The New Normal

It has been wonderful having Zoe back here with me. We have quickly settled into a new routine. We are enjoying sleeping in, doing some work before lunch, putting in a few hours of work after lunch, perhaps a nap or some homework or computer work, then supper, a fire and a Netflix movie! I love it!!

Zoe got to take her new vehicle for a spin on Monday (the Cub Cadet tractor I purchased while she was away) and loved the fact that it was reliable and did not break down!! We have brought in more firewood, had a lovely big bonfire and cleaned up an area beside the barn. We used landscape fabric to covered the area I have designated for my vegetable garden to make the spring rototilling easier, and we started some woodworking projects.

One of my biggest concerns has been the stove chimney. I have not been able to get anyone in to clean it yet. Between being too far out of region for some chimney sweeps, one not returning my calls and a final one promising to call to set up a date....? I am very aware of every fire I burn, keeping them small and constantly being aware in case of a chimney fire.  So...two weeks ago we had an intense rain and wind storm. A car slowed down in front of my house, then another, then a line up slowly began forming. In a panic that they had seen something pertaining to my chimney, I threw on a coat and boots and ran out front. Apparently it had nothing to do with my chimney (phew!) but rather the wind had caused one of the trees at the front of my property to fall across the road. I was very impressed that within one hour from the first car stopping the police arrived to direct traffic, the tree company arrived and cut up and moved the tree and the power company arrived to ensure the power line had not been damaged!

This has, however,  added another job to our to do list as the tree company cut up but left most of the tree in the ditch. Zoe and I spent a day hauling it out of the ditch, cutting it up storing all the manageable pieces. There are still hhuuggee pieces of the trunk in the ditch that I will need more muscle to clean up...hello my brother is coming for a visit next weekend. Fingers crossed the weather cooperates for this next visitor who is willing to work!

Snow Today, Gone Tomorrow

We had a wonderful visit with Kate Owen. She could only spend three full days with us but we accomplished a lot and we really enjoyed her company. Unfortunately the snow didn't end the entire time she was here so we were sequestered to indoor work during the day and eating and drinking at night. Our final night we had a wonderful seafood meal at Bistro East preluded with a beautiful sunset that would be the herald of better weather to come.

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The snow put Zoe and I in the mood for Christmas. We did almost all of our Christmas shopping in Halifax yesterday after we dropped Kate off at the airport. Then woke up this morning to decorate the house. And surprise, surprise, now that we are ready to embrace the snow and holiday feel...it has all melted and our world is green again-argh!! In the long run, I am happy to have some more autumn but oh the timing!

The first thing we discovered were about our new ceilings. We had purchased an artificial tree for our previous house which took advantage of its 12 foot ceilings. Our new home has eight foot ceilings and luckily the tree does fit but there is no room for an angel topper. In our previous home we also had numerous tables, shelves and built-ins on which we were able to display our many decorations. In this house we chose not set up our shelves or decor until each room is finished so the display space is limited and we had to pick and choose our favourite items.


All in all though, with a cup of hot chocolate, a fire blazing in our fireplace and some great music playing, Zoe and I managed to transform our living space to a cozy Christmas retreat.

Full House

After being home alone for a month, I picked up both Zoe and our friend Kate Owen from the airport.  I had taken Zoe back to Ontario in October and then returned to spend 28 days alone. I was able to accomplish a lot and visit with new friends, but I missed my people and was so excited to have someone in the house with me again!

Two weeks ago I got a message from a friend Kate asking to visit for a work-cation. It worked out perfectly that her vacation time coincided with Zoe's return so Zoe had someone to accompany her on the flight. That turned out to be very lucky indeed as it was only Zoe's second time ever on an airplane and the flight was delayed for an hour. Then after finally boarding the airplane, a passenger had a medical emergency which delayed their flight another hour.  I can only imagine how stressful this would have been if Zoe didn't have calming company. So thank you very much Kate! To top their eventful arrival off, we were in the middle of an unseasonal snow storm. A drive that should typically only take two and half hours took us four hours to get back to the house. We finally walked through the door at 3:30am! Some welcome!

