Stopping Traffic

Today the blog has a new look. You might have noticed. I'm still fiddling with it a little bit, Blogger has added and changed some things so I'm still navigating what it can do. I'm not much of an instruction reader so when I start messing around with things like this there are a lot of "Oooooh" and "Aha!" moments and a lot of back-tracking. It's a process.

My three year anniversary of moving to Nova Scotia just passed at the end of May, it slipped by without me noticing much. Even so, three years is nothing to sneeze at; it means it's been three years since I've seen most of my friends in Calgary, three years since I've seen the mountains, three years since I've been able to look across an expanse of land like the prairies and see for miles and miles to the horizon.  Not that I miss it much, I think of Calgary as somewhere I want to be, like, never.

I have plans to visit Calgary in the summer of 2013 and although I look forward to seeing all the people I left behind, I have no love of the city itself. Just thinking about driving down Deerfoot stresses me out - not because I'm a nervous driver or am anxious about the all that traffic after the Nova Scotia version of rush hour (10 cars stopped at a light at once ... ooooh, scary) - it's that there are just so many people who are angry in the city, and they drive angry. It would seep through the air vents into the car I was driving and, just like a zombie virus, I'd become just another suppressed and angry Calgary driver. I have no desire to relive that experience. I'd prefer a chauffeur to drive me around so I don't have to experience that impotent fury. Thankfully I know that when I return to Nova Scotia, all the weirdness here will be welcome and I'll once again get to laugh when people talk about the stress of driving in Halifax which is basically Calgary traffic at midnight.

Why weird? Well, for one thing the 'Yield' sign appears to have either no meaning or a different meaning here. According to my road knowledge the Yield sign means that if it applies to the road you're on, you shoulder check for traffic and if it's clear you may accelerate into the lane you wish to travel in. If it's not clear you must brake to allow the traffic to pass and then make your own lane change. It does not mean you shoulder check and, if there is traffic coming up on your left hand side, that you accelerate immediately and attempt to 'merge' into the lane. This results in people, who know what a Yield means, having to brake suddenly from 100 km/hr highway travel to avoid colliding with your stupid ass. When you are on the highway and a Mac truck with two trailers is coming up that exit ramp on your right and intending to not yield to the highway traffic, you can guess who is going to brake first. I've seen people in front of me get cut off and I've also seen people who are not yielding and are also not being let in by the highway traffic finding themselves on the shoulder of the highway. I suspect they have no idea why the traffic flow did not let them in. This is why:

What these morons are attempting to do is called a Merge. That sign looks like this and let me tell you, there is either a severe shortage of Merge signs in the province or a severe lack of people in highway design who know it even exists. I have rarely seen them in my travels and given the way people drive here and the number of Nova Scotians who live in Calgary, the total mayhem of traffic there is beginning to make sense. But I digress ... I love a good merge. Done correctly it doesn't interrupt the flow of traffic and as long as everyone plays by the rules your standard merge should result in no hurt feelings from either driver.

Now, although the majority of people do not appear to know how to use a Yield, I also think it has no business being at the entry to a highway. Asking traffic attempting to enter a 100km/hr highway to come to stop, if necessary, in order to get onto the highway is, as you can imagine, very dangerous. The potential for accidents is very high and I think the only reason there aren't more is because there isn't a high volume of traffic here. Plus a lot of the drivers are super old (and I mean shouldn't-be-driving old) and don't like to drive on the highway, praise be for that small mercy.

Nova Scotia, or at least Pictou County, also seems to be bad at construction management. Currently there is construction on the causeway that links Pictou, my town, to the closest major centre of New Glasgow. The only other way to get there is to go around on the Alma road (pronounced Al-ma, not All-ma which is how I would say it - soooooo Pictou County ... more on that later) which takes an extra 10 minutes or so. Not bad considering some days the wait to cross the causeway because of the construction is 40 minutes. Best to go 'round. This photo is part way across the causeway, it's about a kilometre long if that helps - on the left is the harbour and on the right is Middle River - genius name that since the other two rivers are East and West. Brilliant.

