We’ve just survived what’s (so far) the coldest day of winter. With the wind, it got to around – 52 C. And we had a blizzard at the same time – yay!.

The next day it warmed up to a balmy -40 or so, so I went out to take a few snow pics… (more…)

After living in Craik since Earth Day 2007, the most common question asked by local Craikians young and old is, “Why would you want to move here from a big city like Toronto?” It would seem that a lot of people have the perception that a big city has more to offer than a small town. Well it is not true. Great things can happen anywhere. It is the energy that people put into their surroundings that make a place exciting, fun, welcoming etc. Craik is unique with many interesting people and their stories. We hope that in time we can share some of those stories as we grow to know the people and the land.

However, this article will be more of an update about the projects that we have been busy with since our arrival. When we made this move, our plan was to live simply* and with the help of many Craikians, we have been able to stick to the plan. To us, living simply meant not getting hooked up to electricity or gas services (often referred to off-grid living); growing a portion of our own food; and living locally by supporting local businesses and community enterprises.

Our modest electrical system consists of two 30 watt solar panels and one battery/inverter system from Canadian Tire. The inverter converts the DC power from the solar panels to AC power like energy used in a regular wall plug. In mid-September we had a wood stove installed for heat. Heating with wood instead of gas is actually a fairly good environmental choice as wood can be harvested locally and burning it only completes the carbon cycle. Meanwhile gas, takes a lot more energy to excavate, process and transport to your furnace. As well when burning gas it releases carbon into the atmosphere that has been stored under the ground for thousands of years. But regardless of how a house is heated it is more important to have a well designed house so that very little energy is required to heat it. Hopefully by next winter we will have an efficient home that does not require such a large amount of heat. Kelly will be writing a more detailed article about living off-grid in Craik, so stay tuned.

This past summer we had our very first garden. With a lot of advice and some starter plants from locals we successfully grew potatoes, carrots, beets, lettuce, spinach, tomatoes, broccoli and swiss chard. All this grew without any soil amendments neither chemical nor organic. The ground we had planted had not had a garden for at least five years. Since we are uninterested in using chemical fertilizers and our compost pile only got started the week we arrived, we just had to plant and hope. In the future, we plan to learn more about organic growing techniques so that our garden will turn into a major source of food.

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