Sunny Days, in Some Ways

April 30

I came back to the bush today. I was late getting in, since I had stopped at Dennis’ to collect my inverter I’d left with him for the winter. Unfortunately, he didn’t know where it had been stored so I left without it, although it was nice to spend time with Miriam and Dennis. It helps to dispel some of the feelings I had the last time I was there on my way to Fredericton the day before.

Since I left at eight-thirty, I was until nine-thirty getting to the cabin. I had to drive the dirt road carefully, since it is heavily rutted and almost impassable, and then I decided to unload the pallets I’d picked up in Fredericton before I left the car. Once that was done the dusk had deepened, so it was near dark when I slipped out of my pants and socks and crossed the creek with a pair of boots I am keeping near the creek for that purpose.

Once I was here, I built a fire and settled in with the Niven book I’d not finished the few days before. The Kobo is working better now that I updated its drivers and it actually remembers what book I was last reading.

I was asleep by midnight, tired from the day although it was nice to lunch with Suzanne and Andrea.

Friday, May 1

I was awake at eight-thirty or nine with noises but when I uncovered to listen more closely I heard nothing to be concerned about. The noises might be explained by the rabbit fur in the yard, but I’m not certain how long it has been there. Since the rain at least.

Once I lay in bed for a while, pondering the dream that escapes me now, I rose and built a fire to warm the cabin up. The day proved to be sunny and hot, but it was nice to have a warm cabin to eat breakfast in.

Today was quite busy. I did a bit of a walk around, put together my new idea for a hot water heater, did some reorganizing of the tin shed and then worked in the workshop for a while sorting and putting things away.

I also used the car bulb that Dennis gave me for Christmas to work in the lamp made largely from copper which I took from pieces of a wrecked boat on the west coast of Vancouver Island in the eighties. Now the lamp works well, although it is a bit blue. I also shoveled snow for the fridge, since my snow is disappearing quickly in these temperatures. I put snow around it and then covered that with metal and feed bags. It is keeping the food at just above freezing, about five to eight degrees.

Since I set up the solar shower earlier today, it was actually too hot this evening when I was cooking dinner outside. It was so warm in the porch and greenhouse, I used them to warm the cabin and it became twenty-two in here. Now I have closed up the place to hold the heat for it is going to get chilly tonight apparently.

I was busy all day today, fiddling with one thing and another. It’s nice to have a warm day to work. It’s now eight in the evening and I am going to settle in for a read.

Saturday, May 2

It was another warm and sunny day and I spent most of it wandering my land. I did some bush trimming in the morning and then ate breakfast in the sun. I didn’t put on a fire this morning and it was warmer in the sun outside than it was in the cabin.

When I finished the morning tasks, which included setting up the solar shower for the afternoon, I took my compass and my hatchet went to the back of my property. I trimmed away from bushes and branches from my trail, at least until the swamp, where I uncovered a salamander when I moved mud to widen the drainage of the trail. Once I was at the gravel pit area, I left the hatchet in a tree while I went further back to Otter Brook. I was hoping, since I was following moose tracks, I’d find a moose there, but instead the broad swamp made by the beaver pond only showed two ducks who left as soon as I arrived although I was some two hundred metres away.

The trip back was quicker, since I wasn’t cutting brush. Once I returned I had some lunch and then read and napped a bit before I went to the front of my property and along the creek. I went downstream first and then up as far as the old logging road that climbs from the bank to swing gently towards my land. Bashful has been making a trail over there as well, apparently, for someone has been cutting branches from the balsam firs. The way to get to my cabin from that trail is always tricky and this time was no exception, for I lost my way and finally just followed a swampy section of ground and came out by the swamp south of the cabin.

It was late in the afternoon by then so I built a fire and cooked falafel which I ate on bread with peperoni and humus. The air cooled quickly with the dwindling sun, and soon I was showering with the water that had retained its heat in the greenhouse.

It’s strange not to have a fire; I’ve been so accustomed to it at night. I never have one in the summer, largely because it gives a smoky taste to the water and the climate is rarely cool enough to require it. The cabin is holding the heat though, and it was twenty-five in here today. It’s still twenty at eleven at night.

Sunday, May 3

I woke up early this morning to a cabin that had retained more heat. It was still chilly, but around 15 degrees inside. Since it was another sunny day, it warmed up quickly and I ate breakfast outside again taking advantage of the lack of bugs.

After I ate, I cut some bushes, cleared the path to the eastern line, and built the bed for my first garden box. I hauled dirt for it and also lined it with dead black cherry poles which should rot quickly when buried. I have still to layer more dirt, but I am hoping to make a couple of these garden boxes and then start growing food. Then I went to the road wearing shorts and sandals from Franziska and waded the stream. I organized some stuff in the pallet shed and looked at the bridge for what work I might need to do to make it viable. I also took apart two pallets which I had taken for the shit board tops. The other three pallets are for the bridge pylon, when I get around to doing that. Tomorrow is supposed to be warm so perhaps I can do it then.

