By Tripper Harrison “Oh, man, I am NOT going out there alone again,” said Kemal. A university kid from Morocco who speaks several languages, his English was heavily accented, but correct as usual. “Please would someone walk with me to the Lodge?” Maybe because it takes so long in the summer, darkness fell without anyone…
Island Voices, November 2023
Sailing out of My Comfort Zone
By Suzanna Leigh Only staying active will make you want to live a hundred years. Japanese proverb Why am I so terrified to take the helm today? We are coming into Fairhaven to tie the boat to a mooring line between two big yellow bouys. In all my decades of sailing, I’ve never tied up…
Island Voices, October 2023
Legends of Vashon – Whispering Firs Bog
By Tioga Webb I’m going to keep this vague, because I don’t want any trouble after all these years. If you were around back then, you can fill in the blanks. Some people say Vashon is all boggy spots, at least in the winter. The bog I lived near was called Whispering Firs Bog. It…
Commentary, Island Voices, October 2023
Please Don’t Search?
By Andy Valencia Over the years of my life, the US has been shedding ability at a pretty decent pace. We sent manufacturing overseas, and now we have almost nobody who knows how to design for manufacturing, how to set up injection molding, how to use a mill and lathe to fabricate custom parts. We’ve…
Island Voices, October 2023
Crabbing
By Seán Malone and John Sweetman “Hey Mike, he’s hiding under that patch of seaweed.” We were hunting crab with a pitchfork down at Manzanita on the south end of Maury Island. Crabs can move as fast as a person walks on dry land. Mike poked the pitchfork into the seaweed and scared the ten-inch…
Island Voices, October 2023
Island Hopping – A Way of Being
There is a reason we are drawn to looking at the ocean. It is said that the ocean provides a closer reflection of who we are than any other mirror – Rick Ruben, The Creative Act: A Way of Being By Suzanna Leigh Behind us, our little 9.9 hp Suzuki outboard left a trail of…
Island Voices, October 2023
Reforming Property Taxes and Composting Toilet Regulations
By David Earle Last month, I wrote about Vashon and Washington State’s serious housing problem, offering solutions the King County permitting department could put in place to make it easier for lower-income individuals to buy land and construct housing. This month, I return to my point: “Land hoarding is a thing.” For instance, the Reed…
Island Voices, October 2023
Report From Aman Omid Village, Part 3
By Nellie Bly Prologue: This was written over the course of several deployment periods of one to three weeks. Aman Omid Village on Holloman Air Force Base closed at the end of January 2022, having in-processed and placed 16,000 Afghani evacuees. All but eight survived. For the five months it existed, and adjusting for average…
Island Voices, October 2023
Place
By Michael Shook July marked 11 years at our property, and I feel I know the landscape now. The first trees I planted look like proper trees, rather than sticks. And the surrounding extant trees are familiar to me in ways they were not when first we moved here. To get to know a place…
Island Businesses, Island Voices, October 2023
Getting New Perks at the Vashon Sportsmen’s Club
By Hugh Lord How do you start a fire without a lighter or matches? Well, at the Vashon Sportsmen’s Club Kids Camp, that is one of the things they teach you. Even once you know how, it’s still not easy, but if you keep practicing it starts to seem easier. Until it rains, then like in Fallout (a…