Rhythm of the New Year

Well, we may have had a green Christmas, but we sure didn't have a green New Year!  Two days before New Year's Eve, we got hit by a good sized snow storm. We woke up to a surprising amount of the white stuff, and high and steady winds. When we waded out into the snow for Jet's walk I knew I wouldn't be going to work that day. Fortunately I had left a note on the store door the night before, just in case, that the store would be closed if the road conditions were "poor".  Well, they were indeed poor, and the high wind and blowing snow didn't help.  Late in the day, when the storm began to taper off, Rob went out and plowed as much as he could, while I shoveled around the cabin, and spent some time digging out the truck.

Around us, the woods had turned into an absolute winter wonderland, and as soon as our laneways and pathways were plowed, I took some time to go for a good long walk.

With the snow on the ground and in the trees, everything seemed brighter again. It seemed awfully dark for the last few weeks leading up to and after Christmas.

On New Year's Eve, after a rather special feast in the cabin,  we walked over to the new house, with an eclectic collection of smudge, incense, candles, matches and glasses of wine. After smudging the interior of the house, and sending good wishes all around us, we lit some incense, and sat by the warm wood stove. While looking up at the lovely high ceilings we tried to imagine that we will one day be living in this beautiful space. We looked out at the little Christmas tree Rob had rigged up outside by using a small solar panel, and wondered if our neighbours down the river could see it's glowing lights.

I'm guessing that they probably can't see us at all as there is a nice buffer of trees between the new house and the river.  The new house is situated behind the line of trees on the left side of the river in the photo below.

New Year's day we went for some good long walks, and Rob had to plow again as it snowed lightly all day. It was however, lovely and mild, and warm enough that we BBQ'd some steaks for our New Year's Day meal!

With the holiday season truly over, Rob got back over to the new house, and continued to work on the inside. Not that he had ever really taken much time off over the holidays! He was busy reworking the stairway plans, and making changes to the final framing design of the walls.  Unfortunately, he had done some rough framing in the springtime, and some of the studs had warped and shifted, so he had to re-do a lot of his work.  But, I could begin to get a feel for the walls, and hallways, and some of the nooks and crannies that we'll create as the interior space comes together. Below is the hallway to the river-side door and the kitchen walls.

This is the doorway from our bedroom into our bathroom.  Hmmmm.... this has since changed - AGAIN!

Lots of framing - taken from inside our bedroom.

Rob and I had talked about pocket doors sometime last winter, and after doing some of the framing, revisited this option.  The bathroom off of our bedroom had no door to it, and I thought that was fine, until we decided to move the placement of the bathtub.  Now we realized that if someone walked by our bedroom window, they would see us in the bathtub. Not that a whole lot of people, or anyone for that matter  - would be walking by our window!  And we could think of window coverings I suppose. .....  Instead, we opted for a pocket door that we could slide closed if necessary, and keep open most of the time without taking up any space.  On the plus side, this will also perhaps keep out a certain German Shepherd when necessary...?

So here is the current doorway from our bedroom into our bathroom, with the pocket door framing now installed !

Rob decided he would install a second pocket door to the guest room/guest bathroom area. This one was up for some debate, and I lost.  But I have to agree now that it is probably a good idea, and allows a guest to have a more private space, as well as giving us an option to close off these two areas if needed. 

As I had a few days off of work over the New Year period, we took a day and drove down to visit our dear friend Joe, who was in the area for a couple of weeks.  I had not set foot in his sweet dome for some 27 plus years, so it was a little like stepping back into the past. Funny how memory changes things. I truly could not remember the interior having the same set up, but Joe assured me that nothing had changed. It was lovely to sit and chat, and gaze up at the familiar triangles and enjoy the spaciousness. And we all reminisced a little about some of the fabulous Halloween parties that took place there, and fondly remembered munching on fresh veggies from the enormous garden that was once out back.  It felt a little strange to leave the dome, and head out in an entirely different direction than we used to, to go home.

The first half of January continued with see-saw type weather, with temperatures one night dipping to minus 29 degrees C, and then just a few days later, 24 hours of heavy rain, and temperatures well above zero. Somewhere around the middle of January though, we settled in to more "normal" weather, and with that, began to settle ourselves into more of our normal winter routines.

