My friend Shannon Evans was wondering if you could help with this one:

Today I stopped by to visit one of my former students, Allison Benz, only to hear that her golden retriever , “Sunny”, and two of Sunny’s 3-month-old puppies had disappeared. Allison’s dad, Bob Benz, believes that the dogs may have been stolen due to recent vandalism and thefts in the neighborhood. The time of disappearance was Sunday afternoon, August 23rd, probably between 5-6 p.m. Bob is offering a generous reward for any information leading to their safe return. Bob and Allison are both heartsick. Will you post this to help them?

Thank you,

Shannon

Every so often, our fire department helps out in other parts of the state that have more fire activity than we do…here’s a report from Fire Chief Steve Marler from last week:

SAN JUAN FIREFIGHTERS DEPLOYED TO ASSIST IN WILDLAND FIRES

This morning, Friday August 21st the San Juan Island Fire Department dispatched three firefighters, a command car and a wildland fire engine to assist firefighters attempting to contain numerous wildland fires near Ephrata in Grant County, Washington. The fires were apparently sparked by an overnight lightning storm.

Lieutenant Jason Wood and Lieutenant Michael Henderson responded in “Brush 312”, one of the San Juan Island Fire Department’s specialized wildland firefighting vehicles. Captain Noel Monin has been assigned as a “Strike Team Leader.” In addition to the San Juan Island crew, he will be in command of two fire engines from Whatcom County, one from North Whidbey Island, an engine from Mt. Vernon, and a water tender from Sedro-Woolley.

The deployment is coordinated through the State Fire Marshal and could last up to 14 days, depending upon fire behavior.

San Juan Island Fire Department personnel are often asked to participate in wildland fires statewide. Local firefighters have earned a good reputation off-island for being well-trained and well-equipped. Each re quest for off-island assistance is evaluated to ensure local needs are not impacted. However, every effort is made to fill a request, because it is very likely that the day will come when San Juan Island will need help from mainland fire departments.

Use what talent you possess. The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those that sang best.
Henry Van Dyke

Finding a place to live in the islands....

Jane Fox’s series continues (here’s part 1 in case you missed it):

A Tourist in Disguise II.

To me, the situation seemed simple. I could not begin my life as a local of the San Juan islands without a place to live. And a place to live was exactly what I had almost found.
‘But it’s on the internet,’ complained my friend Chelsea.
‘No’ I said, ‘its in a barn’,
‘No, but you found the barn on the internet.’
I didn’t quite see her point.
‘I don’t quite see your point’ I said. Chelsea and I were sitting in her Boston apartment before I left for the West coast. With that cool, east coast reserve, she was trying to talk me out of it.
‘You don’t see my point?’
‘No.’
‘You don’t see the problem in surfing the internet and picking up some random advert for a barn for a rent. You don’t see the problem in traveling across the country to be picked up by some random man and taken to this barn on an island where no one knows where you are?’
There was a pause. I sensed she was unhappy with my life choices.
‘Nope’, I replied. I could tell Chelsea’s reserve was shaken to the core because she kept buttering her already buttered banana bread. Chelsea doesn’t eat butter.
‘You realise you are probably going to die’, she said.
‘Nah’, I replied,
‘He sent me a picture of his golden retriever. A barn killer wouldn’t have a golden retriever. He’d have a rockweiler. Or a ferret’.
Chelsea sighed deeply.
‘You realise there’s probably no bathroom’ she said as a final, stinging shot.

Even though poking at Chelsea’s cool was fun, it was different waiting on the Orcas ferry landing for a man who may or may not own a ferret. My friend’s words haunted me, and not just the quip about the bathroom. Although the job I was starting in four days was based out of Friday Harbour, the fact that the barn had been so cheap had given me the idea of living on Orcas and commuting. I had no idea how I would do this, but that that was the next hurdle. The first was to avoid death at the hands of the tall man now walking toward me. He was followed a giant, friendly golden retriever.

As it turned out, Chelsea needn’t have worried. Landlord turned out to be a kind, father of two who thought that renting his barn would be a chance to meet some ‘cool, interesting people’. Now, delivered by a man-i-found-on-the-internet anywhere else in the mainland outback, this comment would set my alarm bells ringing. But this Islander seemed…nice. Perhaps not normal exactly, but I was yet to learn that San Juan Islanders set their own bar for ‘normal’. In fact, he was so pleasant that I told him about my grand plan to master the art of being a local. He said nothing but eyed me.
‘Well…so far’ he began
‘I know don’t tell me, I look like a tourist.’
‘Well I was going to say tidy, but yea.’ There was a pause before he finished.
‘Living in a barn is a good start’.

And that was how I found my first piece of local identity. A tourist would live in a house. A tourist would not trust some friendly, random guy to unload their life in front of what was essentially a large wooden breadbox with no plumbing and a bare light bulb. A tourist would not think it was appropriate to shake hands over a rent comprised of both money and ‘good energy’. A tourist, moreover, would not make the commitment to a permanent change of bathroom habits:
‘You mean there’s no toilet.’ I asked, as we walked around the barn.
‘Nope’, replied landlord,
‘I generally go in the woods,’ he said, adding quickly, ‘but I mean the house is barely thirty feet away’. It was thirty feet, however, that was filled with cedar trees. At three in the morning I was certainly not going to stumble through there for relief. I sighed.
Apparently, I now lived in a barn and peed in the woods. Landlord grinned.
‘Welcome to being local’ he said.
‘Yes.’ I replied.

