Archives for the month of: July, 2008

Passing Grade

July 31, 08 //

A car story

Our one mode of transport is a 1982 diesel Toyota Landcruiser, which needed brake-work so badly that when one jammed the aptly-named brake pedal the car would utter a terrible metal-on-metal shudder and would eventually grind itself to a stop (provided that one began braking precisely one block away from any impediments). Once we finally came to a stop, onlookers would look quizzically and disapprovingly in our direction, as if to say, “What is that noise, and can’t you get that fixed? I mean–really.”

Cameron has the know-how and tools to perform said brake work; in fact, he has performed engine surgery in numerous compromising positions, such as the one pictured below.

As you may know, in December of 2007, we drove for 28 days (from BC to PEI), towing everything we owned behind us in a trailer. This photo was taken in the middle of our trip: in a Zellers parking lot in Ottawa, Ontario. It was minus 19 degrees Celsius, and here is Cameron under the hood with the contents of his little red toolbox splayed out on the frozen pavement. Also notice the industrial-sized red tool case in the back of the trailer.

Aah, loved that trip (in retrospect only). So, yes, Cameron’s got the skills to repair our brakes–it’s just that we hadn’t made the time to actually do the work.

Indeed, our brakes were in desperate need of tender loving care, which is terrible and needed to be remedied; but we were further pushed to make time to do the work because our auto insurance was about to expire, and we still had to have the car inspected by a PEI mechanic before we could re-insure it.

Cameron took a day to dismantle the brakes and pry 26-year-old rusted bolts off various parts of the car. We then walked in to town to pick up the requisite car parts.

***

Reason #9782 why we love this place:

Us: “Thank you for the auto parts, Mr. Auto Parts Store guy! Goodbye!”

Mr. Auto Parts Store Guy: “You’re not walking home with those in that back-pack, are you?”

Us: “Well, yes, but we’ll be fine!”

Mr. Auto Parts Store Guy: “Don’t be fools! Let me give you a ride home!”

And so he did.

Reason #9783:

The only other time we walked in to town for car parts, we ran in to some friends, who gave us a much-appreciated ride home. (Although they may have felt obliged to offer us the ride do to my profuse facial sweating resulting from the variety of tools I had strapped on my back.)

Reason #9784:

Us: “Thank you very much for bringing our package right to the door, Mr. Mailman! We do appreciate it!”

Mr. Mailman: “No problem. Plus, I had to apologize: I saw you walking in to town the other day, but my truck was full and I didn’t have any room. I do apologize.”

Us: “Aww, Mr. Mailman! We love you.”

***

Once we had all requisite car parts (and after much screwing and wrenching and pumping and bolting), the car is up to snuff. This morning, in the nick of time because our insurance was to expire on Monday, we passed our inspection.

As the lady at the motor vehicle wicket told us, we’re “official Islanders now”; I don’t know about that, but I sure am glad to get this one ticked of our ever-growing to-do list.

Summer of Discovery

July 28, 08 //

Before we bought our house (and its accompanying 63 acres), it had been for sale and sitting empty for years. When we first looked at the property in person, it was January; every square-inch was covered in snow, and all living plants looked like wooden sticks.

As I have but a rudimentary knowledge of all things natural, my skills at identification can only be used to recognize dandelions, daisies, and maple trees. Thus, I certainly had no idea which brown sticks were what or what to expect. The real estate listing didn’t give much indication as to the state of the property, as the description was limited to “Old house on 63 acres, needs major work. Good luck.”

We took possession in March. By April, the snow slowly began to recede.

By May, the landscape began to turn green.

By June, there was lots of green and a plethora of lush blossoms.

It is now July’s end, and every day we seem to come across an eye-widening number of edible delights (not to mention the flowers and the birds!).

Our property has a large “yard” around the house, about twenty-five acres of cleared (but running wild at the moment) fields, and about thirty-five acres of woodland, within which we have discovered:

tiny wild strawberries,

raspberry canes,

14+ apple trees, all dripping with fruit,

a pear tree,

and yesterday, when I came across a cherry tree in full cherry-dom, I almost cried.

To think that all this bounty resurfaces every year, on its own, from underneath such a thick burden of ice and snow seems impossible–but yet it is true.

How, why, or who, I don’t know; suffice it to say that it’s a miracle no matter how one looks at it. Nature, I love you.

Winter Preparations

July 20, 08 //

Now that it’s Summer, it is so beautiful and warm that I have to keep smacking my palm against my forehead in order to remind myself that winter is coming and we must prepare.

The basic premise behind our little house is that it will be heated by wood-stove only.Â We have run some electrical wires for a few base-board heaters, but our main reason for doing so is for re-sale value, as well as in case we have to leave the house for a few days in the winter and we can’t keep the fire going.

