Little Axle, Healing Chairs, and Renovations

At the end of my previous blog posting at the end of June,  I mentioned our hopes to finish our exterior siding, and then perhaps move on to some bathroom renovations at the cabin during the summer.  I must admit that at the time I wrote that, I didn't really think it would all happen, and that we would be lucky to get the siding done!  

At the end of June, Rob was also furtively spending a lot of time in his workshop just prior to my birthday, and even went so far as to post a sign on the workshop door that read "No Stinky Girls Allowed!" Nice.  So I knew he was trying to build something as a gift for me as well. 

But then, the wind surely got knocked out of our sails, when our sweet little cat Axle had a seizure for the second time.  Our vet had already prepared us for what this meant, and at the age of 20 with advanced kidney disease we knew that the number of days he would be with us were diminishing.  Always full of surprises though, after laying limp in our arms for a couple of hours and being unresponsive for most of the evening, he greeted us the next morning with a series of loud meows, and was more than ready for his usual breakfast.  We assumed that he wasn't quite himself though, so booked him in for another vet assessment.  Just minutes before we left for his appointment, with doubts in our minds and the hope that he would be with us forever, he had another seizure, and we knew it would be his last.  With thanks to our sweet vet who helped us through the difficult decision, we sadly had to say goodbye.  We returned home to the emptiest of houses.  Rob and I were almost unable to think of a time when our lives have not been filled with the presence of amazing cats and dogs.

Axle came to us by traveling underneath a farm pick up truck when he was just a small kitten.  He hung on underneath the truck for several kilometers before he dropped out in front of our fiery food store and took off like a shot.  Rob set up a live trap and managed to capture him after a short while.  We took him to our vet for a check up and were surprised to learn he had burned his little paws during his truck ride.  Axle seemed like a perfect name for him after his truck riding ordeal. He joined our three other cats and gentle giant dog and settled in to his new life in no time. 

Axle was a little peace maker, always wedging his way in between the other cats when there was an altercation, head lowered and ready to snuggle up with which ever cat most needed it.

For 10 years he allowed me to easily administer twice daily insulin injections for his diabetes, before he simply stopped being diabetic.  He surprisingly outlived our other three cats, and our German Shepherd. Despite a few rather dire prognoses in the last few years, he rallied and enjoyed his life, especially those days when he could sleep in the sunniest spots in the house. 

He developed a love for a lick of butter, a touch of yogurt, and the occasional small bite of cheese.  He was seldom far from the dining table when we ate! 

Each June the vet would ask for a photo of Axle on his birthday and we always sent a pic along to them. I think we were all amazed when he made it to the age of 20.

After Axle passed, I decided to paint one of our chairs as a tribute to him and his "siblings", Leon, Sita and GB. I call it the Cat Tribute Chair, and as I painted it and stamped words and stories on it about them all, it brought back lots of sweet memories.  

When he was a kitten I made up a little song for him and over time I added a few more lines, but the basic song went like this:

"I rode in under a pickup truck, you know I burned my paws, I was down on my luck.

I dropped out at the liquor store, ran across the street couldn't take no more.

Chilly Chiles heard there was a kitten about, so they set up a trap and they waited me out.

I got hungry so I jumped in and a whole new life was about to begin." 

So I stamped his song on the chair as well.

I think it was a good way to help process my grief, and I can't help but smile when I see the chair now each day.  I was reluctant at first to recover the cushions, as I wanted to hold on to the deeply cat scratched fabric forever, but I was also working on three more chairs. Eventually they all got stamped, and painted and it was obvious that the cushions needed to be reupholstered.

My original plan was to set up on the screened in porch of the cabin, where I could spread out my paints, brushes and stamps, and quietly work on the chairs while enjoying the views of the forest, and the river outside. Rob was just finishing up on the siding, and I was content to use the time to think about what I wanted to do, and how to go about it.

The siding job was progressing quickly and in no time the back and side of the workshop was completed.

The porch area of the shop is still unfinished as we ran out of wood siding, and will have to decide if we can buy more, or whether to choose something like metal siding for this area.  We stack firewood here in the fall and winter, so we just aren't sure what would work the best. We will have to do some thinking about this over the upcoming winter.  Rob trimmed all the bottom edges of the newly installed siding, and the ones that needed doing around the house, and it was an amazing feeling to be able to suddenly say "Done".  

