Spring Arrives...slowly

I am beginning to think that I should call this blog "the weather blog" (or maybe No Skin Exposed and Slightly Fed Up) as each and every posting seems to dwell on the weather, and the fact that it usually isn't cooperating with us very much.
But as I look through the photos I took over the past  month, I can see that despite the below normal temperatures, we really did move somehow into Spring. It is most apparent with the changes in the river.

It's funny how it goes - one day there's nothing but snow and ice and more snow and ice - then one afternoon you realize you are walking on a smaller patch of snow, and a few days later you peer through the woods and there's just - bright green moss and brown leaves! There's no more white - well maybe a patch here and there... but you know that the snow is finally melting. Next thing you know, the coat you're wearing is too warm, and winter boots feel totally unnecessary!

I would say though, that I was glad of that coat later in April when it got really chilly again. And I haven't put it away - not just yet.

Throughout the month, Rob did his best to get some work done on the new house.  It wasn't easy though.
Even though he could manage sometimes to work in the cooler temperatures, all of the jobs seemed to require the use of something that was temperature dependent. (Requiring warm temperatures, not cold ones!)  He had hoped to finish up the work on the outside concrete, permanently attaching the foam slabs and sealing the screw holes with spray foam, and applying a finish on top. He realized that it was still too cold outside to use the spray foam or the finish. The north side of the house still had snow around it, and he couldn't even get at the concrete on that side for a while. Sometime around the middle of the month though, some warmer weather arrived (briefly!), the snow finally melted around the house, and he was able to get at some of the concrete slab.

When the weather was too wet or too cold, we took the opportunity to go pick up some of the items we had sourced during the winter.  We try to pick up the items we want when they go on sale. We now have two very nice low flush toilets, a kitchen sink, taps, a bathroom sink and tap, a second hand bathroom sink and tap, and a bathtub! In the end (see last blog posting) I wasn't able to try it out first in the store. But we did open the box and set the tub up here in the porch so I could climb in and check it out! It seems fine.. and is narrower and deeper than our current tub, so shouldn't require any more water to fill it.  We still need to find taps for it.

One day when it was sunny but too cold to work inside or outside, we took the time to drive up to a local sawmill to pick up the flooring for the second floor.  Although the wood looked good when they loaded it, Rob discovered when we got home that a lot of it was not good quality at all. On the plus side, it was a beautiful drive to the sawmill, on some roads we'd never been on.

Fortunately, he found another sawmill close by, and was able to pick up some much better quality wood.
Unfortunately, we now have rather a lot of v-joint pine sitting in the house! We will have to be creative with the poor quality wood we bought at the first sawmill. (It's too expensive to become firewood for that wood stove in the background!)

Ideally we should be staining the underside (which will be the ceiling of the guest room and bathrooms and mudroom) before we install it. But it is still too cold in the house to use the staining products, so we will have to do it later. I know that painting overhead is not my favourite job - or Rob's! But it made more sense to get the floor in now while we had a chance.

Rob wanted to glue the floor down, and some days it was too cold to use the glue, so he'd move on to a different job, like building interior walls! Well - the framing part at least.

Slowly, we are getting our second floor in too. It's going to be a funky little area up there, and will make for great studio space.

And yes, there will be railings!  I am really not good at heights, so it's pretty amazing that I even went up and got that shot.

When it got even colder, he moved back into working on the stair design on the computer in the cabin. It's probably just as well, it gave him a chance to slowly work back into the long days of physical labour. As a lot of the work this month involves him being on his knees, and although he wears the best of knee pads, it still means he's rather sore by the end of the day.

With the arrival of the wall studs, I could begin to picture the interior of the house. It's funny because I have looked at the drawings for months, yet for some reason I didn't have the right placement for the guest room at all ! I picked up some paint chips and started to think about colours for the various rooms. Of course we are a long way away from that just yet, but it was fun to think about it at least.

And then these beautiful glass trivets arrived, a gift from my brother and super-sis, and although they sit here in the cabin for now, shining out their lovely blue light, I can't wait to get them into a place of honour in the new house! Thank you both !!

If April didn't bring us a lot of warm days, it did bring us a lot of glorious sunshine, and deep blue skies. And the return of lots more migratory birds. After hearing the haunting sound of the sandhill cranes for a couple of days, but with no sight of them, four of them flew directly over the cabin one day. Despite their enormous size, with their wings stretched out, and their feet straight back, they simply floated higher and higher on the thermals, calling all the time, until we could barely see them, and then they just floated away. Apparently they make good use of the thermals to go longer distances with less effort during their migration! What a sight....and what a sound...

