Up North Up Date
On April 14th we went up to the property to see how winter had treated it and were surprised to see not much had changed. Everything was where we had left it. The Tipi was the only thing that was a little worse for wear as you can see. We spent just over a week getting things cleaned up, cutting wood, making tipi repairs, and trying to make small improvements to the inside of the "house".
Putting in the garden proved more labour
intensive than I had originally had in my head. In the city you dig up the grass, turn over the earth, add some compost and Bob's your Uncle!! (I use that expression simply because it drives Dave crazy.... ironically he HAS an Uncle Bob.) Sorry.... back to the garden. Rocks. A lot of Rocks. Rocks requiring sledge hammers and pry bars to remove. So my morning project turned into the days project and I have some decent arm muscles for my efforts, and a kick butt sized garden. Ty even helped by piling all the rocks I removed around the border to make it pretty for me.
I have been asked what the hardest thing is about being up there and I would have to say bathing. We don't have a well yet so we have to conserve as much water as possible, and we don't have a tub. So between our once a week visit to the Heathcock shower stall in Bancroft we endeavor to keep ourselves from getting too disgusting. As you can see, Dave has mastered the art of grooming in the great outdoors. All I can say is a hot soapy bucket of water on top of the woodstove can bring more joy than all the luxury in the world.
The pups have been enjoying themselves although we have to constantly remind them that they are very OLD. The first night they were almost crippled from all the running so we gave them each a baby aspirin and put them to bed for 14 hours. Samson Heathcock (pictured below) and his owners came for a visit which is always fun for everybody.
Dave did an amazing job repairing the tipi (below) and has started a number of other projects. One interesting one is a Native food storage platform, which looks suspiciously like a tree fort to me. However all the men have informed me that it is much more advanced than that and I wouldn't understand all the engineering involved. So to sum up, things are going great, we are headed back up sometime this week and will keep y
ou posted on all the new projects and plans we have. So far my biggest challenge has been keeping everybody on solid ground. And keeping mice out of the toilet paper.
Putting in the garden proved more labour
intensive than I had originally had in my head. In the city you dig up the grass, turn over the earth, add some compost and Bob's your Uncle!! (I use that expression simply because it drives Dave crazy.... ironically he HAS an Uncle Bob.) Sorry.... back to the garden. Rocks. A lot of Rocks. Rocks requiring sledge hammers and pry bars to remove. So my morning project turned into the days project and I have some decent arm muscles for my efforts, and a kick butt sized garden. Ty even helped by piling all the rocks I removed around the border to make it pretty for me.
I have been asked what the hardest thing is about being up there and I would have to say bathing. We don't have a well yet so we have to conserve as much water as possible, and we don't have a tub. So between our once a week visit to the Heathcock shower stall in Bancroft we endeavor to keep ourselves from getting too disgusting. As you can see, Dave has mastered the art of grooming in the great outdoors. All I can say is a hot soapy bucket of water on top of the woodstove can bring more joy than all the luxury in the world.
The pups have been enjoying themselves although we have to constantly remind them that they are very OLD. The first night they were almost crippled from all the running so we gave them each a baby aspirin and put them to bed for 14 hours. Samson Heathcock (pictured below) and his owners came for a visit which is always fun for everybody.
Dave did an amazing job repairing the tipi (below) and has started a number of other projects. One interesting one is a Native food storage platform, which looks suspiciously like a tree fort to me. However all the men have informed me that it is much more advanced than that and I wouldn't understand all the engineering involved. So to sum up, things are going great, we are headed back up sometime this week and will keep y
ou posted on all the new projects and plans we have. So far my biggest challenge has been keeping everybody on solid ground. And keeping mice out of the toilet paper.
5 comments
Glad everything survived the winter at the property. Sounds like things are going well. Have you encountered any other animals there? (Besides the mice and the family)
ReplyDeleteHEY Down Underers.... so far we have a fox in the brush pile, Muscrats in the pond, a few million deer, woodpeckers, we have seen moose tracks but have yet to spot him, blue herons, seen signs of porcupine and have wiffed a skunk in the distance. It's a flippin zoo.
ReplyDeleteThen there are the animals that arrive in cars...
SO love the pics of the pups and that one of Dave shaving!! Great shots!! :) What camera are you using? We are so enjoying our new Pentax, thanks to Teena who sold it to us super duper cheep!
ReplyDeleteI was gardening yesterday here in the City and thinking about you gardening in the woods! :)
xo
What an adventure!:o)
ReplyDeleteWhat an adventure indeed! I'm so glad you're blogging about it. I can't believe you're bathing via a pot of water on the stove. That's hardcore!
ReplyDelete