One of my favourite routines is walking along the river, and looking at the changes to the river and the shoreline.  This year, due to the milder weather,  the river is still open, with only thin layers of ice at the edges.  Every day it's different though. I can't get used to being able to hear the river this winter. Last year, it was so cold that I was lucky to hear a faint gurgle as it ran beneath the ice and snow. This year I can hear it as it tumbles over the rocks, and hear the sometimes startling sound of ice coming down the river as it swishes and smooshes into the icy edge. I love being outside in the winter, and sometimes, on a snowy day, it's so quiet that I can hear every snowflake landing on my coat.

On a sunny day, amazing patterns show up in the river. If I hunker down in a sheltered spot, out of the wind, I can sit and soak up some sunny rays (and get a little vitamin D too!)

There are always lots of animal tracks along the edge. Wild turkey, red squirrel, snowshoe hares, deer, and coyote. We now know for sure it's coyote, as one appeared in between the new house and the river one day!  Didn't get a clear photo, but here it is:

And one day Rob looked out to see five deer in the same spot.

I knew this would be an interesting time in the new house, but I don't think I was quite prepared for how much would change and how quickly.  While it seems that we spend a lot of time at lumber yards and hardware stores, picking up and returning supplies - Rob is actually getting things done. When he framed in the two closets in the bedroom, we both began eyeing our small collection of clothes that are strewn everywhere around the cabin, and dreaming of closets to put them in !  And dreaming of having all our clothes in one place. We currently try to keep a minimum amount of clothing here, and swap out what we have with each change in season, for some of the ones in storage. We can't imagine having everything hanging in one or two closets!

Closet number 1 and 2 in our new bedroom :

This week when I walked into the new house, picking my way carefully over stacks of wood and building materials, I didn't even notice that Rob had installed the stairs. When I turned around to talk to him, I couldn't believe I hadn't seen the new stairs, and had actually walked right past them!

The treads are not permanent, but will do for now, and are certainly a huge improvement over a ladder.  (Anyone remember the days when we had no stairs at all in the dome, and had to access the second floor via scaffolding? That was fun. Even more fun to climb back down to access the downstairs bathroom in the middle of the night.)  So I'm pretty happy to see stairs going in at this time!  They will obviously also get a hand rail attached.

Not only did I not notice the stairs, but I was so excited to be able to comfortably go up to the second floor, that I totally didn't notice that Rob had installed the drywall next to them.

I loved being able to go upstairs, and it was amazing to me to be able to wander around, and simply walk back down. I'm still not good with heights, but this was pretty much fine for me.  I'm pretty sure I could just curl up here with a good book, and hang out for the day.

This week progress was made with the electrical wiring.  As always, each new phase brings new challenges, but on the whole it's going pretty smoothly. Rob keeps a good eye on the electrical code book, and plans accordingly. Being off grid, he has also made sure to make it easy not only to turn lights on where needed, but to be able to turn them off again when they aren't.  This means that we will be able to, for example, turn a light on for a hallway to light our way, walk down the hallway, and have another switch at the end to then turn that light off.  We know that conserving power will be key, especially this time of year!

I didn't think I'd be so happy to see a pile of electrical stuff arriving, and even happier to see wires and boxes beginning to emerge on the wall studs. Of course, there is nothing to plug into yet, as the workshop needs to be built, and then the solar panels mounted before we'll see real power here.  Still, we can dream...

This winter our rhythm is a bit different. Last year Rob spent the winter in the cabin, designing and planning the new house, and trying to figure out the best way to get things done when spring arrived. He couldn't actually do any work inside the new house, as only the shell was built.  As well, with the long bout of extreme cold weather, he spent a lot of his time feeding the wood stove here! This year not only can he can work inside the new house, but the weather has been kinder, and the cabin stays warm even if he isn't tending the stove all day. (It helps too that we stopped up some of the gaps in the cabin; in and around the doors, and stove vent, keeping us a big snugger inside!) Not only can he work inside, he can go back after getting Jet out for his last walk of the day, and continue working into the early evening.  Having a small solar panel to generate some temporary power and light has made a huge difference.

