Breathing in Beauty

Being by the ocean has to be my most favorite spot to be :)
Yesterday I had one of those rare moments when it was just me, myself and I so instead of catching up on housework that I probably should have been doing I surrendered to the call of the ocean *grin*.

I took my mom with me, a steaming hot cup of coffee, my camera and we just sat and sucked in the beauty around us. Can you truly ever tire of the sound of the waves lapping at the wooden pilings under the wharf, the smell of salt and seaweed or the brisk wind that blows stray wisps of hair around?

When we arrived we were blanketed in a thick bank of fog but as it rolled further away we were greeted by the passing splashes of a pod of dolphins and the cries of the gulls as they soared along the air currents.

The surrounding mountains and islands appeared again...

and the tug boats and fishing vessels became more than just moving gray shadows and echoes of diesel engines.

Definitely a truly wonderful way to spend an afternoon :) How about you, where is your favorite place to relax and breathe in beauty?

Hugs,
Rosina

Rapids of Disaster

I hadn't heard from Hubby since he left Monday morning until he phoned me late last night to let me know that he was okay.

There's an old saying that tugboating is hours of boredom followed by moments of sheer terror! Well Hubby had his moment. He spends a lot of his time working further north in Seymour Inlet and taking his log tows through the Nakwakto Rapids which have the fastest navigable currents in the whole world (according to the Guinness World Book of Records) and it just happened that the gear in his boat blew there. He had no control and had to cut his tow loose, watch it disappear and smash into pieces. Luckily they could throw down the anchor to hold them from heading into the rapids themselves.

I think I was in a bit of shock when he told me. They had been floating there for over 30 hours already and since phone service is sporadic at best it had been the first chance he could call to tell me what was happening. The other guys from the company were up there with them collecting bundles and working on rebuilding the tow and sometime this weekend they'll tow him back home. I am just so thankful that he is safe!

In 2007 another local tug company towing a barge through the rapids had a mishap when they were overtaken by the barge they were pulling and their tug was completely sunk. They managed to scramble aboard the barge as it hung off of the sunken boat and thankfully they were all found safe but what a scare!

I can't wait for him to come back home :)

Hugs,
Rosina

{this moment} Waiting To Wave To Daddy

From Soulemama ~ {this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember.

Waving From Afar

The phone rang early this morning while we were just getting breakfast started and it was Hubby. He was heading our way and if we were quick enough we could make the trip down to the wharf and watch him go by :) So we gobbled down oatmeal, threw on clothes and headed out into the drizzle and cold.

With binoculars in hand we scanned the distant waters for signs of Hubby's tug boat and finally we spotted him not far from us :) As soon as he got close enough to the wharf for us to stand out and wave the kids were out there waving and smiling as daddy stepped out the door and stood on the side of the tug for them to see him :)

I love moments like these. It seems like he is so far away from us for most of the year yet once in a while we get the chance to cross paths and to reunite unexpectedly when we have no expectation to see him so soon. Whether it be a surprise as he returns home early or as we travel to one of the nearby wharves to spend an afternoon with him or to wave and smile as he goes by.

All these little things make each homecoming so much sweeter :)

We watched as he headed north and on to another job.

My little guy watched with the binoculars until Daddy had completely disappeared around the point and then we piled back into the car to get warm. Only a few more days and we'll all be together again :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Tagging Along

With Hubby home for only a couple of days we thought that we would make the most of our time together and tag along when he went down to the wharf to check on the tugs this afternoon :)

Bundled up for the frosty weather we carefully made our way down to the end of the wharf finger peeking over the sides as we went hoping to catch a glimpse of some jelly fish or star fish but there were none to be found today. The kids were more successful at scavenging through the boat cupboards looking for treats *grin*. They know exactly where to find daddy's stash of chips, cookies and sometimes chocolate!

Of course a trip to the boat wouldn't be complete without spinning the big wheel while navigating to pretend destinations :) Today we were pirates in search of our stolen bounty... somehow though I nearly ended up walking the plank *grin*.

The imaginations of children are such treasures :)

Hugs,
Rosina

Tug Boat Blessings

Today's blessing block is for my husband :)
He is the captain of a tug boat and tows logs up and down the coast from all of the different logging camps so I thought it would be fitting to make this block a tug boat. He loves to be on the water and actually began as a commercial fisherman.

When we first met he was in between fishing seasons and decided to try his hand at shake blocking. This was back breaking work. He and his partner would go into remote areas in the forest where it had been logged and they would salvage cedar that they would find amongst the clear cut. There they would cut split and stack them into piles that would be strapped together in slings so that a helicopter could fly in, pick them up and eventually they would be loaded on a B train to be taken to the mill.

