Getting Ready

The warm weather and steady melting, despite the time of year, have caused us to start thinking about the upcoming growing season, our fourth.

So far, with each successive year we've improved our production and selected an ever improving crop array.  Obviously, we're hoping for similar similar successes this year by building on what we've learned in past years.

Over the past three years we've two crops that have proven to be particularly successful: potatoes and celery.

Last year, thanks to Jeannette and my Mother, we had our potatoes in the ground early and producing potatoes early enough that we were able to have two crops in part of our potato patch.

Though starter celery plants were purchased at the same time as the original seed potatoes, they didn't end up going in the ground quite as early.  If I recall correctly, we again pushed our luck and put them in just a week or so later, still in early May.

This year, based on a few photos I saw online, I'm going to try a slightly different approach with the celery.  Instead of (or maybe in addition to) starter plants, I'm going to try to use the bases of the celery bunches that I buy over the next few weeks to start the plants.

So far, I've got two such plants going and I seem to be making some progress.

I'm really quite impressed by how much development I'm getting after about a week or so.

That said, I suspect that without the development of a new root structure - which I haven't seen yet - this operation may not be much of a success.  Assuming I do get new roots and the growth continues, I'm hoping that by the time we're ready to transplant our celery plants we'll have a few that will be ready to go and they will have come to us at no additional cost.

Cameron - 11

Neil - 0

New Neighbour Day

My gut is that just about a year ago a neighbour across the street decided to move to BC to be closer to her children.  Not surprisingly, this same neighbour placed her house on the market.  Though it did take a few days for the house to sell, it did sell a fair bit more quickly than many of the other houses in our neighbourhood that have been on the market recently (there are two on our street that have to be approaching at least 2 years with no movement).

Sadly, soon after the sale was announced it became clear that the house hadn't been purchased by an individual but by a developer interested in demolishing the cute yellow house occupying the lot and replacing it with two much larger homes.

I get a little hazy about the order of operations, but at some point not long after the sale closed the house entered a partial demolition phase - though the demolition was definitely just partial.  I know the front door was removed and I heard rumours that a few of the fixtures were also removed.  Conveniently, the windows were left handy so that they could be smashed at a later date.

At some point between the point of possession and the time of the final, complete demolition the houses being advertised by the developer were removed from the market.  Though we didn't know what, we could tell that something was in the works.

Eventually, as Summer transitioned to Fall, construction began in earnest on the two houses - which now appeared to be mirror images of one another.  Much to our surprise, the houses went up quickly and work on the finishing touches has continued throughout the Winter.

Of course, during this entire construction phase there has been a single, common For Sale sign between the two newly subdivided lots.  As far as we could tell, neither had sold, nor was there much apparent interest in the semi-complete houses.

Of course, it was just about two days ago that I finally clued in to the fact that these 'houses' aren't really 'houses,' but two suite mini-apartment buildings.  Each building seems to have an upstairs and main floor apartment.  How we didn't clue into this fact until earlier this week I will never know (though I think it's fair to say that the developers didn't make a show of it either).

Anyway, today, just days after noticing the two-flat situation we came home from a walk to discover people moving into one of the main floor flats/suites/units/apartments.  Pretty exciting.

Then, after a few errands, we both came home to a second move-in a little later in the day.

Definitely an exciting development for the two new, as-yet-unstuccoed and unlandscaped buildings across from us.

Though I haven't yet seen much activity from the newly arrived residents, I imagine that over the next few days we'll begin to see a little more of them as they get to know the neighbourhood?

Cameron - 8
Neil - 0

Sweet Treats

Last weekend, and again this past weekend, Jeannette asked about the possibility of me making sweet treats for her to consumer.  For reasons that are unclear to me, I didn't quite get around to making anything particularly sweet to eat last weekend.

When the request was lodged again this weekend I decided that I couldn't put it off any longer, I was going to have to make something on the sweet side of things.

I turned to the Oh She Glows cookbook for inspiration.  Since my parents gave us a copy of this book last spring we've both found it to be a good source for relatively healthy recipes that taste good.  Because all of the recipes are also vegan it is particularly handy.

I soon settled on the Chilled Chocolate Espresso Torte at least in part because it called for 3/4 cup of hazelnuts, which we just happened to have in the cupboard.  Of course, what I didn't know when I settled upon this recipe was that the 'chilled' was really 'frozen' and that the while the prep time for this recipe wasn't all that bad, the final chill was to take some number of hours (like quite a number of hours).

