Tootfinder

hello Jupiter and one of your moons!
#astronomy #backyard #portalberni

A photo of my dad in Port Alberni harbour on the Therma 1. A salmon troller, around 1975-76
He was not often in the PA harbour. I believe this was when they were readying to sell this boat before I was born.
update: just realized my brother is in this photo! he kind of blends in (70s colours) he is in front of my dad sitting sideways. He looks about 5 or 6 so that would make the pic 75/76
#portalberni #fishing

RE: #PortAlberni #ClimateChange #EndFossilFuels

my least favourite part of our garden is the hedge we share with the neighbour (who are extremely nice).
Thus, when I do maintenance of it... I tend to be a little more brutal.
like say.... cutting any branches on our side down to the stump.
it grows so fast! it also harbours evil ivy and holly bushes
#gardening #portalberni

spring is nice
#pandemicpond #portalberni #gardening

The daughter @… came home last night from a semester in Cork, Ireland and she is trying to deal with the fact that it is literally double the temperature today — at 26.6°C — of anything she experienced in the green vistas of windy and misty southern Ireland. 🇮🇪 ☔️ 🍀
(These are firmly first world problems, but her confusion and pale skin is funny nonetheless especially considering Vancouver Island is the “rainy” place of Canada )
#weather #ireland #canada #portalberni

I love my driveway.
#altgrass #home #portalberni

My water bill came in recently, which is kind of appropriate considering all the pond talk.
Since building it, the front yard #pandemicPond very very rarely is topped up on its own from tap water. Generally we keep it full from rain water, the rain barrel, or as part of the general low-flow spray/water system for the yard in the summer. So our water consumption really is dependant on how much garden watering we are doing. I'm not surprised we were high last year as we watered the new green-driveway and young trees.
The #PoolPond might, or might not, be different given the sheer volume *and* surface area (ie. evaporation). We have a 1000L rainwater barrel in the back yard, but that would only be useful for replacing evaporation losses at best in the poolpond.
I'll have to fill it once or twice in the coming weeks and possibly once a year if I do an annual cleaning at the end of the summer. We'll see. This year will also feature a return of vegetation to the back yard, so we'll likely be watering it more than when it is established in a year or two.
The city splits our bill into 3 periods per year, which is a little weird but ok...
Our household consumption has varied quite a bit since the pandemic due to changes in household composition (kids moving to uni etc) or us being more or less active in the garden.
I am happy that we used very little water this winter/spring, the least since 2022. I expect it to spike in the current April-August period as both kids have returned and I'll be doing all this pond stuff. But if I can keep it under 150,000L ($150) on the August bill, I'll be happy.
In the coming years, if I can use less in the Fall, Winter and Spring to "save up" for Summer, that would be nice but minimizing all seasons will always be the goal. That's why more trees are going to happen in the backyard at some point. Shade=Less watering!
In all, I'm happy with the only modest rise in our water consumption over the past few years.
#Home #PortAlberni #Water #Bills

a true community gathering tonight, and all weekend. We were at a sold out showing of the Martin Mars movie tonight!
It was great! Apparently it will be on Netflix or some other streaming service soon!
#martinMars #HawaiiMars #PhillipineMars #portalberni

4/4 Spent the day today with @… turning the water on and off, and the pump on and off.. watching how the water comes out of the bog filter and down into the poolpond. Pump is only at 25%, which is more like 15% as there will be a second pump as well in time.
Shifted some of the flat stones around and got them in a nice place. I had to do some hand digging under the lining near the tree. I am pretty sure the berm is too low there for when the pumps are at full force, but I am ok with where things are now. There is lots of opportunity to build the edges up if need be.
For now, I am going to work on sealing the rocks along the edge in to help direct the water.
I also need to splice in an extension cord into the pump wiring so that I can run a long enough distance to have the power supply and controller in the small shed and not hiding under the liner at the top of the pond. 🤣
#pandemicpond #PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

Scored one of four signed posters!!
World Premiere of the Martin Mars Fire Guardians movie tonight in #portalberni
It is hard to overstate how special these planes were to this town of any in the world. We miss them like family. ❤️
#martinmars #hawaiimars #aviation #BCWildfire

new tire time.
264,000km on the car.
Including original all seasons, I think this is my 3rd set of "summer/allseason". Going with high mileage Nokian One.
This will be the end of a 3rd set of winters.
Not cheap, but the most important part on the road.
I've probably bought 12 sets of tires at the same Kaltire shop over the past 25 years across 4 cars.
They're good people.
#Cars #Driving #PortAlberni #Local #Business #DoorDash #Commuting

PS.
Here are the two outlets. This is probably not how it will look in the end, but just a starting point. Once I have the water flowing how I want it to, I will use pond foam sealant to lock the rocks into place and force the water into its final channels and patterns but as you can imagine there is some trial and error to be done before that big step.
For noe you can see there is a fold of liner sitting vertically betwewn the rocks to split the channel. I really have no idea where the water will get to once at full force so this might be too high, or too low but it should not be too far off.
The main thing is that the water is contained within the greater system around the tree. That's the trickiest part right now.
It is a wonderful tree. We don't want to drown it.
Speaking of which, if you are wondering about water. Yes. This is thousands of litres of water. But at this point I am not worried if I need to fill up and drain the bog filter a few times. All extracted water will go into the rest of the garden anyway, so aside from a little evaporation, nothing will be wasted.
Still waiting on it to fill. Looks like it won't be full before quitting time. oh well! Back tomorrow water experiments!
#pandemicpond #PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

