And I miss you. All of you – even all the Russians and the Chinese hackers who visit the site for reasons unknown.  Especially those of you who comment.  And I really appreciate the genuine friendship exhibited by some whose relationship with me now is entirely based on this blog or the book. Truly this exercise in writing undertaken a few years ago has paid off in many varied and unexpected ways.  It’s all been a real gift.

I just went through ten days of Xmas and it was pleasant enough.  Family is good. Friends are good.  Even just getting away from frozen pipes was good.  But, I confess, I have never really been into Xmas.  I am not the type.  I like people and I like to celebrate (a little) but I tend to balk at scheduled, ritualized celebration and festivities. Feels a bit contrived, a bit phony to me, somehow.  I prefer to celebrate and have fun when something good happens rather than when just a date rolls around.

But I know I am wrong about this.  Just being alive and healthy and enjoying my life off the grid is cause for celebration and even a festivity or two and so, why not schedule it in so others can join in?  No good answer to that so I comply and put on a Xmas smile not really feeling it but knowing it should be there nevertheless.  I show up, drink the egg nog, eat the turkey and kiss all the little kids.  Ho Ho Ho.

But that is now over and I am happy to be home.  REALLY happy to be home. Especially since the pipes thawed and I have acquired the means to keep them thawed even if it gets colder.

Twelve years late, but we will now be prepared.

Mind you, it is even easier if you put in the ‘fix’ and then go south without really having to test it but I never balk at taking the easy way out.  I constantly seek the path of least resistance and, in a week or so, that will take the form of a flight to Arizona.  I envision the hard part of January to be the hike to the pool.

And, I suppose, that is the point of this rather pointless blog.  Living OTG is easier today.  It is NOT the brutal hardship that it was even fifty years ago.  Wusses can and do live this way.  We are testament to that.

That point was brought home to us recently by a friend with whom we sometimes stay when in town or when doing something that requires a ‘sleep-over’.  She said, “Geez, I liked the book.  It made living off the grid seem doable and not so hard as I thought.  I was left thinking that I could do that!”  

And she can.

The difference today is a weird combination of communications, other technologies, markets, modern consumer habits and, most amazingly, the incredible number of living opportunities constantly opening up.  Here’s what I mean: OTG and ordinary rural land, even small town properties are getting cheaper to buy just as the thriving urban condo world gets more concentrated and expensive.  Finally, economics is working as you’d expect: more people moving into the city means less demand on non urban markets and that is showing up in the prices.  .

Score one for the OTG wannabe guys.

Alternative energy (mainly solar is now affordable, simple and dependable).  People can have the ‘amenities’ they are used to even living remote.  PLUS more of those amenities/services are becoming available from satellite services.  That technology alone, makes a world of difference.  Ironically, remote no longer means isolated.

China.  The virtual flood of cheaply made Chinese products means that the less capitalized OTG wannabe can now afford to do it.  Admittedly, much of that purchased will need replacing over time but the point is that one can afford a log splitter, a few winches, a few engines and the like.  One can get started.  Plus, we have a society that throws away the equivalent of a house a day just in the demolition and rebuilding process.

Amazon.  Modern-day shipping is only going to get better.  And shipping is still cheaper than shopping.  The whole purchasing-stuff exercise from finding it (communications) to buying it (Amazon) to getting it (shipping companies) makes living the more ‘comfortable’ version of life OTG more possible.  Maybe even cheaper.

Do I really think my 60 year old out-of-shape female friend can live OTG like we do? No.  I don’t.  The OTG challenge has been made much, much easier (thank God) by what I just mentioned above (and more) but it is still quite difficult at times and there is a HUGE learning curve.  We are 12 years into it and still learning.  I would guess that it will take the rest of our lives to even get close to half-competent.

Still, the point is: one hundred years ago OTGers were lean, hard pioneers existing on hardscrabble and beans.  They might have an axe and a mule.  Very few could do it.  Fifty years ago, OTG’ers were the not-so-penniless hippies who could gather implements and information, support and even some income and so it was markedly easier.  Still bloody tough but easier than ol’ hardscrabble-man.

Today, we have leapt that difficulty gap again.  It is only half as difficult for a young person today to do what the hippy back-to-the-landers-did back then.  And it is even easier for an equity-holding older person to do it depending on the equity they are holding and how long they wait to cash it in.

Put more bluntly, $1M won’t buy you a rat-trap on the east side of Vancouver.  But $1M would put you in a modern, equipped, beautiful cabin with half of the money left over.  Today, money is a viable solution to getting off the grid.  Much more than it used to be.

“Dave…?  Is this just another not-so-subtle hint for us to get OTG, too?” 

Well, yes and no.  As you know, I am an OTG advocate.  Unabashedly so.  I will promote and hint and suggest in every way I can so, yes….I am dong that.  But I also thought it newsworthy to note that the whole exercise – tho NOT easy – has become much, much easier than it used to be. Markedly so.

