Still waiting for Spring

Like a tractor on an icy road, February somehow slipped past us.  Ahhh, sorry Rob - I couldn't resist ....

The icy roads I mentioned in last month's blog, didn't improve much in early February. Often a good snowfall will stick to the ice and change the conditions in our favour, but not this time. Rob was out plowing and hit a particularly icy spot, and found himself sliding off over the edge of our road. We tried using a shovel to remove all the surrounding snow from the tires, but the tractor just kept going in deeper. Rob tried to use the tractor's front bucket for leverage but that just made the tires spin, and pushed the tractor further into the bush. For a while it looked like we were going to have to call someone and get pulled out, but Rob decided to give it one more go, and he lucked out, and somehow got enough leverage to push the tractor out backwards and back onto the road.

On the plus side, that was the last time we saw a snowstorm! There have been quite a few to the south of us, but so far the Valley has missed them all, and we haven’t plowed since. Not that winter is quite over. Certainly the cold weather is still with us, with wind chill and frost bite warnings continuing, even now that it is mid-March. I don’t know how many times we’ve thought “this must be the last really cold night”, but then we see more in the forecast. Hopefully not too many more, as we have are now burning up the last of our firewood.

Rob has managed to spend a couple of days in his makeshift shelter on the porch, working on timber braces, but nowhere near as much time as he hoped he would. It's just been too cold.

He has however, been able to spend a huge amount of time on the house designs, which will prove to be a good thing when the weather turns, as he can then dedicate his time to the actual building. He finished all the final window designs, and we got our last quote back and have sent in our order!

We just need to let them know what colour we want the window exteriors to be. In order to do that, we have to figure out the exterior cedar colour, and roof colour, so that we can get the window colour right. Every time I drive anywhere, I find myself looking for metal roofs, and checking out people's window colours (most of the windows are white and we know we don't want white so it hasn't been very helpful!) Rob and I both agreed we like the rusty barn roofs the best, and discovered you can actually order a rusting roof. The web sites advertise "new steel that looks 100 years old" ! It's kind of tempting, but we think there may be some issues, so we will go with a coloured roof instead. We spent a day driving around to some of the stores to see what roofing is available, and Rob got busy figuring out how much we'll need. This is the roof design, although it has probably changed since I took a photo of Rob's screen.

We just received our exterior stain samples, and have little pieces of cedar all coated with the various colours that we think we might like. At the same time, we also ordered and received some interior white "wash" samples for the pine ceilings.   Hopefully this week we will sort all these colours out, and make some final decisions.

Rob has worked his way through all of the drawings, in an attempt to visualize how he is going to assemble all the timbers once they are ready.  In one breath he is talking to me about renting a crane, vs. building his own assembly, and in the next he is back to talking about double walls, vapour barriers, and sources for the insulation.

Most days he spends hours and hours on the PC, and if I find it hard to keep up with his conversational topic switches, it's nothing compared to what I see him doing on his PC screen.  Watching how-to videos one moment, calculating costs and budgets the next, installing software for room designs to try to figure out wood stove placement, following numerous building forums, researching woodworking tools.... and that's just a small part of it!

Fortunately Jet requires daily play times, and some good long walks, so Rob has lots of opportunities to get up from that chair and get some fresh air and exercise.   Jet's always happy to go the building site, where he can check for the scent of deer, while Rob can think a bit about the house.

Jet is a bit too keen on checking for deer though, so is back to being walked on a long line again, after running off one evening and putting both Rob and I into a panic when he didn't return.  He came back eventually, tired and (perhaps) a touch contrite, so Rob has doubled his efforts now on recalls, heeling, and general off leash behaviour. They have an intricate series of game playing, interspersed with training that Jet seems to enjoy.  It's good to get his brain working too! (Jet's - not Rob's. Rob's brain is busy enough!)

