Reflections

Ten years ago this month, we "moved" here.  I write "moved" as at the time, we were more or less trying things out for the summer, with no clear idea of how things would go.  We had spent the previous two months in a flurry of activity.  We were still trying to deal with the contents of the warehouse that we had used for our business.  Rob had taken two one-week timber framing courses; one in nearby Perth and one in the eastern USA .  We still weren't sure if we were going to build a new house, or simply put an addition on the log cabin. I was busy going through the contents of the dome that had been our home for over 35+ years, trying to pack, sort and purge.  We had purchased a second hand tractor, mower, box blade and snow thrower in preparation for living in our new location.  We had a new trailer to haul things with.  Rob had spent a week at the cabin, doing his best to prepare it for our arrival, and trying to make some room for us all.

And so, on one hot July morning (which also happened to be my birthday) we loaded up the trailer with some of what we thought we would need for the next few months, loaded 4 cats into crates, (no small feat) and strapped them safely in the rear seat of the truck and drove off.   Rob would return in a few hours to pick up the dog, and another load for the trailer.  The cats instantly voiced their disapproval of the whole plan, yelling in unison.  We had a scheduled stop at the vet for a quick consultation, as our senior cat Leon had been undergoing tests for an undiagnosed illness, and our youngest cat Axle still had his rear leg in a cast due to an unfortunate run in with our German Shepherd.  When we arrived at the vet office, they suggested we should have given them all some catnip to quiet them down for the trip!

Somewhat frazzled, and more than a little bit tired, we arrived a few hours later, and somehow remembered to take a photo or two.

We emptied the truck and trailer, and then Rob left me to sort things out, while he drove back to Navan (stopping off in Ottawa as I recall for a take-out birthday dinner and sweet treats for us to enjoy later) . He arrived back late in the evening and so our adventure began.  We still laugh when we think what a crazy day and birthday that was!  

And of course, within a very short time, we both agreed that we would simply stay where we were in the cabin, and figure out over the winter what we could build. We then began the process of driving back and forth to Navan as we emptied our dome and prepared to sell it.  By mid November the dome had a new owner, and we were officially "moved".

I certainly have had fun these last few days as I prepared to write this; looking back at some of the photos and blog postings from that time. Ten years have passed; that's hard to believe. Especially as every day here still feels fresh, new and full of possibilities.  I think that's a good thing.  After all, that was the point of moving here!

And here we are now, in 2022.  We are working on what we hope is the last "major" building job. The month of June was probably not the best month for getting outside work done.  The first two weeks of June were particularly rainy, with numerous storm warnings and tornado watches.  Rob was anxious to get working on the siding, but instead spent much of his time working on the inside of his workshop, getting drywall up and trying to re-organize the space within. 

I was happy to see some of the incoming rain as it was good for my small raised bed garden and all the seeds I had carefully planted. 

It was June 22 before Rob had a chance to start back on the siding.  It was great to see that he wouldn't be climbing up so much scaffolding this year as these sides are so much lower than the ones he did last year.

And the work on this side definitely went a lot faster than previous ones!

After completing the front, Rob continued working around the right hand corner, (which did require a bit more scaffolding) and of course then a blast of summer heat arrived.  He had been enjoying the unusually cool temperatures as it made it easier to work.

We took a brief break for my birthday (which prompted this posting about reflection) and celebrated with local cupcakes and a delicious homemade meal.

And then we got back at it.  While Rob was working on the siding, I was over at the cabin doing a bit of a clean and scrub after a red squirrel broke in one afternoon and had a wee bit of a party in the cabin.  Luckily we discovered it fairly early (after Rob sent me in to investigate the noise in the cabin!) and we were able to safely help it find it's way out.  Rob had to prop up a board to allow it to get back up to the window it had entered through, where it clung to the frame for a few minutes before tumbling down to the ground with a rather disconcerting thump. I was a bit concerned when it didn't move, but it picked itself up after a few seconds and high tailed it back into the woods.  

This isn't the same squirrel, but it certainly has the same attitude.  I think maybe it is related to the one we turfed out of the cabin.

With part of the east side of the workshop complete, Rob began to prepare to do the front (south facing) side of the house.  Unfortunately the phoebes that had only just finished nesting at the front door decided to begin their second brood in the same location, so we had to change plans as we didn't want to disturb them.  We opted to move to working on the back (north facing) side of the house instead, but this proved to be a bit of a challenge.  We know we want to build a screened in porch on that side, so before we began, we had to take time to make sure whatever it needs was in place.  There is already a door opening for it, which is great! 

