The weather is mostly fine

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As in, “Wasn’t yesterday’s weather just fine?”.  I think that is how they would describe it in Australia, sunny, pleasant temperature in the 60’s and, did I say, sunshine! Makes a world of difference. Today there is pea soup fog but it should lift before we plan to go ashore to see Sequim’s production of the play, The Gin Game. Quite a Sunday in store for us.

Yesterday’s patrol was a delight. Lots of seabirds, seals, and mountains. I politely shooed a fishing boat away that was too close to the island for the wildlife’s comfort, 200 yard buffer around the whole island. They pleaded ignorance, hmmm, and complied. We investigated an object with a very straight black vertical stripe. At first I thought it was a tent on the beach! We got closer, looked from different angles and because it was so straight. Tim finally reckoned it was a shadow cast by a log hanging over the top of the rock. Disaster averted.

 

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Loon


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Eagle lookout


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Rhinoceros auklet and tufted puffin

Things I would like to have in the kitchen but don’t are a rolling pin, pie plate, muffin tins and a baking sheet.  I am such a princess. A chilling bottle of wine always serves well as a rolling pin, thank you Malcolm and Margaret; we have a thin round baking sheet, which is likely to burn my cookies; I’ve been using a square pan with some good pie results, except the other night, when in a stupor I sprinkled baking soda instead of cornstarch over my apples; and muffin tins may be essential for popovers. Which of these are really essential. None really. I’ll see how my mood is when we are ashore. Skip the rolling pin for sure.

I’ve learned about another weird chemical reaction, I haven’t worked out the formulae but a have an inkling. Not for the weak of heart. We can’t drink the well water because it is very high in nitrates. It’s clear, doesn’t smell and is fine to wash dishes, shower, etc. That’s one compound in the formula.  The next is urochrome. You may not have heard of it but it’s the compound that makes pee (urine – uro) yellow and is from the breakdown of bile in our blood. I think an oxygen molecule from the nitrate latches on somewhere to urochrome and changes its structure. Well when the two mix, like in the toilet, urine magically turns clear. Very odd. How will I know if I am well hydrated or not? Lucky for you, I will not post a photo to illustrate this concept.

We got tired of using paper napkins so I wove two with cotton thread I had on hand and my 4 inch pin weave-it loom. Not ideal, but they work. They are the first pin loom weavings I have sewn together. As someone said, these little loom squares are like potato chips, you can’t just weave one. They are so cute and take about 15 minutes. What do I have but time?

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I took a walk before dinner to enjoy the views. There were two eagles and two northern harriers checking me out. I keep my glasses and hat on! And I have no intention of watching Hitchcock’s “The Birds” again until we leave her.  I was traumatized the first time I watched it because the next day I went out to sell Girl Scout cookies for my Brownie troop and birds were just waiting to attack me.

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Little house on the prairie

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  That’s the plan anyway. There’s a project to restore the island’s native grasses. This means we have to remove daffodils that were planted in the 1960’s and flourished untended since then. 

  Once they’ve bloomed, we’re to dig them up and dry them out and return them to the mainland. Then the area will be razed or burned to make way for the native grasses. 

  
Today I mowed. I’ve been (ahem) told I should be able to just pick up the mower and put it in the truck bed. I huffed and I puffed but couldn’t lift that mower. So I used ramps instead. Still tough but I made it. 

  
The purple martin houses that were installed last week are all occupied and then some. Perhaps these birds were from the east where they are used to living in apartments not single family homes. More than one couple perched on a house at the same time. Maybe they were just visiting. 

  
There was a military fly by today heading towards Seattle. Geese flying south?

  

The animals that greet us when we get home

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I’m used to a friendly cat greeting my on my return home.  Here on Protection Island, it’s all about the birds.  The first time we pulled into the little harbor was magical.  There are always large numbers of pigeon guillemots, harlequin ducks, a few oystercatchers, a couple of eagles and thousands of seagulls.  Seals have landed on the island and the surrounding sandspits.  I don’t think they are elephant seals but they sure do make a huge pile.

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This guy was watching us when we left today.

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We went ashore to swim and shop and I decided to relax in a little sunshine when we returned home.  As I sat and wove outside, two black tailed deer gingerly approached me, but approach they did until the seagulls’ squawking drove them away.

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We’re the intruders here after all.

