Another Year End Review -2014

Well here we are in 2015, the Year of the Sheep, I hope it is gentle as a lamb!  2014 started rough and ended rough but for the most part was a very agreeable year for us.

Garry Point Park, a short walk from my office.

Last January we got hit with a nasty storm and a ton of ice in the river which scared the pants off of us. We came close to quitting this lifestyle, thinking it just wasn't worth dying for. My health was at an all time low, I felt like I had maybe 10 percent of life force left. I was dragging myself through my days, hanging on by a thread.

 I turned 55 on January 5 and decided to do something special for myself on my birthday as most years I don't celebrate it at all ( bad time of year to get people to party :( . So on a whim, I spent the night searching online for a holiday destination and we left the next day on a flight to Cuba.

Whoohoo!

It was just what the Dr. ordered! It was a short trip, just 5 days, but the sunshine, warm ocean, balmy breezes and a magical swim with a dolphin was the best gift I could have ever received. I came back with my gas tank a little fuller, a new resolve to finish the house and enough suntan to carry me into the summer.

Spring brought the bulbs I had planted in the fall and it was fun to watch it all unfold over the months.

The freshet came again as it does every year, but this time we were much more calm about it. It wasn't any worse than last year, no damage done and was perhaps only extraordinary in the sense that I didn't think it would be as high because we got way less precipitation and snow than last year.

Once things had warmed up we got busy on the house again. We made great headway creating a living room and dining room.

There are still some things to be done there but they are totally functional rooms. Friends of ours gave us their old patio French doors and we got those installed on the river side of the house. LOVE them, it really makes all the difference to be able to sit in the room and watch the river flow by as opposed to getting up to look out a window. Its like moving art on the wall. They also let in much more light which really brightens things up considerably.

Once summer got into full swing we didn't want to be indoors anymore so Dave built us a marvelous patio and re-decked the river side dock and the front deck so everything was the same height and flowed into each other. We lucked out and found some great deals on a nice BBQ, gazebo and deck chairs and got a cute 2 seater Jacuzzi for free. We barely ever went indoors after that, we lived , cooked, ate outside and soaked in the tub  only venturing in to sleep at night. We were blessed with a long summer that stretched to the end of October.

I went to Vancouver Island in July for a family reunion. I went a few days early and revisited some of my favorite childhood nature spots. I got another dose of mother nature to rejuvenate my tired old body walking through forest paths and long stretches of pacific beaches. Reconnecting with family and friends was very therapeutic as well and I am so grateful for everyone that went out of their way to join us. I am hoping that we continue to do this more often as I have been family deprived with my nomadic lifestyle and loved connecting with everyone.

The worst part of this year was losing our cat Smoochie. Last year he had been attacked by some animal and had his stomach ripped right open. It cost me $1000.00 to put him back together and a month of constant care to make sure he healed ok with no infection. He survived and we were filled with joy. He was my constant companion around the house and slept cuddled up to me every night. Sadly a few days after I got home from my reunion, he walked up the dock to the shore and we never saw him again. To this day we have no idea what became of him. He was quite nervous outdoor after his last experience so usually didn't wander too far or long. I miss him every day and look for him every night when I get home, I can only pray he didn't suffer.

Minou(left) and Smoochie(right) best of friends!

Getting lots of loving from Smoochie when I got back from my trip, sadly he vanished two days after I took this picture :(

While we were searching for him we came across a small black kitten that I for a moment mistook for Smoochie. It turned out it was the landlords kitten which they had given to their son. The son works away for weeks at a time and the kitten was living outdoors by itself. I couldn't stand to think of something bad happening to it so asked them if I could have him instead. They agreed and Pitou came to live with us. I don't think he liked the outdoors too much as he hasn't left our house in 6 months. That's ok with me, one less cat to worry about!

The newest member of our family, Pitou

 Our other cat Minou was quite distraught when Smoochie vanished and spent weeks looking for him. He would come home, sniff the door to see if Smoochie had returned, get upset when there was no new scent of him, and turn back to carry on searching for him. It was heart breaking to see. It took him a long time before he settled back into the house and gradually befriended the kitten. I have never had a animal vanish before, I have always known what their fate was. I can't imagine the grief of people whose loved ones have vanished. Its hard to not have closure, and your mind runs rampant with horrible scenarios as to what might have happened. We will never forget you Smoochie, I would give anything for another one of your kisses!

 The summer gradually gave way to fall and we turned our attention back to the interior of the house. We continue to insulate and batten down hatches trying to make things more comfortable during the winter. Sometime I wonder if we will ever get it totally warm in here. I really wanted to put in a wood stove but ran out of money. We need a miracle (lottery) to sort that out. Without a cheap source of heat, we are back to just heating a few small rooms to live in and letting the rest of the house freeze. It has damaged our hot water on demand and froze a few pipes already and my beautiful indoor plants have all died of the cold. Thank god winters aren't usually too severe here and I am counting down the days until spring is back.

