Best Summer Ever

Only one thought comes to mind when I look back on June ....and July ...and August and even September - Best Summer Ever! It was the summer of our childhood memories.  Hot, humid, sunny days, and delightful warm nights. Endless days of blue skies.  Early morning promises of fine summer days, and a scent in the evening breeze that told us that more lovely days would follow.  After the past two summers of colder than normal temperatures and so much rain, it was a total surprise, and hugely appreciated.  I know the lack of rain caused worries for many, was stressful on the trees, and caused grief for some of the farmer's crops. But it sure made it easier for us to work on the workshop. There were times of course, when the high heat and humidity probably slowed us down more than it helped us. But on the whole, we can't complain; it really was a long and entirely lovely summer.

As much as we hoped that the workshop construction would go quickly (and it did), there always seemed to be some factor that slowed things down.  Because we are mounting the solar panels on the roof of the shop, the south facing roof is large making for a fairly high building, so Rob once again spent a lot of time moving scaffolding around (and around, and around) the job site. And some jobs simply took longer than anticipated.

Still, things definitely did progress! The framing for the front roof looked great to me.  Unfortunately, the rafters were not aligned properly at the top, so Rob had to rip most of them out and redo them.   It's important to have them in exactly the right spot, as they can't be seen when Rob is trying to drive 13" screws through plywood and foam - we need to know exactly where they are.

The back roof frame went in much more easily.

Having been through this process with the house last year, Rob knew what he was in for, and had worked out ways of moving things by himself.  In this case he used the tractor forks and a form he had built to help move the plywood up to the roof more easily.

I always like the view from inside, before things get closed in.

With the plywood up and taped, Rob was hoping less water would come in to the shop when it (eventually) rained.

We quickly added the roof wrap and thought that things were reasonably waterproof (silly us). The forecast called for rain so Rob decided it was a good time to made a quick trip to head out of town and visit family. Unfortunately, it works out that when there are no walls the house is not really weather proof.  I came home from work after a violent rainstorm to find huge amounts of water inside the building. It had mostly blown in through the sides due to the high winds, but also cascaded in after flowing down the roof wrap, and spewing in through the open framing.  I spent a good hour standing in deep water with running shoes on, trying to sweep and squeegee all the water out towards the door entrances. On the plus side, I then went out and bought myself a magnificent pair of rain boots later that week (I obviously needed some)!

Yup, the scaffolding has moved again.

Last view of the framing before the plywood goes on.

Closing in the sides helped with the rain situation, but caused some new problems because now the inside became rather dark, and made it harder to see when working. It got better when the windows were cut out again,

And I did begin to get a feel of just how nice this workshop is going to be!

It's always good to see the piles of plywood  on the ground go down, and the sides of the building go up.

Our metal roof arrived on time this time. As before, it was delivered by a rather enormous truck that couldn't get to our job site, so Rob opted to have it dropped off near the main road and moved it himself with the tractor. Or tried to. The load was simply too long to fit between two trees on the road so we once again loaded it on the trailer (sort of) and managed to transport it to the job site without any damage. As a bonus, I got to drive the tractor home which almost never happens!

Then it was back to taping seams and continuing with the shop.

As much as we want to just get this built, there are always little details that have to be taken care of first. Rob had to apply the  EIFS (Exterior Insulation and Finish System) or - as I call it - the cement type stuff that goes over the pink foam all around the concrete base, and then he could install all the base flashing.

A layer of house wrap (oops - it's all upside down Rob !) and then we began to put in the windows. Unlike the house windows, these windows arrived on time, as ordered, intact, and with screens and opening handles. That's all I'll say about that.....someday I may be able to write about the windows in the main house. Maybe.

Rob was able to put most of the windows in himself, but he needed help with the larger one. Our good friend Bob once again showed up to help out. Thanks Bob! And then it was time to start putting on the layers of pink foam again.  This is not Rob's favourite job.  The pieces have to be cut and if a saw is used (which is necessary at times) the foam dust is highly irritating and there is no way to avoid it. He's tried wearing dust masks of varying types, but when it is hot and humid out, this stuff just seems to stick to you no matter what.

