Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 11, 2010 20:58:16 GMT -8
So, the plan is for me to spend the better part of this autumn on a 'retreat' of sorts at our humble little place on Hornby Island. Two teeny cabins- one converted cedar garden shed, 10'x12', that's used as a kitchen, and another 13'x20' that's sleeping/living accommodation. Plus a very roomy outhouse. I'll be puttering away at another tiny cabin that's being constructed because the charm of everyone sleeping in the same area has paled somewhat for my now adult daughters
No cellphone service on our part of the island, but Telus did hook me up to internet yesterday, and gmail means I can at least phone out.
I've been here for a couple of weeks, and am planning on staying until the latter half of November, interspersed with a couple of necessary short trips back... but we'll see. Even someone who is somewhat solitary by nature might succumb to cabin fever on this very quiet area of a very quiet island, with the summer hordes gone.
Anyway... on Labour Day there was the annual island ritual, the 'wave-off', where residents gather at the Thatch Pub to salute the departure of the day's last ferry, symbolic of the end of summer and the return of the island to the people who live here. Symbolic this time, since the lousy weather had chased most summer folks out early, and the mighty Kahloke departed with only six or seven cars. I haven't yet been able to get my shaky three minute video of the festivities onto a photo sharing site, but if I eventually figure it out you'll be amused to see our humble k-barge as the center of attention.
Along the way I'll post some photos and thoughts on island life, since I don't think the forum has anyone based on the smaller islands, ever since the lamented KF was sent packing for being mischievous.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 11, 2010 21:17:56 GMT -8
Thanks for starting this thread. I look forward to reading about your experiences and reflections.
....and of course your reports on the comings & goings of the ships that sail past Grassy Point.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 11, 2010 21:20:05 GMT -8
You need a building permit from the Island Trust to build anything over about 100 square feet, but it doesn't seem to restrict people's architectural creativity. Deer apparently don't like dahlias... but everything else needs to be guarded. An artist advertising her wares.
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Post by lmtengs on Sept 11, 2010 22:30:15 GMT -8
Ah, the islands have so much of that rural charm that you just can't find in the hussle and fuss of (sub)urban life. :-\ I wish I could just go away for awhile sometimes...
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D'Elete BC in NJ
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Post by D'Elete BC in NJ on Sept 12, 2010 2:44:34 GMT -8
Ah, the islands have so much of that rural charm that you just can't find in the hussle and fuss of (sub)urban life. :-\ I wish I could just go away for awhile sometimes... That's what Randle thought...until he met Ratched...
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 16, 2010 11:20:51 GMT -8
What a to-do. After about a dozen attempts to transfer this three minute video from my camera onto either Youtube or Facebook, I finally succeeded... after about a six hour upload.
Excuse the excessive shakiness. My first attempt.
As I described above, every Labour Day, Hornby locals gather at the Thatch Pub to salute the departure of the last ferry of the day, symbolic of the end of the summer crowds on this small island of one thousand souls. Sometimes there are little events on at the pub that day, but I think the lousy weather kept the festivities to a minimum this year. Still, the place was packed, and my shots don't show all the people staying inside out of the rain. I haven't captured all of the Kahloke's performance, but I think three minutes is enough.
(If anyone has any suggestions as to why there would have been such a problem uploading a 500 or so mb .avi file, I would welcome a pm.)
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 16, 2010 11:38:39 GMT -8
every Labour Day, Hornby locals gather at the Thatch Pub to salute the departure of the last ferry of the day, symbolic of the end of the summer crowds on this small island of one thousand souls. Wow. That was well worth the wait and the multi-try effort. I wasn't expecting to see the BCFerry play-along and do those doughnuts in Lambert Channel. Thanks for sharing this bit of Hornby. ps: now that you're a Youtube blogger, will you be setting up a web-cam to capture your deep-thoughts while you're sitting in the smallest of your Hornby hovels ?
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Post by lmtengs on Sept 16, 2010 14:31:33 GMT -8
[quote author=hornbyguy board=nonBCF thread=7643 post=121999 time=1284664851 (If anyone has any suggestions as to why there would have been such a problem uploading a 500 or so mb .avi file, I would welcome a pm.)[/quote]
There's no better way to upload the video that I know of. It's just the internet in general. It's about as reliable as a politician.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 18, 2010 15:49:25 GMT -8
I like this headstone in the Hornby cemetery for Leo Savoie, who started the island's first ferry service, and with brother Albert, built and ran the first two car ferries. A number of Savoies are buried there, but Albert seems to be elsewhere. The family name is still prominent on the island. The province took over the family ferry business around 1971.
