Friends and Fixes

At the end of my last blog posting we were just preparing for the arrival of our friends from Germany (Jan and Marina) and I had intended to complete a posting about their visit before 2023 came to an end, but somehow that just didn't happen.  And so here I am in March of 2024, finally getting around to it.  So, as my dear cousin Carol always says when she sends me an email "Grab a cup of tea and settle in, as this is going to be a long read!"

The morning of their arrival, we did one more quick vacuum around the cabin, made the bed, and did a final check to make sure they would be as comfortable as possible on their first night there.  A flight delay at their end gave us one more hour to prepare before we had to leave for the airport in Ottawa.  We felt like little kids; we were so excited about finally meeting our e-mail friends in person!  

I should explain that Rob had met Jan through an online guitar course that they both were taking, and they had been emailing back and forth after discovering they had many things in common (apart from their love of guitar!). After offering Jan and his partner Marina the use of the cabin should they ever find themselves in Canada, plans had evolved for them to actually visit! We had done more than a few FaceTime calls over the months,  but we were really looking forward to spending "real" time with them. Rob had also put out an invite to any other guitar course members in the area to come visit for an afternoon group "jam" later in the week and David, a member from the Toronto area had agreed to come. The members of the guitar course are spread out all over the world, so we were happy to find that someone lived close enough to drive here.

Our social lives were about to blossom. We had moved into this house just prior to the arrival of Covid, and really hadn't done much in the way of "entertaining" since then. I have to admit that I was feeling a bit of trepidation as to whether I could pull it all off! It had been quite a while since I had cooked for more than two persons, let alone spend extended periods of time with other people.

The next ten days went by far too quickly, as we tried to find a balance between visiting, sightseeing, sharing some meals, and giving Jan and Marina some time to themselves to explore the area, and be alone in the cabin. We seemed to fall into a comfortable routine in no time, and we enjoyed fabulous conversations, much laughter, and the wonderful sounds of music. We knew intuitively we would all get along, but I was completely unprepared for the amount of love I would immediately have for these two amazing human beings that had so magically come into our lives. 

We spent a couple of days showing them the local towns, shopping locations, farm stands, and as a high point, we traveled to an amazing lookout view of the Ottawa Valley up near Wilno. 😀 Unfortunately, Rob and I had last visited the lookout some 20 plus years ago and there were apparently some changes since then. We got out of the car and gazed in wonder - at all of the trees that had grown up and now completely blocked the view.  Our friends took our failure as tour guides in good stride, but this will no doubt become a future baseline for how to show our visitors a good time! 

The day of the guitar jam arrived along with heavy, steady rainfall.  While the guitar course members jammed happily away downstairs, Marina and I set up in my studio where she could paint, and I worked on some fabric projects.  It was amazing to look over the studio railing and see guitar players in the living room! And they sounded wonderful.

For the first time, it felt like our house was just swelling with music, art and creativity, and my heart was bursting.

We had also invited our friend Mike, an avid musician to join us, but he was delayed somewhat. Once he and his wife Eva arrived I got busy preparing a meal for us all, and tried hard to overcome my usual reluctance to film people, and to photograph and video a bit of the occasion.

Of course, the afternoon and evening went by far too quickly.  It was lovely to meet David from Toronto, to hear some guitar, singing and harmonica playing, and to share some conversation, food, and drinks. Plans are underway to do it again!

Luckily too, we still had a few more days after to enjoy more art, music, and the company of our friends.

I had been a bit worried about the weather, as October can be a fickle month, but we lucked out with some sunshine and warm temperatures for at least part of their trip. We had warned that there was always the possibility of snow, and I think they may have been disappointed that it didn't happen! We managed a few good walks in the area and there was even still a bit of pretty fall leaf colours to admire here and there.

Marina is an excellent cook, and the weather warmed up enough that we were able to enjoy a delicious meal outdoors on the porch of the cabin together, which was amazing for the time of year.

I was sure that I had taken a photo of the heavenly apple dessert she made (twice!) for us, but apparently we simply devoured it all, with nary a photo.

The weather also cooperated enough that we could sit out above the river for an entire afternoon.

Later, Marina and I had another chance to do some art together, while Rob and Jan did some recording.

(Making my heart burst again!) 

It was, of course, far too short a visit.  In no time it seemed, we were heading back to the airport for an emotional farewell.  

Rob and I felt completely lost when we arrived back home.  But thanks to continued video calls and emails with Jan and Marina since their visit, our friendship continues to grow, and plans for their return are already in place.

Of course, just a couple of days after their departure, we had our first snowfall.  That was a good reminder to us that we had some things to do in preparation for winter.  Normally we would begin closing the cabin down in November, but Rob's brother Ryan and his partner Rose were hoping to come visit for a week, so we left it up and running for a little longer.  Our friend Joe came up for a quick visit for a couple of nights, and stayed here in the house with us.  After such a long time of not having company, we were getting pretty good at it I think!

