So now I find myself, on a rather dark, cool and dreary late May day, hoping to at least write some kind of update. I'm going through our photos and notes, and trying to make some sense out of what we've done in the last few months. I almost don't want to look at any of the pictures of ice and snow though. It was a rather long winter, and a cold dark spring. The leaves are only just now coming out in the trees, and we are all anxious for some warmer and brighter summer-like weather.
With apologies to Rob; for my lack of details on the installation of the batteries, and powering up of the electrical system, and apologies to anyone reading this, as there may be a bit of a jump-around here and there on the time line. Here I go ...
Rob completed the box that holds the batteries, and one cold March day we moved the batteries out of the dining room in the cabin, and over to the new workshop. Jet barked a big "Yippee", as his bed had been moved to make room for the batteries and it could now go back to it's original place in the dining room. And I was pretty glad to see those batteries leave this little cabin as well!
Soon, the batteries were all installed into the new box that we had built.
Then we checked them all to make sure they were o.k and establish a base level for voltage and specific gravity (which is used to measure the state of charge).
Somehow, I think I thought there would be more fanfare, but we were both pretty chuffed when we "flipped the switch" and voila - we had real power ! Up until now we'd been running off of a single portable solar panel and when necessary, a generator.
Now we could begin to monitor what really happens on snowy days, or cloudy days, in terms of power being generated from those awesome panels!
We had some beautiful, and unusually mild days in March. And we also had some pretty solid snowstorms.
I would say that I probably spent more time outside this winter than ever before though. It was lovely, and as always a lot of my time was spent down at the river's edge.
Rob continued to work on the workshop, putting in the rest of the second floor:
and hoped for some warmer weather to arrive, so he could do the work necessary to get the house wrap off of the workshop windows, and allow some natural light in. On the other hand, it was pretty cool to be able to turn on a light! It will be a while before Rob gets this space set up the way he wants, but it sure is fabulous to see his hand made workbench there after all this time.
The weather really didn't cooperate in terms of warming up, so he switched back to working on the new house. The scaffolding was erected once again, and he donned a clean room suit, and face mask for protection from the insulation fibers, and started tucking insulation into the ceilings. I think after all the stress of installing the batteries and configuring the system, it was nice to do some "mindless" work. Mind you, we did still have to figure out how best to use the bats of insulation, cut each piece to fit, and move that scaffolding all around, climbing up and down pretty often - which had it's own issues!
It was slow work, but rewarding to see some progress! After the insulation went in, Rob added some Tyvek on top, to help prevent any insulation particles filtering through the ceiling planks, especially if the planks shrink over time, allowing the fibres to escape out. In a regular house, the vapour barrier would prevent this, but this style of building doesn't use one, and the Tyvek is moisture permeable which is important.
Not only was it great to see progress, but those huge piles of bags of insulation started to go down!
In the meantime, I joined a fabulous Photo Challenge (thank you Charles and Photo Coach!) that offered weekly constructive critiques of photos, and I found myself traipsing around the countryside looking for inspiration. As much as I love driving around this area, I was somewhat disheartened that as late as March 26 we still had snow on the ground, and no sign of it going any time soon. (And it snowed in April and again in May!) I loved coming across the Mennonites in their buggies one Sunday morning. I don't usually like to photograph them, but as it was from quite a distance, and not at all intrusive, I thought it would be o.k.
I never did use that photo for the challenge, but I did eventually find the tree that I wanted for the challenge that week!
Back at the house, Rob was working on the final electrical wiring while also finishing the insulation. As always, one job precludes another, so he's constantly "changing hats". He needed to run the rest of the wiring in the ceiling before he put in the insulation. The time had also come to finalize all of our wiring and lighting plans. We've found some interesting LED lighting strips that will add some programmable colours, as well as some interesting back lighting to some areas. We spent quite a bit of time going over to the house at night to make sure that the lighting we've chosen would be adequate, as sometimes it's hard to tell during daylight hours. We've also accumulated some nice lighting fixtures over the years, so should be able to put them all to good use now. With our final electrical inspection looming, we also had to properly finish all the switches, plugs etc. but we won't install our final lighting fixtures until the drywall has been sanded and painted, and we'll be producing less dust and dirt!
