COVERING OUR FIREWOOD

Yesterday was a very busy day here. Peter and Dave arrived early and built a shelter for our firewood.

We used maple logs we had cut back in the spring as our uprights.

Here Peter trims off one of the posts.

Those air-guns make the job so much easier.

The strapping for the steel is just about done.

Finished and ready for the steel roof. We have about four years of wood cut and drying and now it will be protected.

Thanks Dave and Peter, very happy with the shelter.

A SPECIAL MOMENT

The squirrels and chipmunks are busy collecting seeds and getting ready for winter. This morning I stood at our open sliding door tossing sunflower seeds on the ground so they would have lots of easy food to take away and hide. 

While watching them scurry about a humming bird buzzed in and settled on the feeder within arms reach. I stood motionless barely moving my eyes enjoying this special moment. We are blessed to live here.

Take time to enjoy the moments that occur around you.

CANNING TOMATOES

We bought a bushel of field tomatoes at the Maynooth market last Saturday and have been busy canning tomatoes and making chili and salsa.

We use a pressure canner which reduces the time and takes the bottles to a much higher temperature.

The tomatoes are first cooked for 15 minutes before canning.

Here Mary is bottling chili which we sampled for supper last night. ........... Delicious!


We have enjoyed the whole experience and feel so comfortable using the pressure canner we may go out to the farm and get another bushel of tomatoes later this week.

ELDERBERRIES

Went elderberry picking this morning. If you've ever eaten elderberry pie you know why we go looking for them. They grow wild in wet areas by the side of the road and right now they are in season up here.

The berries grow in clusters and need be be dark blue almost black before being picked.

We use scissors to snip the cluster, then drop it into a basket tied around our waist.

In just a few minutes we had this bag of elderberries.

Once home we stripped the berries off the stems and into a bowl.

We started off using a fork to strip off the berries but finished off just using our hands as we found it faster and easier.

We ended up with almost three pounds of berries which we will boil and put into the freezer. I think this batch will be used to make a nutritious morning drink high in vitamin C.

Still lots of berries to pick so we will go again next week. 

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

TRAILER REPAIR

Hauled the trailer down to Peterborough yesterday to have a technician look at the fridge and water heater.

One gadget I use and appreciate when pulling the trailer is my backup camera. I connected it to the running lights so whenever I want to check on the hitch or what's behind me I simply turn on the running lights and get this picture. Saves a lot of frustration when hooking up as well.

They worked for almost two hours checking the fridge and water heater and tracking down a propane leak. The water heater was fixed by replacing two temperature sensors. The fridge needs a new electrical board. Unfortunately it is located on the bottom of the fridge which means the fridge must come out first. The replacement part isn't cheap so not sure what we will do. As this is the end of the camping season here we can wait until the spring to decide.

The weather here has turned warm going up to 28*C but feeling like 36*C tomorrow.

Thanks for stopping by and safe travels everyone.

GETTING READY FOR WINTER

Shawn was here by eight to install two exterior receptacles. I took lots of pictures of Shawn working only to discover after he left that the memory stick wasn't in the camera.  

We were able to run the wire up into the attic and then down the outside of the wall behind the steel siding; another advantage of using siding that is easily removed.

You can see the wire going up into the attic here through a hole we drilled through the foam insulation. Later today I will spray foam the places where we removed the foam.

Each outlet has a weather proof cover making it safer to leave the fridge plugged in. Yes we have our freezer outside on the porch. Why? It means during the winter months our freezer doesn't draw from our batteries. This reduces the demand on our batteries during the months it is hardest to keep them fully charged.

We installed one receptacle with a switch. This outlet will be used for plugging in the cars and bobcat during the cold winter mornings we have up here. Rather than have them draw electricity all night I can just step into the mechanical room and turn on the switch an hour or two before leaving. Once again this will reduce the draw on the batteries but still warm up the engine on those mornings when it's 30 below.

It's September and we are thinking and preparing for winter.  What are you doing?

SEAN

Sean came up Saturday night and stayed for the rest of the weekend. Sunday he met some riders and went off on an 80 km ride bringing everyone back here for water and a tour of the house. 

He left early this morning and will probably do the club ride in Peterborough later today.