Well it was a long process... but our severances and re-zoning are finally complete! Here are the two listings, one with a small house and two garages, and one vacant.
Property with house
Vacant land
Showing posts with label Sprucedale ON CA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sprucedale ON CA. Show all posts
Monday, May 22, 2017
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Living off the grid
Speech for ETFO Women's Retreat, May 2011
I’ve always loved camping. My first overnight camp took place when I was 7. I had begged my parents to let me go to a YMCA horseback riding day camp, and to my surprise they agreed, likely because my dad was away every week for the month of July marking the old Grade 13 departmental exams in Toronto and there were two others younger than me at home. Anyway, the grand finale of the YMCA Cherry Hill Riding Camp involved an overnight in a tent in the woods on the last weekend. My dad brought me home a sleeping bag that he bought at Honest Ed’s for $14.00, plus one of those aluminum mess kits. When he showed up with me after dark to a big bonfire complete with roasted marshmallows and singing, the camp leaders looked at him like he was crazy. I am aware that I looked about 4 years old and they thought he was out of his mind to just drop me off. But I loved it all, even the burnt eggs and bacon the next morning.
Then, in the years before I started getting summer jobs, my parents took us four kids and our cat around Ontario and across Canada in a tiny tent trailer. And as an adult I continued car camping with my son, and even took two long backpacking trips in Lake Superior Provincial Park.
I thrive on everything about camping, stocking the food box and cooler, setting up, organizing the water and cooking, trying to anticipate all of our needs before we get way off the beaten track without something essential like cooking oil or a can opener. I like the way your time is filled with the little tasks that make everything run smoothly. Hey, I don’t even mind a clean outhouse.
However. When my husband Frank first started talking about building our house off the grid, powered by solar panels, I made one thing clear. This would not, I repeat absolutely would not, be some kind of hippie-ish rustic getaway. Camping is one thing, our house is… a house.
There would be a fridge.
There would be a kitchen stove.
There would be hot water out of a tap. Make that taps.
There would be regular lights and a TV and a computer. A stereo.
A fully functioning indoor bathroom.
And, truthfully, that’s exactly what we have. If you were to visit, and please feel free to do so, you would not notice any real differences between our place and any other small house. Here is a short list of accommodations that you might see. Sorry to use that term on the weekend, by the way.
No toaster. When you use electricity to create heat, as in a toaster, a hair dryer, kettle, baseboard heater, or slow cooker, it is a huge draw. You can certainly use those things in a solar powered house but you need deeper pockets than ours to buys lots of panels and batteries. So we use a griddle to make toast every morning. Not a problem. Low hippie factor.
Top loading fridge. The fridge opens like a chest freezer so that the cool air stays inside instead of pouring out into the room. It also has very thick walls with lots of insulation so it cycles infrequently, maybe once every hour for five minutes. Low hippie factor. Mind you, this is actually our second fridge and it’s designed to run off the 24 volts DC produced by our system. The first fridge had an elevated hippie factor because we actually bought a Kenmore freezer for $279 and swapped out the freezer controller for a fridge controller. Even with these low-budget, hand-made adaptations, it worked fine though.
Heating system. I’m sure this is similar to many of you in the room, but we heat with wood and use a propane wall furnace as backup in case we ever need to be away in the winter.
On-demand hot water heater that uses propane to heat the water. No energy is used to store water and keep it hot. Negligible hippie factor.
When we began to plan the house, the first thing we had to do was to write down every single thing we wanted to plug in, and inspect the labels on the backs of each item to see how many watts or amps it draws. If the label cites amps, you multiply that by 120 volts to know how many watts it uses, per hour.
You need to calculate the number of watts you will use because photovoltaic or PV solar panels are sold in watt-capacity, that is, how many watts per hour of sunlight they generate.
We listed all of our stuff, and then added in the water pump and fridge, our two biggest draws. (In later years we have also added a front loading washer and central vac.) Then we could do the math. How many 123 watt panels would we need – or could we afford – to run the house?
In our case, our complete system includes:
• eight 123 watt photovoltaic panels (984 watts per hour)
• eight deep cycle batteries
• a 2500 watt sine wave inverter; sine wave inverters generate clean power for running electronics. The inverter takes in the 24 volt power which is produced by the panels and stored in the batteries, and turns it into 120 volts AC, for use throughout the house – so everything runs the same as at your place.
• a solar charge controller that displays the amount of energy being produced from the sun at any given time, the incoming voltage, and also the level of power available in the batteries.