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Post by Low Light Mike on Sept 18, 2010 16:18:33 GMT -8
Thanks for posting that. I like this headstone in the Hornby cemetery for Leo Savoie, who started the island's first ferry service, and with brother Albert, built and ran the first two car ferries. "Every morning at 7 o'clock, my brother & I would drive, Down to the ferry-slip and the 'Hornby Island V'. I was the captain, and Leo was deckhand. We got to know who came & went to the island, Every woman, every boy and man." The province took over the family ferry business around 1971. "...Demand kept on growing. By 1971, I had to give my notice that I'd no longer run. My ferry-boat days were done". - above lyrics from from a song about Albert Savoie. I took them from memory, but here's a website with full-song & a link to hear it. www.workinglives.ca/ferries/song-albert-j-savoie.html
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 22, 2010 17:19:35 GMT -8
A very delicate balancing act, or... cement? Above the shore south of Ford's Cove.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Sept 25, 2010 16:18:53 GMT -8
A wild day at Helliwell Park on Hornby Island today. At times, spray was almost coming as high as the two people seen on the bluffs here, in sustained winds.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Oct 18, 2010 20:27:26 GMT -8
Going to the dump isn't usually a social occasion for most people, but then, no one on Hornby would say they were going to 'the dump'. The reycling centre, and the free store, is a gathering place on the island, and a place where people run into neighbours and find all sorts of stuff that might be useful. It's been around for about thirty years, and in some ways, pioneered recycling in B.C. It claims a diversion rate of 70%, which it says is the highest in all of Canada. Not to sound too cliche, but tomorrow I'll be looking for a kitchen sink, and I might just find one. Nothing gets thrown in the garbage bin bound for Pigeon Lake landfill unless it's truly useless. My neighbour takes his wheelbarrow up to the centre to bring back waste wood for his stove. A cache of old bicycles, pictured below, might not be pretty but it keeps old workhorses on the road, and the free store is full of household items of all descriptions, along with books, magazines, and clothes of different vintages and varying presentability. I can't quite picture myself putting my feet into some of the tired looking shoes available, but some people on this island have very little money, and I know my neighbour started his marathon running in shoes he picked up from the free store. You would think that a recycling centre with a store where everything is free wouldn't need to, but a video surveillance system will be installed shortly to deal with periodic vandalism. Disheartening, given the spirit of the place, but stupidity doesn't respect community. Hornby being Hornby, when an outhouse was required at the centre, it ended up being something of a work of art. An initial budget of $15,000 turned into $40,000, and some grumbling ensued, but many voices attested to the good workmanship and character of the local contractor, and so the recycling centre got a suitably low impact, sustainable facility that's actually pretty nice to look at... as outhouses go. In the '2nd hand Rose' section of the Recycling Depot's website, there's a nice story about some of the finds people have made there.
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Post by lmtengs on Oct 18, 2010 20:44:42 GMT -8
Where on the island is this recycling center located? I should bring a bike pump when I go to Hornby, then 'rent' a bike for a few hours while I tour the island
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Oct 18, 2010 21:51:41 GMT -8
Where on the island is this recycling center located? I should bring a bike pump when I go to Hornby, then 'rent' a bike for a few hours while I tour the island My neighbour tells me he always keeps his bike within eyesight when he goes to the depot, since some people can be rather liberal in their interpretation of what's 'recycleable'. There is a bike shop on the island, but I doubt it's open this time of year. There is an extensive network of bicycling trails on Mt Geoffrey, of varying degrees of difficulty, that have been built and maintained by cyclists. I believe the 'Tour de Hornby' was held recently, which no doubt would have traversed many of them. Cyclists and hikers generally co-exist pretty well on the trails; I hike there regularly, and I've never had an encounter that was less than considerate. In summer the trails are rarely crowded, and yesterday I hiked for three hours and passed one person. The Recycling Depot is off the main road, well marked, but I doubt you would usually find a fully operational bike there.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Oct 20, 2010 9:44:38 GMT -8
Had to get dressed late last night and go sit outside on the porch for a while just to hear the sounds of... virtually nothing. No wind, and no wave noise from the nearby beach. No cars at 2 am, no radios, no voices, no dogs, no lights through the trees, no signs that anyone was anywhere near.
Of course, not absolute silence. An occasional leaf fluttering down. A tiny rustling in the bushes; maybe a feral cat, or even a mouse, or both, one stalking the other. One or two slaps out on the water from a patrolling seal. Everything so still under the light of the high, nearly full moon.
Soon enough, it will be back to the racket of the suburbs, with the sirens, pounding car stereos and the human noise pollution that's impossible to escape there. An environment that feels more and more foreign the longer I'm away from it, and harder to get used to when I return.
