We've had birds hit the windows before, but one has never broken the glass, and usually after a few moments they gather themselves up and fly away. Grouse are stunningly beautiful birds, and we were both heartbroken.
We will have to figure out how to fix the glass in the spring as winter is no time to be messing with the removal of windows, so it unfortunately remains this way for the time being. And of course we'll be looking into seeing what, if anything, we can do to prevent future broken windows and bird demise.
I wasn't even going to share that sad story, but I noticed that in most of my photos of the progress on the kitchen, that broken window is just too obvious, so I knew I'd have to tell the tale.
As with previous January's here, Rob and I moved into our usual winter routines. We get up when it's still dark, feed the cats and dog, get ourselves some breakfast and plan our day while we sip our coffee together. With "Edgar" up and running (see previous blog posting!) we log on and check to see how the solar panels and batteries are doing. Then we check the weather forecast. A forecast for sunshine means a good power day, and that Rob can likely use power tools while spending the day working on the new house. A forecast for snow means that he hopes he remembered to plug in the tractor as he will spend a good portion of the day using it to remove snow from the driveway and the roadways in, and will need that tractor to start! If I'm not working on a snowy day, I will help clear around doorways, clear the truck and pull the snow off the temporary shelter using a roof rake if need be. If I am working, Rob will warm up my truck, clear it off, and send me on my way. Sometimes that means he has to plow my way out first, and sometimes we chance it but he'll drive me up the large hill that leads to our main road, to make sure I get out safely. I'm not a fan of getting myself stuck on that steep hill!
On my days off I spend some time in the cabin, preparing meals for the upcoming week. I had fallen out of the habit of making my own bread, so was happy to get back into that routine again.
As soon as I get some chores out of the way though, I take almost any opportunity I can to head outside. I love winter, and I love being out by the river, or in the woods, especially when I have my camera with me. I find it hard to carry a camera on very snowy days (or rainy ones!) as I worry about it getting wet, but otherwise I almost always have it along, with a plastic bag on hand to cover it up in case the weather changes. I take part in a weekly photography challenge (thanks to the amazing PhotoCoach!) so I'm always looking for some good photo opportunities while I walk about.
We had some pretty cold days in January, and I simply kept adding layers until I could comfortably stay outside a bit longer. It's not a high fashion look, but it works. Being warm is key!
The trees were often blanketed with snow this January, and it was beautiful to be outside and see them. People often comment that I shoot a lot in black and white, but I would say I do not. This is simply how our world often looks this time of year.
There hasn't been a lot of wildlife sightings this winter. The deep snow has slowed down the movement of the coyotes, deer, and foxes. The wild turkeys seem to have no such problem walking through the snow, and I see their footprints often. And sometimes the actual birds.
I usually walk down to the river to check out the changes there, then head up through the woods to see what's going on. On the way home, I swing by the new house to see what Rob is up to. It was pretty exciting to see him working on the kitchen cabinets. Gotta' love a laser level.
It's not a big kitchen (which is fine with us!) So it's been interesting to think about and plan the design. Sometime in the last few months, we moved from the idea of "cupboards" to "drawers" after looking at a lot of designs, as well as thinking about what worked for us in the dome, and here in the cabin. Here, our most often used pots sit in a drawer. That wasn't a planned thing - it's just where they ended up, due to lack of space. But you know what? It totally works for us both. When we lived in the dome the pots sat in deep cupboards and weren't easy to get at. This new kitchen doesn't have a lot of wall space for above counter cupboards, as we opted for a nice window in front of the sink area instead. But there are areas under the sink and next to the stove that can be used for storage. The area under the sink will still be a cupboard, but we have decided that most of the remainder of this kitchen will have drawers. Even glassware and dishes will be stored in pull out drawers. There is an island area that will have some cupboard space, and there will be some cupboards above the stove area, and some type of shelves in our pantry. We'll see how this all works out. But we both think it's going to be just fine.
Of course, we've been living in the cabin for quite a while, with a minimal amount of storage space, and very few kitchen items, so this new kitchen seems to have way more space than we think we need. I'm sure that once we pull out our dishes, pots, and utensils out of storage, we will fill some of it up in no time.
