Birkeland 0n Denman

Mini-adventures on Denman Island; one of the northern gulf islands on the west coast of British Columbia, situated between Hornby Island and Baynes Sound. This site is intended for relatives, friends, and voyeurs who are interested in monitoring our alternate lifestyle. Updates are now done on a weekly basis. Visit regularly.

Week ending May 13, 2012.

None of this of course has anything to do with boating. Marit saw an interesting sailboat out front yesterday, grabbed her camera and took this picture, (top, left). Earlier in the week I photographed a police boat charging up Baynes Sound, probably on its was to harass boaters who talk on their cell phones while steering. With a good imagination this waterway is more entertaining than television.

Speaking of entertainment, let me continue with the saga of the deck. After preparing most of the boards (a few more rejects were found) I began serious installation; measuring, matching, cutting, and screwing after pre-drilling. At approximately the halfway point my electric saw stopped. I checked and reset the breaker panel, checked and reset the GFI switch (Ground Fault Indicator) for the outside circuits, and still nothing. The saw didn't work plugged into other electrical outlets either. The old workhorse had finally died. I bought a new one in Courtenay, a heavy duty DeWALT miter saw. At Marit's suggestion, on the same trip I also took a load of the old plastic board pieces to the dump as well as some old metal components including the old saw to the recycling centre. The car had a full load, especially with the three cedar board replacements strapped to the top.Returning home I hand sanded the boards and Marit painted them with water-seal.

The next day I began again with the new saw and... nothing. That saw wouldn't work either. After performing the same checks I realized the entire GFI switch must have failed and needed replacing. By amazing luck a visiting neighbour had two spare switches sitting in his garage and graciously gave one to me, the exact switch I required. So the next morning I morphed from a carpenter into an electrician. But before tackling the operation I felt the need to try one final time, reset the panel switch and test the saw. Yes, that time it worked! After recovering from my stunned astonishment I proceeded with the decking and finally finished. Almost! My estimating skills were poor and I still need four more boards. (I assumed two six inch boards would cover one foot; not so, not even with a gap the width of a nail between every board.) And yes, I still have that nagging saw question too ....

The flower associated with Mothers Day should really be the rhododendron, at least in this part of the world. On the second Sunday of May most rhododendrons are approaching the peak of their display like this Haida Gold specimen that is opening in our front garden. Marit and I celebrated today with a reservation at the Kingfisher Mothers Day brunch. Their buffet was excellent as usual and restraint was very hard to practice. I didn't. Marit was astonished by my capacity but I failed to complete the final dessert plate. Any thought of food for the rest of the day was impossible ... until late in the evening when Marit produced another piece of rhubarb pie.

Yesterday we hiked down to Boyle Point to see the Eagle's nest located below the viewing area. The nest has been rebuilt after being destroyed last year in a severe wind storm. Its a very small nest now but if it survives it will grow bigger each year as the eagles add new twigs and branches. Both eggs in the nest hatched last week. The parents are taking turns brooding the chicks and hunting for food. No one has tried mounting a web cam on this nest but I think the Hornby Island 'Eagle Cam' is still active.

Mike and I had an amazing eagle sighting last Friday when doing the monthly survey on the 'other' (east) side of Denman. We watched a 'cloud' of eagles about 500 meters from shore attacking a school of fish. We don't know what kind of fish but the eagles were diving into the water for them and flying back to the trees on Denman to eat. Using his spotting scope Mike counted 75 birds in the cloud. I watched with my binoculars and realized other birds were coming and going. Between 80 to 100 eagles participated. None seemed to be carrying their prey to the southern part of the island. Neither of us realized there were so many in this area.

Finally just a couple more observations on this side of the island. Yesterday afternoon Marit called my attention to the ferry changing its route to avoid a long raft (or 'boom') of logs being towed slowly down Baynes Sound. We were surprised to see the ferry swing almost in front of our place. Let's see the proposed cable ferry handle that problem.

And Marit has been reporting numerous schools of sealions swimming north the past few evenings. She initially thought they were Orcas because they showed a large fin as they dove. I hope they're migrating north to better food areas now that the herring spawn is long over. Unfortunately they probably swim back in the morning because they're just as noisy south of us.

The significant message from this? Even Marit finds the ocean more interesting that television. Sometimes.