Spring Progress

Well, we may have imagined that spring was just around the corner, but March managed to throw a little more winter at us, and then April did too. Just when we thought that the river was beginning to melt, colder weather returned and the river view was once again a frozen white vista.

We like to remain hopeful though, so set up chairs on top of the snow that covers the concrete pad of the house and workshop, and prepared ourselves for the warm sunny days we were sure would come.

This is the thermometer in the morning of March 29th.

After such a long, cold winter we eventually ran out of firewood. We called around, but of course everyone else ran out too, and our firewood supplier didn't have any dry wood left to sell.  Jet did his best to dig some up out of the snow. Just trying to help!

Fortunately the sun in March still managed to warm the days up a bit, so Rob was able to work a bit in his shelter on the porch, and every time he worked on a timber brace, he would produce some pine off cuts that we could use in the wood stove. It was a good incentive to get some braces cut! We do have electric baseboard heaters, but after checking on our hydro costs after using them for a couple of days, we decided to turn them off as much as possible, and use the wood stove when ever we had some wood. Rob managed to get all of the braces cut, so finally felt like he was making some progress again!

Ever hopeful, each day we would walk around the property and look for signs that the snow was receding. But we soon realized that even with some of the snow gone, the timbers remained firmly frozen into the ground, held in place by equally frozen tarp edges. It would be a while before Rob would be pulling these out to work!

We did finally manage to figure out our exterior window, exterior finish and roof colours. We walked around with this little sample for quite a while and finally stuck it in the snow above the concrete pad so we could see it in natural light. The turquoise broom handle helped us to imagine the darkers colours brightened up somewhat with a splash of turquoise paint here and there!

March is such a funny month. A tease of spring, a blast of winter. Days of warm sunshine that soften the snow during the day, making it hard to walk in any of the snow without falling in over your knees. Cold nights that turn the softened snow and roadways into solid ice. On the days when the sun came out we'd venture out, hoping for signs that we could soon spend more time outdoors. On the blustery days we would hang on to our quiet times spent in the cabin, knowing that this blissful little existence is about to change with the amount of work ahead of us.
And then finally, the snow began to melt, and the river showed real signs that it was breaking up.

I went down to the edge of the river almost every day, watching the sudden changes. One day the center of the river was filled with the most magnificent shards of ice.  The next day they were all gone.

The river opened quickly, and one evening as the sun set, we decided to go sit in my favourite spot, and enjoy the last bit of the sun's warmth, with a nice cold beer in hand. We were still dressed in our rain pants, winter coats, hats, boots and gloves though!

This time last year we were out on the porch in much lighter clothing enjoying our first cold beer of the season outdoors.  And we thought last year it was a late spring!

My March order from the food co-op included the first available and incredibly tasty micro greens.  As much as I love all the root veggies, by March I think we are all waiting for something a little more fresh tasting.

I felt like the snowshoes hares outside must feel, after a winter of chewing on bark, when the first spring shoots pop up....
(Although unlike the snowshoe hares, I am turning grey not brown!)

Suddenly in the last few days, the sunshine and occasional rain has removed some of the snow. Puddles are gathering everywhere, waiting for the ground to thaw so that the water can drain. Jet loves it and splashes in the puddles, diving right in, picking up sticks and dropping his toys into them.

He is unfortunately back to full time long line walks, no running unleashed after a jolly romp after a fox.  Rob was able to track his escape by running after him through the deep snow and up and over to a neighbours. After a really fun game of chase, Rob was able to catch Jet. Unfortunately he had no leash with him, so had to hang on tightly to Jet's harness and try to stumble back through the deep snow and through the woods. At which point the smart little fox sauntered out ahead of them both, and down the hill.  I am really sorry that I laughed at Rob's story about how he gamely hung on to Jet as he plowed down the hill in full pursuit of that fox again....
(And really sorry that I wasn't there with my camera - to catch a photo of the fox of course!)

