Moving into fall

Rob pretty much summed up the last 2 weeks or so when he lamented that all he wanted to do was get building, and he hadn’t done a single bit of it this last while.

Just one of those times I guess, that sees us with a never ending list of tasks that require attention; filing taxes, dentist appointments, bills and banking,  trips to Ottawa, more trips to Ottawa.

We had promised our landlord that we would get the last of our business odds and ends out of our former warehouse space by September. Now in July, September seemed pretty far away, but here we are in late September and our remaining stuff is still piled there.  So Rob has been back and forth, bringing it all here, to this little 800 sq. foot cabin. Well, most of it.  There are still a few things that our former landlord has kindly allowed us to leave there a little while yet.  There are a lot of items that will be useful when we have the new house (like the ‘fridge from our store) but right now we have little or no space for it.

Earlier this week though, Rob was finally able to get back to the task at hand, which is closing in the shed.  The concrete is curing nicely, so he is now able to get the walls up and a door in. On nice days when I go up to visit, I usually bring a couple of tart crisp apples from a local apple farm, and we sit out on the concrete pad, munch on our apples and admire his handiwork.  He is anxious to be up there working on timbers for the new house, but it will be a little while yet.

It's easy to forget how far we've come with this shed. Just a few months ago you could barely see it for trees, and it was full of old stuff and had a dirt floor.  It's becoming a lovely space. 

Although the weather forecast called for rain this week, we have been lucky to have mostly sunny days, and warmer temperatures than anticipated at times. I try to take advantage of the nice weather and hang out at the river for a little while in the afternoons. The river is so low that I can edge my way out a little further on the rocks than normal, and find myself with a good view both up and downstream. Hoping to see that eagle again! This week though, there was a rustling in the bushes back at the edge (and yes, I was a bit nervous, wondering what was coming out!) when out popped what I think is a mink. I had to come back and search on the web and refer to my photos, but near as I can tell, that's what it was. Apparently weasels have white underbellies, martens are more buff coloured underneath, and a mink has a telltale white chin.
So here are a few photos of this little guy/gal.  The click of my camera had it pretty interested, but I had the idea it couldn't really see me.  It swam underneath the roots of a big maple tree, but would keep coming out to have a look in my direction. What a treat. I have never seen one before.

 

The last shot is my favourite. I was back on the river yesterday and there was no sign of it. Apparently they are usually more nocturnal. So I really was fortunate to see one!

It's sunny and crisp out this morning.  A good time to get some laundry out on the line. I am hoping this afternoon to clean up some branches that are around the cabin; some of them will be large enough to use in the wood stove, and the smaller ones will go into the chipper and we can use the chips for our pathways and trails. We are hoping to do a lot more wood gathering and branch clean up as October approaches.

Each day as we walk through the woods we notice the gradual change in the colours of the leaves.  There is a more golden hue in the woods, with not as much of the vibrant red and orange that we are used to. But there are some maples that have turned that lovely orange/red, and I love this one that hangs over the river. 

 

 

 

 

Gardening in the woods

As we walk the new road every day we can see that the woods will slowly come back to the edges where we pushed it back. Already we are happy to see that there are ferns and some other plants pushing their way back up through the soil.  I’ve been doing some reading on native wildflower species and have ordered some seeds that we can plant this fall. Hopefully next year then, we will see some colour from such plants as sweet cicely, meadowsweet, cinquefoil, wild bergamot, and my favourite black-eyed susans – just to name a few! I have also read that it's fine to go gather up some seeds from native plants growing wild in the area, as long as you only take a few to allow the plants to keep spreading their own seed. So I am driving around with an eye on the roadsides. I need to learn a lot more about identifying plants though.

 

These I know! Milkweed and asters. I will gather some of the aster seeds and scatter them for sure as I love them. The milkweed seems to spread well enough on it's own. I always had milkweed in my garden at home, as a benefit for the monarch butterflies, and someone would always tell me I had weeds in my garden. Well no more I guess, the milkweed plants are everywhere here, and now I can enjoy them just as much as the monarchs do. I have a whole new woodland garden now!

