Will edit this later and add more of the Eagles Tail. Bowled in am then went to the horse races with two other couples. Nice afternoon,broke even on my two dollar betting after first 7 races then lost $ 6 on last race. Went out for dinner on the way home, a nice day and the weather was great. No wind this morning so maybe the warm air is stabilizing things.
Was pleased to read in my newspaper app that the town of Vanderhoof passed a referendum to borrow money for a swimming pool. I know that Steve worked hard on this. Thumbs up!!
Back with the edit and it's Tale not Tail, tsk, tsk.

Chapter 2.

 

One day, my next generation of ancestors were amazed to see a strange sight approaching from the south, at first it appeared to be a white cloud tethered to a giant canoe.  A second look revealed it was indeed a large canoe but the beings upon it had harnessed the wind and had caused the wind to propel them along over the waters.  Our world would soon change but we knew it not.

My ancestors noted that while the men we had always known were the color of the forest floor and these new ones were of a different hue and wore wrappings on their bodies, they too were men.  And in time it would matter not their color for beneath their skin they were the same.

In the succeeding years we came to realize that our world had indeed changed and that change was ongoing as it is to this day.

Man became an enemy, not to just my brethren and I, but to most of the cousins and species with which we had lived in harmony.  Because of the wastefulness of man, scavengers increased and they competed for our food.  Because of the wantonness of man, they killed my brethren and my cousins.  But we adapted, we grew wary and we survived.  But the world continued to change.

The wind canoes were replaced with larger canoes that belched smoke, ash and soot.  With them came more men and the world changed even more.

During these years, there was other change.   All signs of the giant earth slide disappeared, the land healed as did the beaches and the water of the sound.  The muddy deposits in the deepest depths became breeding grounds and home to a myriad of ocean species.  Shrimp, prawn, eels, small fish and octopus became established and thrived.  In the shallower areas, in bays protected by rocks a huge variety of shellfish found shelter, where conditions were not perfect, they adapted.  These bays also became a haven for a dozen variety of rockfish and other fish.  Some of the bays caught the drifting seed of eel grass, kelp and a host of other ocean plant life and so crabs, herring, flounders, bull heads and many more found a habitat for reproduction and life.

The forest around my family’s tree changed as well.  The nurse crop disappeared, surviving here and there where nature’s forces would cause a tree to fall or in an opening along the shoreline.  The ratio of tree species gradually changed, with those species that thrived under the shade of others becoming dominant in numbers if not in size.

As we ranged over our ocean waters and spears of land, we also observed here and there where the trees were beginning to be removed, often burned and the erection of shelters for man were appearing.  It was to these areas that the scavengers also found shelter and food and so eased our competition for food that was ours by right.

The years passed the world continued to change and we – all of us- continued to adapt, to the changes and to each other.

 

Chapter 3

 

During the time my grand parents lived in our aerie, there was a short time when there was a close visitation by man.  Over the many years past, man had come upon our beaches and passed by our tree but had never stayed, their visits were transient.  One day, not long after the herring had come and gone a large canoe blowing smoke and carrying wind catchers dropped anchor just beyond the “rock like a turtle”.  A smaller canoe was lowered over the side and a small group of men came ashore, the small canoe went back and forth several times and soon along with the men there was a mound of supplies piled on our beach.  The large canoe up anchored and steamed away leaving the men and small canoe behind.   The group of men made their way almost to the very base of our tree and proceeded to make a small clearing beneath the other trees that surrounded ours.

Never before in all our history had we had men this close and to have them so close to our home was a very disturbing factor to my grandparents.  However the men appeared to be unaware of the presence of the nest so high above them and continued with their activities and did not cause any further alarm.  These men, erected shelters of the same material as the wind catchers and then day after day followed a repetitious pattern of going out each morning and creating straight lines from south to north then to east to west and wounding the trees along these lines with a sharp instrument.  Whenever they encountered a small tree in their path, they would cut it down.  This activity carried on until the salmon returned to the rivers in the fall.  Then one morning the canoe was launched and the men sailed off to the southwest.  During the remaining years of my grandparents tenancy their lives carried on as before the coming of the men to our tree.