Rob was soon busy helping a neighbour pull some large stones out of their field before winter, and another neighbour asked for some help to move some gravel.  I got busy putting my garden away.  Then, we began moving our firewood closer to the house in preparation for winter. Diesel cans needed to be filled for use for the tractor, and extra cans of gas needed to be ready for our generator so we could boost power to our batteries when needed. The generator and tractor both needed pre-winter servicing so we did that. Snow tires on the car were installed, and we felt like we were almost ready. Unfortunately just when we were moving more firewood down, using our old truck, the brakes on it failed.  We primarily use it here on the property for moving wood, so it wasn't a big deal, but it did mean having to make more trips using the tractor instead for the rest of the loads.  We decided to try to see if we can fix the truck brakes later this spring, when it's warmer.  

Rob's brother Ryan was then able to come up for about a week for a really nice visit and a much needed break for he and Rose. It was great to spend some time with them both but as soon as they left, it was time to close the cabin while it was still warm enough inside to be comfortable to work.  We cleaned, tucked bedding and kitchen wares away and brought home anything that we didn't want to freeze over the winter. We discovered that the washing machine was acting up again, and opted to just leave the the repair until spring (lots of fixes to do this spring I think!)  We drained all the pipes in the cabin, put tarps up around the porch, and declared the cabin ready for winter. 

As we had already burned through some of our winter firewood, we ended up moving more down (and would move more again before Christmas!). I of course always worry we won't have enough, and Rob assures me we will !

In the first week of December we had our first good snowfall.   The first one is always the hardest, as we try to get into the groove of clearing, plowing, making sure the solar panels are clear, and getting the snow off of the shelter and away from the doors at the cabin. Knowing a storm was coming we had already made sure we had extra gas and diesel, and that our weekly groceries were done.  The roads are never great here after a snowfall, so we are always happy if we don't have to go anywhere until they are cleared.

Once winter arrives, it doesn't seem to matter whether I take a photo in colour or black and white; it almost always looks the same. Our world becomes shades of grey but it sure looks beautiful when the snow clings to the trees. I never tire of the views.

For entertainment, Rob and I follow a local on-line auction that runs every few weeks and to our surprise, in December there was a small parlour guitar listed (a "baby" Martin). Guitars are like a shining beacon to Rob. This one had a broken headstock which had been very poorly repaired (which devalued it considerably) but Rob was interested in it and placed a bid - and managed to win it! It worked out that it was a 1940 model that came with the original case, so Rob was pretty pleased to have it and plans to eventually fix the previous repair so that it is not as noticeable. It's a wonderful little guitar and an early Christmas present for sure!!  

With Christmas fast approaching, I got to work on making some Christmas cards, and used some of the paints that Marina had bought and left behind.  She is a talented artist and when she painted in my studio, it looked like it might be a lot of fun to try to learn more about it.  I have only ever painted on fabrics, and watching her made me think that I might like to try painting on canvas sometime.  

I always make Biscochitos as it is one of  our usual Christmas traditions and I am always surprised by how many cookies the recipe makes, so I end up freezing quite a few for later on.  Some find their way as Christmas gifts to friends and neighbours as well.

And I also made mincemeat tarts, but I always forget to take a picture before I pop them into the freezer!

We found a perfect tree growing under the power lines that we knew would have to be removed within a year or two, so cut it down and brought it home as our Christmas tree.  I love when there is enough room in between the branches that I can see all of our ornaments hanging and the lights show up better too I think. And they reflect beautifully in the windows!  

Each year amongst our ornaments there is a photo of three of our previous cats; Zin, Sam and Bates. For this Christmas I decided to make sure we had pictures of ALL of our cats and dogs from over the years hanging in the tree.  It was our first Christmas without little Axle, and I missed his presence enormously.  So here we go:

Jet:

Zuni:

Axle, Leon, Sita and GB:

Little Tess (the only photo I could find) and Josh:

And of course our original threesome - Zin, Sam and Bates (this photo was taken in a tree from a much earlier Christmas when we lived in the dome!) 

It was a bit of a rush job to find old photos and get copies made, and quickly mounted on card stock, but it was lovely to finally do it!

Two days before Christmas, Rob finished up a cabinet that he had agreed to build for our neighbours and with no working truck, he had to deliver it using the forks of his tractor.  Luckily it survived the long journey to next door.

The wooden knob that opens the lower door has it's own story.  Rob has had it for years; in fact he had it before I met him, and it has been in a box with some other hardware all this time.  It didn't look like much, but he cleaned it up and it revealed itself to be a beautiful wood knob, probably made from walnut.  He only had one, so it seemed like this was the perfect use for it, and I must say it looked like it was just made for this door.

