When Winter gets Weird

A friend once told me that I think a lot about the weather and she was right. I know I certainly talk a lot about it in my blog postings!  The weather has a lot of influence on our day-to-day lives.  In the winter our discussion about it starts first thing in the morning with “what’s the weather today?”.  A sunny day means we will have solar power, and a cloudy day means we likely will not.  Snow in the forecast means that the panels will have to be kept clear.

Thankfully, a new extension on our snow rake has proven to make that job a lot easier this winter.  No more standing on ladders and having the snow sliding down on top of Rob!

A forecast for a lot of snow means we should check to make sure we have extra diesel for the tractor as we will be plowing ourselves out. 

The weather also affects our daily tasks; even something as simple as whether we have enough solar power to use the toaster to make toast for breakfast. I have been searching for a method that would allow us to use our propane stove as an alternative.  When my mum and I lived in England our gas oven had a special broiler unit above the stove for toasting and it worked perfectly. I looked online on off-grid forums and found a number of people recommended an Italian Brustolina. It's a metal rack with holes basically, and it is supposed to be awesome for bruschetta too. We had a friend who was visiting Italy, but didn't want to ask her to haul one around on her travels. I tried to find a supplier in Canada, but in all of North America it appeared to only be available from one supplier in Philadelphia!  Luckily we were able to buy one from them, they shipped it to friends in Florida and our friends kindly mailed it up to us. 

Unfortunately on our first attempt to use it though, we placed sesame seed bagels on it, fired up the stove and the seeds immediately started burning and producing smoke.  I then had to turn on the stove vent hood fan, which sucked out our remaining power, and our power went out.  Sigh.

I have since had email conversations with a very kind food writer in the USA who had recommended it, as well as the supplier and have determined that I need to use much lower heat, and perhaps skip using anything with seeds.  I have tried it with other breads with mixed success, but am determined that I will figure this out.  I have since read that it is commonly used in many cultures, and it can't be possible that it is smoking everyone out of their kitchens!

As our day progresses, the weather dictates what we need to wear for the first of daily walks.  We both love to be outdoors, and the key is to be warm and dry.  I went into this winter with some new extra warm and comfy winter boots as my old ones had completely fallen apart and I bought some wonderful warm and waterproof mitts. More on that later!

As we make plans for the week, the weather forecast will help us plan the best day to drive to town to get supplies and groceries, especially when there are snow storms on the way. We use it to determine which days might produce some solar power for running anything like a vacuum, or washing machine, or tools in the workshop. It lets me know the best day to view and edit my photographs, as I try to limit the power use of my large PC monitor, and my laptop monitor isn't my first choice for that job.

At the same time, we check several times a day on our solar power system health and our power usage. We headed into this winter knowing that our batteries were not doing so well, and knew that this would likely make November and December rather difficult months. Neither of us could fathom that the month of January would present us with 27 days of cloud cover though.  We kept hearing from other off-grid people that they had never had to use a generator as much as they did this winter.  None of us like to use a generator if we can possibly avoid it. (It was sort of the whole point of being off-grid in the first place!)  For a few weeks we had to often use ours for a bit of time in the morning, and sometimes again late in the evening.  Many nights we woke up to the audible beep of our cell phone letting us know it was disconnecting as the power had gone out. Usually in January we expect very cold but sunny days, which are badly needed so that our solar panels can charge our batteries, but this certainly wasn't the case this year.

Those grey and dreary January days were dark ones.

The weirdest thing about this winter though, was the predominantly mild temperatures. Not only were our day time temperatures above normal, but sometimes even the night time temperatures rose above normal day time temperatures ! 

Although we did have a night time temperature eventually of minus 35, it was a very brief cold spell, and within days it was back above normal for the time of year. Those extra warm boots and mitts I bought for the winter?  Well, so far I haven't really needed them so much. Still, I have been glad enough to have them.

