Less Crooked, Less Wooded

At the same time that I've been stressing quite a bit about this building project, things are moving forward. 

A little over a week ago, my dear friend who is an artist with a chainsaw came over and in about two hours felled six large trees – two dead and four living – all too close for comfort to the site for the house (especially with all of the big storms that we can expect to keep threatening the Atlantic coast). 

Two spruces felled meticulously right on top of each other.

The smaller spruce was riddled with ants. All the more reason to be glad that it's no longer towering over where the cabin will be! 

The spruce that got taken down by my compost pile was a giant. It's hard to count the rings exactly because the ones in the centre are so tiny, but my guesstimate is about 120 years. *bows head*

The giant on the ground.

There is quite a comfy spot to sit in the branches of the downed tree.

From the perch pictured just above, there is an excellent view of this crooked pine. We left this tree standing as it is obviously leaning dramatically AWAY from the site for the house and is highly unlikely to fall on top of it. 

Two steps forward and one step back: my clothesline had to be dismantled temporarily, as it was attached on one end to a maple tree that was leaning sharply toward the site for the cabin, a maple tree that can be seen here lying at feet of the other end of the clothesline. Installing the clothesline was my first DIY project on this land and it has been consistently useful;
I will miss it until it can be set up again.

Salinger was surprisingly unfazed by the changes. He seemed happy to be the conquerer of the newly felled trees, including the "clothesline maple" pictured here.

There is much more sunlight now in the Crooked Wood. It feels a bit odd, but I'm sure I'll get used to it – and I'll be especially glad to be less shaded during the brief winter days...

Last week was a hard one for me.

I felt really crappy about deciding to kill those beautiful trees. I didn't expect to feel that way because I didn't feel anywhere near as bad when we felled many more trees to bring in the driveway and the power lines. Not to mention all of the firewood I've burned to keep warm throughout my life, each chunk of which came from a beautiful, living tree and to be honest, I never really even thought about it...

Perhaps my overall state of mind, my anxiety about the build, is what made me feel so guilty and sad about these trees. Or maybe I felt so bad because I knew these trees. I've lived here for two summers now and those trees have been some of my closest neighbours.

They were beautiful. They were my elders. They were here first. And I had them removed because they were in my way and because I could. They grew here for sixty, eighty, a hundred+ years and then each came down in a matter of minutes.

And although we honoured and embraced them before they were felled, and although they will live on, becoming furniture and/or hugelkultur beds and/or firewood and/or beautiful decomposing logs and brush that will nourish this land and give life to other trees, to fungi, mosses and insects, I mourn them. (Their deaths have made me look at some tricky questions around my own sense of entitlement, but I think I'll save those thoughts for another blog post).

As things stand now, "Them's history," as my Nana would have said. Fortunately, I'm recovering from feeling guilty and sad about deciding to cut them down. I'm doing this – I'm making a permanent dwelling for myself on this piece of land and there is no point feeling bad about it. Since I'm going to do it anyway, it's better to do it with love, gratitude and celebration than with self-doubt and regret.

This attitude adjustment has arrived just in the nick of time: we're breaking ground today. 

Set up! (A tiny home/land development report)

Well, well, well.

Here we are.

Yesterday morning, Eastlink came and connected my Internet. And now I am comfortably geared up here until October.

The Internet hook-up was the stickiest piece of this whole process! It required FOUR separate calls to Eastlink. TWO of them were required to try to sort out the mess made on the first call. And I had two separate technician visits. It required a bit of patience, but we got there in the end. 

I am proud and happy to announce the end of Phase 1 of this project. Seven and half weeks to get from a space cleared out among the trees to home, garden, shed, civic address, mail delivery, electricity and high-speed Internet. I am pretty impressed with everyone I've worked with to make this happen (except for that first – #facepalm – contact at Eastlink). I have been blessed with professional, efficient, respectful and pleasant people working on this project. 