He did this for a couple of years. It was nice that he had a 9-5 job and was home every evening but the ocean called *grin*. After the birth of our first son he got a job as a deckhand with a local tug company and well the rest is history. He worked his way up through the ranks, went back to school and got a ticket so he could run the tugs himself and now he's the captain. We've gone from him being home every night to seeing him for a couple of days every 1-2 weeks but he LOVES his job and I'm happy that he's happy :)

I am so blessed to have such a wonderful husband that works so hard for his family :) I am also blessed that this allows me to stay home with my 3 children and to be able to homeschool them. So many blessings can be tied into this one little block *grin*.

I love felt as many of you know and I find it so easy to work with that I just had to use it for the tug as it was going to take some work to piece it all together :) The black circles along the bow and side represent the rubber that is all around his tug and I used french knots to hold them on and I just love how the water turned out with all of the french knots clustered together like that. If you're wondering why I chose the colors of black and maroon instead of something brighter it was because this is the actual color of my husbands tug. I would have stitched the name on it to but it was just to tiny *grin*.

I'm starting to get a little bit of a vision as to how I'm going to complete my blocks to which is great. I wasn't quite sure what direction I was going in when I started but now I have more plans :)

Happy stitching!
~ Rosina

His Masterpiece is Complete!

My son started this painting of his dad's tug boat and some of the other company tugs a little over a month ago and since then there has been an empty hook in our family room awaiting its arrival. Well the day has finally come and his dad is so proud of it :)

It just happened that today hubby was going to be stopping in at the wharf to refuel his tug and get supplies so K got to show him the completed painting :)



Above is the original pencil drawing he made from a photo. In a couple of weeks our town is hosting its annual Garden Tour and quite often some of the homes will display quilts or artistic works done by locals and we are going to exhibit K's paintings in my mom's garden as she is part of the tour *grin*.

He has studied Frida Kahlo, Leonardo Da vinci, Henri Matisse, & Dr. Suess so far, copying some of their most famous paintings and learning about their lives. I think it will be fun for him since he's only 10 and to be able to share some of his new found knowledge about the arts will be great. Plus you know those older ladies will just love it! LOL.

~ Rosina

My Budding Artist

My son is crazy about drawing and painting and since last September he has been going once a week to the 4 Cats Art Academy where they get to experiment with all sorts of different medias while learning about different artists and drawing/painting techniques. He loves it!

For Christmas we got him a bunch of canvases so that he could paint whenever he felt the urge to do so and his most recent one is a copy of a photo we took of his dad's tug boat at the wharf flanked by other tug boats. I may be biased but I think his pencil drawn copy of it is amazing!!

This afternoon he started to paint it and as it happened this week in his art class he learned about blending colors to make it look like the different shades of water. It was perfect timing to help him with the reflecton portion of his painting. I can't wait to see his progress tomorrow :)

~ Rosina

Fellow Tugboat Captain Falls Overboard

Just the other day we learned that one of Dh's fellow tugboat captains had fallen overboard while working and had narrowly escaped dying. He had gone out on the back deck for a minute in only his pajamas and tripped falling into the icy waters without being noticed by his crew members. His screams were not heard and all he could do was watch the boat travel further and further away. Once they noticed he was missing they put out a call for help but it is like searching for a needle in a haystack out there! Thankfully over an hour later he was miraculously still treading water making his way towards Quadra island which was some ways off in the distance and crossed the path of the Pacific Faith fishing vessel which rescued him and pulled him out of the water.

This is one of my worst fears as I always worry when Dh goes to work. He has always worked on the water starting as a commercial fisherman in his teens working in horrendous weather off the coast of Alaska and now as a tugboat captain he still sees his fair share of storms and quite often works in the Nakwakto Rapids which are some of the worlds fastest navigable tidal currents in the world which actually claimed an entire tugboat to its watery depths just barely a year ago.

If you want to see the interview of the recent incident you can view the 2 minute newscast here. I'm off to go and do some deep breathing as Dh is about t0 head out for work in a couple of hours and I don't want him to go!

UPDATE: I had a bad feeling last night about Dh heading to work. I thought it was just because of the mishap with the other captain but a couple of hours after Dh left he returned home again because the tug and barges he was going to assist didn't show. Not long after he got a call that the barges were floating loose and there is no sign of the tug that was pulling them. Dh has gone to help and as of now they are assuming that the tug has sunk and are searching for the crew if there are any survivors :( I am so sad for the families, this is so tragic.

2nd Update: They found them!!!! Dh came across the crew on a beach. They had managed to get onto their life raft and escape before the tug went down. Apparently in the bad weather the barges had started pull the tug back and under the water causing it to sink. They just rushed them to the ER. Thank goodness they were all found alive.

~ Rosina