No sooner did Rob finish the siding (with almost no fanfare or celebration!) than he showed up at the cabin and began to work on the cabin bathroom renovation.  As he pulled out the old tub, sink, vanity and drywall and began to fill the porch with building materials, I fled back home to the quiet of my studio there. This turned out to be a wise choice! After years of surviving "building" we were about to be reminded about what it is like to be "renovating".  And in a rather small space.

The bathroom in the cabin had a tub, but no shower, and for years we had talked about removing the drywall, installing proper waterproofing and tiling the walls around the tub and getting a shower head installed.  In fact at one time there was a shower head, and on occasion people visiting Rob's Mom had been known to simply step in the tub and use "the shower" not noticing that there was water flowing everywhere, so we had removed the head.  After much discussion, and even polling a few friends on their opinion as to whether they would prefer a tub or shower in a bathroom, we decided to remove the tub altogether, and install the roomiest shower stall that we could, given the small space, and angled low ceilings.  I think this is the last photo I took of the existing bathroom before we started to work on it.

As much as we loved the octagonal window, we both agreed that it had to go.  To open and close it, the screen had to be removed every time, and it was slowly degrading.  As well, the shower was designed to go in this space, so a more waterproof window was required. The tape across the window in the pic above shows roughly where the new window would go.

It was a pretty little bathroom, but there were a few things that were meant to be "temporary" some 30 years ago when we first built it.  That vanity was one of them! Rob's Mom had tucked a little white wicker shelf under the sink to hold some bathroom items. And there they remained all this time.  Rob began the job of dismantling the bathroom and suddenly it looked even smaller than before.

The first job was to put in a new window.  We actually found one on at a discount window and door location, and drove east of Ottawa to pick it up, hoping it would work as planned.

After finishing the siding at the new house, I was sure that Rob was done with having to use scaffolding, but I was wrong!

As with all of our projects, we spent lots of time researching techniques, materials, and methods of installation.  I am sure we wore out our welcome at our favourite tile shop, looking for appropriate tiles, flooring etc.  We had to make a trip to Ottawa for some specialty shower products, and ordered some online.  We tried to buy anything we could on sale, and made use of any materials we had on hand to keep costs down. We even had a light fixture tucked away that we were able to use.  Luckily too, we know an excellent tile installer !  There was a bit of a learning curve for a few items like the shower pan though.

I would love to say it all went smoothly.  But I think we ordered four different shower taps as the first three were defective.  One sink arrived damaged, and we ordered the wrong size toilet seat.  (Who knew?) We picked two different floors and discovered neither were appropriate for a "three season" house.  As we close the cabin down every winter, the temperature drops inside to the same temperature as outside and all the floors we chose had specific temperature ratings.  Oddly enough the one that would work ended up being the very first one that we saw and liked, but we had dismissed it thinking that the colour wasn't right!

We had to have the glass shower doors delivered as we were no longer driving long distances in our truck.  To our surprise, the delivery driver left it on our hill, leaning against a tree.  

Luckily, despite the broken box, it seemed none the worse for wear. We managed to wrangle it home, (the glass doors were super heavy!) and the next time a friend dropped by, we coerced him into helping us move them up into the upstairs of the cabin.  Then Rob had to figure out a way to complete the install, as I wasn't much help.  Luckily he was able to use a jig to hold them in place while he drilled holes in the tile and anchored them firmly in place.  (I closed my eyes during this part!)

As Rob had some drywalling to do in the bathroom, we somehow convinced ourselves that this was also a perfect time to finish all the unfinished drywall in the cabin, and to repaint the large bedroom as I had stripped off the wallpaper borders there the previous fall. We had gallons of leftover paint from our house, so could use them up there.  We had friends arriving from Germany in October, but figured we had loads of time ! 

So we finished the downstairs closet.

Fixed up the areas around the woodstove and repainted.

Fixed up all the unfinished areas in the upstairs hallway and painted.

Emptied out the large bedroom..

And primed and painted.

