On the "plus" side though, the snow cover was exceptionally pretty, and somewhat brightened what is usually the long dark month of November.
By November 21st, we weren't feeling quite so thrilled by it all. Below normal temperatures, wind chill factors, and constant snow squalls were wearing us out somewhat. I think too, we had conveniently forgotten about those short pre-winter days, the limited sunshine, and the myriad of tasks that winter brings. Even stepping out the door takes longer, as we first have to don a pile of winter clothing!
Despite all the firewood we had cut, split, and stacked to dry for future years earlier in the fall, we actually didn't have all that much dry wood for burning this winter. We had tried cutting up some wood that we had left in long lengths all summer, but they turned out not to be all that dry either. We realized we should have prepared more "swing season" wood; lots of poplar and spruce that would give out heat, but aren't really suitable for sustained heat during the really cold months. That would have enabled us to save the good dry hardwood for the middle of winter. We did gather up all the scraps of pine that we had left over from the timber making process and used it for a short while, and then we turned to some of the short oak short scraps we had left in an open trailer to dry. These were a bit drier but not great. By November 21 we were breaking into our "winter wood", and recalculating how long it might last if the unusually cold weather persisted.
Snow days are cloudy days too, and we found ourselves having to run the generator occasionally to boost the power in the solar powered batteries. There sure were a lot of cloudy days in November. Plus the constant snow would cover the solar panels, so not much power was generated on those days either, at least until we could get the snow cleared off of them, or until the snow slid off.
I think if we weren't trying so hard to get things finished in the new house, none of this would have mattered very much, but every minute Rob was pulled away from working in the new house, felt like time lost. We were both a little disappointed too, to see time slipping away, knowing that it truly meant we would not be in the house before the end of the year. Fortunately most days we could generally cheer each other up, and remind ourselves that it's all part of the building process.
And as always, there is nothing like a good long walk in the woods, or along the river, with my camera in hand, to cheer me up a little. The sight of a lone mink one stormy day, loping along the icy edge, diving into the river, coming out of the frigid water, shaking off the icy droplets, then repeating the process again, took all my thoughts away from house building and self imposed deadlines. I tucked myself in next to a pine tree to steady my hand and hoped for a better shot. Imagine my surprise when the mink caught wind of me, stood up on it's hind legs sniffing the air, then trotted up the shoreline towards me. I was definitely holding my breath when I took this shot!
And I was happy one evening to run down to the river's edge and catch the last rays of a rather spectacular sunset.
In between the snow days, Rob would continue to sort through his lengths of cherry, maple and oak and get them stored in the workshop to acclimatize while he got everything in place for the cabinetry work.
My upstairs studio was going to be the "test" site for the first cabinet. Plus we needed to get a cabinet in place so that we could move the temporary double stainless steel sink out of our bathroom, but still have the sink available somewhere in the house. As it's final resting place was my studio, it seemed like a good time to get it in place.
We had a counter that we had pulled out of our Chilly Chiles kitchen when we closed the business, that was perfect for my studio, but it began to bow slightly after being pulled out of storage. Rob tried wetting it down daily to get it back in shape.
Towards the end of November, we had a small break in the weather. We had been working on a means to get internet access and a working telephone at the new house, and had finally decided to try a Power over Ethernet (POE) box (that we now refer to as "Edgar Allan" or "Edgar" for short !! ) that would connect us to the system here at the cabin. With the weather reprieve, Rob was able to hook up a box here in a tree, and one over at the new house, and test it out.
And it worked! (Well, of course it did - why am I surprised?) We had already purchased and tested out an internet phone service earlier in the year, so now have both telephone and internet services running in the new house. It feels like progress indeed! And just in the nick of time, as then it snowed. And rained. And snowed, snowed, snowed. So we were thankful that we had managed to get it up and running when it was at least a bit milder and drier out.
The constant snow somewhat delayed a necessary trip to Ottawa for some specialty cabinet hardware, but before the month of November ended we were finally able to make the trip. We were lucky to have found a company in the west end of Ottawa that had exactly what we needed. If we have to source products we try to do it locally, but our second choice is always Ottawa. After that we have to resort to the internet, which usually means shipping costs and time delays.
Most nights at home would find Rob working on stair design and cabinetry details. The existing stairs were found to be off slightly in measurements due to varying concrete floor levels, and we realized we would have to lift them slightly. Building codes dictate the depth of stairs too, and I learned that you don't want them to be off as you might misstep and fall. O.k., in actual fact I have learned more about stairs in the last couple of weeks than I cared to know. Rob caught me out one night in mid-explanation when he realized I was totally not listening and was intent on some entirely different topic in my head. Oops !! Really though, I'm sure I was still paying attention..
