first contact

We’re in for a sunny stretch of weather on the farm. Temperatures might get up to 30 degrees Celsius (86 F.). We likely won’t have any significant rain until after Labour Day, so Quadra will remain extra vigilant until the tourists lessen. The huge forest fire 150 km (80 miles) south of us is being held and we’ve seen no more smoke from it.

Our micro-hydro remains off and probably won’t be reactivated for another month minimum. We still have scads of solar coming in, and our diesel generator picks up the slack nicely. Jude recently changed the filters in the jenny, so we’re burning minimum gas when we do use it.

Our big project among many is making sure that we’ll be prepared for any unwanted flames. We’re building a dock on Pond Near so we can readily access water for our pumps. A few days ago while we were doing so, one of the beavers swam by, mildly interested. It was the closest we’d ever been to it.

The longer we live here, the more the long-term residents accept us. One of the ravens — I don’t know if it’s Lee or Annabelle — keeps getting closer to me. Recently it sat on a branch about five meters (15 feet) away. That’s closer than when one of them bombarded me with catkins from a maple tree this spring.