Routines, Winter and Memory

I should probably start by saying that I am finding it difficult to post anything these days, whether a blog posting, or something on social media.  I am not alone in this; I have read comments by friends, and even by local business owners who are struggling to post items about their daily lives and livelihood, when it feels like the world is on fire, and anxiety pervades. It feels almost frivolous to post photos and updates somehow.  And yet, our day to day lives do carry on, and it's those moments of "normal" that get us through the worrying times.  And so, here I sit, going through some notes and photos, trying to put together a spring blog update. If nothing else, it prevents me from scrolling through the news, but it also sparks the creative side of my brain, which I know is a good thing.  For a short while, writing this will keep me away from world issues, politics, thoughts about racism and inequality, and a hundred other worries, and through writing, will remind myself that it's o.k. to step away sometimes.  Hopefully this posting will take some of you along with me for a few minutes as well.  

At the end of my last posting, we were having a cold and rather snowy November.  We didn't know at the time, but winter had arrived early, and any anticipated reprieve never arrived. As we do every fall, we finished up our pre-winter chores, patted ourselves on the back, and settled in for what we believed would be a quiet winter, with endless hours available to spend in our studios or workshop. Of course, we once again forgot to think about the time we would be spending shoveling, clearing solar panels, snow blowing the roadway, keeping the tractor shelter clear of snow, moving firewood, and keeping the woodstove going.  It didn't take long for us to remember it all though!  As well, I take extra time each week to plan for groceries, heading out on the "good" weather days to replenish our pantry and fridge.  We keep tabs on our gas and diesel containers and make sure to have some constantly on hand.  Despite having new batteries, we do still need to continue to monitor the system, and run the generator from time to time to keep our system running after a series of dark or stormy days.  And the diesel is needed for the tractor which we use for clearing snow.

Those same memories that somehow lead us to forget about what winter entails, also seem to enable us to stop envisioning the landscapes through the seasons. In the midst of winter, I cannot fathom a time when the roadway is lush with colours, plants and growth.  By the same token, in the middle of summer, I cannot remember ice, snow and north winds that take our breath away.  Probably this is a good thing, and no doubt is some sort of Canadian coping system. It's the same when we describe how long winter is.  "Three months" we say, knowing full well it is well more than five !  (I refuse to admit to six)😧

By the end of November I will admit it was looking pretty wintery outside! 

Although we have a very simple Christmas season, in early December we began to think about Christmas celebrations, and I started working on some Christmas cards.

We had a series of storm warnings; forecasting snow, ice pellets and freezing rain. I had forgotten how hard it was to get out for our walks when the roads are icy.  We both wear cleats on our boots when we have to, but it makes for uncomfortable walking.  Still, it's better than slipping on ice!

When the weather looked temporarily more promising, we decided to make a trip to Ottawa to pick up some hard-to-find-locally food items, (Mid Eastern, Italian and Latino), a few specialty building project supplies, beer making kits, and automotive parts.  We ended up in the section of town that I grew up in, and I didn't expect the emotions and certainly not the tears when a flood of memories were suddenly stirred up as we drove down some oh-so-familiar streets.  The current state of the world made me long somewhat for those simpler times, when I would ride my bicycle along with my childhood friend and together we would head out to spend our days hanging out at a lovely horse farm.

However, I did cheer up as we were able to fill the car with a huge selection of delicious olives, pita breads, falafels, canned and dried chiles, tamales, empanadas, corn tortillas and other hard to find items.  We had a chance to visit a rather astounding wood supply store, picked up our beer kit order, found most of the building supplies and parts we needed, and the drive there and back was on clear dry roads. When we arrived back home late in the day, I was feeling pretty grateful for our now much more full pantry and freezer, and the lovely day's outing we'd had together. 

The following day promised wind chills of minus 36 degrees C, and forecasts for more snow arriving. We moved more firewood over from our "temporary" shelter to the porch of the workshop before the next storm. On our daily walks that week, we began to settle into our annual pre-Christmas routine of keeping an eye out for a suitable Christmas tree.

We always think we will jump into our winter list of projects as soon as December arrives, but we still had some other tasks to look after.  There was beer to be made after picking up beer kits in Ottawa, food to prepare to replenish our freezer, and our neighbours requested a few lifts from us for various appointments. It's always amazing to us how quickly Christmas arrives.  We decided not to worry about what we felt we weren't accomplishing until after the New Year.

About a week before Christmas I made our traditional New Mexico Biscochitos. The recipe makes 7 or 8 dozen cookies, but we always give some out as Christmas gifts, and we freeze a lot of them for later in the season.  Perfumed with anisette seeds, and a splash of brandy, they are super tasty, and one of our favourite Christmas treats.

When we found the "perfect" tree beneath the hydro lines we cut it down and brought it home.  Apparently our height perception wasn't quite right, and as well it was a double trunk tree that couldn't possibly fit in the tree stand, so we sadly had to trim it quite a bit !  Still, it was quite beautiful, and we were happy with the results.

A series of storm warnings and travel advisories had us running out in between storms for one more grocery pick up before Christmas.  On the way out though, our way was completely blocked by two downed trees on both of our roads, so we had to reverse back home to pick up a saw, and some work gloves.  We managed to cut them up enough to be able to pull them aside out of our way, and would pick them up later to add to next year's firewood pile! 

