On the plus side, when I look back at the last blog posting in May, at least it did not snow in June or July!
And the rising waters we had in May did eventually recede. As of mid August though, the river was still much higher and faster than usual, and we were unable to venture in at all. Not that we'd wanted to do that very often, as we hadn't really felt any need to "cool off" !
Back at the end of May we peered into the overflowing creek waters at what we first thought were cute little tadpoles. But after a bit of research, we discovered they were in fact, mosquito larvae!
We had a feeling it was going to be a "buggy" summer. And it was, with the black flies, mosquitoes, deer flies and "no-see-ums" all out in pretty good force at times. Despite the bugs, and because of the cooler temperatures, we made the decision to take advantage of the weather and get at our tandem load of fire wood, hoping we could split most of it, and get it drying ready for winter. Rob began by chain sawing it all into reasonable lengths, that would fit our wood stoves.
Then together, if it wasn't raining, we would spend some time splitting and stacking. I had thought I could do the splitting on my own, but it turned out that I couldn't manage to lift most of the big rounds of wood onto the splitter. We got pretty good at working together; Rob would lift the rounds of wood up, I would split and he would stack. We had to wear our "bug nets', and made sure we were pretty much covered up with hats, long sleeve shirts, gloves, and long pants to keep the bugs at bay, and of course wore our steel toed boots for safety reasons. It took us the better part of a day to do about 5 cords. There is about 7 cords finished in the photo below.
It got a little warm to be wearing so much clothing on the sunny days, and eventually, when it got too warm - we quit. But not until we had almost 16 cords split and stacked! We decided that was more than enough for the upcoming winter. The rest will be split in the fall when it's cooler again (and hopefully not as "buggy"). There is probably another 4-5 cords left to split. At the end of the day, we sat down and admired our hard work!
This summer we seemed to spend a lot of time jumping around from job to job. Sometimes it's just really hard to find what we need locally, and we often have to shop around several different places until we can find what we need. As I have a job that is a half hour drive away, and we only have one vehicle, it takes a little more planning sometimes too, to do the needed pick-ups! So often we will just leave a job and move on to another one, until we can get what we need to finish the original task.
One of the bigger jobs was to finish the necessary changes to the solar powered system, (which Rob promises to write about in a separate blog soon!). But spoiler alert - we passed our final inspection!
We also kept working on installing our pine ceilings and finished the last sections that needed to be done. The photo below is looking up at the ceiling of our bedroom. We still have to find some light fixtures for where those bare bulbs are installed, but the LED bulbs will do for now. It's going to be a lovely space....
In mid June we were hit by a powerful storm that knocked out power lines, and phone lines, snapped a nearby hydro pole and felled a number of our trees. Although we had full power in the new house, we still didn't have any access to running water, so it wasn't a lot of use to us. Luckily we have a generator and an emergency reserve of bottled water, so here in the cabin Rob was quick to hook up a lamp for light, and made sure we at least had coffee at the start of the day! It's all about priorities.
As soon as the storm was over we went out to look for damage, and checked on our neighbours. Some of the trees looked like they had just been twisted off like a twist-top bottle by the winds. Later on we discovered more trees came down in another nearby area of the forest.
Kudos to Ontario Hydro who got a new pole in, and had us all up and running in 24 hours. Our phone line was temporarily repaired within about 48 hours, and a couple of weeks later the lines themselves were permanently restrung. The oddest thing is that right after the storm, the mosquitoes were frantic, and the air was thick with them. We could barely step out of the truck to look for storm damage before they descended on us! A short time later the mosquito numbers were back to normal and we were able to get a better look at things. It's not the first time we've noticed an increase in bug activity just shortly before or after a storm.
Towards the end of June, Rob had the treat of watching a large snapping turtle (hopefully) laying eggs near the new house.
She did an interesting "left rear foot" then "right rear foot" shuffle, which seems to indicate there were turtle eggs being deposited, and covered up. Rob watched from the window as he didn't want to disturb her.
And then she sauntered off.
Earlier in the spring we had picked up a second hand door (second hand - but never used!). A phoebe had made a nest just to the left of the entrance, and we decided to wait on installing the door, so that we wouldn't disturb her. As soon as the babies had hatched and left the nest, we were able to install it as our "front" door. I'm not sure we will use this door very much as I think the mudroom door will be the preferred entrance, but I guess we will see.
Despite our feeling that summer would never arrive, Jet decided summer had indeed arrived and began to "blow his coat". No amount of brushing will keep up with it! He always looks several pounds thinner when his summer coat comes in. Sometimes we find that the birds have used his hair for nests, so it's nice to see it put to a good use.
