Yesterday was a very good day...

Ah, good morning good readers. I am sitting at my desk watching the mist rise from the mountain behind Ootischenia, sipping a cup of green tea and feeling very cosy-autumny-thanksgivingy. Paul is still sleeping, and Cassius has eaten his breakfast and is out exploring. The weather has turned just in the last week, from scorching clear to soft and drizzly. There is a tree flaming red along our driveway, and another that burst briefly into red then shrugged all its leaves to the ground. Autumn is most definitely here, and I am noticing that because I can see so much more of the weather, the geography around us, I am loving the changes. I can hardly wait to be tucked upstairs in the house, watching winter take hold of the land.

Here is an assortment of tidbits by way of update: we finally broke down and hired someone to help me with the morning glory. It is too massive a job on it's own, never mind getting gardens prepped for next year-- which was the intended goal this fall. So garden-expert Carrie arrived yesterday, full of energy and enthusiasm and lots of good gardening know-how, and she's tackling the infestation in the south garden, on her knees, one square foot at a time. Yes, she's being paid. She says she's never seen a bindweed infestation this bad. Thank you for the Validation.

My process with the yardwork has gone something like this: get excited about the new veggie garden and work on that for awhile; have a bad dream about morning glory roots reaching up to strangle me by the throat; wake up at 4am fretting about beridding the place of it; resolve to work on that instead, and fly at it for a few hours; realize there is no way I can do it AND get anything else done, including my job nevermind other garden work; give up and cry in frustration; get a hug from Paul, brainstorm ideas for MG eradication, such as smothering under tarps, excavating, etc.; get started on a bit of that, then realize I have to get the sheet composting on the veggie garden going. Rinse and repeat.

But as of yesterday, there is Hope once again. This is important for those of us who like to take on Big Projects and who think we can Do It All. Hope is good.


So here is a view of my veggie garden layout, from an upstairs window. It takes the shape of a square, cut into quadrants, and then each quadrant cut once again into triangles. This leaves eight sections for rotating annual veggies on a yearly basis. There will be a long rectangular bed on one edge where perennial vegetables such as asparagus and artichoke will reside permanently.



Here is the garden, staked out as of last week:

At 40X40ft., I had it close-enough-to-square-for-me when Becca and Dean showed up to help, and Becca took things in hand. Close enough was not good enough, so she grabbed the tape measure and barked out orders to Dean and I until we'd got it right. And it is a much cleaner layout-- thank you honey! Each of the eight triangle beds are just small enough to reach into the middle (if you're longarmed like me), and the paths between allow good room for a wheelbarrow. There's room in the centre for a bench, or maybe a table and sun umbrella for resting with a cold drink.

The next step after laying out with stakes and string was to dig a shallow trench along the string-lines. This took me two days, and I enjoyed the last of our hot weather while doing it. I needed to get the stakes and string out of the way so the big truck can drive in and empty the dumpster parked beside the house (it can drive over the trenched outlines without erasing them). The next and final step before winter will be to add all the layers-- and progress this week included finding a phenomenal source for manure, and acquiring two truck loads. You can see it in the first picture, to the left-back. That's my staging area for the lasagna materials, and so far I have a pile of grass clippings, a pile of awesome manure, and some bagged leaves. We still need to rent/buy a chipper so all the trimmed branches can be added as well. Getting there!

Let's take a peek at what's happening in the house:

This is a view from the livingroom into the river-end (dining room on the left, kitchen on the right). The builders are replacing the back wall, which will be fitted with windows and french doors.

 Outside view of the corner where the new kitchen starts. That's Jim, our contractor, standing in the house, and Ken, who has been here three weeks doing demolition. I think he's glad to be moving on to building now!

Other updates: Paul made a fast dash to Richmond to act on some sweet deals: we've got our second clawfoot tub, beautifully refinished and with fixtures, for $400-- that's an amazing deal. He also picked up a beautiful white kitchen farmhouse sink from Ikea, which was the best value we could find for that style. And he found someone with the plumbing/hardware for the fixtures and shower ring for the other clawfoot tub, so we're all set in that department! We're still working on having a vintage cabinet of mine converted into a bathroom vanity, we'll show you pics of how that turns out.

But the icing on the cake for me yesterday was signing the contract with Builder Jim, which states that the renovations will be "substantially completed" by Christmas! I've been fretting about that because the Luke and Erika and Dylan and Alandra are booked to fly out from Toronto/Montreal, and I was not looking forward to cramming us all into the workshop! Thank you Jim, "substantial" will be good enough for me.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!