Fluctuating February

I feel like I begin every blog posting with a comment about the weather.  But when I read a friend's blog recently, and she too brought weather into the conversation, I realized it's because both of us are in the midst of a building project, and the weather affects so much of what we do and when we do it.   This year, February was much milder than previous years, but with those mild temperatures came snow storms, rain, ice pellets, and fluctuating freeze-thaw cycles that turned our long roadway into a rather treacherous skating rink! I had two "snow days" in February when I couldn't make it to work, and a third one in the first week of March.

Rob loves being in the new house during a storm. The inside is snug and warm, and incredibly quiet, despite the howling winds outside, and the blowing snow that is visible from so many directions through the windows. "Snow days" are also plow days for Rob though, so once the storm passes it pulls him away from working on the inside of the house and back out into that winter wonderland. 

For me, a snow day is a great time to go for a walk, with my camera tucked away in a waterproof bag (although it does little good once I pull it out to take some photos).  I like to check the road conditions just to confirm that I made the right choice in not driving to work. This is the main road at the beginning of one of the storms, so I definitely made the right choice that day!

 I'm always amazed how our world becomes so "black and white" during a storm.

In the photo below there is a lone wild turkey making it's way to the tree line.  I'm sure there were more turkeys already sheltered there as they usually seem to travel in groups.

Along with snow days, we also had some pretty mild weather, and were surprised one day to see the temperature go up well above zero.

Rob and I make good use of such beautiful days to refill the wood boxes with firewood, clean up the snow that slides off the various roofs and piles up near doorways and walkways, and enjoy a few good walks, especially by the river.  What a difference a warm sunny day makes!  My favourite place to sit in the winter is on this log, at the edge of the river. It's sheltered from the wind, close to the river (but not too close!) and I can happily sit there, watching the occasional bird, listening to the cracking sounds of the ice, and the soft sound of the river flowing by.  I can almost - almost - imagine that in a few months we'll be splashing around in that river to cool off from the summer's heat!

February is also the month that Rob and I celebrate our anniversaries - of our first date, and moving in together, and of course there is also Valentine's Day.  Our friends Gary and Liz commented that we never post photos of ourselves on the blog so here's one for them.  It's a photo of Rob and I when we first bought this property, some 25 plus years ago, sitting near the river in one of our favourite spots, (which is just a few feet away from the log in the photo above!) 

Work has, of course, been progressing in the new house.  I've lost track of how many feet of electrical wire Rob has run, but it seems to be a lot. I've already gone back to the store twice for additional rolls of wire. (Rob knows exactly how much he has run I'm sure!)  I liked how he rigged up two pieces of extra eave extension to accommodate the spools of wire, which made it easier to unwind them as the wire got pulled through the house.

There is a certain thrill in looking at the electrical panel too!

There is also a little story about that perfectly nice timber tucked in to the right of the panel. Rob carefully chose the placements for all the timbers in the house, knowing that some would crack more than others as they dried. He placed this timber in the corner where it wouldn't be very visible as he was sure this one would crack a lot. Well, it hasn't cracked at all. In fact it's just a beautiful and perfect timber. The highly visible timbers? Yup, cracking away .... I think the cracks just add to the beauty and character of the timbers though. And it's entirely normal.

After Rob spends a long day pulling electrical wire, and wiring up electrical boxes, each evening we've been discussing lighting and lighting fixtures.  

Now, I said I wouldn't write about getting the truck stuck on the ice one day, and the wood ashes someone put down on the ice to help get some traction, that had dozens of nails in it, so I won't. (Whoops!) But I will write about the fact that Rob is a bit of a collector of things - you know - those things that you keep and never throw out? Ever?  Bits of this and bobs of that... spare parts, used parts, (not to mention several parts from scanning electron microscopes... ) And there are times, when I might perhaps suggest that he has collected a bit too much "stuff". Well, I will gladly admit that this has turned out to be a good thing more times lately than I can count, but it has proved to be really, really good in terms of lighting.  Having built three stores, a workshop, a log cabin, and the dome, we (?) seem to have collected quite a bit of lighting over the years, and it looks like now we are going to be able to put a lot of it to good use. And having spent some time on the web looking at the cost of fixtures, not having to buy some is definitely going to help with our limited budget. We've also been looking at fixtures that we like, and trying to figure out whether we can somehow make something similar ourselves.  But that is a long term plan, and in the short term, we will have to get some lighting in place throughout the house.

