Weekend Goals

What a slave driver...to have a honey-do-list on a long week-end! The fact is, though, Husband has been away working most of the summer and, now that we are living in our new house, the list is too long to take the whole weekend off. Instead, I have a modest list for us to accomplish Saturday with a day at the lake on Sunday as our reward. Our list tomorrow:

• install mirror on dresser and hang all mirrors in bathrooms
• mount the bedroom TV
• install shelves in boys' rooms
• build shelves for shoes in entryway closet
• remove the rest of the scuff marks from the stairway (my boys' "artwork" already on my brand new walls!)

If there is time, I would love for us to bring another load over from my brother's shop:

• eldest son's dresser (was keeping it there to strip and refinish but have decided putting clothes away is much more important and I shall refinish it when IF life returns to normal!)
• my grandmother's cupboard (built by my uncle) which I have painted
• Husband's tool boxes, with stud finder and drill charger
• recycling bins
• contents of our old "junk drawer", in hopes that the picture hooks are in it

In the midst of these tasks we also need to run to town to pick out a new NEW stove...sadly my gas range will not fit in our kitchen as it stands. It needs 6 inches clearance because it is natural gas! Who knew? Nowhere in my shopping and researching did I hear of needing certain amounts of space surrounding a gas stove. So, we have opted to return it and go with electric. I'm bummed, but I've been living here for 2 weeks with, first, no running water and now, running water but no hot water, so have been heating water on an electric hot plate and cooking on the BBQ....this is all fine and dandy but if I can have a stove that fits and works on Tuesday I AM DELIGHTED to have an electric stove! Let's roll!

Keeping Busy

A refresher: we purchased a Ready-to-Move home (RTM) and planned to move it onto family land near my parents'. A Ready-to-Move home is a completely finished home, in one piece, with no frame beneath it, that is built at a construction site and then hauled to its destination. It is painted, light fixtures and doors, cupboards, windows etc all installed. Ours did not come with appliances and we are building the attached garage on-site, although some homes come with the garage attached. In our part of Canada (AB/SK) the building boom continues despite reports of economic decline, and it is impossible--impossible--to hire contractors and all the trades out in the countryside where we now live. In the nearby city of 30,000 residents, one building suplies store told me over 900 houses are being built right now. Phenomenal. But absolutely impossible to hire trades outside city limits. We opted instead to have the actual building built in town and hauled out here. That left the basement to build, all the services to install, a road to be built, not to mention all the tree-planting and landscaping plans that we have. To sum things up: it is a pile of work but well worth it! As our RTM was being built I put the home that we were living in up for sale. You can read more about that here and here. Lucky for us, our home sold in a flash and we could move on to our next project. I have a wonderful, patient and generous family that welcomed Husband, the kids and me to live with them for the summer. It went well. Ther were moments with a three and one year old where I regretted ever putting us in such a position, but it has passed and we are in our new home and the lasting memories will be fond ones.

To pass time while the kids were sleeping, and to pass some rainy afternoons while they played inside the workshop, I busied myself with refinishing some furniture.

We purchased this old medicine cabinet at an auction sale and, with the kids along and the huge crowd there, we did not get to preview it before we were caught up in the bidding process. We bought it only to find the back was rotten. We stripped several coats of old paint, replaced the board on the back and I repainted it with a slightly distressed finish. This medicine cabinet will likely hang in our ensuite and I will update with photos when it is up. Do you refinish old furniture? Do you prefer older, repurposed pieces or would you rather shiny and new? I am finding that I like a mixture of both!

Cukes and Zukes

Normally this is a time of bounty in my own garden, but with the move this year we decided against trying to start a garden. In hindsight it was the right things to do--it was hard enough to help my mom with hers and I would never have gotten over here with the kids to do much. Luckily, my friend gave me some cucumbers and mom has too many zucchini (is there ever just the right amount of zucchini?) so I'm managing to do some pickling and thought I would share a recipe or two.