Christmas Day was mild, with temperatures around 2 degrees, and super foggy.  We began to think we were going to lose the rest of our snow before New Year's with the unusually warm temperatures.

I didn't take many photos this year, but did remember to capture a quick pic of our Christmas Day ribs ! As it turned out there were a lot of leftovers of course. But I always figure that if I am going to take the time to slow cook ribs, I should cook lots.

Somehow I forgot to take any photos of the rest of our fine meal though.

I had been frustrated for months with camera lens focusing issues, and despite taking time to clean my camera and lens thoroughly, and reading up on possible setting causes, it seemed clear that something  inside the lens was loose.  So Rob watched some videos, and then just before New Year's he bravely took my lens apart!  I hovered around anxiously, but as I had figured out that a new lens (or camera for that matter) was out of the question I had to agree that it was worth a try and so I anxiously awaited the (hoped for) re-assembly.

And voila, he got it apart, tightened the appropriate screws, put it all back together - and it worked! Thank you Rob. (And thank you to whoever did a detailed YouTube video as well!)   A belated Merry Christmas gift to me !

We always enjoy our Christmas and New Year season with some nice meals, an excellent home made beer by the woodstove, and the occasional glass of wine.  Brewers Note:  Rob made one of his best stouts ever using coffee ( ! ), and we need to remember to make it well before Christmas again next year! 

With the season over,  we quietly moved into 2024. We reluctantly took down our pretty Christmas tree, tucked away our Christmas ornaments, and retreated to our studios for some creative time.  Rob was working on playing guitar, and cleaning up his workshop, while I pondered some new Altered Artwear, and prepared to start working on an old denim jacket, and fixing up some jeans. 

We had a bit of snow cover, and the temperatures, while still much milder than normal, were getting colder.  The river was still pretty wide open but we expected it to freeze and narrow gradually.  One night I ran down and was able to capture a pretty spectacular sunset.

In January we can normally expect temperatures of minus 35 degrees C or colder. But this year, during the entire winter we maybe had only a couple of nights that dropped to minus 20 and most of the nights were far warmer.   We never moved into wearing our warmest winter gear on our walks, and often were drawn outdoors for extra daytime walks just because of  the milder weather.  In early January, when we usually are experiencing snow storms and freezing temperatures, this was our view on one of our morning walks.

I feel like the odd weather scrambled our brains a bit, as we just couldn't settle into the usual winter "groove".

Which may explain how it was that one day I found myself at the amazing Art Factory Art Store in Renfrew, buying not brushes or paint for my fabric projects as planned, but a stack of canvases to paint! And off I went on a new adventure.  

I had a lot to learn about techniques, mixing colours, prepping surfaces etc. While my paints dried, I watched videos on abstract painting, consulted with Marina, and worked on my denim jacket.  I found painting on canvas to be a lot easier than fabric, as I could much more easily paint over my "mistakes".  The pic below is of the second canvas I painted, and although I liked parts of it, I wasn't thrilled with how it turned out.

So I changed it to this.  It is however still sitting in my studio as I ponder further changes! (Or maybe just a complete re-do).

Painting does seem to be a tad addictive, and I couldn't resist the fabulous sale prices on canvases at the Art Store and bought a couple more in varying sizes to try. I tried using some thick gesso for texture, and painted with a variety of paints, and even tried adding some coffee grounds to one of my pieces.

This rather bright pink one has lace embedded in the paint, textured gesso, and a cut up photo of my wedding dress hanging on a clothesline.

The longer rectangular format was a bit of a challenge for me, but sometimes I find that if I just sit and think about it for a while I can usually picture what I want. As well, I get some inspiration in my dreams too. I would say however, that this actual painting changed more than a few times before it arrived where it did.

Slowly my denim jacket was coming along nicely. And my denim jeans got some patches too.  I enjoyed working with fabric again as it's been a while, and I am looking forward to doing more.

I also decided to try to improve my German over the winter months.  I took German classes for two years in university, but that was so many years ago, that I had mostly forgotten all of it.  (I also took Spanish later on, and find myself confusing all the words, and fill in a little French from time to time to really mess things up!) So I am slowly reacquainting myself with the language.  They say it is good for your brain, but time will tell. Fortunately Marina emails me in German so I can only hope to improve before their next visit.

Meanwhile Rob had also gone off in a new direction as he was thinking of trying his hand at building cigar box guitars and learning to make pickups for them.  (We thank our friends Jan and Marina as they clearly influenced both of our new found interests!)  Rob was busy finding parts and gizmos and figuring out how to wind pickups when a nifty little machine came up on our local online auction.  He had no idea what it was, but he had a feeling that some parts might be useful (Right!).  So he bid on it.  And won it.  And brought it home. And I of course just rolled my eyes.  That is, until he saw a name on one of the knobs and googled it in the hope that it might reveal what the machine had been used for in the past - and discovered that he had just bought  - are you ready for it ? - a 1950's coil winding machine.  I kid you not. Of course he was a little reluctant to plug it in but when he did - nothing worked.