 

The birds and the bees

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We live in a cabin in a very “fertile” area of the island. Kind of like Times Square before Mayor Giuliani.  Either one pair of seagulls is very amorous, or every day several new pairs come to mate before our eyes.  And they’re not quiet about it, they are seagulls after all.  There’s a lot of squawking.   First there’s the hello baby…

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Then the male stands on the back of the female

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and they co-mingle their tales to do the nasty. No appendages involved.  Look it up. This happens right outside our window, several times a day.

Now they’re looking towards the future and getting ready to nest.

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Tim cleaned all the windows when we got here but they are making amazing messes with their fly-bys and he has to do it again.

I spent a couple of hours docking today. With a light wind, no spectators, and no other boats to worry about, I do pretty OK.

Today was a high carb day.  I baked a loaf of bread and a coffee cake. Yum. We’re staying here for a while since there have been small craft warnings so I am making do with what we have. We still have wine and chocolate, so we should be fine.

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Rain and clouds may be gone for a while.  These were passing clouds this afternoon. We’ll see what tomorrow brings.

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A world apart

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IMG_1083We’re only on the other side of the country but it seems like we’re in another world or in a time warp. People couldn’t be friendlier when we are ashore. Strangers start conversations and cars yield to our bikes, mostly. Our plans to swim at the YMCA yesterday were canceled because when we rode into town, a big party was underway for irrigation day. Who knew? Harleys, muscle cars, marching bands, firetrucks, and even the sewage truck took part.

Weather changes in the blink of an eye, it rains, the sun comes out, rainbows dazzle, the wind picks up, the waves build.

It took 3 tries to have a weather and tide window to pick up two Audubon volunteers who came out to install purple martin boxes on the dock. Mission accomplished today.

We learned that a great horned owl uses the area around the cabin as a dining room, which is why we find well picked carcasses about. The eagles enjoy almost anything but don’t dine near us.

We heard the owl at the end of the video.

We made it ashore today before small craft warnings kicked in again. The bikes need a little work. I’m having some brake trouble. If anyone knows the name of the doohiggy screw thing that connects the cable to the lever, please let me know. Mine is pretty bent and not holding too well and I want to order a new one. People thought we were part of the parade yesterday. I did the princess wave and smiled to the cries of, “Nice Bike”.

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The grocery store had a dragon fruit, something I have never heard of.  I’m not brave enough to eat it yet because it was fairly pricey and I want to read about it first but the produce manager said they are even more stunning when they first arrive.

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We’ve got our own stunning fruit tree on the island.

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And the number of seagulls that greet us on the roof when we return home each day continues to grow. I think the one in the foreground was actually leaning on the spikes. So much for that. They’re still not sliding down the roof yet though. We’ll see.

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Wacky weather

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We were supposed to go ashore today to run a few errands and pick up a couple of people from Audubon who place purple martin houses on the island. I woke up at 5:30 and heard the sound of wind from the south. It was whistling and ultimately small craft warnings were announced so we stayed ashore. I got to weave with my pin loom and then we repaired the fence around an enclosure where native plants are growing. The fence keeps the black tailed deer out and we’ll use the weed wacker to prevent invasive grass seeds from landing inside it. Next we placed markers at daffodil plants that will be removed from the island after they bloom, and potentially sold as heirloom bulbs as a fundraiser, to make the way for native prairie grass.

Weather was supposed to improve midday but it didn’t so perhaps we will get to rendezvous tomorrow. The clouds and rainbows are incredible.

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The new spikes on the house are working, mostly. One seagull managed to inch its feet just up to the spikes and accompany the lone gull on the chimney.

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Every day we run across the remains of a mostly eaten bird. I’m not sure if the predator is the northern harrier that stays nearby or one of at least eight eagles we have seen.   They rudely leave the carcass on our wood chopping block. Tim still uses it, I don’t.

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We’ll see what tomorrow’s weather brings.

 

 

 

Our nest

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IMG_0189We are set up in a cabin that I think was built when there was a scheme to have 2000! houses on this little island. The water is not good for drinking and environmentalists wanted to maintain the sanctuary for the birds and the plan flopped. Now there are only three habitable structures left. We’re in one of them. The views from all around are amazing. Close ups of birds – they’ll be plenty of photos of seagulls especially – and distant views of mountains, water, and shipping traffic.