From there it has been two days of work. We had hoped to get some outside work done, but no such luck thanks to the unexpected snow. So we have focused on the office and have made fantastic progress clearing the floor to reveal thick plank floors and stripping the door and trim to reveal beautiful original wood.

I have this fantastic helper for one more day and we hope to finish the woodwork and maybe even get to painting! We have laughed about this vacation where I shepherded Kate into our home under the cover of night and have not let her leave to see daylight or anything that Nova Scotia has to offer!! I did make sure she enjoyed some Nova Scotian wine and homemade crabapple liquor and I have promised to take her out tomorrow night for dinner at our favourite restaurant in Annapolis Royal, Bistro East.

It has been a wonderful few days getting to know Kate better, having wonderful company and a willing third helper! I can't thank you enough Kate for being there for both me and Zoe! Please come back another time so we can show you some of the local sites!

Workshop

One of the most frequent sentences out of my mouth has been "Where is my..." fill in the blank with "screwdriver" or "drill bit" or "tape measure". You get the point. For three months now my tools have had no official home and therefore, I can never find what I need! There is a three section garage which is attached to the house and I thought it would be perfect to have my workshop in the main section.

This room is not heated so I tried to weatherproof it as much as I could. I laid dri-core on the flooring, increased the insulation, draft sealed the doorway to the wood storage and the doorway to the attic, and put a plastic seal over the window. I wanted it bright and when dad was here in October, we put two more lights in. I have also painted the walls white to reflect all the light I could. I needed more power so I ran wire for an extra outlet. (I don't want to jinx this but that's two electrical jobs I have now done on my own, and gotten it right the first try on both jobs!!)

Then I started organizing. I have my charging station, my hand tool wall, (look closely and you can pick out Zoe's pink tools!) my paint corner, and my old dining room table as my workbench!

There is still lots to do to organize and find homes for everyone of my precious tools. I am hoping final placements will become clearer over the next week.  Zoe will be home and Kate will be here on a work-cation and I have "renovate the office space" on our to do list. With the three of us working back and forth between the workshop and the office, I hope it will become clear where tools are best suited, where its easiest to work and how the workshop flows.

Barton

I will start this blog with the promised photo of the coat room with the finished, blingy, coat rack and a matching painted wooden crate. Except for flooring and trim - one room done!

I thought today I would write about my new town. That being said, it was hard to find any real details! Barton is very small and not included in Census Canada (although it is recorded as part of a dissemination area which I will talk about later.) I cannot find any unique human interest stories, or historical facts, or persons of interest pertaining to Barton, Nova Scotia. But what I could discover is: in the Province of Nova Scotia, in the Tri-Counties, in Annapolis Valley,  in the District of Clare, in Digby County you will find a tiny town named Barton that has a Baptist Church and a Post Office. We are overlooking St. Mary's Bay and can see Digby Neck beyond the Bay. On the other side of Digby Neck is the Bay of Fundy. We experience some of the highest tides in the world so at times, our neighbours backyards are water and at times we can see mudflats for miles!

Blue Dot is Me!!

As I mentioned earlier, Barton is included in a dissemination area as defined by Statistics Canada as an area with 200-400 households. In this area, Statistics Canada has combined Barton, Brighton, Marshalltown, Acaciaville and Jordantown. Our dissemination area has a population of 462 which falls in 203 households. 58% of the houses were built before 1960 with only 1% of all the houses being built after 2011. 96% of my neighbours are english. This would change 30 minutes down the road into Comeauville, Saulnierville and Meteghan which are over 70% french speaking.

