E went to fire practice this morning. With the drought conditions the island continues to be tinder dry. Most of the volunteers have left for the winter so those who remain continue to prepare for an emergency. We still have a campfire ban on the island. If there was a fire, the volunteers would find the ponds as empty as our water tanks.. There just isn’t much water left on the island to fight a fire. It is difficult to access the sea water from most of the properties. Our son is still on call with the Coastal Wild Fire Fighters. They have been kept busy this week with human caused fires.

E asked me what project I was going to accomplish today. We always try to tackle at least one a day.. He has finished with the water tanks.. They are all now power washed clean and partially filled. Our water situation has been much relieved by the donation of water from the W’s rain water catchment system. The winter rains will refill their tanks before their return at Christmas. In the meantime we have benefited by their half full tanks and generosity.

With the herring spawn in April, followed by four months (now in our fifth) of hot sunny weather it seems like I have been outside endlessly. I have a ton of unfinished chores in the house.. I just feel I need a couple of days to putter indoors.. Window washing, paper work and of course I need to start thinking about the winter edition of the Tidelines.

The sunset last night was a great one.. The fall really seems to bring the brighter colors.

I was putting down my coffee to get busy when I noticed a disturbance in the water. Sea lions are back. So instead of paperwork I am going to grab my camera and go down to the Cut and see what I can see. Here      

we go again