Little Axle, Healing Chairs, and Renovations

At the end of my previous blog posting at the end of June,  I mentioned our hopes to finish our exterior siding, and then perhaps move on to some bathroom renovations at the cabin during the summer.  I must admit that at the time I wrote that, I didn't really think it would all happen, and that we would be lucky to get the siding done!  

At the end of June, Rob was also furtively spending a lot of time in his workshop just prior to my birthday, and even went so far as to post a sign on the workshop door that read "No Stinky Girls Allowed!" Nice.  So I knew he was trying to build something as a gift for me as well. 

But then, the wind surely got knocked out of our sails, when our sweet little cat Axle had a seizure for the second time.  Our vet had already prepared us for what this meant, and at the age of 20 with advanced kidney disease we knew that the number of days he would be with us were diminishing.  Always full of surprises though, after laying limp in our arms for a couple of hours and being unresponsive for most of the evening, he greeted us the next morning with a series of loud meows, and was more than ready for his usual breakfast.  We assumed that he wasn't quite himself though, so booked him in for another vet assessment.  Just minutes before we left for his appointment, with doubts in our minds and the hope that he would be with us forever, he had another seizure, and we knew it would be his last.  With thanks to our sweet vet who helped us through the difficult decision, we sadly had to say goodbye.  We returned home to the emptiest of houses.  Rob and I were almost unable to think of a time when our lives have not been filled with the presence of amazing cats and dogs.

Axle came to us by traveling underneath a farm pick up truck when he was just a small kitten.  He hung on underneath the truck for several kilometers before he dropped out in front of our fiery food store and took off like a shot.  Rob set up a live trap and managed to capture him after a short while.  We took him to our vet for a check up and were surprised to learn he had burned his little paws during his truck ride.  Axle seemed like a perfect name for him after his truck riding ordeal. He joined our three other cats and gentle giant dog and settled in to his new life in no time. 

Axle was a little peace maker, always wedging his way in between the other cats when there was an altercation, head lowered and ready to snuggle up with which ever cat most needed it.

For 10 years he allowed me to easily administer twice daily insulin injections for his diabetes, before he simply stopped being diabetic.  He surprisingly outlived our other three cats, and our German Shepherd. Despite a few rather dire prognoses in the last few years, he rallied and enjoyed his life, especially those days when he could sleep in the sunniest spots in the house. 

He developed a love for a lick of butter, a touch of yogurt, and the occasional small bite of cheese.  He was seldom far from the dining table when we ate! 

Each June the vet would ask for a photo of Axle on his birthday and we always sent a pic along to them. I think we were all amazed when he made it to the age of 20.

After Axle passed, I decided to paint one of our chairs as a tribute to him and his "siblings", Leon, Sita and GB. I call it the Cat Tribute Chair, and as I painted it and stamped words and stories on it about them all, it brought back lots of sweet memories.  

When he was a kitten I made up a little song for him and over time I added a few more lines, but the basic song went like this:

"I rode in under a pickup truck, you know I burned my paws, I was down on my luck.

I dropped out at the liquor store, ran across the street couldn't take no more.

Chilly Chiles heard there was a kitten about, so they set up a trap and they waited me out.

I got hungry so I jumped in and a whole new life was about to begin." 

So I stamped his song on the chair as well.

I think it was a good way to help process my grief, and I can't help but smile when I see the chair now each day.  I was reluctant at first to recover the cushions, as I wanted to hold on to the deeply cat scratched fabric forever, but I was also working on three more chairs. Eventually they all got stamped, and painted and it was obvious that the cushions needed to be reupholstered.

My original plan was to set up on the screened in porch of the cabin, where I could spread out my paints, brushes and stamps, and quietly work on the chairs while enjoying the views of the forest, and the river outside. Rob was just finishing up on the siding, and I was content to use the time to think about what I wanted to do, and how to go about it.

The siding job was progressing quickly and in no time the back and side of the workshop was completed.

