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atlanticcanada · 1 year ago

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Written in the stars: The legendary tale of Maritime ice cream favourite Moon Mist

The lore in the Hart household was as rich as the ice cream served every day.

After joining his family's creamery business, the story goes, Bruce Hart travelled from Nova Scotia to the U.S. to attend 'Ice Cream University.'

The dates and places are foggy -- as often happens with family history passed down through generations -- but it was sometime before or after he served during the Second World War and likely took place at what's now the University of Massachusetts, a school with strong roots in agriculture and food science.

It was there, legend has it, that a young Bruce Hart had the audacity to swirl three ice cream flavours together: banana, grape and blue raspberry.

He called it Moon Mist, a lush ice cream flavour with colourful ripples of yellow, purple and blue.

"My grandfather told us he got to experiment with flavour mixtures, and that's how those improbable flavours came together that some people love and some may find disgusting," said Peter O'Brien, grandson of the late Bruce Hart.

"It was always part of family lore that my grandfather invented Moon Mist."

By the mid-1970s, the specialty flavour was catching on. The exact flavour combination of Moon Mist shifted over the years, with a popular local dairy swapping out blue raspberry for blue bubble gum in its recipe.

Yet regardless of the flavours of the tricolour swirls, Moon Mist ice cream would come to be celebrated as Atlantic Canada's favourite ice cream.

To some, it's a heavenly trilogy of tastes, while to others it's an odd mash-up of cloyingly sweet flavours. But it's defended by many as the region's unofficial frozen treat.

Moon Mist has become a symbol of the East Coast's uniqueness in Canada, a cultural marker of sorts for the region.

Ice cream stands and corner stores across the Maritimes scoop out Moon Mist all year long. Many say they go through several 11.5-litre vats on a summer weekend, leaving children in tears and adults in a huff if they sell out.

It evokes both nostalgia and pride, making a cameo on the Nova Scotia-based TV show "Trailer Park Boys." A local distillery sells a limited edition Moon Mist vodka and folk artists have sought inspiration from the flavour.

"If you've ever had a scoop of Moon Mist ice cream, you know it just has a very unique flavour and iconic aroma," said Rae Ryan, a Truro, N.S.-based research and development specialist with dairy giant Agropur, which acquired Nova Scotia's Scotsburn dairy in 2017.

"I think it's so popular because people in Atlantic Canada grew up with it in the 1980s and are now serving it to their kids. It's had a lot of staying power."

Bruce Hart returned from his ice cream training -- and purported invention of Moon Mist -- and got to work for the family business, Halifax Creamery Ltd.

The company soon after began making the blend of banana, grape and blue raspberry under its Polar Ice Cream brand.

Hart's grandson Peter O'Brien, now a 54-year-old classics professor, recalls ordering scoops of Moon Mist at local ice cream parlours as a child.

"My grandfather was big into ice cream, he ate it every day, probably twice a day," O'Brien said.

"We would go over for lunch or dinner and eat ice cream for dessert and often the conversation would return to his days in the business and how Moon Mist was created," he said.

The family business was eventually sold to Twin Cities Co-op Dairy Ltd., which later became Farmer's Dairy Co-op Ltd., though the family stayed active in the industry for a few years after that.

It's around this time that a competitor came to town.

For more than a century, one of the largest dairies in the Maritimes was based out of Scotsburn, a village surrounded by sprawling dairy farms on Nova Scotia's north shore.

Sometime before the early 1980s, the Moon Mist flavour was likely introduced to Scotsburn by a so-called flavour house, said Jennifer MacLennan, the former marketing co-ordinator with Scotsburn dairy from 1993 until Agropur took over in 2017.

Flavour houses are companies with commercial food labs that develop, manufacture and supply flavours to various industries. The concentrated natural and artificial flavours can be used in everything from ice cream to gum. One of these companies likely promoted Moon Mist as part of a portfolio of new flavours presented to dairies, MacLennan said.

"It was probably introduced to several dairies as an up-and-coming flavour," she said. "Scotsburn decided to try it ... it may have started as a limited-edition flavour but clearly became a favourite."

Exactly why it became a top seller in Atlantic Canada while dairies in other parts of the country seem to have mostly passed it over is unclear.