For me, the milder weather means that I'm not spending as much time filling the wood stove on my days off either. And although I like to walk no matter the weather, it sure is more pleasant to linger outdoors when it's not minus 40!  While I've been spending a bit more time indoors, keeping our supply of home made granola, bread, and soups topped up, I have also been outdoors more this winter, than ever.

Even in the early evening, as the sun slowly disappears below the tree line, I find myself at the river's edge, or outside filling the wood box, taking in a few more gulps of that sweet forest air, and one last look at the moon or stars before heading in to the warmth of the cabin. Most nights, when Rob walks home along the lane way at the end of a long day's work, he too pauses and appreciates the beauty around him, before stepping inside for the night.

Mild December

When we were rushing to get the roof on before the snow arrived in November, we never thought that November and  December could turn out to be such balmy months. We saw only the slightest dusting of snow, once or maybe twice. We had a few frosty mornings, and the ice did form briefly on the beaver waterways north of the house, but the ice did not linger for long. We had record highs for Christmas Eve, and a surprisingly green Christmas.  I don't know how many times we asked why we couldn't have had this kind of weather when we were trying to get the concrete poured in November 2013, or when we were trying to close in the house in November 2014. Still the mild weather this month allowed us to get our insulation and drywall delivered with no worries about moving it through piles of snow!  

Somehow I managed to be at home the day the insulation arrived. More than 60 bags of it were dropped off at the site and had to be hauled into the house. Fortunately it came in on pallets, so Rob was able to move them closer to the doorway, using the tractor, which saved us some manual work.

Rob tried to rig up a pulley system that would move the bags up onto the second floor, but it soon broke, and obviously needed some adjustment, so we settled for piling it all in the future guest room, and kitchen, and then the next day he fixed the pulley system and moved as much as he could upstairs.

The tricky part was to make sure that none of the piles of insulation would block Rob's access to where he was working on installing the plumbing.   And to leave room for the arrival of the drywall.

I was sure that we had every single plumbing part that we needed   - it seems like we've spent hours in the plumbing sections of numerous building centers,and have hauled home bags (and bags!) of black plastic pipes and fittings in various sizes, but I was wrong.  Several times before or after work, I would be visiting the local hardware store, clutching a list of yet more needed parts. The whole plumbing system took some figuring out - but eventually - we got it done.

Well - sort of done.  The pipes that remove water and ummm "other things" are now all installed and hooked up.  We still need to install all the pipes that bring the water to the various sinks, toilets, tub and shower. Below is a photo of the mudroom, and the set up for the washing machine.

The guest bathroom plumbing is seen in the photo below. Yes - if you are a guest here, you will have your own bathroom., with a toilet, sink and shower. Hope you love German Shepherds though...and cats. Lots of cats.

Our bathroom is in the photo below. And all that sawdust ?  Well, that is the result of drilling through the studs, which meant more trips to the hardware store in search of a more perfect drill bit. (Apparently the drill bits last longer too if you don't hit nails with them.)

A couple of days before Christmas, the drywall arrived. We had a short delay in the delivery date due to rain, but soon had a clear day when they could deliver. I was home when it arrived, but had luckily made arrangements to pick up some food supplies from a local farm, so couldn't offer any help.  I was there though to document Rob bringing in a sheet to add to the first half of the load in the dining room. It looked like heavy work!

So, with batts and batts of insulation sitting there, and 100 sheets of drywall, and the pine boards for the ceilings, and the stain "wash" that we are going to apply first to those boards - well it would seem that Rob has his work cut out for him this winter. He is once again spending lots of time re-reading the entire electrical code book too, as it's time to get the wiring done as well.

With Christmas approaching, he did take time for a quick visit with family and friends a couple of weeks before Christmas.  And with the amazingly mild weather, we both took some time off for good long walks around the property.

Two years ago at this time, the fields were piled with snow. This year? Not a flake. We did get lots of foggy, misty mornings though.

We both love the rich green moss that grows on the forest floor, and can't believe we are still walking around on this moss, and that we are still wearing fall coats and shoes. The snowshoe hares may not be as pleased. We get glimpses of them as they run through the bush, entirely visible as they have turned white for the winter, and there is no snow to camouflage them.