But it was just missing a few electrical components which he purchased through a used parts company, and after also straightening the motor shaft, it is now running perfectly.  And if more parts are needed?  Well, we finally got around to disassembling our former Chilly Chiles massive BizHub printer, that has been sitting in various locations for the past 13 years.  

We had tried more than a few times to get it running, but it wouldn't even power up any more and we learned a few years ago that it was no longer supported by Konica Minolta so we couldn't even donate it to a good cause. Enter Rob! After disassembly, he scooped any parts that might prove useful and the rest now fits into our car and can be taken to an e-waste depot.  It was a great printer and worked hard for us for many, many years; producing product labels, signage and promotional items, so it's sad to see it rendered useless. And while parts of it will be distributed to metal and e-waste facilities, some parts will end up in landfill which seems completely wrong. I suppose on the plus side, Rob's "new" winding machine was saved the same fate, so I should feel better about that.

And so for the last couple of months we have been busy working on projects here and there, and wondering when winter would really arrive (except for a couple of snowfalls, it didn't) and where the days go as they seem to be just flying by.

As the daylight hours slowly get longer, our solar power improves.  January was unusually dark and cloudy, and we were extra careful with our daily power consumption, and kept a close watch on our system.  It's nice to see that we are now generating our own power even as late as 6 p.m.  In no time, we will forget about the dark winter days and probably not even think about turning on a vacuum or a piece of equipment in the workshop.  Well, at least until next fall! Rob is already back in his shop, working on the drawers for our pantry area in the kitchen. He started that project last May when I was in Vancouver, and is now happy to be able to get back at it. 

While tidying up the workshop, he also decided to free up some space by moving a work table out and into his studio in the house.  It's an old table from our Chilly Chiles warehouse and it needed some sprucing up.  After messing around with a few ideas, like using airbrushes, dyes etc., and possibly creating a complex starburst effect,  he simplified his efforts somewhat and came up with this:

I think it looks beautiful.  And I was really pleased when he added colour to the plain metal legs too!  

On our walks this March we began to scan the woods, looking for recently downed trees to pull out for this year's firewood.  We know it's important to leave some trees down for all the ecological benefits they provide. But we seem to have no shortage of those as well. Last year we were late getting to this task, so we hope this year we can begin in April, but it is always weather dependent.  It would be nice to be able to do it before black fly and mosquito season.  Unfortunately we have heard that due to our mild winter, the ticks are already out in full force, so we will have to be mindful of that.

This will be the first year in a long time that we aren't facing the task of putting siding up, and that is a relief for us both. We are turning our attention instead to the possibility of getting some fill and gravel trucked in, as we never finished getting the area in front of the house up to grade.  We aren't looking to do much other than to just tidy up the area and make it more functional.  It needs to remain easy to plow using a tractor in the winter, and we need some kind of separation between our septic field and the driveway.  With all the beauty of the forest and native plants that surround us, I don't feel there is much else that needs to be added in this area other than that.  We will likely also rebuild my small raised bed herb and vegetable garden, and are considering where we can put a more permanent firewood shed.  (We currently erect one each fall out of scaffolding and that may be the option of choice for a few more years yet! ) 

I love winter, and I missed it this year.  But I did still have some magic moments of winter ice and snow down by the river. It is my favorite place to be no matter the season.  And I find that when the world seems to be a dark and worrisome place, it is a good place for solace and positive energy. 

This week's auction "find" was not nearly as good a score as the winding machine and the baby guitar.  Rob insists that it was my urging that prompted him to bid on a Ralph Richards Ragtime album, but I will argue that I was merely pointing out to him that there was just seconds before the bidding closed and he was the one that hit the button. That said, this fine album (costing $1 plus tax) needed to be evaluated. How bad could it be? In order to ascertain this, he had to fire up our turntable and amp and he soon discovered that a belt in the turntable had disintegrated due to age so is now searching for a replacement belt at a reasonable cost.  In the meantime a SteriStrip bandaid is holding everything together.  Then it appeared that the amp had also failed, but he discovered a missing pair of jumpers on the back (we won't mention how these came to be removed) so it is also now working again.  The album (which started this whole thing) was played (briefly) and will soon take up residence at the local dump.  Sigh.  More landfill. (And yes, I did look at some DIY projects for using old records!)

I guess Rob was in electronic-doodad-fix-it mode as he then took apart my 50+ year old sewing machine to install new gears that he had ordered, and he got it working again too. 

