I am currently in negotiations with Rogers Wireless. Their service out here is TERRIBLE. If I want to make a call, I have to walk out to the road to get a reliable signal. If the breeze blows the wrong way, the signal drops. Also, they have the “Edge” or GSM service out here. We are paying for “3G” or “4G” which seems only to be available in the bigger cities. Bell, on the other hand, has the higher speed service everywhere. HMMMM.. This all started when my iPhone died a premature death. The repplacement phone they sent me, a Motorola Quench, was “quenched” –that is to say–died– after all of 3 days usage! I can’t be that hard on phones, can I?
Category: Land Development
Laid Off from Kingsbrae
Well, now I am a “gentleman of leisure” once again. Well sort of. I was laid off from my seasonal job at Kingsbrae Garden and have, for the first time in my life, applied for Unemployment –or rather– Employment Insurance. It remains to be seen if they actually grant me this, with my pension and all. We shall see. In the meantime, I am spending more time finishing off existing projects and starting new ones. Hen House, Snow shelter for the “tractor” and snow blower so they will be more easily accessible in the coldest parts of the winter.
This weekend, we had a pre-taste of winter here on the Ridge. A couple of inches of snow actually stayed put. Down in town, everything is nice and green still. Today, it felt like spring, with melt water dripping off the roof everywhere, on your head, down your neck….
The joys of country living.
May 15, 2011
Well now, here we go again! Feels like we are back in Nanaimo these days….wet, drizzly foggy, mixed in with a few sort of sunny days. A former workmate in Nanaimo called their weather there Mayvember.
One good thing is that things are finally greening up. Daffodils are almost done blooming, as are the forsythias. These things are 2 months later than Nanaimo, as previously noted. Native plants and flowers and trees are beginning to bloom.
We ended up tapping 7 maple trees and they gave us between 3 and 4 liters of yummy syrup. We’ll be tapping quite a few more next year. I am making plans to build a sugar shack in the bush so we don’t steam up our house and so we don’t have to haul so much water up the hill. As I have learned now, this will need to be built before the snow starts flying or it’s not getting done till next year.
It is now a year since we arrived in New Brunswick, May 7, to be exact. We were parked at the end of what seemed like a long lake, but was actually a driveway with many potholes and huge puddles, allowing the water to flow across it. Good thing we aren’t there now.
We have been exploring, going to the Garden Club meetings, and meeting other gardeners. Recently, we went to Cambridge Narrows, east of Gagetown/Oromocto to meet Howard and Marilyn Erb. They run a(n) Herb Farm that they call H.Erb’s Herbs. Good name, eh? We found out about them from the Tourism New Brunswick book last year and decided we HAD to go meet them. It was about a 2-hour drive, but it was definitely worth it.
They are such nice people and they had most of the plants we were looking for.
Marie has been planting seeds in the house to plant in her straw bale garden outside. It has been king of chilly so outside planting has been iffy at best. May Long Weekend is still the best time to plant.
The frogs have been “tweeting” for a couple of weeks now and the bugs are starting to fly again. Soon the Lightning Bugs will be doing their magic show again. The kids are doing okay. Sadly, they won’t be moving into “their” house because the relationship between our daughter and her partner self-destructed. He kept the house. Hmm. Now they are talking seriously about moving back to BC. Before we even started our plans, we were aware that it was always a possiblility that they might move back, and we determined that in any case, we were doing this for “our” adventure as much as to be near the “Kidlets”
The Ides of March, 2011
It was one of those March days when the sun shines hot and the wind blows cold: when it is summer in the light, and winter in the shade. ~Charles Dickens
This quote nicely sums up the weather today. In the last 2 weeks, the snow has shrunk dramatically and we are almost out of the worst of it now. Weather forecast says there may me a couple more minor snow storms on the way, but nothing much to get exercised about.
Since my last posting, I have come to the realization that maybe this weather here isn’t quite so bad after all. Sure you have to shovel it. The morning after a bad storm, the sun is usually shining and the roads are cleared early. Life looks not too bad in the sun.
Now, we are starting to see open ground, for the first time since the floods of December 13 and 15. 3 months of snow…
We have taps on some maple (I hope they are maple) trees in our bush. Two of the taps are actually producing some sap. We just have to see which are the best trees for the purpose, mark them for next season, and look out Aunt Jemima, no more maple-flavoured syrup from you! I think we will even plant a handful of real Sugar Maple (Acer saccharinum) trees on the place so eventually they can be tapped when they are big enough. Either by ourselves or by others after us here.
We are making active plans for gardens, vegetable, herb and other, for the upcoming summer season. Our hens made it through the winter. Right now, two are laying, the others are taking a winter break. Don’t blame them, they need to conserve resources to live in that cold. We have ordered more birds for later in the Spring.
We’ll be building a barn and a garage to get things stored **inside** next winter so we can find them. and where they hopefully don’t freeze solid to the ground.
Yep, things are looking up! Working one day a week at Kingsbrae right now, may be working a couple of days more at the Plant Center there in April, and then 3 days a week in the garden, and 2 days a week in the Plant Center (Garden Center).
Life’s getting better all the time! Now to file my last year’s Income Tax. With the move and all, it isn’t as simple and straight-forward.
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.