In an effort to not waste cut-offs from the house (and to not throw cut-offs into landfill) Rob used some leftover pieces on the sides of the workshop.  It saved us from buying more too, but it did take him a longer time to fit them all in, and there were times when he wondered if it was worth it.

As always, we tried to take time throughout the day to enjoy some of that fabulous summer weather.  Jet enjoys a long walk three times a day, each one followed by a hearty game of fetching "wubbas" and spinning around with his jolly ball.  There were a lot of days though when it was far too hot for him play so he had to be content with a slow walk in the woods, and a bit of playtime later in the evening when it cooled down slightly.  It is always a delight to be able to walk in the shade of the forest on a hot day.

I was happy to spend time on my new benches down at the river's edge, where a multitude of frogs hang out. I soon learned that the longer I would sit, the more frogs I would notice, and soon it became a bit of a game to see how many I would spot.

When it got too hot, Rob and I would both head into the river to cool down.  The river was unusually high this year, despite the low amount of rainfall. At one point I thought my benches would float away, but the levels soon dropped again, and they stayed where they were!

We took some time to visit with friends this summer too. When our friend John kindly offered to have some salmon and halibut sent to us following his west coast fishing trip, we took him up on the offer. We had the frozen fish shipped to our friend Elizabeth, who then proceeded to cook us up a fish feast!  A toast to good friends....

As summer began to wane, we always took extra time at the end of a long work day, and headed for the river. Our favourite way to unwind and cool off is to take our deck chairs, and plop them into the river a few feet out from the shoreline.  We sit where the river has a nice ledge, our feet in the cooling water, and enjoy the sound of the river flowing over the rocks.  We watch the fish jump from time to time, and the dragon flies as they scoot just above the water. One day something bumped my leg and it was a beautiful big snapping turtle going by us.   This is the spot in the river where we most love to sit:

Early in September, Rob felt a familiar twinge in his lower back.  He's had problems with it over the years, and it usually doesn't last if he's careful.  You would think it would happen when he's building, climbing, and carrying plywood.

But no - it was when he was smoothing down a little piece of tape.  Luckily after a few days rest, he was able to get back at it. But both of us did lament that he lost almost a week, and it was just the nicest weather....

Mid September, we were still in the river on a warm evening. But eventually, we knew it would end.  The squirrels have been super busy in the cedar trees, dropping the cones until they litter the forest floor, and then collecting them later and storing them.  They know that summer is ending.

On my walk, I heard a noise in one of the hawthorn trees, and spotted a chipmunk busily collecting the haws too.

The woods are slowly taking on that golden glow of early fall.  Sunrise is at 7 a.m., and we no longer wake up early to the sound of the birds calling.  Sunset is at 7 p.m. and some nights I don't get home from work before dark. The geese are flying south, and I think the hummingbirds left this week. They know that winter is coming...

As do we.  We ordered our firewood, and I've been busy splitting it, and am almost finished. We hope this will be enough to keep both the cabin and new house warm this winter.

We ordered a "tandem" of wood as well, to keep us going for another couple of years, but it needs to be chainsawed into lengths before I can split it. Rob and I think we might be able to get to it in late November or early December if the snow holds off.

We now grab sweaters and hoodies when we want to sit for a few minutes and watch the sun go down, at one of our other favourite spots - the point in front of the new house.

We spend the evenings inside now, and while I have been preparing the photos for this blog, Rob has been continuing to research some of the many things we need to think about, and trying to plan and schedule.  He has narrowed down the fastening system for the solar panels, and is trying to finalize how he'll heat the workshop.  The concrete floor in the new house still needs to be acid stained, but we aren't sure we'll have time to do it this year. The wood for the ceilings still needs to be "whitewashed" as well.

