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.

Moving into fall

Rob pretty much summed up the last 2 weeks or so when he lamented that all he wanted to do was get building, and he hadn’t done a single bit of it this last while.

Just one of those times I guess, that sees us with a never ending list of tasks that require attention; filing taxes, dentist appointments, bills and banking,  trips to Ottawa, more trips to Ottawa.

We had promised our landlord that we would get the last of our business odds and ends out of our former warehouse space by September. Now in July, September seemed pretty far away, but here we are in late September and our remaining stuff is still piled there.  So Rob has been back and forth, bringing it all here, to this little 800 sq. foot cabin. Well, most of it.  There are still a few things that our former landlord has kindly allowed us to leave there a little while yet.  There are a lot of items that will be useful when we have the new house (like the ‘fridge from our store) but right now we have little or no space for it.

Earlier this week though, Rob was finally able to get back to the task at hand, which is closing in the shed.  The concrete is curing nicely, so he is now able to get the walls up and a door in. On nice days when I go up to visit, I usually bring a couple of tart crisp apples from a local apple farm, and we sit out on the concrete pad, munch on our apples and admire his handiwork.  He is anxious to be up there working on timbers for the new house, but it will be a little while yet.

It's easy to forget how far we've come with this shed. Just a few months ago you could barely see it for trees, and it was full of old stuff and had a dirt floor.  It's becoming a lovely space. 

Although the weather forecast called for rain this week, we have been lucky to have mostly sunny days, and warmer temperatures than anticipated at times. I try to take advantage of the nice weather and hang out at the river for a little while in the afternoons. The river is so low that I can edge my way out a little further on the rocks than normal, and find myself with a good view both up and downstream. Hoping to see that eagle again! This week though, there was a rustling in the bushes back at the edge (and yes, I was a bit nervous, wondering what was coming out!) when out popped what I think is a mink. I had to come back and search on the web and refer to my photos, but near as I can tell, that's what it was. Apparently weasels have white underbellies, martens are more buff coloured underneath, and a mink has a telltale white chin.
So here are a few photos of this little guy/gal.  The click of my camera had it pretty interested, but I had the idea it couldn't really see me.  It swam underneath the roots of a big maple tree, but would keep coming out to have a look in my direction. What a treat. I have never seen one before.

 

The last shot is my favourite. I was back on the river yesterday and there was no sign of it. Apparently they are usually more nocturnal. So I really was fortunate to see one!

It's sunny and crisp out this morning.  A good time to get some laundry out on the line. I am hoping this afternoon to clean up some branches that are around the cabin; some of them will be large enough to use in the wood stove, and the smaller ones will go into the chipper and we can use the chips for our pathways and trails. We are hoping to do a lot more wood gathering and branch clean up as October approaches.

Each day as we walk through the woods we notice the gradual change in the colours of the leaves.  There is a more golden hue in the woods, with not as much of the vibrant red and orange that we are used to. But there are some maples that have turned that lovely orange/red, and I love this one that hangs over the river. 

 

 

 

 

Gardening in the woods

As we walk the new road every day we can see that the woods will slowly come back to the edges where we pushed it back. Already we are happy to see that there are ferns and some other plants pushing their way back up through the soil.  I’ve been doing some reading on native wildflower species and have ordered some seeds that we can plant this fall. Hopefully next year then, we will see some colour from such plants as sweet cicely, meadowsweet, cinquefoil, wild bergamot, and my favourite black-eyed susans – just to name a few! I have also read that it's fine to go gather up some seeds from native plants growing wild in the area, as long as you only take a few to allow the plants to keep spreading their own seed. So I am driving around with an eye on the roadsides. I need to learn a lot more about identifying plants though.

 

These I know! Milkweed and asters. I will gather some of the aster seeds and scatter them for sure as I love them. The milkweed seems to spread well enough on it's own. I always had milkweed in my garden at home, as a benefit for the monarch butterflies, and someone would always tell me I had weeds in my garden. Well no more I guess, the milkweed plants are everywhere here, and now I can enjoy them just as much as the monarchs do. I have a whole new woodland garden now!

