Love, laughter, loss and porcupines.

The Weather Network predicted a very cold and snowy December for 2021.  In fact they wrote there would be "more winter weather leading up to the holidays than we have often seen over the past 25 years".  "Yikes ! " we thought, and reminded ourselves to keep a supply of diesel for the tractor so we could plow ourselves out, and a good stock of food and supplies in case the roads were bad and we couldn't get out for groceries.  Overall though, I think we were secretly looking forward to being hunkered down in the house for a while as both of us were ready for some down time after a busy summer and fall.

December arrived without the predicted storms though.  In fact on our daily walks we commented often on the lack of snow in the nearby fields.  The river remained open, and the south facing slopes were often bare of snow.

We did however have a number of  storms with freezing rain and high winds, so that made our walks a bit more interesting on some days. We generally won't walk in the woods when it is really windy in case trees or large branches fall on us. On the days when it wasn't windy, we could usually get out for our walks as we have cleats for our boots which really helps when it's super icy. 

As Christmas approached I baked up a huge batch of our favourite New Mexico Biscochito cookies and some Mincemeat tarts.  Oops, I froze almost all the tarts before I took the photo !  Luckily the cookies also froze well as I forgot the recipe I had produces more than 6 dozen cookies.  That's a lot!

We found a perfect Christmas tree (super tall!) under the power lines, and knowing it would have to come down as it would be touching the lines in another couple of years, we weren't quite as sad to chop it down.  Well actually, Rob doesn't look sad at all does he?

It looked beautiful once we got it up and decorated.  It certainly made things a bit more festive, as it was yet another Christmas in the new house where we would not be entertaining friends. 

Similar to the year before though, we did manage to drop off a few presents (from a distance!) and then spent some time with friends via FaceTime and Google Meet.  We prepared some delicious holiday meals for ourselves, and stayed toasty warm in front of the woodstove every evening.  As always, we are incredibly grateful for what we have and try not to lament these crazy Covid times. 

Before we knew it, 2021 was over.  We began the New Year in much the same way as the Old, with a good meal prepared at home, and hopes for a healthy and happy New Year.

Little Axle our 19 year old cat had been given a rather dire prognosis before Christmas as he likely has a nasal tumour and he was quite ill, but even he rallied over the holiday season.  In fact, he continued to astonish us and is still with us now in late Spring!

The New Year brought us slightly longer sunlight hours for which we were glad.  The short daylight hours in November and December are always a concern, and we were watching our power usage really closely.   We keep an eye on our daily usage, and the health of the entire solar power system.  We found ourselves once again going around the house with our Kill-a-Watt gizmo to monitor the electricity usage on every item we could think of, including our electric alarm clock, kitchen scale, microwave, and even our wireless NAD that transfers our sound from our Laptop to our Stereo System.  (Needless to say our stereo system is NOT used in the winter months it just takes too much power!)  Every little bit helps, so we swapped out our electric alarm clock for a battery operated one, got in the habit of unplugging our microwave and turning off the kitchen scale when not in use. We unplugged the wireless NAD as well, as even that uses a bit of power when we aren’t using it.  Our laptops are pretty low usage, but when we have them plugged into a larger monitor, that too takes more power so monitors needed to be – for lack of a better word – "monitored" !! Although it seems like some of these items such as an alarm clock, may not use much power, it does run 24 hours a day, most of that time pretty needlessly.  

It was an interesting exercise.  The funny thing is that while we were doing all this, I was busy disposing of our old Chilly Chiles files.  We had to keep 7 years worth of paperwork after closing and it it was now past the time to dispose of all of it.  I came across our old Hydro Bills and was completely astonished at how much power our store and warehouse used each day.  Of course we were running a store and warehouse, complete with walk-in coolers, a freezer, store cooler, lights, computers, servers and various equipment.  I realize it was the cost of running a business, and we were as efficient as we thought we could be, but still it is mind boggling compared to how low we try to keep our current daily usage here.

Going through the old paperwork was a trip down memory lane as well. There were invoices from some of our most favourite suppliers, many of whom we had met and hung out with over the years. There were lists of products that we truly loved and still miss to this day.  Rob would hear me calling out products every now and then, followed by a wistful sigh.  Fortunately, one of the businesses that we used to supply is able to ship us many of our favourite sauces and dried chile peppers (hotsaucesunlimited.com)  Be sure to check them out if you need products and tell George we sent you to him! His customer service is outstanding, and our orders always arrive promptly and in perfect condition! 

My original intent was to shred all of the paperwork that had personal or confidential information, but 7 years worth was a daunting task, especially with our small old shredding machine.  (Unfortunately we sold our commercial shredder when we closed the company!) I soon realized however that most of the paper made for an excellent fire starter in the woodstove, and so that is what we did through out most of the winter.  As there is no longer much in the way of newspapers, it was an excellent solution.

Going through the paperwork also gave me a better appreciation for what Rob did all those years too. GST filing, employee deduction tallying, bank account reconciliation, debit and credit card cross checking, invoices, bill paying, custom declaration forms, shipping invoices, food inspections, pay cheques, tax filing etc. etc. etc.   No wonder he has such a dislike for paperwork! I definitely feel like I had the easier job working the store.  

