As we have done for the past few years, Rob and I agreed to each buy the other two good books for Christmas. We are so happy to have found a wonderful independent bookstore in Arnprior. We shopped together, so we were both concerned that we had picked the same books - but we didn't!
I must say though, that Rob's favourite gift this season was probably the helicopter his sweet Mom sent him. Yes - a remote control helicopter. Jet was not nearly as impressed with it, when Rob started it up and it flew into Jet's nose. Rob says he needs a large interior space to fly it in - and this cabin is clearly not large. When he suggested he could maybe try it out in the yoga studio I go to - well obviously I had to say no.... but it was tempting!
Leading up to Christmas, Rob continued to try to build an enclosed space on the porch so that he would have some where to work on some smaller timbers this winter. But the weather just did not co-operate, and we were hit with such cold temperatures that he wasn't able to do much outdoors. We've had a lot of nights in the minus 20 to minus 30 range already! He did manage to finally get something built, but it took a while. Just before New Year's things warmed up a bit, and Rob moved some timbers down in preparation. Working outside in the snow was a still a bit of a challenge, and he found he got cold and wet pretty quickly. The "warm spell" didn't last long, and we were back into very cold weather in no time. By New Year's Eve they were forecasting lows of minus 32, with wind chills well below that. The timbers were put away again until the next "thaw".
The little wood stove we have in the cabin does an amazing job, but we did find that at really cold temperatures we were struggling a bit, and had to finally turn on some electric heat to help keep the chill off. We woke up one morning to a rather cold temperature of 8 degrees in the house. Now some of you may remember that when I first lived with Rob I used to complain when my shampoo froze in the Dome, so perhaps I have become a little soft if I can't tolerate 8 degrees now! Luckily I have a good supply of long johns, and a good thick warm wool sweater, so I can get warm even when the cabin feels a bit chilly.
Despite the cold though, we still find ourselves outdoors several times a day. The beauty of the woods and the river beckons no matter what the temperature is. The river changes daily, and we like to walk along the edge to see the changes in the flow, the ice that gathers in beautiful formations, and the few ducks that cling to the remaining open water these days.
The open areas are slowly disappearing though. I'm pretty sure that last year we could still see a small channel of flowing water in front of the cabin, but by New Year's this year, there was no visible channel in this area.
Every day we also walk over to the building site. We are a little nervous about the lack of sunlight in December, as we will be depending on it for our solar powered electricity! So we walk down to the site at various times during the day to see whether or not the sun would be hitting the future solar panels location.
When there is no sun (and that has been a pretty frequent occurrence the last several weeks!) we simply walk down to the site, and look around and think about the house, the river, the beauty of the land.... Sunshine or not, every day we also walk around the property, through the woods, up the roadways, and along the paths.
We see lots of tracks in the snow; fox, deer, wild turkeys, snowshoe hares, but with Jet along we don't see a lot of wildlife. We do scare up a grouse sometimes, and there are always red squirrels in the cedars, no matter how cold it is!
Rob has been busy with more research the last few weeks. Now is the time to figure out a lot of the details, and we have to make decisions about some of the items we will need this year. The brand of wood boiler, the sizes, style and placement of windows and doors, the final finish for the concrete floor, the type of metal roof, well the list goes on and on. He spent a pretty good amount of time too, working out how he is going to assemble the timbers and raise them. There's a lot to think about!
I'm glad we were able to spend more time living here first before we jump into building the new house. It gives us time to get a feel for the all of the seasons, and sometimes make adjustments to our plans. This week we noticed that we have lost any of the passive solar gain in the upstairs rooms in the cabin. The snow and ice slid down the roof, then froze again, blocking out most of the sun that used to shine through the windows and warm the rooms. I don't think we will have the same issue in the new house, but it's something to think about.
We also have a solar panel that we are testing, and we have come to realize how often it has to have the snow removed from it! Then of course we are also reminded that we have to think about where the snow falls, where it will slide down the roof and pile up, and where to put it when we shovel or plow. Every season brings a little more knowledge, and something else to consider. In the middle of summer it's too easy to forget about things like snow!
Well, maybe for me - I'm not the one out plowing...
As another festive season ends, we are both looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine here in the cabin. We had a lovely couple of weeks; good food, good wine, and a bit of time to relax after the stress of concrete pads, septic systems, well digging etc. It's time now though to tuck away the Christmas cards, and Christmas bottle stoppers for another year, and get back to work on the house plans!
