Tar, a sticky subject

Yes, survived the the holiday season and have settled into winter lethargy. Becoming a Denman Island tradition, is the loss of our regular ferry, which has been replaced by her smaller sister. This makes counting on making a ferry somewhat of a gamble... such is island life. A short foray into town last week for supplies was an adventure, as the roads were somewhat treacherous.... note the lack of other traffic.

Canada is host to one quarter of the world's remaining boreal forests. Northern Alberta's Precious forests are quickly being eaten up to make room for oil sands strip mining operations to fuel American Automobiles. Currently an area the size of Vancouver Island has been marked for development. Once the trees have been cut down and the animals displaced, the work of poisoning the air and the (once pristine) Athabasca River can begin. But hey, Alberta is debt-free!

Toxic Alberta - Alberta Oil Sands Raw Documentary

The Harm the Tar Sands Will Do

Straw Bale House update: 34 new posts and beams have been milled on the island for us. This means that there's work to do even on crappy days. Now that the straw is on the island and the free storage ends in June, there is some urgency to getting the roof on and the floor poured before that. It's our plan to begin baling as soon as weather allows for the drying of the lime plaster. Lime plaster is the exterior and interior finish of choice for a few of reasons....

- it sticks to straw. (very important)

- Carbon neutral - It actually recovers the carbon dioxide it took to make the hydrated lime.

- thermal mass for interior heat storage and cooling.

- it allows the free transfer of vapour through the walls.

- nothing will grow on it (moss, mildew etc)

The picture on the right shows the location of our current home (green circle - low) and the location of the new home (light blue circle - high). A distance of less than a kilometer and about 6 kilometers apart by road.