Red Cedar
More apocalypse, less angst
Post #3265: Always things to do
Brian and I have been up at our cabin in the interior of BC for the last few days, almost a year since the last time we were here. Between Covid travel restrictions and forest fires, it’s been hard to get in here from the coast, and I’ve missed it. Fortunately, while we’ve been absent, one of our cabin partners continued on with the work and we’ve returned to a working bathroom and a pretty functional kitchen sink/counter area. Prior to this it’s been the outhouse and outdoor kitchen I built a few years ago – and while we have made do, it is sure nice to be able to use the washroom without going outside! And run water from a tap instead of a hose! For the longest time we didn’t even have a well, and we brought all our water in big jugs which we had to carry up the massive flight of stairs to the front door.
While we still have finishing work to do (floors, doors, window-casings, baseboards), we are not all that far away from the final inspection now – and not a minute too soon because I understand that there is pressure to close out our building permit this year (it’s been open for somewhere in the neighbourhood of seven years now). The irony of course is that during the time we were building the cabin (as an escape from the city), we have moved out of the city and so it’s become less of a *thing* than it was for me a few years ago. But still, we need to finish it and get the occupancy permit so that we are legal and also if we collectively want to sell it at any point we can. One thing that has happened in the intervening years is that real estate values have continued to go up and the place is currently worth quite a bit more than we’ve put into it financially. It wasn’t an investment property to begin with, but it may become one in the future. In the meantime it’s a great spot to come and do nothing a couple of times a year.
In the last few years I’ve started doing a lot of canning up here. One of the attractions of this area is that it’s very close to Keremeos (about an hour away) which has the least expensive canning produce in the province. This week we hit the fruit stand early in our trip and so had food-puttering activity all week long; we have cases of tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, roasted salsa and nectarine jam coming home with us tomorrow.
Besides that, I haven’t done a ton up here this week – made it out for a couple of runs, did some writing and knitting, read some books, and slept in every morning on principle since I’m starting the new job Tuesday and I wanted to make sure I am really rested up for it.
Tomorrow we drive home to Gabriola where I will tear apart my office on Sunday. After five years of using the built-in furniture, I’ve decided to set things up a bit more effectively for my use by changing up the desk furniture and rearranging some of my studio storage. I’m looking forward to this as an opportunity to declutter and clean-out some of the corners, not to mention organize the mess of cables that connect up all my work equipment!
It seems that no matter where we are, there is always another project on the horizon!
Red Cedar 
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