Blog
January 26, 2010
We have left the cottages open for business
all winter this year. The reasons are that we had a full time
renter from November
until the first of February, and we would
like to be available to support the ECMA awards in March. I
have only had to clear the
lane of snow once using the grader blade, so
we took advantage of the mild winter to put 26 tons of gravel
into some of the pot
holes that were forming. There is now a bit
of frost in the ground, but most of the winter , I could
easily dig up Sunchokes (helianthus
tuberosus) to eat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerusalem_artichoke
. Having said that, today it is raining and +6° C, so it
reamins to be
seen how long the ground will stay frozen. It
is the weirdest and mildest winter I have ever seen. My bees
seem to be doing good and have
lots of stored honey, but I am still worried
about February and March. I have built a link for our honey
co-op to http://www.localcanadianfood.com/search.php
and chose Sydney as your region.
May 02, 2009
The cottages are now open for business. I
have little tweaking to do (there is always something), and
we have had some inquiry
for the May long weekend. We have a lot of
bookings in Late July and Early August , but there are a few
slots open here and there.
I'd like to say welcome back to some of our
repeat customers and we are really looking forward to seeing
you again. For those of you
thinking on coming in May, I will say that it
is not too quiet up on the hill in the evenings since the
spring peepers and frogs are really
putting up a racket on the warmer nights. The
duck pond already has eggs in it! Lauretta and I sat on the
bench there the other evening
and were totally mesmerized by them. They
didn't even stop when we walked up to the pond. There is
nothing like the power of
Spring! I made friends with Mike and Jen of
Eagle North Kayaking, check their site out at http://www.kayakingcapebreton.ca/
They are new beekeepers and have many similar
interests to me , including Maple Syrop. Maybe next year we
will have some of their
syrop in our Cottages for your blueberry
pancakes! Check out their site, it looks like a really
exciting outing to do with your family
while you stay here at our cabins. It would
take you about 3 hours to drive there. We are thinking on
giving it a try soon, so I will
post pictures if we do! I would suggest
people book early for July and August!
April 19, 2009
We were away this weekend for family matters,
but I managed to get cottage 3 and 2 opened and ready last
week. I spent alot
of time at sea during March and early April
on both the CCGS Alfred Needler research trawler http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CCGS_Alfred_Needler
and a short trip on the FT Northern Eagle. http://www.mvosprey.com/page5.html
Our beekeepers co-op is preparing for our
annual meeting this coming weekend and we
now have a website at http://capebretonorganicbeekeeperscoop.com/
John and I will be working to get more info
up on the site very shortly, but the email link is working
for any one who wishes to know
more about the Co-op. Our annual general
meeting is scheduled at the South Haven community hall on
April 25th, 2009 at 1pm.
Spring has arrived in Cape Breton, and
although it still is only around 2 or 3 C during the days,
the bees are flying and the spring peepers
are peeping even at below zero temperatures
in the evenings. Nothing can seem to hold back the burgeoning
efforts of nature to begin it's timeless
annual rebirth. I expect the young pregnant
queen bumble bees to begin flying in another week or two,
looking for new homes to raise their
babies up by the boot straps, to steal back a
now common computer term. Coltsfoot and crocus are providing
nectar and pollen and the alders
are shedding copius amounts of pollen which
the bees are desperately trying to gather to feed to their
babies in the form of bee-bread and royal
jelly. We have seen ants on the march,
beetles in the garden the return of many birds already. I
have heard reports that some Canadian Geese
are back and are building their nests at the
edges of the now open ponds. I have seen many anglers trying
to entice the trout with the juicy earthworms
they are tossing into the waters of George's
River and up along the Barachois.
I'll post in the blog when the cottages are
officially open and we are ready for business.
I know that there are some exciting things
taking place here in Cape Breton this year, such as the
"Thunder in the Highlands" motorcycle tour
http://www.capebretonbikefest.com/
and the return of the Tall Ships to Louisbourg and Sydney http://www.tallshipsnovascotia.com/
.
We also have the inaugaral year for Marine
Atlantic's new "Atlantic Vision" passenger and car
ferry http://www.marine-atlantic.ca/en/NewVessel/newvessel.shtml
to Port Aux Basques from North Sydney. I saw
her doing 15 knots while my old friend CCGS Louis S. St.
Laurent was helping the other ferries get
through the ice in late March. I have heard
the "Atlantic Vision" can do 27 knots in open
water, which is quite amazing for a ship of her size and
comfort.
