A New Homestead?

New homestead update: Well drilling is complete and producing an astounding 7-8 gallons per minute. It remains to be seen what it will produce in the dry season... stay tuned in September. We're hoping to supplement the well water with a rainwater cistern for gardening and car washing etc. We now wait for the water quality report and can remove the last subject on the sale this week. We had our initial meeting with the house designer and he should have something for us to look at this week also. We'll also begin our search for some help building.... and we have some feelers out. If we wanted to hire a contractor to build for us, we would likely be waiting six months or more. The best builders are extremely busy, so for the most part, It'll be learn as you go with some help when we can get it.

The weather is still quite warm.... up to 14c in the afternoon. I've pretty much finished the new fence... and just have to cut off the top of the posts. We like the way it looks, so may add another panel or two next week.

We've recently been advised that there will be further ferry rate increases over the next two years. I wonder if our MLA's would spend 25% of their post tax daily earnings to go grocery shopping or go to work..... The following email was sent last week. Obviously, I had time on my hands to waste my breath.

To: kevin.falcon.mla@leg.bc.caCC: premier@gov.bc.ca, stan.hagen.mla@leg.bc.ca, tlaw@telus.netSubject: Ferry rate increases Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 21:10:02 -0700

Sir,
Last year, my wife and I moved to Denman Island. We left the Greater Vancouver area to get away from city life and begin to live a more self-reliant life, in a caring, environmentally aware community. This community has little draw on resources comparative to larger communities. We have four streetlights on the island. Most of our road system is gravel. Our library is open seven days a week and run independently by volunteers. We have a volunteer Fire Department,of which I am a member. My wife volunteers at the recycling depot, which I would wager, receives a much higher return rate per capita, than anywhere else in British Columbia. We have no police force or police building to maintain. In short, we must be a government’s dream…. All the taxes paid, with little draw on the coffers. The Denman Island residents are a mixed, but cohesive group of retirees, and working middle class. Summer residents that contribute little to the community, own the balance of homes. The only drawback to living on beautiful Denman Island is the prohibitive cost of the ferry on which we rely to go to work, attend medical appointments, and purchase provisions, etc. In your effort to make this service "user pay", Denman Islanders have been subjected to exorbitant rate increases. The Community of Denman Island relies on the ferry service in exactly the same manner as communities in British Columbia’s interior rely on the fifteen ferry runs that service their communities. However; there is no expectation of those communities to pay a penny for the service, never mind have it pay for itself. The only difference is that those communities, have a much higher impact come election time in their given ridings. As the fares to Denman Island increase, the fixed income retirees and working middle class that make up all of the volunteer network will be forced to move off the island. Absentee owner summer vacationers will replace them. The volunteer infrastructure will collapse and our limited commercial ventures will fail. The school and library will close. Then, the ferry service can justifiably be cut back. The ferry service will then be self-sufficient and the B.C. Government can claim a wonderful success. There are some things that are just wrong. What the B.C. Government is doing to this community is wrong. There is no excuse or justification, and it needs to be corrected. I expect my government to be able to accept the facts and show some leadership by making things fair and equal to all. I am truly disgusted with a Government that shows blatant favoritism to buy votes.

As I Blog, Curt should be on a plane from New Zealand. He will make his way here for a few days in May, before heading to the Okanagan to pick fruit for the summer. Between the two hemispheres, he's pretty much picked all year round.