In the meantime, I wish you all the very best.  I really do.  I hope you have a GREAT 2017.  I hope some of you might even take a step away from the urban cauldron, maybe sleep in a cabin or two.  The magic is in getting away (not to a resort but a real cabin in the woods) for at least month….you may never go back…..

…water…..out of the up-hill tank.  The surface ice layer in it is only half an inch or so and we can poke through that, stick in a hose and siphon off thirty gallons or so and get our daily water allotment. If we do that every two or three days, we are good.  A smidge on the rustic side, some would say, but good enough for us.

Siphoning water into containers–technically, water IS running…

We are also pounding through a wheelbarrow of wood a day now.  That’s double what we have ever had to do before.  Minus 8 C is cold for here.  I’ve been in -50 up in the Yukon in January and there is no doubt that it was colder then but -8 on the coast feels somehow much colder than -8 in the interior of the province.  I am just ‘Davidizing’ on this but -8 here feels like -25 in the Okanagan to me. It’s likely the humidity factor.

This weather doesn’t bother the guys who have been here a long time, tho.  At 13 years, I am still a newbie.  I find it cold.  DG (40+ years) just dropped by in his boat and handed us some fresh caught fish.  “That there Ling is just 18 minutes from seeing the light o’ day. Filleted it fer ya, too, ’cause KB loves the carcasses.  Fer her garden, don’tcha know?  I am headin’ up her way now.”

“Dawg!  It’s like 90 below.  It’s colder here than Mars or something.  What the hell ya doin’ fishin’?”

“Nah.  It’s nice out.  Warm, really, what with all the clothes I got on.  And, anyway, I only fish where it’s sunny in weather like this.  We gotta go out fishin’ sometime.”

“I dunno.  I tend to repel fish like I do militant feminists.  I am one of those guys with the wrong polarity or something.  Anti-magnetic…..Bi-polar, maybe.  Where I go, fish don’t.  Some guys can’t catch fish.  I am one of them.”

“No question there are people like that.  When I was a guide, I’d have one guy catching fish hand over fist on one side and the other guy, on the other side, would get skunked.  Sometimes we would swap sides just for the fun of it.  Gear, too. Made no difference.  One guy got lucky.  The other not.

The doctor came out to the twice-monthly clinic at the community centre the other day.   She had chains on all four wheels, her VHF radio was on (no cell service) and she was bundled up for survival.  That’s beyond intrepid and almost heroic.  Sal picked her up to bring her over.  Twenty kms down a frozen logging road with ice valleys and snow everywhere and then a small boat.  So bloody impressive, I almost faked an illness just to go see her.

Sal’s into it, too.  She and a neighbour are headed up to visit the accident victims (see blogs re end of the day at end of the road) and have a ‘nice cuppa tea.’.  That will be 6 – 8 miles in -8 in a small boat through one the most dangerous passes on the coast.  Currents run fast and furious through there.  They’ll likely chat about dogs or quilting the whole way.

Me?  I’ll write this and then go under the house to try thawing some pipes so I can drain them better.

Fifteen years ago I was parking the car in a parkade, grabbing my briefcase and heading into a boardroom.  I, too, was running then.  Weird, eh?  This is better.  By far!

….so, I’ll do it in sound bites:

Trumps ‘staff’ picks reads like a cast of super villains.  Economic adviser, Gary Cohn, current head of Goldman Sachs – likely the greatest gang of thieves in history; Rex Tillerson, secretary of state and ‘friend’ of Russia, steps away from EXXON to ‘represent’ the face of the (greedy imperialist) nation; Ex Texas Gov. Rick Perry for Head of the Dept. of Energy, the one he wanted to eliminate when he was running for president; Scott Pruitt, climate change denier, to be head of Environmental Protection Agency; Gen, Maddog Mattis for secretary of Defense (Maddog?); Steven Mnuchin – another from Goldman Sachs – as Secretary of the Treasury (chief Fox in largest coop ever); Andy Pudzer – the CEO of a fast food chain – for Dept of Labour; Pathological liar, Steve Bannon, for Chief Strategist AND he is unbelievably considering the insane Sarah Palin for Veterans Affairs.

These are the people who would be the FIRST to be eliminated from any sane cabinet.

It’s a house of fools, bigots and a hotbed of conflict of interest.  But get this: all the Bubbas who voted for Trump because he was NOT part of the ESTABLISHMENT are looking at a cabinet steeped in it.  Gary Cohn and Rex Tillerson are the 1% of the 1%-ers. Did Bubba and all the cousin Darryls really vote for this group to fix what ails them?  Gary Cohn?! 

Nearer to our very own-but now closed Riverview Mental Hospital, we have a $3B dollar bridge that gets closed in winter because they did not put de-icers on the top of it.  Or even heat tape! Billions more are wasted on the internationally recognized unnecessary Site C dam.  Kinder Morgan is being permitted to pumping dilbit into the Salish Sea. Trudeau is backing away from his electoral reform promises. Christy Clark keeps smiling in our face while she sells out to China and big Petronas.