She is a really beauty, 'bye! ... and a
pleasure to an old salt's eye. Looks some shockin' good from
the North Sydney board walk.
January 10, 2009
We have made a considerable
reduction in our rates for the cottages and I have updated
our rate page to reflect this. Chiefly,
we have dropped each daily
rate by $19. This is due to us responding to the tougher
economy and doing away with the off-season
reductions. We just were not
getting the numbers and the increased cost in heating etc.
was not feasible to reduce the rates, so instead
we applied an across the
season reduction. You can see the updated rates here, but
don't forget to hit the refesh button if you have checked
this page before: http://highlandviewcottages.com/rates.html
Keep in mind that we can
extend the season earlier in the spring or later in the fall
if there
is sufficient demand. It
really is a shame that more people don't see Cape Breton in
the Spring or Fall. Spring is my favorite time of
year and Fall is Lauretta's
favorite time. However, that is not when most people take
their vacations, so that is just the way she is, by!
We are exploring some
alternative heating systems, but wood heating in these
cottages are just not an option that the insurance companies
will accept. Will we ever get
natural gas?
The trees in front of the
cabins have grown up considerably since we first put them in,
so do to poplar ( pun intended) request I have been
cleaning out some of the pin
cherries, white spruce and white birch that were impeding the
view of the mountains and the lakes. I just can't
bring myself to cutting the
maples, but might do some pruning on them. All this should
result in a better view and possibly more blueberries
as they get more exposure to
the sun (for those who like blueberry pancakes!) 2008 was
good year for Blackberries but not so good for
the wild blueberries. Due to
the immense popularity of the 2008 Blackberry wine, I will
plan on doing another batch in 2009. I really wanted to
do Sarsparilla wine this year
but was away at sea when they ripened. Maybe in 2009? I did
freeze about 8 cups of Black currants so may try my hand
at that later in Spring. All
my red currants went into Lauretta's red currant jelly that I
love so much. I love how tart she makes it.
November 25, 2008
I have made one of my songs a
free download at my soundclicks website, (the one demo on my
personal page here)
If you like you can visit it
at http://soundclick.com/CyrilTWelshJr
. I have added a few links to artists I enjoy at that site.
I think this is a lovely way for artists and
music lovers to share with each other. I especially like
their rates and the option
to give songs for free . I encourage people
to pay the small fee and download those songs and albums that
you like. All musicians
dream of paying their bills with music, but
few ever realize that dream, or at the expense of great
sacrifice and time away from home.
Musicians on the road can be as lonely as
Sailors at sea!
I hope to work on some more songs, especially
some of the original songs I have as well as more traditional
songs. If you have any others
favorite artists on SoundClick you know of ,
send me an email.
We are closed for the season now as my water
pipes froze up again. I love Cape Breton Summers, but would
rather it would stay here
year round! Lauretta, being a typical
Quebecer, loves the winter. Bah! Give me a south sea island
any day, without the hurricanes
and Tsunamis off course! Thats why I like
singing "Pearly Shells" and "Tiny
Bubbles", or playing "La Paloma".
November 23, 2008
Some of our customers gave me
heck this summer because I hadn't made any recent entries to
the Blog. Well here is what happened:
Computer used for website
updating crashed, and I lost all my tools for webpage and
photo editing. Had to buy a new computer but also got the old
computer
fixed and we use it for a
customer workstation now. Took a while to get the old tools
back together, fortunately I found some of my disks and
downloaded a few as well.
Called webhost and ISP providers to get passwords I had
forgotten; too many for this old head!!
Also, I have been spending a
lot of time at sea , mostly working with the Coast Guard out
of Maratimes Region, but also did a bit of commercial
sailing.
As a result I didn't get to
see a lot of our guests this year, and Lauretta did most of
the work in the cottages. I did get to meet a few and renewed
some friendships
with some of our repeat
customers. I have quite a few new pictures to put on the web
and will be doing quite a bit of work on the website over the
next
2 months. I didn't get much
time to play music this year, 1 little BBQ on the CCGS Hudson
while off Sable Island, but the good news is that we did get
10 litres of
Blackbery wine going here on
the Farm. The first batch of 5 litres has to be the best we
have ever made , Lauretta just loves it. We racked off a
false wine but haven't tried it yet.
I hope it is close to the
first batch in taste.
We got our first batch of
Butternuts, about 125 all total, so I will be trying to get
some sprouting next spring. They are a gorgeous tree!
