We Homestead An Island

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Nor must we forget to mention yet another way in which foraged eelgrass contributes to each year's harvest of homegrown vegetables: Heaps of the "insulation" protect our root vegetables from winter freezes until we're ready to eat them. (And other wheelbarrow loads of the grass-when banked against our cabin's foundation-keep cold January winds out of the house.)

EVEN OUR CABIN WAS EASIER TO BUILD HERE ON THE ISLAND

The snug, two-room log house that we call home was a lot less trouble and a great deal less expensive to build out here on McLeod's Island than if we'd constructed it inland somewhere. Why? Because we cut and trimmed out the tree trunks for its walls two miles down shore ... and then leisurely floated the timbers to the cabin site behind our boat.

Not to mention the fact that most of our windowsill lumber was "scrounged for free" driftwood that we picked up on the beach. Or that five washed-up railroad ties serve as steps to the cabin. Or that the dozen creosoted planks which came in on the tide after one particularly severe gale were just what we needed to finish off other parts of the house. Or that old crates?tossed overboard from passing ships-are all we've ever needed in the way of dressers and drawers. Or that the thousands of flat stones we used in our cabin's foundation, in the casing for our freshwater well, and in the wall around the garden ... all came "ready to use" right from our island's own beach.

Likewise, our chickens, rabbits, and ducks (during stormy weather) are housed in log homes of their own ... log homes built almost entirely from materials obtained right here on our little island. We even make part of our winter's supply of firewood do double duty: Before we burn it (last, at the end of the season), we leave that firewood stacked through most of the icy weather on both the inside and the outside of the 10' X 14' building that houses the rabbits and chickens. Which means that the wood serves a several-months-long "apprenticeship" as insulation ... before it finally winds up in the stove, heating our cabin!

CRAFTING AND RECREATION ARE BUILT RIGHT INTO OUR WAY OF LIFE

We're constantly amazed at the many other ways our island provides us-for free!?with the Good Things in life that most North Americans now have to pay outrageous prices for. Compare:

While others scrimp and save all year long, then cram children, pets, and beach balls into the station wagon for a frantic two-week vacation ... we're free?twelve months a year-to take a zesty plunge into the surf or drop a line into crystal-clear waters any time we want to. And all only a few feet from our front door. And when we get tired of that, there's all those miles and miles of spruce-rimmed shoreline and secluded beaches "out there" constantly tempting us to explore them. And when that gets boring, we can just hop into Yaki?our two-place kayak-hoist the little boat's sails ... and go "yachting" around the bay for hours at a time.

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