OPEN FARM DAY

Yesterday many farms in Nova Scotia, PEI and New Brunswick opened their gates to non-farming visitors. This was our opportunity to see what happens on a working farm. Of course, it was a highly sanitised version, as it should be since many urbanites (and that includes villagites and townies and even hobby farmers to some extent) could probably not really appreciate the messy aspects of the work on a farm.

The bio-farm, run by Germans, was overrun with vehicles. I counted 30, so I gave it a pass. I went to our local venison farm, and enjoyed the wander around. The deer, of course, ran away and ducked down behind tufts when I tried to snap their picture. I attached it anyway...a typical animal shot. But, it was an interesting operation, and one that could easily support a couple or maybe three other farms in the area. If I was younger, that would be my choice of farm.

WOOD STACKING

Wood stacking is an autumn ritual in rural Canada. We ordered 4 cords of wood, cut and split. It arrived while I was at work, so I cam home to find two piles of wood on the side of the yard where our wood was delivered last year. This is the opposite side of the yard to the wood shed. A small problem. I telephoned some friends, and asked if their sons would help with the stacking. No problem, they said. So, I collected two teenage boys, and the wood stacking began.

The going rate (my students tell me) is $25 per cord. I reckoned it would take about 5 hours of work, so the two boys would get paid about $10 per hour, which is quite good wages. It was longer – they worked for about 6 hours, so they didn’t get paid such a lofty sum, but they said they were happy with their wages. They hauled, and I stacked.

Once we got into the routine, it went quite quickly. That pile of wood looked huge until suddenly it was all over. I seem to remember it like that from previous years. It seems to be a never-ending task, and then suddenly we are stacking the last wheelbarrow load. It’s done now.

The wood is stacked in the wood shed (2 cords),

in a row next to the lilac bushes,

and up on the north side of my art shed.

I had to stop that pile because Philip was pushing the wood against the wall of the shed, and this is not good, since the bugs that wander in and through the stacked wood would take the opportunity to get into the walls of my art shed. So, that pile is not the height it should be, but it will be fine. The solution was to create a small pile beside Phiri’s kennel.

The wood must now sit for a year Last year’s delivery will be burned this year.

Catriona and Devin are off on their adventure to South Korea. First point of departure...the Digby bus station. From here to there...and points beyond... it has begun, at last!

Bangor, Nova Scotia

In Bangor, Nova Scotia, there is an old sawmill. It runs only for demonstration purposes during part of the summer. It was not open when we stopped to see it, on Thursday. However, our snapshots follow:

Drive to Victory

Victory is a nearly deserted hamlet in the middle of our part of Nova Scotia. Catriona and I decided to go for a drive to Victory. The road is quite a rough road, in parts, and it gets increasinly rough going, but certainly not impossible, as it gets closer to Victory.

Catriona pondered how those old logs got there.

We reckon they are left over from when the road was cleared. They are certainly quite old logs, large, covered with moss and looking nearly half decayed from lying on the side of the road for a long time.

All along the road, and sometimes nearly touching the road, were huge boulders. Often the vegetation was growing so closely to the rocks that it was difficult to actually ascertain their full size until we got out to look at them.

Down one logging road, we saw this tree, pushed over by the wind, we presume. There was a large rock underneath it, so it may well have been unstable due to growing over a rock, and therefore the roots had not enough depth to truly anchor the tree. At any rate, Catriona and Phiri went to have a closer look.

And then Catriona crawled back out, dusted off her hands, and proclaimed it a very interesting item. When we returned home, Nigel reminded us that bears often make their homes under such overturned trees. As Catriona said, "It's a good thing that it wasn't home, then, because I was right underneath." Indeed it is.

Another frequent sight along the road was this type of landscape - a small brook running near the road edge, or underneath the road. Often deciduous trees lined the bank of the brook, and a clearing could be seen in the background.

Sometimes there was a lake in the background.

There were several blueberry fields along the roadside. They all had huge boulders scattered through them, like giants were playing marbles. And each field had "no trespassing" and "no picking blueberries" signs at the roadside.

Another landscape that we saw often was clear-cut. This is when all the trees in an area are cut, and some are removed for sale, while others are left as litter on the ground, where they eventually rot.

And the final landscape was this typical sprucebog.

The trees have died, and a marshy land has grown up around them. It eventually fills in with reeds and rushes, and small cranberry or blueberry bushes.

An amusing sight for us was this survey marker - old boots used to mark the stake.

Catriona tried to look inconspicuous while I snapped pictures. Amazingly, we had very little mud spattered on the car when we popped out onto the tar road just south of Milford.

on

Hurricane Bill

Hurricane Bill travelled about 75 km off the southern coast of Nova Scotia. By the time it reached our province, it was a category 1 hurricane, which is substantial enough, but less than the weather forecasters had predicted. Thankfully, it was offshore. That meant that our villages and towns on that side of the province experienced high waves, and strong winds. There was some destruction, of course, but it was minimal. There was some foolishness too, with young persons playing in the waves, but they were regularly warned and monitored by the Mounties. On our side of the province, in our sheltered Annapolis Basin, we had medium winds and steady but gentle rain only. This is defniitely the biggest benefit we derive from living in Smith’s Cove. We can see the weather out in the Bay of Fundy, but it rarely decides to take a detour into the Basin. We stayed inside, of course, and I used my funny little camera to capture a few moments of the storm, from the front window, and from the back door.

After a spluttering and stalled start, the next stage for Catriona and Devin can finally begin. On September 1, they shall fly out of Halifax, bound for South Korea, with a brief stopover in Toronto to visit relatives there, and in western Ontario.

Much as we have enjoyed having them live with us, we are pleased that they are finally making that step towards an adventure. It is long overdue.