We are officially famous! We got a mention on a Podcast and website of Downshiftme our friends who live in the Annapolis valley on mainland Nova Scotia. Matt and AJ moved here soon after we did from Leeds in the UK, and we have been following their progress avidly. Thank you for your comments on our blog too. We look forward to meeting up with you this year, along with our friends on A Country Life .
I have to correct our comments from Friday, where I (Gemma) said that we would complete our purchase of the lot 'either today or tomorrow' - I think I thought it was Thursday! So at this point we don't know whether the completion happened, or if it will be on Monday. I think a phone call to the lawyer will be in order on Monday for us to know for absolute certainty that we finally own our own 50 acre piece of Cape Breton Island.
Yesterday we drove up to the lot again to see if the snow had disappeared yet, as we have had rain, and we thought that this would have helped. The promised 10cm of snow did not arrive, and instead we had freezing rain. At the lot the snow was still there, and quite treacherous in places. What we found was beautiful, the trees were covered in ice, like tubes of ice, and as we walked where the snow was gone every blade of grass was covered in tubes of ice. This is when we said - we should have brought the camera with us. So we plan to go up again today, and try and get some shots if is the same.
Oliver loves the freedom he gets at the lot, the ability to run where he wants, following all sorts of interesting smells - being a Setter Anglais (English Setter) his nose is his life. To clarify the Setter Anglais - you have to understand that Oliver is French, and although we talk in English to him, all his commands are in French - which we felt vital if he had to stay with friends or got out by accident and a local French person was trying to call him, or control him. And Oliver likes cuddles too - Matt and AJ, like Dylan, when I was ill I had Oliver and at least two cats for company on the bed with me, sheer heaven in my book.
Jerry showed me the stream and almost a pond he found this week, and there is evidence that someone has dug a culvert to let the water continue down the land. I can't wait to see this as the weather improves, as there is nothing like a babbling brook in Spring. The other thing we noticed with the trees is all the buds coming through now, all be it now covered in ice. We feel that Spring is almost here, trying to fight it's way in. We have our share of Fir Trees on the lot along with plenty of deciduous trees, a nice mix, but one of our original comments was that we will never have to buy a Christmas Tree again - on that point I will say that this is the very first year we have bought a live tree, having bought an artificial tree when we were first together, and is still going strong. I did not feel totally comfortable buying a live tree, but they were collected in January, and felt better about it after that now. Something we heard on the podcast from downshiftme today was that they have just received a book on Woodland Management, which we think will be good for us too, as it is imperative that we do not cut down trees without replacing them for the future. Coppicing woodland is an art in itself, and something one has to learn to preserve our future.
I (Gemma) spoke with my sister today, who lives in Toronto, and has lived in Canada for 35 years, and finally I not only live on the same continent, but just down the road from her, all be it a very long road. Jerry reminded me that today is Mother's Day in the UK, and my call to Brenda was to see if she had remembered, and she had not. So these two girls both forgot on my first Mother's day in Canada, so for shame on us. But on phoning Mum, at this point I have not tracked her down, so I will just have to say ' well I called earlier but you were out gallivanting!' - Mum who is 83 in May, does a lot of that.
On the house front, we are going to have to sit down and study and perfect the layout we want inside the shell of the house. The reason for this is to do with the necessary pipe work that will be needed below the foundation slab. Since we are hoping to get the house footprint marked out soon, and then get a contractor in to get the footings and frost wall built as soon as the ground warms up - or rather defrosts, we do need to finalise where pipes will be needed. So we need to decide where the bathroom, utility room, and kitchen sink, mud room and half bath is going to be, so that the final placement of the pipe work can be decided upon.
This week Jerry purchased a wireless router this week, which he has now installed, which took some configuring, but we now have access to our broadband both downstairs in the lounge and upstairs in the study. Since EDS the company I work for, are pulling out of Port Hawkesbury, and being a small town it may be difficult to find other work. What I may end up having to do is getting a work from home job, and they often require that you have both a separate study to be your home office, as well as broadband, and this has resolved this issue.
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