When we left Herbwise, this involved a bunch of ferries. We drove north up the coast to the town of Campbell River, and took a ferry to Quadra Island, drove across it, took a second ferry to Cortes Island, drove across it, and parked at a government dock called Squirrel Cove.
Squirrel Cove has a dock and a general store. The general store is very general, containing a liquor store, laundromat, shower facilities, and so on. When we parked, we went to its parking lot since the dock is not exactly something I felt I should be driving on. We were opening up the car and looking at its contents and wondering what we should bring with us when someone walked up to us.
"I can't see your license plate," he said.
"Oh, sorry," I said without thinking, and pulled my trunk down so you could see the back license plate.
"Kylara? I'm Jim Parker."
Oh! That was why he wanted to know. No-one else would have Maryland tags. He explained that I should, in fact, drive my car down the dock and then we could unload into his sailboat and then we could be off. We did so, and then I had an adventure trying to turn my car around in the narrow dock without killing myself or running into anything at all rather than just trying to back up very very straight for 150 feet.
Eventually we got underway. After a few minutes, he handed the tiller to Tomko and told him to figure out how it worked. When he did (hint: It is opposite of how non-boat-thinking people may think), they gave it to me. It was explained that we should know this for just in case there was an emergency, as there is no such thing as a hospital or fire department or, in fact, roads on West Redonda Island.
Actually there is one road. Jim made it. It goes from the beach right next to their dock up to their house. There are trails and other things, but that is the only one that you can drive a normal vehicle on. Jim uses it for his excavator and four-wheeler since I don't think the rest of the vehicles are workable.
The area they live in, Refuge Cove, is 183 acres owned by 18 shareholders of a co-op. Sherry is one of them, and has lived there for pretty much her adult life. Jim has been there more than 20 years. They have a pretty awesome house and a number of out-buildings: the outhouse, of course; and also the triangle-shaped barbecue hut for cooking over a fire in the rain; the hot tub and deck where Jim watches the boats and smokes cigarettes; the washhouse where the laundry, shower, and sauna live; the wood shop; the metal working shop; the bathhouse which is more like a processing place for the graywater from the house to be used for watering plants. I am probably missing something. But basically that is it.
While we were there, we did many things! Mostly we pulled up infinite plants from the ground. We cleared out the entire orchard perimeter so that a new fence could be put up, and also the ditch on the side of the road. (The road used to be a dry river bed so it wants to flood every time it rains.) Also some other places. It was an impressive feat and I learned about some of the fauna but I think I destroyed a lot more than I can identify. There are outrageous amounts of moss. All sorts of different kinds of moss. Fuzzy moss, spikey moss, furry moss, and so on. Fern-like moss. Moss that probably has its own time-share in some other appropriately wet, moss-inhabited place.
I may describe more of this later but really, I am tired from today. Today, Jim had to go to a doctor in town (a boat ride and two ferries away) so he dropped us off at our car in Squirrel Cove before jumping into his own van and leaving. We realize: Tomko left our keys sitting on a nail in the bathhouse, back on Refuge Cove.
I run into a guy, Tom, that we had met a few days before while helping another resident of Refuge Cove move. He was heading back and gave me a ride. I walked up to the house and got my keys. Sherry walked me over to "downtown Refuge Cove", which includes a general store and some floathouses (like, maybe five) and a dock. I was told that some people were going around 2:30pm, tried to fiangle some other rides, then gave up and waited. Now there is no way we can make the ferry to our next destination today. However, if we want to make the ferry off this island, we need to leave in about ten minutes. So I'll have some more internet later.
Showing posts with label place: british columbia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label place: british columbia. Show all posts
Monday, September 13, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Herbwise Farm
We've been here for a few days.
Routine as such: We wake up in the morning and water all of the plants. Everything in the greenhouse, every potted plant around the property, and about a million tomatoes. Water the tomatoes again because after the first time it just doesn't seem like you watered them properly. Get a basket from the kitchen; harvest green beans. Check everything else. Turn on the sprinkler in the small garden. Move to the bigger garden. Add more beans to the basket; add cucumbers; add zucchini. Water lettuce, water tomatoes, water potatoes, and remember to water the other tomatoes. Get another basket from the kitchen, use it to pick strawberries. Pick blueberries and raspberries; take all the baskets to the kitchen and leave them there for Karla to deal with. Turn on the sprinkler in the larger garden.
