Frosty!

There was a thick layer of frost on my car this morning! Nothing that a good shot of washer fluid didn’t take off though :)

Last night it was 14°C in our room when we went to bed. It slipped down to 13.9 by this morning. We’re holding tough though that the pellet stove guy will come through so we don’t have to turn the baseboard heaters on. The hydro bill was huge enough without them on!

It was -3° outside this morning. No fog!

I’m off to a staff development day today. From what I hear, they are long and boring but exciting because you’re getting a day away from your job and you get a free lunch. I think it’s one of these sit around a room and break into groups and do dumb things kinda days. I thought only the gov’t did that stuff…..

What were the chances..

We went to the community casserole dinner. We met up with the lady we knew here and she introduced us to a few others. The community hall, I’m guessing, was once a school. We learned there were once two schools on our side of the lake and two on the other side! Then they all amalgamated and moved the students into town so there are no schools out here anymore.

We had our casseroles and ham and cake and punch, talked a bit, and then left. Then we got a call to come back, we won the 50-50!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA I told you everything was falling in our laps since we moved out here! We won $70.50 :-) I bet we’ll get tagged to bring a casserole next year after that!

Washed and Waxed and looking GOOD

No not me you goof, the car! It’ll be 6 weeks old on Monday and it was due for a wash! We took turns hosing it off in town at a drive in wash stall. It’s so shiny again!

Let’s see, what is new….

On Friday we had FROZEN car windows when we headed off to work at 7:20am. It’s always foggy and dewey in the mornings but on Friday it was 0°C and the dew froze! That reminded me that we should probably put the window scraper in the car! In fact today we bought an emergency telescoping plastic shovel to keep in there – you never know what winter will bring and it’s a 20 minute drive for me into work. Jeff’s talking about getting studded winter tires for the car because they are legal out here!

So we figured out today that we’re probably the laughing stock of the garbage pickers. I had noticed before there were deposits on some pops when I got them, but we just put them all in our recycling. I figured no one drank pop on this road since there was no one else with big bags of recycling cans and bottles on the biweekly collection day. Turns out EVERY pop bottle and can has a 10 cent deposit paid on it and you have to bring them to the bottle collection depot to get your money back. GEEZ another different bag to sort our trash into. So far we have to sort out:

  • one bag, clear, for garbage
  • one bag, blue, for paper and cardboard
  • one bag, blue for cans and bottles and plastic containers
  • one green container for organic material like meat, bones, dirty paper towels, fast food wrappers, pizza boxes, food scraps
  • one container for collection organics that we can compost ourselves in our outdoor composter
  • one container now for bottles and cans to take to the bottle depot

Since we’ve put them all out for recycling, I’m sure someone drove by each time and scooped them all. There is even a deposit at Tim Hortons if you get a bottle or can of iced tea. So what are you supposed to do, take it with you to get your deposit back? This is insane. So when I have a can or bottle of juice or pop at work I have to bring it home so I can take it to the depot to get the 10 cents back?

Speaking of freezing.. wait, weren’t we? haha. We still aren’t heating our house. We’re waiting for the local guy to come out and service and clean the pellet stove and fireplace so we can start using them. He’s the same guy who was our house inspector and his company is swamped with work. Jeff’s been calling every week and they haven’t fit us in yet. Luckily though we ran into the woman who has more connections than anyone I’ve ever met – our real estate agent – and she’s going to see him on Monday so she’ll get him out here. Remember she bought us a dinner a few weeks back? Well she’s also having her customer appreciation dinner coming up this fall! What a lady! She said she will probably hand deliver the invite too. I commented on how most of the listings in the paper are her’s. She said they were putting a real estate listing publication out and she wanted her listings labeled with her name. The other agents didn’t like that because it made them look bad. I mean she’s got the majority of listings in the entire region – not just of the other agents in her office. She told them to get off their duff and get some listings!

Today we went for a driving tour – no back roads so we took the Caliber. We went over through Goshen and headed to Guysborough. From there we went through Mulgrave and then by the Canso Causeway (road to Cape Breton Island) and up towards Antigonish. Then we headed down the back road through St. Andrews, back to Goshen, and then back to home. We didn’t make many stops or take many pictures but it was a nice drive. There are rural areas where 50% of the houses are abandoned. Some of them are the classic big huge old wooden houses with wrap around porches. Many would be incredible B&B places if someone had the time and money (and customers). So many of them just look like the owner didn’t come home one day.

