The Contrarian Technologist

Category Life in Cape Breton
One of the great things about living in Cape Breton is the music, it is everywhere you turn. The Scottish Gaelic tradition is very much alive here and Nova Scotia actually has an official Minister of Gaelic Culture and Cape Breton is the epicenter of everything Celtic. Even with the small population of the island you can find live music every night of the week somewhere on the island, but it is especially true this week. Every year at this time the Celtic Colours Festival is held in dozens of location around the island with hundreds of artists both local and international. We attended the kick-off concert on Friday at the Port Hawkesbury Civic Center which starred the Chieftains (or rather the Chieftain - since Paddy Maloney was the only original member there) and guests. It was quite the concert, and there are dozens of reviews that can be found on-line, so I'll leave the reviews to them. I must note, however, that when we lived in Maryland we thought it uplifting that Martin O'Malley, the governor, could play the guitar and sing, but I have to admit that seeing Rodney MacDonald, the Premier of Nova Scotia get up on the stage Friday and step dance took the politician-performer to another level. We've seen/heard him play the fiddle and step dance many times over the last ten years, but seeing him in his official capacity, in a suit, on the stage in front of several hundred people was special. We've got tickets to 5 more concerts this week, in smaller venues so I am expecting to be well entertained but exhausted by the weekend.
www.celtic-colours.com
Article in the Cape Breton Post

Posted by Kit Davis At 3:18 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
We were inundated with Hummingbirds this year. They first showed up on May 10 and by the middle of August we were going through almost 2 bags of sugar a week making nectar for them. They are impossible to count, but I would estimate that we had over 50 birds on a regular basis. The males (who were the first to arrive this spring) left about 2 weeks ago. Slowly over the last two weeks the females departed, and today, I haven't seen any at the feeders. I guess this means that fall is close at hand.

Posted by Kit Davis At 10:09 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Life in Cape Breton
With the early spring that everyone on the east coast seems to be having, the last few weeks have been spent creating a vegetable garden and landscaping. It seems that everyone that comes by brings a plant or two, and we are rapidly running out of room for growing things (or at least on the acre or two immediately surrounding the house). As for the vegetable garden, I ordered 72 rough sawn juniper boards and built twenty four 8 foot by 4 foot beds. 12 cubic yards of top soil just about filled them all, and we have already managed to plant a third of them. It will take a season or two to get things really in shape, but it's great to have it started. Juniper supposedly has the same rot avoidance properties as preasure treated lumber, and at only 50 cents a board foot significantly less expensive. Time will tell though if their durability is as advertised..

Posted by Kit Davis At 11:34 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
The Calendar says that spring will be happening soon but most people will tell you that Cape Breton never has spring - it's winter one day and summer the next. So while it will be warmer and the days are certainly longer, we could still have cold wintery weather well into April (last year we had a freak 6" of snow on May 15th). But regardless of what the weather the calendar says it's spring next week which means that burning season is over, and road weight restrictions are in effect. The end of burning season means that all the brush and fallen trees need to be cleaned up and the remnants burned or the work will need to wait until late next fall. The road restrictions don't impact me, but this is the only place I have ever lived that uses them. Basically, once the ground starts to thaw, large trucks are prohibited from the secondary roads to eliminate wear and tear. If you saw some of the roads here you would probably wonder what additional damage they could sustain as they seem to be constantly decaying. Since I had the final remains of a giant maple tree to get cut up, I decided I might as well deal with next year's firewood all at once. So I ordered 3 cords of wood which came in 1-2 foot tree sections. The large maple had unfortunately been cut down during the process of clearing for the house and most of it had been cut up last year. However the base remained which was about three feet in diameter and basically too large to completely cut with a chain saw. The only way to cut it up was to cut down through a section as far as the saw would go and then use a wedge and a sledge to split off a chunk so the saw could be used. My friend Donald and his able assistant Johnny showed up last Friday and we spent the better part of 4 hours cutting up the tree. Once we had it in big sections, I spent a day splitting the blocks into cook-stove sized pieces. It was a lot of work, but I now have almost half a cord of what looks like 2x2 pieces. I'm working my way though the other firewood pile with the splitting mall and have so far managed to split and stack about 2 cords. Again, a lot of work, but when I'm done, I'll have almost 3 years of wood stored and drying. The little Jøtul 3B can really heat the house very well all by itself, but by using it to supplement the radiant floor system seems to be the best combination. (My feet stay warm, my heat bills are lower, and I don't have to spend all day hauling firewood into the house.

