seaux far, seaux good

2014 has been just about perfect so far.  The LSU football team — with it’s Cajun-flavoured battle cry of “Geaux, Tigers!” — scratched out a win over Iowa in the Outback Bowl, as injured starting quarterback Zach Mettenberger watched freshman QB Anthony Jennings continue his sharp learning curve.  At the next level, all four of the NFL teams I follow are in the play-offs, so I gleefully anticipate this weekend’s contests.  I promise you that I’ll pace myself and drink plenty of fluids.

And, as an avid Kansas University basketball fan, I’m pleased to report that all its games are being televised in Canada because star freshman Andrew Wiggins is from Ontario.  I’ll actually be able to see more games than my family and friends in the Jayhawk state.

But that’s just gravy.  I’m very pleased to tell you about two positive developments in my life that I hope will resonate throughout the new year.  After Jin’s death last September, Jude and I reassessed our decision to move back to the states.  We talked to our friend Jay, who’s a logger.  We had considered selling some of our timber several years ago, and asked Jay to look at our trees.

Problem was, I misread a map and showed him an unimpressive stand that wasn’t on our land.  He said that we might break even because the market was flat, so we forgot about it.  Now, however, the market is booming, due largely to demand from China and Japan.  Jay and his brother Randy looked at a corner of our property and said we had some “beautiful” trees.

I contacted Timber West, the company that buys most of the harvest here, to see if it would be interested.  The next day, engineers from T-West were here surveying the farm.  They have marked falling boundaries and plan to start building roads as soon as permitted.  Monday we received an estimate of the value of the wood they want to harvest.  It could be enough for us to pay off our mortgage, our overriding financial concern.  Trees could be falling by late winter.

I plan to keep you in the loop with lots of photos and descriptions.  Jude and I have a spate of thoughts and feelings about this.

The second development grew out of a conversation Christmas evening that we had with Lois Taylor, one of the owners of the Heriot Bay Inn.  The HBI, with its first-rate restaurant and raucous pub, is legendary to island locals as the go-to place for a great time.  Lois calls it “Quadra’s living room”.

Lois had recently done some dinner theatre.  I asked her if she’d be interested in a parody of The Sound of Music in which the Nazis are U.S. corporate types and the nuns are militant vegans.  Bless her heart, she is.  If it goes well, I will then pitch her a concept for a B.C. version of The Daily Show.  Watch this space.  I’m determined to write much more often this year.