In the meantime, we moved a little cabinet up to my studio, so we can keep our mugs and teapot and tea up there, as there is no space in the kitchen at the moment. Rob usually has a "tea break" in the afternoon, and if I'm around I'll happily join him.
Rob has been spending a lot of time sorting through the wood we'll be using in the kitchen and for the finished stair case. There are (many) times when we think it would be easier if we could just buy what we need, but wood is expensive, and it's a good idea to use some of what we have whenever we can. (Hah - we keep reminding ourselves we do not have a "wood museum" !! ) As you can see from the writing on the wood in the photo below, this is apparently "OAK" and it will be used for the stairs. To tell the truth, I wander in to the workshop from time to time and often have no idea what kind of wood Rob is working on, it just all looks beautiful to me!
Rob likes to surprise me sometimes, so I had no idea that he planned on using some walnut in the kitchen, until I walked in and saw it there.
It's gorgeous wood and the grain is really interesting. Here he just dropped things in place with a old piece of counter on the left just to give me an idea of how things will look. That's one lovely looking sink and I know I'm going to hate the first time we scratch it or ding it with something, but I'll get over it.
It's been a long time since I've seen a shiny new stainless steel sink. The other ones we are using were all picked up second hand at the Reuse centre for free. This shows the nice grain of the walnut around the sink as well.
The next time I walked into the workshop Rob was sorting maple for the counters. Trying to find wood with similar colour and grain is proving to be difficult, as our maple was collected over the years from several different sources, including our former property at our dome in Navan.
While sorting maple he's also pulling out cherry for the stair stringers, more oak for the treads, and wood for our drawers in the kitchen. The workshop began to feel a tiny bit small and crowded!
The drawers and cabinets began to get installed in the kitchen. There are a lot of drawer slides here! And a very interesting end piece was added to the counter. Rob used a guide part from an old drafting table to help make a jig that allowed him to create those wavy lines in the wood, using a router. I wish I had been there the day he did it, to take some photos of the jig and all it's components but I wasn't here that day! At least I got a demonstration of the router doing wavy lines both left to right, and in varying depths, and the gizmo that helped them to come out more randomly. He wasn't sure I would like the end result, but of course I love it.
Meanwhile on my walks I began to think that despite the cold temperatures, the river wasn't going to have as much ice this winter. In the first week of January it was still pretty open.
Just a week later though, it began to get narrower. Still, it was lovely to be able to sit in the snow at the edge, and listen to the lovely song of the river flowing by. Some years the river has all but disappeared under ice and snow by now.
By the third week of January though, not only was the snow deeper, but the river was much narrower.
And it was cold! I don't usually worry about wind chill numbers, but when the weather station advises of a wind chill that is minus 40 to minus 45, I now pay attention. I had to go home and add extra layers of socks and gloves, find a warmer hat, and make sure my face was well covered with my scarf. Even then, I cut my walk short and returned home to the warmth of the cabin and a hot cup of tea. (The very delicious Davis Bay Lemon Ceylon tea, with many thanks to Mike and Lynne for sending it to us !!)
As soon as the cold temperatures broke slightly, we were both outside, eyeing our dwindling firewood pile, and checking the weather for the next cold snap. With another storm soon approaching, we decided to move most of the firewood to the sheltered area outside of the workshop. We pulled out any oak that we came across and kept it in a separate pile for the really cold days, and stacked the rest. A small amount of it came over to the cabin, but we have been forced to mostly use our electric baseboard heat there this winter. On really cold nights, we would put a small fire on in the wood stove.
High winds at the end of January knocked down a few of our dead spruce trees, and we were able to cut them up and add them to our wood pile. Because they were dead they were dry enough to burn, and although spruce burns fairly quickly, it still added some nice heat to the cabin at night.
When we know a storm is coming we always double check our fuel supply to make sure we have extra gas for the generator (both to use at the cabin if the power goes out, and to supplement power at the new house if the batteries get too low!) and diesel for the tractor so we can plow ourselves out. We've run through more diesel this year than usual, just because of the number of snow storms we've had.
