I Can't Quite Believe We Did This

Since about the time we first met, Daniel and I have talked about how it would be nice to one day have a little bit of land with a stream running through it.  You know, a place to read, maybe do some fishing, go on hikes, and basically get away from it all. Back in early January, we had an email exchange that went something along the lines of:

Me:  Yeah, one of these days we'll have a cabin in the woods.

Daniel:  We'll never be able to afford one.

Me:  We can afford this one....

It just so happened that I had been browsing through the local property listings.  It's something I do on occasion, mostly so I can see the insides of all those fancy homes I know we'll never own.  This time I had stumbled across a little wooden cabin about 75 minutes drive north of here in an area called Garden Valley. 

Well, one thing led to another, and this Friday just gone we signed on the dotted line and officially purchased that little wooden cabin.

Here's the very first we saw of it, back in January:

And here's what it looked like once we'd slipped and slid our way over the snow and ice covered driveway and gotten a little closer:

It was built in 1977 by, we think, the previous owner's father.  He was a stone mason, which explains the sturdy construction, and the date explains the colour scheme:

Lots of burnt orange and fake wood panelling.  We had the same carpet in our bedroom in Illinois, but it wasn't in nearly as good condition as this is. 

Here's some more burnt orange for your viewing pleasure, looking basically in the opposite direction to the previous photo:

And in case you want any more proof that the place does the seventies proud, here it is:

 

Ah yes, the red, the shag, the gold-framed mirror!  It's very groovy.

Thing is, all these seventies features have been kept well enough that we can't justify replacing them, so I guess we'll be staying retro for quite some time. It's just too fab, man!

Here's where we'll be sleeping:

Although probably not in those beds.

The previous owner is going to leave the things he doesn't want, so we're not sure exactly what we'll have and what we'll need to get, but either way those beds are going!

The other photos I have are mostly of structural things; these were taken back in January for the purposes of reviewing them while we decided whether or not to make an offer on the place.  I'll get more once we've spent some time there.

We were a bit nervous about it; the place had been on the market for 12 months without selling, but we couldn't see any huge glaring faults (for example, that it was about to slide down the very steep hill it's perched on). 

As it turned out, most people had been put off by the fact that it shares a well and a septic with one property, and a bridge and private road with three properties.  No-one was sure if there were any agreements in place about how these things were to be shared, and I guess any prospective buyers balked at the idea of legal fees etc., to get everything taken care of.

Apparently previous interested parties didn't do (or I should say, didn't have their realtors do) a lot of research.  There are agreements for everything, and no further legal fees to be incurred on that front.  Hurray!  Fingers crossed the bridge doesn't wash away in a flood any time soon.

Speaking of bridges, we do have that stream we have talked about for so many years running along the front of the place. Word has it there may even be a trout or two to be caught there, which makes Daniel very happy. 

What makes us both thrilled is that it feels like a very happy place full of good memories of times spent there by previous visitors.  We plan on continuing that, whether it's one of us, both of us, or us and our friends who visit. The previous owner worked very hard to fix a whole lot of things for us, because he wanted us to be happy with it.  We didn't get to meet him, but I suspect he's a very nice man.

We have a little over two acres that backs onto public land so it can't be built out, and the road out front is gravel (which is to say, not some super highway full of trucks and cars).  A lot of people who have second homes have them slap bang in the middle of a town (such as Crouch, which is the nearest town, about 10 or so k's away).  We couldn't really see the point of that; why leave town for the weekend only to be in a place that's just like the one you left?  Not to mention the fact that a lot of people have second houses, not cabins.  A lot of them are better that our permanent home!

What we have bought is small (782 square feet), and should be quite low maintenance, barring a tree falling on the roof or something.  There's no dishwasher, no fancy granite counters, no six-burner top-of-the-line stove (it's electric, unfortunately) or spa bath (seriously, we've rented places with these things).  There's no mobile phone service, no internet access, and apparently free-to-air TV is a very dodgy proposition. There's no land line for a phone, either. 

It's just a very simple place in the bush away from people (we have a few neighbours, but our closest neighbour is there two weeks of the year), and it has a stream running through it.

