The main title of this blog suggests off-the-grid content and I try to still do some of that when it jumps out at me. You know, like a rescue-at-sea, wildlife sightings, major projects. What is interesting to me is that I have now incorporated regular OTG-ing so much into my day that I do not even notice it as different enough to write about anymore. For example: yesterday, I serviced three ‘work’ engines (all gensets) and went so far as to clean a carb, ‘stabilize’ the gas and, of course, change the oil in all three. No biggy. NOT news.

We also pulled the 14 foot chimney, cleaned it out (outside), reassembled it and changed the bricks inside the woodstove. Again, no biggy. NOT news. I also got a new, small welder and made up a welders table and rearranged all the ‘stuff’ in the little ‘new’ shed to accommodate all that.

Today, some friends come out for a visit and I pick them up in the boat and bring ’em over, feed ’em and, later on, load ’em up and take ’em back. On Monday, Sal goes over to the neighbouring island and picks up 8 sheets of ply and two sheets of cement board – because I have to enclose the plumbing into an under-the-house, warm-ish plumbing room to keep it from freezing in a cold winter (yes, should have been done a long time ago).

So, my point is that we are still living OTG and, compared to living urban, it is really very physical and different. There should be blog news. Especially when we are both in our 70’s. On the other hand, we’ve been doing this for twenty years now and it seems ‘normal’ to us. It no longer feels ‘normal’ to live in the city. It feels weird to go there. It feels ABNORMAL.

I won’t bore you with all the different urban rant-topics regarding traffic and such. I’ll just point out that there is a shift in one’s mental constructs, one’s subconscious thoughts and feelings, one’s perspective on well, just about everything that just comes with time spent being different than we used to be…..and that feeling is (ironically) ‘we are NOT ‘different’ anymore. We are normal HERE. We are mainstream, average OTG folks. THIS IS US NOW!

This minor epiphany came about because my daughter is still visiting and pursuing her self appointed mission to continue ‘learning about living out here’. Every day she asks, “So, what are we doing today?”

And I respond with, “Nothing much and then list a few chores that, in retrospect, sound like NASA projects or ‘Mountain man’ adventures. “We’ll adjust the solar panels to better capture the winter sun. We’ll get some of the boards up the hill. I’ll order a fill up (propane and gasoline) from the barge. Maybe do some dog-clipping. Maybe replace a couple of deck boards. We still have two logs on the beach. So maybe that…..”

I dunno…maybe this blog isn’t resonating with you….I dunno…it is just that we are now so different it feels like normal to us and it takes seeing it all through my daughter’s eyes to realize how much different we are compared to what we were.

OK. I’ll stop with the introspection and go back to politics soon…..