The porch area of the shop is still unfinished as we ran out of wood siding, and will have to decide if we can buy more, or whether to choose something like metal siding for this area.  We stack firewood here in the fall and winter, so we just aren't sure what would work the best. We will have to do some thinking about this over the upcoming winter.  Rob trimmed all the bottom edges of the newly installed siding, and the ones that needed doing around the house, and it was an amazing feeling to be able to suddenly say "Done".  

No sooner did Rob finish the siding (with almost no fanfare or celebration!) than he showed up at the cabin and began to work on the cabin bathroom renovation.  As he pulled out the old tub, sink, vanity and drywall and began to fill the porch with building materials, I fled back home to the quiet of my studio there. This turned out to be a wise choice! After years of surviving "building" we were about to be reminded about what it is like to be "renovating".  And in a rather small space.

The bathroom in the cabin had a tub, but no shower, and for years we had talked about removing the drywall, installing proper waterproofing and tiling the walls around the tub and getting a shower head installed.  In fact at one time there was a shower head, and on occasion people visiting Rob's Mom had been known to simply step in the tub and use "the shower" not noticing that there was water flowing everywhere, so we had removed the head.  After much discussion, and even polling a few friends on their opinion as to whether they would prefer a tub or shower in a bathroom, we decided to remove the tub altogether, and install the roomiest shower stall that we could, given the small space, and angled low ceilings.  I think this is the last photo I took of the existing bathroom before we started to work on it.

As much as we loved the octagonal window, we both agreed that it had to go.  To open and close it, the screen had to be removed every time, and it was slowly degrading.  As well, the shower was designed to go in this space, so a more waterproof window was required. The tape across the window in the pic above shows roughly where the new window would go.

It was a pretty little bathroom, but there were a few things that were meant to be "temporary" some 30 years ago when we first built it.  That vanity was one of them! Rob's Mom had tucked a little white wicker shelf under the sink to hold some bathroom items. And there they remained all this time.  Rob began the job of dismantling the bathroom and suddenly it looked even smaller than before.

The first job was to put in a new window.  We actually found one on at a discount window and door location, and drove east of Ottawa to pick it up, hoping it would work as planned.

After finishing the siding at the new house, I was sure that Rob was done with having to use scaffolding, but I was wrong!

As with all of our projects, we spent lots of time researching techniques, materials, and methods of installation.  I am sure we wore out our welcome at our favourite tile shop, looking for appropriate tiles, flooring etc.  We had to make a trip to Ottawa for some specialty shower products, and ordered some online.  We tried to buy anything we could on sale, and made use of any materials we had on hand to keep costs down. We even had a light fixture tucked away that we were able to use.  Luckily too, we know an excellent tile installer !  There was a bit of a learning curve for a few items like the shower pan though.

I would love to say it all went smoothly.  But I think we ordered four different shower taps as the first three were defective.  One sink arrived damaged, and we ordered the wrong size toilet seat.  (Who knew?) We picked two different floors and discovered neither were appropriate for a "three season" house.  As we close the cabin down every winter, the temperature drops inside to the same temperature as outside and all the floors we chose had specific temperature ratings.  Oddly enough the one that would work ended up being the very first one that we saw and liked, but we had dismissed it thinking that the colour wasn't right!

We had to have the glass shower doors delivered as we were no longer driving long distances in our truck.  To our surprise, the delivery driver left it on our hill, leaning against a tree.  

Luckily, despite the broken box, it seemed none the worse for wear. We managed to wrangle it home, (the glass doors were super heavy!) and the next time a friend dropped by, we coerced him into helping us move them up into the upstairs of the cabin.  Then Rob had to figure out a way to complete the install, as I wasn't much help.  Luckily he was able to use a jig to hold them in place while he drilled holes in the tile and anchored them firmly in place.  (I closed my eyes during this part!)

As Rob had some drywalling to do in the bathroom, we somehow convinced ourselves that this was also a perfect time to finish all the unfinished drywall in the cabin, and to repaint the large bedroom as I had stripped off the wallpaper borders there the previous fall. We had gallons of leftover paint from our house, so could use them up there.  We had friends arriving from Germany in October, but figured we had loads of time ! 