One of our other favourite sounds of course it that of the "peepers". Even now I can hear them, and all the windows are closed!  It's such a lovely sound to go to sleep to. During the day we hear the other frogs calling, and I was totally enchanted when the grandfather of all frogs hopped up the driveway this week, and up onto a rock where he sat, corners of his mouth slightly upturned, and allowed me to sit and watch him for a while. He had the longest toes I have ever seen on a frog. He slowly made his way off in the direction of the other frogs later that afternoon.

We've yet to see any turtles, but with the last of the snow disappearing around the beaver channels, we are hoping to see some soon.

The robins have returned of course, the yellow bellied sapsuckers are busy chasing each other around, the grouse is drumming in the forest, and this week the swallows arrived. (Oh dear, a sure sign that black flies and mosquitoes will soon be here too!)

Just as we were lamenting that the bugs would arrive, and we wouldn't have had a chance to experience any nice, warm and bug-free weather - the temperatures rose back to normal, and then beyond.  Bliss!! The weather we've been hoping for arrived this week.  Rob quickly changed gears, stopped doing inside work jobs, and went back to the outside concrete work.  With two good days in the forecast, and no chance of rain, he got two coats of  the finish on to all sides of the house, and started the same process (screwing in the foam slabs, foaming the holes, and applying the cloth and finish) on the workshop slab.

Suddenly, instead of hot cups of tea, I was bringing cold drinks to him.  It was a fast switch. Wearing winter coats and multiple layers one day, t-shirts the next!

Almost daily now a "new" bird arrives, and the scenery changes. I love hanging out at one of the "pond" areas and listening to the frogs on one side and the sound of the river just beyond.  This little area will dry up quite a bit once the river levels drop in the summer, but for now it's a busy spot. The ducks check it out every now and then, and later on the heron will do a little fishing here.

I even caught sight of a rather shy porcupine one afternoon (whew - glad Jet wasn't with me!) as he scuttled away through the woods and up a cedar tree, keeping a good eye on me the whole time.

After the quiet solitude of the winter, the air is full of sounds now.  There is a lot of nest building going on around the cabin, with lots of birds flying around with bits of building materials in their beaks.  I guess Rob and I are sort of doing the same - ramping up that building process! It will be interesting to see how far we progress between now and the next blog posting.

May becomes June

Well, no sooner did I get back from visiting family in BC than Rob left for a few days to visit his family. It would be nice to be able to go on these family visits together of course, but it is just not possible right now. I was happy to hear that while I was enjoying some of the best weather I have ever experienced in BC,

Rob was back here basking in some warm temperatures and sunshine as well. Well "basking" might not be the right term, as I came home to quite a few changes. Rob had been busy here in the cabin and had also been successful in getting his solar system working. (With Jet's help apparently).  I must say I did feel a little guilty that while Rob was here looking after 4 cats, (one that requires insulin shots twice a day, and one on meds) and Jet, and working away on house plans, I was having fun visiting family, snacking on local delicacies like "candied salmon" and local gelato, and lounging by the sea in the sun.  And lamenting that I wasn't there long enough to be able to visit all of my fabulous nieces and nephews and their children.  So while it wasn't quite the seaside experience that I had, I was pleased that Rob was able to take some time to go relax and visit with his family, although go figure - he spent some of that time working on repairing his Mom's porch! He's always happiest when he is building something.

While Rob was away, Jet and I had a good talk about acceptable behaviour, barking, apple washing, and the like. We did some yoga (doga if you are a dog) and made sure that all that male bonding that went on while I was away didn't erase Jet's ability to be in touch with his feminine side.... I'm sure you'll see the improvements the next time he blogs.

On the whole, May has been rather cool and damp, but I still get out for lots of long walks every day, and have been getting my first good look at what kind of plants come up here in the spring.
I am amazed by the variety of plants and wildflowers, and have been trying to learn to recognize some of them.  Identification isn't always easy and I may have some of these wrong, but I think this is a wild geranium.

A somewhat blurry shot of fringed polygala, also known as gaywing. I went out to get a better photo, but the flowers have already faded away!

