Driving home with the tractor the other day, having delivered the last of the saw logs to Henry’s mill, I got t
o thinking how ready I am to do some building. I’ve had enough of taking things apart at the house site.
John Holden, skid steer operator extraordinaire, was here all week making a 
house sized hole in the hill. He moved a massive amount of sand and clay. ‘So that’s it’, I declared yesterday. ‘No more damage. It’s all improvement from here on.’ It’s good to dream, I heard someone within earshot caution. There’ll likely be a bit more before this is over.
Our aim has been to cause as little damage as possible to this land – kinda like a doctor taking a pledge to ‘First, do no harm’. Easier said than done of course. The other day I was putting in stakes at the house site and heard a frenzy of goose sounds behind me on the pond. I looked around to see two mamas with four gosling
s swimming along the far bank. Two dads had come squawking and flapping into the pond behind them. How wonderful, I mused, to be so close to such a naturally active place. As the warm glow settled in, our dog Jupiter came into my peripheral vision – with a gosling in her mouth! So that was the reason for the uproar. And we’re the reason for Jupiter. Damn!
I get it. We don’t only keep the pool from leaking. We add to the diversity, hoping our collective efforts are enough to keep up and even add to the pool.
John got the hill taken down to two feet below grade so we can begin marking out the shape of the house and building up the sub-floor and 
foundation. Today Maggie and I had a fun hour or so scratching the floor plan into the surface he had prepared for us. For the first time we got to feel how it might be to live in that space. Exhilarating. There are the ants to romance. There’s the wind to mollify. And there’s an expanse of wooded wetland to marvel at. We’ll be okay.
The solar panels I spoke of last blog have been bought. 6 kw capacity. Canadian made panels from a Manitoba based company. Hydro is paying 25%. And, the best news of all, Rob Ketel, our regional Evolve Green rep., quit his oil job to work full time on renewable energy. This transition to renewables has till now felt unsteady and futuristic. But we as humans are turning a corner. Ready to talk solar? Give him a call. 204.721.1693.
Making this transition, I’m finding, involves learning a new language, that of solar installations. I’ve been around this stuff, but still can get bamboozled by a term I haven’t digested. Fortunately, there’s a site for that. http://freesunpower.com/solar_terms.php. Definitions galore! While we’re at it, here’s Hydro’s solar site. https://www.hydro.mb.ca/environment/energy_sources/solar.shtml
Enjoy.