Disconnect-Decompress-Discover
[JAN2019] I am declaring it officially the start of snowshoe season here. It’s a somewhat subjective decision… based generally on snow getting to more-or-less the depth of my knee in open areas, but also on (a) how clumsily I move around with just boots on my feet and (b) observing that Oscar, a medium-to-large size…
[JAN2019] I am writing this Off Grid blog post as I kill some time, waiting for the lunar eclipse coming later this evening. A full moon in winter is always magical here… the combination of a bright moon, dry crisp air, and snow on the ground, means distinct moon shadows and the eerie sensation of…
[DEC2018] To say that 2018 was not a good year for peace is a whopping understatement. On both a macro- and micro-level, the range and extent of harm perpetrated by humans against other humans, and against the natural world which supports humans and all life, has been perhaps unprecedented. Not highly encouraging, and much of…
[NOV2018] Winter is never a no-show up here. In fact, it was escaping the GTA in search of “real” winter and white snow one weekend ten years ago that led me by chance to find this country place I now call home! It’s just a question of how early it arrives and how long it…
[OCT2018] My last guests wrote a lovely review on Airbnb, and mentioned how nice it was to see wildlife both around the property and even right from the Cordwood Cabin they were staying in. Wild Turkeys, in particular, have been common sightings this time of year. These pictures were taken from my front porch the…
[SEP2018] One of my recent guests wrote in his Airbnb review that it was a “mushroom/fungi extravaganza” out on the trails here. Was he ever right–the combination of September and dampness brings ’em out in droves. When he showed me all the pictures on his phone, there were even a couple I hadn’t seen before….
[AUG2018] I try to avoid using stock photographs (I think there is only one other on this entire web site) as I don’t have the equipment or the skills to capture a shooting star on camera. But what you see on the stock image above is pretty much what it looked like in the skies…
[JUN2018] Sitting on the front porch, quietly enjoying an early-evening glass of wine, I noticed in the periphery of my vision something moving, looked up and saw a larger animal than the deer, raccoons, porcupines and wild turkeys that are not uncommon sights from my perch on the porch. Wow, first bear sighting on the…
[FEB2018] Last weekend, there was still a thin layer of snow in the forest but any open areas here or anywhere else around were bare. A strange sight for January ’round these parts. It took Mother Nature all of a few days to get it looking like “normal” again, with large dumps of fluffy snow…
[DEC2017] Guests sometimes ask me how I came to find this place, and how I came to make the choice to switch out of a conventional house and suburb life in favour of off-grid country living. The two questions have related though separate answers, the response to the second a more involved story I relate…
[NOV2018] I captured this image of a rainbow last Friday, which turned out to be one of those days we sometimes get in this part of Grey-Bruce counties where the lake effect from Lake Huron has the skies cycling between sun and showers all day long. At the time, a week ago, I recall thinking…
[SEP2017] For guests interested enough (or foolish enough haha) to ask me for a tour of how the off-grid system works, we start at the solar panels outside and eventually end up in the basement looking at a large battery bank and the electronics that keep it all humming smoothly. Along the way I explain…
[JUL2017] I confess quite openly to my guests, I am a lazy gardener–at least when it comes to flower gardens. It’s not that I don’t enjoy floral beauty. It’s just that, for now anyhow, there’s only so much time and a lot of other tasks are higher up the TBD list. Yet despite my confession…
[JUL2017] I had hung some laundry on the line today and was waiting for the next load to finish in the washer when I saw there were lots of ripe looking blackcurrants in the bushes nearby. I don’t really cultivate these blackcurrant bushes… that they keep coming back year after year is more in spite…
Off-Grid Retreat 