Back to School

Happy New Year to you and the Boss.

it's a coyote New Year

something to share with canajun girls

http://foreveryoungnews.com/posts/2045-righteous-rhythms

Oh I love it. Great shot, great article!

Good on you, Beth.

What a great article! Happy for you Beth that you've developed such a healthy addiction :-)

It’s @ 7:30 am on a beautiful Sunday morning and I am, where else, at the Laundromat. The summer people have arrived and you have to get here early to get a machine! This will all, hopefully soon, become a thing of the past as the Old School Expansion Project is well under way. Once the weight restrictions were off the roads (late May) the heavy machinery was brought in and work started. Excavation dug, cement poured, block laid, framing, trusses, housewrap and steel roof completed.
And not before time let me tell you. It was a brutal winter with a capital Brrrr! Our first winter must have been unusual because temperatures and snowfall were both very different this last winter. We must have had a week of -40-with-the-wind-chill days and it never seemed to stop snowing. Piece of cake we thought when first presented with the idea of a second winter camping. Hardly.
We’ve managed though. Despite the cold our well pump never froze. In spite of hearing more school bus cancellations than ever before in my life I always made it in to work. Between the electric baseboard heaters and the woodstove we were cozy. We had hoped to spring for lousy expensive internet (damn the budget!) but then I ended up in emergency walking like a question mark. Turns out there is this little triangular bone that joins the hip to the spine and mine was seriously inflamed. Slogging through snow to the outhouse? Sitting 8 hours a day at a desk? Who knows? First time ever a medical doctor has recommended a chiropractor though. And it’s working. And he’s wonderfully old school (as in the visits are getting further apart as things stabilize versus “I’d like to see you every two weeks for the rest of your life”).
Not having the internet is a pain though. We go to the library every two weeks but still there is no back and forth, you know? I have no idea what is happening with most of you and feel very much out of the loop. So – to some extent I feel like I am talking to myself and just, well, rambling. Rumour has it a few of you miss me though, so, I’ll ramble a bit (and thanks!)
What else? There have been the usual wild animal sightings of course. Had to stop for a deer and fawn on the way here this morning as well as a pheasant. Had some incursions into the house that were less pleasant. One morning in the depth of winter we found a drowned mouse in our water bucket. (All of you going “Ewwwwwww” and spinning in circles flapping little T-Rex arms – that’s exactly what I did.) Ack. Gag reflex in overdrive and wondering where the hell it came from etc. (In case you were wondering we dumped the water and bleached the bucket but still….) Only mouse we’ve seen since we fixed the floor. The Mr. had been taking down the inner wall in preparation for cutting a doorway through the back of the house so maybe it came in through the walls? The next unpleasant surprise came after the Mr. cleaned the chimney this spring. Afterward he cleaned out the wood stove and even though we never use the ash drawer he pulled all that out and cleaned underneath – found a desiccated bat! The stove is on a pedestal – no space for anything to get in underneath. We are still puzzling over how a bat got in there.
The most recent incursion came after work started on the addition. We apparently disturbed a nest of fox snakes. I’ve mentioned these before – they are the ones that shake their rattle-less tails and coil and hiss and get all attitudinal when they feel threatened. The Mr. was constantly booting them out of the foundation area while they were working. With the warm weather and the humidity our wooden screen door has warped at the bottom again and if you don’t pull it tight there is a small gap. I see that some of you are ahead me ☺ It was a cool night and the inside door had been closed for hours when suddenly the Mr. was doing a dance and yelling for me to get the front door open while he used the “grabber” (one of those poles with a handle on one end and robot claws on the other that short people use to reach things on high shelves – also excellent for snake wrangling as it turns out) to nab the snake and toss him out on the lawn. What freaked us out was not only that the snake came out to watch the news – but where had it been for hours without us noticing…and…were there any more?!

I haven't finished reading it yet, Tai, just had to pipe up and say how good it is to see you.