When a few more rainy days arrived, Rob moved back into working in his workshop, devising a fancy home made jig that would allow him to trim the ends of the siding in an even line.  When the rain stopped he had a chance to try it out.

We both agreed that trimming those ends made a huge difference to making it look more finished!

We have been keeping a close eye on the phoebe nest progress. As soon as the babies leave the nest, we will switch back to working on the front of the house. This is a rather blurry photo of the nest as I don't want to linger and worry the parents.

We can hear them all chirping for food from early dawn to late evening. It's an amazing sound to hear, but I must say the parents are looking a bit worn out.

Earlier this week, one of the babies left the nest (intentionally or not) and is now being cared for on the ground by the parents.  The rest seem reluctant to leave, or perhaps they are simply enjoying having a bit more space to move around.  It looked pretty crowded in there. 

Although Rob was busy working on the siding he did find some time to add a temporary frame to my garden as my tomatillos have taken off.  I had put in stakes and tied the plants up but in no time they had grown feet above my stakes. It looks like we will have a great crop, if the chipmunks don't steal them.  They stole quite a few last year, but all in all seemed to prefer my tomatoes.  I didn't plant tomatoes this year, so am just hoping that the tomatillos don't make it to the top of the chipmunk hit list.

In an effort not to have to throw two of our plastic chairs into the landfill site just yet, I have been trying to restore them from their worn and chalky appearance. Last year I scrubbed them with baking soda and vinegar, and then applied coats of car wax as suggested on numerous sites.  The wax didn't hold up all that well, plus it made the chairs super slippery to sit in, so this year I scrubbed and sanded them and tried applying a spray paint for plastic.

Before:

After:

They could use another coat but the can ran out of paint before I finished.  I waited 7 days as suggested to allow the paint to "cure", before deciding whether to continue. I wanted to make sure it was sticking properly before I purchased another can.  It seems to me that some of the paint comes off with a powdery residue, so now I am trying to figure out if a clear coat will improve things.   At some point I should perhaps just give up, but I think it is important to try to fix things rather than just throwing them out.  I still have plans to paint and reupholster six dining chairs and a drafting chair.  We have an old metal futon frame to repurpose as well.  Rob may turn it into an outside bench that we can use on one of our paths.  

While I was out working on the chairs I noticed a young rabbit was hanging around.  It seems to like the vegetation around my garden, and sometimes I will find it in the shade under the car keeping the weeds down for us ! It can suck a leaf back in no time, so I am glad my garden is raised as high as it is, or we would perhaps have no lettuce left at all. 

This July has certainly been somewhat of a reflective month for me.  So much has happened in the last 10 years, and going through some of the older postings in this blog have reminded me of a lot.  We still have our one remaining little cat; sweet Axle, now over 19 years old.  We lost our oldest cat Leon when he was 20, and we think Axle is perhaps trying to beat that record.  Looking back, it doesn't seem all that long ago that we were driving up here with the four cats meowing away in the truck.

Somehow, looking back always seems to also make us look forward. Once the siding is completed (hopefully this summer) we are looking forward to not having any "major" projects on the go.  That said, we would like to build a screened in porch overlooking our wetland, and maybe a small gazebo closer to the river. Although last year we arranged scaffolding and platforms to make a temporary wood shed, and will have to do the same again this year, we really would like to build a permanent shed for the firewood.  We need to add fill around the house to bring everything up to the proper grade.  And of course, the cabin is in need of some work, both inside and out.  Rob calls these "small" jobs, and I guess they are compared to what we've done over the past 10 years.

One thing is for certain, we never regret for one minute our choice to come here, and to call this place home.

One Year Later

Editor's Note:  Between January and March of 2020 I was busy assembling photos and writing my latest blog posting.  Who could have possibly imagined that a pandemic would hit ?  While I did try to get back to working on this posting from time to time, somehow my heart was not in it.  But faced with a pile of photographs to sort through, and the option to either finish the post, or simply quit the blog altogether, I finally decided to go ahead and finish the post sometime in August. Somehow I didn't quite get it posted, and so now here I am again working on updating it.  So my apologies for how out of context some of this now seems, but here is the "update" of the past year! Also please note that Blogger has changed it's format, so my photos now get posted differently and in varying sizes !!  I am trying to fix that. I am not sure yet what other changes have occurred, although I did just notice I can no longer find the spell check function, so my apologies for that as well.

