# The Granite Grid ## Pages - [A Geek on the Rock](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/a-geek-on-the-rock/): I have always lived in two worlds. I was raised in a tiny outport community of just 65 people on... ## Posts - [A Place to Lay My Head](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/grounds-stages/a-place-to-lay-my-head/): While a driveway isn’t even done yet, nor the Bell wires fixed (at least that I know of), my thoughts... - [Before It Fades](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/logs/community-dreams/before-it-fades/): Sometimes, sitting here in Nova Scotia, my mind wanders back across the Cabot Strait to Random Island. I remember walking... - [Clearing the Land, and My Mind](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/grounds-stages/soil-clearings/clearing-the-land-and-my-mind/): In my mind, I was standing on the hill this morning, watching the fog roll in off Smith Sound. I... - [Powering it Up](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/power/powering-it-up/): The poles run right through the property, but paying standard service hookups and monthly base fees for a cabin we’ll... - [Cold Seats & A Bucket of Water](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/water-waste/cold-seats-a-bucket-of-water/): I was thinking back to the old outhouses we used to have around Apsey Brook and Snook’s Harbour when we... - [I'm Getting Old](https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/logs/im-getting-old/): Many years ago, I expressed interest in a plot of our family land back home in Apsey Brook, Newfoundland. There... # # Detailed Content ## Pages - Published: 2026-07-08 - Modified: 2026-07-08 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/a-geek-on-the-rock/ An Old Man - Me I have always lived in two worlds. I was raised in a tiny outport community of just 65 people on Random Island, Newfoundland. Back then, life was measured by the seasons—fishing, woodcutting, hockey on the pond, and hanging around the wharf. But right out of high school, I took a turn into the modern world, pursuing a diploma in Information Technology and eventually settling down, after varied expeditions into retail, hospitality, accounting and education, as a software engineer in Bedford, Nova Scotia. At heart, I’ve always been a tech geek. I love the gadgets, the code, the databases, and the endless possibilities of technology. But I’ve also never lost my love for the rural life I grew up with—the quiet of the spruce woods, the smell of salt water, and the simplicity of working with your hands. For years, I've found myself fascinated by a single question: How did the people before us survive and thrive? I wonder what we’ve lost in our rush toward convenience, and what we’ve gained. That curiosity is what started the dream of The Granite Grid. A younger man - me - with hair with colour. I’m currently based in Nova Scotia, but my heart and thoughts are set on the land back home. The Granite Grid is my notebook for a future day—a collection of blueprints, drafts, and accounts of building a self-sufficient, off-grid outpost on Random Island. It is an experiment in merging both of my worlds: capturing... ## Posts - Published: 2026-07-07 - Modified: 2026-07-07 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/grounds-stages/a-place-to-lay-my-head/ - Categories: Fantasy Phase, Grounds & Stages Old Fashioned Frying Ham While a driveway isn't even done yet, nor the Bell wires fixed (at least that I know of), my thoughts keep wandering to all the corners of the process and my mind. Before we can build anything permanent, we need a place to lay my head, fry some Charlie Martin's ham, and escape the wind. I have been looking at different trailers to set up as a temporary base camp on the land. Of all the styles, I have a real soft spot for the A-frame popups, like the Aliners. They are small, quick to set up, and they have solid walls to keep out the damp outport air. But truth be told, a new A-frame runs well over twenty thousand dollars these days. All of them brand new are simply too pricey for my budget, so I will definitely be looking for a used version. Of course there are other trailer options too, like the traditional hard top pop-up, or one of the Coleman Clippers, or even a small more traditional camper. But truth be told, they are all too expensive new. And for the time I will get to spend, new is not really worth it. Hard-top pop-up tent trailer Traditional Travel Trailer Coachmen Clipper tiny semi pop-up trailer Alner A Frame Popup Camper Mind you, a popup trailer isn’t the only way to get a toehold on the land. I have been thinking about a few other options too. A small quick wooden... - Published: 2026-07-07 - Modified: 2026-07-07 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/logs/community-dreams/before-it-fades/ - Categories: Community Dreams 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 plenty of evenings there. I still remember the excitement of going to a "time", with the music playing, card tables set up, and the tea boiling in the back. For years now, I have harboured a bit of a dream for the future. I would love to go back, find one of those old schoolhouses, decommissioned churches, or even an old saltbox house, and convert it into a quiet little heritage room. A place dedicated solely to keeping our outport history from slipping away into the fog. The goal would be simple: to gather up the old photographs, the hand-written journals, and the stories of the old fellas. I would love to set up a corner for audio and video, capturing interviews and recording the distinct, soft accents of the older generation. Truth be told, we are running out of time. Much of our history is already second- or third-hand, and if we don't record it soon, it will be gone for good. Beyond the stories, I picture a room filled with the physical things we used to see in every home. The old pump organs that sat in the living room or hall, the... - Published: 2026-07-05 - Modified: 