Oops, I missed July!

The last month or two passed by at a remarkable pace. We met with the building inspector and turned in our final plans and after a fairly short period of time, received our actual permit. We put our order in for our timbers, and then drove up to the lumber mill a few days later and were able to get a look at some of our order. Rob had a pretty big grin on that day!

 

As soon as the order went in, Rob took some time to work on a few things while he had a chance. We knew that once the wood arrived, he wouldn't have time for fixing things up around the cabin, or doing much in the way of maintenance around the property. We knew we were having some drainage issues on our new road where it meets the common road, so he somewhat reluctantly dug it up, pushed back all the layers of gravel and arranged for a small culvert to be delivered. We originally ordered a plastic culvert, but soon realized a metal one was needed, so had to have them pick up the plastic one we had bought, and bring a metal one instead. The meeting of the two roads looks much better now, and we've had such heavy rains that we've at least had a chance to check that it is all working better now. The rains will no longer wash the common road away where the two roads meet.

 

Rob then started to prepare space in the shed to make sure he could manoeuvre the timbers when they arrived, and cleaned up the road leading to the shed and the old concrete pad that had amassed a pile of junk over the years. (Some neighbours had asked to use it for storage when they sold their cottage, but never returned to pick up their stuff!) We had to haul a lot of it up to our local waste collection center, and pay for it to become landfill. Anything that we could recycle though (metal, old tires, asphalt shingles, clean wood etc.) were handed over to the various recycle bins. We then had to spend a lot of time cleaning the concrete pad, and removing any nails that were lying around. Luckily Rob had some kind of mega magnet that helped me to find some rather old nails and any other remaining bits of metal!

Somewhere during the move last fall, Rob has "misplaced" his wooden mallet which he purchased at one of the timber frame courses, after spending a fair amount of time making sure that it fit his hand just the way he wanted. We are still hoping that he simply put it somewhere safe, knowing he would need it this summer. It would be a shame to have lost it! In the meantime though, he needs a good mallet, and has been eyeing the iron wood in the forest, thinking he should maybe try making his own. In the end though,we simply ordered a new one (thus ensuring that the lost one will show up!)

Thanks to the generosity of our friend Bob we were able to borrow his I-beam and trolley and this has allowed Rob to more easily move the timbers around as he works on them. He spent quite some time building good solid frames to rest the beams on as well.

When the day finally arrived for our timbers to be delivered we drove up to the top of the property and sat on the tailgate of the truck in anticipation. Due to some loading problems at their end, there was a slight delay, but finally as we looked down the road, we could see the truck arriving!

 

We directed the truck to our concrete pad, and the driver proceeded to unload the timbers, with some help from Rob.

The aroma of the timbers, even though they were well covered, was pretty heady. We were like little kids peering under the covers, and couldn't wait to get a good look at them all. With rain in the forecast though we had to wait, so got them all under good tarps just in time as some heavy rainstorms soon arrived.

As soon as the weather cleared later in the week, Rob got the tractor out, and with the help of the stands he had built, started sorting through the timbers. He had all his diagrams ready, and was able to tag the timbers with a number of each end, according to the quality of the wood, and where it would be in the new house. I was pretty surprised at how fast he was able to move them all around. They are really heavy. He built special covers for the forks on his tractor so the forks wouldn't mark the timbers as well.

I can barely pick up the end of one of the smaller beams, and then only if it is lying with the majority of it's weight on another beam. In a fairly short period of time, Rob had them all moved next to the shed, and under the protection of the shed overhang and some tarps. Some of the timbers were stacked into the pole shed, under the I-beam, ready for him to begin working on them! I tried to show up once all the hard work was done...