This last point is important. For every system there is a magic number below which you cannot deplete your batteries. The inverter is programmed to shut the entire house down if not enough power is available. So I guess another key part of our system is a small Honda generator that we plug in to charge the batteries when needed. On average, we use the generator every 2.6 days for one hour and 15 minutes during November through January. This is the first year since we moved in on March 20, 2005 that we have ever run the generator after February 1.
A key factor for people thinking about setting up a photovoltaic system is cost. Because we were building new, the cost of setting up the system was just folded into the overall huge amount of money we were already borrowing. So it didn’t really affect our financial situation directly. At today’s prices, our system would cost about $16,000, which is actually less than what we paid, because the price of the PV panels has come down.
Getting ready to move into the house was incredibly nerve-wracking. In addition to the concerns shared by everyone who is getting ready to move into a new home – finishing touches, décor, placing furniture, etc., we also had a critical moment late one afternoon as the electrician was getting ready to leave. He looked at us and said, “Well, who wants to turn it on?” Our house had no electricity until this time. We had no idea if things would work, from the lights to the water pump, and the inverter alone came with a 2-inch thick manual. We took a deep breath and told him to go ahead. Ta da! No problem. Meanwhile, I was glancing through the manual. Virtually every page dealt with a different aspect of the inverter set up. I looked up and asked the electrician about it. He said, picking up some tools and eying the door, “Oh, I don’t know anything about that. I just followed the instructions to wire everything properly.”
I looked at my brother-in-law, a genius of a designer and builder, and he just shook his head. My husband shrugged his shoulders. Well lucky for them I am just weird enough that I love reading computer manuals and this was all looking very similar. I got the electrician to put the toolbox down and take the time to help us set the default settings and parameters for the inverter. So I read and prompted, the electrician answered, and Frank pushed the buttons. After an hour or so we thought we were all set. The others went home and Frank and I looked around in satisfaction at our new house. We did need to make some adjustments the next day, but were able to navigate and re-set a few things. A happy ending.
When people hear we live off the grid, they nearly always ask us if are selling power back to Hydro One. We are not, for a couple of reasons. The main one is that the house is set back in the middle of 100 acres and for us to link up to the hydro lines out at the highway would cost almost as much as setting up our system in the first place. Also I must cite the aggravation factor. We are committed to living off the grid, and don’t see a huge benefit financially or otherwise to linking up to Hydro.
But I have brought along some basic information in case anyone here is considering it.
First – what you could earn from the sun. Hydro pays you $.57 a kilowatt for power generated by panels mounted on a rack on the ground, and $.80 for power generated by roof-mounted panels. They discovered that people with ground mounts could track the sun and make a lot of money, while the roof panels are stationary, and self-limiting in the amount of direct sunlight they get each day. Our own panels are on a mast on the ground and we do certainly turn them, especially on a day that is mostly cloudy and then gets a couple of hours of sun. So Hydro doesn’t actually want to pay people to the maximum that a PV system can generate.
Without getting too detailed, here are some numbers to illustrate how a grid tie system makes money.
First you buy the panels at a cost of $6-$7 a watt, so a 5000 watt system would cost about $32,500 for panels.
Then you purchase a grid tie inverter for that 5 kW system, at $4000.
Now the roof mounting system, $1000. Cables, charge controller etc. would be about another $1000. You also need to get a special meter from Hydro and you’d sign a detailed contract.
So you would invest a total of $38,500.
In Ontario, this 5 kW system would produce about 6250 kilowatt hours per year. Most Canadian homes use between 5000 and 13000 kWh per year.
As your system produces energy during the sunny part of the day, your house is drawing some even if you are not there. But whatever is not used will roll your hydro meter back. Then you come home and use some power each evening. At the end of the month you would see if you were in a net gain position. In a recent interview on CBC, homeowners in Toronto stated that with their modest system, they were making about $1700 a year. There are obviously many, many different setups that would produce more or less than this amount of money.
But for us, and hopefully for others, it is not just about money. Yes, you can invest a lot of money and purchase unlimited numbers of panels to power unlimited numbers of appliances. But hopefully at the point that you begin to list your possessions and size your system you would perhaps think about the big picture. Technology today can give us a virtually unimaginable array of conveniences, tools and toys. I certainly plead guilty to being seduced by the latter. But if you think about it, one big fancy fridge with all the bells and whistles uses as much electricity as our whole house.
