I found evidence that Gracie had been attacked in her little house by some animal, probably a coyote or raccoon. I scoured the island for materials and beefed up her house into a fortress and placed it off the ground to make it harder for the coyotes to get to her. The modifications also seriously improved the strength of the floor and the doorway.
A view of the fire afterwards. I probably removed a thousand pounds of material from the log on the left. I'm thinking this thing will be gone before the end of March.
Another day of burning. This one will probably reduce the weight of the piece on the right by 1000 pounds. It's already much easier to move with the come-along.
The dinghy hanging on its Anchor Buddy.
Final sunset shot.
A cheap dolly is a handy thing to have when you are rounding up firewood. Here I'm able to carry a 150 pound piece of wood that washed up on the beach. In this configuration I was able to wheel this piece down the beach to my fire with just one hand!
The bonfire was going so well I kept it going well into the night. Here I snapped a photo of the sparks with one hand while poking the fire with the other.
In this shot April is standing at one end of the log before we started burning and I am standing at the other end. You can see that a lot of wood is now gone totally.
Sunset. Very nice!
The experts will tell you to put your fire out when you go home. However, all that does is leave a nasty pile of partially burnt wet wood and charcoal. Letting the fire burn itself out means no debris at all! The ash washes into the sand and disappears completely. The only thing I did here was to pick up any stray nails with a magnet.
Last years flood put a lot of sand in places it shouldn't be, so it looks like someone is headed upstream to dredge some of it away. Note that this shot is actually two shots, one of the tug, and one of the barge stitched together. The secret is to make the center of the panorama something bland and unmoving, like the tow-cable between the two.
"Hey kids, we're having dinner tonight!" That famous quote by Cletus from the Simpson's pokes fun at the fact that one day you may be forced to eat whatever you can find. That day has not come for us yet, but it's nice to know that we often have that option. This stuff came from a ship stocking up its pantry for the trip back to Asia.
I've made a huge amount of progress on this log. All that remains is this 4 foot by 4 foot square of wood. One or two more fires will completely eliminate what was a huge tree that took over the beach almost exactly three years ago.
To show how far I've come I updated the Pier One Log log. This is what that tree looked like 3 years ago when it washed up on the island.
After picking up two full garbage bags full of trash from the island I made a pass by the Fazio Bros. dredge, sucking up sand off the bottom to sell to the public. This is quite a beast!
Nice shot of 'da Hood.
How do all those Hondas get to America? On ships bearing the Honda Wing name. This one is named Celestial Wing, last week Solar Wing was here.
Here is the last shot of the fire today, what was the huge 5000 pound monster log that took a come-along to manuver is now reduced to the little log on the right.
The next day I re-stoked the fire. It made some good progress overnight.
And after a day of work, this is what it is reduced to.
Sunset.
And the afterglow.
And the next day's sunrise! OK, the road sign and telephone pole aren't helping, but I can't just go up there and saw them down!
On the way out to the island to check on the fire I caught this pair of barges racing downstream. The Tidewater (foreground) is losing to the SeaSpan.
It was a cold morning so when I went out to check on the fire this is what I saw. Notice that the wood is nearly gone and that the area around the fire is the only frost free area in view. Fire will do that for you!
A couple of hours after feeding the last remnants of the fire, this is all that is left. See, letting the fire burn itself out is the best way to not leave a mess.
And here is where the log used to be. Over the next few weeks the ash will disappear and there won't be a trace of my fire. Unlike the someone's old firepit on the far left which has been there for over a year.
And now for the big picture.
I must have walked past this sculpture a hundred times. I have no idea who did it, I just hope they didn't cut down a living tree to make it.
We took Lil' Ambition out to the island to enjoy SuperBowl Sunday away from the crowds and partiers. It was a wonderful day.
A view of the island on our way back home.
The stern of the sunken ship at the North end of the island.
As we return home just before sunset we can watch the sun shoot straight through the island. Of course once Spring arrives it will be harder to get this view.
An interesting shot of the slough. This is actually a shot of the water and then flipped upside down.
A rather frightening thing is happening to Caterpillar Island. Over the years the sand has been disappearing from the beach. This photo comparison shows how in just seven short years the sand near Pier One (Daymarker 31) has just disappeared. Put your mouse over the photo to see the comparison from June 2004 to December 2011.
Someone carved a bear into this tree. Pretty good job! The Geo-location of the YouTube video is correct, so check the location if you want to see this carving for yourself.
The Fazio Brother's dredge working off the North end of the island near the Windgam. The sand is free, hassling with the government, that's what makes this job far harder than it has to be.
When the floodwaters receeded recently it left these little fish with no water. They went to the deepest puddle they could find, but it dried out too, killing them all. Sometimes extinction is a pure accident. But they'll provide someone a nice meal, or at least fertilizer for the plants.