I'm not sure how I pictured our move into the new house would actually go.  Maybe something like those drawings I remember of Winnie the Pooh and Piglet strolling hand in hand through Hundred Acre Woods; a slow leisurely walk, pulling our little suitcases behind us.

Of course, that is not at all how it went. For one thing, we had a lot more to move than just a suitcase!  And of course, it was also early winter. So in actual fact we just slogged our things through the snow out to the truck, loaded the back seat up, drove over to the new house, and unloaded our stuff.  And repeated that over and over.  One good thing was that the weather worked out to be in our favour.  It wasn't minus 30 degrees and there wasn't a snowstorm!

I work a part time retail job, and December is a busy month in most retail stores, but on my days off I managed to find some time to clean and sort through all of our kitchen wares, and even went through some of our clothing and other items in the upstairs of the cabin.

Rob meanwhile was busy building a "temporary" bed frame for our new mattress and putting up some more of our prints on the walls.  As well we needed to get a nice space prepared for the cats that was "cat proof" and  we put a temporary vinyl floor down in the upstairs to protect the pine floor from any cat "accidents".  

As we slowly moved things over to the new house, it didn't take long to realize that we needed some "temporary" (uh-oh there is that word again!) shelving and cabinets to store our things.  The pantry area was still unfinished, so we moved over an old shelving unit (used previously in our first Chilly Chiles store!).  It fits in well enough for now, and holds our chile peppers and hot sauces, which seems entirely appropriate!

And so the moving "dance" began. We would move over some boxes of items, and then try to find some way of dealing with the contents; hauling over bits of shelving and cabinets as we went along.  The cabin began to empty out a bit, and the new house began to take shape.  We both agreed that the whole process would have been a lot easier if we had finished building and installing some more cabinets, shelving and storage units in the new house before moving over, but we were both eager to make the move, so there was little that could be done about it. As well, once we  moved everything, and unpacked all of the items that had been stored away all this time, we figured we would have a clearer idea of what we really needed.

The Christmas season was a bit of a blur I must say.  We did take the time to walk out around the property and cut down a nice little Christmas tree.

We usually try to choose a fresh tree that we know has to be taken down at some point so that we aren't ripping nice healthy trees out of our forest. In previous years we would pick one that was growing under the power lines, as we have to maintain a clear swath of land beneath them. But this time we chose one that had two others entangled in it's branches, thinking that maybe the remaining ones will grow a bit better in the future.

As we continued to empty the log cabin, and came nearer to our finally moving day, we couldn't help but feel that leaving the log cabin was somewhat bittersweet.

It is so intrinsically linked to Rob's Mom, and both Rob and I thought of her often during the whole moving process.  As well, she had left a number of things in the cabin over the years, and we knew we were going to have to finally go through them, and determine what to do with the them.  In the end this proved to be far less daunting than we thought it would be.  Mom had traveled back and forth from her house to the cabin with most of the things she really loved, taking them back home with her at the end of her time in the cabin each summer.  Other than a few items that some family members might like to have as a memento, we were pretty much left with some clothes and old kitchen appliances to deal with.  Mostly though, we were left with memories and sweet reminders of the past. When I pulled out one of Mom's old sweatshirts I could clearly remember her wearing it when she was working away to help apply stain to the then unfinished logs, oh-so-many years ago.  There was still some stain on the shirt to prove it!

When we finally determined that we were really leaving the log cabin, and moving into the new house, we performed a small ceremony, and I played my singing bowl as I walked over.

By the time the New Year arrived, we were well and truly moved in. The two cats took a bit of adjustment time, hiding out under a desk for the most part, but in no time they were exploring their new digs, and both Axle and Sita seemed to especially like their new window perch. Sita had been diagnosed with kidney disease in the fall so I worried about her the most, but after the move she began to pick up a bit. She has always been somewhat timid and skittish, but she became much less so after the move.  Jet of course, had visited the new house often during the building process, so settled in quickly.

Rob had spent so much time in this house during the building process that it probably didn't seem all that different to him to be moved in.  But everything seemed new to me, and it took a while to get used to how things worked, as well as all the different sounds.