And soon realized that due to delays in replacement taps, sinks etc., we were slowly running out of time to complete the bathroom!

But, we managed to get it pretty much done. 

The vanity still has some work to be finished, and the taps will be swapped out in the spring, but it all worked out pretty much the way we hoped it would, and more importantly was ready just in time for our friends arrival.  We cleaned (and cleaned!) as drywall dust does seem to settle everywhere, and then put everything back in place in the large bedroom.

We had been picking up some nice artwork and light fixtures etc. from our local online auction house so we managed to hang artwork, and install a couple of lights.  I had also found a couple of good solid chairs for the dining room, and somehow Rob found time to paint them!  And he even put in a few baseboards.  

For the first time, I also framed some of my photographs to hang here and there in the cabin.  I kept it simple for my first attempt with inexpensive photo processing and frames, just to see how they would all look, and overall I was pleased with them.

We didn't quite manage to repaint the smaller bedroom in the cabin, and we still have lots of other jobs in mind for next year, (and probably years to come)  but we were pretty happy with our efforts, and finished up with just hours to spare.

I  had also just finished the four chairs I was working on, and was busy putting a clear protective finish on before starting to recover the cushions.  After fighting with a manual stapler, and watching numerous Youtube videos for upholstery tips, and getting completely frustrated with my attempts, Rob wisely bought a pneumatic stapler, and took over and did the re-upholstery job. Thanks Rob!

I was so pleased with the chairs. As always there is a learning curve.  The first clear coat we tested made some of the inks that I used run, so we had to switch to a different base.  That one gave the vanilla coloured paint a slightly more yellow tinge, but in the end I was fine with that, so we went for it.

Along with the "Cat Tribute" chair I did a  "Delish" chair where I stamped the names of many of our favourite restaurants over the years, named some of our best loved recipes and our fondest food memories.

I did one called "Conversations" which has LOTS of letters stamped on, and words here and there.  That one was really fun, although each letter is stamped individually so it took some time! 

And the final chair was the "Dreaming Chair".  Over the years I have written down some of my special dreams, so now they are stamped on this chair. We have two more chairs to be done, but Rob wants to paint them, and I can't wait to see what he comes up with!

And so, by mid October, with the cabin newly renovated, cleaned up and the fridge stocked with a few basic necessities, off we went to the airport to finally meet up in person with our friends from Germany.

And that wonderful story will be in my next posting.

Love, laughter, loss and porcupines.

The Weather Network predicted a very cold and snowy December for 2021.  In fact they wrote there would be "more winter weather leading up to the holidays than we have often seen over the past 25 years".  "Yikes ! " we thought, and reminded ourselves to keep a supply of diesel for the tractor so we could plow ourselves out, and a good stock of food and supplies in case the roads were bad and we couldn't get out for groceries.  Overall though, I think we were secretly looking forward to being hunkered down in the house for a while as both of us were ready for some down time after a busy summer and fall.

December arrived without the predicted storms though.  In fact on our daily walks we commented often on the lack of snow in the nearby fields.  The river remained open, and the south facing slopes were often bare of snow.

We did however have a number of  storms with freezing rain and high winds, so that made our walks a bit more interesting on some days. We generally won't walk in the woods when it is really windy in case trees or large branches fall on us. On the days when it wasn't windy, we could usually get out for our walks as we have cleats for our boots which really helps when it's super icy. 

As Christmas approached I baked up a huge batch of our favourite New Mexico Biscochito cookies and some Mincemeat tarts.  Oops, I froze almost all the tarts before I took the photo !  Luckily the cookies also froze well as I forgot the recipe I had produces more than 6 dozen cookies.  That's a lot!

We found a perfect Christmas tree (super tall!) under the power lines, and knowing it would have to come down as it would be touching the lines in another couple of years, we weren't quite as sad to chop it down.  Well actually, Rob doesn't look sad at all does he?

It looked beautiful once we got it up and decorated.  It certainly made things a bit more festive, as it was yet another Christmas in the new house where we would not be entertaining friends. 

Similar to the year before though, we did manage to drop off a few presents (from a distance!) and then spent some time with friends via FaceTime and Google Meet.  We prepared some delicious holiday meals for ourselves, and stayed toasty warm in front of the woodstove every evening.  As always, we are incredibly grateful for what we have and try not to lament these crazy Covid times. 