I couldn’t resist planting a few non-native daffodil bulbs as well at the entrance to our road.  Being the national Welsh flower, we absolutely have to have some here of course. Reading the instructions to plant at least 6 inches deep, soon had me muttering that CLEARLY these were not native to this area.  We are on a limestone base here, and my trowel would barely go an inch into the soil before striking roots and rock. All the while I was also trying to avoid the poison ivy that thrives here. We shall see if anything comes up in the spring.

 

These look like small rocks but they aren't. The ones at the back were about the limit of what I could carry. I put them there so that Rob won't get the idea to drive his tractor in here and smooth things out!  The daffodils will come up around the rocks and should look pretty.  The package says that the deer won't eat them, but I'm not convinced. If they do, they do, I'll just have to learn what works and what doesn't.

Walking along the edge of the road this week too, it is pretty clear that fall is really here.  We like to walk deep into the woods in the fall, as the poison ivy isn't quite as likely to get you then. I'm happy to say it is now turning red, and easy to spot. 

I like the idea of "gardening" here. It means doing very little, with little maintenance.  Just walk along and enjoy the natural beauty of the woods and what it provides.  We will however try to get a veggie garden going next year, and that one will require a bit more work!

My camera is still not back from repair. Which is too bad, as Rob and I were standing at the river’s edge this weekend, and Rob looked up and quietly said “look, an eagle”.  It is only the second time we have ever seen one in Ontario! The next day, I stood at the edge, thinking I wouldn’t be likely to see one again, when an osprey flew by. Rob has seen osprey here before, but I hadn’t so that was a treat. Still no photo though. I can’t wait to get my camera back.

I have noticed that the numbers of birds are dwindling, as they slowly leave the area to head south. I haven't seen any hummingbirds at the feeder the last few days. No sign of the phoebe, or robins. The blue jays and woodpeckers are busy though. Walking along the road the air was suddenly full of woodchips, and I spotted a small woodpecker working pretty hard at the hole in the tree. Not a great shot, but you can kind of see the chips are flying!

 

I get comments on this blog that we are really busy. I suppose we are but I think it’s all relative. Working 24/7 at our business was busy. Here, we try to take time every day to give Jet a good play time, and we walk a lot. I go out with my old camera at least once a day for a good long walk, and spend time every day down by the river. I love to inch my way out on the rocks at the side of the river and look downstream. The mergansers hang out here a lot, and while I was standing here, the osprey flew overhead again.  There are two kingfishers that swoop up and down along here.  I watch the turkey vultures, the crows, and the ravens.  There are a least 4 herons that fish here too.

 

 

And every night we try to just sit and relax and listen to music. Last night it dipped below zero so we curled up on the couch and had the woodstove going, and I have it on now too. It’s not all hard work !!

Next week is the Madawaska studio tour so we are going to visit Tim Storey’s studio. We have a teapot from him that was Rob’s birthday gift from me 2 years ago, so we are really looking forward to meeting Tim. There is also a place that specializes in off-the-grid and solar options that are having an open house so we shall go there as well, as it is on the way.

Isn't this a great teapot?

Well, I had a totally different post in mind, all about our plans, and how the building aspect was going, but this went in a different direction. I think it was prompted by one of our flags that hangs in the trees at the side of the road.

It's little blurry - the flags are almost always moving. But it says, Life is not a race but a journey to be savored each step of the way. Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery and today is a gift.

It was supposed to rain today, but the sun shone brilliantly. We popped out for what may be the last trip to the french fry van this season. Had a nice walk in the crisp air. Enjoyed a sweet apple from a local apple farm.  Now I am snug in front of the wood stove, and Rob is up working on the shed putting in a door.  Time to plan some dinner, maybe go a walk.  A great gift of a day.

 

 

 

 

And it's been 30 years....


Well, it's a good thing I didn't commit to a daily blog, as apparently it's been over a week already since I last posted. They say time flies when you are having fun - and we have certainly been having fun, but also things have seemed just a tad hectic lately.