He's had some recurring yeast infections in his ears, so the vet suggested it may be due to an allergy to something in his diet. He's had to give up all his yummy treats (bananas, cream cheese, peanut butter, bites of apple and yes - corn chips - don't ask...) and is on a new dog food. The animal hospital gave him a new Kong toy to make up for having to give up all his favourite foods. It's called a Genius - but we thought it would be fun to call it a Jean Genie. (Yes - after the David Bowie tune!) Jet quickly learned it's name, and will go get it whenever we ask him where Jean Genie is, but then we can't stop singing that song....perhaps a bit of a mistake.
We decided to get back to working on finishing the house ceilings, and installed all the drywall into the dining room and kitchen area. (It wasn't as easy as it sounds). It was a good decision we think, to do these ceilings in drywall rather than pine like the rest of the house. Here's hoping we pick the right paint colour though, as I doubt we will want to repaint it any time soon after we get it done. It's going to be a bit of a finicky job.
The house is starting to look like a real house!
Next, it was time to get some running water into the house. The well itself was dug before we even poured the concrete slabs, four years ago. Now we had to dig out around the well, in preparation for the final well hookup.
On the day of my birthday, just as Rob and I were heading out to spend the day together, the "well guy" called to say it was a good day to get our final well installation done as there was no forecast for rain that day. So we immediately switched gears, and said "o.k". As soon as it was done we headed out to at least five different stores in two different towns, to look for the needed parts to complete the water hookup. Never let it be said my birthdays are boring !!
We still need to have the water tested, but we can at least now use it to flush our temporary toilet. (We will install our new permanent toilets once the concrete floors are finished, and the walls have been painted. ) Next time we have a power outage at the cabin, we won't have to worry about not having a working toilet! (No power in the cabin = no running water either).
We installed our pressure tank and tankless water heater. And yes - Rob does know what he's doing with that extra pipe in his hand... Our hot water will be heated by propane for the moment at least. In the summer it would be nice to use solar power, so we may switch over to an electric powered heater in the summer months when we produce excess power anyway. We know we will be working out a few things once we actually move in, and are able to judge what is working for us, and what isn't.
Next on the list was getting the propane lines run over to the kitchen as our kitchen stove runs on propane. Again, we think that in the summer months we will try to use an electric induction stove for some tasks. Most of the off grid folks around here have a variety of seasonal options that they use; trying to make use of the excess solar power in the summer months, and working around the possible lack of solar power in the height of the winter.
Mid July approached and we still were still waiting for "summer" weather. Every day we would see the dark clouds roll in. We had numerous thunderstorms and more power outages, and it became routine to fill up carafes with hot water for hand washing, and jugs of water for filling pet water bowls whenever there was a mention of thunderstorms, knowing we would likely lose power again. Once we get the water tested at the new house, we will be away to trot over there for our water, and can of course heat water there whenever we need to.
On the plus side, the heavy rains have made the vegetation look lush all summer. The sumacs are stunning.
But surprisingly, even my indoor potted plants are sprouting mushrooms....
We don't really know if the higher levels of water were good or bad for our "wetland" area, but it did seem to attract the Great Blue Heron there this summer, and Rob kept seeing another heron like bird here and there. At first we assumed it was a Green Heron, but late one afternoon this lovely bird stepped out into the brush in front of the new house. We have seen these before in the wetland area we tried to save when we lived in Navan (sadly we did not succeed). So it was with great delight that we had the opportunity to see this American Bittern, in a classic "freeze - I am not here pose" AND get a photo! When it walked back into the wetland I started to cry. I guess I really never thought I'd see one again, and certainly not in our own sweet little area next to the house.
I guess it's been a summer of wildlife sightings. Earlier in June Rob and Jet were out for a morning walk when Rob spotted a rather large bear on our driveway, just a short distance away. He carefully diverted Jet's attention and backed away... We called our neighbours just to let them know one was headed their way, but didn't see any sign of it again. I must say though that for the next few days when I traipsed around the property by myself I had the habit of clicking my fingers, scuffing my feet, and loudly singing a little made up mantra type song... "trying to make some noise... and trying not to look delicious " !
Because of the bear we also set up a trail camera, and although no bear showed up on the camera, we were soon watching videos and photos of a family of foxes that moved in near one of our culverts. I guess there was a reason for Jet sticking his nose in there! It was fun to watch the young one's antics, especially as they tussled around in the early hours of the morning. Not quite as much fun to see what their Mom or Dad brought them to eat! The quality of the trail camera isn't great, but it allows us to see what's out there, especially at night.
And of course, you never know what you will see; we only just recently went through the videos and photos on the camera, and noticed a coyote was standing in front of it one afternoon!
