The dog ate my homework

You know that old grade school excuse: "The dog ate my homework"? Well it's taken a digital turn and I, unfortunately must use it today... Here's the 2010 version for amateur bloggers: "The dog ate my camera". Yep, it's true, Mika, our sweet little blondie, totally ATE the camera I used to document my life in the mountains. Now believe me, I'm not exaggerating even just a little bit, she really did chew it up into tiny little bits. Broke open the lens (a retractable one, which means that she managed to OPEN the camera), she got the memory card out and broke it in half ! Even I had trouble getting that little bit of plastic out of the camera when it was a useful tool... how determined she was! So needless to say that both Mr. Fox and I were furious when we walked in after a day's work to find dozens and dozens of chewed metal and plastic bits all over the floor...
So basically that's my excuse for now... the dog ate my camera.
I'll have to resort to other means for the next posts to create colorful imaginary photos for you to see in your mind...

The seasons are changing !

Yikes I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post ! So much has changed... weather-wise that is! Take a look at a nice automn foggy morning.

And just a few days (or is it weeks!) later...

I'm so happy with the color we chose for the house, I think it stands out well in this foresty environment. Don't you?

As you know, we had quite a vegetable garden growing, but when the temperature dipped, we harvested all the tomatoes we could and this is our first crop...

Because we had sooooo many, I did some research and it turns out that you can actually help ripen green tomatoes indoors with a few different techniques... all worked beautifully.

Firstly, you can suspend them and they will ripen. So for a little while our kitchen looked a little bit like a Tuscan villa (ok, maybe I'm pushing it, but it looked great).

Another easy way to help speed up the ripening process is to place a few apples close by. The mix of enzymes will speed things up. Needless to say, by a few weeks, we had lots and lots of tomatoes, so I canned most of them, the old fashioned way. So in the cold winter days ahead, we'll have some juicy tomatoes to use in a comforting meal. Yummy.

Talking about yummy, I made my first hand-kneaded bread ! Smelled wonderful in the house and actually tasted pretty good too !

Well, that's it for now. I'm planning a baking extravaganza in the next while, so I'll take photos and share them with you soon ! Cheers !

Planting, growing, finishing touches

OK, so you know one of my favorite projects since we got the house is our garden, well it's been a great success, without toooooo much work and worry.

I had a bunch of trial plants and veggies that I watched sprout indoors, and then planted in our new garden patch. Well most everything grew (I say most because not a single carrot showed up for the party!), such as this beautiful crazy plant... my bean stalk !

But without a doubt, the big winner this year was the tomato. Our 3 plants (not from seed, but from small store bought stems) bloomed into huge leafy creatures that displayed hundreds (yes HUNDREDS) of tomatoes. Dozens and dozens of big beafy garden tomatoes and even more of the cute cherry variety. Here's a sample of some ripening on the vine.... so yummy.

Here, the weather has dropped quite a bit, especially at night, so it's time to plant the lilies and the bulbs that will flower next spring. I'm so eager to see the beautiful crocus flower, one of the earliest to bloom in spring, and many varieties of tulips should (if everything works out right) see the light in late spring and early summer. I even snuck in a few Narcissus... Should be grand !

And to polish everything off, Mr. Fox installed some lattice trellis under the front porch and around the front of the house. 

I like ! do you ?

More work to do, to prepare the house for the cold season, but with all the hard work we're doing, we should be nice and cozy...

Coupe, construction et préparation pour l'hiver

Mon Mr. Fox travaille le bois. Et il le fait bien. 

Que ce soit de tailler un gros cèdre douteux, un érable malade ou des sapins encombrants, il manie la "Chainsaw" ou la hache et coupe, coupe, coupe. Ca fait du bien à notre terrain, c'est plus "clean" et certainement plus sûr pour l'hiver. (Le cèdre s'étendait d'une manière inquiétante vers notre source d'électricité, une grosse bordée de neige et pouf, plus de cèdre, plus de courant. ) Merci Mr. Fox!

En plus de couper des arbres en détresse, il récupère et réutilise plusieurs pièces de bois que nous avons hérité avec la maison. Prenez ce volet, en très mauvais état, pas très attirant pour habiller notre maison fraichement peinte. 

Il l'a décapé, nettoyé, sablé et en a fait...

Le dessus de ce joli meuble qui agrémente l'entrée de notre maison.

Les portes aussi ont été recyclées d'une vieille boite qui se trouvait au grenier de l'atelier. Les étampes disent que ca date de 1952 !!! Et les casiers sont aussi des trouvailles.

C'est beau non ? J'aime beaucoup... merci mon Mr. Fox ! Té Hot!

Et puis, pendant qu'il construit, moi je prépare les fenêtres pour l'hiver. Sablage, grattage, peinture, 1 couche, 2 couches, scellant... on va être bien au chaud dans notre maison bleue !

D'autres infos et photos à venir bientot ! Ciao !

Le ti-chien grandit

OK, I know it's been way too long... please spare me the comments, I feel bad enough, but here I am with some photos...

Our little dog, Mika, is quite a bundle of energy, learning and fun. She keeps us on our toes as she discovers the world.

Lors d'une excursion à la plage municipale de St-Adolphe.

She's really learning to love the water.

I'll post some more pics soon, she's growing by the minute !
Ta ta for now !

There she is...

There she is... she's ALMOST done. We now know all about her very old siding, her multiple coats of paint, each little corner and her history of roofs. We spent most of our vacation painting our home and we're thrilled with the result. She still feels old and country, just more up-to-date and cleaner. 

All that's left are the two "lucarnes" (the windows inserted in the roof). We have some work to do on the structure and will have to wait a little bit longer before adding some color to them.

We also have to work on the windows, not the frames, the actual windows. Before the cold weather sets in, we'll scrape, caulk and paint all the windows of the house... there are quite a few.

And we'll also finish the roofing isolation from the back.

Alors, nous avons beaucoup de pain sur la planche avant de finir notre maison, mais comme Mr. Fox dit si bien, notre vieille maison a juste besoin d'un peu d'amour.

De l'amour, nous en avons et nous en donnons....

We'll take some evening photos soon and I'll post. The colour is drastically different.

Here's a pick of a new little visitor... a hare!

I'd love to read your comments.

What's on the menu for today ? A DAY OFF !!! I think we deserve it.

Ta ta for now.

Blue is Better

I think blue is better, for various things, such as the sky, lake water, a bunch of blueberries and our house !!!

Our version of Before And After Home Edition

Cream, beige and brown

White

Blue

Do you think Blue is Better ? Let me know.

Still lots to do, but we're getting there. Next post will include pics of flower boxes and other decorations !

Sorry, gotta go now, more painting to do !