I love winter, and I love the challenges it sometimes presents.  I love being outdoors, and out with my camera. I really love winter as well for the opportunity it gives me to do lots of indoor projects on those days when I really can't be outside as much as I would like to be.  But this winter my brain just couldn't wrap itself around the fact that it was winter.  It was so mild that many days I went for several walks just because it was so lovely to be outdoors.  I kept putting off some of my indoor projects, assuming there would be some bitterly cold or stormy days when I would rather be inside.  But it almost never happened!  Not that we didn't get snow, as we did, and for a while we had storm warnings every single week.  But even then, they usually arrived during the night, and we simply had to clear the snow the next day.  I don't remember a single day of howling winds and blowing snow like we usually get. And of course, with all the mild temperatures, we had several thaw cycles, and a lot of the snow melted before the next storm.

The river remained open all winter as well.

I would go down to the edge almost daily, looking for animal tracks and hoping to see signs of the river otters, or a glimpse of some of the ducks that sometimes linger when the water is open a bit.

I even set up a small trail camera, and did catch deer, coyote and a fox, but no ducks or otters so far this year.  I did see a beaver out at the edge one day, and a muskrat swimming across, both of which I thought were quite unusual for the time of year. I will guess that the ducks had lots of open water to choose from and simply didn't have to come to this section of the river.

Indoor projects weren't a complete bust, as Rob continued to take online guitar classes, and is enjoying the community of players he has met through the process.  He also spent time in his workshop, trying to get it in order for the first time since he built it.  Now that he has had some time to use it, he was able to figure out what he needed to do to make it work better. He had to move the dust collection system (yes again!) (now commonly referred to as "the DCS" for brevity). I have teased him enough I think about his use of "linear actuators" (I don't know why but I always think that is the just the coolest thing to say) that help move his dust barrel up and down more easily when it needs to be emptied.  Rob pulled the actuators out of a high-tech dumpster many years ago, knowing they were going to come in useful for something someday. Oddly enough, our dear friend Joe, who is so similar to Rob in so many ways ALSO pulled linear actuators out of a dumpster years ago.  So he is perhaps the only person we know who really appreciates the gizmo Rob built using them. In retrospect I should have documented the whole new DCS system, but I did not.  Let's just say it used to run in roughly this location, then was moved to the upstairs of the shop to create more space downstairs, (with a really clever system that let Rob know if the barrel was full) but it wasn't sucking the sawdust properly, so it is now back in roughly the same place but with vast improvements. (Like those linear actuators!) Rob will no doubt correct me on some of this explanation, but I tried to keep it short.

The DCS is also going to have a new movable section of pipe, but that is still a work in progress.  This is part of the fixed section. 

The moving pipe section is going to be made out of an old metal level, bearings, wire and a bunch of other parts, including pipe of course.  Hopefully I will document this gizmo better, although probably not as I tend to avoid the workshop except for brief visits, and quick photos.  Everyone should have their own "space" and I consider this to be entirely Rob's.

His workshop also has a couple of "new" counter tops installed, with thanks to the ReUse area of our local waste/recycle site, that offers a chance to drop off and pick up various items and keep them from simply ending up in landfill.  So thanks to whoever it was that took the time to drop off several counter tops, all in pristine condition. We have salvaged several great items from this area, including our bathroom mirror, bedside tables, double stainless steel sinks, Moen brand faucets and more. 

A local online auction site has been providing us with some great second hand items (not to mention entertainment!) and we were pleased to pick up some items this winter that have been put to good use in the log cabin, as well as a few items for the workshop, and the house.  I am always happy when I can take some items off my long term to-do checklist, or wish list, especially when it's at a great price! 

My indoor project list has not fared quite as well as Rob's, but I keep reminding myself that winter isn't over yet.  I did sign up for a terrific online Photography course, with the amazing PhotoCoach, called  "Seeing with New Eyes" . Here is the link if anyone is interested:  https://photocoach.co.za/ 

I am still finishing my work on the fourth assignment of the course, but have now completed the first three.  The first part was Abstract, which I love.  For the Abstract portion I first wished I could spend time in the city, thinking there would be better photographic opportunities there, but the reality is that we live here. I set myself the task to get creative, and use what was available for my photo submissions.  So I already learned a good lesson before I started!  You can photograph anywhere; it doesn't have to be exotic or remote. Here's one of my Abstracts taken from the inside cabin porch that has tarps up on the outside of the screen.

