Spring Arrives...slowly

I am beginning to think that I should call this blog "the weather blog" (or maybe No Skin Exposed and Slightly Fed Up) as each and every posting seems to dwell on the weather, and the fact that it usually isn't cooperating with us very much.
But as I look through the photos I took over the past  month, I can see that despite the below normal temperatures, we really did move somehow into Spring. It is most apparent with the changes in the river.

It's funny how it goes - one day there's nothing but snow and ice and more snow and ice - then one afternoon you realize you are walking on a smaller patch of snow, and a few days later you peer through the woods and there's just - bright green moss and brown leaves! There's no more white - well maybe a patch here and there... but you know that the snow is finally melting. Next thing you know, the coat you're wearing is too warm, and winter boots feel totally unnecessary!

I would say though, that I was glad of that coat later in April when it got really chilly again. And I haven't put it away - not just yet.

Throughout the month, Rob did his best to get some work done on the new house.  It wasn't easy though.
Even though he could manage sometimes to work in the cooler temperatures, all of the jobs seemed to require the use of something that was temperature dependent. (Requiring warm temperatures, not cold ones!)  He had hoped to finish up the work on the outside concrete, permanently attaching the foam slabs and sealing the screw holes with spray foam, and applying a finish on top. He realized that it was still too cold outside to use the spray foam or the finish. The north side of the house still had snow around it, and he couldn't even get at the concrete on that side for a while. Sometime around the middle of the month though, some warmer weather arrived (briefly!), the snow finally melted around the house, and he was able to get at some of the concrete slab.

When the weather was too wet or too cold, we took the opportunity to go pick up some of the items we had sourced during the winter.  We try to pick up the items we want when they go on sale. We now have two very nice low flush toilets, a kitchen sink, taps, a bathroom sink and tap, a second hand bathroom sink and tap, and a bathtub! In the end (see last blog posting) I wasn't able to try it out first in the store. But we did open the box and set the tub up here in the porch so I could climb in and check it out! It seems fine.. and is narrower and deeper than our current tub, so shouldn't require any more water to fill it.  We still need to find taps for it.

One day when it was sunny but too cold to work inside or outside, we took the time to drive up to a local sawmill to pick up the flooring for the second floor.  Although the wood looked good when they loaded it, Rob discovered when we got home that a lot of it was not good quality at all. On the plus side, it was a beautiful drive to the sawmill, on some roads we'd never been on.

Fortunately, he found another sawmill close by, and was able to pick up some much better quality wood.
Unfortunately, we now have rather a lot of v-joint pine sitting in the house! We will have to be creative with the poor quality wood we bought at the first sawmill. (It's too expensive to become firewood for that wood stove in the background!)

Ideally we should be staining the underside (which will be the ceiling of the guest room and bathrooms and mudroom) before we install it. But it is still too cold in the house to use the staining products, so we will have to do it later. I know that painting overhead is not my favourite job - or Rob's! But it made more sense to get the floor in now while we had a chance.

Rob wanted to glue the floor down, and some days it was too cold to use the glue, so he'd move on to a different job, like building interior walls! Well - the framing part at least.

Slowly, we are getting our second floor in too. It's going to be a funky little area up there, and will make for great studio space.

And yes, there will be railings!  I am really not good at heights, so it's pretty amazing that I even went up and got that shot.

When it got even colder, he moved back into working on the stair design on the computer in the cabin. It's probably just as well, it gave him a chance to slowly work back into the long days of physical labour. As a lot of the work this month involves him being on his knees, and although he wears the best of knee pads, it still means he's rather sore by the end of the day.

With the arrival of the wall studs, I could begin to picture the interior of the house. It's funny because I have looked at the drawings for months, yet for some reason I didn't have the right placement for the guest room at all ! I picked up some paint chips and started to think about colours for the various rooms. Of course we are a long way away from that just yet, but it was fun to think about it at least.

And then these beautiful glass trivets arrived, a gift from my brother and super-sis, and although they sit here in the cabin for now, shining out their lovely blue light, I can't wait to get them into a place of honour in the new house! Thank you both !!

If April didn't bring us a lot of warm days, it did bring us a lot of glorious sunshine, and deep blue skies. And the return of lots more migratory birds. After hearing the haunting sound of the sandhill cranes for a couple of days, but with no sight of them, four of them flew directly over the cabin one day. Despite their enormous size, with their wings stretched out, and their feet straight back, they simply floated higher and higher on the thermals, calling all the time, until we could barely see them, and then they just floated away. Apparently they make good use of the thermals to go longer distances with less effort during their migration! What a sight....and what a sound...