We didn't think that the river surface froze over completely last year, so checked on some of our photos and sure enough, it was open in the center, and there were very few signs of animals crossing the river. But this year it actually did freeze over, and the deer have been crossing it constantly. We didn't really know if this was normal, but then we read that the Great Lakes have frozen over more than they have in decades, and even a small part of Niagara Falls froze !  So this really is an unusual year.

While we always remain cautious and stick close to the edge, it was lovely to be able to walk along and look up and down the river. But one day as I stood at the edge I realized I could hear the river running under the ice, and although the surface still appeared to be frozen, there were fewer fresh deer tracks, so I followed their cue, and decided it was time to stop walking the edge. Sure enough we had a short mild spell, and the slush began to form on the surface.

But then it got cold and everything froze again! These are Jets big paw prints.

And so begins the pre-spring tease.  A little breath of warm air followed by another deep freeze.  Slowly though things are beginning to emerge.

We didn't manage to go snowshoeing yet with our friend Bob, but we did go out for a good long walk along the road near to where he lives.

In his area there is a lot more hardwood, whereas we have a lot more cedar, balsam and spruce.  We don't have a single beech tree here, yet there, they were everywhere we looked. We think we may try planting some beech nuts here and see if we can get some growing. We had some beautiful big beech trees around the dome and always loved them.  The birds and squirrels loved the beech nuts as well, although here they certainly seem to enjoy the feast of cedar seeds so they aren't lacking for food!

We live in logging country, so I shouldn't have been surprised to see logging equipment on our walk, but I was.

This is the biggest saw I've ever seen, and it was interesting to see the equipment they use. In another couple of weeks this area will be a sea of mud, so I guess it's easier to do the cutting now.

On the way home we pass a lot of planted forests, all perfectly lined up, with the forest floor bare. Even from the car you can see through a long way!

Both Rob and I say we are reluctantly saying goodbye to winter in a way – it’s been nice to be cozied up near the wood stove, and we know we have a pile of work coming our way!  These lovely early evening winter walks are about to end.

There is a quiet beauty to our winter surroundings, a stillness and pristine whiteness.  But this morning the air was filling with sounds, the lovely sounds of small birds, blue jays, crows and ravens, and red squirrels chattering, but also the sounds of the trucks on the other side of the river in the gravel pits, chain saws in the distance…. We are slowly emerging into the sunshine and warmer weather, getting ready to build our nests.... and in our case our new timber frame house!

Spring Arrives...Sort Of

If I have been reluctant to give up on winter, so too has the winter been somewhat reluctant to give way to spring. Yesterday was the first official day of spring, yet it came on the heels of a winter storm, and morning temperatures that were still in the minus 20's. On my weekly shopping trip, everyone was commenting on last year's spring, that saw the temperatures fly into the high 20's - that's PLUS high 20's. This year is quite different.

I feel like I don't quite know this spring. I am eager to see the changes that will come, but don't quite know what is coming. Back at the dome I knew where to look for the earliest shoots, which areas would flood, and which areas would dry the quickest. Where to walk to hear the sounds of the first returning red wing blackbirds, and where the early robins would most likely be. We knew where the red tail hawk was nesting, and where the raven's would be gathering sticks for their new nest.

When I was outside of the post office this week, I was excited to hear my first sounds of red wing blackbirds in the fields below, and I heard them again on the other side of the river later in the week. Some geese have been flying high overhead as well. Slowly this new spring will reveal itself to me. We had a brief thaw that already showed us where to expect some muddy navigation with our truck. We were pleased though to see that the new road appears to be dry and draining well.

There is a sweet spot along the river, sheltered from the wind by the trees, and in the early afternoon if the sun is shining I can sit, cozy and warm and listen to the river. As the river opens up, it slaps against the ice at the shore, and sounds like drums. I could sit and listen all afternoon, but as the sun slowly changes position in the sky, it gets chilly.

This is where I sit, perched on some logs. Maybe this summer we can get some kind of a bench or seat built there.

Although this is a nice spot too....

