Life goes on

These last two weeks have certainly seen us going through a see-saw of emotions. The recent passing of Rob's Aunt Dorothy has made us both sad and reflective, but the memories we carry have also brought smiles, and even laughter. Our thoughts are with her family, and we hope they are coping through this difficult time. I know that people will say she had a good long life and lived to be 90, but as I get further up in years, I am beginning to feel that 90 isn't even remotely long enough. No matter one's age; it still doesn't take away the pain of missing someone.

As always - "life does go on" and for the rest of us remaining here, we still have those day to day tasks to attend to. I must say though, that we are fortunate here to be able to take some extra time to contemplate, to grieve a little, and to celebrate a life. With the woods and the river, and the beauty around us, we were both able to turn to the Nature around us to help heal a little, and to give us some time to think about life, and an aunt that we both loved.

If we were reluctant to return to life's other matters, Mother Nature certainly gave us a nudge in that direction this week with some unusually warm days, followed by promises of freezing rain and snow storms. It was time to get some things taken care of before the bad weather arrived.

While we would like to build and erect lovely wooden structures everywhere to house the tractor and other items that we would like to keep out of the snow and rain, the reality was that winter was fast approaching and we needed a more immediate solution. We somewhat reluctantly decided to buy a temporary garage structure, and after a lot of research, chose the best one we could find, and set about installing it in front of the cabin. I would have to say that our hearts were truly not in this project.  We both suspect that these shelters do not last very long, and we prefer not to buy things that may soon become landfill.

However, there is a good story here. In 2001 when we moved our store to a new location, the owner of the store we moved into offered to leave some "granite" squares that were in his showcase. Rob agreed to take them, but when he went to dismantle the showcase was soon terrified to touch it. The squares were ridiculously heavy and mounted in such a manner that he was sure the whole thing would simply come crashing down on him. Nonetheless, he managed to dismantle it, and somehow moved them all back to our warehouse. Where they sat. And sat. And I kept urging him to dispose of them, thinking we had no use for them. But there they remained.  Until we moved. And then Rob moved them all here. And I gave him a hard time about it.

So you can just imagine the glee in his voice, when he told me how he was going to anchor the new garage structure, as we are on limestone and there was no way he could see to insert the earth anchors that came with it. You guessed it - he used the granite stones and bolted the structure to them. Sigh. Now he will never part with anything. But I will admit - somewhat grudgingly - it worked!

Luckily we had some warmer weather during this installation, although it did rain heavily through most of it. Rob was outside in the dark for a lot of it as well. While we are on the topic of not getting ridding of stuff - I noticed that the black light here has been sent to the garbage pickup several times, yet strangely it appears in this photo. Obviously it is still working and useful and not truly destined for landfill yet either.

Rob followed the instructions for putting the shell together but this was clearly not a one person job, and I was of little help as it was heavy and beyond my reach. We struggled to get it together, but it just wasn't working. He finally dismantled the entire thing, and went about it from a timber frame point of view instead, and had it up in no time. Clever guy. The tarps went up over it just as the temperatures dropped. It isn't the most attractive thing to have in front of our pretty cabin, but it works. And I think it would make a great tent for a party in the summer!

The daylight hours are awfully short these days. Our firewood arrived in the dark, and I was grateful that I have been carrying a flashlight in my jacket so we could see to jockey things around to make room for the truck that brought the wood.  We were a bit worried that the wood wasn't quite dry enough, but Rob has a moisture meter, and it seems that it checked out o.k.  We may have to split it a bit more so it will fit in our wood stove and burn a bit more efficiently though.

So we got two items off our "before winter" list (check, check) and then as always - two more added! The wood stove chimney appeared to be blocked at the top so needed to be checked and cleaned, which meant rigging up a ladder system so Rob could get up on the roof. Then we discovered the gasket in the stove also needed replacing. The nearest dealer was an hour away so we had a nice trip together to go pick it up, and stopped for a fabulous coffee and sweet walnut cranberry square at Alice's Village Cafe in Carp. We will have to go back there for lunch some time soon as everything looked delicious, and it's a lovely space with the work of local artists on the walls. When we left we took a couple of new roads back which was fun. Despite the greyness of the day, we drove through some beautiful areas.

