Life on Orcas Island
Welcome! I am so thankful to be living on beautiful Orcas Island and I want to share the joys and occasional frustrations of Island Life with you. This is the unvarnished reality of living your dreams!
- Sailing in West Sound, Orcas Island.
The crowds of August are gone. We have the island to ourselves, except for the avid bicycle riders and a few intrepid travelers. It’s stunningly beautiful dressed in golds and reds of fall and it’s quiet. Don’t let the quiet fool you, there is still lots to do. Finally, there is enough wind for a good sail, for example. We have Friday night sailing races in West Sound. There is a Sailing Foundation on Orcas, where you can learn to sail and use the boats for a very modest fee.
The high school students have teams and sailing classes as well. When I first moved to Orcas, I taught for the Sailing Foundation, spending my days on the water with young teens and women wanting to master the winds. Pretty soon I found myself in charge of the sailing program! This is how things go on Orcas. First you volunteer, then you end up on charge. I feel like I got to know some of those kids in a way that was unique, bobbing around in the water on hot summer days. It was idyllic!
The trails in the Park our ours again, golden with fallen leaves from the big leaf maples and willows. In the off season there is rarely a sign of any litter. The park is quiet, with some weekend camping, but lots of great campsites available. My grandchildren spend almost every day in the summer in the park, swimming, playing on the playground, being with their friends and families.
Many Islanders are avid gardeners, and right now we are all harvesting our gardens and fruit trees, it was an abundant year. Right now, pear butter simmers on the stove, Ken brings in some madrona for a fire, and later, we’ll bring out our books to read. We have a TV, but no hook up. We, like many islanders, have NETFLIX only. No mass television media entering our homes. It’s a different way of living. I have heard a that the average family has four TVs on the mainland. We don’t have stoplights, or golden arches, or subway or K-Mart. We have small locally owned stores like times past, but we do all LOVE the Internet! Yes, we have DSL! Some lucky people tele-commute.
Every year we harvest hundreds of apples from our 100 year old King apple trees. Orcas was the fruit basket for Seattle prior to the Columbia being dammed and water becoming available to Eastern Washington. There are trees dripping with succulent fruit literally everywhere. If you have dreams of having orchards, this is the place! My friend Bonnie marveled at the flowers everywhere. saying; ” I struggled for years to get that to grow..and here it’s 5 feet tall!” This is true, it is a gardener’s paradise.
We had such fun with our grandson, Caleb picking apples in the horse pasture. He was old enough to climb the ladder and toss his grandma apples. This year we hope to have the whole crew here to harvest. Kings require a cold snap to bring out the sugars, but the horses don’t care! They like them just fine anytime.
Ken and I are so fortunate to have three of our chilren here and four grandchildren as well. People often wonder how do young people make a living? Well, in our family: one is builder, one a schoolteacher/gardener, one works at the Olga Store, one at the Hardware store, one is a massage therapist and personal assistant, and one is a landscaper. Like most islanders, they all have adjunct occupations as well, like fixing cars, pet sitting, child care or organizing homes. When we first moved here, within the year, I had 4 part time occupations. Ken had a real job building homes. You’ve got to be creative if you need to make a living and want to be here. Some folks laugh and say: “Orcas makes you pay your dues”. The amazing thing is, that it is rather self-selective, you have to WANT to be here. But because it’s not so easy, the folks here tend to love their home, and that makes it special.
As Ken and I drive the road from Deer Harbor, through Crow Valley to Eastsound to go to OrcasDreams in Eastsound, we take the time to appreicate how lucky we are to be living the life we live. If you think you might like to make a change to Island Life-drop us a line!
September saw the end of the Farmer’s Market in the Park for this year. We have this beautiful green in the center of Eastsound, where we have the Farmer’s Market, the Library Fair, the Bite of Orcas the Fourth of July celebration. It is the heart of Eastsound. Sunday nights we have Music in the Park. Now that fall has come, you’ll have to wander over the Oddfellows Hall on Saturday’s for your fresh greens, squash and tomatoes. Oh and flowers! Don’t forget your flowers. 
This was a great year for squash..I grew about 150 lbs of Blue Hubbard..and the tomatoes thrived in the unusually warm and very long summer. Here is Rhonda, she runs a farm called The Campesina Project. I heard her speak at the Orcas Island Garden Club and thought she could be running the country.
Not everyone knows this, but I had a jam company when I first came to Orcas. First of all I am a Capricorn..so that means I like to work, I hate waste and I need to earn money. Twenty some odd years ago, work was pretty scarce, and as my work as a kayak guide slowed down in the fall, I began picking blackberries. Did you know they grow everywhere here? They are thick, lush and prolific. So, I picked them- two handed- five gallon buckets at a time. OK..so it was a bit extreme..Then I made jam.
