Mike – Page 2 – Webgardener Mike's Blog

Baby, It’s COLD Out There!

Thermometer this morning at 7 AM

Forgive my rant.

Soo here’s the wet coast guy, “Come From Away”, telling the Kingsbrae gardeners all about working through the winter. They don’t get me, and I don’t get them, saying they want to have their feet up by the fire.
No WONDER they gave me these strange, pitying looks. They’ve lived here all their lives.

We lived a bit north of the 49th parallel and here we are just north of the 45th!! How cold can it get?? So it gets a bit chilly! Deal with it!

Ahuh.

Well, now we know a little better.

We have a whole new appreciation for the term cold now, living here. At least I do… Marie has lived in really cold places in her adulthood. I don’t remember the cold from when my family lived on the prairies when I was a child. Probably blocked out the memory.

Here’s another rub: When we situated our home here, we put it at the top of the property. Awesome views. Spectacular sunsets. Nice, cooling breeze, keeps the heat down in the summer……..
Oh, did I mention the Nice Cooling Breeze? Keeps the heat down in the winter too! Roars around the trailer, parked beside the house, partly as a windbreak……at the WRONG side of the house, as it turns out! Next winter, it is not gonna be parked in the RV parking spot!

I’ve been down on the lower part of the property when it was kind of cool and breezy at the house. This was at the NORTH end of the property. I had to take off a layer of sweater to keep from overheating. It was sheltered and pleasant down there.

Of course, we have our well and septic field on the top of the hill. It would cost us another $18,000 to install another well and septic field at the bottom of the hill. HMM. Guess we won’t be moving house down there for a while, even though this is a “moveable” house.

Adding to this, is the following: At the top of our hill, we can watch the sun shine DOWN onto the lower portion of the land, a good hour or more before it even starts to touch our house. So much for Solar Gain first thing in the morning. The sun does shine on the house longer in the afternoon, so it partly makes up for this oversight. Down below, the sun sets a lot earlier too……I guess you just. can’t. win..

Now we better understand significance of the question, “Why EVER would you want to move HERE??”

I guess we will be buying snowshoes some time soon. That way we can walk around and see the various animal tracks in the snow before they blow away or get snowed on again, and not sink into the snow up to our knees or beyond and fill our boots with snow.

The Sun, the Golden Sun!

Sitting here in the afternoon, basking in the warmth of the sun that has been shining into our living room, while it is -10C outside, got me thinking. AGAIN. This is getting dangerous, this thinking!

Solar energy is such a wonderful thing that needs to be further harnessed in the winter while it is available……..Or isn’t it all solar energy?
On a cold day, the electricity heats our place. Others use heating oil. We are planning to install a wood stove soon to curtail the use of our electric heaters. What is it all but stored solar energy?
Think about it. The trees capture solar energy through photosynthesis and store it. We dry the cut trees –in that same sun– then, burn them to release the energy stored within.
The heating oil, drawn from the ground, was at some point in the distant past, produced by the influence of the same sun, storing its energy.
The electricity, however it is produced, is originally a product of –solar energy.
Even the materials that produce power from nuclear energy were originally formed in a nuclear fusion reaction, where, but in either our sun or another star that had the potential for making them.
We humans have developed the ability to make all that energy more readily, conveniently, and cleanly available to more people, at a cost.
We lament not being able to use the sun’s energy directly. But we are, we all are! It’s just how we do it and how much money it costs us. This doesn’t mean to stop trying to devise other, simpler ways of capturing the energy produced by the sun. It’s just that nature has already dealt with the problem for many eons and has perfected mass storage systems.

White-Out, and not the Office kind!

Here we are, experiencing our third white-out style blizzard so far this winter, in between several more normal snowfalls. I have been out shoveling the snow, playing with some snow fencing to learn what it does and how it directs the snow. Right by the front door, we have some “Bow Wave” drifts where the wind called a “Nor-Easter” hits the house first. I have moved some of these around a bit, and have cut through to make access, and also to attempt to redirect the snow. Interesting. It’s all light and fluffy and dry, not like our We(s)t coast slop.
Thinking about Spring, a lot. A couple of months ago, we had someone come by and offer to “Help us with the Blueberries” for 10% of the take from the harvest. “So..what do you mean by Help?” — “Mow, clean up, spray and harvest them” — “Just a second, you lost me at spray!” — “We need to control the weeds for mechanical harvesting and the bugs for quality” — Just what the other guys were telling us too…. Tests were done, apparently, that the pesticides did not go into the ground water…..I’m still not convinced.
Well, I explained to the gentlemen that I had done more than my share of pesticide application in my career as a City Gardener, and I really didn’t want to continue. Anybody bringing pesticides onto our land is in trespass. Wild Lowbush Blueberries
So we agreed to disagree. He indicated, likely in a form of “Sour Grapes–err–Blueberries” that an operation the size of ours didn’t really need mechanical harvesting anyway. I indicated that I was contemplating going organic, and he agreed that it might be a good thing, again, in such a small operation. He owns the field behind ours. That used to be part of the same property we are on, but was sold in 2007. I would so like to buy it back! But $13,500 is more money than we can bring to bear right now. Bills need to be paid first.
Life goes on.