Some smaller outfits across Canada offer Moon Mist, including Kawartha Dairy Ltd. based in Bobcaygeon, Ont., which markets it as an "out of this world" East Coast favourite. The Big Scoop in Duncan, B.C., also sells Moon Mist with a twist: bubble gum, banana and grape with a cherry ribbon.

But other than a few smaller dairies, Moon Mist ice cream largely seems to be an Atlantic Canadian phenomenon.

"A lot of flavours can be regional," MacLennan said. "In New Brunswick, grape nut ice cream was a big seller, but it wasn't as popular in other areas, like Cape Breton."

When Moon Mist was introduced, many of the popular flavours were classics like vanilla, chocolate and strawberry, she said.

"Back in the '80s, a lot of the popular ice cream is what you might hear people call 'old people's flavours' nowadays," MacLennan said. "So when Moon Mist came out it was likely a huge hit with kids."

For decades, Moon Mist was only sold in 11.4-litre tubs to ice cream parlours. But in 2015, Scotsburn began selling smaller sizes in retail stores.

"I remember urging our marketing department to sell Moon Mist in the 1.5-litre packages in retail stores," MacLennan said. "It was always a bestseller so it made sense to have it available year round."

While Bruce Hart may have invented the original Moon Mist -- and potentially the recipe later used by Farmers -- Scotsburn's would become the favourite of many.

But not all.

A petition launched in the spring of 2020 called on Farmers to bring their version of Moon Mist, with blue raspberry rather than bubble gum, back to Nova Scotia.

The recipe change can be traced back to 2013, when Halifax-based Farmers Co-operative Dairy and Agropur Cooperative of Longueuil, Que., merged.

Four years later, Agropur purchased Scotsburn's frozen ice cream and frozen novelties business.

With two Moon Mist flavours in house, Agropur made the decision to phase out the Farmers recipe.

Agropur spokesman Guillaume Berube said sales volumes of both Scotsburn and Farmers Moon Mist tubs were "almost identical" at the time, but Scotsburn had the advantage of also having the smaller retail-sized format.

In terms of which recipe was oldest, Farmers may have launched Moon Mist first. While Scotsburn traces Moon Mist back to "before the early 1980s," Berube said company's archives show Farmers launched Moon Mist in 1973.

Regardless, the Farmers recipe -- possibly inspired by Bruce Hart's original creation -- was phased out by Agropur in 2017, permanently replacing blue raspberry with blue bubble gum, a subtle but notable change among some Moon Mist connoisseurs.

Agropur now says Moon Mist sales are second only to vanilla in the Scotsburn ice cream portfolio. It's sold in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island.

"A lot of people growing up in Nova Scotia either went to school with someone who was a dairy farmer or had some connection to the dairy industry, and ice cream is just really popular here," said Agropur's Ryan. "It's part of the culture. We have a lot of scooping stands in the region and the colour combo of Moon Mist is very recognizable.

"It's always been popular, but there's been a lot of buzz about it over the last couple years," she said.

"It's a happy story."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2023.

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/CBzaHS5

#new brunswick #prince edward island #nova scotia #news #politics #canada #CTVAtlantic

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firstagent · 4 years ago

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Review: Digimon Adventure: (2020) Episode 26: Break Through the Sea Monster Barricade

In this episode, Koshiro, Hikari, and Taichi do their typical things: hacking a solution to the crisis, magically whisking away to another world, and nearly getting his ass killed again for stupid reasons.

Let’s all congratulate the B-Team for finally escaping the gazebo! With that giant infestation of Zurumon in the network it sure looked like they were going to be stuck there indefinitely, but Koshiro came up with a solution that didn’t involve dealing with them and Hikari used her magic powers to free them from the gazebo’s evil clutches. Granted, Koshiro’s solution was as anticlimactic as it gets and Hikari managed to turn what should be a big moment into a rather subdued, unemotional progression. But progress is progress, and with it comes renewed hope that maybe the show can put this awkward arc behind it and find its bearings again.

Taichi… is in this episode too. Yamato and Takeru not so much.

