Windows: Can you contain your excitement?

God, this must be boring crap for some people, but who cares! This blog is all about me really. :)

Ok, these pictures are totally random since I am not capable of cutting/pasting here, so beware of unusual inconsistency on this blog. (Ha)

Internetland - meet my new window!


This baby is a vintage 5x5 model. Approximately 20+ years old, it is the popular "double-paned" window. Not quite good enough or thick enough to be triple-paned, plus I don't want to spoil myself with leakproof windows do I? Note the fine cracked white paint peeling over top of the equally hideous BLACK paint below.



Oh, there are many times when I wish for new vinyl windows. But luckily, they are few and far between. Or is that "far and few between?"



At any rate! My building pad!


Kuna is inspecting it "Hmmm, yes, yes, this will do just fine. A bit more level on the left and I will approve. BTW - where is MY cabin?!?! This tent stuff is gettin' old."



I always knew he was useful for SOMETHING!



Speaking of useful - here is the dog who is very useful in destroying everything he gets his big fat mouth on.


Ripper's new tactic: pushing his head through the gate as faaaaar as he can, so he can reach things to chew on. The victims so far: a shovel, a dog food bag, Ray's chainsaw (the handle only), the shovel, a piece of plywood and a bucket. I am slowly onto him, and almost always remember to keep things far away.




The tent! Note Gabe in the corner, close to the stove and on his pillow. All the important things are there: bed, dog blankets, couch, stove, beer.



The building spot from the other side - looking towards giant blue tent and dogyard.





Oop! Windows again. Pre-unloading, lookit 'em all!!!!



Ooh, a window that opens! I got three of them! Or no, FIVE!!!


I am window-obsessed now. I can't go anywhere or into anyone's home without grilling them about their windows. And here I really never gave windows a second thought before. Could've cared less about them really. No wonder no one invites me anywhere anymore.




My new "suburban door" as Laura called it. I think it would make a great bathroom door! Or, even better, an outhouse door! Of course, the white has to go. I have an aversion to white things I think. Probably because I know they will not stay white long with my (and the dogs) track record.




Kuna making sure I'm doing a good enough job on the paint scraping - check out the window on the left, the inside is quite lovely.



Ugh! Black? Seriously?? Was this for Marilyn Manson's bedroom?



Hey, whattaya know, more windows on a trailer.




And my favourite - the gang coming running back from their frolicking in the meadow.

Stay tuned, because I will have something even MORE exciting than windows in my next post... And seriously, it's not "flooring" or "cabinets" or other equally exciting housey things - in fact, it's not even cabin-related...hmmm... what could it be?!?!

Highlights of my week

This is kind of a highlight - the new truck! Shiney and purty eh?!?

I want to give everyone rides in it NOW before I mess this spotless thing up. I'm doing pretty good though, still clean... *fingers crossed*

It runs like a DREAM! I love driving all of a sudden. Which is good with my killer commute I guess. I pulled a trailer in today to pick up windows and this thing has more power than I've had before!


Gabe - he's doing great since the "incident" - and hanging out here in the shade on a super hot long weekend that just passed. It was loooovely by the way... a good combination of work and relaxing and visiting made for a perfect weekend.



Oh Gracie, Gracie... moving and living out of a tent hasn't changed your bossy, food bucket-guarding ways! (note the TWO buckets - I was dogsitting 7 others!) I like how she's all nestled in there among water jugs and food.

I have some great neighbours out my way - a couple who used to live out near the old place are now my neighbours once again. I visit often and it's not just because Enrica makes the BEST meals ever (still waiting to try that homemade pesto...), but because they are fun and their fridge is always full of beer.

And look at that view behind their house. Awesome. What you can't see is the cliff overlooking the river just below the house. The house is log and so cozy inside.

I usually ride my bike up to their place (about 16km away), and had an interesting ride home last week. I always seem to get caught up during my evening visits and not realize that the darkness is back and that makes travelling with no lights a bit tricky (and yes, dangerous!). Not only that, I was only in a t-shirt and shorts because when I headed over it was mid-afternoon and 20+C degrees out, but once the sun starts to set the temperatures drop freakin' fast.

Long story short - I ran into a herd of elk on the way home! I was totally surrounded by these rutting behemoths as I quickly figured out how to deal with cranky elk (I'm talking hundreds here) as they size me up. As I found out earlier in the summer on the bike, elk are quite perplexed by a human on a bike. They were skittering (did I make that word up?) around on the pavement and clip-clopping (it's "make-up-words-day!") away as they were starting to panic and run onto the highway. Even though the traffic was minimal, I was a bit worried they'd get hit, so I stopped on the opposite side of the highway and stood there casually, as I waited for the road crossing to finish. By this time it was getting really dusky and hard to see them. I was hoping they had all crossed and that I wouldn't find myself in between two star-crossed lovers on either side of the highway. No one should stand between a horny elk and his brood!

I'm glad to say, we all went our merry ways and they went on to get some elk-lovin' whereas I went home to get some doggie-lovin' - good fun!

Then last night I heard them bugling not far away from the tent. NOW I know what that weird sound is. I think the dogs are *kind of* starting to get used to it. They're less excited anyways. There is also a crapload of owls around.

