BAPOW, Introducing the Flintstones Table!!

From Bellingham wharf came a large piece of wood. It had no home, no one wanted it, no one could load it and it was destined to end up floating in the bay.

Beautiful Fir 5x5's stacked on the BAPOW

The BAPOW (bad ass piece of wood) came free (except for the 3 people, 2 hours each to load it!) along with the purchase of the 5x5's from the Bellingham Wharf Deconstruction of the GP Mill. This huge square log weighs about 800 lbs and measures 14" x 26".

The Flintstones Table Early on.

From the living gate project I had two 30" steel disks left over with no home. I decided to combine the unused steel and wood and, low and behold, about 9 hours later a table is born.

Fred Flintstones and Barny Rubble's!?

It's called the Flintstones Table because of its prehistoric nature and because it was made mostly from rubble!

Bapow Table Handing from truck.

To move it to Langley was fairly simple, we just tipped it up on it's wheels, backed the truck under it and with a single cable were able to support it mostly hanging out the back of the truck. Unloading was a snap.

Whidbey Commons new draw for their lovely outdoor seating area being backed into place.

It's now at it's new home in Langley, Washington, located off the alley between First and Second Streets behind Whidbey Commons. Centrally located for all to enjoy!

Flintstones Table at Whidbey Commons Coffee House.

Zimmerman road

Plastic fix working well, but needs real fix.

Erosion

Brads Hand

 Road being undermined

Culvert leaking water around the outside which is oozing out from the center of the road about 10 down.

Best Work Motorcycle Ever.

With my shop container on my new trailer, I can bring the advantages of a full wood and metal work shop to any job site. And with my motorcycle pulling it, I'm as green as can be!

BMW motorcycle and working container trailer!

I've always loved my BMW R-1100rsl. A work horse that's a pleasure to ride. I've never tried pulling a motorcycle trailer before, but this is the right bike to do it with.

Where Historic and Environmental Preservation Intersect...

Where Nature and History Touch.

...flexibility and ingenuity need to be utilized. This was the case recently at Possession Point State park where a fishing cabin slated for the dumpster is being saved. Rich with history and a great example of what used to satisfy us for a weekend, this fishing cabin was slated for demolition due to 'beach improvements'!

The ranger trimming the shed!

This sounds ominous to me. The beach looks fine. The existing bulkheads are showing their age, but are still in place, with a nice buffer of natural rock and driftwood. I'd like to see native beach grass instead of pasture grass and am hoping the restoration of the bulkhead will include native plantings.


But none the less, the money will be spent digging up this entire beach and replacing it with new and improved imported rocks. Unfortunately, in this budget of hundreds of thousands of dollars, there wasn't enough money to move a 10'x14' cabin nearly a century old.

John and Harrison

So on Sunday the 6th of March, a diverse group of individuals including scuba divers, jewelers, pharmacists, port and park employees, and a few builders gathered on the soggy shores of Possession point to move a cabin.

The cabin on it's skid, on roller pipes, being loaded on the trailer

Today the weather was great. It was clear, warm and beautiful. What isn't apparent is most of these volunteers have been here every weekend for the last month digging, bracing and bolting the cabin together for the move and building a great big skid underneath the cabin. They often worked in cold, windy, rainy weather, not the sun of today.


Other details of the move include planning routes, storage and reinstatement logistics. Addressing safety issues and gathering tools and equipment for the move. Getting permission, checking it twice, and generally winding up miles of red tape between the cabin where it is now, and where it will be after all the shoreline work is completed. (Right back where it was!)

Our electric winch failed due to a proprietary fitting between the motor and 12v power supply, (damn Chicago Electric!) so out come all the mechanical devices.

Underside of Possession Point Fishing Cabin.

The truck, a bit small for the trailer being moved, got stuck almost immediately. The ground was saturated from seeping water. The cabin was loaded on the trailer but the ground is too soft to move the trailer, even with a 18,000# loader.

The loader dragging the cabin, on trialer, out of the hole.

Now, with the cabin on the trailer, it will be moved about 300', taken off the trailer and parked on blocks until the beach improvments are made. Then, it will be loaded back on the trailer and moved back to it's original

location, on the new improved beach.

Once back in place, this cute, ratty-tatty historic fishing cabin will then need to be stabilized, repaired, and re-roofed. Then it can be re-purposed, given new life for hopefully another century's worth of shelter, allowing kayakers and beach lovers a chance to sleep on the beach!

Possession Point State Park, part of the Washington Water Trails association, has a grant to dig up everything in this picture and replace it with new, improved beach. A historic fishing cabin behind photographer is being moved by Harrison and many others to preserve a bit of history.

Harrison, on his birthday. The first one to the site and the last one off! Literally!

This fishing cabin owes it's life to Harrison and deserves a plaque that says as much. Without Harrison, this Possession Point cabin would have been demolished in the summer of 2011, during beach improvements. Thank you Harrison for working so hard to preserve our connection to the past. And, Happy Birthday!

GoTo YouTube, CabinTug.MOV, to see the possession point fishing cabin being loaded onto the trailer.

Video: Doing in Minutes what it took hours to do with all this hardware!

Video: Branches, damn the branches!

BP windmill, alternative energy with a history.

What was it for, who built it and when?

We asked these question as we considered the BP windmill for the first time. During an informal tour of some historic projects here on South Whidbey, Travis, Harrison and Brad looked at an old barn, a fishing shack, some amazing barns and chicken coups, an old block building named after a man beheaded in the 1800's, a winery, and the BP windmill.

Brad assessing the condition of the BP Windmill (Bush Point, WA)

Sitting in the trees, near the top of a knoll on a hillside that seeps water all summer long, is a Windmill. It's in a curious location, halfway up the incline between the point and the crest up by Smuggler's Cove Road. It's just south of the South Whidbey State Park where there's mostly forest, or now unforest, where suburbia and the country bump together. But what was if for?

 BP Windmill. Did it pump water or generate electricity? And why, or for who?

The BP (Bush Point) windmill has a simple, lightweight steel frame made mostly of galvanized angle iron tower that supports a well designed, simple and attractive windmill mechanism which likely came as parts in a small crate and was assembled on site. But why? How long has it been there? What was it for? There are no farms or ranches up nearby. And was it built in the trees, or has it been sitting there so long the trees have grown up around it?

BP windmill close up showing simple, utilitarian, and elegant design.

If anyone has information on the BP windmill like when it was built, the history of settlement at Bush Point, or information just about the windmill manufacture or information useful in determining if it's a restoration candidate, please contact brad@dbBrad, subject Windmill.

Windmill and Concrete Cistern above Bush Point

In the foreground is a board formed concrete water tank, about 6' deep with a baffle down the middle, but curiously not the center. Harrison got me thinking today on re-purposing historic buildings, and though they don't always seem to mesh together, are important for each other.

Brad Hankins and the BP Windmill

My future use fantasy for the BP windmill and cistern is to insulate the exterior, rebuild the roof but about 4' higher, and turn it into a two stage, wind powered hot tub/water catchment system. We'll see what happens, but if you know about the windmill, please contact me.