January was a pretty dark month, and we spent lots of time looking at the solar power tracking system, and adjusting our power usage accordingly.  We purchased a stove top kettle in lieu of our electric one. (We will use the electric one in the summer when we have a surplus of sunshine and power!).  We found ourselves a good dust mop, broom and dust pan to use when we didn't want to waste power by using a vacuum.  We considered trying to buy a small battery operated vacuum cleaner, but it still would need to have the battery charged, and it seemed rather expensive for what we wanted.  Instead we went with an old fashioned Bissell Manual Sweeper, not unlike one that my Welsh grandmother used to use.  It works perfectly well for the small number of area rugs that we have, and even picks up dog and cat hair!

We determined that using the toaster was o.k., as was using the microwave. We got ourselves into the habit of switching off lights when they weren't needed, and for the most part used laptops and iPads rather than our PC's.  All of the things we had planned and thought about seemed to be working really well. We had positioned light switches on entry and exit locations so that we could easily turn lights on and off as we proceeded through the house.  But we did find we had some problems with flickering lights on some of our fixtures.  After some research, we learned that the solution was to use a higher quality dimmer switch in the living room, and some higher quality LED bulbs.  It seemed to do the trick.

We weren't sure how the wood stove would do on the very cold days, but the house was as warm and snug as we hoped it would be.  I walked around barefoot every morning, and could feel the heat in the concrete floor, especially as I got closer to where the wood stove is situated. There were many days when we didn't even bother to get the stove going until later in the day, and on sunny days the passive solar gain was noticeable in the house. We did have a milder than usual January and February though, so we will have to see how we do in future winters here.

The kitchen isn't entirely finished, as it still requires drawer and cabinet fronts, more shelves, and a bar/seating area on the island. Nonetheless, cooking in the kitchen is a joy, and Rob has been happily making some of his favourite specialties these last few months. It's been nice to pull out some of our old cookbooks again too.

Getting used to a propane stove has been a bit of a learning curve. I find the elements are wonderful to use, but my first attempt at baking bread in the oven was a complete flop.  We've since learned that the oven takes 20 minutes or longer to reach temperature, and installed a thermometer in the oven just to make sure. I'm pretty certain that my next loaf will work out much better.

We learned that after a snowfall, getting the solar panels cleared was our top priority.  Even then, we had some unusual weather conditions this winter with a lot of freezing rain and ice pellets that covered the panels and resulted in pretty much zero solar power gain days, as we could not remove the icy crust at all.

As we slowly got used to the changes in our daily routines, we settled into a bit of a groove. We decided to just enjoy the new space, and not to rush into trying to finish anything for the time being.  We realized that we were both more than a bit tired from the push to get into the house, so it was time to just lay back a little.

Winter always provides us with different "chores" like clearing snow and we spent lots of time doing that.

In the mornings after a big snowfall,  Rob would get the tractor and snow plow out, and make sure my drive out to the shared road was clear, and then check to see if the municipal roads had been plowed at all. When they aren't I usually have to declare a "snow day" for myself, and cancel work plans.  If I was off work for the day, then once our roadway and paths were clear we could just get out and enjoy ourselves in our beautiful snowy surroundings.

We learned that we should try to clear one area of the roof between the house and the workshop where we walk out, just to stop a huge volume of snow from piling up there after we plowed. The snow just channels down this area of the roof, and it's a good idea not to be standing around there either!

By the end of January we began to see our daylight hours getting a tiny bit longer, and could see an improvement in the amount of solar power gain.  As well, we could sometimes have time for a quick walk together in "almost" light, when I returned home from work!

As January came to a close, we began to get back to working on the house. Rob began by attempting to make some sense of his workshop, so that he would have room in it to begin building cabinets and drawers for the new house.  We knew that this would take some time! We also knew that with us now living in the house, we didn't want to start messing it up and building things inside it again. Hopefully Rob can do most of the work beforehand in his shop.

Rob's first priority in the shop, was to get his dust collection system set up properly.  And so began a series of moves, and juggling around, as he tried to re-position the system, and his tools, in an attempt to make the most of the space he has.  Interestingly I just recently found a diary I kept when we lived in Navan, and in the month of January in 2010, what do you think Rob was working on?  Getting his dust collection system working.  Wow, some things just don't change.....