The month of December became the month of vehicle problems. The only drawback to living where I do, is that I am 75 kms away from work and 7 kms away from the nearest bus stop and even then it would take 4 or more hours to bus it to work if that was necessary.

 First the brakes went on the truck. I decidedly to deal with them at a later date as the truck is not vital to our life. My car is! I can't afford the cost of gas in the truck to go to work, it would be astronomical. Then my car just went haywire. I had all kinds of issues with the headlights not working, then the alternator belt went. I got towed a whole bunch of times in a few week and ended up sleeping at work multiple times because I couldn't get home. I tried to fix the car, spent hundreds of dollars but it kept breaking down. The last straw was getting towed home 75 km on the 23rd.

I was desperate for a running vehicle, stuck out in the boonies and Christmas was right around the corner with everything going to be closed for days. I hate being that stressed out and overwhelmed. I found a car on Craigslist for $1000.00. The guy who owned it had his friend come and pick us up to go take a look at it. Everyone was in a hurry to go get ready for Christmas and get papers signed before the insurance place closed for the holidays, so I only got the briefest look at the car and a quick ride around the block. I ended up buying a Toyota Celica GTS 1990, which is a car I have owned twice before. I love this car and was thrilled to have another one, but I am praying that I didn't get a lemon.

My new ( to me ) car.

We drove into Richmond for Christmas dinner at a friends house and noticed the wheel was making some very disturbing sounds. I finally got it looked at late Friday to have it diagnosed as destroyed wheel bearings. I made an appointment to get it fixed first thing Monday morning. Once they got the wheel off, the news just went from bad to worse and it took $800.00 dollars and a missed day of work before I was back on the road. I still need to fix a few things and would like someone to take a better look at it before I sink much more money into it.

I hate to say it but I think it is time for me to start looking for work closer to home. This is painful as I really love my practice in Steveston. I have great clients, I love my office, the village is awesome and there are many wonderful shops and restaurants to peruse if I have a break. I am more than a little scared of starting from scratch. No one knows me up here and there are way less people living in the area to draw from, so not sure how this will go. My life would definitely be a lot easier though if work was just down the road so I guess its time to go into town and check out the opportunities here.

Now that the house is more or less under control, I would like to turn my attention to some other areas of my life. First on the list is to get my finances under control. I need to get tough about shopping, start saving and pay down my debts. I hate owing anyone anything and it will be a great relief to get control over this part of my life.

I also want to take better care of my body. It is a constant work in progress as I try different things in an effort to find relief for my pain. I have made some good recovery in areas and need to work on others. I say this every year and nothing ever really changes but I sincerely hope to lose some weight and to get  fit so that I can enjoy life more.

I have a list of things that I wrote a few years ago and like to revisit to see if I am making any headway. I put stars next to the things I worked on this year so I can see where I still need to focus my energy. I hope this year is a good year for all of you and that any trials or tribulations are ones you can handle and learn from. Blessings to all of you!


Reminders of the person I want to be:

1.Lose at least one pound a week
2.Seek spiritual guidance every day
3.Be grateful every day*
3.Exercise every day ( before going online)
4.Take a daily picture of something that catches my eye* ( it wasn't daily but I took a lot of pictures)
5.Perform random acts of kindness*
6.Limit sugar
7.Aim for raw food when possible
8.Fast food doesn't exist, make another choice
9.Mindful Eating
10.Clean and sort one closet or drawer every week*( I made good headway with this!)
11.Start saving 10 percent of all income* ( I was doing good saving for about 6 months, then needed to spend it all on necessary repairs)
12.Attend at least one yoga class a week
13.Read a book before bed ( turn off the computer)
14.Play a game once a week
15.Have a "do not spend money" day once a week*
16. Un-clutter a room*
17.Record receipts once a week and file
18.Clear my inbox
19.Dance
20.Learn a new skill*
21.Teach
22.Learn a new language
23.Study a new plant in my neighborhood
24.Work on making a smaller garbadge pile each week*
25.Play an instrument*
26.Be creative*
27. Write*
28.For every new thing I bring home, two things must go out( haha right!!)
29.Learn the words to a song*
30.Visit a friend*
31.Feed the wildlife
32.Take a bit of all food I intend to eat and make an offering to the spirits to say thanks
33.Try a new food
34.Try a new restaurant
35.Pick up litter*
36.Sign a petition*
37.Take a course*
38.Volunteer
39.Take a bath, make it as healing as possible*
40.Breathe mindfully
41.Stretch
42.Get out of town, do something different*
43.Walk in a forest*
44.Sit by a fire*
45.Moon bathe*
46.Skinny dip*
47.Star gaze*
48.Remember and honour someone who is gone*
49.Decorate a place in nature
50.Repair something that is broken*
51.Plant a perennial*
52.Perform rituals and ceremonies to ground yourself and mark your passages


Looking this list over, I see I was more organized this year and got out and about more. I still need to shift my focus when it comes to moving my body more, eating better and putting more energy into my spiritual practice. I still like this list and will endeavor to incorporate more of these ideas into my life this year.