We removed the old “burn barrel” that once served as warmth-maker, and passed it on to our wonderful neighbours who had a use for it.

After much soul-searching and avid research, we have figured out that our dream wood-stove is a Blaze King Princess. No, she’s not much to look at, but she’s a catalytic stove that comes highly recommended by people who need warmth, such as rural Alaskans with no other source of heat.

Blaze Kings do cost a pretty penny and are definitely more than we budgeted for, but we figure that, it being our only source of heat, we can’t afford to be chintzy when it comes to heat.

We’ve been on the lookout for a used Blaze King, but haven’t had any luck thus far. We still have a few months left until we’ll need some source of heat, and, until then, I’ll be first in line to purchase the next edition of the Buy, Sell, and Trade.

CAM:

What are you writing about?

LAURA-JANE:

About the impeding Winter!

CAM:

(smiles)

Aah, yes. Well, Winter is why I am heading outside to do some work, and why I am not just writing a blog entry about doing so.

LAURA-JANE:

(grabs tool-belt and exits Stage Left)

Touche!

Musings on Taking Great Leaps of Faith

July 14, 08 //

Oh sure, I liked the idea of selling everything we owned, driving across the country in the middle of winter, and starting a new life on a new coast. However, I would surely never have acted on this idea had it not been for the person in the other room .

You see, I seem to be afraid of new experiences, and I am certainly afraid of letting go of the old ones; I get distracted by buts and what-ifs, and I worry about regrets.

Even so, I have somehow managed to merge my life with this amazing human being who is fearless and has a ridiculous zest for life. When he looks forward all he sees is good, and he never looks back.

Over the past few years, every few months we would look at houses for sale on the internet, and ponder what it would be like to move here or there–”here” or “there” usually being Canadian cities with the most affordable real estate markets. I loved picturing our life transported into a new city and a new home, but for me it was just idle entertainment–a pleasant fantasy with which to while away an afternoon. Meanwhile, he would look over at me earnestly and say, “We could do it, you know”, and I would smile and say, “Sure we could”; not really believing it, but playing along.

I remember when we first saw our little house for sale. It was on Prince Edward Island, and it was just another picture on the computer screen, a cute house in a quaint town that was thousands of miles further East than I had ever been. “Sure we could”, I said with a smile. Of course, it would be nice, but…impossible! We’ve never been there! But what about our families? What if we hated it? What if the people hated us?

After many buts and what ifs and worries galore, I distinctly recall going out to lunch with a set of our parents, and sharing with them the early news that we were considering moving thousands of miles away and, no, we weren’t planning on visiting first, and, no, we didn’t know what we would do once we got there, and, yes, we know it sounds absurd.

Even then, I remember feeling unsure about whether we were actually going to embark on this adventure. I wanted to do it and I could hear myself saying the words, but the whole thing was so inconceivable to me that I could barely wrap my cerebellum around it.

And now, we are here, and sometimes I just have to remind myself how far we’ve come, and that we are sitting inside the house that was just a tiny picture on a computer screen, thousands of miles further East than I had ever been.

Simple Wooden Shutters: How To

July 10, 08 //

We made shutters out of CHEAP lumber in a couple of hours! You can too!

We bought a bunch of 1×4s (which look like standard 2×4s that have been sliced depth-wise). A 12 foot long piece was $2.69.

First, you cut your lumber! Very, very, very easy if you have a mitre saw, which is the greatest investment ever because it makes straight cuts instantly.

With the mitre saw it is ZIPZIPZIP and you have three 1×4s cut to the same length as the window pane.

Next, we cut two cross-supports out of the same wood, and screwed six screws (in total) through the supports and into each board (while making sure that the screws were long enough to attach them together, but not so long as to poke out the back).

And this, my friends, is a decorative shutter; the shutters are simple and to the point, just the way we like our home improvements!

So that the paint will have something to stick to, we primed them first.

Then came the paint!

Installation was as easy as banging four super long nails into the shingles (made easier by the fact that we already had scaffolding sitting right there, of course).

And there you have it!

Jobs like these are so much easier with the right tools.

Cameron simply cannot bring himself to buy a new tool if he can make do with some crazy 1970s tool that has been broken and screwed back together seventeen times, has a bent blade, and has scraps of wood wedged inside it to keep the whole thing together. I am not sure why he does this, and I guess it is kind of sweet really, but sometimes it drives me nuts.

For the first two months of our house renovation (during which we worked every day for at least eight hours per day, cutting hundreds of pieces of wood), any straight cut that was made in this house was either done by hand with a dull hand-saw or cut free-hand with a skill saw that,

a) was already ancient when Cameron inherited it from his parents ten years ago (yes, Paul, your old silver skill saw, it lives!); and

b) has NEVER HAD ITS BLADE REPLACED IN THE TEN YEARS I HAVE KNOWN THIS TOOL TO BE IN CAMERON’S POSSESSION, (may it rest in peace).