Even with no hippie-ish touches to complicate my day to day existence, our off the grid house was economical to outfit and runs like a dream. I am happy to have had the chance to share it with you. Thank you very much.
I’ve always loved camping. My first overnight camp took place when I was 7. I had begged my parents to let me go to a YMCA horseback riding day camp, and to my surprise they agreed, likely because my dad was away every week for the month of July marking the old Grade 13 departmental exams in Toronto and there were two others younger than me at home. Anyway, the grand finale of the YMCA Cherry Hill Riding Camp involved an overnight in a tent in the woods on the last weekend. My dad brought me home a sleeping bag that he bought at Honest Ed’s for $14.00, plus one of those aluminum mess kits. When he showed up with me after dark to a big bonfire complete with roasted marshmallows and singing, the camp leaders looked at him like he was crazy. I am aware that I looked about 4 years old and they thought he was out of his mind to just drop me off. But I loved it all, even the burnt eggs and bacon the next morning.
Then, in the years before I started getting summer jobs, my parents took us four kids and our cat around Ontario and across Canada in a tiny tent trailer. And as an adult I continued car camping with my son, and even took two long backpacking trips in Lake Superior Provincial Park.
I thrive on everything about camping, stocking the food box and cooler, setting up, organizing the water and cooking, trying to anticipate all of our needs before we get way off the beaten track without something essential like cooking oil or a can opener. I like the way your time is filled with the little tasks that make everything run smoothly. Hey, I don’t even mind a clean outhouse.
However. When my husband Frank first started talking about building our house off the grid, powered by solar panels, I made one thing clear. This would not, I repeat absolutely would not, be some kind of hippie-ish rustic getaway. Camping is one thing, our house is… a house.
There would be a fridge.
There would be a kitchen stove.
There would be hot water out of a tap. Make that taps.
There would be regular lights and a TV and a computer. A stereo.
A fully functioning indoor bathroom.
And, truthfully, that’s exactly what we have. If you were to visit, and please feel free to do so, you would not notice any real differences between our place and any other small house. Here is a short list of accommodations that you might see. Sorry to use that term on the weekend, by the way.
No toaster. When you use electricity to create heat, as in a toaster, a hair dryer, kettle, baseboard heater, or slow cooker, it is a huge draw. You can certainly use those things in a solar powered house but you need deeper pockets than ours to buys lots of panels and batteries. So we use a griddle to make toast every morning. Not a problem. Low hippie factor.
Top loading fridge. The fridge opens like a chest freezer so that the cool air stays inside instead of pouring out into the room. It also has very thick walls with lots of insulation so it cycles infrequently, maybe once every hour for five minutes. Low hippie factor. Mind you, this is actually our second fridge and it’s designed to run off the 24 volts DC produced by our system. The first fridge had an elevated hippie factor because we actually bought a Kenmore freezer for $279 and swapped out the freezer controller for a fridge controller. Even with these low-budget, hand-made adaptations, it worked fine though.
Heating system. I’m sure this is similar to many of you in the room, but we heat with wood and use a propane wall furnace as backup in case we ever need to be away in the winter.
On-demand hot water heater that uses propane to heat the water. No energy is used to store water and keep it hot. Negligible hippie factor.
When we began to plan the house, the first thing we had to do was to write down every single thing we wanted to plug in, and inspect the labels on the backs of each item to see how many watts or amps it draws. If the label cites amps, you multiply that by 120 volts to know how many watts it uses, per hour.
You need to calculate the number of watts you will use because photovoltaic or PV solar panels are sold in watt-capacity, that is, how many watts per hour of sunlight they generate.
We listed all of our stuff, and then added in the water pump and fridge, our two biggest draws. (In later years we have also added a front loading washer and central vac.) Then we could do the math. How many 123 watt panels would we need – or could we afford – to run the house?
In our case, our complete system includes:
• eight 123 watt photovoltaic panels (984 watts per hour)
• eight deep cycle batteries
• a 2500 watt sine wave inverter; sine wave inverters generate clean power for running electronics. The inverter takes in the 24 volt power which is produced by the panels and stored in the batteries, and turns it into 120 volts AC, for use throughout the house – so everything runs the same as at your place.
• a solar charge controller that displays the amount of energy being produced from the sun at any given time, the incoming voltage, and also the level of power available in the batteries.
