Animal Speak

Connecting with nature is something I was really looking forward to when B and I moved to the TS (temporary shelter).  I have been discovering ways in which I can communicate with my surroundings and have been referring to my 'Animal Speak' book written by Ted Andrews.

This book was recommended to me a few years ago, and I have been making use of it quite often.  The book shows readers how to identify his or her animal totem and learn how to invoke its energy and use it for personal growth and inner discovery. There are stories about animals, natural history, and animal folklore. Readers will also learn magical animal rites and how to read omens.  Essentially, I use it to read omens.

Think what you will about the possibility of animals speaking to you, but I do and I believe I live a much richer life because of it.  Imagination is a wonderful thing, and it's too bad that we're only encouraged to have one while we're a child.

I had been working on an exercise through another book I bought when I first moved to the TS.  The exercise was to just listen and pay attention to the animals around you.  I took a break and thought about it and remembered that I was very excited about my suet feeders and seeing woodpeckers.  The woodpecker happened to be the first and only bird so far (that I have seen) to visit my suet.  During my break from the book I heard tapping on the TS.  No way did a woodpecker just arrive to me when I was working through an exercise telling me to pay attention and look for signs.  A coincidence?  Definitely not!  I looked through my Animal Speak book and read about the Woodpecker omen and it told me that the woodpecker has showed up to stimulate new rhythms and to drum some new rhythms and changes into my life.

Excited about my connection, I continue to look and listen.

The Northern Flicker is a member of the woodpecker family and B and I have been seeing a lot.  Animal Speak says that seeing the flicker has introduced a time of rapid growth and trust.  One flicker in particular has been pecking a hole in the side of the TS and has pulled the insulation out to make a nest.  While I love listening to birds, waking up to hammering at 6am is becoming a nuisance.

This morning while B and I were laying in bed waiting for the alarm to go off, we heard a couple of taps on the window about 2 feet away.  I raised my head to look and it was the flicker!  He was perched on the windowsill looking in and only a couple of feet away!  If that isn't a sign or an omen than I don't know what is!


He let us look at it him for a minute or so and then flew off to the nearest tree.  Amazed, we talked about it in bed and heard some more noise at the window.  He flew back to the window and stayed there for a little while longer.

Male Northern Flicker

This morning B seen 3 wild turkey's with a coyote hot on their trail and after that parade, a deer coming out of the trees.  Lucky guy!  I was down at the house showering.

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We've filled our raised beds with triple mix and sheep manure and have planted pea seeds and spring onion bulbs.  We had B's dad dig us a new hole for the outhouse that is closer to the TS.  We'll have to move it this weekend or when we get a chance.  Other than that, we've been enjoying every damn minute of being there!

A visit from my brother, B filling the raised beds and cold beer!

Dave diggin'

Our cold frame with arugula and mixed greens planted

A partridge nest that we found under a rock with a couple of eggs

Life at the TS

Livin' the Dream

B workin' hard

B and the TS in the background

Dave

Arrival of Winter

My love for winter comes from deep within.  I love to reminise on the memories of being outside for hours at a time during my youth.  What I mostly remember about the season is the feeling, the smell, the visual appeal, and my dutch rosie cheeks.

My heart feels like it's going to burst when the snow falls in thick waves.  For some reason, dusk in the winter has this incredible hold on me.  The still silence, with only the wind whistling through the bare and evergreen trees.  The dusk snowfall.  If you're still enough you can hear it coming down.  This time of year is serious.  It's survival of the fittest with the animals, and survivial of emotions with humans.

If I could disappear into the wildnerness for all of winter and the preparation with autumn, I would be so happy.  Being in the cabin feels like I'm in the wilderness, and I am.  It almost feels like being in the womb again.  In this insulated warm womb.  Except, I can peer outside and see slow life going on around me.  Slow life like seeing the winter birds feeding at my suet.. perhaps I'm making them dependant on my offerings.  Slow life like an oak leaf hanging on to it's branch.  Slow life like hibernating animals and slow heart beats.