First we realised just how lucky we were to arrive here and have two months of glorious summer weather. Last weekend was not so lovely, we had high winds, cooler temperatures, dark skies and torrential downpours for two and a half days. When we put the driveway in at the cabin we used a very fine stone, and on dry days it isn't much of a problem, but on wet days it sticks to our shoes and fills the cabin with a mix of sand and very small, very sharp stones. We would like to get something else down in front of the cabin - a bit of an interlock buffer or something, but we have a lot on the go right now and have to choose our battles! It's a good reminder though, when we build the next house to use different stone, and to think about that mud room we have been talking about.

Work on the shed has been progressing. Slowly, but progressing. It's a difficult task to revamp a building, and I know Rob prefers to build from scratch. He really wants to do the blog posting on that project, but just can't find the time. When he isn't building, he is trying to catch up with paperwork (the business still demands our attention, government form filing, taxes, accountant questions ) and the usual bill paying etc. We are still trying to get a working office space going, and of course the cats LOVE rearranging paperwork so we need to work on that.

In case Rob finds time to post though, without giving too much away about all the work that has gone on all I will say is that here are the walls slowly going up! The windows that are leaning against the walls, are the old ones we found in the sheds. We will try to use some of them here, and I am going to scoop a couple to use for frames for some fabric pieces I have in mind. The old doors aren't as useful, they are all only about 6 feet tall - maybe people were shorter back then ??? Of course, they are fine for me - but Rob would bang his head on the door frame if we used them!

September is always a month of contrasts, and just as we started to turn our attention to fall matters, the sunshine and warmer temperatures came back. Warm dry days make for better building days, but Tuesday was our 30th wedding anniversary, so we wisely (!) opted to take the afternoon and celebrate. We were going to go to Neat Cafe in Burnstown for a wood oven fired pizza lunch, with coffee and sweets, and a visit to the local apple orchard, but we were running a bit late as Rob had been working on the sheds in the morning, and then Jet needed his play time and walk, so we agreed to dine al fresco at the local french fry van! An excellent choice, especially as the van will close soon for the winter. We sat out in the sunshine, and boy, those fries sure tasted good. I was supposed to take a photo, but guess I was too busy eating!

Then Rob suggested we go to Shaw Woods, an old growth forest with a walking trail. On the opposite side of the road from the trail is an old dam, part of the Snake river. We had been there with Zuni a few years ago and we thought it would be nice to hang out there for a bit, and maybe catch sight of some wildlife along the river. When we got there though, we noticed there was another trail on the other side of the dam, so went off to explore it for a bit. Are we ever glad we did! Apparently the friends of Shaw Woods have been really busy, hauling wood chips up the trails (not to mention concrete and timbers to build an incredible viewing platform!) The trail took us along the sides of the river, and then up to the platform.

It would be a wonderful place for a picnic lunch. It was hard to get decent photos of the view from the platform. My camera is still in for repair and I brought my old one with a telephoto lens and it doesn't do it justice.
We clambered back down, and as we were leaving, saw that the trail went off in the other direction along the river so took it for a ways too. What a magical place. Each turn brought a whole new view of yet another lovely spot. We found the remains of an heron rookery, saw a great blue heron fly away from us, and walked along the edges of a lovely wetland area. It's an absolutely lovely trail, and we can't wait to go back and explore it further.

But, it was time to head home, and give Jet his play time, (yes, he gets LOTS of play time - a tired shepherd is a good shepherd) and get working on our anniversary dinner. In our former life, that would have meant trips around Ottawa, picking up sweeties at our favourite bakeshop the Three Tarts, cards from Paper Papier, and a trip to a good butcher - either Saslove's or Lavergne's for our main course. But to celebrate our new life here, we decided to change things up a bit. I had done the shopping on Monday in preparation. Unfortunately the bakery I wanted to visit was closed on Mondays, so I baked - yes me who never bakes - a nectarine crumble, and picked up steaks for the BBQ. We still had lots of organic potatoes and onions left from the farmers market, and some frozen guajillo paste that I had made in May so it was an easy, yet delicious meal. Hmmmm guess we were hungry - there are no photos again!

It wasn't quite warm enough to sit outside on the porch, but we did enjoy a pre-dinner beer outside before we got cooking. We both agreed that we had a wonderful day and couldn't think of a nicer way to spend such a special anniversary. Although we were tired from all of our trail walking, we still managed to walk Jet, and go for another walk ourselves to catch the last bit of sun on our own little stretch of river.