As far as the tanker crisis getting resolved, there are two forces tugging us in different directions. One is the continued and reliable amazement at Koshiro Izumi’s hacking skills. Thanks to Our War Game, we’ve been used to the idea of Koshiro being able to do whatever he wants with a computer as long as it serves the story and clears up a mess and/or sets up a battle. We’re not used to details, and props for providing them here. Rather than shots of him typing, followed by some variant of “I did it,” we get the full plan about how setting off a humble fishing trawler’s distress signal can filter throughout the world, correcting the hacked maritime signal with a different maritime signal. The writers did their homework. Let’s acknowledge that.

The problem with this solution, and the force restraining our excitement, is that it in itself is the solution. It doesn’t grant them access or restore their power or make the enemy vulnerable: it straight out wins the fight. That’s not something to applaud, as it diverts the spotlight from these kids and their Digimon in favor of Koshiro’s fingers. It’s especially egregious after Koshiro’s last featured episode was about him learning to rely on his instincts without relying on his computer. And it renders everybody else functionally useless. Sora and Joe and Mimi could have gone home after beating Calamarimon. As impressive as the hack came off, it goes down as a poor use of Koshiro’s talents. They have to be used appropriately: as OP as Rei’s skills were in Appmon, they invariably dragged him into even more trouble and rarely solved anything on their own.

Thankfully, Hikari outdoes herself with her greatest miracle yet: making this episode relevant. Frustrated by everyone’s lack of emotion lately? Bow down to the queen here! Initially, her presence served only to force Sora to prevent anyone from expressing themselves too hard. While that generated one or two spots of amusement, it left us in a holding pattern where Hikari’s silence and vague expression added nothing to the scenes but promised a payoff later. That came in typical Hikari fashion: she says something weird’s about to happen, then something weird happens. If it gets us out of such an underwhelming subplot, we’ll take it.

It serves as a fortunate interruption and intervention from still more lousy filler from Taichi and company. The only significance of his side of the story is the Seadramon eating another Digimon and evolving. That’s new! That feels like it should be an effect of Devimon’s meddling that should cause havoc across the Digital World. But we put a pin in that for now and focus instead on Taichi, who has a brush with death because he, again, is too stupid to stand anywhere besides on top of Greymon in the middle of a fight. Have we ever gone from “boy he looks cool” to “honestly, he deserves to drown” so quickly?

The fact that the fight was so pointless makes the rest of the team bailing them out less momentous than it should have been. But it isn’t nothing, and after several episodes getting tired of Taichi and Yamato riding their steeds, we are happy to see the others reunited with theirs at long last. Instead of a rush, it’s more of a relief, but at least it generated a reaction. Taichi’s utter confusion at Hikari’s presence is almost as subdued as she is, but it too is a valid reaction. Like most things in this episode, it’s a far cry from true quality, but it’s something and at this point we’re happy to take it.

My Grade: B-

Loose Data:

So Leomon knows about the deep lore of the Holy Digimon and ElDoradimon, but he didn’t know Cloud Continent was in the clouds?

Another issue with Koshiro’s solution to the tanker crisis is that it doesn’t involve the Digital World at all. Meaning literally everybody who is monitoring the situation had the ability to recognize a solution and utilize GMDSS to overwrite AIS. Maritime shipping is a vital piece of infrastructure and you can’t expect AIS to run flawlessly 24/7. There are agencies keeping an eye on these sorts of things, and do worry about terrorists messing with AIS.

Leomon’s team continues to be more fun to watch than Greymon and Garurumon. Combining Falcomon’s explosives with Leomon’s signature attack was a neat touch.

Another point of promise is that they didn’t do anything about the Zurumon, allowing for more real world problems in the future. We’ll grow more and more desensitized to these crises if we don’t care about the characters doing the rescuing, but it’s not a problem that these issues will continue to exist.

You can tell all of these crises are merely fake intensity when the resolution is glossed over during the quick shots of the kids reuniting. If we’re to believe the show actually cares about itself, both of those deserved more time as opposed to all that Seadramon nonsense. Also we totally called that they wouldn’t follow through with an actual US-Iran military conflict.

See reviews of every Digimon episode at Digimon: System Restore! Support the site by joining our Patreon!

#digimon #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure (2020)

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maddiviner · 4 years ago

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I knew about the Servant TERF stuff but hadn't seen that suicide post before. I can't believe that post is somehow actually worse??? That's such a toxic and ableist attitude towards mental illness and I desperately impressionable newbies don't buy it because that's just going to mess people up hardcore if they're already struggling with mental health stuff.

