Wasn't it a party?

The Meet the Neighbours event that took place yesterday afternoon brought together the people of Ardoise School Road, and we were lucky enough to have it happen in our backyard. A mixture of new-comers to the road, including ourselves, and some long-standing residents had the opportunity to discuss everything from the lack of high-speed internet, to the impending winter, to the history of the houses and property around us.

We thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone, and look forward to many more opportunities to get together.

New style for the blog

You will probably notice fairly quickly that the blog has a new style. I felt that it was time to give it a proper feel, since it was started back in Ontario. Let us know what you think.

How can you be sure it's going to rain?

When the guy digging the drainage ditches on the road says it's going to.

There have been numerous occasions when the weather people have said it's going to rain/be sunny/snow (that's a good one)/whatever and it does the absolute opposite. That was in the GTA. Here in Nova Scotia people take the weather people seriously - because they happen to be right. If they say it's going to rain, bring in the dog, make sure your car windows are in the upright position, and get your rain gear prepped.

That being said, light rain means light rain, and that's what we're having today - the first day of the 12 acre OUTDOOR Flea Market. There will be some great deals on antiques, DVDs, books (I'm sure of that), and Beaver Tails (like a nuclear weapon smashing directly into that temple of a body of yours). The only challenge will be factoring in the drying time for your purchase.

Gizmo has finally decided to join us

After over a month of a self imposed seclusion upstairs Gizmo has finally come down to the main floor to join us. While there have been the occasional reports of his nocturnal venturing throughout the house, and we did have a brief encounter with him one night during a rerun of House(ironically).

Perhaps now we can enjoy his company in the evening with a nice fire going and an episode from the new season of House, Heroes, 24, etc.

3 hens-2 hens=1 hen+1 egg

You may recall a similar equation from a few posts ago. Well, now we have 1 hen who lays an egg a day, while the other 2 have flown the coop. We don't know where they've gone, or why, but they are nowhere to be found. So, no need for Shake & Bake, but the lone hen misses the other hens. If you see 2 hens at the side of the road hitching a ride can you send them home - they have very interesting personalities and it was always fun to watch them wander around pecking at anything that moved.

Windsor Curling Club fire

When I was in Windsor yesterday the town lost the 99 year old Curling Club to a fire. It was something that the whole town was talking about as I went about my business, and all eyes were trained on the plume of black smoke pouring into the sky. In a town of 4000 people an event of this magnitude touches everyone.

The ironic thing is that I was going to be visiting the club to talk to them about getting involved, with the hope that we would be able to hold some events during a potential future Boys Weekend here in Nova Scotia. It looks like they'll need some help re-building first.

Here's the whole story behind the fire.

Night time in the country

With a near full moon to the east of us there was enough light to take an interesting shot of the house with the dark sky behind the trees that surround us.

What do you do with the old sign when you have a new one?

When you're traveling east on Hwy 1 towards Mt. Uniacke you'll see the above signs. They are about 3 km apart. Why? I don't know, they just are. The truth is, the older looking sign is the correct one. So perhaps the newer sign was put there because it looked nice. Or not.

As it turns out, this was a cruel joke when it came to someone in our group trying to get to the bathroom at the Mt. Uniacke ESSO station back in May when we did the inspection on the house prior to putting in an offer.

Hey, don't I know you from somewhere?

Just inside the vegetable section, sitting in the centre of the aisle is a box filled with squash and gourds of all varieties. There's Butternut Squash, Sweet Potato Squash, big orange ones, some blue grey coloured ones - it was quite a sight.

On each of the round, and not-so round, offerings there was a sticker with the name and preparation instructions. There, towards the bottom of the bilingual sticker were the words 'Eat local produce!' and in bold letters below that the name of the farm operation and Aylmer, Ontario. Aylmer. Ontario.

Having just picked up some local produce we moved on to do the rest of the shopping. I came across the radishes a short time later. I love radishes, not with squash mind you. There were bunches of radishes that looked awesome. And, of course, there were pre-cut and packaged ones too. They looked very familiar. They should. They were from a company in Burlington, Ontario.

So it's no wonder that the 401 is so busy all of the time. Those trucks have to get the local produce to grocery stores 1800 kilometres away. Think of that the next time one goes screaming by you at 140 kph - he's trying to get me the radishes and squash that I need.

How much wood would a Woodchuck chuck if...

