I’ve been wondering where the YOGI trail got its name, and stumbled across the answer on the on the Gabriola Land and Trails Trust site. The Cox Community Park History page says:

It was named the YOGI Trail because of its proximity to the landmark rock figure erected by the Youth Organization of Gabriola Island in the 1960’s along Taylor Bay Road at McConvey in what is now Cox Community Park.

Well, there you go. Of course, those of you who’ve been on the island for ages probably knew this already, didn’t you?

Traditionally used by nomads in places like Mongolia, yurts can be set up or collapsed within a couple of hours — just the thing if you want to move around a lot, yet still want something more solid and comfortable than a tent.

Yurts have become popular in North America over the last few decades: there are books about yurts, blogs about yurts, dozens of companies making and selling yurts, and so forth. Modern designs tend to use waterproof fabric (instead of the traditional felt) and various modifications and improvements. Some people use yurts as temporary accomodation, while others live in their yurts.

If you want a yurt, you can build your own, or buy a yurt from one of the many yurt companies around the place these days — the one in BC is Yurtco, where prices range from $5,545 to $17,725, depending on size.

What I’m wondering is:

• Are there any yurts in use on Gabriola?
• Suppose you have property on Gabriola, and want to put a yurt on your property and live in it. Will you need to mess with building permits or anything like that?

It was hard to pick just a few to include here. But here goes:

This wooden memorial has a tantalizingly ambiguous form. Is it a bird? Is it a fish? Or should I just enjoy the organic shape without trying to force it into some mental mold?

I really liked this one with its pebble edging and simple plants. I wondered what the collection of artifacts meant to the couple buried here and their surviving loved ones?  Note also the stained glass plaque in the background. There are quite a few of these in the cemetery and I understand they are custom-made on the island.

The art work here was very West Coast.

And I just had to finish up with this one – it reminds me of a petroglyph. How could you get any more Gabriola Island than that?

Whalebone is in shadows in the late afternoon, but beautiful still. See those dots in the water? Most of them are seals — I counted sixteen of them, though they don’t all appear in this photo. They pop up, look around, pop down… and I can never seem to get a clear zoom shot of any of them.

I don’t know how many people live in the Gabriola woods, but apparently somebody’s been living here. And there. And elsewhere as well. I presume it’s a matter of necessity, not choice.

Of these old cars, there seem to be a disproportionate number of them that are turquoise. Really! Now, why would that be?

When I blogged about a previous turquoise wreck in the Gabriola forest, a commenter, SL, came along and said

This is a door panel (or what is left of one), off a 1955, 56 or 57 chevy. From what I can see it includes the inside window roller handle, door handle and the arm rest. Probably a 57 because the turquoise colour was more popular in 57.

OK, so how long do you suppose a car made in 57 lasted, before somebody finally wanted to get rid of it by dumping it in the forest? 15 years? And, if so, can we assume that dumping turquoise cars in the Gabriola woods was the 1972 thing to do?

I know, I know, you’ll tell me I need to get out of the house more. But I do, you see. And that’s when I find old cars in the woods.

I let them decide whether to blog under their real names or not. The first one wants to be anonymous, and has chosen the username Anon E. Mouse. The second one wants to blog under his real name, since he thinks you’d recognize him anyway based on his writing style and choice of content. I’m not sure about the third one.

Anyway, meet guest blogger number one, Anon E. Mouse, who says:

Hello all, I want to start by thanking Gabriolan for the opportunity to contribute to this blog. As a sort of homage to the privacy policy of our host I’ll be writing under the handle of Anon E. Mouse. I only hope I can live up to the high standards of interesting content on this site!

Anon E. Mouse’s first post will appear on Thursday morning, bright and early.

Now let’s hope guest bloggers two and three do write that interesting stuff they said they’d write for Gabriolan.ca readers. I’m waiting for their first blog posts.

Dry cleaning is set to become a domestic activity with a washing machine that uses 90% less water than a normal laundry cycle and could be available by the end of 2011. The device, developed by Leeds-based Xeros Ltd, replaces water with tiny plastic beads that suck up stains and its producers claim it will shift stubborn pounds from household energy bills as well. [continue]

If it works well and becomes widely available, that could help a lot on Gabriola. Our summertime water shortages are serious enough that we really think twice before doing laundry in the summer.

And then there’s this one, which I spot at Folklife Village quite regularly. Look at that: all wood, reflects trees. Wow.

At least when I find honeysuckle strangling trees, I can get in there with my clippers and free the trees in a matter of minutes. But this? I think I’d need knives and a lot of time.

If bees don’t polinate your veggies and flowers, and if bees don’t pollinate local crops, who will?

Here’s what the Sun article says:

Vancouver Island beekeepers are reeling from the worst commercial honeybee die-off in recent memory, with some estimating almost 90 per cent of colonies have been wiped out in the last few months.

Many blame a harmful parasite called varroa mites that has become immune to some pesticides, and fear the shortage of bees could affect spring pollination.

The amount of bees that have been lost is just phenomenal, said Sol Nowitz, a veteran commercial beekeeper who breeds bees and produces honey at the Jingle Pot Apiary in Nanaimo. It’s the biggest catastrophe to kill bees on the Island ever. [continue]

Of course, these days there’s a very clear path as well, but I expect that the arrows came first.