The year I moved here Chruch Street, so named because of all the churches on it, was badly in need of repair. It is so bad I take a route through residential streets to avoid it even though the side streets aren't that much better, I just couldn't take the beating of potholes and uneven road surface. This is a 'tourist town' and as far as I'm concerned the town should be ashamed of the condition of that road for the last 3 years or however long it's been in that state. It's the main road to get into and through town and to have tour buses, campers, trailers and any kind of tourist come into town on that road is embarrassing. The town keeps talking about how it wants to boost tourism, improve its image and encourage more people to move here but I can tell you the single biggest deterrent to someone wanting to return is having to drive on crappy roads.

So, last year they made a big production about how they were going to re-surface Church Street. They claimed it would be completed by Winter 2011. Here we are, it's halfway through 2012 and the road has still not been resurfaced. Why? Because they decided that before they would do the road, they wanted to replace all of the sidewalks along Church Street. It's only about a kilometre long so no biggy right? It's been *months* and they are about 75% done the sidewalks. It's only taken them about 6 months less January and February for heavy snow. I suppose they imagined all those tourists walking along the lovely sidewalks and not complaining about the roads. It's almost high season and we not only don't have a main thorough-fare into town that won't take 5 years of life off your vehicle's suspension, it's also clogged up with detours, construction cones, people and machinery. Just where are those huge motorhomes, campers and trailers supposed to drive to get through the town? Up Water Street? I work on Water and let me tell you, it's not intended to be a main drag for heavy traffic flow. The preceding missive also demonstrates what I like to call 'Nova Scotia Time' which requires a blog all its own.

At this point thougth traffic is the least of the Town's concerns and if I sound frustrated by the Town of Pictou, and the County istself, you'd be right. There are a lot of things this place could do that would improve the image and get people out here - not only tourists but people who want to live here and make a life for themselves. It makes me crazy to see a town like Lunenburg doing so well when Pictou has just as much to offer but has no apparent plan to make it happen. I work in the town, I live here too and I want to see it do well ... maybe I'll run for office. Tamzin ... politics ... scary thought!

Lovely Lunenburg

While my house sits on the market waiting for someone to recognize it's qualities and most excellent vibe, the dogs and I will be travelling to shows in various places across the province. Although the travel will often involve dog shows, I intend to do some sight seeing and photo taking. Friday, right after work, we left for Lunenburg which is on the South Shore. I live on the North shore so since the province looks like a banana you can guess that Lunenburg is basically on the opposite side of the province from me. It's a 3 hour drive, mostly lovely divided and well kept highway (not always the case - are you listening Cape Breton?) and just under 3 hours one way and about 500km round trip.

Lunenburg, in case you didn't know, is the home port of the Bluenose. If you open your wallet and dump out the change you will find the Bluenose on the Canadian dime. It's also on the province's license plate and is replicated multiple times and in multiple ways for tourists throughout the province. The ship had something to do with races, being undefeated etc but since I'm no Mariner and particularly dislike being on or in the water, I don't pay much attention to that sort of thing.

Anyway, Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Site which means it's something special about being a heritage type place. The gist of what I understand is that it is one of the oldest preserved planned British colonial sites - basically it means the Brits knew what the land looked like, laid out a town grid on a set of blueprints, sent a bunch of German and French colonials (and Brits I suppose) to build the site - kind of like what they did in Aliens when they discovered the mother ship but without the chest exploding parasites. I presume.

Anyway, the town is beautifully preserved, brightly painted and incredibly well kept. Lots of boutique stores and probably the most restaurants, cafes, eateries and diners per capita in Nova Scotia. Anything you want to eat, it's there and at any price you are willing to pay. After the dog show on Saturday we strolled down to the waterfront and had a look around. It's not high season yet so things were pretty quiet but I can imagine what it's like in the summer because there was nothing about this town that wouldn't appeal to someone looking for a tourist destination. I presume there's some sort of town ordinance that requires homes, at least the ones on major routes, to be kept at a certain level of care, cleanliness and exterior maintenance. The homes that weren't painted bright colors or didn't have landscaping were all certainly in the process of it. I think Pictou should do something like that but until this town grows some backbone and insists its citizens put in their dentures and stop hawking loogies on the sidewalk, it's a pipe dream.

