Settling In: Ups and Downs, Hugelkultur and Clotheslines

Salinger and I have been here, in our Wholehearted House in The Crooked Wood, for a little more than a week, but it feels like longer. Partly because a lot has been packed into each day and partly because this place fits us like a favourite, well-worn sweater.

This time has felt very full and rich. With lots of rainy and overcast weather right off the bat, we have been alternately calm and cosy, blue and snoozy, chilly and shivery and brisk and busy.

Infrastructure is definitely a challenge. With no way to charge my computers and plenty of desk work to do, I am forced off the property periodically. It's probably good for me to have a reason to see people, because otherwise I think I would be a total recluse. I am not feeling very social these days.

The other day, as I was trying to do a piece of work, I watched my laptop battery count down: 4%, 3%, 2% (your computer will shut down soon if you don't connect it to a power supply), 1% – as I desperately copied the files I needed off onto a stick and transferred them over to my other laptop, which still had about 50% of its battery remaining.

I'm managing, but I am also trying to figure out an alternate power solution and/or office space. When I lived without electricity two summers ago, I had an external office in a neighbouring home, but this time around, I haven't succeeded in finding a similar situation. Fortunately, my new place is only a 15-minute drive to Bridgewater and I am enjoying the benefits of part-time membership at co3 – a pretty groovy little spot.

The Big Ups

I am actually relaxed. It is quiet and peaceful here. Well, "nature quiet", which is to say that there are tons of song birds in the canopy of trees and plenty of peepers at night.

I feel at home here. I feel like I belong in these woods.

I have been receiving a lot of help from a lot of people.

And, I have very nice neighbours.

The Big Downs

There have been a couple of struggles, for sure. I hit a snag with my building permit for my shed (the shed to which NSPower is going to eventually connect electricity) last week when it was pointed out to me that I had not fulfilled a prerequisite: acquiring permission from the Department of Transportation and Infrastructure Renewal for permission to build a structure within 100 metres of the centre of the road. Fortunately, the DOT was super-awesome, processed the request in 4 days and went out of their way to provide me with a scanned copy that I could quickly send to the municipality (because for some reason, they wouldn't accept photographs of the hardcopy that I took in my car – LOL).

My other big down happened when Salinger took off for almost 24 hours last week, which had me doubled over with worry. I was afraid he had been eaten by coy-wolves or set upon by a gang of savage neighbourhood cats. But he was just off exploring and came back, hungry, uninjured and unrepentant, all in his own good time. I am very grateful to my Facebook community for helping me stay calmer during his absence. Damn, but I'm attached to the little fella.

Hugelkultur

On Friday, a friend for whom I did some design work this past winter came to return the favour by sharing his expertise with me. He is a gardening guru and together we set up my first (and I'm thinking, not my last) hugelkultur raised bed. Hugelkultur is a permaculture technique, involving making mounds out of rotting wood (abundantly available here). We also used seaweed, peat moss, dirt, dead leaves, twigs and a few soil additions like lime, wood ash and rock phosphate.

Hugelkultur: basically a big pile of organic
matter – rotting logs at the bottom, then
twigs, brush with seaweed and dead leaves
to fill in the cracks...

And soil on the top. All of it later mulched
with seaweed.

I'm very excited about my hugelkultur bed! And I also have another raised bed that my sweet folks gave me as a land-warming present last Saturday. So far I have planted blue potatoes (in seaweed), onions, peas, beans and spinach. Now I just have to find more of the seeds I bought last year and never planted...

The Clothesline

I don't know what it is about clotheslines, but to me they feel like home. Home is where you can have a clothesline. I haven't had a clothesline in a long time. Probably 15 years. Apartments often don't have them. By chance, the houses I have rented in have not had them. Stretching freshly washed clothes out over a fire escape is just not the same.

It has been one of my highest wishlist items for my own place. Shortly after moving to The Crooked Wood, I found myself at Gow's Home Hardware buying a pitchfork, some electrical tape, a big, purple, plastic laundry basket and a clothesline kit. And some clothespins.

On Saturday, I did a huge load of wash at the Bridgewater laundromat (When I have a back-log of three+ loads, I like to take them to the BIG MACHINE where the wash can be all done and dusted in 20 minutes). I came home committed to install my clothesline all by myself. And I did! It took me three tries, plagued by blackflies, struggling with the technical aspects of the task – I found it difficult driving in the screw hooks, working over my head, on tip-toes. The clothesline itself got super-tangled right away. (I blame this on being left-handed in a right-handed world. Cables, wires, extension cords – they are all wound up with right-handed people in mind.) Twice I gave up and ran from the bugs. But I kept going back out and by the end of my third foray, I had installed my clothesline. It's a little low (I'm short and don't yet own a ladder) – and I feel fairly certain that some people will snicker at it when they see it – but it runs smoothly and it works! I dried my clothes on it today and they smell amazing. (It has been a long-held aspiration of mine to have sheets that smell as amazing as my mom's and I think I've achieved my goal!)

My beloved clothesline – the quintessence of "Home".

I am not handy. But I hate feeling helpless. I am happy to outsource a lot of tasks, but I also like to know that I can take care of something like this when I want or need to. I feel a sense of accomplishment from doing something that I am not innately good at – something that was difficult and frustrating – and which, now done, will add greatly to the quality of my life.