To the barn!

Dawn banged on the window, the day was bright and clear

and so off we went to see the barn, the road had been maintained until recently, probably until us, and there was just a couple of inches of snow on it.

We did look in the barn but, to a city boy, it just looked like a barn; a couple of stalls, some five gallon drums cut down to serve as waterers, some bales of hay, some pitchforks and a room that had once held chickens. Rough and ready but I would think that, from a horse's point of view, better than a 12'x12' box with a bolted door.

The paddock had not recently been ploughed, there was deep snow in parts. This is what a crazy woman in jeans does in her paddock in the snow.

It's exhausting stuff.

Commuting

Almost a week of it done. It's been, er, challenging but one of the joys of country life is the slow pace; the satellite for the internet at home will arrive in its own good time and, until it does, there's no choice but to drive up and down. Last night I followed a snow plough for twenty miles and the county road was closed so I had to get home via the back roads. This morning the back roads were closed but I didn't know that until I passed the barricade going the wrong way. I think it's wind that closes the roads, there's a lot of snow and it blows around rducing visiblity to near zero. Once we have proper internet access at home road closings will be something to look forward to, a chance to sleep late and work from home, for the moment though they're just another local law broken.

Well, things are starting to get settled in. It is taking longer than I anticipated though, both physically and emotionally. We haven't met any of the neighbours yet, though so far, everyone we have encountered has been really friendly. We plan on going to Farmer Squirrel's house on the weekend and see about a contract for the snow clearance of our drive. They keep up with the roads fairly well, if we could only get out of our own driveway!

One of the biggest challenges has been figuring out the mysteries of the wood stove. It is our primary source of heat, since the electric baseboard costs so much to run. If we burn it low enough that it is a comfortable temperature in the house, the dial on the chimney registers in the "creosote production zone." If we burn it so that the dial registers in the "good fire zone," the house is so hot that we're in t-shirts and shorts. Anyone with any knowledge of such things, please feel free to comment! Also, we can't seem to keep it going over night.

Charlie is adjusting well and loves his romps in the snow. On the weekend we'll take him down to the barn for a romp in his own paddock. Sid still has the occassional pacing and meowing episode but has, in general, accepted this as his new house.

Impressions of the Country.

Simple things are very different. We look out of the window and there is snow and trees, just snow and trees, like a Bergman film. At night it's dark, out back there are some lights on the county road a couple of miles away but this is our front driveway looking out across the road:



there's nothing across that field.


This is the road to the barn, unless we ski we won't be going down there anytime soon.

A couple of views from the deck, the county road is out there somewhere past the barn which is the greenish looking structure in the first picture.

One might feel a bit isolated in such a place and the feeling would be exacerbated by the lack of some basic features of the modern home, for example the stove hasn't arrived yet, so this is cooking:

Honey, I aint in Camden no more.

The Move

It should have been easy, we just wanted to create this pile:

from this one:




















much went wrong though. The movers loaded their truck until it was full and then had to fetch another one. The second one was locked so they had to break the padlock off. The police came to complain about the truck blocking the street and one of the movers got into a hey rube with the cop. Eventually though they pulled away and we took refuge in a nearby hotel.

The next morning we collected the cat and dog from boarding and set off for the country. The roads had been a worry but proved not to be too bad. This is a main road though, I needed both hands to steer on the back roads.

Our idea was that we would stop by the office of the lawyer for the seller of the property, pick up the key and tell the movers to start unloading. Unfortunately we didn't get the key until late in the afternoon which meant a lot of hanging around. Even more unfortunately, the former owners came by to collect their mail, saw the trucks and complained about us trespassing. All in all a lot of tension over the administrivia.

It got done though and, at least, it ended with a dog romping happily.

We're here

Battered, tired, and on dial-up, but we're here.

And we're out...

We'll get the computer set up and update this as soon as we can at the new place, but we're closing the computer down for now.

Our last day

at our old house. Tonight we will pack up all of the last minute stuff, sleep here one more time, and tomorrow morning, the movers will come. Of course, Ontario is in the middle of a huge snowstorm. We have about eight inches here in Toronto, and I'm sure there's more where we're moving. Road conditions are snow packed, snow covered, icy, and closed.
Actually, the roads look better where we're going than they do in the city.

The move still isn't real to me. It has been so long in coming, and suffered so many setbacks, that I won't quite believe it until I'm shovelling a path to the door for the movers. Perhaps not even then!

Drumroll please

This is our fabulous new house. Big, airy rooms, great views, and lots of ventilation. We can't wait!



Just kidding. That's the barn. See why we call it Upper Appalachia? The real house is on top of a forested hill, overlooking the barn below. And we hope it stays that way.

Our first blog entry....

.... ever.

The house is sold, the boxes are packed, and we are ready to start anew in the wilds of Upper Appalachia. In three days the movers will come, pick up our stuff, and we will boldly strike out on our new adventure... so long as we can get there.

For the Legend on the road conditions, go here--http://www.mto.gov.on.ca/english/traveller/conditions/central.htm See the yellow roads? That's where we're going. At least it is an improvement on Friday, when the roads were snow-packed and closed.

We're also packing up a large, fluffy dog--

and a small fluffy cat--

The chickens (http://www.freyshatchery.com/) and the horses (http://www.garrisonequine.com/index.html) will come later.