Finally, the beams are emerging from the ice and snow, so that now we just need for things to dry up a bit and Rob will be able to get working on them again.

For of course, we forgot that melting snow produces lots of muck, and things need to dry up a bit.

It's a bit drier around the cabin, so Rob did manage to get a band saw set up (by running the cord through an open window and plugging it in to the stove outlet) and cut the curves for all the braces. He will still need to sand them all and figure out what look he wants for the edges, but it's good progress!

He also took down the second red oak tree in front of the cabin. We were both really sad to have to take another one down, but it clearly had died, as had the first. Once he took it down we were somewhat relieved, when we saw how rotten one portion was. We park the truck right next to it, so we are lucky it didn't come down on the truck during one of the wind storms!  We are hoping to be able to use some of the sound wood for the pegs for the timbers.  Rob has chain sawed and split it all, and while he wasn't able to get enough straight sound wood for all of the pegs, he did manage to get some. It's amazing how much of the wood has a bend in it, or a knot, or a bit of punky wood, which renders it useless for pegs.  We will be happy to have some of that lovely old oak "living on" in the new house.  The rest will be firewood once it dries.

Unfortunately, it also took down my clothesline! Looks like we were going to have to replace it anyway, as the line broke easily in several places.

Tonight as I write this, it's pouring rain, with a rain warning in effect.  I'm preparing to teach a fabric art course at a yoga retreat in May, and working on my notes and making sure I have enough paints and supplies. Rob is costing house wrap and flex wrap.  The wood stove is on, taking a bit of the early evening chill out of the air. Neither of us can really imagine what the next few months will be like, but I have a feeling there will be a lot more activity than there is right now! We are both anxious to get at it, and a bit nervous about how much there is to do. As the building site slowly emerges from the snow we both are also very excited.  It's a beautiful spot, and every day when we stand there we hear the migrating birds returning. So far, ducks, geese, robins, kingfisher, phoebes, turkey vultures, and yellow bellied sapsuckers have all arrived. Their arrival reminds us that no matter how busy we are, we will always stop to admire the natural beauty, listen to the sounds, and breathe......

Some things come full circle

These days I have the feeling that a lot of things in our lives have come full circle. During the ice storm of ’98, I remember two guys showing up to install our new gas furnace. Natural gas had just arrived in the village, and we had somewhat reluctantly decided to get a furnace installed. We had been heating the house with a big Jotul wood stove for 20 years or more, but we were in the midst of plans to open a store and knew from experience that the long days required in a store would make it difficult to keep the house warm during the winter.  We were all too familiar with coming home late at night to a cold house, with not enough time to get the wood stove going properly before it was bedtime.  So there we were, in the middle of an ice storm, with no power, and the two guys showed up to install a furnace (luckily with chainsaws as so many branches had fallen that they blocked the entrance to our house) Somehow they still managed to get most of the install done too!

Before long, the gas furnace became a nice convenience, thanks to a programmable thermostat, and we woke up to a warm house, and came home at night to a warm one.  A flick of the switch when we were chilly was all that it took to warm us up.

I guess over time I forgot what it was like to heat with wood.  But I sure remembered last week, when the colder nights hit, and the frosts arrived. Suddenly we are back to getting up and getting dressed rather quickly. Our morning routine now includes coaxing the wood stove to life, and that chilly interim period when the house is still cold, before some warmth comes out of the stove. We have to make sure we have papers and kindling on hand to start it. And wood to burn.  This week Rob and I spent time gathering up some of the wood from the trees that we cut down when we put the road in.  There is lots of poplar and birch, and a bit of maple that will be useful.  Some of the logs are dry enough, but some are too wet, and will have to be left to dry ready for next year. We are back to choosing a location to stack it – close enough to the house that it isn’t a chore in the winter to get to it, but not too close that it will cause problems with critters and insects.  I’ve had to re-learn how to stack it properly so it doesn’t all fall over. Rob had a stack that he had cut sometime earlier, and it all needed to be split, so he was soon back into a good splitting rhythm.  We will still have to order some firewood to be delivered though. In future years we can probably pull a lot out of the forest, but for this year we will have to order some, as we need good dry hardwood.

