2023 Trip 1: a great week in The County

First trip of the season to one of our favourite destinations, Prince Edward County. We made the trip to visit our longtime friends Lee & Howard, and as it happens, there is a private campground near their home…perfect. 

The campground is mostly seasonal, but they do have a few overnight sites. New ownership is sprucing up the place, but like most campgrounds, it is a slow process.

Made the trip cross country style, working our way along secondary roads until we reached the Glendora Ferry. A short ride had us in PEC. Got all set up at the campground then headed over to see our friends and have a bite to eat. Great to see them, lots of conversation and laughter.

Ahead of our trip they had asked us what we would like to do while there, and we told them that we would like to just hang out with them, doing what they would normally spend their days doing. So after arriving, Howard asked me if I would like to help cut and split wood in the morning…who can resist that kind of offer?  He then asked if I would like to help with stone wall re-building in the afternoon. It shaped up to be a stellar day!

Five huge maples had come crashing down in the woods behind their house during a heavy winter storm. Excellent wood to be harvested for heating a home, and the trees will yield many many cords. Howard’s friend Joe soon arrived, driving his very old MF tractor, log splitter in tow. Joe fired up a rather hefty Stihl chainsaw, and proceeded to saw away at the big limbs. Howard worked the splitter while I stacked the quartered wood. A good start to building a full cord…

Joe then started in on the trunk, sawing 16” slices, which were massive and heavy. We wrestled these to the splitter, tipping it vertical to first split the slice into quarters. These were then split further into fireplace sized chunks. We chatted about how this same work was accomplished back in the day, without the help of chainsaws and splitters. Joe told us how in the past he had split the wood using a big axe and wedges…sometimes four across to get the wood to break apart. Then he bought his splitter, and although a big help, producing cords of wood is still a tremendous amount of hard work. 

There are countless dry stone walls throughout PEC. They stand the test of time well, but inevitably start to lose their structure when continually assaulted by the elements and overgrown foliage. Howard is part of a volunteer group that a few years ago started to work on rehabilitating and rebuilding the walls along the county road where they live.

The walls look great when completed, but the process is slow, and requires more skill than it appears. We gathered at one of the builds, and Howard explained the basic principles. Soon others arrived, the afternoon’s plan was laid out, and everyone went about their assignments. A build session is three hours long, time enough to get some serious work done, but not so long as to exhaust everyone. It was fascinating to see a wall take shape, with work happening on areas from the foundation on up to the top coping.

I did a little research on dry walls. Although a few styles, the basics are the same.

The foundation - the layer that supports the wall, casually referred to as the basement.

The first lift - initial layer of face stones

The through stone - secures the side stones together

The second lift - the top layer of face stones

The batter - the amount of angle from the base stone vertical, the slope of the wall

The hearting - small filler stones that add many points of contact between the layer stones. Key to a solid wall

The coping - flat, angled or vertical. Functional and decorative.

curved the wall around the tree

Soon the build session ended and the progress was amazing. Ground for the next section was levelled, four feet of wall built, lots of hearting done, and about twelve feet of coping was built. Looked fabulous. The work was rehashed over a cold beer, some chatting about the next session, and lots of ribbing and laughs. 

In the afternoon Lee and Dale took a run into the town of Picton to check out some of their favourite shops. Being there in May, ahead of the busy tourist season, was a novelty and shows the pace of town life before the tourists arrive. Great experiences, great day in the County!

Barley knows how to keep warm

a sample of Lee's gardens

The next afternoon Lee & Howard took us on a fun tour of the County. Quick stop at the Mad Dog Gallery to see the Andrew King art showing, then a stop at an asparagus farm, which we had no clue even existed. Set up about six years ago, it has fields upon fields of asparagus, and a busy processing building. A big bundle of fresh asparagus was soon in the car. 

that is a lot of asparagus ends

Next stop was The Local, a spot where community artists can sell their crafts. Last stop was Huff Estates, a winery with an on-site highly recognized art gallery called Oeno Gallery. The gallery also has a large scale outdoor art installation, well placed pieces fitting nicely into the grounds. 

Wound down our action packed day by making a couple of homemade pizzas in the pizza oven and a big Caesar salad for dinner. 

Next day I helped Howard to put their Zodiac (rigid hull inflatable boat) in the water for the season, and then we went on a little tour of the lakeshore. Interesting and a different perspective to see all the properties from the water, there are some nice waterfront homes here. We covered a lot of water, that little boat sure does scoot along.  

Lee and Dale walked down their county road, visiting her neighbour’s sheep, calling out greetings to her horses, and visiting a popular County vegetable market. For lunch we headed to the Bloomfield Public House, a great eating spot that has become our favourite.

The next morning we packed and headed home, back across the ferry and a different cross country route. We stopped at the Glenburnie Grocery on County Rd 10, a great store that has a little bit of everything. Picked up a few home baked items, and a couple of egg salad sandwiches that were bursting at the seams.

Overall a fabulous first outing and great visit with our friends, lots of unique local experiences, and the weather was very cooperative, albeit a tad cool in the evenings. 

And so the season begins.