Victory Weekend

It has taken me until now to recover from what has been one of the most foot-intensive weekends I can remember.

Friday night we met up with some friends who were visiting from Toronto. They have 4 kids, and the two eldest girls were in a synchronized swimming competition. We met at their hotel and walked downtown to a restaurant, then walked back, but I had been unprepared for the walking and was wearing inappropriate footwear. I got myself a nice blister which bled all over the back of my shoe. Nice eh?

The next morning we were up with the robins to head into town once more for the Great Glebe Garage Sale. I think I have illustrated in this site before the importance of this event in our household. This year we brought my mom, who made us yummy breakfast sandwiches for proteiny fortification, and it was a very good year. Between us we purchased the following items:
- a really really old first aid cabinet, which will eventually go in our cottage;
- a very cool yellow lamp – I don’t yet know where it will live. I have a rather large lamp collection already;
- Martha Stewart’s “How to Decorate”, 1996 edition;
- A pair of never-worn brown wedge-heel sandals, Nine West, for $8;
- A tiny metal train (engine, two cars and caboose), total 3 inches long, for 50 cents;
- An enamel pail with a handle, which came from a real ghost town in Saskatchewan, apparently (ghosts use buckets? I wonder what for?);
- A chemical toilet for our trailer – brand new, never used – which we were going to have to buy anyway but we got it for $40 (less than half price);
- A beautiful ceramic bed pan;
- A painting – paint by numbers – that hubby paid a dollar for. A woman came up to him later on and said she’d nearly mugged him for it, but offered him $20 for it instead. He didn’t accept;
- Two board games, for the trailer;
- A dinner party game called “Deadly Vacation” which we will play at the electricity-less cottage some dark and stormy night;
- Flippers;
- An ‘O Canada’ ceramic hotplate, featuring the coat of arms’ of all Canadian provinces, for my BIL’s cottage (ha ha we are going to decorate it for him);
- A cooking pot with a lid, for the trailer;
- A chrome kettle, for the trailer;
- Never-used thermal insoles (free);
- Two backpacks (ask hubby why – he collects backpacks like I collect lamps);
- A beautiful new collar for Rosie (pale purple with black polka-dots). She looks like she’s going to a party.

Hubby making off with his loot. He likes to walk out front to keep an eye out for bargains.

And notable things we did NOT purchase include:
- plants of any kind
- fishing things of any kind
- dishes for the trailer
- dog toys

I think we showed great restraint. I’m not sure how much hubby spent (more because I made him buy the high-ticket items), but I got away with only spending $39. I also petted about 1,200 friendly dogs. That’s a fun day in my book.

As you can see, I even took pictures. Here’s a view down one of the streets:

At the Great Glebe Garage Sale, the pedestrian is always right.

And here’s a series of shots I call “Garage Sale Tragedies” ™:

Kitty's found a new place to hide.

No comment (The Strangler).

Sleeping Beauty (The Strangler part deux).

We were home by one but we weren’t sure whether or not the Toronto friends would be coming to our place for dinner, so while hubby drove up to our land to discuss the laneway with the backhoe guy, I stayed home and cleaned the crap out of our house. It felt good but two days later it was filthy again. Le sigh. By Saturday evening I was pretty spent.

Sunday hubby went fishing and I stayed home and painted the trailer with my mom. I got most of the trailer covered with the first coat, but I didn’t buy the best-quality paint and I fear it could go to 3 coats. It’s a really crappy painting job too – lots of tiny areas that require a brush, lots of rough spots to cover, lots of gaps to fill. Totally miserable. Anyway, I will keep on trucking and painting my little heart out.

Then Sunday night we went to the local bar (the most excellent Black Sheep Inn) and checked out SoCalled, a klezmer-rapper I went to high school with. It was an excellent show and I actually danced, and drank a bit too much wine, and Monday morning my feet AND my head hurt.

If every weekend were like that I don’t think I’d have any feet left.

Suddenly I See...

….where in the hell that damn trailer will go.

The weather was kind of poopy on Sunday so we took the opportunity to spend a chilly black-fly-free day up at the land clearing for a laneway. Back in the fall we’d purchased a brand new shiny Stihl chainsaw at our local hardware store during a sale, and were starting to feel a bit foolish with a spic-and-span $500 chainsaw sitting in the basement untouched. We recruited my dad and then my brother volunteered and before you know it, we had a real honest-to-goodness work crew.

We’d gone up there a few weekends earlier, when there was still a bit of snow on the ground, and marked with spray paint which trees we wanted to cut. We chose a route that would allow us to carve out one laneway for the two properties, which would branch off at the end in an informal ‘T’ formation from my brother-in-law’s (BIL’s)place to ours.

Once on-site, and in consultation with my brother who is much more realistic about such things, we realized that the last part of our laneway (leading right down to the cottages) wouldn’t work, as BIL would have to drive smack into the back door of his cottage and down a hill too steep for any rental car to climb. Brother thought there might be run-off issues as well, dribbling into the lake, which is against our vision for the whole place. We instead made the difficult decision to end the laneways at the top of the ridge behind each place, and in future install two nice sets of stairs and pathways down to the cottages. When you visit our cottages, your vision will not be cluttered by unsightly automobiles.

