Pond Work

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I think I finished the pond today. At least I dug enough at it that I got sick of digging, which is a victory of sorts. I found a few good sized rocks in the hole, but a metre deep is enough I think so I will let it go at that and concentrate on sealing it with mud from the swamp. That’s my cure for everything. Throw swamp mud at the problem.IMG_8078_small

Once I was finished with the pond, and had used a block and tackle to lift a big rock I found at the bottom, my arm was sore so I didn’t do any more labour. Instead, I read a bit, took a nap and then cooked the beets from carol with two of my potatoes, which were meant to be seed potatoes but the ones ones seem to be growing now, if I can keep the slugs off them.

It was rainy today, so quite a bit cooler which was better for the bugs and a bit easier to work. I need to mud in the garden some more though, because otherwise it will fill up with slugs. It needs to start growing plants too, although I am more hopeful of my table top garden on stilts.

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Muck and Reading

Posted on May 30, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I was up late so I was surprised to wake early. It was relatively cool however, so I got up to do some work before it became too hot. The first thing I did was build a raised bed from metal on stakes. It is a half metre from the ground and shouldn’t have slugs. Yesterday I planted four zucchinis outside and within hours two of them were eaten off by slugs. This is a better strategy, I think. If it works, perhaps this is what I’ll do with any of the plants that need pollination then have to be outside, and which don’t require deep soil. Once I had that built and then filled, I planted some basil, beets, and two more zucchinis.

I also took many breaks and two showers today, since it was so humid and I was working in a bug hat most of the time. I think that is all I accomplished today, although I finished my Russian story. I thought it might be longer but it ended at a place that makes sense. It needs a lot of work, especially research, and I need the internet to finish it, but so far it is a good draft. Now if I can only keep writing and finish a couple of books while I’m here instead of just reading. Although, the book I read today in the heat, Gregory Benford’s COSM, was one that Vesna would like.

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Hauling Muck

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I was up late and woke a few times this morning before I got up to check out my garden. The plants are all doing well and I put some of the zucchini out in the first garden bed. The potatoes haven’t come up yet, which is strange since some of them were already sprouted, but the asparagus is doing well.

The first task was going to my car and getting my asparagus that was still in the sack so I can plant it as quickly as possible. While I was there, I heard Bashful using his chainsaw so I went to chat with him. He suggests that I might want to use his bridge as mine, since I haven’t put mine in yet. I told him about my poplar log but he didn’t seem to think that made any difference. He was prepping wood for the winter and while we talked the blackflies became worse and worse so I cut the conversation early and put my root ball of asparagus in my old pack and brought it into the woods. Here I planted it, and then hid from the bugs while I thought about my next task. While inside, I hooked up my little laptop and found it works great, so maybe I will use it to transcribe my writing on this keyboard and then only carry a USB stick out of here every week. More high tech all the time.

My next task was going back to the car, although this time with pants and boots instead of shorts and sandals as I had earlier, and work on the pallets I’d brought with me. I tore them apart and then brought the small one back with me as well as a harness of ten pieces of tongue and groove cedar. I hauled some muck today too, although I am rapidly losing enthusiasm for that project. I should put a big rush on that though, so I can get the garden all in and then just fight slugs.

I finally turned back to my story set in Russia and made good progress on it tonight. I’m not sure how long it will be but so far it is one of my many adoption stories. It is one in the morning now, so I’ve let the writing go for the night, but I really wish I knew how the mosquitoes were getting in here.

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Some Socializing and Writing

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I am arriving late at the cabin this evening. I went out Wednesday, yesterday, as I have been lately, spent the evening with Tristus and found out about her book, the Bones of the Magus, which is through a local press, Broken Jaw press, and then went back to Mike and Carol’s where I chatted with them, talked to Jackie and Tara and then Eileen just before I went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke with a strange vivid dream about being in a Russian train station which is fading now, but I wrote sixteen hundred words, hopefully enough to make it into a story. Then I talked with Mike and Carol, chatted with Colleen finally, thus making it a two leen day, and went to Millville where I spent the evening with Miriam and Gandpa, and then the rest of the family as well once Kim and Dennis came home.

I left for the land after midnight and the moose on the road slowed me somewhat as he trotted up the road ahead of me until he turned off at a side road. He was really dim in the dark, and I almost didn’t see him and even as I drifted back to let him trot ahead there were moments that I couldn’t see him. I can see finally how people hit moose at night, I could use better lights.

