In mid-September of this year, Facebook dropped one of those "memory of an earlier time" photos into my news feed. Usually I don't pay much attention to them, but this one happened to be one of my favourites. It was taken the day we got the timber frame up. What a day that was! We still thank our friends and the crane operator for all their hard work and help that day.
According to Facebook though, I originally posted this on September 15th 2014. Seriously? I immediately decided the date had to be wrong. I had no problem with the year, but I didn't believe this happened in the middle of September. Could we really have only just put the frame up so late in the year ? I consulted with Rob and he couldn't remember it being that late either. And so I found myself going back through the blog, searching for when this photo was taken. Sure enough, the date was absolutely correct. In the middle of September of 2014 we had indeed just erected the frame for the house. Rob and I spent a bit of time reading the rest of the blog postings from that year. It was hard to believe, but we then spent time framing all of the house, put up a plywood roof, taped all the seams, wrapped the roof, proceeded to get plywood sheathing on all the exterior walls, taped those as well, and applied house wrap. Then to top it all off, we flashed all the window frames, and got most of the windows in ! All the while moving the scaffolding around and around and around as we went. We somehow managed to do all of this between mid September and mid December. We both found this to be sort of hard to believe.
For here we were on September 15th of 2021, worrying that we were running out of time to do some "simple" siding on the outside of the house and workshop before winter arrived. Hah ! We immediately relaxed a little and gave our heads a shake. (Although we are a wee bit older now and moving scaffolding around isn't nearly as much "fun", and we definitely don't work the number of hours each day that we used to.) And of course, there is still always the weather factor. But even in 2014 there was always a weather factor. In fact through this whole building process there has been one.
Thanks to seeing that "old" photo, I've probably jumped ahead a bit, as I haven't posted much about anything this year aside from my gardening exploits with a voracious chipmunk. So I'll back up a bit to earlier in the year with a few other updates as to what we've been working on, and how this year's projects went, and then get back to showing how the siding has been progressing.
First of all, it was our first full winter in the new house. It was actually a pretty mild winter overall, so it was a relatively easy one for us both. The house performed really well in terms of heat, and we often didn't even start the woodstove (our sole source of heat at the moment ) until later in the day and then just kept it going into the evening. We used lots of our "swing season" wood, and were really pleased with how well it burned in the stove. This is our "free" wood, as it is what we collect in the spring from the bush. Every year some trees come down in the fall and winter storms, so in the spring we gather up what we can, chainsaw and split them and stack them to dry for the summer. We try to only use the oak and other hardwoods that we purchase from time to time for burning on the coldest days. Throughout the winter, we were pleased to get up in the morning and find that the house had remained quite comfortable. We certainly remember some rather frosty mornings in the cabin in the past!
The solar power aspect of the house was a bit trickier. First of all, we went into the winter not really thinking about it until the power shut off one morning. That little surprise caught our attention pretty quickly and although we soon got it back on, we realized we needed to pay a lot more attention to the system and the health of the batteries. After a lot of research we set to fine tuning the system, and managed to improve it somewhat. We made a note to pay more attention in the fall this year !! It's really easy in the summer when the daylight hours are long and the sunshine plentiful to forget we are even off grid. But by fall we certainly need to think about it.
We also had forgotten how important it was to keep the solar panels as clear as possible after each snowstorm and to make this a priority during and after every snowfall. In no time though, we were back into the routine of checking the panels every morning, and keeping an eye on them through out the day. As well we got back into the habit of keeping an eye on the weather forecast a bit more closely!
We gave a big hurrah when the Winter Solstice arrived as in a few short weeks the days would begin to get a little longer, the sun would shine a little higher in the sky, and we knew it would help with the solar power issues.
January brought us some surprises of a different kind. Standing at the river edge next to a broken pine tree one day, I had a feeling something had "flown" over my head. After looking around I discovered that there were a number of flying squirrels climbing all over the pine tree, and they appeared to be out soaking up a little bit of sunshine !
I belong to a Nature group of photographers so I posted my photos later in the day, and was delighted to find out from members of the group that these squirrels often "cuddle up" together in the winter to help them stay warm! They also provided me with a link to a recent Nature of Things show that had some footage of them in their winter homes. It was fascinating to watch so I have included the link here:
https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/wild-canadian-weather-cold
I don't think I will ever stand next to this tree again without wondering who might be tucked inside! It became a ritual to go down to the river and check the tree on bright sunny days. We did see them a couple of more times which was amazing. Also amazing was that the river remained open for the entire winter. It really was unusually mild throughout most of the winter season.
Not that we didn't get snow though. We did !