The second assignment was Flora and Fauna, and I thought that would be a snap living where we are. For two weeks I wandered through the deep snow, looking for elusive birds or mammals, but none appeared, not even a cheery chickadee!  I had to settle for plants poking out of the snow, and trees.  This turned out to be a wonderful exercise and I enjoyed every minute of it.

The third assignment was People.  Hah, hah, I knew that one was going to be difficult as we so seldom see anyone here, and I am not one to take photos of strangers.  I did considering hanging out around outdoor skating rinks, near snowmobile trails, or one of the local ice fishing competitions, but was running out of time, and the rinks and trails closed during an unusual thaw, and the ice fishing was postponed until colder temperatures would arrive.  So I settled for photos of Rob and myself.  Not exactly "street photography" but it worked.

Now I am working on my fourth assignment which is Landscapes.  This is taking me a bit of time as I chase the occasional sunrise or sunset, having read how important light is to my landscape subject.  I must admit that I do sometimes think I could have chosen an easier season for a photography course.  But then, winter is the best time for me in terms of time, as all too soon it will be spring and the outdoor jobs will beckon once more.

February is the month of "love", not only because of Valentine's day, but the fact that this year we celebrated 45 years since our first date, and 45 years since we moved in together. We enjoyed celebrating with some good homecooked meals, and lots of reminiscing.  Of course 45 years ago, there was far less photographic documentation of events, so sadly there are no pictures of that time.

Apparently there are few pictures of our celebrations this year as well, as I seem to have been preoccupied with my photography course!  But here is one dinner, a pasta dish with tomatoes in the shape of a heart.  Sweet eh? On our first date we went for a beer at the Saucy Noodle in Ottawa, so I try to always celebrate with a pasta dish.

 It looked even better after it was baked, but the "heart" shape sort of melted in a bit.

For Valentine's we actually fired up the barbeque and made burgers, as our temperatures climbed up to an unheard of plus 10 degrees Celsius outside!  There may have been some flames involved, but they were still really good.  And amazing to be able to BBQ outside without a coat on in February.

For our "moving in" anniversary we had Mexican Chipotle meatballs, rice and roasted squash and peppers.  There was much laughter as we remembered the events leading up to our moving in together.  That is all I will say, although I have added some tags to this post such as "flat tire", "running out of gas", "pushing the van out of deep snowbanks", "ferry to Wolfe Island", "possible stop by police" and "having to find a cheap motel in Smiths Falls".  Just kidding, there are no such tags.

I noticed in the photo above, that there is no visible pile of snow outside the window.  That certainly has changed in just a few days as we had over a foot of snow after two storms, and then it all slid off the roof outside the window, adding to the pile that was already there.

And now here we are in March.  The daylight hours are steadily getting longer which is good for our solar power, and we notice a difference even when it isn't sunny.   We do however still have to clear the panels when it snows, although even then sometimes with the mild temperatures the snow will simply slide off.

We have now been living in the new house for three years.  It's hard to believe really.  I still feel like I am discovering how to live here, and only just settling in somehow.  I still find things that we placed in odd spots, thinking we would hang them later, or find another spot for them, and they are still there and I am only just now dealing with them.  To me it feels like it did whenever I started at a brand new job, that day several months in when I would feel myself finally coming up for air, and realizing "I am here".  I am not sure why it took so long in terms of this house, but I suspect that moving in only a couple of months before Covid arrived has something to do with it.  I think a lot of people have forgotten the intensity of that time, and how it was for all of us, living with fear of the unknown.  And it somehow overshadowed everything.

I think it also has a lot to do with loss, and grief.  In the past 10 years we lost seven friend and family members (two in the past year) and four beloved family pets.  

The building process was intense, and we made a lot of changes in our lives as well. Somehow I am only now just feeling like I can truly relax in the new house. I am slowly slipping into my new routines, and enjoying the process.  It has taken me a while to get used to having more time, and removing the pressure of having to get everything done "now" while I have a chance.  I hope this continues for me.

I think too that we have both benefitted from some time to simply "be" in the new house.  We needed time to see what works, what doesn't, what really needs to be finished, what we can live with, what we can live without.  Already we have realized that we installed more lighting than we use, more opening windows than we ever open.  We weren't making our own beer before we moved in, and in hindsight we could have built in better means to deal with the large equipment, and the clean up. Overall though, there is little that we feel we got "wrong".  I think that's a good thing!

