Gone Fishin'

For the past 2 years I have had the opportunity to go with a buddy of mine up to Canada for a few days of Salmon and Halibut fishing. If you have been following my blog then you might remember last year's trip was a rousing success. I brought back my limit in Chinook, Coho and Halibut filling my freezer with fish that lasted through most of the winter. I caught my very first salmon, a 25 plus pound Chinook.

Well, the tradition, if 2 years in row counts as a tradition, continued this year. This trip was especially important since at least part of the catch is to be the main course for our daughter Kate and her fiance Nick's Engagement Party to be held at our home in September. Those paying attention to my blog would remember I have mentioned "The Party" many times this summer when referring to the goals and objectives of my garden projects.

Rick, my fishing guide, and I plus a friend of his, headed off for the west coast of Vancouver Island and the small, isolated village of Ucluelet, British Columbia. This year Rick bought a brand new boat, a Campion Explorer model 682, complete with galley and head.

The trip to Ucluelet (you-clue-let) takes several hours and includes a border crossing, no easy task these days, a ferry ride and a hairy drive with lots of curves over the mountains of Vancouver Island.

We left about 5:30 am on Friday, August 15th heading for the Canadian border at the Peace Arch truck crossing. We took the ferry from Tsawwassen, having breakfast on board after finally getting the truck and boat aboard the ferry, then I sat back and napped for the hour and a half ride to Naniamo, B.C.

The drive across the middle of the island is full of stunning scenery, pristine lakes, cascading rivers and gorgeous mountain vistas. The only stop we made was to purchase our fishing license. We ignored the scenic spots because the fish were waiting!

The Canadian Princess is permanently moored in the inner harbor at Ucluelet. It is a 230 foot, 1930's vintage ship refurbished and moored here as a resort mostly for fishing groups, many of which fly or bus in for a few days. The weekend warriors are taken out on a fleet of fishing "puke" boats into the deeper waters off Ucluelet. Most return happy with their few Coho salmon and then fly off back to their desk jobs in the big city.


The inner harbor at Ucluelet, British Columbia. This is where we moored the boat for the night. It is always full of commercial and private fishing boats and some sailing vessels as well, so we sometimes had to tie up to another vessel and walk across it to get at the dock.

This Bald Eagle is often seen sitting in this tree on a small island just outside the Ucluelet government marina. We would sit just off this island after returning from fishing while Rick cleaned our catch, throwing the heads and entrails overboard. This provided plenty of food for the local bird, crab and sea lion population.

Sunset off a point in Ucluelet.

The Amphitrite Point Lighthouse, a federal heritage protection site, at the end of Coast Guard Road in Ucluelet, was built in 1915. It sits overlooking the entrance to Barkley Sound. Remarkable for the rugged, rocky coastline and dramatic crashing sea waves, it is easily accessible and offers gorgeous sunset views.

Our catch this year was not as plenitful as last year's though we did return with plenty of fish. The first couple of days of fishing were noteworthy for their rough seas, 6-8 foot swells and thick fog. The fishing was not particularly good though we did manage to land a few Coho and Chinook.

Day 3 turned out to be the best of the 3 days of fishing. The fog had pretty much lifted, the sun made an appearance and the sea was nearly flat calm. This made fishing much easier and enjoyable. We also had much more luck. The highlights of the day were catching a 15 pound Coho on a plug lure that did not have all the drag of a spinner attached to it. This gave the fish a chance to fight longer since it didn;t tire out quickly dragging the spinner around. The fish jumped and danced on the water and was a blast and a challenge to land. The other highlight of the day was watching Rick catch and land a 41 pound Halibut. It was enormous, or do I thought. Turns out that the world's record is 480 pounds, but our little guy was still amazing to me.

We spent a lot of our off hours sitting at the Eagle's Nest Marine Pub dining on hamburgers. I tried their fish and chips the first night and they were so heavily battered and overcooked that it was like eating a piece of styrofoam. Even the hamburgers were overcooked but they were loaded with veggies and condiments plus a platter of good fries so I stuck the the burgers. The only other place we ate at was Romans Pizza and Grill, a friendly, rockin' place popular with locals and visitors alike. The food is adaquate, the service friendly, the music LOUD, but it took us well over and hour to get our food and then it was cold. The night was chilly and I had my heart set on some steaming clam chowder, but it arrived luke warm and and with a thick milk skin on top.

We arrived home on Tuesday afternoon, divied up the fish and headed our seperate ways. I brought mine home and spent Wednesday morning fileting about 8 Chinook and Coho salmon in the kitchen. What a mess! But by the end of the morning we had everything bagged up in Seal-A-Meal bags and in the freezer.

The bottom line, my freezer is full of beautiful salmon and halibut filets and I'll be able to easily feed the 70-80 folks we are expecting for The Party in September and have enough left over for quite a few meals well into the fall season. Mission accomplished!