I’m not sure which is worse, honestly, but it seems like her takes on most things are awful.

I wish I could reblog her “Suicides get tortured!” post again, including my reply to it, but she (of course) has me blocked. Tumblr doesn’t allow you to reblog posts from users who have blocked you. For what it’s worth, the post is still on my blog, with the response - I just can’t reblog it. *shrug*

And yes, of course this could be extremely damaging for newbies or others who’re struggling with mental illness. I know people who were raised Christian, and felt terrified every night that they would wake up in hell after dying in their sleep. This isn’t much different from the awkwardly-conceived pagan hell of wrathful gods Servant talks about, is it?

Now, some might say that the OP was written to dissuade suicide, much in the same way threats of hell keep fundamentalists in line. I still think it’s terribly damaging and untrue. Threatening people rarely helps and often sets up problems for them in later life.

In fact, I’m calling it now - Servant probably just made the whole thing up to seem like an authority. I don’t buy this “my family is secret pagans with a long tradition etc” nonsense from her, either. If I had a dime for every time someone told such a fish tale online, I’d probably be able to buy a new iPad Pro!

Absolutely no single Hellenic polytheist I’ve spoken with about it (including some of my favorite authors) saw it as an accurate reflection of Hellenic beliefs. I even have a couple friends who are/were historians (one specializes in maritime history, but the other specializes in Ancient Greek religion, though he’s not pagan himself).

They were very confused by all this, because none of it is supported in the lore. In other words, there’s no connection there. The ancient Greeks didn’t believe this - she pulled it out of thin air. It’s fine if she wants to believe such nonsense, but she should at very least admit she made it up herself, and not try to drag people into it as if she’s some sort of authority figure.

And, anyways, I’ve shown elsewhere that there’s a lot of inconsistencies in her stories. This merits pause before one takes her at face value.

#witchcraft #witch #pagan #witchblr #tarot #eliza.txt #discourse #tw suicide #tw religious trauma

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goarticletec-blog · 6 years ago

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The best free Steam games 2018

New Post has been published on https://www.articletec.com/the-best-free-steam-games-2018/

The best free Steam games 2018

Getting into the best PC games can be an extremely rewarding experience, but it can definitely get expensive. But, you don’t have to pay top dollar for a great gaming experience, which is why we gathered up the best free-to-play Steam games 2018 has to offer.

Over the last few years, the best free games have become infamous for shoving a ton of microtransactions in your face. But, don’t worry, you won’t have to sign your soul away in an agreement to spend money later on with these games. All the best free-to-play Steam games we picked here can be enjoyed for hours on end, all without spending a dime.

So, fire up your Steam account, boot up one of the best gaming PCs, put your wallet away (for now), and check out the best free-to-play Steam games of 2018.

1. Fractured Space

When it comes to MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), not every game has to be a fantasy-based romp with daggers, spells and cutesy champions.

Take the science fiction ship battles of Fractured Space. Sure, it’s a MOBA-style 5v5 affair, but now you’re in control of a powerful frigate as your hurtle across the stars and attempt to destroy your opponent’s base before your own suffers the same fate.

Skewing the classic MOBA concept as a space-based naval affair gives the setup you know and love a much-needed breath of fresh air, while blowing away all the cobwebs. You can customize your ship and crew, as well as hotkeying weapons and abilities so you can combine the best ships for the task ahead.

It’s one of the most exciting MOBAs on PC, and it’s free to play on Steam.

Download here: Fractured Space

2. Gigantic

Much like Paladins, Gigantic offers a team-based shooter that’s part-Overwatch, part MOBA and part something brand new. Instead of having you defend a slow-moving carriage through a map (because that never gets old) or destroy an enemy base (in classic MOBA style), Gigantic tasks you with killing an enemy giant while attempting to protect your own. Sounds mad, right? It is, but a brilliant kind of mad all the same.

With an art style that mashes up Studio Ghibli flourishes and classic Disney cuteness, Gigantic’s 20-strong character roster offers enough skills, weapons and attributes to appease even the pickiest of players.