In the spirit of trying new things, I also came home from shopping with a pomegranate. Now maybe everyone else in the world has eaten a pomegranate - but I never have! Rob remembers eating them at Christmas as a child. They were on sale for 1$ each at the store, so how could I resist? Having no clue what to do with one, I turned to Youtube. Most of the videos recommended opening them up under water to easily extract the seeds, but I was intrigued by a video that claimed it was the "no water method".   I don't think I can always recommend Youtube.  This very nice, very effusive guy explained you just cut the pomegranate in half, gently work both halves a bit to loosen the seeds, turn the first half upside down in a bowl and then whack it with a spoon until the seeds fall out. Now maybe I was a bit keen and should have listened more carefully to the end of the video when he suggested you wear an apron, but I didn't. And he wasn't wearing one. Come to think of it though, the lighting on his video was rather dim. Anyway, I followed his instructions, and when I whacked it - all the juice spurted out over the counter, the toaster, the walls, the cutting board - and me. And it stains like crazy. Oh well  - it did work, and in no time I had a bowl of shiny pomegranate seeds. And they were delicious! We ate them plain, I added them to a couscous dish with mint and olive oil that we served with pork in an orange juice and cumin sauce (yumm!) and I put them into our smoothies in the morning. What a great amount of enjoyment, and all for $1 !

Last week one of our neighbours from our old neighbourhood showed up with a friend for a visit, and kindly brought along the two ristras we had forgotten and left still hanging on the dome when we moved. (With the permission of the new owner of course!) So in the spirit of Christmas I added a little Christmas cheer and hung them up outside the cabin.  We will try to get a few lights up outside this week, and a few favourite Christmas decorations up in the cabin.  They are all in a box somewhere. (This is our new mantra!) But we are pretty mellow about the whole thing. This is our first time in almost 20 years that we are not running a retail business, so we are just going to relax and enjoy the season.

I still have not managed to get a photo of the snowshoe hares. They have almost entirely changed their coats to white, and when the snow briefly melted I could see them hopping around deep in the forest looking like ghost rabbits.  I see their tracks all around the cabin, but now that the snow has returned it will be harder to spot them in the woods.  Which I guess is Nature's intent, as there does seem to be rather a lot of coyote tracks around! This morning I noticed the tracks on our road, and skirting around the house along the river's edge and through the woods.

Today is "stay at home" day. We had storm warnings last night that promised snow followed by freezing rain. I ventured out on foot this morning to see what the main road is like on a day like today and it wasn't good. Lots of ice and not a lot of signs of traffic.
We are still getting heavy rain and freezing rain, and it will freeze solid tonight if it goes down to minus 16 which is what the forecasters are forecasting!
You might think I took this photo in black and white, but I did not. Not a lot of colour out there this morning. I still thought it was quite lovely.

Well, this has been rather a long posting! I am cozy in the cabin, and have a pot of Blue Corn posole soaking in a pot and plan to cook it up this afternoon. (Rob is perhaps not the only person in this house who holds on to things - I have a 10 lb. box of dried blue corn posole in the fridge!) I haven't made posole in a long time,  so need to go find a recipe and decide whether it should be a Red Chile or Green Chile posole.  (I also have a rather large stash of chiles)  I will try to get Jet out for a gentle play on the icy surface out there, but for the most part will stay indoors today and enjoy the view through the windows. It is a perfect day for it.

The Changes that Snow brings

We woke up this morning to an unusual brightness in the room, and it took a few moments to recognize what it could be.  The trees outside were covered with thick white snow! The overnight forecast had called for a few flurries, but this was obviously more than that.

Down in the kitchen Jet barked and barked at the window, and I don’t know if it was because of the brightness, or simply the anticipation of getting outside.  He paused at the doorway and I just knew he would have a case of the “zoomies”.  Sure enough he did – several times, but he’s learned to calm himself down a little so it doesn’t get out of hand like it used to !

