My favourite time of the year

Yes, if I'm taking the time to write this post, it most likely means that it's raining out. We're getting a lot of rain between yesterday and today. Not a ton but a lot. A ton is 50-100mm+ and a lot is below 50mm, in my opinion.

We never get flooded here due to our high elevation but it's a much different story 1.5 to 4 hours south of us. So that covers anywhere from Fredericton all the way to parts of Nova Scotia.

Although flooding happens in spring and fall, it is not an annual occurrence. In the past seven years, the flooding only made the news for perhaps four of those years? Some years of back to back flooding while other years back to back droughts. But with the earth's wobble becoming more evident, we are sure to see more erratic and sever weather patterns on either direction.

Still, every year, we hear about folks from other provinces snapping up the riverside or oceanfront properties for what they consider in comparison to where they are from, dirt-cheap!

And they are right, at least when it comes to price alone. New Brunswick property prices are 20+ years behind Ontario, BC and Alberta property prices.

As an example, we paid $100,000 for a lot that was 1/20? of an acre, in Kelowna BC, 16 years ago!

We are only asking $10K/acre for our forested land here in New Brunswick today!

What's the price difference? You can do the math.

So what happens to those low-lying, riverside, oceanfront and floodplain, island properties or their owners during the flood years or rising sea levels? I honestly don't know as we don't know anyone able to pay $60,000 to $160,000/acre, and perhaps that is just disposable wealth?

Moving on.

This is the time of the year when the trees take one last good heavy drink of water before they hibernate for the winter. Not usually here and not this year in particular but typically August is the driest and the hottest month for much of vegetation and the forest, so the rain is much appreciated in September & October :)

Much of the leaves have turned and fallen to provide a glorious carpet on the forest floor. This year, for the first time since we bought this land, we conducted some much needed forest management, just around the main-building. The combination of winding path of brush-walls and the fallen leaves make for a whimsical trail that is really magical :)

This fall's temperatures have been...hummm...I want to say gloriously mild, while also feeling guilty knowing that we are the cause of it and it is coming at a high cost to many others and other living things :(

Anyway, we are currently a good 15 degrees milder than we should be at this time of the year. So many of our raised beds and flowers are in full bloom still.

This year, we are dedicating six beds to 450 large cloves of garlic. That should yield an average of 4 cloves each so 1,800!

I say average because some cloves only yield two, while others yield an insane six large cloves per head!

Yes, we love our garlic and many ways of consuming it. Roasted, sautéed, squeezed and perhaps even preserved this year.

Our wood-stove will soon be on and with it all the good memories of hardy comfort food, baked goods every second day, fresh sourdough, every-ready teapot,...

Some folks are predicting life to get very difficult soon. Although I personally welcome a reset button, one only has to look back at this past year and the immense wealth that it/covid has provided for many folks.

In town about once a week, never before have I seen so many super-cars, spending, busy, busy, busy people working with high incomes(mostly self employed trades-people), newcomers with high-end cars, boats & other toys, real estate agents and.....

So where is this hardship that everyone is predicting? Well, according to them, these high gas prices and vaccine passports are the start. While I always thought that gas, power and heating prices were way too low in Canada & the States, I can see how the vaccine passport imposition could be the beginning of the... We will see.

Just as a somewhat unrelated topic. I am not on social media but I heard that Facebook and it's subsidiaries, Instagram and Whatsapp were down for 6 hours. My immediate thought was, how much did Facebook lose in revenue during this period? Can you guess?

While I give you a moment to think of a number in your head, I will inform you that Mark is worth over $119 billion!

The lose of I guess mostly ad revenue for those six hours were about $6 billion!!!

Are you ok with that? How is everyone good with enabling such companies with their bad behaviours and conduct, so much money when the users have the ability to shut them down in an instant simply by shutting down their accounts?

So much that I don't understand. Sometimes I think that I must be the most ignorant person on earth.

It's Halloween today as I post this post. I was so relieved to hear that the Hallmark tradition of handing out junk candy imposed on us a few decades ago was all but cancelled last year. Sadly, it seems that you can't stop the wheels of toxic-making industries. This year we will have a nice cocktail of sugar, colour and a few doses of the new mandatory poison, yay.

And finally one last note before I go.

We are still receiving emails from folks with all kids of concerns(about the future), inquiries(about the property for sale), disappointment(on missed opportunities) etc. etc.

If this you, we are here to help. Here again, is some free advice.

If you cannot or are not ready/willing to leave your current location, partner with your family or friends and get yourselves situated where you are, now! There is absolutely no harm in pooling your resources and abilities to start living sustainably, even if the world doesn't come to an end.

If you have discussed with your family, moving out of your current location and starting your new life, then get moving. Sell your property now and buy your next property, now. Don't nickel & dime it, both on the sale or purchase because while you do that, other, more ready families are buying. This month, I was contacted by three disappointed families who lost their dream-homes because they were too slow to act.

Interest rates will likely remain low for some time and if the economy does collapse, you may not have to worry about the rates or how much you borrowed. But what is a certainty is the inventory of desirable properties & land as folks shift their focus towards them.