And no one seems to care….?  I mean, no one I can see or hear clearly, anyway. Horgan is MIA. Mulcair is hiding with him.  Really…what ARE they doing?  My MLA is useless and my MP is just gaining weight in the Ottawa cafeteria.

And the CBC reported this morning on some poor teen’s beating death in Surrey two years ago being remembered by his friends.  Then they cut to the freezing temperatures.  Then back to Anna Maria Tremonti (snapshots of refugees in Canada one year later).  It is like they are AVOIDING the real news!

Has the world gone mad?

But here’e the one that is literally pushing me over the edge: David Black is willing to build a refinery for Tar Sands oil.  He’ll build it in Fort MacMurray, the BC interior or anywhere they will allow it.  He’ll take the financial risk.  That means that dilbit does not get to the Gulf of Georgia.  It gets refined to a point that it evaporates.  They still ship it through sensitive waters but the product is less poisonous. That is NO solution to the carbon problem globally but it is a solution to the pollution problem locally.  It also creates way, way more jobs.  Kinder Morgan still makes the same amount of money. Christy makes even more money.  Trudeau still gets his cut plus some.  Win win for everyone but Gaia.  But that ship sailed with Trudeau’s integrity.

Black cannot get arrested.  He cannot get an audience. He is being ignored.  I know, I have tried to support the idea.  Nothing.  No one answers.  No one acknowledges receipt of even hearing the idea.  What kind of evil is it that deafens the decision makers?

Wanna do me a favour?  Write everyone with a title, an office or even just access to any level of government and say, “Why the hell would you NOT listen to David Black’s proposal to mitigate the damage to the Gulf as well as increase jobs and resource value in Canada?  Why else are you there?”

PS – we are frozen up again.  Last night defeated our previous efforts.  Back to buckets.

…..mostly because the previously mentioned mis-timed water project is proving to be extra awkward at this freezing point in time.  No water on tap.

We’ve had cold winters before and there have been freeze-ups of course and life simply went on….somehow.  Canada getting cold in Winter should not be a surprise.

Usually we simply leave a small amount of piped stream-water running through our system and, where the pipes are a bit exposed under the house, wrap them in heat tape.  It is all usually good.  But, when you are on a one-tank system, you can’t leave the pipe run as readily or else you might – if the stream stops for any reason – simply drain your system.

And the piped stream water DID stop running last night.  

So, no ‘let it run’ for us.  Small consolation that the water will not be frozen as the last gallon pours out.  We normally cut the flow a bit to minimize that risk and check every day to ensure inflow is matching outgo. Today’s check revealed no water.

This time our basic precautions were inadequate.  It’s all frozen up – pipes, inlet, outlet, pipes and pump.

When we took the usually-warmer, under-the-house tank offline, we reverted to the bigger up-the-hill tank and, wouldn’t you know, the pipe leading from the upper one is longer, more exposed and worse, now known to be more easily frozen.  Duh.

And, when one part of a system freezes, the idea seems to catch on and the whole system gets frozen.

Maybe the brain freezes up a bit, too, eh?

That little mistake did not deter us at first.  With the bigger genset running we simply put two electric heaters on all the coldest parts and, covering those pipes with blankets, warmed the pipes for a couple of hours in what was then also a warmer and sunny day. The plan: Once the water got flowing again, we would simply let more flow through…..

….it never did thaw enough.

There is no flow.  No flow from the now fully open tap.  No flow from the pump when I turn it on.  NO FLOW.  NO WATER!

“Well, damn it all to hell, I guess we’ll just have to go primitive and haul buckets from the last free-flowing part of the system (about 100 feet away)”.

And so we did that.  Been that way for a few days now. That was an easy challenge to face because the weather suggested two warming days were coming (today and tomorrow) and that ‘the warming window’ might be enough to get us flowing again.

Imagine my surprise to feel the cold just as persistent today as it has been.  No thawing in our near future it seems.  Not in the morning, anyway.  No thawing and no water.  ‘Cept for the already-collected buckets.

Fingers crossed, there is a small ‘window’ of above freezing temps this afternoon…….we’ll be on it.  

AND – this morning – the last flowing part 100 feet away also stopped.  Bad to worse.

How is it….now?  Awkward.  That’s all.  We were carrying fifty pound totes of water 100 or so feet.  Yesterday I carried thirteen.  We use three or four totes a day totaling 20 gallons per day.  No biggy.  The house is warm to come back to.  We are good.  For three or four days…….

But now, even that won’t work – no place to take the totes except all the way to the main stream (almost a kilometer and steep) and that is just crazy.  The timing of the lower tank project could not have been worse.  All I can think of is that I must have somehow mentally adjusted for global warming and must have also unconsciously relied on it.  That has to be a new definition of stupid.

Climate change, as it turns out, is less than dependable.  Who knew?  I think we have to call it what it is: capricious.

There!  I have said it.  Global warming is capricious.  So, sue me.

Latest update: late this afternoon (11th) we got the upper tank and pipe system flowing but the stream is still frozen.  So we can now take from our tank but we cannot replenish it.  But that tank will last us over a month with semi-judicious use.