I feel very happy to be settled for the rest of the summer, without any more major projects needing to be undertaken on my land. My main focus now is to buckle down and work hard at my computer to save up for Phase 2. There is a slight chance that I might decide to dig a well this summer, but for now, I continue to be grateful for my water-sharing neighbours, friends and family members.

My folks have given me a small chest freezer to put in my shed which means I can easily make ice to keep my cooler cool, and I have longer term food storage – between the freezer, my garden, electricity and Internet access, I won't need to go into town as frequently.

Essentially, I am content. Deeply content. And so is Salinger, who is contemptuously licking one of his back legs as I write this (he is cold-shouldering me because I did not respond with glee to stepping on a disembodied rodent face in the house this morning).

This is probably my last tiny home update for a while (except for some possible garden updates through the summer). Stay tuned for writing on other topics.

Electrictiy and Internet (A tiny home/land development report)

On Tuesday, I was working in my office in Bridgewater when I was tagged on facebook in a post made by my Most Awesome Neighbour saying that there was a lot going on at my land.

What! Gasp! The power company!!! Hooking me up!!!

Amazing.

I had not been given a heads-up call the day before so I had no idea. I wrapped up my work as quickly as I could and headed home, where I chatted with the extremely cordial crew leader. They already had the poles in and all that remained was to string the line, make the connection to my shed and then turn the power on up at the road.

Flabbergasting.

The power company did have to cut down one of my crooked trees, sadly. It hadn't been marked for removal by the power company's site inspector, but the crew felt strongly that the tree jeopardized the power line – and I could see their point since it was tall, dead and leaning in direction of the line.

See that leaning dead maple tree behind the truck?

I had wanted to leave it standing because it was so beautiful, but it's beautiful on the ground, too, and will make a wonderful bench for reading and picnicking. 

I have power right now. No more watching my laptop battery count down into oblivion. No more careful husbanding of my cellphone battery. This feels extremely – well, powerful.

The first thing I did, once the power was hooked up, was to call Eastlink to invite them to come hook me up with a high-speed Internet connection. The woman I spoke with on the phone was not the most helpful (she sounded like she had a terrible head cold and didn't seem like she'd be very with it at the best of times), but she took my info and set  up an appointment with a technician for Thursday morning, which is pretty quick. I wasn't complaining.

(The second thing I did was break my $0 booze budget and went and bought myself a bottle of bubbly.) 

And I was very glad to have a glass of bubbly inside me when I received a "confirmation" email from Eastlink that had me at a completely different address, even though I had confirmed the address several times with my call centre compatriot.

Another call to Eastlink ensued. I got the address issue sorted out with someone else and I got to keep my Thursday morning appointment.

I was all stoked to post today that on June 30, 2016, about 5 weeks since there was only a space cleared for my driveway and dwelling here, I have a home, a shed, a garden, electricity and Internet access.

But not so fast there with the bubbly optimism, Mac. Here, finally, is an example of things not happening as quickly as I'd hoped. My Eastlink visit this morning was anticlimactic. The technician needs a different crew to install a tap (tack? taco?) up at the pole on the road so that he can do the rest of the installation.

They should be able to do that sometime next week. In the meantime, I am close, but no cigar.

Oh well. A few more visits to my office in town may be in order, but that is no hardship.

And on the plus side, today I received my deposit back from the province for the work on my driveway. I was told that could take up to 6 months, so 4 weeks is cause for celebration.

On the map (A tiny home/land development report)

It has been another busy week!

Since the shed was finished a week ago Thursday, this week has been a week of inspections and legitimization. And also a week of sweet peace and quiet, now that the genny and nail guns have moved on to other projects.

The (almost) entirely finished shed

I'm developing an affection for the cascading nature of this process. Each step leads to the next.

NS Power came to inspect the electrical work on Monday and issued a connection order. They told me that I would have power within 10 business days. No word from them yet, but ostensibly within the next 6 business days, they will come and install poles and lines and hook me up! After that, I can contact Eastlink and hopefully get high speed internet hooked up as well so I can work seamlessly from my tiny home.