Lunenburg held a couple surprises - one being a section of the Berlin Wall. Apparently it was a gift from Germany to the town because of its German heritage. I suppose it might have been because of the UNESCO thing but who knows really since the piece of the wall is located in an out of the way spot, not marked or easy to find and certainly nothing at the site to indicate why it's there. I took a few photos because, well, where else are you going to see this large a section of the Berlin Wall (besides Montreal - thanks Kathryn!).

The back side of it shows marks from being chipped away, possibly sledgehammers or pick axes or maybe something more substantial like a bulldozer bucket. I suspect those are the marks made when the wall came down, trying to get through the wall when it was erect would probably have gotten you shot.

Clearly the town also used to do whaling, not only indicated by the number of whale watching tours, which means there are a lot of whales in the offing, but also because this building has been left with its defunct signage in place, possibly because the town and the buildings owners know it's a piece of history too. History isn't often pretty and this company was in the business of ugly, although at the time it was perfectly normal way to make a living.

As was this, since companies are often symbiotic. I hear whale blubber sure burns clean ...

The building itself is not in use, or doesn't appear so. I'd love to go inside and take a look around but the state of the building is quite decrepit and doesn't appear safe to enter. It's not for sale, or at least there is no signage, and there is no access to it from the side I was on. The opposite side is closed off because it's along a secured wharf - possibly governmental - but it was a Saturday so who knows if it's in use on weekdays - certainly the government doesn't work on weekends.

The dog show was held just a few minutes walk from the waterfront - we had a moderately successful weekend with Cora learning how to be a show dog and almost relaxing enough to run around the ring without looking too anxious. I told Saturday's judge that it was Cora's first show and she made a point of taking her time, talking to Cora and making the experience positive. Cora won Best Puppy in Group on Saturday but not on Sunday although that judge explained - un-necessarily - that Cora stands with her elbows too close and her toes point outward. Well, duh, anyone can see that. The judge wanted me to stack her straight but since it was her first show I didn't want to fuss too much - it wasn't so much about winning as making it a positive experience for Cora. I also, erroneously, figured a decent judge would overlook the elbow thing when they saw that she moves very cleanly from the elbow despite her narrow front. I explained to the judge that her chest hadn't dropped and she was a puppy, but she said it distracted her because it was the first thing she saw. So what I heard was that she 'fault judges' and can't see past what is totally normal for a 11 month old large breed dog. Funny thing though, Cora's mother Leeloo won a Best Puppy in Show and her front lacked even more chest - clearly Leeloo was shown to a judge who understood what she was seeing. Anyway, I knew Cora would be a tough nut to crack based on her temperament (certainly not a dog I'd sell to a novice show home) but our next show is in 3 weeks and since she is a ridiculously smart dog she will do much better and I'm in no hurry to finish her or pressure her.

Esme, my little practice Special, won a 3rd in the Herding group on Saturday, and I don't mind saying I think it should have been a higher placement based on her quality; however, without that adult show coat to the ground judges have a hard time taking her seriously. The judge who gave her the group placement even commented that as a groomer she'd just shave all that coat off! If that woman knew what I've gone through to get the coat Esme has, she'd eat her words. The judge on Sunday, who complained about Cora's perfectly normal front, ignored my perfect Puli, so she is stricken from my show-to list. I can't afford to be driving for 3 hours each way and paying for a motel to enter under people who don't have a clue what they are looking at.

And that ... was Lunenburg. If you are headed this way I highly recommend going. It's a lovely town, easy to get to and if you are at all interested in architecture it's definitely a place you want to visit. There's certainly lots to see and do ... if you're not going to a dog show. Next stop ... Canning!