I will admit I started singing a "money in, money out" mantra while I was going through the boxes.  I had to remind myself that it did pay us a salary though, so no complaints there.  And it reminded me again of what a great company we built and ran for all those years.

Chilly Chiles came through again for us when Rob decided that he simply couldn't continue trying to work in his workshop without a sink.  He had found a perfect second hand sink in the fall, and together with the small under-the-counter hot water tank from our first store in the ByWard Market, got to work on installing a sink with hot and cold water, and a way of draining it with the help of a pump into our existing system.  Then he began the rather hopeless task of trying to get the rest of his workshop in order.

When news arrived in early January that Rob's sister Trina had contracted Covid in the long term care home where she lived, we were relieved to hear that she was asymptomatic, but sorry to hear she would have to be moved into isolation.  We certainly did not expect the next call that she had passed away unexpectedly in her sleep.  And so we joined the ranks of so many other people in this world, finding little in the way of ritual during this pandemic time,  mourning the loss of a dearly loved sister and sister-in-law.  Trina's positive spirit, her great laugh, and sing-song "I love you too" are sorely missed. I am so grateful for all the times we spent together, whether in St. Catharines, here at the cabin, at our dome in Navan, and the various cottages during the summers when her children were young.   When I looked through our photos of Trina from the past, so I could send copies to her daughter, I couldn't help but smile as in almost all of them Trina would be laughing and smiling, even when she wasn't aware of a camera pointed at her. These are just a few of many.

I did find one photo where that smile wasn't shining, but it's still a classic Trina pose.  Sitting in the sun, reading, with her feet in a pool.  This one makes ME smile every time I see it.

By the second week of January, the daylight hours begin to get a little bit longer.  I don't think we even noticed it this year.  A bright spark had gone out of our lives for ever.

But we did notice it was colder, and we were into burning more serious wood than the "swing season" wood that we were burning mostly up until then.  With night time temperatures in the minus 20 and 30's we moved to burning more of our oak.  Even then though, we didn't usually need to start the woodstove until late in the afternoon.  The house was always quite warm enough despite the cold temperatures outside.

I began to worry about a merganser that was still hanging around in the river.  Usually they fly south in the fall.

No one worried about me though !

Despite the cold we still got out every day for several walks.  Nothing heals more than fresh air and natural beauty, at least for me.

And if busy hands make idle minds, then the snow storms certainly kept our hands busy.

Winter is always a good time for us to learn new things, and we kept ourselves busy indoors with Rob doing online guitar courses, and myself doing some photography courses online.  With thanks to all those who dedicate so much time to offer their talents to teaching others.  It's definitely the bright side of the web.

Slowly the daylight hours got longer, and more light returned to our worlds.

In an attempt to get a bit more routine into my life, I declared Sunday my mental health day, and banished "to-do" lists from that day.  I pulled out my dear old (almost 50 years old!) sewing machine, and a second equally old machine that I had pulled out from a curbside give away many years ago and never used.  I cleaned the second one up, found a manual online, and learned how to use it.  I still favour my old machine though.  It is so familiar to me even after years of not using it. My fingers know exactly what to do, and I can thread the needle still, even without my glasses.  The second machine is more flimsy, and a tiny bit "fancier".  But it also has a free arm, which is what I needed when I decided to patch my (second hand) jeans rather than toss them out.  I pulled out my old fabric paints and stamps (sadly some have dried up after being tucked away for so long) and had some fun playing with fabric once again.  Small steps, but I know I will do more.

Just as we eased ourselves out of one sadness though, a second arrived.  My brother Alan, who had been a crack addict but had, as far as we know, been clean for many years, had gone back to his addiction and was reported missing.   He'd had a long and troubled past. He had done time, and was on parole, and seemed to be on a better path; doing well at a job, reconnecting with his son, and back living with his wife. But he had broken parole conditions by doing drugs, and was returned back to prison, and then given another chance and was staying in a rehabilitation facility where we all hoped for the best outcome.  Within a few hours though we learned that he was in a hospital on life support from a drug overdose, and there was no hope for his survival.  

Photos in this case are harder to come by.  There is a rather large gap in time when obviously none were taken.  (Cameras are generally frowned upon during prison visits) And the early photos I have are a painful reminder of a much younger brother who (I presume) was not an addict at the time. 

He was a joker and he kidded around a lot.  Even just before Christmas he was still sending me emails with silly poop jokes.  They annoyed me at the time, but I kind of miss them now.  So this photo from around 5 years ago will have to do.  It's a typical Alan pose; and he is no doubt saying something silly or rude.

On the day he passed. three geese showed up on the river bank.  I'm sure there is a joke in there somewhere, but I don't have Alan's twisted sense of humour so I can't think of one.   Hopefully he's laughing somewhere.

I think perhaps this blog posting is in need of a bit of cheering up, so here is a "cheering up story".  During this difficult time we had a call from the Wildlife Rescue that had helped us capture our injured porcupine (a.k.a. "Hoover") and had transported him to Sandy Pines Wildlife Rescue in Napanee where he stayed for the winter. They had successfully removed the pellet from his eye, and treated his mange and got him back into good shape.   Hoover was apparently ready to come "home" and needed a ride!  So we offered to do it.  The original rescue gave us a good sized crate and we set it up in the car with some protective coverings underneath for the seats, and set off.  When we arrived some 2 hours later they took the crate, and then returned it to us with one sweet little porcupine inside!  We strapped him in and off we went.

