Rain Delays

Well, while June may have been glorious, July really was not. It's been unusually cool, wet and rainy.  Cooler weather isn't such a problem, and generally makes working outdoors a bit easier. But the rain, when it comes, which is most every day, arrives unexpectedly and in torrents and has proven to make the work this month more difficult. The cooler weather also seems to make it so that the mosquitoes have been relentless, which is not normal for this time of year here.

As Rob works outdoors with only an overhead tarp for protection from the rain, the logistics of staining and sanding the timbers, and moving them around, became a problem. We tried covering the finished ones with the tarps that we had, but unfortunately, not all tarps are created equal, and most of them leaked, staining those lovely timbers.   We ordered some heavier duty ones, and while we waited for them to arrive, bought polytarp and tried to cover the timbers with rolls of it.  We couldn't get the width we needed so had to be creative in trying to cover everything. Unfortunately, while it protected the timbers from the rain, the sun, when it shone, pulled the moisture out of the timbers and trapped it beneath the plastic - so the timbers stained even more.  So the dance began - uncovering all the piles when it was sunny, scurrying to cover them all at the first sign of dark clouds. Last summer's weather was exactly the same as this year - we seldom see a forecast for a day of blue skies and sunshine, so it's been a bit of an ongoing concern. Still, those finished timbers sure look beautiful!  We may have to re-sand and re-stain a few of the stained areas though.

And no - this isn't all of the timbers - they are stacked everywhere!

Rob left a couple of the more difficult timbers to carve until the end, but finally there was no avoiding it!  He fretted a bit in the days leading up to it, but had a giant grin on when he managed to pull it off - hopefully successfully! I guess we'll know if they all fit together when we put them up.

He also had to re-size a couple that he had done to the wrong size, and finish the extra ones that we picked up earlier in the summer.

He isn't happy with the quality of the one in the above photo, as it has a lot of knots.  (More on this on a later blog post!)

Rob rigged up a means of carving the pegs too, and tried it out on the porch, thinking he could work on them at night. An ambitious plan as he gets home most evenings between 8 and 8:30, and we head off to bed at 10 p.m., leaving an hour and a half to get cleaned up, eat, do dishes, and catch up together on the day's goings on.   It doesn't leave much time for working on projects! (And yup - look - there are more timbers stacked on the porch!)

This jig didn't work at all for him, so he came up with another one that uses a plane, and it seems to work better.  I thought I had a photo, but guess I forgot to take one! He rough cut a bunch of pegs with the band saw, and will do the finishing smoothing with the plane jig.

He needs to go find another oak tree though as he needs a lot more pegs. Both of us are reluctant to cut one down, but it is supposed to be green wood, so I guess we are just going to have to do it.

Things are slowly moving down to the building site. I get excited anytime I see something arriving there. We are trying to stack most things on the concrete pad of the workshop, so they won't get in the way too much.

These towers are on the house pad, and will be used to help keep the timbers in place, as he moves them into position. Rob assures me they will hold far more weight than that of any timber.

This area seems to be home to a lot of garter snakes, and I have learned not to lift up that black plastic that's on the concrete pad!

While I am getting better about snakes being around, they still startle me if I don't expect them to be there. They seem to love the warmth under the plastic, and are often curled up there. Jet was pleased to find a long snake skin that one had shed, although he usually leaves the snakes themselves alone.  It is also home to some happy chipmunks who seem glad of the nearby vegetation and stuff their little cheeks each evening while we check out the concrete pad.

I have been working more, so haven't had as much time to spend in my friend Sally's garden.  I did manage to get out one week though, and was surprised (and dismayed!) to find the weeds choking out her lovely onion plants, and that the deer had apparently snipped off many of the pea plants.  Something else is gnawing on the basil plants I put in between the tomato plants.  After doing a bit of weeding, I came home with bags of garlic scapes, fresh lettuce, dill, radishes, and some of the surviving snap peas.  Sally gave me some recipe ideas, so when a friend donated an enormous bag of arugula, I made up some pesto with the arugula and garlic scapes.  Sally suggested I just freeze some blobs of the pesto on wax paper in the freezer, and then transfer them to a freezer bag once frozen and it worked beautifully. We toss some on the delicious new potatoes that we buy down the road from the Mennonite farmers. Delicious!