 

Now things started to get a little more interesting. Rob had to prepare all his chisels, find all the hand tools he would need to work on the timbers, get his drawings printed out, and at the same time, start working on the house site as well! We took a couple of hours one afternoon and sadly started marking out the trees that would have to come down. Fortunately, a lot of the trees were already in poor shape. The spruce bud worm has really decimated almost all of our spruce trees, and there were a lot of them in the area where the house will be built. We were happy to agree to try to keep a lovely stand of cedar at the driveway entrance. Our friend Brennan had agreed to do the first round of clearing with his bulldozer, so he showed up early one morning and got at it. Rob helped by clearing out the fallen trees and branches as Brennan took them down.

We were really surprised to discover some lovely old oak trees in behind some of the trees we removed, and the oaks are far enough away that they will remain, and we hope we will enjoy them for many years to come!

As soon as the site was relatively clear, Rob had a septic system specialist come on site to see where the septic field can go. We were hoping it could go on the river side, but expected it would have to go on the opposite side. We were really thrilled to hear we could tuck it in on the river side, leaving lots of room for Rob to put his future workshop in the location he wanted! Our permit for the system has now also arrived.

Now that things have ramped up a bit, we also saw a bit of more normal summer weather - hot and humid - so we were careful to pace ourselves, work a bit earlier in the morning and stop the heavy outside work before noon if possible. Then Rob happily headed up to the pole barn area and worked on some timbers. It's such a beautiful spot - it is where we camped 20+ years ago, and will always have a special place in our hearts. There is a sweet aroma in the air there, a constant breeze, and he is visited by phoebe's, robins, chickadees, blue jays, yellow bellied sapsuckers, and chipmunks. Above him ravens, crows, turkey vultures, red wing hawks, and an American kestrel soar. He can hear the gurgling of the bobolinks in the adjacent field, and sometimes the flute like sound of a Wilson's snipe.
And sometimes he gets a surprise visit from some rather large spiders!

 

All in all it's a pretty sweet place for Rob to work.

 

We are trying out a few different variations on our day in order to give Rob more building time. I will sometimes bring up a picnic lunch so that he doesn't have to stop working for too long, and will head up at least once a day with cold ice tea and some cookies for a short break. We are eating dinner even later than normal as Rob's day usually ends now around 7:30 p.m., and we then spend some time playing with Jet, and get him out for a short walk when it's a bit cooler, and then feed the cats, get Axle his insulin, and then take some time over a cold beer to discuss the day, while sitting on the porch. We tumble into bed shortly after 10 p.m. and neither of us has much trouble sleeping!

With the building site cleared a little, we spend some time there each day, watching the movement of the sun, listening to the river and the birds, admiring the view of the trees and the river. Both of us feel it is a very peaceful and beautiful building site.

Well, interestingly, I wrote almost all of the above sometime back in June and early July. It is now almost mid-August! I was surprised to read about the summer heat, as it quickly disappeared, and we have since seen a lot of cool days and nights, lots of cloudy days, pop-up thunderstorms, and even had tornado warnings! We have only been in the river once this summer so far, as we have only had a couple of brief hot spells, and they are usually accompanied by thunderstorm warnings, so we never have much opportunity for those lazy hazy kind of river days.

The river is higher and faster this year than normal, and certainly way higher than last year when we were in a drought, and the river became a trickle.  The only time we were in this year, I could barely hold myself up against the current. It has a dropped a bit since then though.

 

Rob has been busy working on the timbers almost every day, and has managed to rig things up so he can work if it is raining (which proved to be a good thing this summer!). I think he had a blog posting prepared sometime in July, that explained a bit about the work he is doing on the timbers, but he just hasn't had time to post it.

I have been putting a few more hours in at the delightful and funky good karma shop, so haven't had as much 'free' time as I used to. I also find it hard to sit indoors and spend time on the PC whenever the sun comes out, or the temperatures warm up a bit. I know that in a few months I will probably have a lot more time indoors!