When I finished with the pallet shed I shouldered one solar panel from Dennis’ barn in its box and brought it across the stream trying to keep it dry.

When I was resting on the step after my return, I heard voices and when I listened more, I heard them closer. Then I recognized Miriam’s and then Dennis’ voice and soon, with Erin accompanying them, they came down the path. Dennis had found my inverter so I will soon have 120 volt electrical power, and they also came out because it was a sunny day with no bugs.

It was a nice visit, for they stayed for three hours or so and we caught up on some family news. I walked them out to the road as is my wont and when I said goodbye Dennis asked when I was coming out of the bush again. I assured him I would be leaving the bush sometime this week. Then I picked up the remaining two solar panels in their joined box and carried them into the bush. Once I arrived, I considered how much easier it is to wire them in when it’s dark, so I unpacked them and settled them into their cradle on the roof. Once I wired them in I pushed in the fuse and the other charge controller came online. Now it is worth running the inverter and some of my equipment I’ve been waiting for.

I was tired when I finished that, so I showered while the water was still a bit too warm and as the sun descended I listened to CBC and ate a cold but healthy dinner.

The show on CBC, which is called rewind, was about Vietnamese Boat people, so I thought to make a note here for Colleen for she will surely be interested.

I wonder how my Leens are doing. Dennis reminded me today that I’ve been in the bush for two weeks now, although most of it has gone quickly. I wonder how Colleen is doing. Hopefully both her and Eileen are enjoying their time together. I look forward to seeing them again. I feel a bit cast adrift here in some ways. I’ve got some good friends here but they are busy with their own lives. Even in Winnipeg when I am working sixty hours a week I am never so busy with my life that I have no time for friends, as I’m sure Tara can attest, but I’ve lived my life differently in so many ways it’s starting to catch up with me now.

Monday, May 4

I took a while to get going today, and one of the plans was to put in the bridge. It was meant to be hot, and it was, going up to twenty-five degrees. Therefore I did some bush cutting in the morning and then worked on the garden box. Once I had brought over the dirt from a compost heap I’d made a few years ago, I tried scraping in the forest floor for dirt. That is nowhere near as easy as it sounds. The good black soil is shallow here, no more than an inch or two, and then it is clayey sand and then red earth. The nutrient layer is so shallow, and so root-bound that digging in it is a real task. I persisted and eventually had a decent pile over the garden box but I have no idea how I will supply the next one.

Then I decided, since I was digging in the dirt anyway, and it was in the shade, to see how deep I could dig where I am thinking to make a pond. It turns out to be at least two and a half feet of red earth and rocks and there may even be more. So perhaps I will work on that pond enterprise after all. I kept the cabin closed up today until evening when it was beginning to cool down outside. There is a fire ban on, and I didn’t really want to make a fire and cook anyway, so I made tofu and humus sandwiches and then when it was getting dark I took a shower. The water in the solar shower had cooled by that point to it was more comfortable. It heats so much during the day that you would scald yourself if you tried to shower in midday.

Tuesday, May 5

I decided I would do some digging on the pond, if it becomes that, and work on the garden some more, so I hauled some more dirt for the garden box and dug the pond a bit deeper. Before I could dig, I cut some of the small maples that were growing around the area. The chainsaw with my new one hundred foot cord worked great, and that means if I tie all my cords together I can reach almost two hundred feet. There are likely to be losses over such a distance and four cords, but I would still be able to cut brush by using solar power.

Once I’d done enough work on the garden to satisfy myself I read a book in the afternoon. It was a hot day so that let the heat flow around and by me while I rested. Then I went to the new bridge log with a paintbrush so I could oil it, but strangely I didn’t have any used motor oil in the pallet shed. I thought I did. I guess I will have to get more from Dennis.

So that the trip wasn’t wasted, I went downstream to look around and brought back the window boxes from Mike and Carol as well as a piece of foam I’d not noticed when I was gathering it all together to finish as much as I could of the new part of the cabin.

I went to the swampy area to fill the boxes with sludge from the pond, but now they are too heavy to move. I left them there to dry out.

That wrapped up my efforts for the day, and soon the sun was descending as I ate a sandwich and set up my ereader for the night.

About Barry Pomeroy

I had an English teacher in high school many years ago who talked about writing as something that people do, rather than something that died with Shakespeare. I began writing soon after, maudlin poetry followed by short prose pieces, but finally, after years of academic training, I learned something about the magic of the manipulated word.
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