On a roll, he then decided to try his hand at fixing leaky washer valves at the log house, and they are currently being cleaned and awaiting final repair.  We do try to live by our ideals of fixing everything we can! If only we had been successful with the printer, but I will say that it's removal has freed up some valuable real estate in the mudroom.

Now as the Spring Equinox has arrived, we are beginning to hear the return of the red wing blackbirds, robins, geese, and other birds.  I feel a bit like a hibernating bear, waking up from a lovely long period of spending time in the house, whether in my studio, or curled up by the woodstove, and emerging hungry for the new projects that spring always brings.

Today we are getting some snow squalls, so I am happy to linger a little longer in my studio, with one more blank canvas enticing me.  We will be spending lots of our time working outdoors soon enough.

Love, laughter, loss and porcupines.

The Weather Network predicted a very cold and snowy December for 2021.  In fact they wrote there would be "more winter weather leading up to the holidays than we have often seen over the past 25 years".  "Yikes ! " we thought, and reminded ourselves to keep a supply of diesel for the tractor so we could plow ourselves out, and a good stock of food and supplies in case the roads were bad and we couldn't get out for groceries.  Overall though, I think we were secretly looking forward to being hunkered down in the house for a while as both of us were ready for some down time after a busy summer and fall.

December arrived without the predicted storms though.  In fact on our daily walks we commented often on the lack of snow in the nearby fields.  The river remained open, and the south facing slopes were often bare of snow.

We did however have a number of  storms with freezing rain and high winds, so that made our walks a bit more interesting on some days. We generally won't walk in the woods when it is really windy in case trees or large branches fall on us. On the days when it wasn't windy, we could usually get out for our walks as we have cleats for our boots which really helps when it's super icy. 

As Christmas approached I baked up a huge batch of our favourite New Mexico Biscochito cookies and some Mincemeat tarts.  Oops, I froze almost all the tarts before I took the photo !  Luckily the cookies also froze well as I forgot the recipe I had produces more than 6 dozen cookies.  That's a lot!

We found a perfect Christmas tree (super tall!) under the power lines, and knowing it would have to come down as it would be touching the lines in another couple of years, we weren't quite as sad to chop it down.  Well actually, Rob doesn't look sad at all does he?

It looked beautiful once we got it up and decorated.  It certainly made things a bit more festive, as it was yet another Christmas in the new house where we would not be entertaining friends. 

Similar to the year before though, we did manage to drop off a few presents (from a distance!) and then spent some time with friends via FaceTime and Google Meet.  We prepared some delicious holiday meals for ourselves, and stayed toasty warm in front of the woodstove every evening.  As always, we are incredibly grateful for what we have and try not to lament these crazy Covid times. 

Before we knew it, 2021 was over.  We began the New Year in much the same way as the Old, with a good meal prepared at home, and hopes for a healthy and happy New Year.

Little Axle our 19 year old cat had been given a rather dire prognosis before Christmas as he likely has a nasal tumour and he was quite ill, but even he rallied over the holiday season.  In fact, he continued to astonish us and is still with us now in late Spring!

The New Year brought us slightly longer sunlight hours for which we were glad.  The short daylight hours in November and December are always a concern, and we were watching our power usage really closely.   We keep an eye on our daily usage, and the health of the entire solar power system.  We found ourselves once again going around the house with our Kill-a-Watt gizmo to monitor the electricity usage on every item we could think of, including our electric alarm clock, kitchen scale, microwave, and even our wireless NAD that transfers our sound from our Laptop to our Stereo System.  (Needless to say our stereo system is NOT used in the winter months it just takes too much power!)  Every little bit helps, so we swapped out our electric alarm clock for a battery operated one, got in the habit of unplugging our microwave and turning off the kitchen scale when not in use. We unplugged the wireless NAD as well, as even that uses a bit of power when we aren’t using it.  Our laptops are pretty low usage, but when we have them plugged into a larger monitor, that too takes more power so monitors needed to be – for lack of a better word – "monitored" !! Although it seems like some of these items such as an alarm clock, may not use much power, it does run 24 hours a day, most of that time pretty needlessly.  

It was an interesting exercise.  The funny thing is that while we were doing all this, I was busy disposing of our old Chilly Chiles files.  We had to keep 7 years worth of paperwork after closing and it it was now past the time to dispose of all of it.  I came across our old Hydro Bills and was completely astonished at how much power our store and warehouse used each day.  Of course we were running a store and warehouse, complete with walk-in coolers, a freezer, store cooler, lights, computers, servers and various equipment.  I realize it was the cost of running a business, and we were as efficient as we thought we could be, but still it is mind boggling compared to how low we try to keep our current daily usage here.