This past week seemed a little out of balance, although I'm not sure why. It's possible we are both just a tad stressed by the weather, and it's effect on the timing of the building process.  It may just be that we both put in rather long days and could use a little more down time.  It might just be that the actual building process is about to begin, and we are both anxious about it.  Whatever it is, I realized it was time to go sit by the river for a bit, and slow down.  I like to bring my camera and just sit at the river's edge.  My first thought is that "nothing's happening", but I make myself sit still, and sure enough, the sound of the river will creep in, then some bird song, the sound of the wind in the trees, and the sight of the insects along the river edge.   Sometimes the fish will jump, or raven or turkey vulture will sail by overhead.  The kingfisher flies by, swooping and diving into the river.  It helps me every time to just sit still, breathe, and observe. If I'm lucky, I'll even get some photos!

Walking helps too.  Although we take Jet out three times a day for play time and walks, it's always good for me to go for a long walk by myself, with my camera. Rob and I are amazed by the number of different wildflowers that are filling in along the "new" road.  When we first put it in we were worried that the sides would erode, after we had cut through the wooded hillside. I studied some native plant web sites, and got some information on erosion control. I ordered 20 different types of native plant seeds that might help to anchor the earth,  without impacting on the other species of plants.  My order included enormous amount of seed for one of my favourites - black eyed Susans! I was disappointed the first year when not much came up, so started seeding in some hardy grasses and clovers.   I don't know if it's just the amount of rainfall this year, but the black eyed Susans arrived this month in huge numbers, along with columbines, wild bergamot, evening primrose, mullein, thistles and burdock, cow verge, cinquefoil, buttercups - you name it! But it's the Black Eyed Susans that surprised me the most and make me smile. I remember how much hope I had as I scattered them everywhere! Maybe some of the other plants I seeded will show up over the years as well.

Although I sometimes feel like we haven't made much progress this month, I guess we have.  The last year has all been in preparation for this next step, as we will soon move the timbers down, and start putting them up!  Our windows are ready for delivery, and the insulation has arrived and is being held for us.  We have boxes of screws  ( I keep meaning to post a photo - some of them are over a foot long!) and special staples and caps. We have a good house wrap on order, and everywhere I look there are things stacked ready for this next stage of building.

It will feel strange to be walking to the new house site to take drinks and refreshments to Rob, and occasionally help out. I am used to walking up along the river, through the woods, and past the green pastures to where Rob is working. There is always something lovely to look at as I walk along.

Of course, I will still take long walks that way. Although Rob seems to think that we are about to move into an even more intense building time, I hope to always make time for a good long walk. If not in the next while though, the river views are lovely too!

Glorious June

June was a glorious month. I don't know what it is about the human brain that makes it possible to forget about the long, cold, snowy winter, and move into thinking that life is a lovely endless summer, but it does. When I walk along the hot, dusty road, with sweet white clover growing higher than me at the side of the road, and the myriad of wildflowers and plants that provide such vibrant colours and textures, it is as if winter never existed on this land.

There is a smell in the air that only ever exists here. It is the smell I remember when we would drive up to the cabin late on a Friday night, winding our windows down and breathing deeply, relieved to have arrived safely, and anxious to unwind and relax on our usually brief "weekends" here. It's the smell of the river, and the earth in the forests, the sweetness of the wildflowers, the waft of pine and cedar, all in some crazy combination that I love.

These days, there is a bit of a different odor in the area where Rob works.  There is the smell of pine as he sands the timbers, and the stains that he is applying to each one.  But there is also the lingering smell of a skunk, sadly decomposing, as Rob found it dead on the road, and for reasons only known to him, thought he should dispose of the body close to where he is working, with plans to bury it properly when he has a chance to get the backhoe onto the tractor.  "Your friend isn't smelling so good" is about all I can say to him about that.....

Sanding and staining timbers is pretty much what June has been about, at least anytime the weather was decent. When there were heavy rainstorms, Rob would stay indoors, trying to work out things like screws, house wrap, sill sealer tape, scaffolding, safety harnesses, and all of the rest of the details that will soon be upon us. Every time the weather cleared (and we certainly had a lot of beautiful days) he would be outside finishing off the last of the timbers, and then sanding them all, vacuuming them, and staining them.

This process will continue into July.  We did have to order a few extra timbers, as we didn't get everything we needed in our first order last year. And there may have been one or two errors as he went along!

If you can't read it upside down it says - A well crafted very expensive piece of firewood. Check your measurements.