Sold, Not Sold, Sold, Not Sold

In the adventures of selling a house I call foul. Last week I thought my house was sold, this week ... it's not. The person who put in an offer changed their mind after the inspection which apparently found nothing major wrong (okay, so the bathroom door doesn't shut properly, if you live alone ... who cares??) According to the realtor there was no real reason for the change of heart, the prospective buyer just thought the minor things that needed doing weren't worth moving into. Fair enough but I have learned a few lessons from this.

When an inspection is done I'm going to put a time limit on how long they have to decide to take the house or not. This woman had the inspection done at noon on Monday, asked for a couple days to think about it and didn't make a final decision until Thursday. I spent 4 days in a high state of anxiety and I won't make that mistake again.

And when another offer is made on this house my lowest price is going to be higher. The only reason I accepted lower than I intended was because the quick sale was convenient for me and meant I didn't have to have people in and out of my house on multiple occasions. Packing up the dogs and disappearing for an hour is inconvenient and having that situation removed was worth something to me. My realtor definitely thought I should not have accepted so low an offer and I think is quietly pleased that it will now likely sell for what it's worth.

It also means that if this person who put in an offer ends up coming back and wanting it again, the price is higher for her too. I am not putting up with that kind of bullshit twice and now I know what kind of crazy she is, and trust me, I've dealt with a lot of crazy lately, if she wants the house, she has to pay.

Added to which there is some bullshit waste treatment charge that the town automatically skims off the top of every house sale - $1600 plus tax. That's almost $2000 off the price of my house I have to account for when considering offers. It's a one time charge for every house in the town so it's only applied to the first sale of that home since the implementation of waste treatment plant. It extra sucks because I intend to move out of the town and I will never benefit from the plant's treatment of waste sewage. You know, for a town that is struggling to keep people from leaving you'd think they'd try to avoid this kind of nonsense.

My house has been really good to me, it has a good energy and I don't want someone with bad mojo moving in here. I want someone who will see it as I did, and love it as I do. Maybe not for the same reasons but at least to recognise that it's not just property but a home. I have worked very hard(and so has my Dad!) to make this place something to be proud of and I will not have someone cheapen it. So, onward to house showings and the adventures that come with it!

Searchlight

Today is house inspection day and although I don't think there's anything to be concerned about there's always the chance that something will come up I was not expecting since I know jack sh*t about house structure. If the inspection goes okay it means that I really need to start worrying about finding somewhere to live. I have a couple options for somewhere to stay while I look for a new house but I'd obviously prefer not to have to move all my stuff twice.

I also have an appointment to go look at a house tomorrow. I sure hope it's a lot better than the last two I looked at! Houses here are quite old, even the house I'm in is almost 70 years old, so your options are limited - you either look at a pokey old farmhouse that has spent the last 130 years settling, shifting and aging or you look at a house that some guy built with his eyes closed 30 years ago. The house I'm going to look at has one acre and looks out over a farmer's field where his cattle graze. I can't imagine how amazing that would be! Good thing I'm used to the smell of a feedlot down the road. We'll see, the house was originally a minihome (mobile home for Westerners) but has been converted to a bungalow. Let's hope they did a nice job.

There is one house, the Three Brooks house, which is still an option but only if the basement issue can be resolved easily and without too much expense. My dad also has concerns about the roof but that would be something we'd have to look more closely at if the house becomes a serious contender.

Everyone says to not rush the process but it's hard to not worry. If I didn't have the dogs and cats I wouldn't worry so much but prevailing on someone for their hospitality when you have a herd of animals is a bit much. It certainly results in a bigger hassle than if you didn't have any at all!

At this point my options are limited by my budget and the lack of homes on the market that are suitable to my purposes. Oddly enough last Fall that there were many more houses on the market that would have suited me ... you'd think Spring would have them coming out of the woodwork!

Tamzin's House of Dreams

It has been far too long since I posted in this blog. Many things have happened while WBNS has been on hiatus, most of which have been documented on the Invictus Dog Blog, but since some pretty big events are about to occur in this little province, I thought I'd return to writing about Nova Scotia (which includes the dogs of course) and the wonderful life I have managed to set up for myself.
I now work at a shop in downtown Pictou, it's the sort of job I imagined having when I first thought of moving here but the 'small town' mentality got the best of me and despite multiple resumes being submitted to various companies, it was not an easy process to be hired as a CFA (come from away). Thankfully my new employer, Pictou Pharmasave, is a great place to work with the greatest people and I really feel I've met some kindred spirits of the world in one little seaside shop.