Well, I was just going to post a few photos of Rob's timber frame handy work, with a little more detail,  but then today they showed up to level the building site and install the septic system, so things got a little busy. The forecasted rain held off until the end of the day which was nice.  So I will keep my comments a little shorter than planned. (Good thing maybe as this entry has been long enough eh?)

You can see Rob's new mallet on the left. Still no sign of the one he lost.

 

 Cool - it fit !! Good job.  I love all the writing on the sides of these. 

Some pretty fancy work.

More fancy work.

 

It took two goes to get this one right. Luckily the timber was long enough that he could start over with out losing the whole thing!

Using the mortiser.

A visitor! 

Well, I could keep writing but I won't. I didn't even stop to write about the plants, the insects, the wildlife... the wild plums that we discovered are everywhere....With a bit of luck, I hope it won't be two months before I post again. 

May becomes June

Well, no sooner did I get back from visiting family in BC than Rob left for a few days to visit his family. It would be nice to be able to go on these family visits together of course, but it is just not possible right now. I was happy to hear that while I was enjoying some of the best weather I have ever experienced in BC,

Rob was back here basking in some warm temperatures and sunshine as well. Well "basking" might not be the right term, as I came home to quite a few changes. Rob had been busy here in the cabin and had also been successful in getting his solar system working. (With Jet's help apparently).  I must say I did feel a little guilty that while Rob was here looking after 4 cats, (one that requires insulin shots twice a day, and one on meds) and Jet, and working away on house plans, I was having fun visiting family, snacking on local delicacies like "candied salmon" and local gelato, and lounging by the sea in the sun.  And lamenting that I wasn't there long enough to be able to visit all of my fabulous nieces and nephews and their children.  So while it wasn't quite the seaside experience that I had, I was pleased that Rob was able to take some time to go relax and visit with his family, although go figure - he spent some of that time working on repairing his Mom's porch! He's always happiest when he is building something.

While Rob was away, Jet and I had a good talk about acceptable behaviour, barking, apple washing, and the like. We did some yoga (doga if you are a dog) and made sure that all that male bonding that went on while I was away didn't erase Jet's ability to be in touch with his feminine side.... I'm sure you'll see the improvements the next time he blogs.

On the whole, May has been rather cool and damp, but I still get out for lots of long walks every day, and have been getting my first good look at what kind of plants come up here in the spring.
I am amazed by the variety of plants and wildflowers, and have been trying to learn to recognize some of them.  Identification isn't always easy and I may have some of these wrong, but I think this is a wild geranium.

A somewhat blurry shot of fringed polygala, also known as gaywing. I went out to get a better photo, but the flowers have already faded away!

Tucked in around a rock I found round lobed hepatica

And around another rock, but only for the briefest of time a trumpeted honeysuckle

Along the edge of the road we put in last fall, the plants are surprisingly already filling in, and every day I discover something new growing. There are wild strawberries, buttercups, and what may be wild bergamot, but I have to wait until the flowers pop out more to be sure.  Also lots of trilliums, pretty ferns, thistles, mulleins, and of course - poison ivy!

The air is still thick with the scent of blossoms, as the hawthorn trees produce huge numbers of flowers.

The wave of black flies seems to have subsided, and we are now into mosquito season. Thank goodness the dragonflies are also out, as they apparently love to eat mosquitoes!

We went out and bought those attractive mosquito head nets that drape over our baseball caps and although we may look odd, they work. They enable us to continue to play with Jet outside each day, and to walk, and do some work outside of the cabin. If it is sunny or breezy the mosquitoes are not quite as voracious, and they will drop in numbers over the next couple of weeks. We are lucky to have a beautiful screened in porch, but it has been rather chilly, so we haven't been able to put it to much use yet, but we will.  On one of the days that was a bit warmer, I did manage to pull out my paints and work on a couple of tshirts on the porch table, so I am looking forward to doing more! It's such a beautiful space and I was entertained the entire time by the antics of the hummingbirds at the feeder outside of the porch.