We’re seeing so much more of the lake now from our house. Most of the leaves are down now, except for the ugly alders that hold their leaves for so long. We are seeing places across the lake that we had no clue were there since we couldn’t see them before. Now the lights of the traffic as the odd car makes its way around the far side of the lake are more noticeable when we’re sitting here at night (since we don’t use the blinds. If you have a telescope and want to watch us, we will collect our entertainment tax).

Tomorrow is the local community association’s casserole dinner. We had caught wind of it, and then we got the flyer in the mailbox this week. I called up the lady who we met during our first week, the lady who had held our mail and had the extra key, and asked more about the casserole dinner – most importantly – were we just supposed to show up and pay our $10 each or bring a casserole? She said they call up different people each year to bring a casserole so we were probably off the hook this time because we were new here. We’re definitely going and hope to meet more interesting neighbours. There is supposed to be a good seamstress close by too (in case my wedding dress needs alterations when it arrives next week).

Jeff has been busy in the basement tonight working on the two massive big wooden bookcases he’s building for in my office here for all our books and photo albums. The first one is now together and the second one is being glued and clamped right now. Then we can sand and prime and stain and coat with the polyurethane or whatever it’s called.

Today’s Sunday Drive

Today we thought it was supposed to be raining, but we woke up to a beautiful sunny fall day so we headed out in Jeff’s truck for a new weekend adventure.

We drove south, just about all the way to Sherbrooke, and then we turned to the west and crossed over the St. Mary’s River. We then headed north on the road on the other side of the river. There are a lot of old abandoned homesteads over there too, along with small homes and summer cottages. I spotted an old graveyard so we headed down the driveway to see what it was all about.

It was an old cemetery. Not many stones, but they dated back to the first half of the 1800′s. Some were just wooden crosses, and some even just had a rock marking where a head stone would normally be.

Old Cemetery

Old Cemetery

We saw a big deer take off in the woods while we were looking at the grave stones. We only saw it’s back half so we don’t know if it was a doe or a buck.

We had another heavy frost this past week. Between that and the rain and the changing dates, the leaves have mostly fallen. Here is a glimpse of the road we were driving on just past the cemetery.

Fall Leaves

Here are some photos of the St. Mary’s River. It runs down to Sherbrooke and out to the ocean. It’s a popular destination for fly fishing. In fact it was people’s entire lives to fish on that river. Some were even fishing guides I think. The men would meet up every day to fish – some would sleep over night beside the pool the were going to fish the next morning so they would be there first. We heard a story of a guy who actually committed suicide when the salmon fishing dried up. His entire identity was wrapped around that river and when the fish numbers dropped, he had nothing left to live for.

St. Mary's River

The river was flowing really fast. It did rain heavy yesterday, but it does seem to have a quick current all the time.

St. Mary's River

St. Mary's River

Jeff gets to drive along the other side of this river every day to and from work. I bet he can’t wait to try his fishing pole in there!

After we drove north along the river, we veered west on Stora Enso’s logging road system for a couple hours or more. The roads were in really good shape. Not too much wildlife either, although we did pass through the Liscomb Game Preserve for several kilometres. That is where we saw a male spruce grouse!

back road drive

back road drive

We passed over several beautiful rivers and falls and lakes. Here are some more photos:

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

back road drive

We drove along the long reservoir and backup water flow system for the Sheet Harbour power system.

back road drive

back road drive

We came out of the back roads north of Sheet Harbour. We drove down to Sheet Harbour and then along the ocean back to Sherbrooke and then north back to our house. I love our explorations! I hope you like our photos.

Busy Week

It was a busy week and I have a lot of blogging to catch up on.

Last Sunday, October 14th, was Monty’s 2nd birthday! We took the boys for a swim and I have some photos to post.

On Monday my Grandpa Verkley died. I have an entire blog post swirling around my head about my Grandpa that I need to get typed out here soon.

On Wednesday Jeff and I got up at 4am for the airport so I could fly home to be with my family. My new job only gives ONE day off for the loss of a Grandfather, so I had to take a ridiculously fast trip. I took two days so I owe work a day still.

Late Thursday I flew back and Jeff picked me up in the middle of the night. He had an exhausting long busy day at work too so luckily we made it home without nodding off.