It feels like I’ve been talking about and planning for the arrival of snow for ages, but in actual fact we were nowhere near ready. I had found my winter boots in a box the day before but had tucked them away so had to dig them out.  Coming back into the cabin with snowy feet I realized we hadn’t quite got our entrance reorganized so we still have to enter through the kitchen, and the carpet that covers the wooden floors will get wet which isn’t good for the wood. 

I also remembered that we always had a stash of windshield wiper anti-freeze, and lock de-icer at the dome, so will have to make sure I pick some up this week as we have none here. We found the snow brush, but it isn’t actually in the truck yet. We have seven – yes seven – snow shovels, but none of them are down here at the cabin where we need at least one.

I have got a stash of soups and canned goods stocked up ready in case we can’t get out, but the fridge is a bit bare and I should make sure it doesn’t get too low for the next few months. I realized today I am out of bread, and getting low on a few other staples. (Not to mention we have run out of red wine!)

I think it’s the first time that I started to think that we are seriously living here now – it is no longer a cottage where we will just make do because we are going to leave and go home in another day or two. This is now for real!

Although it was just a little snowfall, it has stayed all day as the temperature is well below zero.  The roads look icy, and I doubt any plows or sanding trucks have been out on the main road.   We could have ventured out, but we have a line of soft stone in front of the cabin as we are getting some more work done to the road, and most of the rest of the road is full of stone and waiting to be graded. Unfortunately the grader got a flat tire and all work stopped temporarily until it can be repaired later in the day.

Ah yes, the road. It’s been a bit of a learning curve.  We had hoped that Brennan’s bulldozer would get repaired earlier in the fall so we could get the road finished, but it just wasn’t possible. When we called to get some grading done, (by the same person who will plow and sand our road this winter) and to see if he could maybe get the last sections finished, he and Rob agreed to meet up and walk the road to talk about potential problems, and possible fixes. Well, it was no surprise that he felt that some sections were too narrow, especially at the "steep curve" part, so we all agreed to add more stone, and to increase the width where needed. At the same time, the final part that approaches the cabin has never had any stone laid, and it will be a mess come spring when the snow melts, so a layer needs to be added to it as well.  They started the work on Friday, and would have finished up today but due to the flat tire, they will have to now return tomorrow.  By the time the tire was fixed, it was already dusk outside. All this to say that we couldn't drive our truck out today as there were big piles of soft stone blocking our way out!

The photo above shows the steep curved part is now a bit wider and I am feeling a lot better about driving on it. It will be graded again tomorrow, but I tried it out with the truck on Friday and was pretty pleased.  We shall see how it goes this winter, it may need grading again in the spring once things settle a bit.

They moved some rocks away and levelled out this section on Friday. They filled it with stone today. I was worried it would lose it's nice country laneway feeling, but it didn't, it still looks much the same thanks to all the evergreens. It was even prettier today with the snow!

We decided not to worry about being unable to get out of the driveway, and all the work being done on the road, and went out for a couple of good long walks in the glorious sunshine. It was cold and crisp out, but the sky was blue, the woods were beautiful and we stopped to admire the snow in the trees.

It was so lovely to be out in the sunshine. Where the sun had melted, the moss was a bright green, and the reflection off of the river was stunning. Rob noted how the snow had melted on our riverbank but on the other side of the river, the snow was still all there. I am glad we are on this side of the river!

We are both really looking forward to the next few months, as we have only once been here in the winter.  I love to head down to the river, and watch the changes that occur there. This week we noticed how the ice had formed around the vegetation at the edges, and then hung suspended out of the water when the river levels dropped.

And we saw our first owl last week! It flew out and landed high up in a branch of a tree and sat there while Jet and I admired it. (Well, Jet barked, but only once or twice, and then he sat and admired it) I took Jet home, grabbed my camera and went back, and was so pleased to see the owl still there. While I was taking photos, Rob arrived, so he was able to watch it for a while too! What a beautiful bird.

I think this winter we will learn that we need to be flexible. If the weather is bad, we will just have to curl up in the cabin and not worry about trying to go anywhere. I will make sure we have a few more staples always on hand, and we will get the snow shovels and all that other winter stuff organized and close at hand. It’s not like we didn’t already do this at the dome every year, so it’s really just all regular winter routine stuff. We just don't have a regular winter routine here yet. Of course at the dome we were a few minutes walk from a convenience store - here it is about 5 km. away! And the power does seem to go out here a lot more often, so we need to be prepared.