There are always the usual "fall" jobs to be done.  I'll pull out my potted herbs and habanero peppers, garden ornaments and chimes, and put away the hummingbird feeder soon. I've washed and sorted my summer clothing, and it's all back in storage, and the fall clothes are here and put away.  Winter coats and mitts will be next, but hopefully we won't need them for a wee while yet! Houseplants are back in the cabin after their summer on the porch. We don't really have room for them, so they are piled on the dining table for now.  More things need to come in next - anything that can't be frozen over the winter needs to be inside.

We still don't know whether we'll manage to get our solar panels on this year. We aren't sure that even the metal roof will get on in time. Rob is trying to get the foam on the roof this week, then he will put on the second layer of plywood, and the wrap that goes on top. He also needs to build and install all the gable ends. After that - well we will see what the weather brings. The work days are now a little shorter.  The mornings take longer to warm up, and the sun sets earlier and earlier.

There is beauty all around us, and rather than lament what didn't get done, we try to enjoy that beauty, and remind ourselves that this is why we came to this pretty little spot, in the forest, by the river. We both look forward to being in the new house, but we know it will be a while yet....

Timber Frame # 2

Rob didn't waste any time in the second half of June, and finished carving the timbers AHEAD of schedule. No complaints from me, but I will admit that I missed some of the slower pace that occurred when the house timbers were being worked on.  I don't think I brought up a single lunch for us to share on a sunny afternoon, or spent any time watching him work at all. It seemed like I would come home from work, only to hear that another 3 or 4 pieces had been completed, and it almost felt like I'd missed it all!  Before I knew it, there were stacks (and stacks!) of finished timbers, ready to be moved down to the workshop site.

Before we could move them down though, the site needed some clean up. The concrete pad of the workshop has been home to piles of foam and other building materials while the house was being built.  Rob had also erected a small shelter on the pad, that housed firewood over the winter, and our small solar panel was mounted on it's roof, so it all had to be dismantled. The areas around the pad needed to be cleared of building materials as well, and a tall dying spruce needed to be felled.

Once the pad was cleaned and ready, I had visions of practising yoga there, maybe on a cool summer morning with the sound of the river as my music, but it never happened. As soon as the site was ready, Rob began to bring down the timbers, and got on with the assembly!

The workshop is angled slightly to point due south, in order to maximize the sun exposure on the solar panels that will be mounted on the workshop roof.  This exposure also means that the site is in full sun for a lot of the day, which made for some hot working days.  And on days when the humidex was in the upper 30's (Celsius) it was pretty brutal. Climbing up and down the scaffolding in the hot sun was hard work.

The workshop is smaller than the house, so at least there weren't as many timbers to put up!  Once the lower timbers were in place, Rob was able to drape a tarp up, which provided a bit more shade during the day.
It's amazing the difference a bit of shade makes when taking a much needed break.

After a heavy rain though, we had to drain all the water that had accumulated on the tarp.   As we keep moving in and out of drought conditions this summer, it probably would have been a good idea to try to use that water for watering the garden. But we didn't.  At least we have a rain barrel set up near the house though, which fills beautifully when it rains.

The timbers went up pretty quickly.  As soon as they were up, Rob set to work getting the roof trusses assembled, and we started calling around to find a crane company that could come in and lift them into place.

We would still need at least 3 other people to come help, so we needed to coordinate the arrival of the crane with the availability of our friends. While we waited for everything to fall into place, Rob worked on carving  more oak pegs.

When we set the roof trusses up on the house itself, it was a pretty stressful experience.  We had never assembled a frame before and because we could not pre-assemble the joints, there was the worry that they might not fit!  It was also a much bigger building, and more complex due to the valley rafters. This time though we were both a lot more relaxed, as we had a better idea about what to expect and the building was much simpler.  However, we were using a different crane company (the owner of the previous company had retired) so were hoping that we could find an operator as good as the first.  We were also keeping an eye on the weather as we had a massive heat wave coming, and we were worrying that it would be too hot and humid to reasonably expect anyone to work outside. Rob had scaffolding in place, timbers and purlins marked and ready, and I was planning snacks and cold drinks for the work crew.

