A Few Acres of Snow

Wednesday, August 21

Installed the two solar panels yesterday with Mike’s help and the system appears to be doing what it was intended to do. I bought a thirteen watt compact florescent bulb and put it in the clamp-on light socket which I’d brought up from London. It alone provides enough light for the main part of the cabin. In fact it was a bit too bright to use as a reading light in bed so I’ll see if I can find a twelve volt auto light, maybe three watts or thereabouts, for that purpose next time I’m at Canadian Tire. I'll have to wire it up separately but 12 volt has the added advantage of being more efficient than using the inverter. While I’m at it I think I’ll include  a twelve volt dome light for the kitchen area as well.

Visited the library yesterday and withdrew Thoreau’s Walden. Today I finished reading For Whom The Bell Tolls so started into Walden. It was definitely a good choice as it is so relevant to my situation here although my little spring and stream is no Walden Pond. And certainly my one hundred seventy-six square feet of living space, two hundred seventy-six after I build the addition, seems rather lavish in comparison to Thoreau’s meagre one hundred fifty square feet as is my $27 000 price tag compared to his total cost of $28.12 1/2. And of course I will have electricity, but the fact that I’ll be producing my own is a reasonable compromise I believe. But our shared experience is less about the physical and more about our intent in being here. I, like Thoreau, am here to live simply, immersed in nature to see what I can learn.

This afternoon I trimmed the spruce which stands in the way of the line the telephone cable must travel to reach the new post I hope will be installed soon. A sense of pride swept over me as I finished this task, having had to scale the tree to a considerable height to accomplish this little job, to say nothing of my fear of heights. I think it simply punctuated the whole experience to date. Things are coming together nicely and I am gaining a sense of independence and, perhaps more importantly, the knowledge that I can not only do this but it’s going to live up to my hopes that it will be the adventure of a lifetime. Now that these branches are out of the way I see that there are a few others that should probably be removed but I’m not sure how to get at them as they are quite high and, unlike the spruce I’d just trimmed, the trees are unclimbable. Perhaps I’ll consult with my neighbour to see if he has any ideas.

I rode the bike over to Apsley today to visit the bank. I had a Canada Pension check to deposit as well as some other business to look into. It’s about 4:30 as I write this and much of the afternoon has been overcast but the batteries are fully charged from this morning’s clearer skies so I charged my camera batteries and another for my cordless drill.