I make these sweet sliced pickles every year. We love them at Christmas with meat, cheese and crackers, and they are great in a sandwich or on a burger. I doubled my batch because my year and a half old boy devours pickles and I think we will be needing alot more this year! The Million Dollar Pickles recipe is from Jean Pare's Company's Coming: Preserves.

Million Dollar Pickles

6 cups thinly sliced cucumber, with peel

3 Tbsp coarse pickling salt

2 cups water

Place cukes in bowl. Stir salt into water until dissolved. Pour over cukes and add more water to cover. Cover and let stand overnight on counter, then drain and turn into large saucepan.

3 cups (approx) white vinegar, enough to cover cukes

2 cups sliced onion

2 green peppers, seeded and chopped

3 cups granulated sugar

1 tsp turmeric

4 1/2 oz pimiento

To cucumbers, add vinegar, onion, peppers, sugar and turmeric. Heat on medium-high, uncovered, stirring often until mixture comes just to a boil. Stir in pimiento. Using a slotted spoon, pack hot sterilized pint jars with vegetables to within 1 inch (2.5 cms) of top. Fill with hot syrup to within 1/2 inch (1 cm) of top. Place sterilized metal lids on jars and screw metal bands on securely. For added assurance against spoilage you may choose to process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes. Makes 4 pints.

Another wonderful recipe in the same cookbook is the Million Dollar Relish. I may use up the rest of my cucumbers in a batch--I'm waiting on my gas stove and perhaps hubby to return home and busy the children for an afternoon! If you like relish and are looking for a use for that glut of zucchini, there's a great recipe here

I receive the West Coast Seeds Newsletter , where I read the next recipe. I have not tested this, but with the amount of zukes we have hanging around I thought it would be worth a try. I'm passing it on so if you try and like it, please let me know!

1 medium zucchini, peeled, seeded, sliced less than 1/2 cm (1/4 inch) thick

1/2 cup each vinegar and water

3 Tbsp olive oil

sea salt to taste

After slicing the zucchini, soak it in vinegar/water solution overnight. Drain and pat lightly dry, then toss in olive oil with sea salt. Spread on baking sheet, sprinkle small amount more salt, and bake on lowest oven setting until crisp.

Once my gas oven is up and running I hope these will become a favorite treat for my kids, as kale chips did last year. Do you have favorite ways to use up excess zucchinis at this time of year?

Back In The Saddle

Well, lawdy lawdy. Look who's back! My little family and I have spent the summer (what there's been of it, amidst rain and cooler temperatures) in a sort of limbo that passed the time--not unpleasantly--with quiet playdates, day-trips to the lake, and time with gramma. For a period of the summer I seemed unable to function without an afternoon nap--whether it be the grey, rainy weather or simply my lack of purpose with no home or yard of my own to care for--either way, the naps have passed and energy has returned...We are in our new house!

We "camped" here on Husband's days off--we had power but no running water--and this past Monday the kids and I began sleeping here at night. Happily, power between the well and the house was completed on Thursday and we now have the miracle of flushing toilets. The natural gas line will be brought in on Monday (the equipment is parked at the end of our driveway) and the plumbers (fingers crossed) say they will be here shortly to run the gas to all the important things like the water heater, furnace and my new gas stove. For now, I heat water for washing and we drive the 3 miles to my parents' farm for showers and baths. They have been busy silaging so we have been going over to cook the meals and bathe and coming home again to sleep. I am excited to have a chance to blog again. I continued taking pictures all summer and we have so many jobs to do this autumn in the house and yard. Watch for upcoming posts on the yard and all that we have planned. After such a long absence I fear my few readers have moved on, but I want to have a record of our progress and so I will continue. I hope you are enjoying what is left of the summer!

Still Waiting...