The warm weather is continuing, but we've had a taste of fall weather and you can see that the colours are slowing changing in the trees and plants. We know we have some serious work to do. Although we are in the thick of the woods here, we will need to order firewood, and create some kind of a good dry place to stack it. We cut down some birch and poplar when the road went in, but it probably isn't dry enough yet for burning. There are two dead oak trees in front of the cabin, and we should take them down and see if Rob can use the wood for building, or if they are only good enough for firewood now. It's a shame, we both loved those old oaks! We have just ordered a good Ontario tree identification book, as we are slowly learning to identify the trees here, and learning that they are all good for different things. This week I discovered we have Bur Oak and White Oak - the acorns are totally different. The Bur Oak acorns are sort of fuzzy while the white Oak ones are smooth. I can thank the Chipmunks for that information as they are the ones, along with the red squirrels and blue jays, who have stripped the acorns from the Oak trees this week! They obviously know it's time to prepare for winter too.

　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　
　

Two woofs

Finally I get my chance to contribute something to this blog. It’s my birthday today and I am now 2 years old. Mom and Dad say I’m lucky to see 2 – whatever that means. If you want to send me presents I love Wubbas, Kongs, dried liver treats, carrots, bananas and apple pie. Don’t tell Mom about the apple pie part.

This is me as a puppy. Mom says I have had this worried look all of my life, but that I look happier and more relaxed since we got here.

Mom thinks I don’t have much to blog about, she says I mostly play, eat and sleep, but my days here are really pretty interesting and I have a lot of responsibilities.

I have to wait in the morning until someone finally gets up.  Then I go downstairs and check all the perimeters to make sure that everything in the house is the way it was when I went to bed. I don’t really like change.

Usually Dad makes coffee  then takes me outside, and Mom feeds those pesky cats. Well, I like Leon but the other cats are pesky.  I have a nice comfy bed on the porch so usually I get a nice Kong bone stuffed with kibble to nibble on while I wait to be served my breakfast. Mom and Dad like to feed me small amounts of my breakfast at a time, so if they get distracted while reading stuff on the PC my breakfast sometimes takes forever.

Then we have to wait a whole half hour before I am allowed to go play.  If I think it’s been long enough I bark and bark and bark but that doesn’t seem to get me out any quicker.  Then I get to go chase wubbas, and sometimes play with my jolly ball, and jump and leap and run, and play games until I can’t think any more and I am tired. Then we go for a walk. Mom and Dad think I take too long on my walk, but they have NO idea what things have been out in the woods overnight. Yikes ! I need to sniff everything to see what has gone on since the last time I was out.


This is me and Dad playing. Mom said we looked like we were being silly boys.

I get to do the same thing at lunch and dinner time, except I don’t get any lunch.

In between I mostly sleep, but if anything moves or makes a noise, I am on full alert and will bark. I bark at the heron, and the gulls, and the chipmunks, and the red squirrels, and if anyone is in the river, and sometimes people are talking outside somewhere so I bark then too.

Mom and Dad don’t like it if I bark too long though, so I am learning to just bark until they pay attention, and then I will “shush”.

The new place is pretty cool. I know when Dad is coming home because I can hear the tractor coming. I hear it a long time before Mom does.  I get to go into the river sometimes and chase floating wubbas. We walk along the river edge, and up roads, and down paths. Before I was born Mom and Dad named me Von Schnootzel, and now they have named one of the paths after me and call it Von Schnootzel lane.  I think it should be called Jet's Way.

I haven’t been out in the truck since I got here, except Mom puts me in sometimes and gives me cookies. Not sure what that is about. Sometimes I don't have a leash on, and decide to go my own way and she opens the truck door and I can't resist coming back and getting in. Maybe it's those cookies....

I like this photo of me the best 'cos I look black and scary. But Mom says it's because the camera was at 1600 ISO and the photo is grainy. I don't care - I still think I look good.

Mom took this photo of me in the river last year. She won't take her new camera in the river in case I splash it or something, so there are no photos of me swimming this year. I love going in the river.

Well, that's probably all I am going to write about for my birthday. I just want everyone to know that I am still waiting for my birthday cake.