Cape Scott Days

Wow. It's Saturday. I lose track of days out here with nothing to mark them but differentiated weather. Is it still overcast? Yes. Is that fog or a rampant cloud? Funny, how soon I have adapted to life without people (except of course for my work partner here on the station). Yesterday, I had some yahoo hikers sitting outside that reminded me of life at the condo. Why do people have no respect for what's going on around them? Today I had to tell a woman, mid-twenties at least, not to perch on the uppermost rings of the light. "Oh, can't we climb up here? I thought we could climb on the lighthouse"? Yes. Well.

Apart from routine duties and watching out for silly hikers, I've been working on my garageband and iMovie skills. What follows is my very first movie soundtrack--it's really just me playing around on a synthesizer (thanks again Ivan) and recording several tracks--but I needed to learn how to do that. It's called "Cape Scott Days" and really just chronicles my journey into this station and a little bit about what it looks like around here. 

There are two wonderful cats here, who I'm quite fond of, and who have convinced me that when I get my own station a feline, perhaps a Bengal, will be resident there. I talk to them and cuddle them and between the three of us, life is grand. 

One of my duties is to take a pail of their cat litter and my compost about a mile through the forest to dispose of it. Well, I went off the other day singing, "she's walking with her cat litter, she's ok" --it was something like a Monty Python movie loop--and all the while thinking that I was walking alone in bear/wolf/cougar country carrying a basket of goodies. I made it back, of course, but that same evening I had my first glimpse of a bear in the backyard.

I was actually talking to Tara on Skype when I happened to look out the window and saw him standing up getting a drink out of the rain barrel by the greenhouse. I almost dropped my iPad and after much fumbling managed to get a snatch of video. The next day, I asked my boss to let me fire the bear banger, so I'd know how it worked and felt when it went off. Ah pyrotechnics! I don't want to be fumbling with the bear banger when he's standing in front of me. This lifestyle suits me. I feel it. Hurray.

PS. Due to uploading challenges, it's best to view this as is. Blowing it up affects the picture quality. If this keeps up I'll be needing a Youtube page:)

Making Movies Take 2

I'm not sure whether I love iMovie or hate it. I felt much the same way about knitting--and my filming is just about as good as my first couple of pairs of lumberjack socks.

Anyway, on Friday I flew 60 miles south by chopper from Addenbroke Island back to Scarlett Point, where I've been staying mainly since July 1st. Riding in the little helicopter is like sitting behind the eyes of a very large very red dragonfly. It looks something like this:

And my film is a little shaky, but hey, filming in a wee helicopter is like that. Today, I'm packing up again, and then I'll be heading off to Cape Scott come Monday.

I still have no phone service, so I'm not being unsociable, I'm just in a "no service" zone.

My Very First Film

Wow! This is so exciting. At Addenbroke Light Station, apart from learning a whole lot of new light keeping skills, like how to do aviation weather reports and check engine rooms, I've also learned how to use iMovie. The Inside Passage is a haven for humpbacks. It seems that every time I sit down to do something, some whale has surfaced and is either talking or clearing his blowhole. This sends me running outside with my camera.

The woman I am working with here is a filmmaker, among other things, and showed me a few things about using iMovie, and so, what you are about to see is my very first film. I will confess I am probably hooked. Of course, the animals here are photogenic and, for the most part, cooperative--although I got my moccasins wet more than once dashing out onto the deck to stand in the rain.

Yesterday we had moderate rain showers and afterwards walking around in rubber boots was treacherous due to the overabundance of banana slugs. The first time you see one--they're about 3" long--you think you've landed in Jurassic Park.


I also ran into this beautiful Stellar Jay--I know some people hate them, but look at the brilliant blue of his tail feathers.



And, here's a view of the channel from my deck, taken after yesterday's rain as the sun finally peeked through the clouds.

And finally, here's my video. If you enjoy watching it 1/8 as much as I did creating it, well, I don't know, just watch.

You can check out Tineke Veenhoven's youtube page to see more fantastic films about this part of the world ... watch Return of the Eagle for sure. And now, the weather.