My senses come into full swing when a thought of winter crosses my mind.  The smell of fresh snow, and of fresh air.  The air smells clean.  Deep breaths of cold freeze your nostrils, pain your lungs, or make them stronger.  It's the deep breath of winter air that feels like a renewal for the new and changing seasons ahead.  A fresh start internally.

The low winter sun rises in the morning and the flakes on the ground shine like crystals.  You've never seen anything so true to colour.  Sometimes it can be blinding.  The low winter sun shines through me like no other time of year.  It fills my heart and brings me happiness.  My body needs that sunlight and reacts more intensely because of the lack of sun I receive during winter.  There seems to be nothing more beautiful in winter when we receive a snowfall overnight and you wake up to pine, spruce and cedar boughs weighed down with the heaviness of snow.  Reminds me of being in Algonquin Park for a winter hike with the proposal of marriage from my husband.  You could hardly make it through the trail the boughs were weighed down so much.

Lakes, ponds, rivers and creeks freeze.  We tie up our skates and hit the ice.  Hard, cold ice.  Nothing is more fantastic than spending a day outside with friends and family with a warm fire, hot drinks, a toboggan down the hill, and rosie cheeks.  A visit to the waterfall on my husband's family property is a very spiritual experience any time of year, but I love having a fire there when the water is frozen.  I love the snap of dead cedar branches and the quick warmth they give by burning fast. Light wood.  Blocked by the gusts of wind coming off the hills in the fields, the waterfall in the cedar woods is a sight and experience.

The first Christmas that my husband and I were together, he made me a wood duck box.  Every year, we hike out to the creek where the home is with fresh wood shavings and change the bedding in the box.  It's such a wonderful task.  How happy those ducks must be when they return in the spring to find their beds have been made and their sheets are clean.  Winter's exciting what with the new activities I've been introduced to, or the confidence I have being outside for long periods of time.  Being prepared and warm enough.  That can make or break you.

North is the direction of winter.  That Northern pull.  It's in my blood and in my spirit.  I love you old North.

Cobi Sharpe

New Autumn

Autumn came fast at the T.S.  B and I returned from our honeymoon in Europe just in time to see the Autumn colours.  It was spectacular.

We have been working very hard since our return.  We built a new addition, insulated the floor with spray foam, blocked all of the soffits so that we don't have the noisy starlings getting into the attic, we purchased and installed a new Pacific Energy super efficient wood stove, installed a new chimney and piping.  We have put plastic over the windows, spray foamed drafty areas and put gaskets over the electrical outlets.  We have packed all of our belongings into plastic storage bins and moved them into the new addition.  We have hooked a rain barrel up inside on the top floor because the outside line from the barrel is starting to freeze.  B's dad dug us a pond a little closer, so we might be able to pump water from the pond into the barrel on the top floor, rather than hauling it from the house in a barrel with the tractor and then pumping it inside.  Let's hope we've dug deep enough that the pond won't completely freeze.  Having that water access closer would be a life saver.

We had moved out for 2 weeks during the deer hunt, and are now back with a new layout and a decorated Christmas tree - our living Norfolk Pine!

I am really looking forward to winter, although it seems pretty slow coming.  Temperatures have been abnormally high this time of year.  We haven't even had an 'official' snow fall yet.  To me, that means 2 cm's falling to the ground.  We had a light dusting last week, but that's about it.

We are very warm and cozy in the T.S. right now.  We think there is enough wood to last us all winter.  I hope!

We are extending our family at the end of December.  We are welcoming Pickles, a chocolate point Siamese cat.  We're hoping she'll be a great mouser, because we have a mouse problem!  I am very uncomfortable with the idea of poison, and we've been wanting a pet for a while.  She's going to fit in perfectly with us.

Aside from all of that, we have attended a workshop on being your own general contractor for straw bale buildings.  It was very informative, and the information will be useful when the time comes for B and I to put our building plans into action.

Before the depth of winter, we are meeting with the conservation authority to see if there are any issues with installing a culvert on our property to allow us to build in our dream location.  If there is an issue, we'll have to think long and hard whether we want to build so close to the road.  We also have to have the local excavating company in to give us a quote on our options for a driveway.  If all goes well, and we are allowed to put a drive back to our dream location and it isn't going to cost us too much money, then we'll start putting a floorplan together for our home.  I have made dozens of these.. I guess it's just finding the right one to suit our needs.

