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darbycrashin
Noble Donor location: Halifax, Nova Scotia Gender: Female
| | McNab's sole resident < on 2/11/2008 8:27 PM >
| | | Thought some of you might be interested in reading this.. I'd love to live there! from the Herald: Lone wolf’s island paradise Artist embraces quiet life — in the middle of Halifax Harbour By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter Mon. Feb 11 - 5:31 AM
THE CITY IS so close that sounds of ships loading at Halifax’s south-end container terminal echo across the water, but so far away that deer tracks lead almost up to his front door. Anthony Publicover is the sole permanent resident of McNabs Island, which lies at the mouth of Halifax Harbour. "There’s about 20,000 visitors in the summer, and in the winter, well, there have been about 12 so far," Mr. Publicover says before taking a contemplative pull from a small glass of neat whisky in his cosy home on the northwest corner of the island. This is a place steeped in history, where military forts once bristled against enemies who pondered invading from the sea. Before the advent of cars, a fairground on McNabs drew huge crowds of picnickers who travelled to the island by boat. There was even a bottling plant here that brewed ginger beer to slake a hot summer’s thirst. But during a recent visit, Mr. Publicover, 47, was the only living soul calling the island home. He seems to appreciate the feeling of being lost in another time. "When it’s noon in Halifax, it’s 1954 on the island," he says. Last winter, he spent seven weeks on McNabs without going into the city for provisions or company. Mr. Publicover has a simple description of what it’s like not to see any people for 50 days in a row: "Heaven." "I got a lot of writing done, a lot of reading and a lot of chopping wood," he says with a laugh, before launching into a detailed description of the best way to split wood with an axe. "I love it, and in the wintertime it’s much easier. I can cut with one hand in the winter." He doesn’t seem to mind being alone. "It doesn’t matter to me. If I want people, I go into the city." It would be nice, he says, to set up a colony of artists on the island some day. But he’s not yearning for company. "I don’t have to get a dose because I have plenty of guests. I know who my friends are." His pals come over for parties and visits. In the winter, they cross-country ski or take a toboggan ride down several steep hills near his house. In the summer, they come to swim or play paintball on the island’s old forts, he says, recounting a time when his friends all dropped their trousers to moon the Queen Mary 2 as it steamed into Halifax. "I bet the passengers were saying, ‘The view from the port side is spectacular, but from the starboard side, well . . . ’ " Mr. Publicover isn’t spooked staying alone on McNabs. "I’ve never seen any weirdness or any ghosts or anything like that," he says. But the first night he spent on the island is etched in his memory. "I stayed in a hammock because there weren’t any beds over here yet. I kept on falling out of the hammock. I fell out of it three or four times during the night. Every time I woke up there was this reoccurring dream of this guy walking down to the beach with two girls under his arms. They were kind of, like, kicking and screaming, but it was almost like a laughing screaming kind of thing." He never figured out the genesis of the dream and it doesn’t seem to trouble him at all in this lonely place. "It’s absolutely pitch-black at night and it’s quiet, quiet, quiet. The only thing I hear is the foghorn. But it’s magical out here. It’s five minutes from the city and I feel like I’m in the middle of nowhere." Mr. Publicover’s home is full of interesting objects he’s collected over the years. Fishing rods hang above a window, awaiting his eight-year-old nephew’s next visit. A glockenspiel leans up against one wall, near a snare drum and a large bamboo instrument resembling a marimba that he found in the garbage and restored, without ever knowing its proper name. An old pump organ and an electric piano are set up next to a somewhat frightening sculpture fashioned out of a doll medics once used to practise CPR. A sign posted nearby says: Being famous will not make you any less boring or insecure. Books packed in a large set of shelves include the SAS Survival Guide, George Orwell’s 1984, French, Spanish and Latin dictionaries, Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, The Complete Stories and Poems of Edgar Allen Poe, J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, and a bound copy of several editions of The Atlantic from the 1870s. "Anna Leonowens from The King and I — she’s got a story in here," he says of the old magazines. Seaside FM plays softly on the stereo. "It’s called the Barry Manilow station," Mr. Publicover says. "I just put it on as a security device when I leave the place. It’s pretty hokey." McNabs was named a provincial park in 2002, but some pockets remain in private hands and Ottawa owns others. Mr. Publicover, a painter and sculptor, bought 1.8 hectares with some friends in 1999. "I’m the full-time resident," he says, though one buddy, who owns a nearby house, zips over to the island regularly on a Boston whaler. "From Bishop’s Landing to here is under three minutes," Mr. Publicover says. His home was originally a cottage, built in 1932. The beams are thick and solid. Despite a somewhat ramshackle appearance, it weathered hurricane Juan’s 2003 onslaught that flattened a nearby stand of yellow birch. "That’s all I burn. It all came down from the hurricane," he says, loading another log into the small stove that gives both his home and his person a slight smell of wood smoke. Mr. Publicover grew up first in Dartmouth and then Halifax, but he has lived in several cities across Canada, including Toronto, Montreal, Regina and Vancouver. "I basically left Halifax for 10 years and expanded my mind." He returned to Nova Scotia more than a decade ago. Since then, he’s worked at several different jobs in the film industry. And from 1994 until 1999, he ran a cafe on Gottingen Street called the Bike Shop. When a visitor compliments him on his coffee, he chuckles. "Can’t buy it like that anywhere else on the island." Bamboo vegetable steamers cover the walls of his small kitchen, sharing space with numerous cooking gadgets and chopping knives. "I make a lot of Chinese food," he says. His water comes from a nearby spring and his home is wired for electricity which reaches the island by an underwater cable. With a cellphone and wireless Internet, he’s obviously no hermit. Mr. Publicover plans to stay on McNabs permanently. "Guaranteed," he says. "I can’t wait to build a bigger house." During a walk around the island — he normally covers about 10 kilometres a day on foot — he points out fox prints, rare hardwood trees, edible plants, his favourite blueberry patch and the spot on top of a hill where he wants to construct his new home. "I plan on having horses and all that stuff. But right now, this is perfect," he says of his small house. Perhaps the best test of Mr. Publicover’s comfort level on McNabs is how antsy he feels when he leaves to fetch provisions. "I get my business done that I have to do and then I just sit there and go, ‘I can’t wait to get back to the island,’ " he says. "It’s peaceful." ( clambie@herald.ca)
Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/klandry |
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hfx_chris
location: Dartmouth, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 1 on 2/12/2008 2:45 AM >
| | | Always wondered what it would be like to live there... I agree it does sound peaceful. Ah well, I think I'll just stick to planning the odd camping weekend. I should plan to do some winter camping before the snow is all gone.
