Settling In September 4, 2008

Looking east towards the old horse barn

This morning when I woke just before seven, there was a mist over the fields and the sun had just come up.  I put on my fleece jacket, wrapped a scarf around my neck, and set out the door for some fresh air.  Very fresh air.  Frost was white on the rosebushes and fireweed – wherever the sun had not yet touched.  I walked past camp where men were climbing into big dualie pick-ups, mostly with Alberta license plates.  They smiled, said good morning.  My fingers tingled with cold, but I felt so alive.  On the way back, I rounded a corner to see a big white-tailed deer step out of the bushes onto the road, not a hundred feet away.  The dogs froze for a moment, then took off running.  The deer gazed at them, still, then almost disdainfully, disappeared with a few enormous airy bounds.  Zia yelped helplessly in excitment “that’s the biggest rabbit I’ve ever seen!”
We have some work ahead of us before we will be able to move into our house.  It was built in the early 90’s, I think, but never quite finished. The “Wilkerson cabin” it was known as, but we are accepting suggestions for a new name.  It has been used for short periods on and off since 2001, but mostly just sat empty.  It has electricty, plumbing, and a phone line, unlike most of the abandoned houses/cabins here.  The entire place needs new flooring as there is old carpet in some rooms, and in others still just chipboard base.  It also begs for a new coat of paint.  Our specialty!  My only stipulation – no carpet – so we are installing vinyl planking (like a laminate) throughout, that is inexpensive, very durable, and I think will look great.  It is 1100 sq feet – a very managable size – with a large bay window in the living room which faces south.  A valuable feature in the wintertime when every ray of sunshine is sacred.  When the windows are open, you can hear the rush of the Graham River, just behind the house and down a  steep bank.  There is no garage, no driveway, and not even a road to the front door.  There is just a grassy path, although a road consisting of two tire tracks runs behind the house.
I bundled the children up in long sleeves, socks, leggings(for Lyra, who still insists on wearing a dress), and fleece coats and we walked over to help dad after we finished breakfast cleanup.  In an hour or so the coats were abandoned as the sun warmed us up.  I tackled the windows, scrubbing off layers of fly poop and killing dozens of sleepy, sluggish flies.  Fall – that season when all things seek out warm places to spend the winter months.  Spiders spin their webs in every corner,  mice enter under the kitchen stove.  We’d better take possession before nature beats us to it.  We, too, are thinking about warm places, about that pile of wood we still need to cut…
Lyra and Marley played with the dollhouse in the sunshine for a while, then lapsed into more creative play.  Lyra disappeared in the tall grasses, making a burrow like a rabbit, and Marley tackled the pile of scrap wood with his own “saw”.  I showed Lyra which rosehips are the best – the fat ones that are soft and almost a purpley red – and she and Marley got their Vitamin C for the day.  We packed up a picnic lunch, walked down a little bank, and out onto a gravel bar for a picnic by the river.  It is hard to imagine that all this land is ours for the use.  All these rocks, this sand, that water, those willows, that earth – ours to use, to enjoy.

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