Backwoods Wife

Lost and found

Oh.  My.  Goodness.  What a week!  We went from having a tiny dusting of snow on Halloween to having a nice fluffy coating of snow 3 days later.  The temperature also went from being comfortable (around freezing) to being -17C with the windchill.  Brr!  (We are such wimps at the beginning of winter.  Come spring, we'll be running around without jackets at -17!)  Suddenly the push was on to make sure that I had all of the winter gear ready and accounted for.  Adults - yes.  Three older children - yup.  Snow gear for the baby - nowhere to be found.  I searched high and low.  I looked inside the house, or in bins in the storage trailer outside, or at our shop, or at my mom and dad's.  Nuthin'.  I was starting to feel like I had lost a small portion of my mind.  Normally I can find things.  I can help other people find things.  I was running out of ideas.  I asked my sister if I had sent snowsuits home to PEI with her last March when she was up visiting.  No luck there.  I thought maybe I had worse baby brain than I thought last winter.  I started shopping around online to see what MEC and Hanna Anderssonand eBay had to offer.  

After about a week of searching, I hadn't found what I had been looking for but I did find a long lost box of my childhood toys at my mom and dad's and a playpen that has been M.I.A. for about 9 months too (hello crawlspace!).  Anyway, I digress...

I had pretty much given up on finding the snowsuits.  I thought maybe the snowsuits were accidentlythrown away or given away or something.  I prayed that I would either find them in the next day or find a good deal on something online.  

Then something happened.  I ran out of laundry soap.  That probably sounds like nothing, but it took me on a path I wouldn't have otherwise traveled.  Each time my parents-in-law come to visit they stock up on basics for us like toilet paper, paper towel, and laundry soap.  Things that are expensive to buy up here because of freight costs.  Living in a very small house, we don't have much room to store such bulky extras so we keep them at our shop.  I went into the utility room at the shop yesterday for laundry soap.  On my way out I thought I better have one last look in one of the storage rooms in case I had missed the bin or bag (I was doubting my memory by this point).  It wasn't in the room but I found a potential fire hazard.  A big plastic garbage bag containing extra paper towel had slid against the heat register in the room that we thought was turned off.  Apparently not.  It must have come on with the recent cold weather, despite the thermostat being turned all the way down.  It had melted through the garbage bag, the plastic bag around the paper towel rolls, and had started to turn the paper towel a slight golden shade.  YIKES!  I grabbed the bag, restocked the bathroom and kitchen with paper towel and then proceeded to go back and check all of the electric registers in the building to make sure there was nothing touching any of them.  When I got to the kitchen register I noticed a blue bin peeking out from underneath a stack of paint trays (one of those projects that I keep intending to get done!).  I opened it up and - voila!  Baby winter gear.  I screamed and jumped around and laughed and did a happy dance.  Thankfully the air compressor was running so the two guys working in the shop at the time didn't hear me.  Although, at that point I probably would have hugged anyone who walked by.  Yippee!  It turns out I did give away the smallest sizes of snowsuits (it started to come back to me) but I do have a small snow set that will work for Emma for the next month or so until she is big enough to fit into the next size.  I'm so thrilled!

You never know what will happen when you run out of laundry soap...

 

Cobweb Love

It would appear that my lack of housework lately, at least in the vacuuming department, has paid off.  The rugs have been vacuumed enough, but the poor corners of the ceilings and support beams have been sorely neglected.  As I sat at the computer yesterday, I noticed a long strand of web blowing in the breeze.  Breeze!  Aha!  An air leak.  Sure enough, when I climbed up on a chair to investigate I found a spot where the house had settled, the chinking had shifted, and there was cold air coming in from the -40C clime outside.  I pulled the books off the shelves on the adjacent wall shelf by shelf and discovered a couple of more spots in need of attention.  Dwayne sealed them up, along with another one we found near the front door.  I know that there are more behind the other bookshelves, but I just haven't got there yet.  Those dusty cobwebs have resulted in a much more comfortable sitting place at the computer.  No more frozen feet, no blankets required in the evening.  Yippee!  This is why I love cobwebs today.

Too cold!

Brrr.  This is our coldest weekend of the year so far.  The temperature was fairly steady yesterday at about -39C.  We drove 2 1/2 hours to a neighbouring town yesterday to go to the dentist.  It was so cold that our van wouldn't start, even though it had been plugged in.  Thankfully, our old 4-Runner started and so we all piled into that instead.  The kids were dressed in snowsuits and boots and Dwayne rigged up a piece of cardboard as winter front so the heater would work better.  The steering column was almost frozen stiff, it was all Dwayne could do to steer around 90 degree corners.  No driving for me!  If he can barely manage it, I certainly wouldn't be able to.  It was too cold for most critters as well.  The only brave souls were grouse and a few ptarmigan, but it was so cold that they didn't even try to fly off the road as we drove right beside them.  Oh, we did see a fox on the way home as well.

Our generator wouldn't start last night so Dwayne used the 4-Runner to jump start it.  Today we weren't so lucky.  The 4-Runner would not go and neither would the generator.  As we would normally use the generator's power to plug in the 4-Runner we had to go to plan b.  After putting a small fire on in an old frying pan and placing that under the 4-Runner for a while Dwayne was able to get the 4-Runner to start.  He then used that to start the generator.  I guess it ran for about 20 seconds, made a terrible sound, and died.  Lovely.  It will have to be completely rebuilt.  For now, we will have to revert to smaller generators that we will keep inside the back door when they aren't in use so they will start in the cold.  

Also, our on demand hot water heater froze up yesterday and so we are without running hot water for today.  Thankfully, we can heat up water on the wood stove or on the propane stovetop.  The hot water heater pipes are copper and split in a spot where they can be soldered so it shouldn't be too difficult to fix.

Everyone is playing near the wood stove today.  The kids have set up shop over there with play dough, cars, pillows, and assorted other toys.  They are taking most of their food and drink over there today too.  Riley still braves the cold in just her underwear.  I have no idea how she does it.  She is currently sitting on the floor beside my chair in the coldest area of the house with next to nothing on, building a "big, big buiding" out of Duplo.  I am freezing just looking at her.  I, by contrast, am wearing wool socks, leggings, jeans, a tank top, a cotton sweater, a hoodie of Dwayne's and my toque.  Yes.  And I am definitely not overheating.  Oh, amazingly enough, Riley is wearing socks as well!  

Me: "Are you cold Riley?"  

Riley: "No."  

She did not get her warm bloodedness from me...

 

I am off to tackle putting away a mountain of clean laundry as I can't do much water-wise until Dwayne comes home with the smaller generators and the hot water heater part.  

Off to work and to stay warm!! 

Weird winter

We are having a bit of a strange winter. Yesterday it went up to -5C and by tonight it is supposed to be -32C. This does not take into account wind chill. Currently, it's -27C but the wind chill added in it feels like -40C. Brrr. The past couple of weeks it has been cold during the week and then warmed up 10 to 15 degrees on the weekend. Those warmer days are nice but then the colder days feel that much colder again after you've gotten used to warmer weather. February isn't even here yet so I'm certain we're only seeing the beginning of the colder temperatures. I'm all for hibernation right about now.