Roofy sky

^{Ceiling of my new square space. I have no window but the sky offers me a hell of a lighting... to not say lightning!}
Gala is missing. All the cats have answered to my daily call when I come back except for Gala. I called and called but under the rain, I did not feel like going in the jungle to find her. I also come back from a hard day's work and a 20 km bike ride.
I don't do much on the land. I most often arrive at sunset, make supper and try to relax. I read some mags or books that I brought along with me. I go to bed very early. I think I understand more why my grandparents were having supper � 4:30 and were going to bed early in an era when electricity was scarce and expensive. They also had a farm and kids.
I wake up very early, around 5:30 am. It was about the time I was going to bed in Montreal! But when the day clearly show sign of beauty from the dawn light and that the sun rises with grandeur, it helps to wake that early.

^{Framed landscape under a porch in La Patrie.}
Gala hasn't showed up. It's a bad sign. Poor Gala. I really have no idea where she could be. I probably could not hear her. She's old and her meow is low key now. On top of that I know she does not see as well as she used to, same for smelling. We've been together 14 years... It saddens me. All the other cats are here. I am quite astonished to see them all in the bush.

Where am I

I opened the "gate" for the cats yesterday. I summoned them on the dangers and showed them the land limits. I know enough the cats to know they get the message and I am confident they will stick around the house.

^{Le blue X shows my new place and the red one my working place, which is 4 km north of my former place. Each square is a kilometer in size. In the center is Mt. Megantic which is quite big and made of many summits. I am not living west of Plateau des Chicots at 1000 meters (3600').}
I work @ N D des Bois, 20 km from my place. The road is rather tough to get there. I convinced Maude to get her roof painted. Since I arrived last year and each time I came to the village I was seeing that roof and telling myself that if not one would paint that damned roof I would do it myself. It is kind of an eyesore.

I knew that one of the reasons it was that way had to do with cost of such an undertaking. Normally such a job would require scaffolds and would cost around 5000 $ Well I made an offer for a fraction of that with no scaffolding. After a few days she came back to me and said ok. It is the kind of work I need right now, for I am totally broke. Everyday I ride my bike back & forth the 40km to go and come back from work. I should be in shape by the end of the summer...

Building myself a home in three hours

^{Here is my cube-habitat... Taken in September as I was adding a plastic wrap.}
After a moving in kind of hurry because I decided to move out of there at a certain date, I arrived in my bush � 8:30 pm and during the three following hours built myself walls and roof, got the bed and the cats in in went to bed.
I used the Styrofoam� to build my inner walls, because it was dark and did not feel like getting the masonite at the other end of the lot.

^{Taken in September again. I didn't have time to take picture as I was building it.}
I finally woke up at 4:30 this morning unable to sleep. It was dawn. I decided to go get the masonite that was the platform for tents left there by one on the owner. I built my outside walls and put my screen door. At 7:30 I was finished. Went back to sleep for a while. At around 9:30 had breakfast and went to work leaving the cats inside for the days.
I will let them all out in a few days only.

^{Blackboard that's following me for so many years. The squibbles are untouched and date back to autumn 2003 in Montreal.}