Best Barn

On our drive out to the Skagit Valley, we turned off Highway 20 onto Best Road. This is the heart of farming and flower producing country. With farms, come barns.

The yellow moss on this barn on Best Road matched the lovely daffodils out back.

Come on out to the Skagit Valley and find lots of old and new barns. -- Margy

Flowers and Seeds

This week Mom and I took a Sunday drive to the Skagit Valley. It's a bit early, but we weren't disappointed. Before the famous tulips, come the yellow daffodils. To be honest, I like the bright yellow flowers even more.

Even with a gray sky above, it looked bright and sunny below.


When we were done flower gazing, Mom and I went to the town of La Conner. I love their quaint streets, and this time of year they can get pretty crowded with tourists. We wanted to get a late lunch/early dinner. I know the parking and restaurants along the waterfront can be tricky, so I went online and found Seeds Pub and Bistro.

They had a great website, so I called about handicapped parking and access. Seeds was a perfect choice. Great atmosphere, great wait staff, and good food. We shared a burger and got a piece of pie to take home when our tummies weren't so full. So if you are thinking about doing the daffodil or tulip tour, stop on by Seeds for a great meal. -- Margy

Spring Planting

My goal last week up at the cabin was to get my spring planting done. I'm two weeks early (my traditional time is Easter week), but with my new schedule helping Mom, I didn't want to wait until my next trip in late April.

A month ago, I dug up the beds and added steer manure. This trip I added peat moss. Together, they will replenish the well used soil in my small plots.

For the second year in a row, I'm planting a minimal garden. I don't want to tie Wayne and John to watering all summer in my absence. I planted a strawberry border all the way around, and filled in a few holes with bare roots in my asparagus patch. Onion sets filled in the remainder of two beds. The other two got seeds for spinach, chard and radishes.

I planted Yukon Gold potatoes in two large pots on the deck. I've switched to them because they last much better during winter storage. Scarlet runner beans and snow peas went into two other large pots. Lastly, I planted garlic in three smaller pots on the transition float. Everything is clustered to make watering and tending easier.

At this time of year, my garden looks pretty bare. But there's a lot of potential. When I return in April I should see lots of sprouts, yellow daffodils, and maybe even a few onions to nibble. Have you started your garden yet? What are you planting this year? -- Margy

Winter's Last Snow

Even though the calendar said it was spring this week, Mother Nature didn't want to give up on winter and brought us a last minute snow storm.

Tuesday, the last day of winter, started with a mix of graupel and rain. What is graupel, you say? I'd never heard of it either, having grown up in Southern California. It's crisp, white ice particles that are precursors to snow. In a way, they look like tiny bits of hail.

Graupel falls with more force than snow, almost like mini-hail. You could see it bounce on the deck, but unlike hail, it's not associated with thunderstorms. As rain falls through colder air near the surface it freezes to form graupel.

Two books you might like to read about weather along the Strait of Georgia region are The Wind Came All Ways and Living with Weather Along the BC Coast, both written by Owen S. Lange. They're both available at Amazon or local bookstores including Coles.

I'm not really complaining. When we lived in Los Angeles, we never got to experience distinct seasons. Now that we live in Coastal BC, we are get all kinds of weather. So bring it on, Mother Nature. -- Margy

Working in All Kinds of Weather

Even under cloudy, rainy skies, the many tugs and fishing boats that moor in the Steveston Harbour head out the mouth of the Fraser River into the Strait of Georgia.

Standing at the end of Garry Point Park, I saw this tug riding the river's flow and outgoing tide at a good clip.

This empty barge might even be picking up a load to deliver to my home town, Powell River. The ocean highway is an efficient (but not speedy) way to transport goods. -- Margy

Spring is in the Air

The first day of spring this year was on March 20 at 1:14 am (EDT). On the Vernal Equinox, daylight equals darkness. And each day until the first day of summer, the length of daylight increases. Here's a picture of sunrise on the first day of spring up at the cabin.

Because the sun has to make its way over Goat Island before it "rises," we didn't see it until 9:15 am. Look at the difference from the first day of winter when it rose at 9:45 am.

An even bigger difference happened at sunset. Here's the sun setting behind the trees across the bay at 11:43 am on December 22. That made our direct sunlight on the first day of winter last only two hours.

On March 20, the sun arced high over the treeline across the bay and set behind our cliff at 5:45 pm, giving us seven and a half hours of sunlight.