Going through the old paperwork was a trip down memory lane as well. There were invoices from some of our most favourite suppliers, many of whom we had met and hung out with over the years. There were lists of products that we truly loved and still miss to this day.  Rob would hear me calling out products every now and then, followed by a wistful sigh.  Fortunately, one of the businesses that we used to supply is able to ship us many of our favourite sauces and dried chile peppers (hotsaucesunlimited.com)  Be sure to check them out if you need products and tell George we sent you to him! His customer service is outstanding, and our orders always arrive promptly and in perfect condition! 

My original intent was to shred all of the paperwork that had personal or confidential information, but 7 years worth was a daunting task, especially with our small old shredding machine.  (Unfortunately we sold our commercial shredder when we closed the company!) I soon realized however that most of the paper made for an excellent fire starter in the woodstove, and so that is what we did through out most of the winter.  As there is no longer much in the way of newspapers, it was an excellent solution.

Going through the paperwork also gave me a better appreciation for what Rob did all those years too. GST filing, employee deduction tallying, bank account reconciliation, debit and credit card cross checking, invoices, bill paying, custom declaration forms, shipping invoices, food inspections, pay cheques, tax filing etc. etc. etc.   No wonder he has such a dislike for paperwork! I definitely feel like I had the easier job working the store.  

I will admit I started singing a "money in, money out" mantra while I was going through the boxes.  I had to remind myself that it did pay us a salary though, so no complaints there.  And it reminded me again of what a great company we built and ran for all those years.

Chilly Chiles came through again for us when Rob decided that he simply couldn't continue trying to work in his workshop without a sink.  He had found a perfect second hand sink in the fall, and together with the small under-the-counter hot water tank from our first store in the ByWard Market, got to work on installing a sink with hot and cold water, and a way of draining it with the help of a pump into our existing system.  Then he began the rather hopeless task of trying to get the rest of his workshop in order.

When news arrived in early January that Rob's sister Trina had contracted Covid in the long term care home where she lived, we were relieved to hear that she was asymptomatic, but sorry to hear she would have to be moved into isolation.  We certainly did not expect the next call that she had passed away unexpectedly in her sleep.  And so we joined the ranks of so many other people in this world, finding little in the way of ritual during this pandemic time,  mourning the loss of a dearly loved sister and sister-in-law.  Trina's positive spirit, her great laugh, and sing-song "I love you too" are sorely missed. I am so grateful for all the times we spent together, whether in St. Catharines, here at the cabin, at our dome in Navan, and the various cottages during the summers when her children were young.   When I looked through our photos of Trina from the past, so I could send copies to her daughter, I couldn't help but smile as in almost all of them Trina would be laughing and smiling, even when she wasn't aware of a camera pointed at her. These are just a few of many.

I did find one photo where that smile wasn't shining, but it's still a classic Trina pose.  Sitting in the sun, reading, with her feet in a pool.  This one makes ME smile every time I see it.

By the second week of January, the daylight hours begin to get a little bit longer.  I don't think we even noticed it this year.  A bright spark had gone out of our lives for ever.

But we did notice it was colder, and we were into burning more serious wood than the "swing season" wood that we were burning mostly up until then.  With night time temperatures in the minus 20 and 30's we moved to burning more of our oak.  Even then though, we didn't usually need to start the woodstove until late in the afternoon.  The house was always quite warm enough despite the cold temperatures outside.

I began to worry about a merganser that was still hanging around in the river.  Usually they fly south in the fall.

No one worried about me though !

Despite the cold we still got out every day for several walks.  Nothing heals more than fresh air and natural beauty, at least for me.

And if busy hands make idle minds, then the snow storms certainly kept our hands busy.

Winter is always a good time for us to learn new things, and we kept ourselves busy indoors with Rob doing online guitar courses, and myself doing some photography courses online.  With thanks to all those who dedicate so much time to offer their talents to teaching others.  It's definitely the bright side of the web.

Slowly the daylight hours got longer, and more light returned to our worlds.

In an attempt to get a bit more routine into my life, I declared Sunday my mental health day, and banished "to-do" lists from that day.  I pulled out my dear old (almost 50 years old!) sewing machine, and a second equally old machine that I had pulled out from a curbside give away many years ago and never used.  I cleaned the second one up, found a manual online, and learned how to use it.  I still favour my old machine though.  It is so familiar to me even after years of not using it. My fingers know exactly what to do, and I can thread the needle still, even without my glasses.  The second machine is more flimsy, and a tiny bit "fancier".  But it also has a free arm, which is what I needed when I decided to patch my (second hand) jeans rather than toss them out.  I pulled out my old fabric paints and stamps (sadly some have dried up after being tucked away for so long) and had some fun playing with fabric once again.  Small steps, but I know I will do more.