I've been cleaning up my 1800+ photos of the building experience. This has definitely contributed to my reminiscing lately.  It's been amazing to look back on them all, and more often than not I find my self simply looking through them, rather than sorting or deleting which was my original intention.  It's a work in progress, and I have been trying to set aside some favourites, but almost every photo has so many memories that I love them all. It seems like a another time that we were at these stages:

Rob says he feels quite exhausted when he looks at them.  I can see why.  I try not to remind him that there is still a bit of exterior siding to be done this year!  

For now though, it is still "winter".  We have a few weeks yet before we have to think about outside tasks, like siding and gathering firewood. Our firewood usage was amazing this winter.  We used maybe only a dozen pieces of our purchased oak, and the rest of the time we simply used wood that we gathered, split and stacked last spring from downed trees.  We still have a bit left here at the house and still have 2 more piles on our concrete pad that we haven't touched.  

The longer daylight hours are helping with our solar power, and we are seeing a bit more sunshine than we did in January.  We have a forecast for a long cool spring, with more snow on the way, but we still have lots of indoor projects we are hoping to work on.  So for now we will enjoy whatever weather we get, and I will set myself a promise not to write so much about the weather in the next blog posting. Well, maybe ....

And now - we wait

January has offered us a see-saw of temperatures; some pleasantly mild days hovering around zero degrees Celsius, and some bone chilling nights that dipped below minus 30 degrees (and that was without the wind chill factor!). What we didn't get, was much snow, so for this month at least, driving conditions were fairly decent, and Rob has only had to plow our roads a couple of times.

On the milder days, Rob feels like he should be working on the new house, but that just isn't reasonable. As he wasn't able to install the exterior insulation and metal roof before winter arrived, there is little that he can actually do right now! It's too cold and too dangerous to try to work on the exterior, and he can't finish the interior walls until the exterior insulation is on. About the only thing that could be done on the inside right now is to build some of the interior dividing walls. As much as we like to think that the house is reasonably warm when we step into it, it really isn't. We arrive at the house, wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, but as soon as we remove our gloves, even just for a few minutes, it's obvious that it's colder inside than we think.

The inside house temperature fluctuates quite a bit with the weather, and on the sunny days we do notice a bit of extra warmth, which is good news as we did hope for a bit of passive solar effect!  We go over to the new house several times a day, marking the amount of sunlight that comes in, and generally just checking things out, and talking about what we need to do there this coming year.

Jet loves to come over, we turn him loose in the house and he has fun trotting around and looking out of all the windows. On a sunny day he prefers to stay outside, and chew on ice and lie in the snow soaking up some of the sun's rays.

Sometimes we just like to sit inside - stare out of the windows at the lovely view, and enjoy the bright light. We love the log cabin, but it's rather dark inside the cabin during the winter, and the new house feels so much brighter - even with the unfinished interior!

Rob has been busy this month getting items off of the "to-do" list.  We had agreed on a style of wood stove, and after much research, were ready to purchase one locally this spring. Before Christmas though, while visiting family, Rob passed by a wood stove store, and dropped in on a whim. There he saw the stove we wanted, and they offered him a deal on their floor model! So Rob came home and researched things a bit more (o.k. actually - a LOT more) and got some pricing on the chimney and various bits and pieces. In the end, even with driving there and back, he calculated that it would save us quite a bit. This month he went and picked it up.  So - Check ! One item is now off of the list.

Of course, we both wish that we could just get it hooked up, warm up the new house, and get Rob building, but that isn't possible. And there is no point lamenting that the weather last year did not co-operate and allow us to get more done so that we could be finishing the inside of the house now as planned.  So we just have to remind ourselves - we did the best we could, and now one more item is off of the list ....

Next item - the off grid system!  We don't have it yet, but we've settled on a system, and have ordered it. Giant gulp here, and breathe, breathe, breathe...it's one thing to say we are going off-grid, but quite another to actually commit to it, and the cost!  But, it's something we both want to do so we are actually pretty excited about it.

