Well, Andrew and I are officially moved in to our new house in Blaine. Most of you know we were moving to Blaine, right? Anyhow, if you didn't know, we moved to Blaine.
Blaine is right on the border, on the American side of things. I think the population is roughly 3,000, comprised mostly of border guards and elementary school children (and I'm not even exaggerating that much!). It is very much closer to small-town, blue-collar America than beach-resort retirement community, despite the fact that there is very little space between here and White Rock. Fortunately, that means dramatically cheaper cost of living, less traffic, and fewer hordes of people everywhere. Unfortunately, it means severely limited beach access and nice trails near the water.
We moved out of our White Rock apartment on July 29th, went on a cruise to Alaska (pictures to follow when Andrew returns from the field), and into our house on August 5th. For the past few days, we have been doing lots of intensely deep cleaning and organizing our furniture. And setting up bird feeders, of course. As of yet, I haven't seen any birds, but I have no doubt they will come. Our house backs up to 25 acres of undeveloped woodland, hopping with chickadees, nuthatches, woodpeckers, and various other diverse and wonderful avian life-forms.
Pictures will follow of our house, of course, but for now, I will describe it as being a small, fairly nondescript one-story house, with 3 bedrooms and 1 bathroom. The third bedroom used to be the garage, but the former tenant remodeled it and put a woodstove into it. The woodstove, and the woods, were both very strong deciding factors in our purchase of this house. There are lots of windows, and lots of storage in the kitchen (every time I go in there, it looks like we have more storage, which, I suppose, is better than the other way around), and pergo floors, and nice, newer appliances. I think that's pretty much all there is to say. Pictures will do it better justice.
Anyhow, that's the news from here. And, our new address, is:
9738 Vista Terrace
Blaine, WA 98230
Unfortunately, White Rock Wanderings is no longer valid as a blog title. Somehow, "Blaine" doesn't lend itself to poetic titles. Trust me, we've tried quite a few. Any suggestions are welcome.
Sam, my field assistent, with the total station
Apparently, all placer miners are named "Bill."
Samples from one of the sites that is actively being mined.
Bulk grain size sampling is backbreaking work. We shovel 500 kg (1,100 lbs) of sediment, put it through sieves, and weigh each size fraction.
Driving Beluga, our field truck.
An abandoned Anglican church on an abandoned reserve settlement.
And, finally, into the pot for an amazing Nettle Currey:
