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.