The municipal builder inspector came and okayed the shed on Wednesday which meant that on Thursday, I was issued my civic number. I think I can be officially declared a civic number nerd – I was SO excited about getting it.

Salinger pretends not to be excited about our civic number. But he is. You know he is.

There are two reasons why I am excited about my civic address. One is the sense of permanence it gives me. Even though I won't be living here this winter because I can't afford to build a winterized dwelling yet, I still have the sense that this is my forever address – something for which I have been longing. As soon as I can get myself properly set up, I will get to stay here as long as I like. I can't be evicted or impacted by anyone else's decisions about the place where I live. I will be only at my own whims – and of course, the whims of the VERSE.* I can't even find words to express how desperately I've been longing for this. Security. Refuge. Shelter from the Storm.

And of course, getting a civic number is tied to getting postal service. I have been a postal nerd for many years. I love mail. I haven't been getting or sending much personal mail lately, but I plan for that to change.

I've had a big dilemma this weekend deciding how I want to have my mail delivered – I was given the option of setting up a mailbox, clustered with my nearest neighbour's box close to the top of my driveway, or receiving my mail in the community box down the road. There are many pros and cons to each option – The personal mailbox would be close and homey and convenient, individualistic and fun – but it would also need to be shoveled out and set back up every time the snow plow knocked it down. The community mailbox is about a 20-minute round-trip walk, or a 6-minute bike ride, or a minute-and-a-half by car, so that would either prompt me to get more exercise (a good thing) or drive needlessly (a bad thing). I wouldn't have to shovel it out or occasionally re-erect it. And it would be more secure, which is probably important, given that about half of my clients still pay me with cheques sent through the mail. The community box is more generic and corporate-feeling; it doesn't have any personality, but its setting is fabulous – next to a lovely little bridge over the Petite River.

The (sun-drenched) Petite River by the community mailbox.

The more I think about it, the more I think that I will opt for the community box, but once I'm living here permanently, I plan to set up a box at the top of my driveway too – well off the road, out of the path of snowplows (and therefore also mail carriers) and use it for miscellaneous pick-ups and deliveries from friends and neighbours. Maybe I'll even establish one of those cute little free libraries...

This week has involved some DIY stuff for me. I installed my civic number by the side of the road and installed the door knob and deadbolt on my shed all by myself. Neither job was very smoothly or elegantly accomplished, but they were accomplished nevertheless.

This has been a good week. I've been appreciating the heck out of the weather. I have been appreciating the heck out of my neighbours, my community, my cat. In general, I am appreciating the heck out of my little woodland retreat. This is the perfect place for me to be right now. My emotions have been all over the place this week. I've been very up and I've been very down. I'm ending the week feeling a bit fragile and sad. But there is fluidity to my emotions and that's important. I'm not feeling stuck. The best thing of all is that I feel like I have a safe place to be however I need to be. That is priceless.

* VERSE=Very Enormous Random Swirl of Events

The shed: Part 3 (A Tiny Home/Land Development Report

It's been a busy week! Saturday and Monday were wrapping and shingling.

By Tuesday, only the back and edges still needed to be shingled:

 

Yesterday, the shed was basically completely finished! There are only a couple of little touches left to be added. One week from nothing to beautiful shed – amazing!

This morning, the electricians came and did most of the work needed to hook up power.

The meter case being installed on the back of the shed

The roof sprouts wires!

My mostly-assembled electrical panel

Of course, there are still quite a few stages to complete.

The electricians will be back tomorrow to complete their work.

The shed will be inspected on Monday.

The power company will come to install the power poles and lines and then hook the shed up with electricty. I've been told to expect that I should have power in two weeks – or less! Super-exciting!

