Charlottetown, PEI Has New Energy

This cute character home on Dorchester avenue in the city’s downtown core sold last week for full asking price! There is a renewed energy in Charlottetown these days with the recent announcement of a new convention center scheduled for construction and new hotels in the works. PEI still offers the most amazing real estate prices of any seaside paradise in the U.S. or Canada. BC residents and others from Canada’s west continue to embrace the affordable and safe way of life on Canada’s Island Paradise. Call Hamish for your PEI real estate needs…902.218.0496.

PEI Lobster Season Approaches

May 1st is the magic day in my part of Prince Edward Island. That’s the day when the boats set their traps for the first time in the waters in my area of the Northumberland Strait. The local fishermen believe the Northumberland Strait Lobsters just off the PEI shores are where you find the largest and tastiest  Atlantic Lobsters. It seems these lobsters feed mainly on the rock crab, so their diet is incredibly high in protein and the warmth of the local Strait waters in summer also might account for the amazing size of these PEI lobsters.

They fish May and June and then another part of Prince Edward Island has the right to fish lobsters for two months. The Fishery is extremely well regulated in Atlantic Canada. Small ones have to be thrown back, as do certain breeding age females, and any females presently showing eggs.

Hopefully the lobster Industry continues to be well managed and lasts for generations to come. The price fishermen receive per pound on PEI has been incredibly low in the last couple of years, yet the price per pound in most parts of Canada was between 10 and 18 dollars per pound retail. The fishermen in PEI are lucky to get $4.50 per pound from the dealer at the wharf. Considering the cost of diesel fuel, crew, maintenance, there is little left for the hard working lobster men and women who get up at 4:30 each morning to tend the traps.

Check out the short video on this site called, ‘A Day on a Lobster Boat’ to have the experience.

Prince Edward Island offers some exceptional sights after a storm, especially if you cross country ski or show shoe on a backwoods trail like this one in eastern PEI. If you have ever wondered how many hares are hopping around, just count the footprints in the snow as you make your way through the woods. You might not see them, but you know you’re surrounded. Prince Edward Island is paradise, whatever the season.

My 1953 Ford Jubilee…

It looks like it needs a good tune-up, maybe an engine re-build, and a new coat of paint wouldn’t hurt, but I just love it. For some reason Ford named its tractor after the Coronation of a young Queen Elizabeth that year and its unlikely the Queen ever took one for a test ride, but it would have knocked her socks off.

I saw it advertised on-line and went to visit an old hippie who lived in a cool off-grid home. He was downsizing at this point in his life and was looking forward to traveling to warmer climes in his motor home. He was selling all sorts of cool stuff, like a wood lathe, harwood flooring that had been in an old PEI church, a Harley, greenhouses, the 1953 Ford Tractor, and a few other odds and ends. He offered me a coffee, we haggled, and in the end I decided to buy the ancient tractor. They have a great reputation and can be seen on farms all over PEI. There are even clubs where people get together on a monthly basis and talk tractors, parts, and how to maintain them. They’re  supposedly not too complicated to maintain and are known to be cheap to run. These are gas tractors with simple engines and can literally run forever with basic upkeep.

My tractor will go away for a while this winter and receive some much needed fixin’. It seems it needs some new rings, gaskets and valves, probably some brakes, two new tires and a splash of paint. With a bit of luck, it could look something like this…..