The Shell Cracks

It's no joke, this life transformation is hard slogging sometimes.

Even with the addition of Bogey into our life (love, love!) it is not always easy to stay positive when our life seems like a bit of a train wreck. We are virtually camping in our little factory during the week, and working our asses off each and every weekend at the country estate.  And progress is slow. 

Most days, I am weathering the storm.  I don't have to look very far to find folks in far worse circumstances than ours.  And ours is of our own making, so boo hoo to us.  And eventually it will all be done, and we will be moved in full time. 

I know I have neglected the blog. I guess I feel like my blog should be upbeat and full of positivity all the blooming time, when lately, I gotta say, I have been feeling anything but upbeat and positive.  But today, I can see some humour and a few things you might find interesting.  So here we go:

At the shop we sleep on a futon which is the size of a double bed.  It's extremely small for two people who exceed 6 feet in height with corresponding widths!  At first, it was one of my biggest beefs - `the bed in the shop is too small``  I would lament to anyone who would listen.  I now realize that when we get home to the big king sized bed that is soooo comfy-- it seems huge!   I am always freezing in it since my Chuckles is miles away on his side and I don`t benefit from the lovely heat he radiates that I have become very accustomed to during the week sleeping on the futon!  In order to cosy up to him, I squirm my way over towards the center of the bed - and encounter the hump created by the two box springs underneath the mattress!  Hmmm maybe we need to downsize back to queen size when we move in full time.

It`s astonishing how simply one can live.  During the week we have a microwave, an electric skillet, a toaster oven,  a slow cooker and a single burner propane stove (rarely used.)

 

Pictures of delicious meals prepared in our minimalistic weekday kitchen!

We have 3 full size plates, several small ones, a few mugs, a minimal amount of cutlery, and a three glass baking dishes of varying sizes, of which we use two often and one rarely.  We eat amazingly well, and I use the slow cooker most of all.  I make soups, pasta sauce, chili, and various other concoctions such as the one today which is cut up chicken breast, with rice, mushrooms, onions, red pepper, peas and carrots and a can of cream of celery soup and some broth thrown in along with two whole dried chili peppers.  Add a side salad, and there is enough for dinner tonight and lunch tomorrow.  We cook rice and pasta in the microwave.  Being campers no doubt helps, this is like deluxe camping I suppose!

Our clothing choices for the week are made in about 3 minutes flat at home once all the laundry is done.  Two pairs of jeans, three shirts, and a couple of sweaters or sweatshirts does it for me.  They all go in a plastic bin at work so I just pull off the top.  I`ve never been a fashion maven, but this is simplicity itself.  It`s brilliant really. 

It has also been great getting Bogey before we moved to the country full-time.  In the city it has been imperative to expose him to traffic, and teach him rules of engagement with people and other dogs.  At the country estate, he runs amok on the property and if we took him only there, he would never have learned to walk nicely on a leash, come when called, the various hand signals he now knows or manners around other people.  Not saying he`s perfect, by the way, but he is learning!

Since I blogged last, we have poured the concrete aprons on either side of the barn and last weekend we pulled the roof off, as we are changing out the roof for a trussed style with a steeper peak to accommodate a room upstairs.  (The man cave, as I understand it!)

When I arrived with Bogey at the country estate, there were two ducks absolutely sound asleep beside the pond.  I drove up, crunching across the gravel driveway, and they still had their heads tucked firmly under their wings.  I do mean SOUND ASLEEP.  They likely had been using our pond all week long with no interruptions, so they were not guarded at all.  When they finally woke up, shook their heads, and stared at me, it was with a `who the hell are you`expression on their faces.  All weekend long they managed to co-habitate with Bogey and the other dogs.  A couple of times a day we would hear them honking and see them fly off, then we`d know that Bogey had decided he felt like a swim.  But they would return when he was finished! 

 

The ducks at home on the pond, between Bogey`s swims

 

Easter weekend is traditionally our first camping trip of the season, and I was bummed out that we were home working (again) with no other plans for the weekend.  So it was a fantastic surprise when young son and his girlfriend showed up from the island.  Together with Chuckles and older son, and some friends who showed up to help we got that whole roof taken off and the mess cleaned up.  That was a big job and very satisfying to see it behind us!

 

 

 

 

Above and below, the roof comes off!

 

Roofing material off, lots of mess to cleanup!

 

Above the roofless barn viewed from inside

 and below, our friends daughter pitched in and worked hard at the cleanup

 

 

My son`s girlfriend mowed the lawn with the ride-on lawnmower, supervised by Bogey

We also had an impromptu bonfire and barbeque with the kids and their partners and dogs,  which was a lot of fun and stress free.  Another example of how simple life can be.  No planning, no stress, they just showed up, we pooled our food resources, lit the barbeque and had an amazing family Easter. 