My favorite sunset picture of this year!

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Reno Update - Fall 2014

 Well, it's been a whole year now since we got electricity and things have sure moved quickly. We had spent the winter and spring working on the interior of the house but once the temperatures warmed up, our Reno's moved to the outside of the house. We had been lamenting the lack of outdoor space to enjoy our environment so Dave decided to build us a new float to expand our deck space.

Our front deck had lost some of its floatation during the tow up here and creaked alarmingly every time somebody walked across it, so that was the first thing to be repaired. We found a place on Craigslist that was giving away large pallets used for shipping industrial machinery. The wood was awesome and the pallets came apart easily so we stocked up with about 40 of them. That gave us enough planks to redo the front porch, build a 10ft x 35ft float, re-deck our 66ft long side dock and rebuild our back dock(still to be done, we are on the look out for more logs).  We still have a few boards left over for future raised garden beds.

The side dock" before "picture

The front deck "before " picture

The front deck got more foam billets installed, new planks laid on top, then coated with linseed oil for protection. The ugly, falling down railing was finally removed ( I hated that thing with a passion, it was a  wobbly deathtrap waiting to take some unsuspecting visitor out!)

1st step... get rid of that railing!

 Cutting notches in the logs for the float

Putting the logs in place and chaining them together

Sinking two containers for our water supply

 The containers submerged and plumbed in. Sadly, the plastic caved in on itself as soon as we used it, so they came out, that plan was scrapped and the deck was boarded over.

 Decking going on

 Almost finished...I'm already trying to load it up with stuff !  :)

 

 After the float was built, Dave got busy re-planking our side dock. It is so nice that all the wood matches now and each dock flows to the next.

The side deck ripped apart with beams laid down to raise the level of the deck to be flush with all the other docks.

New planking down on the side deck.

Added a swim ladder for those days when a refreshing dip in the river was in order.

 The decks all finished and we start to move outside!

 Twilight dinner with a fire pit.

Summer flowers in full bloom in the baskets. Loving our new front yard!

 The blue hose on the ground is hooked up to a submerged water pump, instant fire hose just in case!

 Of course as soon as the last board was nailed down, I couldn't wait to start furnishing our new "yard". We got some awesome deals this summer starting with a BBQ that came with all the bells and whistles for a mere $20.00, then a brand new gazebo still in the box for $30.00. A propane patio heater for $30.00 and a portable fire pit added the required night time ambiance.

 The piece de resistance, was a cute two person hot tub for free! Dave used some of our left over ceiling material to build a super cute surround for it complete with a rock bed for washing off your feet and a rack to hold the wine glasses. Some more work was done running an electrical outlet to the outside and plumbing in outside taps so we can fill the tub. We weren't interested in soaking in chemicals so we just fill the tub each time we want to use it and drain it afterward. We LOVE our tub and can be found having a soak in it most nights!

  The new BBQ

 The deck as it is looking these days

I am not finished with the deck yet. Eventually we will be putting up lattice privacy screens and trading the gazebo for a wood pergola. The plastic deck furniture will be going to make way for wood seating ( I am thinking wooden futon frames with colourful cushions) But all in good time, for now it is quite serviceable and we have spent almost every waking moment out on the deck since it was built.

 Best place in the world to watch a sunset!

Once we had our outdoor space sorted out, Dave turned his attention to installing patio doors to the river side of the house. The house, originally being a net shed, had two huge sliding doors on either side of the living room. At first we had just boarded them in and insulated them to make the house livable but now I wanted them opened up and glass doors installed so we could enjoy our view.

The dock side got done last year with a pair of stained glass doors. Friends of ours had their condo redone this summer and donated their old patio doors to us. We ripped out the insulation, opened the sliding door and framed in the new patio doors. What a difference it made! We now have so much more light coming into the living room/ dining room and the view is just awesome. Even though they are way more glass then we had in the area to begin with , we are hoping that the fact that they are double pane instead of the single pane windows that were there, will improve our ability to keep the room warm.(fingers crossed!)

