As the termination dust starts to settle on the mountains and slowly work its way down, it’s my annual reminder of all of those things I intended to do but never quite got around to this past summer. Cleaning out the carport, cleaning out the shed(s), cleaning out the storage rooms in the house, etc.
“There is a season, turn, turn, turn.”
Do you see a pattern here?
I’m going to blame it on the Oilers. Yeah, that’s it! I’ve been an Oilers fan since I was a little kid. We had season tickets all through the glory years. I witnessed Wayne Gretzky come and go as an Oiler and, of course, the decade of despair prior to the McDavid years.
So, of course, watching them right up until the end of June and Game 7 of the final round was far more important than cleaning out the shed. We’ll go with that.
As I get older, my enthusiasm for trying to tidy up places when I don’t have anywhere else to put the stuff does seem to wane. It’s a vicious circle. That termination dust on the hills is also my cue to get the house and yard ready for the winter. Some things can not be put off.
Our house is primarily heated with a woodstove. We have electric backup in about two-thirds of it, but that’s expensive, so we go through about three to four cords a year on average. I’m adamant about cleaning the chimney before we start it up in the fall, so I do my death-defying climb up onto the roof, usually three or four times during the process.
Don’t get me wrong. Over the years, I’ve worked on many siding and roofing crews and have no problems with ladders or heights. It’s just that lately, well … now I do. The stakes are higher. Older bones take longer to heal and my lovely wife Pam isn’t mobile enough to take care of herself and the house should I have a nasty accident.
So I just put on my big boy panties (and fall-arrest harness) and get on with it.
Our house has a huge addition on the side with a 13.5-foot cathedral ceiling–about a 15-foot high outside peak. From there I climb up onto the main roof, which is about a 25-foot peak.
The view is amazing. The chimney-cleaning process is not.
The chimney extends about seven feet from the roof, which involves taking off the brace and top four feet in order to get the brush in. I lower the top section, complete with cap, to the lower roof to clean that, as it’s a much gentler slope.
Time for a coffee break before I go back up and put it all together again.
Once it’s all safely put back together it’s time for a celebration … a beer and nip of tequila, clean out the woodstove and get it lit. Bearly Dog is always very happy, as are Pam and I. We’re reminded once again that the warmth of a woodstove is our absolute favourite. We wouldn’t trade that for the world.
Number one chore of the year is accomplished.
Number two chore is the well. Ours is about 20 feet below grade. The shaft is incredibly well made: two-by-six construction, fully insulated and vapour barriered. At the very bottom, by the well head, is a 150-watt infrared heat lamp that keeps the shaft and well warm enough to not freeze, until we hit about -40 for a few days.
Before the snow hits, I lift the lid and lower down a metal ‘milk barn’ space heater set to high. I use a 100-foot extension cord that reaches right to the deck, so when I need to, all I have to do is go out in my slippers and plug it in to thaw the well. It usually takes about 15 to 20 minutes until we have water again.
We’ve learned a few things about the well over the years. First is the incredible insulating value of snow. A few years ago, I didn’t put the heater down the well until it froze in mid-January. By then I had to shovel about three feet of snow off the lid just to get the heater down there.
(Some not-fit-for-print words emerged as I slogged through knee-deep snow in -40 temperatures to accomplish this task.)
After that, the well froze again every night for about a week without that snow cap on top to keep things warm. Lesson learned!
The other thing we’ve learned is that, when the weather forecast says it will hit -40 overnight, I go out just before bed and plug in the heater for 20 minutes. That seems to warm things up enough that the well doesn’t freeze. But we always pour a jug of water to make coffee in the morning, just in case.
Another really important thing is to empty and roll up our hundreds of feet of garden hose for the garden and greenhouse. Number three chore completed.
It’s always a great idea to pull out the pressure washer one last time to give the car and deck a squirt and knock the mud swallow’s nest off the big yard light so it doesn’t catch fire when it heats up.
Finally, after harvesting what’s left of the garden that didn’t already freeze, or get eaten by the deer, it’s time to mount the tiller on the tractor and give it all a really deep till. I’ll till it again in the spring before we plant.
The jury’s out on whether this helps, or if I’m just burying the weed seeds nice and deep to survive the winter.
I see that termination dust is creeping ever closer to ground level. It won’t be long until we start to see it in the yard. Living out in the bush has its challenges and chores, but we couldn’t imagine a better way to live.
I still have the pile of wood to split and stack in the woodshed, some tidying of deck chairs and a few other little things, but I can always do those later in the snow!For now, it’s time for a beer and a nip, and to enjoy the warmth of that woodstove. After all, there’s an Oilers game on tonight!