Maybe this is why it is good to read the full recipe (and not just the ingredient list) before you settle on a recipe?

Anyway, before long I had the crust in the oven and was on to preparing the filling.  The only real delay was the baking of the crust, which was delayed by 30 to 45 minutes because our oven has started taking quite a long time to heat up.

Soon enough everything was assembled and the torte was in the freezer for the required chilling time.

When all was said and done that evening we were finally ready to sample the torte.  Much to my surprise, I was a little disappointed by the crust - which was definitely a little cardboardy.  Sadly, I think the my equipment and ingredients may be to blame - as the recipe made sense.  

On the equipment front, I think that even after about an hour in the oven I may not have really toasted the crust quite enough.  I suspect that this process didn't quite manage to impart the desired flavour.  Bummer.  

On the ingredient front, I had a sense that the oat flour I was using may have been a little off even before I used it.  Now I'm almost certain the oat flour is off.  Guess it's time for new oat flour.

That said, I think that possibly using granola instead of rolled oats might be a good improvement to the crust.  Jeannette and I agree that this might be a good way to add a little extra flavour to the dish without really adding much sugar (or other nutritional components we don't want).  Alternatively, we also wondered how this might work with a completely different crust?

Once I realized that I'd begun making a dish that wouldn't be ready for many hours I continued to flip through the cookbook a little more, this time settling on the 'Yolo' recipe.

What was striking about this recipe was the simple ingredient list, really just a handful of ingredients the primary being chocolate chips and dates.

The general premise of the recipe is a date-based faux-caramel enrobed in chocolate.

The date paste takes almost no time to make, though does require some chilling before it can be handled properly.  Even with this chilling I found working with the paste tricky.  I think that the next time I make this recipe I will opt for a much more extended chilling process, and I may even try to find a way to freeze the past in a shape that will be conducive to handling while almost frozen.

Once the date paste is in the desired shape (and chilled again) all you have to do is dip it in chocolate and let it cool.

The end product was amazing.  It was hard to believe it was date.  Had I been served this blind I never would have guessed that they were date based, or that they were so easy to make.  

On Sunday Jeannette finally talked me into making yeast-based doughnuts.  I'd long been putting these off because of the length of the process and because even a half batch of the Joy of Cooking recipe would leave us with about 12 doughnuts.

On the other side of the equation, I've long been curious to try making this style of doughnut (as I've always made cake doughnuts in the past).

Much to my surprise, the Joy of Cooking recipe was relatively easy to veganize.  I think that the only ingredients I had to swap out were the butter and eggs.  

Once I got going what I liked about the process is that though there were several stages, each stage was relatively discrete and simple.  In all, only a few minutes of labour was required before the donuts were to rolled and fried.

The downside of the process was that, like the torte, several hours of waiting are required before the product is ready.

Another downside is that even once we'd made it through all the waiting, the doughnuts were a little dense and fat-clogged.

At least they looked like doughnuts (once we figured out the glazing process).

While I'm glad to say that I went through this process once, I'm not sure I'll be too keen to do this again just to end up with a dozen greasy, not-to-pillowy doughnuts.

Fortunately, aside from the doughnuts, the first two dishes weren't too unhealthy, nor do they demand to be eaten within minutes of being made.

Cameron - 5
Neil - 0

Biggish Dig - 4

After several weeks of developments that made the site actually look like something of a 'dig' (meaning there was a hole) we've now returned to a relatively flat construction site (but with piles sticking out of the ground in a few places).  It's all rather underwhelming and kind of looks as though someone with a drilling rig is just basically driving around and drilling on a whim (though I'm sure that's very far from reality).

The return to flatland (making for rather uncompelling photos) and the addition of a barricade on the portion of the sidewalk that used to take me past the worksite explains the paucity of updates.



I'm hoping that as the days get longer and standing with my hand exposed while I reach above the fence to take a photo becomes more pleasant I'll begin to take a few photos and observe the process more closely.



Despite the apparent slow progress, it's still quite entertaining to watch this process unfold.

Cameron - 2
Neil - 0

Biggish Dig - 3

Big, big developments on the worksite.