Honey production was down this
year due to me being away a lot and selling a few colonies
off to new beekeepers in CB. As a result, the only honey
retailed this year was at the
Farm. All in all it was bad year for bees, in my opinion,
since there was a lot of heavy rain at the time of the nectar
flows. I am really
worried that they got enough
stores to get through the winter, so I am planning a heavy
feeding program during the January thaw. I ordered in 25
Hawaiin
queens this spring but they
just didn't seem to get along with my bees and many of them
left. The provincial Bee Inspector, Joanne Moran and a
graduate student from
Acadia, Cate Little, visted us
and gave me a lot of advice. We really hope to have them back
next year to share their expertise with some of our new Cape
Breton BeeKeepers.
June 21, 2007
I just had to make an entry
today... it's the first day of summer! A mixed bag of weather
in C.B. and Halifax.. Lauretta and her Mom celebrated
National Aboriginal Awareness
Day by going to Indian Beach in North Sydney. In Halifax,
where I was, there was a great pow-wow going
on at Seaview Park below the
A. Murray Mackay Bridge. I wasn't able to go since I had to
work on the Ferry, but my heart
was there and I strained to
hear the drumsongs carried on the warm the winds up the
harbor! The day before, during my morning break, I took
pictures of 3
different species of wild
bumblebees in Alderney Park and saw my first feral (?)
honeybees on the Hawthorn trees there. The famous Shubenacadie
Canal begins there and carried
many of our ancestors by water right to the Bay of Fundy. I
can feel the spirit of many of our ancestors here, since
so much history took place in
this very spot . It was the famous peace treaty of 1752 that
Governor Hopson signed with the Mi'kmaw Nation that allowed
Dartmouth to be settled and
the first Ferry service from Halifax to begin that same year.
Thanks to that great treaty, and many competent sailors, it
has been safe
to travel by Ferry from
Halifax to Dartmouth ever since!!
You can visit the Quaker house that still
exists at 57 Ochterloney Street. I believe it dates back to
1785.
You know it amazes me that I
can make the trip from a gathering place in Dartmouth to my
home on the Bras D'or Lakes, in about 4 and a half
hours. It probably would have
taken several days (weeks?) back in 1752. But what an
experience that trip must have been back then. And what a
great party
or pow-wow would be celebrated
once you arrived and met your family who were arriving at the
same time from all over Atlantic Canada (and the Eastern
U.S.)
March 27, 2007
Wow, a whole year has gone by
and what a change in my life. I had to sell the sheep and
take a job in Halifax, 5 hours drive
away. A recent survey
estimates over 50% of all farmers in Cape Breton and 30% of
mainland Nova Scotia Farmers expect
to be out of farming in less
than 5 years. It was the hardest thing that I have ever done
getting rid of my sheep. I had been
keeping them for over 16
years. I am still trying to generate some income from the
Farm with other produce and the cottages
are doing well. I have fallen
back to the trade I did over 21 years ago, and am now working
as a Marine Engineer with the Halifax
Regional Municipality Transit
Ferry Service. Here is a a Photo of the Woodisde 1 in the
Foreground with the vessel that I last worked
on 21 years ago in the
background (CCGS Louis S. St. Laurent). I took this late last
summer just after the Louis returned from her
Arctic voyage. I was on the
Halifax III at the time.
The Ferries are wonderful
little boats that can hold about 300 passengers , and for 2
bucks a crossing offer one of the best photo
ops for Halifax Harbour. Look
for me if you come to Halifax Dartmouth, I may be on one of
the 3 ferries. Tall ships are coming to Halifax this summer!!
Back in January , in CB, there
was a very warm period around the 9th and I took this picture
of a baby eagle who had gotten wet and perched
on the power pole by the house
to dry off. I took this photo with my 70-200mm Formula 5 lens
I bought in 1981 and used on a
Digital Pentax 35 mm istDL
camera with manual settings .
Although it is well known that
there are many Bald eagles in Cape Breton, can you believe
that I actually have seen them attacking the ducks
and gulls while I have been
working in Halifax Harbor. Imagine that!
May 02, 2006
We had our first guests of the
spring this past weekend. The buds are opening and the
coltsfoot are still in bloom
I have been cleaning up some
trees that the winds have knocked down around the farm and
plugging holes in the
sheep fence. While cleaning up
a tree that had taken a section of fence down, I stopped for
a moment to watch the antics
of a beautiful big Pileated
Woodpecker. He was only about 20 feet away from me and didn't
seem to mind all the noise I had
been making with my chainsaw.