We had been told that on his original ride to the rescue he was a pretty unhappy and vocal little guy, but on the trip with us he was very quiet.  He sniffed at us several times, and would look through the slats at us but that was all.  Oh, and had a little pee in the crate but there were pee pads and straw in the bottom so no problem there.  And then he curled up and went to sleep for most of the trip.  I will say that I think this was the best road trip ever.  Ever time I looked back to check on him I just kept thinking how cool it was to have him in the back of the car !   

When we arrived home we were told to put the crate out on the ground, open the door and step WELL back so that he wouldn't stress.  We chose a spot on our property near a big old tree where we have seen porcupines (and raccoons) resting in the crook of the tree before, thinking it was a nice safe spot.  For a while, he wouldn't come out though, so we spun the crate around to face away from us, and he stuck his nose out.

And then he just sort of trundled out, and pretty much made a straight line through the bush and up the bank towards the tree!  There was still some snow on the ground and more fell the next day so we weren't sure how thrilled he'd be. But we reminded ourselves that he was actually a wild animal and probably just fine with it.

Sure enough a few days later there was a porcupine in the tree.  We will assume it is Hoover.  We've seen one there now a couple of times, sleeping of course as they are pretty nocturnal.

Rob did a little video of Hoover's "Release Party" and set it to music.  It was hilarious and probably just what we needed to cheer us up a bit too.  

And so we eased slowly into April, and began to see signs of spring.  The ducks returned to the river, and one day our neighbour took us into their barn to show us a new born colt, just born the night before.  The barn was full of mules and big work horses all munching on their hay and it brought me right back to all the times in my childhood when I hung out in a horse barn.  It was super sweet and just what I needed.

When friends of ours asked to use the cabin for a night at the end of April we set to getting it open for them as we had completely shut it down for the winter.  We had drained the pipes and turned off all the power, wrapped the porch with tarps etc. in the late fall, and had also removed the broken kitchen taps and not replaced them.  Replacing them required us to pull up the sink, and that's when a small job got a wee bit bigger as we opted to pull out the counter and give it a much needed refinish job, remove the torn wallpaper backsplash and put up fresh wallpaper, put a finish on the shelf above the sink so I could more easily clean it in the future, and well, while we were at it, get a coat of paint on one or two walls that had never been painted before.  We did it all in no time, so  with a few days to spare we headed up to our favourite tile store looking for a kitchen flooring option.  The pine floor had taken a beating over the years, and because the main door into the cabin opens directly into the kitchen it was really hard to keep the floor clean, and the rug we had thrown down to protect it was completely done.  We came home with some vinyl click flooring which wasn't at all what we had it mind, but it worked.  It needed an edge for where it met the pine flooring of the dining room, and Rob sanded down and finished a strip of oak from an old church pew that he had,  and voila - it was done !  We would have liked to have just continued working on the cabin, but other jobs beckoned.

Before:

After:

We had so much success with the wood that we collected from fallen trees and used for firewood during the past few years, that we decided to focus our efforts in May on collecting even more than previous years.  We had several trees that had come down due to high winds, but they were mostly hung high up in other trees.  So we set ourselves up with ropes and chains and a winch system and from the safety of afar, slowly hand winched them down to the ground.  It was slow work but worth it. When we were able, we used the tractor, but most of them were too far away from the roadway to get access.  Then we cut them up, trimmed and stacked all of the branches, and hauled out the logs in 8 and 10 or 12 foot lengths and moved them by tractor up to our concrete pad and stacked them there until we could get back and begin chain sawing them up and splitting them.

There aren't a lot of photos of our work, as it isn't the time to be focused on a camera.  And yes, we are wearing safety glasses, hearing protectors, hard hat when needed, steel toe shoes, face shield etc.  Oh yes, and bug spray and sun screen too!

We piled the branches at the side of our roadway and went back later to chip them all, and then spread the chips on our pathways.  

We had one area near the house that had 3 dangerous trees hung and when we cleared those I heaved an enormous sigh of relief as they were all above a path that I had been using to get to the river.  I had stopped using it when the trees came down.  With them gone, we found ourselves able to clear more downed trees nearby and ended up with a lovely path down to the river.  I spread some of our wood chips but it will need more.

We were doing pretty well, but just when we wanted to start cutting and splitting wood a heat wave arrived with temperatures in the low to mid 30's.  So we had to slow down a bit, and did the best we could to split wood in the mornings before the heat arrived.  Even then we took water breaks often, and sat in the shade to cool off when we could.  When it was too hot we simply switched to other jobs like repairing the gas tank on the old truck, or replacing it's oxygen sensor.  (Good old truck - it's still limping along thanks to Rob !)  Rob also did some road grading on our common road, and helped a couple of neighbours out with rock removal from the nearby fields, and moving some oak logs.  The heat wave broke, and we were able to finish doing our firewood over the course of a few days, in between thunderstorms and rainy days.  Now it will be able to finish drying over the summer and hopefully be perfect for use this winter.  We still have some oak left from a load we bought years ago and will use it in the depths of winter, but this "swing season" wood that we cut we now know will do well for us most of the other winter months.