The beaver waterways are deep and wide open right now. Usually this time of year we are walking on top of them as they would be frozen over, except for the occasional hole where the beaver would smash through. The plant in the foreground even looks like it's greener and growing again. I read on a nature group that I follow that some people are hearing spring peepers. I'm not sure that's a good thing.

With family living in St. Catharine's, we've seen more than our share of green Christmases there. But it was strange to have a green Christmas here.

Shortly before it arrived, I had the opportunity of visiting a nearby farm to pick up some of our wish-list food supplies. A big shout out to Moonlight Crofter's farm !! I usually order my tourtiere from them via a local food co-op, but I was unable to make the pick up time. On the off chance that I could get one from them directly, I contacted them, and was told they were sold out. But they immediately emailed me to say they had enough filling for one pie, and would make me one if I was interested. We had bought their pie last year and it was divine - both the filling and the pie crust, so we quickly said "yes please!".  Two days before Christmas I found myself at 9 a.m., inside their incredible round stack wall house (yes !! round  - almost like our sweet old dome!!) They welcomed me in, and set about offering other farm fresh goodies (along with kind offers of breakfast and coffee). In addition to the tourtiere, I was able to pick up 2 dozen farm fresh eggs, some delicious home made sausage rolls, a frozen heritage chicken, and 10 lbs of organic carrots.   O.k. 10 lbs is rather a lot, but I wasn't sure how much to ask for. And when they offered to go pick some exquisite ones out of the garden (on Dec. 23rd - really?)  I was thrilled.  (I did decline the various squash they had - I am beginning to feel like I need some kind of squash intervention, but later on I did lament that decision).  I got a lovely tour of the farm, saw some of their highland cattle and free ranging chickens and various garden beds, and took a nice walk up past some pretty horses at a neighbour's farm,  to pick up my frozen chicken and sausage rolls from a second location.  Driving home, I just kept thinking how incredibly fortunate we are to be living in this amazing place, and how much I absolutely loved being at that farm.  And later that day, when I headed into town, and the local grocery stores for the rest of our weekly groceries, I must say that I really thought a lot about that farm - how hard they work to supply a few basic items, and how much I preferred being there and seeing where my food was coming from.  A lot of food for thought I guess....

Christmas Eve brought high winds, power outages, and record high temperatures. I came home to find Rob removing downed trees from a nearby path. On Christmas Day Rob and I checked for damage in other areas. We were sad to see one half of a giant pine tree snapped and lying on the ground.

Rob took some time and secretly wound some LED lights around a small tree in front of the new house, and powered them up using our small solar panel. We sat in the new house, enjoyed a lovely local ale, and looked out the window at our pretty little tree. Ah - who needs Martha Stewart?

On Christmas Day the weather was cooler, but still well above normal. We spent almost all day outdoors, walking around and even enjoying a bit of sunshine.  Neither of us wanted to be indoors.  The weather forecast was for snow and ice pellets in the coming days, and we wanted to enjoy every last bit of the warm temperatures.

And now Christmas has come and gone, and we are approaching the end of 2015.  I took some time over the last couple of days to look through the blog, and looked through some of our photos. Sometimes it feels like we haven't accomplished much, so it's good to look back and see just how much work we really did get done.
I also found some photos that I'd set aside for the blog posts but never posted.  So here's one of them. Rob took it one day this fall after discovering a small weasel was hanging around the steps to the mudroom. Shy but curious, it suddenly struck this great welcoming pose !

As always, the blog allows me some time to look back, and some time to look forward. I have a feeling the next couple of blog postings will be interesting, as there will be a lot of changes inside the new house.  Who knows, maybe this time next year, we'll even be living there! Maybe....

We'd like to wish everyone who follows along here, a very Happy New Year, and hope everyone has a healthy and peaceful 2016.

Celebrations

October gave us one little snowfall, just as a gentle reminder of the weather to come, but the snow soon melted, and we were able to continue working on installing the metal roof.  As Rob's birthday approached, he decided to take the day off in celebration.  I had already booked the day off from work, so we planned on making a day of it. But when we saw a bit more warm and sunny weather coming our way, we decided it would be better if he kept working on the roof while he had a chance. We were feeling the pressure of time and weather, knowing that the past two Novembers have been rather cold and snowy months. As well, the daylight hours were getting shorter, and Rob was finding the available working hours to be a tad too short.

