Putting the Garden to Bed and Visitors Arrive

October may be the most glorious time of year. The leaves are turning golden and orange; there is a crispness in the air and the season has definitely changed. It’s always tough to see fresh vegetables and beautiful flowers transform into black, dead plants.

The Maples have been ‘raining’ golden leaves this week.

There are still lots of jobs to do in the garden. It’s time to pull the remaining carrots. Last minute lilies, iris,  tall grasses and mint had to be planted. Today I pulled out the dahlias which have rewarded me with multiple bulbs. Each will grow into 3 ft high flower bush next year.

These Dahlia were red and prolific bloomers.

I planted a good crop of garlic last year and some of the bulbs that I harvested in July will grow new garlic for next season. It took me 2 long afternoons to clear the old tomato plants away, turn the soil, pick out more rocks, pull weeds. I finally planted the garlic cloves under drizzling rain conditions, while listening to my ipod reading of Guy Vanderhaeghe’s The Last Crossing. CBC’s show Between the Covers is podcast and there are readings of entire books available for download.

The soil looks so rich because it’s quite damp.

I’ve been in a bigger rush than usual to get the gardening priorities finished because we were expecting two important visitors. Our son and daughter have flown here from Toronto and LA for some family time and to help us with the finishing touches on the house.

Jesse arrived first and we’ve put him to work stacking MORE wood. The yard looks to me like we are going into the cordwood business.

Larry surveys Jesse’s woodpile stacking.

Emily is an anti-clutter expert and quite organized …way moreso than the rest of us put together. She has moved about 8 times in the last 3 years following the animation trail. She’s got great ideas and I sure don’t want to get in the way of sane living. She’s just got a few commissions to finish first which will give me a few days to redeem myself. It’s the same idea as cleaning up before the cleaning lady comes over.

She is precise and very focused.

Larry is still painting bedrooms, hanging tricky shower doors, sending back window screens for the 3rd time because the supplier custom-made the wrong sizes.

Yet another coat of paint in the dining room.

I’m cooking lots of home-made meals for the family, baking bread, pies and fussing over our gorgeous, creative kids. After all, it’s the first time they’ve slept in this house so it feels pretty important that they can be here with us.

The wood shapes and textures are inspiring.

I planted some more lilies and iris out at our pond too. The heavy rains this month are creating a steady supply of water to our home-made pond and she’s looking fantastic right now. I sat at the edge on an upturned pail for a while before I went in to make supper. (The final harvest stir-fried) I watched birds swoop by me. I found the colours, the smells and the reflection to be stunning. Once again, I could hardly believe what my eyes were seeing.

Cordelia, the willow tree is so far away, but still is reflected in the pond.

I wanted to go back in the house and bring Larry out here, when suddenly he appeared with a hot cup of specialty tea that our daughter had brought us from California. We both agreed that October is extra special not only because the colours are spectacular, but we also get to spend some quality time with our kids.

Larry points out the crossing to Jesse.

If you feel like taking in the sights, please drop by. You don’t even have to bring your own pail to sit on.

Why Did We Move to Bear River?

Bear River valley.

Larry and I just passed our 2 year anniversary of living here in Bear River. The novelty hasn’t worn off yet and it still feels like we are getting away with something fantastically amazing. It seems almost accidental that we wound up living here now. I want to share that journey with you again and to tell you the pros and cons of our lives here.

We came to Nova Scotia to our niece and nephew’s wedding in 2003 and fell in love with Cape Breton, the northern most part of Nova Scotia. The air smelled so fresh, the people were so friendly, the landscape was so beautiful, the fresh fish tasted so good and we felt so happy to just be here.

The trees during yesterday's walk in Kniffen's Hollow, Bear River.

I’ll never forget sitting in the back of the taxi that brought us home from the airport to our semi-detached house in downtown Toronto after our wonderful tour of the Cabot Trail. The highway was so grey and ugly, the air smelled so bad, the urban sprawl was unending. We sat in silence blankly staring out to the window all the way home.

All that next winter we talked about Nova Scotia all the time. We wanted so badly to live in a community with a few other artists. We’d brought home a brochure that featured fine arts and crafts in the province and Larry looked at where groupings of artists lived. Then he went online to look at photos of those areas and also at real estate listings. What he discovered was that Bear River was a beautiful village, from a geographical perspective and in terms of what was still standing in on it’s main street. The house prices were low compared with Nova Scotia’s prime south shore (Lunenburg, Mahone Bay) but especially in comparison to Toronto.

Hundreds of winding creeks feed into Bear River.

While Larry researched weather, geography and real estate, I googled the village and its people. Every time I came across the name of a person in Bear River, I searched the internet for more information about them. We started with the names of the local artists in the studio brochure guide. Larry found an Elections Canada street map and we printed it out and marked all the addresses of the artists, filmmakers, and grape growers that we’d come across on the internet. By the end of the winter, we had fleshed out a picture of Bear River and its inhabitants.

Aerial view of Bear River by Judy Amirault.

The following summer we came to spend a week in Bear River and a week in Annapolis Royal, a nearby community that has a lot of resident artists, a theatre and a vibrant summer artist’s and farmer’s market.