Each match is a 5v5 event, with players working together to power up their own Guardian (that’s your giant weapon/walking base) while risking it all to lay siege to the enemy. The roving nature of your Guardian makes every match an intense affair, and best of all, it’s 100% free on Steam.

Download here: Gigantic

3. Star Trek Online

MMOs and film licenses don’t often mix well – from The Matrix Online to Star Wars Galaxies, recognizable universes have rarely lasted in the realm of persistent online worlds. Except for the enduring Star Trek Online, that is. Retroactively made free-to-play following its launch back in 2010, STO gifts you with a crew and a Federation starship and sets you free to sail the stars in true Trekkie fashion.

There are microtransactions available should you want to speed up the levelling/resource gathering process, but STO is consistently generous with its free content, especially to new players looking to see their very own final frontier. It’s also set within ongoing Star Trek canon, taking place roughly three decades after the events of Star Trek Nemesis (you know, that terrible TNG film with Tom Hardy).

With an economy, ever-shifting alliances and a still impressively vast community, STO manages to bottle that magic that makes Star Trek so timeless.

Download here: Star Trek Online

4. Paladins: Champions of the Realm

Paladins launched just after a certain team-based shooter from Blizzard, and it’s hard not see the similarities. Still, that doesn’t mean Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play FPS isn’t worth your time – it just means you get play something that’s often just as fun and rewarding without forcing you to break the bank with a full-game price.

With a menagerie of characters to choose from (known as Champions), each match offers an objective-based experience that feels more like triple-A fare than other free-to-play shooters.

Paladins includes everything from Overwatch-style payload defence/offence to a Survival mode akin to the popular ‘battle royale’ sub-genre made popular by PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. It offers a consistently enjoyable and rewarding place to spend your time, even if it’s a tad derivative.

It’s free to play on Steam, and there’s no need to sink any money into it as long as you’re willing to grind for the first few hours.

Download here: Paladins: Champions of the Realm

5. ArcheAge

MMOs set within the confines of a fantasy setting are hardly new – in fact, almost all of them fit that description to a tee – but very few of them manage to offer just as much diverse content as the Korean-made ArcheAge.

You can do all your usual MMO minutia – questing, gathering resources, looting new weapons and gear, and so on – but grind through its early levels and you’ll discover an online world full of surprises.

Want to conquer lands and lay claim to them? Check. Fancy building your very own castle? Double check. How about forming an alliance and besieging another for control of their land? Triple check. Oh, and how about a naval combat setting that practically adds an entire open-ocean to explore and plunder? All the checks. ArcheAge offers all this and more. Its naval combat mechanics are particularly impressive, enabling you to dispense maritime justice or hunt for loot as a virtual pirate.

Download here: ArcheAge

6. Warface: Blackout

Free-to-play shooters in their more traditional, deathmatch-esque form are often a hit and miss affair, but despite all those polished triple-A offerings from the likes of Activision and EA, Crytek Kiev has managed to put together a robust little FPS that can be just as exciting and enjoyable as many other entries in the bullet-ridden genre.

Warface: Blackout offers four classes to choose from, with weapons, gear, attachments and specific skills tied to each one. Having the right balance of classes in your squad adds a more Battlefield-style teamwork ethic, especially when engineers can repair armour and snipers can pull off game-changing one-shot kills.

After four years of rotation on the field, Warface has also honed its online economy, neatly offering you the ability to spend in-game currency on a rental system that lets you test out guns and gear before investing time and cash into your own version.

Download here: Warface: Blackout

7. Art of War: Red Tides

Are you looking for a MOBA spin-off that’s light on the RTS elements but deep enough to keep you engaged through every match? Well, we’ve got just the free-to-play beauty for you. Art of War: Red Tides takes that classic MOBA structure – funnelling you down a channel with loads of units as you attempt to destroy a base at the other end – but strips out all the busywork in between. It might not appeal to the hardcore among us, but for those looking to replicate the relaxed involvement of a mobile title at your PC, this is right up your alley.

That’s not to say it’s a spectator title. You’ll still need to survey the battlefield and use your energy reserves to build units to counter those already on the field. There are a trio of modes available, but it’s in the 3v3 mode the setup works best, with matches often coming down to which team pulls off the best combo.

