I am very relieved to be able to say that the new batch of volunteers are great.  Not particularly skilled, but they are interested, work hard, get along with each other – and laugh at all my jokes!  Izarro from the Basque part of Spain is on the left, Lion from Germany in the middle, and Lasse from Denmark on the right.  Our first job was to put an extra wall around my cold frames.  Sawdust will be placed between the walls to act as insulation and hopefully extend the growing season.  This is all a big experiment so we’ll see how it goes.

Once the boxes were finished, we could dig the rows.  Manure was brought from the big pile I rescued from the burned barns on the lower propertyand spread along the rows.The next day, Izarro and I planted it!

Meanwhile, the men were doing a construction project.

They made a canoe rack for the pickup.

This meant I could take them to the lake across the road and I give them some canoe lessons.

There is a bunch of all the usual work: chainsawing –

wood splitting – (Izarro has had practice with this at home!)

And bread-making.

And they are all enjoying every minute of it.

I took them down the Bella Coola Hill to help my friends with some gardening.  The ponds at the top of the Hill were still frozen.  (This is exactly the same altitude as Nuk Tessli.)

The weather was superb!

Because of the work at my friends’ place, there was no time to go lower down the valley – I will take them on a later trip. But on the way back up the Bella Coola Hill, we had a great bear sighting.  He was feeding right beside the road – the biggest black bear I have ever seen.

He was totally unbothered by us as we photographed from the van.

He was so relaxed that he began to sit down.  (He is chewing, not growling.)

We left him having a little snooze.