Six(teen) years

Posted on January 24, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Six years ago this weekend, Matt and I got married. Sixteen years ago this month, we went on our first date.

How far we’ve come.

Last year, my sister gave us an anniversary card that I thought was hilarious. Just completely perfect for us (if you assume Matt is the one who’s speaking, of course).

I feel extremely fortunate to have not just a husband, but a partner. Matt and I each have our own strengths, our own preferences and our own ideas. However, at the core, we are completely in sync, and I am so grateful for that.

He’s always watching the numbers, making sure we can do what we want to do. He’s a sounding board for my crazy ideas and always willing to share his own opinion. He’s as enamored with farm living as I am.

I love the life that we’re building together, and, Matt, I love you very much. Happy anniversary.

Snapshot

Posted on January 22, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

For the next couple months likely, our water will be in the frozen, fluffy white form.

Eating us out of house and home

Posted on January 20, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Downside of the ice storm:

No power for 3 1/2 days
Broken branches and downed trees everywhere
A driveway that is now a skating rink
Grasses and branches all hidden under ice and snow

Upside of the ice storm:

Because all of the grasses and branches are hidden under ice and snow, the only food available is in the bird feeder (okay, this is probably a downside from the birds’ perspective)
Lots of fallen branches give me lots of material to make artificial bushes around the bird feeder so that the birds can scout out the situation or line up to wait their turn

Since putting up the bird feeder at the beginning of November, I have had no customers. Then, on a cold snowy January morning as I was sitting at the dining room table, I glanced out the window and I saw it. A little black dot in the bird feeder.

Was it?

Could it be?

It was!

Finally, a bird had discovered the feeder.

His friends soon followed, and now we have a steady line up of chickadees every morning.

I love sitting in the dining room, eating my breakfast and watching the birds. This is exactly the scenario I envisioned when I built the feeder.

At first, only the chickadees were brave enough to come to the feeder. When I was outside photographing them, I heard a jay and eventually I was able to spot him high in the trees across the driveway. After a week of building up his confidence, he finally made his way to the feeder. It was neat to watch him cautiously select a seed and then take it up into the tree for his mate who is still too shy to join the buffet line herself.

Although it’s a large feeder and the chickadees are very little, everybody goes one at a time. Occasionally a greedy guy will try to sit in the feeder and steal more than one seed. A waiting bird always flies up and moves the glutton along.

Even going one seed at a time, the birds are quickly emptying the feeder. This thrills me immensely. So much in fact that Matt is worried that I am going to blow all of our money on bird seed and we will lose the farm and end up destitute. However, having gone half the winter with no birds, the 50lb sack of seed that I bought back in the fall is holding out very well. In fact, I couldn’t fit it all in the Knodd I got from Ikea, so the sack still has some seed in it. The Knodd is really convenient though any time I have to scoop out more seed to refill the feeder.

As I’ve been working on this post, I’ve had Feed The Birds from Marry Poppins in my head. It’s by no means my favourite song from the movie, but for some reason it’s all I can think about.

Our birds seed is a mite more expensive than tuppence a bag, but I still don’t think it’s likely that we’re going to end up destitute selling bird seed on the street corner any time soon. So come one, come all. Just try and eat us out of house and home. (Just don’t tell Matt).

Do you have a bird feeder? Who are your regular customers? What do you feed your birds? What’s your favourite song from Mary Poppins? Has anyone seen the new movie yet?

Avoiding insanity

Posted on January 17, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. In case you couldn’t tell from the previous two posts, I am feeling a little frustrated about what I didn’t accomplish last year. If I don’t manage to cross off some of my goals for the house this year, I think I will start to feel a little insane–order in my environment means order in my mind for me.

Fortunately, I have all of you being super supportive and offering lots of great suggestions about how I can do a better job of accomplishing my plans. Thank you all so, so much for all of the encouragement and advice you’ve offered this week. It really means a lot to me to go back to all of your comments and to know you’re all out there reading along and cheering me on.

To avoid repeating the insanity of last year, I’ve decided that I need to do more than just post about my goals. Like many of you advised, I need to have a bit of a plan for how I’m actually going to do some of them. And notice I said some of them. I am trying to be realistic and give myself a bit of a break. I don’t have to do everything. But I need to do something to feel better about my house and myself.