Bear River won our hearts from that first visit. There was an unpretentious feel to the community and people we met felt like long lost relatives. The river and its tidal drama was beautiful. Our short visit reinforced our desire to move here.

Winter is pristine and beautiful.

For a long time we had wanted to be able to devote more quality time to our artistic endevours, but we were caught in the trap of well-paying, but non-creative jobs with good benefits. It’s much harder to leave a ‘good’ job than a bad one. It’s called “The Golden Handcuffs.” Our big mortgage and debt made it seem incomprehensible that we could step away from it all and survive. We even consulted with a financial planner who smiled politely, and told us that it would be folly for us to quit our jobs. She said

Let me get this straight. You want to quit your jobs, sell your house and leave your friends and family and  familiar surroundings to move 2,000 miles away to a little village where you’ve spent a total of 7 days  as holiday tourists during the best time of year?

I almost felt ashamed of myself. We had shared our  secret obsession with a number cruncher and she was saying that we were crazy fools.

The woods are within walking distance of the village.

She suggested that we continue working, part time if possible, and take longer holidays in Nova Scotia. According to her formula, the ideal retirement income is 70% of your annual pre-retirement income. That way, the retiree can afford to maintain the same lifestyle. We were pretty depressed after that meeting, but we continued to dream and to imagine living in beautiful Bear River.

The following summer we returned to Bear River for 3 whole weeks and actively interviewed some of the artists we’d met through email and asked them about the money aspect of life. People told us that it was possible for a couple who owned their own house to live on less than 20 thousand dollars a year, but that 30 was fabulous. I heard the same figures over and over, but it just didn’t seem possible that people could live as well as the artists in Bear River did on such meager amounts.

The beauty of this village is evident in every season.

I have to mention here that the financial planner wasn’t the only person we consulted. I’ve read that when people keep asking different  people for advice they are really looking for affirmation of their plan and that was certainly true for us! We consulted with our friend and guru Ursula Fugger, a wonderful astrologer whose insights, dates and suggestions benefited us in selling our house, moving here and buying our new house.

Tomlin woods.

People from the city I left are always curious about how the transisiton has really been for us. Sometimes they ask because they too are considering leaving the city. Sometimes they ask because they may be thinking about making some dramatic change in their life and they want some sign or affirmation that things will work out well for them.

Here are some unscientific income suggestions before you pack your bags:

• come with a builder’s specialty skill (plumbing, electrical, roofing, drywall finishing, heating)
• come with a pension
• come with work that can be done via the internet
• be prepared to work for low wages (minimum wage to $15 hr for semi-skilled, unskilled jobs; up to $25 hr for skilled)
• be prepared to derive income from a variety of sources (2 days a week as a clerk, selling honey from your bee hives, trading your labor for a tangible thing like cordwood)

I love the gothic windows of this modest church.

Bear River Pluses

• the community is friendly and welcoming
• the scenery is beautiful, inspiring and the air is clean
• studio space is cheap ($300 a month for a river view studio)
• structuring your own time each and every day means having choices….only the weather trumps your choice
• there is no easy access to consumer goods, so you won’t be spending money
• people are all in the same economic boat and are open about sharing tips on economizing
• people make up their own (free) things to do such as potlucks, watching DVD’s together, walking through the unmarked, but well known trails, cross-country skiing, making music together
• lots of people volunteer here and it makes all the difference to the quality of life

Music nights at the Rebekah Music Hall cost $8. People bring treats to share..

Bear River and area Challenges

• it’s impossible to earn anywhere near a ‘big city’ income, so budgeting is really an essential skill
• because of employment challenges, most youth leave Bear River and the largest demographic is boomers and up
• it’s tough to live at a distance from family and former friends, but free Skype, email and facebook help
• there is no easy access to consumer goods which can be super inconvenient when you need to buy art supplies
• it’s a challenge to stay task focused when there are many opportunities for socializing, staring at the scenery
• there is limited and distant access to health care
• there is a lack of diverse cultures like in Toronto
• government funding is practically invisible

Happily, our children visited us for my birthday last spring.

I should also throw in the disclaimer that our experience and opinions are not shared by everyone. Apparently more people have come and gone from Bear River than have come and stayed. The employment challenges here have forced many to greener pastures. At the same time I believe that the working possibilities that the internet brings will draw a younger crowd of newcomers to Nova Scotia.  Still, there are many groups within the village and I don’t speak for them.  I do sense though that there is a universal, quiet affection that Bear Riverites feel for this place. And after all, could you blame them?

Low tide on Bear River.

Canadian Thanksgiving

Cinderella heritage pumpkin.

There are many garden delights to be thankful for this harvest season. Among them are the pretty, colourful squash known as Pumpkin. My friend Pamela grew this one and although she gave me seeds to grow some this year, I was late in planting mine and they are still golden yellow, not reddish-orange like this beauty.

I hated to cut into this pumpkin, but I remembered how delicious last year’s pie tasted that came from the parent of this pumpkin (or would that be the aunt, or sister???)

This pumpkin variety is tasty for cooking and has thick flesh.

I had to get very serious about cutting into the pumpkin and that meant a machete and hammer! Can you believe how thick the walls are?

