Saturday/Sunday 28 and 29 May 2011 How my 65th birthday was celebrated in Cape George

My 65th birthday weekend and, of course, the Master Builder can’t keep away from that pile of logs. I think I might have been hoping for a couple of days off, days doing nothing much in particular, eating bacon and eggs, walking on the beach, reading the novel I just started set in Peterborough, England that is, no more, no less, where I grew up sort of... I abandon the MB to go down to the village to watch Barcelona beating Manchester United in a brilliantly entertaining game. Jean-Pierre, the Breton owner of the place, entertains me to a couple of hours talking French... Meanwhile, back at the Cape the MB is producing BEAMS in bright and rare sunlight.
Sunday offers up a perfectly lovely birthday party hosted by Deborah who delights everyone with biryani and salads followed by the birthday chocolate cake. Anna comes from Antigonish with Conor and Hannah. Balloons and best wishes, after which I sleep for 2 hours while the MB continues to saw away at the logs. There’s no way of stopping a Master Builder, especially when he has 90 joists to make and 40 huge beams... Three cheers for the Master Builder!

I INTERRUPT THIS BLOG TO SHOW YOU TWO PHOTOS OF LOCAL CRAFTSPEOPLE FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION: which of the two dream catcher garden trellises do you like best. The prize for the best response will be your v ery own Dream Catcher from Cape Breton!

 

 

Friday 27 May, 2011 How our logs arrived at dawn in a mist and I saw our house

The MB calls at dawn right after getting news that the logs are in St Peters. I rush down the hill following the MB on his motorized bike, bouncing the garbage and re-cycling in the trunk. Just time to lay it out on the side of the road before the truck, a double, with 100 logs arrives at the turn. I see my house go by. The driver pulls over at the sawing site and sits on top of his pile manipulating a crane. In 15 minutes he's unloaded our logs. Take a look at them. We can do almost everything we need for the house with this pile... The driver gets stuck turning, makes it with backhoe help, then is gone into the mist while we admire his stack... The MB is delighted... We go into St Peter's for more supplies (chain oil, gas, food supplies for the weekend), for a burning permit and to meet Jean-Pierre at the Inn by the Canal bridge. A chat in French, a coffee and a muffin, and we will be back tomorrow to watch the UEFA final in his lounge! The weekend begins after a cleanup at the site, more burning and so we move on.

 

 

 

Thursday, May 25 2011 How the Master Builder attacks the garden project and how Deborah lays into the garbage issue

A day on the SawMiser making 2x4s from crappy bent logs from the property and then the Master Builder starts to cut out a whole bunch of wood for the “fence” posts. What is he doing? Are these rejects or is he secretly planning to build a fence for the chicken wire which I have brought back from a trip to Central Suppliers? No, he is planning to build a serious, ie straight Swiss fence with 4 x 4 posts connected by 1 ½ inch struts. This is the photo of the day: behold the garden! Meanwhile Deborah entertains the local environment officer who wants to help us understand the hyper-complicated and successful Nova Scotian system. Has she got it? We shall see tomorrow when we leave out our blue and clear bags. As he leaves, the Officer tags two TVs which someone has left on the side of the road by our entrance as miscreants . We even decide to take them to the recycling depot in town: good green chaps. My god are we green!

 

 

 

Wednesday, May 24 2011 How we fell in with people collecting their rainwater

A dash to Port Hawkesbury to pick up supplies for the Master Builder: hydraulic oil which his hissing monster of an excavator can spit out, diesel fuel which makes a few of these tools chug along, food supplies for the humans in this settlement and we are still buying things like salt shakers and we discover a well-supplied beer-maker’s store where I note that the technology has improved a little since the last time I had an army of yeast working for me. Meanwhile, back at the building site our first supplies have arrived and I can see how we’d get up floors and walls with this stuff. But the highlight of the day is a visit to Paul and Anne Murphy along the lake in a place called Roberta to see their water cistern, a giant concrete tank in a shed at the end of their house which collects rainwater off the roof, strained through panty-hose, not Anne's apparently. We also know Paul: Deborah went to university with him and I remember him from my time at St FX... They give us the names and numbers of a few friends who also collect rainwater. Quite a little community along the shore... This technology to be explored.We shall drink rainwater!

 

 

 

Tuesday May 24 2011 How the Masterbuilder got serious and dug

Deborah and I get a trip to Port Hawkesbury to visit Joe, the engineer and Qualified Person, to collect documents for the building inspector. Meanwhile back at the site the Master Builder is tuning up his excavator for a day’s digging. When I get back he is in full flight, his 30 year old machine spraying little burst of hydraulic oil as it cuts its way through the sucking red clay of the site. This is quite a machine, even if it is old. It does the work of a team of Irish navvies in a few hours. Meanwhile we have building supplies arriving tomorrow and a load of logs pulling in on Thursday. We are building!
The only question mark hovers above the water supply. Wilf Kaiser, Bob Broughton’s old student who lives over in Baddeck, tells me that there’s almost no point drilling in this area and he has news of containers not far from here. And I find a family of Murphys 5 km away who have a rainwater system...
Saved by the Murphys, my mother's family?

 

 

 

Monday, 23 May 2011 Fête des Patriotes at Cape George

Really it only took 15 minutes to finally decide where to build the house, the orientation that is. When the Master Builder says he will begin excavation tomorrow, it has a sobering effect. The decision is made: it will face South East and be 58 feet from the water’s edge.We can clear some more scrub-trees from the water's edge and bingo!
A good thing we have Raman Nayar’s large table to seat the nine people who eat over the weekend, including Anna and Connor in for the day from Antigonish. Such a good decision to put the table on the trailer for the first trip.
We’re all in the glow of Mary-Anne’s visit to Italy: her photos cast us all in Florentine sunshine and Art. She even compares the Master Builder to Michelangelo’s David which is a bit over the top although he does have a tippy way of standing now and then.
Photos illustrate how serious we are about building: the MB sawing through a variety of logs to make 2x4s, 6x6 and 6x8 headers. The trick is a sharp saw and the good Doctor even turned her hand to sharpening his Woodmiser blades. I just admired from a safe distance.

With the wind and colder weather, no flies in evidence. This would be perfect weather for excavating... Still burning wood!

 

 

 

Saturday May 21 2011 How we eat at Ziggys

We are investigating installing a rain harvesting water system. I figure that when it rains, which it is every day at the moment, when other people are moaning about the lack of sunshine, stuffing in vitamin D and eating oranges, we shall be smugly nodding as we think about the rain-harvest coming off our roof. After small periods of drought we will probably be celebrating mist and showers like a Caribbean carnival.
Off to Sydney today for a day out. Imagine: a day out. A day off the peninsula, a day at the malls, at Canadian Tire, the Bay, Walmart, the works, a day of food shopping. An 80 kilometer drive along the lake, with huge stretches of open water. Deborah does two loads of wash at Mary-Anne’s while I snooze in front of a giant TV watching one of Patrick’s movies with him. Wonderfully silly. Then off to Canadian Tire where we photograph the cashier who tells me she’s never been photoed at work before. I wonder why not?
And so to Ziggys, my final photo today, where we eat plates of battered things and French fries. Patrick eats 12 wings and fries and I was hoping I’d be able to vacuum up a couple of wings. Tampa Bay beats the Bruins and you know you’re in Canada when you drink Keiths in bottles and there's a restaurant across the road called DON CHERRYS.