Photo by Ed Gaucher

Keith L. Walker

St. Bernard, Nova Scotia


St. Bernard Blather


Updated approximately weekly.

20-May-2013

We are gradually getting the house in order. The movers arrived a day earlier than we had expected. As with any part of this whole operation, there were logistics to be worked out. The moving truck was a big highway rig, and there was no possible way it could back into our driveway. So, we had to arrange for a small cube van to shuttle our belongings from the big truck. Which, in turn, meant we had to find a suitable location to transfer everything between the two trucks.

We found a seemingly perfect spot - the parking lot of a vacant store - and secured permission from the realtor handling its sale. But the day before the truck arrived, the owner blocked off the entrance, so that was out. After scouting other locations, we ended up "borrowing" the parking lot at St. Bernard's Church.

We also had to find a suitable location to off-load the car from the moving truck. We managed to arrange to use the loading dock and ramp of the local moulding mill.

All the logistics worked out, and after a busy day of unloading, we had a house full of boxes. The next day, we assembled the bed, unpacked the essentials, and moved in. Since then, we have been unpacking like mad. We haven't necessarily found a place for everything, but at least most of it is visible.

We managed to find takers for most of the moving boxes, so they are gone. The packing paper is bagged and awaiting the start of the heating season, to be used as fire starter.

The previous owners left some junk in the barn, so we have had a crash course in the somewhat Byzantine waste management rules. All garbage has to be separated into paper, other recyclables, compost, and other garbage. Recyclables go into clear blue bags; garbage goes into clear bags; compost goes into a green wheelie-bin. You can put out ten items on any one garbage day. With a barn-load of junk, I called the municipal waste-management people and got a special one-time dispensation to put out 20 bags this week.

One of my tasks this week was to build a pee-pen for Larkin. The poor hound has had to be on a leash every time she went out. I spent one afternoon digging and pounding in posts, and another stringing up the fence mesh. Larkin is not a jumper, so the fence is only four feet high. I still have to build a couple of gates in it. For now, they are just fenced off along with the rest.

Larkin explored it yesterday evening, but this morning was the first routine use of the pen. When she came in, she was all giddy and excited, running and play-bowing. You could tell she was happy to have her own pee-pen back.

We have other four-legged critters in the yard. Early in the morning, we often see bunnies hopping around. This morning, there was a family of three deer, hungrily eyeing the flower garden.



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