After I scooped out the seeds I piled it all into a roasting pan. I added about 3/4 cup of water and covered it loosely with foil. Into the oven at 350 it went and I roasted it until I could easily pierce it with a sharp knife. When it came out of the oven, I let it rest for 1/2 an hour so the excess water could drain away. After that I cut off the outside skin and then pureed the flesh.

Even the sale price is about 10 times the cost of making it from scratch.

I filled the roasting pan twice, so it took some time to cook the entire pumpkin. When finished, I added the sugar and spices to  the equivilant of 20 whole pie portions and and then froze the portions in our upright freezer. When it’s time to bake them, I’ll add eggs and evaporated milk to complete the filling.

I still had containers of plain puree (for winter soup) left over as well as enough pumpkin to bake 3 pies for Thanksgiving weekend.

Ready for roasting in the oven.

I took the leftover pumpkin seeds to “the girls” aka Pamela’s wonderful, happy chickens. It was the end of the day and they had feasted on slugs and worms and organic barley grown just for them, so they didn’t stampede like they sometimes do. I love the cooing sounds they make in this little video.

Part of the point in getting pumpkin ready and baking pie in the first place was to share it with our friends at a Thanksgiving potluck.

First though, Larry and I had to take a walk down Kniffen’s Hollow to take in the beautiful fall colours that cover the Bear River hills right now.

Giving thanks to Bear River.

The air was cool, but we never get tired of this ever-changing scenery.

Kniffen's creek empties into Bear River.

We walked back up through the woods, past the creek that moved fast with the rains we’ve had off and on this past week.

The leaves are falling and the sight is so magical, that it’s like seeing it all for the first time again.

Kniffen's creek.

We climbed back up the hill to our friends’ house. Inside the guests were arriving, the fire was crackling, the house smelled of turkey and squash and stuffing and vegetables and salad…………..and homegrown, homemade pumpkin pie.

Turkey and all the trimmings on the way.

Our Awareness of Waste Water Deepens

Lately I’ve been thinking that living in a village house with no municipal water or sewage means living in a building with a gigantic, internal digestive system. And like people, those houses can suffer from indigestion and need emergency treatment.

Goldenrod and apple trees.

Water comes into the house from our well and exits out to a septic system with the waste. Both are located quite far away from each other – a short city block. You’ll remember that just over a week ago we cleaned  out the well. We spent the next week obsessively checking the well to see if the water would come back to its former level and it did. We were feeling pretty happy with the results and I went into a laundry frenzy and we resumed normal toilet flushing and all the activities that people take for granted.  Then one day the toilet wouldn’t flush. The septic system was full. When that happens, a hole is dug by hand and many shovelfuls and 3 hours later, the holding tank is found. A truck comes and $180 later, the tank is pumped clean. Usually this happens every 3 or 4 years, but we’ve had the tank pumped 3 times already!!

Emergency help arrives out the kitchen window.

For those of you who don’t know about septics, here is how they work. The water and waste leaves the house through a basement pipe and goes into an underground, cement holding tank about 6′ from the house. The tank can hold about 1000 gallons and when it gets almost full, the excess runs down a long pipe and into a ’septic field’ which is a number of connected, perforated pipes. It’s surrounded by gravel and covered with landscaping fabric so there is lots of space for the fluids to leach into. The ‘field’ is covered with at least 4 feet of earth, well below the freezing line.

Our system wasn’t leaching out properly and also had a willow tree close by (not the willow tree, not Cordelia). Willow trees are excellent at finding water sources and it’s not recommended to plant them near septic systems. The tree had to go and our system had to be repaired.

It sounds so easy when you say it really fast, but it takes tools like chain saws and excavators and people who know what they are doing.

Joe came to the rescue and let Larry be the apprentice for a couple of days.

By the time our friend Jon got here with his chain-saw, I had already kissed the tree goodbye and while I thank her for her help with giving us shade and beauty, and being a nice place for birds and others to hang out in,  that’s as far as my sentimental self would go. She was unfortunately, in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Jon knew exactly where to cut and how to ‘drop the tree’ where he wanted it. Larry then ‘junked it up’ into future firewood. Joe teased the stump out of the ground with his excavator.

Joe let Larry learn some brand-new skills in septic repairs while I made little videos and wished I could have one of those earth-moving machines for myself. Joe made it look so easy and it he had such precise dexterity with digging.  Watch him place these heavy rocks.

As soon as Joe had finished covering up the new pipes, I started the washing machine and also washed lots of dishes. This time I didn’t toss the water out the door, but let it go down the drain. It felt positively luxurious.

More firewood. Willow this time.

We’ve long wanted to create a space for a home-made greenhouse and Joe happily obliged us by digging a little south-facing rectangle out where it will live. He filled it with the left-over gravel. I’m hoping that will help conduct heat and help with drainage. Here is a video of the results.

So all in all, the emergency treatment that our house’s digestive system received was just what the doctor ordered – and more.

We had a well cap installed to make future septic pumping easier. This is the 'before it gets covered up' photo.

The well cap is covered and the ground is like a fresh canvas waiting for new plantings.