I don't think either of us can quite believe we've done this.  To me it always seemed like something that only the fabulously wealthy could do, yet here we are waiting for Friday so we can go for a visit and get settled into our holiday home.

We're very lucky people.

I Made Some Hats, Too!

When I was teaching myself how to knit again (it had been a LONG time between knitting expeditions), I thought I might try knitting some hats from my wool stockpile for practice. 

I had the idea that I would donate them to a homeless shelter, but since we're nearly done with winter I that will have to wait for a while.  In the meantime, I thought you might like to see what I did.

I tried a variety of patterns, stitches and needles, including circular needles, which I'd never heard of before.  While I liked the fact that the circular-knitted ones don't have a seam up the side, I wasn't too thrilled with working the crowns with double-ended needles; that's a dropped-stitch (or twelve) disaster just waiting to happen!

It was fun, though, and quick.  A pretty decent way to keep myself out of mischief, all things considered.

So Here's My New Scarf

Knitted quite some time ago now, but as per usual it's taken me forever to post about it...

It's a bit fancy!  Mum and Dad sent me a ball of this special wool (the name of which I can't quite remember now).  At first, I was completely clueless as to what to do with it; it looked like a ball of very fat wool that I could knit maybe ten stitches with. 

Fortunately, a pattern arrived in the mail a few days later (thank you, Mum!), and after many and varied false starts, I got it finished.  I love the colours.  I never would have thought about combining brown and tan with grey, but it works beautifully.

I'm currently working on a cardigan in a shade of brown that just happens to go with the scarf.  Here's hoping I don't run out of winter before I get it done. 

And I thought you might like to see a photo of Maggie.  She was scooting around on the bed the other day while I was changing the sheets (she's likes to play under them), and she was being so damn adorable, I went and got the camera.  Poor girl's fighting an ear infection at the moment, but fortunately for both of us, she's not at all upset about having cream put in her ear.

Not bad for 17 going on 18. What's that, about 500 in human years?

Australians All...

Not sure that our rejoicing was as fancy as a lot of people's.  For a start, it was a normal work day.  Then there was the fact that it was rainy and winter-ish outside... not quite Australia Day Barbie weather.  And we were starting our small celebration when you were all in bed recovering from yours.

Having said that, I did make good old meat pies for dinner, and thanks to Barb I even got to dress them up!  Her package arrived right on time, too. Thank you for the lovely surprise, Barbara, it completely made my day.

I put some of the little flags on the front door, too, just to make sure that people know an Australian lives here (I suspect most of our neighbours think I'm English).

Barb also sent me an Australia-shaped biscuit cutter (minus Tasmania).  I'm looking forward to making some biscuits.  I think I'll even make little bits for Tassie.

But back to the pies.  They were pretty good; my shortcrust pastry actually worked out for once. Of course they were generously annointed with tomato sauce.  Here's my artsy photo of them:

Hope you all had a lovely day, whatever you did or didn't do to celebrate.  And I hope you all still feel like you're living in the Lucky Country.

Cheers!

I Wish It Was Spring!

Not because I'm wishing the winter away (although some snow would be nice), but because

I WANT TO WEAR THESE!

How groovy are these fabulous gardening shoes that Aileen sent me for Christmas?  They're lightweight, waterproof, have really good treads, and they fit beautifully.  I can't wait to put them to good use.  I don't think dashing out to the compost bin in the rain, which I did today, really counts.

Speaking of Christmas, Daniel has been good enough to share some Cherry Ripes with me from the stash of outrageous goodies that Frog sent.  Yay!

We invited our friend Chris over and we had olive and artichoke pies, ham, green beans, tartiflette (a fabulously sinful potato dish, the recipe for which is here), and then Daniel made ginger creme brulee for dessert.  Oh, and here's the recipe for the pies.  I'm sure I don't really need to mention that they're both from taste.com.

To top things off (as if that wasn't enough), we visited our friends Shannon and Henry for more dessert on Christmas night.  Shannon had made a chocolate and walnut pie similar to a pecan pie that was to die for.  Needless to say, much exercising has been going on since then!