Later on in the winter, when the weather gets too nasty, well, we will just take our cue from Jet. Find a little spot of sunshine, curl up, and have a snooze. Clever boy.

Rob's First Post

Well, my first blog and Alison has been apprehensive - something about me perhaps not having time to write a suitably lengthy note in a conversational, easy flowing tone; maybe not being able to write with grace and style when describing the minutiae of daily life; perhaps not even being able to share my inner feelings....Well, fear not Alison - here we go!

When we sold our house one of the most amusing moments was when the buyer was asking about the cable connection; he couldn't quite grasp that it was not that the cable was disconnected - it simply did not exist. I started thinking about why I am so disinterested in TV and the following came to mind - "I would rather live life than watch it." Well, nothing else to add so that's all for today!

Oh yeah, I forgot. Alison says that readers enjoy a photo so here's my favorite button that was attached to a shelf in our bathroom for as long as I can remember:

This is really easy - next week I think I will write about why moving was so much fun after living in one place for 35 years ...

Discovering November

Well I must say these past two weeks have flown by and yet somehow stood still at the same time.  I guess we wanted to hurry up and move, but also needed the time to do it.

We've had cold, wet and windy days, we've seen snow squalls and hail, and we have enjoyed sunshine and warm temperatures that made us think of summer again.  One day this week I could not get enough of being outside, it was so warm and pleasant, and I was out in a long sleeve shirt and jeans. The next day I woke up to snow, and was back to wearing a winter jacket and gloves and toque. Typical November weather I guess.  We watched the weather carefully these last two weeks though, as Rob was in the process of transferring the last of our stuff, and didn't want to load or unload in the rain if possible. For a while it looked like that wasn't a possibility, but the weather suddenly changed in our favour.

We were incredibly fortunate that two of our neighbours, Sam and Dane, gave up an entire day for us and moved our heaviest stuff last week.  We are so excited to be on this new adventure, that we don't really think we will miss much about our lives all those years in the village, but there is no question that we had some truly wonderful neighbours, and we will miss them.

Although I walk with Jet 3 or 4 times a day, it is still not possible to spend time taking photos while I am out with him. He really requires lots of attention, and isn't one to stand quietly (you can probably hear Jet sighing now - because I am going to say that he doesn't stand quietly - NOT LIKE THE LAST DOG .....)  But it's true. Zuni would stand still, on leash, for ages, and quietly, while I approached herons, rabbits, beavers - you name it.  This is definitely not Jet's style. At least not yet.

So after we finish playing with him, and walking him, I usually go out by myself with my camera and have a good long walk. This is such a different time of year, and I haven't spent much time here in November before so I find it really wonderful to be able to wander around.  With most of the leaves gone, we can see the reflection off the river from many different parts of the woods. We can see much deeper into the woods, and walk more easily into areas that are usually too thick with vegetation during the summer (and thick with poison ivy!)

I can also clearly see the paths that the deer use. And other animals. There is a lot of "scat" around. (I'll spare you the photos)  My brother pointed out that during the winter I will be able to see a lot more tracks in the snow, and I'm looking forward to that. I'm not very good at "scat tracking", but maybe this winter I will be able to use the combination of tracks and scat to figure out what is living in the area around us.

The grey and brown tones of November always seem to make me somewhat reflective. One of my Flickr friends says I should view the falling of the leaves as replenishing the soil ready for spring growth, and I am trying, but I still find it to be a rather bleak month.  The sun is low in the sky, the shadows are long, the days are short, and the birds are few and far between. With this view I walked this week, and tried to look closer at the natural world around me with a different eye. Sure enough, I have discovered that there are logs lying in the fields and forest that are covered with a multitude of lichens and mosses. I will have to read up on it as I don't have a clue what I am looking at. But they are beautiful, in a variety of colours and shapes and sizes. Some of them make me think of coral.

