In a Fog

Also, the weather is not predictable

Yes, I’m mighty proud of this swing set. It was a great deal of work, a great pile of money for lumber, but wow did the grand-kids go crazy when they saw it.

As you can see, it’s rainy and foggy today, the ground is muddy, and we still have low spots where puddles form. That strange hill in the background is actually our septic field. Yes, our effluent actually goes into the septic tank, then is pumped uphill to the field, above the high water level.

Heaven only knows how the old septic system worked for the preceding few decades…

We are now battling squirrels, or at least one squirrel. Our lovely pair of bird feeders are being annihilated on a daily basis. I know that they’re fine from the time that I get up, maybe 6:30, until bed, maybe 11:30. So sometime in the middle of the night, or maybe just at dawn, the evil squirrels arrive and empty the big square feeder on the right, and totally dismantle the round feeder on the left.

If the baffles don’t stop them the next step is to add a tall pole that hopefully they can’t climb. That, or buy a shotgun I guess…

We’ve built our first two raised garden beds. Growing our own food is critical around here, as the two local supermarkets have what is without argument the most pathetic produce that we’ve ever seen. (Although the fish counter is even worse.) (That’s another story, how a place that was literally built on fishing has managed to systematically wipe out pretty much every fish stock that can be sold. In France, five hours from the ocean you could choose from thirty or forty fish options in any town. In Liverpool, home to actual fish processing plants, you get sad looking salmon, or sad looking haddock, or maybe a lobster that has been in the Superstore tank for a week.)

We’ve been starting some seeds, apparently too early, but I have been keeping records of these things as we figure stuff out. And my box of herbs from Richter’s Herbs arrived this week, and wow, when I opened that up it hit me like a ton of bricks.

Over the last few weeks we’ve been spending a phenomenal amount of time in Halifax, a town which by any measure one of the least car-friendly street layouts I’ve ever seen. And yet there’s another thing about Halifax that really does stand out. Perhaps because of students, or perhaps because of all of the seafarers visiting the town, Halifax has a truly great pedestrian population. People walk everywhere. Lots of people.

What stands out though is that instead of building a city that embraces walkers and cyclists, Halifax goes in the other direction and builds everything around automobiles. The thousands of pedestrians have no choice but to take care of themselves, dodge the cars, and look (sometimes in vain) for the widely spaced crosswalks.

Of course as I write this Vancouver is preparing to rip bike lanes out of Stanley Park so that tourists in automobiles will never be slowed down by those damned bike riders.

I guess that at the end of the day global warming only counts of you don’t drive a car.

Yes, my new wheels. After a lot of research, and lot of time digging though Facebook ads, I had to conclude that a used lawn tractor didn’t make sense. For the fairly high prices you almost certainly would be buying something that had been run into the ground. It just made sense to bite the bullet and buy new. Admittedly I did go for the bottom of the line, and ordered an S-100. It arrives next week, not a day too soon. If you look at the photos above you can see that our grass has embraced the spring weather with enthusiasm.

Honestly I’m just as fond of the idea of wilding, and have a couple of lovely books on the subject, but with a trio of small grandchildren and a massive population of ticks - ask me how I know - it just feels prudent to keep the immediate area cut back as much as possible.

After living for many years on the North Shore of Vancouver I’d forgotten how amazing a real spring can be. Watching the buds form on all of the trees and bushes, then the leaves, and seeing all manner of plant life, wild life, and especially bird life emerge from the winter hibernation as been just stunning.

I mean, I hate to sound like a city kid, but just where do all of these creatures go over the winter??

And after many months of more or less staying inside, I find myself positively itching to get outdoors and start doing all manner of projects. Next is finishing up our decks, the better to hide the lids of the septic tanks, and then our compost bins. After that it will be time to start re-siding the barn.

Phew. I’m tired already.