One of our other favourite sounds of course it that of the "peepers". Even now I can hear them, and all the windows are closed!  It's such a lovely sound to go to sleep to. During the day we hear the other frogs calling, and I was totally enchanted when the grandfather of all frogs hopped up the driveway this week, and up onto a rock where he sat, corners of his mouth slightly upturned, and allowed me to sit and watch him for a while. He had the longest toes I have ever seen on a frog. He slowly made his way off in the direction of the other frogs later that afternoon.

We've yet to see any turtles, but with the last of the snow disappearing around the beaver channels, we are hoping to see some soon.

The robins have returned of course, the yellow bellied sapsuckers are busy chasing each other around, the grouse is drumming in the forest, and this week the swallows arrived. (Oh dear, a sure sign that black flies and mosquitoes will soon be here too!)

Just as we were lamenting that the bugs would arrive, and we wouldn't have had a chance to experience any nice, warm and bug-free weather - the temperatures rose back to normal, and then beyond.  Bliss!! The weather we've been hoping for arrived this week.  Rob quickly changed gears, stopped doing inside work jobs, and went back to the outside concrete work.  With two good days in the forecast, and no chance of rain, he got two coats of  the finish on to all sides of the house, and started the same process (screwing in the foam slabs, foaming the holes, and applying the cloth and finish) on the workshop slab.

Suddenly, instead of hot cups of tea, I was bringing cold drinks to him.  It was a fast switch. Wearing winter coats and multiple layers one day, t-shirts the next!

Almost daily now a "new" bird arrives, and the scenery changes. I love hanging out at one of the "pond" areas and listening to the frogs on one side and the sound of the river just beyond.  This little area will dry up quite a bit once the river levels drop in the summer, but for now it's a busy spot. The ducks check it out every now and then, and later on the heron will do a little fishing here.

I even caught sight of a rather shy porcupine one afternoon (whew - glad Jet wasn't with me!) as he scuttled away through the woods and up a cedar tree, keeping a good eye on me the whole time.

After the quiet solitude of the winter, the air is full of sounds now.  There is a lot of nest building going on around the cabin, with lots of birds flying around with bits of building materials in their beaks.  I guess Rob and I are sort of doing the same - ramping up that building process! It will be interesting to see how far we progress between now and the next blog posting.

February... March.... bring on Spring!

February is known for it's unsettled weather, with extreme lows, and occasional thaws. We certainly had the lows, but there was no sign of any thawing for the entire month! We had several "extreme cold warnings", wicked wind chills of minus 35 to minus 40, and bitterly cold nights.  But, as we watched the snowy weather patterns on the east coast of Canada and the US, we decided that we were feeling pretty lucky overall! We did get a bit of snow, but nothing major for the entire month.

For us, February is also "the month of love". We celebrate the anniversary of our first date, Valentine's Day, and the anniversary of our moving in together.  (Don't do the math  - we did indeed move in together after knowing each other for a pretty short time.) We met 37 years ago - so far it seems to have worked out pretty well....

So while some people say February is their least favourite month of the year - we are rather fond of it.  We spent most of it cozied up next to the wood stove, or heavily bundled up and walking with Jet outside. Rob kindly made sure the truck would start every morning that I had to go to work, and I would fill the passenger seat with extra mitts, hat, and scarves, in case of any problems with the truck during my commute. I discovered that the beautiful Alpaca wool wrap that was a gift from my friend Elizabeth was perfect for wrapping around my knees, or draping over my shoulders, keeping me warm each day until the truck really warmed up.

I experienced some of the most stunningly beautiful views on my ride into work; cold winter sun barely glowing through the early morning ice crystals, drifts of snow blowing over the farm fields, and shaggy, frosty cattle grazing on their morning bundles of hay.  One morning I passed one of the Mennonite men, in an open buggy, well bundled but still looking awfully cold, and the horse pulling the buggy all covered in ice. One evening I looked in my rear view mirror and caught the sight of a lovely big grey horse pulling a buggy up a dark and snow covered lane way - the horse perfectly lit by the lights that were mounted on the wagon. Of course I have no photos of these moments, but the images are firmly in my memory!

In fact, I have few photos from this month at all.  And many are ones I took from inside the warmth of the cabin!