Soon we were overflowing with jam. Ken says: “Honey, what are we going to do with all that jam?’ Lord knows I didn’t need that much jam..so I sighed..”well, I guess we’ll have to take it to the farmer’s market!” That was the birth of The Orcas Island Jam Company. We spent Saturdays at the Farmer’s Market. Ken and I would set up our table, send one of the girls over to Rose’s to get fresh baguettes and offer free samples of bread and jam. It was a blast! All the little kids loved us. and every cat sitter on the west coast got some of our jam. I expanded to apple butter, pear butter, plum jam.. almost all the fruit was wild crafted or would have gone to waste. I used a receipt with low sugar and it tasted like pure fruit. So..I have connections with the Farmer’s Market.
Our market is not just veggies..no, we have Flo’s Tie Dye! We also have jewlery and pottery, in fact here is Bob. He used to be a kayak guide too, now he does pottery with his wife Ginny.
Mostly the Farmer’s Market is fun. Everyone gathers on Saturdays, eats oysters or fresh pizza, sausage or sushi, and visits, listens to music, watch the kids play. It is festive and friendly. 
Sometimes while wandering through the market, or in town people confuse me with Brenda, who has Black Dog Farm. Here we are .. as you can see Brenda is thiner, but my braid is longer!
That’s me with my OrcasDreams-Island Properties hat on!
In mid September, my friend Bonnie and her daughter Tucker came for a visit. Bonnie, who is a writer, came to the Orcas Island Writer’s Festival. She is working on a memoir and spent the week happily engaged with her peers. Tucker, who is a marine biologist and works on a tall ship similar to the Adventuress. jumped at the chance to visit Orcas Island. There are lots of great ways to get to Orcas, they choose Kenmore Air’s float plane. It comes from Lake Union, takes an hour and arrives in Deer Harbor, West Sound or Rosario. Your choice! The sightseeing is worth the price of admission..But pack lightly..as it will cost you if you don’t.
Bonnie and I worked together to start the Birth Center in Princeton, she was the Director of Nursing, I was the Director of Marketing. But the fun part was assisting at births together! Tucker was born at the center, as was my daughter, Heather.
Tucker’s one wish was for her mom to see whales. Since she would only be with us for two days, early the next morning we headed off to San Juan Island’s Lime Kilm Park. Ken chided me: “how do you know you’ll see whales?” “Oh, I always do, so I’ll just think positively.” This is true, I have never gone looking for whales and not found them. One time my friend Tom Averna, who owns Deer Harbor Charters needed someone to crew..and asked me if I was free..so I went along as ‘crew’. That day we saw the superpod! Over 90 whales greeting and breeching with gusto. What a sight!
So, off we went on the inter island ferry to see whales..On the ferry we met my friend, Deb, who works as a naturalist on another whale watch boat. We got to ask her all the important whale questions! We were already having a lucky day!
It was one of those foggy mornings at Lime Kilm, and we just about had the place to ourselves. While waiting for the whales to arrive, we looked at birds, and starfish, talked and admired the lighthouse..
Then about 40 minutes after we arrived..there they were! Orcas! In groups of 3 or 4, a total of 18 before the day was done! Spectacular!! There is something so very magical about living where there are whales! In the San Juans there are 3 resident pods, about 90 whales, who are primarily salmon eaters. You can often see them off of the west side of San Juan Island , as the channel is deep and there are lots of salmon there. I try to time it to when the tide is turning..so it’s not all luck!
We left Lime Kilm due to hunger and headed for town, where we picked up a picnic of smoked salmon, fresh baked bread, humus and pears..then headed off to American Camp for lunch. The sun came out, and we lazed in the sun, no longer needing our sweatshirts. 
Back to home to Orcas on the ferry..with whale tales to tell…
We own a Real Estate Brokerage on Orcas Island. It was Ken’s idea. Not that I don’t have big ideas..but more of that later….
I had been licensed as a Realtor since 1986 and winning awards for being a ‘high producer’ since 1984. This was back in Hopewell NJ. Being a ‘high producer’ in those days meant you sold in excess of $2M in Real Estate. Wow, how times have changed. He joined me in 2001 at Coldwell Banker, where I was still winning awards. Being from a family where literally everyone owned their own business, he could not see why I’d work for a agency other than my own. He prevailed and we started OrcasDreams – Island Properties. His background is in construction. He’s been building homes forever, first in NJ and then on Orcas as well as the out islands. We love working together and although many couples find it tough, we would not have it any other way! Here I am in front of our office on North Beach Road. It’s near Wildlife Cycles and Teezers Cookies.
Life as a Realtor has it ups and downs. Like this past two years. Well hold on to your seatbelt, ’cause if you think being a home owner has been tough, you should try real estate. Lots of agents have left the business, and I can understand why. Being any kind of producer sounds good right now. But, this is what we do, and frankly, we love it. We get to meet folks on the ‘Orcas High’, and share our lovely Island home with them. We get to help people with one the biggest decisions of their lifetimes. Where to live. Where to retire, where to raise their famies, and in that choice comes: how to live their lives. It is great fun, very challanging and a great honor.