Before we knew it, Christmas Day had arrived.  We enjoyed homemade enchiladas, made with shredded pork that I had prepared and frozen earlier in the month.  It was wonderful to have the dried chiles we had picked up earlier in December to cook with.  With Mexican style rice and avocado, it was a perfect meal for us. A few calls, video calls, and emails to friends and family through out the day, a nice meal, and a glass of wine made for a wonderful and very relaxing Christmas Day.  

The river was still mostly open and flowing by Christmas, but colder temperatures were in our forecast. In fact December saw below normal temperatures for most of the month.  (As did November!) We had a feeling that this year the river would likely freeze over.  For the past several years it has remained quite open all through the winter season.

The river changes daily, and I try to get there as often as I can to see the changes. It took a few minutes one afternoon for me to realize that the pretty ice I was photographing also had a beaver on it! 

It seemed to be having some difficulty navigating the river around the chunks of ice that were flowing quite quickly and that kept blocking it's way upstream.  I was relieved when it eventually seemed to get back into more open water and swam out of sight.

As the New Year approached, we had another storm warning for high winds, ice pellets, freezing rain and snow.  We were definitely remembering our winter routines by this time!  We were back to checking weather forecasts, and planning accordingly with each approaching storm.  We always have a pantry full of dried and canned food supplies, and I was back to making my own bread almost weekly, but we still need to run out for fresh milk, fruit and vegetables and various sundries when needed. Rob checked as always on gas and diesel supplies, and together we moved more firewood onto the porch of the workshop.  Fortunately we missed the brunt of that particular storm, but the ice build up on our roads made walking even more difficult.

For New Year's Eve, Rob made his traditional Spicy Orange Chicken for dinner.  As anyone who has shared that meal with us here well knows, the De Arbol chiles that are added can often cause a slight pepper spray effect, and much coughing while the chiles are cooking!  An open window and a stove top fan sometimes helps a bit to take care of that "problem".  But really, we think it's a sign of a good meal to come!

And so we enjoyed another New Year's Eve meal.  I will note that our cell phone seems to enhance food colours, and makes this presentation far more red than I remember it was!

On New Year's Day I tried my hand at making Manicotti again, as it had been a while since I'd made some.  It turned out pretty good, although I lamented the lack of availability of good fresh greens for a side salad (it's one of my laments in the winter!).  I had to settle for carrots. Manicotti is such a fun dish to make, and it freezes well too. I think I forgot to take a photo of it once it was on our plates.

As another festive season ended, we hoped to settle in to some new projects as the New Year began.

I started by working on a replacement table runner for the living room table, thinking I would like to add some special hand dyed fabrics I'd been saving for far too many years.  The original runner had been hand made and hand dyed and purchased at a fund raising auction years ago. I had washed it in the fall, using cold water, but some of the dyes still ran and turned the entire runner into a dark purple mess.  I may try to remedy that in the spring when I can more easily wash and rinse it, and hang it to dry outdoors I think. 

I had fun stitching the fabric to the new runner, painting, stamping letters on here and there, and generally just mucking about with sewing machines and fabric and paints again. I had some bobbin difficulties with one of my old Singer machines (one that I had picked up for free from a neighbour many years ago) and was super pleased to find some You Tube videos explaining how to determine the right bobbin, and how to then properly thread it and make the needed adjustments.  I am always so amazed when someone takes the time to post their expertise online for others, especially for a machine that is 45-50 years old!

Rob in the meantime was working on getting our old rowing machine back in order.  With the amount of ice on our paths and roads, we just weren't feeling like we were getting our normal walks in at all.  Mincing along with ice cleats on our boots was difficult, and we both noticed our ankles and hips were feeling a bit sore after using the cleats. We think they might have been changing our normal gait somewhat. We were hoping to get the rowing machine working properly, in order to make up for some of our lack of normal exercise.  At the same time, two of our laptops were giving us some grief with their batteries, so he was hoping to improve their performance as well!

After a brief "thaw" the first week of January, the cold weather returned, with yes, more snow. The river began to become not much more than a narrow ribbon of open water.

For at least two weeks or more, my daily journal entries in January seem to dwell on myself shoveling snow between the house and the workshop, and clearing a path to the cabin, clearing snow off the car, and removing snow from the tractor shelter, while Rob cleared the solar panels, and went out with the tractor to plow. Repeat, Repeat, Repeat. 

After clearing snow, we fell into a good routine of us working on our own projects, stopping for lunch, an occasional walk, and usually firing up the woodstove early in the afternoon.  The daylight hours got a tiny bit longer, and we could wait until later for our final walk of the day.  Temperatures were pretty cold, although not as cold as one morning when we woke up and it was minus 36.4 degrees C outside! At 19.7 inside we were toasty warm.  The woodstove did go on a bit earlier that day though.

Our solar powered batteries were performing well, and we began to notice that the increase in daylight hours, and a slightly higher sun in the sky, was giving us a nice power boost. At least it did when it wasn't snowing!

I watched some cooking videos and tried out a few new recipes. I also decided it was time to get back to work on a denim shirt that I've been working on from time to time over the years. Meanwhile Rob worked in his workshop on "secret" stuff.  We both of course still followed the news, and several political podcasts, but tried hard to balance that with some creative time. 

February always bring us some time to celebrate the anniversary of our very first date, Valentines day, and the anniversary of moving in together.  It is also traditionally a cold and stormy month. We both well remember our early days together in a cold and drafty Econoline van, and an often equally chilly Dome ! 

