Spring Progress

Well, we may have imagined that spring was just around the corner, but March managed to throw a little more winter at us, and then April did too. Just when we thought that the river was beginning to melt, colder weather returned and the river view was once again a frozen white vista.

We like to remain hopeful though, so set up chairs on top of the snow that covers the concrete pad of the house and workshop, and prepared ourselves for the warm sunny days we were sure would come.

This is the thermometer in the morning of March 29th.

After such a long, cold winter we eventually ran out of firewood. We called around, but of course everyone else ran out too, and our firewood supplier didn't have any dry wood left to sell.  Jet did his best to dig some up out of the snow. Just trying to help!

Fortunately the sun in March still managed to warm the days up a bit, so Rob was able to work a bit in his shelter on the porch, and every time he worked on a timber brace, he would produce some pine off cuts that we could use in the wood stove. It was a good incentive to get some braces cut! We do have electric baseboard heaters, but after checking on our hydro costs after using them for a couple of days, we decided to turn them off as much as possible, and use the wood stove when ever we had some wood. Rob managed to get all of the braces cut, so finally felt like he was making some progress again!

Ever hopeful, each day we would walk around the property and look for signs that the snow was receding. But we soon realized that even with some of the snow gone, the timbers remained firmly frozen into the ground, held in place by equally frozen tarp edges. It would be a while before Rob would be pulling these out to work!

We did finally manage to figure out our exterior window, exterior finish and roof colours. We walked around with this little sample for quite a while and finally stuck it in the snow above the concrete pad so we could see it in natural light. The turquoise broom handle helped us to imagine the darkers colours brightened up somewhat with a splash of turquoise paint here and there!

March is such a funny month. A tease of spring, a blast of winter. Days of warm sunshine that soften the snow during the day, making it hard to walk in any of the snow without falling in over your knees. Cold nights that turn the softened snow and roadways into solid ice. On the days when the sun came out we'd venture out, hoping for signs that we could soon spend more time outdoors. On the blustery days we would hang on to our quiet times spent in the cabin, knowing that this blissful little existence is about to change with the amount of work ahead of us.
And then finally, the snow began to melt, and the river showed real signs that it was breaking up.

I went down to the edge of the river almost every day, watching the sudden changes. One day the center of the river was filled with the most magnificent shards of ice.  The next day they were all gone.

The river opened quickly, and one evening as the sun set, we decided to go sit in my favourite spot, and enjoy the last bit of the sun's warmth, with a nice cold beer in hand. We were still dressed in our rain pants, winter coats, hats, boots and gloves though!

This time last year we were out on the porch in much lighter clothing enjoying our first cold beer of the season outdoors.  And we thought last year it was a late spring!

My March order from the food co-op included the first available and incredibly tasty micro greens.  As much as I love all the root veggies, by March I think we are all waiting for something a little more fresh tasting.

I felt like the snowshoes hares outside must feel, after a winter of chewing on bark, when the first spring shoots pop up....
(Although unlike the snowshoe hares, I am turning grey not brown!)

Suddenly in the last few days, the sunshine and occasional rain has removed some of the snow. Puddles are gathering everywhere, waiting for the ground to thaw so that the water can drain. Jet loves it and splashes in the puddles, diving right in, picking up sticks and dropping his toys into them.

He is unfortunately back to full time long line walks, no running unleashed after a jolly romp after a fox.  Rob was able to track his escape by running after him through the deep snow and up and over to a neighbours. After a really fun game of chase, Rob was able to catch Jet. Unfortunately he had no leash with him, so had to hang on tightly to Jet's harness and try to stumble back through the deep snow and through the woods. At which point the smart little fox sauntered out ahead of them both, and down the hill.  I am really sorry that I laughed at Rob's story about how he gamely hung on to Jet as he plowed down the hill in full pursuit of that fox again....
(And really sorry that I wasn't there with my camera - to catch a photo of the fox of course!)

Finally, the beams are emerging from the ice and snow, so that now we just need for things to dry up a bit and Rob will be able to get working on them again.

For of course, we forgot that melting snow produces lots of muck, and things need to dry up a bit.

It's a bit drier around the cabin, so Rob did manage to get a band saw set up (by running the cord through an open window and plugging it in to the stove outlet) and cut the curves for all the braces. He will still need to sand them all and figure out what look he wants for the edges, but it's good progress!

He also took down the second red oak tree in front of the cabin. We were both really sad to have to take another one down, but it clearly had died, as had the first. Once he took it down we were somewhat relieved, when we saw how rotten one portion was. We park the truck right next to it, so we are lucky it didn't come down on the truck during one of the wind storms!  We are hoping to be able to use some of the sound wood for the pegs for the timbers.  Rob has chain sawed and split it all, and while he wasn't able to get enough straight sound wood for all of the pegs, he did manage to get some. It's amazing how much of the wood has a bend in it, or a knot, or a bit of punky wood, which renders it useless for pegs.  We will be happy to have some of that lovely old oak "living on" in the new house.  The rest will be firewood once it dries.