While working on the electrical, Rob had to put up some drywall sheets here and there in the house.  What a difference it makes to see drywall up.  This is the entrance to our bedroom. We both started envisioning a nice piece of artwork on that wall, but of course when the door swings open, it will largely cover that up.

This is a small closet in our bathroom.  We think it will be an open closet, with maybe some shelves up top and a closed unit below.  It would be a good place for extra towels and such.  I guess this is more exciting to us right now, as we have been making do with having three towels since we came here. We don't have a lot of space in the cabin, so most of our linens are in storage.  On the other hand, we haven't needed more than three towels, so I'm not sure that we really need more now, or a place to put them! Having lived happily with "less" all this time, I am pretty sure there are some things, where I don't want "more".  So maybe these will be empty shelves ! Or a place for some of our funky fun pottery pieces and artwork.

Of course, that said, as much as I don't want more "stuff", I do wish for more "space".  Especially in the kitchen.  On a recent day off, while our banana/carrot bread cooled on a rack (balanced somewhat precariously on top of the toaster),  I cleaned up the counter and made some room for the bowls I needed to make granola. So imagine my surprise when I returned to the kitchen and found my little bit of space, occupied by a bunch of tools !!
Nice...
I have to admit, I couldn't stop laughing when I took a photo of it.

I decided not to include photo after photo of electrical boxes, and wiring.  While it is exciting to see progress, when you've seen one electrical box, you probably don't need to see another one.  I will say though, that there was a lot more to it than I thought.  While we didn't need to know what exact fixture we would be using, and where, we did need to decide what kind of fixture (LED lighting, or regular fixture with LED bulb) and at least approximately where we thought we might install them, in order to ensure there was something to connect to later on. All the wiring has to be run before the insulation and drywall is put in. The floor is solid concrete and there is no basement, so unlike a lot of houses, it's difficult to add wiring later on. And of course, we had to meet all the electrical code requirements for ground fault interrupters and arc fault interrupters, using the appropriate wire where required, and the correct sized boxes etc., etc. etc.....  Today we even had to think about where we be will running speaker wires, so had to decide where the speakers will be mounted.  I think both of us could do with some sort of more mindless task for a bit, as it feels like things have been pretty intense the last few weeks. Every night Rob would check and update his wiring diagrams (see below) and make sure he had everything he needed for the next day's task.

As soon as we finished up with the "rough" electrical wiring, we arranged for the first electrical inspection and yay!- it passed!. Of course then we began to think about the next series of jobs. Within minutes of the inspection, Rob was talking about running the plumbing that will bring hot and cold water to the various parts of the house.  And we still need to decide on how we will actually get hot water. (More on that in a later blog I think!)  

Once the plumbing is complete, we can schedule another building inspection, and then we can begin to put in the interior insulation and get that drywall up.

Now the weather is beginning it's pre-spring tease though.  This weekend the temperatures rose above normal, and the birds began to stir.  It's hard to stay indoors when it's sunny and "warm" out!  There's a part of me though, that feels like I'm not quite ready for winter to be over - I lamented today that we didn't go snowshoeing once, and I never curled up by the wood stove with a good book on a snowy day... Oh well, I can save it all for next winter I'm sure (and I'm not quite convinced that we won't see a bit more winter weather yet!)  Only a few days ago I might also have been whining just the tiniest bit about having to bundle up in so many layers, so many times in one day. So today, with the milder weather, we tried to balance some indoor work, and web research, with a couple of nice walks in the woods and along the river (wearing no wool hat or mitts!). Listened to woodpeckers, chickadees and nuthatches, and admired the tracks of the wild turkeys all along the river edge.  And of course Jet had some playtime in that lovely snow too - as before long it may all be gone.

New Year - 2014

I can't believe how quickly the time has passed. Suddenly we have found ourselves into the first week of January, with Christmas and New Year's celebrations already over. Although we celebrate the season pretty simply, we both look forward to Christmas, and always enjoy the festivities. We still hang on to some of our favourite traditions; playing our favourite Christmas music, (Charles Brown Cool Christmas Blues, Jethro Tull Christmas Album, and various other bluesy Christmas albums we have picked up over the years) hanging up the Christmas cards we receive, calling some friends and family.  Eating mince meat tarts, and Christmas shortbread. Stocking the fridge with the ingredients for some special meals. We both agreed though, to opt out of the interior Christmas tree tradition again this year. Space in the cabin is just too tight. However, I came home from work one night to the wonderful glow of Christmas lights outside the cabin. Rob had decided to surprise me by hanging some lights on one of the trees outside of the kitchen.  (It was rather cold to go back outside to try to take a photo so I took it from inside the kitchen!)  It was a beautiful surprise, and lent a nice festive air to the rest of the season.