The reason I've jumped over to this blog is because big things are happening and rather than make my dog blog more general to my life, I thought it would be easier to make this blog about everything. There will be no shortage of photos of the dogs, or talk about them, because they are such a huge part of my life and why I do the things I do.

Notably the Big Plan for the last 3 years living here has been of a mind to getting a larger property with a larger house that I can fence and safely run the dogs. Here in Pictou County dogs are not allowed off leash unless they are on private land or in designated areas; needless to say I've been walking my dogs 'illegally' for the last 3 years. Time for a change.

I had this last litter of puppies which I knew I had to get raised and placed in new homes before I could list my house. While the litter was growing I was making plans, painting, updating, cleaning and purging so that when the puppies were gone I could list the house. As the litter got to about 5 weeks I spoke to a realtor who is two doors down from the pharmacy and we discussed buying and selling in the County. At that time she told me she had someone who was anxious to get into a house, preferably a bungalow and in The Heights, which is where I live.  (Cool story there, I'll have to tell you one day).

Once I was down to 2 puppies it was time to get serious about looking at houses. I looked at one that is a possibility with 4 acres but there is an issue with the basement and possibly the roof, so it's on the Very Maybe list. I looked at two others, one that needs to be condemned and another which appears to be rotting from the bottom up.  The prospects weren't looking good but it wasn't an immediate concern since my house was not yet listed and my realtor (MR) told me to expect to be on the market 2 to 4 months.

Her 'anxious' person was still anxious so she wanted to let her view the property late last week in an exclusive viewing with a 24 hour contract (which we just made our actual contract in the end). I said that was fine and then went into high gear clean mode to try and get it ready with two puppies still, four adult dogs and two cats! I managed to get out of the house on time, with everything spick and span, fresh and clean and hoped that there wasn't something dog related that I forgot about.

I had arranged with my parents later that day to see the house with 4 acres (we'll call it the Three Brooks House since that's the road it's on) so I drove to meet them and MR there. Once I arrived MR surprised me by telling me my house had an offer! It had officially been on the market for about 4 hours. We looked at the Three Brooks House and then sat down to look at the offer. It was low, lower than I liked, and we countered high. MR said she'd let me know.

The next morning she said the buyer didn't want to pursue but she may change her mind after  some thought. She was right, less than an hour later MR came to me with a counter offer. I spent some time thinking about it, discussing it and working the numbers. While I know that people want the most money for their homes, I had to consider what this easy a sale would mean to me. No more packing up the dogs and cats, no more rushing around to clean and no more people trailing through my house looking through my things. I weighed my options, countered with a slightly longer closing date, and accepted the counter-offered price.

In less than 24 hours my house was sold. As of last night the offer was accepted and I have until June 15 to find a new home. Needless to say there are conditions such as an inspection and the buyer's financing, but as long as those things pull through I will be out of this house, and hopefully into another, on or by June 15! I have a dog show to attend in Lunenberg on the first weekend in June so as long as everything goes according to plan I will be able to take Cora to her first show. If there is something that requires my immediate attention that does not allow for a dog show then her first show will be the end of June.

I never in a million years thought my house would sell so fast, yesterday I was freaking out internally every 20 minutes or so and having little panic attacks but today I am much better. I have a few houses I'd like to go look at so perhaps one of those will be suitable. I mentioned to some friends that I pushed the Easy button and sold my house in less than 24 hours, let's hope the same button applies to buying! Wish me luck finding a house in Wee Bonny New Scotland.

The Wonder Year

It was a year ago that I arrived at my new house here in Nova Scotia. Well, technically it was a year ago yesterday but if we are using May 26th as an anniversary date then today is a calendar year. Time is a real enigma and plays tricks on you. It makes you believe it's moving slowly but when you reflect on the past it seems like everything happened in a fleeting moment.

