Our little piece of the Bella Coola Valley, outlined in yellow.
I was hoping to get an aerial shot of our place ever since logging on to Stonehead’s site and seeing the shot of their place (ok, so I don’t have an original thought in my head). It looked so cool, I just had to have one!
I phoned my friend and professional photographer, Mike Wigle (of the Fox and Grizzly photo fame) to see if he could do it and my timing couldn’t have been better. He had an assignment to go shoot the river system and was going to ask ‘the boys’ if they wouldn’t mind pausing over my wee farm for a few seconds while Mike addressed my request.
From this angle, it looks so small!
Since my place is not exactly a huge detour from their normal flight path, as you can see from the above photo, one could almost spit to the airport from my driveway–and my ducks have been known to visit on occasion. Thus it was not a huge ask, and Mike felt pretty certain he could talk them in to it. But I like to give credit where credit is due, and I am grateful for the effort made and consideration lent on their part. Thanks, chopper guys!
Yesterday Mike brought the photos over to me and when I asked what I owed him the conversation went something like this:
‘Those are great Mike. What do I owe you?’
‘Ah, well,’ he said, paused and then added a shrug for emphasis.
‘Well, I said I would buy them from you…’
‘Oh, I know but…well, gee…ah, it was nothing,’ and he rubbed his chin, looked away and changed the subject, stopping the conversation in its tracks.
I tried steering the conversation back to payment and he finally relented: ‘Well I do get hungry sometimes, and I know you have good food…you know, I wouldn’t mind trying those Ozette potatoes.’
Well, somebody’s been doing some reading. Food it is then. When you are not making a wage, being able to trade goods for services is quite a nice option.
Thanks Mike!
Here are a few more of his photos:
Our place is the top center part of the photo. The Ministry building is across the street (blue building), and the big field is the neighbour's. Our place starts from the straight row of young cedar trees behind the green roofed turkey barn and takes in the trees to the highway, top left.
To see more of Michael Wigle’s work, go to Jumping Mouse Studio. He does some amazing work with local wildlife!
Howling Duck Ranch 