On the whole I would have to say that the month of May has gone by in a bit of a blur. On top of my trip in early May I have been getting into a routine of working a couple of shifts at the shop each week, continue to take a yoga class once a week, and the riding program I volunteered for begins next Thursday night. I love working in the shop, it is funky and fun with lots of good karma! The owner is wonderful, I have met some delightful people, and it is a pleasure to spend time there.

I was hoping to put in a veggie garden this spring, but decided that for this year I will just plant some herbs and try my hand at some container gardening for lettuce, radishes and green onions. When I visited my brother and sister-in-law in BC, I wandered around their gorgeous garden and was inspired by how my sister in law creates incredibly whimsical spaces all over their property. I tried to take a really good look at her garden, and hope I can create similarly interesting areas around our new house in the years to come. In the meantime, I tried my hand at fixing up a little space in the garden in front of the cabin. Rob had found some old drawers lying around the property, and I managed to pick up some pots at a second hand store, so I arranged them in the garden along with a little birdhouse that was already there, and was pleased with the results. I am hoping there is enough sunshine there to get a few things growing this summer.

Somehow during my absence, Rob managed to find some of my favourite garden sculptures, chimes and "things" that I had thought were forever packed away in storage, and I was delighted to discover he had tucked them into the garden here when I returned.  Rob's Mom had already created a pretty little garden space in front of the cabin over the years, so with some herbs growing, and my chimes chiming, it feels a little more like "home". I know that it will be a while before we have any semblance of a garden around the new house, so it's wonderful to work at growing something here for now. I'm still sad that all that remains of the lovely old oak is that stump though.

High winds snapped a number of the spruce trees this winter, including a couple on the river side of the cabin. We spent some time this month cutting the remaining parts of them down, as well as some of the other trees that had been damaged by the falling spruce, or that had snapped off due to the heavy snow and ice this winter.  We have a small path that runs from the cabin down to the river and along the edge a ways, so I have slowly been trimming back the branches a bit so we don't get any branches in our eyes when we walk.  I have been lining the pathways with a lovely thick layer of wood chips that should help keep the poison ivy down too. The air is filled with the sounds of the birds, and the river is still quite high and noisy, so it's pure pleasure to be outside enjoying it all. With the unfortunate loss of the spruce and surrounding trees, we have gained a bit more view of the river now. This is the view from the kitchen window.

And the view from the porch!

Rob has been diligently working on the final plans for the new house and the number of details involved constantly amazes me. We have decided (again!) to go off grid, and we are both really pleased about it. We now have to consider who to get to do the initial clearing of the land, the septic and the drilling of the well. When we built this log cabin 22+ years ago, we would sit in the kitchen at a neighbour's house and she would help us with suggestions of who to go to locally when we needed something done. As well, we had the help of one of her young lads with the initial log structure when we were building. Well now that lad is grown up with kids of his own, and last week we found ourselves sitting in his kitchen with him and his wife, getting the names of local people we could use to help with our septic etc.! What a lovely circle.....

We also had the opportunity to go visit a timber frame home at Gibson Timber Frame where Rob had taken a course last year. Although their's is a much higher and different structure than ours will be, it was still lovely for me to be able to stand inside the house and get a feel for the airiness of the building and a taste of what is possible. I think both of us began to feel the reality of building our new home when we stepped inside theirs!

This week Rob also took the final plans to the building inspector, which for me, really made everything seem much more real. Of course, he came back with more forms to fill in, as there have been some changes to the requirements since we picked up the original forms. The changes are all about new energy saving requirements. As Rob has been working hard on designing an energy efficient house all this time, (that far exceeds the basic requirements) we should be able to get the new forms quickly filled out and turned in early next week. This is just one of the many design views Rob had to put together. Yikes!

