So… we’re staying here on Denamn. I know, I know, just a couple months ago I was dying to get off the island and Oli and I had pretty much decided that after September, we would go to the Kootenays. But then something happened… we made friends – real live friends. Stacey and Jeremy, another kidless couple living on Denman have really made this place feel like somewhere we could call home. Stacey is an almost Phd in Literature and Jeremy is a computer programmer who works for Apple – two years ago they decided to become farmers instead of urbanites and bought a lovely house on Denman with 11 acres, some established gardens and fenced-in space for their free-range animals. We have been staying with Stacey and Jeremy for the past month, between house sits. They have a motel-room like building that the previous owner used as a cat kennel. It is now a perfect little guest house., and doesn’t look like it was made for cats at all. What was once the dog kennel will soon become a music studio and office for Jeremy.
I feel like Denman is changing. Maybe it’s just that I’m finally meeting some people and making friends on my own terms, but I also feel like new people are noticing this place and wanting to come here, and new possibilities are arising. We went to the market the other day and saw a whole bunch of young people there, many of whom I already knew. And now that it’s summer, interesting people are coming out of their homes. We’ve met some WWOOFers (I hate that acronym, but it stands for something like World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms (says Oli)) and saw the potential to meet many more. Stacey and Jeremy’s friends from Vancouver have just moved here and are quite nice people. There seem to be enough of us who are bored and annoyed by overly serious, humorless culture that seems to exist here, and want to change it. And it’s going to happen!
As for work – I got some. I’ve been hired on to run the summer Day Camp for Denman kids, and there’s a chance that more opportunities will arise out of this in the future, since I’ll be working closely with the directors of the community school. For now, this job will pay pretty well. Ultimately I’m hoping to get the Blacksmithing business up and running. It doesn’t look like anyone else is really doing it around here. Any galleries that I’ve found to carry forged steel are getting it from Kootenay Forge – not local at all. Oli and I have begun cutting and prepping wood to build a smithy, and I’ve got many of the pieces I need to build a forge. Jaime’s man Che gave me a box of insulated fire brick left over from an old kiln, a woman on the island is going to lend me her anvil, a fellow we know has given me a box of ball-peen hammers, and another guy gave me enough scrap steel to build a few tongs… so I’m practically set. I’ve also made a couple batches of soap (way better than that nasty stuff I made last Christmas) and I’m going to see if it will sell at the market – cuz nobody’s really doing that here.
Music – blah. I’m so sick of the music industry, and of trying so hard, and of self-promoting. It’s sucking me dry money-wise – costing much more than it’s bringing in. I never expected to do better than break even, but it’s a lot worse. I’ve got a couple festival gigs coming up, one in July on Vancouver Island, one in October in Boise. I’m trying to arrange a very small tour between here and Boise for October. After that I think I’m going to forget about the business and touring side for quite a while. I’m not going to rush writing new stuff, I’ll just let it happen when it happens and then think about touring with it. I want to focus on other things, metal work, building a house, learning to play guitar and actually enjoying music again. And once I like music again, I may give it another shot, in a way that’s completely different than the way I’ve been doing it.
I’m hoping that we’re going to do at least a little bit of camping this summer (aside from festival camping, which isn’t real camping). There are lots of pretty mountainy places to see and we really haven’t explored any of them. But time just keeps flying, much to quickly in my opinion.
I’ve joined a new group called Transition Denman Island. It’s basically a coordinating society for all of the other groups, guilds, societies, etc. on Denman that are working toward making parts of island life more sustainable. We are just trying to get everyone talking, and working together so that things can actually happen instead of just get talked about. A lot of people here, including me, are convinced that oil will become extremely expensive, very soon, and we won’t be able to get off the island by any means that is at all affordable. So without being so doomsday about it (well, I’m the only one who isn’t) we’re trying to get a plan together. My own personal plan is to get on my bike and get back to Ontario and my family, but I haven’t told them that. Anyway, www.transitiontowns.org has info about other towns that have declared themselves transition towns and are attempting to go green/carbon neutral/self-sufficient. From Oil Dependence to Local Resilience – that’s their slogan.
Oli and I are starting to think about building a house. Oli’s a good money saver, so it looks like it is an actual possibility if we can figure out how we’re going to do it. There are a lot of local building materials, and people willing to help us out for trades. (i.e. – we have a friend with a lumber mill who is willing to trade lumber for mill help.) We’re thinking about the foundation and about using recycled materials, like rammed-earth-filled tires. After that we may do post and beam with straw bail or some other kind of natural or recycled insulation. Whatever we can get.
It looks like I’ll be in Ontario in September for a friend’s wedding, so I hope to see many friends and family members then. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay for a good three weeks again.
I like updates. Please send them to me.
Love from Ashlea.
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