Feb 28 2010

Today Ron Croda and Mike delivered the trailer and did a great job positioning it and levelling it. The ground was still wet from the rain and traction was a problem for Ron's two whell drive truck. Luckily Mike brought his 4 wheel drive along which we used several times to pull Ron's truck into position for the next jog of the positioning manoeuvres. It was a two hour job but now I have my temporary residence in situ. Running power to it is a simple matter of a long extension cord from the power shed. Water is a bit more of a challenge although the trailer is only a few feet from the well there is as yet no pump in the well. Meanwhile I can manage by pouring water from containers into the tank. The trailer has its own hot water system, fridge, stove, stereo, heater etc etc.

Here is the trailer seen from the south gate on Hague Rd. The actual gate leaning against the tree is not yet functional. Hopefully I can get it installed tomorrow.
A view of the inside looking through the "living room" to the kitchen. It's all nice and clean and pretty much everything works. The decor is definbitely 70s but hey, it's very liveable for now.

In summer, I will build a deck in front and have an outdoor living area under the canopy that comes with the unit.

Saturday Feb 27th.
This is the electrical shed at the entrance to our property as it looked a week ago. The door lying on the ground has now been replaced. The broken glass cleaned up and plastic put on the window. More importantly, Ted Hansen, the electrician came over today and took a look at the connection, the breaker panel and the shed. He pronounced it all good and useable for our immediate needs which are power to the well pump, power to the trailer and power for construction. This is a big relief because any electrical work is expensive and a new connection costs $3500. Yeah!

After meeting with Ted, Tasha and her daughter Bella paid a visit to look at the garden. They live close by so they walked over. Bella is 5 years old and very bright eyed. Tasha is a professional gardener and landscaper witth clients all over the island. She would love to garden on our land but feels she can't invest a lot of time, energy and money into building fences and preparing the land. So I realized that this year will be about just that. We will repair useable fences and build new ones. We will get someone in with a rototiller to turn the soil and then, on Tasha's suggestion, mulch the heck out of it with cardboard, straw or whatever. Then we'll leave it until next year to start a garden. At which point she is very keen to get involved.

After saying goodbye to Tasha and Bella, I drove over to the Jim and Diane Henschel's place on Taka Mika Way. Their house overlooks the entrance to Manson's Lagoon and is in an absolutely gorgeous spot. They had invited me for a simple lunch and we enjoyed a very happy hour together. Their house has many of the features and ideas that we are looking at incorporating into our place... open plan with kitchen, living and dining areas all in one big open area centered around a wood stove. Their "big room" looks out onto a big covered porch with skylights and a lovely post and beam chunky feeling. Inside they have used beach logs and rough cut wood extensively yet the space has a very nice "finished" look to it. Upstairs is a big multi-purpose room with skylights, a separate bathroom and extra storage under the eaves.

Di also showed me their guest "cabin" which is closer to the water on a rock bluff with a view to die for. It's a beautiful space with a bedroom entrance I must photograph and post here.

Moving on, my next stop was Good Libations where Doug had saved me a sample of their Malbec which I am sipping as I write. Very good. I think I'll go back on Monday and put a batch down.

I then drove over to Squirrel Cove for gas and some plastic to cover the window on the electrical shed. Went back and installed the plastic and then came "home" to David and Annie's place. Another very enjoyable day.

This is a photo of Monika and her daughter Rose whom I met at the Cortes Weekly Market where Monika was selling her beautiful handcrafted dream catchers. In talking with her she told me she and her partner Benoit are developing gardens on Cortes on other people's land... and I told her we could be a candidate for their services. It felt like a significant meeting so I'll be interested to see what transpires. Meanwhile, I have invited them to take a look at Mae's garden and let me know what they think. By the way, Monika and Benoit have 6 kids, Rose is the baby!

At the market I also met Sean who runs Cortes Radio and gave him a copy of my CD. He's a super friendly guy, knows David well and invited me to do a live show sometime.

Robbie Graham was also there, selling his salmon. He told me a bit more about when he used to fish in Blackfish Sound with Billie Proctor and how Billie was always ready to share his knowledge witth other less experienced fishermen.

This morning I met with Esther who works for Rogers Wireless to test the reception at our property. Zip, no reception. However, it was raining and she could only test in a dry spot (the horse barn). She says she'll come back on a dry day and test the rest of the property.

After lunch at the cafe I drove down Sutil Point to visit Good Libations, the island's U-brew store. Doug the owner was very friendly and let me sample one his red wines, an Italian one whose naame I did not recognise. For home brew it was pretty good. Tomorrow he says he'll keep a sample of his Malbec for me to try. If I lay down a batch it will end up costing about $5 a bottle, for 30 bottles.