Now it is after one in the morning and I should work on the Russian story before I sleep, but I am tired I am torn between wanting to do a good job on it and worrying I will forget the poignancy and pathos of the scene. Miriam and I pulled up another root ball for an asparagus, so I will have to go out for that tomorrow, and I should process the pallets I brought in the trunk. Also, I should do a count of some sort and see if I have enough to make another layer on the floor. Maybe I should insulate it with half inch foam board, which would make an even better building. I’m not sure. That would cost a few hundred and since I don’t heat that part of the camp it may not be necessary. I should make that decision when I go to Woodstock to get groceries on Wednesday, perhaps. I have a bit of work to do over the next week. It’s nice to be back though, and to have contacted the people I care about in the meantime.

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Building Inside

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

This month has flown past, although now that the bugs are here, it will move slower now, I am sure.

Today I spent most of the day inside, reacting perhaps to the rain of the morning. It rained most of the night as well, and the new hose to the pond had its effect, for there was lots of water in the bottom, but it drained out over the day. I need a clay bottom, so I will collect more mud when I have it more dug out.

Inside today, I began by finishing the wall that houses the greenhouse. I finished the cedar cladding, and then almost finished the shelf I meant to have in that corner. I decided to use my pine planks, so it took longer than it would normally, IMG_8079_smallbut it is a real perk to have AC power and my skillsaw and electric hand planer.

My neat room is filled with sawdust and chips again, but it is nice to get that corner done. I will start moving the spare lumber out of here soon, for I have piles of it in the new part but have increasingly little use for it.

I did little with the garden today, although I picked some slugs this morning and evening off my asparagus. They like the young sprouts, no surprise, and also ones that are damaged. I also hauled three buckets of muck, and maybe should have done more of that, since the bugs weren’t that bad if I kept moving. There are some frogs waiting in the swamp, expectant parents, I guess, waiting for the eggs to hatch. My mosquito larvae have nearly all hatched, but rather than check their rate of development, I noticed they all hatched at different times. There seem to be two distinct types of larvae as well, unless it is just two levels of the same.

It is getting dark now, and I’ve taken my picture of the moon again. I hope a few of them are in focus. Maybe I will work on my shelf again tomorrow before I leave, although there is lots else I could be doing.

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Gardening and the Bugs

Posted on May 25, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

Today was a hot day, and it was warm even this morning. I went to asleep early, around ten or so, and slept until nine, despite waking up when it was still dark.

I wasn’t very ambitious today, although I planted some beans and did more work on the garden. I have the plots outlined with wood tilted to stay dry, and we’ll see if that prevents the slugs from getting in. In the greenhouse, my lettuce is coming up, which is nice to see. Maybe soon I will be eating lettuce on my sandwiches. The blackflies are getting annoying now, and I even spent some time in a bug hat.

While I was taking a break from the bugs and heat, for it was twenty-nine today, I was listening to an automotive call-in show and head someone I used to hang out with. That was funny, and normally I would call her when I got to town, but her pretentiousness has gotten unendurable and it is a sin the way she forces neuroses on her kid. It was strange to hear her on the radio though.

I did a stroll about to look at my plants and they are all doing well except for the white oak that was chewed down by rabbits this winter. Hopefully it makes a comeback, but I am not holding my breath.

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Photography in the Sky and Above

Posted on May 24, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

It was raining when I woke at seven-thirty. In the cabin, the rain is cozy. It was quite different when I lived in the shack, which was too small to spend any time in, so I worked through the rain, happy it kept the bugs at bay. Now, I can afford to burrow more deeply into the blankets and sleep until the rain stops. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

When I woke again, around nine, the rain was over although it was a bit chilly. I woke to birds twittering outside my window, so I got my camera and hopefully have some good pictures amongst the dross. Speaking of which, I should take another moon picture this evening, for I’ve been trying to get a good shot, which is tricky with my camera. It wants to focus and likely does that through infrared, and is too impatient for the beam to return from the moon, some light seconds away. I can only take my picture at dusk, before it gets too dark and yet the moon is brilliant enough to stand out from the background. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

After I put the camera away, I went to the new part and contemplated my plumbing. It has always been a bit dodgy looking for my tastes, so I turned off the water and replumbed it, and now it makes a neater bundle. The work didn’t improve my hot water though, which is still only a trickle.

