Wandering Where We’ll Be

Scene 1:  Tim and Dan walk into a bar/restaurant called “The Red Shoe” in Mabou on the west side of Cape Breton.  They have already set up their campsite near here because they know that tonight is “open-mic night”.  They order an appetizer of sweet potato fries with a curry mayo side.  They then order up some drinks and a desert to share.  While they are doing this, the music starts.  Mostly chanties are sung.  Guitars are played.  Pianos keys are tickled.  A violin is heard.  Even a squeeze box accordion is played by a guy from England.  When all is said and done, Tim and Dan go to their campsite quite satisfied with the evening’s events (while Jake waited in the truck).

Scene 2:  The waiter is horrible.  Tim and Dan are ignored.  The people on two separate tables near them are served up quickly and efficiently.  While Jake roasts in the hot sun near them, forced to be outside the “fence” from the outside eating patio, Tim and Dan eventually have to call loudly just to get the server’s attention to pay their bill.  The Argyle, named after the street it is on in Halifax, won’t see them again.

Scene 3:  Tim and Dan eat at a place called Mollyz.  Where the Argyle was road pizza service, Mollyz is rich fruity dessert attention.  The locals seated nearby want to share all there is to see in Halifax as well as the surrounding country side and the waitress was informative as to other places to visit if different fare was needed later.  Wireless internet rounds out the meal as email is read and responded to.  Photos are uploaded to flickr and a gay bar is upstairs.  What more could they ask for after a day of walking the beautiful and historic city of Halifax with and without Jake, than a beer (or more than one) at a local hangout.  They will later visit another “alternative” bar but will go home soon after, very satisfied with their day. 

Scene 4:  She wears a dress from the mid 1800’s.  She speaks in a funny way that isn’t just Canadian.  She sings along with the others in a setting like an 1840-something old stone tavern.  Tim and Dan are drinking the second of the two beers they get on this interpretive tour of Keiths Brewery.  They are thinking this tour is a bit corny but fun in its way.  The beer is good.  That’s what counts right?  Before this, Tim and Dan had visited the Public Gardens which was a big Victorian-style garden in the middle of the city.  After this, they will walk around Halifax to see more of what wasn’t seen yesterday.  The last part of their day will be a stop at the Menz bar.  They will talk with a gay couple there named Rich and Bob.  It will be a lively conversation.  They will then go back to their campsite and sleep.

Scene 5:  After a day of driving, we find Tim and Dan at a restaurant named the Bel Air in Edmundston.  Here, they find most people speak French.  It is raining heavily outside.  They will eventually finish their meal and call it a night so they can start another day of driving tomorrow.

Their next stop will be Quebec City, Quebec.

Write more later,
Dan

We’re seeing plenty of the former, and we’re getting a lot of the latter.

Last Saturday, we worked for part of the day, water-sealing wooden chairs, moving logs from the harbor side of the road up to the house, and re-building and expanding the rock steps on a path from the cabin in which we’re staying to an outhouse. We checked email and took showers in the afternoon, and had tacos for supper once Claudia and Rejean returned from town (Ingonish Beach).

Saturday evening, Dan and I drove into Cheticamp, about an hour and 15 minute drive, to see some live music at the Doryman. We were hoping for some traditional Gaelic music with fiddle and such, but as it turns out, the band that was scheduled was a local late 60’s/early 70’s cover band. They were really good, and we had a lot of fun anyway.

And, we saw about a dozen moose on or near the road on our way to and from Cheticamp. Claudia had told us that we should watch for moose along this road. After driving for about 15 minutes, following switchbacks up and down through the highlands, Dan mentions that Claudia said we should particularly watch for moose after the switchbacks. Like that moose right there?! This one was off to the side of the road. We slowed a bit to take a look; the moose lumbered further off the road and we continued on. Eventually, we went through another series of switchbacks and had some awesome views of the sun setting over the Northumberland Strait, with Prince Edward Island in the background. The road began to straighten as we reached the next highlands, and there were more moose. Some just off the road, some crossing the road and others just meandering down the road ahead of the truck and eventually moving off into the brush. We were very careful coming home in the dark, with both of us watching for anything that looked like a moose. We saw even more moose on the way home than on the way there. What a large and surprisingly graceful animal!

On Monday, we spent a night away from the farm, camping in Louisbourg and touring the excellently re-constructed Fortress of Louisbourg the next day. We saw two more moose on our way back to the farm Tuesday evening.

On a different note… I think my favorite part about working on the two farms is the exchange of ideas and recipes. It’s a great learning experience to live side-by-side with others who are trying to “tread lightly” on the earth by using its resources carefully. Reduce, re-use and recycle is not just a motto; it’s a way a life. A life where the maple syrup comes from the trees in the forest behind the house; where used plastic bottles are used as miniature greenhouses to coax along transplanted flowers; where the wood from discarded lobster traps become supports for tomato plants; where everything possible is composted; where the laundry is always hung to dry; where the bread is usually baked at home… I could go on, but you get the idea.

Yesterday, we mixed up some “Norwegian Varnish Oil” using linseed oil, pine tar and turpentine. The oil was used to seal the hoops from the lobster traps and a dock section.

At the first farm we stayed at, we learned an easy method of making homemade bread Joe and wrote down a recipe that Paul uses to make a great tomato sauce that can be frozen. We also wrote down a recipe for a “Scallop Bubbly Bake,” apparently, a P.E.I. classic. This exchange of ideas and recipes has been a lot of fun.

OK, it’s Thursday afternoon now, and it’s raining pretty good outside. This morning we hauled a few more logs up to the house and then worked on a trail that Claudia and Rejean are making from the far garden, to a tent site that they hope to rent out, through the woods and, eventually, across the road and down to the harbor shore. This trail-making work was very familiar to me, having done some volunteer work on the Superior Hiking Trail in northern Minnesota: clearing brush, cutting out small tree stumps, pruning branches and small woody plants, creating rock steps, etc. It was fun, and I’d probably be doing more of it right now if it wasn’t raining so steadily.

Tomorrow is our last day on our Cape Breton farm, and Saturday we travel south toward Halifax. We’ll spend a couple more days in Nova Scotia before heading across New Brunswick into Quebec.

Tim

It is a late, silent evening on the Harbor.  The sky is lost in motionless, soft grey clouds, blending into fog that obscures the shore.  Farther away all land is lost in grey-white as the reflecting water meets the sky ... [Continue reading this entry]