We were back to Galiano this weekend - a bit longer, extending from Friday night and coming back Monday morning. This gave us more time to wrap up a couple of projects, and gave us the added benefits of a clear Sunday night, where we were able to see Comet NEOWISE!
We had three main goals/projects for the weekend:
Finish the inside of the shed and install the composting toilet
Set-up the outdoor sink
Clear out a patch of thistle that was about to go to seed
Approaching Sturdies Bay
Oh and relax. It was a bit of a tall order, but we were determined! On the ferry ride on the way over (with what was probably the fullest we’ve ever packed the car), we were right at the very front of the ship, and so got a pretty good view as the bow opened up when we got to Sturdies Bay. After disembarking, it was the short drive up to the property.
We started the weekend with relaxing - we got out the chairs, set-up the fire bowl and sat out enjoying the evening. Sadly, it’s been cold, and this weekend continued that trend. We were completely bundled up with multiple layers. Crazy for July!
A cloudy, cold Friday night. Good thing we have the fire bowl! This isn’t July weather…
Before too long we called it a night and got bundled up in sleeping bags in the tent. We had a busy day ahead of us.
This was where we left off last trip. The outside was in pretty good shape.
Saturday morning we got off to an early start, thanks to the birds. They are noisy! The last trip, we had finished building our new shed, getting the outside complete. This trip we were tackling the inside, and installing the composting toilet. We started on the inside with the plywood for the ceiling and walls.
I had a bit of left over insulation from a previous project, so we used what we had on hand and insulated about half of the shed. It wasn’t really needed, but why not.
We then started with the ceiling, which was a bit of a struggle. We tried to be a bit too precise with the cuts, which resulted in some rework. But we got it up relatively quickly. After that, we moved onto the walls, getting up the larger pieces pretty quickly. Before long, we had all the walls done. OK it was actually lunch time by that point, but still, a pretty effective morning.
After lunch we finished off the interior by putting up the plywood over the gables. It wasn’t the best fit - we didn’t quite get the angles right. From there, it was time to tackle the toilet install. This involved a bunch of measuring for holes that needed to be drilled all the way through the one wall, to feed the drain and the vent. This involved a 3” hole saw, which was a bit of a beast to work with.
Once all the holes were drilled, we fed through the vent pipe and the tubing, and then fought with getting the toilet aligned and all the pieces together. It was a bit of a fight, but it worked out not too badly.
All the pipes in through the walls.
The composting toilet about to go together….
The mostly finished project, and a degree of civility brought to the property.
Justine installed the toilet roll holder and we were done with this project for the day. We ordered a solar panel to provide power for the fan in the toilet (which we tested with an extension cord), and that should come before our next trip. So we will hold off with the fine finishings (trim, soffit) once it’s installed, as we’ll have to run wire inside. But that’s for the next trip. Project #1 - done!
One of the challenges we’ve had has been the day-to-day living stuff - water for drinking, cooking and cleaning; brushing your teeth; a place to prep food - that sort of thing. So we started researching some options and were surprised to discover that there are not a lot of ready-made solutions. SOme things that were close, but nothing perfect. Justine did a ton of research, and eventually we found something close at Ikea. So we bought the “outdoor kitchen”, along with a fawcett, and then spent a ton of time figuring out how to hook it up to a garden hose. Eventually we figured it and picked up all the pieces last week.
So for the rest of the afternoon, we put that all together. We were not quite done when dinner time rolled around, so I left Justine to finish the assembly and I drove down to Wild One (one of our favorite restaurants on the island) and picked up our Thai food. Justine wasn’t quite done so we took a break for dinner then finished it off!
Our new outdoor kitchen!
And that was project #2 all wrapped up! We’re pretty happy with how that turned out. It makes so many small daily activities so much easier. We decided that we had done enough work for the day, and called it for the evening. We sat around the fire as the sun set on a very productive day.
So that was Saturday. I’m going to take a quick detour to post some random pics from the last couple of weeks. Many of these pictures were from Justine - I barely got my camera out the last two trips.
Last year, we put up a cheap wildlife camera that had limited success in the original positioning. Earlier this year, I installed a very nice bird feeder that Aunt Rosie gave me for Christmas. Two trips ago, we moved the camera to focus on the bird feeder, as we wanted to see what birds are emptying the feeder within 2-3 days. The original position was OK, but on the last trip, we moved the camera to give a slightly different perspective. I thought I’d throw up some of the pics.
We seem to get black headed grosbeaks, house finches, goldfinches, Spotted Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned Sparrows. The little guys are wiping out the sunflower seeds in no time! And given that we get 1,200-1,300 photos triggered every two weeks, it seems like there are lots of visits.
We also put up a hummingbird feeder, and when we arrived this weekend, the feeder was empty. So clearly there are a bunch of the around, and happy to have another food source.
Sunday was focused on more landscaping work. We spent many hours whacking down thistles and nettles and broome. Justine tackled the driveway and lane, as the grass was getting very long. I focused on the main property, and then finished off the mound and rescued our trees. We made good progress. Justine did a nice before and after of my day.
Before and After: We took out a lot of thistle.
Sunday afternoon we called it early and then headed down to the local beach to enjoy a bit of the afternoon. We took some beer and a snack and hung out down by the water. Summer is a pretty quiet time on Galiano, so other than a few seals there wasn’t much to see. It was low tide, so I spent a bit of time poking around at the edge of the water (which was really cold). Justine was taking pics, hoping I took a slip and ended up going for a swim.
Enjoying a nice afternoon down by the water.
Sunday, the weather was much better than Friday or Saturday. As many of you probably are following, there’s a comet, Comet NEOWISE, that is very visible for us over the next few weeks. As Friday night and Saturday night were quite cloudy. Sunday was looking better, so around 10:00 p.m. we started looking for it. As it was still fairly light, we needed binoculars initially. And we had to go over to our neighbors place to get the right view of the sky. But eventually we found it, so I pulled out the camera and got some decent pics.
Around 11:30 we headed home, and were pleased to see that we could now see the comet from our place. We spent some time playing with some long exposure shots, getting our tent and the comet.
The comet and the lights of Vancouver, as the sun is still providing some colour.
MOnday morning we headed back to the city, after a very productive weekend!