Weather, weather, framing, weather....

With the timbers all in place, Rob's next job was to make sure everything was fixed in securely, and prepare to do the framing. He took a little bit of time first though, to clean up the site, and then stepped back to admire his work. I don't think he could really believe that he'd actually pulled this one off...! But also, it would be the last time we would see the frame like this, as it was about to get covered in.

He didn't stop for long, as both of us were keenly aware that the seasons were changing, and colder weather was due to arrive. The push was on to try to close the house in.

Rob was eager to begin the framing around the timbers, but as always, there were still lots of details that had to be taken care of first.  There were some adjustments that had to be made, and then he set to driving in pegs, and tightening up the frame.

As always this year (and last year too!) the weather is a troubling factor. According to CBC, 5 of the last 6 months have been wetter than normal, and every month since November 2013 has been below average in temperature except for May and June. The good news is that September was "normal" for average rainfall and temperatures. Still, we had our share of rainy days in September, but at the end of the month some sweet warm weather arrived! It didn't last long, but we enjoyed it while it was here.

Rob began by framing in some of of the lower levels and windows. There is just something magical about staring out of a window frame, and imagining yourself doing it in the future when there is a window there - and like little kids we would run around saying "now I'm looking out the kitchen window, now the bedroom window...."

I don't know which windows I get the most excited about, but the dining room window here really is going to be lovely. (It will be in 3 sections of fixed glass). No matter the season, the view will be pretty...Of course I will love all the windows!

Our friend Bob came out on several occasions to help with the framing, especially the areas that were higher up. Rob spends a lot of time moving scaffolding, and climbing up and down it to retrieve tools, lumber, etc., so it was great to have a second pair of hands. (And legs!) Thank you so much, Bob!  He will be back to help when the plywood sheets go up over the frame.

I now work at least four days a week, and by the time I get home it is usually dusk, so I miss out on a lot of photo opportunities. On my days off, I try to stop by the work site more often with snacks and drinks for Rob, and camera in hand to take a few photos. So while Rob sometimes feels that he has made little if any progress, by the time I see the house it seems to me like it's gone through a lot of changes! Entire walls go up in just a few hours! (Well, on a good day) What could be nicer on a sunny day than some fresh homemade banana bread, and a good cup of Salt Spring Island Coffee, served in my most beautiful mug - a gift from my super sis...featuring one of her gorgeous paintings. Well of course it would be better if she and my brother were there to enjoy it with us...

As always, I love looking at the beauty of the surrounding area, and the more I am away from here, the longer I linger outside on my days off. I think I will never tire of the river, the fields, the forest, the views, the sounds, the scents, the wildlife.

I must say though, that I drive to work along stunning country roads, with amazing vistas of rolling hills, trees in full fall colours, old log barns, pretty sheep, cows and horses, and most days a glimpse of some of the local wildlife - deer, wild turkeys, hawks, ravens, crows, turkey vultures - and one day - an absolutely stunning view of a bald eagle.

The house site has it's own share of visitors. This week Rob saw 5 Sandhill cranes fly over, hovering right above him on the air currents, with their haunting echoing call. The wildflowers between the house and the river are now feeding flocks of chickadees and migrating juncos.  Further up along the road I discovered a small number of white crowned sparrows passing through.

We are both eager to sit in this lovely new house and gaze out the windows (not yet installed of course!) to see what other visitors pass by here.

Like the osprey... who hangs out in the trees along the river, and then dives down into the water in hope of snagging a fish.

Not unexpectedly, frost arrived in September and again in October. Rob has to wait on frosty mornings for the frost to melt, it is amazingly slippery on all the wood surfaces, and not safe to be clambering around the structure on those mornings.

Although most of the plants have faded with the frost, the hardy Black Eyed Susans continue to bloom in some areas!

We also have a "sweet spot" in front of the house that for some reason has Evening Primrose and Mullein blooming profusely even now.  We'll make note of that as a possible site for some herbs in the years to come!


And we have a new small clearing after one of the remaining dead spruce tree snapped in a recent wind storm. Funny, we thought something looked different, but it took a good look around before we realized it was a freshly damaged tree.

Slowly, despite the rain, the frost, the fog - and yes - the flurries - the frame is going in.  It is now almost ready for Rob to attach the plywood sheets. We were hoping for some clear dry weather during this time, but the earlier forecast for a week of glorious weather has changed to frequent rain showers. We shall just have to wait to see what happens.

Rob has moved into warmer clothing and continues to work as much as possible. 

It's hard to imagine that just a couple of weeks ago he was wearing shorts! (And not happy about the amount of rain water of course!)

When a warm front blew in again last week we were optimistic, but the colours in the trees inform us that it is fall after all, and we will just have to hope we can get this house closed in before the snow flies.

Thanksgiving weekend

This week has had me thinking a lot about sound. One day I could hear music pretty clearly INSIDE our cabin, but coming from somewhere outside. I thought someone was on our nearby shoreline, so set out to see, and was surprised that it was actually one of our neighbours up the river, playing their radio. Now it was playing pretty loud, but it made me realise how much the sound travels here, and how I can't always tell what direction it is really coming from.  I also think I could hear the radio because it wasn't competing with a lot of other sounds. Although we can hear a bit of traffic from the road that runs on the other side of the river, there isn't a lot of other noise here. I can hear the wind, the river, the birdsong, and this week I was actually startled by the sounds of the leaves falling. When a good wind comes up and shakes off the loose leaves, it actually makes quite a bit of (lovely) noise. I don't think I've ever really noticed the sound of leaves falling before! 