When we weren't outside dealing with snow falls, or simply enjoying ourselves walking through the woods, we spent a lot of time this winter getting organized; going through boxes, and dealing with some of their contents. A lot of our stuff had been in storage for over 8 years. Once we unpacked and went through some things, we realized we needed places to put them. So Rob spent a lot of time in the workshop building drawers. I ended up with 9 large drawers for my studio, and I was pretty happy when I was able to start organizing my fabrics, paints, and sewing supplies in them. A lot of my studio supplies were tucked away in storage for so long that it felt almost like Christmas to pull them out of the boxes and sort through them all. I had done a little bit with the few drawers that Rob had installed the winter before, but it was amazing to be able to get everything all in one place finally! Also, he created a fabulous table top out of old oak pews he had purchased years ago, and I was at last able to have a place to set up my sewing machine and computer.
Three more drawers also went into the kitchen, giving us a bit more space to organize there as well. We still have more to do in the kitchen (including a pantry area, installing drawer fronts and cabinet doors, and finishing "the island") but that will all get done in good time. I finally pulled out all of my cookbooks, and although they aren't yet in the kitchen, they are at least on a shelf in the guest room where I can easily get at them. While I was at it, I went through all the remaining boxes of books, and sorted some of them at least into "keep" piles and "give away" piles. The keepers of course are all back in boxes as we have no where else to put them just yet. We have gone through these boxes at least three times now. It's funny how eventually the "keep" pile just gets smaller over time.
March found me working in my studio, going through all of our music cd's. We had a bit of collection, as in addition to our personal cd's we also had all of the cd's that we used to play in our Fiery Food store (Chilly Chiles). In the store we played quite a mix of blues, jazz and rock and even a bit of zydeco (during Mardi Gras!). I tried to listen to each cd and sorted those into two piles. I think I ended up with about 250 to "give away" and I then burned the 250+ that I wanted to keep to a laptop. I kept all the originals for now. It was a fun job, although I ended up with some crazy ear worms throughout that time period, and Rob often wondered why I was humming old Alice Cooper tunes one day, and BB King the next.
While I sorted through all of our CD's, Rob was busy setting up our old turntable, and pulled out our vinyl albums, and went through several boxes of his own things. He has his own studio space, but it isn't set up properly yet. He also dug out his old reel-to-reel tape recorder and went through some of his old tapes. Some day he hopes to digitize them all, but that will take some time! He also had some fun learning to do some video animation, had a bit of time to mess around with some electronic music, and studied some guitar and voice lessons online. Music is definitely at long last, back in our lives.
We also pretty much finished going through the rest of our old photos and photo albums, and began scanning some of them. We still have boxes (and boxes!) of slides to go through. We are both looking forward to this winter, and hope it will provide us with time to continue to go through boxes and sort ourselves out a bit more. Once the warm weather hit this year, we pretty much stopped with the inside tasks and got back to building!
On the first really warm day though, we have always have a tradition of enjoying our first beer outside, down by the river. This year it was March 21. I am sure that in some years it has been April or even as late as May.
With the arrival of the warm weather, Rob was able to do some sanding outdoors despite the snow that was still around the house. It's always nice to do the dustiest jobs outside. It also saves on power as we don't have to turn on the dust collection system.
By mid April he was well on the way to getting us some bedroom drawers built. They still require tops and drawer fronts, but we were at least able to unpack the last of our clothing from boxes and get everything put away in one room. After all the years of living in the cabin with limited space, and very limited amounts of storage and clothing, it feels strange to know where everything is, and to have it all accessible.
Towards the end of April our friends John and Linda asked if they could use the cabin for a few days respite from looking in on Linda's Mom in Ottawa. A good thorough cleaning and restock of items and it was ready for them. They were so thoughtful, and shopped in Ottawa at our favourite bakeshop (3 Tarts) and brought us some goodies.
In May we had another visitor, showing up regularly at our window. This one however, did not bring pies. Darn!
Although we had a good early spring, we did get heavy ice build up on the tree blossoms in May after a wicked storm. We noticed later in the summer that the apple tree bore little fruit, and we never saw any wild plums this year. We don't know if it was the ice, or the late May/early June frosts that caused the fruit not to grow. We did read later that some apple orchards suffered losses due to the late spring frosts.
In early May we gathered up all of the trees that had come down over the winter, and prepared to split and stack them for firewood. We also had a lot of old tree trunks from previous years that we had piled up in a stack, but we thought we had waited too long and they would be all rotted. Some of them turned out to still be fine though, so we cut up what we could. While Rob was moving that pile, I explored around a bit and saw this knob sticking up through the grasses. We pulled on it and discovered it was the hardware from an old door, left in the field by the previous owner, some 35 years ago or more. He used to reassemble old log homes here, and probably forgot about the door and the grass had eventually grown up over it. I later went back and found the hinges too. It would be fun to have a metal detector as who knows what else may be around. From what I can find on the web, this is a Bennington or Bennington style doorknob and definitely vintage.
