Back to School

handsome lakeshores, both of them..

This is another poured concrete school in our area. It is bigger, and had a library as well as a part basement for a furnace. Unfortunately it has not been maintained:


We feel fortunate that the roof was replaced on ours.

This is younger son re-doing the sign on the schoolhouse. Pretty soon it won't be just for summers anymore! Doesn't get much more "old school" than Mr Fix-it and me.

I just don't have a lot of photos from this summer, sorry. In addition to the wood stove installation and building the sauna, Mr. Fix-it and Younger Son insulated the floor. Now there was a hellish job. No room under the floor to even turn over, they had to wiggle along on their back stuffing itchy insulation between the joists and stapling chicken wire over it to make sure the insulation stayed put. Mr Fix-it says if he never goes under the floor again it will be too soon.

Great happy photo!

That's some nice lettering, too. Is he an artist?

Will you be moving in year-round at some point soon?

Definitely looking forward to more pics, when you can find them. This has been really fun to follow.

The under-the-floor work was done!

I guess that depends on how you define artist. He has always drawn -- always. He started a fine arts program at our local college and quit after the first semester saying it wasn't for him. As far as I know he still draws but he's given away a lot of his painting supplies (unfortunately, I think). I've tried to nudge him in the direction of doing some designing for his dad's jewelry projects but I'm trying to plant ideas not nag...

Seven months and counting until we move north if everything goes according to plan. (How likely is that, I wonder?) And then we'll be living like pioneers for a while.

Managed to get up to the schoolhouse after Christmas. A neighbour had offered to plough out our driveway but when we called him he told us there was little to no snow. This was a bit of a disappointment as we'd bought ourselves snowshoes for Christmas! Sure enough we had above freezing temperatures all the way there and even some rain. So this is what we found when we arrived:

Even with the electric baseboards and wood stove going full blast it took a long time for the building to warm up, but within about 12 hours we had the temperature up to 72 degrees fahrenheit. First order of business this spring will be to insulate the attic and replace the single pane windows (while waiting for the garage/studio building permit to be approved). The floor was pretty warm thanks to the efforts of younger son last summer.

Huddled around the fire in our one channel universe:

The wood stove will take some getting used to -- including filling it properly so we don't have to keep getting up in the night. It came in pretty handy though on New Years Day when the power went out -- along with the camp stove (coffee!) and the Coleman lantern.

We enjoyed it a lot -- always warm water for dishes, warmed croissants for breakfast and sandwich buns for lunch, heated milk for cocoa in the evenings. And speaking of dishes, citronella hair and body shampoo will clean dishes in a pinch, although it wouldn't be my first choice.

You are one courageous lady. My beret is off to you!

Speaking of insulating the attic, Mr Fix-it figured winter was the best time to get rid of a couple of wasp nests (in case they were inhabited) before the insulation goes in:


Close up of the gorgeous one:

It did eventually snow:




Provided we gave the sauna stove a good hour to heat the place up, it was quite comfortable.

So, not enough snow for snowshoeing, but the snow pants came in handy for a walk north to the lake:


Rose hips:

Every school needs a bell, right?

Wow, just wow. When I was last in Ontario, I loved the old brick and stone buildings. We don't have those here in AB.
I've always wanted to do this to an old church, sadly the churches round here are all wood and if you can find an old one they are generally in terrible shape.

Random observations...

There are always dead insects on the floor near the windows when we return after a long absence. This time there were a few dead flies (and a couple revived -- that was annoying!) but nothing like the piles of lady bugs or hornets etc we've had in the past. So we must be doing something right sealing-the-holes-up-wise. Also no evidence of mice in the attic, although a red squirrel had constructed an elaborate nest in a cupboard in the lean-to.

Never go to town on a Monday. Especially a Monday after a holiday that occurs on a Saturday as many businesses will take it "in lieu of". The grocery store was open and that was about it besides a couple of restaurants. I was really disappointed that the municipal building was locked as I'd wanted to use the "facilities" -- you know, a flush toilet, without ice crystals on the seat. And it meant I couldn't get to the library book sale shelves either <sigh> Sometimes there are books left behind in the laundromat but there was some sort of water emergency and it was wall-to-wall plumbers, so I was really out of luck. The good news was that after a 4 hour absence (we stopped in to see some friends on the way home after lunch at the Twin Bluffs -- whitefish on a bun!) there were still lots of glowing coals in the wood stove.

We got company one afternoon. A couple we know were out walking their dog and stopped by when they saw a vehicle. The dog immediately flopped down, sighing contentedly, in front of the wood stove while we had coffee. Otherwise it's pretty quiet -- well, unless the snow plough goes by -- and very, very, very dark at night. Scampering back from the outhouse one night I had to stop a few seconds and take in the stars -- amazing.

Hi Ceili, I missed your post as I was rambling. Yeah, there have been a couple of churches for sale since we bought our place but both were wood and had some major issues. There is a nice one for sale now and if I had the money I'd be tempted 'cause I think they're including the organ AND it has a choir loft. That would be so cool.