Of course interspersed with all of this physical activity - if I keep it up for another 20 years I'll be a real buff old guy -- I'm finally getting requests relayed to me from L2 support asking for WMC server installs with various trace switches turned on - so hopefully I will have good news on that front soon.

Posted by Kit Davis At 11:09 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
Tonight was the televised portion of the east cost music awards which were described by one presenter as the grammys with more alcohol. There are enough musicians in the Maritime provinces to rate their own music awards program. Some of the awardees are known outside the area such as Sarah McLachlan , Great Big Sea, and George Canyon (the runner up from the first season of Nashville Star), but there are hundreds of other bands that range from indie to francophone that well represent the area. With a population of under 150,000 people, Cape Bretoners make up a disproportionately large part of the acts. From guitar virtuoso, J.P. Cormier, to song writing phenom Gordie Sampson, to traditional stars the Cottars, there are so many bands on this island that it would take you a year to hear them all. Certainly the highlight of this evening's concert was the tribute to Buddy MacMaster by his niece, Natalie. If you have never seen either of these two famous fiddlers in concert, you have missed a piece of musical history. Natalie travels the world with her band performing in many venues and we have seen her more often over the years in Washington at WolfTrap and the Birchmere than we have here, but her uncle Buddy rarely leaves Cape Breton, so you need to travel here to see him. Thankfully, that is not difficult as he seems to play somewhere 4 to 5 nights a week during the summer and is one of those performers that never seems ready to leave the stage. If you have never experienced the music of Cape Breton this link http://www.redshoepub.com/audio/MairiRankin2.ram is the best example I know of on-line.

Posted by Kit Davis At 9:37 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
The thing that drew me to Cape Breton originally was the music - it permeates the island and you hear it everywhere. While there are plenty of locals who would prefer to listen to contemporary music, Cape Breton celtic music is still very popular with a wide cross section of the population. I've had a few good laughs on warm summer evenings getting passed by a car of teenagers and hearing fiddle music blaring from the sound system.

And then there are the bagpipes. While not as common as fiddle players here, it is still considered good form to have a piper at any big event. If you are a car dealer who wants to have a big sale on the weekend, you get a piper to stand outside and play. If your church is having its 100 year anniversary, you get a piper or two to show up.

Posted by Kit Davis At 8:28 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
Admittedly if you are looking for night-time entertainment in the winter there is little to none to recommend in Cape Breton. Once tourist season is over, most of the hotels and restaurants close down and the few that extend their season are closed by the first of January. This time of year going out to dinner is pretty much limited to the couple of fast food restaurants and pubs in Port Hawkesbury, or an hour and a half drive to the Sydney area.

So what do Cape Bretoner's do for entertainment? There are of course the winter sports for either watching or participation, although this mild snowless winter has not presented many opportunities. While we have seen the ice fisherman out on the lake in droves at some particularly popular spots, the ice has only formed in our cove in the last week and I would be hesitant to go out on it yet. The prediction for the weekend is for temperatures again in the low 50s, so I suspect that the couple inches of snow we got last weekend will disappear and the cove will likely thaw. Gone are the days the old timers talk about when you could not only skate or ski across the lake, but drive cars and trucks 20 or 30 miles across to the other side of the lake on ice that was 4 or 5 feet thick.