Yesterday Rob and I heard the sound of the Ravens, and looked up to see 15 of them just above the cabin. The talked, they soared, they barrel rolled. Talked some more. They circled around and around, before they flew off, mostly in groups of two, but some in three's or four's, and slowly went off in different directions. I didn't take any photos. I simply stood holding my breath I think, and watching, in awe of them. I've never seen a group like that before.

Later in the afternoon, I heard Ravens in the forest on the other side of the main road, making a variety of sounds I have never heard before. Then 2 flew up, joined by 3 smaller ones who I guess were juveniles, and they proceeded to fly and talk, and roll and it was just amazing to watch. The two adults flew side by side in a variety of movements (sort of like watching the Snowbirds in action - but much better !) One of the younger ones flew higher and higher and further and further away, and I could hear the adults talking as they disappeared over the trees. Then some urgent sounding calls. Maybe calling that young one back?

I took some photos of them flying as I think I would like to play with the silhouettes and then print them onto fabric. Of course, I will have to make an effort this winter to learn a bit about photoshop first! This is just one I played with for a little while.

Walking back I was smiling, feeling pretty fortunate to have the time to watch these activities. Then a flash of red in the trees next to me made me stop as a brightly coloured bird flew past. I watched for a while and a more yellowish, olive coloured one followed. I took some photos and looked them up, and it seems they are Pine Grosbeaks, a male and female. Pretty common, but I've never seen one! It's a fuzzy shot as he was hiding mostly behind the branches, but came out long enough that I could see his wings and the bands of white on them.

I also discovered one of the "No Hunting" signs that our friend Frank erected on our property years ago in an attempt to keep the deer safe.  I was surprised to find it, or what is left of it. It is high on an enormous pine tree, and so many trees have grown up in front of it since, that you would never know that you could once see the sign from one of our roads.  I miss Frank, but it made me feel like a bit of his spirit lives on in these woods.

We visit the area where we hope to build almost every day. It's good to see the changes in the sun and shadows, as we are hoping to harness some of that solar energy and need to know how much the sun changes with the seasons.  Although we are still in drought conditions, the river is finally higher, whether due to the rains or changes at the dams further upstream.  I can no longer stand on the rocks in the river, so have to be content to stand at the shoreline.

 

 

Last week I spotted a coyote in the field where the cattle usually are. I of course look for it there every day now, but haven't seen it again. As soon as it saw me, it ran off across the field. We hear them howling most evenings and again in the early morning. It's an amazing sound.  The other day when I looked there were no cattle or coyotes. But I kept feeling like someone was watching me. Sure enough when I got past the treeline, there was one lone cow in the field. He ran off bawling for the others a few minutes later.

I spend a lot of time in this area as the birds seem to stop here on their migration routes, and there is a good view this time of year across the fields. I also discovered that with the leaves gone, I can see the main road, and catch sight of Rob's truck a few kilometers away when he's coming home! You can just see a glimpse of the road on the left, but I now know that I can see it again on the far right as well.

We had heavy snow squalls one day last week, and I stood here and watched as they came over the tree line and up the hill. Wished I had my camera, it was quite a sight.  We had snow again this week, and in the areas where the sun doesn't shine through, it has stayed. It stayed on the roof of the shed for quite a while. We want to put solar panels here, so obviously this is the wrong side of the roof to use!

The ground was hard and crunchy this morning as we had a deep frost, and my feet were cold in my shoes when I was walking Jet.  But I am snug and warm in the cabin, the sun is shining through the windows, I can see the river flowing, and every now and then a chickadee lands in the tree outside. I think we are going to have some nice days in here this winter. We already have some books on the shelf ready to read, books on wood working, photoshop, digital photography, tree care, forest management, timber framing, house design.... and lots more!  We are almost ready to hunker down, put our feet up, and get ready for our next project.

Thinking about Stuff

I don’t usually spend much time on YouTube, but this week found me watching George Carlin’s routine on Stuff. I couldn’t help but laugh when he said that we have so much stuff that we even rent storage space for some of it. Oh dear. That’s exactly what we have been working on the last week or so. Finding a place to store our stuff.

There is a good reason for it though.

