Quite a week. The week Irene came to the Cape.
On Sunday we batten down the building and the garage, expecting hurricane Irene. Monday I wonder if I might find myself in a Humphrey Bogart movie leaning against a 100 mph wind, but it turns out out to be a beautiful blow with whitecaps on the Bras d'Or but with maximum sunshine! One of the better days of the building season, that is until I get the e-mail from Serge and Marty back in Sainte-Anne to tell me that the Norwegian maple in the front yard has fallen on the garden scraping the front of the house. You can see from the photos sent by Jesse Nestor, our local tree specialist, how dramatic the fallen branch looks. And we're 1600 kilometres away... Not fun dealing with an emergency at such a distance.
So Monday evening we drive to Bayfield for an evening with David and Rosemary who are leaving NS on their annual trek back to New Jersey and Princeton. David shows me a photo of the flooding river next to their house in Princeton. We drink too much, resolve to meet in the Fall for American Thanksgiving and take off back to our island project, picking up a splendid Coleman BBQ on the way.
Meanwhile the Master Builder is building a wall a day, with occasional breaks to cut more lumber. I am introduced to the Edger, a machine with two sawblades which makes good lumber out of "slabs", ie what's left after milling. The walls are too heavy for us to lever up: we'll wait for the excavator which has to come back to finish the septic system. Cutting headers for the screened-in porch, 10 by 6, is a great pleasure. To imagine those trees holding up the roof.
The Map Technician comes by: name is Bryne, the first time I've seen it spelled that way. We will finally have an address which will entitle us to a mailbox at the PO.
Things take time but they get done...
Sort of...
After a fashion...
Meanwhile Deborah buys blueberry bushes and drowns slugs in her garden.
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