Before we knew it, 2021 was over.  We began the New Year in much the same way as the Old, with a good meal prepared at home, and hopes for a healthy and happy New Year.

Little Axle our 19 year old cat had been given a rather dire prognosis before Christmas as he likely has a nasal tumour and he was quite ill, but even he rallied over the holiday season.  In fact, he continued to astonish us and is still with us now in late Spring!

The New Year brought us slightly longer sunlight hours for which we were glad.  The short daylight hours in November and December are always a concern, and we were watching our power usage really closely.   We keep an eye on our daily usage, and the health of the entire solar power system.  We found ourselves once again going around the house with our Kill-a-Watt gizmo to monitor the electricity usage on every item we could think of, including our electric alarm clock, kitchen scale, microwave, and even our wireless NAD that transfers our sound from our Laptop to our Stereo System.  (Needless to say our stereo system is NOT used in the winter months it just takes too much power!)  Every little bit helps, so we swapped out our electric alarm clock for a battery operated one, got in the habit of unplugging our microwave and turning off the kitchen scale when not in use. We unplugged the wireless NAD as well, as even that uses a bit of power when we aren’t using it.  Our laptops are pretty low usage, but when we have them plugged into a larger monitor, that too takes more power so monitors needed to be – for lack of a better word – "monitored" !! Although it seems like some of these items such as an alarm clock, may not use much power, it does run 24 hours a day, most of that time pretty needlessly.  

It was an interesting exercise.  The funny thing is that while we were doing all this, I was busy disposing of our old Chilly Chiles files.  We had to keep 7 years worth of paperwork after closing and it it was now past the time to dispose of all of it.  I came across our old Hydro Bills and was completely astonished at how much power our store and warehouse used each day.  Of course we were running a store and warehouse, complete with walk-in coolers, a freezer, store cooler, lights, computers, servers and various equipment.  I realize it was the cost of running a business, and we were as efficient as we thought we could be, but still it is mind boggling compared to how low we try to keep our current daily usage here.

Going through the old paperwork was a trip down memory lane as well. There were invoices from some of our most favourite suppliers, many of whom we had met and hung out with over the years. There were lists of products that we truly loved and still miss to this day.  Rob would hear me calling out products every now and then, followed by a wistful sigh.  Fortunately, one of the businesses that we used to supply is able to ship us many of our favourite sauces and dried chile peppers (hotsaucesunlimited.com)  Be sure to check them out if you need products and tell George we sent you to him! His customer service is outstanding, and our orders always arrive promptly and in perfect condition! 

My original intent was to shred all of the paperwork that had personal or confidential information, but 7 years worth was a daunting task, especially with our small old shredding machine.  (Unfortunately we sold our commercial shredder when we closed the company!) I soon realized however that most of the paper made for an excellent fire starter in the woodstove, and so that is what we did through out most of the winter.  As there is no longer much in the way of newspapers, it was an excellent solution.

Going through the paperwork also gave me a better appreciation for what Rob did all those years too. GST filing, employee deduction tallying, bank account reconciliation, debit and credit card cross checking, invoices, bill paying, custom declaration forms, shipping invoices, food inspections, pay cheques, tax filing etc. etc. etc.   No wonder he has such a dislike for paperwork! I definitely feel like I had the easier job working the store.  

I will admit I started singing a "money in, money out" mantra while I was going through the boxes.  I had to remind myself that it did pay us a salary though, so no complaints there.  And it reminded me again of what a great company we built and ran for all those years.

Chilly Chiles came through again for us when Rob decided that he simply couldn't continue trying to work in his workshop without a sink.  He had found a perfect second hand sink in the fall, and together with the small under-the-counter hot water tank from our first store in the ByWard Market, got to work on installing a sink with hot and cold water, and a way of draining it with the help of a pump into our existing system.  Then he began the rather hopeless task of trying to get the rest of his workshop in order.