Unfortunately, it also took down my clothesline! Looks like we were going to have to replace it anyway, as the line broke easily in several places.

Tonight as I write this, it's pouring rain, with a rain warning in effect.  I'm preparing to teach a fabric art course at a yoga retreat in May, and working on my notes and making sure I have enough paints and supplies. Rob is costing house wrap and flex wrap.  The wood stove is on, taking a bit of the early evening chill out of the air. Neither of us can really imagine what the next few months will be like, but I have a feeling there will be a lot more activity than there is right now! We are both anxious to get at it, and a bit nervous about how much there is to do. As the building site slowly emerges from the snow we both are also very excited.  It's a beautiful spot, and every day when we stand there we hear the migrating birds returning. So far, ducks, geese, robins, kingfisher, phoebes, turkey vultures, and yellow bellied sapsuckers have all arrived. Their arrival reminds us that no matter how busy we are, we will always stop to admire the natural beauty, listen to the sounds, and breathe......

Still waiting for Spring

Like a tractor on an icy road, February somehow slipped past us.  Ahhh, sorry Rob - I couldn't resist ....

The icy roads I mentioned in last month's blog, didn't improve much in early February. Often a good snowfall will stick to the ice and change the conditions in our favour, but not this time. Rob was out plowing and hit a particularly icy spot, and found himself sliding off over the edge of our road. We tried using a shovel to remove all the surrounding snow from the tires, but the tractor just kept going in deeper. Rob tried to use the tractor's front bucket for leverage but that just made the tires spin, and pushed the tractor further into the bush. For a while it looked like we were going to have to call someone and get pulled out, but Rob decided to give it one more go, and he lucked out, and somehow got enough leverage to push the tractor out backwards and back onto the road.

On the plus side, that was the last time we saw a snowstorm! There have been quite a few to the south of us, but so far the Valley has missed them all, and we haven’t plowed since. Not that winter is quite over. Certainly the cold weather is still with us, with wind chill and frost bite warnings continuing, even now that it is mid-March. I don’t know how many times we’ve thought “this must be the last really cold night”, but then we see more in the forecast. Hopefully not too many more, as we have are now burning up the last of our firewood.

Rob has managed to spend a couple of days in his makeshift shelter on the porch, working on timber braces, but nowhere near as much time as he hoped he would. It's just been too cold.

He has however, been able to spend a huge amount of time on the house designs, which will prove to be a good thing when the weather turns, as he can then dedicate his time to the actual building. He finished all the final window designs, and we got our last quote back and have sent in our order!

We just need to let them know what colour we want the window exteriors to be. In order to do that, we have to figure out the exterior cedar colour, and roof colour, so that we can get the window colour right. Every time I drive anywhere, I find myself looking for metal roofs, and checking out people's window colours (most of the windows are white and we know we don't want white so it hasn't been very helpful!) Rob and I both agreed we like the rusty barn roofs the best, and discovered you can actually order a rusting roof. The web sites advertise "new steel that looks 100 years old" ! It's kind of tempting, but we think there may be some issues, so we will go with a coloured roof instead. We spent a day driving around to some of the stores to see what roofing is available, and Rob got busy figuring out how much we'll need. This is the roof design, although it has probably changed since I took a photo of Rob's screen.

We just received our exterior stain samples, and have little pieces of cedar all coated with the various colours that we think we might like. At the same time, we also ordered and received some interior white "wash" samples for the pine ceilings.   Hopefully this week we will sort all these colours out, and make some final decisions.

Rob has worked his way through all of the drawings, in an attempt to visualize how he is going to assemble all the timbers once they are ready.  In one breath he is talking to me about renting a crane, vs. building his own assembly, and in the next he is back to talking about double walls, vapour barriers, and sources for the insulation.

Most days he spends hours and hours on the PC, and if I find it hard to keep up with his conversational topic switches, it's nothing compared to what I see him doing on his PC screen.  Watching how-to videos one moment, calculating costs and budgets the next, installing software for room designs to try to figure out wood stove placement, following numerous building forums, researching woodworking tools.... and that's just a small part of it!

Fortunately Jet requires daily play times, and some good long walks, so Rob has lots of opportunities to get up from that chair and get some fresh air and exercise.   Jet's always happy to go the building site, where he can check for the scent of deer, while Rob can think a bit about the house.

Jet is a bit too keen on checking for deer though, so is back to being walked on a long line again, after running off one evening and putting both Rob and I into a panic when he didn't return.  He came back eventually, tired and (perhaps) a touch contrite, so Rob has doubled his efforts now on recalls, heeling, and general off leash behaviour. They have an intricate series of game playing, interspersed with training that Jet seems to enjoy.  It's good to get his brain working too! (Jet's - not Rob's. Rob's brain is busy enough!)