Out in the country, though, man and nature occasionally conspire to produce near silence, and it's something you just have to stop and listen to.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on May 31, 2011 21:12:16 GMT -8
From where I am on Hornby, it's no more than a ten minute or so drive in any direction before I'm at then end of the road, whether it be at Whaling Station Bay, Ford's Cove, or Shingle Spit. So it's not hard to gauge the level of Stanley Cup fever, at least in terms of traffic.
At home in North Delta, it's a passing parade of Canuck banners. Here on Hornby, I've counted one Canuck car flag, and one rather large Bruins banner, in the back of a pickup truck. The talk in the Co-op and elsewhere seems to be of other matters, although I seem to recall hearing a horn blow once a few nights back after a Canucks goal.
I get two television channels on my old 19' CRT. I reach out the window and poke the antenna one way for Global, and another for the CBC. CBC reception is bad; I'm peering through the snow on the screen, often reduced to trying to use my hockey intuition to determine where the puck is, and grateful for several differently angled replays to see how the goals were scored. I liked the Burrows overtime winner in game seven against Chicago; a long blast that defied ambiguity, even on a bad screen. When Sami Salo got his second goal in that remarkable two man advantage run against San Jose, I wasn't sure if I was watching a replay of the first. I'm almost proud of my ability to figure things out with the reception I get. It doesn't take any insight to watch the game on my 44' hi-def jobbie back home.
So, tomorrow at 5, I'll be peering through the snowstorm, hoping that the hulking Zdeno Chara doesn't reduce our bold Raffi Torres to mincemeat on one of his challenges, but since he's huge, I'll probably catch it if he does. If the Canucks lose, there will be the usual peace and quiet, and perhaps the ocean if it's blustery. If the Canucks win, there'll be the usual peace and quiet, and maybe a horn or two. I don't have one. I guess I could briefly fire up the chainsaw...
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Post by Scott on May 31, 2011 23:05:06 GMT -8
What kind of internet connection do you have? You can catch the game on CBC.ca if you have a decent connection. It's not great, but probably better than the blizzard!
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Post by lmtengs on Jun 1, 2011 15:31:50 GMT -8
Or hook yourself up to Team 1040 radio, they have an online stream.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Jun 1, 2011 16:03:21 GMT -8
What kind of internet connection do you have? You can catch the game on CBC.ca if you have a decent connection. It's not great, but probably better than the blizzard! CBC's streaming video doesn't really work here on my computer- very much stop and start. Probably the same for Team 1040, if they have video. Nope... it's peering through the snowstorm for me.
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Post by Mike C on Jun 5, 2011 19:37:09 GMT -8
Very interesting place. I've only ever been to Hornby once, as a kid, but have walked down Hornby Street many times, if that counts... I get two television channels on my old 19' CRT. I reach out the window and poke the antenna one way for Global, and another for the CBC. CBC reception is bad; I'm peering through the snow on the screen, often reduced to trying to use my hockey intuition to determine where the puck is, and grateful for several differently angled replays to see how the goals were scored. I liked the Burrows overtime winner in game seven against Chicago; a long blast that defied ambiguity, even on a bad screen. When Sami Salo got his second goal in that remarkable two man advantage run against San Jose, I wasn't sure if I was watching a replay of the first. I'm almost proud of my ability to figure things out with the reception I get. It doesn't take any insight to watch the game on my 44' hi-def jobbie back home. At our place in Comox, with the antennae, we can only get CHEK and Global. We lost our CBC signal about a year ago... did the quality of your connection deteriorate at around the same time?