This last point is important. For every system there is a magic number below which you cannot deplete your batteries. The inverter is programmed to shut the entire house down if not enough power is available. So I guess another key part of our system is a small Honda generator that we plug in to charge the batteries when needed. On average, we use the generator every 2.6 days for one hour and 15 minutes during November through January. This is the first year since we moved in on March 20, 2005 that we have ever run the generator after February 1.
A key factor for people thinking about setting up a photovoltaic system is cost. Because we were building new, the cost of setting up the system was just folded into the overall huge amount of money we were already borrowing. So it didn’t really affect our financial situation directly. At today’s prices, our system would cost about $16,000, which is actually less than what we paid, because the price of the PV panels has come down.
Getting ready to move into the house was incredibly nerve-wracking. In addition to the concerns shared by everyone who is getting ready to move into a new home – finishing touches, décor, placing furniture, etc., we also had a critical moment late one afternoon as the electrician was getting ready to leave. He looked at us and said, “Well, who wants to turn it on?” Our house had no electricity until this time. We had no idea if things would work, from the lights to the water pump, and the inverter alone came with a 2-inch thick manual. We took a deep breath and told him to go ahead. Ta da! No problem. Meanwhile, I was glancing through the manual. Virtually every page dealt with a different aspect of the inverter set up. I looked up and asked the electrician about it. He said, picking up some tools and eying the door, “Oh, I don’t know anything about that. I just followed the instructions to wire everything properly.”
I looked at my brother-in-law, a genius of a designer and builder, and he just shook his head. My husband shrugged his shoulders. Well lucky for them I am just weird enough that I love reading computer manuals and this was all looking very similar. I got the electrician to put the toolbox down and take the time to help us set the default settings and parameters for the inverter. So I read and prompted, the electrician answered, and Frank pushed the buttons. After an hour or so we thought we were all set. The others went home and Frank and I looked around in satisfaction at our new house. We did need to make some adjustments the next day, but were able to navigate and re-set a few things. A happy ending.
When people hear we live off the grid, they nearly always ask us if are selling power back to Hydro One. We are not, for a couple of reasons. The main one is that the house is set back in the middle of 100 acres and for us to link up to the hydro lines out at the highway would cost almost as much as setting up our system in the first place. Also I must cite the aggravation factor. We are committed to living off the grid, and don’t see a huge benefit financially or otherwise to linking up to Hydro.
But I have brought along some basic information in case anyone here is considering it.
First – what you could earn from the sun. Hydro pays you $.57 a kilowatt for power generated by panels mounted on a rack on the ground, and $.80 for power generated by roof-mounted panels. They discovered that people with ground mounts could track the sun and make a lot of money, while the roof panels are stationary, and self-limiting in the amount of direct sunlight they get each day. Our own panels are on a mast on the ground and we do certainly turn them, especially on a day that is mostly cloudy and then gets a couple of hours of sun. So Hydro doesn’t actually want to pay people to the maximum that a PV system can generate.
Without getting too detailed, here are some numbers to illustrate how a grid tie system makes money.
First you buy the panels at a cost of $6-$7 a watt, so a 5000 watt system would cost about $32,500 for panels.
Then you purchase a grid tie inverter for that 5 kW system, at $4000.
Now the roof mounting system, $1000. Cables, charge controller etc. would be about another $1000. You also need to get a special meter from Hydro and you’d sign a detailed contract.
So you would invest a total of $38,500.
In Ontario, this 5 kW system would produce about 6250 kilowatt hours per year. Most Canadian homes use between 5000 and 13000 kWh per year.
As your system produces energy during the sunny part of the day, your house is drawing some even if you are not there. But whatever is not used will roll your hydro meter back. Then you come home and use some power each evening. At the end of the month you would see if you were in a net gain position. In a recent interview on CBC, homeowners in Toronto stated that with their modest system, they were making about $1700 a year. There are obviously many, many different setups that would produce more or less than this amount of money.
But for us, and hopefully for others, it is not just about money. Yes, you can invest a lot of money and purchase unlimited numbers of panels to power unlimited numbers of appliances. But hopefully at the point that you begin to list your possessions and size your system you would perhaps think about the big picture. Technology today can give us a virtually unimaginable array of conveniences, tools and toys. I certainly plead guilty to being seduced by the latter. But if you think about it, one big fancy fridge with all the bells and whistles uses as much electricity as our whole house.
Even with no hippie-ish touches to complicate my day to day existence, our off the grid house was economical to outfit and runs like a dream. I am happy to have had the chance to share it with you. Thank you very much.