Things on the cabin seem to be progressing, the ETA is 3 weeks away! Woohoo!

Glad that birthday is OVER!

It was a bit of a scary day on Monday. Not just because I celebrated yet ANOTHER birthday - good god, they come outta nowhere don't they?!? But because Gabe got really sick. It was like he was poisoned and when I came out in the morning he was soaking wet from drooling and not able to walk more than 3 steps without collapsing. I had to rush him in and drop him off at the vet clinic. They called saying "What happened to Gabe?!?" although it felt more like "What did you do to this poor dog!!?" Then later the vet said he was actually hypothermic!! Ack!!! Gabe, the dog who has lived on the couch for a couple years now, spends ONE freakin' night outside and gets hypothermia in August. Holy crap did I feel terrible.

The drooling started out slowly the night before and when he wanted to go outside I didn't really think too much of it. Hey the tent isn't THAT comfortable!! But he does have a nice pillow right beside the wood stove. So he sat in a doghouse all night and drooled so much he soaked himself and when it dropped to almost freezing, well, that was the problem.

I'm happy to say though, that he made a QUICK recovery. We're not sure what it might have been, but it was classic poisoning symptoms. The vet really didn't think he'd make it. But all they did was warm him up and put fluids in him and he improved within a couple hours. The vet kept saying what a fighter he was - just when I was thinking he was getting pretty old and feeble, he comes through this battling like crazy to stick around a while longer on that couch! I think he's waiting till the cabin is built actually. In fact, he now tells me he's getting his own room?!? ;)


Here he is on the way home from the vets. Even though he was still kind of woozy and out of it, he looks a bit worried here eh? Ok, a LOT worried. He's doing great now and has slept like a rock for 2 days. Poor guy. I don't think I left him that first night for more than 10 minutes, it was soooo good to have him home.


Just for kicks - this is the new water hole! Damn this is GOOD water!!!! The creek is so clean and holy crap it's cold too.

Even better - the water jugs fit PERFECTLY in this hole!


Life in a tent continues to be... well, life in a tent! I'm getting used to the whole routine of it and so are the dogs, which makes everything SO much easier. Ripper has told me to tell everyone that he is ecstatic that we have resumed his favourite game of "Fetch!" - even though the fetching field is pretty small, he is optimistic I will get the meadow fenced one day (ha!).

I am on the lookout for doors and windows and cupboards, etc, right now, so if anyone around here has any, let me know!

Roof Monkey

Is what my good friend, Laura called me when I was taking down my beloved satellite dish a couple weeks ago. Look at that BLUE sky!!! Oh how I long for it instead of this freakin' rain...(that said, the skies are currently clearing right now!! Yippeeee!!!)


I kinda miss that ratty ol' mice-infested cabin too. Kinda, but not really.

Here's some pics of one day of moving, that have been sitting and waiting to be posted for awhile.

This is Ray's truck loaded down with doghouses and the last of my crap. Not sure if you can see it, but we looked like a bunch of hillbillies travelling down the highway with that mess.


Speaking of hillbillies, look at that FINE job of a wheel cover on the trailer. Why, yes I did do that! Thanks for asking.


What a contrast compared to Ray's "non-artsy" version of a wheel cover. I have to say, mine at least has style.


Then one trailer wheel decided to lose 4 out of 5 lug nuts on the trip! Travelling with one was not a wise idea so we were delayed a bit as I had to run in to Canadian Tire to get more nuts! That day was a bit of a gong-show as I was actually supposed to get to work at one point, but that never happened. That said, I did meet the power guys out there and the line is staked for power. It looks like I will be a tent-dwelling, powerless hillbilly no more! Plans are under way to get the cabin started next week and in by mid-Sept, we'll see how that goes.



Just another day on the Alaska Highway. Boats heading to Alaska.



The dog yard #2 set up! Gawd, those houses need PAINT!

Keepin busy!

First off, CONGRATS to my cowtown buddies, Jason and Lesley for their little (surprise) bundle of joy who arrived not long ago. Way to go! Good luck with that whole sleeping thing from now on. :)

I don't recall the last time I've ever worked so hard as I have for this move!! Working till 11pm is the norm as there is a TON of organizing to do and a TON of fencing to put up! I'm *almost* close to taking it down at the old place... one day I'll be free!

This is the lazy way of moving fencing down to the meadow.

The new(est) pen! This group was quite angry for the last few days since they were in BEHIND (god forbid!) the tent and couldn't see me or what I was doing 24 hrs a day. It was funny to see them in here, right beside me, totally content last night. Man, I must have an exciting life for 13 dogs to want to watch every second of it. Yeah, that's it.

All that hard work deserves some halibut in beer batter! Oh, and some beer of course.

Hey mom- that's the batter you sent up, mmmmm.... good!


BigHead was never too far away from the fish.


Lucy was quite interested in the butter and quite concerned about keeping her rotund physique as we head into fall/winter! I'll think she'll succeed in that quest. They actually said on the radio yesterday that we are now "heading into winter"?!? Ok, it's barely AUGUST! Normally I would be quite excited, but the combination of tent living, snow and cold isn't really all that thrilling to me right now. We'll see how I feel about that when I can go skijoring in my own freakin' yard!!! :)