The rest of my day’s tasks were cleaning up the new part, as well as the yard, and running a hose for the water tower on the front of the building. Now there are two hoses going to the pond. I wonder if that will fill it if we get a good rain. I still have digging to do there, but I am interested in how I will supply lots of water before the bottom seals itself. I think I will pile clay from the IMG_8077_smallswamp below the inlet hoses and let that mix the water with the fine silt. Perhaps that will seal it.

Today was plenty hot, and I kept the building closed up until I realized it was getting unpleasantly hot, so I opened a few windows. Now it is 22 degrees in here and that should hold for most of the night, although it will likely be frost tonight.

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Gardening in the Bush

Posted on May 23, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I woke early to bright light and when I looked out the window I could see why. About a half inch of snow covered the ground and trees. I should have gotten up and taken photos, but at seven-thirty I was tired and the cabin was cold so I went back to sleep and when I woke at ten the snow was gone.

I got up and it was still chilly so I sat in the sun in the new part of the cabin and ate breakfast and when that was done, and three or four showers had blown over, I began work on the cedar. I finished the gable end and then went to work on the garden. I hauled more muck and broke some rotten trees to lie as bedding in the second garden bed. Then I went to the swamp and shovelled some muck onto the bank. I found a dragonfly larva in one of the shovels of muck which made me more concerned about the genocide I was enacting by taking muck straight from the swamp and pouring it on the garden. This way they have a chance to leave the pile if they wish and go back into the swamp.

I also worked on posts in the garden beds to hold my pine slabs at an angle so they won’t get wet when it rains. That way any slug that wishes to enter the garden has to slime over dry rough wood. That is my latest plan. I shovelled some more on the pond but the flies drove me away from that before I made much of a dent.IMG_8061_small I am in a difficult layer now, where the soil is hardpacked with rocks and hard to shovel.

I now have another fire, and it is warm in here, although it’s chilly outside.

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The Lumberyard

Posted on May 22, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

This morning the cloud moved off slowly and I spent the time cutting slabs off the last log from the dead pine I’ve been cutting up lately. It was still deadly heavy, but once I had it squared, IMG_8052_smalland then cut another plank off it, I could barely manage it. I leaned it beside the other against the workshop.

Next I did some work on the cedar cladding since a storm had blown in just as I was finishing my sawing. I had time to take a shower while it was still warm, and then I read for a while and am now almost finished the cedar on the gable end.

This evening, after it had cooled off considerably from the thunder storm, I hauled dirt for my garden bed, as well as a layer of sawdust, since I have lots. Hopefully it rots well when it is mixed with the muck from the swamp.

I built a fire tonight, since it was fifteen degrees in here. Now it is cozy and I am nearly ready to start reading and sleeping.

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Editing and Returning

Posted on May 21, 2015 by Barry Pomeroy

I arrived on the land late today, since I spent part of my day working on A Million Castaways. Carol found a typo, some lay/laid errors, a whom problem, and the most damning, an allusion where there should have been an illusion. I repaired those problems and reuploaded, and so didn’t have time to work on my blog. Therefore this will all be out of date if and when anyone finds it.

Once I was down, I drove to see my potter friend who has had a bad winter, and I may go back there to do some more cutting of pine logs. I went there last year and cut three logs into slabs and thick timbers. They are now in my pallet shed waiting whatever project I might want. I should go back there on Wed maybe, on my way to town. Once I finished talking to her I went on to Millville and interrupted a family dinner. I uploaded the smashing pumpkin video Miriam and I had made and hung out with the family a bit. I left there late, around nine-thirty, so it was late when I shouldered one pack, and balanced my laundry pack on two stacks of the tongue and groove cedar boards as I carried the load into the bush. It was heavy for being so late, but I could still see the trail and soon I was home and the groceries were packed away.

The cabin is eighteen degrees so I won’t bother with a fire. I’m tired too, although I wasn’t up that late. I talked to Jackie a bit last night, and had lunch with Andrea today, so that interaction, combined with that of my other friends, is lots. Now I will be alone for six days again, until I leave the bush again.

There were no bugs tonight, so I will take advantage of that to get some work done here. I need to put in the entire garden, and then protect it as best I can from slugs, rabbits, and possibly deer, although I’ve never had deer in the yard. Time is going swiftly, almost a quarter of my time here is already gone. And I’ve done little writing.

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