January 2011—-Depths of Winter

Winter is much colder here than on Vancouver Island, even though we are 4 degrees latitude farther south. We have had snow on the ground since early December, actually since the week Marie had gone to Nanaimo after her sister Cathe’s unfortunate death. Except for the couple of days when we had the huge rainfall and flooding in the area here.
Mercifully, we do get more sunshine than on the Island, so that brightens it up.

Sunrises are not bad, but they are hidden behind a hill from our place. Sunsets, on the other hand, are truly spectacular.
We had a “Sun Spike” sunset a few days ago. Hadn’t seen that before.

Breathtaking! Apparently, this occurs when ice crystals in the atmosphere reflect the sunset light upwards into the almost flame-shaped spike.
Our hens seem to be doing well in their henhouse. Clucking and crooning, and laying eggs. They are 6, and they lay between 3 and 5 eggs a day. Some days, they even lay 6 eggs. Keeps us going, and they have paid for their feed now since we got them in mid-December.
The henhouse is build out of recycled pallets, new plywood and OSB strandboard. The walls and roof are closed in with plastic tarp and Particle Board Sandpaper Belting.. Makes for a good, solid and effective house. We light up the inside with an incandescent (GASP! How Old School!) light bulb from 7 AM until 9 PM. We need to change out their water 3 times a day at least so they can drink. We usually give them warm water so it lasts longer before it freezes again. Besides, they like it when it’s warm.
We are thinking a lot about the next growing season and what we are going to plant and grow, and where on our land we will do this.
We have been walking around and “surveying” to see where we want to make more trails, where to clear, and where to build bridges across our creek and “pond”. Bits of orange ribbon are beginning to appear all over trees on the place.
Time is stretching out…watching Star Trek TOS reruns on DVD, and Mythbusters on Netflix. HMM.

Work at Kingsbrae is scarce due to the weather and the money is getting scarce at the end of the month…
This too shall pass. The first winter is the most challenging.

October 31 part 2

Well that certainly was an adventure! We took the “Shortcut” to Fosterville from here, then the long way back. The bush road, number 630, was very rough. So rough in fact, that somebody spray-painted some of the bigger rocks protruding from the road surface with orange spray paint to make them more visible!! Never seen that before!
We had a very pleasant visit with Sarah, her husband Len, and their daughters Rachel and Jessica. Our Jessica fit right in with the girls. She has a few things in common with them, former Nanaimo girl, transplanted out into the deep country, having to take the school bus every day. Sarah and Len fed us a nice lunch and we had some good conversation and a few laughs.
They live in Fosterville, NB which is in Lake and Cottage country about 30 KM from the Number 2 Highway between the NB/Quebec Border near Edmundston and Fredericton. Their exit is about 75 KM west of Freddy. It is quite rural, but they have a fairly tight-knit community of year-round residents, which is supplemented in the summer by cottagers from the City.
Sarah’s family bought a 25-acre farm and have dibbs on a neighbouring property to expand their “operation”. They have plans to farm organically there.
They moved out from Nanaimo in the summer this year after their girls were done with school.
Their trip was as also marked with vehicle breakdowns and other adventures, similar to ours.

As I was saying, the trip put to their place was quite rough and bumpy. Our backs were starting to hurt from all the shaking. It was hard on the truck too.
On the way back, we too the long way, along the #2 highway, then the #3 to St. Stephen. It took about the same length of time, even though it was literally 100 kilometers longer on this route. All things are trade-offs. Less fuel consumption versus less wear and tear on bodies, both human and vehicle. Hmm.