As of yesterday, they have begun to actually deliver construction materials to the site.

Similarly, though this thing arrived a few days ago, it seems that each day more equipment has been showing up on the work site.  At the moment I'd say that most days are averaging almost ten pieces of equipment and about seven pick-up trucks.

This guys are making very quick work of the remnants of the foundation.  Much to my surprise they made quick work of the foundation floor.  At this rate they will have completed the demolition by the end of the week.

Presumably once the demolition the excavation will extend beyond this kind of thing.

Really don't quite get this point of this kind of activity.

Biggish Dig - 2

Somewhat surprisingly, given the history of the project, excavation has continued at quite a pace.  Even with just a single digging tool good progress was being made.

Of course, there was a hell of a lot of work to do.  And on the educational front, who knew that there was so much rebar hidden in the basements of old buildings?  This must be what they mean when they talk about re-inforced concrete?

Eventually a second digging tool, though smaller, was added to the mix.  This little guy's now been going at it hard for days.  Unfortunately, because I don't get a chance to watch them in action for much more time than it takes me to walk past the job site, I can't say how much of a contribution this guy is making to the original machine.  Presumably it's doing something useful?

Maybe it helps sort the rebar from the cement?

Maybe even more significant than the ramping up of the excavation of the old foundation is that the pile driving/drill has been moving around the work site and fitted with a drill attachment.

In a few instances I've even been lucky enough to see it actually drilling into the ground - suggesting that the project is working on tasks parallel to the foundation excavation.  Sadly, despite the use of this machine on a least a few of the last few days, I still haven't seen much evidence that it's digging/driving efforts extent much past the first few inches of top soil.

Then a few days ago this pile of dirt seemed to come from nowhere.  Weird.

If they're not careful they'll end up with a perfectly manicured cement floor six feet below ground level.

Of course, while I don't get to see all of these exciting developments as they happen I am starting to get the sense that I am at least getting the chance to feel some of the more significant developments.  With increasing frequency I am starting to feel a variety of vibrations as I pass my time working at my desk.  I am worried that if the shaking and jiggling is this bad without pile driving, I could really be in for a treat once the pile driving starts.

Biggish Dig - 1

One of the most prominent intersections in Regina is where Albert Street and Victoria Avenue cross.  Not only is this intersection significant because it is the meeting point of two of Regina's most important thoroughfares, but also because it, more or less, marks the centre of the city.

Since before we moved to Regina in late 2012 this intersection has been notable for another reason, one having nothing to do with its significance as the meeting place of Regina's major north/south and east/west routes, but that for years one corner of this intersection has been nothing but a vacant lot.

Of course, for years there was talk of a major condo/hotel development.

For years nothing happened.

Eventually they swapped out the old fence surrounding the site for a new see-through fence.

Progress!

Then in September it was announced that in October real would start on the development.  Finally.

Of course, the real work wasn't scheduled to begin until after Thanksgiving.

When a single backhoe and dump truck showed up and seemed to move some old pavement around for a few days I wasn't particularly convinced the project was really a go.

Of course, after quite a number of days of similar action/equipment my hopes weren't much lifted.

Eventually, in time for the October 28, 2015 photo op this pile driver was delivered.  Aside from its use as a backdrop for the photo op I don't get the sense that this has done anything much yet.  And as my understanding of piles is that they aren't driven until excavation has been done, that six levels of parking excavation are still incomplete/not started I can't see how this thing is going to be of much use for the next few months.

Of course, it wasn't until yesterday/today that I've really started to have any faith that the project is really going to move forward.  Finally, for as far as I can tell, the first time obvious attempts at excavation were in the works.

Of course, what this excavation seems to show is that the hotel that was previously on this site was only partially demolished.  The top was knocked down while the foundation was left to rot/be dug out years later.  Now that I see how much demolition is still required before true excavation can start I am worried that much progress will be made before Winter sets in.

Of course, one of the real reasons I'm particularly interested in this construction site has nothing to do with the significance of the intersection or it's impact on the re-development of downtown Regina - but because my new job is located in the building next to the construction site.  

Days after I arrived is when they years delayed project finally started.

Even though we're only a few days into real work transpiring the sidewalk I pass along to get to work is already covered with mud - a problem that is only likely to grow worse with continued excavation.

