Looking in, Looking out

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

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

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

 

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

Going to Plan B

The week before Christmas we had tentative plans to drive into Ottawa to pick up a few specialty food items for our holiday season celebrations. While we have found sources in the area for most of the food items that we enjoy, there are still some items that we haven't yet found. There are a few independently owned businesses back in Ottawa like La Botega and Parma Ravioli that we wanted to visit for specialty cheeses, fabulous olives and spinach and ricotta stuffed manicotti. And our favourite bakeshop is still Three Tarts, and we were hoping to get some of their mincemeat tarts.

But before we knew it, our plans for the week were going through some interesting changes. We had found a supplier of firewood, but they wouldn’t deliver it here. So we set out with our truck and trailer to go pick it up ourselves. The wood was apparently in a remote bush location so we arranged to meet up with the seller at her house and then follow her out there. We met up with her and she set off at a rather fast pace and it was all we could do to keep up with her on the slushy back roads. Slush turned to snow, snow turned to ice, and the roads got narrower, and twistier. Then they began to turn into steep up and down hills. Our seller was by now nowhere in sight. Just as we had one of those uh-oh moments and dropped down a particularly steep bit – we came to the end of the road and there she was. Unfortunately the area had not been plowed, and we could see that there was a steep slope through deep snow to a rather forlorn pile of firewood. Rob (wisely) declined to purchase the wood. She left rather quickly, leaving us to try to turn around and find our way back.

The next day we contacted another supplier who kindly agreed to deliver some dry wood within hours. The wood arrived, and Rob got the splitter going and split it all while I stacked it. By the end of the afternoon, we had it all done, just as the first snowflakes of a major snow storm began to fall. Finally, we have some good dry wood!

We woke up the next morning to the aftermath of our first real winter storm here. While Rob set out to plow the laneways and roadways, I went off through the pristine snow for a walk, and brought along my camera. Down here at the cabin it was fairly still, but I could hear the wind in the tops of the trees up the ridge. As I walked up the main road I was the first to leave human tracks, as no one else had ventured out. There was evidence of deer or coyote, but I couldn’t tell which as the tracks were already filling in with more snow.

As the sun shone weakly through the clouds, it was rather disconcerting to notice my shadow appearing and disappearing! Every time it disappeared I felt almost as if I had disappeared into the white snow. What a strange feeling it was.

I was so intent on the oddity of it, that I almost didn’t notice that I had come up the road as far as the open fields. The wind was really blowing, and I could hear the sounds of crows and ravens so knew something was about.
Sure enough, there was a large bird being chased up above the road, and my first thought was that it was a hawk, but to my surprise when I pulled out my camera I could see a flash of white that suggested it was a bald eagle.

I ran down to the main road to see if I could get a better shot. The wind began to howl, ravens and crows in the air were calling and I spun around and around trying to get a shot. A lone truck came out of a total white-out on the road and went by me.

It’s hard to describe what I felt at that point – the incredible lightness of being comes to mind – but as I spun in the wind and snow I was overcome by the strength and incredible beauty of Nature around me and my almost aloneness in it all. The wind subsided, the birds flew off and landed further down the road, where I realized they were feeding on something (a dead deer it turned out) and I began to walk slowly back home. I was suddenly incredibly tired, after all the exhilaration, and just wanted to sit in the snow for a while to think about the last few minutes.

Instead I kept walking, my footsteps out already covered in by the blowing snow. As I walked, the sun came out slightly, and shone brightly through the ice and snow on the trees and I felt rather alone, enjoying all this incredible beauty. Alone yet not at all lonely, just sort of small in this rather large world of ice and snow and whiteness.

Suddenly I heard little putt-putt sounds, and saw a tiny plume of snow. All I could think was Wall-eeeeee …. And I started to laugh and laugh as Rob appeared at the crest of the hill with his tractor and plow. I do love that man.

Rob was kept pretty busy for the next couple of hours as he plowed our roads, and the main road hill and the laneway leading to our immediate neighbour. He knew they would be coming up here for Christmas so wanted to keep the way clear for them. Although someone plows the main road, there was no sign of them doing it any time soon, so one of our other neighbours seemed pleased that Rob was out there and waited for him to finish clearing the way.

When Rob finally returned to the cabin he was cold and soaking wet, and all he could say was "I need a cab". By the time he plowed again later that day, and again the next - he was pretty convinced he needed one. The first day of the storm it was mild and the snow was wet and heavy, and the trees dropped huge heavy piles of snow on top of him as he drove by. By the next day things got pretty cold and icy, and then the winds picked up, so he was covered in ice and snow in no time. We will have to see if it is possible to find one at a good price somewhere so that he can be a little more comfortable when he is plowing!

In the meantime, we kept an eye on the Hydro site to see if there were power outages in the area, and sure enough, all around us the power was going out. Although we had already made sure that we were well equipped, I should have done the dishes and tidied up while I had the chance. Sure enough, after a number of ominous bouts of flickering lights, ours was out as well. Luckily it came back on later in the afternoon. We read later that some people in the area still had no power as of Boxing Day.

With no power in the cabin, Rob and I bundled up and went for a walk to see what the birds were feasting on, at the side of the main road, and to check the road conditions. The wet heavy snow had bent the trees over, and the ice had sealed them there, and although it was incredibly beautiful, we were a bit worried about the branches snapping. The trees are already stressed from our drought this summer. We hope they will be o.k.

As we walked up to the road, the wind was really blowing and we were glad not to be driving anywhere. As I was lamenting that Rob had missed seeing the bald eagle, we looked up and noticed a very large bird being chased by the ravens again. It didn't have the white head or legs of a bald eagle, but it was about the same size. I took some shots, and when we came back I was able to identify it as a juvenile bald eagle! So we did both get to see one after all.

After the eagle flew away we walked down the road to see if we could get close to the ravens, but they flew away at the first sound of our footsteps. Still, we had a chance to hear them "talking" as they feasted, and were amazed at the different sounds they make.

With the high winds the roads were pretty snow covered and icy. We know to bundle up well when we walk, but the wind was still pretty cold on our faces. The skies started to clear a bit, and the wind picked up some more. The light looking up the road was amazing.

Back home we still had no power, but our little Coleman stove had us heating up some spicy hot chocolate in no time. We were glad when the power came back later in the day though.
With only one day left until Christmas Eve we decided to forget any plans to drive to Ottawa and to come up with our "Plan B" for Christmas.