What's in a floor?

A lot!  First Chris had to shovel several dump truck loads of gravel into the foundation.....by hand!  Then run all the electrical wires and plumbing pipes that would be buried in the concrete.  Then shovel more gravel to cover the pipes.  Then level and pack it down.  Then the vapor barrier and insulation board.  Then the radiant floor pipes.  Along with many other steps I'm sure I'm missing!  All this very important prep work gets covered up and never seen again!

Angling the pipes so they have just the right degree of slope

Each pipe needs to drain towards the septic

Cold and hot water lines, waste pipes, and conduit for the electrical wires

Then after the many days and thousands of pounds of shoveled gravel it gets covered up with vapor barrier and foam insulation boards

Laundry room, bathroom, and master bedroom

The radiant floor pipes need to be spaced out just right

Next, metal grid is placed on top of the pipes to provide more stability for the concrete

The many thousands of Tent and Forest caterpillars had to be removed from the insulation board before the concrete could be poured.  We didn't want all the corpses floating in our floor

Finally ready!

The crew arrived early in the morning

They didn't waste a moment

This neat machine vibrates to get all the bubbles out of the concrete and level it

One wheelbarrow full at a time....

Hey!  Its starting to look like a floor!

Poured, smoothed, and finished!  We're so pleased!

New house, new chicken coop

Moving up the hill meant either leaving our chickens with less protection down the hill, or building a new coop at my parents' place.

So we converted a rusted out trailer into a portable coop!

We used very little new materials, most of it was construction scrap

Even I got in on the action!

Boots did too

It was nice working together on a project

Mostly working...

With the warm nights, the darkness didn't slow us down

We had other helpers too

Mostly helping.....

Whitewash!

We spent one evening moving the chickens up to their new home.  They had leg mites, so they all got baths, and pedicures before moving in.  No pictures of that procedure as it was intense!  Roosters are very strong! 

At first they were unsure

But a little bit of kitchen scrap makes chickens very forgiving

I think they are very comfortable in their new home

The end of 2017

Well, I've been delaying this post because there really hasn't been much progress on building our house.  We have had an eventful last few months of 2017 though.  First of all, back in August, my parents (our neighbours) moved to Cape Dorset, Nunavut.  They took their dog Annie, and went to teach at an Inuit school for a year.  They asked us to move into their new house while they were away.  We would have much more space for the 6 of us, we would pay far less to heat the house, and their house would be lived in and cared for.  

So, this has been our home for the past few months

A huge improvement in living conditions

Looking out the front porch, we can see the roof of our new house to give you an idea of how far it is from my parents' place

 

 

Not everyone is happy with the arrangement.  My parents left their cat Boots behind for us to take care of.  He's not enjoying sharing his space with Molly, and our 2 cats.  I keep telling him its better than freezing to death up North, but he doesn't seem to appreciate it

These kids, on the other hand, love having more personal space

We've spent the past months moving ourselves in little by little, trying not to take over completely.  Chris was working several jobs, so was I.  We continued our homeschooling, and worked hard at maintaining not only our own extensive gardens, but my Mum's, and the Lanark Community garden (that I somehow ended up supervising!) as well.  

Chris worked on the house plumbing and electrical when he could.  Then his mom, who was diagnosed with terminal cancer almost 2 years ago, got quite ill.  He traveled to London, Ontario, 6 hours away from us to be with her in palliative care for her last days.  He spent the majority of a month there before she passed away.  Then we all made the trip to London for her funeral.  

By the time we were back and readjusting to life, it had turned quite cold.  Too cold to perform the water testing on the plumbing before the concrete floor was poured.  Too cold to allow the concrete time to cure.  That left us in tricky spot for the winter.  No floor, no walls, another huge delay in our plans.  Chris is going to have to pick away at smaller jobs through the winter and prep to do the water test and finish the floors first thing in the spring.

Then we had another change in plans!  My parents were struggling so much in Nunavut, that they decided that they would not return there after coming home for Christmas holidays.  They witnessed much poverty, abuse, violence, darkness, and hopelessness.  They went North with hope that they could make a difference.  They learned very quickly that the problems facing the Inuit community are far too great, and the system too flawed, for one white couple to improve.  We have learned much about the Inuit peoples, about Nunavut, and Canada.

My parents made it clear that they did not want us to move out when they returned.  So they came back and we are living together for now.  There has been some adjusting on everyone's part.  The dogs and cats are (mostly) getting along, and we are figuring out personal boundaries in a shared living space. 

My hope is that 2018 brings more progress than 2017!

Happy New Year!

Miscellaneous

Some happenings around the Vriends' homestead over the past months:

I found this painted turtle in our back field.  Nowhere near a body of water.  We drove him to the wetlands at the end of the road to make a new home

Look at those claws!

 

His belly pattern and colouring was beautiful!

With all the rain we've had this year, we have ponds where there is usually dried ground

The kids really enjoyed them!

Morel mushroom!  Yummy!

I gave our hen Rainbow several guinea eggs to hatch!  They are notoriously difficult to hatch under a bird.  Most are hatched in an incubator.  Only one of Rainbows eggs hatched

So I brought home a few others that were hatched in a friend's incubator a week before.  2 more guineas, and 2 banty chicks

Rainbow adopted them without hesitation!

Unfortunately, like the roosters of last winter, the keets (baby guineas!) and chicks decided the coop was too good for them and started perching in the trees.  The first few nights I sent Zander up the tree to fetch them down.  But they kept going higher until they were roosting 30 feet up!  I had to make the decision to let them.  I don't know what got them, but one morning we were down one keet and one banty chick.  The good news is that the following night the remaining chick and keets went into the coop!

Weed salad!  All ingredients from the garden.  Lettuce, peas, beans, and cucumber that were planted on purpose.  Purslane, lambs quarters, pig weed, red clover, and sorrel that most people call weeds.  We call them delicious and nutritious!