The first lighting!

Building the addition

The new layout

Winterizing

Well, we're married and back from our extravagant honeymoon, and just in time to see the autumn colours.

Since I've been home, I've had these wonderful feelings of winter come over me.  The thought of standing outside at dusk, in the still air listening to thick flakes of snow cover the ground.  If you listen close enough you can actually hear it.  I was thinking about fast moving southern wind coming up the farm hills and hammering our little TS's poor single paned windows.  And then felt comfort in imagining the warmth of a wood stove blazing away inside.  And B, Pickles and I all cozy warm.

If you don't know me, then you should know that I absolutely love winter.  It is my favourite season.  I love so many things about it.  In fact, just thinking about it makes my heart ache.  It's almost unbearable some times.

I love the farm, the land, the history, the people who live on it.

B and I spent some time at the camp last winter over Christmas time.  It was a very special time, because that is when he proposed to me.  Not at the camp, but during the time we spent there.  We has such a great time there, that I can't wait to spend a whole winter up there!

I have comfort in knowing that we have 4.5 cords of wood split and stacked, I have comfort in knowing that our floor is going to be insulated tomorrow with spray foam insulation, and I have comfort in knowing that we've just purchased a new super efficient Pacific Energy wood stove for the TS.  That should burn for a longer period of time.

We had planned a cider pressing party for this weekend, but are building an 8x8 addition instead.  It will be nice to have a little more storage space and a spot to put wood that is closer to the TS.

While we were on our honeymoon, we had come up with plans to re-arrange the layout.  Currently, half of the upstairs isn't being used, because it's storage so once it's moved out into the addition, then we are going to make a lounge up there with our bedroom, and allow more space on the main floor.

It's all very exciting and I will post photos after this weekend of the new stove, and the addition being built.  And, if it's cold enough we'll light the first fire in the stove for a visit from our great friend Melissa!

I Don't Mind Choppin' Wood

Our delivery arrived right on schedule!  B spent a couple of days cutting it all with the chainsaw, and then we borrowed B's dad's wood splitter, and have been doing that.  He splits, I stack.

 

 

 

 My first wood pile!

And... glad I have a man who can cook!

 

Lately, we've been discussing how to insulate the floor before winter.  We're going to be away on our honeymoon for a month, so these decisions have to be made.  

I'm suggesting to spray foam the whole thing, although it is our most expensive option.  If it's too expensive, then styrofoam boards and we'll have to but a vapour barrier; maybe tyvek.

I'm not putting too much thought into it now because we're getting married in 5 weeks and it's all about that at the moment!

A Way In

Here it is...

A way into our lot! 

Just Gettin' On

While it seems that summer is just getting started and you're all thinking about summer vacations, B and I are actually planning for winter already!

We have half a load of hardwood logs being delivered to the TS (temporary shelter) this week.  B and I need to cut, split and stack that wood if we want to make it in the TS this winter.  We're getting about 4 cord of logs.

Along with cutting, splitting and stacking our wood for the winter, we're also doing work around my folks' house to prepare for our wedding in August.

In order to get the logs delivered up to the TS, we've had to clear a spot out of the rock wall, to create a different route.  It's amazing to think that it took people weeks, maybe even years to take all of the rock out of the field and pile them into a wall, and it only took about an hour for us to undo their work with the backhoe.

B put a clothesline up for us.

The garden has been doing quite well and we've really been enjoying our fresh greens, and spring onions.  We arrived home from our backcountry camping trip to a garden that's now finally producing peas and little green tomatoes!

Basil, Purple Kale and Lettuce

 Tomatoes!

 Our Tomato Plants

 Zucchini

 Peas!

 

Our Salad Greens

Basil

We just love our little garden!

I did a little re-model of our living room.  This is now my favourite corner of the TS!

The township is re-paving our road, so we've convinced them to put in a residential entrance for us on our lot.  Can't take a photo because it's in heavy construction, but I will when it's all completed.

Exciting times out at the TS.