Visitors and Explosions

It's been ages since an update, so there's lots to tell. Last weekend our neighboors from East Van, Bob and Suzanne, dropped in on us. They were on their way up to the Queen Charlotte Islands and stopped in for a night.

We had lots of wine and halibut tacos here at the house, then headed down to the beach to watch the rising full moon. It was spectacular!

Later in the week Rachelle set up her pots as a part of Elaine Savoie's art show. Every year Elaine invites a few local artists to participate in an art show that she holds in her garden. Her family has been farming on Hornby Island for longer that anyone can remember and her chunk of the family acreage is absolutely breathtaking in its beauty.

She's built a stunning garden in which the artists place their work, scattered amongst the fruit trees and flowers. It's become quite an institution and people come from all over the continent to see the show.

Just this last weekend Jeff and Sarah came to visit and what a great visit it was. While Rachelle was working the farmer's market, Jeff, Sarah and I went for a bike tour of half the island. Later in the day we had another great BBQ and then walked down to Olsen's Farm where there was an outdoor concert featuring a Brazilian world beat band. Samba rhythms combined with capoeira displays and throngs of dancing spectators made this another great Hornby Summer Festival hit. The following day we all went for a hike in Helliwell Park - a must see for all of our visitors.

Today was D-day. Dynamite Day. It is all starting to come together with the septic field. After a couple of weeks of sitting with piles of sand and piles of excavated earth for the septic tank, the blaster arrived this morning to clear a deeper pit. Our soil was too shallow for the tank and the site required blasting in order to sink the tank deep enough for our sewage to drain into it. After days of prep, the blasters set up with drills, dynamite and our undivided attention.

It was all fairly dramatic. We had to board up our windows, put extra supports under the house "just in case the blast disrupted the semi-solid gravel causing the supports to shift". The neighbours were all informed of the impending blast, the roads were temporarily blockaded, and after twelve air horn blasts - cablammy!! We watched the explosion from a few meters away and it was every bit as impressive as we'd thought it would be.

Here are some pics from the week that just past on "The Outer Island"