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Boy have I met my match! Sweetie you are soooo much fun!
Wow, things are great, things are getting organized and cleaned up, business is awesome and my husband the best!!!! I always say "Life does not get any better" but you know it does!!!! It's quite incredible.
Temperature now is higher than normal, not the snow we had last year. At the moment I have a couple from Holland staying in the cabin till tomorrow.
We finally got the cabin launched for rentals and have it rented for most mid weeks and weekends. It is a lot of fun bringing our guests and their gear to the cabin via skidoo and sled. I am thankful for the new snow mobile. With my tennis elbow it would have made pulling a start cord on the old machine difficult. Unfortunatly my new machine has a twisted fender in front. Dwight did not even manage to get out of the driveway.....not used to all the power and just kinda bumped into something. Thank goodness for bumpers!
Dwight has managed a nice skating rink at the cabin as well and we just got a booking for a month in the summer along with the yurt which we are relocating across the lake on its own site.
Dwight and i have a number of projects this year and hope that we dont add new ones which of course we will because that is our natures. We have so much fun with our projects, things get done and we have a blast!
We hope to be off somewhere warm by April and then out west for a few weeks in the summer.
I am at the house, Owls Nest now and just watched an otter pop out of a hole in the ice near the mouth of the creek.
The five chickens are laying 2 to 3 eggs a day now, Theo, Alvin, and Winston are all fine as well.
Painting....my art that I really wanted to do......well everything is set up in one of the spare rooms but life has been busy and I was not well for a bit and I am being creative with getting the rentals going and set up, web sites, friends and yada yada yada. I have also slowed down and want to smell every rose in my path cause at this time in your life you dont really know how long your path will be so make the best of it everyone!
We are still at the cabin, Dwight is up the hill
getting a new site ready for the yurt. We have had a few guests wanted to split
wood, heh that works for us so Dwight has a whole pile of wood blocked and
ready to split.
I have filled the hot tub with fresh water from the spring and have it heating up and ready for new guests coming in tomorrow. I will be rushing out for my mamogram and then back again to throw another fire on in the cabin and get the guests back.
I hear we are in for a really mild spell this week. At this point I am ready for spring, either give us snow or take it away fast!!!
Theo and Alvin are so sweet together. I watched Alvin give Theo a 5 minute face bath. Theo does not like being licked by a cat on the tip of his nose, his whiskers and not so crazy about the inside of his ears.
Wow, the weather is glorious and just wont quit! Dwight and I were planning a trip somewhere warm and have decided to put our money into a log sauna to match the cabin. We are using the same young man "Josh Dagg" to do the log work, Dwight will help and learn at the same time. We will have to work fast because of weather so the next couple of days we need to get the logs. I will do a blog on the building of the sauna
Dwight was busy yesterday clearing brush in front of the house and then we were at the cabin doing stuff, marking trees, discussing the project with Dagg, getting readys to have guests for dinner and then back to the cabin. The shell should be done within the month.
Its starting to get tricky going to the cabin. We have to walk down to the trail now and go by skidoo, their is still enough snow on the trails, gets soft by afternoon though.
We have organized 6 of us to go dogsledding this weekend but we will have to wait, it will be touch and go now.
The tracks are still on the ATV, we will leave them on till we have the logs skidded out of the bush.
Today is my son Josh's 25th birthday and also Dwights sister Darlene. Happy Birthday kids!
Dwight and I are in the process of building a log sauna at the cabin so I am writing a blog on that site now, when the sauna is done I will come back here. In the meantime check out the building of our log sauna.
Today we are supposed to have a high of 14....Dagg is coming to work on sauna and I am picking up guests that are finishing their week at the cabin. I was there yesterday to test the ice on the lake to see if we had to walk around but the ice bridge is holding up fine. Water is showing all around the edges though. I wont be driving across. We will put all the gear in a canoe and pull it across the ice. Part of the trail has mud, other parts are already dried up and still other parts are snow packed.
It was so wonderful when I was out with the dogs
yesterday (I always bring my camera) and I saw my first flowers...I dont know
the name but they look like dandelions and grow in the worst soil when the sun
has warmed it up. 