With one bottle of drinking water and four hours of sunlight, MIT chemist Dan Nocera claims that he can produce 30 KWh of electricity, which is enough to power an entire household in the developing world. With about three gallons of river water, he could satisfy the daily energy needs of a large American home. The key to these claims is a new, affordable catalyst that uses solar electricity to split water and generate hydrogen.

Using the electricity generated from a 30-square-meter photovoltaic array, Nocera’s cobalt-phosphate catalyst converts water and carbon dioxide into hydrogen and oxygen. The process is similar to organic photosynthesis, except that in nature, plants create energy in the form of sugars instead of hydrogen.

The hydrogen produced through artificial photosynthesis can be stored in a tank and later used to produce electricity by being recombined with oxygen in a fuel cell, even when the sun isn’t shining. Alternatively, the hydrogen can be converted into a liquid fuel. [continue]

How cool would that be for Gabriola?

Related

Cheap Catalyst Could Turn Sunlight, Water Into Fuel

from Wired.com

Video of Dan Nocera’s lecture

MIT Professor Dan Nocera believes he can solve the world’s energy problems with an Olympic-sized pool of water. Nocera and his research team have identified a simple technique for powering the Earth inexpensively – by using the sun to split water and store energy – making the large-scale deployment of personalized solar energy possible.

The call display said unidentified caller. The recorded message began Local septic tank owners… Good heavens. I want to know which slimeball company is behind this, because these morons keep calling and calling. So this time I did wait on the line, and I did press 1 for more information. That got me to more recorded nonsense. It’s all about some miraculous product for my septic tank, yadda yadda. They asked me to leave my name and number so they could call me back.

I hung up, and grumped about people who call before I have enough caffeine in my brain to be awake. And then I went to the CRTC’s website to see if this is even legal. Apparently not. The CRTC says that telemarketers must follow these rules when they call:

• Among other things, telemarketers must:
  • identify who they are and, upon request, provide you with a fax or telephone number where you can speak to someone about the telemarketing call
  • display the telephone number that they are calling from or that you can call to reach them, and
  • only call or send faxes between 9:00 a.m. and 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and between 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on weekends.
• Telemarketers must not use Automatic Dialing and Announcing Device (devices that dial telephone numbers automatically and deliver a pre-recorded message). However, these devices can be used by police and fire departments, schools and hospitals, as well as for appointment reminders and thank you calls.

The fine for breaking these rules can be up to $15,000 for a corporation, and that’s for each violation.

So, hmmm. Maybe I will leave a message for the telemarketers next time, so they can call me back and tell me who they are. And then I can feed them to the legal department at the CRTC.

Related

• Are these complaints about the same compay? – 800notes.com
• Septic Safety – tcpatools.com

I am smitten with this fungus. Smitten! I obsess about it, because isn’t it gorgeous? Ok, maybe this photo doesn’t do it justice. See more photos here.

I wish a mushroom expert would arrive to help me identify the fungi I find in the Gabriola woods, because that would be ever so helpful. I think this one is probably Phaeolus schweinitzii (Fries) which is also called Dyer’s Polypore. (Because yes, one can use it for making dye.)

I thank God every day for what decay and fermentation produce. Decaying wood gives us mushrooms, and all manner of fungi. And then of course, we get into fermentation, with glories like sourdough, beer, and wine. Fermentation, yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s have a hand for the good things produced by decay and fermentation!

(Sounds of applause fill the room. The curtain comes down. Gabriolan.ca takes one last sip of a fermented drink, and goes to bed. Gabriolan.ca dreams of fungi.)

Given things like that and Gabriola’s frequent power outages, I thought you might like to see this Youtube video of a branch on a power line. Bzzt!

This tree didn’t just fall over: it was cut down. And left to rot. There are so many like it, all over the island.

Surely one of you will know, because you know everything about Gabriola. Right?

One recent M.A. thesis I was really looking forward to reading is by Amanda Adams entitled Visions cast on stone : a stylistic analysis of the petroglyphs of Gabriola Island, B.C., from UBC Anthropology 2003, and available for free download here.

I was particularly interested to read the instructions she received on proper deportment when visiting the rock art:

Sites were visited in a manner and with a personal code of conduct adhering to Snuneymuxw wishes. Petroglyph sites were not visited at either dawn or dusk. A respectful demeanor was expected as was an open heart and mind (Bill Seward, Snuneymuxw elder, personal communication 2002). I was asked to give my full attention to the petroglyphs and their sacredness, not allowing daily distractions to interfere with my concentration on the ancient imagery. These expectations were met to the best of my ability. (18-19)

While many archaeologists are under the impression that there is little to no ethnographic information about petroglyphs, I have long felt that more likely such knowledge is private or highly privileged and not readily shareable. In this self-serving sense, it was gratifying to see that Adams was able to record some such information: [continue]

A group of Gabriola Island children entertainers (sic) have taken a second giant step toward becoming a household name in Canada. The Kerplunks were nominated for a second consecutive Juno Award and the odds of winning are better without stars like the Barenaked Ladies in the running. [continue]

(They mean children’s entertainers, of course. The Kerplunks are all grown up now.)

I don’t listen to much children’s music, but I do hope The Kerplunks win. They’re so sweet and friendly and fun that one can’t help but wish good things for them.

Are they, by the way, the kind of birds that hang out behind the seniors’ place on North Road, and at the end of Church Street?

Don’t miss the photo of the Aboubakar family and their food. They could probably teach Gabriola lots of stuff.