October 31/10 First Snow Dusting

So here we are, October 31, Hallowe’en and we woke up to a sugar dusting of snow out there. Not the first time I’ve seen snow this early. In Nanaimo, in 1986 I think it was, Hallowe’en was a brilliant, sunny day not a cloud in the sky. and the next morning we had over 30 cm of snow. I was driving a Stretch Ford 3/4 ton Van at the time, and had ben hauling firewood in it. I thought the suspension had broken, the way it wallowed around on the road. I realized later that it had the snow on the entire length, 17 feet times 6 feet times 1 foot on the roof, so it was quite top-heavy! Lucky I didn’t flip it over.
Anyway, that’s my one “Ancient History” story for this posting.
At Kingsbrae Garden, we’ve been busy putting things “to bed” and putting up storm windows and storm doors on the house/Cafe. A lot of this is different work to what I’m used to doing in Nanaimo, I gardened, and the Utility Crew did all that kind of work.
Weather permitting, I will be showing a Grade 3 class from the elementary school in St. Andrews about compost. They learn about this in school, then they get to do a “field trip” to see how real compost is made. Cool!
Up here on the Ridge, we don’t have a lot of things to put to bed yet this year. The garden crops are done now.
We discovered a company that uses plexiglass to make various plastic products including windows and skylights. They bring the sheets of Lexanin on huge pallets, 6 feet by 10 feet. These make a great base and walls for sheds. We are buying a handful of them to start building outbuildings here on our land. We need housing for the chickens we want to keep, and tool sheds and and and….
We are going to go visit a family today that moved from Nanaimo in the early part of the year, just as we did, and settled in Fosterville, about 100 or so KM northwest of us here. I knew the woman in Nanaimo, through my volunteer activity with the Central Vancouver Island botanical Garden Society, and hers with the Vancouver Island Exhibition. They also had quite an adventurous trip across the country, complete with vehicle breakdowns. Funny how that works.
Oh and yesterday we drove to Fredd’icton (Fredericton in NB talk) and found the Boyce Farmer’s Market downtown. This market is open Saturdays from 6 AM to 1 PM We arrived just after noon, in the lunch rush. It was quite crowded, but it looks like a really nice place. Some prices are a bit high, but the produce is fresh off the farm.

Fall 2010, October 20

Fall is in the air and a lot has happened since my last posting in the summer. Our house is in place and sheltering us nicely from the sometimes heavy rains and very blustery winds up here on St. David ridge. Recently, I cut another significant tie to BC. My ICBC insurance expired and now I have NB plates on my truck. A bittersweet day.

And then there’s Kingsbrae Garden. After the initial job offer advertisement I read in the newspaper, I applied for a job there. They did not respond to my e-mailed cover letter and resume. After almost a month, I e-mailed them, asking if they had even received my application. Next day, I received a very embarassed-sounding e-mail back, saying that they had been busy and that the job was filled, apply again in Spring. Three weeks after that, Another e-mail arrived in my inbox on a Friday afternoon. Due to a change in circumstances, they were taking applications again. They had taken the liberty of slotting me in for 10 AM on the following Tuesday. Was I still available? I replied that I was and was looking forward to seeing them then. The interview went well, Andreas, the manager and Bob, the assistant manager were the “committee”. Next morning, Wednesday, at 8:10 AM I got a phone call, asking if I would start the next day , Thursday, August 20. Well, that was easy.

So I’ve joined to the ranks of the semi-retired, working on average 3 days a week. In the winter season, after November 5, I will be working 1 or 2 days a week. The garden closed officially to the public on October 9, but does still allow visitors, if they are willing to brave the hustle and bustle of putting the garden to bed.

My workmates are all pretty good people, like to work there, but also like to have their winters off on EI. Different sort of lifestyle. It’s all about getting enough hours to qualify, then it is a kind of happy atmosphere as the cutoff days come close.

The Garden is an interesting place. It was originally conceived in 1996, the same year that the Central Vancouver Island Botanical Garden Society was formed, with a very similar aim. Construction began in early 1997 and was completed in late 1998. It is comprised of several themed, formal and informal gardens. It shows how you can make an extraordinary place with a lot of normal garden plants, with relatively few exotics. Part of the reason is of course, the cold climate zone. This is at around 5 here, with some warmer pockets in Saint Andrews, where the garden is situated.

All in all, I like working there, “Keeps me off the streets, not like my last job!”