Now the biggest problem is where to put a timber while it's drying. Each one gets a preliminary coating, then at least one topcoat. Each coat has to dry for 24 hours. That's after Rob sands each one, all four sides, with four different levels of grit of sandpaper for each side. He's working up some pretty good muscles as he flips each timber over, and over, and over.....

I could see that a gigantic empty barn would be useful at this point.  Rob works outside under a tarp cover that helps to give him a bit of shade, and also protects the timbers somewhat. But he has to move out the ones he's worked on, to make room for the next ones. Although we can stack them up on the concrete pad we have, that's a lot of moving around, and every time he moves them with the tractor, there is a chance of dropping them, ramming them into something, or even catching them on the plants at the side of the road which gives them a greenish hue.  At the first chance of rain too, we rush around trying to get gigantic tarps up over them, and weighted down (gently) with bits of wood.  I get pretty excited when I realize that everywhere I look there are stacks of timbers - all nicely carved - and now a lot of them are also sanded and stained. They look beautiful.

I think Rob was a bit sad when he finished carving the last one though. He's certainly enjoyed most of that process, and it really is a lovely place to hang out. Most days he is visited by chipmunks and red squirrels, hummingbirds, sapsuckers, chickadees, phoebes, robins, ravens, crows and turkey vultures, just to name a few!

(Of course he will be back to carving timbers when he builds his workshop)

While Rob has been busy with the timber frame, I found myself filling my days with helping to move the funky good karma store I work at part time, to it's new location on the main street. It's in a beautiful new location, and Elizabeth unknowingly chose all my favourite colours - lime green, turquoise, gold and terracotta to paint the walls and fixtures. We moved everything over in a couple of days, and set everything up in 2 1/2 days, throwing open the doors on the 3rd day even though we still had lots to unpack, and we were rewarded with lots of appreciative comments from our lovely customers. It's a beautiful space, and I am so pleased to be there!

I have managed most weeks to take a few hours to continue my gardening education at my friend Sally's. Together we have planted scallions, 3 types of onions, sweet peas, peas, two types of bush beans, cilantro, various lettuces, more than 20 tomato plants, 1 sad habanero plant (something is nibbling on it) a few different radish varieties,  and I can't remember what else!  I've learned about mulching and watering and tilling.  I learned how to make manure tea out of goat manure.  I've learned how to plant a tomato plant sideways when it's spindly (and how easily it will snap in two if you don't do it right! Oops.)  As the season progresses I will learn much more. There is now dill and arugula springing up everywhere on their own, and there are numerous fruit trees and bushes that will bear fruit. I will also learn more about the garden 'pests' that will move into the garden and how to deal with them.  Mostly though I am getting a good feel for what I would like to plant in our own garden in the future, and how to go about it.  After each session we sit and chat and Sally always offers delightful teas and goodies, and I would have to say again - I am so pleased to be there!

As July 5 approaches, we have been reminiscing about our arrival here, two years ago on that date.  We didn't realize at the time just how tired we were. We had just closed the business, sold off all remaining fixtures, and dealt with 20 years of business "stuff" in the warehouse next to the store. We'd been going through 35 years worth of stuff in the dome, Rob had attended two timber frame courses in both Canada and the USA, and we were dealing with a newly diagnosed diabetic cat with a broken leg, and our elderly cat had been diagnosed with possible cancer.  (Both are still happily with us!)  We packed up a few belongings, 4 cats, and one dog, (it took two trips!) and ran away to this lovely little place on the river, and all we knew was that this was what we wanted to do.  What an amazing two years it has been.

There are days when we feel a little tired or overwhelmed. There are nights when both of us fall asleep even before our heads touch our pillows.  There are times when I secretly wonder whether Rob is really working on various timbers, or in reality those are the same two timbers up on those blocks every time I go up there and he's not really building a house.  (Just kidding Rob!)

But every day we share a new story. It may be the sight of the dragonflies emerging from their nymph state, it might be a new insect or wildflower at the side of the road, a magnificent cloud, a bird song, or the early morning mist on the river.  It might be a mortise or tenon that worked out perfectly (or not!), a particularly beautiful piece of timber, or the views on a drive on a back country road.

In some ways I'm anxious for the new house to be built, and for us to be moved in.  In other ways I'm happy to just be here for now, enjoying the building process and the varying routines of our days.  We are both excited, as the timbers near completion, for the next part of this adventure.