As we have done for the past few years, Rob and I agreed to each buy the other two good books for Christmas. We are so happy to have found a wonderful independent bookstore in Arnprior. We shopped together, so we were both concerned that we had picked the same books - but we didn't!

I must say though, that Rob's favourite gift this season was probably the helicopter his sweet Mom sent him. Yes - a remote control helicopter. Jet was not nearly as impressed with it, when Rob started it up and it flew into Jet's nose. Rob says he needs a large interior space to fly it in - and this cabin is clearly not large. When he suggested he could maybe try it out in the yoga studio I go to - well obviously I had to say no.... but it was tempting!

Leading up to Christmas, Rob continued to try to build an enclosed space on the porch so that he would have some where to work on some smaller timbers this winter. But the weather just did not co-operate, and we were hit with such cold temperatures that he wasn't able to do much outdoors. We've had a lot of nights in the minus 20 to minus 30 range already! He did manage to finally get something built, but it took a while. Just before New Year's things warmed up a bit, and Rob moved some timbers down in preparation.  Working outside in the snow was a still a bit of a challenge, and he found he got cold and wet pretty quickly. The "warm spell" didn't last long, and we were back into very cold weather in no time. By New Year's Eve they were forecasting lows of minus 32, with wind chills well below that. The timbers were put away again until the next "thaw".

 

 
The little wood stove we have in the cabin does an amazing job, but we did find that at really cold temperatures we were struggling a bit, and had to finally turn on some electric heat to help keep the chill off. We woke up one morning to a rather cold temperature of 8 degrees in the house. Now some of you may remember that when I first lived with Rob I used to complain when my shampoo froze in the Dome, so perhaps I have become a little soft if I can't tolerate 8 degrees now! Luckily I have a good supply of long johns, and a good thick warm wool sweater, so I can get warm even when the cabin feels a bit chilly.

Despite the cold though, we still find ourselves outdoors several times a day. The beauty of the woods and the river beckons no matter what the temperature is. The river changes daily, and we like to walk along the edge to see the changes in the flow, the ice that gathers in beautiful formations, and the few ducks that cling to the remaining open water these days.

 

 

The open areas are slowly disappearing though. I'm pretty sure that last year we could still see a small channel of flowing water in front of the cabin, but by New Year's this year, there was no visible channel in this area.

Every day we also walk over to the building site. We are a little nervous about the lack of sunlight in December, as we will be depending on it for our solar powered electricity! So we walk down to the site at various times during the day to see whether or not the sun would be hitting the future solar panels location.

When there is no sun (and that has been a pretty frequent occurrence the last several weeks!) we simply walk down to the site, and look around and think about the house, the river, the beauty of the land.... Sunshine or not, every day we also walk around the property, through the woods, up the roadways, and along the paths.

We see lots of tracks in the snow; fox, deer, wild turkeys, snowshoe hares, but with Jet along we don't see a lot of wildlife.  We do scare up a grouse sometimes, and there are always red squirrels in the cedars, no matter how cold it is! 
 

Rob has been busy with more research the last few weeks. Now is the time to figure out a lot of the details, and we have to make decisions about some of the items we will need this year. The brand of wood boiler, the sizes, style and placement of windows and doors, the final finish for the concrete floor, the type of metal roof, well the list goes on and on. He spent a pretty good amount of time too, working out how he is going to assemble the timbers and raise them.  There's a lot to think about!

I'm glad we were able to spend more time living here first before we jump into building the new house. It gives us time to get a feel for the all of the seasons, and sometimes make adjustments to our plans. This week we noticed that we have lost any of the passive solar gain in the upstairs rooms in the cabin. The snow and ice slid down the roof, then froze again, blocking out most of the sun that used to shine through the windows and warm the rooms. I don't think we will have the same issue in the new house, but it's something to think about.

We also have a solar panel that we are testing, and we have come to realize how often it has to have the snow removed from it! Then of course we are also reminded that we have to think about where the snow falls, where it will slide down the roof and pile up, and where to put it when we shovel or plow. Every season brings a little more knowledge, and something else to consider. In the middle of summer it's too easy to forget about things like snow!