Back in August, while Rob was away visiting family, I decided to paint and stamp on a denim shirt, and give it to him for his birthday in October.  Rob has always lived by the credo "The joy is in the doing", so I thought it would be nice to give him a shirt with this theme in mind.  I had a lot of fun thinking about what I wanted to put on that shirt! I set my paints and stamps up on the table on the porch, and set to work.  It's a lovely place to sit, with the river in front of me, plenty of fresh air, and lots of bird activity in the many trees surrounding the cabin.  I started to set up the opening words "The Joy is in the Doing" with my stamps, and went upstairs to get some more supplies.  When I came back - I took a look at the shirt..... and was surprised to see this:

Hmmm...it looked to me like Jet was messing with this while I was upstairs. I wonder if it's possible that he rearranged the letters while I was gone. The Joy is in the Dog ????  Well, maybe Jet, but not quite what I wanted to put on this gift. Maybe the next one....

Unfortunately, I never did get this shirt finished in time.  But I thought it was rather appropriate, given the theme, to not worry about it. I will continue working on it this winter, and try to appreciate the "doing" part, not the "finishing" part!

Despite spending most of his birthday working on the roof, Rob still had a good day. We stretched out the celebrations a little by having some special dinners at home each day that week. For his birthday dinner I made homemade pizza crust and toppings - at Rob's request!  It was a nice birthday celebration.

So the next couple of photos show where Rob spent the majority of his birthday. He rigged up a little seat for the peak of the roof, to make it easier to move along as he fit the peak pieces in place. And there he sat, installing pieces, moving along, installing more pieces...and of course climbing up and down - a lot - every time he needed something.

Once the last peak piece was added, all Rob had left to do was to put the final metal roof sheets onto the area above the dining room and kitchen.

We thought this job would go pretty quickly, but of course it went slower than hoped. We were getting frost almost every night, so Rob had to wait until later in the day for the ice to come off the roof before he could safely get up there to work on it.  We also had a few rainy days, and rain made the roof far too slippery to work on. Rob was so close to finishing, but the rain kept holding him back. Finally he was able to get up on the roof and get at the final pieces. He came back to the cabin to get me when he was ready to put the last piece of roofing in.  He knew I didn't want to miss seeing him do it!

And then we did a happy dance...  Wow what a long, long job that was!

Rob was more than pleased to be off of the roof and back on the ground, but he didn't take much time off as there were a lot of pre-winter chores that needed doing. Although I had split all 10 cords of firewood earlier, it still needed to be stacked so we got at it and got most of it done pretty quickly.  It's a good feeling to see a decent pile of wood all neatly stacked and ready to use, especially as we both remember running out of firewood the first two winters we were here.

We moved some of the firewood over to the new house as well. Rob got the wood stove there up and running, and began monitoring the temperature as the house slowly warmed up. The concrete pad took a while to heat up, and the humidity in the house was, and continues to be, rather high - a combination of the concrete drying, as well as the timbers. But it's an amazing feeling to sit in front of that warm stove, in that lovely bright house, and think about the days to come... Especially for Rob - this will be the first time that he's working where it's dry, sheltered and warm!

On sunny days he took the opportunity to service the tractor, and got the snow blower fixed up and ready to go.  The new house site needed a good clean up too.  He kept thinking he might get a chance to do some timber frame work for the workshop, but there were more than enough tasks that needed attention first, and the days were slowly getting too cold to be outside carving timbers. On rainy days he did some work inside the new house, like installing the upstairs floor !!  I can't wait until there is a real staircase in. I had to cautiously inch my way up a ladder to get this shot.

This is a shot from below.  When I asked Rob what the red X was for, he groaned. That piece was supposed to be cut out before he installed it. I have a feeling he'll be ripping some boards up .....

It was nice to see the electrical panel get installed too.

We took some time one day to drive up to a local sawmill, and ordered the wood that will be used on the ceilings. Now we begin a whole new dance, as we try to figure out where to put everything.  We have wood arriving for the ceiling this week, and a pile of insulation batts coming later in the week.  Rob is busy getting ready to do the plumbing and electrical, and doesn't want to have to keep moving everything around out of his way. We can no longer leave anything outside as we know that the snow could arrive any day now. We dodged the latest snow storm, but can't possibly continue to be so lucky! Although I must say November had it's share of lovely warm sunny days too.