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Hunting Laws
Dear Mr. Clement,
In talking with some neighbours the other day, the topic of hunting on private land came up.
I decided to write to you with my views and hopefully you can take these ideas into consideration if and when the government decides to take action on the issue of conflicts between hunters and landowners. In a rural area this certainly occurs. On the 100 acres where our house is located, outside Sprucedale, we have been walking on our trails well within the property boundaries and have had to turn back due to rifle fire overhead. This was on New Year's Day three years ago. The police and MNR were completely uninterested in this situation, until our local councillor called them a week or so later. Anyway, I guess that is no surprise given the present state of the laws...
So here are a few ideas which I hope can one day become the law in our area.
1. The hunting laws in this area should be changed so that they are the same as those on Manitoulin Island, where the hunter needs permission to hunt on private land whether it is signed or not. It is the hunter's responsibility to be hunting legally. Why should residents of Manitoulin have this protection and I don't?
2. The law should be changed to prohibit the discharge of firearms within 500 metres of a residence. This is a tragedy waiting to happen, in an area like ours where development of the rural area is continuing.
3. There should be no hunting on recreational trails such as the Seguin Trail. I have walked on or near this trail daily for 12 years. Except of course during hunting season(s) when I, as an unarmed pedestrian, am forced to drive into town to take a walk.
I also agree with my neighbours that there should be a way, such as a patch, to identify hunters.
Thank you for considering these points, which I think would greatly improve the safety of Ontario residents who live in rural and northern communities.
Yours sincerely,
Anne Shillolo
In talking with some neighbours the other day, the topic of hunting on private land came up.
I decided to write to you with my views and hopefully you can take these ideas into consideration if and when the government decides to take action on the issue of conflicts between hunters and landowners. In a rural area this certainly occurs. On the 100 acres where our house is located, outside Sprucedale, we have been walking on our trails well within the property boundaries and have had to turn back due to rifle fire overhead. This was on New Year's Day three years ago. The police and MNR were completely uninterested in this situation, until our local councillor called them a week or so later. Anyway, I guess that is no surprise given the present state of the laws...
So here are a few ideas which I hope can one day become the law in our area.
1. The hunting laws in this area should be changed so that they are the same as those on Manitoulin Island, where the hunter needs permission to hunt on private land whether it is signed or not. It is the hunter's responsibility to be hunting legally. Why should residents of Manitoulin have this protection and I don't?
2. The law should be changed to prohibit the discharge of firearms within 500 metres of a residence. This is a tragedy waiting to happen, in an area like ours where development of the rural area is continuing.
3. There should be no hunting on recreational trails such as the Seguin Trail. I have walked on or near this trail daily for 12 years. Except of course during hunting season(s) when I, as an unarmed pedestrian, am forced to drive into town to take a walk.
I also agree with my neighbours that there should be a way, such as a patch, to identify hunters.
Thank you for considering these points, which I think would greatly improve the safety of Ontario residents who live in rural and northern communities.
Yours sincerely,
Anne Shillolo
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Food Chain
Intellectually I know that all the wild animals we catch glimpses of have to eat. We love to see that elusive flash of red fox fur at the edge of the clearing, or the lean, lumbering black figure of the bear passing through the yard. But I’ve now decided that I don’t really need the details of their diet. Sometimes, to use a cliché, it’s just too much information.
Last month I was driving home the back way, through Muskoka to Ilfracombe and up Stisted Road. Going fairly slowly I got a clear look at a healthy, large fox standing his ground at the side of the road, lunch hanging out of his mouth. Clenched firmly between his jaws was a bloody newborn fawn. It hung limply down each side of the fox; its fur was delicately spotted, its limbs short and bony, and its head still elongated, an unfamiliar sort of prehistoric profile, with the bones of its skull close together and its snout raised and lengthened. Like a human baby, its head was large in proportion to the rest of its frame. That fox didn’t move a muscle until I’d passed and then I saw it move back out onto the shoulder of the road, trotting purposefully south.
Yesterday I found out what the local bears have been eating. Walking on the highway as I do every morning I spotted a large bear dropping. It was sort of disgusting, very big and with a grey liquid sheen to it. Then as I was approaching I saw that Barney, as we have called our local black bear, had had to squat twice to finish his business. In the second, smaller mound there were two perfectly formed, unchewed and undigested, bunny ears. They were still attached to each other with a bit of skin and skull.
I’m happy to know the food chain exists and that all the animals are doing well this year. I just don’t feel the need to view the individual links. What can I say? Yuck.