I couldn’t resist planting a few non-native daffodil bulbs as well at the entrance to our road.  Being the national Welsh flower, we absolutely have to have some here of course. Reading the instructions to plant at least 6 inches deep, soon had me muttering that CLEARLY these were not native to this area.  We are on a limestone base here, and my trowel would barely go an inch into the soil before striking roots and rock. All the while I was also trying to avoid the poison ivy that thrives here. We shall see if anything comes up in the spring.

 

These look like small rocks but they aren't. The ones at the back were about the limit of what I could carry. I put them there so that Rob won't get the idea to drive his tractor in here and smooth things out!  The daffodils will come up around the rocks and should look pretty.  The package says that the deer won't eat them, but I'm not convinced. If they do, they do, I'll just have to learn what works and what doesn't.

Walking along the edge of the road this week too, it is pretty clear that fall is really here.  We like to walk deep into the woods in the fall, as the poison ivy isn't quite as likely to get you then. I'm happy to say it is now turning red, and easy to spot. 

I like the idea of "gardening" here. It means doing very little, with little maintenance.  Just walk along and enjoy the natural beauty of the woods and what it provides.  We will however try to get a veggie garden going next year, and that one will require a bit more work!

My camera is still not back from repair. Which is too bad, as Rob and I were standing at the river’s edge this weekend, and Rob looked up and quietly said “look, an eagle”.  It is only the second time we have ever seen one in Ontario! The next day, I stood at the edge, thinking I wouldn’t be likely to see one again, when an osprey flew by. Rob has seen osprey here before, but I hadn’t so that was a treat. Still no photo though. I can’t wait to get my camera back.

I have noticed that the numbers of birds are dwindling, as they slowly leave the area to head south. I haven't seen any hummingbirds at the feeder the last few days. No sign of the phoebe, or robins. The blue jays and woodpeckers are busy though. Walking along the road the air was suddenly full of woodchips, and I spotted a small woodpecker working pretty hard at the hole in the tree. Not a great shot, but you can kind of see the chips are flying!

 

I get comments on this blog that we are really busy. I suppose we are but I think it’s all relative. Working 24/7 at our business was busy. Here, we try to take time every day to give Jet a good play time, and we walk a lot. I go out with my old camera at least once a day for a good long walk, and spend time every day down by the river. I love to inch my way out on the rocks at the side of the river and look downstream. The mergansers hang out here a lot, and while I was standing here, the osprey flew overhead again.  There are two kingfishers that swoop up and down along here.  I watch the turkey vultures, the crows, and the ravens.  There are a least 4 herons that fish here too.

 

 

And every night we try to just sit and relax and listen to music. Last night it dipped below zero so we curled up on the couch and had the woodstove going, and I have it on now too. It’s not all hard work !!

Next week is the Madawaska studio tour so we are going to visit Tim Storey’s studio. We have a teapot from him that was Rob’s birthday gift from me 2 years ago, so we are really looking forward to meeting Tim. There is also a place that specializes in off-the-grid and solar options that are having an open house so we shall go there as well, as it is on the way.

Isn't this a great teapot?

Well, I had a totally different post in mind, all about our plans, and how the building aspect was going, but this went in a different direction. I think it was prompted by one of our flags that hangs in the trees at the side of the road.

It's little blurry - the flags are almost always moving. But it says, Life is not a race but a journey to be savored each step of the way. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.

It was supposed to rain today, but the sun shone brilliantly. We popped out for what may be the last trip to the french fry van this season. Had a nice walk in the crisp air. Enjoyed a sweet apple from a local apple farm.  Now I am snug in front of the wood stove, and Rob is up working on the shed putting in a door.  Time to plan some dinner, maybe go a walk.  A great gift of a day.

 

 

 

 

And it's been 30 years....


Well, it's a good thing I didn't commit to a daily blog, as apparently it's been over a week already since I last posted. They say time flies when you are having fun - and we have certainly been having fun, but also things have seemed just a tad hectic lately.