My brother ‘borrowed’ (the guy wasn’t home but you snooze you lose) a super-powered brush cutter, which made short work of the saplings and raspberry bushes covering the first half of the six-acre parcel. He walked the marked laneway and zig-zagged the brush cutter through everything in its path, trees included. Here’s a picture of my brother with the fancy tool, which comes with its own harness (anonymity protected – not everyone likes having their faces plastered on the internets without their permission):

He did return the brush cutter at the end of the day.

Once that was cleared out, we could really see the terrain, and found a logical point at which to branch the two laneways apart that was nowhere near our original plan. As it stands now, we have pretty much cleared our own mini-road, which extends about 500 feet before branching off right (for us) and left (for BIL).

Ours continues down what was once a skidder track for the logging company that selectively cleared the land ages ago, so no major trees were left in our path and it was smooth sailing. We found a clearing – well, we made a clearing – filled with dead birch trees which were promptly removed. It is now a sunny site on a plateau overlooking the lake and what will be our future building site. Here’s a shot of the view from there. The birches will be removed later this summer, in preparation for future cottage-building.

BIL’s laneway ends rather abruptly, so we cleared a little area for cars to turn around and park right nearby. He will have to build a path and a short set of stairs leading down to his cottage, which my brother claims he wants to build right into the hillside. Easy.

When we were done, the neighbor (Ted) came by on his ATV to check it out, and we chit-chatted with him for a bit. Thank god he’s lovely. He and his friends have noisy toys, but if you can’t beat ‘em, you may as well join ‘em. I’m sure BIL will get himself a dirtbike in no time flat and hubby’s already told me he is absolutely going to buy an ATV someday. I can’t complain – I love me an ATV.

Then yesterday I spent a blackfly-filled day gardening and installing my new backyard squash garden. I had a temper tantrum and was going to quit when my parents came over and helped me over the hump. I am off to buy more dirt tonight – sucker’s bigger than I’d planned. I am also planning to buy myself that long-coveted pear tree this evening, so I’m pretty excited. It doesn’t take much.

I also dug in the terracotta flue liners that hubby and I found in a pile of garbage near the fertility clinic. Ha, at least something good has come of it. I will plant these up with a variety of annuals and maybe herbs and I’m sure they will look beautiful for about three weeks, until they become hidden by the monstrosities growing beside them. I always forget how big things get in the garden.

Rosie supervised.

Also this weekend I planted potatoes, cilantro, and some more bulbs in a planter by the front steps. I moved my huge terracotta containers into position on the deck but left them near the stairs, since I know they’ll have to be removed when we tear the deck off.

It was a good weekend’s work, though I didn’t touch the trailer. Sigh. Next weekend’s the Great Glebe Garage Sale, and on my list of things to look for this year are:

- more terracotta flue liners
- retro books on cottage, deck, or outdoor furniture building projects
- board games to leave in the trailer
- dishes for the trailer (metal or plastic)
- vintage tins and bottles i.e. future cottage décor
- a large enamel milking bowl with a red rim, with no rust
- galvanized buckets and things to put plants in
- weird ceramic forest animals (squirrels, bears, birds) from the 50s and earlier

As usual I will report back on our findings. Hubby is expecting a big haul this year, though I’m not sure how he can predict these things. I am going to wager that he comes back with at least one electric motor and some esoteric fishing thing that he will never use. I love the Great Glebe Garage Sale.

Satisfaction

Hubby mowed the lawn last night and I have to say it: it doesn’t take much to make me the happiest woman around.

When I was young I was kind of a bit on the edgy side; there were moments of wardrobe craziness, I used to dye my hair black (woo) and clomped around in army boots for awhile. I had a bunch of holes in my ears. These days that’s nothing, but back in 1992 I was pretty weird for my town. I never really imagined the way that my life would turn out. To be fair, I didn’t ever have a clear picture of where I wanted to be in 10, 15, 20 years, or what I wanted to do when I grew up. I knew what I didn’t want, but was fuzzy on the other details. I knew I liked to draw, I loved rock music and boys with long hair and animals and fashion magazines. What 16 year old kid doesn’t?

I sort of always imagined myself wearing black a lot, being really stylish, having kids, and maybe being an art dealer. Everyone in art history class wanted to be an art dealer.

Here I sit, 33 years old, in a wardrobe that’s getting progressively better-made yet more boring-looking, hair that looks vaguely like it belongs to a soccer mom, comfortable shoes (OK black Converse sneakers, but still. Heels? Not usually). I live in the country, 3 minutes from my parents, in a house that’s one year younger than I am but has aged less gracefully. I have a lovely husband, we have been together for 11 years and we had a beautiful wedding, and he is also settling into middle age comfortably (a recent quote: “I can’t understand how I’m getting so FAT with all this dog walking!” My response? “you’re 37 dear.” Was that supportive?). We have no kids, which I couldn’t predict and has thrown us for a loop, but even that is okay most days. I have a great set of European in-laws and a nephew, and my own brother has turned into a real man and found himself a heckuva nice lady too.