Last month I was driving home the back way, through Muskoka to Ilfracombe and up Stisted Road. Going fairly slowly I got a clear look at a healthy, large fox standing his ground at the side of the road, lunch hanging out of his mouth. Clenched firmly between his jaws was a bloody newborn fawn. It hung limply down each side of the fox; its fur was delicately spotted, its limbs short and bony, and its head still elongated, an unfamiliar sort of prehistoric profile, with the bones of its skull close together and its snout raised and lengthened. Like a human baby, its head was large in proportion to the rest of its frame. That fox didn’t move a muscle until I’d passed and then I saw it move back out onto the shoulder of the road, trotting purposefully south.
Yesterday I found out what the local bears have been eating. Walking on the highway as I do every morning I spotted a large bear dropping. It was sort of disgusting, very big and with a grey liquid sheen to it. Then as I was approaching I saw that Barney, as we have called our local black bear, had had to squat twice to finish his business. In the second, smaller mound there were two perfectly formed, unchewed and undigested, bunny ears. They were still attached to each other with a bit of skin and skull.
I’m happy to know the food chain exists and that all the animals are doing well this year. I just don’t feel the need to view the individual links. What can I say? Yuck.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
The Anti-Probability Party
Hey, it should have worked, but instead we were like molecules with like charges rolling slowly around Bracebridge in sundresses and sandals, each in our own random orbits.
It all started when Halina suggested that she and Jackie and I leave our separate homes in Sprucedale, Emsdale and Orillia and meet up in Bracebridge for lunch. Jackie added that it would be a good opportunity to see the “Bob and Joe” show at the Chapel Gallery. It was a special occasion – my birthday. We planned to met up at the Riverside Inn, park Halina’s car and then use mine for the rest of our jaunt. It was a wonderful afternoon: lovely luncheon on the airy, tree-shaded patio at Inn at the Falls, leisurely stroll up and down the main street of Bracebridge, and then a bit of a rush to get over to the gallery and see the paintings before closing time.
The works were by Roberta Haviland and Mendelson Joe, on an environmental theme, many showing the effects of four-laning on the Highway 11 corridor communities. (Although the reality of the deaths on the old road makes me strongly in favour of the project. More people alive and well to revitalize the villages. They need loop signs like in New Brunswick.)
We were delighted to see that the people who had signed the guest book right before us were Jane and Randy, our friends from Emsdale who live across the road from Len. What a coincidence, we exclaimed.
When we returned to the Riverside Inn we had a little surprise – a gallery postcard on Halina’s windshield saying, “Sorry we missed you, sad face.” Our speculations ran wild. It had to be Jane and Randy. But how would they know Halina’s Lancer? Well, Lenny must be with them. Didn’t sign the book, but spotted the car on the way out of town…
Then we went home. Over dinner I said to Frank, “Too bad we couldn’t have gone a day later so MaryAnne could have come with us.”
An hour or so later, MaryAnne arrived for a visit, having driven from Regan’s cottage near Bala. Now to summarize the rest of the story:
1. M.A and R had called Frank that morning with a view to meeting up with our original trio. He told them we were meeting at 12 not 12:30. They got tired of waiting at the Riverside Inn, had lunch at the pub and went to the gallery, signing somewhere above Jane and Randy. Never saw anyone they knew. They left the postcard on H’s window.
2. The next day, I ran into J and R in Huntsville. They had been to the Bracebridge vet and the gallery, didn’t see anyone else. Len was not with them.
3. The next day Len came over for dinner and we regaled him with this improbable story. He replied, “Tuesday? But I was in Bracebridge, went to the gallery that morning.” By himself, didn’t sign the book.
So there we were, all eight of us, roaming around this small cottage town, all at the art gallery, all within the span of a few hours – and not a glimpse of each other. You know it will probably be New Year’s Eve at Len’s traditional party before we all get another chance!
It all started when Halina suggested that she and Jackie and I leave our separate homes in Sprucedale, Emsdale and Orillia and meet up in Bracebridge for lunch. Jackie added that it would be a good opportunity to see the “Bob and Joe” show at the Chapel Gallery. It was a special occasion – my birthday. We planned to met up at the Riverside Inn, park Halina’s car and then use mine for the rest of our jaunt. It was a wonderful afternoon: lovely luncheon on the airy, tree-shaded patio at Inn at the Falls, leisurely stroll up and down the main street of Bracebridge, and then a bit of a rush to get over to the gallery and see the paintings before closing time.
