonna start cutting into it....I might need a bigger chainsaws....stay tuned.



Sunday, April 17, 2011

clarence the crab






Good Morning Everyone! My name is clarence the crab. This morning when I woke up I knew it was gonna be a rough day. First off the sun was up and blaring straight in my eyes. Also the water around me seemed to be disappearing quite quickly. I had to find a hiding spot and fast. Quickly I scurried down the rocks..onto the sand and made a bee-line for the kelp beds. I only had moments to spare before the huge two legged monsters crawled out of their driftwood cave. When the tide is out and sun is shining it is almost guaranteed that those humans will be crawling and picking and poking all through my neighborhood.
Well I didn't quite make. All of a sudden the fast quickest most brightly dressed human around caught me......I new I was in trouble. She started chirping for her young ones. They came running. It isn't eveyday they catch a rock crab of my size and tenacity. Well she proceeded to...toss me and twist me and put me on display for her young ones. Just when I thought she was gonna toss me in the soup pot..she surprised me. Gently putting me down on the sand....they proceeded to scurry down the beach....off too pester sarah starfish...better her than me anyways.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

frost






so this morning we woke up to a surprise...frost. Man when will winter ever end. The whole boardwalk and deck on the beach was covered in the terrible white stuff. As I walked down to the beach in my crocks to drink my morning tea...I had to be very careful not too slip. Here we thought the kids would finally be able to play outside in there shorts and t-shirts. Nope... better keep on those sweaters kids! At least the sky is clear. By mid morning the sun had dried and warmered everything up. Since there is no wind it was a perfect day to mess about in a boat. The community crab traps needed to be set and baited. So that was my job. Only problem was when I pulled up the rope..the old rotted rope..it broke. But since the water is so clear this time of year I could see the crab trap directly below me..about 25 feet. Now what. Well I quickly threw the anchor out. Rigged up a hook line with my gaff..and went fishing. In about 15mins I had the crab trap on board. Now they had been sitting out there for about 2 months...unattended. The few crabs that were unlucky enough to be in there..looked very sketchy. Very much alive but covered in black slime and kind of thin looking. No way I was gonna eat them. too bad I didn't take a picture. Anyways got the trap baited and off to try some fishing. Nothing....not a nibble..I just tried jigging in front of our place. When Jana and Liam came down to the beach to say Hi..I just had to take a picture. The water is so clear and clean this time of year.......in few weeks the Skeena will start puking out all that muddy snow water and ruin it.
Jana also put the finishing touches on our stools. Some sanding and a little varathane They were fun to build. A mixture of driftwood with yellow and red cedar scraps. Now we are ready to host a big group meal. Seats for everyone! Who will it be?