Needless to say, this will be another long rambling blog posting, so get yourself a nice hot cup of tea, put your feet up, and get ready for a long read.
(Editor's note: After much writing, and editing of photos, the author has found herself to have so far only documented events to the end of July, with much more material to add. Therefore this will be split into two posts. The second one will arrive soon (she hopes!) )
The last week of April did somewhat begrudgingly give us some signs of spring. As always I found myself down at the river edge a lot. The river was wide open and the levels were rising. Rob took this photo of me when he noticed I was standing directly in the setting light of the sun.
The river water levels rose pretty drastically again this spring, but didn't quite reach the levels of 2017 for us. Others in the Valley, particularly along the banks of the Ottawa River, were not so lucky. They saw record high levels that surpassed the 2017 ones. Although "our" river continued to rise even higher than pictured below, as always, we remained high and dry throughout the runoff season.
I've never seen so many wood ducks in one location before. As our wetland slowly filled with water from the river, it offered the ducks plenty of areas to swim in, without the challenges of a fast current. They seemed to love this area and I was able to observe them there for a few days.
It's definitely the best time of year to hang out in the wetland, and I had fun taking photos even when there weren't any ducks to be seen.
Flocks of Red Wing Blackbirds lined the trees along the lanes around us in huge numbers. This is the first year that we saw them lingering here in such large numbers, and it was amazing to hear the volume of their calls.
A pair of Sandhill cranes often appeared in the nearby fields, but would always fly away as soon as I got even remotely close.
The snow slowly began to melt, and our gravel road began to appear. After weeks of trying to walk on thick ice we were more than happy to see bare ground!
Of course, work continued to progress in the new house, particularly in the kitchen. The kitchen faucet was put in place, with some discussion as to where the temperature and flow control should be. Although this photo shows it facing forwards, we later moved it to the right hand side, and it definitely is better there!
Then we began to install some of the upper cabinets and shelving around the stove and refrigerator area. These won't remain as open shelves, although we did consider that option. After years of living with unfinished open cabinets here in the cabin, I think we both learned that the units sure would stay a lot cleaner if they had doors on. And of course there are still fronts to be added to the drawers in the units below. Rob is hoping to do all of these at the same time, as it's easier to set up the equipment that is needed and "mass produce" them all at once. We also finished installing the stove hood vent. We made sure to find the most energy efficient (and quietest one !) that we could afford.
Next, work began on the stair railings. Rob fought with this installation every step of the way. Both of us had really wanted the "industrial" look of the horizontal wire railings that we had planned on assembling, and having to change plans (as I mentioned in the previous blog posting) due to building code regulations really set us back. Neither of us wanted an over abundance of wood in the house, and we just weren't convinced the new design would give us the look we had really wanted. We started this job slowly and somewhat reluctantly, with a nicely tapered post, which we put in place just to see what it looked like. I think we were both hoping for some inspiration.
Then the fun began. We were determined to use wood that we had on hand, so were busy choosing, cutting, planing and shaping the numerous spindles. The spindles for the stairs would all be made out of cherry. All of the wood came from black cherry trees that were around our old geodesic dome. Some of it came from trees that were taken down when Rob first cleared the land to build the dome some 45 years ago. The rest came from trees that had to be taken down around the dome years later, or came down on their own. It feels pretty special to have such a big part of that history here with us now in our new house.
This is probably where Rob began to practice chanting his new mantra: "This is NOT furniture". While the railing needed to be strong and sturdy, and properly installed, it did not need to become a lifelong project of trying to find perfectly matched wood for each and every spindle. A big shout out for Rob to persevere with this tedious job, and a shout out for kneeling pads too! (I'm sure it wouldn't have been so "tedious" if it was what he had planned on building in the first place.)
Despite the new mantra, when Rob mentioned the sheer number of spindles we needed just for the staircase I began to get the feeling that this was going to be a really slow process..
But I had no idea of just how slow it would be.
The staircase railing was being prepared as well. It had to be joined as it was too long a run to make out of a single piece of wood.
Sorry. I couldn't resist adding a photo of a baby snapping turtle that I found on the road during this time. Not saying that things were THAT slow but ...
When I returned later in the morning to get more photos, this turtle had already crossed the road in record time. Meanwhile .... more spindles were installed over the course of a few days.
And Rob went off in search of more wood.
Another baby turtle was spotted crossing the road.
Rob was still hard at it, creating more spindles, which required more sanding...
And finally - some smiles at last.
Rob can point out all the pieces that he wasn't entirely pleased with. Some of them were a bit lighter in tone than others. Some had (gasp!) different grains. He and I will always have differing opinions on wood ( I love knots, he doesn't) but we both agreed that the it looked great. And although neither of us had wanted an all wood staircase and railing, in the end, with the slight tapers and other design elements, we knew we had something that not only could we live with, but liked!
