Our property was very likely heavily forested from before the time that the first white settlers came to Whidbey. The open prairies of central Whidbey Island and some other similar areas around Oak Harbor were the most valued locations. Trees were extremely difficult and labor-intensive to remove,...
In reading the book "A History of Whidbey's Island" by George Albert Kellogg, originally published in 1934, I came across some additional tidbits of information about our property's first white neighbor to the east, John Kineth: "John Kineth (Nov. 26, 1853), a native of Springfield, Illinois, had...
The ferry ride over to Whidbey was gorgeous. It got us all amped up to make some more progress on our driveway trail project. We first stopped by the annual Coupeville Lions Club garage sale, which apparently is quite the big event when it starts early Saturday morning each year. People line up...
Nice cool day for getting sweaty swinging a brush cutter and moving piles. We pushed ahead with the driveway path from the Parker Road side, perhaps getting to about a 500 foot length now. Most of the path is about a scraping-sides car width. So, future passes will work on expanding the width....
The US Department of Agriculture has had a farmer/rancher cost share program called Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) (www.nrcs.usda.gov/PROGRAMS/EQIP), managed by the USDA's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Recently the program was expanded to include foresters and...
In 1913, Ancutty Tillicum wrote an article for the Island County Times remembering what the Fourth of July celebrations in Coupeville had been like 50 years earlier in 1863. "There were large encampments at Long Point, under the chieftainship of General Pierce". Long Point is the beach projecting...
The University of Washington has created a very comprehensive online digital archive of local historical documents (content.lib.washington.edu). I came across it while searching for "Island County: A World...
This week I completed the full Forest Stewardship Program. Closing night was a fun and rather different format than the rest of the program. The three main instructors led a game of "Jeopartree", hosted by Alex Treebeck. The class split into three groups (we were the Fir Fiends against the Pine...