 

Bogey couldn`t keep his eyes open any longer by Monday afternoon!

 

A friend posted on Facebook the other day a verse that seems appropriate to both the barn project as well as life in general:

 

For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone.  The shell cracks, its insides come out, and everything changes.  To someone who doesn`t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.  Cynthia Ocelli.

 

My garden is taking shape!  I now have lettuce, peas, onions, garlic, parsnips, beets and carrots on the go.  I have dug up two small beds so far, side by side, each one has been a lot of work.  Stripping off the grass and roots, then digging out 6-8 inches of clay below, adding in 6`8 inches of composted manure, all by hand, me and my wheelbarrow, with a little unwelcome help from Bogey.  He sees me digging and thinks it`s a fun game!

Although friends have a bobcat they offered to bring over so I could prep the whole garden area at once, I have decided keeping it small for this summer makes sense.  With only being there on weekends, and the water shut off to the barn until the reno is complete, it would be hard to weed and water a large garden this season, so small is manageable. 

That`s it for now, I am making a renewed commitment to the blogging, be it happy news or simple desperation, you are getting it all from this point forward!

 

 

 

Everything Will Come

Saturday was such as stormy day, with torrential rains and winds, so Chuckles didn't make much headway with the barn project, as the task scheduled was digging out around the footings of the overhang posts.  Any hole he dug filled instantly with water, so it was struggle he gave up on eventually. 

I had promised myself to get the hallway painted if it was raining, so that's what I turned my attention to.  I didn't start until after dinner Saturday, but I did get the walls primered before I went to bed.

 

Every corner of the yard is covered in leaves, so pretty!

Sunday morning was clear and crisp, and we approached the day with renewed enthusiasm after Saturdays somewhat depressing abandonment of the barn project.  Our coffee pot is on a timer and at 7am a delectable smell of coffee wafted into the bedroom, our signal for up and at 'em!  Chuckles left to go rent an excavating machine, and I began to prep some food for dinner, that could cook in a slow oven all day.  My intention was to start the painting project at 8am. 

However, the food prep was taking longer than planned, and just as I was lamenting that I was already behind before I had even started, my phone rang.  It was Chuckles to tell me he had just realized we didn't set the clocks back on Saturday night.  How did I forget?  I made a mental note on Friday that we needed to do this on Saturday.  Then I thought - perfect!  Not only was I not behind, I was actually ahead of schedule! 

I saw a saying on Facebook this morning that this situation really illustrates.

 

We needed more time, and better weather.  Sunday was a great day, Chuckles made headway on the barn project, and I got the hallway painted. 
I kept up with the Mindful Living Challenge over the weekend, although I didn't blog it at the time as I only had my iphone to work on.  I typed some short notes, which ended up full of predictive text errors, of course, so I have cleaned them up and added them here.

Day 2 challenge is to take some time observing your breath.  How does it make you feel?

Observing the breath makes me feel Calm almost instantly. As I do it now I feel the ache in my muscles from an evening of painting the hallway walls.  I  am aware of the silence of the house around me. I can hear a slight ringing in my ears. I have a lovely tired, sleepy feeling and some pride that I tackles a job I wasn't really looking forward to and now it's half-done already. I have a slightly bitter taste in mouth from the tea I just drank, making my tongue feel puckered.

Day 3 a ten minute meditation focusing on the breath

I did my meditation sitting out on the front step since I had been cooped up inside all day.  My “quiet place” in the country is actually alive with sounds which I was very aware of, sitting with my eyes closed and concentrating on my breathing. I found myself being very aware of my body too -  the slightly achy tooth and the scrunched feeling of my feet in my shoes. I felt a sudden ripple of joy hearing the birds, the cows and the wind in the leaves surrounding my yard. My heart palpably quickened at the sudden thought of “something else” I should be doing instead of sitting here.  I had to push these thoughts away and refocus on just my breathing. Not easy to keep my mind 'empty' !

 

Several weeks ago I filled three large planters with compost and soil into which I planted garlic and daffodils.  One of them I also put some lettuce seeds in and that one I have covered with a sheet of clear corrugated plastic to act as a greenhouse.  Though only a few of the lettuce seeds germinated, I now have about six lettuces that are thriving.  It's turned quite cold so I am interested to see if they continue to grow. 

 

 

 

Moving, Frogs, Apples and Dogs - It's All Here.

Moving day - that is, the official one where the movers came with their big truck - is 6 days behind us now. 

