Since we started this cabin late in the summer, we decided to work on getting the frame up, forgoing insulating etc, before ol' man winter arrives. This is the attic floor Andrew has started. That beam will hold the attic floor joists, and our poplar centre pole will keep the attic floor from collapsing. I think the floor is starting to dip in that area already though, you'll see in awhile what I mean.

And, from the attic floor, we have a lovely view of most of our 1/3 km long driveway. The one I'm sure I'll get to walk, several times next spring, when the mud's up to our ears. But I digress... this is looking east. Those are small poplar trees that are regrowth from logging 5 years ago. Quite the contrast to those 80 to 100+ year old poplar in the background (I counted the growth rings of a few pieces of wood we cut at the wood pile). Found one ol' granddaddy of a tree that fell down not far from the house, I can't wait to count that one. He's almost 2.5 feet across at the base!

Another view from the attic floor looking S.W. towards the ridge. More poplar regrowth, it will soon cover this view also if we can't find a way to cut and mow it. Andrew purchased an old McCormick-Deering No. 9 horsedrawn mower. That is one of our projects in the future, to work with horsedrawn equipment on our small hobby farm. Until then, it's me ‘n my weed wacker, hey, where's my oats?

Our neighbors welcomed us with a flat of petunias & here they are showing off. This picture doesn't do the flowers justice but they are brilliant colors & I love walking by them, thanks Jamie & Susanne!! They made this ol' 5th wheel seem more like home.

Here's a highschool history class flashback... hey, where are you going?

This is the mighty Peace River. Back in 1793, looking for a waterway that would take goods from east to west, the first white men paddled right by here on their way to the Pacific Ocean. They were Alexander Mackenzie and his crew of voyageurs in a large wooden canoe. These tough men portaged the river a bit further up stream where there were fierce rapids no man could pass through. Those rapids are now under water of a dam but Mackenzie's account of them in his diary is vivid and you can almost see the boiling water again. (This picture is just below the small town of Hudson's Hope, looking east at nightfall.) I envision the men paddling up river in their buckskin jackets brightly decorated with glass beads. To keep their spirits high, they would sing French songs on the long arduous journey, otherwise… they'd have duked it out with each other. With their strength, it would have been one heck of a fight.

Looking west, the dam is around a few more corners yet. Take a moment to add the men to this picture… Know any French songs to add? Fraira jacka, fraira jacka, so ley vous(sp?)…. I have no recollection what the song is about but we did sing it quite regularly in elementary class(it's been a few decades since then…)

Here's the happy crew in our wee 5th wheel trailer we're living in while we build the cabin. Yes, 2 large dogs and two people, crammed into this little area, but we are managing quite well really. There are times when I could…….For Sale: Two cute black labs, friendly, house broken and love people.

Only trouble is, I would answer the durn ad myself, so might as well keep ‘em.

I'll describe the construction zone on our 3/4 of an acre of lawn. To the left is a poplar tree we used a portion of for the centre pole. Next to that is the flat deck trailer full of horsedrawn equipment, wood, wire, pipe etc., the white object is our 500 gallon water tank. The pile on the right is 2x6's and insulation under a tarp. (glass insulation will mold if not kept dry & we have several more weeks before we can use it.) Our neighbour has rented us part of his driveway for our "semi full of worldly goods"; it will soon be here too.

The fall colors are spectacular, but of course they don't appear so in the pics…. Here's the Peace River again this time looking S.W. (around those corners I mentioned earlier). If you look closely at the river, you can see the water separated by the dam. That's where the rapids were that caused the voyageurs to portage on their trip to discover the Pacific Ocean in 1793. Hey, this is history, I had loads of room for improvement, look at me now!

You can see a bit of the river and a few buildings of our small town. We actually live 25 kms N.W. of here.

There's the town site of Hudson's Hope. It is believed to have been a Hudson's Bay post originally. It has a post office, grocery store, hardware store, museum, tourist information centre, convenience store, 2 gas stations, laundromat, real estate company, professional business, 3 great restaurants, motels, a bank, new medical facilities, churches, police station, fire department, district office, curling rink, swimming pool in summer, hockey arena, library & more that I have yet to discover. And not one traffic light, alleluia.

The view a little further N.E. of the town. The drive to Fort St. John is this way and the view's along the river during fall are nothing but spectacular.

It's fall, the days are getting shorter, we need light for the early nights so it's time to start the Coleman lantern. We've checked and cleaned it, put a new mantle on, lets see how it works….

…..the fire was a wee bit bright. I cleaned the lantern up and we'll give it another try. Pour the methyl hydrate in the cup, light it, turn the other knob after 1 minute…..

Just one more look with it all nice and clean...

(It's a model 237 made in 1967)

Niiiice……

This little pinky went to market and this little fingey went, BANG! ouch, all the way home. (Someone's finger got in the way of their hammer…..)

And so we see one morning after a rainfall…

That dip I mentioned, well, it's a good way to tell if the floor's level, maybe a bit low on the left? But, Andrew checked and it is out by about ½ inch. In the book Andrew is using to build this cabin, it states contractors can work with up to ¾" out of level(seems like a lot doesn't it?). Since our jack won't work anymore, we'll leave it till we find a stronger one before we correct the uneveness(and this will take a whole day as when you correct one corner, you have to correct them all….we have crawlspace only).

The book title is: Measuring, Marking & Layout a Builder's Guide by John Carroll

I fire up the generator, get out the shop-vac, and 90 gallons of water later the reflection is gone, no problem.

Since then we've had a few more rainfalls and figured out an ingenious idea to get the water out. Hint; we are using an item from the linen closet. (You'll see how you did in the next update we post.)

