Our Lifestyle Blog as We Create a Homestead in Northern Ontario
Last year we seemed to have quite a few problems with the stove suddenly backpuffing or just smoke blowing back out sometimes while we were loading it or when it was closed air tight on a windy night. To ameliorate this issue, we resorted to making short, quick fires to heat up the cabin, and … Read more
This past Saturday after spending a long, lazy morning at the keyboard and sipping tea with Kenny and Donna, they got cabin fever enough to leave the cabin for an early afternoon walk up and down the road. I opted to finish my last tea, as well as to complete the research that I had … Read more
Our front door was a bit of a poser for putting on a storm window. The molded handgrips for sliding the bottom pane up and down in summer projected just far enough beyond the lip of the window frame that a solid piece of acrylic wouldn’t fit flush to the frame. In a thunderbolt of … Read more
While foaming under the kitchen cabinets and all around the last few spots with outside corners, I found myself with a part can of foam that I didn’t want to waste. Expanding foam canisters must always be thought of as “single use” items. And so it was; I headed up to the attic without really … Read more
The other afternoon while fritzing around in our bedroom, trying to figure out why it was so deathly cold, I cleared out some of the flotsam that had built up below the solar charger and inverter. It was all part of my overall plan to run some expanding foam along the edges of the floor … Read more
While trying to find the coldest place in the cabin last week, Kenny noted that the corner of the kitchen under the cabinets was bumping against zero. Both Donna and I commiserated that in the mornings if we weren’t wearing socks, we could feel a breeze coming from beneath them. As such, I grabbed two … Read more
Bringing in the wood bins also brings in the flies that have hidden in the logs for the winter. As they enjoy the (relative?) warmth of the cabin, they come out of hibernation, and inevitably head for the upstairs windows to escape. In an effort to control the incessant buzzing and build-up of dessicated remains, … Read more
When my stovepipe collar was first installed properly by Dan VanLenthe’s crew, I was really surprised to find that the stovepipe itself was not in any way fastened, let alone sealed, to the collar itself! That explained the purpose of the storm collar – it was to actually keep rain and such out of that … Read more
Whelp, as is usual at this time of year here on the homestead, we’re doing all sorts of things to try to keep the cabin as warm as possible. One thing that I can’t help but think makes a huge difference is sealing up clearly felt draughts. At first I was considering continuing to use … Read more
Another night as Kenny and I were about to head into our bedroom to read some more Harry Potter, I wanted to snap this picture showing the previously installed drapes. I caught Donna working on her own blog, and while the quality of the picture leaves much to be desired, I think it did capture … Read more