The sliding door opened showing the hole to be framed in for the doors on the dock side

The view from the new single door on the river side

The single door from the outside ( there was just a window in this space before)

The view from the double doors on the river side

 The double doors from the outside

 The view of our new dock and doors

 The view of the river from the dining room table

 The view of the river from the living room aspect ( it will be so much better when those 2x4s are taken down!)

Another chore tackled was pressure washing the whole outside of the house. What a difference it makes! The wood went from almost black looking to a much nicer cedar colour.

 I didn't have to spend too much on plants this year as most of the perennials I planted last year survived the winter.

This was the garden the 1st year I planted it.



This is how it looks at the end of the 2nd summer. The grape vine on the right is getting bigger, the Boston Vine in the middle has also filled out nicely and the lilacs on the right are quite a bit bigger. I think in another year or two, you will not be able to see the container any more!

These were the side gardens the 1st year I planted them, You can hardly see the ivy in the back


This is the same beds at the end of this summer. The ivy is really advancing now, the hostas came back nicely after being devoured by slugs last year. I put some slug bait and a ton of crushed eggshells around them and never saw one slug all year :) We also painted the door and put up some siding on the walls trying to pretty things up a bit.

 I grew a bean whoohoo!

 One major chore left to do is to repaint all our trim but I think that will wait for next year.

As the summer drew to a close and the temperatures started to drop we turned our attention to winterizing the house. We finally got some gutters installed which will stop the torrent of water splashing onto the docks. Of course nothing is ever easy here. First we had to nail some boards up to attach the gutters to. One side was fine but for some weird reason they had cut the roof timbers  short and flat instead of angled on the river side, so Dave had to cut another piece for each of those boards to attach the trim and gutters to. Lots of work, but he got it done in just two days and the house looks so much better for it.

New gutters and fascia board installed on dock side

Extensions added to boards on river side

 Gutters up on river side, should be a lot drier going in and out of those doors now!

I got busy inside the house and put weather stripping around all the door jambs and covered all the windows with plastic wrap to seal out drafts. I also insulated all the power receptacles that are on outside facing walls. More insulation was put on the wall at the base of the stairs and around our new patio doors.

I took the woodstove outside and spent the day with a wire brush scraping off all the rust and then repainted it with special heat proof paint. We got some new plywood and redid the floor where the stove is going to go. We still have to tile that floor area, then get a licensed wet certified guy to install the stove for us. Can't wait for wood stove heat!  Even though I installed a propane furnace the first year we were here, it was too expense to run it so it never got used. It is close to the woodstove though so I will use the furnace fans to suck up the heat from the woodstove and distribute it around the house through the ducting system.

Yucky rust!

Hours later, starting to look better

All painted and waiting to get hooked up

 Loving this awesome fireplace tool set that I found in a thrift store.

 

One good thing about fall is that is when the salmon start running. We had a great run this year, the fisherman were kept very busy and their nets full. It was fun watching them go back and forth all day.

 We managed to get a few fish this year. We cooked a few on the BBQ and took a couple more and smoked them in the Little Chief Smoker. They turned out pretty good although I was going for more of a salmon candy, so will adjust my recipe next time to more sugar and way less salt.

Another chore tackled recently was our video library. I have been collecting VCR movies from thrift stores over the last few years and had amassed quite a large collection and needed somewhere to store them all. We got some boards and made shelves between the 2x4s behind the bookcase. I spread all the videos out on the living room floor and tried to sort them into some kind of order before placing them on the shelves. We don't get cable out here, just have a few free channels that we pick up with an antennae so its nice to have movies to watch now and again.

The video collection in all its glory

  Building the shelves

 The library installed and in some kind of order

I had a pair of sliding mirrored closet doors that we want to cover the videos with but for some reason didn't get the track that goes with them so they are yet to be installed. It is proving to be more difficult than we first imagined. Apparently there are 150 makers of these doors and each uses its own track system. We may end up rebuilding the frames with wood to use a track system we already own. Another job for another day!

So we have made a huge dent in the honey to do- do- do list. There is still a ton of projects of course but it feels like we are coming into the home stretch now. The essentials are in place, the rooms are all habitable, the outside is looking good, the hatches a little more battened down. We will spend the winter months putting finishing touches on rooms. One of Dave's friends has a lumber mill and has offered to help Dave cut wood flooring to do the whole house. That will be a massive undertaking to cut and install but will be worth it in the end and will allow us to finish subbing all the floors and insulating them from the cold river just below us.

I am hoping that we have finished off most of the house by next summer and can finally sit back and enjoy ourselves, do some travelling, some camping, visiting with friends, you know....life...or something like it!

My favorite sunset picture from here, it is my screensaver on my computer :)

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