As things are starting to ramp up now, I know it will be harder to keep up with this blog, but I will try to post a little more often if I can, and maybe just keep the postings a tad shorter. As I sit here today, the sun has come out, the temperature outside is rising, and I can hear the sounds of the birds, and the river.  I cannot believe we have been here in this beautiful place now for 11 months already.  Every day has brought something new and interesting, and we always say how lucky and grateful we are to have had the opportunity to make the changes we did. As we move into the actual building of the new house, we are both really excited about it, and looking forward to the next part of our adventure. It should be an interesting summer!
　

　

　

　

　

The dog has taken over.....

Finally, I get a chance to fit a word in edgewise - Mom's away and  I get to take over the blog (I call it  "OverExposedAndSlightlyBentAndWellBehaved(JustKidding)" . Yes! While Mom is out of town, the German Shepherd Dog (a.k.a.Jet) has taken over the blog! Arf Arf! (or Arffffgh if I use my pirate bark - surprisingly, I have a number of different barks). 

So Dad and I have been batching it. Don't know if you saw the photo from the last time we had a chance to do this (I was just a puppy then) but I couldn't find it so just imagine my crate with a stack of beer (German of course) and PlayDog magazines and you will get a pretty good idea of what a swell time we had. Now that I'm all grown up though, we don't bother with all the kids stuff (I got rid of the crate).

We are definitely in the male bonding mode and taking extreme risks like you won't believe. Yesterday Dad ate an apple WITHOUT WASHING IT and today we used a cutting board WITHOUT BLEACHING IT. Not as dangerous as Auntie Lynne though - she was RUNNING WITH SCISSORS.

But don't think it's just an all day party here like last time (oops, Dad said not to mention that).  Actually, I just work from dawn to dusk helping out with just about everything. For instance, first thing in the morning, we have to feed the cats - Dad feeds them and I bark. Next, it's time to feed me, Dad prepares my daily Kongs and I bark. Then Dad feeds me so I bark. Next we go out to play, Dad throws things, I catch them and I bark. Then I have to go for a ride in the car so I bark. Strangely, we never seem to go too far (and what does reactive mean anyway - I don't know ... so I bark). Here's me getting ready to ride!

I gotta tell ya by 10:30 I'm a little tired of having to bark all the time - the man is a slave driver!

Yesterday we tried welding for the first time. It's pretty easy - Dad makes lots of sparks and I bark (but I had to wear funny glasses). We used a MIG welder which stands for Metal Inert Gas (sometimes I have gas too, but it's sure not inert!). 

Dad says he's going to weld me a nice collar for swimming in the river but I'm not sure he knows what he's doing - I just don't think that things gonna float all that well!

Today we installed a solar panel and an inverter so Dad has lights in his shop so I barked. It was very interesting when we connected the inverter - there were big sparks and we had to check something called "polarity" - as it works out - it's a lot like welding! I barked. Here's the test panel - it lights up and everything.

Well gotta go - will let you know if Dad survives. All I can say is ….Bark

One year later

Our slow, cold spring has continued now into mid-April. Although we are anxious to get building, we know that we can't do much until the snow is gone and the frost comes out of the ground. So in a way we are thankful that we are not being distracted by any sort of mild spring weather, that would usually draw us outside this time of year. Instead, Rob can continue to be inside, working on house plans, scheduling and timetables. We do, from time to time, wander out into the woods and stand in the snow and contemplate and measure and calculate. Sometimes we just stand at the river's edge and try to imagine the views from the windows, or the placement of the screened in porch. It is hard to believe that in a short while we will be physically working on the new house. It seems like it has been just an idea, or a drawing on a screen, for quite a while.

This month marks the one year anniversary of closing the store and business. What a year it has been! When we look back we can't believe all the changes we have gone through. We celebrated with a nice dinner in the cabin and spent a bit of time reminiscing about some of the things we did in the last year. We took some time to think back and remember the day we closed the store for the last time, Rob taking two timber frame courses, preparing the cabin for our arrival, the day we moved up here, building the upper and lower roads, preparing the shed, selling the dome, and packing up all of our belongings. We talked about some of the adventures we've had here, and some of the places we have visited. It is no wonder we enjoyed our beautiful and quiet winter here in the cabin. It has been a very special time for us, and we both feel very fortunate that we were able to experience it.

