I bucked the downed trees in the forest (I love using logger terms like “buck”… I feel like a real man, rather than one one who baked biscotti later that very same day), stacked them, and waited for some snow to fall so I could sled them out. That snow came earlier this week and so this weekend I made many trips hauling them out. I’m really impressed with this sled I bought last year. It is intended for hauling supplies for ice fishing (etc) and when I saw it for $40 (that was the sale price!) I balked at paying that kind of money for “plastic”. But this thing has carried some heavy loads, taken a fair bit of abuse, and even had a spot partially melted by a portable generator exhaust outlet. For this weekend’s log-hauling, sure, there was snow but even then the heavily laden sled was scraping over rocks and downed branches that lay under the snow. It just goes to show you, they *can* make things to last when they want to. Contrast this with the crappy plastic sleds kids use that often break or crack and get thrown out within one season!

By the end of the day your muscles remind you they have been working. That feels good. Then you look at the woodpile and see what you accomplished. That feels even better. And to top it all off with beautiful sights, sounds and solitude all around, I couldn’t help but smile my way through the day. I know it’s not for everyone, but in my books, that is the perfect day. And if I had to pick a “last day” I think would go with a smile on my face.

Sun cutting through the white pines near the guest cabin.

Chickadee about to land on feeder perch.

Some “real” winter has finally returned to the area the last couple days and, with about 6 inches of snow on the ground, that’s pretty much the most so far this winter! It sure is the talk of the town what an “easy” winter it’s been so far. Along with the snow, it was on the cold side today so I went out to replenish the bird feeders. Chickadees (you will know either from your own experience or from reading previous posts on this blog) are brazen and tough little birds with a lot of gumption. I had barely rehung the feeder on the stand when they were starting to stage themselves in a nearby tree to start what seems like a tag-team effort at emptying the seed. I set down the seed bucket and stood motionless watching them, standing just 2 or 3 feet from the feeders. At first they flew close to the feeder then backed off, then flittered about closer still, and then figured it was safe enough to land on the perch and grab a seed. It was a wonderful sight and, even moreso, a magical sound to hear  their wings fluttering against the still silence of a winter afternoon. I stood, for quite some number of minutes, watching and listening so intently that is was both relief and disappointment when I had the realization that my mind had not been thinking for a just a brief little while.

Downy Woodpecker at work

I slowly took a camera out of my pocket and began to snap off some pictures, hoping to get a good one. I think what I really wanted was for the camera to capture the feel of that moment, which of course it cannot. But I can hope to retain in my soul the honour of being so close… so close I could touch them… to a flock of gutsy Chickadees, a couple crazy upside-down Nuthatches, and a slightly-more-wary Downy Woodpecker, with its sharp beak efficiently making its way into frozen suet.  And be thankful not only for the nature around me but for the good fortune to be–even if only for a fraction of a minute–fully present in that beauty.

There’s a unique peace that comes with a fresh blanket of snow. Part of it is visual—freshly fallen snow coats everything and has an untouched look about it. As dusk comes, it starts looking particularly other-worldly. You tell yourself, rationally, it is “white” but when you really look at it you realize it “is” blue. I guess that’s what some artists do: paint what it is, what it feels, not what the mind says it is.

You've heard of Chimney Sweeps; how about Solar Panel Sweeps?

It was a cold night, down to -20°C (not factoring in wind-chill). The early morning brought only slight improvement but the sky was clear (one of the reasons behind the cold night since dense clouds hold in some “heat”) so, fortified with coffee, I suited up and climbed the ladder to clear the rooftop solar panels of snow. I had already removed snow from them a couple times during yesterday’s snow squalls, leaving just a light coating remaining. With direct sun, eventually the snow would have melted off on its own as the dark panels absorbed today’s sun rays.  So why do a task that would have been taken care of on its own? In this case the make-work project was not due to my previous life as a government employee but because I wanted to get maximum possible power generation as soon as the sun was high enough to clear the trees that surround the house. At this time of year, with the sun low on the horizon, rising late and setting early, even on a clear day there are only 4-5 of decent power generation so, most importantly, I wanted the batteries to get a full and sustained charge.

Oil-filled mini-heater uses 600 watts.

Peak solar generation means ample power, and a good time to do some ironing, run the laundry machine, the air cleaner, and anything else I avoid using on cloudy, windless days. Today there was excess power so I even ran a heater to supplement the woodstoves. I bought this small space heater (as usual, on sale at Canadian Tire a few weeks ago) which I put in the far corner of the dining room, where the woodstove heat doesn’t as easily find its way to. Same idea as my solar-powered chainsaw and induction cooktop, it’s about making the best use of resources when they’re available.

Other things I do when the temps dip down low include burning beech in the woodstoves (it burns hotter and longer with one of the highest BTU values of the hardwoods) instead of the elm, hickory and ash that take up the majority of my woodshed space. I’ve also learned it’s helpful for the comfort of the whole house to run the basement woodstove even if I’m not going to be down there. I make sure there are suet plugs in the woodpecker feeder and top up the other bird feeders with black-oil sunflower seed rather than mixed seed, since it provides the birds more energy (i.e., calories) which is important in the cold.

