My Thoughts on Missing Hull Island

By Liz Hattemer

This year I was unable to go to Hull Island - I didn't think too much about how it would impact me - I had a busy summer and my fall was full of travel and work plans.  But all three sons Henry, Andy, and Charles were going with Jon for a full week of Hull Island pioneering.  They were going to pour the first footings of the very first structure. I was happy that brothers were joined together in this new step; basically, or metaphorically, Jon was finally putting his feet into the ground...and my sons were part of this huge adventure.
What I didn't anticipate was the daily wonder, waking up and thinking, "what are they doing today?" how is the island today?"  Christopher was in the same mindset, I know. We were both tracking in our minds the experience that we were missing. He called me after he received the first random text - "how long to cook crabs..."
We discussed at length the power of that text. How a simple message conveyed all that we were missing. It wasn't cooking the crabs. It was having caught the crabs. The fire, the discussion, the preparation. It was seeing the one photo with Charles and a band aid on his thumb - knowing instantly it was crab related.  It was all that finding crab entailed...and it was thinking about the adventure, the tents and the trails and the clearing and the work and the fires and all that is slowly evolving on Hull Island.
I am not going to miss next year.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Captain's Log - What a Great Year!

Image
2023 -  Another spectacular year!   Lots of family and friends, new equipment, massive woodpile, big salmon, helicopter rides, significant 2 BRNR 40th anniversary cruise, and more!   April 21st - 24th 2023 Heidi and I took the BC ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island.  On our way north we stopped at the Kubota dealer (North Island Tractor, Courtenay BC)  to see examples of the excavator and mini 4WD I ordered. We spent the night in Campbell River, got up early next day and met Tyler and his boat taxi at Eve River.  I love taking the taxi at this time of year when making short visits - it's much easier and more relaxing than having to deal with getting 2BRNR in and out and driving back and forth to Port McNeill.  I ordered same size and model with a 6 way blade. When we arrived on Hull the morning of April 22nd, we encountered three significant failures. The rainwater tank was empty, the solar system batteries were dead, and the woodpile had toppled over and was un
Read more

Klinaklini Glacier and Interior Plateau Heli Tour

Image
 By Catherine Geiger September 14 & 15, 2023 What started out as a trip to get ice at Lagoon Cove ended in the most wildly spontaneous, adventurous, and mind-blowing experience of my life. I will quickly summarize the seemingly normal events leading up to the whirlwind of adventure: Woke up and had a breakfast of poached eggs in mom's spaghetti sauce with a side of toast (think shakshouka) on the almost finished kitchen table. Spoke of the day ahead and took inventory of our fridge/freezer and cooler - decided we needed more ice for cocktails. Hopped in the boat. Dad wanted to invite the neighbors (Dick and Elaine) over for happy hour and we were excited to tell them of our fishing success, so we swung by their house to invite them over that evening - they weren't home. Boated over to Lagoon Cove to buy a few bags of ice and top off the fuel tanks... there was Dick and Elaine doing the same thing! After exchanging stories about salmon fishing and speaking of the local fores
Read more

Endless Projects and Fine Crabs by John Low

Image
Well, I finally got indoctrinated with the Hull Island experience. Jeff Wilson and I spent a few days helping Jon with some projects but also getting plenty of time to visit some neighbors and also to just chill. The ride over from Port McNeill treated us to an Orca extravaganza and on the way back we saw a breaching humpback. Thanks for dialing that up, Jon!   I’ll have to say that the location for my open-air commode was prime real estate with the best view, but it was high-risk if something needed to happen quickly! After a few days, I was getting a little tired of my own aroma so I decided to try out the shower. We hadn’t seen anyone pass between Hull and Triangle Island for days. However, neighbor Paul and his family decided to come over for a visit about halfway through my shower. I soon learned that the shower is not quite as sheltered as it first looked! Paul was apologetic for rousing me out of the shower but it was all good. It was probably a little scary for them seeing a na
Read more