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Jun 5, 2011 20:59:12 GMT -8
I get two television channels on my old 19' CRT. I reach out the window and poke the antenna one way for Global, and another for the CBC. CBC reception is bad; I'm peering through the snow on the screen, often reduced to trying to use my hockey intuition to determine where the puck is, and grateful for several differently angled replays to see how the goals were scored. I liked the Burrows overtime winner in game seven against Chicago; a long blast that defied ambiguity, even on a bad screen. When Sami Salo got his second goal in that remarkable two man advantage run against San Jose, I wasn't sure if I was watching a replay of the first. I'm almost proud of my ability to figure things out with the reception I get. It doesn't take any insight to watch the game on my 44' hi-def jobbie back home. At our place in Comox, with the antennae, we can only get CHEK and Global. We lost our CBC signal about a year ago... did the quality of your connection deteriorate at around the same time? There was a transmitter in the Comox Valley area that burned down in 2008, hence the loss of service. We used to get City TV perfectly clear, so I'm assuming they shared that transmitter. I guess what I get now is the weak end of the Vancouver signal; Little River is a further fifteen miles away, so I guess it doesn't reach. Hornby Island now has it's own radio station, CHFR 96.5 FM. The CRTC has generously allowed it a transmitting power of either one or five watts, I can't remember which, and the signal doesn't even cover the whole island, due to geography. Most of the people on there are obviously having their first go at radio, and the station is a melange of whatever musical styles individual djs are into, and there are even 'literary events', such as someone reading Harry Potter. It's a refreshing change from the slickness of big city broadcasting, and of course, there are no commercials. In an era where broadcast radio has lost much of it's old influence due to the ubiquity of internet offerings, this new station has been a long awaited addition to the community. Cortes also has its own station, which I was actually able to get on Vancouver Island, north of Courtenay.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Oct 18, 2011 21:24:02 GMT -8
Boy, I sure feel old sometimes. While packing my half litre of Ben & Jerry's across the rocks at Ford's Cove today to find a hospitable nook to somewhat guiltily chow down, I crossed paths with a hospitable group of middle aged folks, one of whom asked me if I cared to join them for 'chillums'. In my wayward youth I would have scarfed the ice cream after 'chillums', but I'd never heard the term before. Thank goodness for the internet, and it's instant connection to slang that us old folks have perhaps not kept up with. I have to admit having at one time a very frequent and at the time pleasant familiarity with 'chillums' and variations thereof, but these days Ben & Jerry's provides a reasonable facsimile of the same illicit pleasure, and with no fear of exciting interest from any passing constabulary. While indulging my dairy preferences, I saw this chap drifting by in the fog, and his Tilley type headgear led me to believe that he probably was also enjoying his outing without chillum. Or is it chillums? If I had indulged in chillums, I might have found it hilarious that he appeared to have Mickey Mouse with him.
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Neil
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Post by Neil on Apr 29, 2012 20:33:42 GMT -8
Back to the suburbs tomorrow, after a very peaceful three and a half weeks.
What do I look forward to, when I get back? Well, people... some of them, anyway, mostly of the family variety... and my cat.
Conveniences? Not really. It's a hassle going up to the ballpark every evening for a shower, but I get used to it, and in summer we have an outdoor shower so even that's not an issue, aside from the mixing up of hot and cold water, hoisting the container up on the wall hook, the chill when the water's not running. Small stuff. Toilets? Who cares. Even in February, an outhouse doesn't bother me, and in the cold months, it even has water in it, and you don't have to flush. Lack of TV is an issue, but I bought an LCD so I can watch DVDs decently, and we get Global and CHEK. The Canucks didn't last anyway, and I caught them on the radio. A comfortable bed in a cozy cabin- even an ugly plywood cabin- makes for a very nice quiet night, devoid of the usual suburban clatter of idiot neighbours fighting or blasting subwoofers at three in the morning. Our North Delta neighborhood has deteriorated somewhat, and I relish the opportunity to be away from it.
Here on Hornby, if the wind is from the east, I open the door to a sea breeze first thing in the morning. Being the non-gregarious type that I am, I keep to myself a lot, but I still run into characters: the neigbour who lives 'off the grid', but cycles into Courtenay to stay at a motel when there's something on TV that he wants to follow, like the Masters. The scruffy old long haired fellow who used to ride the recumbent bike, who has solar panels on his roof to run his computer so he can market the hydrogen turbine power generators he's designed. The women I ran into at the end of my walk on Mt Geoffrey with big bags of nettles. The woman who runs what might be the smallest bookstore I'll ever see, outside of the Co-op, where they once had a Harry Potter book release party at midnight, at the same moment all the big city stores were doing it. And for Mr Horn, the lady who gets up at three o'clock in the morning to bake her divine cinnamon buns that she sells on Saturdays at the market.
It's kind of how I like to take my contact with humanity; in fairly small doses, and tending toward the eccentric.
At the end of April, the seasonal streams are still running, and I even discovered a waterfall, admittedly of modest volume, cascading hundreds of feet down the likewise modest face of Hornby's 'mountain'. Tribune Bay is littered with countless small clamshells, but mostly bereft of people. The herring roe is still occasionally pungent, with the seagulls look fat and satisfied. I'm hoping to return in June, before the hordes discover the place once again, turning Tribune Bay into Kitsilano, and the Co-op into Superstore.
Still, the island couldn't exist without the 'summer people'. The peace and tanquillity of a rainy April evening doesn't make for a thriving economy. I enjoy it while I can.
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Post by lmtengs on Apr 29, 2012 21:06:39 GMT -8
I think I'd enjoy Hornby in the off-season. Or maybe Lasqueti; even further off the grid. I could live the hermit life pretty happily.
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