Living off-grid, surrounded by forest, you can’t help but be in tune with what is happening in the natural world. It’s not for everyone. Sometimes you can’t always do exactly what you want when you want (especially if it is power-intensive) and other times there are suddenly pressing tasks requiring a quick change of priorities. But sometimes I wonder if modern western life has become too convenient. I’m reading a book about the history of this area and here’s what life was like for the settlers back around 1840:

Their first homes were roughly assembled using the easiest available materials, sod and timber. Historian E.C. Guillet described the living conditions in one of these early pioneer shanties through a quote from a Mrs. Cook in Bruce County, “the shanty to which we went had a bark roof, and this roof leaked so badly that when it rained my husband had to hold an umbrella over us when we were in bed.” (from Owen Sound, The Port City, by Paul White, pub. 2000 by Natural Heritage Inc, Toronto).

The large timbers in the log cabin half of my home date back to those settlement days in the mid-1800s. As I sit here looking at the hand-hewn axe marks on the walls and think about what life was like it sure makes me grateful for how I live and reminds me not to begrudge clearing off my solar panels!

Wishing Blog Readers a Merry Christmas and Happy, Peaceful New Year

The "price" of heat: woodstove blower fan sucking 78 watts... like turning on 7 compact flourescent lamps

For the next week, if you go to your local Crappy Tire store you can buy your very own energy meter on sale for less than $20, including taxes! I first used one of these several months ago when I was shopping for a television. The basic deal with this gadget is that you plug it into the wall outlet, then plug anything that uses electricity into the meter and it will tell you how much power it uses, in amps or watts. I recall walking around the local big-box electronics store, reaching behind TVs so I could plug in the meter to get a reading. The sales guy was a little suspicious (read: worried) at first. But then I explained what it was and might even have impressed him when I demonstrated how adjusting the TV settings affects power consumption. In the end I did also buy a TV… a Toshiba 32” with LED backlight that, with adjustments to brightness and backlighting, sipped a mere 27 watts… not even as much as 3 compact fluorescent bulbs or only half as much as an old-school 50 watt incandescent bulb.

Living off-grid, every watt counts. Especially in the dark months of November – February. When I was TV shopping, I had borrowed a meter from the public library. Now that I have my own, well, I’ll be checking out all kinds of things. Some are surprising how much power is consumed, like the blower fan on the woodstove: almost 80 watts on the highest speed but still 50 watts even on the very lowest! The power adaptor for the  laptop I am using to write this uses 37 watts when the battery is charging. Some are surprising how little power they use: 150 LED minilights for the tree use only 8 watts.

Wattage is one thing but what it’s really about is overall consumption over time. So, for example, my coffee grinder uses 150 watts but it’s only on for 15 seconds. The toaster sucks 820 watts but it’s only on for about 3 minutes. That wood stove blower, even at “just” 50 watts, is taking a fair bit of juice out of the system when left on overnight. I don’t think I’ll be doing that anymore. The meter also records how long a device is using power and will calculate kWatt-hours so you can compare total consumption. In fact, you can even program in the price you pay for electricity and it will tell you how much something is costing you to run. Living off-grid, that’s a moot point since it’s all free <insert smug grin here>.

Those who know me will not be surprised by my fascination with such minutiae. It’s a lot of entertainment value for a $20 gadget. But still not as much fun as my trail camera. Here are some night pictures it took last week:

"Hey, Doerthy, do you hear something?"

"Yikes, it's that guy Buckley, let's scoot!"

"Hey, did you see a couple babes that were here a few minutes ago?"

 

"Size matters. I've got a bigger rack than the last guy."

I continue to enjoy my TrailCam—I think I’m going to get great value from this gadget, which is certainly more than I can say for some of the electronics I’ve bought over the years. The pictures above are from its mounting location over the past week, which has been at the corner of the yellow trail leading from the barn foundation down the “pine tunnel” and over to the orange trail. Not the best pics, but my very first night pics so I thought I would post them! The infrared “flash” does a good job of illuminating what is there without actually making a bright white flash (it’s just 20 LEDs that glow red). Click on any photo to enlarge. My best guess about the one on the left is a deer snout… what do you think?? If you have a suggestion or clever caption, post it as a comment.

On trail between house and guest cabin

A little while back, as a birthday indulgence, I bought myself a Trail Camera. These things are mainly used by hunters to help them find places that wildlife hang out. My purpose is to place it in different areas of the property to help take stock of the animals. I’ve always had a feeling that deer and coyotes see (or hear, or smell) me a lot more often than I do them. You attach the TrailCam to a tree and when it senses both heat and movement for a specified period of time it snaps off a picture. It works day or night. At night it uses an infrared “flash” so they are not spooked by a blast of white light. It also date/time stamps the picture. It can also take video clips. I finally got around to setting it up last week and here is my first “capture”. This thing is going to be fun! Trespassers beware

First snow of 2011/12 season

Perhaps no big excitement as a blog post but each year I seem to like making official note of the first substantial (i.e., sticking around on the ground) snowfall of the season, so here it is. Over the course of the day on Friday, November 11th, about 3-4 inches fell… certainly more than just a dusting! It stuck around all day Saturday, which made for a luminous evening walk thanks to a full moon. A warm breeze began blowing on Saturday evening and by Sunday the snow had all but disappeared. I took advantage of the warm day to do some winter-prep and garden clean-up tasks. The scarlet runner beans, which I had never got around to harvesting, had all dried up and opening a pod revealed beautiful pink and black beans. I’ll save a few to plant next year but I recall an outdoorsy blog reader advising me that the dried beans could be rehydrated and used in stews much in the same way as kidney beans, etc.

Bounty of Scarlet Runner Beans