Life Off the Grid 37
– July 20, 2012
6:30 AM
Wow, what a rough
night. First, I had a bad dream. I dreamed Guinness had got lost.
Because he doesn't have his collar on (because of the hot spot) there
was no way for anyone to bring him back to me. Never mind that a dog
would have to go an awfully long way through very rough country
before anyone found him. It was a dream and the ID tags on the collar
were central. I woke up all upset. Calmed myself down. I could hear
him snoring. He was safe. So was Seamus. I decided that tomorrow I
would put their collars back on and just take them off for swimming.
Comforted, I went back to sleep.
About ten to two,
Guinness woke me up. He was very anxious to go out and pee. I
stumbled to the door and let him out. I waited on the porch with my
headlight. He peed a long time. The bugs were biting my bare legs so
I ducked back in to get some pants. I was inside just a few seconds,
but when I came out he was gone.
It was very dark. I
soon figured out that was because there was a heavy cloud cover.
Lightening was flashing in the distance. I called and whistled, and
whistled and called for what seemed like a very long time. Every
awful scenario ran through my sleep-addled mind. He had gone for a
swim and couldn't tell where the shore was in the dark. He had
followed a small night creature into the woods. He had scented a
bear and gone after it. He had got confused and went the wrong way to
come in. He had seen me go in and thought I was abandoning him...
Intellectually, I know he is a smart dog. He can find his way to the
cabana. He wants to be with us and would be quite insistent about
coming in if he wanted to be in. It's hard to be rational in such a
situation, though. The more I whistled and called, the more
disconsolate Seamus, stuck in the cabana, became. His whimpers and
howls wafted to me through the open windows and it sounded like he
was calling Guinness too. He sounded afraid and terribly sad. Which
did nothing for my psychological state.
It was probably less
than ten minutes before Guinness came padding out of the bush,
wagging his tail. I was so happy to see him. We went in, I handed
out doggy cookies and made a big fuss over them both. We went back to
bed. I was WIDE AWAKE. Mosquitoes had come in with us and they
entertained me for awhile.
I don't know when I
finally fell asleep, but it was a sadly short night. I read for quite
a long time before I actually felt sleepy, and texts came through
from Jeff and the kids. It was probably 11 or later when I fell
asleep the first time. Don't know where Guinness got to while I was
panicking on the cabana porch. No doubt off doing dog stuff. He likes
the dark.
It's partly cloudy this
morning. And already 22C. It's going to be a hot, hot day. My legs
are itchy from bug bites.
7:50 AM
I am staring tired. I
think I tranced out sitting here. How did it get so late? Must get
to work. Can't even think what I need to do to make that happen. The
dogs have gone back to sleep here in the cabin.
8:25 AM
Breakfast was good –
leftover pasta and veggies from yesterday. I am feeling more awake.
I should be able to start painting soon. I know once I get going
things will go fine. It's just getting started that's hard.
10:00 AM
Painting, painting,
painting. Up a rickety ladder with things falling on my head that,
if I were to think too hard about it or let my resolve weaken, would
have me running screeching. A live spider hit me in the face as I
brushed off a section of fascia and I very nearly went not only off
the ladder but also over the edge of the deck. That would have been a
drop of about 12 feet, which would have been unpleasant. Possibly
even more unpleasant than having a spider narrowly miss my eye. I
kept it together. More or less. If someone had been taking a video
it might have made America's Funniest Home Videos. Just as I was
typing that, another spider climbed out of the breast pocket of
Jeff's old shirt that I am using as a paint smock. There was a brief
break in my typing just now while I squealed and jumped around and
whisked at the shirt front. Don't know where the spider went.
Feeling all creepy now. I really don't like spiders. Really. A
lot. Eeeeeeeeew! So not liking this job!
Taking a much needed
break. Lots more to do. Again, I say, “Eeeeeeeeew!” I think I
shall sit here and tremble for a bit before getting back at it.
It's 32C and humid.
Debating whether that is too hot to do any more now.
All creepy crawly
feeling. My own sweat running down my body is freaking me out.
11:50 AM
I can do now more now.
I am so hot, so harassed by black flies and mosquitoes and deer
flies. So not good with spiders. Or ladders. I don't mind heights.
I'm not even afraid of falling. It's the sudden stop at the bottom
that bothers me.
If the ladder was
stable and on level ground, and if there was a crash mat underneath
me, I would be totally cool with doing the high parts. Or if I was
somehow harnessed to the roof (with some way to get down should the
ladder fall away), that would be ok too. But this is real life. And
I intend to stay alive. So no super high wobbly ladders for me until
other people are out here that can go for help if things go sideways
(and down). This may seem quite cowardly, but you haven't seen the
ground the ladder would stand on (all uneven and rocky). I probably
haven't mentioned that at it's highest the roof is over 18' high.
And I may not have mentioned that I am basically pretty clumsy. I
spaz out and bump into things. Trip over my feet. Lose my balance.
Not a great combination for safety.