Tucked in around a rock I found round lobed hepatica

And around another rock, but only for the briefest of time a trumpeted honeysuckle

Along the edge of the road we put in last fall, the plants are surprisingly already filling in, and every day I discover something new growing. There are wild strawberries, buttercups, and what may be wild bergamot, but I have to wait until the flowers pop out more to be sure.  Also lots of trilliums, pretty ferns, thistles, mulleins, and of course - poison ivy!

The air is still thick with the scent of blossoms, as the hawthorn trees produce huge numbers of flowers.

The wave of black flies seems to have subsided, and we are now into mosquito season. Thank goodness the dragonflies are also out, as they apparently love to eat mosquitoes!

We went out and bought those attractive mosquito head nets that drape over our baseball caps and although we may look odd, they work. They enable us to continue to play with Jet outside each day, and to walk, and do some work outside of the cabin. If it is sunny or breezy the mosquitoes are not quite as voracious, and they will drop in numbers over the next couple of weeks. We are lucky to have a beautiful screened in porch, but it has been rather chilly, so we haven't been able to put it to much use yet, but we will.  On one of the days that was a bit warmer, I did manage to pull out my paints and work on a couple of tshirts on the porch table, so I am looking forward to doing more! It's such a beautiful space and I was entertained the entire time by the antics of the hummingbirds at the feeder outside of the porch.

On the whole I would have to say that the month of May has gone by in a bit of a blur. On top of my trip in early May I have been getting into a routine of working a couple of shifts at the shop each week, continue to take a yoga class once a week, and the riding program I volunteered for begins next Thursday night. I love working in the shop, it is funky and fun with lots of good karma! The owner is wonderful, I have met some delightful people, and it is a pleasure to spend time there.

I was hoping to put in a veggie garden this spring, but decided that for this year I will just plant some herbs and try my hand at some container gardening for lettuce, radishes and green onions. When I visited my brother and sister-in-law in BC, I wandered around their gorgeous garden and was inspired by how my sister in law creates incredibly whimsical spaces all over their property. I tried to take a really good look at her garden, and hope I can create similarly interesting areas around our new house in the years to come. In the meantime, I tried my hand at fixing up a little space in the garden in front of the cabin. Rob had found some old drawers lying around the property, and I managed to pick up some pots at a second hand store, so I arranged them in the garden along with a little birdhouse that was already there, and was pleased with the results. I am hoping there is enough sunshine there to get a few things growing this summer.

Somehow during my absence, Rob managed to find some of my favourite garden sculptures, chimes and "things" that I had thought were forever packed away in storage, and I was delighted to discover he had tucked them into the garden here when I returned.  Rob's Mom had already created a pretty little garden space in front of the cabin over the years, so with some herbs growing, and my chimes chiming, it feels a little more like "home". I know that it will be a while before we have any semblance of a garden around the new house, so it's wonderful to work at growing something here for now. I'm still sad that all that remains of the lovely old oak is that stump though.

High winds snapped a number of the spruce trees this winter, including a couple on the river side of the cabin. We spent some time this month cutting the remaining parts of them down, as well as some of the other trees that had been damaged by the falling spruce, or that had snapped off due to the heavy snow and ice this winter.  We have a small path that runs from the cabin down to the river and along the edge a ways, so I have slowly been trimming back the branches a bit so we don't get any branches in our eyes when we walk.  I have been lining the pathways with a lovely thick layer of wood chips that should help keep the poison ivy down too. The air is filled with the sounds of the birds, and the river is still quite high and noisy, so it's pure pleasure to be outside enjoying it all. With the unfortunate loss of the spruce and surrounding trees, we have gained a bit more view of the river now. This is the view from the kitchen window.

And the view from the porch!

Rob has been diligently working on the final plans for the new house and the number of details involved constantly amazes me. We have decided (again!) to go off grid, and we are both really pleased about it. We now have to consider who to get to do the initial clearing of the land, the septic and the drilling of the well. When we built this log cabin 22+ years ago, we would sit in the kitchen at a neighbour's house and she would help us with suggestions of who to go to locally when we needed something done. As well, we had the help of one of her young lads with the initial log structure when we were building. Well now that lad is grown up with kids of his own, and last week we found ourselves sitting in his kitchen with him and his wife, getting the names of local people we could use to help with our septic etc.! What a lovely circle.....