With the arrival of June we begin on a "new" task, although technically I guess it is actually an old one.  We will be getting back to doing the siding of the house and workshop, with just 4 1/2 sides left to go, and the two porch areas.  "Just" I say because Rob says it will easily be done this summer.  I hope so, as it would be nice to get it done.  Fortunately we bought the siding before the price of wood sky rocketed. We hope we have enough.  If we were thinking of building this house now we simply could not afford it given the high cost of building supplies.  We are feeling pretty grateful that we chose to build when we did ! 

On these late spring evenings we find ourselves wandering over with a homemade beer to the log cabin porch at the end of the day. It's nice to have a bug free place to sit, and I hope we can get a porch built at the new house someday.  But for now this one works fine. I've been thinking of calling the cabin Hiraeth Cottage.  But the word Hiraeth is perhaps a tad melancholy for such a lovely place.  The word Hiraeth is Welsh and does not actually translate to English.  But the closest it comes is "longing" or "nostalgia" or "homesickness" or even " a pull on the heart".  My mom would say she had the hiraeth when she missed her Welsh home/family etc.  And that is what the cabin is for us, a longing for earlier times, for missed family, for the sound of our dog Jet moving around on the floor... Still, I am not sure that it is what we should name it. For the cabin is also about solitude, and peace.  The sound of the river, the birds, the frogs.  Memories of time spent with friends and family, of wicked games of Scrabble and much laughter.  A refuge when it was needed.  So I guess I will keep thinking about it.

In the meantime I have found a nice little local online auction company and have been having fun picking up a few second hand items for the cabin, that I hope will someday make someone's stay there a little nicer.  So far there's a "new" sweet little sun/moon mirror up on one wall, some rather nice quality pots and pans replacing the old ones in the kitchen, two not pretty (but functional) bedside lamps, and a very useful bedside table.   I have a list of a few other things that I am keeping an eye out for.  It's certainly more than comfortable (at least according to our friends that have stayed there) but there are a few things yet on our "to-do" list like a tiled shower, vanity unit for the bathroom sink,  and some kind of work on the remaining wood floors to make them easier to clean and maintain.  I hope to spend more time this summer stripping wallpaper and getting some fresh paint on the walls too.  

As we approach the summer solstice we are also hoping to be able to spend some time with friends outdoors while we can.  Last summer we did not as we were so busy with the siding project, and we regretted it somewhat when winter came with new Covid waves and restrictions.  We certainly have all learned to expect the unexpected, so will make sure we enjoy this summer while we can.

And with that, as always, wishing everyone Peace, Love, Joy and Gentle Compassion. And thanks to those who manage to hang in and read this to the very end!

 

Photographs, memory and the perception of time

In mid-September of this year, Facebook dropped one of those "memory of an earlier time" photos into my news feed. Usually I don't pay much attention to them, but this one happened to be one of my favourites. It was taken the day we got the timber frame up.  What a day that was!  We still thank our friends and the crane operator for all their hard work and help that day.

According to Facebook though, I originally posted this on September 15th 2014.  Seriously?  I immediately decided the date had to be wrong.  I had no problem with the year, but I didn't believe this happened in the middle of September.  Could we really have only just put the frame up so late in the year ? I consulted with Rob and he couldn't remember it being that late either.  And so I found myself going back through the blog, searching for when this photo was taken.  Sure enough, the date was absolutely correct.  In the middle of September of 2014 we had indeed just erected the frame for the house.  Rob and I spent a bit of time reading the rest of the blog postings from that year.  It was hard to believe, but we then spent time framing all of the house, put up a plywood roof, taped all the seams, wrapped the roof, proceeded to get plywood sheathing on all the exterior walls, taped those as well, and applied house wrap.  Then to top it all off,  we flashed all the window frames, and got most of the windows in ! All the while moving the scaffolding around and around and around as we went. We somehow managed to do all of this between mid September and mid December.  We both found this to be sort of hard to believe.

For here we were on September 15th of 2021, worrying that we were running out of time to do some "simple" siding on the outside of the house and workshop before winter arrived.  Hah !  We immediately relaxed a little and gave our heads a shake.  (Although we are a wee bit older now and moving scaffolding around isn't nearly as much "fun", and we definitely don't work the number of hours each day that we used to.)  And of course, there is still always the weather factor. But even in 2014 there was always a weather factor.  In fact through this whole building process there has been one.

Thanks to seeing that "old" photo, I've probably jumped ahead a bit, as I haven't posted much about anything this year aside from my gardening exploits with a voracious chipmunk.  So I'll back up a bit to earlier in the year with a few other updates as to what we've been working on, and how this year's projects went, and then get back to showing how the siding has been progressing.

First of all, it was our first full winter in the new house.  It was actually a pretty mild winter overall, so it was a relatively easy one for us both.  The house performed really well in terms of heat, and we often didn't even start the woodstove (our sole source of heat at the moment ) until later in the day and then just kept it going into the evening.  We used lots of our "swing season" wood, and were really pleased with how well it burned in the stove.  This is our "free" wood, as it is what we collect in the spring from the bush.  Every year some trees come down in the fall and winter storms, so in the spring we gather up what we can, chainsaw and split them and stack them to dry for the summer. We try to only use the oak and other hardwoods that we purchase from time to time for burning on the coldest days.  Throughout the winter, we were pleased to get up in the morning and find that the house had remained quite comfortable. We certainly remember some rather frosty mornings in the cabin in the past! 