Spring sure is coming early, starting to rake around the house, finally finished the chicken coup door.
Theo got snipped a few days ago and now only goes out as a consultant....
Found a wild turkey not far from the house with its head missing and Theo was starting to knaw on it so we took off the wings and tail (guess I like feathers and they were so pretty) and threw the rest away.
Wow we are having such gorgeous weather, this coming Sunday they are calling for a high of 25! We have the cabin rented out this Easter weekend and they will be paddling across the lake as I believe the last of the ice will be gone. I will find out today when I go in the afternoon for some more spring clean up. Dagg started back working on the log sauna and will work till Friday so we will get another three days in this week. It is so gorgeous! A thing of beauty!
With all the peeling from drawknifing the logs we have wonderful kindling
Friday, April 02/10
Just had summer, we are each lieing on a couch in the screened in porch enjoying the balmy weather and Dwight says "how could I ever live in the city?"
The birds are singing, especially a robin in the throe of song, the neighbours are having their happy hour yet again........and in the distance the bass of some young persons music and dogs barking. The world is alive around us.
Just delivered a couple and their dog to the cabin for the weekend and they are absolutly enchanted with the place.
Tomorrow we have to pick up a few things in town, get a propane tank filled and a couple of good steaks....another warm day tomorrow. The ice will be off Lac Letourneau tomorrow.
We have a busy season of rentals this year so now is the time to do any improvements or work that needs to be done. You know the saying, make hay while the sun shines.
When we got to the cabin the ice was gone and we canoed across, Winston did not hesitate and he swam across, Thoe on the other hand has never swam other than breaking through the ice on shore a few days ago. He howled on the dock for about ten minutes and in he went, a very splashy swim half way across with the front paws coming out of the water and then he relaxed and finished his swim, after all he is a lab. He sure must have been cold!. When he got across he and Winston were running around like crazy.
The log sauna is coming along really well, another week and the shell should be done.
I finally finished off the chicken coop at Owls Nest
Chicken Coop at Owls Nest
Sauna at Lone Wolf
Cabin
The job
gets harder as we get higher up and the logs are dam heavy. They have me
hanging on the end of the log to help lift the other end up.....as if I'm a
lard ass but the leverage sure helps. It is quite amazing what Dagg can do on
his own.
Another gorgeous day, looking like great weather for the next week however with early warm weather comes blackflies and they are out and just starting to bite.........now that is really really early! I am totally confused as to what kind of summer we will have and when the black fly season will end. Usually its a 3 week period but I have seen it as long as 6. Normally they start about the first week if May and biting by the second week. This conincides with fiddleheads so unfortunatly you are picking fiddleheads in a cloud of blackflies.
We completed our 25th day of sauna building on Sunday with one more day to go and the shell will be completed. Then its the cleanup and prepping the sight up the hill. Dwight is working on getting his work storage shed designed and building it to replace the ugly car shelter that now houses everything. This car shelter needs to be organized anyway and half the stuff out of there. With the business the cabin is generating we need to do this sooner rather than later.
Most bizzare, it's snowing today! Bitten by blackflies yesterday!
Tomorrow I'm off to help Josh and Hannah move into their new place....mom has a van you see. Should be done by noon and then off to a friends for a van full of hostas!!!! Did I say a van full...you bet!
Hmmmm 1/2 the weekend is over and what did we do!
Well I will tell you.
First we had to pick up a secondhand roto tiller that we bought in Ottawa at 9:30. Then we brought it up and unloaded it at the Asparagus garden or the garden of weeds as we call it. Then we decided that maybe we did still have time to get those raspberries plants that my sister offered us. She lives in North Augusta and we had to dig them out.
So I gave her a call and we were on. Dwight and I loaded up containers and shovels into the van and off we go. We dug up the plants, they are gorgeous looking. Rose originally got them from a lady who said they were the best and biggest berries. We were impressed with the plants. We had a nice visit and off we went. On the way home we realized the bone meal was at the cabin and it started to pour so we dropped in at Costco and picked up 2, one for the house and one to leave at the "Garden of Weeds"
We arrived home and by then it was 5:30 and we had 25 clumps of raspberries with about 4 stems each to plant yet to put in the ground. Still more to do, we were trying to remember all we needed to bring with us, bug juice, 2 different rakes, etc. Dwight emptied out the chicken coop, I made him a sandwich cause he was feeling hungry, we needed to till a garden yet and incorporated everything we could.