December arrived and so did some sunshine! We felt like moles coming out of our burrows that morning, squinting into the bright sun against the white snow. CBC reported that Toronto had seen no sign of the sun for 88% of the time in November. We can only surmise that it was the same for us here. So we enjoyed a gloriously sunny morning, complete with hoar frost in all the trees near the river, and some lovely light coming through the trees along the path.
Later in the day though, we saw rain, freezing rain, ice pellets, and more snow arrive. We had more of the same the next day and I stayed home close to the wood stove, and wondered if it could possibly be any darker here in the cabin in the middle of the day.
Eventually I simply headed over to the new house where even on the darkest days, it is ever so much brighter inside.
One of the choices in building the kitchen cabinets was whether to put backs on the cabinets or not. We keep trying to minimize costs, and think about maintenance and ease of cleaning, so initially thought it would be fine not to put backs on the cupboards. But eventually Rob decided it just wasn't working, and we needed some backing materials. Which of course, we didn't have. We get by with only one vehicle, which I use to get to work, so as usual, this decision came about on a Friday when he was here without the truck. So we had to wait until the following Monday, when the truck was available, and the weather promised to be nice and clear. Which meant we would have a decent drive to Ottawa, as well as the materials staying nice and dry during the trip in the open bed of the truck. Well.....we woke up to - you guessed it - snow!
But the forecast promised clear skies were on the way, so we agreed to set out. Unfortunately we made the decision to hook up the trailer and use it to haul the materials, but 20 minutes into the trip realized the trailer was now completely covered in wet road slush and salt. This did not bode well for hauling materials. So we returned home, and unhooked the trailer, and set out again. Of course it snowed the entire trip (both ways!) but thankfully when we picked up our order they allowed us to drive the truck right into the covered-in facility so we could strap our order into the bed of the truck while remaining warm and dry ourselves. They also gave us some protective covering for the products so they would stay relatively dry on the ride home. Things got a bit wet, but not too bad, and we made it home and unloaded everything with no problems. So much for the weather forecasts!
Up until now, whenever we wanted to know what the solar panels and batteries were doing, we'd have to walk over to where the batteries are installed and check the readouts there. Thanks to "Edgar" we were able to hook directly into the system and now can monitor it from wherever we are. Which means in future, if I'm thinking of doing something like vacuuming in the new house, I can log onto the system and know whether it's a good time or not !! (i.e. do we have enough power?) How cool is that. Here's what the screen looks like. Kind of geeky maybe, but it works.
Coming into mid-December, our thoughts began to turn to Christmas, friends, and family. When some friends invited us for an afternoon brunch, we gladly accepted, and headed over for a couple of hours of good food and conversation. It's a pretty drive there and back, and we were glad of the outing. As an added bonus, our hosts are ardent gardeners and they gifted us some butternut and acorn squash when we left. Which I in turn roasted and turned into a delicious soup.
Unfortunately, that same weekend, our sweet cat GB, who at 17 years old had been having some health issues, (although still happily eating, drinking and purring) began to have problems breathing, and the vet advised us he had congenital heart failure.
He was our "wild boy", and up until the last year or so always game for a good romping play. He stole all of the other cat's food any chance he could get, and proudly held the title of "the Cat of Perpetual Hunger". He chased his sister Sita somewhat mercilessly at times. He had the most wicked claws, and wasn't afraid to use them. He didn't like to be picked up much, but he sure would enjoy a good petting and absolutely loved to be brushed. After we lost Leon our tabby cat, who was the most vocal and loudest purring cat we'd ever had, GB rose to the challenge and developed an absolutely amazingly loud purr. And so in the last year or so, as his health declined and he quieted down somewhat, he and I enjoyed a lot of quiet time together, as I gently rubbed his ears, and stroked his sides, with him purring all the while. It's a quieter place here without him and I sure miss his sweet presence. And I know our other two cats miss curling up with both him and Leon (who we lost over 2 years ago). I love this picture of the four of them.... and still can't get used to only having two cats on the couch now.
By mid December we had a working sink and counter installed in the upstairs studio. It looks great, and I am already beginning to think about fabrics and paints and projects again. It's been too long since I've done anything creative with fabric. With this sink installed, we once again have somewhere to clean up paint brushes etc. while we continue working on the house. And we can now get to work on getting a proper sink into the master bathroom.
The week before Christmas Rob began cutting wood for the cabinets. I work a retail job so was putting in extra hours at the store, and planning and doing the shopping for some festive meals. When we received some warnings for a freezing rain and ice pellet storm we made a quick run to pick up extra gas for the generator, and diesel for the tractor. We were planning a fairly quiet Christmas, and although Rob would happily stop working on the cabinets to enjoy some wine and good food, we were planning on getting those cabinets well on the way over the holiday period. But then alas (because "alas" just seems like the most appropriate word here, although probably NOT the word Rob used at the time) Rob's table saw croaked.