There are several alpacas, some goats, chickens and peacocks as part of the displays here. Also, there are 2 resident cats and 2 resident dogs. The cats have the run of the place and often greet visitors. the dogs are confined to the Works yard by a buried wire system

One dog, Bubba, is quite old and some days doesn’t feel the shock of the collar and ventures out. This makes for a cute, interesting situation on some days. There are also resident foxes in the garden. On fox apparently likes to play a “chase me” game with old Bubba. He is seen running up a pathway with Bubba in “hot” pursuit.
When Foxy gets too far ahead, he stops and waits for Bubba to catch up a bit so they can resume the chase. Guess they probably know each other on a first-name basis, and the fox knows he’s pretty safe doing this.

Blueberries

So you think you know about blueberries? They come in a box during the fresh season, or frozen in a bag. You can get them cooked into muffins and pies, or as juice. Apparently they are the new super food. What could be so special about them? You go out into a field, pick them, sell them, and that’s that, right?
Much more to it than that!
Blueberries are a pretty big deal here in the Maritimes and in Maine. The majority of North America’s blueberry production happens here. Some happens in Ontario. I’ve even seen blueberry bushes planted in fields in the Fraser Valley outside of Vancouver, where strawberries, broccoli and other crops were planted previously over the years.
Most of the plantings in our area here are the lowbush, or “wild” types. Now, how did wild blueberries come to be in major field production, you ask? Well, let me give you a thumbnail sketch!
Blueberries grow wild in the forests. They are best suited for growth on land that is not good for too much of any other kind of agriculture. They can be allowed to grow on old, impoverished fields, or the areas where they grow need be logged, cleared, and otherwise prepared for their culture. It is a three-to-five-year proposition to start a new “Blueberry Ground” Many families out here have had land for generations, so they own it outright and don’t need to worry about land payments other than taxes, which are negligible. This makes the process a viable proposition.
The soil has to be quite acidic and lime should never be added, since that will kill the blueberries.

Once the land is in production, most growers grow their crops in a two-year succession, with the occasional third –second year in production–year added to the cycle. After a crop year in the fall, they burn the blueberries to get rid of the old stalks and kill off pests and disease organisms. This is done with oil or propane torches, and requires fireguards and permits, even in rural areas. Some farmers now mow the bushes down with flail mowers. More on this later. Either way, the old stalks are gotten rid of and the plants can regenerate from rhizomes underground. In the year following, they are allowed to regrow, and are not very productive in any case.

The fields that were mowed, are sprayed with insecticide and fungicide to keep the pests and diseases at a low level. The burned fields need less chemical input.

Some farmers spray a grass retardant on the fields during the regeneration year so the berries don’t have as much competition from grasses. Also makes the berries easier to harvest. Tree saplings that try to establish themselves are eliminated with targeted applications of Roundup.

In the following spring, growers bring beehives on to their land to help pollinate their crops. The fields are fertilized to enhance growth and berry size. A well-kept field looks almost like a nice lawn. At least from a distance.

The crop ripens in August. The big open fields are harvested with a mechanical picker. Smaller fields, or fields with a lot of rocks or other obstructions are still harvested by hand. Pickers use a “blueberry rake” to scoop the berries off the plants and into buckets or crates.

One big difference between harvesting highbush and lowbush blueberries is that the lowbush are all picked at the same time, when most of the berries are ripe. The highbush berries, especially ones for “U-Pick” farms, are picked over several times as the flushes of berries ripen. This makes mechanical picking less attractive.

People out here value their land, and especially their blueberries, greatly and speak of them with great reverence. Problem is, so many new people have begun to jump on the bandwagon to produce the “Super-food” that the market is suffering now. Prices dropped from $1.10 per pound in 2007 to around 35 to 39 cents per pound last year. Growers can’t cover the cost of production for that kind of price. Like in every market, inefficient growers will drop off. Unfortunately, the lure to use more chemicals to enhance production is ever greater.
The one big argument, as in any crop production, is Organic versus chemically enhanced. One grower told me “Organic is all fine and dandy, but at the end of the day, the customer is going to complain if a worm crawls out of the box of blueberries.” There’s a point, but on the other hand, the chemicals have to be having an effect on the environment.
Crop yield is higher with chemicals, so aside from the esthetics, that makes a huge difference as well. It’s a vicious cycle.

We shall see how the price of blueberries develops this year as picking time approaches. The ads asking for pickers are out in the newspapers. Many people I’ve talked to had their early jobs picking berries. Unfortunately,many people now don’t want to go out picking these days. Last year, I read that New Brunswick farmers did a trial run bringing in pickers from Jamaica for the season, then to send them home when the crops were in. Hmm. What are we coming to?