Posted by Kit Davis At 10:04 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
The Nor'easter last week managed to take down 5 big spruces around the property. Most of them were 40 or 50 years old and had managed to grow at least 60 feet in height. Unfortunately the construction and resulting excavation disturbed their root systems and down they came with their roots and soil attached. Donald and his helper Johnny showed up yesterday with chainsaws in hand, and cut the trees into 4 foot sections. They then dragged and stacked everything into two big piles and set them ablaze. The fires burned all night and I've been restacking the wood all day so that everything is almost consumed. Not a great thing for the environment but there are just not many other disposal options for big trees. The fires produced a great quantity of smoke; enough that our friends and neighbors, Ute and Harold from the Cape Breton Smokehouse, the home of the world's best smoked salmon, ( http://www.capebretonrestaurant.com) came knocking on our door convinced that our house was burning down.

Posted by Kit Davis At 3:40 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
While the rest of the east coast basks in sunny, warmer than normal temperatures today, we are finally getting a taste of winter in a big way. A Nor'easter has blown in and we've had close to 6 inches of snow and 50 mile an hour winds during the night, and another foot of snow predicted for today. The temperature is just under 30 so it's wet heavy snow, but the winds are strong enough to drift it everywhere. We have areas of the yard that are completely clear and other places (including the front door) where the snow has drifted over a foot. As has been the case in with the last 3 wind storms, a couple of large spruces have toppled over taking their root structure and attached ground with them. It will warm up into the 40s by the weekend and rain, so the next couple of days may be the only chance we get to go cross country skiing this season.

Posted by Kit Davis At 9:11 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
One of the pleasures of living on the shore of the Bra d'Or lake is the frequent sightings of bald eagles. There are more than 100 breeding pairs in Cape Breton, and we catch a glimpse of one almost every day. For the last 2 days, something has attracted a large number of them to our little cove and two of our trees along the water's edge have become favorite perches. From my office window I can see 4 or 5 clustered in the two trees 100 or so feet away. Yesterday, I walked along the shore and counted a dozen of them. When they take to flight, they circle the cove and when sitting in the trees they generate quite a commotion calling back and forth to each other. Despite some searching, we can't find any feeding area, nor do we see them landing in any particular location. They however seem to be waiting patiently in the trees and our best guess at the moment is that they can see something under the water in the cove that will soon surface and provide them a feast. I have also discovered that nature photography requires a better zoom capability then my little Nikon camera possesses since despite numerous attempts, I have yet been unable to take a recognizable photo of them.

Posted by Kit Davis At 7:16 AM Location | Permalink | Comments (0)

Category Life in Cape Breton
One of my favorite endeavors is using the little Jotul wood cookstove in our winterized screen room to cook meals. While the screen room is detached from the main house, I have a wireless squeezebox hooked up to an old receiver so I can listen to music, watch the snow fall and read while the stove keeps the room quite warm. We just finished winterizing it for the first time this fall and we have spent a great deal of time out there and had made some pretty good meals. Since we won't be at the Flying Fish tonight in Orlando, I decided to make a small prime rib. A little technology helps get it right in the form of a digital meat thermometer. Just plug in the probe, set the alarm for the right temperature and voila - a perfect roast

Posted by Kit Davis At 4:08 PM Location | Permalink | Comments (1)

Category Life in Cape Breton
My existance and this weblog would have been impossible just a few years ago. In September of 2004 I escaped Washington DC to live on the banks of the Bras d'Or lakes outside a little town called Marble Mountain in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. The town proper is really just a collection of houses clustered around a couple of churches (only one of which is operational all year long), a long since abandoned general store and the road to the public wharf and beach. The area that comprises the greater metropolis extends from the vineyard two miles to the west along the road between the mountain and the water through town and then ends just to the east of us where the town of Malagawatch begins in similar fashion. When we moved here we swelled the population of permanent residents from 28 to 30. Since I was quite young, I have always been drawn to rural areas and we have made forays into rural living in the past, but most of the time it has been both a lonely existance and economically impractical. Now with most of my colleauges, friends and children 1200 miles away and a 30 minute drive to the nearest store and gas station I manage to communicate and work in much the same way as I did before moving. The combination of a big satellite dish, a telephone (too bad VOIP sucks via satellite) a few Domino servers, and Sametime connectivity is all it really takes.

Posted by Kit Davis At 11:01 AM Location Marble Mountain, NS | Permalink | Comments (1)