Spring in the San Juan Islands, WA

The path to the Garden Cafe.

Virginia has tucked little surprise pots of flowers throughout the Inn.

20 Plastic Things You Didn’t Know You Can Recycle

Bottle and jar caps: Weisenbach Recycled Products accepts clean plastic bottle caps, plastic jar caps, flip-top caps from personal care products and flexible snap-on lids (e.g. butter tub lids) to turn into funnels and other items. CapsCando.com

Brita pitcher filters: Preserve’s Gimme 5 program accepts Brita-brand pitcher filters for recycling. Visit preserveproducts.com/recycling to find a location or learn how to mail them in. Visit PreserveProducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html to find a location or learn how to mail them in.

Compostable bioplastics: Find a municipal composter at FindaComposter.com

Computers and other electronics: Find the most responsible recyclers near you at e-steward.org/find-a-recycler. Your local Best Buy store will also accept many types of electronics, large and small – from television and gaming systems to fans and alarm clocks. Beat Buy partners with responsible recyclers that do not ship items overseas, including Green Business Network™ member Electronic Recycles International. You can bring three small items per day to Best Buy for free. The comp[an charges a fee to recycle large electronics. BestBuy.com/recycling.

Eyeglasses: Your local Lions Club collects them for people in need.

Fishing line: Mail to Berkley Recycling, which turns it into fish habitat structures: 1900 18^th Street; Spirit Lake IA 51360.

Gift cards and customer loyalty cards: Fill out the form at www.earthworkssystem.com/Consumers/to recycle them. (Accepts conventional cards only, not bioplastic/compostable cards.)

Ink Cartridges: www.RecyclePlace.com pas $1 each and will recycle them (Also see #12 Technotrach.)

Pantyhose/tights: No Nonsense collects all brands of hose, tights, and knee-highs to be recycled into other products. NoNonsense.com/PantyhoseRecycling.aspx.

Plastic Packaging: Many pack-and-ship stores will take packing peanuts and bubble wrap. For drop-off locations for foam blocks, contact ht eAlliance of Foam Packaging Recyclers.

Polypropylene (#5) plastics (all types): Preserve’s Gimme 5 program accepts all types of clean #5 plastic, which iare turned into Preserve personal care and kitchen products. Drop them off in the “Gimme 5” container available at select Whole Foods and food co-ops. Visit PreserveProducts.com/recycling/gimme5.html to find a location or learn how to mail them in.

“Technotrach”: Organizations and schools can earn money for recycling ink cartridges and small electronics like cell phones and I-pods through ProjectKOPEG.com. Recycle a large box of CDs, DVDs, jewel cases, audio and video tapes, small electronics and ink cartridges for $30 (includes postage) through Green Disk, 800.305.3475, GreenDisk.com

Telephones: Call to Protect (donateaphone.com/calltoprotect) refurbishes cell phones for domestic violence victims. Take corded and cordless phones to a local Best Buy for recycling.

Sports Equipment: Resell or trade it at your local Play It Again Sports outlet, playitagainsports.com

Tennis balls: reBounces restores old tennis balls that have lost their bound. ReBounces.com/recycle.

Tennis shoes: NikeReuseAShoe.com turns them into athletic flooring. Soles4Souls.org and OneWorldRunning.com sends still-wearable shoes to runners in need in developing countries.

Toys: Domestic Metals and Plastics accepts plastic toys of all types for recycling. Dmpgreen.com.

Trophies: LambAwards will break your trophies down and remake them into new ones. Email internet@lambawards.com, and put “recycling” in the subject line.

Tyvek envelopes: Quantities less than 25: send to Tyvek Recycle, Attn. Shirley B Wright, 8401 Fort Darling Road, Richmond, VA 23237. More than 25: call 866/33-TYVEK.

Yoga Mats: RecycleYourMat.com accepts yoga mats for recycling.

Source: “20 Plastic Things You Didn’t Know You Could Recycle,” Green American, November/December, 2011, p.17.

Island Events – April and May 2012

April 5 – 29: “Someone Who’ll Watch Over Me” is the spring production by Island Stage Left. Plan to catch a performance of this powerful show that celebrates the resilience and the human spirit – “the profound faith in human happiness to triumph over despair.” Director Helen Machin-Smith reports “The audience last night howled with laughter and quietly teared up, so bring your sense of humor and a Kleenex from now until April 29th!”

Island Stage Left Spring Production: Someone Who'll Watch Over Me

This professional theatre company believes that everyone should be able to enjoy top quality plays, regardless of their financial status. All of their productions are free of charge to all islanders and visitors, though donations are certainly welcome. Island Stage Left rarely disappoints.

Playing Thursdays through Saturdays at 7:30, Sundays at 4:00, at the San Juan County Fairgrounds.

April 7 – Spring has finally arrived, in all her glory, and the San Juan Island Farmer’s Market begins Saturday, April 7^th at the Brickworks, right next to Coho Restaurant. Running every week through the summer from 10:00am – 1:00pm, the market features a colorful array of island goodness.

April 14 – Sea Shepherd Cove Guardian volunteer, Erwin Vermeulen and  Sea Shepherd’s Director of Intelligence and Investigations/Cove Guardian campaign leader Scott West will speak regarding Vermeulen’s 60-day imprisonment in a Japanese jail and landmark acquittal by a Japanese judge after being accused of “pushing” a Dolphin Resort employee while documenting the annual dolphin slaughter in Taiji, Japan.

Presentations are from 6:00-7:15pm at the Friday Harbor Grange, 152 First Street, immediately followed by “Meet and Greet” at the Sea Shepherd Gallery 7:15-9:00pm, 155 Nichols St. Reservations recommended, donations requested. See www.seashepherd.org/upclose for more information.