The works were by Roberta Haviland and Mendelson Joe, on an environmental theme, many showing the effects of four-laning on the Highway 11 corridor communities. (Although the reality of the deaths on the old road makes me strongly in favour of the project. More people alive and well to revitalize the villages. They need loop signs like in New Brunswick.)
We were delighted to see that the people who had signed the guest book right before us were Jane and Randy, our friends from Emsdale who live across the road from Len. What a coincidence, we exclaimed.
When we returned to the Riverside Inn we had a little surprise – a gallery postcard on Halina’s windshield saying, “Sorry we missed you, sad face.” Our speculations ran wild. It had to be Jane and Randy. But how would they know Halina’s Lancer? Well, Lenny must be with them. Didn’t sign the book, but spotted the car on the way out of town…
Then we went home. Over dinner I said to Frank, “Too bad we couldn’t have gone a day later so MaryAnne could have come with us.”
An hour or so later, MaryAnne arrived for a visit, having driven from Regan’s cottage near Bala. Now to summarize the rest of the story:
1. M.A and R had called Frank that morning with a view to meeting up with our original trio. He told them we were meeting at 12 not 12:30. They got tired of waiting at the Riverside Inn, had lunch at the pub and went to the gallery, signing somewhere above Jane and Randy. Never saw anyone they knew. They left the postcard on H’s window.
2. The next day, I ran into J and R in Huntsville. They had been to the Bracebridge vet and the gallery, didn’t see anyone else. Len was not with them.
3. The next day Len came over for dinner and we regaled him with this improbable story. He replied, “Tuesday? But I was in Bracebridge, went to the gallery that morning.” By himself, didn’t sign the book.
So there we were, all eight of us, roaming around this small cottage town, all at the art gallery, all within the span of a few hours – and not a glimpse of each other. You know it will probably be New Year’s Eve at Len’s traditional party before we all get another chance!
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Fast Wizard
We are trying to do the impossible, prepare our mini pit-orchestra for a full musical presentation in six weeks. Our first rehearsal is this coming Wednesday evening for The Wizard of Oz. Thursday May 14 is opening night. For other shows we have started in January, taking a small break to practice for the Sprucedale Variety Night in February, and then going right back at it. The only saving grace may be that the score is short, and much easier than Rogers and Hammerstein’s music. My clarinet part is only 31 pages, compared to 70-80 in the past. And there is the usual repetition of themes and reprises, so not too, too much to learn.
The group consists of keyboard, two clarinets, a flute, trumpet, alto, guitar, bass, hopefully violin, and percussion.
Our conductor will be back from Australia on April 30. Yikes.
But technology has helped a lot. I didn’t want to impose on Greg’s family time Down Under but now I am glad I did. Within a few messages we were able to sort out a lot of conflict over instrumentation and personnel, get our parts, and plan our rehearsals. Now, Ruth is going to email for instructions on how to convert the trombone part to alto, something she’s done in the past and just needs a reminder about. Technology really has helped get us to this point, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be off to see you-know-who by early May.
The group consists of keyboard, two clarinets, a flute, trumpet, alto, guitar, bass, hopefully violin, and percussion.
Our conductor will be back from Australia on April 30. Yikes.
But technology has helped a lot. I didn’t want to impose on Greg’s family time Down Under but now I am glad I did. Within a few messages we were able to sort out a lot of conflict over instrumentation and personnel, get our parts, and plan our rehearsals. Now, Ruth is going to email for instructions on how to convert the trombone part to alto, something she’s done in the past and just needs a reminder about. Technology really has helped get us to this point, and we’re hopeful that we’ll be off to see you-know-who by early May.
Spring
It’s spring nice and early here near Sprucedale. All the migrants seem to have arrived back at once, and I hope the weather is kind to them for the next few weeks. On Friday March 27 I was out walking Rocco about 7 a.m. and as we reached the end of the driveway in the gloom and fog, I heard the unmistakeable reedy trills of a flock of blackbirds across the road in the swamp. From the shoulder of the road I tried to see them perched in the alders, but no luck. Then the next morning on the way back to the house, a bunch of Canada geese in pairs and trios were trying to get organized for the day, honking and flying back and forth overhead. I later saw a heron and a duck in flight, and best of all, on our evening walk we saw a flock of robins hanging out where the blackbirds had been the day before, all on the alert and making warning chirps as they zoomed from tree to tree. Everybody back before April. Wow.