Despite the snow and cold temperatures, Rob still managed to BBQ a meal outdoors.  With thanks to my brother and his partner for sending us some awesome headlamps this year.  Hands free light when it's most needed ! The headlamp lights have already proven themselves incredibly useful in many other ways as well.

The cold February temperatures finally finished off any view of open water in the river.  Although I know it still flows beneath the ice and snow, it becomes extremely quiet at the river's edge, when the sound of the river disappears. The tracks in the snow indicate that the deer, fox and coyotes use this time to easily cross back and forth across what is usually open water. However, I still stick closely to the river's edge on firm ground.

February is also when Rob revealed his "secret" project, and I was completely surprised to learn that he had been working on finishing our bedroom closets with a wonderful wood and Japanese style paper insert for them both.  The upper closet doors had been unfinished all this time, and I had become accustomed to just reaching in for whatever I needed.  I found an older picture of how mine looked originally, taken before we moved in.

And here is how they look now!  

That was a wonderful surprise, and I can't believe he managed to keep it a secret for so long.  Or how much the finished doors changed the room.  

Next on Rob's list was to work on the door frame of the sliding pocket door in the above photo.  But, it appears that the wood he had hoped to use for it, was not at all suitable, and we may have to go in search of some wood in the spring.  After months of waiting for a trailer harness for the car, and three attempts to get the correct one, the right one came in mid-February, so when spring truly arrives, we will be able to hook up our trailer and go get the wood that we require.

It's always hard to begin to make progress on a particular construction project, only to have to switch to something else until he can go get the supplies he requires. Luckily, there are still lots of other projects though, so he has vanished once again into the workshop where he is improving the dust collection system and workshop set up, and building some new workshop table tops and drawers.  

Once I finished with my denim shirt and also a denim jacket I found in my fabric drawer, my next project would be to paint that sliding pocket door.  By the time I finish the door, we will probably have the wood for the frame for it! 

I'd been working on this shirt off and on for quite a long time and had changed direction on it more than once or twice.  I was pleased with it overall when it was finished.  

The jacket below may not be finished, but for now I will wear it and then decide later ! I buy all my denim second hand, and so it's always a good idea to wear it for a while to make sure I really like the fit.  Despite using fabric paints, and fabric medium for regular acrylic paint, the paint does tend to stiffen the fabric.  I've heat set the paints just in case, and am hoping a good wash will soften the jacket again somewhat.

Towards the end of February, I placed an order for some plants for our garden from a local supplier, with pickup scheduled for late in May.  Like most gardeners I'm sure, I find there is nothing nicer than planning a garden when it's cold and snowing out to give one a much needed boost in one's mental outlook. 

When the deer started hanging around the house and browsing on our Sumac and other plants and trees, I began to question whether I should have ordered those tomato plants though!  Of course, so far it isn't the deer that munch on my summer garden, it's chipmunks, and last year I had no real problems with them so perhaps this year we will once again be able to harvest our bounty.

It was lovely to watch the deer from our windows, although we have to hang back so they don't see us moving, and they seem to be able to hear the slightest noise we make and dash off if they don't feel safe.

We also found them lying down in the snow around the house, and could see the impressions they had left in the snow.

Every year as we move into March, I have mixed emotions.  Part of me is eager for spring, tired of donning snow pants, toques, scarves, winter coats and mitts every time we go for a walk, and longing for warmer weather, and the opportunity to stride out on my walk with hiking shoes instead of heavy boots. Part of me though isn't quite ready for winter to end. 

When a mild day arrived in early March, and the snow around the house had melted a bit, we set up our deck chairs, and had our traditional sip of beer outside to usher in the change of season. (We really are not good at selfies, and in fact "somehow" did a video or two first!)

Ah, silly us.  And silly us to think it was even remotely spring, as it was not. After a few days of milder temperatures where we took the opportunity to haul our garbage and recycle items up to our waste recovery center for the first time since November (I'm always pleased at how little waste we generate!) and run some errands, the cold weather returned and with it came an ice storm.

While it was quite beautiful to see the trees covered in ice, it was quite a lot of work to get it off the car, even after warming the car up for quite a while!

On the plus side though, the thick layer of ice and snow had formed an incredibly odd but extremely solid crust that we could walk on top of.  We could walk anywhere we wanted without falling through the crust, even when we ventured into the woods.  Everyone we talked to kept talking about how odd that crust was! However the person who plows our common road was not as impressed, as he said it was super hard on his machinery. He did his best to clear a temporary narrow path, and hoped that warmer temperatures would melt it soon. We opted to not even try to deal with it after seeing how hard it was for him to do so.

Unfortunately, it didn't melt and we had another snow storm, so we had to go out to clear what we could. We managed to clear the snow, but the crust remained.  A second storm arrived, to be followed by a warm spell, rain, then another freeze and more snow.  We were kept busy trying to do our best to second guess the best time to plow, and when to just leave things alone.  Where normal temperatures for mid to late March would be minus 3 degrees C, we were still hovering around minus 10 !  

And that pretty much sums up March.  A month of below normal temperatures again.  What a steadily cold winter it was, and spring wasn't showing any signs of improvement.  The only indication that winter was retreating was that the river opened up and the calendar announced the first day of spring. 

That, and the robins returned, as well as the red winged blackbirds. I can't help but think that it has to be a hard time for them to survive when we still had so much snow on the ground.