The tilling lasted about an hour, back and forth, deeper and deeper. Throwing out stones as they were pulled up. We ended up doing it by shovel because of the stones and then yet again with the tiller. Finally it was ready but we need water.
There is a trickle of water that comes out of the hill nearby that had a hose pushed in and empting into a barrel but it had blocked so I got it running again and Dwight got containers filled while I laid out the plants, made the holes, mixed in bone meal, threw in a bucket of water, let it soak in, dropped in the plants, covered them with soil and Dwight brought in and poured all the water. We will have a raspberry feast next year. Ta daaaaaaa, 8pm we dragged our asses home.
Hmmmmm wonder what we will do tomorrow!!!!
I have been too busy to write. Dagg still has to finish up on the log sauna shell but has another job so it may be a few weeks before he can come. He is a bit miffed that I asked him not to bring his dog who pees on anything and everything and humps my puppy continually. I have cleaned up and planted things around the cabin and just dont want it all marked for other dogs to pee on. My plants just dont like it.
Dwight and I went down to a place near Manotik and picked up about 100 cedars, actually we didnt pick up we dug up!! My shovel broke right off so I hauled them into the trailer and off we went. We got almost half planted yesterday and today I finish the rest I hope. I also have a plum tree to plant which I bought last week and needs to go in the ground. It is going to be warm today, hope the bugs arent bad. It has been most bizarre weatherwise, a few good frosts, we were worried about flowers, seedlings, blossoms on fruit trees and the 35 hosta I dug up from a friends last week but all survived.
When we were at the cabin yesterday there is another thing we need to do. There is a big pine that we had Dagg cut because it was just too close to the cabin. It is still lying on the hillside. Dagg needs to put the cap pieces onto the cabin and has one but not the other. I measured the one he had and cut a section out of the top of this pine to match, Dwight finished her up and dragged it down and peeled it. Dagg left his drawknife so we are each going to drawknife the cap log just for conversation sakes. That will save us some time when Dagg comes to finish up. Dwight cut the 12' section I needed for the balcony and we are going to peel it right on the hillside to start the drying process and we need to peel it before the beetles get in and before our guests check in this friday.
We needed a shade tree for a corner at the cabin so Dwight dug up a maple, it is suffering a bit of shock, we will see how she fares. You can see on different parts of the property that some of the maples got a bit of frost bite, wont how they will do.
I told Dwight that a woman my age shouldnt be doing all this for so long a day and the cutie said "Look sweetie, you have the ideas and I will execute" . Well.......I like to get my hands dirty too but it seems we both dont know when to quit.
When Dwight and I were at the cottage show a few weeks back we saw an idea we really liked. It was heavy gauge vinyl for our screen porch. It was attached with velcro. I inquired and it was cost prohibited. Dwight says "you could make that" so I made the first panel and learned a lot. First I sewed to the vinyl, that worked but labor intensive. I also stapled the other part of the velcro to the post, it was ugly and loose. So the next step was to get the velcro with the stick adhesive on one side. Although it is twice the price of the regular velcro it works like a hot dam and is less than half price of what I was quoted. This opens up a whole new world for me. Now the yurt is going to have a clear top in the center and the golf cart will have a wind shield in front that can be rolled up when needed.
We also borrowed a neighbors small BX25 tractor with chipping attachment so we had to go and load that on the trailer. We had a hell of a pile of brush on the hillside in front of the house which Dwight had cut and we needed to dispose of. We both worked at feeding the stuff into the chipped and have this amazing pile of wood chips. Just before dark we drove it back and then a late supper and good soak in the tub.
Heard from Josh and he got his marks from his first year at Ottawa U, Honors....way ta go Josh!!!!
Dwight is busy prepping a site for a garage that will probably be built next year but the thinking starts now to make sure we get exactly what we want and where we want.