As Rob is planning on doing his own install of the system he spends a lot of time now reading and researching and watching "how-to" videos.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up with how his brain works - one moment he's talking redesign of timbers on the workshop, and the area that houses the system, and the next he's telling me about battery replacements, electrical building codes, wiring, inverters, panel mounting design...  I suggest we start our sentences with something simple like "New topic"....

We go through the local store ads every week and keep an eye out for sales for anything else we will need - faucets, shower heads, sinks, toilets, bathtub, etc.  Luckily we don't have to think about buying kitchen or bathroom cabinets, as anything that Rob can build - he will! We still have to decide on the colour for the acid etch for the concrete floors (we've narrowed it down to two!) and decide on the style of metal roofing.

In between working on house plans and researching, we have settled in to our "normal" January activities. We move firewood onto the porch every couple of days, keep the wood stove filled constantly, and cook up lots of  home made soups to stock pile in the freezer.  Thanks to our friend Bob, who not only gave us a good recipe for granola, but brought some over for us to try first, I am now making my own granola as well. I still make a couple of loaves of rye bread each week, as well as a loaf of banana, walnut cranberry bread, and sometimes some healthy oatmeal cookies. I've been trying out some new yummy Vegetarian recipes too (sorry Rob!) I still buy food once a month from our local co-op, so took the opportunity to stock up on some Delicata Squash, and tried out a new recipe for filling them. A mixture of wild rice with cranberries and pecans tasted pretty good!

We are fortunate to have an amazingly good library in our township, so have been reading and enjoying some great books this month. It's nice to see Rob relaxing and reading a novel after months and months of reading "how to" articles and instruction manuals before falling asleep at night!

Of course, no matter what month it is, or what weather is coming our way, Jet reminds us three times a day that he needs some play time and a good long walk. Here he is, making sure that we don't forget to bring along his Wubbas, which are stored in the plastic bin by the door.

After his walk and play time, we often bring him home, and then go out ourselves again.  As much as he would love to come along, sometimes I like to go out alone and bring along my camera, or Rob and I like to go for a good long walk and chat - sans German Shepherd! Sometimes it's just hard to have a conversation when Jet is busy barking at the ravens overhead, or diving off the path on the scent of a deer or fox. He certainly hasn't yet learned to stand still while I take photos either. I'm sure that someday he will learn to stand still, admire the beauty around us, and appreciate the absolute quiet.  Someday...

One blustery day I stood for quite a long time watching "snow devils" blowing across the fields; swirling funnels of snow that spiral up and over the fields for remarkably long distances.

Of course, no walk is complete without a visit to the river, and it's ever changing conditions.  The river levels vary quite a bit, so we are always cautious. An area that might be frozen solid one day can be quite different the next!

This pond area was used years ago as a winter skating rink by the children of the former property owners. One of these days we'll find our skates and give it a go!

In the last week or so, the river has frozen more at the edges. There is still open water in the center, and every now and then I spot a lone duck.

Last year the river froze solid across the span and the deer, fox and coyotes had a regular highway going back and forth, but this year, with the river still open, there is no way that they are able to cross.  I notice there are fewer tracks even just leading up to the river's edge. We will sometimes see wild turkey tracks, and possibly the tracks of the mink and the river otter running along the shoreline.

Due to the shallow snow base, we haven't had a chance yet to do any snowshoeing this winter.  We did manage to go for a good walk with our friend Bob, and skirted along the edge of the lake he lives on.

 It appeared someone may have forgotten to clear off their dock area before the snow arrived! Although I think a canoe would be more appropriate than a bicycle?

It was nice to get out for some fresh air, and we were joined by a few of the neighbourhood dogs - who seem to know that Bob is a good source of cookies!

The arrival of some grapefruit from Texas, sent to us by our friends Gary and Liz who live in Florida, added some much needed Vitamin C to our diets this month. It was a huge box of grapefruit, and they quickly filled the bit of empty space in our fridge. So we stuffed the rest into a cabinet in the living room. The cabinet borders an outside wall, and it seemed to keep them cold enough! (We already keep our potatoes there) Thanks Gary and Liz!

