Port of Friday Harbor on a brilliant low sun angle winter day.
Gleaner combine with 10' header sitting in a field of freshly cut barley on Lopez Island.
Old horse trailer cum chicken coup at Lacrover Farm, San Juan Island.
Goats at Aurora farms. Lori-Anne is an amazing farmer with some much knowledge to share.
Greg demonstrating his draft horses as they pull a log. He also plowed some ground with a single bottom plow. Very cool, my grandfather ran a team of draft horses, so I just missed out by one generation on being a horse drawn farmer.
Rosario Resort. Is that my wife riding a orca? According to my Mom my first visit to the San Juans was in 1977 when we visited Rosario Resort via our 19' boat.
January 19, 2017
We've been living in San Juans since May 2016 and we've found our people here, really truly amazing people. Dave is working on a passion project to become a heritage heirloom grain grower and value added producer of some amazing better than 'organic' locally grown products. For a day job he's considering a number or executive directorships for non-profit and quasi-governmental agencies. However, he's staying true to his core beliefs that life should be more people and community focused and generally more simple and back to basics in this quickly evolving world we live in. That said he regularly turns down job offers for corporate endeavors locally and in the city, holding out for a true passion project to fund the farm.
It's not easy living on the fringe, it's almost like crossing ocean many a day and night docked here on the break water of Port of Friday Harbor. It's damn rough out here to say the least. During the last big NE blow we had over an inch of frozen sea water on the dock and Lightspeed was encapsulated in a sheath of salty ice, yep it takes alot of cold and strong winds to blow frozen salt water all over your boat! Good thing I upgraded our heating system last summer with a hydronic heater to supplement our forced air heater plus a few electric space heaters. Looking forward to the day when I can build us a net zero passive solar home... on land.
Lightspeed and Gizmo on the Port of Friday Harbor Marina breakwater. Pretty nice on a calm day, not much better than being underway crossing an ocean during a 70 knot gust from the NE!
Obsession with local and heirloom grains. This one is a six row barley from Orcas Island.
Stark contrast with low angle early morning light on the main pier of Port of Friday Harbor.
Near tame deer encounter on San Juan Island.
Boat kitty and hopefully soon to be farm kitty Shell helps with culling some junk mail while I research farm properties online.
Sunrise from the Port of Friday Harbor breakwater on a nice day. However, a little ice on the cabin top.
Second to last farmers market of the year. I ran the Lacrover Farmers Market Stand for the Friday Harbor Farmers Market. Great Fun.
Grain Silo lust.
Bags of grain. Hoping to grow some local, historically relevant heirloom grains her on San Juan Island.
Frazer Homestead Preserve 55 acres that went up for lease this past year.
Marbled Butterfly enclosure on the Frazer Homestead Preserve.
Hawthron on the Frazer Homestead.
Frazer Homestead
Tansy plant reproducing with no intervention on Frazer Homestead Preserve. Tansy. Blooming in November, not good a highly invasive and toxic weed. Where is the Stewardship?
Frazer Homestead Preserve showing 'Preservation back to Forest" 1990 to 2010 show expansive pine forest encroachment.
Kathy in a small patch of feral hog damaged ground.
Feral pigs ripped up the ground at the Lacrover Farm.
Looks preety good inside.
Barn find
Recently, a Land Bank Lease went to....
Farm junk.
Not a great photo, but a bald eagle on the lighthouse at Cattle Pass on the south end of San Juan Island. Another of our favorite hikes.
It was so stormy on Thanksgiving that we left the marina at Port of Friday Harbor seeking a more protected harbor at Jones Island. Hiking was great despite the howling winds.
Thanksgiving hike on Jones Island.
Barn find Gen 1 Cummins is pretty rough on the outside, but has good bones.
Barn find 1993 Dodge W350 Gen 1 Cummins 1 Ton 4x4 extended cab long bed truck with 64,000 miles.
Brien Sesby sizing up some cattle fence.
Ever so brief consideration of becoming a cattleman. Grass fed Kobe beef at Sweetwater farms.
First time seeing snow kitty.
The most happy kitty in the world. Did you know La Quinta hotels are pet friendly and some of them are even pretty good.
Kathy and Shell and Snow.
Ice storm en-route to John Day. A couple of pieces of our car got ripped off by ice this day.
5K run in John Day, Oregon with Emily, Arron and the boys. In defense of their outfits, it was a ugly sweater run adn Aaron got second place.
John Day 5K run. Kathy and Emily having some laughs as we run through the snow.
Sunrise over Palm Desert while taking a morning hike,
Monarch up and close.
Monarch butterfly refuge near San Louis Obispo, a stop over in our 3000 mile winter road trip following the Pacific Coast.
Christmas gifts from the wine cellar the Harkey residence. Dick is loading up two 'take home' cases.
Pre-War (WWII) All Crop Harvester. It;s a tow behind PTO driven harvester that can cut up to a 60" swath of grain or pretty much any crop? I want one.
Elegant simple barn... but too small for my taste/uses.
Kathy indicating a momentary dislike for 18F. Check out the cool convective fog in the background.
Washington State Ferry cutting through some Convective Fog. Air temps in the teens, no wind and relativity warm water in the mid 40's
Frosty winches. I think we say 18F, but no worries, we were nice and warm aboard Lightspeed.
Beach hike at Jakle's lagoon. Our favorite hike on San Juan Island.
Celebrating an amazing January day on San Juan Island.
Kathy and Dave at Lime Kiln lighthouse, almost like spotting a unicorn to see zero tourist at Lime Kiln, San Juan Islands most popular park for spotting Killer Whales.
Lime Kiln point on a super cold PNW day. Found some fun ice art.
Cool garbage can lids. Simple, but effective in keeping the lids on a basic recycling center. Seen at Lime Kiln Point Park, San Juan Island.
West Valley Farm on the wing
Flying with Bob Johnson in a beautiful Meyers 200D.