As we moved into April (and more of the same weather!) we did begin to see a release of winter's grip. At last, on a milder day, while still wearing warm winter coats, we switched from winter boots into shoes as our road in was bare at last, and went for what felt like a "real" walk.  I think this has been our iciest winter yet.  On our walk though, as the snow melted and began to reveal the earth below, we were reminded of some of the tasks ahead of us once the weather has improved more.  Soon, we will have to begin to gather up some of the downed trees, and get our firewood all cut and stacked and drying ready for next winter.  We have plans to move the tractor shelter, build a permanent firewood shelter (do we say that every year?) and do some clean up of construction materials.  And there is another raised bed garden to build, and a garden to plant. And, and, and ....

The river is opening up, and soon more migrating birds will arrive. I have been keeping an eye out for the wood ducks as this is one of their favourite places to gather.  

I have a note to remove the phoebe's nest from last year so that she can build a new one by our front door, and the hummingbird feeder is clean and sits in our mudroom ready to be filled and hung out once again.  Soon windows will be opened, spring cleaning will begin, and laundry will once again be hung outdoors to dry.

But for now, I am quite content to continue to linger longer indoors.  I still have items on my "winter wish list" to do, and Rob I know does as well. Some of them will stay on that list until next winter.  I have begun to paint one of the pocket doors, and Rob has rigged up an improvement to his dust collections system, using filters he purchased many years ago.  The pic below was a quick snapshot.  It's still a work in progress in the shop, so I didn't linger for long.

I love the routines of winter, even though mid-summer I seem to forget them all and envision a different time.  Lighting the wood stove, warming up the house, cozying up at night in front of a warm fire.  Admiring the cold clear nights and always checking for Northern Lights.  Cooking warming soups, and trying new recipes, when using the kitchen stove only helps warm the house more. Tracking the weather and planning accordingly.  Even clearing snow has it's own rewards; getting us out into the fresh air, giving us some exercise, and the satisfaction when our paths and roadways are once again clear.  Checking trail cams, and admiring and following tracks in the snow.  Monitoring the changes in the river.  Drying clothes inside, boosting our indoor humidity somewhat in the process.  Having time to catch up on emails, and video calls with friends. Cleaning up some PC files, especially my photos, and posting monthly challenge photos to the community of photographers I follow.  While I don't enjoy driving in bad snow conditions, most days we can pick and choose when we venture out. And I always love to be outdoors no matter what the weather (except for when the paths are icy of course!).

And of course, watching wildlife, whether it's the deer outside our window, a turkey parade on the trail camera, or a little snowshoe hare checking out our entrance. 

Soon enough, it will dawn on us that we haven't had the woodstove on for awhile, or haven't pulled out winter clothing, or watched for an incoming snow storm, and we'll find ourselves back into a land of buds and blossoms (and bugs!) and realize that spring has truly arrived. And our memories of winter shall fade away for another few months. 

Fall, Winter, Spring. More musings about Weather and Time.

Well, although I had hoped to do one final blog post in 2024, I didn't manage a Christmas posting after all, and now here we are in the summer of 2025.  Time flies …. or as my title for the last posting declared: "Time speeds up".  It appears it isn't slowing down any time soon either! 

We had a rather lovely November, and found ourselves working on outside projects much later than planned.  Once we had moved all of our firewood down to a temporary structure near the house, Rob decided that with the “warmer” than normal temperatures, he could perhaps do some work at getting his portable sawmill fixed up. It had been sitting idle for quite a long time and needed some maintenance. The plan was to use it to saw up some of the cedar and spruce trees that we had to take down when the lot was graded earlier in the fall.  We were hoping the good weather would last long enough to get the logs all cut into boards or posts, so that it could start drying and be ready to use the following spring or summer.  After sawing a few of the logs though, the outside temperatures really began to drop. Rob's hands became too cold, and it was too awkward to handle the wood and safely use the saw, so he reluctantly decided that task would have to wait until spring.

I took a quick pic of a few of the cut boards and posts. It's a great little saw mill!

In early December we discovered that the batteries for our off grid system were not doing well. This was not really a big surprise to us, as we had already lost one “string” of batteries sometime earlier, and so we were down from our original three strings to two. But it appeared that one of the batteries in the second string was now failing as well.  Rob was able to swap in a replacement battery from the original failed group, which gave us two working strings again.  Then he did his best to improve them with some intense maintenance. But we were all too aware that this was a temporary solution.  The batteries were simply no longer performing as well as they once did. The daylight hours were still getting shorter, and of course that meant less and less charging time from the sun.  We began to rely on the generator to charge our system up for a brief time every morning and every night.  That's not an ideal solution, and we weren't sure that we wouldn't lose more batteries as winter progressed.

In general they say the life of the batteries should be about 10 years, and ours were already at 7 or 8 years.  But, they also say your first set never lasts as long, as it is a bit of a learning curve, and some of the mistakes you make while learning, will shorten that life expectancy!  There is no doubt that early on, we didn’t pay as much attention perhaps as we should have. As well when we first bought them, they sat for a time in the dining room of the cabin until we were ready to hook them up.  We later learned that was a mistake! That said, I think we did pretty well with them overall.

All that to say, we began to look around for a new battery solution.  We decided to go with the “newer” style of lithium batteries this time, which hadn't really been an option for our first set.  There would be a bit to learn in order to make the switch, but once installed they would require less maintenance than our lead acid batteries.  They would take up a lot less space too; freeing up some room in the workshop.  We took a deep breath, placed our order, and prepared to do a switch over before Christmas.  Unfortunately the supplier then advised us that our order had been unexpectedly delayed, so we would have to limp along until the New Year. We could only hope they wouldn’t be delayed for too much longer than that. The delay was perhaps not an entirely bad thing in some ways, as it gave Rob time to study up!