The solar power aspect of the house was a bit trickier.  First of all, we went into the winter not really thinking about it until the power shut off one morning.  That little surprise caught our attention pretty quickly and although we soon got it back on, we realized we needed to pay a lot more attention to the system and the health of the batteries.  After a lot of research we set to fine tuning the system, and managed to improve it somewhat.  We made a note to pay more attention in the fall this year !! It's really easy in the summer when the daylight hours are long and the sunshine plentiful to forget we are even off grid. But by fall we certainly need to think about it.

We also had forgotten how important it was to keep the solar panels as clear as possible after each snowstorm and to make this a priority during and after every snowfall.  In no time though, we were back into the routine of checking the panels every morning, and keeping an eye on them through out the day.  As well we got back into the habit of keeping an eye on the weather forecast a bit more closely!

We gave a big hurrah when the Winter Solstice arrived as in a few short weeks the days would begin to get a little longer, the sun would shine a little higher in the sky, and we knew it would help with the solar power issues.

January brought us some surprises of a different kind.  Standing at the river edge next to a broken pine tree one day, I had a feeling something had "flown" over my head. After looking around I discovered that there were a number of flying squirrels climbing all over the pine tree, and they appeared to be out soaking up a little bit of sunshine ! 

I belong to a Nature group of photographers so I posted my photos later in the day, and was delighted to find out from members of the group that these squirrels often "cuddle up" together in the winter to help them stay warm!  They also provided me with a link to a recent Nature of Things show that had some footage of them in their winter homes.  It was fascinating to watch so I have included the link here:

 https://www.cbc.ca/natureofthings/episodes/wild-canadian-weather-cold

I don't think I will ever stand next to this tree again without wondering who might be tucked inside!  It became a ritual to go down to the river and check the tree on bright sunny days.  We did see them a couple of more times which was amazing.  Also amazing was that the river remained open for the entire winter.  It really was unusually mild throughout most of the winter season.

Not that we didn't get snow though.  We did !  

When we weren't outside dealing with snow falls, or simply enjoying ourselves walking through the woods, we spent a lot of time this winter getting organized; going through boxes, and dealing with some of their contents.  A lot of our stuff had been in storage for over 8 years.  Once we unpacked and went through some things, we realized we needed places to put them. So Rob spent a lot of time in the workshop building drawers.  I ended up with 9 large drawers for my studio, and I was pretty happy when I was able to start organizing my fabrics, paints, and sewing supplies in them. A lot of my studio supplies were tucked away in storage for so long that it felt almost like Christmas to pull them out of the boxes and sort through them all.  I had done a little bit with the few drawers that Rob had installed the winter before, but it was amazing to be able to get everything all in one place finally!  Also, he created a fabulous table top out of old oak pews he had purchased years ago, and I was at last able to have a place to set up my sewing machine and computer. 

Three more drawers also went into the kitchen, giving us a bit more space to organize there as well. We still have more to do in the kitchen (including a pantry area, installing drawer fronts and cabinet doors, and finishing "the island") but that will all get done in good time. I finally pulled out all of my cookbooks, and although they aren't yet in the kitchen, they are at least on a shelf in the guest room where I can easily get at them.  While I was at it, I went through all the remaining boxes of books, and sorted some of them at least into "keep" piles and "give away" piles.  The keepers of course are all back in boxes as we have no where else to put them just yet. We have gone through these boxes at least three times now. It's funny how eventually the "keep" pile just gets smaller over time. 

March found me working in my studio, going through all of our music cd's. We had a bit of collection, as in addition to our personal cd's we also had all of the cd's that we used to play in our Fiery Food store (Chilly Chiles).   In the store we played quite a mix of blues, jazz and rock and even a bit of zydeco (during Mardi Gras!). I tried to listen to each cd and sorted those into two piles.  I think I ended up with about 250 to "give away" and I then burned the 250+ that I wanted to keep to a laptop.  I kept all the originals for now. It was a fun job, although I ended up with some crazy ear worms throughout that time period, and Rob often wondered why I was humming old Alice Cooper tunes one day, and BB King the next.

While I sorted through all of our CD's, Rob was busy setting up our old turntable, and pulled out our vinyl albums, and went through several boxes of his own things.  He has his own studio space, but it isn't set up properly yet.  He also dug out his old reel-to-reel tape recorder and went through some of his old tapes.  Some day he hopes to digitize them all, but that will take some time! He also had some fun learning to do some video animation, had a bit of time to mess around with some electronic music, and studied some guitar and voice lessons online.  Music is definitely at long last, back in our lives.

We also pretty much finished going through the rest of our old photos and photo albums, and began scanning some of them.  We still have boxes (and boxes!) of slides to go through. We are both looking forward to this winter, and hope it will provide us with time to continue to go through boxes and sort ourselves out a bit more. Once the warm weather hit this year, we pretty much stopped with the inside tasks and got back to building!

On the first really warm day though, we have always have a tradition of enjoying our first beer outside, down by the river. This year it was March 21.  I am sure that in some years it has been April or even as late as May.

With the arrival of the warm weather, Rob was able to do some sanding outdoors despite the snow that was still around the house. It's always nice to do the dustiest jobs outside.  It also saves on power as we don't have to turn on the dust collection system.