When news arrived in early January that Rob's sister Trina had contracted Covid in the long term care home where she lived, we were relieved to hear that she was asymptomatic, but sorry to hear she would have to be moved into isolation.  We certainly did not expect the next call that she had passed away unexpectedly in her sleep.  And so we joined the ranks of so many other people in this world, finding little in the way of ritual during this pandemic time,  mourning the loss of a dearly loved sister and sister-in-law.  Trina's positive spirit, her great laugh, and sing-song "I love you too" are sorely missed. I am so grateful for all the times we spent together, whether in St. Catharines, here at the cabin, at our dome in Navan, and the various cottages during the summers when her children were young.   When I looked through our photos of Trina from the past, so I could send copies to her daughter, I couldn't help but smile as in almost all of them Trina would be laughing and smiling, even when she wasn't aware of a camera pointed at her. These are just a few of many.

I did find one photo where that smile wasn't shining, but it's still a classic Trina pose.  Sitting in the sun, reading, with her feet in a pool.  This one makes ME smile every time I see it.

By the second week of January, the daylight hours begin to get a little bit longer.  I don't think we even noticed it this year.  A bright spark had gone out of our lives for ever.

But we did notice it was colder, and we were into burning more serious wood than the "swing season" wood that we were burning mostly up until then.  With night time temperatures in the minus 20 and 30's we moved to burning more of our oak.  Even then though, we didn't usually need to start the woodstove until late in the afternoon.  The house was always quite warm enough despite the cold temperatures outside.

I began to worry about a merganser that was still hanging around in the river.  Usually they fly south in the fall.

No one worried about me though !

Despite the cold we still got out every day for several walks.  Nothing heals more than fresh air and natural beauty, at least for me.

And if busy hands make idle minds, then the snow storms certainly kept our hands busy.

Winter is always a good time for us to learn new things, and we kept ourselves busy indoors with Rob doing online guitar courses, and myself doing some photography courses online.  With thanks to all those who dedicate so much time to offer their talents to teaching others.  It's definitely the bright side of the web.

Slowly the daylight hours got longer, and more light returned to our worlds.

In an attempt to get a bit more routine into my life, I declared Sunday my mental health day, and banished "to-do" lists from that day.  I pulled out my dear old (almost 50 years old!) sewing machine, and a second equally old machine that I had pulled out from a curbside give away many years ago and never used.  I cleaned the second one up, found a manual online, and learned how to use it.  I still favour my old machine though.  It is so familiar to me even after years of not using it. My fingers know exactly what to do, and I can thread the needle still, even without my glasses.  The second machine is more flimsy, and a tiny bit "fancier".  But it also has a free arm, which is what I needed when I decided to patch my (second hand) jeans rather than toss them out.  I pulled out my old fabric paints and stamps (sadly some have dried up after being tucked away for so long) and had some fun playing with fabric once again.  Small steps, but I know I will do more.

Just as we eased ourselves out of one sadness though, a second arrived.  My brother Alan, who had been a crack addict but had, as far as we know, been clean for many years, had gone back to his addiction and was reported missing.   He'd had a long and troubled past. He had done time, and was on parole, and seemed to be on a better path; doing well at a job, reconnecting with his son, and back living with his wife. But he had broken parole conditions by doing drugs, and was returned back to prison, and then given another chance and was staying in a rehabilitation facility where we all hoped for the best outcome.  Within a few hours though we learned that he was in a hospital on life support from a drug overdose, and there was no hope for his survival.  

Photos in this case are harder to come by.  There is a rather large gap in time when obviously none were taken.  (Cameras are generally frowned upon during prison visits) And the early photos I have are a painful reminder of a much younger brother who (I presume) was not an addict at the time. 

He was a joker and he kidded around a lot.  Even just before Christmas he was still sending me emails with silly poop jokes.  They annoyed me at the time, but I kind of miss them now.  So this photo from around 5 years ago will have to do.  It's a typical Alan pose; and he is no doubt saying something silly or rude.

On the day he passed. three geese showed up on the river bank.  I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere, but I don't have Alan's twisted sense of humour so I can't think of one.   Hopefully he's laughing somewhere.