So we finished the downstairs closet.

Fixed up the areas around the woodstove and repainted.

Fixed up all the unfinished areas in the upstairs hallway and painted.

Emptied out the large bedroom..

And primed and painted.

And soon realized that due to delays in replacement taps, sinks etc., we were slowly running out of time to complete the bathroom!

But, we managed to get it pretty much done. 

The vanity still has some work to be finished, and the taps will be swapped out in the spring, but it all worked out pretty much the way we hoped it would, and more importantly was ready just in time for our friends arrival.  We cleaned (and cleaned!) as drywall dust does seem to settle everywhere, and then put everything back in place in the large bedroom.

We had been picking up some nice artwork and light fixtures etc. from our local online auction house so we managed to hang artwork, and install a couple of lights.  I had also found a couple of good solid chairs for the dining room, and somehow Rob found time to paint them!  And he even put in a few baseboards.  

For the first time, I also framed some of my photographs to hang here and there in the cabin.  I kept it simple for my first attempt with inexpensive photo processing and frames, just to see how they would all look, and overall I was pleased with them.

We didn't quite manage to repaint the smaller bedroom in the cabin, and we still have lots of other jobs in mind for next year, (and probably years to come)  but we were pretty happy with our efforts, and finished up with just hours to spare.

I  had also just finished the four chairs I was working on, and was busy putting a clear protective finish on before starting to recover the cushions.  After fighting with a manual stapler, and watching numerous Youtube videos for upholstery tips, and getting completely frustrated with my attempts, Rob wisely bought a pneumatic stapler, and took over and did the re-upholstery job. Thanks Rob!

I was so pleased with the chairs. As always there is a learning curve.  The first clear coat we tested made some of the inks that I used run, so we had to switch to a different base.  That one gave the vanilla coloured paint a slightly more yellow tinge, but in the end I was fine with that, so we went for it.

Along with the "Cat Tribute" chair I did a  "Delish" chair where I stamped the names of many of our favourite restaurants over the years, named some of our best loved recipes and our fondest food memories.

I did one called "Conversations" which has LOTS of letters stamped on, and words here and there.  That one was really fun, although each letter is stamped individually so it took some time! 

And the final chair was the "Dreaming Chair".  Over the years I have written down some of my special dreams, so now they are stamped on this chair. We have two more chairs to be done, but Rob wants to paint them, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

And so, by mid October, with the cabin newly renovated, cleaned up and the fridge stocked with a few basic necessities, off we went to the airport to finally meet up in person with our friends from Germany.

And that wonderful story will be in my next posting.

Meet "Millie"

Every year as we slide into March, we begin to think about upcoming outdoor jobs that will need to be done as soon as Spring arrives and the snow begins to melt.  When we spot our neighbour's maple syrup collection buckets, we know that warmer temperatures are about to make the maple sap run, and that Spring must be just around the corner. 

Spring can be a bit of a tease though. This year, just a week after we were treated to the sight of the buckets, another snow storm arrived.

We had a few visits from some local deer and it was such a treat to watch them from our windows. I am sure they were probably just as ready as we were for a change in weather, and a more varied diet!

Rumours of a particularly nasty ice storm in early April dashed our hopes for getting out to begin collecting our firewood anytime soon.  We stocked up on a few necessities, and prepared for some time closer to home. 

After the storm moved on, we ventured out for a walk.  The road in wasn't too icy and we were able to view some of the damage. And the beauty!

Once our internet was back though, we learned that many areas in Ontario and Quebec had been hit much harder than us, and a lot of people had no power, and that repairs would take quite a while.

A large tree had come down on our local power lines, and we had to guess that Ontario Hydro had cleared the tree and branches, leaving them all on our property at the side of the road.  We made plans to go collect it for firewood once the weather improved. We checked on our reserve firewood stack and it was completely covered in ice. It really looked like winter had come back.