Then we hang out and ask Karla what to do. Two days a week, Carmen takes off work and so we get to monitor the chickens, steal their eggs, and shovel out the sheep barn. We set up solar lights around the garden shed and garden. We move things and do dishes and cook. I am sure we will do other things too.
We hang out with Sam, Karla's nineteen-year old nephew who has endless stories to tell. There were two Brits staying here, but they left this morning. We took over their cabin. Our cabin that we were first put in was a single room with a roof, no weatherproofing, but a cute covered porch with a sunburst railing. Now we will be somewhat warmer because the wind can't reach us, and this cabin adjoins the camp kitchen so we are right next to the food all of the time. Sam has a nice two-story cabin weatherproofed properly for year-round residency. Carmen has a trailer a little further out in the woods than all the rest of us.
We can walk down to the creek, which is very nice.
Also we have internet access, apparently! If we go up near the house, at least; not around the camp. I am currently sitting in the woodshop in what is now the dark. I should be getting back to the cabin so that Tomko, Sam and I can watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Routine as such: We wake up in the morning and water all of the plants. Everything in the greenhouse, every potted plant around the property, and about a million tomatoes. Water the tomatoes again because after the first time it just doesn't seem like you watered them properly. Get a basket from the kitchen; harvest green beans. Check everything else. Turn on the sprinkler in the small garden. Move to the bigger garden. Add more beans to the basket; add cucumbers; add zucchini. Water lettuce, water tomatoes, water potatoes, and remember to water the other tomatoes. Get another basket from the kitchen, use it to pick strawberries. Pick blueberries and raspberries; take all the baskets to the kitchen and leave them there for Karla to deal with. Turn on the sprinkler in the larger garden.
Then we hang out and ask Karla what to do. Two days a week, Carmen takes off work and so we get to monitor the chickens, steal their eggs, and shovel out the sheep barn. We set up solar lights around the garden shed and garden. We move things and do dishes and cook. I am sure we will do other things too.
We hang out with Sam, Karla's nineteen-year old nephew who has endless stories to tell. There were two Brits staying here, but they left this morning. We took over their cabin. Our cabin that we were first put in was a single room with a roof, no weatherproofing, but a cute covered porch with a sunburst railing. Now we will be somewhat warmer because the wind can't reach us, and this cabin adjoins the camp kitchen so we are right next to the food all of the time. Sam has a nice two-story cabin weatherproofed properly for year-round residency. Carmen has a trailer a little further out in the woods than all the rest of us.
We can walk down to the creek, which is very nice.
Also we have internet access, apparently! If we go up near the house, at least; not around the camp. I am currently sitting in the woodshop in what is now the dark. I should be getting back to the cabin so that Tomko, Sam and I can watch It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Olympia to Herbwise Farm means a ferry!
I make plans to do things early in the morning but lately that hasn't been working out. My phone alarms went off at 7:15am, 7:17am and 7:18am, and then every five minutes after that until I managed to become conscious enough to disable all three of them. By then, it was about 8:20am. Alarms are worthless.
Furthermore, I was planning on picking Tomko up from Fort Zarpaws around 10am, but that wasn't really happening either. Mish ended up bringing him over to the Nuthouse sometime before noon. I packed things, lost things, found things, ate breakfast, jumped on Brian's bed with Davi, and tetrised Byzantium into some semblance of order. We left Olympia by one in the afternoon.
We drove up the Olympia Peninsula towards Port Angeles. Here are some things you may or may not know: The Olympia Peninsula is formed by Puget Sound, which is a body of water that Seattle is on the east side of. On the west, we drove up a main highway that did not seem to enjoy this status (signs warned that "back-ups of more than five cars are ILLEGAL" and gave copious turn-arounds in an attempt to make us speed up).
This is also where the Twilight books take place. The main character lives in Forks, but the nearest real town is Port Angeles. Port Angeles seems to enjoy this status. We saw a store called "Dazzled by Twilight" that appeared to have nothing but Twilight-themed knickknacks.
