Forest Treasures, Seashore Cedar

Not far from our property sits a lovely overgrown forest.  This is a special forest, though, with hidden treasures at every turn..

The other treasures are from the forests and the sea.  Our Seashore Cedar...

For a year now we have been searching for cedar logs on the beach but they had to be between 6' long and 12' long.  And believe it or not, we found plenty of logs or pieces of trees that fit the bill.  Our local beaches are our playground and we love getting out and exploring.  So...we've created over 260 slats to make a portion of deer fence very visible but very private.  We often took lunch along and made an afternoon of it.

All of this wood came from one huge piece of cedar that was sitting on the shoreline at Port McNeill.
Jim cut it into packable pieces.  We tied a rope around each piece and hoisted it up to street level from the beach.
We loaded it into the back of the pick up truck and still made the ferry with time to spare.

The big pieces were cut down.  Then Jim located the split with the metal wedge or wedges. 

Assorted tools used for splitting cedar.

Then he switched to wooden wedges and continued prying open the right split in the cedar to create either a usable slat, chipping material or firewood. I usually help by holding and passing wedges and we get into a good rhythm.  

We cut 45 slats from that one huge cedar slab from that Port McNeill beach.  The slats will be noticable from the road, provide us with some privacy, look amazing and they'll naturally weather over time.

Our stash of slats, split from driftwood cedar logs we found during the last year.

Sam's Place Beach on the north side of Malcolm Island.  A four wheel drive truck is pretty
mandatory to get here but it's worth it! This is becoming a favourite beach for us.

Occasionally we stop and smell the flowers....and if we can't smell them we sure can admire them.

This is what a sunflower looks like close up.  Check out the patterns formed by Mother Nature.

Mitchell Bay at the east end of Malcolm Island.

Can't forget our most recent glorious sunset from home. Days are slightly shorter now so we're savouring every moment.

Words to live by.

Jim and Tricia Bowen