July 20 We are HOME

A lot has happened since the last posting. Since I could not get my truck back in time, Gerald Disher, of Disher Homes, supplier of our Minihome, agreed to move our trailer for us on July 1, Canada Day. A very auspicious beginning! So we camped there for a week, the big difference being that we were able to hook up to the Septic Field. Hauling water, well, we were used to that, same as running the generator in the mornings and evenings. But disposing of the “Black Water” is a pain when you don’t have a hookup. Dump into a tidy tank, haul this onto a pick-up truck and off to the nearest “Sani-Dump” UGH!! Don’t miss that job!

Then on July 8, just as promised, our home came a-rumbling down the road from “Fred’icton”, some 100 and a bit kilometers away. It was built to order by Maple Leaf Homes up there. We were still not hooked up to electricity and the well, but, we did start bringing things into the house and slept in it that first night on the mattress from the trailer bed, which we dragged in, “Dry camping in our house” Ah well, it was still pretty cool.
Next day was a busy one. Christina drove me to Cabano, Quebec to pick up my truck from the body shop, aka “Salon de Debosselage” Made for a long day for both of us, but we had time for some good conversation on the way there. On the way back we outran a huge thunderstorm that was making its way along Highway 2, and nearly caught up to us in Saint Leonard. It was very nice and sunny back home after an uneventful drive. As I was driving in to the driveway, I tried to blow the horn to announce my return. No sound….no horn. Aside from that minor glitch, the truck looks very well repaired and runs and rides just as before. It was a long 5 weeks without it! I still thank my guardian angel for protecting me from worse harm, as I hear so many stories of people having been maimed or killed in moose encounters. And here I was, walking away from it with a serious scare and a newly repaired truck after a bit on inconvenience due to the language barrier and the distances involved.

On the evening of the 12th of July, we had thought about going to the Garden Club potluck dinner, but changed our minds. good thing, because the well guys arrived at 6:30 pm and began digging a trench to install the water and power lines for the wellhead. I was able to show them what to avoid digging and move stuff out of the way for them.
Allan Short, owner of Clearwater Well Drilling, and excavator operator, even cleared an area behind the house so we could start a garden. “There’s at least 2 feet of good loom there to garden in!” he said as he dumped all the mats of roots and sod into the ditch he had dug.
Gotta love those large motorized and hydraulic garden hoes!! I GOTTA get me one of THOSE!! to quote Will Smith in the movie Independence Day. Only thing, the noise sure scared the cats. Pi hid under Mom’s sewing desk, and Snoopy hid behind the toilet in the main bathroom.

Next morning, July 13, at about 8:30 AM, more rumbling. NB Power came to hook up the power! Notwithstanding the snippy-sounding woman at the office who said we would have to wait anywhere up to 12 working — yes, WORKING days from the day the permit went in. The fellas who came to do the work said “Ya they don’t know what they are talking about at that office” Seems we were lucky anyway because they were supposed to be working on Campobello Island that day, but didn’t have the right materials.
As they drove out of our yard, they got their truck stuck up to the axles in the mud. They called up another crew that was working close by to pull them out. No problem. To compensate for the damage, they agreed, approved by their boss, to bring me a couple yards of topsoil to “fill in the ruts”. I said I’d even spread it. Since I was being reasonable and not getting excited on them, this was delivered within 2 hours. WOW! Good service!
We turned on the power to the pump. with the help of the well guy, to begin running water from the well and clear out drilling debris. By the end of the day, we started running water into the house. BROWN BROWN BROWN. to be expected from a new well. Within a few days, it went mostly clear, except for the hot water. This is disconcerting when the bath water looks almost yellowy-brown. Seems that they drilled into a deposit of Iron Pyrite on their way down. The well driller gave us three little pieces of Pyrite crystal that came up intact. We gave each of the grandkids one piece of this crystal.
At 270 feet, the well is one of the deepest in our area. 1.5 gallons per minute is an okay rate of flow.

June 30 Confined Spaces

First, some news. The preparations on the home site are done till the delivery date of July 8. The septic field is usable, and has been approved. The well has to have regulatory approvals finished, including water testing. It will be completed after the power is connected…………….whenever that happens, hopefully on the 9th. The drillers went down to 270 feet depth, and we have 2.5 gallons per minute flow. Not huge, but adequate. Permits and NB Power bureaucracy on top of Health bureaucracy and and and…..

