Oliver Luc

Growing as human beings, we experience life changing events throughout our lives.
We hope that most are happy experiences with positive outcomes.  Change takes many forms.
Personality, character, and virtue are all built by experience.  We are what we have done and what has happened to us.  Fate is truly as delicate and fragile as gossamer thread.

When I was in high school, I chose to study the German language.  It is part of my ancestry yet no one spoke the language in my family.  The school offered it so it was a good choice as an elective course.
Being part of that program, I was offered the opportunity to participate in an exchange program.
I would be matched up with a student in Germany.  He would come to live with my family for three months. After three months, I would go to Germany to spend three months with him and his family.
There was an extensive application process where many factors were considered; including an at home interview with my family.
I didn't appreciate it then, but there would also have been a considerable amount of money required for travel expenses and pocket money abroad. I know now that it was a serious investment by my parents.  
For that I am eternally grateful.

Once the application was processed, I was matched up.
The application included a lengthy survey of my likes and interests.  I don't know how exactly the matches were made, but in hindsight, the result was far deeper than superfluous similarities.
I remember being taken from my classroom to be informed of my acceptance to the program.
I was overjoyed.  So much so that I hugged my French teacher (who was the program liaison).
I had a lot of time to consider the exchange, but there was an ample package of information about my match, so I could pore over the basic biography of the boy and the family that I would be living with. 

If there was anything that we didn't have in common, it was the superfluous similarities.
On the surface, we were very different.  We didn't hang around much together at school.  We dressed very differently.  Our mannerisms, outlook, and behavior were very different.  Yet, we shared a lot of time together on the weekends and evenings.  We had some fun experiences.  We were both reckless at times. 
Those were formative days.
It wasn't until years later that I realized that we were quite a bit like each other.  The surface traits were vastly different, but on a fundamental level, we were very much alike.

Oliver came back to visit us several times after the exchange.  There were also many friends he had made that he came to see.  Being on different continents can have a disintegrating effect on a relationship, but when the ties run deeply, time becomes meaningless.
During the mid-nineties, I returned to Europe for long backpack trip.  I spent one month of that in Germany with my original host family.  Oliver was living elsewhere at the time, but still close enough to visit frequently.
After that, we lost contact.  In truth, I lost meaningful contact with all of my old friends.

This year, I was convinced to give up my fear and distrust of Facebook.
Within a few days of signing up, I had heard from virtually all of my old friends, including Oliver.
Oliver actually called me on the phone right away.  He really hadn't known where I had gone and what was going on in my life.  Though, he was caught up in his own life like everyone is.
I expected the conversation to be comfortable.  Having a bond that transcends time and experience makes it easy to reconnect with a person as if there were only a few days since parting ways.  Indeed, the conversation, heard by someone else, would give no allusions as to the time passed since we'd last spoke together.

You'll only see him smiling in candid shots!

The last few days here at home has seen some Spring cleaning.  Among the jobs was building a shelf to hold old photo albums that had been relegated to the back of a closet or under a bed.  Not really to make the photos more accessible, but to eliminate the clutter.  Of course, once out, it's hard to resist a look inside.
Oliver had recently been lamenting the effects that corporate lifestyle has had on him.
I thought that I would send him a nice photo to help him recall simpler times.
I used Facebook as the forum.  I was surprised by the attention the photos received.  Some of the attention was not necessarily flattering.
I apologized to Oliver for having caused a little ruckus at his expense.
But he is only too happy to be reminded of his more youthful days.

One of his favourite cars.

One of my concerns with Facebook is the chance that you may spend too much time looking to the past at the expense of the present and future.
Certainly a balance must be struck.
However, I think that is equally unhealthy to dispense with the past and focus solely on the present and future.
Our past is our roots.  Our roots have contributed directly to whom we have become and will be.
It's important to reach back and remember where we came from.  It contributes to the cohesion of our Selves.  

There are also strong relationships.
Relationships that have been neglected, through distraction and circumstance.


Oliver is my brother.
I am who I am, in part, because of him.
I am grateful to him for that.
I am thankful that I still have the opportunity to connect with him.

Introductions: The Woodlot

The woodshed is beginning to look a little empty.
Even though we are half way through the winter it would be nice to see a few more rows of firewood.
After seven years of heating with wood you might think that I would have the supply under control.
Not so.  As I improve my harvesting abilities, I marginalize the job to accommodate other projects. 
So, I only ever seem to get 'just enough' wood in.
Someday I'll get ahead on the fuel wood.

Our woodlot is one of our greatest assets here.  We may be at a disadvantage when it comes to preparing arable land, but we have a healthy hardwood forest to provide us with an endless list of renewable resources; the least of which is mere firewood.  
For that I am very thankful.
If you go by the book, we have enough fuel wood, if properly managed, to supply the family's needs indefinitely.  In fact, the last three years of wood has come from roughly two acres, an area that I intend to convert to field crops.  It is an area of mature maples that have grown poorly and are diseased by a fungus that consumes the heartwood leaving open wounds.  These trees live, yet are easily susceptible to high winds which break the crown of the tree off.  

