Nothing slows you down like mud.  You can’t walk in it, you can’t drive in it, you can’t pull or push or lift when every movement has an equal and opposite movement.  Fortunately when it stops raining here the ground dries up pretty fast and I can get back at it but until them I have to work inside.  That’s okay, actually, the place could use a jumpstart on the spring cleaning.  I wish I had brought out some new tile for the bathroom.  It would be a good thing to make it a bit nicer.  It needs a new toilet and a new shower although I probably won’t do that.  Maybe a new sink.  I need new beds, too, although it seems kind of strange to want to replace king-size mattresses with queens.  But kings are too big for the rooms– I don’t know what they were thinking when they outfittted these cabins.  In any case, thanks to the mud I’ll have a lot of time to think about it today.

The rain is back but that week of fine weather allowed some work to get done.  Perfect weather for burning because the ground was wet, no worries about sparks, and the heat from the sun always seems to help keep the fire going.  Probably burned up enough wood to heat a small village in Finland for the month of February, but it really cleared up the orchard.  Lots more to incinerate but I need to get the hoe going, move the slash around.  I’d like to finish up the porch and painting the cabin but that will have to wait until the next stretch.  Not sure what to do about the other two panabodes, but the two shingles cabins need to get torn down.  Use the siding and windows for the barn.

This is the kind of weather we look for around Victoria Day.  A few days of this and I’ll be able to drag some new logs up to the mill.  Crocusses are on their way and the daffodils can’t be too far behind.  I’d like plant some blueberry bushes somewhere– the orchard would probably be the best place but the alders need to come out of there first.  At the top, where the old Lindal home was, might be the best spot because it’s driest.  I’ll have to do some research but I suspect my neighbor could tell me everything I need to know.  I should ask her for poppyseeds as well…  I wonder if those walnuts I started survived the winter?

Watching the Olympic mogul skiers reminds of reminds me of the run out here in my 18-ft aluminum  boat on a windy day.  It could be great training for mogul skiing at least in terms of strengthening your knees.  Style & jumps might be a different issue but you could definitely develop your sense of balance.  And, on a windy day, you get soaked, so it could be perfect preparation for skiing at Cypress.

This is the first big blow out of the South we’ve had in a month.  The breakwater is hanging in there for the moment but I’m going to need some new logs to tie on to what’s there.  It’s a fine breakwater for the summer but lets too much wave action through during the winter on the high tides.  Be best to have a trailer and just pull my boat out of the water. It would be easy enough as long as I had the backhoe around to keep the beach cleaned off.  I wouldn’t have to get up in the middle of the night to check on it.

In the winter the low tides are in the middle of the night.  The clams are safe.  The highest tides of the year come in January and February.  Depending on the wind, they can clog the beach with driftwood or they clean it off, but there’s not much point in spending a day cutting up driftwood to clear a spot for the supply barge if the logs are just going to float back in.  Better to wait until March for the big loads.

This winter is the mildest I’ve seen in my 12 years here.  Hardly needed to drain the pipes or cover the windows.  I don’t miss the snow because I can see enough of it in the mountains behind Raza Island, about 200-300 feet up.  Better there than under my feet.  Don’t miss the outflow winds either, the mini-hurricanes that make it impossible to go anywhere, even across to Quadra.  The lack of snow on the ground should mean that I can get to all the burning  probably any time now, as long as the tractor can handle the mud.

There was a great horned owl in an apple tree this morning.  He was just about eye-level and didn’t move when I walked by.  I don’t think he could see me in the daylight.

Ravens are clever animals.  They anticipate your move, calculating what you might do then move to stay ahead of you.  Independent and wary, like cats, they watch your habits.  They recognize the garbage bags, the food packaging they can tear or peck open, where you might leave it.  And they have a language, probably a dozen distinctive sounds they use call to each other.  Maybe more to the accustomed ear.  They don’t sit alone like other birds, singing or talking to whomever will listen.  They speak and then fly, getting on with it.

It’s been warm enough and no snow the one year we could use the cold.  It’s also tough to work without the ground frozen. Had to leave the backhoe parked because the road is  full of mud.  Need to get a cleanup bucket for it.  The deer seem to be staying fat & healthy, though, probably see a lot of fawns this spring.  More seals around than I’ve ever seen. Squirrels, too.  Crocusses are up.

Not raining today but there’s standing water by the woodpile.  A few days of dry weather will get rid of it.  More daylight now but looking forward to when the ground dries up.  Not a lot of traction for pulling wood up to the mill.  Also need to do more burning– there’s lots of dry wood to get things going but it’s easier when it isn’t raining.  I’d like to get back to the painting, too, get some new pictures of the dock and porch.