I do hope to eventually have a food garden so the soil is important to me. Throughout Annapolis Valley there are a number of wineries and breweries. That sounded a lot like Niagara Peninsula, so I was expecting similar soil types. I have read that it is a good area for mixed farming as it is "fair crop land". The soil is reportedly sandy loam. The only catch to this good growing soil is its "gravelly stoniness"! So while my vegetables may grow well, I may have to spend a season raking out all the stones before I can plant!

Barton was named for a Loyalist Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Barton who commanded the 1st  Battalion of the New Jersey Volunteers and received grants of land here after the war. So the story goes that Joseph Barton was in a a bar in 1788 boasting that he could fell a tree all by himself and better than anyone with experience, even though he had never done it before. The next morning he went to prove this point and felled a birch tree on his property. Unfortunately the tree fell on him and mortally wounded him! As I sit here with a bleeding finger, a blistered palm, a blackened finger nail, and a bruised leg, I wonder if following in this gentleman's footsteps, settling on his lands, boasting that I can do this myself, was actually the wisest decision? Maybe I should have researched this beforehand and taken warning from his story!

Coat Room

Original room with shelving,
wooden coat hooks and
wallpaper

Walls puttied, carpet gone,
step being removed

Well I tried! The coat room is not quite finished yet. The paint on the coat rail is not dry and therefore not mounted yet. But what I did accomplish was...I pulled the carpet up. I pulled down all the shelving, wooden decor and wallpaper.

Back of door and its many
layers of paint and stain

As good as it gets!!

I stripped the paint off the inside of the door. I painted the ceiling and walls.

Framing for the floor.
Overkill perhaps hahaha

Weird angle but trying to
show both the new light switch
and the new light fixture!

The room was recessed down a step and Zoe and I wanted it level with the kitchen floor, so I did that.

I replaced the light switch and the light fixture (had to have girly, sparkly, crystal!). I owe my father for any small amount of knowledge I had to accomplish this task . In August when I was living with my parents, my dad had me go through his house with him and replace many outlets and light switches to give me some electrical understanding. I still had to call him for advice today, but I am very grateful for the basic knowledge he has taught me.


I placed a new shelving unit in the room and filled it. The floor and trim were intensionally not finished. We want to wait until we do the kitchen and have the same flooring run straight through the two rooms. I'll post the final completed image next time, but for today, this is what we have! Phew!

And it's starting to get set up. 

Upswing

Everyone is familial with the ups and downs of daily life. Mine had been pretty down for a few days. Frustrated with a  broken tractor, and a leaky basement and not making much progress on-well-anything! With every down, comes and up. Thank goodness I am now in that upswing!

My new twin cylinder, Kohler engine, 42 inch twin blade, cruise control, shiny yellow Cub Cadet lawn tractor was delivered on Monday! Thank you Gates Power Equipment.  I took this pretty picture before I took it out to the back trail and got it all muddy-sorry Zoe!


I have been successful at getting the wood pile a little higher thanks to the new, working, tractor being able to haul wood out of forest for me!

I am trying to be more active and improve my photographic skills and taking more pictures. I tried to capture this really interesting colour sky which preceded a wild rain and wind storm, It knocked out our power for 5 hours and flooded our basement, but it was a beautiful sky!

And finally on the upswing, I got an email from a friend in Ontario who has booked her flight to come for a workcation! She will be my first visitor who is not family!! I am very excited and lining up jobs since she said she was game to work!

Hopefully Sunday's blog will show start to finish the first room that I have renovated. (I decided to write that sentence to give me incentive to actually complete it!)

Food

I was reminded that I had not talked much about the food since moving here. I have never been one to eat out at restaurants much in the past, but Zoe and I have enjoyed it more often here. It was a goal to introduce Zoe to seafood since it is so readily available and fresh. For those of you who remember in a previous post we discussed that Zoe, in fact, does not like seafood and will no longer even try it. It may have had something to do with beady lobster eyes looking at her, followed by a fried seafood platter that, even in my opinion, was not good.