Each time there is a fresh snowfall, I like to go out and look for new animal tracks. There are snowshoe hare tracks all over the property, but I rarely see the actual rabbit. One day as I sat inside at my computer though, I caught some movement outside the window, and there was a lovely hare, browsing on some cedar. Thanks to the German Shepherd who seems to have put nose prints on the inside window - possibly not my clearest shot - but it was lovely to sit and watch the hare eat for a while.

The number of animal tracks crossing the river increased in February as well. The river appeared to be frozen, but when we stood at the edge of the river there were sections where we could still hear the river flowing beneath the ice. In an area one afternoon, it sounded exactly like lovely steel drums.  We always walk cautiously along the edge, and don't venture out too far.  The coyotes, deer and fox seem to have so such qualms. One thing I haven't seen this year, is the tracks of the wild turkeys. They usually show up along the river edge, and all around the cabin but this year there have been none.

We like to follow the deer tracks, as they seem to have a bit of a highway running in front of the cabin, along the edge of the river, and over to the new house where they cross in front of the living room windows.

It was also nice to be able to walk along the frozen river edge and look to see how much of the house is visible from the river. (Not much!)  I couldn't do it in the fall when the house first went up, as the river was too high, too cold and running too fast!  Funny to think that was just a few short months ago.

With the cold wind chills we didn't manage to get out for any snow shoe hikes this year. We did don some snowshoes briefly one afternoon when we went to help our friend Bob take down a dead tamarack tree.  We needed the snow shoes to get through the snow and down to where the tree was. It's a bit of a slope down to the lake where Bob lives, and Rob took a few minutes to show us some excellent techniques for getting up when you fall over! Here he demonstrated the roll method, and the use of a pole.

Later on he demonstrated the tree hugging method.  I am sorry I laughed - but I did manage to ask if he was all right...!  We still wonder if Bob didn't wax those snowshoes!

In terms of the house building, obviously not much has been going on in the house. But Rob has been extremely busy working on the plans, and sourcing items. He twice had to cancel travel plans for picking up the off grid system due to the weather and poor road conditions.  But he was pleased to be able to finally pick up the panels, inverters, and controllers, one cold bright sunny day.  I think I pictured some sort of major celebration when he arrived home with them, but it was cold and dark when he arrived home, and we simply carried in what we could, admired the boxes, and decided to celebrate when they system is actually installed!

The reality of going off grid did however, become a bit more "real" with the arrival of the panels. Rob has been working on the lighting plans for the house, and had to think carefully about putting in multiple switches to ensure that we could turn on a light when we entered a room, but also turn it off as we exited into the next room.  We've been practising here to turn unnecessary lights off more often, but I think we will find ourselves improving on that! I picked up a good indoor drying rack for drying clothes and have been using it for the last couple of weeks to see how it does. (It's great!) Although the clothes dryer would have to be on propane, we are seriously considering not bothering with one at all.

Rob has been researching bath tubs - (acrylic vs. cast iron vs steel - I think marble is out!) and here's the problem.  I LOVE the bath tub here - there is something about it that is just really comfortable. But I don't know what it is!  I'm told the best thing to do is to go to the store and get into the tub you want - and check it out for fit. Well - most stores have them on display stacked above each other on a rack, way up high. I don't think you can ask them to please just bring it down so you can get into it!  I guess we will have to look into it a bit more.

Other items on the list - low flush toilets, bathroom fans, wiring, (Rob is reading the entire newest version of the Electrical Code book!) wood stove installation, interior wall designs. Final design for the kitchen (the peninsula is now an island!) Rob's been trying to simplify the workshop design. The solar panels will be mounted on the roof of the workshop, so the sooner they are on the better. The workshop is not yet built however!

February was a great month to spend time planning and researching. But I think our brains are getting full, and both of us just want to get on with the actual building. I know though, that when Rob is in the thick of it - he'll be glad that he took the time to think things out first.

Unfortunately March arrived with a forecast for below normal temperatures, and we woke up one morning to a thermometer reading of minus 33 ! Rob had expected that he would be able to get back to building by the beginning of March, but has been frustrated by the continuing cold. Suddenly though, in mid-March, we were teased with a brief spell of above normal temperatures, blue skies, and glorious warm sunshine.

The concrete pad inside the house began to warm up a bit, and Rob even opened some windows in the house during the day to allow the warmer air from outside to come into the house.

The river began to show some signs of thawing, and we were hoping that the warm trend would continue.

Rob decided it was time to remove some of the snow from around the house, in hopes that he would soon have some bare ground, and access to the east and south sides of the house at least.