+++++++++

The author, undercover

Jane Fox comes to the islands from Scotland. She’s working as an intern for the San Juan Preservation Trust, for whom she has made videos & shot beautiful photos for their outreach materials over the past few months.

The diligent farmer plants trees, of which he himself will never see the fruit.
Cicero

Elsa (left) and Carrie...

Joyce Sobel from the Family Resource Center asked me to share this little profile with you of her Mentor of the Month (questions provided by her):

Mentor name and occupation:
Carrie Unpingco, San Juan County Telepsychiatry Project Assistant

Mentee name, age and year in school:
Elsa Prieto-Lopez, 11 years old, 7th grade

How long have you been meeting? 13 months now!

What do you usually do together? Hike, do homework, watch movies, swim, make dinner, listen to music, talk, & play with Carrie’s dachshund, Stretch.

What do you have in common?
We have a lot in common and never have trouble finding fun things to do together. We both like to laugh, do anything active, listen to music, & watch movies.

What is one favorite memory from your time together?

Mentor: Movie nights with Elsa at my house!

Mentee: The first time we met. We walked around town, talked, & got to know each other.

Any future plans for activities you haven’t tried yet? We are trying to plan a summer weekend to go to the Birch Bay Waterslides in Blaine.

Was the program just like you thought it would be, or different? How?

Mentor: The program turned out to be a lot more rewarding than I thought it would be. I’ve learned a lot from Elsa, especially how to lighten up & have more fun.

Mentee: The program is like I thought it would be. It is as fun as I hoped it would be!

Would you recommend the program to others? Why or why not?

Mentor: I would definitely recommend the program to others. Every kid can benefit from having an adult in their life who can be supportive and a good friend.

Mentee: Yes, I would recommend the program to others because it’s fun and you get to meet a new person. What could be better than that?

Eric Jangard signs up Cathy Cole as a levy supporter at the County Fair....

The school district was faced with massive cuts last year, and came up with a solution: Cut sports, but ask folks to restore them but voting in favor of a levy that would run the funds through Island Rec (the school district isn’t able to levy the amount).

The vote is in early November – check here on the Island Rec site for more information.

Eric Jangard signs up Cathy Cole as a levy supporter at the County Fair....

The school district was faced with massive cuts last year, and came up with a solution: Cut sports, but ask folks to restore them but voting in favor of a levy that would run the funds through Island Rec (the school district isn’t able to levy the amount).

The vote is in early November – check here on the Island Rec site for more information.

Staying together....photo by Jim Maya

Jim Maya saw these Southern Residents traveling together over the weekend….

I believe that the great Creator has put ores and oil on this earth to give us a breathing spell. As we exhaust them, we must be prepared to fall back on our farms, which is God’s true storehouse and can never be exhausted. We can learn to synthesize material for every human need from things that grow.
George Washington Carver

Bill's new book....

Bill Carli has his second book out – Stone Totem. He tells me you can get it at Joe Friday’s, Ace Hardware, Harbor Books, or through Bill Carli himself at Shooting Star Publishing. Way to go, Bill!

That's Monique in the Dominican Republic earlier this month, with a friend she made there....

Told you about the trip a local group was making to the Dominican Republic earlier this month, but they tell the story better than I can – check out their blog about both the trip & their reflections afterwards.

Welcome to the Dream House - the exhibit opens on Friday....

Celie at Lavendera tells me this is set for Friday:

“Welcome to the Dream House”
New works by Cynthia Church

Friday August 21st 6:30-8:00pm

Lavendera Day Spa
440 Spring Street
Friday Harbor, Wa
98250

Refreshments provided

360-378-3637

Welcome to the Dream House - the exhibit opens on Friday....

Celie at Lavendera tells me this is set for Friday:

“Welcome to the Dream House”
New works by Cynthia Church

Friday August 21st 6:30-8:00pm

Lavendera Day Spa
440 Spring Street
Friday Harbor, Wa
98250

Refreshments provided

360-378-3637

Me, writing for you at some coffeeplace....

Every so often, people ask me, “How in the world do you read the Update?”

It’s kinda easy.

If you like pictures, you can see tons of islanders in the “Galleries” section in the grey column to the right. There are also more pictures in the “Just Photos” section at the top of the page.

Looking for something  you saw before on the Update? You probably noticed the stories just scroll downward as new stories are added…to go backwards in time, just go the “Around Here” button up above, or the Archives section in the grey bar, or just use the Search Archives Button to the right. It includes 12 years of stories in reverse chronological order…watch out – you can get lost in there, but it’s fun.

Meanwhile, you can see at a glance stuff that is going on around this island by looking over the San Juan Community Events Calendar, a joint venture of The San Juan Island Library & By Design, my little web company. I really want you to see the whole thing, so click here.

Sand Strelou just sent me this note:

Ian:

Could you please help us get the word out that the sealing of the Centennial Time Capsule (with the scroll everyone made comments in, and lots of other great Centennial memorabilia) has been postponed until mid-September, with the date to be announced.

The time capsule is going to be sealed within a beautiful new interpretive marker being made for Memorial Park. The marker will be made of materials to match the monument and other park features (stone and wood) and will be located on the sidewalk, along the water. The TFH Historic Preservation Review Board, with generous help form board member, David Waldron, is designing the installation to include historical information about Memorial Park–and the time capsule, which will be re-opened fifty years from now.

We had planned to do a ceremony this Thursday, August 20th, however decided the installation and ceremony would be better conducted in September, after the tourist season is over.

Stay tuned!