Overall May was a bit of a strange month. I joined a local online Naturalist photography group, and spent some time on my days off sharing photos and observations about the slow cold spring we were experiencing. The spring wildflowers were gorgeous and plentiful once they finally arrived, but they lingered well into June which was unusual.
Everyone agreed that things seemed to be about two weeks behind "normal". That included the weather which saw many days with highs of 8 degrees, when normal temperatures would be 19 degrees. Despite the cool temperatures, we were happy to hear and watch the arrival of many birds, some of which were simply passing through as they headed for parts further north. I hope the snowfall just north of us in Algonquin Park on June 3rd didn't affect them too much!
I saw my first pair of wood ducks in the woods. Although they nest in cavities in trees, they sure didn't look all that comfortable up there!
And the Naturalist group confirmed my first sighting of a magnolia warbler.
On several occasions we were able to catch a glimpse of a beaver, sitting on top of it's hut behind the new house, seemingly catching a few warm rays of sunshine.
We set up our trail cam along the river edge and were somewhat impressed when it caught a nocturnal visitor.
And the scent of blossoms on our walks was quite lovely.
The local Old Order Mennonites generally ask that no one take photos of them. I hope it's o.k. that I do occasionally take one from our road, but only when they are far away in the field. In truth, I am totally smitten with their mules. When I see them working the fields, or pulling the wagons on the road I cannot help but smile at their lovely big ears, and their ease in their work. This looks like 5 mules and a work horse to me. But I could be wrong. The beauty of using horses and mules is that they can work the land long before tractors are able to navigate the soft fields in the spring. The Mennonites therefore get their crops and vegetables in long before the other farmers. And we reap the benefits as we purchase wonderful fresh vegetables all summer long from them.
With the staircase more or less completed by early June, the next item on our list was to add railings to the upstairs rooms. The area around my studio would be cherry with pine posts, and the posts had to be pegged and mortised into the existing beams. You may be able to see here, that these were not your ordinary square posts. But also Not Furniture....right Rob?
Of course, this railing required many more spindles!
As usual, on my days off I would try to spend some time documenting changes to the new house, and then wander off for a good long walk to try to get some photos for my PhotoCoach weekly online challenges. It's always wonderful to note the changes in the woods and fields around us, and to admire the many wildflowers.
Wild strawberries grow all along the edge of our road. We seldom get to pick them though, as the local wildlife usually gets to them first. I always figure that's pretty fair, as we can go buy strawberries from the nearby farmers.
By mid June the upstairs railing was beginning to come together nicely. We had to disconnect the wood stove pipe in order to be able to work on it though.
I think this was just a prototype handle, temporarily placed there just to make sure everything would fit as planned.
We tested all of the spindles, making sure everything would fit together, and it gave us a good idea of how things would look. At this point I know we were both thinking "too much wood!". But over time we will get used to it, especially once my studio is set up, and there is some art work on the walls.
Needless to say, there were a few adjustments along the way. But by the third week of June, the railing finally came together.
And suddenly, my whole studio area became clearly defined. Plus, I could now stand at the edge without worrying! I've always had a bit of a fear of heights.
Rob will say I'm missing a lot of details about the finishing of these of course The tapered ends, the finishes, the bolts used etc. etc.
And of course, the fact that the ends of the staircase railing and upstairs railing did eventually actually get a finished end piece. Not to worry - here are the photos of those as well.
But I would say, that at this point, I was a little more concerned with a certain visitor to our backyard one morning. At first I just spotted it's back through the kitchen window, and thought there was a strange dog in the yard! But it definitely wasn't a dog. It's probably the "closest" I've ever been to a bear. As soon as Jet got a whiff of it through the open window, he started barking, and the bear high tailed it out of there. I posted the sighting to the Naturalist group, and most agreed it was a young bear, and still a bit thin from it's winter of hibernation. Pretty awesome to see one I think.
As we approached the end of June, we moved into working on the railings in the master bedroom. The spindles and posts here would all be made from pine. Of course, some finishing work had to be done in the bedroom around the closets first.
Before the end of June, the railing was done. There were some tricky areas where it joined the walls and beams though! This is the view of the rail from our bedroom below.
I think there was a certain happy woodworker here. This is the view from the room above.
And some of the details.
At about the same time as we saw the end to the railings, a sweet mama snapping turtle showed up and looked for a spot to lay some eggs outside of our bedroom window. (And yes, I could have said that by the time the railing project ended those earlier baby turtles were all grown up, and laying eggs, but that would not be truthful. Turtles are about 11 years old when they first lay eggs and this project definitely didn't take THAT long ! ) I prefer to think the project got some kind of turtle stamp of approval. And that we both learned something about the slow and steady progress of the task at hand. Regardless, we were both thrilled to see her, as we had been waiting and waiting for her arrival.
