Fall has definitely arrived…..
15 October 2011
• Shelburne NS
by Mike
…..not with a whimper, but a bang, and then a stutter! And here I was hoping that winter would miss us altogether. How foolish of me. This is Canada after all. On the plus side after just a couple of days the hardwoods have all changed to brilliant reds and golds. It has been a while since we have lived in a relatively rural area and could see the change just by looking out the door, so, another plus for living in Shelburne.
We started this blog posting a couple of days ago so it’s a composite of several days musings.
Today there was our first frost that left some tomatoes looking rather startled and a couple of potted plants on our front doorstep positively cringing. Poor things! I am now forced to look at how I am going to provide a temporary heat source in the workshop so that I can continue to do some of the wood work out there even in the winter. Then, almost as if by apology, the weather went all mild again and we are in the high teens and twenties (centigrade, that is) and I am back in short sleeved shirts. Go figure. But according to the chattering chipmunk, there’s no such thing as Global Warming.
The last couple of mornings I have awoken to the salvo of hunters blasting away at whatever. My Dad would take me hunting and we both only used single shot shotguns. He would tell me that if I don’t hit the target on the first shot I don’t deserve the bird and you should only take one from the flock anyway. These guys open up and blast away at the sky and hope they hit something as near as I can make out. It makes me realize that it might not be a great time to be at anchor in a quiet byway somewhere in the States if their hunting season is the same. They’ll be blasting off part of our superstructure by accident and we’ll be sweeping the lead shot off the decks.
I have also been force to realize that I will need to find some sort of work (eeew – that four letter word). I just wish that I could find something that I would enjoy. I don’t need to get paid big buckazoids, I’d just like to be able to get up in the morning and look forward to going somewhere that will pay something towards the bills and paying down the debt load.
Canadian Thanksgiving weekend is upon us and we are looking forward to turkey with the trimmings to be shared with our friends from down the street, Ian and Robin. Barb has been helping them out with a play that they are both involved with, Ian as director and Robin as one of the performers. Robin comes over to our place and Barb helps by reading lines. It helps with the memory work. I help out occasionally too but most of my time has been spent with the various projects. We went to one of the social occasions that everyone seems to take their turn at throwing here – a house party at one of the Bed and Breakfasts down on Dock Street. The whole community showed up! Nope, we were not going to be bored this winter, but we may have problems with our diets. We had a chat with the Past Commodore of the club and apparently he installed the new kitchen in their place. I think that Barb may be almost to the point where she might let me do ours to save a few bucks. My handiwork combined with a couple of trips to Lee Valley Tools for some of their special corner cupboard units and we may be good to go. The only thing that we would get from outside is the counter top. I’m not sure how I would go about even starting the work on quartz or granite which it the material of choice.
I am currently plastering the downstairs walls to get them ready for painting. It is going a lot easier than I thought that it might. Once that is done then we’ll both get at the painting and we can hang the various objets-d’art that are at present hiding in boxes waiting to be taken out.
Our fireplace is scheduled for install next Thursday and I am scrambling to get the hearth made before they arrive. I had thought of buying a 3’x5’ section of granite or quartz countertop and use that but they wanted $900 for it! And that price was a deal!? How do they come to that? It’s rock! Nobody makes rock! Granted they cut and maybe polish it a bit but holy crap! I guess their main customer base is for tombstones and nobody grief stricken argues too much, but Geeeze! Suffice to say I am making my own from a wooden shelf covered with stone tile. They can keep their $95/sqft granite!
Comments