Usually in early December I am busy working on Christmas card designs, and planning some festive holiday meals.  Because of the postal strike, there seemed little point in making cards as they wouldn’t be delivered in time for Christmas.  But we did come up with a plan for Christmas dinner, so I made a New Mexico Red Chile sauce, using up the last of my carefully horded New Mexico red chile peppers !  We had a supplier in Toronto that had kept my pantry happy these last few years, but he recently retired, and neither Rob nor I were up for a two hour drive into Ottawa in search of another supplier.  Sometimes I long for our days of owning Chilly Chiles when I would simply raid our warehouse for whatever kind of chile I wanted, and whatever quantity I needed! 

I also took the time to make our favourite Mexican shredded beef dish with some tasty Ancho chiles. With containers of sauce and beef stashed in the freezer, I could easily make enchiladas for our Christmas day meal, without having to spend the entire day in the kitchen. I also spent a day making our traditional New Mexico biscochitos.  The recipe makes 6 or 7 dozen cookies, but we always give some away as gifts, and they freeze beautifully to enjoy in the winter months.

Rob was busy in his workshop, making an moveable overhead light to install over his workbench. After a few different prototypes, he brought me in to see the result.  Of course I had to smile when I saw he had used the light fixtures we used to have in our bedroom loft at the dome!  I didn’t even know he had removed them and had saved them all this time. 

Once again this year, there were forecasts for quite a bit of snow in December, but despite a couple of travel and storm advisories, we got off pretty lightly.  We had a few snowy days, but the temperatures remained fairly mild leading up to Christmas.  We also had a few foggy days, which are always a treat when I'm out with my camera.

We have an annual tradition of choosing a tree growing under the power lines for our Christmas tree, and had been scouting one out for a few weeks on our daily walks.  As anything growing under the lines gets routinely cleared by the electric company, we don’t feel as bad about taking a tree down from there. This year though we had been contemplating taking down a larger tree on our property as it had completely taken over a path Rob uses with his tractor. So we finally opted to take it down, and to use the upper half for our tree, and the lower half for future firewood.  We cut all the lower branches off, and stacked them in a location that we hoped would provide some food and shelter for some wild critters over the winter. Before we moved our Christmas tree down to the house,  I used the opportunity to take a pic for one of my monthly submissions for the fabulous Photocoach Community group. (Which just recently changed name to Photography for the Soul.)

Once we brought the tree inside it was obvious that it was a bit taller than I had thought!  Still, it was a perfect tree, giving us lots of branches to hang our ornaments on. As always, it is quite a treat to pull out our somewhat odd collection of Christmas (and not so Christmas) ornaments, with fond memories of years gone by, Christmases past, and the stories associated with each of our ornaments.  

The holiday season always seems to come up far too quickly, and we soon found ourselves with only days left before Christmas, dropping off a couple of homemade gifts here and there, doing our last grocery run, and trying to get off some emails and arrange some video calls with friends near and far. 

Our internet connection began to get a little flaky, and we crossed our fingers and hoped that we would continue to have access to the internet over the holidays.  Of course, we should have known better, and we soon found ourselves going for days on end with no connection.  Unfortunately, that continued off and on until late January, despite all the attempts by various helpful technicians to sort things out. Kudos to them all though for trying, especially the one who helped out on New Year's day!

Internet problems aside, we had a lovely Christmas, with a dinner with family on Christmas Eve, (after managing to clear nearly 15 cms of fresh snow!)  and a quiet dinner at home on Christmas day.  The day dawned bright and sunny, and the snow that arrived Christmas Eve certainly brightened everything up! 

And those Shredded Beef enchiladas in a New Mexican red chile sauce, turned out perfectly. I will admit I watched a few Rick Bayless cooking videos for some tips and ideas, and in the end did not opt to make my own corn tortillas! We served up some Mexican style red rice, and sliced avocadoes to complete our meal.

In early January, Rob helped out our neighbours by driving them to an appointment in a nearby town, and was on his way home (with the gift of a delicious homemade pie as "payment" for his time) when he called to say he was on our laneway but some deer were blocking the road.  By the time I got there with my camera, they had moved out of the way, but Rob was still happily watching them.  Somehow he managed not to eat any of that delicious pie while sitting in the car all that time! 

January was a pretty good month overall, with only a couple of snowfalls, no massively cold temperatures, and one wind storm that blew down a dead tree, which then blocked one of our favourite walking paths.

As always though, we gratefully accepted the gift of more free firewood come spring, and were pleased that the tree was accessible, and had fallen to the ground.  Usually we find them hung up in another tree, and it's quite a job to get them down.

The river was still fairly wide open through January.  I set up a trail camera several feet from the river's edge and aimed it at a hole in a pile of branches.  It was obvious that the hole led down to the river, and I kept seeing tracks leading in and out of it.  I was pretty sure I would catch some camera footage of either the mink, the otter or both.  I finally managed to catch the mink on camera a couple of times, but no footage of the otter, despite seeing tracks in the snow.  But then almost overnight the river suddenly rose, and there was my trail camera, no longer accessible and possibly under water.

