Rideau Camp

We had a lovely weekend at the Rideau Camp. Arriving on Friday afternoon, Attila immediately started a camp fire. We had ten trees worth of brush to burn, and since it had rained most of the day, it was the ideal time to burn fresh tree branches. While Attila was busy starting a fire from wet wood, I heated up our dinner of vegetables, pasts, olive oil, and seasonings. After the meal, brush burning began in earnest. The camp fire burned until past midnight, burning about one third of the branches.

First thing Saturday morning I was off to the local building centre to make a few purchases.

The first item purchased was Diatomaceous Earth powder. The ants have found the interior of Grace the Trailer. Small pans were created with aluminium foil, one placed at each of the four jack supports, where I suspect the ants have been coming in. On Saturday I killed quite a few ants in the trailer, the powder was employed by mid-morning, then ant activity slowed. On Sunday there were no large ants in the trailer. There were however a few small ants, so when the air is calm on another visit, powder will be applied around the wheels.

The second item purchased was two seven foot steel fence posts, with holes. After finding someone had cut down trees to gain access to our property, for their ATVs, and having young boys on motorized vehicles come onto the property to recreate without permission, we were advised at the local building centre to put up No Trespassing signs. Attila mounted two signs on boards, which were affixed to the fence posts. The signs are up, and hopefully this will curb further trespassing. Time will tell.

Felling ten trees generates a lot of work. The chain saw was busy all weekend, sectioning tree trunks. Then the logs needed to be stacked. Attila did most of this work, but today we devised a way that I could participate. He loaded logs into the wheelbarrow, and brought them to the wood pile where I stacked them, returning the empty wheelbarrow for another load. This worked very well.

My log stacking setup. These are logs from one of the ten trees Attila felled more than a week ago. They will not make good firewood this summer, but next summer they will be ready for the campfire.

The trees were felled to prepare the area where Grace The Trailer will sit. There is a lot of work to do, Attila was busy all weekend with his chain saw. After cleaning up the felled trees, the stumps need to be removed. Then the land must be levelled, which will require an investment in crushed stone, and perhaps a machine to level the stone.

We had a visitor at the Camp on Saturday. The fellow who sold us Grace The Trailer dropped by to drop off the hitch. It had been connected to his pickup truck, and he had to take it in to the garage to have it removed. The hitch will be stored here at Mist Cottage, in the garage.

Soon it will be one year since my brother passed away. My sleeping is fitful lately, and I am often feeling distracted. I think I am grieving. Since he has been gone I have been increasingly aware of how much experience we shared, and how alone with some difficult memories, and situations, his passing has left me.

Suddenly on Sunday, as I was sitting quietly under the trees, watching the blustery wind sway the topmost branches, that old feeling of connectedness came to me. When I was a child the bush was my friend, the trees and the wind confidantes and playmates. I was surrounded by wordless acceptance and belonging, as that little girl, perched in a tree, enjoying the touch and sound of the living wood and leaves; knowing who I was, how small I was, how important I was in my smallness. Like a gift, it came to me.

Rideau Camp. The log pile is gone, it was to the right in this photo. The loads of crushed stone are diminishing, they are at the right of the photo. Grace The Trailer casts a shadow on the left of the photo. This area was choked with brambles, and a building size pile of logs and bulldozed trees in the area between the photographer and the trees. This is the view we will have as we sit at the table to eat our meals in Grace the Trailer, after she is moved into her final position. We love camping here!

Worldly Distractions

Weather

17°C
Date: 12:00 PM EDT Monday 26 June 2017
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.6 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 17.1°C
Dew point: 13.4°C
Humidity: 79%
Wind: S 16 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“It is not much for its beauty that makes a claim upon men’s hearts, as for that subtle something, that quality of air that emanates from old trees, that so wonderfully changes and renews a weary spirit.”
Robert Louis Stevenson
1850 – 1894

“By desiring little, a poor man makes himself rich.”
Democritus
460 BC – 370 BC