Maple is my wood of choice for fuel. However, we have others to choose from. Among them each has it's own attributes with various purposes.  There are a great many mature large-toothed aspens that supply me with general purpose lumber.  There is spruce and balsam fir for softwood lumber.  There is both white and black ash for specialty flooring and furniture.  Although fewer in number, there is yellow birch and black cherry that I plan to use for woodworking.  The beeches are, for the most part, past maturity and are gradually falling down from their weighty age.  I love the look of their giant elephant legs and so I leave them alone to die peacefully.  

Chainsaw Milling

 The woodlot also provides an abundance of plants on the forest floor that can be so robust during late Spring.  The dense foliage and extreme humidity could easily convince you that you are in a rainforest.  Among these plants are wild edibles and healing herbs.  The first green of Spring draws us into the woods with buckets and trowels to selectively harvest a bounty of wild leeks.  For you in the U.S., I am talking about ramps.  Technically, it's wild garlic.  Kira chooses plants from the woodlot for our gardens around the house.  There are many striking shapes and flowers that are naturally hardy and visually pleasing. And of course, as it is for many of you, a walk in the forest alone or with family can heal the soul with it's meditative calm and grace.  The souls of countless plants and animals filling the world with nothing less than life itself.

It is with a great deal of consideration that we change this landscape with our activities.  We will not, for example, allow domestic livestock to forage the woods uncontrollably.  There are areas that I intend to develop for agriculture, but only as carefully selected patches.  

A critical component of our homesteading model is to find our niche in the environment; not superimpose ourselves upon it.  Our resources must remain renewable if we are to achieve a sustainable state of farming.

























I love working with the woodlot.
I love working in the woodlot.
Firewood duty doesn't become relegated because it's tedious.  It just gets bumped down the list.

As I look at the dwindling pile I tell myself that this will be the year that I get ahead on the wood.
But I think I've said that for a few years in a row. 

The Crucial Step

  I had always wanted to build by own house. 

  I spent hours daydreaming about layout and design.
My father had built his first house and I wanted to follow that example.
When the time came to act, I was disappointed by the immense cost, both financial and administrative, of building one's own home.
  Building restrictions prevent simple and modest construction designs.  I wasn't going to build a shack, but I didn't want a home that requires electricity just to keep the air from going stale.  
Regardless, a brand new house is an expensive project, even doing your own labour.
That option quickly dissolved.
  So, like most everyone else who wants to buy a home, we went for a pre-approval.
Our expectations were modest, and then, so were our options.
So we started our search.

  The search was mercifully short.

  It was exciting to look for a house, but we quickly realized that we would have to make some concessions.

We had made up a list of priorities.

The most important for me was to be off the main roads a bit.  Often in rural areas, with few concession roads, many of the homes are right on the main county roads.  Such is it around here.  We concentrated our search on the side roads.

I specifically remember driving some of the side roads to check them out.  

We skipped the one we are on because it was too rough and muddy.

  I needed at least a little shop space; we looked for outbuildings.

A little pond was on the list as it is not uncommon in watershed country.

We wanted some land.  Not for working, but for walking and maybe hunting.

  It happened that our neighbour Sally, with whom I worked, told me that her neighbour at the time was preparing his cottage for sale.  She recommended that we take a look.

  Now, cottages come in different forms.  Many of them on the lakes are worth millions.  Our place, however, is not on the lake.  It was a quiet country cottage for two previous owners.  A kit cottage built on a concrete pier foundation.

Previous Owner's Hand Drawn Sketch

  I made the decision as soon as walked in the door.  

There was no toilet.

There was no bathroom sink.

There was a shower. 

There was a kitchen sink...

                                          ....with no faucets.

 Everything drained onto the yard.

It is two kilometers off the county road.

There is a pond.

It had more charm than anything we'd seen.

There are twenty five acres.

The Seed

So, to begin with, there was this book.

Five Acres and Independence, M.G. Kains

  It belonged to my Grandfather.  

  I ended up with it when he died.

    The copyright is 1935.

  The book was reprinted in 1944.

  The story I was told is that it was issued to young men returning  from the war.  

  The book is a farming primer.  Nothing really concise but it is intelligent, practical, and exceptionally dry.

What is interesting is that it predates the green revolution.

Although the methods used are not strictly organic, there is a great deal of emphasis placed on crop and livestock rotation, soil building and care, and companion planting.

Household Refrigeration

What first caught my attention were the plans and calculations for building hydroelectric generation, water systems, an icehouse, and many other farm infrastructure projects.

 When originally printed, it was a neophyte farmer's guide.

 In today's context, it would be considered a self-sufficiency   handbook; a homesteading primer.

    I honestly cannot remember when we decided to build a homestead.

  Long before we decided to buy a house however, the ideas had planted themselves deeply within my unconscious.

    During that time, our focus was on fishing and camping.  We snowmobiled and ice fished during the winter.  We explored and camped when we weren't working during the summer.

This book was an idle curiosity.

  I had never farmed.

        Nor had I the intention of homesteading.