She has enjoyed fish and chips on many occasions and has stretched out of her normal comfort zone to try different dishes as well.

Lets start with the best scallops I have ever had. Digby is famous for its fresh caught scallops and I took advantage of that at the Shoreline Restaurant. They served the best maple, whiskey, barbecue, bacon wrapped scallops I could ever hope to taste. They were served with fried chips and just enough extra maple, whiskey, barbecue sauce to dip those chips in! This was one of the places I took my parents to when they visited partly because I wanted them to taste the exquisite scallops, but also because I wanted them again!! It was at this restaurant that Zoe moved away from her normal chicken fingers or fish and chips and ordered a pineapple curry. It was also a really good choice. Unfortunately this restaurant is one of the seasonal ones and has closed for the winter.

My son Brandon works for China Dynasty in Beamsville and he used to bring home delicious food for the three of us. We had been living here almost two months and we had not had any Chinese food and we were craving it. We had seen Wok By the Bay on Water Street in downtown Digby so thought to give it a try. They have a nice selection of Chinese food but also a wide variety of seafood and Canadian food to satisfy all family members. We stuck with the Chinese side of the menu and really enjoyed the food we ordered. I was also incredibly grateful to the staff. When I got home and realized I had left my phone there, they offered to stay late so I could return that evening and retrieve it. Thank you, thank you, thank you. A second restaurant we will definitely be revisiting.


Our third favourite place is Kalen's Takeout. It is a food truck parked on Highway 303 as you drive through town. They take cash only, have a huge menu (including deep fried oreos which we have not tried...yet) and delicious fish and chips. I am not a food truck person, but after driving past it so often and Zoe continuously asking to try it, I am so glad we finally stopped. We will need to take Brandon there on his next visit for the foot long hot dog!





Eating out has meant we have had to change the way our day proceeds. We have been a family that for one reason or another, typically does not stop for supper until after 7pm. In Digby, actually from our summer experience as well, through much of Nova Scotia, many restaurants close at 7pm. It has felt strange to be like normal people and go out to eat between 5-5:30pm! I know I have a few Nova Scotian's reading my blog-any recommendations from the locals on restaurants to try?

November Already!

Frustrating day today. The lawn tractor has broken down for the third time now! I think I need to bite the bullet and get a new one. I'll be heading in tomorrow morning to Gates Power Equipment and starting a conversation with them!

Before that, this had been a good week. The social life has continued with morning coffee visits. I have been invited to homes and Tim Horton's to join people as they start their day. I was invited to a musical evening at a local church. It was not exactly my thing, but I am still glad I went and had a nice evening with some neighbours.  I also ventured into Annapolis Royal on my own one evening to watch a movie at King's Theatre. It is a small theatre that hosts movies, plays, live music, and other performances. I quite enjoyed it and am hoping to attend some other events in the coming months.

With Zoe still in Ontario, I am appreciating the company of my neighbours. I am also recognizing the need to be a part of the community because there will be a time when Zoe moves on and I will be alone. While I enjoy my own company, and I love peace and quiet, everyone needs their people!

Halloween is always an interesting night the first year at a new home. I was not sure what to expect. I had a pretty good idea I would get no one, after all I do live on a highway. But I felt I should be prepared and have some chocolate for any neighbours that may have children or grandchildren. Or at least that's what I told myself when I bought the chocolate that I now "have" to eat!!

I have also been making slow progress outside this week. I have mowed 2/3's of the lawn (before the tractor quit on me again) and gathered some leaves. I have make good progress on gathering firewood from my forest. This is another job that will never end-for as long as I am here-I will be gathering fire wood!! But the trade off is I get to enjoy beautiful fires in my stove every evening.

While I was out in the forest yesterday, I found another Maple tree which I have marked. I have found five now, and am very excited to try tapping them and making maple syrup. Kind of scary to think its November already, tapping the Maples will be here before I know it!