Our day on Shaw Island

After the chicken fiasco, it was a miracle that we were able to fall back asleep until about 8:15 am.  We told Carole about the morning's events and she roared with laughter declaring that she wished she had it on video.  So do we!  We drank coffee on the back porch, in the morning sun, overlooking the beautiful garden.  Carole then cooked us a breakfast of scrambled eggs (take that bitches!!) with a splash of sherry - we're liking this lady more and more - and sauteed grape tomatoes and snap peas from her garden.  We had more good conversation over breakfast, then we packed a picnic lunch for our island adventure.

The island is all privately owned by about 70 people, with a total of 180 people living on it.  It's not very big and can be circumnavigated, by car, in about 30 minutes.  We visited South Beach which was beautiful in its own way..............a rugged, pebbly way, with water so cold you could die of hypothermia in 20 minutes.  We sat on a piece of driftwood about the size of a tree trunk and enjoyed the beautiful view and the warmth of the sun.

(Disclaimer:  we are spoiled by the most beautiful, fluffy, powdery white sand beaches of the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean.  We have visited many incredible beaches around the world....Italy, France, Greece, and California, and East Coast of the US, but none are as beautiful as the Gulf and Caribbean.  Also, the water must be bathtub warm. That is our benchmark and so far we have yet to find a beach that comes close.)

We left the beach and drove past the idyllic red school house and to the library, an old log cabin about the size of a Suburban.  There was sat on a bench and utilized the Wifi. Everyone driving past looked at Stormy as though she were as spaceship.  Maybe it was the strange vehicle with the California plates? Or maybe it was the SUPERBOWL 44 CHAMPIONS license plate frame? Yeah baby!!!!  We drove past a field of cows and bulls.  One of the cows had horns, and udders.  So, either it was in the middle of a sex change or, some cows can have horns.  We forgot to ask Carole about this. Is it obvious that we're city girls?

The day was just a lazy, beautiful, rejuvenating kind of day.  We ate lunch on the front porch overlooking Blind Bay. We watched the birds fly around the garden.  We took Luna down to the pond where she scared off a flock of Canadian Geese.

G- I've seen Canadian Geese from afar, but I've never been this close to them.  They are really larger than I thought they were.

P- And watch where you walk, because they have shit everywhere!

G- Now we know where the expression "shitting like a goose" comes from.

P- I realize they are large birds, but these piles of shit are almost the size of cow paddies.

We threw the ball into the pond and Luna retrieved...............and shook her water off on us.  We went to the hen house to checked for eggs and were excited to find 7 eggs.  Carole had told us they were not laying very much because some of them were getting older and the young ones were still too young to lay.  Phyl proudly brought the eggs to Carole and told her that maybe the hens lay more after being chased around the yard at 6 am.

We then walked down to the Bay and watched otters diving for dinner and deer grazing in a field across the bay.  We stayed until the sun set at about 9:30.

It was just the kind of restful, peaceful day we needed.  We again slept in the bed on the porch.

A Rude Awakening

We were awakened at around 5:50 am by Boots who crowed to welcome the dawn.  Carole had told us that if Boots' crowing disturbed us, we could open the trap door to the pen to let the chickens out and Boots would stop crowing.  After 10 minutes of crowing, we opened the pen and went back to bed.  Just as we were falling back asleep.....................

G- (thinking as I fell asleep) the chickens sound awfully close to the bed..... then my eyes popped open and I looked over to see about 15 chickens scattered all over the yard.  I yelled, "OMG!  Phyllis, get up! The chickens are out!!!"

P- What do you mean they're out?  You let them out.

G- Yes, but they're all under the carport and they could go to the road. I don't think they're supposed to be out in that area!

P- OMG!  What are we gonna do? 

G-  We have to get them!!!  (still half asleep, we jumped up, donned our flip flops and ran down the stairs to coral the chickens)  Go around the left side of the tree and try to get them to run this way! I'll come behind them from the right.  No! Don't run directly at them!  You have to kind've shoo them.