So I guess at the heart of it I'm really just another NIMBYer, or at least a LMSTPPACSWRINer (Let's Make Sure This Project Proceeds According to Code and Schedule and With Respect for Its Neighbours).

I'll do my best to keep you updated until this whole thing is complete, which should be some time in 2018.

Hooray for timing!

New Exercise Equipment

Finally, years after leaving Halifax and a nice chin-up bar behind, I have managed to hook myself up with a nice new set up.

Actually, unfortunately, this thing is a bit of a monstrosity.  

Jeannette hates it.

I'm coming around her to her point of view.

Bummer.

On the upside, I finally have a chin-up bar.

A pretty successful summer

With the addition of our fourth raised bed (and the subsequent addition of our stone paths) our vegetable garden has really started to produce rather substantial quantities of vegetables, particularly potatoes and celery. Oh, and kale and spinach.

Starting in July our harvests started becoming pretty regular.

And gradually began into include a few potatoes.

And eventually grew to include carrots and tomatoes.

Finally, a few days ago we pulled up most of the remaining potatoes.

We also managed to collect a few squash and peppers.  Sadly, neither of these to types were particularly productive this year.

The good news is that after another year we've learned a little more about what works and what doesn't work.

Carrots, the non-stubby varieties, actually work quite well.  Next year we'll try to grow quite a few more than we did this year.

Tomatoes, even only four plants, can be incredibly productive.  Fortunately, Jeannette has started making her own sauce so this overabundance will not go to waste.  Now that we have a better approach to dealing with the crop we probably won't have to worry about having too many tomatoes.  Also, smaller cherry-like tomatoes seem to do much better than larger tomatoes (and are preferred by Jeannette).

Potatoes are easy and productive and one needn't wait until the end of the season to begin harvesting.  By gradually taking a few potatoes at a time, as needed, we didn't have to worry about storing many pounds of potatoes and either having no potatoes or all of the potatoes.  If anything, I think we may be inclined to go pretty heavy on the potatoes again next year.

Squash just hasn't been worth the space.  We dedicated 1/4 of our space to squash growth and ended up with one fully ripe spaghetti squash and a few smaller unripe spaghetti squashes.  Next year we're not going to waste our time with squash.

Spinach, kale, and celery are great season long producers.  In all cases I think we had pretty good numbers of plants to allow for outputs that we could consume without having to worry about spoilage.

My attempt to grow romaine lettuce was a failure.  As I'm not really all that much of a lettuce eater I think I'll give this a skip next year and focus on foods I really like.

Peppers are definitely a little hit and miss.  Most of our plants produced at least a single edible pepper, but many only produced a single edible pepper.  Our small chili pepper plant, on the other hand, has been producing chili peppers for months.  Next year we should just stick to this one type of pepper plant (as we've now had two consecutive years of success with this type of plant).

And while we're not quite done with this year's harvest I think it's pretty clear that we're already looking ahead to next year.  With a little luck, we may even to break even on our vegetable plot investment by next year (though that may require some real luck).

Raised beds and our long-term plan

Our first vegetable garden attempt more or less just consisted of us deciding on a location for our garden and then ripping up most of the grass, adding some peat, planting some seeds, and calling it a day.  Not surprisingly, aside from the potatoes, it was a pretty big disappointment.  Not only were there a few specific drainage problems, the overall soil quality was pretty poor (which we soon learned is common throughout the Regina region).

Part way through the first summer it became pretty clear that some sort of raised bed option would be required if we wanted soil and drainage that might lead to half-reasonable crop production.

We decided to go with a Lee Valley raised bed kit option that made for the pretty quick construction of our raised beds.  We were able to crank out three beds in an afternoon last year.  Of course, filling these guys with top soil probably took more time and effort than their construction.

After a relatively successful growing season last year we decided to expand our set up to include a fourth raised bed.  Again, the bed construction was quite quick.

Because we had only one raised bed to fill, instead of three, we decided to fill it with bagged topsoil and peat we purchased at local garden centres instead of having a load of topsoil delivered.  Several garden centre runs later this objective was completed.

Soon after we completed the fourth raised bed we realized that because much of the area between our raised beds was the same area that had been the site of our original garden site the grass we'd torn up had come back as weeds.  This looked really bad and probably wasn't helping our raised beds stay weed free.  