There are lots of other
things I can do for the rest of the day. Sadly, none of them is very
pleasant either. Pretty well everything on my to-do list is fraught
with the possibility of spider encounters. Or ants. Or both. Also
dirty, dusty, sweaty and difficult. My nerves are shot.
3:30 PM
Well, I debated lots of
jobs I could do this afternoon. But with the encouragement of my
darling husband, I gave up and dedicated myself to playing in the
lake with the dogs. He, unfortunately, was at his desk, working
through lunch. I feel bad about that. Of course, none of his job
involves spiders.
It's still 30C and I am
toasted. I washed and my scalp is clean! I am convinced I have now
managed to remove all the webs, pine needles, dead insects and other
nasty things from my hair and body. Yay! I feel so much better. So
much better. I feel like a new person. A brain-baked, sleepy and
somewhat hungry new person, but clean! CLEAN. I really, really like
that.
I guess I missed lunch,
yet again. Breakfast seems a long time ago now. What to make?
Blah. I am going to
have to go get water from the lake before I can make anything. I
have pulled on one of my beautiful, full-length batik muslin hippie
dresses. I shall have to knot it up at the sides so I don't trip on
the way down or up...
3:55 PM
Water got. I guess I
haven't really explained our water system. There are two 10 litre
buckets. They are used to scoop water out of the lake and carry it up
to the cabin. Onto the counter, and then a drop or two of bleach
added to each bucket to kill any beaver fever or other nasties that
could be in the water. Yes, beaver fever is a thing and it's not
dirty in the way you might think. At the top of our creek is a
beaver dam. Which means there are beavers in the other lake out
property abuts. When there are beavers in the water there are
microbes in the water that can make you really sick. Water spills
over the dam, in spite of the fact it is taller than I am, so
whatever is in that water is in our water too. So, chlorine.
Stage two: the water
goes through coffee filters into water jugs to remove any suspended
particles. Yes, there are suspended particles. Anything from large
things, like bark bits, to very tiny things that are large enough to
be caught by a coffee filter, but too small to see.
We used to balance the
plastic coffee filter on two knives so it wouldn't fall into the jug.
This was always a tenuous and precarious arrangement. My very clever
son came up with a new solution. Very simple and very effective. Four
popsicle sticks glues into a square. It works really well.
Oh, and if you don't
think 20 litres of water is heavy, try going up hill with that.
4:20 PM
Ok, veggies cut up.
Mushrooms, asparagus and a tomato. The things that most need eating.
This is the end of the mushrooms and asparagus until I can get to
town. I still have a couple of tomatoes in the fridge. Blooms only so
far on my tomato plants...
Kettle on and 1/2 cup
of red lentils waiting for the boiling water. It's going to be
curried lentils (dahl) and sauted veggies.
4:35 PM
Water boiling. Added to
lentils, along with Vindaloo curry paste. (1/2 cup lentils, 1 cup
boiling water, 2 Tbsp curry paste – I use Pataks because it doesn'y
have nasty preservatives in it) Return to boil and cover and reduce
heat. I like my curry HOT. I like plain fat free yoghurt with it. The
counterpoint between the heat and the cool I find very pleasing.
Frying pan heating
with a little olive oil. Add some minced garlic, ginger and chili
peppers.
Add mushrooms...
The dogs are both
totally sacked out. I have been stepping over Seamus every time I go
to the kitchen and he doesn't even open an eye. I tired them out!
Yay! I just realize my skirt is draped over Seamus' head and he is
paying no mind whatsoever.
Add asparagus. I know,
it looks like I choose too small a pan. We'll see...
The lentils are at a
point where I have turned off the heat but left the lid on. Let them
absorb the rest of the water.
And... suddenly the
dogs are up, especially Seamus who is indignant and “having the
barks”.
I give in. Transferred
the veggies to a bigger pan.
And, add the tomatoes.
And give it a stir.
Isn't that pretty? Food should be appealing in appearance.
Presentation is important.
5:10 PM
So tired. And it's
early yet. Too much sun. Too much icky spider stress.
5:30 PM
Mmmmm! Yummy!
5:40 PM
That was too good. And
again, the eating takes a fraction of the time it took to make it. At
least there's leftovers.
5:55 PM
I don't know what's
going on but the aerial traffic is terrible right now. Jets,
helicopters. There have been at least half a dozen aircraft of one
kind or another overhead in the past 5 minutes. It's constant. And
noisy. What on earth is going on?
And it's still going
on! That's 10 minutes of heavy air traffic. Bizarre.
6:10 PM
It seems to have
stopped. All the bosses at the quarry heading home for the weekend?
Who knows. Upset the dogs, it was that loud. Upset me. Were I in an
urban setting I would have thought there was some sort of movie-style
suspect pursuit in progress. Spoke too soon. There goes another
helicopter.
6:50 PM
It has settled down to
a chopper every so often. Much less intrusive. For awhile there it
was like the storming of the beach in Apocalypse Now, minus the
Wagner.
7:45 PM
Heading down to the
cabana. Hoping to get some texts and a breeze. Read my book...
