Back On the Grid

I’m back on the grid with a few choice tidbits regarding the book and the seemingly unending Eco-Shed studio project.

• First of all, I must salute my friend Robert Ouimet of Bigsnit, for the many hours he invested relaunching this site. After you’re done here, go over there and hire him for some stuff.
• I’ve added the book’s prologue to this site as an excerpt. Hit the tab up there in the toolbar to check it out.
• ALMOST GREEN is done and on the launch pad. I’m really pleased with the way it finally came together, and I hope you will be too. Keeners out there can pre-order it today through Amazon.com, Chapters.ca, or from your favorite local independent bookseller. (And for those of you lucky enough to live here with me on Bowen Island that is, of course, Phoenix. Julia tells me they’ve started a list…)
• I’ll be reading from ALMOST GREEN and speaking at the opening-night festivities of Write On Bowen, a new writers and readers festival going down right here on Bowen Island, B.C., July 11-13.
• The Eco-Shed is almost done. The cabinets and countertop went in today and they look fantastic. That’s a detail above from my new $40 recycled “lab-bench” sink-and-taps combo, which my dad picked up at a salvage yard. It’s not always a good idea to re-use old faucets—they can be water hogs—but the aerator on this modern beauty is rated to 2.2 gallons per minute, which certainly qualifies as “low flow.”
• I’m going to trim out the windows and doors in the next 10 days, and perhaps even build a bed out of the last of the reclaimed fir. Anyone out there got a used thickness planer they want to unload? Update: We’re going with “reclaimed Ikea.” Thanks, craigslist!