Inn Guests Frank and Marie Morley Lend a Hand in the 2011 Great Island Clean-Up

April 21 – The Great Island Clean-up organizers are at it again, mustering up volunteers to pick up litter on beaches and roads. Don’t for a moment think that all this litter comes just from islanders; besides what locals may toss, it washes up on beaches from distant shores far and near, and travels in with vehicles from off-island, creating an unsightly blight on the landscape and deadly consequences for the unsuspecting animals, birds, and marine life who ingest it.

Friends of the San Juans’ Jana Marks, who has been handling the beach clean-ups for the last 10 years, believes that overall, we are getting better, as she has seen slightly less litter than in past years. Her thought is that perhaps people all over the world are just getting better at managing their waste, and are more conscientious about picking up. Another factor is that boating standards have become stricter and she’s seeing less debris from docks such as chunk of Styrofoam. She also believes that more people are simply picking up trash that they see, rather than walking by it. Whatever it boils down to, as Jana says, “We are the problem, and we are the solution.”

The Great Island Clean-up is the day before Earth Day, Saturday, April 21, from 10:00 – 12:00. Volunteers wills attempt to clean all major county roads, beaches, and the Town. If you would like to turn your San Juan Island getaway into voluntourism, contact Stephanie@tuckerhouse.com for details. ”Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; try to use ordinary situations.” – Jean Paul Richter, German novelist.

April 22 – “Rabbit Tales” A fireside chat about the history of rabbits on San Juan Island from the 1930s to the 1970s. This will be a casual, informative and entertaining gathering of island families sharing stories about the bygone days with rabbits. Historian Boyd Pratt will present a slide show on the history of island rabbits and then moderate the story-sharing portion of the program. Please bring your rabbit tales to share, and any historic island rabbit-related photos or memorabilia.  3:00 – 5:00 pm at The Grange Hall, 152 North First Street.

Friday Harbor Labs Open House 2011. Photo By Shigeko Ooishi.

May 19: The annual Friday Harbor Labs Open House is where kids (and adults) get to tour the Labs, meets the scientists and students, and check out the reserach facilites. In other words, it’s a cool place for kids to get excited about marine life and the study of marine eco-systems.

From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., the Labs will be open for self-guided tours; scientists and students will showcase their marine science research, answer questions, and provide demonstrations. It’s a hands-on day for kids, and a great way to inspire budding scientists and naturalists. For more information, see their website: http://depts.washington.edu/fhl/events.html#openhouse

A Day At The Inn: Guest Becomes a Real Winner

The clean air and gorgeous surroundings of the islands beg visitors to get out and enjoy nature while they’re here. That may include whale watching, kayaking, bicycling, hiking, or even a leisurely sail. But one of our recent guests took that a bit further by enjoying the scenery while running the Run Ladies Run Half Marathon. Not only did Maron Resur run – she came in first place!

Maron Resur - First Place Winner!

You might think she had been training for years, but Maron tells us a different story, one to inspire even the staunchest couch potato. She ran cross country in high school, but “was really bad!” She picked it back up last July at age 32, and without the pressures of high school peers and competition, she simply found it fun to do.  With her maximum running distance at 2.5 miles, Maron enter her first half marathon in November, and couldn’t believe she could actually run that far! Her sense of accomplishment compelled her to run in the Vancouver and Bothell half marathons, and within seven months of starting to run simply to feel good, she became the first place winner of the race here on San Juan Island. Asked what was going through her mind during the race, she said “I couldn’t believe no one was ahead of me.”

Maron says it’s the air quality that made the difference in her performance. Raised in the Midwest, she feels the pollen and industrial dust contributed to her lackluster performance in high school. Here the air is much cleaner, and the encouraging organizers had the race route and aid stations set up very efficiently. “The people were SO nice!”

Running 13.1 miles in 1 hour and 50 minutes, “the worst girl on the cross country team” became a real winner on San Juan Island!

An Island Character

Sometimes small communities can produce some pretty outlandish “characters,” and like them or not, they become a part of the “flavor” of the island. But there’s one character here that casts a spell on pretty much everyone who meets her – she’s our beloved dromedary, Mona.

Mona - Photo Courtesy Kathleen Ballard

Actually, she doesn’t belong to us, she belongs to islander Steve King, who bought her after seeing an ad in Little Nickel, but she’s become a favorite of every island resident and visitor alike. And there’s the problem:

People want to show Mona how much they like her, and the only way they know how to do that is to feed her. But this winter, Mona developed a skin disorder, due in part to diet. Her caretaker, Gregory Scherzinger, suspects there are other factors at play with local wildlife, particularly deer. None-the-less, now that Mona’s hair is growing in again, we would like to caution all of Mona’s visitors to please use sense when giving Mona treats: nix the popcorn, hotdogs, potato chips, candy and all other junk food. According to Gregory, “She’ll pretty much eat anything (hats are a favorite grab) though she would only eat that if she was really hungry. As camels are grazers, good grass is what does best for her. She loves apples and potatoes, though I don’t feed her more than one or two apples when I do, as they have a lot of sugar in them and [are] not that great for her in quantities. Carrots are good.”

Gregory also cautions that Mona is very friendly, but “one should always be conscious of her. She is a big animal and has her own mind. If she doesn’t like something she can grab pretty hard with her mouth, so anyone feeding her or posing for a picture with their back turned while facing the camera needs to be aware and just pay attention.”

If you haven’t met Mona yet, she’s usually hanging out in the pasture on Roche Harbor Road across from San Juan Vineyards. Bring carrots!

You can visit Mona online, https://www.facebook.com/MonatheCamel. To read how she came to San Juan Island, see the San Juan Journal article http://www.sanjuanjournal.com/lifestyle/27133819.html