I keep forgetting to tell you about this crazy ruffed grouse we have at the trail head, I think I will put up a sign to caution people. Often when I drive by with the ATV I will get thumped on the back of the head, it scares the begeezus out of you, its not hard but he only comes from behind. Sometimes if I have someone in the trailer he will miss his mark and go between everyone. I am usually ready for him but when I am daydreaming (which is almost always) he catches me by surprise. Last year I had him running behind me while I was walking and he was trying to peck me from behind. Another time we were face to face and I was crouched down (with gloves) and he was again trying to peck me and I was quick and grabbed him but then all of a sudden it was like he dropped his feathers and I was left with all his tail feathers in hand. Never saw him again till this spring, so my guess is that he was shy without his pants.
Wow, this weather is crazy, its like weather in July and August, the lake is down, things are dry. We really havent had a bug season. Today I saw only a few blackflies but I also saw deer flies starting as well as dragon flies....most bizzare!
I have all my gardens planted, everything is up in the garden at the cabin and the seeds at the "Garden of Weeds" have all been planted. We will have a bumper crop of raspberries. The plums on the plum tree are growing rapidly and Dwight wants to get a peach tree so we have to find a hardy one and baby it.
I may stain the shed tomorrow and finish setting up the new posts in the screened porch so I can install my new plastic windows. Its so nice to be in the porch with the smell of lilacs whafting through.
Dwight took the day off and got his tractor going again, split wood, helped out a friend...that man is always busy.
We had Josh and Hanna over for the day and they hung out, had dinner with us and then overnight at his fathers.
My my, time is flying. Cant wait to get to the cabin, cut grass, see how everything is growing. We had guests there for the last three weeks and today is checkout. We have the week to move our stuff over there as we have the house rented for the next couple of months. We stay at the cabin for a month and then at a friends cottage for the remaining month. While at the cabin we need to prepare the site for the sauna as well as build the floor, then move the sauna up the hill, log by log. Dwight wants to get going on his wood shed as well. The summer will slip by fast!
We picked up a couple of air chairs at the home show and they are installed at the cabin. When I am in one of those babies I would have to say that is the only thing that will slow me down, they are soooo comfy and relaxing, ahhhhhhh
It is going to be a bumper crop this for our raspberries as well as the wild blackberries. I dont think I have ever seen it more prolific.
We had a load of manure dropped off at the garden and the garden just keeps growing. Its so nice to have someone to share the same love of gardening. We put a couple of apple trees there as well but I noticed that the deer browsed on them a bit. I will have to put even more deterrents up. Next week we will be excavating a pond to help water the gardens, basically cleaning up after the mess the loggers left.
A couple of weeks ago someone gave me an idea for a dock and I adapted the idea to suit our situation at the bigger lake by the house. We need to go out almost 100' to hit water that is 3' in depth. We went out 50' so with the existing dock we are out about 70' and we are only at 24" Dwight pushed in some trees he cut at either side to help keep the float at the end in place along with the anchors and we pushed them in 13' into the silt! Its a fabulous design, stable and inexpensive.
Dwight continues to cut trees and make his garage area larger. The idea at the moment is to build a three bay garage with a granny suite up top. Excavate will begin this fall. 2 year plan.
We planted about 115 hybrid poplars along the road and field going into the cabin, they are doing very well. We probably also planted another 100 or so trees here and there.
Dwights parents have made a garden for themselves and come up at least once a week to tend to their garden, weeding, hoeing, watering, etc. They are so cute.
Wow it is hot and humid and no relief in sight. We have been at the cabin for 3 weeks and 2 more to go then off to another cottage for a month while our 2 places are rented out for the month.
Blazing hot and humid and only 9:30. My job today is to clean and pressure wash the decks at the cabin, then to Thompson water seal them. I like to do that every year, it works for me. I finished staining the last of the board and batten at the back.
Josh was up a few days ago and uncovered another portion of gorgeous white stone beach, lots of fun on a hot summers day
We had fun last night and went on a dinner sunset cruise on the Ottawa river, afterwards we went to the house and got ourselves a glass of bubbly and went down and sat on the dock looking at the stars, then it was back to the cabin. It is so beautiful in the evening when you are across from the cabin and see all the little solar lights reflecting off of the water.