Even though I am eager to be moving into the new house, I must admit that after 2 1/2 years in this lovely little cabin, I know there are things I will miss. There are days when I love the small kitchen, and that everything is within arm's length reach. We keep just a few plates and bowls at hand, and a minimal amount of "stuff" in the kitchen drawers, and cupboards, and it just makes things so much easier. It's funny, because we follow a fabulous blog written by a young couple, Melanie and Josh, who are building a beautiful wooden yurt in the eastern USA. (Rob met Josh during one of the timber framing courses they participated in.) While they are building, they are living in a small fabric yurt with their two young children.  You would think they would all be anxious to move into their new space, but like us, they find some of the aspects of their smaller shelter to be quite comfortable. I am sure though - that like me - there are days when they just want everything to HURRY UP and get done, so they can move into their new and lovely building !!

I know that I am looking forward to having just a little bit more space, and there are certainly days, when I'm balancing hot pans of freshly baked bread, while trying to roll out pizza dough and cook pizza toppings all at the same time and I just wish, wish, wish for one more foot of counter space... And I miss some of "our stuff" which has been in storage all this time.  Mostly I miss our funky artwork, my sewing machine and fabrics, and a few of the things that I sometimes reach for, then remember - they are somewhere in a box...

In the meantime though... we continue to enjoy and love the area we live in and where we live. While we may not be physically working on the new house, there's plenty to think about, and still lots that we can do to prepare for the year ahead.  We are both anxious to get at the next building stage, but for now  - we just have to wait.

Looking in, Looking out

If I had to sum up January in just one word this year, I guess it would be "cold". We've been keeping close to the wood stove, and burning up a rather alarming amount of firewood. There have been days when we thought there was something wrong with our lovely little stove, thinking it wasn't putting out much heat. It took a while, but we finally realized that it does just fine when the temperature doesn't go much below minus 20 degrees Celsius. We had lots of nights that were well below minus 30, and days that hung in around minus 25, and that's before the wind chill factor. We do have electric baseboards, and did have to leave a couple of them on in the downstairs rooms overnight. We found that if we let the house get too cold, we spend all day fighting to warm it up again.

Jet doesn't seem to even notice the cold, so he had us out everyday for the usual play times, and walks.

 

 

But there were a few times when we just had to cut the walks short a bit. As wrapped up as we were, with just our eyes, nose and cheeks bare, we could feel the biting wind on our skin, and worried about Jet's ears and paws getting too cold.

In between the cold spells, we did have our usual January thaw, which lowered the snow bank levels, brought rain, and freezing rain, and left our roadway rather an icy mess. Wood stove ashes do a marvellous job of providing traction on ice though, so after spreading them on one of the hills, I was able to get the truck out after only one or two mishaps of getting stuck!

There has been some carnage on the river - one night something took a deer down - either a coyote or a wolf I suppose, leaving the remains of the deer on the other side of the river. It's "Nature's way" as they say, and there is no doubt it provided crows, ravens and bald eagles with a bit of a feast for more than a few days. In the spirit of photography, I placed a deck chair in the snow along our shoreline, and waited for a while to see if there would be any opportunities to photograph a bald eagle. I must say that I did have a few anxious moments, sitting all alone in the woods, when I started to think about what it was exactly that took a deer down....but decided I wouldn't worry.

There were no signs of the bald eagle while I sat there so I left, and no sooner did I leave than all the birds returned. They seemed to know I was in the area and must have been hanging around nearby.

January is always a good time to try out some new recipes, so I spent some time in the kitchen, trying my hand at making my own pizza crust, hummus, and a big pot of posole with pork. I still have rather a lot of dried chiles stored away, as well as an enormous bag of dried blue corn, so decided it was time to use some supplies up.  Next on the list will be hand made corn tortillas.  Rob thinks we should figure out how to make wood oven bagels, but I haven't got that adventurous yet! I am once again able to pick up my monthly order from the local food co-op due to a change in pick up location, so I was happy to get some organic Highland beef for chili too. Turning the oven on seems to warm up the kitchen a bit more, so it was nice to spend some time close to the stove, and we now have a good supply of meals in our freezer again.

Rob has been working hard the last few weeks on window designs, sending out requests for quotes, and getting ideas from my brother Mike who, because of his job, knows a whole lot about windows! Which is lucky for us...