We decided that we would install a brick barrier and some weed barrier before dropping a few tonnes of rocks around the beds.

Turns out that rocks are heavy and hard to shovel.  We didn't manage to redistribute the rocks in a single session as I originally, overly optimistically, thought we would.  To make matters worse, immediately after our first rock moving session the garage, with all of our recently re-housed tools, became inaccessible because the garage door broke in the down position.

After some hand moving and also our garage door repair, I was finally to take a few more cracks at rock moving and finally finish up.

No we just have to work at getting grass to grow in the various bald patches and weeds to not grow everywhere else.  Maybe in a few years from now we might actually have a backyard that isn't most embarrassing (and because we don't have a garage or fence obscuring the view the entire alley can see our shame).

Looks aside, the great news is that all four raised beds seem to be doing quite well.  If all goes as planned by the end of the summer we will have the following crops: potatoes, green onions, celery, peas, edamame, peppers, cherry tomatoes, butter nut squash, pumpkins, green beans, carrots, spinach, kale, romaine lettuce, radishes, and kohlrabi (as well as an assortment of herbs and berries).  

Hazy shade of Summer

After a very dry Spring and early Summer, Saskatchewan (and its bordering provinces) has entered a very severe forest fire season.  While the fires are more or less limited to the Northern portion of the province, just about the entire province is suffering in one way or another.

Things took a turn for the worse in Regina late this morning when the smoke from the Northern fires finally began to drift into town.  By my brief lunch-hour walk about my building there was enough smoke that it was irritating my throat and had gone a fair way towards obscuring the sun (that it wasn't over 30 was the only consolation prize).  It wasn't long after the smoke began to move through town that you could even begin to smell it inside.

Of course, as the day/evening has progressed the situation hasn't improved.  Actually, it's bad enough that we are being discouraged from outdoor activities (including things like pet walking).

So kids, if anyone ever asks you can let them know that forest fires can be trouble for a much wider portion of the population than just those individuals put in harm's way by the fire.

That time of the year again

For the third spring thaw in a row, a small section of our backyard seems to be the final resting place for a number of small birds.  Just yesterday, my first inspection of the year, I was able to find two birds.

If the trend continues like years past, I'll continue to find these guys every few days for the next few weeks and then the trend will mysteriously stop.

Though I haven't done all of that much work to find out what might be happening, I have spoken with my co-workers (all longer term residents of Regina than Jeannette and I) and none of them have ever experienced anything quite like this in their own backyards.

Collect all 10

Finally, after more than a 30 year hunt, I managed to visit all 10 Canadian provincial capitals.  Maybe surprisingly, Edmonton was my white whale - remaining just out of reach for years and years.

Because I was in Edmonton for work purposes in the Winter I didn't really see much of the city, though I did make it over to the legislature and I was able to take a few trips on the city's public transit system.

I was quite pleased that my hotel room for the final night of my stay even had a view of the legislative building.

Cameron - 13
Neil - 0

Glasses fix

For about 20 years I have been wearing glasses.  For almost 20 years glasses have been sliding down my nose and falling off of my face.  This has been the case with every pair of glasses I've owned (strip on sports goggles excepted).  It's been infuriating (though, still, I've never even considered contact lenses).

Though I'm not sure that it's actually the case, the problem seems to have gotten much worse with my current pair of glasses.  I think a conservative estimate might be that I adjust my glasses on my face hundreds of times a day.  In many cases the adjustment may constitute catching and repositioning my glasses as they literally fall from my face while engaged in low-impact tasks like dish washing.  Even just sitting a desk typing may be enough to dislodge my glasses.

According to experts in the field (AKA opticians I've consulted) it is possible to have glasses that don't fall off of one's face constantly.  Apparently it's all in how the glasses are fitted.  I'm not sure how much I believe this.

Recently, in the hundred plus adjustments a day era, I mentioned this problem to Jeannette.  She responded by telling me about some rubber attachments her brother used to use.

Before long I found similar products online for a very reasonable price and decided to give them a shot.

I've now had my new rubber attachments in place for the past 2.5 days.  One thing that is immediately apparent is that my glasses are not falling from my face - which is exactly what I hoped.  Unfortunately, now that my glasses are always almost strapped on to my head via my ears I've begun to feel the attachments rubbing behind my ears.  Hopefully after a few days of regular use this will no longer be an issue.  In any event, I'm inclined to think that a some behind-the-ear discomfort might be worth not having to adjust my glasses hundreds of times a day.