2/2 Then I moved on to working on finalizing the stream and edges of the poolpond.
After a trial run last fall I realized I needed to do a little more sculpting of the clay at the front of the pond where the bog filter and poolpond meet.
I would like to encourage a long waterfall along the front edge.
So after some peeling back of the liners to reinforce the berm in a few spots near the tree especially, I made a proper ledge at the front and am laying down some of the slate that we also used on the #pandemicpond in the front yard. It'll tie the two in conceptually.
Now I am filling the bog filter with city water (the likelihood of filling from the skies is long gone now) but I will only fill it enough to get a read on where the water is wanting to flow.
Ideally I would like two channels from the bog filter.
The main one will go toward the poolpond, along the front and spill over from there.
A secondary one will go close to the tree to be used if I need to divert the water from the poolpond but still want to keep the filter and system active.
Now I wait... I'm running out of time for today but will be back tomorrow. If I'm lucky, I might be able to get a pump back in and start up the system!
the apple waych strap is hiding a tan line... but it is not just a tan unfortunately lol
#PoolPond #gardening #portalberni #home #yard #bloomscrolling #BackyardProject

Finally managed to weed eat and cut the lawn today and got the last of the gravel moved so that we can get a bobcat in here to level the yard!! Yaaayy!!
Also did some cleaning out on the pond. Turns out the moss is great… until it REALLY latches in and makes space for grass. There was so much into the stream that it was backing up into the top pond, causing it to overflow, and the whole system lose water!
When I pulled up the moss, it pulled much of the gravel with it! So lesson learned. Very light on the moss, no more gravel in the stream, keep things neat and tidy!
In all though, the pond cleared up fast thanks to the barrel filters and all is good!
#pandemicpond #gardening #pondlife #spring #portalberni #backyardPond #PoolPond

Excited to have grabbed 4 tickets to see the Vancouver Canadians (Single-A affiliate of MLB Toronto Blue Jays). ⚾️🧢
Tickets are cheap! $35ea!
The scary part is travel on August long weekend, and we're making it a day trip from #PortAlberni so busy ferries and other crossing modes are in our future!
Here's the price breakdown for the various transportation modes from #Nanaimo to #Vancouver, return, for 4 adults.
Results are predictable. The spread is wide between walking onto BC Ferries and flying 4 people on a sea plane! The Horseshoe Bay route on BC Ferries has a premium right now because of construction but it's actually shorter transit time to/from Vancouver from Tsawassen anyway.
My only worry about walking on the ferry is there might not be day parking at the terminal in the middle of a long weekend!
🛟✈️SeaAir: $1148 $21.60 transit $15 parking‎ = $1183
🛟✈️ HarbourAir: $734 $21.60 $15‎ = $770
🛟✈️ 🚤Air Hullo Special: $604 $21.60 $15= $640
🚤 Hullo Only: $372 $21.60 $15= $408
⛴️🚙BCFerry Car Tsw: $243.40 $10 parking = $253
⛴️🚙 BCFerry Car HsB: $326.35 $10 = $336
⛴️🚎BCFerryWalk HsB: $155.20 $21.60 $15=$192
⛴️🚎 BCFerryWalk Tsw: $130.00 $21.60 $15=$166

🥘
#family #españa #home #food #cooking #portAlberni

the paella battle comences!
#family #españa #home #food #cooking #portAlberni

celebrating the boy's return. learning to make a paella 🥘 from his grandma; from great-grandma's instructions of 50 years ago.
#family #españa #home #food #cooking #portAlberni

This transplanted arbutus tree has established itself and is reaching for the sky now!!
#arbutus #madrone #gardening #portalberni

this Azalea has a mind of its own. All of the other bushes finished flowering a month ago. Meanwhile, this one is like hey where is everybody?
#Gardening #PortAlberni #bloomscrolling

best secondary car-related purchase (trailer) i have ever made beside the next best car-related purchase i have made.
This trailer has been infinitely useful even if the car is not technically "rated" for it, a cross-Canada trip and endless runs to the transfer depot, stores, soil dispensary, and rock yard have made it a huge part of our home life. Even if the lights on it only work 75% of the time (seriously... how can they not make these things more robust?)
And the little electric pump is so great. Can plug in to both 120V home and 12V car outlet, has multiple ends for different types of tires and inflatable things. Great for home, car and camping. Set a PSI or kPa, hit the go button and it runs until the pressure is met.
Highly recommend! (both purchased at CanTire but the trailer comes from many places under different names (all made in Ontario). The pump is CanTire brand Motomaster
#home #cars #trailer #tires #utility #portalberni