But just a couple of days later, it began to warm up, and we were greeted one morning by the sound of the Phoebes returning.  I can't imagine that they were thrilled with our weather on their return.  By April 13th though we had some lovely warm temperatures, and as you can see below, it was warm enough for a t-shirt, but so strange as we still had snow all around us on our walk!

The day light hours were getting longer and I really liked the lingering light through the trees, and the reflections of our house in the window one night and snapped a quick photo.  Longer daylight hours are always so welcome.

With a bit more time to work at some indoor jobs, Rob decided to do some much needed organizing of his workshop.  He built this cabinet many years ago for the workshop in Navan, and finally got a chance to set it up properly again.

He was also busy programming a microcomputer that he hoped would allow him to use a foot pedal to make changes to his PC keyboard. When he is recording himself playing guitar, he needed to be able to more easily switch the camera off and on without having to stop and lean over to use his keyboard.  Just another little project on the go!  I never know what he will be dreaming up, but this one made me smile.

I had been busy painting lampshades for the log cabin bedrooms and doing many sewing repairs.

Unfortunately my amazing 50+ year old sewing machine stopped working and we were waiting for some parts to arrive to see if we could fix it. My backup machine would not wind the bobbin any longer, but Rob took it apart and fixed it with a hose washer until parts for it could arrive too!

In the meantime, I was trying to come to some sort of decision as to whether to fly out to Vancouver to visit family.  I had "some concerns" (actually lots!)  about the trip as friends had told me to be prepared for long flight delays and cancellations, and I also worried about Covid and the chance that I might bring it to my 96 year old mom.  Fortunately, despite the fact that I spent 4 hours seated in front of someone who coughed and hacked their way through the entire first portion of my flights, I managed to stay healthy. The flight delays weren't too bad and I arrived in Vancouver only a bit later than planned.  Unfortunately, no sooner did I book my flight than the airline announced a possible strike before my return home ! Of all my concerns, an airline strike wasn't one of them. 

I had a good trip, spending most of it in my Mom's apartment, as we had a list of things that needed doing, but did manage to get out with her for a short time each day to take care of a few things as well. She takes cabs a bit more often now, but will still take a city bus from time to time if she is up for it. I couldn't convince her to try the motorized shopping cart at the nearby supermarket, and she insisted on pushing the manual cart herself, while I dashed around trying to find items and save her a few steps. I also lost the argument about who would sleep on her couch.  She is  a fiercely independent little Welsh woman for sure.  She is still a pretty wicked Scrabble player too. 

My breath of fresh air is always my much anticipated ferry trip to the Sunshine Coast to spend time with my cherished brother and sister-in-law.  It is also the time that I most regret that Rob and I didn't make the trip to Vancouver together.  It's a hard choice, but I always feel like I should focus as much of my attention on my Mom as I can while I am there.  We also had to consider that one of us should remain at home to look after our sweet senior cat, Axle. At  the age of  20 he is now the equivalent in age of even more human years than my mom.  The minute I stepped on the ferry though and saw this view, I sure wished that Rob could have been there with me too. And I know he would have loved the chance to visit family on the coast as well.

I had made the choice not to bring my camera on this trip, which wasn't an easy decision for me. A friend had kindly lent me a cell phone for my trip so that I could keep updated on the airline situation, so I thought I could simply use the phone for taking photos instead.   But I found that without my camera, I pretty much forgot about taking photos!  I am not in the habit of using a phone as a camera at all.

I did manage to grab a pic of the lovely Hidden Grove Recreation area where I went for a short hike (with two of my favourite people!), and another one of the lovely sea (and two of my favourite people again!) before I returned to Vancouver less than 48 hours later.  Much too short a time but I was so grateful to have had the chance to visit.  

My other brother passed away last year, and so my trip was rather an emotional one at times.  The last time I had returned to Vancouver on the ferry I had met up with him for a coffee downtown, and I was filled with mixed emotions to pass through that area again.  I was thankful to have a chance to spend a couple of hours one evening with his son. 