Cameron - 5

Neil - 0

It never ends (but at least we now have something shiny)

The previous owners of our house, the adult son and daughter of the previous resident, were very much unlike people one is often warned about when buying a house.  They were both quite open about the work it would take to maintain the house as well as many of the problems they knew to exist - and they definitely didn't sugar-coat anything.  One of the things they mentioned, and that we've since been able to confirm, is that the people they hired to re-enamel the bathtub didn't do a very good job.

Soon after we moved in the new coating began to peel from the side of the tube.  As is common with these things, the area began to grow and grow.  Eventually a second location began to peel.  Eventually, each bath would lead to several square inches of peeling.

It became clear that a new re-surfacing was in our future.  Of course, given the life-span of the last refinishing I wasn't too keen on rushing into another round if it was not going to even last 2 years.

Fortunately, we learned that the previous re-surfacing was done by a fly-by-night operator and not the main re-surfacing company in Regina.  The main company in Regina has a reputation for good workmanship and has resurfaced the bathtubs of friends in the neighbourhood.

So yesterday, after 2 years of an ever worsening bathtub we had it resurfaced again.  Amazingly, the whole process - including stripping - only takes the better part of a work day.  So now that we've let it dry overnight we should be ready to use it at any point today.  

I can't wait to test it out later today.

Cameron - 4

Neil - 0

Cats

For approximately the past 2 years we've had cats.  First came Marie and then a few months later she was joined by Pierre.

Though I've basically gotten used to their presence, there are still moments when they surprise me.

Then there are moments when I forget about them trying to climb into drawers or knock things off of ledges to get our attention.

Of course, it's still hard to come to terms with the idea of having several animals loose in our house.  It still just seems a little weird.

A consequence of their arrival, to which I hope I never become accustomed, is the presence of their hair on just about everything.  It's incredible how much of this stuff exists just about everywhere.  Maybe even more infuriating is that whenever clean up attempts are made hair can be found in the cleaned areas just moments later.

In an attempt to combat this longstanding frustration about two weeks ago we purchased a pet Roomba to somewhat passively and regularly clean the main floor of our house.

When we first ran it we were disgusted to see how much hair and dust we picked up - the hopper was completely full.  Since we've had the device we've run it at least once a day - sometimes twice - and we're always amazed to see how much cat hair we manage to collect.  While the hopper is no longer packed after each session, it's still regularly about 50% full.

So anyway - cats...

A Few Quick Notes 614

-Though thunder showers were originally in today's forecast, it turned out to be an almost perfect day.  It's been sunny, still, and about 22 for quite a while.

-Much to my chagrin, thanks to coaxing from Jeannette I ended up watching today's 'Labour Day Classic' between the Roughriders and the Blue Bombers.  After the lead changing hands a few times in the 4th quarter the Riders managed to pull out a last minute victory.  Despite the lead changes, it didn't seem to be a particularly exciting or well-played game (not that I'm in a position to be much of a judge of these things).

The best part of the game was from about the 1st quarter on when Pierre decided to take a nap on my lap.  He more or less stayed in place for the rest of the game (even after I repositioned him).

-Sooner rather than later Jeannette and I need to arrange for a new garage door.  We did some preliminary investigating a few weeks ago and a little more today.  Hopefully we'll have something fingered out in the next few days.  The upside may be that the new door should be much better than our old door, even before it was broken.

-Our garden harvests have been quite plentiful this year.  Today I was able to make some cabbage soup with carrots, green beans, and potatoes from our garden.  Maybe today or tomorrow I'll have to head out and snag a big harvest of spinach and kale and also a squash or two.

The new soil and raised beds we added to our set-up really seem to have helped.  If we're able to add two more next year, as we're planning, we should really be in position to have a substantial harvest.

-Maybe I'll manage to get Jeannette to go for a walk this evening.  It really is a perfect night for a walk.

Build-a-bed

When Jeannette moved from Wolfville to Ottawa a few years ago one of the first things she purchased was a relatively inexpensive, easy-to-assembly bed from a major Scandinavian retailer specializing in such things.  Not surprisingly, by the time I arrived in Ottawa a few months later and we needed to disassemble the bed for the first time we began to notice a few signs of deterioration, though at the time they were all relatively superficial.

