I asked a reader why she followed the blog.  “Is it the political critiques?”

“No.  Not so much.”

“The philosophical wanderings?  The stories and anecdotes?  My attempts at humour?”

“Nope.”

What attracts you?”

“Just the everyday living stuff.  You know?  Off-the-grid, chopping wood.  That sort of thing.”

“Dogs and ravens?”

“Yep.”

So…………….

The night before last we were siting having a glass of wine with our neighbours, J&G.  We were talking about the ravens and how they had managed to infiltrate J’s bait box so a heavier one had to be made.  We spoke of the otters who had stolen two-thirds of his cabin’s insulation in trade for a lot of otter poop.  And we spoke of the pair of eagles that had returned to the ‘eagle perch’ just by our house.

But by then, of course, I was aching to tell a story and so like the fool I am (think Charlie Brown trying to kick the football that Lucy holds for him), I began to tell a story.  It was going to be long one.  But I was into the middle of a story (about China – years ago) in no time.

It was good one.

We have a tradition in my house – stories must be broken into segments.  Sally determines when. They don’t have natural chapters so somehow, in some way, Sally usually finds a way to interrupt the story when she feels it needs a ‘break’. 

“….and then, just as the Chinese police arrived and the girls ran naked off into the woods to hide, the pressure in the old steel boiler in the back room got too great to stay………..

Time! Sally stands and starts walking around the room, “More cheese, anyone?” “Would anyone like more wine or maybe some tea?”

What would Jesus do?

But this time the story was interrupted by the dogs (I suspect that she had recently trained them for this).  They started yapping outside and were quite insistent.  Naturally, I attempted to continue but, like every other time, the story was halted by the diverted attentions of my audience and so we all just gave up and went outside to see to the dogs.  Turns out they were on to something.

We estimate that there were at least 7, maybe a couple more, big Orcas swooshing by right near the shore.  One big male was very prominent with his huge black dorsal fin coursing along.  They looked great.  It was worth the interruption and, as soon as we came to see what the fuss was about, the dogs settled down.

And so, as usual, I wrapped up the story in a few quick sentences so that we could have cheese and tea.

The next day, we were off to town.  Early.  Met a neighbour at the community dock on the other side who needed a ride at about 8:00 am and we hooked up the utility trailer and headed for the ferry down the storm-caused log-strewn logging road.  Our goal was to go to the next town south and pick up the rest of the woodworking shop, see an optometrist about my failing eyesight, do the shopping and the other chores, get back to town to pick up and pay for my outboard motor repair and catch the next ferry in time to meet up with H who would transport the workshop totes in his bigger boat to the community dock for packing and stowing the next day after.

Things went like clockwork – slowly – but we managed to make all appointments, connections and rendezvous.  Last stop – we scrambled across the log strewn beach when we got home getting supplies up and had tea and a sandwich at 8:00 – 8:30 pm.

Not much of a blog entry.  But those were the last 24 hours.

“…..so the girls were hiding but desperately wanting their clothes back but the police had to check us out, first.  Documents, questions, heavy stares as papers passed between us and the time passed slowly.  And it was freezing outside.  We were concerned for the girls.  We had just about satisfied the police when one of them picked up a red bra and held it in front of our interpretor.  And stared hard.  Hu Sang looked like he was going to faint.  Fortunately he was kind of slim and he took the garment and, with sheepish grin, wrapped it around his chest.  The police laughed and left and we all sighed a huge sigh of relief”.