Tootfinder

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

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

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

I love my driveway.
#altgrass #home #portalberni

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

it's nice to be able to open the windows and turn off the A/C a smell the hint of the sea on the breeze.
🌊
#portalberni #bcstorm

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

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

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

I knew this day would come. The chainsaw has been going all morning. (Even though there is lightning in the area!!)
The former Alberni High School (1920-1952) and Redford Elementary School (1980s) has had a large fir tree on its property likely for that entire time… The tree is at least 80-100 years old.
It was sold a few years ago. I am not speaking ill of the First Nations developer because I actually appreciate what they have done at the property and agree with the development.
This is a failure of City policy not protecting important trees and public spaces that continue to be lost in the City. They provide shade, habitat, and public enjoyment. They are not rotten, they are not at risk of falling or blowing down in a storm.
I don’t understand why people are afraid of trees. 🌲
😢
#trees #portalberni

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

you can cone if you want Rain! i have beaten you!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

when a picture is truly worth a thousand words..... or in this case.... screw caps. 😭
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

aaaaaaaaaaaand done!!!
It only took about 10 hours of solid work. 😝
And thats with prior knowledge from assembling one 2 years ago!
@… is happy.
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

alright, reached my 2:30 time limit.
might have had the roof on but realised the back too support was inverted so had to flip that. Everything is a million screws 😂
Not sure what super humans can put this together in 3 hours. But I will have to come back to it tomorrow morning hopefully befoee the rain!!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

back at it this morning after sleeping in a little. got a bit of a sunburn on the neck and back yesterday! But all good today.
weather is perfect. Just a little wind and nice partly cloudy cool day.
the roof is happening! this is the easy part... the most annoying is yet to come, the sliding doors 😂
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

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

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

frame down. first wall next! pray for calm air! 😝 🙏 #poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

four corners!
getting that first corner myself was....... time-consuming lol.
going pretty quick now, though!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

they changed the forecast. no wind and we have a wonderful layer of fog keeping the sun at bay! If this can just last for the next four hours I should be able to get the second shed built!!
wish me luck!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #home #portalberni

the walls are up! it is (mostly) wind proof now so that's comforting. unfortunately the sun has emerged and it's hot.
taking a break.
Not sure if Ill get the roof on today but we'll give a good college try!
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #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

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

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

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

Had a decent sleep last night after a long day. Got up before 6AM so that I could start the sprinklers on time.
(We are allowed 6-9AM/PM alternating days but I only water in the mornings because watering when it is still 32°C at 8PM is dumb)
While they were going I got going on another dirt-moving session. Over 3 hours! The sun was blocked by clouds for much of it so that helped a lot. Managed to get the space cleared for the 2nd shed. The whole back part of the yard is nearly level. It’s amazing just how much lower one side of the yard was from the other!
Another couple days of moving dirt and leveling and the dirt mountain should be spent!
Lunch and naptime. 2000 calories burned 😝 💪
Started to feel some pains in hands, thumb, back. Body knows… so I stopped :)
#poolpond #backyardProject #diy #gardening #dirt #portalberni #clay

the beauty of small town life is the friends you make and that at any moment you might get a text that says, "Hey Chris! I have a bunch of fresh sockeye! Want a couple!?"
YES!!
Now it's been a minute since my salmon trolling days on dad's boat, but when your hands have gone through 1000s of them, there is still a bit of motor memory to draw on. 😂
I can still do a decent job cleaning and filleting a fish.
This is a good size sockeye, our run are generally under 10lbs (head and guts included). This one was about 7lbs. Plenty to feed 4!
#portalberni #hupacasath #salmon #sockeye

good morning!
did some early-morning ponding on the #pandemicPond this morning.
The water level was unusually low, so I started looking around for leaks or blocks. I have been wanting to cut down the vertical PVC at the top of the bog barrels to make it not stick out so much and blend in a little nicer and also because it would reduce the height for the pump, so increase flow.
Well it turns out that connection, where the black pipe goes into the white PVC in the barrel, was a little loose and some water was leaking out and adding to the evaporation budget.
So that gave me the push to do the small modifications on the top end of the pipe. It was also a good time since turning off the pump meant the top pond would drain into the bottom pond. When the system is full, that would normally cause the bottom pond to over flow, but since it was all low, no extra water was lost.
I cut the inlet down a few inches under the water in the bog barrel to move the T down and then cut another 6in from the top pipe to snug it all up.
Then I also tightened up the connections for the over flow/air valve and added an elbow to keep water from escaping out the valve outlet. Only took about 5 minutes. I have been wanting to do this for months. 😂
Result:
black pipe doesn't curl as high over the barrel ✅
no more leak from the PVC connection ✅
no more water escaping from the air valve ✅
noticeably more flow over the waterfall! ✅
Pump is back on and water is replenished from the rain barrel ✅
the fish are happy! 🐟 and me too. ✅
oh oh! did I tell you we have a new fish! The top pond fish had babies and it looks like one has survived to be big enough not to be cannibalized. 😂 It is very skittish and is still mostly black so I havent got a good picture of it yet.
#pondlife #diy #gardening #portalberni

the hasta is super happy in the bottom pond this summer. It likes that it has not been too hot and it is also getting a lot more shade now that the pussy willow and hydrangea are established and a little bigger #bloomscrolling #pandemicPond #pondlife #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

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