28 Days in our town in decline

It’s been 28 days since I opened The Bear River Cafe, and what a learning experience it’s been. I knew going into this that no matter what experience I had, there would be a learning curve. Forget the curve, it turns out there are sharp corners, dips, speed bumps and those hairpin curves are great fun. Nothing is easy, just look at the signs going up…

Jon ready to hang the cafe signs.

The tide is in, so he's over water.

...and the other side.

it looked like fun to me.

I am still dealing with the same water issue, but pressure on the powers that be have not let up, and this town won’t give up.   Despite it all; no water, long hours, no social life, but no privacy, and still no water (guess what my no.1 concern is), I am living a dream here in our fair town. And while I realize that I will never be able to please everyone that walks through my door, I will continue to try to put a smile on every ones  face before they leave…

…OK so now its  been 51 days since I opened the doors here. I guess that kind of says how much time I seem to have on my hands, very little! I’ve managed to take a day off in that time…not enough. I keep saying that I will try to do something about that, but I haven’t had the time. I am enjoying my days here, every one is different . There are days of course that I feel  that I am living the movie ‘Groundhog Day’, but I am ever grateful.

I get to wake up to this view…

Morning yoga here...with this view.

..every day. OK, so this is an evening shot, you get the picture. My commute to work is exactly 15 steps. I get to interact with the greatest variety of people every day. And I have the greatest friends and best young adult ‘kids’  for support. I am now able to offer Bear River grown produce, how much more local can you get. It’s part of choosing Bear River…to live in, to do business in, to support.

This little town, that was within the last few months, labeled a ‘town in decline’ seems to be trying to come out of hibernation. There seems to be a surge of pride amongst its residents. While this season of sun does bring people out into the world again, to enjoy what this paradise has to offer, this feels like more than that this season. It is evidenced by the activities that make this town a community. Our ‘town in decline’ has seen not only its mainstays like The Flight of Fancy and the Changing Tides diner open again, it has also seen the opening of more than 5 new businesses, including my own and the Rebekah music hall that, thanks to Jon and Erin, brings in some world class music on a pretty regular basis. All of us have chosen, and continue to choose Bear River. We live here, we choose to open our businesses here, shop here, and socialize here. This little ‘town in decline’ is showing its pride and in the process showing its detractors what we can do as a community.

We live here!!

Trying to write everything that I would like, to catch up on here is, I am quickly realizing, going to take some time. The meandering words above seem to indicate that pretty clearly. Or maybe it’s late, and I’m tired. In any event, I can at least publish this and start another right away. I’ve only just scraped the surface of the ‘water issue’  … ahhh the water!!

Until next time, watch out for those hairpin curves.

One of those days.

It’s been one of those days for me, it started with a desire to have a hot shower.

Perhaps this is where I should share a bit about the building that I am living in, which is also going to be the café. I have not been able to get a firm date yet on when it was built, but it was well over 100 years ago. The building is built on stilts over Bear River, which I am reminded of on a daily basis when the tide is high , and the ice packs are hitting the stilts that make up the foundation. I am getting used to that. I am hooked up to a ‘municipal’ sewer system, one that at one time was a first for Canada, a solar aquatics processing plant but , because of a lack of funding from any level of government, this wonderful system is now classified as nothing more than a processing plant. There is a holding tank in front of my building that holds a pump that moves the waste to the plant and at this point I am responsible for plugging in this pump on a daily basis to ensure that the tank is drained. If I forget to do this, I run the risk of having the contents back up into the pipes in my building. No need to explain that one further, except to say that in winter, that can result in the freezing of those same pipes that the waste backs up into. You get the idea. This town straddles two counties, neither of which seems to want to take responsibility for the basic needs of this town. Now I must say that I really don’t use very much water, I have always been conscious of  my use, which is a good thing here as…

…I don’t have water in this building either, that’s right, we are still far enough removed that our town does not have municipal water. At one time this building was supplied with water from a few wells that were servicing a good portion of the downtown businesses, that has since changed, and the wells that were once plentiful are struggling to service what few businesses are still attached to them. This building has since had a  tank installed

My holding tank.

this tank holds approximately 350 gallons of water, which was great when there was a service available  that would fill the tank on demand, that too has changed. Suffice it to say that water is a major concern, as it is now the responsibility of the owner of the building to fill that tank. In order to do that the owner must be a registered water carrier, oh, and before the café opens a ‘ultra violet water filtration system’ must be installed.  As I have said, I am very careful with my water consumption.

The most recent concern with the building is the hot water. Apparently I have hot water on demand, goes with the hot water radiant heat.

I know it gives me heat, but hot water...where?

The heat is great, but I guess I am just not making my demand for the hot water in the right tone. Perhaps I am just not demanding enough, but I seem to get wonderful hot water that lasts about 30 seconds, and then it just stops. I can turn the tap back on again within a minute and get more, but again only about 30 seconds worth. So do you see where I am going with this…first of all, do I call a plumber, a furnace tech, who knows. Do I need to get this sorted out before I open… kind of important to have hot water in a café and at this point a hot shower would be divine. There are still some hurdles to overcome as you can see, but I still continue to be positive, and determined.

It’s been ‘one of those days’, and it started with a desire to take a hot shower.