That's assuming it isn't a rainy or snowy day. Our weather is still a bit unsettled. But from now on, it can only get better. How are you celebrating the start of spring? -- Margy

Stumps and Spring Boards

Powell Lake has been logged since the beginning of the 20th Century. Massive old growth trees were cut from the slopes and the lake's water highway was used to start them on their journey to market. When the paper mill was built, a dam was constructed across the mouth of Powell River, and the lake level rose covering previously logged areas.

Now some of the old growth stumps have washed up on the new shoreline. This one has two slots cut into the trunk. They are the remnants of notches made by loggers to insert their springboards.

Springboards are narrow flat boards that create elevated platforms that allow loggers to stand higher up the trunk before cutting the tree down. They most likely used a two man cross-cut saw like the one John mounted for me (minus its handles) above our cabin's front door. -- Margy

Balancing Act

When I went walking at Garry Point Park in Steveston, BC, I found an interesting freeform outdoor sculpture. I call it "Balancing Act." Out at the end of the point, looking towards the Strait of Georgia, was a cluster of driftwood balanced artistically.

Be sure to look along the shoreline. Each vertical stick is capped with a balanced rock, shell, or another stick. After the recent rain and wind storm, I wonder if it survived. If not, I bet the local artist will find new media on shore to create even better sculptures. -- Margy

What's a Stick Good For?

You can throw a stick for a dog to retrieve.
You can whittle a stick to make a carving.
You can use sticks for kindling.
You can eat Japanese food with chop sticks.
You can use a walking stick.
You can get whooped with a hickory stick.

Or, you can love a Stick. That's right. Mom's cat's name is Stick, short for Stick Tail. He's her constant companion. When she's in her chair, he likes to sit between her legs. When she's in bed, he likes to sleep next to her. How could you not love a Stick?

But on those cold winter days, you can often find Stick warming his old bones (we guess he's about 17) in front of the toasty warm fireplace. - Margy

Barns of Highway 195

Continuing on our trip from Spokane to Pullman, Washington, on Highway 195, this barn was all by itself in a wheat field. It may have served its purpose, or maybe it's still used to store or protect the large equipment needed to plant and harvest hay and grain. The peaked metal roof looks newer than the peeling wood sides.


The open doors and windows made me think of the old saying, "It's too late to lock the barn door after the horse has been stolen." -- Margy

"Three Against the Wilderness" by Eric Collier

Our good friends Dave and Marg head for the Chilcotin each spring with camper and quad. Like us, they like reading about the regions they visit. Three Against the Wilderness was a book they recommended. It's a compelling tale of pioneer life far from civilization in the early 20th Century.

Eric Collier immigrated to Canada from England in the early 1920's. He was educated, and came from a family of means. But he was more interested in the outdoors than studying.

Eric made his way west to British Columbia and ended up in Riske Creek, a small trading post in the Chilcotin interior. Here he worked as a clerk and met his wife to be Lillian. Before she died, Lillian's grandmother LaLa, a 97 year old First Nations woman, passed on her dream of repopulating her homeland on Meldrum Creek with beavers.

Eric registered a trap line that included the Meldrum Creek area, and moved his wife Lillian and newborn son Veasy 25 miles into the wilderness. With all their worldly possessions and provisions in a horse drawn wagon, they undertook building a self-sustaining home and life in the bush.

Over the years, Eric, Lillian and Veasy worked hard to make a living in the beautiful, but often unforgiving, land. The book, written by Eric Collier, covers over thirty years of their exciting, harrowing, and heart-warming adventures.

I found a series of interviews with Veasy Collier conducted by James Stewart on YouTube, and a blog he wrote. Take a look for a first hand account.

Three Against the Wilderness is available in both print and Kindle formats at Amazon.com, on BC Ferries, and in many book stores. -- Margy

The Undulating Hills of Highway 195

As Wayne and I drove Highway 195 from Spokane to Pullman under cloudy skies, we were very interested in the geology of the area. There were a few hints, volcanic rock visible under the surface in the road cuts, and the smooth surface of the undulating hills rolling from horizon to horizon. I went online and here is a great article at the US Geological Survey website.

Eruptions 30 to 10 million years ago covered a vast area including parts of Idaho, Washington and Oregon with molten lava. Subsequent tilting and folding, and the deposit of wind blown silt (loess) and ash over the surface gave this wheat growing region the beginning of its fertile soil.

