February Weekend

It was a pretty low key weekend for me out at the cottage.  I left the office early on Friday afternoon so that I could drive out in daylight conditions.  It was about 2:00 in the afternoon when I hit the road.  It was cold, but once the truck warmed up to operating temperature, is was a pretty straightforward drive out.  This was yet another solo trip as the girls didn't feel up to coming out in the bitter cold.  I stopped in Rocky Mountain House and topped up the fuel tank before heading west on the Thompson Highway.  Traffic had been light all the way and was even more so once I got west into the foothills.  Beyond the turnoff to the Sunchild Road, the highway became partly snow covered and there was virtually no traffic.

I arrived at the cottage at about 5:00PM, just as the sun was beginning to set.  The furnace had functioned nicely and it felt pretty warm and cozy in the cottage compared to the -25C outside temperature.  I turned up the furnace to take the chill out a bit, and got the fire going.  I unpacked some of the gear that I brought along, and made a point of plugging in the block heater on my truck.  I made an early supper and relaxed for a while before stoking up the fire for the night and turning in early.

I slept in a bit on Saturday morning and eventually got up and stoked the fire up again and put some coffee on.  I was having a leisurely breakfast and sat around for quite a while just reading the paper.  It had dropped down to -32C overnight and despite it being clear and sunny in the morning, it didn't really warm up much.  By about noon I got dressed up and went outside to do a few chores.  I put some oats out for the deer... brought in a few armloads of firewood... and unpacked some plywood from the back of my truck.  The one and only neighbor that was out stopped by and said hello.  Tina from two doors over was out walking her dog and had also arrived sometime the night before.  She was heading back home later that afternoon and once she left, I was the only one out on Tamarack Trail.

The plywood that I brought out had been pre-cut and pre-painted in my shop.  I had it all cut down to pieces that were 4' x 5' and smaller so that I could pass them down into my basement, through the trap door.  It was a bit of a challenge to do it by myself, without bashing any holes in the wall but eventually I got it all down there.  This is 1/2" plywood that is being screwed on to the inside walls to cover up the exposed foam of the ICF block foundation.  I wouldn't bother doing this except for the fact that it is a building code requirement.  In hindsight I should have packed bigger pieces down there before I closed up the opening in the foundation...!!

I spent Saturday afternoon and part of Sunday wrestling these pieces into place and screwing them on.  There are a couple that need a little trimming and notching to fit but by the end of the weekend I have more than half of the basement walls covered.  I also put up the coat rack that I made out of old antique door knobs that Margarit had collected.

A made myself a dinner of pasta and sauce with a salad and hung around the cottage listening to music, playing guitar, and having a few beers.  It cleared right off in the evening and was very crisp and cold.  Once again it dropped down below -30 overnight.  There was a quarter moon that cast a nice glow over the snow covered landscape and with no light pollution, billions of stars were visible.

After breakfast on Sunday I tidied up around the cottage and shut things down.  Before leaving I went out and topped up the oats for the deer.  While I was out there with the feed, and checking on my game camera, a white tail doe wandered in.  I talked to her as she very cautiously approached the feed.   She was within about 15 feet of me and began to feed as I stood nearby watching.

I made a brief stop at my neighbor Scott's place before heading for home.  Scott is the contractor that lives out there and built my cottage for me.  I had picked up some parts for him and brought them out.... saving him the long drive into town.

It was about 3:30 in the afternoon when I finally hit the road for home.  Although the nice clear skies and winter sun made it look fairly warm, the temperature never got up above -20 the whole time I was out.  Its nice that the sun is getting a little more intense and the days noticeably longer at this time of year.  Back before Christmas it was dark by 4:00 in the afternoon.  If I wanted to make the three hour drive home from the cottage in daylight I had to leave pretty early in the day.  Now it is about 5:30 that the sun sets, and the twilight lingers for a while after that so the departure no long has to be quite so early.  In another five weeks or so it will be spring....