Just as we eased ourselves out of one sadness though, a second arrived.  My brother Alan, who had been a crack addict but had, as far as we know, been clean for many years, had gone back to his addiction and was reported missing.   He'd had a long and troubled past. He had done time, and was on parole, and seemed to be on a better path; doing well at a job, reconnecting with his son, and back living with his wife. But he had broken parole conditions by doing drugs, and was returned back to prison, and then given another chance and was staying in a rehabilitation facility where we all hoped for the best outcome.  Within a few hours though we learned that he was in a hospital on life support from a drug overdose, and there was no hope for his survival.  

Photos in this case are harder to come by.  There is a rather large gap in time when obviously none were taken.  (Cameras are generally frowned upon during prison visits) And the early photos I have are a painful reminder of a much younger brother who (I presume) was not an addict at the time. 

He was a joker and he kidded around a lot.  Even just before Christmas he was still sending me emails with silly poop jokes.  They annoyed me at the time, but I kind of miss them now.  So this photo from around 5 years ago will have to do.  It's a typical Alan pose; and he is no doubt saying something silly or rude.

On the day he passed. three geese showed up on the river bank.  I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere, but I don't have Alan's twisted sense of humour so I can't think of one.   Hopefully he's laughing somewhere.

I think perhaps this blog posting is in need of a bit of cheering up, so here is a "cheering up story".  During this difficult time we had a call from the Wildlife Rescue that had helped us capture our injured porcupine (a.k.a. "Hoover") and had transported him to Sandy Pines Wildlife Rescue in Napanee where he stayed for the winter. They had successfully removed the pellet from his eye, and treated his mange and got him back into good shape.   Hoover was apparently ready to come "home" and needed a ride!  So we offered to do it.  The original rescue gave us a good sized crate and we set it up in the car with some protective coverings underneath for the seats, and set off.  When we arrived some 2 hours later they took the crate, and then returned it to us with one sweet little porcupine inside!  We strapped him in and off we went.

We had been told that on his original ride to the rescue he was a pretty unhappy and vocal little guy, but on the trip with us he was very quiet.  He sniffed at us several times, and would look through the slats at us but that was all.  Oh, and had a little pee in the crate but there were pee pads and straw in the bottom so no problem there.  And then he curled up and went to sleep for most of the trip.  I will say that I think this was the best road trip ever.  Ever time I looked back to check on him I just kept thinking how cool it was to have him in the back of the car !   

When we arrived home we were told to put the crate out on the ground, open the door and step WELL back so that he wouldn't stress.  We chose a spot on our property near a big old tree where we have seen porcupines (and raccoons) resting in the crook of the tree before, thinking it was a nice safe spot.  For a while, he wouldn't come out though, so we spun the crate around to face away from us, and he stuck his nose out.

And then he just sort of trundled out, and pretty much made a straight line through the bush and up the bank towards the tree!  There was still some snow on the ground and more fell the next day so we weren't sure how thrilled he'd be. But we reminded ourselves that he was actually a wild animal and probably just fine with it.

Sure enough a few days later there was a porcupine in the tree.  We will assume it is Hoover.  We've seen one there now a couple of times, sleeping of course as they are pretty nocturnal.

Rob did a little video of Hoover's "Release Party" and set it to music.  It was hilarious and probably just what we needed to cheer us up a bit too.  

And so we eased slowly into April, and began to see signs of spring.  The ducks returned to the river, and one day our neighbour took us into their barn to show us a new born colt, just born the night before.  The barn was full of mules and big work horses all munching on their hay and it brought me right back to all the times in my childhood when I hung out in a horse barn.  It was super sweet and just what I needed.

When friends of ours asked to use the cabin for a night at the end of April we set to getting it open for them as we had completely shut it down for the winter.  We had drained the pipes and turned off all the power, wrapped the porch with tarps etc. in the late fall, and had also removed the broken kitchen taps and not replaced them.  Replacing them required us to pull up the sink, and that's when a small job got a wee bit bigger as we opted to pull out the counter and give it a much needed refinish job, remove the torn wallpaper backsplash and put up fresh wallpaper, put a finish on the shelf above the sink so I could more easily clean it in the future, and well, while we were at it, get a coat of paint on one or two walls that had never been painted before.  We did it all in no time, so  with a few days to spare we headed up to our favourite tile store looking for a kitchen flooring option.  The pine floor had taken a beating over the years, and because the main door into the cabin opens directly into the kitchen it was really hard to keep the floor clean, and the rug we had thrown down to protect it was completely done.  We came home with some vinyl click flooring which wasn't at all what we had it mind, but it worked.  It needed an edge for where it met the pine flooring of the dining room, and Rob sanded down and finished a strip of oak from an old church pew that he had,  and voila - it was done !  We would have liked to have just continued working on the cabin, but other jobs beckoned.