Editorial note: I linked to Tilia Builders in part 2 of this series, but didn't link to them again here and they deserve huge thanks and big shout-outs for their impressively quick, high-quality, extremely beautiful work! 

Also, here are links to Part 2 and Part 1 of this series for anyone who missed them.

The shed: Part 2 (a tiny home/land development report)

The shed is going up in double-quick time! I can't believe how it is springing up right before my eyes!

Tilia Builders have designed and are building the shed for me. Tilia is owned by my friend and neighbour, Liam and his friend Michael. Liam played banjo at my 2012 CD release party for Blackbirds, so we go way back – in relative terms for my life here in NS, anyway. And my friend and neighbour, Dave, is working with Tilia. So Liam and Dave have been here for a couple of days so far. And yet again, I am counting myself lucky to be working with professionals who are not only stellar at their jobs, but who are also fun to chat with during coffee breaks. 

Between our wait for the building permit and the vagaries of the weather in a typical Nova Scotian spring, the first day of construction was Thursday.

The all-important building permit – worth the wait :-)

From the ground up.

Dave braces the first wall

Liam cuts the first rafter

And they get 'er in place. Smile!

Yesterday, I had to be away while work was happening here.

I went off to help clean the soon-to-be home of a dear friend of mine who is moving back to Nova Scotia from away. After that, I did some desk work, finished preparing my taxes, filed them, paid them and then went out for supper with a friend – the last treat of that sort permitted in my budget for a LONG time. But it felt necessary to mark the filing of my taxes.

I came home to this sweet beauty!

Here's a shot from the doorway up through the rafters

And here is Sal rolling in the dirt and sawdust this morning. Mmmm, deliciously gritty!

By the time I got home yesterday evening, Dave and Liam had wrapped up their long day. But I found my amazing friend had stopped by to move some logs that were in the way of the staging for the shed and to re-block my trailer and get it all level. We had just gotten the tiny home into place the day we moved it and did a quick job blocking it. It had a little lean to the right and to the back. Now it is totally level and super-well supported. Just check out these gorgeous hemlock blocks:

I woke up this morning to sunlight through the maple leaves outside the window by my bed and a view of the corner of the new shed. It was sweetly silent, the birds taking a little break from their morning songs. I felt so supremely lucky. I feel surrounded by community support and blessed with solitude when I need it – which is often, these days.

But not much solitude for me today, as I am off to the West Dublin Market for breakfast. And then to not one, but two, concerts with my mom. Lucky, lucky, lucky!

The shed: Part 1 (a tiny home/land development report)

It's been a very busy week since my last update.

The building permit for the shed was approved on Friday.

On Sunday evening/Monday morning, we staked (and then adjusted) the location for the shed.

The location of the 8x10 shed

There were a couple of oak and spruce trees in the area that will be directly covered by the shed, so a little tree transplanting became necessary:

Save me from the shed!

Relocated to a peaceful new home on the forest floor

On Tuesday morning, a fellow came with the pole-digger machine (I hope you are impressed by my grasp of technical construction language). He installed a post at each corner.

Nowhere near as noisy as I thought it might be

The posts look like this. The platform at the top is adjustable to enable the builders to level the floor.

X marks the spot. Put building supplies here.

And they were put!

Construction begins today. We are hoping that the forecast for three days of clear weather will hold.

Meanwhile, all of the limbs/trees that were marked for removal by the NSPower surveyor have been limbed or felled. I've called NSPower, they've updated their work order and at some point (I have no idea when), they will send a crew out to install the power poles.

How does it feel?

It has felt like a pretty overwhelming week for me. I've been having trouble sleeping (partly due to excitement/anxiety and partly due to my peri-menopausal inability to regulate my body temperature), so I'm tired. And with the deadline (for self-employed people) fast approaching, I've been preparing my taxes. Fortunately, for the first time a can remember, I actually have money ready and waiting to pay my taxes (Thanks, YNAB!) but that doesn't make the bill feel much more welcome. I'd rather be able to spend that money on my own home. But: roads-schools-hospitals-social safety net, as I remind myself every year. I like to think that's where my tax dollars are going – and not to military spending, corporate welfare and/or some corrupt fat cat's summer home. But I'm sure it's a little of column A and a little of column B and there isn't anything I can do about that. I'm lucky to have work and I'd rather feel grateful that I'm able to make a contribution to our collective well being, than resentful that I have to hand over all of that money.