2/2 Along the same plumbing lines... I am also preparing the pumps themselves.
One major thing to do was to splice in an extension cord to the cord for the pump. Obviously this is a "break the warranty" situation, but there is no way around it really. The included cord is only about 6ft to the electronic controller unit and AC/DC transformer. It needs to be much longer to reach even just the shed beside the intake bay where the main pump lives.
I do have two of these pumps so I am holding off extending the second one until I know this first one is successful and happily pumping away in the pond.
The second one will take water directly from the bottom of the main pond as opposed to the intake bay, but it is only additional capacity and isn't critical. Ideally I will have both on at half power normally. But for now, we start with this one!
Need to get butt connectors and heat shrink tubing tomorrow. Ill probably do this electrical work on Thursday or Friday night so I can test it out hopefully Saturday!
#poolpond #pandemicpond #backyardProject #portalberni #gardening #diy

1/2 #poolpond update since my last post got unintentionally deep-sixed and now there is further progress!
on Saturday and Sunday we got supplies and I installed the irrigation box. It involved digging Yet Another Hole, plus small trenches on three sides to accomodate pipes from the main water areas.
Convincing the valves/manifold to fit into the box was a chore, but we got there!
Also fed the main pipe line through the box which yes, involved disconnecting it from the filter pond end, and basically feeding the filter box along the pipe, back to the hole.
In all it turned iout well. I will be removing/rearranging the stream near the tree and adding another layer of liner just for that doversionary stream so I can contain/isolate it fully if I want and also feed the two pipes exiting toward the big pond under the stream so it is less visible in the end.
Sometimes I feel like as this goes I think up more things to do and it makes it all interminable, but really, it just makes it better!
but wait there's more after the pictures...
#pandemicpond #backyardProject #portalberni #gardening #diy

An Earth Day message from me because why not. And because we have to keep fighting for our planet and everything we treasure.
#EarthDay #EarthDay2026 #VancouverIsland #PortAlberni #TransitionTown #FossilFuels #BCPoli #CamPoli #cdnpoli #EndFossilFuels #ClimateChange #ClimbingEmergency
#fediverse #peertube

Am planning my drive to pick up The Son from #yyj on Friday and discovered that the BC Hydro charging app has a very nice and comprehensive session summary for past charges.
It's a 2.5hr drive from home or 1.5hr from work, either way Ill need to charge before heading home.
I was trying to remember how long I charged for or what my starting point was, and there it is in the summary: 40min, going from 36% to 79%.
Now I can figure out what time I need to leave home/work to get down there, charge, and grab him from the airport. ✈️
Need to be at YYJ around 11:10. The chargers are only 5min away in Sydney (literally at the end of the runway lol) so if I'm charged by 11:00 I should have lots of time. So... at the chargers by 10:15.
done.
#evLive #EV #cars #HyundaiKona #Victoria #PortAlberni #VancouverIsland #travel

foaming!
I cleaned out the waterfall of gunk and most of the small stones and gravel leaving only the large rocks placed as strategically as I could to leave small gaps for foaming.
1.5 cans worth of landscape foam (DAP). I think I got all of it, but water always finds a way so its probably more like 75% if I'm lucky.
Ill let it cure for 24hrs then Ill trim some of the excess and reactivate the waterfall tomorrow to see what it looks like. It should make a big difference no matter what.
#poolpond #backyardproject #diy #gardening #portalberni

The water was perfectly clear… until I planted the first plants into the bog pond and intake bay! First plantings are always a little iffy because the nutrients in the pond won’t stabilize for a few months. Who knows how much nitrogen made it in with the gravel and little bit of clay or maybe it’ll be too much and the algae will come before the filter gets its compliment of “good bacteria” to start actually filtering and purifying.
I made a plant roster on our back door wall so I could keep track. 😂 🌱 🌱 🌱
A few I have never tried before. This is just the start. We will need more but hoping we can split/propagate a few from the front yard #pandemicpond to save time and money. They are all about $15-$20 a pop.
Here’s the run down:
In the Intake Bay (far corner nearest the shed where water and debris is pulled in and recirculated):
1) A big Red Abyssinian Banana. We’ll see how hardy it is, and if it likes being in the pond. It was marked as a pond plant, but says “moist soil full sun” so I made a little spot inside the liner but built up so its base is dry. It’s a very impressive plant already.
2) Standard pond lily - peach flower. They like deeper water so the bay is the place, the little bit of circulation shouldn’t bother it and it’ll have maximum sun. In time it will provide nice shade for underwater beneficial critters, and a landing pad for airborne critters too.
In the bog filter:
3) nearest in the photo is a marsh marigold, these guys are fantastic, very hardy, and very pretty when they bloom. Would like them to colonize most of the edge of the bog filter to provide a nice soft vibrant edge.
4) flat leafed tall plant is a purple iris.
5) broad leafed low plant is a water Cala lily. They should broaden out and provide nice area coverage.
6) the little guy near the edge is a pitcher plant. It eats bugs! So I put it near the edge. Muaahahaha.
7) tall plant in the back is a type of variegated ginger? It’s called Vanilla Ice…. ice. Ice. Baby.
#poolpond #portalberni #diy #gardening #bloomscrolling #home #water #pond #pondlife