If we can keep the last part of the system (from pump to tank) thawed.

The bad news is that we JUST got the water moving – just barely – and, with colder temps threatening, this just may be a small battle won in a longer protracted cold war.

Guess which project has just climbed the priority list for Spring?

I am referring in the above title to the previous blog where I opined that the Trump victory smelled bad to me……

….and, it seems, I was not alone.

Reportedly, the CIA is investigating Russia’s recently discovered ‘hacking’ interference in the US electoral process more intensely and extensively than before. The part they are not hesitant to state is kinda what we already knew: Russians hacked Clinton’s (and party’s) emails in an effort to somehow assist Trump. But the real news is that the CIA and Obama have ‘stepped up’ the investigation to pursue other avenues and no one is saying even what those avenues are.

And therein lies the news – hidden, obfuscated and NOT clearly stated.  BUT (and it is a big BUT) – they are saying that it is taking priority for them.  This is job #1 in the US right now.  THAT’S the news!  You can tell that by reading between the lines that are not even being published.

I have no idea if they can catch anything, anyone or even have any real hard evidence.  And how would they decide, prosecute or reverse, reveal or even release the outcome or even the TRUTH?  If the truth was that Russia interfered enough to influence the election, how do they prove that before January 20th when the Donald takes over?  If they can’t prove it but they KNOW it, how can they let a Russian flunky take the Oval office?

If they can’t prove it, can’t act legally nor can they reveal what they know, how the hell can they do anything?

And, if they do anything less than decisive and fact-based does it not then look like (and may be just sour grapes and suspicion?).

It seems the CIA is also briefing the house and the senate – all controlled by the Republicans.  So, how does briefing the Congress, itself full of foxes, about the shenanigans of their top fox work?  Isn’t that like telling the mob that Michael Corleone might have cheated?  What good do they expect to come from that?

And do you think for one minute, Obama can refuse to accede the office?  Do you think that an investigation that reveals proof of the lying, cheating, interfering and manipulation could be revealed to the public in such a short time?

And, if so, to what end?

Face it, politics is all about lying and cheating and manipulation. Is there not an immense, vast wasteland of lies and plots to wade through almost everywhere? And how could the CIA possibly find enough NEW and DIFFERENT to do ANYTHING decisive with it in such a short time?

They can’t.  Obama can’t.  They may just have to watch it happen…………….

And us?  The proletariat?  The slaves, muppets and minions?  The dupes, fools, fodder and the grist for their money-loving corporations…what of us?  Will we ever know the truth?

Nope.  Those most paranoid or in-the-know (hard to tell the difference) will make outrageous statements and claims but we, the hoi polloi, will never know the truth so clearly that everyone will know it to be true.  And, with the proliferation of Liar News 24/7/365 how will any kind of truth ever will out?

Urbanites often ask, “But what will you do if you need medical assistance way out there?”

I, like many who live off the grid, answer somewhat dismissively and definitely fatalistically, “Well, we do what everyone does, of course, we get ourselves to the emergency ward and simply expect that it will take a bit longer to get there. We deal with a few more situations at home than do city dwellers but, when the situation is dire and emergent in the extreme, we seek professional help.” 

I am changing my mind a bit on that……….

The last blog illustrated the problem well.  We had an emergent and dire situation and we called for help.  It came.  It took too long but it happened.  All in all, the situation was handled just like the first two paragraphs above suggested.

But it was NOT ideal.  Of course, no emergency situation will ever be ideal but our response might have been better.  We were definitely willing.

So, I have been re-thinking it.  FOR ME.

Maybe it is just me…maybe I am NOT as experienced as some others.  But, regardless, rather than acting decisively, we all deferred to the ‘professionals’ and that is the part I am re-thinking for myself.

When I burnt my leg badly a few years ago, I just treated it at home.  A nurse-friend visiting the day after the burn was horrified and sent pictures to her burn-specialist sister who advised immediate medical attention with a suggested skin graft.  I opted to ignore her, treated it myself and the decision worked out.  I do not even have a scar.  Had it been even worse than it was, I might have followed her suggestion.  I doubt it.  I know what they do for burns and I can do it as well as they can.

And therein lies the issue.  We can often deal with our own problems.  People have been doing so for eons.  But, more and more, we defer to ‘experts’.  I am not so sure that is as necessary as we all think.  I could be wrong.  But I think we can do more for ourselves than we have been conditioned to think we can.

Admittedly, when one is hurt, thinking that independently is NOT the first instinct. Our first instinct is to ask for assistance and I understand that completely.  I have been hurt badly enough times to know what goes through the victim’s head. “Yikes! Help!”

Having said that, when I cut my little toe off when I was involved in a large crash while racing motorcycles decades ago, I drove myself home from the race course because it was taking too long for the ambulance to get there and, of course, no one was going to take care of my bike and equipment.  I went home and asked my father to drive me to the hospital.  It was about 11:00 am when I got home, my boot was filled with blood and I was covered in mud.  So, I cut off the boot and I had a shower with the toe hanging off my foot by a ligament.  Seemed like a good idea at the time and it was.