Here's a little project I picked up at the "transfer station". I love wood. So when I saw the tongue and groove wood on the shelving, I thought there was hope for it. That white stuff is pressboard, I start to remove it with my hammer…

And along comes the inspector. Sissy stopped by for a hug & off she went. She's always seeing what we are up to, and wagging her approval of course.

Spiders. Lots of different kinds, big & small. That's a loonie. This might be the biggest spider I've ever seen, next to a, oh blast, can't remember the name, those really big spiders about 6 inches across, you know. Is there an arachnophiliac who can identify this blurry little fellow?

Oh gees, is that me? Sorry about this picture, but hey, I can still touch my toes, not bad for a late 40 something gal. Seems my metabolism left town? Wouldn't it be nice to just call it back, "here metabolism"…. (oh, I'm pulling nails from pieces of wood we used to tack up the wall braces). That black item is the top of the shop-vac drying out, had a little too much water I guess.

Andrew is starting a pile of roof rafters in preparation for the roof beam arriving. It will be 2"x12"x12' boards that he'll splice together as we apply the roof rafters. I'll try and describe the method we will use to get the beams into the air to allow us to attach the rafters to: Andrew will lay one beam on the edge of the attic floor and then tack a 10' board at each end so we can lift the beam up and tack the first one in place. Next we'll start to toe-nail each rafter to it. Once the rafters are on the first section, Andrew will put another beam on the edge of the attic floor, attach one board at each end, we'll lift it up and splice it to the section of beam that is already up. Then we simply add the rafters to that section. There are 3 sections for a total of 52 rafters spaced 16" apart. If this isn't as clear as mud, you're not alone. Took me forever to catch on to this concept and I was surprised Andrew didn't give up trying. He's such a sweetie!

The cabinet with all that press board removed. On the top there are two boards measuring 1"x12". You know it's old when they don't even make that kind any more, ‘cept by special order, cha ching. This turned out to be quite a unique piece. It's made of several different sizes of wood, some as small as an inch. Whoever made this was very thrify. And look at the colors, red, green, white, old dark woods to fresher looking pieces, it's had quite the life so I think I'll just pamper it along some more, maybe in the shed though.

We have learned one thing about having two dogs from the same batch. It's that they will instigate each other and you will have absolutely no control if they are both off leash at the same time. Did you know yelling is hard on the throat? I'd try when they ran off together but just ended up laughing as my voice would crack & a coughing fit ensued. Hence one doggie on a leash keeps track of the other in the trees. (Andrew is measuring & marking roof rafters.)

The fall splendor just didn't show well in this picture, it was beautiful against the barn red color.

Ouch, there she is again…the grouchy looking little thing. I think this is when I needed a break as I just broke the camera [actually just the protective plastic window of the viewfinder, which we rarely ever use anyway. And there was an enthusiastic dog involved in the breakage. – Andrew.] Knitting was a good idea… Those pieces on the window, they are holding it in place until we find time to install it properly, hmmm, where's my list?

Country life is great. Here's a cattle drive on the way into town. Three riders and an ATV driver were herding them along. The rider on the far left looked like a real cowboy with his moustache and Aussie oiled coat. I wanted to stop and take a picture of him, he looked quite dashing really. Not something you find every day as you merrily go your way so I'm sorry I didn't stop and ask if I could take his picture. Next time I will, yes I will.

This is Butler Ridge to the west of us, the last of the foothills before the rolling prairie begins. Those colorfull fall leaves that are showing off, that's our place.

The dog pens going up, in front of the cabin. That's the gate to it. Andrew gave the doggies a smart test. He opened the gate, called one through, went out the gate and closed it. Then he stood at the gate and waited. (This is how we amuse ourselves in bush country….) Oh, they passed with flying colors – they did give about half a second of a funny look before they went around the gate though. Hmm, does that mean we failed our smart test..

Putting up the dog fence. One test hole, hit a large tree root, next spot, no, another root, 3rd time lucky though.

"Somewhere over the rainbow blue birds…"

Fall is the time to get firewood for the winter. Andrew cuts down dead standing spruce or poplar, I wrap a chain around the end and haul it to the wood pile (using the truck of course). He cuts the trees into 4' or 6' lengths, I roll them to the woodpile, he cuts them to stove lengths, and I toss them onto the pile. It's a good afternoon of exercise in the crisp fall air.

We hauled the doghouse over to the front of the house, Andrew put up the fence and the dogs can be safe and sound while we build. Maybe not happy….

This will be our water system in the cabin. I'll try and explain it. Since we don't have many solar panels, we can't have running water, hence the hand pump that will be inside the cabin, over the kitchen sink. (This will be much easier than hauling containers of water ever couple of days…) The hose goes to the white 500 gallon water tank which will be outside, encased in an insulated box raised off the ground, hopefully to keep it from freezing. To fill this big tank, we will have to load a 150 gallon water tank on the back of the truck, drive to town, & pull under a downspout at the community water dispenser. Andrew attaches a 3" x 4' long pipe to the spout, I drop a .25 cent token into the coin machine, and 50 gallons of water is dispensed into our container. Two more times and the tank is full, probably weighing 1500lbs in all. Our ol' 76 Ford 4x4 has no problem going up the steep hill on the way home, it's a workhorse!

Andrew is cutting up the lengths of wood I kick rolled to the woodpile.

We picked up our wood stove the other day; it's in the cabin, waiting for us to move in. Once the roof is on & stovepipes in place, we'll see if we can purchase a bison roast from down the road. Mmmmm, I can almost smell it cooking…

Next set of pictures will be the roof rafters going up, hope I took enough to help you see our method.

"Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body,
but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out, shouting "Holy sh** - what
a ride!"