I think perhaps this blog posting is in need of a bit of cheering up, so here is a "cheering up story".  During this difficult time we had a call from the Wildlife Rescue that had helped us capture our injured porcupine (a.k.a. "Hoover") and had transported him to Sandy Pines Wildlife Rescue in Napanee where he stayed for the winter. They had successfully removed the pellet from his eye, and treated his mange and got him back into good shape.   Hoover was apparently ready to come "home" and needed a ride!  So we offered to do it.  The original rescue gave us a good sized crate and we set it up in the car with some protective coverings underneath for the seats, and set off.  When we arrived some 2 hours later they took the crate, and then returned it to us with one sweet little porcupine inside!  We strapped him in and off we went.

We had been told that on his original ride to the rescue he was a pretty unhappy and vocal little guy, but on the trip with us he was very quiet.  He sniffed at us several times, and would look through the slats at us but that was all.  Oh, and had a little pee in the crate but there were pee pads and straw in the bottom so no problem there.  And then he curled up and went to sleep for most of the trip.  I will say that I think this was the best road trip ever.  Ever time I looked back to check on him I just kept thinking how cool it was to have him in the back of the car !   

When we arrived home we were told to put the crate out on the ground, open the door and step WELL back so that he wouldn't stress.  We chose a spot on our property near a big old tree where we have seen porcupines (and raccoons) resting in the crook of the tree before, thinking it was a nice safe spot.  For a while, he wouldn't come out though, so we spun the crate around to face away from us, and he stuck his nose out.

And then he just sort of trundled out, and pretty much made a straight line through the bush and up the bank towards the tree!  There was still some snow on the ground and more fell the next day so we weren't sure how thrilled he'd be. But we reminded ourselves that he was actually a wild animal and probably just fine with it.

Sure enough a few days later there was a porcupine in the tree.  We will assume it is Hoover.  We've seen one there now a couple of times, sleeping of course as they are pretty nocturnal.

Rob did a little video of Hoover's "Release Party" and set it to music.  It was hilarious and probably just what we needed to cheer us up a bit too.  

And so we eased slowly into April, and began to see signs of spring.  The ducks returned to the river, and one day our neighbour took us into their barn to show us a new born colt, just born the night before.  The barn was full of mules and big work horses all munching on their hay and it brought me right back to all the times in my childhood when I hung out in a horse barn.  It was super sweet and just what I needed.

When friends of ours asked to use the cabin for a night at the end of April we set to getting it open for them as we had completely shut it down for the winter.  We had drained the pipes and turned off all the power, wrapped the porch with tarps etc. in the late fall, and had also removed the broken kitchen taps and not replaced them.  Replacing them required us to pull up the sink, and that's when a small job got a wee bit bigger as we opted to pull out the counter and give it a much needed refinish job, remove the torn wallpaper backsplash and put up fresh wallpaper, put a finish on the shelf above the sink so I could more easily clean it in the future, and well, while we were at it, get a coat of paint on one or two walls that had never been painted before.  We did it all in no time, so  with a few days to spare we headed up to our favourite tile store looking for a kitchen flooring option.  The pine floor had taken a beating over the years, and because the main door into the cabin opens directly into the kitchen it was really hard to keep the floor clean, and the rug we had thrown down to protect it was completely done.  We came home with some vinyl click flooring which wasn't at all what we had it mind, but it worked.  It needed an edge for where it met the pine flooring of the dining room, and Rob sanded down and finished a strip of oak from an old church pew that he had,  and voila - it was done !  We would have liked to have just continued working on the cabin, but other jobs beckoned.

Before:

After:

We had so much success with the wood that we collected from fallen trees and used for firewood during the past few years, that we decided to focus our efforts in May on collecting even more than previous years.  We had several trees that had come down due to high winds, but they were mostly hung high up in other trees.  So we set ourselves up with ropes and chains and a winch system and from the safety of afar, slowly hand winched them down to the ground.  It was slow work but worth it. When we were able, we used the tractor, but most of them were too far away from the roadway to get access.  Then we cut them up, trimmed and stacked all of the branches, and hauled out the logs in 8 and 10 or 12 foot lengths and moved them by tractor up to our concrete pad and stacked them there until we could get back and begin chain sawing them up and splitting them.