Rob could fill in a million details on this project, but all that I can say is that after getting it installed and working (with a pretty clever system of home made strobe lights and sensors that tells him when the barrel that collects the dust is full) he decided that the motor for the system was too hard on our solar power system and he needed a smaller motor.  So we unfortunately had to wait for a new motor and as of April we were still waiting for some additional parts to really test it all out.

On the plus side, he was able to finally move all of the wood out of the way of the window in the workshop, so it's nice and bright in there again.

With most major wood working projects back on hold, we decided to fix up a few areas in the house and get them working better for us. We got a nice shelf up above the washing machine in the mudroom to hold our laundry baskets. And we finally took the time to turn off all the annoying beeps and sounds that the new washer was programmed to make.  And by "annoying" I mean more to Jet than us, as he spent a lot of time barking at the new machine and watching it intently as it went through it's various cycles.  By the time it hit the last few minutes of it's running time he was full out barking at it.

We don't have a clothes dryer as it would simply use too much power, and most of the year we dry our clothes outside anyway.  We have an excellent drying rack for indoors, but when we dry sheets it's hard to spread them out on the one rack, so we invested in a second rack which has taken care of that problem.  We position them up in my studio, and everything dries up there in no time. I did try one winter day to put my clothes on the line back at the cabin, but the snow was up to my hip when I waded through to the line, and the line was only about 3 feet higher than the level of the snow, so it wasn't much use!

We switched the door on the refrigerator to open from the opposite side which is a vast improvement although it totally threw me when I went to open it the first time.  It's amazing how programmed our brains are.

And after only a couple of small floods in the guest bathroom shower, we learned that we needed to clear the linear drain plug more often.

Our friends Gary and Liz, who live in Florida, were busy finalizing plans to come to Canada to watch the Brier Curling Championships in the first week of March. They were planning on spending some time visiting us as well.  And yes, we did ask them why anyone would leave warm sunny Florida that time of year to come to the chilly White North. They were particularly impressed when we sent photos of a great big snow storm at the end of February.

The last time they visited us the house was really unfinished, and for a bed we could only offer them a futon, set up temporarily on some scaffolding. As much as I liked the look of that bed, we thought it might be a good idea to give them a proper bed.  So we did a bit of work in the guest room, and got it fixed up so that they would be more comfortable when they visited.

Their upcoming visit also gave us some incentive to clean up the log cabin a bit more, as that is where we needed to pull the bed from! With our dear friend Joe coming to visit for a night shortly before Gary and Liz's arrival, we decided to have him stay overnight in the cabin, so we had even more incentive to continue cleaning it up further. When we moved, we had left piles of items there that still needed to be dealt with, so it was a good time to just deal with some of them.

I must say was nice to see the log house cleaned up and some kind of order restored there. 

Unfortunately, towards the end of February, we had to admit that our sweet cat Sita was failing.  She would have been 19 this summer, and we had already lost her brother GB in 2018.  When she came to us as a kitten, we used to worry when our big gentle giant of a dog Zuni would pick her up by her head, and bring her onto the couch with him.  She would lie on him and suck on his fur like he was her mom, and he never seemed to mind. Even as she got a bit older, she would often snuggle up with him, especially when he would somehow climb into this chair.

In almost every photo I have of her, she is snuggling up somewhere with the other cats, or under a cover!

She didn't take up much space in this world, but her passing sure left a big hole in our hearts. It also left our one remaining cat, Axle to cope with being an only cat.  He sure seemed lonely the first few days, but we have been giving him extra snuggles and toys to play with.  He is diabetic, and seems to not hear all that well, but is otherwise fine for 17 years of age.

In early March we began to dream of Spring.  As the warmer days arrived, we took advantage of a sunny day, and had our annual ritual of our first beer down by the river.

We spotted some early hornets in the snow.

And on our walks in the early evening, there was a new softness to the light.

As we moved into mid-March, the world shifted.  When I look back now at this blog posting, it feels like a heavy line has been drawn between then and now. It's hard to imagine that such a short time ago none of us used words like self-isolation, social distancing, COVID, or pandemic. 

Like so many others in the world, I of course lost my job, and began dealing with some of life's new realities.  In the early weeks, we spent a lot of time online, trying to keep track of the news, and checking in with friends and family to see how everyone was coping.  We found it difficult to focus on tasks, and realized we would just have to continue to take life one day at a time. Slowly we did manage to get a few jobs done, after setting ourselves short daily to-do lists.  I was used to shopping for groceries most days after work, so like everyone, I have learned to shop every 7 to 10 days or so, to sanitize often, to wash hands often, and to wear a mask (after learning to make some!).  I was never so amazed as I was when I pulled out my 45 year old sewing machine, that has been sitting in storage for 8 years,  and it simply worked. 