While the scaffolding was up, he also took a great leap of faith, and installed the final two upper windows. After all the unresolved issues we had with our (now defunct) window supplier, we weren't even sure that the ones they had left us with, would fit as promised, but miraculously - they did ! Whew.... Nice to see some part of the window fiasco go right (however, they were not the specified glass - you can't win them all)! And they do look beautiful, and bring in even more light.
April 7 we were dismayed to wake up to (a lot) more snow....and wondered if the returning geese would simply turn around and head back south! Despite our attempts to drive out that day, we couldn't make it up the hill and I never did make it to work.
On the plus side, it made for some intricate patterns in the wetland when the melting waters froze up again!
A week later though, it really did begin to feel like spring. There is a saying here that it isn't spring until the phoebes sing, and sure enough one day we heard the return of the phoebes.
Although there was still a bit of snow lingering in piles behind the house, and in the woods, the temperatures began to warm up, and we could shed our winter coats and boots, and believe that winter was finally over.
We ventured out for a hike in the beautiful Shaw Woods one weekend, skirting the snow and ice that was still here and there on the pathways, and noticed the water levels of the Snake River seemed pretty high. This walkway abruptly ended as the boardwalk was under water.
Our own wetland area was beginning to look like a small lake.
Both the cabin and the new house were high and dry though, so we didn't worry...
Rob kept plugging away at the insulation:
And I kept an eye on the river, as it rose higher and wider than either of us had ever seen.
As soon as the insulation was installed, Rob set to work on staining the pine for our wood ceilings. We had chosen a sort of white wash effect for the pine that we thought would lighten the ceilings, and make the timbers stand out more. I thought it would take forever to do, but Rob set himself up outside with home made drying racks, and made pretty quick work of it all. (You can see the racks in this earlier photo that I took, below) It made for an easy way to stack the wood while it dried, and then Rob could move them back into the house.
We knew we had only a small window of time to work outside before the bugs arrived. It's no fun trying to stain wood when bugs keep landing on the planks! Luckily we got them all done in time.
I escaped from the rising waters (and promises of helping to stain all that pine!) and made a quick trip to BC for my Mom's 90th birthday, and to visit family. I was surprised to discover that I took very few photos, but I was intent on soaking up as much family time as possible! It was wonderful to see everyone, and spend some time in the big city as well as the lovely Sunshine Coast.
While I was away, Rob told me that the river had pushed further into our wetland and over to the neighbouring wetland, breaching our road somewhat. A minor issue - and nothing like the devastation elsewhere in the province where record high water levels caused a lot of destruction. By the time I came home, the waters were receding although the river still remains high. And I apparently missed another day of snow!
While I was away, the installation of the pine ceiling began too. What an amazing feeling it is to look up and see a finished ceiling! There is still lots more to go up but already we can get an idea how the house will look.
I thought this would be the first spring that we wouldn't be worrying about the weather, as we had no major outside tasks planned for early this year. I had clearly forgotten about our tandem load of firewood that should have been sawed and split last fall. (Unfortunately it snowed in November when we planned on doing it, and the snow never left!) Just as both the black flies and mosquitoes emerged, Rob set out with his chain saw to prepare the wood for splitting. The logs arrive in 16 foot lengths and these need to be cut into 16" pieces. It's heavy, dirty work, and the black flies were pretty hungry. Fortunately, a couple of rainy days gave Rob's early bites a chance to heal before he was the main course again and he moved back into working on the new house until the rain cleared and he could get back at the firewood. Once it is sawed into smaller logs, I can go up and help with the splitting and stacking - but some of the oak pieces are pretty serious in size and we will need to split them using a wedge before we can lift them onto the hydraulic splitter.. We need to give the wood as much time as possible to dry before using it this winter. If it isn't dry enough by fall, we will have to buy some firewood as we did in previous years. (Which will mean even more splitting work for me!)
We've never split wood in the spring before and now we know why. The bugs make it really hard to work outside right now, and they are worse on cloudy, still days. The wood seems to be an major attractant as well!
So, I think that pretty much covers the last few months. We think we are on track for moving in by Christmas, but there is a lot of work to do before then. We shall see how things go this summer as we continue to work on the interior of the new house, interspersed with wood splitting and all the day to day chores and goings on! I know when the time comes, I shall miss this little cabin. But I am just the tiniest bit hungry for a bit more kitchen space!
I'll finish with a last photo - just for fun. Looks like Big Rob and Little Al....