Dwight and I are going out more this year instead of working so hard. A few weeks ago we spent the weekend at a friends on Paugh Lake and in a couple of weeks we are off on a canoeing trip on Schooner Lake.
The garden is doing great, we have had a few feeds of raspberries, the plums are starting to ripen, cucumbers, all kinds of squash, beans, lettuces and it goes on and on.
Heavenly day! What a wonderful life we have!
The plums have ripened and we ate them all, there must have been about 50 of them. Both the house and cabin are rented now for the whole month and we are staying at a friends cottage for the month, she is on a lovely point where the breeze always seems to be blowing and sun sets about 8:30.
We had Josh up last night for dinner and a lovely bon fire by the waters edge with a steady breeze coming off the lake.
Dwight goes in to work once in a while but other than that we are enjoying ourselves immensely! Nice not to work so hard once in a while. I even finished a book! Being at another cottage is very nice indeed, it feels like we are on holiday although we are working on it and on our property and gardens still. Our doggies are happy as well as kitty and the chickens are being looked after by one of the renters.
Just about all packed up now with canoe on the roof of the van. Tomorrow its off we go on our canoeing trip at Schooner Lake.
Sheeeesh, there goes almost 2 months!!!! Man where does the time go. We had a wonderful and busy summer. All the rentals went well, we are back at the house now and prepping everything for winter. Putting water toys away, prepping gardens, bringing things in for winter.
Dwight has just finished the new trail that connects from the back of the house straight through to the trail head. This cuts off .9 of a km and we dont have to travel on the main road or open a gate. This new trail is perfect for the winter rentals at the cabin when I have to bring them back on snow mobile and sleds.
I have gotten lots done this summer but bits of this and that and no major project in the last few months. Dwight however built himself his first building, a pole shed, 9 by 16, it's an awesome rustic shed for wood, etc.
Yesterday a deal came up on a dumping trailer so Dwight was off to pick it up in the morning and then we were off to the Big Rideau for a friends retirement party. The dumping trailer is for behind the tractor with hydraulics be able to dump up to 3 tons of material to fix all of our new trails..and Dwight will be able to dump up to 3 tons of material to fix all of our new trails....now I am just waiting till I can get my little excavator.........we will have beautiful trails everywhere. Dwight and I so enjoy the property.
Right now the fall colors are spectacular and I have the urge to paint but I was stuck, I did not know where to start so I enrolled in a workshop and now am unstuck....yeah! I have started painting and have my studio set up. Working on two paintings at the moment and taking tons of pictures for winters reference material.
I'm turning 54 in a few days and cant believe how the time goes by. Dwight and I will soon be into our fifth year together and it just keeps getting better and better!
What a beautiful day today! Last of the family left this morning after another fun Thanksgiving spent together. The weather was so nice yesterday we went for a lovely hike to the cabin on our new trail, came home, had dinner and played charades till 2 in the morning. Josh dropped in after work and luckily we were still up so he enjoyed a turkey dinner.
This morning Dwight and I started working on another trail, and more done in the afternoon. I took a bunch of pictures of a ruffed grouse today. I was out on the ATV without the dogs and a grouse hit me on the back of the head, I stopped and interacted with him and got some fabulous pics.
Wow, semi retired, busy as hell and a husband that is semi retired himself...........we work hard.
Dwight took the day off and announced he wanted to spend the night at the cabin and hottub after splitting a pile of wood...hey that works for me so I packed up some food for us and the dogs, a bottle of wine and away we go. There is lots to do this time of the year getting ready for winter and putting things away and changing to different systems at the cabin. Unfortunately it went down to -3 and we busted a pipe on the instant hot water system we had. I might be able to get it fixed but it had to be put away for the winter anyway. Water reservoirs got drained, rain barrels emptied and put away. Charge controller taken out...stopped working after 4 years, putting garden to bed, lawn furniture away and on and on.