It was a smooth operation, 3 guys who knew their stuff, aided by the fact that we have taken a lot of the boxed items to the country estate already. 

When they arrived, I was a bit shocked to find that two of the men were skinny, little old men that I had to resist the urge to offer to help - they just didn't look strong enough to move our lamps, never mind the big old piano with the wobbly leg!  But their looks belied their strength and experience, and when I stepped back and let them go to it, it was clear that they had done this once or twice before! 

 

 

 

Here's the moving truck, arriving at the country estate to unload

 

At the country estate, it took them a couple of hours to unload it all and deliver it to the correct room (mostly), and then they were gone.  Within a few hours we had much of it in order.  A great lesson I learned years ago from my children's grandmother is that, when moving, set up the bedroom(s) first.  There is nothing worse than working yourself until you are ready to drop, then realizing there is no place to drop!  Where are the sheets?  Where are the blankets?  So we put the master bedroom together, then the living room, so we had two comfortable spaces to relax in when we were ready. 

 

Master Bedroom After Movers Left

 

Office area after movers left

 

 

 

On Sunday morning I went out first thing with my nemesis the extension ladder and several large containers, and picked the apples off the tree that had ripe fruit.  The other tree is a week or two behind.   

Apple Tree Set Up

 

Me, Up the Ladder

 

One of Three Buckets of Apples

 

The first thing I had to do was pick up the week's windfalls apples, which I put into a container and moved them away from the tree, as the wasps were swarming around them and weren't happy to see me at all!  Because this tree is badly in need of pruning it is very bushy, with the fruit mostly on the high branches on the south side of the tree.  Of course, there are spiders everywhere at this time of year and the trees are full of them, so I frightened quite a few of them as I suddenly ascended into their space!  As I picked, I caught a movement out of the corner of my eye.  Expecting another spider, I turned to come face to face with a little tree frog!  They are also plentiful right now.  Although I didn't get a picture of the one in the tree, I snapped this one on my car when I was leaving to go to the farmers market.

Tree Frog

 

While I was busy with the apples, Chuckles made a bird house disguise for a light to illuminate our address sign at the road

 

Birdhouse in progress

 

Finished Birdhouse Light

 

 

 

I got a little lesson from Chuckles on the ride on lawnmower and spent an enjoyable hour mowing the lawn - a job I have now happily inherited.  It's like a little ATV with a purpose!!  I also took my hoe and a wheelbarrow and made the rounds of the gardens to get rid of some weeds that had cropped up.  On my rounds I discovered that the one pear on the little pear tree has disappeared!  Deer?  Birds?  Not sure who the culprit was but it was a bit of a disappointment!

 

Pear tree missing it's pear

 

I was also really happy to see that the raspberry canes which had looked very sickly when we first took over the country estate are now much happier after some TLC and a heavy feed of compost.  There are lots of new shoots and plenty of ripening berries.

 

 

 Raspberries looking healthier

 

Living room set up

 

The rest of the weekend was devoted to unpacking and putting the house in order and the garage, garden shed and barn.  One of our challenges right now is that, although we have 5 acres - huge compared to our city lot, there isn't as much outbuilding storage space as we had in the city, when you take the barn out of the equation.  Since the barn is going to house our business, we need to build a storage shed for all the toys, which include motorbikes, ATV's, kayaks, ( notice all the plurals!!) as well as all Chuck's tools, project car, gardening implements, push mowe, ride on mower...the list is long.  We need that shed pronto!

 

The apples I picked are sweet/tart and very tasty, so we have eaten a lot of them, given some away and the rest I processed on Monday night and they are now in my deep freeze ready to be made into apple chips, crisps, muffins, cakes and pies.  There will be more in the coming weeks from the second tree. 

 

This coming weekend is our last weekend in possession of the city house.  We still have some garage stuff to move out, and then the usual cleaning up.  We are also looking after granddog Nicky this weekend - another doggie fix to top up our tanks!

 

Nicky smiling on the back deck

 

 

Next week we continue our nomadic lifestyle in reverse - living in the city in our trailer and going home to the country estate on weekends.  The big life change continues....

 

 

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

This week the kids have gone back to school, and I am sure many of them will be writing the obligatory "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" essay.  Here is my version!

Just spent another busy weekend at the country estate, finishing up the painting and getting ready for the movers to bring our furniture over this coming Saturday, it seems a good time to recap the progress made on the big life change so far..

The new house front steps

Here's the whole list of what was/is entailed:
Purchase Suitable Property
Sell City House
Move Household to Property
Move Business to Property
Find Tenant for City Warehouse Business Currently Occupies
Enjoy our New Life on Country Estate


Purchase Suitable Property
Mid-May we put in an offer on the country estate, and after a minimum amount of haggling it was ours!  We took possession of it May 31st.

