The Bruce Trail Conservancy – they get my mythical $1M

Truth can be stranger than fiction, no?

We’ve got a rental!

We have an interim place to live!

Paul’s answer: my post-career health

Time to get on the farm, before the Fall heat.

Annotatingly-obsessed. That’s how I’m feeling right now.

How are you feeling right now?

If I want to (gently) alarm my spouse, I share my (Wikipedia) browsing history with her.

our build progression

Revisions, revisions, revisions (and it gets THOSE IDEAS out of my f**king head)!

Daily writing promptWhat do you enjoy most about writing?View all responses As a newly retired standup science philosopher (high school science teacher), I understand that writing is a SKILL. I enjoy being able to articulate myself -- if not verbally (where my stutter gets full-on manifested)... then in a format that allows me to review … Continue reading Revisions, revisions, revisions (and it gets THOSE IDEAS out of my f**king head)!

August 13-15, 2023 Update

Evolve Builders have been busy! Here's what we saw earlier this week (in no particular order): We watched the Perseid meteor shower. What plant species is this? The entrance to our construction site. Call before you enter. One of the crew had his blue van by the parking lot. SE corner Driveway leading to the … Continue reading August 13-15, 2023 Update

The trades!

What profession do you admire most and why? Framers. Evolve Builders. More to report later… Go EVOLVE!

I’m still learning blog-fu.

I posted an entry on TS’s channel. Here’s a link to it. https://blackdogbiscuits.ca/2023/08/13/firewood-dog-biscuits-peace-and/ Wonky post? Poor formatting? Let me know, eh.

List 30 things that make you happy. And these items are in no particular order (at least as of 11:15 a.m.)… House panthers; domesticated wolves; full-tang cutlery; hovering mid-water column; polishing hardwood; October Black (spouse); chess pieces; getting into the right headspace; a singing ulu as it comes out of its sheath; mynoise.net … Aural … Continue reading

The Guelph Farmer’s Market Was A Special, Soggy Spectacle

These images were taken at the Guelph Farm Market on July 29, 2023.

TS is getting stronger…

She’s been faithful to her assigned exercises. Including the dreadful crouching-crab-walk with the rubber band of doom!

Happy December 25th!

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 … Continue reading Happy December 25th!

Image of future BCB&B site.

4 weeks of harvesting, logging, and chipping…

…leads to a roughed-in build site! See the attached images, eh. Revision: Ah. So THAT’S how one inserts images. Oy. After 4 weeks of forestry, TS & PN roughed out the future build-site. PN & TS’s build-site is on the other side of the rock outcrop (that is on the left side of the image). … Continue reading 4 weeks of harvesting, logging, and chipping…

Hardwood is…

…well, hard. A grove of slow-growing oak, maple, and ironwood (yes, that’s a real Ontario tree [I’m using this tree atlas to identify my plants])… are challenging me. I thought I would be able to sharpen my saw’s chain every 3 days. Nope. The chain skates on the media! Daily sharpening. Daily! I won’t be … Continue reading Hardwood is…

Juvenile rattlesnake said…

…hey! Back off. So we did. 4 hummingbirds found our forest feeder and are now having a turf war over the bloody thing. A humourus 12 minute description of our feathered fiends (not friends). And a safety PSA for Mountain Trout Camp. 🤨 Lumber update: I’m chopping straight lengths of oak & maple (~5-6’ blocks) … Continue reading Juvenile rattlesnake said…

TS – 1 … Black Bear – 0

TS had her first black bear encounter this afternoon (at about 3 p.m.). I was splitting firewood up at the parking lot. TS was shredding branches (~150-200m away from me). While I was banging logs apart, I heard someone swear(?) and started blasting on our canned-air horn. A lot. I hopped on the ATV and … Continue reading TS – 1 … Black Bear – 0

I had to be reminded…

…that green branches and fresh leaves play holy hell with small chippers & shredders. I blocked up the mechanism 3 times before I walked away from it in disgust (TS is more savvy than me about the unit… I end up jamming branches and stuff into the hopper… and look like Wile E. Coyote on … Continue reading I had to be reminded…

Tomorrow… we chip!

TS & I were able to get back into the zone while clearing the build-site. Yesterday, TS was able to rough-out the new ATV trail from the build-site to her soil-operation. Me? I just smashed and crashed my way hither-and-dither using our Polaris! I strung a trail-line from our starting point to the soil-operation. This … Continue reading Tomorrow… we chip!

Preparing to return…

...to the bush. I'm optimistic we learned a few lessons from our last session. We'll have to DIY our own bush-buggy-platform for the wood chipper. King City Trailers gave us good advice, had SOME stock, but couldn't sell us a ready-made option. Still, I'd recommend them to you. Meh... we're planning on pushing another ATV … Continue reading Preparing to return…