Category Archives: Facility work

Project Week- part 2

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Squall decided to position herself right next to the tank room on Wednesday so we had to put a hold on the siding work.  We moved over the the South side of the main house to work on deconstructing an old cache and started work on footings to build a new compost container.

 

On Thursday Squall made her way around the NE side of the main house and came to rest  right in the middle of our new work site.  Thanks Squall, now that project is on hold.  Fortunately the students did a good job of removing all the nails from the scrap wood, Squall was pretty interested in the 2×4’s.

 

 

So, it was back to the siding work yesterday. The students really took the lead on this project: removing the remaining panels, cleaning out rusted nails, replacing the panels that were lost, and putting the siding back up with stainless steel screws. Job well done!

 

 

 

We also put together a third goose exclosure yesterday on the lawn between the science centre and the energy building.  Misery (in the background) has been relaxing near the science centre yesterday and today, keeping the students company.

 

Project Week-part 1

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On Sunday, I brought 7 students to Race Rocks in two trips in the whaler.  This week is project week at the college so all students are off campus on adventures, being creative, and doing service projects.

 

 

At Race Rocks students are helping with daily tasks of measuring ocean temperature and salinity and monitoring wildlife as well as working on a few projects including erecting exclosures to monitor the grazing and erosion impact of geese and doing repairs to the siding of the tank room that was damaged in a storm in January.

On Monday I brought two students back to campus, the other 5 will stay for the duration of the week. Unfortunately, on the way back out to Race Rocks I hit a piece of drift wood and bent a blade on the propeller.

 

On Sunday there were 3 eco-tour vessels in the reserve.

On Monday Misery gave Squall a chase and caught her on the N side of the main house.  He held her down and was biting her, at one point he picked her up about 3 feet in the air and tossed her.  Eventually she made it in-between some rocks where he could not reach her.  Pam got some good shots of the escape from the web cam: http://www.flickr.com/photos/66339356@N00/6938289865/in/photostream

Yesterday afternoon a SE wind picked up in the afternoon increasing to over 50 knots before dark and pushing some big swells into the island.

Squall discovers water

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The wind picked up to around 50 knots W after midnight last night and has been blowing 30 to 40 knots all day.

On Thursday I got a break in the weather and went off island to get supplies for repairing the siding on the South wall of the Tank Room and for making a compost container.  Students are coming for project week tomorrow and will be doing some service projects during their stay.

Over the past week Squall has made her way around the S side of the light tower and back to the W side of the main house.  Yesterday, while crossing over the cistern, she came across a puddle and had, what I believe was, her first experience with standing water.  She was quite interested in the water and spent a while probing it with her flippers and snout, inhaling it a few time in the process.

Camera 5 working

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The remote camera on the N side of the Great Race is working now, you can access it here: www.racerocks.com/racerock/video5.htm

Note: there are 20 presets which cover all major points in a 300 degree view.

Squall has been staying around the SE side of the tower.  Misery comes and goes, the pup usually keeps out of his reach.

Yesterday there were 2 eco-tour vessels in the reserve.

Facility work: replaced toilet vent fan, replacing basement basin drain plumbing, planning composting containers.

Bird count today: 6 Harlequin ducks, 150 Cormorants, and 90 gulls.

Wind 20- 30 knots from the west all day, rainy.

 

Visitors to the Reserve

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Yesterday the Coast Guard helicopter crew stopped in on their way back from the Carmanah lighthouse station to complete some maintenance work that they were unable to do the day before.

During the night, Squall had climbed up to the base of the lighthouse to get away from Misery.  When the chopper landed it was only about 20 ft away but she didn’t seem too bothered.

Squall is elongating well and visibly moulting around her face.

 

This morning Chris came out in Second Nature with two architects who are working with the college, a member of the College’s Board of Trustees with his wife and 3 kids.

Also  Maxim ( IT) worked on installing the new camera 5.   We should have Cam 5 running sometime next week.

Coast Guard Visit

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Around noon today  a Coast Guard helicopter landed on the West side of the light tower. The pilot and two technicians stayed for about an hour to do a maintenance check on the fog signal and signal light.

 

 

 

 

 

Squall has been around the flagpole, she got more attention today than usual but didn’t seem bothered by the commotion.  Misery was on the island in the morning  and went into the water in the afternoon.

Sunny and warm this afternoon.

Elephant Seals

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New elephant seals show up almost daily. Today Mystery is hanging out with a large female, while the teenage male does his best to get out of the way of the Beachmaster. He has some surface wounds indicating his neglect in clearing the path for the big guy. I’ll post some pics tomorrow. I have several student coming for a visit and need to prep the house and launch the boat…

Erik was out yesterday to clean the underwater camera and remove and old fridge. Good to see this place getting cleaner, leaner and greener…

Visitors and Projects

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Julia taking daily seawater salinity measurement

Jake and Julia left yesterday after 6 days on the island.  They helped with several projects while they were here.  Work projects over the past few days have included:

-Scraping, cleaning and painting the basement floor of the Science Center

-Topping up water level of the batteries and coating some of the battery terminals with anti-corossion paste

-Electronic data entry of visitor log

-Making new template for engine room log

-Transfering diesel to furnace tank

Jake painting the basement floor

-Pumping salt water to cistern and test filling the sand filter box

-Detangling new cable for camera 5 and sorting out existing conduit/cable situation

-Cleaning out gutters for rainwater harvesting system and chiselling out concrete lip to cistern filter box

-Organizing in the tank room

Erik came out yesterday to pick them up and dropped off my parents and my sister for an early christmas lunch.  I brought them back to the college in the afternoon.

Misery delays boat launch

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Julia and Jake cleaning solar panels

Yesterday I left the island around noon to go to campus and returned around 16:00 hrs with Jake.  Erik brought out Julia, Jeanie and Mark in Second Nature. I took Jeanie and Mark back to campus today around 15:00 hrs, it was great to have them out here for a visit. Julia and Jake will be staying out here for a few more days.  They did a great job scrubbing the solar panels today and carried several containers of deionized water across the island to the battery room.  I did some cleaning in the battery room this afternoon.

The eco tour vessel Five Star Fast Cat came into the reserve this morning around 10:30.

Misery left Great Race yesterday around noon, taking his time on the boat ramp while I waited to launch the whaler, and is back on Middle Rock with the ladies.  There were around 10 Sealions on South Rocks today and over 40 cormorants observed on South Rocks, Middle Rocks and the SW side of Great Race.

Misery taking his time on the boat ramp

Facility Work

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Facility work over the past few days has included:

-plumbing and burying the rainwater harvesting line

-changing oil in HP  pump in desalinator unit

-installing new fuel connector in station whaler

-rebuilding a broken bed frame in the main house so there are now two guest beds/rooms available

-removing a faulty fan on composting toilet

-working on plans for a new composting container system

Also, the weather data on race rocks.com has been offline for several days and we have not been able to diagnose the problem yet.