When my father drove me to Vancouver General, I realized that I was also very hungry and that we were not likely to get seen right away so I suggested we stop at the White Spot for take-out.  We did.  I got into VGH at about 1:00 pm.  My toe was on the ice-bag we brought from home.

The surgeon sewed my right foot little toe back on at 11:00 pm.  More than twelve hours after the event!  He erred a bit and it now sits a bit sideways.  It did not work for a few years but it is now a fine specimen of a right little toe only a bit less efficient because of it’s sideways orientation.

Could I have sewed on my own toe?  No.  I could not.  Sally, maybe (hadn’t met her yet)….but I could get cleaned up.  I could get some food in me.  And I could get all my stuff home and have someone who cared take me to the hospital.  In other words, I first did what I could for myself.

And – transferring that silly story to living out here – I think we first have to do what we can for ourselves.  Most everyone does already.  Sal takes out any stitches I may have acquired – it’s a simple task (made simpler by repetition).  And do not forget the woman who broke her leg last year and then drove herself to the hospital.

She had it right.  Basically, I think we have to rely even less on the professionals and become a bit more skilled in treating ourselves.  I think all of us can.

Our little community is already starting to talk about that.

I think my answer to the city-dweller as written above will eventually change.  “Well, we first take the time to assess the situation.  Then we factor in the delay of waiting for help and the inevitable slowness of the pace of the professionals involved.  So we MAY just call one of our own first aid trained OTG’ers first and allow them to make decisions.  It is very likely that in all circumstances, we will eventually seek professional help but we are going to have to learn to act as ‘first responders’ ourselves.  In fact, we may undertake to provide our own transport instead of waiting for people in uniform.

It is NOT an equipment or logistical thing, it is an attitudinal shift that is required.

I am NOT being critical of the police when I say this: they could do nothing to help us. They even eventually retreated to the warmth of their own vehicle at one point.

When they first arrived, they took note of the victims, took notes from the witnesses but, after those first two to three minutes of being official observers, they inspected the inside of the overturned vehicle checking for booze or drugs (my assumption but I cannot conceive of anything else) and they were looking at the vehicle longer than they were looking at the worst hurt of the accident victims.

Am I really critical and just pretending NOT to be…?  NO.  They made sure the car was going to be eligible for an ICBC clam and they had the vehicle towed off the hill by early the next day and that was a huge assist to the community.

But – as first responders – they were not helpful to the victims.

If it makes sense for us to live more independently, that has to include emergency situations.  We do it already but we may have to do it a bit better.  I am thinking we may have to elevate that ability in our own community.”  

We had been to town and had made it to the end of the road in good time to make it home.  A busy day was seemingly coming to an early and civilized end.

But that was not to be.

As readers know, we have a very steep hill leading to the beach at the end of the road.  When we arrived, there was a truck unloading at the bottom so we parked in a small lay-by half way down to allow them to finish.  I took the opportunity to haul out two bags of road salt I had impulsively purchased in town to leave at that part of the hill.  I figured the hill would get even slipperier than it was when we had departed earlier and the forecast for the next few days suggested preparation.

When the first truck departed the unloading area, we went down.  The last few feet was getting icy but it was OK.  We unloaded.  As we were doing so another vehicle came to the same previous half-way lay-by and, doing as we had done, waited and did a bit of preparation for their unloading.  Their preparation included donning some heavier gear for their longer trip home.

It was then that things went awry.  I wrote a mutual friend last night to fill her in.  The following is what I wrote with some extra fill-in:

L, the wife, was driving.  We were at the bottom of the hill.  They stopped at the half way point parking lot and got out to put on their heavier winter gear.  But I guess L did not put the car in park.  Maybe it was half-in and popped out.  So, as they got out, it jumped forward and started to roll down the hill.  I heard them yelling and watched as their car rolled a 1/4 of the way down and hit the stump on the slope on the east side.  

I didn’t see her do it but L had leapt back half into the car and tried to save the day. The car still hit the stump on the east-side ditch.  But, while getting in she either yanked the wheel or the stump caused the trajectory of the still moving vehicle to change.  The car then caromed over the road to the west side and hit a boulder or something.  By the second impact it was doing 20 km or near and was more than half way down the 100 foot slope.  

Then it flipped. 

And landed on the roof.  L was flung out of the car from the still open driver’s side door onto the concrete ribbon strip with the door pinning her ankle and her face slammed into the pavement.  She hit it like a sledge hammer.  A lot of blood instantly started flowing onto the road.

The car miraculously stopped fifteen feet from our car and where we had been standing.  At the second impact and just before it flipped, Sal and I leapt for the relative safety of the off-from-the-roadway pathway.  

