Thursday, June 19, 2014

Our Building Story Part 5 - Our First Stay In Our House

By the middle of July 2012 we took our first family trip to our land for the year; it was the first time we had ever stayed in our house instead of our relative's cabin; and also the first time our new little baby was with us. We had some work planned...but we also combining our family holiday for the year with this trip....so FUN was a big part of our plan! there was going to be quite a few extended family up for our second week as well.

We arrived and got unpacked and I have to admit that for the first 24 hours I just wanted to turn around and go home. I think it was a baby hormonal thing. There seemed to be so many bugs and I wanted to take my baby home to her own little bed and safety. I was soon feeling better and was very happy to be there.
The first thing Steve had the kids do was cut down the tall grass all around the cabin. As soon as they cleared a swath around the cabin, the bugs really decreased!

Whenever someone had free time they kept working away at knocking that grass down.



The kids play area increased and they started exploring.

By the second day, I was feeling MUCH better about everything. As soon as I gave the outhouse a thorough clean, my emotions took an upward swing. The cut grass also reduced the amount of bugs around the cabin significantly!! The cabin looked more like a house with a yard rather than a house in a field. I went from feeling discouraged to LOVING EVERY MINUTE!

Our little bedroom in our future bathroom.

Baby's playpen bed with mosquito netting. 

Cooking for 10 off two camp stoves....it worked just fine!

Upstairs with the kid's beds laid out.


Our future driveway with the grass mowed down.


I transplanted a few spruce trees....only one ended up living and it was the ugliest one!

Front yard with clothes line and "hill-billy teeter-totter" 

Fun on the dugout in a rowboat.

The kids built pathways and little bridges to get around the property through the bush. 

The main work wee got done this trip was getting the stairs in with temporary railings, and putting the pine on the downstairs ceilings.  

We did a lot of cleaning up in  the bush around the cabin. Steve thinned out the willow to give the birch a chance to grow. We cut and stacked all the willow for firewood as it is a hardwood and burns nice and hot. 



We took several trips to the lake to enjoy fishing and midnight sunsets. 

Steve with a walleye. 

Jeremy with another walleye.

Our collective catch for the evening. 

We had a big family fish fry the next day!




Looking North from our house. 

We had some nice campfires....here a friend has his pan-flute out. 

Fireworks courtesy of Uncle Justin

Steve helps the younger kids learn to shoot the .22

We actually had extra time on our hands so we got a load of drywall at the nearest town and started in on some of the boarding. 



The stairs look so nice! The pine ceiling really brightened up the interior and Steve had prebuilt some of the dark trim which he got up. 

He also had the post cladding and supports pre-built and finished. 

My tidy camp kitchen. :)




It was a good trip. We were up for just over two weeks so it gave us some idea of what it would be like living there. We planned on coming at at least one more time in the Fall of 2012. 

To Be Continued....


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