The weekend after my birthday weekend we were back to Galiano. We came over Thursday night again, but planned to work the Friday as a test of the internet access. We also spent a lot of time working through our huge list of projects. It was not the most exciting weekend - but there were lots of hummingbirds!

Let’s start with something fun. Last weekend, while we were planting trees, we found another bird nest. This one was on the ground, and in looking it up we think it is a white-crowned sparrow nest. What we presume was the momma bird was close by, so we tried to avoid the nest as much as we could.

When we got back this week, we had a quick check, and we have baby birds! It’s hard to tell if it’s 2 or 3, but still cool to see. We’ll give them a wide berth, and hope that they survive.

The weather on the trip over was unsettled, and the ferry was a bit choppy. It was totally worth it when we docked, as we were greeted by a huge double rainbow! It was spectacular.

Downy (?) woodpecker on the stump out in the yard.

We didn’t have a lot of time on Thursday night, after unpacking and settling in. We did sit outside and enjoy the evening for a little while.

Friday was a full work day. I had quite a few calls in the morning, so it was going to be a good test of the internet connection. Luckily, Justine had a pretty light day of calls, so we didn’t stress the connection too much.

The morning started well with a downy woodpecker (I think) on a stump in the yard. It was there for a bit, and I got a few shots through the big window in the kitchen. I love this window, and it makes such a difference in the cottage.

I started my day early as usual. The internet connection seemed to hold up well, and I didn’t have any real issues. Later in the day, we did have a couple times where the speeds dropped enough to cause some issues, but generally it seemed OK. We’re cautiously optimistic…

I set-up my “office” in the small utility room (we still haven’t figured out what to do with it). It wasn’t the most comfortable, but it worked well for creating some space for when we’re on calls. I think if we set-up a proper desk it could work out well.

We put up a stick on hummingbird feeder on the big kitchen window. While this isn’t the best picture ever, we do get great views of the little guys fighting over the feeder. If you’re still, you can be inched away - it’s pretty great.

This was our work set-up for most of the day, when I wasn’t on calls. It worked out pretty well.

Finally, the work day came to an end, and we were able to get outside and … do more work?!?! At least this work was more fun. In fairness, we didn’t do a lot - watering, pulling some thistles and nettles, and just enjoying the end of the day. During the week, I had wandered up to the “bird” store up on Broadway. They sell bird seed, feeders and such, and we like to support them whenever we can. I had wanted another hummingbird feeder, so I bought one and some posts to install onto the deck. So I set that up and we filled it. It took less then 10 minutes for the hummingbirds to find it. Later during the weekend, Justine suggested it was my “best purchase ever!”.

It’s been mostly Anna’s hummingbirds, but as you can see in this photo, we get Rufous as well. The Anna’s seem to be bossing the Rufous out of the way most of the time.

Saturday, our primary goal was to burn the huge pile of broom that we have built up over the past couple of months. We’re close to the end of the open burning seasons, and we had gotten a permit from the Fire Department to do this one last one.

The broom pile we had created that need to be burned.

Getting the burn started.

We got through the pile pretty quickly. The boom goes fast - you have to feed it constantly.

Burn in progress.

Eventually, it was all gone!

While I was burning, Justine was tackling our thistle problem. They’re everywhere. We’ve been pulling them, but Justine made a huge push. We kept at it off and on over the weekend, and I think we ended up pulling 10-15 wheelbarrows of thistle. Amazing really, and that was just out of the one bottom section of the lawn.

It was a beautiful day, and we had amazing views out to Mount Baker. I know the broom looks beautiful in these pictures, but every time we look at it, all we see is the crazy amount of work we need ot do to eradicate it.

So many wheelbarrows of thistle.

Mount Baker… and broom. So much broom.

Our lovely little cottage.

We had a busy day but got a lot done. It feels like we’re making good progress. Still a ton to do, but good progress. We spent the evening relaxing and enjoying the amazing sunset,

We had bought a new propane fire bowl, and enjoyed it’s heat while sitting out in the evening.

We had a great sunset!

I also got to enjoy a glass from one of my birthday gifts!

Sunday morning we had a couple of visitors outside the front windows…

Sunday was mostly spent continuing to work on our gardens and the yard. We had lots of things to plant, the grass needed mowing and we were still working out some of the fine details on the irrigation system.

The main thing was getting the grass cut. Earlier in the month I had purchased a new battery powered lawn mower, and I was interested to try it out. It was quite pricy, so it had better work!.

While I’ve only used it once, I have to say I’m pretty impressed. It’s very quiet, and the self-drive feature is really nice on some of the hills. It cuts well, and I put it through some pretty heavy, thick and tall grass - some of which I’m pretty sure would have stalled out a gas mower.

We’ve set-up quite a few bird houses on the property over the past year. So far, the Pacific Wrens seem to be our main tenants. One of the new ones we set-up is getting lots of action. There were at least 3 birds in and out, and you could see them hanging about regularly. They even started to bring sticks into the birdhouse.

I had purchased a few hop crowns to see how they did. We finally got around to setting them up. Hops grow super tall, and are vines that like to climb. So we planted them in one of the barrels, and added some extra posts to our fence posts with string attached to let them grow and climb. We’ll see how it works.