 

 

I had promised myself that I would not commit to anything for one year, and for the most part, kept true to my promise. In early March we attended a "Feast of the Farms" event, that allowed us to taste a range of local and organic foods, and to meet some of the local producers, farmers, and restaurant owners. We spent a lovely couple of hours, sampling local herbal teas, soups, wood oven fired pizzas, and a variety of lamb, pork and beef dishes, followed by some lovely dessert dishes. It was organized by a local food co-op, and I was lucky enough to be seated next to one of the co-op volunteers who gave us a little bit of information about it. We were told that once a month members log on to the co-op website to choose from a huge variety of items, from a list of over 30 different producers, and then pick up their order at a convenient location nearby one week later. We signed up a few days later, and because it's a co-op, I also agreed to volunteer some time with them. On pick up day, I found myself at 8 o'clock in the morning, in a rented space in a large church, with a delightful group of volunteers, preparing for a busy morning. We spent the next few hours setting up, checking off all of the items that were being dropped off by the producers, sorting the orders, and preparing items for deliveries or pick-ups. The whole operation was very well organized with tables labelled by destination, and coolers available for any refrigerated or frozen items. Many of the volunteers were also the farmers, and their families, and there were lots of children helping out, and having a good time. Here's my first order ! I will be volunteering again this month, and am looking forward to it, as well as receiving my next package of delicious food.

 

 

Unfortunately, our one year anniversary also marks one year of not bringing in any income, and as Rob always likes to say "the party is about to be over". We both really loved our "down time" these past few months, although I feel like we only truly began to relax a little beginning in January. Before then we were still busy with all of the things I mentioned above. And Rob of course, has still been working long hours every day working on house plans, and all the details that are involved. As Rob will have his hands full here for the next year or more, I have started to send out some resumes, and to think about working again. In the meantime, I had the unexpected pleasure of being asked to work a few hours here and there in a wonderful funky shop attached to where I take yoga, so I put in a few hours there this week. It's a lovely way to gently get back into the swing of working, and I am thoroughly enjoying being there.

Heating with wood has been a bit of a challenge this spring. We ran out of good dry firewood, and had to resort to burning a combination of dry scraps and the wet firewood that we had purchased in the fall. When that ran out we started eyeing the furniture! There are two oak trees that recently died, but are still standing outside the cabin, so reluctantly, we took one down. We kept the larger pieces to possibly use as lumber, but used all the branches for firewood. The house looks bare without the oak tree, and the front garden will look quite different this summer. We will miss that lovely oak. 

 

 

While we were busy taking down the oak tree, our beaver neighbours were further along the river, cleaning up a large tree that blew down in the fall and landed in the river. We weren't sure if we could easily get into that area to remove it ourselves, so it looks like the beaver might take care of it for us.

 

 

One night this week we heard some odd noises when we were in the living room, but Rob thought it was just the cats upstairs. I wasn't convinced, so out he went with a flashlight to see if he could see anything. He didn't find anything amiss, but a few days later we discovered the tracks of a beaver next to the cottage, and a telltale gully track through the snow that indicated some tree or branch had been pulled down towards the river. Sure enough, we discovered the beaver had been taking a small tree down that night, and pulled the branches over Jet's plastic kiddie pool and down to the river - and that's the sound we kept hearing! The beaver tracks were really interesting. They look like giant handprints in the snow.

 

 

I have no idea where the flip flop came from, or what the beaver plans on doing with it!