Life is somehow completely different, yet in so many ways completely the same.  We are so fortunate that we can go for a walk every day in Nature. After our walk, we got into the habit of  a "daily meditation" down by the river, as it was comforting to see that the river hadn't changed, and that as usual for this time of year, the snow was slowly melting. I think of these moments as "finding the stillness". It definitely helped when the news seemed completely chaotic.

It was amazing to have moments when we could, at least for a short while, feel  that life was somewhat normal. 

Like a lot of people, we found ourselves unable to sometimes source the foods we were used to having on hand.  So one cold April day we decided to try our hand at Montreal style bagels after reading a CBC article on how to make them. We love wood oven fired bagels and can only get them here when our Metro store brings them in from Montreal.  We knew these wouldn't be the same if we did them in the propane oven, but the recipe called for baking them in a traditional oven, so we thought it might give us an alternative.  I was already back to making my own bread so why not?

So we mixed up the dough.  Then we kneaded it.

Pinched off little pieces and made them into a skinny cylindrical shape.

Rolled them around our hands to make a bagel shape.

Heated up a big pot of boiling water with a ton of honey in it.  And boiled our bagels.

Took the bagels out and drained them and tossed them with sesame seeds.

And then baked them in the oven.

They were good.  Nothing like a Montreal style bagel, but good.  Would we make them again? Probably not.... although we did eventually eat them all!

Rob gave up on baking experiments and went back to working in the workshop and made some drawers for my studio.

I went back outside and searched for signs of spring in the wetland.

The parts for the dust collector never arrived.  In many ways, neither did Spring!  We continued to have colder than average days through out April and well into May.  The last day of snow was May 12th.

I knew it was a bit early to put out a humming bird feeder, but really  - snow ?

Canadian friends of ours who now live in Houston Texas contacted us in early May when their father/father-in-law passed away unexpectedly, leaving their mum/mum-in-law living on her own in Ottawa, and with the unfortunate diagnosis of Alzheimer's.  They were needing to come up to Canada to help out, but with the pandemic, would have to quarantine for 2 weeks upon their arrival.  With the cabin empty we thought it would be a good place to quarantine, and we quickly agreed they could move into it, and stay there for that time period.  We rushed to get it into as good a shape as we could, stocked it with food and necessities and waited for their safe arrival.   It sure was hard to see them arrive and not give them the biggest of hugs, but we kept our distance and left them to get themselves settled in after a marathon drive getting here. For the next two weeks we made sure they had whatever food they needed, until their quarantine period was over and they could continue their journey into Ottawa. What a strange feeling to see them leave, and not have had any opportunity to sit around and share a meal together, or sit and play cards, or show them a bit of the beautiful countryside here.  Navigating this new world of quarantines and physical distancing is definitely difficult. 

It felt like the slowest, coldest, and strangest of springs, but by the May long weekend, signs of spring began to appear.  The Hepatica flowers are one of my favourites, and they began to show up in the woods (along with the Trilliums of course!)

And then - there was the horse.  Rob and I walked out of the house to go for a walk one afternoon, when I looked up and there was a horse standing in our laneway.   Now I have dreams about horses showing up in my laneway, so it felt like a dream come true !!  This one however was more skittish than the ones in my dreams, and trotted away when I approached it.  I ran back home for a dog leash and a carrot and managed to walk up to it slowly and get a hold of it's halter and snapped the leash to it.

We set out down our laneway towards the nearby Mennonite farm as we were pretty sure that it came from there.  On our way over we came across them out looking for the horse and reluctantly handed it over. In my dreams I get to keep them. Darn!

One of Rob's other endeavours while he was waiting to get back to serious woodworking was to get back into making home made beer.  He used to make excellent beers "back in the day" but although we still had all the equipment, we had not tried our hand at any for quite a long time.  We had purchased the ingredients to make some a couple of years ago but had neither the time nor the space to actually do it.  Unfortunately we decided to use those ingredients to make a batch.   Ugh - it grew something nasty looking in the carboy.