They had paused at that mid way point because we were already at the bottom unloading.  We looked up when we heard the yelling, stood there for a second and saw the car careening down to towards us and so we leapt up the ramp leading to the path to the dock to get out of the way.  When their car rolled, I was sure it would just somersault down and hit our car.  THEN I saw L get virtually flung out and smashed with the car looming ready to roll over her.  The open door had acted like a block and stopped the car from crushing her.  Her ankle looked smushed.  Her other leg was bent at an awkward angle.  We ran over, rolled her over and decided that getting her out of there was the best move and drag-carried her over to the ramp. 

I then called the Coast Guard on channel 16 with our always-present hand held VHF radio. There is no cell service in that area for miles around.  VHF is the only way to ‘get out’.  

The Coast Guard called the ambulance.

S and K showed up a few minutes later also ready to unload from a town day.  C L and his brother N (they were in the first truck we had waited for) were already at the dock and they came back to help.  P and N were headed up channel in their boat, heard my 16 call  and they came over to the end of the road, too.  As did D G who was already home but nearby and was called by another VHF listener. Within minutes we had the ambulance dispatched and L was on the ground wrapped up in everyone’s clothes.

With everyone, there must have been at least ten people on scene within fifteen minutes.  Sal and I were first.  L came dramatically to the scene a few minutes later.  

And, from then on in, everyone pitched in to do what they could.

Then we all waited for two hours until the ambulance came.  The police took 45 minutes but the ambulance seemed to take forever.  

Their car is basically a write off.  

We have their stuff (boots and crap).  C took their food to his house  Their boat is still at the dock.  They are currently at the hospital.  R (husband) wanted someone to go to the house*** (see epilogue) and turn on the lights….none of us thought that made any sense so we didn’t do it. 

Anything you can do…..?

I don’t think so.  Not tonight.  They will likely be home tomorrow, next day for sure.  L may need a bit of surgery ….we don’t know the exact extent of her injuries but her mouth took a helluva smack.  And her forehead.  She was FLUNG hard.  But, after a few minutes, she was remarkably coherent and logical.   But she WAS smacked onto frozen concrete as hard as anyone can be and still be alive.  Had the car rolled one more turn she would have been crushed.  And that is a 20+ degree slope.  I really thought it was coming all the way down.  The open door saved her.  

The take-away for most of us was yet another reminder of how easily an accident can happen and, of course, the incredible response of the community when it does. In retrospect, we might have simply taken the chance, moved her into my car and taken her ourselves to the hospital but, like most people, we have been conditioned to leave it to the professionals and, of course, there may have been some other injury that our moving her would have exacerbated.

But – and it is a BIG BUT – this is not the city.  It took too long for the ambulance. Our neighbour was starting to suffer MORE simply because of the cold.  We managed to ‘do the right thing’ by the book but maybe NOT by the standards of common sense.

This is NOT a criticism of the ‘authorities’, the ‘professionals’ the ‘highly trained’ but, in truth, they are not as well trained in the circumstances we faced as the group of us were. The end of the road is a foreign element to the ‘professionals’.  The ambulance driver was not as able as any of us to drive that part of the road.  And, what takes me 45 minutes, took them 90.  Our own group had people with first aid experience.  We had already done the right thing – so far.

I am NOT saying we did the wrong thing to wait.  BUT I am saying that, as a group, we may have to take a bit more responsibility for decision-making simply because of the distance and the possible conditions we are often in….

“Would you do it differently, then?”

Yes.  L, herself, has extensive first aid training.  She is tough, sane, competent and knowledgeable.  Best of all, she is calm by nature and was soon coherent.  And all of us know the road.  Most of us have SUVs.  In hindsight, I would have waited till she was settled (a decision in itself) and, if L thought she could be moved, we would have tried it gently.  Had she urged us on, we would have transported her to the back of my Pathfinder (already at the bottom of the hill), and I would have simply driven her to MEET the ambulance.

I was carrying the VHF and our chainsaw.  And we were also lucky to have let the ‘impulse’ make me buy salt.  We were doubly lucky that one of the neighbours had a duvet.  And, then the salt…..I have never bought road salt in my life.  Total fluke.  I have never carried a blanket in the car, either.  But there will be some changes made along those lines for the future, I can assure you.

***EPILOGUE:  They are home.  They are in good spirits.  And I was wrong (not for the first time!).  One of their rescuers DID, in fact, go to the house and turn on the lights (they had a generator going that may have put in too much charge and ruin the batteries – it was the right thing to do).

SNOW!!!….and we are a smidge unprepared.  We are in the middle of a water project.  Not good timing.  Oh, well…...

We have two cisterns.  The tall 1500 gallon tank is up the hill, the other is the original 1100 gallon, 7 ft diameter squatter tank under the house.  It was put there because there was an accommodating rock ledge and it would be near the pumps and pipes, the demand-heater and the tank would be saved ultra violet degradation being out of the sun.  It has served us well for ten or so years.

But part of the ledge supporting it has shifted.  And the tank now hangs a bit where the ledge fell away. And that doesn’t bode well.  Eleven hundred gallons weighs 5 tons.  Should a full tank decide to make a break for it, it could take out the log-leg type foundation and more than the ledge would fall.