An aside: My grandmother always had calendars from the Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, and now I order one every year too. They’re filled with beautiful artwork, and it’s a great cause to support.

A few months ago I found Ruth’s 10 Tips for Getting More Done Every Single Day. I really liked her advice for setting priorities, using a timer and regrouping. But it was her tip about setting weekly goals in specific categories that really resonated with me. This great idea originally came from Ashley Ann at Under the Sycamore.

I’m going to try to focus on one project (my “category”) each month (although some may take longer at my pace). Within the month, I will break down the project into smaller steps (as many of you suggested), write down the steps, prioritize and organize what I have to do and put time frames around each stage. Last week Jen at I Heart Organizing posted a really helpful breakdown for how she sets goals for projects that I’m looking forward to trying. I’m hoping that itemizing each step will help me get started and avoid dragging projects out for so long.

I’m also going to look at one project at a time. For example, I will focus just on painting the main floor and not worry about the laundry room right now.

I love to-do lists, but I’ve been loathe to do a master list of everything I want to do at the farm. It’s just too overwhelming for me to see that big of a “big picture.” However, I think the opposite is happening when it comes to the individual projects. By not writing things down, I’m overwhelmed by the whole project and can’t motivate myself to get started. I’m hoping that a list of every single little step will help me realize that the only way to eat the elephant is one bite at a time.

First a saying about insanity and now one about elephants. Look at me just rolling in the wisdom today.

The other thing I’m going to try to do, I think, is share more of the in progress here on the blog. Honestly, this is something I’ve been hesitant to do because projects seem to take me so freakin’ long. If I’d posted about the mudroom when I first started working on it, you would have had the same number of posts but spread here and there over the year. It’s a more accurate portrayal of my life, but I worry that waiting a full year for the before and after is bit frustrating for you as readers. I’d love your feedback on this.

Plus, I’m not sure how interesting the process is for you. I mentioned the words “solar panels” at the beginning of this week. However, I don’t have much to say about this project yet. I mean, I can tell you about our first application, how the government put the program on hold and as a result our application was dead, how the program restarted and we resubmitted our application… and then resubmitted it three more times for clerical technicalities. We’ve been working at this for more than six months now with not much to show. I promise I’ll share all of the details, but right now I don’t feel like there’s enough for a post.

I also hesitate about sharing some of my goals at all. I mean, I don’t have a great track record with accomplishing them in a timely manner… or at all. How interesting is it to read about someone’s plans that never come true? It’s for this reason that I was really hesitant about posting the picture of my dream vegetable garden in my 2014 goals post. That garden is something that I really, really, really want. I don’t know how to explain it, but putting the picture out there… and knowing that the way I work I might not get the garden in this year… or next, if I’m being realistic… makes the dream almost seem less attainable, rather than more.

I don’t want to sound like a complete downer here. In many ways, Matt and I are already living our dream. We’ve found the perfect farm. We love being here. We find it rewarding to work on the house and the property to make them what we want. We’re prepared to take it slowly and do projects as we’re able. I just feel like I need a bit extra motivation to go with my abilities.

So here’s my plan for how I’m going to tackle Home Goals 2014:

Focus on one project at a time. When it comes to the bigger projects, this is something we’re already pretty good at, I think.
Break down projects into their individual steps. Each small to-do counts.
Share the steps here on the blog. A good way to hold myself accountable.
Put timelines around each of the steps. Try to be realistic about these… as Matt will tell you I’m often overly optimistic about what I can accomplish.
Share more of the in-progress as we move through the steps. And celebrate the small accomplishments as we go.
Enjoy the results of our labours. This one’s an easy one.

I am also going to try to give myself a break and be flexible. Maybe an opportunity comes along that moves another project up the list. I’m sure there will still be weekends where I start off with a big to-do list and very little gets crossed off by the end. I’m going to try to be okay with that. I just want to feel a bit more progress than I felt last year.

How do you prioritize your projects? Do you have any tips to share on how to stay motivated? Are you up for more “in-progress” posts?

