Tag: BCB&B

Happy December 25th!

by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

PN is grateful that TS is recovering so well post knee-surgery. TS is becoming an Fe-womyn with all of those various (borderline sadistic) physiotherapeutic exercises (Gus [from the clinic], if you’re reading this, I don’t know whether to thank you or curse you).

While I want to spend a week at the site (during our break), that will have to wait until TS’s knee heals more. Sure, I’m all gung-ho about trudging into the lot — solo. That’s a bit too risky. I cannot rely on my neighbours to bail me out if I do something stupid (they ARE called widowmakers for a reason, eh).

In the meantime, TS is making ~600-900 wolf biscuits for our wolfman & his pack (MS, we’re looking forward to our next visit; it’s possible we can meet you 1/2 way for a dawg-treat exchange).

Last item: when Evolve Builders visited our site earlier this month, they took additional images of our roughed in build-site. I’ve sprinkled those images in on our website. The annotations are my own and does NOT represent the views of our contractor, eh.

I’m hoping the frozen ground will allow our well driller opportunities to do exploratory testing. And our wastewater system installer to test the strata’s percolation performance. TBA = to be announced.
As our home gets built, PN will try to get additional images from this vantage point.
If you’d like a graffitti-free image, please contact PN.

Ah… so THAT’S why I received so many telephone calls from satellite ISP agents…

by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

When TS & I move up to the peninsula, we expect to pay a lot for broadband internet service. Off-grid. Our property line is at least ~1000 m from the last utility pole. Link to CBC article.

October 2022 360-degree image

by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

You are looking at my 2nd attempt at making a full-sphere image of our driveway at the build-site. My iDevice did its very best at knitting together images into an image bubble. Yes, PN is wearing red wooly socks in his Birkenstocks. TS is accepting of my fashion crimes.

PN & TS also cut away that risky blind-spot on the West side of the enterance (so that we can avoid the locals who bomb along that gravel road).

To my students & colleagues: don’t speed like a maniac down such roads. These speeders cannot stop in time. If they fish-tail and Tokyo-drift off the side of the road… there’s no way in hell they are getting their vehicle out. Trust me… several winters ago, I got my hoity-toity SNOWKAT (Toyota Tacoma) into the median. And it slowly slid off the embankment. Despite my 4WD, I had to get towed out by a neighbour who happened to drive by (and then THEY got stuck).

Oh, and if one were to injure oneself in a self-imposed MVA (motor vehicle accident), it will take the ambulance 1/2h to reach that victim… and another 1/2h to return to the nearest ICU (tiny hospital at Lions Head, somewhat bigger trauma centre at Wiarton, helicopter EVAC might be possible from that site [with the victim possibly footing the bill]).

Now, we have to deal with the blind-spot on the other side of the driveway!

Another year of stand-up philosophy!

by Napswithcats, posted in Current (?!) Events

I’m looking forward to this contract year (as a high school science teacher). Would I rather be on the property clearing the build site? Would I rather be pulling out deadfall and Widowmakers on our 10Ha woodlot? Would I rather be maintaining the tractor/ATV trails with my Sthil saws & cutters? Would I rather be chipping branches for our soil operation? Would I rather be bucking & splitting logs for storage (for eventual sale or for fueling an outdoor oven or soaker tub)?

Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. And, yes.

…I’m still learning how to embed RSS feeds onto our site. I visit HOW TO GEEK and its daughter sites (essentially) daily. This week, there was an opinion article about how unpleasant it is to watch movies at stand-alone theatres (link). TS also enjoyed the article.

Image of future BCB&B site.

4 weeks of harvesting, logging, and chipping…

Featured by Napswithcats, posted in Site Preparation

…leads to a roughed-in build site! See the attached images, eh.

Revision: Ah. So THAT’S how one inserts images. Oy.

Image of future BCB&B site.
After 4 weeks of forestry, TS & PN roughed out the future build-site.
An image of the future back yard.
PN & TS’s build-site is on the other side of the rock outcrop (that is on the left side of the image).
This image is from the gravel road’s terminus, looking South (forest garden on other side of the ridge [to the right]).

Lush, heavy rain, and cooler than our last woodlot work-session.

Featured by Napswithcats, posted in Current (?!) Events

Today will be an indoor session at Mountain Trout Camp (MTC). I’m looking forward to finding out how MS’s wolf-pack enjoy the canine treats (test version 1 and 2). TS wanted to ensure MS received the perishable chocolate-peanut-butter-banana-upside-down cake (as it’s still in its pan). Our recently-purchased deep-cycle battery has been trickle-charging since yesterday evening (we’ll try installing the cellular booster kit tomorrow at the BCB&B build-site). With all this torrential rainfall, TS researched precipitation capture systems. Apparently, Evolve Builders has published some 2010 case-studies of their efforts (link)! One might wonder why we are concerned about water conservation here on the North Bruce Peninsula (as we are surrounded by Lake Huron & Southern Georgian Bay). We are witnessing extreme weather events here on the Bruce (due to climate change) and I want to mitigate its effects on our household. I want to change my consumption habits (and reduce my impact on our local water cycles). Based on my research of the region (here [link], here [link], and here [link]), the area’s also overdue for a major forest fire (and we need to prepare for that with wildfire-control [not avoidance] systems).

This will be our first (modest) attempt at off-grid electrical power generation at 368 Lindsay Road 40.
Here’s an image of our very first inverter for the woodlot (being tested out at the VPCI school garden).
The Fluke DMM’s measuring the V at the battery terminals (while the kit’s being tested at VPCI).