So of course it is not a Sunday -- that was written last weekend and I am finally in a position to post it. Have wanted to post a photo of our work in progress but am having difficulty with photo bucket as it continually "disappears" on me and have been unable to upload any photos. The roof is done and the Mr. hopes to have all the windows and doors in by the end of next week so work can then begin on the interior walls -- then we can bring the plumbers in -- hooray!

Love, love, love hearing all your news... (brrrrrrrrrrrr how cold iz that, I can't even imagine that amount of brrrrr)

and yes, we do miss you. It is so very good to see you TC

Fabulous to hear from you ~

please.do.take.it.easy.with.the.triangular.bone.thang

<smooches you and MrFixIt>xxxx

Thank you -- really.

Ok, read it, wonderful, wonderful.
Also, v. glad your chiropracter is both helping a lot and quite sane in practice.
When you get a chance tell more (more!!) about the school house addition.
Hi to Mr., too.

I'm trying -- floor exercises and everything (although I'm always keeping an eye out for snakes...)

Heh heh, I don't do floors... ya know, thangs with 8 legs an' all.

Very good to see you TC. How's MrFixIt's jewellery designs coming along - is he still managing to make some. Will look forward to seeing your pics when you are able2. Iffn' ya see your bro - say 'hey' from me - miss seeing him around too.

Take very good care TC - I'm off to make a cuppa - will be having a virtual brew with you whilst the laundry's doing.

x

Yep...another one glad to see you - and the continuation of your story.

Snakes ---yeccchhh! They freak me out - and when I lived on the outskirts of Sydney, the resident snakes were pretty poisonous. They killed 2 of my cats and threatened me a cuppla times.

A long time later, I wonder what the photo was. Was it Pacco in front of the golden gate? (why would I have posted that here?)
Maybe it was from a sometime avatar of mine by a corgi person of a corgi romping in snow?


I'm rereading the whole thread. It's a treasure.

Urp, I see I explained later.

Margo if I had to contend with the snakes you have in Australia – not to mention the spiders! – I don’t know if I could take it. The only venomous snake in Ontario is the Mississauga Rattlesnake. Manitoulin Island is at the northernmost edge of its range according to the “reptile map” posted at the library although I’ve never heard of anyone being bitten here. There are always a few bites a summer on the mainland at the same latitude though, around Parry Sound always when someone accidentally steps on one. Apparently rattlesnakes are one of the only snakes that can vary the amount of venom they inject so not all bites are toxic and some don’t even need treatment. They are an endangered species these days but were once pretty common down in southwestern Ontario where dj and I grew up. Our uncle was bitten as a teenager and since it was on a Sunday it was a bit of a panic. The police had to find the director of the local health unit so he could unlock the building and provide the anti-venom and when they got to their family doctor’s office he had medical textbooks spread everywhere as he’d never treated snake bite before. From the stories I’ve heard it was a very painful recovery. I’m okay only having to deal with harmless garter snakes, shy ringnecks and even those attitudinal fox snakes.

It’s looking as though I will have to paint you “word pictures” until I can figure out what’s going on with my photo bucket account. The windows and doors are installed and almost all of the soffits. Our new main door will lead in to the kitchen and faces the garage on the west side. The other door faces east from the laundry room and will make it handy to hang out the laundry – oh happy day! We had a few days away from the grind – a visit with younger son who came north for a few days. He was happy to have missed roofing in the heat but he didn’t get off scot-free. Instead he agreed to go under the floor to run the cables that will run from the main electric panel to the new sub panel in the addition. (We bribed him with a whitefish dinner at the Happy Moose!)
Now that it is weather tight the next step will be interior walls so the plumbers can come in next (yes!)

There will be plumbing!

Sounds like an awful lot is getting done - I am so impressed by your dedication to this.

In all honesty the Mr. is doing the heavy lifting as I am working full time. Same company as for the garage did the excavation and poured footings. We were lucky enough to find some really good block guys who did the foundation and later came back and did the trusses. The Mr. did the framing and then when it came time to sheathe the outside one of our neighbours offered to lend a hand and has helped out ever since. Mostly I redesign the interior walls every couple of weeks