Home Goals 2014

Posted on January 15, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thanks everyone for all of your encouraging comments on my last post. Despite the epic failure that was Home Goals 2013, I still have plans floating around in my head and ambitions for 2014, so I’ve decided to get them out of my brain and onto ~~paper~~ screen.

Of course, I still want to accomplish everything that was on my list for Home Goals 2013, so I have to include them. However, I’m going to reorder the list. (Like that’ll make a difference.)

I considered including “current state” photos to ~~shame~~ motivate me to action, but then I didn’t think that was very encouraging, so I’m going with inspirational shots as I did last year.

1. Painting.

I’m not usually a fan of frame collages, but they sort of work for me in a hallway. Source: Houzz

Main floor hallway
Kitchen

As I mentioned in my last post, prep for painting the hallway and kitchen has already been completed. I just have to choose a colour and pick up a brush. I’m leaning towards Benjamin Moore’s popular Abalone pictured above.

I’m not putting the living room on this list even though it was there last year because, really, what’s the point in painting if we’re only going to mess it all up when we redo the fireplace? The dining room is adjacent/attached to the living room, so it can wait too.

2. Laundry room.

I love pretty much everything about this laundry room from Knick of Time.

Same to-do list as last year:

Fix the leaky foundation wall
Paint
DIY a fun light fixture
Build a drying rack

With a few additions:

Level the washing machine
Freshen up the cabinets
Build a new hanging rack
Find/build a free-standing cabinet for the hallway to the laundry room.

Yeah, that’s smart. Make the project that I couldn’t accomplish last year even more complicated for this year.

3. Master bedroom. Ooh, look! A new to-do!

I don’t know about you, but I love Tommy Smythe’s rooms. Hey Tommy, wanna come decorate my bedroom (on my budget)? Source: House & Home

Remove popcorn ceiling
Paint
Buy a queen size bed
DIY a headboard
Relocate light switch
Replace light fixture
Make/find window treatments
Paint dresser and replace hardware
Refresh dinged up closet doors
Decorate and personalize a little bit

4. Furniture. Another new to-do.

Pottery Barn Benchwright inspired coffee table from Ana White

Source: Ana White

I’d like to make/find a few pieces of furniture:

Refresh bookshelves and living room TV stand with new trim and paint
Coffee table for the living room
Sofa table for the living room
Hutch/cabinetry/built-ins for dining room
Narrow dresser for my office
Hutch for my office
Cabinet for the laundry room.

5. Living room fireplace. Yes, hope springs eternal.

Add a mantel and drop this fireplace, screen and all, in my living room, please. Source: Country Living

Replace the woodstove-esque insert with an open hearth one
Reface with fieldstone
Put up a new rustic wood mantle

Please? Can this happen this year?

6. Landscaping.

A beautiful country vegetable garden from Country Living

My dream, dream, dream vegetable garden. Source: Country Living

I don’t think this to-do is ever going to go away. Perhaps I’ll get some professional help this spring.

Reestablish the flowerbeds around the house
Plant grass seed where old firepits were and clean up the detritus that’s still hanging around
Tidy the east shore of the pond and build a new firepit near the water
Continue to plant the turnaround
Put in a vegetable garden (yup, that’s a new one)
Continue with the landscaping master list

Aaaand I think that’s enough. Here’s hoping I do better at crossing a few of these things off this year than I did last year.

Looking back at home goals 2013

Posted on January 13, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

The subtitle for this post is “On goals, to-do lists, excuses, guilt and mojo.”

A year ago, I was the annoying perky pixie brightly declaring the projects I was going to accomplish over the coming 12 months. Today, I’m the dour, scowling troll who depressingly growls that I’ve done nothing. I suuuuuuuuuck.

I had four goals for 2013:

Landscaping
Painting
Living room fireplace
Laundry room

I can cross not a single item off the list.

On landscaping, I can say that I did something. I built a new garden around the well, weeded one of the front gardens and planted a new border of grass, leveled the old fire pit at the top of the driveway, established a new fire pit behind the driveshed, graded the turnaround, laid a brick pathway across it and planted a few flowers. It was somewhere in the massive tear drop shaped expanse of dirt that is the turnaround that my work ethic abandoned me.