One of the next tasks we tackled was to build the interior window frames for the house. Despite having our own collection of maple, ash and cherry, we still needed to purchase a bit more wood in order to complete the frames. The windows in the living room are rather large, and although we had a lot of shorter pieces, we didn't have enough long pieces to allow us to do a straight run of the horizontal frame pieces, and of course, seams are out of the question ....
Rob sure looks happy working in his new workshop, although it still needs to be set up properly.
We chose to put the first frame in the mudroom, sort of a test piece I guess. It is made of ash wood, which we quite liked. It was great to see the first window frame in! We have designed them with a slightly different method, which I am sure Rob will explain later.
I have been really fortunate to have the opportunity the last few months of entering a "Photo Challenge" which was kindly offered by my super sis's brother in South Africa. Every week he issues a different "challenge" theme, and we have a week to do it. He then offers a very constructive (and kind) critique of our photo. I have learned so much already, and look forward every week to the new challenge. And it is a challenge - not only to meet the criteria, but to do my best to figure out how to make my camera see what I see. Sometimes it's just a challenge to find the time, but as I am always in my "happy place" when I am out and about with my camera, it is easier to make the time. So here's a big shout out to PhotoCoach for donating so much time to the Challenge, and if you are on Facebook, please check PhotoCoach out (and if you are in South Africa make sure you sign up for their awesome courses!)
One example of a recent attempt at a "photo shoot" was the "Frame Challenge", and as Rob and I had decided to spend the day together on a little trip around some of our favourite local areas, I brought my camera along. Rob and I took a lovely trip around Round Lake, and stopped in Killaloe where I tried a covered bridge photo. Rob of course, was checking out the timber construction.
The view from inside the bridge:
Then it was off through the beautiful area around Brudenell, where I tried some more photos, down past Lake Clear, and back home and over to one of the Mennonite farms where I tried my hand at capturing some of their recently hand stooked crops (all cut using horse power!).
We then checked out the Bonnechere Caves area, where we knew there was a trail to a cool natural rock archway that might work:
And then off to Balaclava to take some photos of the old abandoned sawmill there:
This was not the photograph that I chose either, but it sure is an awesome building. There is even a Great Blue Heron in the far left corner, fishing for some food in the river!
My final choice for the challenge photo is below. It is of one of the windows in the mill, and kudos to Rob for spotting the amazing light in the broken window. It sure was fun driving around together and looking for inspiration for this challenge. (And once submitted I did learn how I could crop this a bit differently, and things to try next time!)
So, as you can see, we do sometimes leave the property and aren't always working on the new house! And I should add that we had the treat of some visits from good friends this summer, and did manage to attend a small family reunion as well. It's easy sometimes to just want to hang out at the river, and in the forest, but we do try to keep up somewhat with our social skills!
Mid August, the river finally began to drop to more normal levels, and became more like the river we know in the summer. However, the high waters have changed the look of the shoreline, and moved rocks and spits of land, and deposited a stunning amount of lumber (presumably from people's docks up river) along the shores. We've had some fun looking at some new fossils, and admiring the variety of rock colours.
I haven't yet put my nice benches back in the river as the levels are still fluctuating. It's hard to believe but last year one of the benches sat where there are now all those rocks!
While we have been waiting and waiting for summer, it has become apparent that the season is on the wane, and not likely to arrive now. Jobs that we lined up for fall, are suddenly looming closer! In no time we will be back to splitting wood I'm sure.
In the meantime we switched jobs (again!) when we realized we should get the last of the concrete poured while the weather was decent. We needed concrete at the "front" door and the workshop door. We would have liked to have had some at the mudroom door, but the cost of pouring that much concrete was clearly too much. We have interlock that we brought from our old house, so will probably use it there instead.
Rob chose the brief few days of warm humid weather to build the concrete forms, line them with foam slabs, shovelled in some stone, and installed the wire mesh. Luckily some of that work was done in the shade!
Once the concrete is poured, we can put in the final timber frame structure at the front door, as that is a temporary brace and post, as well as finish up the area around the workshop door.
Sometimes when I write a blog posting it seems to jump around a lot, but it does sort of follow what has gone on here in the last two months or more. As I finish up writing this, Rob has headed over to complete the work on the concrete forms, and I am sitting on the porch, enjoying for perhaps the first time in months, a warm sunny day. The river has dropped and yesterday for the first time all summer we ventured in. It was lovely! With cooler temperatures returning this week, I will probably see if I can entice Rob to take a few minutes and go cool off in the river again this afternoon. Later this evening I am sure we will sit by the river and enjoy the warm evening breeze, and watch as the sun goes down. It feels like we waited all summer for summer to arrive, and we will make the most of it today.