Despite these weaknesses we continued to use the bed, and even moved it from Ottawa to Regina.  During this move more substantial damage to the bed was sustained, so much damage that the moving company compensated us for the cost of the bed.  Of course, despite the damage (and likely because our belongings were delivered on the evening of December 23rd) we continued to use the bed.

While no new damage to the bed occurred during our move from our apartment to new house, it quickly became clear that our bed was on borrowed time.  The absence of a head board which meant that almost every time one propped pillows against the wall behind the bed the bed would be pushed further from the wall was incredibly trying and maybe the single most compelling justification for us to get a new bed.

Because of our relatively unsatisfactory experience with our previous bed we began compiling a list of features, or characteristics, we hoped our new bed would have.  We soon agreed that the bed should:

• be made of solid wood rather than some kind of fibreboard
• have a sturdy headboard
• not have a footboard (so I can hang my feet over the edge of the bed)
• match the other furniture in the room
• allow for storage underneath the mattress

After several months of relatively unsatisfactory, though lackadaisical, shopping Jeannette eventually realized that an option might be that instead of buying a bed we could try making one ourselves.  This way we could ensure it would meet our various specifications.

At first I was quite hesitant to undertake such a project as I feared we might end up sinking quite a lot of money into the project and ending up with either an ugly or unfinished bed.  Jeannette, thankfully, was quite insistent that we would be capable of successfully building an attractive bed.

Eventually, particularly once Jeannette found an appropriate non-plywood building material, I was won over and we started to make plans to build our bed.

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In the end we used composite spruce boards we had cut at the store and some of the still functional hardware from the old bed.  Somewhat later in our design process we also decided to cover all of the corners with corner moulding - a process that took hours because of the labourious process involved in making compound cuts with a hand-powered mitre saw.

The head board, a feature of which we are both particularly proud, came together once we'd more-or-less finished the rest of the bed and knew which materials we had left and once we'd made a trip to the fabric store and purchased some upholstery materials.

Now that we've been sleeping on the bed for about two weeks I think it's safe to say that the bed works and that we're quite pleased with the results of the project - it is neither ugly nor incomplete (my two fears).  The only downside of the bed is that it is so large that it won't be possible to get it out of the bedroom without entirely disassembling it (the corresponding upside is that a huge amount of crap can be forever hidden under the mattress).  (Fortunately we had the floors refinished just before we began work on this project.)

A Few Quick Notes 610

-Yesterday evening snow started falling quite heavily.  Fortunately, after a few hours it seemed that the snow had stopped falling.  When we woke up this morning to about 5 cm of sticky snow we realized that we'd been wrong to think that the snow had ever stopped.  Amazingly, after a day of thawing it seems to have started snowing again (though hopefully we won't again wake up to 5 cm of snow).

-Oh man, I'm super tired and it's not even 8:15.

-Much to my surprise, on Saturday I started to install our recently acquired anti-pigeon spikes.

Initially I only installed a two foot section, hoping that I might get some sense if were indeed a functional pigeon deterrent.  Fortunately or unfortunately, by the time we returned from an afternoon there were fresh pigeon droppings on the other side of the porch - indicating that the spikes were working.

By the end of the weekend I'd installed all $100 worth of the stuff (aka 10 feet).  The only bummer is that we'll have to buy another 10 feet or so for next weekend/later this week.

-On Saturday Pierre we being particularly cuddly.  At one point he even took a rather long afternoon nap in my arms.

By that night and several hours of this excessively sedate behaviour we were starting to worry that something was up.

At about 2:00 AM Pierre confirmed that something had been up by puking up part of a rubber glove and some other garbage that he'd recently scarfed down behind our backs.  For a small cat he really managed to save up a fair bit of puke for the event.

Unfortunately for Jeannette, I found the smell so upsetting that I had to leave the room to avoid adding to the mess.  Fortunately, by the next day Pierre seemed to be back to normal (AKA the kind of cat that would sneak around trash cans to hunt for discarded rubber gloves to eat).

Because we don't have crocuses

We may not have crocuses, but we do have chives - and soon they'll be big enough to eat.

Aside from the arrival of a smattering of dead birds in our backyard, is there a clearer sign of spring then new growth?