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The language of labour in the woods

August 9, 2025 By Travel 3 Comments

Yer man posing beside a fully assembled steam donkey including mounted on a sled.

We’re on our annual retreat in Powell River, a place we have come to for the last five years to rest and reflect on the year that has been and think, ever so gently, about the year to come. Every year when we visit here we do many of the same things – walk the same trails, buy food from the same farmers, paddle or swim or visit the same places. And then we always do something a little different too, even small things.

Today was one of those things. We went for a walk to Willingdon Beach which is a pretty special site right downtown. It consists of a park and a beach and a campground with a trail that extends down the shoreline through the forest and is littered with old logging equipment. The gear has been left there along with interpretive signs as the outdoor part of the collection of the Powell River Forest Heritage Museum. We’ve often strolled by the steam donkey and the beached sidewinder and the steam shovel, but until today we’ve haven’t set foot inside the museum, which houses the collection in a couple of rooms.

It’s worth dropping in, if only for the language. The language of labour in the woods and the mines and the sea is old, technical and almost constitutes a dialect of its own. My friends Rika Ruebsaat and Jon Bartlett spent a substantial part of their lives capturing songs written in these languages. Reading the interpretive plaques in the museum gives life to the equipment and artifacts they have dating back 150 years.

Sometimes Geist Magazine publishes lists of words and terms and perhaps I’ll submit this list to them. I won’t even define what these terms mean, just let them clatter around in your ears and mind. In context most of them are really descriptive and self-explanatory. But out of context it seems like a mysterious technical language.

  • High rigger 
  • Drag saw 
  • Butterfly
  • gunning
  • Falling, bucking and yarding
  • Steam donkey
  • Caulked boots
  • Horse hames
  • Yoke
  • Gilchrist jack
  • Sky hook
  • Guy line shackle
  • Roles on the steam donkey: Hook tender, chokerman, rigging slinger, whistle punk, fireman, chaser, woodcutter. 
  • Shinglebolt
  • Flume
  • Froe and mallet. 
  • Spike puller 
  • Double butted axe
  • Spring board
  • Butt swell
  • Notches 
  • Back cut
  • Jointer and raker
  • Boomboat 
  • Sidewinder

What a poem.

From the Parking Lot: August 3 – 8, 2025

August 8, 2025 By Uncategorized

Crossing Jervis Inlet on my way to the Tla’Amin lands.

The weekly summary of notes, links and thoughts that passed through my world.

Also I wrote some longer pieces this week including a review of some friends’ play, an invitation to improve your out of office messages, and some thoughts on how building resource megaprojects is not the same thing as strengthening a country and looking after people.

August 8: you are not as old as you seem to be

August 8, 2025 By Notes, Uncategorized

I’ve always thought that my internal age was 23, which puts me younger in my own mind than both of my children are now. Which is a very odd sensation now. At any rate, I haven’t seen such a good set of thoughts on aging as these 27 Notes on Growing Older(er) from Ian Leslie. The sensation of time stopping inside while it continues on elsewhere is almost impossible to capture. Leslie does it.

Lately, becasue I notice these things, I’ve seen different articles about the inner core of the Earth and its interaction with the surface of our planet. This article in Quanta today summarizes the research and the findings from the smart people working on all of this.

Last night we watch Bob Trevino Likes It, a touching film (and a bit of a tear jerker, I’m not afraid to admit) about a woman who is becoming estranged from her father and finds another man with the same name and befriends him. It’s worth watching, and through the film I found myself going down the rabbit hole of facts about co-star John Leguizamo, who I know nothing about. He starred in the 1990s drag film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar where he looked substantial young than 30 or 24 years old. He has a fascinating bio, as an actor, playwright and activist, and to my eye seems to be one of the really good ones in the world.

One advantage to being actually 57 is that I got to see The Shuffle Demons in their heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s in Toronto. I’m glad to know that there are still folks out there having maximum fun with energetic jazz traditions in an ensemble context. Go into your weekend grooving along with Dirty Catfish Brass Band.

Make your out of office message better

August 6, 2025 By Featured

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The summer morning light on the east wall of Átl’ka7tsem/Howe Sound.

When I set a vacation responder on my email during times of travel or rest, I try to make it useful. That often means sharing a recipe.

Here’s the current out of office message…it’s a little easter egg for folks who read the automated responses:

While I’m away I am going to be eating salmon, because it is salmon season on the coast and there are Sockeyes and Chinooks to be had. Here’s my go to barbecue recipe.

Get a filet, fresh if possible. Season it with salt and pepper.

Heat your grill so it’s hot, then place the fish skin side down on the grill over minimum indirect heat and let it cook slowly. If you can keep it going at about 250 F you’re good.

Cook it until the fat just begins to render out of the thickest part of the fish. If you cook it too long the fat will all render out and the fish will be too dry. 10 minutes might be all you need.

In the meantime make a gremolata. This is easy:

1 small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley (about ½ cup chopped)
2 tbsp fresh dill, chopped (or substitute tarragon or add some other herbs if you have them like rosemary and thyme or a bit of basil. You cannot go wrong here.)
1 clove garlic, finely minced (or smashed to a paste)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp capers, rinsed and chopped
3–4 tbsp olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste
1 tbsp of mustard

When the salmon comes off the grill slather the gremolata on top and serve.

You don’t have to send me an email to get this recipe. Enjoy it.

August 6, 2025: magic and the rain returns

August 6, 2025 By Notes

Sweet rain has fallen over the past day. An atmospheric river has developed over the coast and is dumping healthy amounts of rain on our parched gardens and nearby wildfires. The low is clinging to the mountains, and everything is a beautiful side of grey and dark green. For a pluviophile like me this is manna from heaven. I’m high on petrichor and delighted by the change in palette. Summer is lovely here on the coast and I love the sunshine and calm days, but rain makes me feel alive.

It’s always refreshing to read jazz metaphors for facilitation and leadership from actual jazz musicians. My friend Amy Mervak is both and today she posted a little book of her writings and reflections on learning jazz and developing as a musician and how that relates to leadership. Give it a read.

Have you met Carisa Hendrix yet? She is a Calgary-based magician, who also performs as Lucy Darling. For some reason her shorts creeped into my You Tube recommendations, especially clips of her character Lucy Darling who is the vehicle for her social commentary in what she calls the “slowest moving artistic genre to address the zeitgeist.” Lucy Darling’s crowd work is lovely. It always starts with “What is your name?” followed by “And whhhhhhhhat do you do?” and it goes from there. She is smart and focused and absolutely dedicated to her craft and so thoughtful about what she is doing and why. Check her out.

Another slinky Internet character is Keystone the cat. Keystone lives in Deep Bay, a neighbourhood on Bowen Island near the Cove and he is the most extroverted and beloved cat on the Island. Keystone stories are legion. He loves people intensely, and he cheers up everyone that he meets, so much so that a friend nicknames him “The Seratonin Cat”. He has his own Facebook page. He even has place of pride on the mural of Bowen Island that greets visitors to our island.