We had to wait until the river receded a bit, and for the water to totally freeze. Then we were able to break a path through the crust of ice and retrieve the camera.  Amazingly it was none the worse for wear and was still working!

Rob and I usually have a list of things we'd like to work on during the winter months.  For me, mine was a bit of an ambitious list, and I didn't manage to get to every item.  However, I enjoyed getting back into some painting on canvas, worked on some altered artwear clothing, started painting a fifth dining room chair, continued to study German online, watched various Photography videos, and more of Rick Bayless's online cooking classes.   The online classes were a bit of a struggle until our Internet issues were somewhat solved in late January.

Although I had declared one of my paintings complete, and had actually hung it in the hallway, one day I decided it just wasn't right, and started over!  So here's the original:

And here is the new version:

Details of the words in the corner:

I wasn't sure if it was exactly what I had in mind, but I've hung it back up in the hallway for now. It is a nice reminder of how it is we came to be here.  I am sure I have told this story elsewhere in the blog, but here is a "short" version. In 2011 we had the opportunity to see one of our favourite musicians, Kelly Joe Phelps, play at the Neat Cafe in Burnstown.  But in order to be able to attend the concert, we would have had to close our store for at least a day, if not two. For the first time in almost 20 years, we decided not only to close for a day or two but to completely close shop for the entire week, and take a vacation.  We would stay in our little cabin, have some much needed time off, and go to the concert.  So we did.  And after the concert, a little idea began to percolate.  On a walk on one of our last mornings there, Rob said to me "do you think you could move here?" and before we knew it, we were investigating the option of closing our much loved business, leaving our sweet dome home, and moving up here permanently.  Which "just" 8 months later, we did. 

I still have a photo of the empty stage from that "fateful" concert, and my painting is an interpretation of it. 

Here is a quick pic of Kelly Joe and Corinne West playing together that night.

Once I begin painting over canvases I seem to get inspired to paint over a few more. I usually leave my finished work in my studio for a time after I'm "done", and then sometimes decide that I could do something different with them.  So here's another one I redid.

The original:

The new version with paint and words and photos added.  Adding photos was a bit of a challenge, but I learned a lot.  This one is still in my studio.  So hmmmm .... is it done or not? Time will tell.

While I was having fun in my studio, Rob was having fun in his.  He has wanted a router table for a while now, and decided to make his own, complete with all the electronics needed to control the movement of the router. And so he set off on his journey of programming, and wiring, and slowly it started to take shape.

As always in the winter months, there were a few interruptions though, like snow clearing.

On the plus side, after raising the grade of our lot last year, and with the help of a slightly longer roof rake, clearing the solar panels has become a much easier job, and no longer requires the use of a step ladder as it did in previous years.

Sometimes, you just have to find other ways to have creative fun in February, when it feels like the winter has been fairly long already. 😊

Finally, in mid February, two months after the original delivery date, our new batteries arrived! 

Despite assurances that the batteries were arriving in a small van, the delivery service showed up with a rather huge vehicle. We knew that they couldn't possibly maneuver on our laneway, so Rob had them wait at an area where they could more easily turn around, and drove out with the tractor to pick them up.  I must say, compared to the original batteries, they seemed pretty small, even with all the wrapping.

We had managed to limp along until now with our old batteries, and the longer daylight hours were helping a bit to give us slightly longer charging hours, but we were eager to get the new batteries installed.  However a series of heavy snow storms immediately arrived and that kept us occupied as we tried to keep our laneways, and the solar panels clear of the accumulating snow.  

In between snow clearing, Rob began the process of building a rack for the new batteries. He had an idea that he could use part of our old BizHub printer parts for a base.  As well, some old aluminum printmaking frames purchased at an auction some 30+ years ago were finally put to use in the unit as well!  Rob loves to tell me these things, as I am always urging him to divest himself of some of his "stuff", but somehow he always manages eventually to put them to good use.  Sigh.  After building the base, he had to do some firmware updates to our existing system before swapping the batteries. We were both pleased to see that the manufacturer of our system still provided that support after all this time.

You may recall that our old batteries took up a large amount of space in the workshop.  Here is a quick pic of the old batteries. 

And here is a pic of the new batteries in their "repurposed" rack.

In the picture below, Rob had already begun to dismantle the racks that housed the old batteries. You can sort of see that the new array on the right is much smaller compared to the old one! 

 

The swap over of the batteries went pretty well overall, although we were probably both more than a little nervous.  (Well, I know I was!) Around 5 p.m. on the day of the swap, I was just beginning to think about lighting candles and lanterns in the diminishing light, when Rob successfully switched our power over to the new batteries, and the system came back on. 

My first battery “test” came the next morning when I popped the toaster on for breakfast.  For the past couple of months, using the toaster in the mornings had not been an option. We were pleased to see that there was barely a blip in the batteries.  We kept monitoring the system closely of course over the next few days, but we could see a real difference already. 

Rob began the task of moving all the old batteries out of the back area of the workshop.  We had contacted some off grid friends to see if they knew anyone that would be able to use our batteries. We knew it would be best if someone could take them while they were still relatively charged. Luckily they knew someone who was happy to take them. Even though they were older and failing they still had a bit of life left in them for the purposes he had in mind. We were happy that they could still be put to some use. 

While we waited to arrange the pick up date, Rob continued to work on his router table.

Overall, he seemed pretty pleased with it.  That mess of wires, displays and boards became a tidy keypad with switches and read out display in a drawer.