First we realised just how lucky we were to arrive here and have two months of glorious summer weather. Last weekend was not so lovely, we had high winds, cooler temperatures, dark skies and torrential downpours for two and a half days. When we put the driveway in at the cabin we used a very fine stone, and on dry days it isn't much of a problem, but on wet days it sticks to our shoes and fills the cabin with a mix of sand and very small, very sharp stones. We would like to get something else down in front of the cabin - a bit of an interlock buffer or something, but we have a lot on the go right now and have to choose our battles! It's a good reminder though, when we build the next house to use different stone, and to think about that mud room we have been talking about.

Work on the shed has been progressing. Slowly, but progressing. It's a difficult task to revamp a building, and I know Rob prefers to build from scratch. He really wants to do the blog posting on that project, but just can't find the time. When he isn't building, he is trying to catch up with paperwork (the business still demands our attention, government form filing, taxes, accountant questions ) and the usual bill paying etc. We are still trying to get a working office space going, and of course the cats LOVE rearranging paperwork so we need to work on that.

In case Rob finds time to post though, without giving too much away about all the work that has gone on all I will say is that here are the walls slowly going up! The windows that are leaning against the walls, are the old ones we found in the sheds. We will try to use some of them here, and I am going to scoop a couple to use for frames for some fabric pieces I have in mind. The old doors aren't as useful, they are all only about 6 feet tall - maybe people were shorter back then ??? Of course, they are fine for me - but Rob would bang his head on the door frame if we used them!

September is always a month of contrasts, and just as we started to turn our attention to fall matters, the sunshine and warmer temperatures came back. Warm dry days make for better building days, but Tuesday was our 30th wedding anniversary, so we wisely (!) opted to take the afternoon and celebrate. We were going to go to Neat Cafe in Burnstown for a wood oven fired pizza lunch, with coffee and sweets, and a visit to the local apple orchard, but we were running a bit late as Rob had been working on the sheds in the morning, and then Jet needed his play time and walk, so we agreed to dine al fresco at the local french fry van! An excellent choice, especially as the van will close soon for the winter. We sat out in the sunshine, and boy, those fries sure tasted good. I was supposed to take a photo, but guess I was too busy eating!

Then Rob suggested we go to Shaw Woods, an old growth forest with a walking trail. On the opposite side of the road from the trail is an old dam, part of the Snake river. We had been there with Zuni a few years ago and we thought it would be nice to hang out there for a bit, and maybe catch sight of some wildlife along the river. When we got there though, we noticed there was another trail on the other side of the dam, so went off to explore it for a bit. Are we ever glad we did! Apparently the friends of Shaw Woods have been really busy, hauling wood chips up the trails (not to mention concrete and timbers to build an incredible viewing platform!) The trail took us along the sides of the river, and then up to the platform.

It would be a wonderful place for a picnic lunch. It was hard to get decent photos of the view from the platform. My camera is still in for repair and I brought my old one with a telephoto lens and it doesn't do it justice.
We clambered back down, and as we were leaving, saw that the trail went off in the other direction along the river so took it for a ways too. What a magical place. Each turn brought a whole new view of yet another lovely spot. We found the remains of an heron rookery, saw a great blue heron fly away from us, and walked along the edges of a lovely wetland area. It's an absolutely lovely trail, and we can't wait to go back and explore it further.

But, it was time to head home, and give Jet his play time, (yes, he gets LOTS of play time - a tired shepherd is a good shepherd) and get working on our anniversary dinner. In our former life, that would have meant trips around Ottawa, picking up sweeties at our favourite bakeshop the Three Tarts, cards from Paper Papier, and a trip to a good butcher - either Saslove's or Lavergne's for our main course. But to celebrate our new life here, we decided to change things up a bit. I had done the shopping on Monday in preparation. Unfortunately the bakery I wanted to visit was closed on Mondays, so I baked - yes me who never bakes - a nectarine crumble, and picked up steaks for the BBQ. We still had lots of organic potatoes and onions left from the farmers market, and some frozen guajillo paste that I had made in May so it was an easy, yet delicious meal. Hmmmm guess we were hungry - there are no photos again!