Friday I shuffled my tired feet through a day of work.

Yesterday was Saturday and Jeff and I went to the farmers market and did some shopping in town. It POURED yesterday. When it rains here, it is really wet. I know that sounds crazy, but when it pours here the drops are HUGE and you get DRENCHED.

Today we went for a long exploring drive. I’ll write that post next and show you some of the 83 photos we took today.

Today’s Adventure

After we went into town for groceries and some errands, neither of us had totally satisfied our sense of exploration and adventure for the day. We stopped at home to drop off the groceries and then switched to the Caliber for tour.

We went down to Sherbrooke and got gas. We reset the gas mileage dash computer and by the time we got home a couple hours later it was the lowest it ever was – 7.1L/100km!

We didn’t go too far, just out to the ocean in a few places, saw some old communities and scenery. We like seeing the old abandoned houses in amongst the houses. There are really old abandoned houses all over – lots of history.

Here are some pictures from down around the Liscomb area.

Here is some type of heron. There were a few of them hanging around. Very majestic fliers.

heron

Jeff was pointing out some of the things he saw when he was out on the boat for work one day. There is a shipwreck somewhere, but we couldn’t see it from the shore.

ocean scenery

heron

coast line

You gotta love this car. My favorite part of every work day is driving my car to and from work.

my Caliber

“yUH”

I’ve been trying how to write this blog post for awhile.

I don’t know if you know anyone from Nova Scotia, but I’d say 80% or MORE of the locals I’ve met have an odd habit. A way of talking so to speak.

Instead of saying “yeah” or “yah” to agree with someone, they say it in the middle of a loud inhaling gasp. Let’s say you just ran up 10 flights of stairs and someone asks you if you’re tired and you gasp yUH in the middle of a short inhaling gasp.

We were invited to socialize with 3 couples last night. One works with Jeff and one retired from his position a couple of years back. I had a really good time. I like hearing about this area and the people and the history. One of the ladies remembered watching the 2nd story getting lifted on this house with a crate 18 years back.

Anyhow, listening to them one by one do this loud gasping yUH around the room was almost enough to leave me in stitches. If I ever catch myself doing this… well… let’s just hope I don’t. (Jeff either. :D )

Back Road Exploration

This morning Jeff and I jumped in his truck and went to explore some back road bush roads on the other side of the lake from us. We can see the roads going up and over that side of the valley so Jeff found a topographic map and we took his GPS to mark some points.

The bush roads are a lot like northern Ontario’s in lots of ways. Except there seems to be more power lines around here. And there are no big trees, but there is definitely some serious intensive forest management underway here in Nova Scotia. Spruce is the only species I’ve seen growing for harvest here. There were some stands that were thinned, some had been aerial sprayed, some even had their bottoms branches pruned off (gives knot-free lumber).

Here are a few photos and some of our house from across the lake. We need to work on holding the camera straight :oops:

This one is from the truck while it is parked by the house:
Pictures from our back road bush road tour today

Pictures from our back road bush road tour today

No idea what this is. We could always see it from the highway but didn’t know what it was until we drove down that sideroad. I still don’t know what it is really.
Pictures from our back road bush road tour today

Pictures from our back road bush road tour today

Pictures from our back road bush road tour today

Our Neighbourhood

A wonderful little old lady stopped by on Friday and gave us a big welcome basket from the community association. It had home baking, cookies, and many jars of pickles of all sorts and lots of home made jam! Are we spoiled or WHAT?

Turns out there is a local community association out here and they have events. She told Jeff that there is a spring and fall casserole dinner where everyone brings a casserole and then digs in! There are darts every Sunday night and senior cards on Fridays. Sounds like a great place to live to me!

These oatmeal cookies with dates in between – like a circle date square – are incredible!!!! yum yum!

Cape Breton Island Drive

Yesterday we took a day drive up into Cape Breton Island. Beautiful drive. Lots of old houses and barns and history. Lots of gift shops too :-)

Yesterday was our first adventure with the salt sprays coming off the ocean! Or the gulf I suppose it was! It was a windy day and the spray from the waves was drifting over the roadways like a light snow or rain when we were by the water. It made my new car all salty! Just like driving on a highway in the winter that was covered in salt!

We got home as it was getting dark but I stayed outside to hose the car off. Hopefully that took some of the salt off.

Here are some photos:


Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive

Cape Breton Island Day Drive