I also dropped in on Steve Ringwood to see if he has a spot at his dock for Gwyenth. But he was not home.

Thursday Feb 25th

What a glorious day! I woke to bright sunshine and a fresh breeze and that's how it has stayed. After breakfast I met Bruce Ellingsen at the property and he cleared up a few questions I had, mostly about the exact location of the western property line. He also told me his mom gardened there for 50 years! She planted the walnut trees as seedlings and they are now sizeable mature trees. After Bruce left I did some more brush cutting and measuring to figure out where to put the house. The picture at right shows the location I think will work best. To the right of the horse barn you can see the westernmost of the six walnut trees. To clear its branches I figure the centre post of the barn will be the right hand edge of the house/deck. To the left of the barn you can see three white alder trees which I think will have to go as the left hand tree marks the other edge of the house site.

After a break, I focused on marking the property line with some yellow poly rope I bought at the Squirrel Cove general store. In the process I was scrambing over, under and around all kinds of undergrowth, fallen trees, low branches etc. (You'll understand why I mention this a bit later.)
Feeling peckish I drove over to Mansons only to find the cafe closed. So I went across the street to the Food Coop and was once again blown away by what a beautiful store it has become. I decided to become a member and was happily signed up by Norleen.
On my way back to the site I realized I did not have my new sunglasses in their usual perch on my cap. Thinking back to all the scrambling around I had been doing and all the possible places I could have lost them I was not optimistic about finding them. However, I decided to give it a go. Parking the truck I walked across the field to where I had tied the south end of the marker rope. I looked around. No sign. Then I turned around and lo, there they were! I thanked my intuitive faculties, spirit guides etc for a major win!


I then walked down Kwas Road to Kwas Bay, the little public access point to Hague Lake. This is the view from the canoe launch spot.

So that was my day. Tomorrow I hope to meet with a lady who tests cell phone and wireless internet reception to see how we farein this regard and what our options might be.

Today, Feb 24th, Robbie Graham came over and cleared a spot for the trailer. He is 76 years young. A commercial fisherman, sawmill operator, excavator and more. As well as clearing the site for the trailer I had him take out a whole lot of brambles and scrub trees.

We both ate lunch at the Mansons Hall cafe where he introduced me to Jim Kierney (sp) who like me, used to work at Cold Mountain. Nice guy.

At the end of the day the sun came out and our land looked beautiful. I'm beginning to get a sense of where the house could sit. I think the workshop might be close to the road, maybe near the trailer, which would minimize any noise "bleed" to the house when I'm using power tools. Today I also fixed the gates at the driveway entrance. And Robbie unearthed a metal gate that could be used for the southern driveway.


The southern driveway after Robbie's clearing.












Looking north across the new trailer site.

Yesterday I arrived on Cortes and briefly stopped at Mae's Garden, just as the light was fading. I noticed some alder trees that looked like recent windfalls. Today i spent a few hours there doing some brush cutting and fixing the doors on the tool shed.

I Also visited with Ron Croda who livesw at the south end of Gorge Harbour , perched high on a bluff where he has built a beautiful off the grid house complete with micro-hydro electric and solar power generation. The trailer is in great shape and very comfortable.

Ron also suggested I talk to Robbie Graham about clearing the site where we will put the trailer. So I called him up and described the project to him. I then asked him if he thought he would be interested in doing it. He said "yes". I then asked him if we could meet at the site.
"When do you want to meet." asked Robbie.
"ASAP". I replied, "I'm only here for a few days and I'd love to get this trailer moved here."
"Well how about 15 or 20 minutes," says Robbie.
"I'll see you then," says I.

So we met at the site and we looked at various options for backing the trailer onto the property and into the site. And once we had figured all that our we just talked. Turns out he is also a fisherman who knows and used to fish with Billie Proctor who we met in Echo Bay when we first went up to the Broughtons a few years ago. Billie is a legend. He has fished, logged and lived on this coast all his life. He is an ardent envionmentalist and close friend of Alexandra Morton who has to be the bravest person I know. It was Billie who told me precisely when and how to cross Narwhitti Bar coming our of Bull Harbour. Billie who has his own private museum in Echo Bay where he quietly subverts the minds of tourists by showing them the human side of being a fisherman, belonging to a trade union, having to strike to get the attention of the money men who don't care about real working people, only about money and who now buy or charter fancy boats and come up to exotic places like Echo Bay where who do they meet but Billie Proctor!

So Robbie says, "Let me think when I could come and do this work." ....... "Yup, I think I can come tomorrow,"

Good tip Ron!

Tonight I had dinner with my friend Martha with whom I enjoyed some great laughs about aging, Buddhism, drinking and Life. I think it's the first time in my life I have been invited to meditate before eating.

Martha taught me to value the last grain of rice as much as the rest... a great life lesson.