Of course, March being March, another storm blew in, and the promised rain arrived as snow instead.  On the plus side, it was very beautiful!

We will get building soon. This week the jays and the chickadees moved into a different song, the song of spring. The deer have been more active in the woods and on our roads.

There was a bit more warmth in the sun, and it is beginning to set a little later in the day. We've been able to go for a walk most evenings when I get home from work.

 Despite the cold, spring is surely on it's way.

And with the imminent arrival of spring, our "winter hibernation" period is about to end. We are enjoying our last few days of relaxation before the work on the house begins again.

And now - we wait

January has offered us a see-saw of temperatures; some pleasantly mild days hovering around zero degrees Celsius, and some bone chilling nights that dipped below minus 30 degrees (and that was without the wind chill factor!). What we didn't get, was much snow, so for this month at least, driving conditions were fairly decent, and Rob has only had to plow our roads a couple of times.

On the milder days, Rob feels like he should be working on the new house, but that just isn't reasonable. As he wasn't able to install the exterior insulation and metal roof before winter arrived, there is little that he can actually do right now! It's too cold and too dangerous to try to work on the exterior, and he can't finish the interior walls until the exterior insulation is on. About the only thing that could be done on the inside right now is to build some of the interior dividing walls. As much as we like to think that the house is reasonably warm when we step into it, it really isn't. We arrive at the house, wrapped up in multiple layers of clothing, but as soon as we remove our gloves, even just for a few minutes, it's obvious that it's colder inside than we think.

The inside house temperature fluctuates quite a bit with the weather, and on the sunny days we do notice a bit of extra warmth, which is good news as we did hope for a bit of passive solar effect!  We go over to the new house several times a day, marking the amount of sunlight that comes in, and generally just checking things out, and talking about what we need to do there this coming year.

Jet loves to come over, we turn him loose in the house and he has fun trotting around and looking out of all the windows. On a sunny day he prefers to stay outside, and chew on ice and lie in the snow soaking up some of the sun's rays.

Sometimes we just like to sit inside - stare out of the windows at the lovely view, and enjoy the bright light. We love the log cabin, but it's rather dark inside the cabin during the winter, and the new house feels so much brighter - even with the unfinished interior!

Rob has been busy this month getting items off of the "to-do" list.  We had agreed on a style of wood stove, and after much research, were ready to purchase one locally this spring. Before Christmas though, while visiting family, Rob passed by a wood stove store, and dropped in on a whim. There he saw the stove we wanted, and they offered him a deal on their floor model! So Rob came home and researched things a bit more (o.k. actually - a LOT more) and got some pricing on the chimney and various bits and pieces. In the end, even with driving there and back, he calculated that it would save us quite a bit. This month he went and picked it up.  So - Check ! One item is now off of the list.

Of course, we both wish that we could just get it hooked up, warm up the new house, and get Rob building, but that isn't possible. And there is no point lamenting that the weather last year did not co-operate and allow us to get more done so that we could be finishing the inside of the house now as planned.  So we just have to remind ourselves - we did the best we could, and now one more item is off of the list ....

Next item - the off grid system!  We don't have it yet, but we've settled on a system, and have ordered it. Giant gulp here, and breathe, breathe, breathe...it's one thing to say we are going off-grid, but quite another to actually commit to it, and the cost!  But, it's something we both want to do so we are actually pretty excited about it.

As Rob is planning on doing his own install of the system he spends a lot of time now reading and researching and watching "how-to" videos.  Sometimes it's hard to keep up with how his brain works - one moment he's talking redesign of timbers on the workshop, and the area that houses the system, and the next he's telling me about battery replacements, electrical building codes, wiring, inverters, panel mounting design...  I suggest we start our sentences with something simple like "New topic"....

We go through the local store ads every week and keep an eye out for sales for anything else we will need - faucets, shower heads, sinks, toilets, bathtub, etc.  Luckily we don't have to think about buying kitchen or bathroom cabinets, as anything that Rob can build - he will! We still have to decide on the colour for the acid etch for the concrete floors (we've narrowed it down to two!) and decide on the style of metal roofing.

In between working on house plans and researching, we have settled in to our "normal" January activities. We move firewood onto the porch every couple of days, keep the wood stove filled constantly, and cook up lots of  home made soups to stock pile in the freezer.  Thanks to our friend Bob, who not only gave us a good recipe for granola, but brought some over for us to try first, I am now making my own granola as well. I still make a couple of loaves of rye bread each week, as well as a loaf of banana, walnut cranberry bread, and sometimes some healthy oatmeal cookies. I've been trying out some new yummy Vegetarian recipes too (sorry Rob!) I still buy food once a month from our local co-op, so took the opportunity to stock up on some Delicata Squash, and tried out a new recipe for filling them. A mixture of wild rice with cranberries and pecans tasted pretty good!