We wandered Port Angeles because it did not occur to us that ferries fill up. When we arrived, the sign said "5:15 FULL, tickets available for 9:15." So we went to watch a movie across from the Twilight store. We could have gone to see TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE, but instead we saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (?). It started out like it would have made sense, but by the end I think everyone was just staring at the screen in confusion. And by everyone, I mean all six people that were going to see this movie at 5pm on a Monday in Port Angeles.
After the movie, we were bored, cold, and had three more hours to kill. I had been trying to call Herbwise Farm, but both numbers I had weren't working. I called up a friend and had her log into my e-mail, in which Karla had e-mailed us to say that her phone wasn't working, and my friend e-mailed her back saying that we were going to be later than expected, sorry. Then Tomko and I went into the building on the water that was some sort of visitor's center/art gallery/ferry routing/bathrooms collection and went to the restaurant on the second floor, ordered a pitcher of beer, and drank it. By the time we were done, it was 8:30pm and reasonable to go back to our car in anticipation of ferrying.
I have never seen or ridden on a ferry before.
When we bought our ticket, we drove through this little... drive-through place, paid $70, and then were told to park our car in Lane 11 and return before 9pm, when they load the ferry. So we came back and sat around in our car for about half an hour, while other people returned to their cars. We were all immobilized by the other cars around us, waiting for the cars ahead of us to go so that we might one day. Some guy came around and collected tickets from each of the cars. There were signs telling us not to bring gasoline onto the ferry. Eventually, the cars in front of us started moving and we followed them. Dudes with flags directed us to park in a certain area. I got out and looked around: We were at the bottom of a ship. It was like a parking garage, except that instead of doors there were hatches to escape. Ferries are kind of cute. We left the car as directed and went up. There was an area of chairs, an area of benches and tables against the walls, an area where food existed, and we could go outside but who would want to? It is cold outside. We went out and watched Port Angeles lights receeding and the water churning out from behind the ferry, then hustled back inside, where we pulled out
our laptop and watched an episode of True Blood.
We didn't get to finish the episode when an announcement came on telling us to go back to our car. Then we waited for a long while until eventually our line of cars drove away. The "customs checkpoint" was a little toll booth, except instead of making us pay a toll they looked at our passports and then asked us a few questions and waved us through. Now we are in Canada!
The ferry drops us in a city called Victoria, which is a very cute city, but Herbwise Farm is about 50 miles north of it, so we didn't stop anywhere and headed off. We didn't have any difficulty finding the farm and luckily I remembered the street number because it wasn't labelled with its name.
We parked in a gravel driveway among some other cars, all which were from "Beautiful British Columbia" according to their license plates. Then we looked around. There was a light on in a window, and some other mysterious buildings in the dark. We walked toward the window, and a very bright security light came on. Some guy appeared in the window.
Me: "Hi, I'm Kylara?"
Tomko: "Is this Herbwise Farm?"
Scott: "Yeah. Do you sleep in your truck or do you need a place?"
Me: "Uhmm, we could pitch a tent?"
Scott: "I'll be down."
We waited for ten minutes or so. Scott had a flashlight and told us to grab our sleeping bags and things, and led us along a path, around a pile of gravel and tractor, through some trees and to a little cottage. It had an adorable porch and electric lights, which we turned on. It also had a bed and two little tables. It's like a real place.
Scott waved his flashlight further down the path and said that's the outhouse, then left. I checked out the outhouse: A very traditional-type outhouse, with a half-moon on the door, a handle made out of the jawbone of some animal (the teeth wiggle a little like they want to come out when you grab it), and latches made out of sticks that rotate to block the door.
I made the bed and then went to sleep, for it was late.
Furthermore, I was planning on picking Tomko up from Fort Zarpaws around 10am, but that wasn't really happening either. Mish ended up bringing him over to the Nuthouse sometime before noon. I packed things, lost things, found things, ate breakfast, jumped on Brian's bed with Davi, and tetrised Byzantium into some semblance of order. We left Olympia by one in the afternoon.
