27 Apr 2001
North to Port Hardy

Just under the eaves, painted on the wood timbers, is a face of a man; the balcony is decorated with cut-out hearts Honey Farm face

When we saw the sign for "Honey Farm Ahead" Bob wanted to know what kind of honeys. Not that kind. So we were still laughing when we came to the actual Honey Farm establishment, and passed it by only to realize it was another personal vision and we would have to turn around to photograph it. The honey stand by the road wasn't open yet, but there was an immense number of antlers hammered to a pole, but the interesting thing were the pictures. There were two On the other side of a fence, a white cylinder comes up from the ground, then twelve cones, point down in a nest then a white topwith a black iron pole (to which a pink ribbon is fastened Perhaps a bird feeder? big faces in the side yard, and one face on the top of the house. We took a picture. As usual with these personal visions, we don't understand -- but that's part of the fun.

Another thing we don't understand is a device with twelve nested and inverted coaxial black plastic cones with a white plastic lid hanging from a stake or post. There were a bunch of these down near the shore at one lumber camp. Could they be some kind of insect control? We're enclosing the picture and asking for anyone who can identify this object to let us know.

We drove out the muddy lumber road to Telegraph Cove, recommended for whale watching. They have a huge pod of orcas there every summer -- they say 220 of them -- but they don't reappear until sometime in June. Still, we were Nicely repainted black, the steam jenny sits on a massive log frame. Steam Jenny delighted to see this well-preserved old village. It was first a sawmill, taking some of the harvested logs and processing them for local (i.e., North Vancouver Island) lumber needs. It was started around 1920, but most of the buildings date from the 1940s, when the Canadian Air Force took over the sawmill "for the duration." The Air Force needed all the lumber for an air base they were building, and local construction came to a halt. All of the houses are marked with signs identifying the date they were built and their use. Since most of these buildings were younger than we are, we felt really decrepit!

We also saw an old steam jenny, well-preserved as a town's museum piece. Burning the lumber to make steam provided a source of power anywhere the jenny could be floated on its huge log raft.