It wasn't quite warm enough to sit outside on the porch, but we did enjoy a pre-dinner beer outside before we got cooking. We both agreed that we had a wonderful day and couldn't think of a nicer way to spend such a special anniversary. Although we were tired from all of our trail walking, we still managed to walk Jet, and go for another walk ourselves to catch the last bit of sun on our own little stretch of river.

The warm weather is continuing, but we've had a taste of fall weather and you can see that the colours are slowing changing in the trees and plants. We know we have some serious work to do. Although we are in the thick of the woods here, we will need to order firewood, and create some kind of a good dry place to stack it. We cut down some birch and poplar when the road went in, but it probably isn't dry enough yet for burning. There are two dead oak trees in front of the cabin, and we should take them down and see if Rob can use the wood for building, or if they are only good enough for firewood now. It's a shame, we both loved those old oaks! We have just ordered a good Ontario tree identification book, as we are slowly learning to identify the trees here, and learning that they are all good for different things. This week I discovered we have Bur Oak and White Oak - the acorns are totally different. The Bur Oak acorns are sort of fuzzy while the white Oak ones are smooth. I can thank the Chipmunks for that information as they are the ones, along with the red squirrels and blue jays, who have stripped the acorns from the Oak trees this week! They obviously know it's time to prepare for winter too.

　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Two woofs

Finally I get my chance to contribute something to this blog. It’s my birthday today and I am now 2 years old. Mom and Dad say I’m lucky to see 2 – whatever that means. If you want to send me presents I love Wubbas, Kongs, dried liver treats, carrots, bananas and apple pie. Don’t tell Mom about the apple pie part.

This is me as a puppy. Mom says I have had this worried look all of my life, but that I look happier and more relaxed since we got here.

Mom thinks I don’t have much to blog about, she says I mostly play, eat and sleep, but my days here are really pretty interesting and I have a lot of responsibilities.

I have to wait in the morning until someone finally gets up.  Then I go downstairs and check all the perimeters to make sure that everything in the house is the way it was when I went to bed. I don’t really like change.

Usually Dad makes coffee  then takes me outside, and Mom feeds those pesky cats. Well, I like Leon but the other cats are pesky.  I have a nice comfy bed on the porch so usually I get a nice Kong bone stuffed with kibble to nibble on while I wait to be served my breakfast. Mom and Dad like to feed me small amounts of my breakfast at a time, so if they get distracted while reading stuff on the PC my breakfast sometimes takes forever.

Then we have to wait a whole half hour before I am allowed to go play.  If I think it’s been long enough I bark and bark and bark but that doesn’t seem to get me out any quicker.  Then I get to go chase wubbas, and sometimes play with my jolly ball, and jump and leap and run, and play games until I can’t think any more and I am tired. Then we go for a walk. Mom and Dad think I take too long on my walk, but they have NO idea what things have been out in the woods overnight. Yikes ! I need to sniff everything to see what has gone on since the last time I was out.


This is me and Dad playing. Mom said we looked like we were being silly boys.

I get to do the same thing at lunch and dinner time, except I don’t get any lunch.

In between I mostly sleep, but if anything moves or makes a noise, I am on full alert and will bark. I bark at the heron, and the gulls, and the chipmunks, and the red squirrels, and if anyone is in the river, and sometimes people are talking outside somewhere so I bark then too.

Mom and Dad don’t like it if I bark too long though, so I am learning to just bark until they pay attention, and then I will “shush”.

The new place is pretty cool. I know when Dad is coming home because I can hear the tractor coming. I hear it a long time before Mom does.  I get to go into the river sometimes and chase floating wubbas. We walk along the river edge, and up roads, and down paths. Before I was born Mom and Dad named me Von Schnootzel, and now they have named one of the paths after me and call it Von Schnootzel lane.  I think it should be called Jet's Way.

I haven’t been out in the truck since I got here, except Mom puts me in sometimes and gives me cookies. Not sure what that is about. Sometimes I don't have a leash on, and decide to go my own way and she opens the truck door and I can't resist coming back and getting in. Maybe it's those cookies....