By mid April he was well on the way to getting us some bedroom drawers built. They still require tops and drawer fronts, but we were at least able to unpack the last of our clothing from boxes and get everything put away in one room.  After all the years of living in the cabin with limited space, and very limited amounts of storage and clothing, it feels strange to know where everything is, and to have it all accessible.

It was nice to be able to spray the finish on the drawers outside on a warm and sunny day. I think this is the first year since we moved here that we have experienced a real spring, as well as an early one.  We headed outdoors every chance we got.

The units we had been temporarily using for our clothes were moved out of the bedroom and put to use in the workshop and mudroom.  (They were old storage units that we used in our Chilly Chiles warehouse !) And then we moved the new units in.  There is a second set on the other side of the room. Hopefully this winter we will get proper tops and drawer fronts on these, but they work more than well enough for now.

Towards the end of April our friends John and Linda asked if they could use the cabin for a few days respite from looking in on Linda's Mom in Ottawa.  A good thorough cleaning and restock of items and it was ready for them.  They were so thoughtful, and shopped in Ottawa at our favourite bakeshop (3 Tarts) and brought us some goodies.  

In May we had another visitor, showing up regularly at our window.  This one however, did not bring pies. Darn!

Although we had a good early spring, we did get heavy ice build up on the tree blossoms in May after a wicked storm. We noticed later in the summer that the apple tree bore little fruit, and we never saw any wild plums this year.  We don't know if it was the ice, or the late May/early June frosts that caused the fruit not to grow.  We did read later that some apple orchards suffered losses due to the late spring frosts.

In early May we gathered up all of the trees that had come down over the winter, and prepared to split and stack them for firewood.  We also had a lot of old tree trunks from previous years that we had piled up in a stack, but we thought we had waited too long and they would be all rotted.  Some of them turned out to still be fine though, so we cut up what we could.  While Rob was moving that pile, I explored around a bit and saw this  knob sticking up through the grasses. We pulled on it and discovered it was the hardware from an old door, left in the field by the previous owner, some 35 years ago or more.  He used to reassemble old log homes here, and probably forgot about the door and the grass had eventually grown up over it.  I later went back and found the hinges too.  It would be fun to have a metal detector as who knows what else may be around. From what I can find on the web, this is a Bennington or Bennington style doorknob and definitely vintage.

In the end, we were quite pleased with the amount of firewood we had gathered.  In the fall and spring it doesn't take much wood to warm up the house, so this would be perfect for that type of heat requirement.  It was mostly spruce and poplar and some of it was quite rotted so wouldn't burn for long, but we always remind ourselves that as long as it is good and dry it will still provide some heat.

For several days we kept seeing a young porcupine in the area.  It seemed quite exhausted by it's efforts to climb up to the safety of a tree bough! This was the first of many porcupine sightings through out the year.

May also brought the occasional turtle, and the return of nesting robins. The robins seem to love setting up their nests near our doorways which means we are always disturbing them.

Towards the end of  May we turned our thoughts back to working on the outside siding and window frames for the house and workshop. Rob decided to build all of the remaining window frames for them both at the same time.  Last year he had just built them as he went along and it was disruptive to keep changing tasks.

The black flies and mosquitoes weren't too bad, and in the first week of June we could start staining all of the frames outside without getting too many bug bites.  The plan for the year was to try to do each of the "high" sides of the house and workshop (there were four remaining as we did one last year) and then see if there was any time left to do the "lower" sides. Our thinking was that the high sides required at least three levels of scaffolding, and that it would be nice to get that over with sooner, rather than later.  I won't mention that Rob is getting older (whoops!) and is finding it just a little bit harder to climb up and down scaffolding over and over and over every day. Not to mention having to move it often, and assembling and disassembling it each time.

Luckily just as we started to work on the siding, the robin babies decided to leave the safety of their nest. We really didn't want to disturb them before they were ready to fly.

We chose to do this south facing side first.  In hindsight it might have been better to do it last, as it was pretty much in full sun a lot of the time. This area is much shadier in September and October.  Rob tried to work early in the day before the heat hit, but the sun still made it pretty warm.  You definitely don't want to feel light headed from the sun when you are high up on scaffolding! 

June was an amazing month in terms of weather, with very little rain. The abundant sunshine was really helpful as far as building and working outside went.  But we worried because the river was really low for the time of year, and it looked like we were heading for drought conditions.  

Rob had a goal of trying to finish this side by the end of the month.  By June 20 he was at this point:

June 26 he was still going strong ! It's tedious work though.  I don't know how many times he dropped something and had to climb down to find it.  And on top of doing frames and flashing, he was also doing the eaves, the decorative trim, the boards and battens, and lots of hand nailing. 

By June 30 it was almost done.  There was still some work to do on the eaves and upper trim, and the final nailing to be done though.

July arrived along with rain.  Lots of rain.  While there are always lots of jobs to be done indoors, it is always hard to have to admit that we were now behind in our (self-imposed) schedule.  The heavy rains brought the river levels up high again, and now it was faster and higher than we had ever seen it for this time of year! Despite the rain, Rob still managed to BBQ a nice birthday dinner for me though.

Somewhere around July 12th we took the scaffolding down. It looked so nice to see the two walls done (the one on the right side was finished last year).  We really wanted to keep going and finish the lower walls to the left, but decided to stick to our original plan.