P - WTF?!  I don't know nothin about corralling chickens!!

As Gina shooed about 8 chickens toward the back, Phyllis chased one particularly speedy bitch around a tree.  Each time Phyllis would run to the right of the tree, the hen would run to the left.  This went on for a few minutes before she dashed under a bush.  The hen, not Phyllis.

P- If I ever catch this bitch, I'm gonna ring her neck.

We opened the gate to the yard, which is separately fenced in to keep the deer out of the garden.  We got about 12 chickens into the yard, but the speedy bitch just would not cooperate.

G- Damn!  She is fast.  Let her go.  Try to keep the rest of them in this corner while I go see how they got out.

After running 30-40 yards, Gina determined that there was nothing to keep them in the back of the yard once the pen was opened.

G- Wait a minute.  There is no open gate.  The whole area is open just outside the pen.  Carole did say last night that they are free range chickens. Do you think they are allowed in the area? They could go down to the road and get hit.

P- I don't know, but we cannot lose this woman's chickens or we'll be-blackballed from the Couch Surfing club.

G- Shit!  How much do exotic chickens cost?  I don't think we can afford to replace them and they all have names, so they're like pets.  I think we have to get them out of the yard.

P- I do remember her saying something about them eating her garden, and we just locked them in the yard with the garden!

G- Oh, for God sake!  We gotta get them out of the yard.  Open the gate as wide as you can and I'll try to shoo them back out.

Again we chased these hens in circles until we got them out of the yard and back into the area they were in before the fiasco started.  There is always that one chicken that runs in the opposite direction!!!! 

Hens - What is wrong with these city bitches?!  First they chase us in here, now they're chasing us back out.  Just leave us alone and let us eat our breakfast!!!

After all of the hens were removed from the yard, we were laughing hysterically and exhausted.  It was 6:30 am and we had been chasing chickens around the yard in our pajamas.  We did get back into bed and managed to fall back asleep, to the sound of hens finally, and happily, eating their breakfast.  Luna, the dog, had watched all the goings on from the porch, barely lifting her head.

Ferries suck!

This morning we got up early to make the 2 hour drive from Seattle to Anacortes to catch the ferry to Shaw Island in the San Juan Islands.   The ferry had been running behind and we were told to arrive 1.5 hours before the departure time.  We arrived at 10:55 to catch the 12:30 ferry only to discover that the 12:30 ferry was already FULL and we were the first car in line for the 3:45 ferry.  Yes!  You heard me.  We had to sit in line at the ferry terminal from 10:55 - 3:45.  If that wasn't bad enough, the 3:45 ferry was late and didn't actually leave until 5:00 pm.  It was a fun day!!

Because we were the first car in line, we were parked at the very front of the ferry and could sit in Stormy with a perfect view. It was a beautiful day and the ride to Shaw Island was incredible.

We were headed to Shaw Island, in the middle of the San Juan Islands, even though there are no hotels, restaurants or other visitor accommodations.  We had arranged to do our first CouchSurfing on Shaw Island with a couple named Carole and Brud.  Brud is the Island's fire chief and she retired from the Island's school where she taught Spanish to the 17 students who comprised the entire student body.

Upon arrival Carole showed us around her property, introduced us to her golden retriever, Luna, and her 29 exotic hens and the lone rooster, Boots.  The front of the home faced a bay and in the back of the home was a beautiful garden.  (see Picasa album for additional photos)

Phyllis cooked jambalaya and Carole made a salad using flowers from her garden.  We enjoyed a bottle of wine and got acquainted.  After dinner Carole showed us photos from her trip to Turkey, where we plan to travel one day.

As for sleeping arrangements, we had the option of the guest room in the house, the bed on the large wrap-a-round porch, or the bed in the lean-to down by the bay.  We selected the bed on the porch and fell dead asleep.  The night was still and utterly silent as there are no crickets, cicadas or other night sounds.