Download here: Art of War: Red Tides

8. Warframe

Okay, so the word ‘war’ features quite a lot in some of the best and most popular free-to-play titles, but that’s because few things are as fun to wage when you’re spending no money. Another such example is Warframe – an online melee brawler/shooter that’s evolved into one of the most enjoyable games on PC.

In the form of a sword-wielding space ninja (yes, it’s as cool as it sounds), the game feels like a cross between For Honor and Destiny 2, with modes offering PvE and PvP matches to keep you engaged. There’s even a story mode, and it’s actually pretty fun, if a little repetitive in places.

Developer Digital Extremes has also been incredibly faithful to its creation, rolling out regular updates and events that offer new upgrades and expansion on its burgeoning sci-fi lore. It may have floundered on consoles, but Warframe is very much alive on PC.

Download here: Warframe

9. Star Conflict

There’s been a resurgence for the sci-fi dogfighting subgenre in the last few years – thanks in part to the rise of VR – but there aren’t many titles that let you take to the stars and shoot space ships for nada. In fact, there’s just the one, and it’s one of the most enjoyable games we’ve played on this list.

The game is split into four main modes – PvP, Open Space, Sector Conquest and Missions – offering plenty of content for absolutely no pounds/euros/dollars. You can atomize other players in classic deathmatches, explore an impressively vast universe in Open Space, or head into co-op for a bit of PvE action in Missions. You can set up custom battles with friends if you’re in mood for a private dust up. Ship designs offer different attributes depending on your play style, and earning new ones can be pulled off without spending a penny if you’re willing to grind.

Download here: Star Conflict

10. Atlas Reactor

Part MOBA, part RTS, Atlas Reactor borrows those now ubiquitous decision queues and adds a neat twist: instead of each player acting out their turn one after the other, everyone gets to play at the same time. The result? A strategy game in actual real-time as players move units around the map, exchanging actions in a chaotic flurry. It can be a little more luck based than we would like (since you don’t know what you’re opponents are going to do next, it’s often guess work alone), but the pace soon hooks you in.

Decision, one of two main modes in the game, forces you to make these decisions in 20 seconds or under for each turn (making every match hella fun and hyper intense), while Resolution slows things down into four phases as you plan out your moves and set traps as you attempt to win each 4v4 showdown.

Download here: Atlas Reactor

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etechwire-blog · 6 years ago

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The best free-to-play Steam games 2018

New Post has been published on https://www.etechwire.com/the-best-free-to-play-steam-games-2018/

The best free-to-play Steam games 2018

PC gaming can be a hugely rewarding experience as well as a hugely expensive one, but you don’t have to pay top dollar with our roundup of the best free-to-play Steam games of the moment.

And while free-to-play always has the shadow of the sneaky microtransaction looming over it, you don’t have to play any of these games in exchange for a soul-selling agreement to spend money further down the line. Every ‘free’ game we’ve gathered together here can be enjoyed for hours on end, all without spending a dime.

So fire up your Steam account, put your wallet away (for now), and check out the best free-to-play Steam games of 2018 (so far).

1. Fractured Space

When it comes to MOBAs (multiplayer online battle arenas), not every game has to be a fantasy-based romp with daggers, spells and cutesy champions.

It’s one of the most exciting MOBAs on PC, and it’s free to play on Steam.

Download here: Fractured Space

2. Gigantic

Download here: Gigantic

3. Star Trek Online

With an economy, ever-shifting alliances and a still impressively vast community, STO manages to bottle that magic that makes Star Trek so timeless.

Download here: Star Trek Online

4. Paladins: Champions of the Realm

With a menagerie of characters to choose from (known as Champions), each match offers an objective-based experience that feels more like triple-A fare than other free-to-play shooters.

It’s free to play on Steam, and there’s no need to sink any money into it as long as you’re willing to grind for the first few hours.