There aren't a lot of photos of our work, as it isn't the time to be focused on a camera.  And yes, we are wearing safety glasses, hearing protectors, hard hat when needed, steel toe shoes, face shield etc.  Oh yes, and bug spray and sun screen too!

We piled the branches at the side of our roadway and went back later to chip them all, and then spread the chips on our pathways.  

We had one area near the house that had 3 dangerous trees hung and when we cleared those I heaved an enormous sigh of relief as they were all above a path that I had been using to get to the river.  I had stopped using it when the trees came down.  With them gone, we found ourselves able to clear more downed trees nearby and ended up with a lovely path down to the river.  I spread some of our wood chips but it will need more.

We were doing pretty well, but just when we wanted to start cutting and splitting wood a heat wave arrived with temperatures in the low to mid 30's.  So we had to slow down a bit, and did the best we could to split wood in the mornings before the heat arrived.  Even then we took water breaks often, and sat in the shade to cool off when we could.  When it was too hot we simply switched to other jobs like repairing the gas tank on the old truck, or replacing it's oxygen sensor.  (Good old truck - it's still limping along thanks to Rob !)  Rob also did some road grading on our common road, and helped a couple of neighbours out with rock removal from the nearby fields, and moving some oak logs.  The heat wave broke, and we were able to finish doing our firewood over the course of a few days, in between thunderstorms and rainy days.  Now it will be able to finish drying over the summer and hopefully be perfect for use this winter.  We still have some oak left from a load we bought years ago and will use it in the depths of winter, but this "swing season" wood that we cut we now know will do well for us most of the other winter months.

With the arrival of June we begin on a "new" task, although technically I guess it is actually an old one.  We will be getting back to doing the siding of the house and workshop, with just 4 1/2 sides left to go, and the two porch areas.  "Just" I say because Rob says it will easily be done this summer.  I hope so, as it would be nice to get it done.  Fortunately we bought the siding before the price of wood sky rocketed. We hope we have enough.  If we were thinking of building this house now we simply could not afford it given the high cost of building supplies.  We are feeling pretty grateful that we chose to build when we did ! 

On these late spring evenings we find ourselves wandering over with a homemade beer to the log cabin porch at the end of the day. It's nice to have a bug free place to sit, and I hope we can get a porch built at the new house someday.  But for now this one works fine. I've been thinking of calling the cabin Hiraeth Cottage.  But the word Hiraeth is perhaps a tad melancholy for such a lovely place.  The word Hiraeth is Welsh and does not actually translate to English.  But the closest it comes is "longing" or "nostalgia" or "homesickness" or even " a pull on the heart".  My mom would say she had the hiraeth when she missed her Welsh home/family etc.  And that is what the cabin is for us, a longing for earlier times, for missed family, for the sound of our dog Jet moving around on the floor... Still, I am not sure that it is what we should name it. For the cabin is also about solitude, and peace.  The sound of the river, the birds, the frogs.  Memories of time spent with friends and family, of wicked games of Scrabble and much laughter.  A refuge when it was needed.  So I guess I will keep thinking about it.

In the meantime I have found a nice little local online auction company and have been having fun picking up a few second hand items for the cabin, that I hope will someday make someone's stay there a little nicer.  So far there's a "new" sweet little sun/moon mirror up on one wall, some rather nice quality pots and pans replacing the old ones in the kitchen, two not pretty (but functional) bedside lamps, and a very useful bedside table.   I have a list of a few other things that I am keeping an eye out for.  It's certainly more than comfortable (at least according to our friends that have stayed there) but there are a few things yet on our "to-do" list like a tiled shower, vanity unit for the bathroom sink,  and some kind of work on the remaining wood floors to make them easier to clean and maintain.  I hope to spend more time this summer stripping wallpaper and getting some fresh paint on the walls too.  

As we approach the summer solstice we are also hoping to be able to spend some time with friends outdoors while we can.  Last summer we did not as we were so busy with the siding project, and we regretted it somewhat when winter came with new Covid waves and restrictions.  We certainly have all learned to expect the unexpected, so will make sure we enjoy this summer while we can.

And with that, as always, wishing everyone Peace, Love, Joy and Gentle Compassion. And thanks to those who manage to hang in and read this to the very end!