The garden was just too big. There weren’t enough plants in the world to fill it. We had just gotten a dog, and I’d rather spend my time with him. I have a week’s vacation, but we’re having record high temperatures, and I can’t really be expected to be outside gardening.

By mid-summer the weeds were taller than me and so thick that Matt–aka “he who does not garden”–took matters into his own hands and waded in with a shovel. It was clear that I had given up.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is that last we saw of my mojo. People ask us often what we’re working on around the house. They usually find it funny when my response is, “Not much. I’ve lost my mojo.”

But it isn’t funny. Sure I was relaxed in the air conditioned comfort of my freshly renovated basement. Yes, I was bonding with my dog. But I was wracked with guilt.

When we hosted our annual month-before-Christmas party at the end of November, I realized that the walls upstairs looked exactly the same as they had a year previously–right down to the drywall patches. Ummmm, yes, welcome to my home. Can’t you just see what pride of ownership I take in it?

And now, a month and a half later, the walls are still not painted. In fact, I’ve added a few more drywall patches. I’ve sanded all of the walls (which previously were somehow the texture of sandpaper). I’ve mopped the ceiling (yes, mopped) and bought fresh white paint. I’ve slapped up a few colour samples. If anything, the walls are looking worse than they were before.

And what about the fireplace? Well, we got a quote. And then I threw up. Then I fainted. I said, “There’s no way.” Then we talked ourselves into it because “we’re going to have to do it sometime.” Then our solar panels application regenerated (I’ll share more soon), and we realized we needed every single penny, nickle, dime, quarter and dollar we possessed and then some. So all other projects, especially expensive projects like fireplaces, were put on hold. Although a warm roaring fire would have come in really handy during the ice storm.

And then there’s the last holdout from the basement reno, the laundry room. This one I’ll pin on Matt. See, the first thing that needs to happen is to fix the leaky foundation. Matt kind of fixed it by putting a piece of plywood against the wall to funnel water away from the house. We hadn’t had a leak in the house since then, up until this weekend when a mid-winter thaw resulted in a puddle on the laundry room floor. The wall really needs to be dug out and waterproofed. This task was on Matt’s honey-do list for the summer, but he was so burnt out by the time summer started that I delayed giving him the list until we were well into August. By that point, his mojo was in no better shape than mine, so outside the wall still sits with its plywood water guard and inside the laundry room is still in its original ugly state.

So that is the saga of my very unproductive 2013. I did say last year that my plan was to avoid any other massive all-consuming projects and spend slightly more time enjoying rather than working the farm. I guess I was successful at those two goals. I’m not sure that makes me feel any better.

However, it is a new year, and you can be assured that my lack of success last year is not going to stop me from setting more goals for 2014. Stay tuned for that next.

What about you? Did you set any goals for 2013? How did you do at accomplishing things around the house?

A painter’s premonition

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Matt’s grandpa was a painter. It was his hobby, and he was very skilled and prolific. Everyone in the family has a few of his works. This summer, Matt’s Dad came across a piece, and he immediately gave it to us. For our Christmas present, Matt’s parents had the painting framed.

It looks like it could have been painted at our farm.

What makes this a truly uncanny back to the future moment is that there’s a stump right at the edge of the driveway where the big centre tree stands in the painting. The small evergreens behind the barn ramp in the painting have now grown into our towering stand of pines.

Matt’s grandpa died in 1991. I never met him. With this painting, it feels like he is a part of our life at the farm in a very meaningful way.

Do you have any artists in your family? Do you have a painting of your house or property?

New Year’s Day skate

Posted on January 8, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Ice storms are so 2013. For 2014, ice is going to be fun. We started on Jan. 1 with a New Year’s Day skate on the pond.

Well, I was the only one who actually skated. Matt and Baxter just trotted around the ice rather than gliding.

Walking was safer than skating in some areas. Although the ice is mostly smooth, frozen coyote tracks here and there are tripping hazards.

A few stumbles aside, a skate on my own pond was a fun way to kick off the year. This is how I’ll take my ice from now on, please… at least for the next month or so. In July I’ll probably want it cubed and in a glass. Although with the temperatures we’re having right now, the pond may stay frozen solid well into summer #polarvortex.

How did you spend New Year’s Day?