Download here: Paladins: Champions of the Realm

5. ArcheAge

Download here: ArcheAge

6. Warface: Blackout

Download here: Warface: Blackout

7. Art of War: Red Tides

Download here: Art of War: Red Tides

8. Warframe

Download here: Warframe

9. Star Conflict

Download here: Star Conflict

10. Atlas Reactor

Download here: Atlas Reactor

#freetoplay #games #Steam

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rusticrevivals · 7 years ago

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Regular Readers may remember the story of the “Lucy” of Lucy’s Gulch, the admirable mid-wife who climbed a mountain path straight up into New Denmark every time a woman needed help with her birthing time. Nonetheless, as explained previously, Lucy was considered the ‘2nd wife’ of her sister’s husband. Each of the two sisters had their own house within 20 ft of each other, and the husband/brother-in-law travelled back and forth between the two, having had children by both women. Pictures and story here:

https://bluebellmountainblog.wordpress.com/2016/03/26/fact-or-folk-lore-lucys-gulch

I got that out in the first paragraph, right away, because I don’t want anyone thinking I am now being ‘kept’ by my own sister’s husband. Boyd did, however, invite me to tea in some of the many ‘shacks’ he’s built himself out of reclaimed materials, and as he is as adamantly eco-friendly as we are trying to be here (though Newfoundland is MUCH more ahead of the game in the recycling/reusing/ and making less of a carbon footprint than New Brunswick!) I thought it important to feature Boyd and his work/thoughts/ideas in this particular posting.

Mom/Joy and I spent the last week in St. John’s, Newfoundland. For those of you not familiar with our Maritime provinces, my sister has lived out there ‘on the Rock’, for about 25 years, while Richard’s BROTHER and mother live three hours away in Saint John (no ‘s’ on the end is the only difference when pronouncing). They’ve been there for about 20 years, and are one of the reasons we moved to THIS province. We went to St. John’s for a superlative concert put on by the Atlantic Boychoir, in which my nephew sings, and they were joined by the Grammy-and-Emmy-award-winning King’s Singers, from Cambridge, England. On top of which my eleven-year-old nephew Sydney also played a ‘cello solo during this concert in the 2500-capacity, 160-year-old cathedral. So it was well worth burning up the air-miles and two days of travel time (even though they are so close geographically, it takes LONGER to get there from here, than from Toronto!) to hear the boy bring the house down at the end of his astonishingly professional with his choir.

This entire blog, however, is primarily supposed to be about trying to live self-sufficiently off the land, and about other rural goings-on in a community still clinging to the traditions of old. So I’m not about to expound further upon the particular virtues of that most-amazing event, but will simply get on with how I ‘shacked up with my brother-in-law’.

First of all, my brother-in-law Harold Boyd, is not what you’d expect from an accountant of many years, nor a staunch supporter of environmental issues. He IS possibly, what some might expect of a native Newfoundlander, with the exception that he and my sister were the first to own an electric car (Toyota Prius) on the island. Here he is about to drive it silently into the night:

Boyd has previously been mentioned in this blog when he and Richard spent some time this summer here at Blue Belldon, fending off bees as they moved the compost containers closer to the garden. Having a family farm on the other side of the island (8 hours drive) but being happily ensconced in suburbanville in St. John’s has not deterred dear brother-in-law from setting up his back-yard like a scene from BBC’s The Good Life (also previously mentioned – and worth watching for anyone dreaming of that ‘off-the-grid’ life, but having no land to speak of:

First of all, Boyd and Jennifer have taken down the stereotypical suburban fencing that one finds surrounding most homes in ‘The Burbs’, and encourage all the neighbourhood children and pets to make a walking path, much like one would find in England and Europe. Behind their house is a ‘green space’, which then leads to various community buildings (school, hall, churches, etc). Boyd is adamant that Sydney walk to school most days even through deep snow, and tries by example to instigate others to do the same, thus taking a little journey through their farm-like back-yard and into the green space, which certainly cuts off at least 10 minutes of what it would be to walk via the roadways, not to mention opening up an entire ‘nature walk’ along the way.

For Boyd feeds the birds:

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Above, Boyd putting out two different suet blocks in his yard, one being ‘high energy’ to attract the bigger birds. He climbs a ladder to put one of these up, to detract cats (esp. his own) from climbing. And here he is filling all his bird-feeders with seed – he even puts perches out for the little beasts – ‘so they can queue up and wait their turn’!

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Boyd has built all the sheds, greenhouses, and raised gardens thus far in their yard, and has plans to continue expanding the garden portion (as well as tending garden in the summer months out on the ‘west coast’ of the island near Cartyville, where his mother still resides).