So, I decided to move it.

Over the last few days, Sal and I have drained and cleaned the tank.  That was not easy, it being so cold and wet and located in a tight space.  But it’s done.  Now would be the time to remove part of the foundation structure and move the tank out from under the house and move it up the hill as planned.  The damn thing weighs over 200 pounds and, with a little sludge still left in it, it feels like a ton.  I can move it if I hit it like a linebacker hits a tackling dummy but I am more like a dummy hitting a large and stubborn Sumo champion.  Nothing is moving much for me so far.

The hill I have get it up being covered in slippery-as-grease, snowy-wet moss doesn’t beckon me to try very hard either.

And here’s a mystifying challenge.  The opening in the foundation (when a support beam is removed) is 84″.  Which was what I expected since I built it.  And the tank has a diameter of 87″ which is 2″ more than I expected.  I remember the original placement being a tight fit, like putting a size eight foot in a size seven shoe but like the analogy, it can be done for a short time and that was all I needed to get it in.  I squeezed it in.  But now it looks like the foot has grown to EEE width?  Given that I can hardly move the damn thing and the plastic in this cold is less than flexible, I am having some second thoughts about attempting this trick right now.  I do not think I can squeeze it out.

The problem is that with the tank now empty, we are running a temporary line for water and it is always partially filled with air due to the placement of the upper inlet. Taking a shower is like being spat at.

So…….what to do…….as the temperature drops like a stone…..and the spittle is flying….and the desire to do it is waning…..?

The common sense answer is to re-plumb the upper hill tank to eliminate the air and do the squatter lower tank when the weather is warmer and I have a winch rigged up to pull a round tank through a square hole.  I.e. next spring.

Running that idea past Sally’s ‘let’s get ‘er done’ attitude is a challenge of another kind……makes the Sumo-thing look easy…….

And some people wonder what we do all day…..

………………..Good news!  Sally agreed to make it a Springtime project……woohoo!  Just as well…..a re-arranging of pipes brought the upper tank online and with no air in the lines…we are good……well, I am GOOD (and now warm again) but Sal has to go to work today at the post office.  Little boat in a blizzard disappearing into the gloom…..

We gather logs like squirrels gather nuts – for the winter.  But logs are heavier and sad to report, Sal’s not getting any stronger.  So, we have had to adjust the BTU collection process somewhat to suit our fading abilities.  So, this is the ‘ropes-on-logs’ piece mentioned in the last blog.

Just a typical OTG article. I’ve written it before.  This the elderly couple version.

First step is to find a floater log.  To us, a floater is a freedom-seeking runaway from some logging camp up the coast that managed to slip away unseen in the night or during a storm.  Typically these rovers are pretty small in diameter and represent no major loss to the clear-cutter who falls all ‘fiber’ that is ‘in the way’ but who also knows the skinny pieces are barely worth anything.

But we like ’em.

The reference to ‘floater’ is defined by us as the amount of log floating above the surface. We can see high or low floaters from our lofty perch.  And we prefer high.

There are a lot of successful escapees out there on the beaches and afloat at high tide but some of them have been free a long time and they have become waterlogged.  A log almost fully saturated becomes a deadhead with only one end protruding above the surface. We ignore ’em.  They are simply too much work to deal with.  They eventually just sink. There are tons and tons of super-soaked cut trees on the bottoms of the channels and in large lakes with logging operations.  It’s an incredible waste.

Usually we can spot and corral a dozen or so 30-foot logs in a year.  A perfect harvest year is 20 logs averaging 10-12 inches in diameter.  The biggest might have a 14 inch diameter, the leanest comes in at 8 inches.  We have only had one perfect harvest year so that knowledge keeps us on the lookout.

In a cold year where the fire-in-the-stove first starts say, October 1, and remains on pretty steady through until May 1, we would burn approximately 600 lineal feet of 8 to 12 inch diameter wood.   I am guessing at three or so cords.  Since we are always more than a year ahead in our wood inventory, we can burn what we need and still have the next year half to fully ready.

But then we have to ‘get head’ of the curve again.  “Time to get in some wood!”

By the time we are ready to actually work…..well, Sal has usually spotted, chased, corralled, towed and tied up at least ten before we consider it worth the effort to get going fer-real……so she has already worked.  We will now have at least two days of work ahead of us.  First I go to the lagoon where the ‘little dogies’ have been tied up and cut them into ten foot lengths.  So, in this example we turn ten 30-footers into thirty 10-footers.  And that requires more rope-tying and herding and bunching.  That did not use to be the days work.  It is now.

We now have 30 ten footers at the bottom of the hill approximately 120 feet from the top of the hill where we need them to be.  The hill is almost a cliff at 35 degrees. If you fall from the top, you get hurt before you come to stop a third of the way down. It’s a steep hill and haul.