We moved to the west side, and got to work on installing the frames, and cleared some space for the scaffolding. It's hard to get the ground even with all the rocks here, but we managed.  We wanted the scaffolding to be level and solid, and for Rob not to be brushing against any poison ivy while he was working.

The heavy rains in July continued and began to take their toll on our common road, so Rob stopped working on the siding, and took some time to smooth it out and fix it.  There are always jobs that need doing elsewhere, no matter how much we just want to concentrate on the task at hand.

We thought this side would go a bit quicker as the larger windows meant less siding was needed.  But working around the windows was a bit tricky.  And after about 2 o'clock in the afternoon the sun was a bit brutal for working.

Around this time I was doing battles with the chipmunk in my garden. (See previous blog post!) A pretty decent size water snake kept hanging out in the garden, and I read that they don't eat chipmunks.  I actually was happy to read that, despite the number of tomatoes that chipmunk was eating.

In mid august Rob rescued a small mouse. We set it up with some water and food, and it soon disappeared.  We like to think that it went off into the undergrowth and grew up to be a happy little mouse.

August brought some pretty hot days, and the river levels finally dropped so we could safely go for a swim.  It's always so lovely to spend time in the river, and I had been missing it.  At the end of the day we would often sit at the point above the river and enjoy the cool breeze and a homemade beer.  On the evening of what would have been Rob's sweet Mom's birthday a magic web appeared between two cedars near where we sat. As the breeze blew, the center of the web flickered like a flame.  My camera didn't do it justice, but it was amazing to watch it.  As the sun set, the colours of the web slowly faded. Magic!

With the improvement in the weather, Rob was soon able to get this side done.  We both agreed that the house just looks so much cozier with the siding on, the colored strips of trim installed above, and the windows frames in.

It was time to move the scaffolding (again) and get it over to the workshop.  This side wasn't quite as high as the house sides, and with no windows or doors to work around, we hoped it would go pretty quickly.

The sun really beats in on this area though, and when the heat arrived again, we had to take a little time off.  We love to walk and take the time to do it every day, and usually three times a day if we can.  There is always something new to look at and admire.

We thought it would be a good time to make some more homemade beer, but we soon figured out that hot summer days are not the best time to turn on the stove in the house for several hours to make beer! We have made a mental note to make sure we do it in the spring next year, and to try to plan ahead.

I had been spending some time working on the inside of the cabin. With Rob not able to work on the siding, I was able to enlist him to move out our guest bed that we had installed in the cabin "temporarily" the year before, and got it set up once again in the new house.  We also cleared out a number of boxes of ours that we had left there when we moved, and made some progress in making more space there in general. Just in time too, as our great niece needed a place to call home for a couple of weeks, so we were able to offer her the use of the cabin. Luckily I hadn't started removing the old wallpaper and wallpaper borders before she contacted us, so it looked pretty good still.

The forest fires in Northern Ontario and Manitoba were giving us hazy days and amazing sunsets.  The haze cut down on our solar power a bit, and while the sunsets were pretty, the cause was sad and disconcerting.

As soon as the weather cooled down a bit, we got back to work outside.  This is just a close up shot of some of the work that goes into putting up the siding. The pieces in between the battens are to help keep insects and critters from getting up behind the boards.

As hoped, once the weather cooled down a bit, this side did seem to get done a little faster.  But then we ran out of stained wood, and had to take a couple of days to stain some more.  It needed to be done anyway, as we knew that soon the outdoor temperatures would be too cold for staining the pine outdoors. But as always, it is always difficult when the weather is nice to have to give up a good weather day for one job, even though the second job required good weather as well.

September arrived and the light began changing.  We were still hoping to get the final side done on the workshop after completing the west side, but couldn't help but think we were running out of time. 

In the meantime, the chipmunks had finally decided to somewhat lay off of my garden.  I was picking tomatillos and cherry tomatoes every day, but I was still finding remnants of chewed up tomatoes here and there.  I did manage to harvest a few of the larger tomatoes I had planted, but in the end I  had to buy tomatoes from a local farm. I wanted to make roasted tomatoes and tomato sauces to freeze for the winter months. I bought a 1/2 bushel and discovered that's a lot of tomatoes.  We still ended up with a lot of fresh ones to eat as well.

While I was busy in the kitchen, Rob was discovering that working in between the house and the workshop was a bit of a challenge.  If I was around when Rob dropped something I could at least retrieve it for him and hand it back up.  

I was down at the river one day when I saw this storm blowing in and ran to warn Rob.  We were sure it was going north of us.  It wasn't.  Another day of working outside ended abruptly.

I happily used the time to  harvest my jalapenos, and made "Poppers" with some of them.  I also made a tomatillo sauce with some of the jalapenos, cilantro and tomatillos from my garden.  It had been a good few years since I made this recipe and I had forgotten how much I loved it. With 3 big bags of tomatillos in the freezer I'll be making more.

By September 21st, Rob was finishing up the west side of the workshop.  He was pretty pleased with his progress as that left only one more side to go this year.  After seeing that Facebook memory photo of the frame going in on September 15th 2014, we even began to dare to dream that maybe we would get some of the lower sides done this year before the snow arrived.