As we plan for the new house, a lot of our discussions will be about heating systems. If we go off-grid it will get even more interesting. This winter will see us do a lot of research on heating systems.  While we are curled up in front of this nice wood stove no doubt.

 

 

Now that the nights are colder, we are suddenly loading on the bedding too. We have a lovely quilt that was made by Rob’s Mom.  We once all spent an amazing Christmas here, Rob, his Mom and myself.  The quilt was our gift from her that year and this is a photo from that Christmas, when she was still working on it! Some people say you shouldn’t use a handmade quilt, you should keep it tucked away as a memento, but I feel that it was made to be used, and to enjoy.   So it is on the top of our bed;  it sure keeps us warm, and it’s such a pleasure to see it back in the cabin. And we always say “Thanks Mom!” when we snuggle up under it.

It washes up beautifully too, and here it is out on the clothes line earlier in the summer. Isn't it gorgeous?

 

We have also reconnected with an old friend, Bob, who lived with Rob just before I met him. We have seen each other off and on over the years, but now we get together more often, as he lives in a lovely log cabin about a half hour drive from here.  He has been in the area a long time, so can help us when we are trying to locate specific items. As well, we all enjoy hiking and have been on a great hike together, which I wrote about here in the blog. We all went on a Studio Tour in September, and this is one of the pieces I picked up at Tim Storey’s studio.  (I posted a photo of his teapot earlier in the blog) I bought this thinking it would make a nice gift, but it was quickly put on our kitchen shelf, so I guess it was a gift for us. It is a beautiful mortar and pestle, and I love it. 

 

 

We went and  visited some of the off-the-grid houses that are in the area as well that day. It’s good to reconnect, and we seem to all share a lot of the same interests.  Funny  that we both ended up in the same area, it just took Rob and I a lot longer to get here!

We had snowflakes and ice pellets in the air last week, so most of our week was spent looking after things that had to be done before it got much colder out. Nothing like a little snow to get you thinking about winter.  I didn’t see much of the chipmunks or red squirrels last week, so obviously they prepared themselves much earlier than we did ! We still need to get a lot more firewood in. We also need to address the issue of coming into the house through the kitchen. In the winter we will pull too much cold air and snow in, and have nowhere to put wet boots or hang winter coats. Rob is thinking of building a small temporary insulated area on the porch, so that we can use the porch entrance instead.  We should be able to let our boots and coats dry off there, and it may cut down a bit on the blasts of cold air coming into the house. 

We’ve also been going through boxes of stuff, trying to get ourselves organised a bit. We seem to have a bit more time to do things inside the house now. The days are suddenly shorter, and we are finding that the outside activities start later and end earlier. We don’t have a fenced in yard here, so we need to make sure that we have played with Jet while it is still light out. We don’t want to lose him in the woods!

On the weekend we went to the Taste of the Valley event in nearby Cobden. It was packed, both with visitors and vendors. There were all sorts of crafts, preserves, and local produce. I was pleased to see one of our favourite vendors there - Moonlight Crofter's Farm - so I was able to pick up some of their organic garlic, potatoes, and stewing beef.  Their beef is, I believe, Scottish Highland, and very lean. Later, I cooked up a huge pot of chili with it, using up some of my stash of guajillo paste and chile powders.  Delicious. We froze some of it for later in the season.

Well, Jet is getting restless. That usually means that Rob is coming down the road with the truck and trailer. Jet hears him long, long before I do of course.   Time to think about dinner, and get ready for tomorrow's adventures. I am supposed to go to my first yoga class tomorrow. The last time I took yoga, I was 14 years old, and went with my mom, when we lived in England. I guess that little circle took a while....