We are fortunate to have an amazingly good library in our township, so have been reading and enjoying some great books this month. It's nice to see Rob relaxing and reading a novel after months and months of reading "how to" articles and instruction manuals before falling asleep at night!

Of course, no matter what month it is, or what weather is coming our way, Jet reminds us three times a day that he needs some play time and a good long walk. Here he is, making sure that we don't forget to bring along his Wubbas, which are stored in the plastic bin by the door.

After his walk and play time, we often bring him home, and then go out ourselves again.  As much as he would love to come along, sometimes I like to go out alone and bring along my camera, or Rob and I like to go for a good long walk and chat - sans German Shepherd! Sometimes it's just hard to have a conversation when Jet is busy barking at the ravens overhead, or diving off the path on the scent of a deer or fox. He certainly hasn't yet learned to stand still while I take photos either. I'm sure that someday he will learn to stand still, admire the beauty around us, and appreciate the absolute quiet.  Someday...

One blustery day I stood for quite a long time watching "snow devils" blowing across the fields; swirling funnels of snow that spiral up and over the fields for remarkably long distances.

Of course, no walk is complete without a visit to the river, and it's ever changing conditions.  The river levels vary quite a bit, so we are always cautious. An area that might be frozen solid one day can be quite different the next!

This pond area was used years ago as a winter skating rink by the children of the former property owners. One of these days we'll find our skates and give it a go!

In the last week or so, the river has frozen more at the edges. There is still open water in the center, and every now and then I spot a lone duck.

Last year the river froze solid across the span and the deer, fox and coyotes had a regular highway going back and forth, but this year, with the river still open, there is no way that they are able to cross.  I notice there are fewer tracks even just leading up to the river's edge. We will sometimes see wild turkey tracks, and possibly the tracks of the mink and the river otter running along the shoreline.

Due to the shallow snow base, we haven't had a chance yet to do any snowshoeing this winter.  We did manage to go for a good walk with our friend Bob, and skirted along the edge of the lake he lives on.

 It appeared someone may have forgotten to clear off their dock area before the snow arrived! Although I think a canoe would be more appropriate than a bicycle?

It was nice to get out for some fresh air, and we were joined by a few of the neighbourhood dogs - who seem to know that Bob is a good source of cookies!

The arrival of some grapefruit from Texas, sent to us by our friends Gary and Liz who live in Florida, added some much needed Vitamin C to our diets this month. It was a huge box of grapefruit, and they quickly filled the bit of empty space in our fridge. So we stuffed the rest into a cabinet in the living room. The cabinet borders an outside wall, and it seemed to keep them cold enough! (We already keep our potatoes there) Thanks Gary and Liz!

Even though I am eager to be moving into the new house, I must admit that after 2 1/2 years in this lovely little cabin, I know there are things I will miss. There are days when I love the small kitchen, and that everything is within arm's length reach. We keep just a few plates and bowls at hand, and a minimal amount of "stuff" in the kitchen drawers, and cupboards, and it just makes things so much easier. It's funny, because we follow a fabulous blog written by a young couple, Melanie and Josh, who are building a beautiful wooden yurt in the eastern USA. (Rob met Josh during one of the timber framing courses they participated in.) While they are building, they are living in a small fabric yurt with their two young children.  You would think they would all be anxious to move into their new space, but like us, they find some of the aspects of their smaller shelter to be quite comfortable. I am sure though - that like me - there are days when they just want everything to HURRY UP and get done, so they can move into their new and lovely building !!

I know that I am looking forward to having just a little bit more space, and there are certainly days, when I'm balancing hot pans of freshly baked bread, while trying to roll out pizza dough and cook pizza toppings all at the same time and I just wish, wish, wish for one more foot of counter space... And I miss some of "our stuff" which has been in storage all this time.  Mostly I miss our funky artwork, my sewing machine and fabrics, and a few of the things that I sometimes reach for, then remember - they are somewhere in a box...

In the meantime though... we continue to enjoy and love the area we live in and where we live. While we may not be physically working on the new house, there's plenty to think about, and still lots that we can do to prepare for the year ahead.  We are both anxious to get at the next building stage, but for now  - we just have to wait.