For several days we kept seeing a young porcupine in the area. It seemed quite exhausted by it's efforts to climb up to the safety of a tree bough! This was the first of many porcupine sightings through out the year.
May also brought the occasional turtle, and the return of nesting robins. The robins seem to love setting up their nests near our doorways which means we are always disturbing them.
Luckily just as we started to work on the siding, the robin babies decided to leave the safety of their nest. We really didn't want to disturb them before they were ready to fly.
We chose to do this south facing side first. In hindsight it might have been better to do it last, as it was pretty much in full sun a lot of the time. This area is much shadier in September and October. Rob tried to work early in the day before the heat hit, but the sun still made it pretty warm. You definitely don't want to feel light headed from the sun when you are high up on scaffolding!
June was an amazing month in terms of weather, with very little rain. The abundant sunshine was really helpful as far as building and working outside went. But we worried because the river was really low for the time of year, and it looked like we were heading for drought conditions.
Rob had a goal of trying to finish this side by the end of the month. By June 20 he was at this point:
June 26 he was still going strong ! It's tedious work though. I don't know how many times he dropped something and had to climb down to find it. And on top of doing frames and flashing, he was also doing the eaves, the decorative trim, the boards and battens, and lots of hand nailing.
By June 30 it was almost done. There was still some work to do on the eaves and upper trim, and the final nailing to be done though.
We moved to the west side, and got to work on installing the frames, and cleared some space for the scaffolding. It's hard to get the ground even with all the rocks here, but we managed. We wanted the scaffolding to be level and solid, and for Rob not to be brushing against any poison ivy while he was working.
In mid august Rob rescued a small mouse. We set it up with some water and food, and it soon disappeared. We like to think that it went off into the undergrowth and grew up to be a happy little mouse.
August brought some pretty hot days, and the river levels finally dropped so we could safely go for a swim. It's always so lovely to spend time in the river, and I had been missing it. At the end of the day we would often sit at the point above the river and enjoy the cool breeze and a homemade beer. On the evening of what would have been Rob's sweet Mom's birthday a magic web appeared between two cedars near where we sat. As the breeze blew, the center of the web flickered like a flame. My camera didn't do it justice, but it was amazing to watch it. As the sun set, the colours of the web slowly faded. Magic!
With the improvement in the weather, Rob was soon able to get this side done. We both agreed that the house just looks so much cozier with the siding on, the colored strips of trim installed above, and the windows frames in.
It was time to move the scaffolding (again) and get it over to the workshop. This side wasn't quite as high as the house sides, and with no windows or doors to work around, we hoped it would go pretty quickly.
The sun really beats in on this area though, and when the heat arrived again, we had to take a little time off. We love to walk and take the time to do it every day, and usually three times a day if we can. There is always something new to look at and admire.
The forest fires in Northern Ontario and Manitoba were giving us hazy days and amazing sunsets. The haze cut down on our solar power a bit, and while the sunsets were pretty, the cause was sad and disconcerting.
As soon as the weather cooled down a bit, we got back to work outside. This is just a close up shot of some of the work that goes into putting up the siding. The pieces in between the battens are to help keep insects and critters from getting up behind the boards.
As hoped, once the weather cooled down a bit, this side did seem to get done a little faster. But then we ran out of stained wood, and had to take a couple of days to stain some more. It needed to be done anyway, as we knew that soon the outdoor temperatures would be too cold for staining the pine outdoors. But as always, it is always difficult when the weather is nice to have to give up a good weather day for one job, even though the second job required good weather as well.
September arrived and the light began changing. We were still hoping to get the final side done on the workshop after completing the west side, but couldn't help but think we were running out of time.
In the meantime, the chipmunks had finally decided to somewhat lay off of my garden. I was picking tomatillos and cherry tomatoes every day, but I was still finding remnants of chewed up tomatoes here and there. I did manage to harvest a few of the larger tomatoes I had planted, but in the end I had to buy tomatoes from a local farm. I wanted to make roasted tomatoes and tomato sauces to freeze for the winter months. I bought a 1/2 bushel and discovered that's a lot of tomatoes. We still ended up with a lot of fresh ones to eat as well.
I happily used the time to harvest my jalapenos, and made "Poppers" with some of them. I also made a tomatillo sauce with some of the jalapenos, cilantro and tomatillos from my garden. It had been a good few years since I made this recipe and I had forgotten how much I loved it. With 3 big bags of tomatillos in the freezer I'll be making more.
By September 21st, Rob was finishing up the west side of the workshop. He was pretty pleased with his progress as that left only one more side to go this year. After seeing that Facebook memory photo of the frame going in on September 15th 2014, we even began to dare to dream that maybe we would get some of the lower sides done this year before the snow arrived.