I live in a neighborhood filled with lovely people who are around our age and a bunch of nice dogs and cats. On Saturday, the big excitement was being invited to a neighbor’s house for game night with other neighbors. We had a blast and walked home at 11:30. I made dip. I take a pottery class also within walking distance, and my good good friend from a long time ago is moving in to the house behind me. I have what’s considered a ‘nice neighborhood’, filled with nice people.

My job is wonderful. I have a dream job. I’m not an art dealer but I’m pretty close, and I have a great health plan. I am downtown every day and sometimes I go to the Chinese grocery to buy my frozen squid and my fish sauce. Best of both worlds.

So this morning when I walked out onto the deck I took a moment to inhale. The grass is evenly clipped and fresh-smelling, and at this time of year it makes the garden POP. The tulips were covered in dew and the crocuses are still out, and the apple trees are starting to get teeny little leaves. The birds were chirping their fool heads off, and I made a mental note to fill a feeder tonight for the first hummingbird I saw in the garden on Monday. It’s my mother’s birthday today and as she is my very best friend, I left her a special treat on the kitchen counter, for her to find when she goes to walk Rosie at lunch. I look forward to joining a new doggie play group in my town after work, so Rosie will have the chance to run around and meet new dog-friends, and I remembered to leave meat out of the freezer for dinner. Work is going really well and we’re approaching a long weekend.

In the end, it takes little more than a nicely-mowed lawn to trigger the happy.

Progress!

On Saturday I had the opportunity to work on the trailer undistracted by anything – husband, dog, etc. I’d gotten it to a pretty good point by then but everything was still rough, and I had stopped last weekend when the wall I made didn’t fit right. I was on the verge of a tantrum and thought it best to call it a day.

Saturday I calmed myself, went into the trailer, and began to work relatively systematically. I made the wall fit, then affixed it, then cut trim to cover the parts that didn’t fit right. I caulked everything up and made it all smooth before starting onto the next area. I managed to get the trailer to the point where no pink insulation or moldy wood is showing. I swept and vacuumed everything. Behold, the before and after of the front part of the trailer:

There’s still some ‘hardscaping’ to be done; I have to build a little cabinet under the window with a hinged lid, which also functions as the seat back, and then I have to install a shelf along the width of the trailer. I also have to rig up my patented (not really) table-bracket system which involves magnets. Fancy eh? Here’s a rough outline of what I have to do to that corner still:

And in the back, I have also made good progress. It’s not totally sealed yet, but that’s mostly because that damn back wall is curved and I can’t find anything to seal the corner. I bought bathtub surround stuff but it all came unglued, so it was a bit of a waste of money.

Behold the work I’ve done so far in the back:

And the work I have yet to do (that thing above the bed structure is a shelf.)

My next steps are: to finish building that stuff at the front of the trailer. To clean the entire thing with bleachy cleaner to kill any remaining mold or other infectious stuff. Fill gaps with wood filler and caulking. Rip off the linoleum from the ‘kitchen backsplash’. (That’s one weekend). Then, I will paint. Paint paint paint. (that’s another weekend). After it’s painted, I will build in the bed frame, install the bed, put in the cushions, put in the table, remove the stove and put in the new countertop. Then I will move on to the bathroom, where I will remove the toilet and install a chemical toilet (another weekend). After that it’s the really fun stuff: the hardware and storage things that I have yet to buy from Ikea (baskets, racks, hooks, shelves, etc). I figure this thing will be ready to move onto our land by July, when we will also finally be done our laneway, we hope. Once it’s up there, I will buy the most industrially-sized tube of silicone caulking I can find, and when it’s in place, I will caulk the living daylights out of it. Water will fall upwards to get away from it, it will be so watertight.

In other progress, I planted 100 onions and some spinach this weekend. I also planted my flower bulbs in the perennial garden, so if the godforsaken squirrels don’t get them, I should have an explosively beautiful garden this year. The grow-op is trucking along, though my tomatoes are a bit of a disappointment. One of the two varieties I grew didn’t produce at all (maybe two sprouted, and they are weenie). The peppers are up, but I suspect that it’s the cayennes and not the red peppers. I always have success with cayennes. I planted kale seeds and they came up, like, the next day, so that should be interesting. Some evening this week I will dedicate an hour to the veggie garden and plant carrots and potatoes.

We have reserved a guy to build our new deck the third or fourth week of June, so that’s pretty exciting, though we’re still undecided as to what we want to do about railings. I have more wood to order, but the cedar decking is sitting by my driveway ready to go. Also, I think next weekend we might dedicate a day to tree-cutting up at our land. It’s the long weekend so maybe we’ll even be able to drum up some assistants.

Things are moving along.