By early February, walking around the property began to be a bit more of a challenge due to the deep snow. In some places I sank in almost to my hip. The river was barely visible except for a narrow channel, here and there.
Our snow banks lining the roadway began to develop layers, almost like the rings of a tree trunk. We could almost count the number of snowfalls we'd had.
We began to notice a bit of a "barn" smell wafting in the air sometimes on some of our walks. I grew up spending a lot of time in horse barns, so for me it was a delightful smell! We soon discovered that our Mennonite neighbours were spreading manure in their fields. They do it manually of course, using a team of horses to pull the wagon of manure along through the deep snow, then shoveling the manure by hand.
This field was full of corn last year, so it will be interesting to see what they grow here this year.
We've never lived close to a field of corn before and it was amazing to see how many animals took advantage of this food source! In the fall we found large piles of bear scat that were largely corn based, but through out the winter we also found corn cobs stuck in snow banks all along our roads and path ways, so we know other animals were hauling them out too. Jet got to be really good at finding where the cobs were hidden! As well we were amazed at how often we would see corn cobs stuck in trees and on fence posts through out the fall and well into the winter months.
One day I watched as a red squirrel made it's way over a fence, with a prize cob of corn in it's mouth, tumbling down over the side from the sheer weight of it, landing with an audible "oomph" and then catching it's breath and continuing on it's way.
This week I watched blue jays eating kernels stashed in a stump in front of the cabin. I have a feeling we'll be finding corn cobs and kernels all spring, when the snow finally melts.
Back at the new house in the meantime, progress was being made on the kitchen as the drawers were being added. There was some pretty fancy figuring out to do though, as one entire section of drawers had to be modified to give us maximum drawer space while still going around one of the timbers!
Wood for the counters began piling up on Rob's workbench.
We of course lamented that work on the house sometimes seemed to be going slowly, but the frequent snow storms kept pulling us away to other tasks. Like plowing the lane way, clearing snow around the cabin and the new house, and of course, in my case, the occasional walk. It's always lovely to walk around after a good snow fall.
We hoped February would bring more gentle weather, but knew that the possibility of that was probably pretty slim. We were pleased that we still had some firewood to burn, but it was dwindling fast. Hard to believe we have so much oak all cut and split, but still not dry enough to burn! Every time I passed that pile I would think we could maybe just grab a little bit ...
Early February brought more storms and gave me two "snow days"; days when I simply couldn't get to work. Despite the weather warnings, I always walk up to the main road just to verify that I made the right decision not to attempt driving to work, and then I can happily head back to the cabin. The picture below was taken before the storm had even really hit our area.
The next day the snow continued, and as I was walking back I could see squalls coming in from the west, and tried to capture the line of snow as it headed east and across the tree line. Minutes later it hit me too, and I tucked my camera away and pulled up my hood and headed home. By the time the storm was finished we had almost 40 cms. of snow, and the high winds had caused numerous drifts on the roads. I was definitely pleased that I hadn't attempted to drive to work.
By mid-February at least the daylight hours begin to stretch a bit longer, and I could sometimes get home from work before it was completely dark, and enjoyed some rather spectacular evenings skies.
Rob was still busy working on counter top glue ups.
While waiting for the glue to dry, he would work on choosing, planing, and sorting through lengths of cherry and oak for our stairs.
Planing produced lots (and lots!) of sawdust shavings. We use shavings to help start the fire in the wood stoves, but the remaining piles will be used later on for our pathways in the woods.
Of course none of these counters were rectangular or square. They all had interesting angles, or needed to be fit in around the timbers. Here they are just temporarily in place, as they still required some edging at the stove side, as well as a finishing coat. I knew these would be beautiful, despite Rob's occasional disappointment with the grain or colour of the maple.
The end of February brought more storms, with snow, ice pellets, freezing rain, and high winds. Fortunately the storms hit on my days off, so I didn't have to worry about driving anywhere. But I must say on my days off I expect to spend time outdoors, and began to feel like I was under house arrest, as the winds were so high that it wasn't safe to be out walking in the woods at all. The minute the winds died down (briefly) I was out like a shot, for a much needed walk and some fresh air.