We had a lovely, relaxing day, as did the furry folk.  Although, to be honest, they rarely do anything else these days.

Oh, and we had the best Christmas tree ever.  We didn't get it until the Thursday before, so all the trees were on sale to the point that we got ours in exchange for a donation to charity. Double bonus, in my opinion.

Pretty cool, huh?  It takes up lots of our admittedly tiny living room, and almost reaches the ceiling!

Hope you and yours all had a lovely Chirstmas, too.  I'm off work this week... trying, and almost succeeding, to do some productive things around the house.

Cheers!

Sad But True

So since I'm having trouble moving photos from the camera to the computer (I suspect dead batteries), I thought I'd share this little Sad But True tale with you.

Daniel went to the store to get the bits and pieces we needed for Christmas, which included some fresh green beans.  Can't have ham without green beans!  He was sorting through them when a woman approached him to ask him how he was going to cook them.  Read that again if you need to double-check, but yes, she wanted to know how he was going to cook the beans!  She then went on to say she'd never had a fresh green bean because... wait for it... SHE DIDN'T KNOW HOW TO COOK THEM!!!!  Seriously.  How sad is that?

Even worse, it reminded me of a time I had a similar experience at the green bean stand.  And when I explained to this particular person that, apart from steaming or stir-frying them, I also eat them raw in salads, you would have thought I had just killed and eaten her firstborn child.

Sad.  Very sad.  But unfortunately very true.

Recipe Update

I have some recipes to share with you all, but before I do, I want to crab about this here blog-thing. 

I spent AGES writing a post about the holiday Daniel and I took in northern Idaho at the beginning of October.  I waxed lyrical, wrote witty photo captions, and selected some lovely photos to share. I previewed it to make sure everything was okay, hit the "publish" button, and then watched as most of it failed to publish... AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGH! 

Not only that, but I couldn't retrieve it.  There simply are not enough swear words....

It is probably out there in the ether somewhere at the moment feeling very lonely and scared, so if you see my post, could you please send it home?  Thanks.

In the meantime....

Here it is, The Best Turkey Recipe Ever.  There's a radio show over here called Splendid Table, and the recipe hails from their website.

I'm always a little nervous about cooking the Thanksgiving turkey.  I don't often roast things, and Thanksgiving is my favourite American holiday so I really don't want to stuff it up. I'm not sure this recipe is completely stuff-up proof, but I did manage to navigate it successfully and roast a bird that I was very, very pleased with.  I will warn you, though, it's time-consuming; so make sure you have plenty of said time before you commit yourself.

A few things I discovered: 

• The recipe itself is a little scattered, but it's not difficult to work out what is intended.  It's also fun to read, which is a nice change from all those terribly serious recipes out there.

• I had a 17-pound turkey, and the seasoning mix was a little more than I thought was really necessary.  It definitely seasoned the meat, though!

• Don't skip the gravy, but make sure you have a decent sized shallow tray to roast in.  Mine was a little small, and it took forever to reduce the stock down to the point where it became gravy.  The gravy itself doesn't need thickening; it's very, very rich and a little goes a long way, unless you're Daniel.

• When the recipe calls for lots of lemon, it means it.  I think that made all the difference to the seasoning.

• It doesn't have stuffing, but I'm sure you could add that yourself and adjust the cooking time accordingly.

I can safely say that it was the most tender, juiciest turkey I've ever had.  Daniel and Chris, both of whom have had more Thanksgivings than me, said it was the best turkey they'd ever had. Yay!  And it wasn't even a fancy turkey, just one from the supermarket.

Now I know it's hot over there, and stew is probably the last thing on your mind, but I also wanted to share this recipe with you from our friends at Taste.com: Catalan Beef Stew

Chocolate and orange in a stew; who'da thunk it? Apart from the Catalans, of course.

It is absolutely delicious, and this is from someone who thought she didn't really fancy stew all that much.  Pop it into your mental  filing system and drag it out the next time you get a yen for some stew.  You won't regret it.