The days were obviously getting shorter though, and we began to be more careful to monitor the solar power system.  The light this time of year is amazing in the house, and shines in beautifully.  In the summer the overhangs outside prevent the sun from heating up the house too much, but in the spring and fall the sun shines in a bit more and warms up the house just enough. And our little senior cat moves around from sunny spot to sunny spot.  If he gets too warm he heads for the cooler concrete floor. He's a clever old boy.

The sunsets are always beautiful in September. We made sure to stop and admire them every evening that we could.  Colder nights were on the way and we tried to make the most of it.

We moved the scaffolding to the final side, and started on the window frames. But when the weather turned nice in October, we were torn between working on the siding, doing pre-winter chores like pulling out the garden, servicing the tractor, moving firewood, and tucking the cabin in, or simply goofing off and enjoying the nice weather.  We tried our best to find some balance between them all.

We always try to take some time in the fall to explore a bit more of this wonderful place we now call home. We discovered a new public beach at a small lake that we think would be a good place to take our kayaks for some practice. 

And we timed the viewing of the changing leaf colours pretty well on one of our favourite drives.

Rob still had his "rainy day project" to complete too. He had agreed in the spring to build a cabinet for a neighbour.  It was a good learning project as this winter he is hoping to build our kitchen cabinet doors so it gave him a chance to try out some techniques. He learned a lot through this process.

2021 was the year of the porcupine for us.  A young one began hanging out around the house, munching on the undergrowth, and sleeping in the nearby trees.  After watching him chow down on all the native plants outside the house for a while we nicknamed it Little Hoover.  It was growing bigger by the day though.

I've never had a chance to observe a porcupine so much.  It stands up on it's back feet when it is shaking off the rain.  

A lot of days I simply watched it from the kitchen window when I was cooking or doing dishes.  It eats both the bark and the leaves from the oak tree.  If we are outside, we can hear it chewing.

Unfortunately, in November Little Hoover began hanging out more and more around the house, often just curling up in the leaves under the oak tree for a nap.  We began to worry about it's health, thinking this probably wasn't normal, and I thought it's eyes looked a tad runny. Rob had a chance to get a good look at him, using binoculars, and noticed a glint above one of it's eyes. Little Hoover appeared to have been shot with a pellet gun.  We called a local Wildlife rescue and they advised us to try to get him into a crate, and they would come and get him.  When I asked how to persuade a porcupine to get into a crate she said "Just pick him up".  "Wear gloves!"  So essentially that is what we did.  We tossed an old sheet over him and got the crate in really close.  He made some sad little sounds and didn't want to go in, so I reminded Rob to try to pick him up and I got an amazing look for that comment!  But he did, and Hoover seemed happy enough to scramble in.  We gave him some apples to munch on and some water as instructed by the center, to keep him happy until rescue time.  When they arrived, we placed the crate in their vehicle, and off they went.  It sure seemed odd not to have a porcupine outside our house and we immediately missed him.

After consulting with several other rescue centers, little Hoover made yet another road trip to a larger center where they could x-ray him to make sure he didn't have more pellets inside him.  (He didn't!) They are treating him for mange, then will transport him back to the original center where he will have to over winter, and then if all goes well, he will come back here for his release in the spring.  

Porcupines don't move very fast, and don't travel all that far. (Except perhaps for Hoover's trips to the wildlife rescues!) So we can sadly assume that someone in the immediate area thought it was a good idea to shoot him in the eye.  We will have to see if there is something we can do to try to make sure that this doesn't happen to him again.  My first instinct was to post some "Who shot Hoover ? " posters on all the neighbours driveways, but I think we will have to approach this with a calmer head later. And not jump to any conclusions of course.

Throughout early November we continued to work on the outside of the house, but the weather began to become a factor.  Heavy frosts at night resulted in the scaffolding becoming very icy, and as that side of the house is very shady, the ice didn't melt quickly even when it was sunny out.  Rob persevered when he could.  We took a bit of time to clean up some of the construction debris, and began to put some things away ready for winter.  The tractor needed pre-winter servicing, as did the generator.  I worked at putting the garden to bed, and getting the cabin tucked in for winter.  We took the time to assemble a makeshift firewood storage unit out of the scaffolding when we took some down, which we both thought was pretty brilliant.  We will build a proper wood pile shed in the coming years I'm sure. With a temporary one available for now though, we were able to move our firewood down ready for winter.

As I proof read this post, I can't help but think that it reads as if this was an entirely normal year.  Obviously it is not.  It has been completely odd, and totally strange.  But as it has been much the same for everyone, there seems little point in dwelling on it.  I will say that I almost preferred the early Covid days though, when everyone hunkered down, looked after friends and family in whatever manner they could, and opted to do their best to keep all of their community members safe.  When for a brief time, I thought the world was about to become kinder.

I did venture out a bit (sanitized, double masked, and from a distance!) to do some work for Census in June and early July, but otherwise we have been fortunate this year to be able to spend lots of time here, enjoying the outdoors, working on our various projects and staying healthy.  We miss the ease of seeing friends and family, but who doesn't in these times?  

For those of you who forget what we look like, here is a quick pic of us on one of favourite hikes.  It is a tradition that we go for a good long hike every year on Rob's birthday.  This year our friend Bob came along, so here is a rather rare photo he took of the two of us together.  

And with that, I will offer my apologies for yet another incredibly long post.

Peace, love, joy to all.  

xoxo