 

Rob released some preliminary house plans to my brother, my brother-in-law and some friends, and is almost ready to hand over the finished plans to the building inspector. What a lot of work that has been! It looks good though, and I am hoping to post a photo of the plans soon. As much as I have loved living in the log cabin for the winter, I must admit I long for just a tiny bit more space, a closet or two, and some of my familiar "stuff" that has been in storage the last several months. With most of our clothes in storage, even finding something decent to wear when I work in the store for a few hours has been a bit of a challenge! We are both looking forward to being in the new house, even though we know we are a long way away from that point.

This week I was very excited to learn that there is a Therapeutic Riding Program just 12 kms. away from us. It is a new riding program, and is looking for volunteers. I have contacted them and hope to be able to attend a training workshop in May. I volunteered at a similar program for 10 years, (although it was many, many years ago) and it was an amazing experience. This may give me an opportunity to donate some time to our new community, meet some new people, and spend some time with some lovely horses. I know that once Rob starts building I will have a lot to do here as well, but I am hoping I can fit in a little bit of volunteer work with this program this summer. Rob has been busy himself as he volunteers time with ACCESO International, and if he can manage to fit some volunteer time in during this building process, then I am sure that I certainly can too.

This afternoon the skies cleared and the sun finally came out. The temperature nudged up a bit, and may have actually hit the 10 degrees C mark! For a few minutes I cranked open one of the windows and let a little bit of that fresh spring air in. When Rob was outside last night the sound of the spring peepers was loud and clear, although when I stepped outside to listen, they immediately fell silent. We saw our first leopard frog yesterday so it appears the frogs are out and about.  I love the sound of the peepers so hope I hear them soon.

 

 

 

The skies these days are filled with geese flying overhead and the busy flapping of duck wings. Two sandhill cranes flew right over our heads and above the trees this week. I have seen the return of a Great Blue Heron, and can hear the Red Wing Blackbirds in the trees across the river. The Grouse are drumming their spring love songs, and the Yellow Bellied Sapsuckers have returned and are busy posturing out in the woods. The river is fully open, and it's flowing fast. The daffodils I planted at the entrance to our laneway have pushed up through the snow, and are just barely visible now above the soil. It has indeed been a long cold spring, but things are beginning to stir.  

 

 

It's time for us to stir as well, venture out of the cabin, re-engage somewhat with the world, and get that house built.

Spring Arrives...Sort Of

If I have been reluctant to give up on winter, so too has the winter been somewhat reluctant to give way to spring. Yesterday was the first official day of spring, yet it came on the heels of a winter storm, and morning temperatures that were still in the minus 20's. On my weekly shopping trip, everyone was commenting on last year's spring, that saw the temperatures fly into the high 20's - that's PLUS high 20's. This year is quite different.

I feel like I don't quite know this spring. I am eager to see the changes that will come, but don't quite know what is coming. Back at the dome I knew where to look for the earliest shoots, which areas would flood, and which areas would dry the quickest. Where to walk to hear the sounds of the first returning red wing blackbirds, and where the early robins would most likely be. We knew where the red tail hawk was nesting, and where the raven's would be gathering sticks for their new nest.

When I was outside of the post office this week, I was excited to hear my first sounds of red wing blackbirds in the fields below, and I heard them again on the other side of the river later in the week. Some geese have been flying high overhead as well. Slowly this new spring will reveal itself to me. We had a brief thaw that already showed us where to expect some muddy navigation with our truck. We were pleased though to see that the new road appears to be dry and draining well.

There is a sweet spot along the river, sheltered from the wind by the trees, and in the early afternoon if the sun is shining I can sit, cozy and warm and listen to the river. As the river opens up, it slaps against the ice at the shore, and sounds like drums. I could sit and listen all afternoon, but as the sun slowly changes position in the sky, it gets chilly.

This is where I sit, perched on some logs. Maybe this summer we can get some kind of a bench or seat built there.

Although this is a nice spot too....

