In fact, it is practically stuck around freezing these past few days and it has dropped below that during the nights. Today, the fire has raged all day and we have not gotten the house up past 67F yet. By dinner time, it might be 70 but that’s a cold day for us when it takes that long. We’ve been pounding through the wood for over a month and that, too, is unusual.
Been sloshing through the gasoline, too. I am burning ten gallons a week at least. The boat gets 2.5 gallons and the genset is getting the other 6.5. For us, that is fossil-fuel mania! Why so much for the genset (a gallon a day)? Mostly because of the heat tapes on our water system. No sun and freezing temps requires a genset to keep the pipes and pumps unfrozen.
Virtually no boat traffic now. This is the quiet time. We feel alone. Remote. Isolated. Even the wildlife are hunkered down and much less present. It’s nice. Three months from now, however, it will be a large part of feeling ‘bushed’. “Moderation in all things, grasshopper.”
The only reason I mention all this is because it is just the first week in December. We have had flowers blooming in December some years! January gets a bit chilly as a rule and February is always the worst month of all but already November was a very harsh month in BC and December is now showing up cold and ugly, too. We may have an especially long winter this year (for us).
Do I care? Not really. We are well stocked. We can burn more wood. I can eke out the fuel. The bed is warm. I have reading material, Netflix, Sal. What more could I want?
Yes, we have some scotch, too…….we are good.
But it kinda speaks to climate change, don’tcha think? I mean, all those nutbars denying climate change for years if not decades have largely shut up lately. And STILL our governments waffle on doing anything actually significant. Finally they have the mandate and they are still impotent. Oh, I know, they love ‘taxing’ carbon because they are so bloody money-oriented that is all they know how to do. And, while they are licking their chops over increased revenues, how do they reconcile those paltry revenues against the incredible expenses experienced from the fires, floods, mudslides and supply-chain disruptions? Shouldn’t we stop planning on ‘compensation’ for planet destruction and simply stop doing it?
The reality, folks, is that stopping the destruction of our planet is no longer enough. We need to husband, steward, protect and enhance the systems of the planet that we have almost destroyed completely. We have already done more than enough destruction, we need to make good on remediation, reconstitution, restitution and repair.
I spoke years ago to a guy with a huge vessel wondering what to do with it now that the fish stocks were depleted. “Uh, why not get a huge barge, tow it out to the middle of the pacific and start collecting all the plastic accumulating in the ocean vortex?” He declined but it seems others have now taken up the challenge……but even that kind of heroic effort is still not enough. The ocean needs more than a respite, it needs a major rehab. We need thousands of hatcheries. We need seaweed farms. We need to stop beating the patient and, instead, TREAT the patient with kindness and respect. Stopping the beating is NOT good enough – not anymore.
The option, of course, is to carry on carrying on.
Our Off the Grid Home 
An upside to the winter chill s that your refrigerator space has now expanded greatly. In fact, you can probably pull the plug on it and divert the current to more useful endeavours, or simply burn less to keep batteries charged. The whole outdoors is now your fridge. What to do with that not leftover pot roast or casserole? Outside the back door will cool it and keep it that way! For the beer drinkers (or even white wine), ditto – the beer fridge or wine cooler has grown exponentially at no cost.
The above comments apply with some reservations if you have bears, or even raccoons, around. Unsetting to find a bear drinking your beer, or to have a raccoon sipping wine from your Orrefors crystal. But, with a few precautions, the comments in the above paragraph apply, mutatis mutandis. Sure, we have cougars and wolves, but they tend to have better manners. Scotch drinkers are spared any concern over the predations of local wildlife. Well, maybe. The woodpecker in the wood stove awhile back may have really intended a raid on the liquor cabinet. Should have enlisted the cooperation of a raven. They know how to get things done.
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Books!
Oodles of Books!
That and whittling.
Fake Ravens to mystify the local birds…
Should keep you out of trouble for a few months and get you over the hump.
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I got a few message from some Victoria friends asking me to check out their cabin on the mainland(Vancouver Island) as there had been some breaking in the area. A beautiful sunny day, no wind so I bundled up took Sadie and off we went. Cabin was good, got halfway across Discovery passage and my Yamaha quit. Did all the usual stuff then realized I had not checked the oil for a while. Trolled home at about 5 knots(keeping under 2000 rpm). Its 15 knotical miles so took some time, the hydralic lifters had started collapsing so a noisy trip. (All good now) Why do I tell you this?? Just to make your day better my friend. But really it was a perfect chilly day and they sent me 100.00 so paid for fuel (1.72 a liter for the last delivery) and a bottle of wine.😊
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Forgot to mention that early in the trip I hit a stick that causes all the water spray and cavitation at the motor, turned around to see and pulled the throttle off and into neutral, looked ahead again just in time to see Sadie’s splash as she goes off the loading ramp(hanging on by her toes again) she went under the raised center hull, heard her hit the motor leg and pop out behind me having a great swim. I had to lower the loading ramp to pull her aboard. She did no miss a beat, shook the ocean off and continued her run around the boat a continued hanging off the ramp edge for a total of 3 hours plus. She is just as crazy and as tough as you.
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Forgot to mention that early in the trip I hit a stick that causes all the water spray and cavitation at the motor, turned around to see and pulled the throttle off and into neutral, looked ahead again just in time to see Sadie’s splash as she goes off the loading ramp(hanging on by her toes again) she went under the raised center hull, heard her hit the motor leg and pop out behind me having a great swim. I had to lower the loading ramp to pull her aboard. She did no miss a beat, shook the ocean off and continued her run around the boat a continued hanging off the ramp edge for a total of 3 hours plus. She is just as crazy and as tough as you.
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No, she is tougher and crazier. I was dragged out and ‘cared for’ and got a bandage. She’s got a tail. Other than that, we are pretty much the same, I guess.
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books, netflix, scotch wood and Sal should keep you well the coming months!! and we definitely need a good fix for our planet!
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