We drove up the Olympia Peninsula towards Port Angeles. Here are some things you may or may not know: The Olympia Peninsula is formed by Puget Sound, which is a body of water that Seattle is on the east side of. On the west, we drove up a main highway that did not seem to enjoy this status (signs warned that "back-ups of more than five cars are ILLEGAL" and gave copious turn-arounds in an attempt to make us speed up).
This is also where the Twilight books take place. The main character lives in Forks, but the nearest real town is Port Angeles. Port Angeles seems to enjoy this status. We saw a store called "Dazzled by Twilight" that appeared to have nothing but Twilight-themed knickknacks.
We wandered Port Angeles because it did not occur to us that ferries fill up. When we arrived, the sign said "5:15 FULL, tickets available for 9:15." So we went to watch a movie across from the Twilight store. We could have gone to see TWILIGHT: ECLIPSE, but instead we saw Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (?). It started out like it would have made sense, but by the end I think everyone was just staring at the screen in confusion. And by everyone, I mean all six people that were going to see this movie at 5pm on a Monday in Port Angeles.
After the movie, we were bored, cold, and had three more hours to kill. I had been trying to call Herbwise Farm, but both numbers I had weren't working. I called up a friend and had her log into my e-mail, in which Karla had e-mailed us to say that her phone wasn't working, and my friend e-mailed her back saying that we were going to be later than expected, sorry. Then Tomko and I went into the building on the water that was some sort of visitor's center/art gallery/ferry routing/bathrooms collection and went to the restaurant on the second floor, ordered a pitcher of beer, and drank it. By the time we were done, it was 8:30pm and reasonable to go back to our car in anticipation of ferrying.
I have never seen or ridden on a ferry before.
When we bought our ticket, we drove through this little... drive-through place, paid $70, and then were told to park our car in Lane 11 and return before 9pm, when they load the ferry. So we came back and sat around in our car for about half an hour, while other people returned to their cars. We were all immobilized by the other cars around us, waiting for the cars ahead of us to go so that we might one day. Some guy came around and collected tickets from each of the cars. There were signs telling us not to bring gasoline onto the ferry. Eventually, the cars in front of us started moving and we followed them. Dudes with flags directed us to park in a certain area. I got out and looked around: We were at the bottom of a ship. It was like a parking garage, except that instead of doors there were hatches to escape. Ferries are kind of cute. We left the car as directed and went up. There was an area of chairs, an area of benches and tables against the walls, an area where food existed, and we could go outside but who would want to? It is cold outside. We went out and watched Port Angeles lights receeding and the water churning out from behind the ferry, then hustled back inside, where we pulled out
our laptop and watched an episode of True Blood.
We didn't get to finish the episode when an announcement came on telling us to go back to our car. Then we waited for a long while until eventually our line of cars drove away. The "customs checkpoint" was a little toll booth, except instead of making us pay a toll they looked at our passports and then asked us a few questions and waved us through. Now we are in Canada!
The ferry drops us in a city called Victoria, which is a very cute city, but Herbwise Farm is about 50 miles north of it, so we didn't stop anywhere and headed off. We didn't have any difficulty finding the farm and luckily I remembered the street number because it wasn't labelled with its name.
We parked in a gravel driveway among some other cars, all which were from "Beautiful British Columbia" according to their license plates. Then we looked around. There was a light on in a window, and some other mysterious buildings in the dark. We walked toward the window, and a very bright security light came on. Some guy appeared in the window.
Me: "Hi, I'm Kylara?"
Tomko: "Is this Herbwise Farm?"
Scott: "Yeah. Do you sleep in your truck or do you need a place?"
Me: "Uhmm, we could pitch a tent?"
Scott: "I'll be down."
We waited for ten minutes or so. Scott had a flashlight and told us to grab our sleeping bags and things, and led us along a path, around a pile of gravel and tractor, through some trees and to a little cottage. It had an adorable porch and electric lights, which we turned on. It also had a bed and two little tables. It's like a real place.
Scott waved his flashlight further down the path and said that's the outhouse, then left. I checked out the outhouse: A very traditional-type outhouse, with a half-moon on the door, a handle made out of the jawbone of some animal (the teeth wiggle a little like they want to come out when you grab it), and latches made out of sticks that rotate to block the door.
I made the bed and then went to sleep, for it was late.
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