Garden Border

One of the final touches to this season's garden projects is the addition of some long needed concrete curbing around the borders to the flower beds. We had some of this curbing installed by a company specializing in it about 4-5 years ago when we came upon their booth at the county fair out in Lynden. We managed to edge the entire border of the then existing garden except for right around the deck area. Since then much new bedding has been added, the Secret Garden and the remade south berm this summer alone. We found our original company had gone out of business and weren't sure how we were going to get the job done. Recently we came across Capstone Hardscape and Curbed Edges in the phone book and had them come by. They gave us a great bid for the job and

The line of the new curb is laid out with a flexible pipe, then a spray painted line is applied.

Mike Ellis and his team from Capstone Hardscape and Curbed Edges, LLC came by and added the final touches to the edging of the garden. His team arrived at 9:00 am, were very professional, cleaned up after themselves and were done by 5.

All that remains is for me to shovel in some cedar mulch and our garden projects will be about done for the year.

A sod cutter is run along the spray painted line to create the trough the concrete edging will run along.

The concrete is shoveled into the top of the machine which extrudes the concrete in the desired shape. In this case they created a mower edge which allows me to place the inside tires of my riding mower on the curb that makes a clean cut as I mow.



The finished product is a smooth elegant curve which gives the beds a professional looking finish, makes weeding, edging and mowing a snap cutting down immensely on the time it takes to manage the garden. In a space as big as mine this is a real advantage. In a couple of days I will be able to backfill the beds with soil or mulch or both and resume watering.

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On a different note, we have been looking for a decorative concrete bench to go in the Secret Garden; a place to sit and watch the garden grow, to sit with a friend, eat or chat away from the rest of the garden. Our search had taken us to shops specializing in fountains and statuary. Everywhere we've looked the benches were well over a hundred dollars. That seemed a bit steep considering it is just concrete poured into a mold. I found Bode's Precast out in the county near Lynden. We were headed to the fair in Lynden anyway so we stopped by and to our surprise they had exactly what we were looking for and it was only $60. So on the way home from the fair we stopped back by and bought one. It weighs a ton! But it is now in place and adds a lot to that space.

Another Paint Job!

The 2008 Bellingham Chalk Art Festival was held this weekend and what started out with so much promise quickly fizzled as the rains came. The chalk art really never got off the ground, but Cornwall Street was still crowded with artists of all types, food vendors along with the Bite of Bellingham celebration and lots of home grown music. Bellinghamsters don't let a little liquid sunshine keep our webbed feet from getting out for a little fun.

We drove down in our little red Miata, top down in cloudy skies with sunshine making occasional appearances. Each artist had their own covered booth and we walked from artist to artist without seeing much we liked until we came upon Pham Quoc Hung. We were immediatley drawn to his work. The artist himself was there. He struggled with English but his humble pride in his work was apparent. His work was almost flying off the wall of his booth.

We walked back and forth between his acrylic pieces and the wood block prints he displayed. One piece we loved was sold out from under us, but we finally settled on an original acrylic (left) in bright hues of red, orange and browns, a real departure for us. The still life titled Tropical Fruit is about 2' X 3' and as yet has not got a home on one of our walls. We just love it!

The block print, right, was of two lovers nestled next to an ox with birds flitting about, a frequent theme in his work. The colors in thess photo are pretty close to the actual print.

We purchased our two new acquisitions which were fortunately, carefully covered in black plastic for as we drove home in our open Miata, the rain began to come down in buckets. By the time we pulled into our garage we were drenched. So we are spending a quiet afternoon preparing for a dinner party this evening and deciding where these beautiful new additions to our art collection should be displayed.

A New Paint Job!

After many years of needing it, months of planning, much rending of garments and tearing hair out by the handsful, we have finally got our house painted.

We have known it needed doing for years but kept putting it off figuring it would cost us a small fortune. When we finally got serious about it we started asking around. One day while visiting at some friend's home we noticed they had a new paint job and that it looked great. They gave us Ken Anderson's number and we had him stop by to bid the job. We were shocked at how inexpensive his price seemed. We loved the job he had done on our friend's home and so we gave him the job.

Ken came by about 2 weeks before painting began and pressure washed the entire house and even did the deck. He also handed off two paint sample booklets and said he'd be back to begin painting August 1st. In the meantime we had hundreds of colors to select from and no idea where to start.

We recalled a house a few blocks over that had a color scheme we liked. So we walked by their house one afternoon and asked if we could put our paint samples up against their house because we loved their colors so much. They were very flattered and invited us to go ahead. Leslie held one paint sample after another up against the wall until we found what we thought were the right colors.

Time passed and got away from us and the day came for Ken to arrive to begin prepping the house for painting. We still hadn't done what we had said we would which was to go to the paint store and bring home some quart samples. We intended to paint a strip of paint and the coordinating trim color on the side of the house just to see if we liked it.