Before:

After:

We had so much success with the wood that we collected from fallen trees and used for firewood during the past few years, that we decided to focus our efforts in May on collecting even more than previous years.  We had several trees that had come down due to high winds, but they were mostly hung high up in other trees.  So we set ourselves up with ropes and chains and a winch system and from the safety of afar, slowly hand winched them down to the ground.  It was slow work but worth it. When we were able, we used the tractor, but most of them were too far away from the roadway to get access.  Then we cut them up, trimmed and stacked all of the branches, and hauled out the logs in 8 and 10 or 12 foot lengths and moved them by tractor up to our concrete pad and stacked them there until we could get back and begin chain sawing them up and splitting them.

There aren't a lot of photos of our work, as it isn't the time to be focused on a camera.  And yes, we are wearing safety glasses, hearing protectors, hard hat when needed, steel toe shoes, face shield etc.  Oh yes, and bug spray and sun screen too!

We piled the branches at the side of our roadway and went back later to chip them all, and then spread the chips on our pathways.  

We had one area near the house that had 3 dangerous trees hung and when we cleared those I heaved an enormous sigh of relief as they were all above a path that I had been using to get to the river.  I had stopped using it when the trees came down.  With them gone, we found ourselves able to clear more downed trees nearby and ended up with a lovely path down to the river.  I spread some of our wood chips but it will need more.

We were doing pretty well, but just when we wanted to start cutting and splitting wood a heat wave arrived with temperatures in the low to mid 30's.  So we had to slow down a bit, and did the best we could to split wood in the mornings before the heat arrived.  Even then we took water breaks often, and sat in the shade to cool off when we could.  When it was too hot we simply switched to other jobs like repairing the gas tank on the old truck, or replacing it's oxygen sensor.  (Good old truck - it's still limping along thanks to Rob !)  Rob also did some road grading on our common road, and helped a couple of neighbours out with rock removal from the nearby fields, and moving some oak logs.  The heat wave broke, and we were able to finish doing our firewood over the course of a few days, in between thunderstorms and rainy days.  Now it will be able to finish drying over the summer and hopefully be perfect for use this winter.  We still have some oak left from a load we bought years ago and will use it in the depths of winter, but this "swing season" wood that we cut we now know will do well for us most of the other winter months.

With the arrival of June we begin on a "new" task, although technically I guess it is actually an old one.  We will be getting back to doing the siding of the house and workshop, with just 4 1/2 sides left to go, and the two porch areas.  "Just" I say because Rob says it will easily be done this summer.  I hope so, as it would be nice to get it done.  Fortunately we bought the siding before the price of wood sky rocketed. We hope we have enough.  If we were thinking of building this house now we simply could not afford it given the high cost of building supplies.  We are feeling pretty grateful that we chose to build when we did ! 

On these late spring evenings we find ourselves wandering over with a homemade beer to the log cabin porch at the end of the day. It's nice to have a bug free place to sit, and I hope we can get a porch built at the new house someday.  But for now this one works fine. I've been thinking of calling the cabin Hiraeth Cottage.  But the word Hiraeth is perhaps a tad melancholy for such a lovely place.  The word Hiraeth is Welsh and does not actually translate to English.  But the closest it comes is "longing" or "nostalgia" or "homesickness" or even " a pull on the heart".  My mom would say she had the hiraeth when she missed her Welsh home/family etc.  And that is what the cabin is for us, a longing for earlier times, for missed family, for the sound of our dog Jet moving around on the floor... Still, I am not sure that it is what we should name it. For the cabin is also about solitude, and peace.  The sound of the river, the birds, the frogs.  Memories of time spent with friends and family, of wicked games of Scrabble and much laughter.  A refuge when it was needed.  So I guess I will keep thinking about it.

In the meantime I have found a nice little local online auction company and have been having fun picking up a few second hand items for the cabin, that I hope will someday make someone's stay there a little nicer.  So far there's a "new" sweet little sun/moon mirror up on one wall, some rather nice quality pots and pans replacing the old ones in the kitchen, two not pretty (but functional) bedside lamps, and a very useful bedside table.   I have a list of a few other things that I am keeping an eye out for.  It's certainly more than comfortable (at least according to our friends that have stayed there) but there are a few things yet on our "to-do" list like a tiled shower, vanity unit for the bathroom sink,  and some kind of work on the remaining wood floors to make them easier to clean and maintain.  I hope to spend more time this summer stripping wallpaper and getting some fresh paint on the walls too.  

As we approach the summer solstice we are also hoping to be able to spend some time with friends outdoors while we can.  Last summer we did not as we were so busy with the siding project, and we regretted it somewhat when winter came with new Covid waves and restrictions.  We certainly have all learned to expect the unexpected, so will make sure we enjoy this summer while we can.

And with that, as always, wishing everyone Peace, Love, Joy and Gentle Compassion. And thanks to those who manage to hang in and read this to the very end!