We didn't think that the river surface froze over completely last year, so checked on some of our photos and sure enough, it was open in the center, and there were very few signs of animals crossing the river. But this year it actually did freeze over, and the deer have been crossing it constantly. We didn't really know if this was normal, but then we read that the Great Lakes have frozen over more than they have in decades, and even a small part of Niagara Falls froze !  So this really is an unusual year.

While we always remain cautious and stick close to the edge, it was lovely to be able to walk along and look up and down the river. But one day as I stood at the edge I realized I could hear the river running under the ice, and although the surface still appeared to be frozen, there were fewer fresh deer tracks, so I followed their cue, and decided it was time to stop walking the edge. Sure enough we had a short mild spell, and the slush began to form on the surface.

But then it got cold and everything froze again! These are Jets big paw prints.

And so begins the pre-spring tease.  A little breath of warm air followed by another deep freeze.  Slowly though things are beginning to emerge.

We didn't manage to go snowshoeing yet with our friend Bob, but we did go out for a good long walk along the road near to where he lives.

In his area there is a lot more hardwood, whereas we have a lot more cedar, balsam and spruce.  We don't have a single beech tree here, yet there, they were everywhere we looked. We think we may try planting some beech nuts here and see if we can get some growing. We had some beautiful big beech trees around the dome and always loved them.  The birds and squirrels loved the beech nuts as well, although here they certainly seem to enjoy the feast of cedar seeds so they aren't lacking for food!

We live in logging country, so I shouldn't have been surprised to see logging equipment on our walk, but I was.

This is the biggest saw I've ever seen, and it was interesting to see the equipment they use. In another couple of weeks this area will be a sea of mud, so I guess it's easier to do the cutting now.

On the way home we pass a lot of planted forests, all perfectly lined up, with the forest floor bare. Even from the car you can see through a long way!

Both Rob and I say we are reluctantly saying goodbye to winter in a way – it’s been nice to be cozied up near the wood stove, and we know we have a pile of work coming our way!  These lovely early evening winter walks are about to end.

There is a quiet beauty to our winter surroundings, a stillness and pristine whiteness.  But this morning the air was filling with sounds, the lovely sounds of small birds, blue jays, crows and ravens, and red squirrels chattering, but also the sounds of the trucks on the other side of the river in the gravel pits, chain saws in the distance…. We are slowly emerging into the sunshine and warmer weather, getting ready to build our nests.... and in our case our new timber frame house!

Looking in, Looking out

If I had to sum up January in just one word this year, I guess it would be "cold". We've been keeping close to the wood stove, and burning up a rather alarming amount of firewood. There have been days when we thought there was something wrong with our lovely little stove, thinking it wasn't putting out much heat. It took a while, but we finally realized that it does just fine when the temperature doesn't go much below minus 20 degrees Celsius. We had lots of nights that were well below minus 30, and days that hung in around minus 25, and that's before the wind chill factor. We do have electric baseboards, and did have to leave a couple of them on in the downstairs rooms overnight. We found that if we let the house get too cold, we spend all day fighting to warm it up again.

Jet doesn't seem to even notice the cold, so he had us out everyday for the usual play times, and walks.

 

 

But there were a few times when we just had to cut the walks short a bit. As wrapped up as we were, with just our eyes, nose and cheeks bare, we could feel the biting wind on our skin, and worried about Jet's ears and paws getting too cold.

In between the cold spells, we did have our usual January thaw, which lowered the snow bank levels, brought rain, and freezing rain, and left our roadway rather an icy mess. Wood stove ashes do a marvellous job of providing traction on ice though, so after spreading them on one of the hills, I was able to get the truck out after only one or two mishaps of getting stuck!

There has been some carnage on the river - one night something took a deer down - either a coyote or a wolf I suppose, leaving the remains of the deer on the other side of the river. It's "Nature's way" as they say, and there is no doubt it provided crows, ravens and bald eagles with a bit of a feast for more than a few days. In the spirit of photography, I placed a deck chair in the snow along our shoreline, and waited for a while to see if there would be any opportunities to photograph a bald eagle. I must say that I did have a few anxious moments, sitting all alone in the woods, when I started to think about what it was exactly that took a deer down....but decided I wouldn't worry.

There were no signs of the bald eagle while I sat there so I left, and no sooner did I leave than all the birds returned. They seemed to know I was in the area and must have been hanging around nearby.