I have a DIY-type winch setup that I did not do myself.  My friend, Warren did it.  He ‘married’ a 5 hp Honda to an old winch and I bolted it to a made-in-place steel frame that I cobbled together at the top of the slope. Connected together with v-belts working like a clutch, I rev up the engine and engage the winch. The 120 foot cable rides on a block rolling along on a fixed-in-place highline. It will haul 500 pounds up the hill easily.  It can’t do 750.

But before the winch does it’s work, Sally has wrapped a choke on the log (a heavy nylon belt), and then, using a block and tackle lifts one end of it so that it is free of getting caught as it is dragged up the hill.  And therein lies the reason for cutting the wood into 10 foot lengths.  Sal can lift ten footers – from one end, the other in the water.  Even twelve footers in a pinch.  Fifteen footers have her just hanging off the rope with the log refusing to get off it’s butt.

And then we haul.  A few minutes later the log is at the top, I lower it with the block and tackle, roll it out of the way and send the line back down to Sal for the next one. Fifteen or half the inventory did not use to be a full day’s work.  It is now.  So is the second batch of fifteen.  With the frequent breakdowns from the jury-rigged contraptions, the work may be stretched over three or four days.

When we get all the logs to the top, we are about 1/3 done.  There is still dragging, bucking, carrying, splitting and stacking to get it put away but we leave a vacation of time before we get back on that job.  We tell anyone who asks, “Well, letting ’em dry, eh?”

Is it a horrible job?  Not really.  It is always a bit nerve wracking until we have enough logs gathered.  It is an increasingly difficult chore for Sal to block and tackle the logs up and dragging logs and bucking them is a noisy and tiring affair with wood chips everywhere – especially my socks.  But, generally speaking, it is just one of those satisfying chores where you start and work and, when you finish, you have something essential stored away for future use.  We think like squirrels.

The dogs in the title of this blog is the term given to the spikes we drive into the logs so that tying a line to the log is easy. The cog?..well…mainly I just liked three rhyming words in the title, but technically the winch is a bunch o’ cogs, so all three terms apply.    ,

Logs on ropes next issue – probably.  But I have to indulge in politics once in awhile. Sorry.  This really should be about Christy and John sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G! But we’ll get to that……….

Edward Snowden says the electronic voting booths were easily hacked and demonstrated that claim (allegedly) to the media with a $30.00 ‘card’ I guess he made or bought off the dark web.  “No biggy!” http://www.techly.com.au/2016/11/28/edward-snowden-shows-how-painfully-easy-it-is-to-hack-a-us-voting-machine/

Bear in mind, now, that Mr. Snowden is currently residing in Russia.  If he can do it from Russia, Ivan and Mikhail can, too.

And consider the latest amazing US election results that proved every modern poll wrong. Every political analyst was wrong, too.  In fact, everyone was WRONG except for Trump who said, “If Clinton wins, the system is rigged!”  That was a statement that, at the time, made me wonder how he could be so sure………unless, HE had the ‘fix’ already in the system.

So, am I nuts?  Paranoid?  Beyond cynical and now into conspiracy? Is the credibility of the US election not 100% discredited simply by Snowden’s card trick?

And yet no one is saying that out loud……………..well, Jill Stein is playing stooge-up-front for Hillary on a few recounts but the accusation is NOT being made….jus’ sayin’.  

When Bush stole the 2000 election from Gore, there were a lot of questions (the Republican biased Supreme Court ruled against a recount, Jeb Bush ran the state that determined the win and he had the counting overseen with the help of GW’s election campaign manager)….the appearance of justice and fairness was clearly wanting even if the results would have been the same.

And it is unlike the US to ‘avoid meddling’ in free elections.  They have a CIA history of doing just that all over the world.

Now – for the record and to help in this, my mental health diagnosis – let me add to my own lack of credibility: I do not believe one single word of the official explanation of 9/11.  Call me doubting.  Or nuts.  But two paper-thin airplanes cannot bring down two giant towers in a perfectly choreographed demolition.  Impossible. Beyond impossible.  It’s a fantasy.  It’s a lie.

So, what happened?  And why did Building 7 just decide to fall down in yet another perfectly controlled way?  It was not even hit!?  So, there is an obvious really BIG lie that just sat there OBVIOUS on the ground for a remarkably short time, I am sure.

But I digress.  The question is: am I nuts?  I KNOW I am not nuts for seeing what I see.  I KNOW I am not nuts for thinking what I think.  But am I nuts to say it out loud?  Maybe.  But there are, it seems, plenty of other much more credible nut-bars like me on those same two topics and many more.  I used to call them all conspiracy nuts.

Now?  Well, conspiracy theorists is easier to say……

Put in simpler terms: I do not know of one person (USA or Canada or Europe) that wanted Trump to win.  Maybe Eastern Seaboard ‘John’ (nice guy – different views). But that leaves hundreds of friends and contacts who were NOT on Trump’s side – admittedly not all of them registered to vote – but still……………..how does a guy internationally and domestically so disliked, pull that off?

Honestly? Democratically?  I just don’t think so………….it isn’t passing the smell test for me.