It’s been a while since I’ve done a proper posting. That’s mostly because we’ve been stuck at home and there hasn’t been lot interesting to share. The past couple of weeks there’s been a bit more going on, so I’ve got some fun things to share. It’s a combination of some little projects we’ve tackled on the island with some work we’re doing around the house. And of course birds. And flowers.

The property has gotten quite overgrown without us being there to tame it as spring has begun.

Galiano Projects

We’ve been over to the island a few times since restrictions started lifting. The first couple of trips were day trips, but the last one was overnight. Each trip, we’ve tackled some small project, but on the last trip we started something a bit bigger

A New View of the Property

On the last trip, we set-up a new solar-powered video camera that lets us have a real-time view of the property, whenever we like. It also has motion sensors and night view, so we can be notified if anything is happening. In fairness, it’s been pretty quiet.

The view from the camera, mounted on the front of the shop.

We’ve had one deer sighting, and then this very short, but hilarious video…

The other small project we completed was putting together our new wheelbarrow, which will be very handy over time.

Our very clean (not for long) wheelbarrow.

Flowers in the Spring

The property has lots of flowers this time of year. Some we planted last fall and are seeing the rewards of, some are just the natural growth. While the place is seriously overgrown, it’s still quite lovely.

A view down the hill, with the foxglove, daisies and broome all in full bloom.

The foxglove has exploded this spring.

The view out over our wild pasture.

Like the foxglove, there are daisies everywhere this year.

But sadly, with being away we didn’t tackle much broome this year.

A Much Bigger Project

We needed another shed on the property, and found a really good deal on a pre-cut, solid cedar shed from a company out in Langley. we thought we’d try out our building skills on a small project, and see how it went. As it came as a pile of lumber, we needed a way to get it to the island, so we rented a Uhaul for the weekend. With the pandemic, ferry service to the island is much reduced, and so we ended up only being able to go over Friday night and come back on the early morning ferry on Sunday. Which meant we really only had one day to start our project.

Picking up the shed in Langley - we ended up with a full truck!

Arriving at the island.

Our project, ready to unload.

I ended up shooting some timelapse of the project. We’ll see how that turns out on a later post, once it’s all done.

The wood, all laid out, after being removed from the truck.

The first task was leveling and assembling the floor. We had that done by just after lunch. Getting it square and level was a bit of a pain.

By late afternoon, we had assembled all the walls, the door and roof components. We decided to call it there - we were exhausted!

All packed up and ready for next weekend. We covered it with a big tarp to keep it nice and dry.

Stay tuned for the big reveal…

Birds!

What would a Galiano post be without some new birds?

It’s a little hard to tell, but we think this is a Least Flycatcher

Spotted Towhees are pretty common, and seem to really like the new bird feeder.

The spot or orange on this little guys forehead suggests the Orange-crowned Warbler

A Couple of Projects at Home

I should probably have done this in a separate post, but I’m going to be lazy. We have also managed to get some movement on a couple of smallish project around the house.

New Stairs

The stairs up to our roof deck have always been carpeted, and the carpet has started to look… worn. With the issues we had with the skylight, and from generally leaving it opened there has been some water damage. And then this spring, I tried using it as a greenhouse (which worked well!) but managed to have some leaks that completely destroyed the carpet. We’d been wanting to replace it with laminate anyway, so this was the perfect opportunity. This past week we had a flooring company in to fix it all up, and it looks amazing! A collage Justine did of before, during and after the work.

Before (left with carpet), during and after (nice new laminate!) They did a great job.

Re-painting the Living Room

About 6 months ago, the fawcett in the tub in the main bathroom broke. We had a plumber in to replace it, and let’s just say it wasn’t his finest work. A couple of days later, we had a flood on the main floor, with damage to the ceiling and walls where the water came through. Fortunately the plumber was good about owning up to the mistake and offered to fix it. With everything that’s gone on, it took almost 6 months, but we’re finally getting a fresh coat of paint on the ceiling and damaged wall. They’ve completed the fixing, and will be back on Monday to finish sanding and paint.