Random Posts

  • The “Salmon”The “Salmon”
    One of my and my best friend Eric’s favorite past times is trouting.  When I still lived back home, we’d often head off for a day...
  • The Old Wood Stove
    The huge storm back home in Newfoundland got me thinking about how nice it is to be hunkered down with a nice wood fire when a...
  • Father’s Day – Uncle HayFather’s Day – Uncle Hay
    I visited home this past summer, and while our old house has changed with new occupants over the years, many things remained the same. One being...

RSS The Granite Grid

  • First Watts July 15, 2026
    Weighing the choices for off-grid power on the land. Here is why I am leaning toward the Anker SOLIX battery setup, and how a quiet backup generator fits into our plan.
    Peter Smith
  • A Turn Around the Rock July 12, 2026
    My cousin, Bernie, recently took a walk across the land and sent over a video of the tour. Watching it here from my room in Nova Scotia, it felt like I was right there pushing through the branches. The land is thick and stubborn, filled with young birch and aspen, heavy fir, and spruce growing […]
    Peter Smith
  • Four Suits and a Cabin July 12, 2026
    When you are planning an off-grid shelter, it is easy to get caught up in the big builds. We spend hours researching solar panels, charge controllers, and waterless toilets. But when the rain starts lashing against the cabin window and the Atlantic fog rolls in thick off the sound, you realize that the most valuable […]
    Peter Smith
  • Fish Bacon on the Beach July 10, 2026
    Every year, right around late June or early July, the damp, foggy weather rolls in off Trinity Bay. Around home, we call it caplin weather. It’s the time when millions of small, silver fish teem close to the shore, rolling onto the gravel beaches to spawn. As a boy growing up on Random Island, the […]
    Peter Smith
  • Before It Fades July 7, 2026
    Sometimes, sitting here in Nova Scotia, my mind wanders back across the Cabot Strait to Random Island. I remember walking past the small, weathered one-room schoolhouses and the quiet rural churches that dot the harbour roads. I never actually went to school in them, mind you—by my day, they had become community halls—but we spent […]
    Peter Smith