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Above, Boyd even has a burn pile, like we do here on the farm, although admittedly he can’t burn in the city limits. See also, the fence he’s removed so that the green space behind it is open to everyone from the front.

Next, we go into Boyd’s favourite ‘shack’. This is his self-made observatory (for the birds as well as the nature-enjoying neighbours). Of course, ALL Boyd’s shacks are made from recycled/reclaimed materials. The windows that make up most of this one were partly garnered from being found at the end of someone’s drive, and partly by patio doors for which his brother no longer had a use:

In this ‘observatory’, Boyd can enjoy the peace of his own mini-farm, watch the birds he is feeding and enjoy a cup of tea with the Kelly Kettle my sister bought for him, which he’s set up on an unused stainless steel garbage can. It doesn’t heat the room, but it DOES keep one busy and warms the hands whilst doing so. And of course, Boyd does have plans for a larger stove in this shack’s future.

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Boyd also enjoyed putting out these large “Christmas lights” so that he could stand in the house and enjoy looking at them all season, knowing they are being run by the solar panel he has on top of his sheds. (When solar panels are no longer quite so expensive, he and Jennifer hope to run their Prius completely from the sun’s rays – we should ALL be looking to doing this, and thus neither electric vehicles NOR solar panels should be so ridiculously inflated in price… but don’t get me started on that right now!)

Boyd then pulls out his ‘survival kit’ (a pouch of dryer lint, shredded paper and an assortment of wood bits for small kindling). He also proudly shows me a Lee Valley Swedish Firesteel which is impervious to all weather conditions and offers long-lasting sparks to start any fire:

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So, after crumpling in the bits of paper and lint into the bottom of the Kelly Kettle, and after having moved the ‘stovepipe’, he fills the kettle with water (which surrounds the inner heating section) and then keeps feeding the stove constantly, now with twigs from his burn pile in the back corner, a heap of which he is letting dry in a corner of the shed.

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And after only about 7 minutes – voila! He pours us each a cup of lovely hot tea!

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Next, we wait to see what neighbourhood children and wildlife will begin to discover the joys of Boyd’s Ebullient Acres. To help the process along a little, Boyd pulls out his bird-caller:

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and we are ready with a full chart of Maritime birds posted on the shack’s wall.

It’s not very moments before one tree is full of juncos and a large flicker is tapping away at the suet block:

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Without the snow on the roof, Boyd even can enjoy looking out through the ceiling, as he’s added a long window above for bird or moon/star-gazing:

Although he didn’t set it up this winter, Boyd has experimented with hydroponic growing systems, which Richard hopes to do soon as well (right now we just have some lettuce growing in earth in the seed tables in the basement – set up for this was detailed here: https://bluebellmountainblog.wordpress.com/2017/03/21/blue-belldon-basement-grow-op/ and had the 2nd-largest reading of any of my blog postings, so there must be an interest for inside growing techniques during long winter months!)

For more on Boyd’s type of hydroponics using PVC, see this:

https://ca.video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search;_ylt=A0LEVrg4CmpajOYA1swXFwx.?p=hydroponics+with+pvc&fr=yhs-iba-1&fr2=piv-web&hspart=iba&hsimp=yhs-1&type=mchm_6047_CHW_CA#id=3&vid=5e2a6d8bf41fafd6b1722e877280d031&action=view

Boyd has this sitting in his shed, so it made me curious to investigate more:

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While I enjoyed watching the birds with Boyd, using camera, binoculars and my distance specs, my vision was frequently impaired by the Coke-bottle eyeglasses my nephew caused me to wear several times – once when we were playing ‘spy’ and deciphering codes, and another time when I threatened to dress up as crazy “Eco-Aunt” and go to his aikido classes if he didn’t behave. Eco-Aunt doesn’t waste water on hair-washing or bathing, applies makeup only using natural products, and wears only natural hair ornaments (feathers and wooden clothespins, etc). Once he saw me like this, Sydney decided to behave extraordinarily well, but I am thinking of offering Eco-Aunt as a main character to all marches for environmental issues. What do you think – is she memorable?

Shacking Up with Brother-in-Law Regular Readers may remember the story of the "Lucy" of Lucy's Gulch, the admirable mid-wife who climbed a mountain path straight up into New Denmark every time a woman needed help with her birthing time.

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