#IceStorm2013

Posted on January 6, 2014 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Happy new year! I hope that you all had a great break. Thanks for waiting while I took a bit of an extended holiday. Our break ended up being a bit unusual, so for today I want to spend some time (okay, it’s kind of a long post, so perhaps I should say a lot of time) looking back before I dive into all that is new in 2014.

For some reason, I had my last post–my Christmas post–all set up more than a day in advance. I always have posts written a couple of days ahead, but I usually schedule them just a few hours before I want them to go live. I don’t know why I changed it up for this post, but I’m glad I did because by the time the post went live on Dec. 23, we’d been without power for about 24 hours. There was no internet on the farm.

However, it wasn’t just about not having any internet. We also had no heat. And we also had no water.

As many people are probably aware, a big ice storm rolled into southern Ontario on Dec. 22. Freezing rain coated trees and hydro wires, knocking out electricity to hundreds of thousands of people.

Power outages are not that unusual for us, so we weren’t too concerned when we heard the telltale beeps and clicks in the middle of the night as phones and other devices warned us they were no longer receiving power. By the time we woke up Sunday morning, the house was a little cooler than normal, so we snuggled down under the covers for awhile longer.

The fine print on the dogs are not allowed on the furniture and definitely not in the bed rule notes that exceptions are made during power outages on chilly winter mornings.

Morning Sunday: We were all disturbed from our cozy nest by a tree crashing to the ground right outside our bedroom window. Fortunately it missed the house, though I’m still not quite sure how. While Matt was content to investigate the situation from inside the house, Baxter and I headed out.

Ice more than a quarter inch thick covered the trees. The soundtrack to our morning walk was crack, crash, thump as branches broke, plummeted through the ice coated canopy and landed on the ground. We stayed well away from the treed perimeters of the fields, but I still consciously reminded myself which direction to run in case I heard a crack too close.

As we walked down the driveway to drag some fallen branches out of the way, we were surrounded by the scent of pine from the raw wounds on the trees in the forest beside the house.

Mid-day Sunday: We dug out the batteries to fire up a radio so that we could get an update from the outside world. I found the emergency number for the hydro company only to discover the line was too busy to reach even the automated system. We donned our hats and extra clothes. I sampled paint colours on the hall, kitchen and foyer. Matt graded papers… something he normally wouldn’t do until the very last minute. Baxter and I went for another walk. The crashing and cracking of trees continued. I flushed the toilet–muscle memory, I couldn’t help myself–and we were officially out of water.

For those not familiar with country living, we are reliant on our well for our water. Our well is reliant on its pump to provide us with that water. The pump is reliant on electricity to run. When the electricity runs out, we have the water in the pipes and that’s it. No more is flowing.

Evening Sunday: Darkness was falling, and the house was getting colder. We decided we needed a hot dinner, so we pulled the barbecue out of hibernation, hooked up the propane tank and retrieved a battered pot from our camping gear. I pulled out every candlestick we own and filled them with candles. Two cans of soup, some crackers, some cheese and pickles from our rapidly warming fridge, and we had a not-at-all romantic candlelit meal.

The only problem was, it was only 6 o’clock. We were done eating. Now what were we going to do? Scrabble followed by a marathon rummy session took us through to 9:30. I piled an extra comforter and two sleeping bags on our bed, and with hats on our heads, the dog curled between us and the radio playing, we went to bed in our 16 degree house.

Morning Monday: I have never been so happy to head to work on a Monday morning. Within 15 minutes of getting out of bed, I was out the door. That shower in the office bathroom was the best shower I’ve ever had. I had been wearing a hat for nearly 24 hours. I had not washed my hands aside from a cursory rinse in about 12 hours. I had gone for two vigorous walks with the dog. Let’s just say I was not at my best.

Evening Monday: Driving home my mantra was “Please let there be power. Please let there be power.” I turned into the driveway… and the house was dark. Matt had managed to get a shower at his parents house–they were also without power and on a well, but they have a generator that was connected to their water pump–but he had spent most of the day in the cold house marking papers and calling the power company only to be told they had no idea when our hydro might be restored, but we were one of 1,150 houses in our area without power. He transferred perishables out of the fridge and into the mudroom. With the window open, it was colder there than it was in the fridge.