Saturday we saw a red fox on
the front field. I think he was hunting field mice the way he
was pouncing up and down. Today
in the same area I saw a big
male ring-neck pheasant. He has been crowing all around the
farm looking for a mate I think!
Marie Christine and little
Christina came down and visited us over Easter. We had her
baptised at our church, and now they
are all gone back to Quebec. I
miss the babie's big blue eyes and easy smiles!
March 31, 2006
We officially opened the
cottages back up this week. I had two ball valves on the
water system that I had to replace, but other than that
everything
survived the winter ok. We may
leave them open for business next winter if there is some
demand for them like there was this past winter. Daytime
temperatures are now going
above 10 degrees C while nights still are dropping to a few
degrees below freezing. The bees are flying and gathering
pollen from the Coltsfoot
flowers and Pussy Willows (or as Alexander and I call them
Wussy Pillows). We have been having gorgeous sunny days, and
our first Guests are coming in
next Week.
I have been busy this winter
with the band and you can find us at one of the senior homes
on the Northside. We are playing the Miner's Memorial Manor
later today and April 6th. We
play the Harborview on April 10th (open to the public) , the
Northside General Hospital on April 11th and the Northside
Guest
home on April 18th. Here is a
photo that Barb McLean took at a recent wedding anniversary:
Left to right:
Sandy Pero (Bass), Roy Bennet
,look how he glows ! (Guitar), Richard The Boss McLean
(Keyboard),
Max Whyte (Guitar and Lead
Vocals), myself , Like that Ballon hat? (Accordeon,
Harmonica and Vocals),
and Stewart Andrews (Mandolin
and Guitar).
'Oh we don't
have a barrel of money, and the skies aren't always so sunny,
but we'll travel along , singing our songs, side by side!'
We are ex- steel workers,
carpenters, sailors, and miners! Are rockinest songs are old
50s and 60s pickin' and songs like "Dirty Old
Town",
... I'm trying to get the boys
to do it the Pogues way! We also do Irish, Scottish and Newfy
folk music, and the occasional French tune on request. We
also have a soft spot for
Bluegrass and south seas dance style music.
We love it the most when
people get up and dance to our music!
Nov. 14, 2005
We had our last customers
this past week. The boss decided that we will close the
cottages for the winter, unless we get a minimum of a
5 day booking. It is
starting to hit zero at night now, so I will have to put
antifreeze in some of the lines. I will cut some trees this
winter so that we can
see the coal train as it
passes by the property along the shore. I have updated my
personal website and have added links to that page from this
website. I can't
wait till spring comes
again! A special thanks to all those who stayed here this
summer and are sending me such nice emails and photos. We are
so glad you
decided to stay with us! PS
( Two new batches of complimentary Blackberry & Blueberry
wine are on the go, so let us know if you are celebrating a
birthday,
honeymoon or anniversary. I
looked into getting licensed to sell it but at this stage in
time it would be too big an investment to start up a Cottage
winery!)
July 27, 2005 :
Family and customers have
been urging me to update the pictures on the website and my
BLOG enties. We have been quite busy
in our first full season,
with some of our first family visiters coming in from
Ontario, New Hampshire and New Jersey. Some of our guests
have suggested that I put
up a visitor's comments page, and I thought that was an
excellent idea. Those that stay a week usually do see
some wildlife; I have been
told they have seen a family of rabbits, several eagle
sitings, and of course many birds. One evening we watched
a doe and a fawn walk out
to the shore (for salt?) while we were having an old fashion
kitchen party in Cottage 2. We had over 30 people there on
that big deck, and my
friend Richard Parks on fiddle and Roy Bennet on guitar , and
myself on accordeon, worked up a sweat entertaining.
By the time we stopped and
made it to the chowder pot, most of the lobster was gone (
but I had an extra tub of lobster in the Fridge). Hey,
we old sailors have our
tricks!
The sheep have barged their
way through the fence and have taken a shining to the almost
200 tomato plants we put in. Go figure. My only consolation
is that the lambs are
getting nice and plump, if you know what I mean ;-) They
don't look like they did in the picture below (and the
mothers are nekked now,
since they've been
sheared). I think I will keep Angus the Ram's son, since
Angus is starting to get up there in years. He has black wool
and black horns just like
his Dad. BTW Some of our
guests took pictures of Angus' dad (Acker) at the Fortress
Louisbourg. I was shocked to find out that he is still alive
and doing well.
