Early Days

Reflections 1

The Culmination of a Life-long Love of Nature

To be admitted to Nature's hearth costs nothing. None is excluded, but excludes himself. You have only to push aside the curtain.

Thoreau

The outdoors has always been an integral part of my life. As a child growing up in the heart of a small city, I had the good fortune to live across the road from St. Alphonsus Seminary, a sprawling forty acre campus, much of which was made up of apple orchards, small woodlots and vegetable gardens. From an early age my friends and I spent almost all of our free time there, occasionally being chased through the apple orchard by the priests who never seemed to catch us, probably because they never intended to or maybe those flowing, ground-length black frocks slowed them down. I suspect it was just their way of making sure that we didn’t get too comfortable lounging about in their apple trees. There was also the bee colony where I stole my first kiss, and farm buildings complete with foul and pigs. There was the huge strawberry patch which we would often raid after sundown to avoid the ever vigilant eyes of the priests in training, the sweet, unmistakable scent of freshly crushed strawberries assaulting our nostrils - and staining our clothes - as we slithered on our bellies, snakelike, through the rows of ripening fruit. 

We spent what must have been hundreds upon hundreds of carefree days there. We ate apples until we never wanted to see another, until next time, or until the priests discovered us. We played hide-and-seek, pick-up softball, cowboys - I was Gene Autry, and had the six guns in their black leather, steel-studded belt and holsters to prove it. Another of my childhood heroes was Davy Crocket and again, I had the ‘coonskin’ cap and fringed jacket to bring the “King of the Wild Frontier” to life as we explored our ‘wilderness’ territory and killed imaginary b’ars in the heart of small town Southwestern Ontario. 

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Saturday, August 24

Enjoying myself this cloudy but seasonably warm Saturday evening. The crickets have been serenading me for the last hour or so as I sit here by the fireplace watching what must truly be a wonder of nature. Mutitudes of dragon flies fill the air around me. When I make the effort to watch a single individual, I find their aerobatic skills to be amazing - rolls, loops, flips, slides, stalls and spins - they’re all there and performed faultlessly putting any man-made flying machine to shame. Who new that I would find my own personal air show right here just a few short metres from my cabin, the tumultuous roar and buzz of airplanes replaced by the tranquil song of the crickets. I wonder, are these the same creatures flitting about for the last hour or are they different little beasties that come and go? And if they are indeed the same individuals, they must have voracious appetites - either that or their hunting skills are not terribly efficient. 

Speaking of hunter and hunted, I found another small red squirrel, dead, among the cedars bordering the cabin which brings to three the number which have fallen prey to Molly the killer Collie in the last twenty-four hours. Up to this point, I’ve not seen any squirrels, live ones I mean to say. I’m wondering if this was a family as they seem to have arrived and been annihilated together in a very short time. I only witnessed Molly kill one of these unfortunate creatures and I immediately scolded her but, I’m certain, to no avail; it seems to be in her nature to rid whatever habitat she she finds herself in of rodents whether of the bushy or non-bushy tailed species. Her tally, to date, is half a dozen grey squirrels, a chipmunk and a muskrat in addition to her latest victims. She has also tangled with skunks on three different occasions but I suspect it was they who walked away from those confrontations the winners. So much for the claim that border collie’s are the most intelligent breed of dog.

Turning my attention back to the sky, I notice swallows off in the distance in comparable numbers to the dragon flies. Due to the magic of perspective, they appear to be of the same size as the much closer dragon flies. And the similarity doesn’t end there for their flight patterns are equally impressive. The best part of all this of course is that both bird and dragonfly are are doing their part to control the mosquito population.

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.