On the plus side, I'm enjoying a brief lull in my work. I've only worked 3.5 hours so far this week and that has been a welcome break. I overdid it with work this winter. It is very tempting to do that, since I have all of these big plans that require a lot of money to execute. To be honest with myself, I'm going to overdo it with work this summer, too. And doubtless next winter. And next summer.

So it's been nice that this week has been more about my land – making an enclosure for my compost heap (zipties! pallets!), planting things in my garden (the pea plants are up!), transplanting trees, fixing Salinger's back door entry (zipties! pallets!).

Salinger has also had a mixed week. There have been a few D-O-G-S here, accompanying various folks helping with projects. This has naturally been upsetting and has resulted in Salinger making himself scarce for long periods of time. But he's been coming back at the end of the day, so that's good.

Wholehearted House is in The Crooked Wood

After an amazingly epic day yesterday, my home has been relocated!

Still tons to do, so no time for a lengthy post (inevitable as that is) but here is a photo of her in her new situation! 

Names and Naming (A Tiny Home/Land Development Report)

As I write this, it is exactly one year since I became the official steward of my land.

I am planning to move my tiny home there soon and I am facing the incredible stress of that process. There is almost nothing I find harder than moving. And in this I am not alone. Moving, losing a loved one (to death or heartbreak) and starting a new job are frequently cited as the three things human beings find most stressful.

But that is not what I want to write about today. No, today is a day for celebration! I have accomplished a great deal in one year. I have shaped my land, thought about my site, assisted in the cutting down of many trees, moved wood and brush and had a driveway excavated. I have gathered the materials I need to start a garden and have gotten a quote on a shed to hook power up to.

Many tasks lie ahead, too. Oh, I keep coming back to that don't I? I am feeling a little daunted these days, I admit.

But, that is not what I want to write about today!

A friend of mine, who is a writer and a storyteller, wrote to me in response to my last blog post, asking me why I had not yet given my land a name.

I responded that I had, but that I had not yet started using the name on my blog. I promised the big reveal would come very soon.

So, here's the story:

There is a quote attributed to Tom Waits that goes like this:

My kids are starting to notice I'm a little different from the other dads. "Why don't you have a straight job like everyone else?" they asked me the other day. I told them this story: In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, "Look at me...I'm tall, and I'm straight, and I'm handsome. Look at you...you're all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you." And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, "Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest." So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day. (If you're in the mood for more unsourced Tom Waits quotes, click here.)

On my three acre plot, there are five magnificent, twisty old pine trees. Two people have to collaborate to give each of these trees a hug. (Three of them I have named Orwen, Orduu and Orgoch, after the fates from the Chronicles of Prydain. Two of them are currently unnamed.)

One of my twisted sisters;
I believe this is a photo of Orduu.

And there is one splendid twisty old maple, whom an 8-year-old friend of mine has dubbed Father Maple.

Father Maple

So, we are namers – me, my friends and my family – and humans in general, for that matter.

I believe human beings name things to help fix their meanings. When I studied psychotherapy back a bunch of years ago, we often used the word hermeneutics to refer to the process of creating meaning through interpretation of the things we read and, by extension, from our feelings and experiences.

So, in honour of a (very possibly, totally fake) "Tom Waits" quote along with the proven truth of how crooked trees survive loggers and the meaning that I interpret from that truth, I have named my land The Crooked Wood.

My Wholehearted House in The Crooked Wood (very soon, I hope!).