So the day came, Ken arrived and we zipped off quickly to buy the samples. Arriving home we painted a swath of color across the side of the house and stood back in horror! NOOOOOOOO! The color was hideous. Impossible! No way!!! The color looked like a pastel green Easter egg. What do we do? Ken needs to know what color to buy gallons of paint tomorrow morning so he can begin painting.

In a panic we drove around through several neighborhoods looking for something we liked. Nothing. Finally we decided to just drive back to the paint store and hash it all out until we made a decision. I wanted the paint to go more gray. Leslie was just not sure anymore. We looked at the same several strips of color options we had been focused on since the beginning and our eyes finally settled on this one color that was green but more towards the gray side. I don't know, it's hard to explain. You really have to go through this process sometime to understand the pressure and frustration it can be. We purchased a quart of that color along with a darker trim and also selected an even grayer option and trim color.

Back home we applied the paints to the wall of the house and waited. As it dried the color popped and we had our choice. "Dishwater" was the color name and "relic" the trim color. Not great names so for fun we elected to change the names for purposes of better story telling. The body color of the house is now called "Puget Sound Foam" and the trim color "Great Northwest Forest." Much better, huh?

We informed Ken of our decision and the next morning at 7:30 am we awoke to the sound of Ken making final preparations for painting. About 9:30 am we went out to go mattress shopping (a whole other blog entry). We returned a couple of hours later to what appeared to be a white house. I thought it would change once it dried. Leslie was worried it wouldn't. We decided to leave again and do more shopping. Leslie was nervous the whole way home, sure she was going to hate what she would find when we drove up to the house. Surprise! As we slowed and turned into the driveway we looked up at exactly the color we had chosen--It was beautiful. The lightest of greens, almost an overtone if that makes any sense. The color had dried while we were gone and the color popped just as it had in the sample we painted on the house the day before. It is a strange color though as it seems to be one color when the sun is on it and another when it is not. Cool!

So, here it is. The on-line unveiling of our newly painted home.

The Orchard Mason Bee

Remember the mystery question from one of my earlier blog entries? Here is the photo again.

The answer: This is an Orchard Mason Bee colony. Remember the line from the movie Field of Dreams--"If you build it they will come?" Well, I built the little "Bee Condo" as I like to call it, from a block of wood and the bees came.

Here are some links to info on Orchard Mason Bees--these links have further links at the bottom of the article too.

WSU Extension

Knox Cellars

Beediverse

Actually it wasn't quite that easy. At least not the way I went about it. In fact, my wife cringes everytime I tell the story.

A great gardening friend has a yard with these "bee condos" scattered around his yard and he enjoys their benefits. I spoke with Keith, as I occasionally do when I need gardening advice, about these condos a few years back. I was intrigued but didn't do anything further about it until I happened upon a book written by a local Bellinghamster who has created quite a business around Mason Bees.

It turns out that the Orcard Mason Bee is native, unlike the honey bee, to North America. It is docile and non-aggressive but does not produce honey. However, with our current worries surrounding the dying honey bee population in the United States, the Mason Bee may just hold the answer to our problems. We can do without honey, but if our pollinating bees die off we are in big trouble where our food supply is concerned. The Mason Bee is apparently not effected by the current disease plaguing our honey bee population and because they are not the social critters the honey bee is, needing expensive hives and protective wear, they are perfect for our home garden needs.

I was at one of the local garden centers when I happened upon a display selling Orchard Mason Bees and all sorts of accesories. I decided to purchase a small colony (they are kind of expensive--$20-$25 will get you about 60 bees) and bought the bee house with the tubes the colony came in. I took it home, mounted it to the south facing side of my barn and waited for the bees to do their thing.

One warm spring day I went out to check the colony and the tubes were all empty. The bees had flown the coop or hive to be more precise!

I had spent a couple a hundred dollars to buy a table saw and a drill press so I could make my own bee condos and to buy the initial colony of bees. I went ahead and built a condo and mounted it to the wall near where the colony had already hatched and flown off. Then I waited. And waited. And waited. After a couple of weeks I finally noticed one of the holes in my condo had been filled in. By the end of the Spring pollinating time a total of two holes had been filled in. Of the hundreds of bees that the colony should have produced only a couple of dozen new eggs had been laid for the next season. It seemed like an utter waste of money. It reminded me of the time I bought one of those netted bags full of dozens of Lady Bugs, released them in my garden and watched as they all flew off to my neighbor's garden. I didn't see another ladybug in my yard the rest of the summer.