A check on all the home brew sites assured us it was nothing to worry about, so we went ahead and bottled it.  When it was time for it to be ready we tried it and it had a horrible bitterness and off flavour. No matter how many times we tasted it as it continued to age, it did not improve.  I decided I could maybe salvage some and found a recipe for a cauliflower, beer and cheddar soup.   Halfway through making the recipe I tasted it, and the cauliflower had only enhanced that bitter and off flavour.   I reluctantly tossed the entire soup after trying to drain and rinse the cauliflower to no avail.  We finally agreed to get rid of the remaining bottles, and set out to find ourselves more beer making supplies.

As always, Rob had some fun designing some gizmos to make the job easier.  The photo below shows his home made wort chiller in use. 

Early in the pandemic, with worries about food safety and shortages, we also decided to try to get ourselves a little veggie garden going.  We opted to make a raised bed garden and ordered some seeds and plants.  We also decided to employ a little Hugelkultur principle, by making the raised garden bed and then filling it with "rotted" wood from the forest.  We constructed the sides with old boards we had on hand, filled it with branches and small rotting tree trunks, and soil that we had on the property, and then just had to buy some extra bags of organic compost to mix in.  (This was a little taller than most raised beds, at about 30 inches so the branches and trees not only provide nutrients and hold moisture, but eliminate the need for so much soil). We planted a lot in that little garden!  Seeds from Richters arrived for two kinds of lettuce, spinach, kale, basil, chives, epazote, pak choi, and cress,  and then we ordered and picked up some amazing plants from the local Connaught Nursery  (rosemary, sweet peppers, jalapenos, cherry tomatoes, roma tomatoes, slicing tomatoes, and tomatillos).  

Everything did really well on the whole, considering it was our first attempt. And I learned a lot.

In June we found out that our 14 year old Toyota truck was on it's last legs, (or is that tires ? ) Our mechanic let us know that he could try a temporary fix to the rear differential to buy us some time, but recommended we start looking for a new vehicle.  We were fortunate that he was at least able to keep the truck going for a while longer, as we had planned on cleaning up all of our construction materials from the last several years, and sorting them and taking them up to our local waste and recycle site, which we were able to do.  It felt great to finally clean up that mess, although somewhat perturbing to have to haul stuff away when we try so hard not to produce so much waste.  

And so by the end of June we found ourselves with a number of tasks taken off our list; log house emptied and cleaned, construction debris gone, garden growing, replacement vehicle found, a few cords of woods split and stacked and drying ready for fall and the dust collection system finally ( ! ) up and running.  Just when I thought we would begin getting at the many projects that needed to be done inside the new house, the possibility of a new task cropped up.  The two really big remaining jobs at the new house were getting the rest of the outside fill in and graded around the house, and finishing the exterior of the house and workshop.  Both of those were jobs that had to be done in the summer, and both would be a lot of work, and somewhat costly. 

We took a trip up to a local lumber supplier to see what he had in stock, and to get an idea of prices for wood for the exterior of the house.  We already knew we wanted to do a "reverse" board and batten look and had already picked a stain brand and colour back when we had first put the windows in the house. We had to choose the exterior window frame colour then, so we picked one that would match the siding colour when we eventually got around to installing it. Long story short, we ordered the wood, ordered the stain, and set off in a whole new direction.

On the hottest and most humid day of the year, a truck arrived with over 5000 linear feet of pine boards for our siding, and pine for our window frames.  We had to unload it mostly by hand, (fortunately with the help of the supplier and his wife) and stacked it outside overnight covered in tarps in case of rain.  The next  day Rob and I sorted and moved the entire stack into a shed to keep it dry.  It sure looked like a lot of wood!

On the next clear day, we began to stain both sides of the pine that would be used for siding.  We set ourselves up under tarps to protect us from the sun a bit.  It took a while to get into a routine, but once we figured it out, it went really well. We set up drying racks for the planks, and stacked them to dry as we went along.

July was an incredibly hot and dry month, so we took breaks often, but at least the wood dried pretty quickly, and we could make good progress.

It would be nice if we could have just stained all of the wood that we bought while the weather was good, but we didn't have enough room to stack the finished pieces without them getting in the way of the ones that needed doing, so we had to do it in sections at a time.  The other dilemma is that when the weather is good, we had to decide whether we should be staining, or putting up siding!

Weather is always a factor for us.  On rainy days we switch gears and do inside jobs. When we learned that some family members wanted to come up and use the cabin for a weekend, we used a couple of rainy days to make another bed frame for a futon mattress so that they would have a more comfy stay there.