We also had the opportunity to go visit a timber frame home at Gibson Timber Frame where Rob had taken a course last year. Although their's is a much higher and different structure than ours will be, it was still lovely for me to be able to stand inside the house and get a feel for the airiness of the building and a taste of what is possible. I think both of us began to feel the reality of building our new home when we stepped inside theirs!

This week Rob also took the final plans to the building inspector, which for me, really made everything seem much more real. Of course, he came back with more forms to fill in, as there have been some changes to the requirements since we picked up the original forms. The changes are all about new energy saving requirements. As Rob has been working hard on designing an energy efficient house all this time, (that far exceeds the basic requirements) we should be able to get the new forms quickly filled out and turned in early next week. This is just one of the many design views Rob had to put together. Yikes!

As things are starting to ramp up now, I know it will be harder to keep up with this blog, but I will try to post a little more often if I can, and maybe just keep the postings a tad shorter. As I sit here today, the sun has come out, the temperature outside is rising, and I can hear the sounds of the birds, and the river.  I cannot believe we have been here in this beautiful place now for 11 months already.  Every day has brought something new and interesting, and we always say how lucky and grateful we are to have had the opportunity to make the changes we did. As we move into the actual building of the new house, we are both really excited about it, and looking forward to the next part of our adventure. It should be an interesting summer!
　

　

　

　

　

Hints of spring

It's perhaps a little early to think about spring, but with the sun now rising just before 7 a.m. and setting shortly after 5:45 p.m., our day light hours are slowly getting longer. In the evenings, because of the snow on the ground, it is still quite light outside even after sunset. We are often out playing with Jet, or getting our last walk in for the day long after 6 p.m. When the moon is out, we can stay outside even longer!

We've been getting up a touch earlier now as well, so that Rob can get a bit more time during the day to work on house plans. We were both feeling that our days were a bit too fragmented by our other daily activities. The earlier start seems to be working well for us both.

The house plans are going well, and Rob has spent so much time on the design that he can imagine himself in every room now. But I think we both get somewhat overwhelmed by the huge number of choices that need to be investigated. Rob has spent a lot of time researching off-grid options, and the amount of information out there can be pretty daunting at times.  We need to think about things like back up systems in case one system fails, and whether what we are installing will be easy to use now, as well as in the years to come. Every choice we make seems to affect another option. If we go off grid, then the best choice is a propane stove in the kitchen, so we then need to research which kind we should get, and where to purchase propane and propane tanks. The same decisions go for other appliances, like the clothes dryer. Front load washers are more efficient than top load, but which kind is the best? Do we need a gas generator or a propane one? Can we really go solar, or will we find there are too many trees blocking the sun? Should we install a wood stove, what kind, and where should it go? Will we use hydronic heating in the floor? Should we then leave the floor as concrete, or put tiles or something else on top? And how do we balance our desire to leave a smaller ecological footprint, with the budget that we realistically have?

Rob has programs that help calculate the possible sun power we can expect in this climate. He has formulas for the size of windows, and which side of the house they should be on. But he is also trying to consider the design and our future living space. There will be a beautiful view out the west window towards the river, but he has to weigh in on the advice that a west window will allow too much sun in during the summer. The north view looks over a pretty clearing, but north windows allow too much heat out during the winter. Somewhere, he has to find a balance.

Almost daily this week we have stood among the trees trying to imagine the house there. Neither of us wants to remove any more trees than we have too. The spruce bud worm decimated our spruce trees, and we will have to take all the dead spruce down in the area, as they are slowly snapping off one by one. There are a lot of dead spruce on the house site, so that will create quite a bit of open space where we need it. Still, it's hard to imagine the house, when we are standing in amongst the snow and trees. As soon as the snow level is down a bit, we will go out and mark off the site. This is roughly looking east from where the house will be located.

And of course there is still the option of being on grid. So we need to calculate the pros and cons, and that includes the costs. We already have hydro running to the cabin, so we could tap into that line and extend it over. But that means we would have to take down yet more trees, so we need to figure out what is the best route possible. Rob did a budget and estimate before we began all this, but now we need to get some detailed information, and start making our choices.

When we think that we can't possibly discuss the new house anymore, we switch gears to thinking about "easier" things - like paint colours, or choice of tiles. Bathroom layouts, or kitchen ideas. When that seems to be too much - we simply go for a walk. It always seems to settle us down.

While Rob is busy upstairs working diligently on the house design, and all the possible combinations and permutations, he still gets pulled aside for the never ending business paperwork that continues to haunt him. This week it's T-4's, tax filing, and today a bill for a long forgotten phone line!