This week as I came back into the cabin I happened to look up the roof line and saw all sorts of colours in the clouds above. I will guess it was a sundog, as the sun was hidden behind the peak of the roof. It only lasted a few seconds, and it was gone before I could go find Rob so he could see it, but I did manage to get a quick photo.

As the snow around the cabin slowly sinks lower, we notice there are a lot more animal tracks around. One afternoon I caught sight of something out the window - possibly the mink, and went out to find an incredible line of tracks that ran around the base of the trees and all along the river's edge. There are wild turkey tracks along the shoreline, and sometimes it looks like we are living along a rabbit highway. I finally caught a glimpse of one of the snowshoe hares, still cleverly disguised in it's coat of white, but getting a clear photo of it before it hopped away was impossible.

This afternoon I was puzzled by some new shoreline tracks, but as I followed them along, I discovered they belonged to the two Canada geese standing at the edge of the ice.

 

They didn't allow me to get very close before they flew away further up river. I was glad I followed them though, as I also spotted a duck further up, and when I came home to try to identify it, discovered I had seen my first male breeding common merganser. I hope I see him again, and get a photo!

We have been teased with a few warms days, but mostly this March, we've had cloudy and snowy days, and our brief glimpses of bare earth have been quickly covered by snow again. We have however, had a few snow squalls when the skies are blue and the sun is shining. I've heard of sun showers when the rain falls on a sunny day, so not sure what to call this - maybe sun flakes?

While I am out looking for signs of spring, Rob continues to work upstairs on the house plans. As well, the off grid/on grid discussion continues. I think we would both really like to be off grid, but we have to be realistic about the up front cost. If we were just a tad bit younger, say, in our twenties, (o.k. maybe 40's ....) then going off grid would be a good choice, as over the long term, it would be cheaper. The estimated costs for going solar not only include the Solar Photovoltaic Panels, batteries, inverters, charge controllers, and wiring etc., but we have to look at the costs of some of the things we would have to buy to make proper use of the system. We would likely need a propane system, propane stove, propane dryer, and possibly a DC fridge and or freezer.  We would also need a different method than an electric hot water tank to heat our hot water.

We are getting estimates on running hydro poles and lines this week, and that may make this decision a bit easier. It's hard to make a decision when we don't know all the costs.

Rob has been busy redoing the house design this week after deciding that some of the timbers needed more width. He's been working on our bathroom design, and the kitchen design as well. I keep hoping he will have time to post details on the blog, but I can fill in with some of the basic details in the meantime. We decided our living areas should be all on the main floor (again with that age thing...we apparently aren't getting any younger, and we need to plan for not being able to always climb stairs) With that in mind, the living room, dining room, kitchen, guest room, guest bathroom, our bedroom and bathroom are all on the main floor along with - yes - my mudroom !! We did go with a small second floor area that will provide some storage, and hopefully, despite our declining (or is that accelerating) age, we will be able to use that upstairs space for some time to come. It sounds like a lot of space, but the square footage is still less than 1400 square feet. He has also been working on the screened in porch plans, and of course the placement of the adjacent workshop. And researching, researching, researching.....Plumbing, wiring, concrete finishes... There's a lot to think about!

There is also the matter of interior decorating. When my super sis commented lately on one of my outdoor photos and asked whether I shot it in black and white, (I hadn't!) we realized that we do live in a beautiful, but somewhat colourless world this time of year.

Rob and I both love warm and vibrant colours, so will have to work some into the new house for sure.

The sun, when it shines, does make a difference this time of year, bringing warmth, light and colour back into our world. It comes in through the windows differently, casts different shadows on the walls, and definitely perks us up when we are outdoors. One day last week we watched two ravens playing in the sunshine, under glorious blue skies and white clouds, talking all the time. It was lovely to watch them.

I came home and threw a load of washing out on the line. They didn't dry completely, but I thought it was lovely to be able to hang them out, and it was a good reminder of the warmer and sunnier days to come. And with the snow on the ground, I could reach the entire line with no problem!