We had tentative plans for a Wednesday "roof raising", but when we called the crane company on the Monday morning, we found out that the crane was already at a job site just around the corner, and could be at our site in a few hours.  We called our friends, and left frantic messages, hoping that they would be able to make it in time.  I gathered up a cooler of water and a handful of granola bars and we headed over to wait for the crane. I grabbed my steel toe shoes too, as Rob told me that I might have to be the one attaching the straps to the timbers before they were raised up by the crane if our friends couldn't make it in time.  Just before we headed out, our dear friend Bob called to say he had got our message and was on his way.  So at least Rob would have help with getting the trusses and beams and purlins into place.

The crane arrived, and the driver was great (hurray!) and he quickly manoeuvred the crane into place. Rob gave him the rundown of how the timbers would be placed, and in what order to move them.  Just then our wonderful friends Murray and Scott arrived, and I heaved an enormous sigh of relief as I was really worrying about having to work with the trusses alone.  (Rob of course, had already figured out that he would probably have to help me, and was worrying about how many times he'd be going up and down that scaffolding !)  Murray, Scott and Bob had all helped with the first roof (only Murray's nephew Simon was missing) so they just got at it right away, and before I knew it the first piece was going in .... I took the first photo from the upstairs of the new house. It was great to have a nice vantage point! 

But I couldn't see everything that was going on, so I quickly went back outside and tried to stay out of the way, but still get some photos of the process. Everyone was working in the full sun, and although it was nowhere near as hot as it would be later in the week, it was still plenty hot and rather humid. I was worrying about everyone staying hydrated, and safe.

The first truss dropped into place pretty nicely, and the crane operator was doing a great job and keeping an eye on everyone too. The second truss was up in the air and on it's way in no time!

It went in fairly well, although it would need some adjustment later on to seat the foot.

A ridge beam was put in next to help stabilize the first two trusses (there was also a temporary brace used on the first truss). I couldn't get a clear shot, but Rob also had a corner brace tucked under his arm, that had to be inserted into both the truss and the ridge beam. It looked a bit tricky, but it seemed to just drop in pretty easily.

And then number three truss arrived! What an awesome team, they just kept going...

The second ridge beam was lifted and put in place.  I started counting how many pieces were left, and realized that things were going pretty quickly.   Rob shot me a grin and said "this is going really well!". Wish I had a photo of that grin...it was pretty wicked, and it made me relax too.

As soon as Rob and Bob had each piece in place, they would release the straps, and toss them down to Murray and Scott, who would take them over to the stack of timbers, and loop them around the next piece, and then the crane operator would start winching the timber up. Did I mention they were an awesome team?

The purlins pretty much went into place smoothly (the dovetails are not fitted tightly - they are wedged in place later but they pretty much lock the trusses together).

It really felt like a rather short period of time had passed, when the last piece got dropped into place, and everyone headed for some shade and some water.

The crane operator packed up and drove away, and our fabulous friends departed to carry on with whatever we had pulled them away from at such short notice.  Words really can't describe how grateful Rob and I were that they came.


We could admire the frame forever I think, as it really is lovely to look at when it's all assembled. We wandered over a couple of times that night to look at it.

Somewhere in between getting the base frame up, and getting the roof on - we celebrated my birthday.  Rob secretly built 2 benches for me as a gift. Knowing how much I love being by the river, he installed one at the river edge where I used to sit on a fallen log, positioning it securely on the rocks with some rocks in front for my feet to rest on.  He showed me this one a few days before my birthday as he knew I'd discover it as soon as I visited the river edge on my day off. It's a lovely bench, made out of a cedar log from the property.