We have propane lights throughout and recently installed solar LED lights, which is a nice way to illuminate without using fuel. Two large batteries are charged by 2 solar panels and back up generators, one big, one small.  The fridge, and dryer use propane. The washer and dryer are powered by a large generator. There are usually wires strung about while we recharge our devices, phones, ipads, laptop, radio, camera, etc. Knock on wood all things are working smoothly.

We pump water to that old water tank and then water is gravity fed to where it’s needed. We’ve been provided with drinking water. Someone remarked we must be bathing in it but that’s our primary beverage, supplemented by a little wine and scotch.

Front of cabin
Porch swing
Back

 

The first floor has a combined living, dining, and kitchen area, which has been called a livitchen by my kids in the past; one bedroom, a small office area and a bathroom.

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There’s an open loft space upstairs with two more beds and a porch.

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Pretty comfortable all around. I’ve had to improvise some tools and pans in the kitchen. There clearly has not been a serious baker here before but I’m making do. A cold bottle of wine serves as a rolling pin and I have been making pies and quiches in square baking pans.

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It’s a cozy place for us to roost but not so much for the birds.

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Trip ashore biathalon

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We shipped our fold up bikes to Washington before we left home with the idea they would be a great way to shop without needing a car. We also signed up at the local YMCA, which has a lovely pool, and got ourselves a post office box to pick up netflix. Yesterday we put it to the test. We took the boat ashore, no problem. Unfolded and rode our bikes 4.6 miles uphill to the YMCA, some complaining on my part. We swam for 40 minutes (Tim) and 30 minutes (me with a little time left over for the hot tub). I stopped into the local yarn store, That’s actually its name, Local Yarn Shop, and met two lovely women and a ten week old sheep dog named Bob. A little mexican food for lunch, a bike ride to the grocery store and then complete the 4.6 mile ride back to the marina, laden with two backpacks of food, very heavy backpacks but at least 1/3 of the way was downhill. I know the math doesn’t work out but that’s how it felt to me. We were plumb tuckered last night.

Today a work group arrived on the landing craft, to drop off a utility vehicle of some sort and to put spikes on the roof to prevent the birds from landing and sliding off the metal roof all day. Lucky for our guests because their beds are just under that metal roof. One lone perch was left on the top of the chimney and it was already in use by day’s end.

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The grass has been mowed by both me and Tim. I got to survey the island a little more while I figured out how to lift the lawnmower on to the bed of the truck.

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Yesterday we had lots of wildlife spotting during our island circumnavigation on the trip back. Seals had hauled out on one of the spits.

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Hard to see what is seal and what is driftwood but the water’s edge is littered with seals. We saw our first arctic puffin in the water and it was CUTE. Here’s a link to what they look like. I highly recommend the Irish public TV show, Puffin Rock, where these little guys star. We also saw a couple of loons. And these shenanigans when we returned to the cabin.

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A little seagull porn.

In the cabin we learned that what we thought was petrified wood or sedimentary rock is a WOOLY MAMMOTH TOOTH!! Imagine that.

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Our next biathalon will probably take place next week.  Stay tuned for the agony of defeat.

A rainbow or two

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Who needs TV when we had a night like last night? We sat down to a late dinner (pork tenderloin, peas, applesauce, salad and brownies) when the seagulls got stirred up. All at once they were all in the air flying. That’s a lot of seagulls in flight and they were joined by a few eagles. It didn’t seem like the eagles started it but it was one great fly fest. Two eagles buzzed right in front of the window where we sat.

At the same time rainbows appeared and kept evolving. It was spectacular.

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Today was a bit more mundane.  We took out the boat to patrol the island during one of Washington state’s three halibut fishing days. All boats we saw respected the 200 yard boundary around the island. I worked on docking in wind. And provisioned – I made yogurt, a loaf of bread and dinner.

I finally got my band weaving out and used some of the knots I worked on during my boating course to secure my band to a post.

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A lovely weaving spot except it’s under a barn swallow nest on the porch.  We’ll see if they keep letting me weave there. Plus there’s an otter under there as well. It’s a sanctuary out there!

I’ve been working on an aran sweater for myself. It’s coming along, s l o w l y.   I actually knit the whole back piece before we left but learned it was WRONG and I had to rip it all out. This is RIGHT. And so pretty.

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Here’s a panoramic view of the harbor with our boat, the Auklet, tied up alongside a clean dock. The harbor is protected from the wind but not the birds.

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