They were unable to make it after all , but we got another "to-do" item off our list!

By the first week of August some of the exterior window frames were built, stained, and installed.  We love the shade of turquoise that we chose! 

Then the job of putting up the boards began.   The scaffolding is nice, but it causes it's own problems as it seems to never be quite the right height, and sometimes it is just in the way.   We always learn as we go....

If I thought this would go quickly, I was wrong.  There was a lot to figure out, and of course I was only thinking of the walls, not the soffits and the roof line.  Along the way we also decided we should put a second coat of stain on the boards on the south and east facing walls for extra protection. 

We both agreed though, that it was looking good!

August was a particularly wet and rainy month, and it slowed our progress somewhat. It became obvious that we are not even remotely going to get the siding up on the house let alone the workshop before winter.  And we still had a number of "fall" chores to get done.  We had to start thinking about bringing down our firewood, and where to store it.  We had hoped to get a wood shed built this year, but it never even made the list.

Even before the pandemic, we tried our best to have patience and take the time to enjoy the process. We know there is no point lamenting the things that don't get done.  If anything, the pandemic has made us even more grateful for where we live, and what we are able to see and do every day.

This next section of the posting is the hardest to write.  In the first week of September, the day after his 10th birthday, we had to say goodbye to our sweet German Shepherd, Jet.  He became ill late one night in August with "bloat" but an emergency trip to a vet in Ottawa that night saved him.  He was quite ill for a few days, but slowly recovered and we hoped it wouldn't happen again.  Unfortunately  one Saturday night  a few weeks later, it became apparent it had happened again, but this time the vet had bad news for us, and a hard choice was made.  

I could write an entire blog of our 10 years of adventures with Jet. He was the most challenging, smart, funny, loving and protective dog we ever have had.  He filled every moment of our days and nights here.  He had an enormous "vocabulary" and we once filled pages with all of the words that he knew and understood.  He would fetch Rob's slippers any time Rob needed them.  He loved to work and he lived to play. We are both completely lost without him, and even now a few months later look for him every time we enter the house.  We try to be grateful for the time we had with him, but as his amazing trainer Cheryl Smith always says "they are never with us long enough".  

The loss of Jet completely knocked the wind out of our sails.  The rest of September was a blur; and I think we spent a lot of our time walking, walking, walking.  And missing our sweet dog.

Fortunately some friends came up and spent time on occasion at the cabin, and although we couldn't really socialize much, we were able at least to sit outdoors (at a distance) and chat a little which helped cheer us up a bit.  

And Nature of course always has a way of bringing you back to the moment.  By late September, the daylight hours were shortening rapidly, and the temperatures were getting cooler.  Our hearts weren't really into it, but we pushed ahead to get more siding up, and to make more preparations for the upcoming winter.

Sometimes working on a project helps to stop your brain from thinking too much.  Moving our firewood down and getting it all stacked was a perfect job for that!

We managed to get almost the entire one side of the house finished, and a nice door overhang built and installed.

Although we had snow at the end of October, in early November we had some amazingly warm days and we took full advantage of them.  It was even warm enough one day to invite some friends over to sit outside by the river and have a (well distanced) chat.  We didn't think we would be able to see anyone here again until we could all sit outside in the spring ! 

With the garden cleaned up and ready for next year, snow tires on the car, and the scaffolding down and tucked away, we were almost, (but not quite) ready when the real snow arrived later in November.

December found us enjoying some spectacular mornings down by the river, with heavy hoar frost at the edges, and mist rising off of the water.

If any of you are actually still awake after reading this rather lengthy posting, I promise I am almost at the end.

I always intended to include a few photos of the interior of the house earlier in the posting, so will just insert some here.  We have been so fortunate to finally move into this beautiful space that we worked so hard to build, yet I feel that it has been a year tinged with sadness as we have watched events unfold across the world.

 

Every day though, we feel incredibly grateful to be here, and I take the time each morning when I get up, to walk through this space, and also to look out of the windows and admire the forest, wetland and river.  

It has been such a strange year.  But as always, I am filled with hope for the days to come.

I hope anyone who reads this is safe and well.  And I hope that all of us can see and hug all of our loved ones soon, and share a meal and some time together. And I hope that those of you we usually see in person can visit us again soon.  We'll go for a nice long walk together, chat, have some tea and share a few stories.