Dwight and I went on another trail making kick in the morning and managed to clean a lot of the creek side up. We are trying to get a good trail across the creek to the deer trail that leads to the cabin as we are getting November bookings which is most unusual, but the cabin has this special allure. Its just that mid November is when the lake is in freeze up mode and may not be safe to cross so it will be around the lake the good ole fashioned way with pack on back. I cut the grass one last time, Dwight hauled in some more pallets for his gorgeous wood shed so he can stack up his hand split wood.
Earlier in the week we managed to open up the "Mighty Oak Trail" and had the dog sledder in to assess where he is going to be dog sledding, we have no problems with dog sledders, only the ATV's and snow mobiles which we have finally stopped with gates and confrontations.
We have a couple of young lads that will be hunting from 2 deer blinds the first 2 weeks of November. Wonderful young lads, hard workers which I it seems is a hard thing to find in a young person these days. Dwight can call upon them anytime, they have a lot of old fashioned common sense. They will be helping us saw up some lumber in the spring....bonus they are experienced sawing wood.
I could not get across the lake to the cabin yesterday, there was a half inch of ice, too thick to break with the paddle....yiks, a bit early this year. By afternoon I was able to go across with the canoe but that was the push I needed to get the foot bridge across the creek done. 16' long and 2' wide. After the guests check in this afternoon I may go out and gather some cedar to make a cedar railing on one side. It will get slippery and icy so it would be nice to hang onto something... Ta daaaaa it's done, I did it this morning and now we have gorgeous weather. I was able to get the fires going at the cabin and the hot tub as well, now I just wait till they check in which should be shortly.
We also have a backhoe working near our house, leveling an area past the chicken coop. We are pushing to get the yurt relocated here and then it will be an exclusive rental for the winter. Lots to do to get that project set up.
November 12, 2010
Guests checked into the cabin 3 days ago canoeing across the lake, today they checked out (new people checking in) and everyone is hauling their gear in and out across the little foot bridge! There is at least a half inch of ice on the little lake. At our house a mile away on a larger lake it will not form for another two weeks. It is actually very cool to be around for the change, there are some very interesting sounds from the ice while it is forming that only few people hear.
Standing on thin ice....whoooo hoooo
Yes we have snow now.....Oh man, what a day. Started building an out house for the yurt yesterday with all the scrap lumber. I have it all framed and the roof on but not all screwed down yet. It got dark. I ran out of time because I had to take the snow mobile to the cabin to get some screws for the acrylic roofing I am using. Coming across the lake and up a new include very slowly I just tilted and tipped. The track went over a rock and over she went. Dam do you think I could tip it back, no way!!!!! I did not have my cell or the dogs so I walked back to the cabin, got some straps, rope and the come-a-long. That did the trick and I was back in business...I think I will carry a come-a-long and rope in a tool kit on the snow mobile. My snow mobile is a one seater with a big carrying rack at the back. I put one of my van seats in it and now I have a comfortable 2 up!!!! Dwight just got a really good deal on the same snow mobile as I , a Yamaha Venture but when he went to check it out it was not as nice a ride as mine so he passed, another deal will come., we have lots of trails to make and places to go on our 230 acres....its so much fun!
The yurt that we moved to the house is almost set up for business, it looks amazing. Everything will be done for the 22nd. I already have 2 bookings that will be joining us for breakfast in the house. It will be so much easier renting it from the house. But I have to say it was a hell of a lot of work to move it, just Dwight and I.
The house is decorated for Christmas, I always do it early, it will be our first Christmas that we spend in our new house.
What a wonderful Christmas we had, a bit on the quiet side just the way we like it....even went for a sleigh ride Christmas day! At the moment waiting for guests checking into the cabin. It is supposed to rain today, that is holding off so far which is great so I can get them back via snowmobile. The cabin is warm and the hot tub hot.
We are having some friends for new years....not the big burn we were going to have in the middle of the woods but near the house by the yurt.,,,,the weather is not cooperating.
Alvin the cat needs a buddy I think, he is just over a year and getting fat so a kitten should keep him in shape....I think? hope!
The yurt is amazing!
Dwight has been busy hauling firewood and logs for lumber out of the bush....he just loves it....and the old work truck he just bought.....he keeps telling everyone he bought it for me...and laughs
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