I searched on the google for someone who would be interested to know that the sea lions marked for scientific purposes had shown up at our door. The original person in Alaska who received the email I blindly sent out into the internet was very nice, and promised to forward the information to the right person.

This afternoon I received a note from a fellow in Astoria Oregon. It appears our sea lions weren’t in fact the ones I mistakenly identified as from Alaska but in fact from Oregon. His note reads as follows:

Your email found its way to me as we (ODFW) are the ones that marked the California sea lion you saw. X-63 was branded in Astoria, Oregon on September 3, 2015, and has only been resighted a couple of times since, also in Astoria on 1/30/17 and 4/11/19. He wasn’t a pup at branding so his exact age is unknown, but I suspect he is between 10-15 years old now. Thank you very much for sending along your sighting – I’m glad to know he’s still alive!

I stand corrected.

With literally hundreds of sea lions swimming past me most of the day, I wish I could describe to you the cacaphony we hear. The number of these sea lions is highly unusual. I don’t know where they are all gathering but it is somewhere close by because, good grief, the noise. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind it. It beats the heck out of the sounds of traffic we lived with in the city.

E’s to do list has been replaced by his urgent list. With all of the rain we are getting these days we know our well would be at its most productive, and we didn’t want to waste the opportunity to capture any water we could pump. Reconnecting the well pump became urgent.

He took a break yesterday from building the shed to fix it. The wire connecting the well pump to the power had recently been damaged (fire) and was missing twenty feet. It was a fix E could make without spending too much money. He repurposed the old wire to the generator (recently replaced by a remote) to use on the well pump. He had to dig a five foot hole in the ground at the driveway to find the connection and, bingo bango bongo, we can now pump well water into our tanks again

So, today he was back at the gen shed project and finished installing all of the exterior Hardie Planks. On our next town day, we can pick up hardware for the door. After that, if there is nothing else urgent, he will begin to build a door, and then we can bring the generator down and install it in its new home. After all the trim is painted, he can move on to the propane project.

The seeds I ordered in early December are starting to arrive, which encourages me to dream about summer vegetables which don’t cost an arm and a leg. I am hoping to have a second garden plant sale this spring for my friends and neighbours who also grow vegies. This year I am thinking of opening it up to everyone, even if they don’t want plants. It would be fun.

I have chosen a tremendous variety of seeds with an eye on providing my friends with the various types of plants (ie. cherry, roma), that they seemed to want last year, while giving them unique varieties which perhaps they wouldn’t find in the local garden centres. In addition to fourteen types of tomatoes, I have cauliflower (three types), beans (three types), pumpkins (two types), beets (two types), cucumbers (two types), peppers (three types), brussels sprouts, celery, zucchini and much more. I can hardly wait to get going and visit with friends, old and new on a sunny day in the garden.

I really do like to make sure the information I give you is as correct as possible, although my knowledge of all things science related is nil. I have to say, I do regret my lack of interest in sciences in school. I can still hear the voice of my Biology 11 teacher making deals with me to leave the caf and return to class. “Moira, all you have to do is attend every day and I will pass you”. Perhaps, if instead of Biology 11, they had called the course tomatoes, sea lions and whales I would have

had more interest