Here is Ken; living his Orcasdream- out with his mustang Ranger. Behind him is Turtleback Mountain, and the slough in Deer Harbor
My earlier life path was to found a free standing birth center in Princeton NJ. I had a passion for midwifery, and wanted to help families have the experience of a lifetime when birthing their children. I believed that giving good support, education and genuine caring would make a difference in the world – or at least to the families that came to our center. It would help families grow closer, and provide a loving and safe environment for a new life to begin. OK, so it was a rather large goal! I spent 12 years building this center from the ground up with an amazing group of women, assisting at births, promoting the center and educating families and professionals about an alternative to hospital and medicated birth.
It was the time of my life. I had a ball!
Well enjoying what I do seems to be a prerequisite for my work, and finding those family homes seemed like a logical next step. I had done the baby thing , it was time to send my kids to college and I needed to make more money. So, I became a Realtor. I sold homes in Princeton and Hopewell, I sold the Chocolate Factory in Hopewell, I helped many of the families I knew from Familyborn, our Birth Center, find their first home. Then the Stock Market crashed, my daughter went off the U. of Miami and my son to Martha’s Vineyard, to get to know his Dad, and Ken and I wondered what the next step would be.
We came west on vacation in 1988, and made a bee line to Orcas Island. 
We were escaping the heat, the gnats and the crowds in NJ. We were backpacking and camping. I felt it would be more of an adventure that way. And..I was right! We slept in the youth hostel in Seattle after a dinner of dungeness at Pike’s Place. We had bunk beds. I would not recommend it! Up at 4 am to catch a bus to Anacortes and the ferry to Orcas Island. The morning was foggy and wet and as the boat wove it’s way through the islands, the fog lifted and the sun came out. I was enchanted! 
It was like a fairy tale- Puff the Magic Dragon Land. We pulled into the ferry landing, the water was crystal clear, green and cold. the air was cool and salt, the sun warm on my cool skin, the island emerald green. . Before the cars unloaded, we walked off the boat. When my pink sneakers hit the ground, I exclaimed ‘ this is it!’ “This is what?” said Ken. “This is where I want to live!” I had found my new home. ” How do you know, you haven’t even been here? ” I laughed and said: “I just know!’.
Yesterday, our friends John and Yvonne from Crane Island, picked us up at Cayou Quay Marina in Deer Harbor to spend the day sailing over to Stuart Island. It was a perfect day once the morning fog lifted; sunny and warm, the end of the summer here in the Pacific Northwest. Our friends moved here ten years ago, when I sold them a home in Deer Harbor.
Two years ago, I helped them sell that home to move to a waterfront home on Crane Island, where they could have a more maritime lifestyle. In order to get home, they take a boat, their own boat, rain or shine, wind or fog. They love it. Yvonne has taken up crabbing with a neighbor who lives in a small cabin on Crane, she has promised to take me with her next time. I was an avid crabber back east on the Jersey shore where I grew up, finding blue claws on the pilings, never really caring how big they were, it was the thrill of the chase that hooked me! But, here the reward is big- Dungeness!
Yvonne and I sat on the bow of the boat while sailing past Jones, San Juan, and Spieden Islands to Reid Harbor on Stuart. We had planned on lunch prior to hiking to the light house on Stuart. Just a mere 5 miles. They failed to mention the 127 steps (Ken counted) that reminded me of Bridalveil Falls in Yosemite, or the long uphill grade that went on forever…both directions it was mostly uphill-truly.
Can you imagine an island with no cars? Dirt roads used as walking paths, huge maples and firs on either side, vistas looking down golden meadows to a pristine bay with the mountains beyond?
We hiked to the lighthouse and the lighthouse keeper’s home. Traditional red roof and white walls, it was charming, a big porch across the front over looking the water. It made me yearn for this life- even simpler than ours on Orcas. More in touch with nature. I had a chance to revisit that thought when Ken told me that in 1948 one lighthouse keeper moved to the island and then spent two months without power and had no running water, finally busting into the cistern to get fresh water under two feet of ice, which he hauled by the bucket full for drinking. The pay was $90 per month.
Sitting on the dried grasses by the lighthouse, we shared two peaches from Coffelt’s Farm on Orcas and a chocolate bar. Idyllic! We watched a porpoise swim in tune to his own music, the kelp waved in the changing tide, boats sailed by. I feel so very lucky to be living this life, surrounded by nature and the gentle climate of the San Juan Islands. Clear skies all summer, gentle rains in the winter, exceptional people as friends and neighbors. Yes, I am one of the lucky ones!
As the sun set, we sailed home eating a picnic of sushi and crackers and cheese, sharing a bottle of good wine and stories about life on Orcas Island.