I returned home somewhat tired, jet lagged, and introspective.  I took it easy for a few days, and then we ventured out into the bush in search of downed trees to pull out for this winter's firewood.  We usually start earlier in the season, before mosquitoes and black flies are out in full force, and long before the arrival of the poison ivy, but the weather and my trip had delayed us. Unfortunately shortly after we pulled out the first two downed trees, the tractor signaled a problem, and stopped working.  It took a couple of days to diagnose the issue, but Rob was able to get it working again, just before a mini heat wave hit!  There are always lots of other jobs that need doing so we decided to delay the firewood for a bit longer until the temperatures dropped a bit. The forecast was for more moderate temperatures in just a couple of days.

A large pine had snapped off this winter, so as soon as the temperatures dropped, we got at it. After moving a portion of it out, we gathered up the huge number of pine branches that had come down as they too make for good firewood. Cutting them into lengths is a tedious job though.  So after watching some videos, this new crib was constructed and we tried it out.  It worked perfectly!  We were glad of it, as we later found more smaller diameter lengths of wood that were easier to cut in this as well.  The crib allowed us to simply lay the branches in and then Rob was able to chainsaw through several at a time, and all at the same length so as to later fit into the woodstove.

Conditions became rather dusty as we were working.  Recent construction in the area had produced a huge number of pot holes in our common road, so the road had been newly graded.  As we were working, gravel trucks kept going by producing huge amounts of dust. The air quality wasn't good, and it unfortunately just got worse with the smoke from the wildfires later on.

I'm not usually the one to talk about or praise tools, but here is a little gizmo that has proven to be most useful this year. Meet "Millie" our Milwaukee Hatchet Pruning Saw. Battery operated, it is light enough for me to use, and it has been super at allowing me to help trim the branches of the trees we are gathering for this year's firewood.

The dead spruce trees in particular have a wicked number of branches.  It took a bit of getting used to, but once I got the hang of it, I could trim them off, stack them to be chipped later on, and leave the remaining log for Rob to cart away with the tractor. It definitely made the task easier.  We of course find ourselves using it for other tasks, like clearing trails as well.

Usually this is the point where I say "And in no time the firewood was done".  Well, not this year.  The smoke I mentioned earlier got worse as more fires burned in Quebec, and then one started about 60k south of us.  Air quality warnings were issued for our area, with warnings to wear N95 masks if doing any outdoor activities.  We continued doing firewood, while wearing masks, but then decided to wait until the air cleared a bit to continue. The smoke does produce some rather spectacular sunsets, but the cause detracts from the beauty. 

With conditions so dry, our area was already under a total fire ban.  I  pulled out my list of items to bring in the event of an evacuation order, and we discussed our emergency plans just in case.  With hundreds of fires burning across Canada it is foolish to think it can't happen, as much as we all hope it won't.  

Fortunately a bit of rain arrived, and although it wasn't enough to make a huge difference, the air quality improved.  We got back to doing firewood, with a short break as we needed to get some new parts for the chainsaw.  We made pretty good progress and were pleased with our work.  But the tractor announced another problem, so we had to take a break again to fix it.  Once complete, Rob took a short trip with it to get some parts for our scrap wood box.  And that's when the hydraulic hose blew.  Yikes, what a mess it made! 

More parts, more hydraulic fluid and a LOT of clean up later, it was back up and running.  

We worked for a couple of more days on our firewood and declared it done.  We still have more dead and fallen trees to pull out, (like the dead elm in the rear left of the photo below) but we think it might be better to wait until late fall or even early next spring.  The stacks on the left are our well seasoned oak, and the ones on the right are our more recent work.  We would have liked perhaps to have done a bit more, but I am sure that we have more than enough. And we both agreed that June 19th is the latest we've ever finished the wood, and aim to do better next year.

We celebrated with a great homemade beer that evening at the point, and put our feet up and enjoyed the river view, but didn't waste much time before getting at our next "task" for the summer.  There is still some siding that needs to be finished, and we really want that job to be done this year.  There is still one small section on the east side of the workshop to be done, as well as the back of the shop. We are just waiting to hear whether the propane company will agree to move our tanks for us. We should probably do this section first as it requires the longest and most noticeable pieces of siding.

