October on the Mountain
Preparing for the big freeze
All signs point to winter, the fireweed has bloomed all the way to the top, the leaves have changed, and the snowshoe hares are turning white! Usually, I get a little bit of snow in September and a lot in October. Mother nature’s keeping me on my toes - with almost NO snow yet. Time to make the most of it and get some more things done.
Luci, the future assassin has been growing like a weed. The plan was to keep her outside but she’s too small and will have to stay in the house until she’s grown. During the day she hangs out with some bunnies that are her size. Though a bit awkward, they get along famously. Bunnies and kittens have very different ways of playing so, watching them try is hilarious! It’s nice to have a little furry terror to keep me company when Curt’s away! As I write she’s sitting on my lap. Purring ferociously.
If you haven’t seen it, here’s an article that I wrote about why we got Luci.
My new friend Rachel invited us to check out the KVR. The Kettle Valley Railroad was used to transport ore during the gold rush. Most of the tracks in my area have been pulled up, leaving a really fun trail to drive. With huge tunnels carved into mountains and bridges to drive across, it made for an exciting day. I’m thankful to have found a friend in the area with the same interests, a fellow Toyota fan!
Speaking of Toyotas- a friend offered to sell us two trucks. An ‘81 and a ‘95. We couldn’t say no and decided that we’d better get them home before the snow flies. I’m hoping to eventually make the 1981 (first generation) into a sweet truck. But for now, it’ll be ‘yard art’ until a lot of other projects get completed.
The winter water plan has begun. We decided to build a new deck off of the front of the house, strong enough to hold 4 cubes of water. That’s 4000L. To do that, Curt milled three 8IN x 8IN beams to support it all. Once the water is on the deck, we’ll enclose it and make it a room. With a door big enough to get the cubes out. My home’s square footage is doubling! It likely won’t be done before the water freezes, but having it there is a very good start.
On the eve of hallows eve, our neighbours butchered their cow. ‘Would you like the heart?’ He asked me. ‘Heck yes I would!’ I replied since I didn’t have a Halloween dinner plan yet. It made for an excellent stew. Just enough weird gamey flavour to know that this is not normal beef. We ate it for two whole days, with green tomatoes from the greenhouse. Meals are beginning to come entirely from the land and it’s a wonderful feeling.
I feel so lucky to have had such a long and beautiful fall. Not only have the leaves on the trees overhead changed but on the smaller shrubs as well. It’s become a technicolour world everywhere I go. I find myself stopping to stare at it often. The tamaracks are turning an ultra-vivid yellow before they drop their needles too.
The woods have a sweet smell reminding me of Halloween as a child. In certain places there’s a peppery smell, I haven’t figured out what it is. As the evening cools prompting me to put the animals to bed, a warm wind blows past up from the valleys. A signal that it’s also cooling in the towns below. Time to get ready.
Amy. I can smell and taste your mountain home (having visited) as you write, as autumn goes to sleep, feeling winter creeping up. Such a realistic sensation of rotation of the seasons. You have a very special home on this earth and are such an inspiration to show others how to appreciate what is provided naturally and about as honestly as it can be.
Loving you telling how it is on the mountain. Living the same dream, only at a different location.
Glen
Nice beams! that will stand some weight! What did you apply on them to keep from rotting in the ground?
What will you (eventually) use to heat the "water room" with?
Good score on the yard art, look forward to the build of the '81