March arrived "like a lamb" as they say...and Rob and I found ourselves one sunny morning perched on a downed tree at the side of the river, feeling warmth in the sun, and with hope in our hearts that spring was on it's way. A sweet little chickadee flitted around us.
The river was completely obscured by ice and snow, yet we could still hear it flowing strongly beneath it all. Although some deer and coyotes were brave enough to walk out on top of the river, we will never do that! But we did wonder if someone didn't know there was a river there, wouldn't it be easy to think that you could just walk across? Kind of a scary thought.
Mind you, walking (or driving) on any of our roadways and lane ways in was no treat either, due to the thick, thick ice that had formed throughout. We wouldn't think of leaving the house without our boot "cleats" on, and I made sure to always have them in the truck as well, in case I got stuck and had to walk home. Even Jet got tired of slipping on the ice, and would instead opt to try to walk in the deep snow. He was happiest on the cold mornings when the crust on the snow would be firm enough to hold his weight and he could trot along side us.
Work on the stairs began to take shape, and as soon as Rob had the "closed stringer" ready, he placed it on the existing stairs to give me an idea of how things would look. I was pretty sure I was going to love the cherry wood we were using, and as soon as I saw this I knew it was going to look great. This stringer would later get dropped down into place once everything was ready. And the open area under the stairs will be a pantry area for the kitchen.
The "open stringer" facing (also made out of cherry wood) was then temporarily placed on the existing one just to see how the fit would be.
Then the temporary stairs were taken apart so that we could begin to get the permanent ones in!
Pieces lying in the living room:
Treads (oak) and risers (cherry) being prepared in the workshop.
Treads and risers temporarily placed and then shuffled around to make sure that the variations in wood look pleasing to the eye. (O.K. a certain Woodworker may have mentioned the word "perfect"... )
Once again though, all work ceased near the end of March when we got - yes - another snow storm. We went to bed expecting to wake up to a little bit of snow, opened the door the next morning when we got up, and saw this. I started laughing, but really, I didn't think it was all that funny.
I guess you could say March "went out like a lion" after all.
On the "plus" side, though, the river suddenly opened up !
But around the new house, we began to feel like we will still have piles of snow well into May, or longer.
Work on the stairs continued, and once we had decided on the placement of the risers and treads, we began to clamp, glue and screw things into place.
After all the planning, drawings and diagrams, cutting, planing, sanding, gluing, and everything else that went into this staircase, in the end it all went together pretty fast. Hah! Nothing to it - right Rob?
Well, actually, there was still all the filling of the screw holes, and the final finish to put on.
And of course the next job is to add the railings. Unfortunately we had that design all figured out with funky looking horizontal cable railings, but changes to the building code have come into place, and we can't use them. We wanted a very open look to the railings running both up the stairs and around the second floor space, so are now redesigning that whole thing, while still trying to hang on to that "open" feeling.
While Rob works on a new design in the evenings, he spends the days continuing to work on the kitchen counters and other areas that need to be completed before we can actually finalize our building permit obligations and move in.
Before putting on a finish on the kitchen counters we decided we needed to add some sort of "lip" to the counters adjacent to the stove, both to give them a more finished look, but also to stop spills running over the edge of the counter and down the side of the stove. (Something we've learned from our set up here in the cabin!)
And then applied the finish. Can't wait to see these in place.
It's mid April now and the snow continues to fall. But the robins, red wing blackbirds, phoebes, and turkey vultures have all returned to this land of snow. Today I saw my first chipmunk, heard the haunting sounds of the sand hill cranes, and caught a glimpse of the osprey flying above the river. Although it doesn't feel much like spring, the weather report promises that more normal temperatures for this time of year will arrive later in the week. We are looking forward to that!
Looking back over my notes for this blog posting I feel like I could have summed up the last couple of months in one simple string of words. Snow, rain, ice, plow, woodworking, repeat over and over, wait for spring. Walk the land, enjoy the beauty. Could have saved everyone a whole pile of reading, but where's the fun in that? xoxoxoox
