Bat Rescue

Odorous Wood

Thu July 29th

I've remarked in the past about how clean the Coast's beaches are, though this morning Jack sniffed out some unusual flotsam.

He has taken to chewing on mussel and other shells on the seashore, though this morning his attention was taken by something flapping around on the shore.  A crab, I thought.  A bat it turned out.  Rather bedraggled, probably as a result of an accidental water landing.  I started to gather it up when it showed its teeth, spread its wings, and flapped about a bit.  Mindful a bat bite may not be good for your health, I searched around for something to gather it up.

Fellow Brit Alan, who has an extremely large but very gentle Rhodesian Ridgeback, ambled over.  I hauled the dog back, Jack already having lost interest and Alan was as surprised as I had been to see our beach-bat.

Coaxed onto the side of Jack's retractable lead case the bat was gentle lowered into some secluded and shaded beach-side vegetation to continue its recovery.  Good deed done for the day.  

Slightly larger than the UK's common bat (Pipistralis Pipistralis), I think this was a Little Brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) or Little Myotis bat.  

The Great Blue Heron is a regular visitor to the shores and inland lakes of BC.  Today two landed on the pines in front of the house, getting the camera ready one had already fled.  This one produced a lovely silhouette against the midday sun.

As Fred was playing ladies doubles tennis this afternoon, I retired to the workshop to progress the establishment of Cronkoak Canada.  One of the large turning blanks I acquired with the lathe and associated bits and pieces, was a large lump of burr or burl wood, roundish, but with a really uneven back.  An interesting, if not challenging project.

The picture on the right is after I'd rounded the edge and before deciding what I was going to make with it. 

Mounting it on the turning plate and getting the edge round, bought out the aroma of the wood.  I wasn't sure what I was turning, only that it has some lovely burl markings or 'cats-paws' as they are known in the UK only these ones looked nothing like cats-paws, and a it gave off a strong smell.

By process of elimination the wood turned out to be Yellow Cedar (or Alaskan Cedar, one of many names), well known for it's very, very strong cedar smell.  The jury is still out on the odour!

I had to take the saw to the back to give it a basic shape or the chisels would probably have had it flying all over the workshop!  A few hours work and the bowl was complete.

News on the irrigation system is not good.  It did not come on at the due time, when manually overridden, the manifold spewed water everywhere.  More work needed!  One day to go before we head to Whistler and no one has any stock to replace it...... challenge ahead!