The Dial-up Marten
On a $9.99 a month dial-up Internet connection you spend a lot of time waiting for sites, designed for a high-speed world, to load. Sometimes I read a magazine or a book, and quite often I swivel my chair in its tiny alcove to look out a large window at the deck, yard, pond and the bush beyond. Last week, during March Break, I was waiting and gazing and spotted a skinny, sleek brown animal skittering down the hill on top of the late winter snow. He or she found the edge of the pond that stays open all winter due to runoff and before I could blink he’d popped into the water and under the ice. I waited for him to emerge and out of the corner of my eye saw that he’d hopped out at the inlet to the pond, also a small opening in the ice. Below my line of vision he tracked along the shore of the pond while I got the binoculars.
Now I could see that he was sitting up on the bank under a tall, bare yellow birch, pretty much where I leave my towel and flip-flops when I go for a swim in the summer. He was worrying away at something but had his back to me so I couldn’t observe any details about his activity. After five minutes, he took off down to the outlet end of the pond. Back into the water. I shivered. Too much swimming, marten, it’s still winter out there.
A moment later out he came and ran across the frozen pond towards the hill and the bush. In his mouth, practically dragging on the ground, was the largest frog I have ever seen. I then figured he’d had his own frog for a midmorning snack and was taking the rest of the bounty home to the family. I guess the pairing of dial-up, which we’re stuck with due to a remote location, and the views available at that location, do make a bit of sense. I hear we might get high speed out here soon, so now I have two reasons to procrastinate over whether to subscribe. One, I’m too cheap. Two, what about the marten?
Now I could see that he was sitting up on the bank under a tall, bare yellow birch, pretty much where I leave my towel and flip-flops when I go for a swim in the summer. He was worrying away at something but had his back to me so I couldn’t observe any details about his activity. After five minutes, he took off down to the outlet end of the pond. Back into the water. I shivered. Too much swimming, marten, it’s still winter out there.
A moment later out he came and ran across the frozen pond towards the hill and the bush. In his mouth, practically dragging on the ground, was the largest frog I have ever seen. I then figured he’d had his own frog for a midmorning snack and was taking the rest of the bounty home to the family. I guess the pairing of dial-up, which we’re stuck with due to a remote location, and the views available at that location, do make a bit of sense. I hear we might get high speed out here soon, so now I have two reasons to procrastinate over whether to subscribe. One, I’m too cheap. Two, what about the marten?
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Fine Line
We recently went to the local Hotel to hear Fine Line. It’s a great night out. Two kilometres from home, in a hamlet that has houses, a general store, post office, gas station and convenience store, and the venerable hotel. It looks like a large square house from the outside and the interior is small and home-like as well. The windows can unlatch and be raised in the summer, and have heavy dark wooden trim. There’s a dining room to the right of the centre front door, but you can’t get to it without walking in past the pool table and turning at the bar. The main room has four booths down the far wall and three rows of tables where you sit cafeteria style facing the front towards the band. The tiny stage occupies one corner and holds a drum kit safely back in its angle, several mic stands, and two guitarists out front, being careful not to pitch out onto the dance floor. Various amps and monitors are stacked on the floor, along the walls and edged in amongst the musicians. Two large windows take up most of the stage’s wall space. Above one is a narrow pixel-board on a short loop advertising the bands that will play on the upcoming Saturdays. Above the other they’ve mounted a deer skull with pronged horns on a plaque. The antlers cast a coloured dual shadow in the stage lights, crimson and turquoise against the white plaster. The remaining wall space onstage is taken up by a large red Budweiser poster, and spanning the corner walls above the drummer is a bright red size XL t-shirt with the slogan “We support our troops” in white across the chest. The stage floor is black and the two-foot high apron has been nicely finished in angled pine boards. Fine Line is led by Eddy on lead guitar and vocals, with Dave on drums and a new bass player who has replaced Gary. They play three lightning-fingered sets of rock, blues and country between 9:30 and 1:00. Often they open with a fast-past Folsom Prison Blues which shows Eddy’s virtuosity on the guitar, and nearly every show he plays Five Days In May because he knows it’s my favourite. Sometimes the audience consists of friends of the musicians, people who live nearby and have seen the poster advertising tonight’s band, and local snowmobilers. Other times it’s packed with drinkers and dancers from three generations and villages and townships far and wide. One summer night a cottagers’ association from Muskoka bused in a wild crowd wearing L.L. Bean and Dockers and celebrating someone’s 50th.
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