Well, maybe for me - I'm not the one out plowing...

 

As another festive season ends, we are both looking forward to getting back into some kind of routine here in the cabin. We had a lovely couple of weeks; good food, good wine, and a bit of time to relax after the stress of concrete pads, septic systems, well digging etc.  It's time now though to tuck away the Christmas cards, and Christmas bottle stoppers for another year, and get back to work on the house plans!

 

 

Weather Watcher

Before we moved here, I was always a "weather watcher". The weather often played a role in determining how busy the store would be, and we also needed to monitor conditions across the country during the winter to make sure that it wasn’t so cold that items we sent out would freeze and break in transit. But we also walked a fair amount, and it helped to know the temperature and wind direction and strength, before heading out, so we could dress appropriately.

If I thought I would lose the habit of checking the weather forecasts, I was wrong. We use it to plan even more than we did before. If we see a snow storm is due to arrive, we double check our supplies in the cabin, and drive out to pick up anything we think we may need. Even though Rob plows us out with the tractor, we know a heavy snowfall means that the shared road that leads to our laneway probably won’t be done right away, and the municipal road is certain not to be. Although I always make sure we have a good supply of food, candles, batteries etc., I still find that we get low on items such as milk, and fresh vegetables. Although we do keep some powdered milk and canned vegetables just in case, it always seems like a good idea to get out and stock up while we can.

A mild spell means it’s time to take a look around outside and see if anything needs our attention. We keep an eye that the chimney isn’t blocked with creosote at the top of the vent, and this week our drain stack froze up with a chunk of ice so now we know to keep an eye on it too. It’s also a good time if it’s mild for Rob to service the tractor and dry out the shelter around it. Every day, regardless of the weather we fill our wood box outside, but when it is mild Rob also takes advantage of the weather to make sure the kindling box is full, and to split more if needed.

If we have plans to travel a ways we also need to know what to expect in the way of weather and road conditions, so we try to plan our trips for when the weather is reasonable. I also try to go to a Yoga class in Renfrew every Wednesday morning, so keep watch on the weather to see if I will be able to make it or not. It’s a fabulous drop in class at Heartsong Yoga, and if I can’t make it on a Wednesday I sometimes have the option of going on a Friday morning or Monday evening instead. However, because I also do our shopping while I’m out, I prefer to go on Wednesdays and plan my weekly shopping accordingly. We try to minimize the amount of gas we use, and run our errands in the most cost effective manner.

Our recent thaw was followed by a real cold snap. It seemed like one day we were watching the thermometer soar above freezing, with promises of a 10 degree day and record breaking warmth, and a short while later they were promising the coldest day in 8 years.

Rob had decided to try to build a small and temporary enclosure on the porch, to allow us some space to hang wet coats, and to kick off our boots before bringing them inside We thought it would also help block out a bit of the cold air that comes in when we go out the river side door to fetch more firewood. So he rushed during the thaw to get it done. It isn’t perfect, but it works. He used heavy insulation board; Foamular, that we will reuse when we build the new house, and he found an old door up at the top of the property to install on one side. We needed something that would allow us to enter it from the porch side.  He put the insulation on the floor, walls and ceiling so I always feel like I am walking into some kind of a weird pink cooler. (And of course humming that Pink Panther song...) There is OSB (Oriented Strand Board ) on the floor over the Foamular to prevent damage, and a good quality mat from the old store to catch the snow. It’s a good place to store our snowshoes, and there is a shelf so I can put my casseroles or soups out to cool before I freeze them too! It’s nice as it also blocks the wind and helps keep the snow from blowing in on the porch.

As the temperature dropped Rob also finished the new requirement for an extra 4 inches of non-combustible material behind the wood stove. We weren’t thrilled to have to do this as we had built the hearth to the required building code and had worked hard on the original design, but they have since changed the code apparently, so we had to do it. He burnished some pieces of aluminium and attached them at the required distance from the wall. I don’t think it looks too bad, and in a short while we probably won’t even notice it.

(Hmmm, nice photo - it looks a lot better since we moved the welding machine out of the living room, and several of the boxes out of the dining room. I should have taken a photo while they were still all there!)

At the same time we were also required to block in the area around the pre-fab pipe that ran through the bedroom on the second floor so he has done so. The pipe provided a little bit of radiant heat to the room, and now the room seems a bit cooler, so it is unfortunate, but again, it is a new requirement so not much we can do about it. Plus it allows us to now put in a small closet area, so that is probably a good thing as well!