I continue to try to structure some time into my days to pursue some of the things I've wanted to do over the winter months. It's hard to believe that we closed the company down almost 10 months ago now. I had imagined that I would be back doing some clothes embellishing long before now, but I guess I've been busy with other things. Like learning to make bread! Sorry - I can't resist posing more photos - this was my latest attempt at a rye bread. It was delicious but a tad light for me, I would prefer something a bit denser.

This was a rosemary raisin bread that was fabulous, well at least one loaf was. The recipe made two loaves, and the second one had a pocket of sweet yeasty something that wasn't so good. I am not sure if I didn't bake it long enough, or this portion wasn't mixed properly. Still, the rest of it was fine, so not a big deal. This week I hope to try a recipe for an olive bread.

As for clothes embellishing - well I had convinced myself that there was simply not enough space here to work on my clothing projects . But I was inspired recently by some photos our friend Ross had posted. He seems to be able to set up his paints no matter where he is, whether on a dock, or on a beach, and he produces unbelievably beautiful artwork. So, I dragged out my boxes of brushes and paints and stamps and the second hand tshirts I had purchased last spring, and got to work, in the dining room. It felt really good to be back at it, and it just showed that I really don't need much space to do it. I'm looking forward to doing some more.

I am also determined to learn more about my new camera, and photography in general, so on Mondays I try to set aside time to read a small section of my camera manual, clean up my photos, and learn at least one new tool in Photoshop. I also try to go out everyday with my camera, and I always start by walking along the river's edge. When I spotted some unusual tracks and markings in the snow on the river's edge, I thought it might be the mink I had seen in the fall. But Rob and I were out one day and saw what we thought was a river otter further up the river. Sure enough, later on in the week, the otter was at the bend in the river, near to where I was walking and I managed to get a shot. I had to blow up my photo quite a bit, as the otter was pretty far away still, but I was so excited to have a chance to watch it that I didn't mind that I wasn't able to get a clear shot.

Earlier this week I sat at the river's edge and listened to the sounds of the ice breaking up. Where I sat, the shoreline was exposed right down to the bare earth, and the sun was lovely and warm. It was the first time in months that I was out without my hat, scarf, mitts and winter coat!

There are stretches of open water along the river, followed by iced over sections. I watched as the ice would break up with a rushing sound, flow along the open water, and then disappear into a whirling hole under the frozen sections of the river. Then I could hear the sound of the broken pieces travelling along under the ice. It sounded like thunder in the river and was amazing to listen to.

Thoughts of spring soon changed though with the arrival of a winter storm, and about 25 cms of heavy wet snow. We woke up to the gorgeous sight of snow covered trees this week and everyone was eager to get out for a good walk and some play time. O.k. - actually only Jet was eager. We had plowed and shovelled enough the day before that we were happy to at least have another cup of coffee before we went out. But it was stunningly beautiful.

 

 

When I commented this week at the store check out that it had been a pretty easy winter so far, the sales people looked at me like I was insane. They all replied that they felt that this was a bad winter, and one person said it was the worst he's experienced in the 3 years he's been here. Our neighbour had said it was the worst December he'd seen in 8 years. I guess maybe I was expecting worse, or maybe it just seemed easier as we didn't have to commute on snowy roads every day. Maybe we just like winter a lot. Even on the snowiest days we are outside with Jet 3 or 4 times a day, and we dress in lots of layers so that we stay warm and dry.

Which is probably a good thing, as some days we have to stand around in the cold for a long time waiting for him to give up his toys! At the end of play time, it's a race to see if he can gather up all his "wubbas" (toys) and then he doesn't want to give them back as it means his play time is over.

As we head into March, I am a little bit reluctant to give up on winter. I have loved the crisp air, the crunch of the snow, and the pristine white that coats the trees around us. I've enjoyed looking for tracks, and watching the changes in the ice along the river.  I have spent lots of time sitting at my PC with the warmth of the woodstove at my back, and the view of the wintery forest out the windows.  Every evening we sit in front of the woodstove and reflect on the day, and take time to read and relax. Spring will bring new joys I know, but it will also bring some busier times as we begin to build. And I can't help but think that next winter we will be busier, both with the new house, and the possibility that I will have found employment somewhere. So I can't help but want this magical time to linger on just a little bit longer....