They must be taking good
care of him there and I hear that he winters over at Two
River's Wildlife park. Those guests who visit these places
are very happy
with their visits. I have
also heard that the Miner's Museum in Glace Bay is also a
cool place to visit ( literally, cool on hot days!!)
People have been joshing me
about the winter pictures! What can I say, we had a heat wave
where we hit 88 F and 100% humidity. Lately it has dropped
back
down to about 70 to 75 F,
with some dry days and some humid days. If any one complains,
just remember winter!
Here's a shot Lauretta took
of the sheep before shearing. The lead sheep is a highland
lass name of Lissy, North Country Cheviot, and has lost the
wool
around her neck from
bulling her way through the page wire fencing. She is a ring
leader in the daily fencing revolts!
March 24, 2005
(Good Friday):
Sun is shining, snow is
melting... sap is flowing. I just have a couple of trees
tapped. We have been very, very busy, what with the ECMA
music
awards and subsequent cabin
bookings. Got to meet the boys from Hidden Tower who stayed
here :
They told me that they
wrote two songs while staying here. I am anxious to hear
them. We have their CD's for sale here at the Barn.
St. Patricks' day was busy
with all the dance gig's our girls had. I played a bit at the
ceildigh with Donnie Cambell and Darryl Keigan;
two fine gentleman who sing
irish songs with great enthusiasm. Here is Donnie's site:
Donnie's new album Music
to Me, is available for sale at our Barn. I
particularily loved playing along with Donnie when
he sang Molly Bawn, one
of my own favorites! I am going to get copies of Darryl's Cd
as well to sell here. Keep checking back!
There where many other
musician's who sang at the CB Irish Benevolent Society
Ceilidgh at the Branch 12 Legion on Dorchester
Street , Sydney. Lots of
great Cape Breton Scottish fiddlers there as well, (we all
have the celtic blood!) If you would like more info
on the history of the Irish
in Cape Breton, our farm has just produced a DVD version for
sale for $15.00 CAD. All proceeds are going to send our dance
troop to Ireland this
coming August.
This DVD and any of these
other music CDs can be purchased by emailing me, sending a
chequeor using the paypal option on our front page.
Also, look for the new
Farmer's Market webpage coming soon, many of these artists
will be guesting on Saturdays at the new location at the
Sydney Marine
Terminal this summer.
Happy Easter!
February 8, 2005
I just had to do an update
today. Today was so beautiful, about +6 º C, and the bees
were flying for
a much needed cleansing
flight. I actually saw some of them flying and landing on
snow about 200 feet
away. It looked like they
were gathering water off the top of the snow. It was still
dense enuff for me
to walk across with my
sneakers on, and on the north side of the banks, it was still
rock hard. The snow has melted or sublimed to a
depth of about 1 foot now.
It was nice to see the bees and I hope they make it. This is
a good day for the cluster to
expand and move to untapped
reserves of honey and pollen.
Most of the lambs have
beeen born so far and seem to be doing well. I put the flock
on a grain ration to help
the mothers regain all the
weight they have lost. There is at least one set of tracks
where a coyote has been
scouting at the back of the
farm, but so far he has stayed away form the lambing barn. I
put a series of lamb creeps in that might
help them escape if he
comes around. Patches has been chasing something in that
direction in the evenings.
We got a couple of big snow
falls, and I spent days snowblowing with the tractor. The
average depth was about 3 feet
everywhere, but has now
melted as I mentioned above.
Here is a few pictures I
took of some lambs and parents:
I told you it was warm!
January 12, 2005
Well, it looks like the
snow is here to stay. we have about 3 inches accumulated on
the ground. It is fairly
light and it didn't take long to clean up the road to the
cabins.
I had a nice
surprise when I checked on the sheep. Two ewe lambs were in
the sheep barn and they belonged
to #21 ( a
Dorset Horn). When they cried for their mom, 2 other ewes
came running so they must be close too.
I am worried
about the coyotes , so if I notice any tracks close along the
fence, I may have to start closing them
in at night.
It sure would be nice to build my stock up this year, after
losing 15 lambs and 1 ewe to the darn things
last spring.
Lambing time usually always raises my spirits... thank God
for the mild temperatures.
Here's a
picture of Slash on the way to the barn.
He likes to
sit on my shoulders and walk on my keyboard, but despite that
he
still is my
buddy. Diane Lewis and the Folks at CB SPCA might remember
him... they called me 'cause he was on
THE LIST and
he was just too friendly a cat to go! I love him and he is a
great mouser!! He is really good with
the kids too.