Yesterday, the weather called for snow. It’s the first big snowfall we’ve had in a while. We had so much snow at the start of the winter that Rob was sure he was going to have to buy a cab for the tractor in order to stay warm and dry. (And I think he was beginning to feel like he would be plowing snow every day for the rest of the winter!) But the cabs are really expensive, and realistically, if we don’t have to plow more than a dozen times throughout the winter, it may not be so bad. (Easy for me to say of course, as I remain snug and dry back at the cabin) I think we may just sit and see how the winter goes. Rob has looked at plans and thinks he could probably make a cab himself, which might be the best option.

Today we are keeping an eye on the forecast, as they are calling for freezing rain followed by a high of plus 10 on Wednesday! We weren’t sure whether we should plow or not. We were worried that if we plowed and then got heavy freezing rain it would be like a skating rink, but if we don’t plow and we get rain rather than freezing rain, it may get so heavy that it causes other problems. In the end we plowed, and we shall see how that decision works out later on.

Yesterday I was pretty thrilled to see that the average low has just switched direction – we are now moving to warmer temperatures as the night time average! Minus 18 was the average low on Saturday, minus 17 is now the average. Doesn’t sound like much, but it means that we are well on our way through winter. On the other hand, that means that spring isn’t too far away – so we need to buckle down and get these house plans figured out!

I had a lot of ideas for things to do here in the cabin during the winter, and one of them was to learn to bake bread. In my last blog I had picked up the ingredients, and since then I made my first hand made bread! I had planned to make it earlier, but the warm spell meant we didn’t have the wood stove on as much so I decided to wait until the weather was colder again. I wanted to make sure the house was warm enough for the dough to rise properly.

I had picked up the book Bread for all Seasons by Beth Hensperger at the local library and had narrowed my choices down to about 8 different breads. For my first one I chose a Sesame Whole Wheat bread as it was touted as being high in fibre and nutrition, but also easy to make. I had a few moments of anxiety – like when it said to have the water at a certain temperature and I hadn’t even thought about how to do that. But we have an insta-read meat thermometer and it worked perfectly! I also found it hard to stir the flour in by hand, but I moved the bowl of dough to the dining table which is a bit lower and that seemed to make it easier for me to get a good grip on the spoon and bowl. By the time I finished there was the odd bit of flour everywhere, and I felt things were slightly out of control when I couldn’t find anything big enough to put the dough in to allow it to rise. Luckily I found a larger bowl and placed the bowl of dough upstairs in the bedroom where the temperature was warmer and more even, and after a couple of hours of gentle rising, it was ready for the oven!
The aroma of bread cooking was heavenly, and I kept going outside and back in so I could really get the full effect. And Voila – my first bread!

It was good, but both Rob and I like a bread that is a little more dense with a touch more flavour. Still, I was totally happy with it for my first try. And one day for lunch I remarked that we were eating my homemade soup, made with homemade turkey broth, accompanied by homemade bread, and followed up by homemade cookies. If you had told me a year ago we would be doing that, I would have said "no way!"

Yesterday I gave it another go, and made an Oatmeal Buckwheat and Honey bread recipe. This one seems to be a bit more dense and I really like the flavour of the buckwheat. It was a bit trickier, as it seemed stickier, but it seems to have worked out just fine. Once again, the cabin was filled with the delicious aroma of yeast and honey. Mmmmmmmm….. Each recipe made 3 loaves, so I kept 2 loaves out and froze one, so our freezer is going to be full of bread soon!

Our weather watching isn't only done by PC of course. We walk every day, and every day we go down to the river to see the changes that the weather brings. The ice at the river's edge was well out into the river before the thaw, but the thaw melted almost all of the ice. The cold snap brought it all back, and right in front of the cabin it now almost stretches right across the river. We know it is not solid though, so don't venture out very far on it. It is pretty solid right now at the edge, and we know the water is shallow there so we will go out a foot or so but that's about it. With the next thaw tomorrow, we won't even go that far.

 

 

 

 

Even on the coldest day, if the sun is shining, there's a perfect little spot at the edge of the river, where there are some logs piled up, and I love to sit there.  It's a bit sheltered from the wind, and the sun always feels warm, and on a perfect day there is sometimes a slight mist on the river, and some ice floating by.  It is so quiet, all I can hear is the sound of the ice shifting, the river flowing, and the whisper of wind in the trees behind me. It's the perfect spot to weather watch.