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Plague
location: Halifax, N.S Gender: Male
trolololo
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 2 on 2/12/2008 11:36 AM >
| | | id go insane on the island all alone, the solitude would be horrible, and i thought that no one lived on mcnabs lol
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nutekk
location: Central NJ Gender: Male
| | | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 3 on 2/12/2008 12:47 PM >
| | | damn that sounds awesome. and like he said, you can always leave and go into the city to see people, otherwise, enjoy the peace and serenity that surrounds you!
cheers ! " Take only pictures, leave only footprints" |
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N250cc
location: Halifax, NS Gender: Male
| | | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 5 on 2/13/2008 1:09 AM >
| | | Very interesting, thanks for posting that up, it was a good read.
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hfx_chris
location: Dartmouth, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 6 on 2/13/2008 1:51 AM >
| | | Posted by Plague id go insane on the island all alone, the solitude would be horrible, and i thought that no one lived on mcnabs lol
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Some people find it very calming...
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darbycrashin
Noble Donor location: Halifax, Nova Scotia Gender: Female
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 7 on 2/13/2008 2:24 AM >
| | | Posted by hfx_chris
Some people find it very calming...
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agreed, and as mentioned above, if you need some human interaction it's just a 15 minute boat ride over to the mainland. but it does take a select person to be able to live this way.
Flickr http://flickr.com/photos/klandry |
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Recoil
location: Halifax, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 8 on 2/14/2008 3:36 AM >
| | | Interesting read, saw it in the paper the other day. I think I could do it, I have a high tolerance for being alone, I love people, but like solitude as well.
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Urbandweller
location: Halifax, NS Gender: Male
| | | | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 9 on 2/14/2008 11:27 AM >
| | | is this the same guy who is the caretaker? Lives in the large white house?
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hfx_chris
location: Dartmouth, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 10 on 2/15/2008 1:40 AM >
| | | Yep. Although I don't recall his house being that large...
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nootz
location: Lake Echo, NS Gender: Male
Many will always go where only one is needed
| | | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 11 on 2/15/2008 3:06 AM >
| | | He said that him and his friends play paintball at the forts?! I am quite intrigued at that statement...seeing as I'm a woodsball player myself, lol. I may have to look into this.
Have faith only in those who you trust. And hold who you trust close to you for you have no idea when you will need them most. http://nootz101.blogspot.com |
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Plague
location: Halifax, N.S Gender: Male
trolololo
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 12 on 2/15/2008 11:48 AM >
| | | what kinda gun do you got?
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Blackbird
location: Nova Scotia, Canada Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 13 on 2/15/2008 10:46 PM >
| | | I was out there about 2 years back and ran into a guy who lived out there, he was doing some maintenance work on a house. It was either this fellow or some sort of summer caretaker. I've not been out since, but I plan on returning this summer.
"Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains save both." - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel |
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hfx_chris
location: Dartmouth, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 14 on 2/15/2008 11:49 PM >
| | | Coulda been him. Could have also been a maintenance worker as well, since most of the island is now owned by the province, and they do regular maintenance out there as I recall.
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nootz
location: Lake Echo, NS Gender: Male
Many will always go where only one is needed
| | | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 15 on 2/16/2008 12:08 AM >
| | | Posted by Plague what kinda gun do you got?
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I got a BT4 SWAT done up for sniping, an A5 for close-quarters combat and a Tiberius Tac-8 pistol. I think I've got some pics of them on my facebook page. I've been wanting to play at McNabs for quite some time, but I wasn't too sure about it. Seeing that this guy plays there gets me pretty stoked about it.
Have faith only in those who you trust. And hold who you trust close to you for you have no idea when you will need them most. http://nootz101.blogspot.com |
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Blackbird
location: Nova Scotia, Canada Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 16 on 2/21/2008 10:34 PM >
| | | Could have also been a maintenance worker as well, since most of the island is now owned by the province, and they do regular maintenance out there as I recall. |
He could very well have been; do those guys live out there during the summer?
"Sweat saves blood, blood saves lives, and brains save both." - Field Marshal Erwin Rommel |
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hfx_chris
location: Dartmouth, NS Gender: Male
| | Re: McNab's sole resident <Reply # 17 on 2/23/2008 5:12 PM >
| | | Nope. They're just regular old parks/DNR employees, more than likely take a boat out once a week or so to do things like make sure the roads are looking good, empty garbage bins, maybe remove some graffiti (or paint balls ). Same sort of maintenance they would do at a provincially owned beach or picnic park.
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