Back to the future with a view to the past

In preparing the site we’ll be building on, we’ve had to take many trees down both for the house site itself but also to garner a little view to Lambert Channel and Denman and Vancouver Islands to the West. We are not on the waterfront, but just across a lane from waterfront properties.

The good news is, the waterfront property in front of us is my family’s who have owned it since 1965 and is the house we’re living in until our’s is finished. Back then, it was an open field with just a few tall firs and some smaller cedars, firs, maples and arbutus near the shore.

Over the last 45 years, did things ever change. The photo below is different angle but you get the idea.

My parent’s built a small cabin in 1966 with a view looking west. We could see most of the beach and then out to the water and islands in the distance. Slowly—or not so slowly—trees started to grow and the view over the years gradually disappeared until one time in the mid 1990s there was no view at all.

Various attempts have been made to fight back the brush, but it’s costly and/or a lot of work to deal with all the mess that ensues. Carrying branches to the beach to burn or sawing up the fallen trees takes a lot of time. In most cases this was done largely by my dad, George.

I think he may love the trees that block the view so much partly because he knows the work and expense in removing them and it’s usually been him dealing with it so maybe, just maybe, he’d rather just leave them standing than deal with them. Can’t really blame him.

All these years have passed and it was time to clear so that the million-dollar view and the taxes paid for it, really was a million-dollar view and not to one of a tree farm.

Enter Dan Hamilton and his crew from Whiskey Jack Tree Service. Dan is a faller but also an arborist so he knows about trees and their health. We’ve learned a lot about the health of trees and what causes problems as well as marvelling at the tree climbing and falling.

The view, I’m happy to say, has come back. I feel like a six year old kid again standing on the deck of the cabin looking at the spectacular vista. With just a couple more trees to go, they will be finished on the waterfront lot and will then complete the house site work.

We’re looking forward and back today.

You can see a more complete set of images from this whole process on Flickr.