Another drawer holds router bits.

And the table hooks up to a dust collector, which is why it isn't covered in dust right now!

I'm thinking there may be some kitchen cupboard doors in our future? 

And so we moved into a long, cool spring.  We are always hopeful to get an early start on gathering fallen trees for firewood, but once again this year neither March, nor much of April gave us any opportunity to do so. 

Mid March looked promising just before the first day of spring, when heavy rains washed out our shared road, and melted some of the lingering snow, but then the weather quickly changed again and it got colder.

At the end of March we had another snow storm, followed by threats of an ice storm.

I spent the day of the ice storm stuck inside, amusing myself with trying to capture the formations of ice sliding off the roof. 

By the first week of April we were pretty hopeful that the remaining snow in the woods would soon be gone.  I took this pic on April 7 after a storm blew down an old elm tree and we cleaned up a few of the remaining branches that were still on the road. There was no sign of snow in this particular area.

But on April 8, more snow arrived!  We were back into wearing winter coats and boots again.

Still, we were content to continue to work on some indoor projects.  Rob was busy reorganizing and tidying his workshop (and making more room for that nice router table!) and I continued to re-work a denim shirt.  

In the colder months I usually make our own bread each week, and Rob occasionally brews beer.  During the summer both activities tend to heat up the house too much, so we enjoy trying out some new recipes while we can.  Rob brewed up an interesting beer using fresh pineapple and pineapple juice that should be quite refreshing for a summer sipping beer.  Updates to follow!

Both of us were also spending a lot of time following the news out of the US, and I felt that the stress of politics was sapping my creativity.  I listened to a podcast about stress and the healing benefits of the creative process, and tried to do more painting and photography, but I can’t say that it quelled my sense of unease or lessened my anxiety.  Creative time did help somewhat though.

The first weeks of April not only brought more snow, but also daytime temperatures that were 10 degrees below normal.  The robins had returned, and I was worrying about them when the night time temperature dropped to minus 15.  I put out some raisins and peanuts under a sumac tree where they were managing to eat some berries, in the hope it might help.  I don't usually feed the wildlife, but it seemed awfully cold for April.  My offering disappeared, but I think it was a red squirrel that benefitted! 

I was also quite worried when we spotted a number of frogs moving very slowly across the snow one day.  I am sure they did not expect to encounter snow when they decided to move from wherever they spent their winter.  We "rescued" a couple and moved them to an area under the trees where there was less snow, and some leafy protection.

Slowly, by the end of April (finally!)  the temperatures began to warm up a bit, and we were able to start on the firewood.  No sooner did we start though, than a series of big rain storms moved in. High winds brought down more trees.  And then the temperatures plummeted again, so we agreed to hold off for a couple of more days until it warmed up a bit.  I didn’t mind working into this job slowly, as it always takes us a few days to find our rhythm, and to build up our muscles again! 

Once we had gathered up all of the downed trees on our paths, here at the house, and around the cabin, we set to taking down some of the dead trees that we had marked the previous year. 

Some of them were clearly too close to our road or house, and we knew that they were in danger of falling over.  We had hoped they would come down on their own during one of the several storms, but they had not. Dead and dying trees can make for excellent nesting and perching sites as well as food sources for a number of birds, so we do try to leave some standing if we can safely do so.

By the second week in May we felt that we had gathered enough logs to begin to cut and split what we had. 

Rob would cut up some logs in the morning, and then we would spend the afternoon splitting and stacking.  We were making pretty good progress, but then we had another week or more of rain which once again put a halt to our work.  It was a rather cool and rainy May but I would say that it was also somewhat less "buggy" and we appreciated the cooler days for working. 

We actually remembered one day to take a couple of pics of us "working" ! 

By the first week of June, we reached a point where we decided we had probably split and stacked more than enough for the upcoming winter.  It's always a nice feeling to know we will be snug and warm when fall and winter arrive.  Our wood stove is our sole source of heat, and we never know what kind of weather winter will bring, so it's always wise to have extra.

We actually had quite a bit of firewood left over from the winter before.  We needed to dismantle the “temporary” shelter next to the workshop where we had stored our firewood, so had to decide where to stack the wood until fall.  After some debate, we ended up tucking it safely under some eaves of an old shed.  We usually do our best not to move the firewood too many times, but it seemed like the only solution.  So between last year's wood, and what we cut and split this year, we are pretty sure that we will have more than enough. We have friends visiting us this fall, and they will be staying in the cabin, so if they need to use some, we will have enough for them as well. This year we were still using our woodstove to take the chill off at night as late as May 23rd, so it can be a long season!

This spring we managed to find a nice sized "Gorilla Cart" on sale (with thanks to our friend Bob who agreed to pick it up in Ottawa!).  We had ordered it earlier in the winter after I unfortunately tripped on a tarp while carrying an armload of firewood.  A trip to the emergency and a couple of stitches in my lip made us rethink my method of moving firewood by the armload.  But the cart simply would not fit in our car. Luckily it fit into our friend’s car with a fraction of an inch to spare, so we were able to bring it home.

So here it is. I call it “Jane”.  😉

It has already proven to be super useful for much more than just moving firewood.  We’ve used it to haul wood chips, garden soils and tools, and potted plants etc.  It has a “dump” feature that is much easier to use than tipping my wheelbarrow when we spread wood chips on our paths.  Note to self though, do not simply haul up on the handle and tip the cart while standing in front of it.  Just sayin’.  I soon learned to stand at the side of the cart when operating the dump function, in order to remain firmly on my feet!  (And somehow avoided another trip to the emerg.)