January is always a good time to try out some new recipes, so I spent some time in the kitchen, trying my hand at making my own pizza crust, hummus, and a big pot of posole with pork. I still have rather a lot of dried chiles stored away, as well as an enormous bag of dried blue corn, so decided it was time to use some supplies up.  Next on the list will be hand made corn tortillas.  Rob thinks we should figure out how to make wood oven bagels, but I haven't got that adventurous yet! I am once again able to pick up my monthly order from the local food co-op due to a change in pick up location, so I was happy to get some organic Highland beef for chili too. Turning the oven on seems to warm up the kitchen a bit more, so it was nice to spend some time close to the stove, and we now have a good supply of meals in our freezer again.

Rob has been working hard the last few weeks on window designs, sending out requests for quotes, and getting ideas from my brother Mike who, because of his job, knows a whole lot about windows! Which is lucky for us...

It's been a bit of a struggle and the program Rob uses to do the drawings crashes an awful lot, which doesn't help. But there is also (as always!) a lot to think about. How the windows will look from both the inside and outside. What size they should be and what shape. How many there should be. Which ones should open. How they should open. (Open in, open out, open vertically, open horizontally, or even tilt!) Double glazed vs. triple glazed. Heat transfer, U factor, Solar gain... Wood vs. fibreglass vs vinyl.. Inside colour, outside colour .... I don't think I will ever think of windows in the same way again.

When we first moved into the cabin I was thrilled to just have windows that opened easily, and in fact I'm still amazed that I can just crank them open whenever I need to.

Rob made them all by hand, and would love to do that again, but it would take way too long, and really isn't practical this time if we ever want get this house built! In the dome the windows he built were a bit more interesting and I loved them, but they were difficult to open and close and I couldn't reach most of them to ever clean them.

Every decision we make about windows, also seems to affect the cost. Rob did manage to get the cost down for most of them, although in the end he actually added windows and increased the size of some so that cost went up! But I think he's done a good job, and we'll be happy with them. The views are stunning on the building site, and we want to be able to enjoy those views through the windows as much as possible.  This will be my view from the kitchen!

We didn't venture out much in January, but did go to an open house at a local farm, complete with a wagon ride - and picked up delicious rainbow carrots, and potatoes, and Feta and Tomme cheese made from sheep's milk.  The farm is off grid and we had an enjoyable time learning about their unique cold cellar, and looking around a bit.

Next time we should bring our snow shoes as there were trails available, and it is in a beautiful spot. They also have a yurt!

We hadn't been in one since visiting our friends Ross and Hanne in New Mexico for sound healing and shamanic healing sessions.  Sadly our dear friend Ross passed away after a brief and unexpected illness in January.  He was an amazing man; healer, teacher, artist, friend, and so much more....His passing has made both of us spend some time looking in, and looking out....missing him, yet ever aware of our joy and gratitude for knowing him.

Being outdoors is always healing, so we took some time out for a bit of a snowshoe hike, and for some gentle walks around.  There is a lovely spot on the edge of the river with a perfect log for sitting on.  Under the shelter of the trees, on a sunny day I can sit comfortably for quite a while, listening to the silence. The river is almost frozen over, so I can no longer hear it. But if I sit for a while, I will hear the drum of the pileated woodpecker, the scolding of a red squirrel, and the sound of the raven. So it isn't all that silent after all.

We are cautious and stay close to the edge of the river, but it really does seem to be quite frozen this year. Here there is a lovely natural clearing next to the river's edge. The previous owners of the property used to clear the snow, and their kids would skate here in the winter!

On the other side of the tree line (above Rob's head)  is our new house site.

On the day we were out there were a few animal tracks across the river, but not many. Two days later it looked like the deer were dancing all over the river. 

When we were snowshoeing we discovered deep deer trails through the woods too.

 

And circling high above us one day, some ravens and that bald eagle!

 

Back at the cabin we load up our porch with a bit more firewood, settle in next to the wood stove, and Rob gets back to the house plans. Next on our list is to decide on the metal roof colour and exterior house colour, as we need to know what colour to order for the exterior of the windows.  In the spirit of our times in New Mexico, I would love to have a turquoise roof.  But in looking through some photos online, we are surprised to see that we both like a photo of a house with a rough grey wood siding, and grey window exteriors.  Perched on rock and surrounded by the trees, the setting is similar to ours, and the house has a peaceful sort of feeling to it. Both of us like the way it blends in naturally with the surroundings. Of course, we would have to add some colour in somehow here and there! Maybe some kind of funky accent colour. But I am no longer sure that the turquoise roof is right.  More decisions....! I know though that Rob is anxious to get the windows ordered, and to get back to working in his little closed-in area on the porch. He's been trying to work on some braces but comes back to work inside when it gets too chilly out there.

On a cold winter day Leon reminds us that sometimes the best thing to do is curl up in a cozy spot of sunshine. He's 18 years old, and failing a bit, but still purrs as loud as ever, especially when he's comfy and warm!

 

As much as Jet loves the outdoors, he seems to take a cue from Leon.

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!