I hope my house will always remind me to live life with my whole heart and that the woods will always remind me to honour myself for who I am: unique, somewhat screwed up and absolutely unchoppable.

(This post is most especially for you, Frank! Thanks for asking!)

The Driveway Completed (A Tiny Home/Land Development Report)

What a week this has been! It's amazing how quickly things can happen sometimes!

My driveway entrance

I have felt this to be a rollercoaster week emotionally. I was elated on Monday – so excited about work beginning on the driveway sooner than I had hoped.

Around the gentle curve...

I was advised to install one culvert to manage water
through the "dip" in my driveway

I felt frustrated and aggravated on Tuesday and Wednesday, because my volume of desk work was very heavy and I had to stay in my home office, ploughing through work, when all I wanted to do was go out to my land and watch the bulldozer and dump truck do their thing.

But, I consoled myself with the thought that I need all the desk work I can get in order to pay for the work being done on my land. It's the age-old Catch-22 of time but no money, or money but no time. And since working for money is vital to this land-development process – while sitting out there watching wouldn't contribute anything – it was a no-brainer where I needed to be. Even if my inner-four-year-old did spend a little bit of time whining about wanting to go see the big machines in action.

A call out on Facebook for photos from neighbouring friends resulted in two different people sending me pictures of the work done on Monday night and Tuesday morning. Those photos, and the kindness of the people who sent them to me, soothed my soul.

My clearing, facing the sun and the
jeez-I-hope-I-don't-have-to-cut-down-that–maple.

My clearing, facing back out
toward the un-driveway

Yesterday, I was so excited, I actually forgot it was market day and missed the Lunenburg Farmer's Market for the very first time since I started living in Lunenburg for the winter.

Happily, I was able to get out to my land for about an hour, in time to watch (and enjoy) the process of digging the septic system test pit. I can't remember ever having been that excited about a hole in the ground.

The backhoe dug a deep hole (big rocks! very cool) and the engineer had a good look at my dirt. Sandy loam was the verdict – very auspicious soil for a septic system. The topography is also favourable for a less-expensive gravity-fed system. We discussed the best site for the house, too, and I believe I have settled on a location that means I won't have to cut down the beautiful old maple tree in the middle of my clearing. All in all, an excellent day.

The septic test pit

And, the driveway is now completely done! My contractor had predicted five days, but finished in four. All that's left to do is run a cheque up to his house today or Monday. 

A number of people have warned me that everything about this project will probably take longer than expected and cost more than I thought, but so far so good! Buying the land proceeded ahead of schedule, cutting trees went more quickly (and was less expensive) than I thought it would be and the driveway too is completed earlier than I thought and didn't cost as much as I feared (although it's not small change, I feel like I paid a fair price for the work done).

This feels like a big milestone to reach. I don't know why it should be so, but the land looks and feels more "open" now that there's a road instead of just a lumber-strewn cutting.

I am one year into this process. I hope it's going to be only three years in total before I am all set up. Because I like graphs and stuff, here is a proposed timeline:

My next two big tasks are to establish my garden and to move my tiny home from West Dublin to Crousetown. Stay tuned for all the news!

(Now back to work for me! I have never seen such a busy April! The VERSE is throwing whacks of work my way, which is very helpful and for which I am very grateful!)

DriveWAAAAAAAAYYYY! (A Tiny Home/Land Development Update)

I dashed over to my land this morning, early enough to get there and back almost before my clients located in other time zones noticed that I was away from my desk.

As I approached my land, I saw the "truck turning" sign and thought, that sign is for MY work on MY land!!!

Ask not for whom the truck turns,
it turns for me.

By the time I arrived, two loads of fill had already been added between the road and the driveway. I have never felt prouder or more excited about a pile of dirt. 

Dear dirt, you complete me.

This is actually happening!

I am feeling delighted and excited and jubilant (and just a tiny bit nervous – can I do this?)

Yes, I can. With a lot of help from my friends and neighbours – and some very heavy equipment.