...you know the rest. The Vue has been getting a workout lately hauling wood from the wood pile that we call our own in Mt Uniacke. We're in the process of getting 3 cords of wood from the U-Haul it wood spot, and each run with Vue nets about 1/5 of a cord. So...high school math here...if a Vue has to haul 3 cords of wood, 1/5 of a cord at a time, 10 km one way how many trips to the Atlantic Superstore in Windsor will it have to make?

2 hens+1 hen=2 hens+0 eggs

In the ongoing saga of the the chicken that crossed the road you may recall that the errant hen came calling for breakfast yesterday. She then promptly disappeared and missed lights out last night, but arrived again this morning at mealtime. This must have severely confused the 2 hens left who had a pleasant nights sleep without her, because they didn't lay a single egg.

Okay, where did we leave the Shake and Bake again? ;)

Plan your flight path carefully, if you're a bug

Early morning reveals the dangers of flying around the fields here. In the misty light you can see the maze of spider webs placed among the canyons formed by the tall grasses in the farm fields. All they have to do is wait for that one flyboy to try a shortcut and it's dinner time.

Why did the chicken cross the road?

We don't know, but she didn't come back for 3 days. We thought that she had either been taken by a local predator - red tailed hawks, bears, etc. (though the hawk would have a heck of time taking flight with this plump flightless egg producer) - or been taken ill and succumbed in the woods around the house. Then she came waltzing up to me this morning as though nothing had happened. I suppose that what happens in the bush in Ardoise stays in the bush.

On an interesting note - when she was here we were only getting 1 egg per day from 3 hens. Once she left we got 2 per day from 2 hens. Now that she's back it'll be interesting to see how egg production is effected. If we go back to 1 egg again we may have to send her packing for negatively impacting our egg supply. ; )

One area code under God

For those of you who have been subjected to multiple area codes in your area you will be surprised to know that Nova Scotia has 1 area code - 902. From Cape Breton to Yarmouth, it's all 902. If you are speaking to someone locally and ask for their phone number they'll actually give you the last 4 digits of their number. That sure makes things simple, doesn't it.

We're all here, finally

After months of preparation, weeks of packing, and still more weeks of waiting we are finally all together at the new house. Brian and I drove to Edmundston NB, and then on to Ardoise (Ellerhouse - if you work for the Post Office) NS where we arrived at about 3:00 pm to a cold beer and a relaxing chair on the veranda.

Since arriving we have been doing odd jobs to get the house ready for the TV, the rain, and the winter. We still don't have a phone number yet - something to do with the previous owner having suspended the number until Dec so that she carry it over to her new house (apparently they should have advised her to do something else so that we could get our phone number activated - oh well, at least we have cell service).

Logan is loving his new home, and Gizmo is spending all of his time in our bedroom. He comes down the stairs occasionally, like when we cook fish, but otherwise he stays upstairs.

We are trying to order our wood for the winter, and having a bit of trouble with it. Apparently most people have it ordered by May and it sits all summer drying out. We could be in for a bit of a hard time with this first winter as far as firewood is concerned.

The people that we've met, both on our street and when we're out and about have been great. Easy to talk to, and very open. A nice change from saying hello to someone at the mall in TO and having them look at you like your picture just appeared on America's Most Wanted.

I've attached a couple of pictures that I took a few nights ago while sitting on the veranda - and no, I don't have a rocking chair, yet. I'll be posting more in the days and weeks ahead, but for now things are going well so far - if we could just get a home phone number.

24 more hours

Well, it's the last day here - in 24 hours Brian and I will be on the road to Nova Scotia. The car has been tuned, all of the fluids flushed and replaced, and a few inconvenient things repaired. All that needs to be done now is pack it up, fill it with gas and put a CD in.

Lots has been accomplished at the new house in my absence. Jeannette has had an electrician in to add some outlets. He also helped by putting up a clothesline and the mailbox, 2 essential things for sure.

The guys from Wilson fuels are coming today to install the jets for the stove and to hook-up the BBQ and the stove to the propane. I won't say it, but you know what that means.

It's been a long 2 weeks, and I'm looking forward to sleeping in our bed and eating on our dining room table, and having a nap on the couch in our new living room. Only 24 more hours until we hit the road.

Is this good timing or what?

According to the Canadian Hurricane Center we could be in for a real treat in November, as the hurricane season draws to a close. A great time to test the house for leaks. Here's the full story.

This would be one reason why we chose Ardoise, on the edge of the Annapolis Valley - the weather is much more moderate, so while Yarmouth might get extreme winds and heavy rain we could get high winds and rain - hopefully.