As we can’t go anywhere, or do anything really interesting we’re spending as much time as possible on Galiano. There’s so much to do, especially as the flora has exploded and taken over. Friday night we headed back over, with a couple of major projects to tackle - including trying to finish the outside of the shed.
We were on the Friday night ferry, and thankfully this time we had nice weather, instead of the rain that plagued us last weekend. We once again met up with our neighbors, who were also coming over and so we chatted while waiting for the (once again late) ferry. We drove up to the property (lots of deer) and got settled in. As the tent was set-up from last time (we leave it up all summer), it was pretty quick. After watering all the new trees and checking out the property, we wandered over to the neighbors and sat around the fire, before calling it a night.
It was a much nicer weekend!
The plan for the weekend was to try and tame the super-high grasses, nettles and thistles, as well as to finish off the outside of the new shed. Our neighbor had brought over some tools, so we held off on the shed until later in the day. We started with getting the grassland under control. Or trying to anyway. I broke out the brush cutter (started on the first pull!) and cleared ut around the tent platform, and started into the mass of thistle. We made some good progress, and after needing a break from the brush cutter, we set-up a new set of solar lights around the platform.
Later that night we got a look at what the new lights looked like - pretty nice I think!
That took us to about lunch time. Bradley dropped off some tools for us to borrow, and then Justine and I headed to the south end of the island for a bit of a break. We stopped at the Saturday market, which was modified in this COVID world to add a bunch of space. There wasn’t a lot of interest, but it was our first visit to the Saturday Market yet this year.
Juvenile bald eagle.
After that, we headed over to Bellhouse Provincial Park to have our lunch. The bald eagles had nested again, and there was a juvenile in the nest. We checked it our for a bit, before wandering around the point. The adut was up in the nearby trees, keeping an eye on things.
We sat at one of the picnic tables and had some lunch that we had packed. As we were having lunch, Justine noticed an otter on the far shore slipping into the water.
We finished our lunch then went down to the water’s edge and the sandstone, and saw the otter again - this time quite a bit more interesting.
One of the adults, maybe from the nest? It was keeping an eye out anyway.
The otter slipping into the water.
The otter came up with lunch itself - I think it’s a lamprey, but I’m not sure. It seemed to also be attacking the otter, attacking it’s head. By the time the otter had swam out of sight, the thing it it’s mouth had pretty much stopped moving, so I think the otter got lunch.
After that, we explored the sandstone a bit, and then headed back to the parking area.
Just before got back to the entrance, there were a couple of deer, and a white-crowned sparrow that made for some good photos.
After leaving Bellhouse, we headed back north towards the property. we made another short stop at one of the water access points. This was a spot I had found in the winter (way back in January). There are a couple of really interesting places on either sides of the water access point. There wasn’t a lot going on (in terms of wildlife) , so it was a brief visit.
Serenity by the Sea - it’s such a cool place!
The other nearby house had this cool little outbuilding. Hobbits?
From there, it was a quick trip back home. We then tackled the rest of the shed, working on finishing the outside. We added trim over the corners and seams, and finished some flashings on the faces of the sides. I also put some roof caps on the tops of the shingles, and so I hope that we’re all good. We finished adding shingles to the gables. Hopefully we can wrap up the project and finish the insides on the next trip. I think it looks pretty good!
I also put together a timelapse video of the bulk of the construction. It worked out pretty well - we had an big gap at the (which you’ll notice) where my memory card filled up and I didn’t realize it. But otherwise it’s pretty funny.
We wrapped up the day around 6:00 got cleaned up and headed over to Dana and Bradley’s for dinner. They had offered to cook, which was nice. We brought wine and desert, and made quite a late night of it. As the sun went down, it started to rain lightly and we were treated to an amazing rainbow.
Sunday morning I was up pretty early, and headed down to the golf course to play a round. The weather was still a bit spotty, but the course was full of deer, and no other people. I played 9 holes then headed back home.
The plan for the shed is to add a composting toilet, so we needed to dig a hole for a french drain. Bradley once again came through with the right power tool for the job, making the task of digging a 2’ x 2’ x 2’ hole in the roots and solid ground much easier than it would have been.
Sunday ended up being bright and sunny.
Along the ?back? of the property, we had created a mound and planted a series of trees. Not being at the property for most of the spring, the nettles and thistles and grass had overrun things - we could barely make out the trees! For the afternoon we started clearing out the area and rescuing all the trees. We got through about 2/3 of it, before I ran out of gas and we needed to stop for the day. It was looking much better!
We had a super-productive weekend. We wrapped up the outside of the new shed, and started to tackle the overgrowth. We also got the main workshop much better organized and cleaned up. There’s still a lot to do, but it felt good to make a dent. We’re not back next weekend, but will be the weekend following to keep at our various projects.