Exploring Nanaimo

After a week on Denman Island (population approximately 1500), Nanaimo feels like a big city! I walked down to the Bastion, a tower used as a trading post which was also fortified with cannons in case anyone tried to take over the rich coal mining area. Coal became even more important once the gold rush started on the west coast. Interestingly, one of the tools on the inside walls was the same type of draw knife that I used yesterday for shaving bark off a tree.

Next, I did a whirlwind tour through the Nanaimo Museum in the 30 minutes before they closed. They had a very nice exhibit on coal mining, with a staged coal mine. There were lanterns outside the entrance that visitors could take to walk through the dark mine and read the placards.

In addition, there were many artifacts from the Salish people, including from an archaeological dig on formerly Salish land. There were drawers of stone tools; however, my favorite pieces were the beautifully woven baskets and hats.

A very well done traveling exhibit was of all the Japanese Canadians forced into internment camps during World War 2. There was a map of all the blocks in Vancouver where Japanese-Canadians lived, listing all the inhabitants. There were many different stories from individual Japanese-Canadians. After they were allowed to leave the interment camps, they were banned from returning home. Instead, their options were to go to Japan or east of the Rocky Mountains. A wall map shows how many migrated where.

At the ground floor of the museum was the Nanaimo tourist information desk. They had a much better map with walking trails listed. Google hasn't figured out walking trails in the parks in Denman Island or Nanaimo. Thankfully, maps are still printed! I walked all the way to Morrell Nature Preserve, which had maps signed throughout the trails. It was a very beautiful park to walk through. There were salal berries, Oregon grapes, turkey tail mushrooms and arbutus trees (with the peeling bark). On the trail, there was the largest slug I've ever seen! It was about the size of 15 garden slugs, just a big black mass on the trail that I thought was a large pinecone until it started moving.

My goal had been to walk around Westwood Lake as well, yet, after a bit of backtracking in Morrell, I decided to head back to the roads once I reached the lake. Westoowd Lake trails were printed on the map at the information center. However, there weren't any trail names listed. I tried to decipher the few sign posts that I saw against the paper map. There were very few people hiking or cycling on the trails.

Eventually, I made it back to a residential neighborhood. Yet, then, I tried to do a shortcut which appeared to work on the printed map which Google maps wasnt showing. Walked downhill a long gravel path. It didn't go through. Ate a blackberry as consolation and then walked back up that hill. At least there was a good view from the top.

By this time, it was time to start booking it to get back to my Airbnb by sunset.  After a very long steep downhill, I walked along a paved path by the main road. It looked almost brand new! Only saw one person on it while walking there. Didn't see the sunset but made it back before dark.

Last day of cob workshop

This morning, we walked over to the host's mom's house. Originally when the host purchased the land, there was a large shed on the land. The host built on a small cob extension on one side, which is now her mom's sewing room. There is another cob extension on another side which is a kitchen. Only recently has the kitchen drain had a pipe hooked up, which runs the "grey water" out to the garden. Before that, there were buckets under the sink to collect drain water. The host's mom had really made the house her own with painted walls, a painted floor and bright rugs. She had healthy looking plants all around the house and a nice covered porch/living area out front. Even the ceiling had been plastered over; and, the host pointed out some stains where something had leaked in bad weather but then dried out again. The mosaics inlaid in the exterior cob were very nice.

Afterward, we took a group photo in front of the house we've been working on before snack time and then started work for the day. I returned to double sieving manure.

After another delicious lunch, some of the other participants and I drove into town for more ice cream. Today, I enjoyed a scoop of mint chocolate chip ice cream in hot chocolate. Delicious!

In the afternoon, I returned to sifting manure until I'd finished double sifting all of the manure that I'd first sifted. Now, I am officially retired from manure sifting! For the last hour of work day, I switched to shaving bark off cut trees so that they can dry out and be used for either this house or another structure. For this, we used a draw knife, which is a blade with a handle on each end. We'd straddle the log and draw the blade toward us to shave off the bark. It is harder than it looks, especially around the knobs where branches had been cut off.

We had early dinner tonight, since some participants had already left and others were leaving this evening. Tonight's delectable meal was shepherd's pie! I tried the vegetarian version. There were also beef and vegan options. In addition, there was a big greens salad and beet sauerkraut. 

One of the other participants invited me along to circle Denman Island this evening. First we went to the northernmost tip,  Morning Beach Park. The tide was too high to walk the land bridge out to Tree Island in the evening. It was still a great workout going up and down the 105 steps to the beach and trudging through the sand.

Then, we drove to the southernmost tip to Boyle Point Provincial Park. From the entrance, we hiked all the way to the tip where we could overlook the Chrome Island lighthouse. By now the sun had set; and, we could see the bats starting to flit around below us on the cliff. On our walk back to the car, a deer went crashing through the brush, probably wondering what two humans were doing out there at that time of night. A wonderful way to end my stay in Denman Island!

Ice cream, lake swimming and sunset

This morning, the sun came out while we were eating breakfast! It was such a welcome sight. Plus, we could see the ocean from the balcony of the common house. 

After breakfast, our instructors took time to answer questions and talk more about the cob building process. Spending so much time working on the house has helped us have more specific questions. Then, I returned to my duties of sifting manure, except today the request was for manure to be double sifting, which meant that I had to sift all the manure I'd already sifted through a finer screen. It was a very slow process. Manure sifting was now the bottleneck in making plaster, even though it was only 1 part compared to the 3 parts double sifted sand.

Another participant was keen to try out the local Ima's ice cream sandwiches at lunch, so, we hopped into her car and ran into town. Ima's is a coconut based ice cream with date cookies to make the sandwich. It was a little too coconuty for me.

After lunch, I helped clean up around the cobbed outhouse near the common house. Then, one of the instructors took us next door to another neighbor's cob house. She pointed out that the window cobbing was sloped down on the outside so that water would drip off. While on the inside of the glass, the owner had built a flat shelf for her plants. One of the panes of glass was cracked. We asked about how to replace it. It would involved scraping out cob around it, taking out the pieces of glass, then installing a smaller piece or glass. This makes me think that it would be better to install framed windows instead of sheets of glass, for easier replacement of broken panes.

Back at the job site, I went back to double sifting manure until our end of day at 5. At that point, a large group was going to Chicadee Lake; and, they invited me to join them. It had been so warm and sunny today that I'd taken off my leg warmers. It was really nice to wade in the lake and wash the manure off my legs. Everyone else jumped right into the cold water and swam out to a log in the lake. On the way home from the lake, we stopped at the free shed, where I found a CD of Big Band music.

We arrived back at the common house to find four different lasagnes: cheese, vegan and a special gluten and tomatoes free version. In addition, there was broccolini. I ate the cheese lasagne version, which was packed full of vegetables. 

After supper, our instructors started a slide show of other cob work that they'd done. Another participant and I wanted to see the sunset, so. we left about 10 minutes before 8; and, a few others joined us to walk up to the ridge. There were so many beautiful colors tonight!

After walking back, some were already in the sauna and others were joining them. Everyone raved so much about it, that I tried it out, although only for a few minutes. It was quite hot inside. Then, I walked to my tent and fell asleep rapidly.