It's been a bit of a struggle and the program Rob uses to do the drawings crashes an awful lot, which doesn't help. But there is also (as always!) a lot to think about. How the windows will look from both the inside and outside. What size they should be and what shape. How many there should be. Which ones should open. How they should open. (Open in, open out, open vertically, open horizontally, or even tilt!) Double glazed vs. triple glazed. Heat transfer, U factor, Solar gain... Wood vs. fibreglass vs vinyl.. Inside colour, outside colour .... I don't think I will ever think of windows in the same way again.

When we first moved into the cabin I was thrilled to just have windows that opened easily, and in fact I'm still amazed that I can just crank them open whenever I need to.

Rob made them all by hand, and would love to do that again, but it would take way too long, and really isn't practical this time if we ever want get this house built! In the dome the windows he built were a bit more interesting and I loved them, but they were difficult to open and close and I couldn't reach most of them to ever clean them.

Every decision we make about windows, also seems to affect the cost. Rob did manage to get the cost down for most of them, although in the end he actually added windows and increased the size of some so that cost went up! But I think he's done a good job, and we'll be happy with them. The views are stunning on the building site, and we want to be able to enjoy those views through the windows as much as possible.  This will be my view from the kitchen!

We didn't venture out much in January, but did go to an open house at a local farm, complete with a wagon ride - and picked up delicious rainbow carrots, and potatoes, and Feta and Tomme cheese made from sheep's milk.  The farm is off grid and we had an enjoyable time learning about their unique cold cellar, and looking around a bit.

Next time we should bring our snow shoes as there were trails available, and it is in a beautiful spot. They also have a yurt!

We hadn't been in one since visiting our friends Ross and Hanne in New Mexico for sound healing and shamanic healing sessions.  Sadly our dear friend Ross passed away after a brief and unexpected illness in January.  He was an amazing man; healer, teacher, artist, friend, and so much more....His passing has made both of us spend some time looking in, and looking out....missing him, yet ever aware of our joy and gratitude for knowing him.

Being outdoors is always healing, so we took some time out for a bit of a snowshoe hike, and for some gentle walks around.  There is a lovely spot on the edge of the river with a perfect log for sitting on.  Under the shelter of the trees, on a sunny day I can sit comfortably for quite a while, listening to the silence. The river is almost frozen over, so I can no longer hear it. But if I sit for a while, I will hear the drum of the pileated woodpecker, the scolding of a red squirrel, and the sound of the raven. So it isn't all that silent after all.

We are cautious and stay close to the edge of the river, but it really does seem to be quite frozen this year. Here there is a lovely natural clearing next to the river's edge. The previous owners of the property used to clear the snow, and their kids would skate here in the winter!

On the other side of the tree line (above Rob's head)  is our new house site.

On the day we were out there were a few animal tracks across the river, but not many. Two days later it looked like the deer were dancing all over the river. 

When we were snowshoeing we discovered deep deer trails through the woods too.

 

And circling high above us one day, some ravens and that bald eagle!

 

Back at the cabin we load up our porch with a bit more firewood, settle in next to the wood stove, and Rob gets back to the house plans. Next on our list is to decide on the metal roof colour and exterior house colour, as we need to know what colour to order for the exterior of the windows.  In the spirit of our times in New Mexico, I would love to have a turquoise roof.  But in looking through some photos online, we are surprised to see that we both like a photo of a house with a rough grey wood siding, and grey window exteriors.  Perched on rock and surrounded by the trees, the setting is similar to ours, and the house has a peaceful sort of feeling to it. Both of us like the way it blends in naturally with the surroundings. Of course, we would have to add some colour in somehow here and there! Maybe some kind of funky accent colour. But I am no longer sure that the turquoise roof is right.  More decisions....! I know though that Rob is anxious to get the windows ordered, and to get back to working in his little closed-in area on the porch. He's been trying to work on some braces but comes back to work inside when it gets too chilly out there.

On a cold winter day Leon reminds us that sometimes the best thing to do is curl up in a cozy spot of sunshine. He's 18 years old, and failing a bit, but still purrs as loud as ever, especially when he's comfy and warm!

 

As much as Jet loves the outdoors, he seems to take a cue from Leon.