Thankfully, after two months of hand-sawing and skill-sawing, we came to a mutual decision that something had to be done. And so, we took the plunge and purchased a mitre saw for $150.

Thus, we were able to make these shutters with the proper tools!

And skip ahead a couple of months…and here are snow covered shutters! The final product.

Scaffold Me

July 8, 08 //

There are many projects that are half-finished and strewn about the house and yard; such as, hmm, let’s say for example, the roof, the crawlspace, the vegetable garden, the gutters, the piles of debris and old appliances, the attic, and, now that I think about it, every single room in the house–every room!

Alright, that being said, the divine weather has bumped the exterior of the house up to the top of our to-do list, and we’re actually making some headway, which feels great.

We’ve finally replaced the windows on the second floor (which I had been dreading), but doing so turned out to be just as easy as installing those on the main floor thanks to the scaffolding. These were the last windows that needed to be replaced, so we were both grinning after they were safely in. We still have to build some decorative trim around the windows, as well as build decorative shutters (!), but we just bought the supplies today so we haven’t gotten very far with that yet.

We’re also replacing most of the wooden trim around the eaves, which is a major project, and, due to the height, complexity, and finesse involved, has been taking some time. We’ve ordered a few pieces of basic gingerbread trim on eBay to add to the eaves, which excites me. Look!

I have no idea whether this trim is in keeping with the house’s style/era/motif, but we both like the look of it so we’ve decreed that our house shall have gingerbread! In fact, we don’t really know what we’re doing in any context or subject matter, so this is nothing new, but that’s the fun of it; we just look at the room/problem/situation, brainstorm a bit, google search a bit, and come up with solutions. (Now, I am not saying that we come up with the right solutions, but they are solutions none the less.)

We’ve got a long way to go with the exterior of the house, but we’re enjoying being out in the sun. Last summer I was working in an air-conditioned office and I remember feeling strangely about not really having a “summer”. I felt as though I didn’t experience the changing of the seasons, as it was all room temperature, all the time. Pleasant, yes (complaining I am not, please don’t lock me in a sweltering office with no air conditioning, I beg of you!), but I recall feeling that I was missing out on something. Now, whether that missing something was setting up scaffolding in 29 degree weather, I am not sure…

Um, okay, wait. I am sure! Air conditioning? A pay cheque? These things would be nice!

Les Oiseaux qui Volent

July 3, 08 //

Bird one

This morning, while outside in our yard, I was witness to the sweetest small bird hitting our kitchen window while it was flying at full speed. It landed head-down into the grass, and lay there, frozen, with its eyes alert and blinking. I didn’t know what to do or how to help, so I just busied myself around the yard, staying far away but keeping a worried eye on the bird. It stayed motionless and silent for about twenty minutes, and then suddenly it flew away.

Bird two

Later in the afternoon, on the very same day, we were outside installing some scaffolding in the same area near the house. Something caught my attention, and I glanced into our kitchen through the window, wherein I noticed that there was a bird flying around inside our kitchen; it was flapping against the closed window, trying to get out!

Cameron was twenty-feet up in the sky on top of the scaffolding, so I–being on the ground–rushed inside to try to gallantly herd the poor trapped bird out of the house. I gladly rose to the challenge and ran into the kitchen, at which point I was once again reminded that I am the last person that should be involved in an emergency situation, especially when it involves moving, fluttering, animals.

Cameron, twenty-feet up on scaffolding, could see into the kitchen and was yelling encouragement and ideas, such as “Just direct the bird towards the door!”, and “Use your hands!” More commentary followed: “Laura-Jane, do something!”, and then “Hello?? Are you going to do something?” He said.

In my defense, I was doing something. Even though it looked like I was just standing in the middle of the kitchen looking frightened and making small gestures towards the general vicinity of the bird, I was trying to think! I was trying to plan! I was trying to come up with a concrete, fail-safe strategy! I was evaluating the options!

So, while Cameron climbed down the seventeen rungs of scaffolding, walked around the entire house, came up into the kitchen, bypassed me (as I stood as frozen as the window-stunned bird from this morning), gently seized the bird in his hands, and let it fly out the door like that dove from “Touched by an Angel”, I really was doing something. I swear.

Happy Birthday, Hochelaga!

July 2, 08 //

Yesterday, Canada Day, we took yet another day off! It’s crazy, we’re taking days off all over the place, which is very unlike us. At any rate, the big city of Charlottetown was putting on a large, free, Canada Day extravaganza, and when it comes to free, we have a hard time saying no.

Here I am with a giant sand-sculpture of a potato (of course)!