Well, patience is a valuable virtue any gardener will tell you. Each year since, I have observed my bee condo become a little more and a little more congested. The other day I was carrying out some rinds to put in the compost bin located right below the bee condo. Out of the corner of my eye I caught some movement and looked up to see a little Orchard Bee finishing off a hole with mud. I stood watching, fascinated by the little bee working to seal up the next generation before going off to die. I have about a dozen holes filled in and I am feeling enough confidence that I may spend some time in my shop this winter creating some more bee condos.

I found out from my gardening friend Keith that I had really probably wasted my money purchasing the initial colony of Orchard Mason Bees. He said, if you had built the condo to begin with and placed it out on the fence or barn, bees already roaming the neighborhood would have eventually come to the holes and my colony would have been established. Live and learn!

Berry Pickin'

Here in Bellingham it is berry season--blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and on and on. You can buy them in local stores like anywhere else in the country. But here in Bellingham, on a nice summer day, going berry picking is so much fun. Relaxing, meditative, the birds are singing, you can hear the breeze, smell the warm berries on the vines and that is exactly what we did the other day.

Raspberry picking to be exact. We need a bunch of berries this season for the big party approaching in September.

Leslie and I stopped at Barbie's Berry Farm stand out in the county. The county north of town is dotted with summer farms that grow all sorts of summer time treats-corn, squash, berries, you name it. Barbie's specializes in berries. We each picked up a couple of the little white buckets found at every farm and headed down a random row of berries. The bright red berries dotted the vines as far as the eye could see. The darker red the berry the riper the fruit.

Our first row didn't seem to have many berries as ripe as we'd like to pick, so we finally walked on through to the next set of rows and what a gold mine! The berries practically fell off the vines into the buckets. Before no time I was on to my second bucket and then on to my third. Leslie got her three as well and after a couple of hours we finally re-emerged from the rows to pay for our bonanza. The berries were weighed and we discovered that we had picked 30 pounds of them.

Now we found raspberries on sale for about $5-$6 a pound in local grocery stores and I can't imagine paying $150 for those 30 pounds of raspberries. But not if you pick them yourself. Most area farmstands are selling them for $1.50-$1.75 per pound if you pick them. So we headed home with our berries with the idea to rinse and freeze most of them. Raspberries are very fragile and won't last long so this is a great way to preserve them and have great tasting berries throughout the winter months.

After a quick rinse and allowing them to dry on a few layers of paper towel, spread them out on baking sheets, freeze them and then seal them in freezer bags. When we need a few we just scoop the needed amount out of the bag and plop them in a pie or cobbler or over cereal throughout the winter and those warm, breezy summer days come flooding right back.

In a couple of weeks we will go out blackberry picking to go along with the blueberries and raspberries and we'll have a wonderful supply of berries for our cobblers at the big party in September.

Wish you were here!

The Berm

The southeastern most part of our back garden is and always has been a rounded berm of dirt about 3 feet high running about 35 feet from east to west, between the truck gate on the side yard and the barn.

It has always been a pain to keep weeded with little else able to grow there except the recent introduction of English Ivy from our neighbors and the half dozen cottonwoods that reached upwards from 30 feet to 100 feet into the sky.

I have explored the berm on occasion when attempting to keep the weeds down. Digging in this berm I have come across such odd objects as a child's wading pool, nails, coaxial cable, cyclone fencing and chunks of concrete. It turns out it was where those who constructed the home buried all the debris they didn't want to be bothered hauling away. Eventually I gave up trying to keep it managed and let the ivy take over. What a mistake!

The ivy finally got so out of control that it was climbing the trees and even invading the barn. It was time to do something. So I thought. Years have gone by thinking about it and nothing was ever done short of keeping the ivy from taking over the barn.

Last Spring, as I have already mentioned in a previous blog entry, we finally downed the cottonwood trees. This left a gapping hole between us and the neighbors that left us both with no privacy. We are friendly neighbors but everyone needs their privacy. So we promised we would do something soon.

So last week we hired a guy with a tractor scoop and back hoe to remove the berm, all the trash buried in it and the ivy down to their roots, down to a depth of about 4 feet. He also removed most of the cottonwood stumps. Then we had 15 yards of good sandy loam trucked in and our excavator built a brand new berm ready for landscaping.

Three groups of three arborvitae were planted along the crest of the new berm with a shrub between each group of three arborvitae. Each group of three arborvitae were planted in triangular formation on a 4 and a half foot center so the arborvitae will not grow together and there is a sense of depth to the plantings. Two butterfly bushes frame either end of the formation and we will add layered plantings along the front of the berm to finish it off as we discover plants we like.

I believe this will be a work in progress like every other part of our garden since I want to be selective about the plants I purchase. I look for unique and unusual plants as well as native plants to fill in the spaces. Time and money will eventually fill in the gaps.

On the right is a photo of The Secret Garden with the large native shrub in the background now framed by two more arborvitae. These plants act as a sort of picture frame around the gravel stage running along in front of the shrub.