When we first came up to the cabin in July, we had in the back of our minds the thought that we might have to return “home” for the winter.  Or might want to.  But Rob and I soon agreed that our decision to move here was the right one, and it was time to deal with the house and put it up for sale. There was no point keeping it through the winter, so with a good referral for a realtor from my super sis Lynne, we put our home of 35 plus years on the market. Not without a little preparation of course.  Rob did an amazing job of taking care of a few of those pesky chores that just never seemed to get done, when we were always so busy taking care of the business instead. After a short but rather intense period of time and hard work, he had the house in reasonable shape, cleaned and ready for showing. It sold quickly, with a very short closing time, so we suddenly found ourselves having to deal with all of our “stuff”.  Now we had already gone through a lot of areas of the house last winter, knowing we were about to make some changes, and cleaned out quite a few items. Still, we have been there for a long time, and our varying interests over the years have produced a lot of things we don’t really want to get rid of.  Printmaking, airbrushing, woodworking, clothes embellishing – well it just requires a lot of “stuff”. So we needed to deal with it.

Of course, we also closed our business in April, and that already had added some more items to our inventory. Some of which will be very useful in our new house, but the problem is, we don’t have one yet! The cabin here is 800 square feet with one closet, and 2 chests of drawers. Nonetheless, some of our stuff has already come to the cabin. You don’t want to put food items, liquids, or anything that can’t tolerate freezing into storage.

Rob laughed this week when I said that I think I needed an intervention for my spice collection. And he assured me that yes, he had attached the kitchen cabinets properly and they would not fall down from the weight of my spice containers. (However, there are no cabinet doors on them, so you can see that I have tucked them everywhere!)

Now there is a lot of stuff I will gladly part with, but dried chiles and spices are not one of them. Back in May and June too, while Rob was on two timber framing courses I also made purees out of a lot of my whole chile peppers and froze them, so now our refrigerator freezer is also full of chile pastes. The trick will be to use them up, and not just hang on to them all, knowing how hard it is to get good dried chiles anywhere. (Hey, maybe we could start our own business…. no, no, no just kidding)

Needless to say, preparing the house for selling, and then being in a period of limbo while we waited for it to sell, and then the scramble to empty it, has disrupted our plans here somewhat. We are both anxious for the final closing date, and looking forward to both of us being here, with only this property and cabin to worry about. It will be the first time in a long time that we haven’t maintained a store, a warehouse, a house, and a cabin.

Not that there will be a long period of idleness. We still have a lot of pre-winter preparation to do here. But already we are talking of curling up and reading, researching, cooking, planning, and enjoying this little cabin through the fall and winter months. 

Along with the house selling distractions, the weather has also been rather wet and dreary, so I haven’t been out with my camera too much. We did have one unseasonably warm and dry day, and Rob took the opportunity to caulk up some of the old screw holes on the shed. It is pretty much ready now for when he starts working on the timbers in the spring!

 

 

I did have a couple of surprise visitors the other morning. Just when I was feeding Jet his breakfast, a small fawn walked past the kitchen window. I distracted Jet until it had gone past, then lowered the blinds so that he wouldn’t see it and get too excited. But then I realized I couldn’t watch either, or take any photos! I put my eye to the small glass panes at the front door, and there was the adult doe looking right back at me! Sweet.

 

I waited about half an hour, and then cautiously took Jet out on leash, but they were gone. Which was good, as we always have an off-leash play time, and I didn’t want any deer chasing to go on.

The Blue Heron is still around, and I heard the Kingfisher again this week. But the geese are flying, and I guess it won’t be long before all the migrating birds are gone. The woods are a bit quieter without the bird song. Luckily the blue jays and chickadees and woodpeckers and ravens all hang around for the winter, and will make sure it doesn’t get too quiet around here!  We have a great book on building bird houses and nesting platforms, so Rob made sure not to pack it away with the storage items, and is hoping to have a chance to read it this winter.  Of course, if you watched George Carlin, you know that the only reason you have a house is so that you have a place to keep your stuff, and I’m pretty sure birds don’t have any stuff. Which is why they can migrate every year so easily. These days that has a certain amount of appeal!

 

 

 

Some things come full circle

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

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

 

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

 

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

 

Thanksgiving weekend

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

 

 

 



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

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

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

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

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