The cold wet weather last weekend seemed to give us a bit of a "push" this week to get some things done. We've made new to-do lists, and are trying to figure out what our real priority is every day. The work on the shed is nearing completion, but as always the last few jobs are time consuming, and weather dependent. Rob needs to caulk some of the pinholes in the shed roof, and needs a nice warm and dry day for that. Today we are being teased by brilliant sunshine, followed by high winds and rainfall. Not a good day to be on a metal roof. So instead, he is busy filling in some of the gaps along the roof line, to make sure it will be nicely sealed for the winter. The door is in, but the windows still have to be installed. This week he also spread some of the stone around the concrete pad so that he can now drive right up and over it.

I am really starting to get a feel for how this is going to work, and that Rob will be able to easily handle the large timbers here.

This week my native wildflower seeds arrived in the mail. I chose ones that could be planted in the fall, so spent a few hours at the side of our new road, clambering up the newly exposed sides and poking little holes everywhere and hoping my plan will work.  I'm hoping the new plants will prevent erosion, and add a little colour here and there.  Hopefully they won't all just get washed down the steep bank! If they do grow, I should be able to collect more seeds from them, and continue down the road and plant more each year. It was lovely to be out digging in the earth, listening to the sounds in the woods, watching the leaves fall. I was pleased to notice that the wild strawberries and ferns are already slowly coming back in at the tops of the banks, so maybe they will also spread down the banks a little bit.  I also collected some seeds from the local asters and scattered them here and there.

Despite the feeling that we urgently need to get some things done before the snow flies (and the talk in town this week is that we may get snow next week) we did agree to take some time off if the weather was good. On Friday we were promised some sunshine and above normal temperatures, so we went for a drive in the afternoon to take in some of the fall splendour. Years ago we remember driving through a place called Wolfe, and that the view there was spectacular and we wanted to go back there again. It is no longer on any of the maps, but we were able to find the road, and then eventually the church that used to mark Wolfe's existence.  Just before we got there though, we spotted a pretty little lake at the side of the road and stopped for a photo.

When we arrived at Wolfe, we pulled into the church parking lot, and took a little stroll around the church and graveyard. This area is so lovely - rolling hills, stone walls, and lakes on either side of the road.

We continued on through Quadeville, Palmer's Rapids and on to Combermere, following the same route we had taken many, many years ago.  We try to get all the tourist brochures for this area as there are always interesting events going on in these little towns, so it was great to travel to a few and get a feel for where they are.  There is supposed to be a very good Farmer's Market in Combermere, but this is the last weekend for farmer's markets so we will have to go next year.
In Combermere we saw a sign for "the historic crooked slide" so made a little detour to go check it out.  It was a pretty little park area, with trails around, and a restored "log chute" that we learned was once used to get the logs through the rapids of the river.

We would both love to someday pick up a couple of small kayaks, and this looks like it would be a great area to explore by kayak. We will have to keep an eye out next year for a good kayak sale!

 

We walked around a little bit of the trail, but didn't really have time to go off exploring.

 

Rather than retrace our route back, we decided to continue to Barry's Bay, and rather than take the main road, we stayed on the back roads. It was the right choice, as we were treated to a narrow windy road, with glimpses of rivers and lakes, small cottages, and stunning fall colours everywhere we looked. In Barry's Bay, just by chance, the farmer's market was still running, and we could not resist stopping for a quick look.  Right. In truth, we knew that the most magnificent home made donuts could be found there!  And this was the last day of the season, so we had to stop to pick some up.

 

This is the line up for the donut and baked goods stall.

 

 

 

 



We were pretty worried as the people in front of us were buying dozens of donuts (and bread rolls and everything else! ) at a time. I guess this stall was extra popular, not just because everything is so delicious, but it's Thanksgiving weekend and everyone seemed to be buying for their Thanksgiving dinners. We were sure they would run out before we got to the table, but they did not, and we left with 4 lovely donuts (yes - 4 - not 4 dozen!) and a pumpkin pie.

We drove back along the scenic Opeongo Road, and took a little detour down through Cormac.  This photo is a bit blurry as our windshield is none too clean! The trees were so beautiful that we decided to go back up through one of our other favourite roads - and down around Lake Clear before heading home.

Today the wind is pretty gusty and the leaves are flying off the trees. We are so glad we took the time yesterday to get out into the Valley and tour around, as I think we probably caught the trees at their absolute peak of colour. Already around the cabin, the sumac is beginning to fade, and the road is covered now with leaves and pine needles.

The cabin smells like pumpkin pie (and I didn't have to try to bake one!) We have a tiny little 6 lb. turkey defrosting, and are looking forward to having our first Thanksgiving here. Hopefully next year we will be able to share it with some family or friends.

For this year, we will be hanging out with our feathered friends at the river.