On the way home today

Art Mulder said:

(emphasis added)

I was going to ask what on earth you were doing living in Victoria if you owned a place on Saltspring. But I see that you at least plan to live there eventually.

(visited it once, wayyyy back in 98)

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We are here in Victoria mostly because of my sons. I fought for and won custody of them 8 yrs ago and after their mom had moved them around constantly for 7yrs I needed to give a stable place to grow up where they could make and establish long term friendships. Also Grandma and grandpa live here and it is important to me for the kids to know who their grandparents are. The kids moved out and I was offered a permanent position with the local school district but with being laid off again 2 years in a row I am doubting this is actually a permanant position. The the kids wanted to move home to save for Europe trip till spring and then we are looking at putting this place up on the market and moving back To Salt Spring. My wife lived there for 23 yrs and we have lots of friends there. Here are some pics of the place. It is almost 5 acres.

Looks really nice and private, Drew. Is that a deer fence you have around the garden proper?

larry merlau said:

what time of year is the best time to see them bill??? i have seen pictures of them swiming threw a pass or narrows that you could see them easily from shore..

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Here is link to some more info on them I thought there were just the two types of orcas ( residents and transients) but this has lots more info on them. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killer_whale

Bill Satko said:

Looks really nice and private, Drew. Is that a deer fence you have around the garden proper?

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Yea Bill that is a deer fence as we gets lots of them over there. One day we counted 13 just outside the fence. The fence needs replacing soon too as the posts are just hunks of wood stuck in the ground. I had to drive PT posts in beside them and screw them together as a quick fix two years ago. I will be expanding the garden with proper 4x4 posts installed with pit run ( road base) when we get back over there and then put some 4 ft panels up in areas where we want to grow flowers close to the fence as the dear can just destroy a garden in minutes. As well as a gate to access the fire pit. The young deer will eat almost anything untill they learn better and we learned this with a young cedar shrub that we planted. They mowed it down pretty fast.

Those are great orca pics, Drew. I'd love to see them in the wild. One of my favorite marine animals.

A few years ago LOML and I went on a whalewatching trip around Catalina Island. It was an event sponsored by one of the local whale clubs, and they charter one of the Catalina shuttles (a big catamaran that carries a few hundred passengers). We saw several gray whales that day, but on our way back to the mainland, our boat got swarmed by the largest pod of dolphins I've ever seen. It sea was boiling with them for about as far as the eye could see in all directions. Easily hundreds, if not a thousand or so dolphins. The marine mammal expert who was the narrator for the whale trip got on the ship's PA system and was going absolutely nuts about the whole thing. Neither he nor the captain had ever seen a pod that large.

Vaughn McMillan said:

Those are great orca pics, Drew. I'd love to see them in the wild. One of my favorite marine animals.

A few years ago LOML and I went on a whalewatching trip around Catalina Island. It was an event sponsored by one of the local whale clubs, and they charter one of the Catalina shuttles (a big catamaran that carries a few hundred passengers). We saw several gray whales that day, but on our way back to the mainland, our boat got swarmed by the largest pod of dolphins I've ever seen. It sea was boiling with them for about as far as the eye could see in all directions. Easily hundreds, if not a thousand or so dolphins. The marine mammal expert who was the narrator for the whale trip got on the ship's PA system and was going absolutely nuts about the whole thing. Neither he nor the captain had ever seen a pod that large.

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I was working up in Shearwater up the coast years ago doing a job for the DFO when they took us out and we saw a pod of transient orcas ring a group of seals by high pitched sounds the water went white with seals trying to get out of the water on top of each other. A mad panic and then come up from under in the middle of the pack the orcas would surface with seals in their mouths tossing them around. The ocean actually went red with all the blood. Quite disturbing to see but this is how nature works. Sorry didn't have the camera back then , wish that I had as it was a once in a lifetime thing to see.

looks beautiful Drew.