We have been living at my parents' now for 6 weeks or so. It is going well (and my kids are loving it!) but we are ready to have our own home again. Things have been progressing and I wanted to post an update on what has been accomplished:

• Basement dug, built, poured (along with garage footings and frost wall)
• Power line has been dug in underground and transformer box awaits hook-up to house
• Well dug and waterline trenched to house, awaiting hook-up
• Waterline and power cable trenched in to a future watering bowl at the bottom of the yard. This is in preparation for a barn and some animals in the future
• Grid road to our property has had trees in the ditch mulched to make it wide enough for the house to be delivered
• Trees continue to grow, but could use a real deep watering
• One week from tomorrow, our new home is scheduled to arrive! 

The house has been complete for a couple of weeks <we love it> and my nerves over having it delivered seem to be dissipating as the date draws nearer. For someone who struggles with sleeplessness I have only had a couple poor nights of sleep. I have fingers and toes crossed that our delivery takes place without a hitch. I hope anyone that still bothers to read this is having a wonderful summer. I'm looking forward to posting the hundreds of pictures I've taken of this adventure once I'm back on my own system. Happy Camping!

Reality Check

Today it has been two weeks since we departed our old house and moved to my parents' farm to await our new home nearby. In that two weeks:

• our road and the pad for the house were built (pictures to come, I'm having trouble getting on the Internet here so only infrequently borrow the desktop)
• road has now been gravelled
• 3 year old became ill and was soon diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome (under control now, with a 6 month treatment ahead of us)
• Husband returned to work
• 13 month old sick and wheezy, on nebulizers, clearing up now but still coughing
• we planted over 400 trees
• we received over 800 more trees yesterday
• cupboards, counter tops, closet shelving, trim and doors have been installed in our wish house

I knew all along that it would be hard work planting all of these trees. Without a well (we are anxiously waiting for the well digger to return and finish. He did a test hole in February but now his equipment is broke down and I need a well!) we are hauling water from the community well down the road and watering what we can with a short, heavy, stiff and awkward hose. We water the rest of the trees by hand and, with two sick kids and my mom already overburdened, we need to set up a better system. Worried about my kids, I came to the conclusion that we need to concentrate on what we can manage this year. The trees that I paid for are in the ground and need watered. We intend to focus on those and plant as many of the shelter belt trees as possible in our garden area. It is so much easier to water a large area of trees rather than carrying 5 gallon pails to the shelter belt. Next year we will prepare the land and plant out those trees when we are better able to water and care for them. I also plan to give away as many of the trees as possible.

If I had more time I would have tried to contact the shelter belt program to pass the trees on to someone who might not have received any. But I was at the doctor five days in a row last week and a 3 hour drive to a specialist this week, and the trees had already been sent. All I can do now is try to give many of them away and ensure that the rest survive to be planted next year.

Our house looks beautiful. My kids are recovering and we finally have appointments to see the specialist to be tested for asthma and allergies. We love the way our new yard is shaping up, and it will be breathtaking when the trees begin to grow along the road as we have planted them. We are fortunate beyond belief. This past two weeks has reminded me to take nothing for granted. As things fall into place for the house to be moved to our yard in July, we are remembering to savour our time together rather than worry about time frames and deadlines. Have you ever heard of nephrotic syndrome? If so, I'd be very interested to hear about your experience!

Ground Work

Well life on the farm has been fun so far, for me at least :) I managed to get out helping sort cow and calf pairs to go to pasture while Husband was in charge of the boys. Sadly, 3 year old is sick now and Husband is returning to work, so I'm back in the saddle, as it were, mothering and holding down the fort.

I'm not unpacked (ie can't find the camera) so I don't have a picture of the freshly built road and pad for our house, but we visited it today after our trip to the doctor. Love it! Within the week we will be out planting trees and I spoke with the power company today: if everything goes well they say we will be getting our underground power mid-June. With a sick boy we didn't go look at the house today, but we are told the flooring is going in and cabinets will be installed in two weeks. I need to buy a few more lights and it seems like the house might be ready earlier than we had thought. I'm stifling the urge to feel like we might have things ready early and move in sooner than planned. Something is bound to come up to delay us. But considering 2 weeks ago we weren't sure when we would get through all the snow, things are really looking up!