Glacial ice fields with melt lakes at their bases encroached on the area about 100,000 years ago. Lake Spokane covered what is now the city and much more. Massive Lake Missoula to the east filled beyond the capacity its ice dam. The resulting flood of catastrophic proportions flooded west towards the Pacific, scouring the surface down to the volcanic basalt, creating the water eroded channeled Scablands to the west. - Margy

Road Cruise Works on Powell Lake

Boat names that have caught my eye and shutter.



Road Cruise is a boat I see frequently near my float cabin home. Powell Lake is a working lake in addition to a recreational lake. The waters are used by logging companies to get to and from remote sites, and to transport their logs and shake blocks to Mowat Bay for extraction.

Before logging can begin, roads have to be cut into the dense bush. That's where Road Cruise comes in. She carries the road "crews" to their work destination and home again. Here she is with Mr. Boat up the lake. Her crew was working, our "crew" was goofing off as usual. -- Margy

Corner Shelf

Our cabin improvements are continuing with the help of our good friend John. Our great room is where we spend most of our time when indoors. Especially in winter, it can get a bit crowded with wood and kindling near the wood stove. After we got rid of a large, overstuffed rocker that we never used, we purchased a chest of drawers. It seemed the perfect solution, until we got it in place.

Getting the drawers open to access the contents became excessively frustrating. The solution was to take the chest of drawers up to the loft (it held mostly clothes anyway), and ask John to build us an open shelf for the same location. I made a sketch and talked the design over with John. He added his own suggestions and this is the result. With the existing wall mounted shelf, it looks like a complete unit.

The shelf has exactly the same footprint as the chest of drawers. But look at how much more accessible it is. The open bottom was John's idea to gain a few extra inches. And there's still space on the side for our fishing poles and kayak paddle. On top is one of my thrift shop treasures, a 1950's wood magazine rack I got for $1.99. Doesn't it look perfect? -- Margy

Coastal BC Stories for Kindle and E-books

Have a Kindle or E-reader?

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Up the Lake with stories about hiking, boating, flying and survival off the grid in a floating cabin on Powell Lake. This was the first book in the series and has a variety of stories about the Powell River region. Kindle for $.99 or E-book for FREE.

Up the Main focuses on getting into the backcountry by bike, quad and hiking. Come ride along with on a quad to places like Theodosia Inlet, the head of Powell Lake and on logging roads near and far. Kindle for FREE or E-book for FREE.

Up the Airway wings you across Canada to show off our beautiful country from up above. Fly along with us in our Piper Arrow, land to camp at remote strips with gorgeous scenery, and meet unique animals like the muskox. Kindle for FREE or E-book for FREE.

Farther Up the Lake follows in the footsteps of Wayne's most popular book, Up the Lake. Read about living off the grid in a float cabin, the beauties of Powell Lake and the many different ways you can enjoy the backcountry. Kindle sale $2 off, now only $1.99 or E-book for $1.99

Farther Up the Main takes you beyond the original Up the Main to explore the glaciers of Mt. Alfred, the remote Theodosia wilderness, a logging road ride to our cabin, and on an impromptu overnight stay waiting for a summer swollen stream to subside. Kindle sale $2 off, now only $1.99 or E-book for $1.99

All books are available in Kindle and print formats through Amazon. Other e-book readers can find the books available online through Smashwords. Or, you can check online at Kobo, Sony, Apple, and Barnes & Noble.

For more information, go to www.PowellRiverBooks.com. Happy e-reading! -- Margy

Alternate Light Source

As I've mentioned, getting enough electrical power during winter is a challenge. One thing we do when the sun shines bright is charge up our Nautilus Booster Pack from Canadian Tire. The Nautilus is an 800 A portable battery that can start a vehicle, power 12 volt DC devices, and 120 volt AC appliances. This model gives us 33 amp-hours of stored energy.

It has an internal inverter for AC operation, but based on problems with a different brand, we've opted to use the built-in battery posts and an external inverter. After two years of use we've had no problems.

We can also plug DC devices directly into the built-in DC socket. The Nautilus comes with a bright LED light with a 3 m (10') cord. Because it's a DC light, it uses virtually no power. That gives Wayne the perfect alternate light source for reading on long, dark winter nights.

Regular price for the Nautilus at Canadian Tire is $249.99 CAD, but we got ours on sale. We always say, everything in Powell River goes on sale if you just wait long enough. -- Margy