This week as I came back into the cabin I happened to look up the roof line and saw all sorts of colours in the clouds above. I will guess it was a sundog, as the sun was hidden behind the peak of the roof. It only lasted a few seconds, and it was gone before I could go find Rob so he could see it, but I did manage to get a quick photo.

As the snow around the cabin slowly sinks lower, we notice there are a lot more animal tracks around. One afternoon I caught sight of something out the window - possibly the mink, and went out to find an incredible line of tracks that ran around the base of the trees and all along the river's edge. There are wild turkey tracks along the shoreline, and sometimes it looks like we are living along a rabbit highway. I finally caught a glimpse of one of the snowshoe hares, still cleverly disguised in it's coat of white, but getting a clear photo of it before it hopped away was impossible.

This afternoon I was puzzled by some new shoreline tracks, but as I followed them along, I discovered they belonged to the two Canada geese standing at the edge of the ice.

 

They didn't allow me to get very close before they flew away further up river. I was glad I followed them though, as I also spotted a duck further up, and when I came home to try to identify it, discovered I had seen my first male breeding common merganser. I hope I see him again, and get a photo!

We have been teased with a few warms days, but mostly this March, we've had cloudy and snowy days, and our brief glimpses of bare earth have been quickly covered by snow again. We have however, had a few snow squalls when the skies are blue and the sun is shining. I've heard of sun showers when the rain falls on a sunny day, so not sure what to call this - maybe sun flakes?

While I am out looking for signs of spring, Rob continues to work upstairs on the house plans. As well, the off grid/on grid discussion continues. I think we would both really like to be off grid, but we have to be realistic about the up front cost. If we were just a tad bit younger, say, in our twenties, (o.k. maybe 40's ....) then going off grid would be a good choice, as over the long term, it would be cheaper. The estimated costs for going solar not only include the Solar Photovoltaic Panels, batteries, inverters, charge controllers, and wiring etc., but we have to look at the costs of some of the things we would have to buy to make proper use of the system. We would likely need a propane system, propane stove, propane dryer, and possibly a DC fridge and or freezer.  We would also need a different method than an electric hot water tank to heat our hot water.

We are getting estimates on running hydro poles and lines this week, and that may make this decision a bit easier. It's hard to make a decision when we don't know all the costs.

Rob has been busy redoing the house design this week after deciding that some of the timbers needed more width. He's been working on our bathroom design, and the kitchen design as well. I keep hoping he will have time to post details on the blog, but I can fill in with some of the basic details in the meantime. We decided our living areas should be all on the main floor (again with that age thing...we apparently aren't getting any younger, and we need to plan for not being able to always climb stairs) With that in mind, the living room, dining room, kitchen, guest room, guest bathroom, our bedroom and bathroom are all on the main floor along with - yes - my mudroom !! We did go with a small second floor area that will provide some storage, and hopefully, despite our declining (or is that accelerating) age, we will be able to use that upstairs space for some time to come. It sounds like a lot of space, but the square footage is still less than 1400 square feet. He has also been working on the screened in porch plans, and of course the placement of the adjacent workshop. And researching, researching, researching.....Plumbing, wiring, concrete finishes... There's a lot to think about!

There is also the matter of interior decorating. When my super sis commented lately on one of my outdoor photos and asked whether I shot it in black and white, (I hadn't!) we realized that we do live in a beautiful, but somewhat colourless world this time of year.

Rob and I both love warm and vibrant colours, so will have to work some into the new house for sure.

The sun, when it shines, does make a difference this time of year, bringing warmth, light and colour back into our world. It comes in through the windows differently, casts different shadows on the walls, and definitely perks us up when we are outdoors. One day last week we watched two ravens playing in the sunshine, under glorious blue skies and white clouds, talking all the time. It was lovely to watch them.

I came home and threw a load of washing out on the line. They didn't dry completely, but I thought it was lovely to be able to hang them out, and it was a good reminder of the warmer and sunnier days to come. And with the snow on the ground, I could reach the entire line with no problem!