Rob has set up scaffolding in preparation for completing the back of the shop. This area requires shorter boards, and we are hoping we have enough to complete that side.  The "porch" area may be done in metal siding if we don't have enough wood, or we may have to see if we can find some at the local mills to complete it. I think we still have lots of stain to use up!

As soon as were set up and ready to begin, the forecast changed to some much needed rain.  Which didn't arrive, but more wildfire smoke did, and it was the heaviest yet. We drove up to visit a friend and were stunned by how heavy the smoke was, and how poor the visibility, especially on one of the lakes (called Lake Clear, but definitely not-so-clear when there is smoke fall out !)

This pretty much sums up our rather strange Spring and introduction to Summer so far this year.

Oh, and those Phoebes that arrived in April ?  Well, this is a photo of the first brood in the nest at the front door just before they all flew away.  We didn't think they would nest there as we had finished the siding and ceiling in that area, and there wasn't much room,  but they were determined.  Rob put a little extra ledge there for them and that seemed to help. There is a second brood coming along now so we are avoiding using that door as much as we can so as not to disturb them.

We had robins nesting on a tarp next to the workshop door, and the babies left the nest a couple of weeks after I took this photo of them. 

We had another robin nesting at the cabin, but I found broken eggs at the door so I will guess something destroyed the eggs. 

They are trying again in a new nest set on a ledge on the porch now.  I hope this batch of eggs works out for them.

I found a starling inside the wood stove one day and ran to get Rob so we could escort it safely out.  It had a bit of a flight around the cabin before we caught it again, and left a bird-like smudge on the window that I thought looked pretty cool, but I guess I will have to wipe it off. It seemed none the worse for it's time in the stove, and flew off.  I have been checking every day now to make sure another one doesn't come down the chimney pipe.

On an afternoon walk one day this month we had the chance to watch a grouse have a dust bath.  They are usually pretty shy and fly away when we come across them on our walks, but I think this one was simply enjoying it's bath too much to leave.

Our wildlife cams have revealed a parade almost every day and night of fox, hares, fisher, deer, raccoons, porcupine, wild turkeys, coyote and a very brave little cat. In the video of the cat, it appears it chased a young fox back down the path, reappearing minutes later, puffed up to twice it’s size and casting an evil eye back to where the fox had been.  A few minutes later a very nervous looking fox came back up the path. That little cat shows up on the camera a lot, usually late at night.  I hope it stays safe. It looks healthy and well fed so I will guess it may belong to one of our neighbours.

A young hare is outside of the house most days, and seems pretty accustomed to our comings and goings.  I am glad that it can’t hop up onto my raised bed garden though, or it would make short work I think of my lettuce and spinach.  

And my battles with the chipmunk continue.  This year it is building tunnels in my garden.  I read that onions are a good deterrent so scattered lots of cut up onion onto the soil and into the tunnel before replacing the soil.  It seemed to work for a while, until I found a new excavation with all the onions pulled away.  A little ghost pepper powder worked too, until I water the garden and then it is no longer effective.  I just continue my efforts, and hope for the best.  I have what looks like a good crop of tomatillos coming up so hope they survive.  We have already enjoyed kale, cress, spinach, chives, cilantro and lettuce.  The chippie thankfully seems to not care about those!

We are now a week into "Summer" and the smoky skies have cleared somewhat for now.  We are hoping the siding project will go smoothly and try to imagine what it will be like to have that task off of our "to-do" list. I think we have been working on that job for the past three summers!  We are making plans for a bathroom renovation at the log cabin later this summer if all goes well. We are also making plans to take time off to scout out the area a bit more.  We have friends arriving from Germany in the fall and we could use some new locations to explore.     

Of course, summer is also the time when we love to relax outside.  We have had a few lovely evenings sitting out at our point, and look forward to more.  The river levels have dropped significantly, so I hope we will soon venture in for our first river walk of the year. And of course, if the hot summer weather arrives, the day will come when we simply plop our chairs into the cool river and sit for a while.