On Whale Island : notes from a place I never meant to leave / by Daniel Hays.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hays, Daniel, 1960-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Hays, Daniel, 1960---Homes and haunts--Nova Scotia--Atlantic Coast.

Hays, Daniel.

Hays, Daniel, 1960-.

Islands--Nova Scotia--Atlantic Coast.

Islands.

Families.

Country life.

Atlantic Coast (N.S.)--Biography.

Atlantic Coast (N.S.).

Atlantic Coast (N.S.)--Social life and customs.

Country life--Nova Scotia--Atlantic Coast.

Simplicity.

Hays, Daniel, 1960---Family.

Nova Scotia--Atlantic Coast.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

242 pages : illustrations ; 21 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Chapel Hill, NC : Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 2002.

Summary:

Daniel Hays always wanted to live at sea, away from civilization, and on the edge. After he and his father built a twenty-five-foot boat and sailed it around Cape Horn, he thought he had put his wanderlust to rest. He went back to school, bought a house, got married.

But as it turned out, in the real world, Daniel Hays felt lost. His need to escape civilization had become as elemental to his spirit as water itself. So he bought an island, built a house, packed up his wife and stepson and two dogs and three boatloads of supplies, and moved there. For a year.

This is the story of every man's fantasy: to make your own rules and live by your wits. And as readers of My Old Man and the Sea will remember, Daniel Hays is no weekend putterer: He harnesses electricity from solar power and an unpredictable windmill, funnels rainwater for their showers, creates a toilet seat out of a whale vertebra and a kitchen sink out of a jawbone, strings the bed up on pulleys so that it lifts to the ceiling.

For Daniel, every morning is a wonder, every storm a blood-coursing thrill. But even as he's loving this permanent boy's life, his wife is growing impatient. It's time, she tells him, to return to the real world.

Funny, tender, and fascinating, filled with the details of a life built piece by piece, this is the story of how the Hays family lived on Whale Island, and why they finally had to leave.

Contents:

1. The Journey 9

2. Moving In 28

3. Building Our Nest 35

4. Island Life 53

5. Acorns and Visitors 68

6. Married Life 74

7. Boys 94

8. Our World 102

9. Winter 111

10. Trouble in Paradise 133

11. Ashore 153

12. The Insanity of an Anatomy 160

13. Angst 172

14. Storms 183

15. On My Own 190

16. Ships at Sea 203

17. A Place I Never Meant to Leave 211.

ISBN:

156512345X

OCLC:

49892790