Remember the rig? Well, I wondered why everyone was so worried about me before I left and while I was on the road. I felt perfectly safe at the time, like it was a totally reasonable prospect to drive 5000km with 4 dogs, 3 cats and all my stuff jammed into an unregistered trailer. Now I think "No way I'd let my daughter do that!" 

My parent's house was a welcome sight when I arrived in Nova Scotia. And for the dogs too since they'd been trapped without a good run for 3 or 4 days.

It was great to see my little house again, I hadn't seen it since I bought it 6 months prior to my arrival.   

My parents helped me move in and let me tell you, it took way less time to unload that trailer than to pack it! The mess took much much longer to address though.

It took almost a year to get everything arranged the way I wanted it but finally I think most rooms are pretty well as I like them. One day the laundry room will have a wall to separate it from the kitchen but that's on the list of future projects, along with painting the ceilings(still), the house skirting, fascia, a patio and a few other small projects. Those will have to wait until I can afford them!

For now though, I couldn't ask for a more contented life. It is everything I wanted and more. I took such a chance on moving out here, knowing almost no one, having no job, travelling with so many animals ... and every single moment has been worth it. Huge thanks to everyone who helped me along the way; my parents Terry & Stephanie, my brother Ben, Tanja, Phil & Joanne, Bill & Donna, Liana, Adine, Erin, Kim, Jeff & Danielle, and everyone else who had some hand in seeing me safely to my new life. The dogs, cats and I can never thank you enough! Now ... come visit dammit!

Mulch Ado About Nothing

I know it's been a ridiculous long while since I last posted. I have been procrastinating about painting the ceiling and the final step in not procrastinating is buying this special thing called a Point 'n' Paint I saw on TV. I haven't bought it yet because if I do it will mean I no longer have an excuse to not attempt the absolute least favorite thing I want to do with my time.

Instead I've been preparing the garden for the summer and so far the front is pretty much complete. The weather has been quite warm so far so I'm ahead of the game. The front garden last year was nice but not nice enough for me so I decided to ensure that I never needed to weed again. I got that black cloth for gardens and installed it on a windy day. I won't sport with your intellignace and describe that adventure except to say ... wait for a not windy day.  The little plot you see here is the right hand side of the deck when you are facing it.

And this is it finished with a layer of cedar mulch on it. I'd like to get some more brick to put along the right  side but I ran out. That little white blob in front there is a hound dog who needs some paint.

The other side is larger but was not too difficult to tackle. Here is the point at which I was laying out the brick to see how much I needed and where it would go best - the bricks are actually from along the path that leads from the driveway to the front door. They were almost completely covered in grass so had clearly been there a very long time. I like reusing things that already exist on the property because they have lived here longer than I have and deserve to stay. There were these huge rocks that bordered the front of the garden but I didn't like them because they can't make a clean line of delineation between the graden and the grass.

The biggest rock was a *bitch* to pull up but I finally managed it. I decided that instead of dragging it across the grass and giving myself a hernia, I'd only move it a foot or two and make it a nice backdrop for my little lion cub who came all the way from Alberta. He still needs to be painted but he's made it through two Canadian winters without a coat so I think he can go a few more days.

I never did get a photo of the larger garden area with the black fabric but really, how interesting could that photo possibly be? Here it is with it's new cedar mulch facelift. It looks a little sparse right now because the plants haven't grown in but that big round area in front there turns into a montrous lily thing in the summer. I want to wait and see how much room the plants take up before introducing any new vegetation into the mix.  Where the ground is uneven in front of the brick will be filled in with some sod from the backyard. Wait til you see what I'm doing back there.

The front of my house, isn't it pretty? I'll take another picture again in the summer when I have had a chance to repaint the front step(what is UP with that?) and the plants are in bloom. Everything is budding happily and it looks like all my 2009 new plants survived the winter; even the lavender which, until a week ago, I was convinced was dead. Next stop ... raised vegetable garden ...