We were lucky to finish the firewood just shortly before the air quality declined here due to the horrific wildfires in Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.  The stunningly red sunsets are no cause for celebration when it's due to wildfires and the havoc they wreak.  Still, I did try to capture some of the intense colour and odd looking sky one evening.

We had huge piles of branches we had stockpiled after trimming the trees we had gathered for firewood. We had plans to chip some of them and spread the chips on more of our pathways, and made a good start until the air quality advisories were posted. 

We decided to delay our plans until the air quality improved.  Both Rob and I had a list of other projects we could work on in the meantime.  As usual though, items on my list often involve Rob, and he was gracious enough not to complain when I suggested it was time to get some herbs planted if we were going to enjoy any this summer.  I also usually dry some of my herbs and store them for winter use.

Last fall when we graded the lot, we had to dismantle my eclectic arrangement of herb pots, bits of wooden shelves, and off kilter platforms, as well as the raised bed garden.  Rob assembled a nice sturdy plank for my herb pots so I set to getting some of my annual seeds planted.

And then he surprised me with the offer to build a slightly smaller raised bed garden so that I could at least get some tomatillos, perennial herbs, and possibly some lettuce and kale growing.  Next year perhaps, we may add a second raised bed.

The new bed is about 3 1/2 feet by 5 feet, so large enough for what I wanted this year.  And it's also lower than my previous raised bed, so we will see how this height works for me, (and the wild critters) before we build a second one. At 18 inches, this is the recommended height, and it certainly required less soil and compost to fill it!

The chipmunk has already been scouting it out - no doubt looking for it's summer supply of tomatoes.  I planted two tomato plants after taking this photo.  And side dressed them with blood meal on the recommendation of another gardener, so we shall see if that deters the chipmunk or not! Otherwise, I will once again agree to "share" the bounty. (Note - just before posting this I discovered on a trail camera that a raccoon is climbing in and digging around! 😒 So, after reading up on raccoons, I have spread wood ashes around the box, sprayed the sides with vinegar, and added some jalapeno powder to the perimeter of the soil. I will do an update next posting!)   

Spring always seems like a busy time as we move into outdoor jobs, while taking time to enjoy warm sunny days, and admire the seasonal changes.  This spring we've been delighted to catch more than a few glimpses of some baby foxes playing on our hill, and I've caught the parents both on my camera and on the trail camera as they work hard to keep the little kits fed.

The kits get a bit more shy as they get older, and soon learn to run away when they hear us.  We tried not to stress them, (or the parents) and opted to walk a different route until they got older. But I did manage a couple of quick pics.  On this day the three of them (we initially thought there were only 2!) were busy tussling with each other.

The first nest of baby phoebes have already left the nest, and the parents are working on their second brood, next to our front door.

A trail camera in the woods has already recorded the first bear of the season, as well as the usual wild turkeys, raccoons, snowshoe hares, deer, fisher, and as mentioned earlier, the very busy fox parents.

A trail camera at our house has recorded regular visits by not one, but two porcupines, and possibly three!   They seem to find our temporary wooden steps a bit tasty, perhaps because in the winter we put salt on them when it's icy.  One of them is definitely female (and therefore not Hoover, the male porcupine we rescued, and brought back here for release after he was treated for a pellet wound and mange.  The June 2022 blog post has his story 💗). The female visits with her baby porcupine.  We have no way of knowing if the third one is Hoover, but wouldn't it be sweet if it was? This is one of the visiting porcupines.

We've had the chance to get a good look at a painted turtle behind the house, a quick glimpse of an adult snapping turtle in our creek, and a small young snapping turtle on our road.

The return of the birds each spring is always a treat, but we were reminded that we had only completed one bird blind last year and needed to complete the rest.  We had built a prototype blind for the kitchen window and it really did seem to work as we had no further bird strikes on that window.  So Rob set to building the rest of them, with a few new adaptations to allow us to still easily open our opening windows. Plastic conduit at the bottom, a fiberglass driveway marker for the top, and parachute cord did the trick!  So far, we've had no further strikes on the windows. 

We weren't sure how we would feel about them when looking out from the inside, but the prototype we installed last year reassured us that they would be fine.  There are times when the cord is not even noticeable to us, and it doesn't affect any of our views at all.  And the relief we feel is immense.  We have had quite a few bird strikes over the years, and many of them did not end well for the birds. We have read that this is one of the most effective ways to help prevent birds from hitting the windows, so I'll try to report back with the results in my next blog posting.

But for now it feels like this posting has probably rambled on enough. Somehow summer has arrived, and I can't believe we are in the last week of June.  We are hoping to work on some smaller projects this summer, like a permanent firewood shed, but I think we might have said the same thing last summer!  We will see how it goes.  We still have some work to do on the lot where we graded and filled areas with gravel. Rob is still hoping to saw up the logs that he started on last fall.  The cabin needs scouring in preparation for some friends arriving in July, and I would love to give the small bedroom there a coat of paint.  But summer is short, so we will also enjoy some day trips around this beautiful county, some time in the river, some creative time, and hopefully enjoy some of the bounty that will come from our garden, as well as many of the local farms that surround us.

And, as always on our multiple daily walks, we will try to catch a glimpse of some of the sweet wildlife that are always there if we just pause long enough and take the time to look.