The second one he placed in another favourite spot, but I didn't see it until my birthday.  When the river is low, there are stepping stones over to it. When the river is higher, I can splash through shallow water over to it. There are pollywogs and minnows in this area, and I can spend hours watching them. I put some more Tibetan flags up nearby as soon as I could too, to send more good karma out to the river and beyond.

Both benches are in the shade for part of the day, and I will often sit first on one, then make my way over later to the second one.  Both locations offer wonderful views of the dragonflies, swooping above the river, and along the edges. And doing what dragonflies do.

Often they will pause and land on our knees or shoulders, or on the pages of my book, and give us a close up look at their beautiful wings and iridescent colours.

Of course, come fall we will have to pull the benches out, as the river will rise quite a bit then, and the winter ice would destroy them.

The weather this summer has been incredible. It may have been a slow start to summer, but the summer solstice arrived somewhat auspiciously perhaps, with the arrival of a sweet beautiful snapping turtle, looking for a nesting site in front of the house.  We don't think she left any eggs in this spot, but we will be looking out for baby snappers in the area soon.

For the first time in three years we've had a real summer. Long hot sunny summer days that are more or less perfect for building.  The last two years were really difficult for construction due to the constant rain.

Rob and I have had breakfast nearly every morning on the porch of the cabin, looking over the river, and watching the antics of the humming birds. We spend many an evening in the river, sitting in deckchairs with the cool river water soothing tired feet and legs, and spend most evenings sitting quietly on the porch again, waiting for the coolness of a summer night. 

When we do get the occasional rain days, we use them to plan, catch up on paperwork and pick up hard-to get supplies in the city if we have to.  When we needed to look at windows for the workshop we tried to do it on a rainy day. Absolutely no complaints, but it's also a rather dry summer, and rainy days have been few and far between!

We sure could have used this kind of weather when we were building the house. No point lamenting it though; we are just grateful to have it now.  With the frame up, Rob began straightening and tightening it up and then anchoring it to the concrete and then installed the sills.

The sills are totally sealed to the concrete and this does cause some problems with water pooling inside the frame, but it isn't as bad as it was in the new house. Rob uses a giant squeegee to get the water away so that it doesn't stain the timbers.

While waiting for our lumber order to arrive, he made more pegs.

We did have some wood on hand so we also began to do some of the framing and there was a bit of insulation on the concrete that had to be finished.

When we heard that we couldn't get our order until after the weekend, Rob made a trip to pick up what he could so he could keep working until the remainder was delivered.

The rest arrived the following week, and he just kept on working.  The area with the plywood will house our solar batteries, inverter and other services.  For now, it provides some much needed shade, and is a good place to sit and relax with a cool drink of water!

If I am home while Rob is working, I try to bring cold drinks and snacks as often as I can.  We are extremely lucky to have a Mennonite farm nearby that keeps us supplied with a bounty of fresh produce, as well as farm fresh eggs, maple syrup, honey and homemade pickles!  We definitely eat well, and so far I've managed to keep Rob's energy levels up high enough for him to keep working! I've been happy to spend more time outside this summer than ever before, walking the property, and bringing my camera along to capture photos of the wildlife and plants, in the hopes of identifying some of them, and learning more about others.

I was pretty pleased to get a better look at a black and white warbler, as well as a photo.  Usually they flit by the cabin, and I never get a good look at one.

While I'm out, I can also pick some wild raspberries.They are the most plentiful we've seen, and although we are in competition with the chipmunks, birds, wasps (and perhaps the family of foxes), there is more than enough to go around.

When it gets too hot I just head back down to the river, where I can sit near the cool water, on one of my fabulous benches.

So far the forecast for early August looks good.  We'll try to continue with the framing of the workshop, and the installation of the plywood roof and walls, while we wait for the windows to arrive. Then the task of putting on the foam will begin again.  It should go more quickly than the house, as the workshop is quite a bit smaller and less complex. Then it will be time to put on the metal roof, and the solar panels. We aren't sure how much we'll get done in the next month or so, but  I guess we'll know more by the time I work on the next blog!