New online magazine, Sustainable Coast

It's late and I have been busy writing all day and evening. Tomorrow is the launch of a new online news magazine for the Sunshine Coast, Sustainable Coast. I am the editor and it is very exciting. The publication will focus on the environment, sustainability and government accountability here on the coast. It is an interactive publication that encourages reader participation. It is published by a new non-profit society, SuCESS, Sunshine Coastal Environmental Sustainability Society.
What a great group of people! Thinkers, activists, writers, doers! It is exciting to be a part of something that may have a hand in making some major changes here on the coast.
Check it out at: http://www.sustainablecoast.ca/
More later, I am so tired.

Christmas and the New Year

Have had a nice holiday at home. Some friends from US visited for a couple of days and went to friend's house in Egmont to watch the JR. Hockey game and exchange gifts. We checked our prawn traps and boated over to their house. Ate prawns, pizza, goodies and drank some great Shiraz & Cabernet! Boated home slowly under the moonlight. Cold but lovely.

Looking forward to a good 2010.

Tux joins our family

We have a new addition to our family. On a recent trip to the city for our anniversary, Jim and I went to look for a dog. We found our perfect guy at one of the shelters. We have named him Tux, short for tuxedo. From this picture you can see why. He is adapting well to his new home. On our first trip to the beach, he immediately jumped into the water. I am looking forward to swimming with him next summer. It has been a good decision to adopt an adult dog. No puppy training! He has all the basic training skills already and loves to please. He also loves to hug and cuddle. Which can be pretty awesome with this 85 lb. dog! Now we have to work on getting our cat Dusty to warm up to him. She is very wary and has stayed upstairs most of the time since we brought Tux home.

So what did you get for your anniversary? Why, a doggie!

Welcome to the Egmont Saloon!

Well, after much planning and hard work, the Egmont Saloon was open for one night only on November 21 at the Egmont Community Hall. This was a casino night fundraiser for the hall foundation fund.

All the local businesses were very supportive. They sponsored tables and donated some wonderful prizes for the High Rollers of the evening and the silent auction. All in all we raised over $5000 that night. Then Karen and Rick King of Madeira Marina pledged to match whatever we raised up to $10,000! So thanks to them, we raised over $10,000 in one night. After expenses over $7,000 will go into the fund.

The Club plans on starting work on the foundation next spring. Over the last 5 years we have raised $107,000 of the needed $115,000. Amazing for such a small town and a large project.

Fall Harvest

Fall is upon us and it couldn't be busier! Time to get ready for colder weather which includes bringing in the tender plants from the deck, sealing up windows, filling up the woodshed and stocking up on supplies.

I have been busy with the annual canning

. This is something I love to do. There is a good feeling of going to the pantry and seeing all your homemade goodies. This year I have put up pickles, applesauce, grape jelly (from our own grapes), blackberry jelly, a papaya salsa, salmon and corn. Jim brought me some King salmon fillets. I have some in the freezer and I just smoked the first batch.

I use the Little Chief smoker and this year tried a dry rub instead of the usual brine. I combined brown sugar, salt, pepper, dill, garlic powder, some cayenne and add some maple syrup at the end. Delicious!

I usually have some mushrooms to dry too. I have been growing shitake mushrooms on logs for the last few years. But they are played out and it is time to get more logs and reinoculate them. Once started they will produce mushrooms for four or five years. We eat them fresh of course, but I also dry them and they are ready to add to soups, casseroles, gravies, etc. all winter long.

Close Encounters of the Bear Kind!

Wildlife around here has been busy. We have been having trouble recently with bush rats. They are sort of cute, but very destructive. Eating my vegetable garden, sunflowers, the cat's food...lot's of trouble. So when I heard sounds coming from the back porch the other night, I figured it was another bush rat trying to get to the cat's food. I stepped out onto the screened in porch and saw the cat food container was gone. Figured the rat dumped it over, but no where to be found. There was a scratching at the back screen door so I stuck my face next to the screen to see if I could see the rat all the while giving it a good talking to and telling it to get out of there.
Slowly, I realized that I was face to face with a bear! We were literally 2 to 3 inches apart with only the door screen between us! Never been that close to a bear.
In fact we haven't had any bear visits since the first couple of seasons we moved here. Once we brought our dogs over, that was the end of bears, deer, cougars, etc. coming close to the house.We are now realizing how good a job our dogs did keeping the critters away! So time to look for another dog in earnest.
In defense of the bear, I had some bags of garbage to burn stacked outside the porch. So he was only looking for food and it was my fault that I had them out there. Was planning on burning them the next day. Which I did. Normally I am very careful with garbage and my compost. Lesson learned!

There be whales!

The evenings are getting chilly and we are needing to start a fire in the evening to warm up the house. Lots of the fall critters are returning to the point, including the black-capped chickadees, the jays, the gulls and the blue heron is hanging around again. But the recent sighting of a humpbacked whale this week is the most exciting!

The other evening I heard a loud "blow" of air and knew it was not a seal or sea lion. Way too loud. I stepped out on the balcony and there was a large whale diving right in front of the house. Too cool. It has returned for a couple of evenings and this time Jim and I were able to see it dive and flap its tail. No pictures however. Just happens too fast. Although now I am looking at around 6 pm as that is when it seems to show up.

Boating friends were up the inlet and said they saw the whale too. It is quite large probably 40'.

Here are some pictures from the Internet that duplicate what we saw.