During that same period of time I got sick- the sickest I have been in my adult life - causing me to  miss singing in my choir concert, cancel a trip to Prince George to see my nephew graduate from UNBC and cancel a trip to New York with a group from my choir. I think my body was letting me know that now that the big life change was happening it was TIME TO FOCUS!

So focus I did.

Sell City House
The month of June was spent de-cluttering the city house.  Countless trips to the Sally Ann, packing boxes of stuff we don't use on a daily basis and moving it to the country estate, stripping wallpaper, painting rooms, and painting the whole exterior of the house ourselves!

Chuckles doing the prep work before painting the city house exterior

 In between, I laid on the couch, as I was still not very well, but was determined that I was going to help Chuckles to get the job done!  By the end of June it was completed and we listed the house the first week of July.

Every weekend in July was spent at the country estate.  The weather was marvellous and we cleaned up the gardens, entertained visitors, gutted the barn, and generally busied ourselves outside.  During the week we would be in the city working and doing our best to keep the house clean, polished, mowed and clipped to look good for the open houses each weekend.  Then, Friday night we'd drive out to the country estate spend the weekend and drive back to the city Sunday night. The Monday of the August long weekend, we got the call we had waited for from the realtor.  Not just one, but two offers!  They were presented the next day, and one was clearly the best.  We accepted - house sold!

Move Household to Property
August was all about the interior.  After my initial solo attempt at the painting, Chuckles threw his weight into it and together, in four short weekends (LOL) we have painted nearly the entire interior of the house.

 It is so much better we cannot get over it.

Dark paint

 

Finished in our choice of paint colour!

 

 It was originally Dark Chocolate brown, accented with Marian's Meadow green, colours which completely absorbed the light that came in through the windows, making the house extremely dark and dungeon-like.  We have left the hallway and foyer those colours for now, as the furniture movers will be in next Saturday, and in likelihood there will be some bumps and scrapes on those wall, so we will paint them after the furniture arrives.

So officially Saturday Sept 7th the furniture will be moved and although we still have possession of the city house until Sept 19th, none of our "stuff" will reside there any longer. 

That's where we're at.  Next up is moving the business, but we need to renovate the barn first.  That construction begins on Sept 9th.   Chuckles will be doing some of that work himself, as well as using some contract labour.  Still, we expect it will take a couple of months to complete.

Meanwhile, we will still be working in the city during the week, and at the country estate on the weekends, except  now it will be roughing it in the city and living in comfort on the weekends, the complete reverse of the past three months!  We plan to bring our travel trailer in and park it at a nearby RV park on the river, which will be a nice spot to live, close to work and all amenities, trails and the beach. 

One of our two apple trees, in need of pruning but still producing!

Now that the bulk of the painting is finished, I can turn my attention back to the gardens, the apples that are ripening now, and putting some of that delicious Chilliwack corn into the deep freeze before it's all finished for the season. 

Thanks to all of you who are following my little blog, I sure do enjoy writing it.  It allows me to savor the little experiences that make up my big life change!

An Unexpected Visit

Last weekend Chuckles went to the country estate on Thursday evening, the night before I went.  He arrived at dusk and everything was just as we had left it the Sunday before.  He hit the hay early, having big weekend ahead of him dismantling the barn stalls.

 

 

Here's the barn that is being converted to our workshop.

 

Here's the interior when we purchased the place.

 

 

And here's the interior currently with stalls down.

 

 

When he awoke Friday morning, he took his cup of coffee and went outside to enjoy the cool morning air, and survey his new empire.  To his astonishment, a large section of the landscape fabric we had laid the week before, complete with rocks around the perimeter to anchor it against wind, had been pulled up and bunched into a perfect little nest!  In the center of the next, there had been a small hollow dug, and the fabric was gathered around the hole.

 

 

 

This is the way the landscape fabric was left last weekend.

 

 

 

And here's a couple of pictures of the little nest!

 

 

 

Jenn and I put it all back together again, when we were bark mulching  but this area of landscape fabric is still exposed, because we are going to cover it with driveway material when we bring that in, as it will be a little parking spot.  So, I hope the critter, whatever it was, doesn't do this again, as now the edges are buried under the bark mulch we laid down.  Since we hear coyotes yipping and howling  most nights, it's likely that is what bedded down here. 

 

 

I went out to the barn late in the day on Sunday to call Chuckles in for a piece of .... blueberry pie, and he snapped this photo of me with the disassembled stall front walls.  That's about the extent of my help with the barn reno so far!