Bosun mine

Galena ore.  Silver, lead, and zinc.  A rich vein was discovered on the ranch by JC Harris in 1898 and immediately sold to an English company who created the Bosun Mine (named after his companion and farm helper, "the Bosun").

The vein ran from the lake, pretty much straight up the mountain.  Counting from the top, the mine had 6 tunnels into the mountain.  Nearest the lake, tunnel #6 is just off the track down to our beach from the Lovicks'.

Below the dump from Tunnel #6 - just after sunset and just before a storm

Tunnel #5 is below Harris Road just after it leaves the highway.  Tunnel #4 is just above the road to the Bosun Lake.  Tunnel #3, #2, and #1 are up the mountainside into the forest.

I thought all the tunnels were filled in by the government 20 years ago.  Certainly the lower three were, but the fillers seem to have missed the collapsed upper tunnels.  There are still openings to be found, and kept from falling into!  In the photos below, in March 2012, Cole and I were on a spring scramble up the vein from Tunnel #4 with Stephen Hornsby and Anne Knowles - discovering holes.

Tunnel #3?

Tunnel #2?

Top tunnel - #1?

Then, in about 2016, in the depths of Nancy and John's house, Ralph discovered this sagittal-section map of the diggings.  Too small to see much here, except where the six tunnels go into the mountain and the huge gaps in land underground.  There's now a copy on a cupboard door in the ranch house.  It's a wonder there's any ground left at all in parts of the hillside.  

Geological Survey of Canada, about 1930

Colin's table

As promised, here is Colin's table for the summer kitchen in back of the ranch house.  The former table (now kindling for the cook stove) predated Thomas Wright's work on the restoring of the log core of the ranch house in the early 1970's.  The old table was wobbly and in shreds, though still in use by Eric to produce delicious suppers in late July.

Solid, handsome, and immensely useful.  All cedar, and all from pieces milled by Norbert from ranch trees.   In addition to daily suppers, the new table has already supported the making of something like 30 jars of yellow-plum jam (Douglas and Colin as jam chefs), a dozen(?) of huckleberry jam, and 21 jars of canned pears (Julia and Meo).  Doco has hugely enjoyed working alongside Colin in the barn workshop, Colin on his table, Doco on his bookshelf, with the sometime help of Griffin and Alice.  Quite astonishing altogether.

Doco's bookcase

A landmark day, September 1, 2018.
Doco is delighted to have made his bookcase, and it's lovely.  The design inspired by a Japanese cabinet in "Fine Woodworking" - note the birch legs.  The top is beautiful old-grain cedar.  It's the second product, after Colin's splendid outdoor-cooking table for the ranch house summer kitchen (see, hopefully, next blog post), of Doco's cleaned-up wood-working shop in the squirrel-barn.

Doco now says the bookshelf, designed to fit against the stair wall in the upstairs of the clay house, is not what he intended to make.  It was planned to be a long-wall-length shelf for ancient family collections of Dickens, Scott, Stevenson, Kipling, Thackeray …  This made bookshelf is much too useful for ancient books, and is now stocked with more current books from the ranch house on all sorts of topics for browsers of assorted ages.  So, back to the shop … maybe even later this fall?

New neighbours

New neighbours on Wiltshire Street, met first by Eric Glon (photographer and friend).  A pair of flickers in a hole in one of the flowering plums, four trees up the street.  At first we thought the peeker was a young one about to fly.  Then Colin said, "maybe it's the mother".  Bird books consulted and now we see that, for the past four days, the father has been coming to feed the mother.  And this morning Eric saw the mother fly.  Next we hope to see the young being fed.  Stay tuned.

Some days later.  It turns out that after Eric saw the one bird fly we never saw any more flickers in the hole at all.  I guess it was a young one being fed after all.

february snow - backyard birds and flowers

Spring thought it was here, but more white stuff came ...

… not much drinking (or bathing) today

Back-yard witch hazel in full bloom ...

… a chickadee - our most constant diner

With sun on the witch hazel, another of Meo's bird photos … find it?

… and a junko - hardy fellow

Front-yard witch hazel - I love it!

New Years in Montreal and Ottawa

Two wonderful weeks with our Montreal and Ottawa families - from Boxing Day night (and Lily's birthday) in Montreal to Teagan's birthday and New Years in Ottawa, to Twelfth Night and a few more snowy days in Montreal

OTTAWA

three cousins at 'Rat-a-Tat-Cat" and many other games ... 

… on the speed-skating oval at Brewer Park, just open and a bit bumpy ...

… but skate-able ...

… and good for visiting

"Geocache" found, just 'up the hill', but frozen solid in the crotch of the tree.
Maybe, come spring ...

MONTREAL

Alice joining her mum on guitar

Rachel and girls made a backyard ice-house - see the 2-foot sticks to judge when to stop digging on the inside (1-foot thick walls).  One evening, with rugs on the floor and lit by ice-lanterns, six of us packed in (Rachel, Alice, Lily, Gabriela, Doco, Meo) for campfire songs - "sur la route de Berthier", "my logger lover"…  Seen below, on a trial run, Doco reminds me of Pooh Bear in Rabbit's hole - but he did make it out with no 'shrinking pause' required! 

Doco on the inward journey ...

… and the outward ...

… phew!

What with snow and freezing rain, much of our visit was snuggled up with books or games, with an occasional outing to Rue Laurier ...

Doco and Alice and 'Asterix'

chocolate chaude at "le lapin presse", for Alice and Meo

January 10th and, alas, first day back at school for Lily and Alice,
and back to Vancouver for Doco and Meo

Christmas Day in Vancouver

Christmas Day in Vancouver with our Vancouver family - at Jericho Beach, not warm but glorious.  A treat!

Breakwater trio, with downtown Vancouver in the background

the gang - plus Candy, photographer

he can still lift both sisters, but for how long?

what a bunch!