The days were obviously getting shorter though, and we began to be more careful to monitor the solar power system. The light this time of year is amazing in the house, and shines in beautifully. In the summer the overhangs outside prevent the sun from heating up the house too much, but in the spring and fall the sun shines in a bit more and warms up the house just enough. And our little senior cat moves around from sunny spot to sunny spot. If he gets too warm he heads for the cooler concrete floor. He's a clever old boy.
The sunsets are always beautiful in September. We made sure to stop and admire them every evening that we could. Colder nights were on the way and we tried to make the most of it.
We moved the scaffolding to the final side, and started on the window frames. But when the weather turned nice in October, we were torn between working on the siding, doing pre-winter chores like pulling out the garden, servicing the tractor, moving firewood, and tucking the cabin in, or simply goofing off and enjoying the nice weather. We tried our best to find some balance between them all.
We always try to take some time in the fall to explore a bit more of this wonderful place we now call home. We discovered a new public beach at a small lake that we think would be a good place to take our kayaks for some practice.
And we timed the viewing of the changing leaf colours pretty well on one of our favourite drives.
Rob still had his "rainy day project" to complete too. He had agreed in the spring to build a cabinet for a neighbour. It was a good learning project as this winter he is hoping to build our kitchen cabinet doors so it gave him a chance to try out some techniques. He learned a lot through this process.
Unfortunately, in November Little Hoover began hanging out more and more around the house, often just curling up in the leaves under the oak tree for a nap. We began to worry about it's health, thinking this probably wasn't normal, and I thought it's eyes looked a tad runny. Rob had a chance to get a good look at him, using binoculars, and noticed a glint above one of it's eyes. Little Hoover appeared to have been shot with a pellet gun. We called a local Wildlife rescue and they advised us to try to get him into a crate, and they would come and get him. When I asked how to persuade a porcupine to get into a crate she said "Just pick him up". "Wear gloves!" So essentially that is what we did. We tossed an old sheet over him and got the crate in really close. He made some sad little sounds and didn't want to go in, so I reminded Rob to try to pick him up and I got an amazing look for that comment! But he did, and Hoover seemed happy enough to scramble in. We gave him some apples to munch on and some water as instructed by the center, to keep him happy until rescue time. When they arrived, we placed the crate in their vehicle, and off they went. It sure seemed odd not to have a porcupine outside our house and we immediately missed him.
After consulting with several other rescue centers, little Hoover made yet another road trip to a larger center where they could x-ray him to make sure he didn't have more pellets inside him. (He didn't!) They are treating him for mange, then will transport him back to the original center where he will have to over winter, and then if all goes well, he will come back here for his release in the spring.
Porcupines don't move very fast, and don't travel all that far. (Except perhaps for Hoover's trips to the wildlife rescues!) So we can sadly assume that someone in the immediate area thought it was a good idea to shoot him in the eye. We will have to see if there is something we can do to try to make sure that this doesn't happen to him again. My first instinct was to post some "Who shot Hoover ? " posters on all the neighbours driveways, but I think we will have to approach this with a calmer head later. And not jump to any conclusions of course.
Throughout early November we continued to work on the outside of the house, but the weather began to become a factor. Heavy frosts at night resulted in the scaffolding becoming very icy, and as that side of the house is very shady, the ice didn't melt quickly even when it was sunny out. Rob persevered when he could. We took a bit of time to clean up some of the construction debris, and began to put some things away ready for winter. The tractor needed pre-winter servicing, as did the generator. I worked at putting the garden to bed, and getting the cabin tucked in for winter. We took the time to assemble a makeshift firewood storage unit out of the scaffolding when we took some down, which we both thought was pretty brilliant. We will build a proper wood pile shed in the coming years I'm sure. With a temporary one available for now though, we were able to move our firewood down ready for winter.
As I proof read this post, I can't help but think that it reads as if this was an entirely normal year. Obviously it is not. It has been completely odd, and totally strange. But as it has been much the same for everyone, there seems little point in dwelling on it. I will say that I almost preferred the early Covid days though, when everyone hunkered down, looked after friends and family in whatever manner they could, and opted to do their best to keep all of their community members safe. When for a brief time, I thought the world was about to become kinder.
I did venture out a bit (sanitized, double masked, and from a distance!) to do some work for Census in June and early July, but otherwise we have been fortunate this year to be able to spend lots of time here, enjoying the outdoors, working on our various projects and staying healthy. We miss the ease of seeing friends and family, but who doesn't in these times?
For those of you who forget what we look like, here is a quick pic of us on one of favourite hikes. It is a tradition that we go for a good long hike every year on Rob's birthday. This year our friend Bob came along, so here is a rather rare photo he took of the two of us together.
Peace, love, joy to all.
xoxo