Rob spent a couple of those nice sunny days, helping our friend Murray and his nephew Simon to get a small roof onto Murray's new addition. (I guess Rob hadn't had enough of roofing after all!) He was happy to do it as they had both come so willingly, along with Murray's son Scott, and our friend Bob, to help us get our second level of timbers up last year.  It was nice to be able to finally give a little something back.

While Rob is busy building, our agreement is that I will do all of the cooking, but Rob happily suggested that he would make appetizers to bring to a pot luck birthday celebration dinner for our sweet friend Elizabeth. He made salad rolls - a favourite of ours, although neither of us had ever actually made them before. They were delicious, and he even tucked in little red hearts cut out of red peppers. Elizabeth loves hearts!   And he made two delicious dipping sauces for them too.   I can't wait until Rob is able to cook more often again.

Fortunately, we both love to cook, and I've been able to make lots of good soups and stocks, and our freezer is looking a bit fuller again.  Now that it's cooler out, the porch is a great place to set things out to cool, and I thought the recent batch of granola looked pretty lovely out there.

As always, we take lots of time to walk together in the woods, and along the river. It's easier to walk through the woods in late fall, and after a recent wind storm we made our way through a few areas to check for damage, and look around.  This particular section of woods is quite different from the rest; the ground is spongy and mossy, and there are lots of holes and openings in the forest floor so you have to watch where you step.We always keep an eye out for any fallen trees that may be hung up above us though as well.

When we heard there was a possible snow storm on it's way, Rob spent a few days last week doing a more thorough clean up of the job site. It sure looks good when all the scaffolding is gone, and the scraps of wood, metal and foam are tucked away.  If we have a chance, we'll do one more scan for nails and metal objects and then we're done. (Maybe we'll even find that pair of lost glasses.) (Again)

As December approaches, we are going through what are now familiar chores. We've swapped out our spring and summer clothes for fall and winter ones, and checked through our hats, scarves and mitts to make sure we have a good supply. Our pile of winter boots and shoes are filling one corner of the kitchen (why is it that having a dog to walk seems to require so much attire ?) Our one tiny closet is stuffed with winter coats, down vests, rain pants and snow pants.  The garden ornaments have been tucked away, and we have a box of kindling ready for starting the wood stove. Snow tires go on this week. (O.k. - a bit late on that one!)  Anything that can't be left outdoors for fear of freezing, or damage from the snow, has been brought back into the cabin.  We've checked our store of batteries and flashlights and stocked up a bit on water and a few tinned items in case of power outages.  (It will be so different when we are living off grid!)  We also realized that Rob will be walking back and forth from the cabin to the new house when it's dark, so have made sure he always has a small flashlight on him.  Just for fun we went out for a walk one night and turned off our flashlight to see how dark it really is. Yup - it's really dark !! You could walk off the path and into a tree in a second....

There are times too when there is not enough natural light in the new house, which makes it difficult for Rob to see what he's working on - so after a lot of  thought, he rigged up a small solar system and some LED lights. We've been testing LED lights here in the house, and they sure have come a long way! They produce a much better light than they used to.  He should be able to work just fine in there now.

And work he will; if the joy is in the doing - he plans on doing lots.  He's busy now studying plumbing and electrical codes, designing the staircase, thinking about concrete floors and acid stains, tub drains, faucets, vents and ducts .... insulation and drywall, pine ceilings....well it's a bit of a list.  And it all has to be done in some sort of reasonable order.

One of the nice things about all these jobs though - is that for the first time in this project, none of them are weather dependent!  Rob can work inside the house no matter the weather  - so we can now take a bit of time to ourselves on a sunny day, and not worry that we are wasting good building weather. And our favourite place to be on a sunny day is down by the river. It's lovely to watch the changes in the river that come with each season.  Slowly it's getting higher and faster, and this morning there was heavy frost in the vegetation on the shoreline.  On a sunny day though, it's still easy to sit on a rock at the edge, close our eyes and listen to the river song.....  it's a sound we miss during the winter, so we try to get our fill of it while we can.