I like this photo of me the best 'cos I look black and scary. But Mom says it's because the camera was at 1600 ISO and the photo is grainy. I don't care - I still think I look good.

Mom took this photo of me in the river last year. She won't take her new camera in the river in case I splash it or something, so there are no photos of me swimming this year. I love going in the river.

Well, that's probably all I am going to write about for my birthday. I just want everyone to know that I am still waiting for my birthday cake.

Last day of the long weekend

It's the last day of the long weekend, and it's hot and sunny and absolutely lovely out. The weather forecast promises a more seasonable cool and cloudy week, so I've been outside as much as possible today.  Rob is up fighting with the walls of the shed, and I'm sure he'd rather be doing something else on such a nice day. The concrete is curing nicely, and this weekend we took down all the remaining wood and stuff that was in the rafters, and Rob has been washing everything down to get rid of the remaining - well for lack of any better words - old animal poo! Now he is putting up the framing and walls.  I went up to see if he needed anything, but there's not much I can do. He was really not happy with his progress when I arrived.  It's just one of those days when he could use some extra strong helping hands, and someone bigger and stronger than me!  I had been off in the woods trying to clear some paths but it soon became clear that gardening gloves and a branch trimmer were not going to get the job done. I get frustrated too, when I realise that I will have to wait for Rob to get in with his tractor to do it. I came back to the cabin and decided the best thing to do would be to go cool off in the river.  It was a brilliant idea.

The river is really low due to the drought conditions. In front of the cabin it barely reaches my ankles, and at the highest point is just over my knees. Still, it was nice to be in, and it was a bit more refreshing in the deeper parts. I watched a kingfisher go up and down the river but he's fast and there was no chance for a photo.

As I went up to the point where we will build the new house, I suddenly realised the mergansers were out, and there were eight of them! For some reason they didn't seem as worried about me coming at them from the river. If I had been on the river bank they would have flown. So even with my old camera I was able to get a decent photo.  The did eventually leave, but they were pretty leisurely about it, they just slowly swam away up the river.

Walking back I closed my eyes to listen to the river. With our bedroom window open every night we can hear it, and when I can't sleep I just focus on the sound, and before I know it I'm asleep. Even though the river is low, there is still enough of a flow for that lovely sound as it goes over the rocks.

It's nice to just stand in the river and admire the view. Watch the crows and blue jays fly back and forth. I could hear a gull and the Great Blue Heron. Watch the small fish, and hear the splash when they jump.

We were lucky to find some good river shoes when we arrived this summer at a local store. Without them the sharp limestone bottom would slice our feet. They are also useful when the rocks are a bit slippery too.

Back in the cabin I'm feeling more refreshed. Tomorrow is another day, and if I can't clear paths there's plenty of other things I can do. In the meantime, I will have to think about what to make for dinner, and get Jet out for a nice walk. Maybe bring Rob up a cool drink as well, and see if things are going any better up there!

Yesterday I meant to post a little bit about dinner plans.  While Rob is busy building, I am in charge of pretty much all of the meal planning, and most of the cooking, although Rob does all of the BBQ'ing, which we've done a lot of, due to all the fabulous weather we've been having.  I couldn't resist all of the fresh produce at the farmer's market the last week or so, and our fridge and counters are stuffed with red peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, garlic etc. Last night I cooked up a tasty dish - sauteed chicken with organic onions, organic garlic, red peppers, Roma tomatoes, and chopped chipotles. Served them over a pile of organic red potatoes. Absolutely delicious!

Unfortunately, it was late, we were hungry, and I didn't take a photo of that pretty dish. Oh well - you get the idea it was good. Tonight will probably see us having a good fresh salad, and homemade pizzas with a chipotle sauce base, and some chorizo, peppers, and blue cheese.   I just checked on Rob, things are going better, and he plans on working 'til sunset as tomorrow is calling for rain.
So I am on Jet's play duty, and need to settle the cats in with some food before I can start cooking.
With a bit of luck it will still be warm enough to sit out on the porch for at least one more night!