2026-07-05 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/grounds-stages/soil-clearings/clearing-the-land-and-my-mind/ - Categories: Soil & Clearings In my mind, I was standing on the hill this morning, watching the fog roll in off Smith Sound. I could still hear Uncle Lionel’s old make-and-break engine putt-putting out past the point to check his cod traps. It is easy to stand up here on the cliffs above Apsey Brook and let your mind skip ahead a few years. I can almost see the shape of the little cabin sitting high on the slope, tucked low against the cold north winter wind to watch the icebergs drift past in the spring. Right now, though, it’s mostly just a dream drafted in the Newfoundland fog. Before we can raise a single timber, the raw reality of this coast demands respect. The Rock doesn't give up ground easily, and we have a few stubborn things to sort out before any real work can begin. Before the Trucks Roll In The Low Wires: There is a line of weathered Bell telephone wire hanging low across our boundary line. Before we can bring any trucks or machinery in, we need the telephone crew to come out and hoist them out of the way so they don't get snagged. Marking the Lines: On this terrain, boundaries are always a negotiation. We need to get the survey lines marked out among the old mossy spruce trunks and granite outcrops. The Path In: To get up to the high ground, we’ll need to lay bulldoze a driveway and perhaps lay down a solid bed of local... - Published: 2026-07-05 - Modified: 2026-07-05 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/power/powering-it-up/ - Categories: Power The poles run right through the property, but paying standard service hookups and monthly base fees for a cabin we'll only occupy two to four weeks a year makes no sense. If we are going to make a go of this site, even in a temporary trailer base camp, we need to generate our own light and keep the food from spoiling on our own terms. But on a budget you start with what you can carry in the back of a car. Phase One: The Portable Rig For the trailer, the strategy is strictly plug-and-play. We aren't mounting heavy panels or wiring up complex inverter boxes yet. The immediate setup will rely on: The Solar Generator: A portable solar power station (like an Anker or Jackery unit) paired with two portable folding panels. It’s enough to keep the phone charged, power a laptop and Starlink, and run low-wattage LED work lights at night. Propane for the Heavy Lifting: Generating heat from solar is a fool's errand on a small scale. Cooking and refrigeration will run on propane—a simple two-burner coleman type stove and a small absorption fridge. It’s reliable, weather-independent, and keeps our battery draw near zero. Phase Two: Tapping the Coastal Gales Solar is clean and easy in the short, bright days of July. But Newfoundlanders know what happens when November settles in. The fog rolls over the Sound, the sun disappears for weeks, and the wind begins to howl. Once we clear the land for the permanent... - Published: 2026-07-05 - Modified: 2026-07-05 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/water-waste/cold-seats-a-bucket-of-water/ - Categories: Water & Waste, Waterless Toilets I was thinking back to the old outhouses we used to have around Apsey Brook and Snook’s Harbour when we were boys. There was always a certain smell to them—a mix of dry spruce, wood shavings, and lime, with the wind whistling up through the seat on a cold November morning. You didn’t linger in there any longer than you had to, especially when the catalog pages were the only thing on hand for toilet paper. Building a classic outhouse on our new piece of land is still an option, of course. There's a rustic simplicity to it. But since we'll only be using the property for two to four weeks a year, the reality of setting up a camp demands a bit more modern pragmatism. Hauling the Fresh Water For the water, we are starting exactly how our grandfathers did before the wells were sunk—by hauling it. We’ll be carrying our fresh water in the back of the car in five-gallon buckets, keeping them tucked in the trailer to wash dishes and boil the kettle. Carrying water gets heavy fast, though. The long-term dream, once we build a permanent cabin on the site, is to get a local drilling rig out here to punch a deep artesian well straight down into the Random Island granite. There's nothing quite like cold, clean water pulled right from the bedrock. The Sanitation Dilemma But what goes in must come out, and solving waste in a trailer you only visit occasionally is a... - Published: 2026-07-05 - Modified: 2026-07-07 - URL: https://offgrid.randomisland.ca/logs/im-getting-old/ - Categories: Fantasy Phase, Project Accounts Many years ago, I expressed interest in a plot of our family land back home in Apsey Brook, Newfoundland. There was a spot that always felt a bit special to me, marked by a massive granite erratic (as seen on this post) surrounded by some aspen trees. For want of a better name, I always called it Big Rock. At the time, Uncle Hay, Dad, and I walked the boundary and settled on a plot sitting between two old utility poles. I was much younger then, full of plans, but nothing ever came of it. Life got in the way, as it often does, and at some point, the road took me to Nova Scotia. But as the years creep up, the lure of city life starts to wear thin. The traffic gets heavier, the public services shrink, and my patience for it all gets smaller. Lately, the thought of that quiet spot back home has been on my mind more and more. The land - A sun dappled overgrown garden, filled with aspen, spruce & fir I finally reached out to my cousin, Barbara, who holds the old family land grant, to ask about the plot. I was glad to receive their blessing to look into reviving the plan. Doing this from away is no easy thing, mind you, but I am lucky to have some great friends and cousins like Eric, Bernie, and Barry back in Snook's Harbour. They are happy to help out in small ways—sending pictures,...