Then, I called to confirm if the truck was really going to be ready on Friday. In a word, Non! Rappelez (call back) Lundi ou Mardi . The body shop guy also wants to be sure he gets paid for his work. Understandable. This whole process has been somewhat of an adventure in and of itself. ICBC in Surrey, BC contracted a company in Quebec city to deal with the French-speaking body shop. Quebec City contracted an insurance adjuster in Grand Falls, New Brunswick to go there because he is closer to the site. Nice guy on the phone, Nelson Paradis, aka Butch. I keep having to ride herd on everybody because they are all busy and now and then one person doesn’t sent stuff on the the next one, and then the last one in the chain went on holidays. Fun and games. Better that though than being confined to a hospital or having not survived the accident and leaving Marie with all the hassles to deal with on her own.

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Confined Spaces

This is not about entering underground chambers or manholes filled with toxic or noxious gases. This is about living in a trailer for two and a half months and still staying sane and getting along with your partner.

Before we left on our adventure, I wondered how this would work out. We had been camping for a night or two in the trailer. We had been camping in tents in the past. We slept in the back of my 3/4 ton stetch Ford van years ago. We even spent a night together in the back of our little Ford Escort Station Wagon, bcause we could. Now THAT was cozy.
Sure, I have read about other couples who have lived and travelled in much smaller trailers than ours. We always had somewhere to go back to. Early on in the What IF phases of speculation, Marie had suggested selling the house and going Gypsy for a year or two or…. I emphatically said NO because I was concerned about this concept. I now know I was right.

While we were travelling across Canada, it wasn’t too bad, because we had somewhere to go, a goal to distract us from the size of the space. Even when we were stopped in Merritt for the week after the truck broke down, it wasn’t too bad yet. I was in a bad state of mind in Saskatoon, after the tire blowout, I was nearly ready to turn back, more due to the mechanical problems, than the space issue. Mostly the trip was smooth sailing after that, every day was another goal to reach, then to rest up for the next leg of the trip.

Once we got here, we thought we would be moving on to a property fairly quickly. Days turned into weeks, as we dealt with the banker, realtors, careful lawyers. We had the grand kids over one at a time for their traditional “Overnight” with us. As I said, we were parked on a quiet, dark coountry road between fairly tall trees.

We had had others stay in the trailer with us last summer…. but during one stuffy, VERY dark night on Jessica’s Overnight, with our bedroom exit door blocked with luggage and laundry baskets, and the pass-through doors to the bathroom closed, found me waking up,. unable to breathe in the pitch dark. I felt trapped, like I was drowning in the humidity and non-moving air. I had to calm myself and carefully make my way through to the front door of the trailer and go outside to catch fresh air. Not good. Made me think of prisoners locked in small cells, even solitary confinement. I couldn’t imagine being locked up like that. I had toget outside several times that night. I have since put a solar light on the back bumper outside our bedroom window as a “night light” to orient myself in the dark. We have other small lights here and there in the trailer as well.

I know, I know, City Kid out in the country, used to a street light every 100 feet, freaked out about the dark….here the street lights are about 1 or 2 km apart. The NB Power guy, who came out to check our place for installation of an electric hookup, asked if we wanted a “Dusk-to-Dawn” light in our yard. In spite of all that, we turned him down on the suggestion. I guess they give this option to customers, at their expense, since it is before the meter.

After the Overnight with the third kid, Joe, the oldest, the grandkids actually suggested that we postpone the Overnights till we were in our house because they didn’t like the small space and the tension they felt from us. At first, we thought we would be heroic, but on reflection we decided that this would be the best option.

Marie also has had a couple of tense nights, not so much about space, but about the “no-see-ems” that get through the bug screens, and mosquitoes that sneak in when we go in and out of the trailer.

We certainly have the dodging to get by each other down pat now. Moving three things to get at the one thing we need, well, that’s getting old..Stepping over Bella and having her react nervously like we were going to step on her, that can be irritating. Our cats, Pi and Snoopy bounding over everything, including us, like it’s their personal jungle gym, that is really unnerving and at times painful when they are moving at top speed. I think even they are feeling the strain though and do try to be accommodating. We will all be very happy when we are in our new home, small as it may seem, it’s still nearly three times the size of this trailer! AND Brand New! We are living in about 240 crowded square feet. Apparently the rule of thumb for minimum space for a couple is 540 square feet. No wonder.

It’s not quite the same as building our own home, having this one delivered.. but we do understand that living in this trailer is sort of tolerable in the summer, but being confined to quarters in this space as a construction shack, through the winter, could get to be quite intolerable. Not to mention cold and expensive, since the insulation in the trailer is not up to temperatures close to minus 20 C. That would be a serious challenge!