(Note to non-woodworkers here - this is not a good time for the non-woodworking person to say to the woodworking person "can't you just use another one of your tools". That is all I'm going to say on this.)
With the holiday season fast approaching, we didn't have much hope for a quick fix. Once we figured out that it was indeed the motor that had failed, it took some time to shop around and decide whether we could find a suitable replacement motor, or would have to actually find a new saw. With most companies closed until the New Year it was somewhat difficult to make any decisions. So we decided we just had to wait until companies re-opened. There are always plenty of other things that can be done (although I was surprised to learn that most of them required a table saw! See earlier note. ) so we just continued as best we could.
On Christmas Eve Rob surprised me with a fresh Christmas tree inside the new house, and boxes of Christmas tree decorations stacked beside it. We haven't had an indoor tree in a good many years so it was a truly lovely surprise. It was our first Christmas without his sweet Mom and we were both really missing her. Mom LOVED Christmas; the lights, the music, the Christmas Specials on TV, stockings, gifts, cards, Christmas trees and decorations ....the whole event. She's made tons of decorations over the years, and we have a lot of them. So it was somewhat bittersweet to open our box, and decorate our lovely tree, but we did it. At the same time we decided to purge ourselves of some of our decorations, keeping only the ones we love, the ones with meaning, and the ones that make us smile (or occasionally tear up a little). Some of them had totally disintegrated into a pile of rubble...we are still guessing what they might have once been!
We enjoyed walking over to the new house on several evenings, where we enjoyed sitting by our tree, sipping a beer, and dreaming of Christmases to come. It sure was sweet to walk up to the new house at night and see some lights inside too.
Rob also surprised me before Christmas with a shelf for the master bathroom. It's a live edge shelf that goes on two sides of the bathtub. It isn't finished though and he made me promise not to post any photos until it is. But I can say that it looks fantastic, and totally adds to the organic, zen look that I was hoping for. Hopefully I'll be posting a photo in my next blog entry!
Christmas Day was a quiet one, with our traditional long walk, good food, lots of telephone conversations with friends and family, and a nice dinner at the end of the day.
Boxing Day was more of the same, and then we both got back to work. As I was off for four days over New Year's we had asked a couple of friends to join us for a dinner on New Year's Day at the new house. I had said I wasn't going to prepare another meal in the cabin and then run it down to the new house, but there you go. It seemed like a good idea for the start of a New Year!
As we were in the process of working on kitchen cabinets, we had already pulled out the previously installed "temporary counter" that we had used the last time we served a meal there. So Rob knocked another quick one together for me.
We tidied up the guest bathroom, and even added a couple of favourite Christmas themed decorations! (With thanks to my super sis for the sweet little painting she did for us this year. It will look even better in here once we get this room finished!)
And our funky temporary "scaffolding bed" was made ready for our friend Joe to be able to spend the night.
In the end though we had to cancel our dinner plans as storm warnings began to come in a couple of days before hand, and we didn't want anyone on the roads with a forecast of freezing rain, 50k winds and up to 20 cms of snow. On New Year's Day, once we finished plowing, shoveling and clearing the snow off of the panels, we still managed to have a nice meal by ourselves, although not the festive one I had planned.
As the roads remained snow covered and somewhat icy for the next couple of days, I was glad our friends hadn't ventured out. I was worried enough when I saw a truck swinging around the corner one morning when the local Mennonites were out with their horse and buggy!
And I enjoyed a few days off, with lots of good long walks, and evenings by the wood stove.
As soon as New Year's was over, Rob was able to pick up a replacement motor for his table saw, and another necessary part arrived in the mail. With the saw working once again, we could get back to building cabinets and stairs.
On the whole, the first half of January seems to be promising somewhat milder temperatures than normal, and our wood usage has dropped a bit. Fortunately too, we had a lot of rain in December, and that washed away a lot of the snow, or we'd have a few feet of it by now I think ! That said, we broke into the wood pile slated for January before December ended (to be used at the new house) and I have dipped into the "February" pile to use here at the cabin. We are trying to make do at the cabin with our electric baseboard heat, supplemented by the wood stove, and so far that seems to be working. The sooner we can move into the new house and only heat one place the better though!
Well, I had a few more stories, but I think I will add those on to the next blog. I was trying to get this posted close to the New Year so I could wish everyone all the best for 2019. My mantra this year is "to see the world through the eyes of a child". Rob has been working on his, but is leaning towards the infamous Calvin and Hobbs "what a lovely afternoon". More on this later ... For now, wishing everyone much love, peace and joy.