Our limited menu of cold food or barbecued soup did not sound appealing that night, so we tucked Baxter into his bed and headed out to find a restaurant where we could get a hot meal under electric light. It was easy to pick out the powerless people in the restaurant. They were the ones wearing the massive sweaters, yet still hugging themselves–both for warmth and for comfort. They were the ones with the hat hair–or the ones who wouldn’t take off their hats. They were the ones with the haggard faces. They were the ones that headed into the public bathroom after dinner to wash their haggard faces before they headed back to frigid pioneer-land.

Night Monday: Despite how hard it was to arrive back at that frigid pioneer land, Monday night was easier than Sunday night. We thumbed our noses at carbon monoxide poisoning and fired up the camping lantern for an hour, so I had enough light to read. Matt continued to mark by candlelight. I carefully made the bed, smoothing the sheets and layering the sleeping bags. Even though the temperature was 12 degrees, we slept well burrowed in our cocoon.

Morning Tuesday (Chrismas Eve): We were wearing our winter coats and could see our breath whether we were outside walking the dog or inside eating my cereal (with nearly frozen milk). We were down to 8 degrees inside. Matt continued marking, sure that the gods were just waiting for him to finish before they turned the power back on. However, as he wrote the last grade, the gods did not relent. We were still powerless 57 hours and counting.

Afternoon Tuesday: We were slated to go to Matt’s parents for Christmas Eve, so we decided to arrive early. We packed pyjamas and sleeping bags in case we decided once we got there that we couldn’t bear to abandon the luxury of heat and running water.

As we left the farm, we saw two hydro trucks at either end of our road. They were the first trucks we’d seen in our area, and we were so happy to see evidence that they were finally working on our lines. We followed one truck, which eventually pulled over. We rolled up beside him, and I leaned out the window and requested an update. The driver in the truck said that they were working on our block that afternoon and we should have power back in a few hours. We were ecstatic. We were going to have Christmas at home in our warm, lit, watered house.

Matt wanted to return to the farm to be there for the big moment, but I wanted to be warm that instant so we continued on to Matt’s parents’. Thanks to their generator there was warm running water so we could shower, and thanks to a woodstove we didn’t have to wear our coats and hats–Baxter included. We even watched a Christmas Carol—our annual Christmas Eve tradition—before we headed back to the farm.

Night Tuesday: Driving along the dark country roads with the headlights glinting off the ice coating the trees, we would catch occasional glimpses of lights through the trees. Some people seemed to have power. I tried not to jinx it, but may be we would too.

We turned into our driveway… and everything was dark. The light that we left “on” for our signal was not lit. We opened the door and flicked switches just to check. There was still no power. The temperature on the thermostat read 6.5 degrees. It was not a happy Christmas Eve.

Matt called the power company. There were now just 36 households in our area without power. And we were one of them. The ETA for return of the power? Boxing Day at 10pm. Nearly 48 hours away.

This moment was my lowest point. I was over it. This was not an adventure. I just wanted to be comfortable and home. But my home was completely uncomfortable. I was not going to stay in my frigid water-less house. We packed up some clothes, got back in the car and returned to Matt’s parents’ house.

The whole drive, Matt kept trying to say, “Well, at least we… ” I was not in the mood to look at the bright side of the situation. This was not how I had envisioned spending Christmas.

Clockwise from top left: Shattered ice caking our Japanese maple. The poor broken willow at the bottom of the driveway. Our Rose of Sharon, which is usually as tall as the dining room window. One of our new little trees bowed under the weight of the ice.

Morning Wednesday (Christmas): My father-in-law cooked breakfast on an electric frying pan plugged in to the one outlet powered by the generator. My mother-in-law and I walked up and down the road, looking at the ice coated trees, downed power lines and fallen branches. I sat next to the woodstove and read magazines. When I refused to leave the warm house, Matt headed back to the farm to check on the situation.

There was still no power, so he drained the pipes as best he could and poured antifreeze into the toilets. The temperature was now 4 degrees inside.

Afternoon Wednesday: Christmas dinner was to be at my parents’ house, so we headed out early to take advantage of their powered house. My parents had lost electricity as well, but only for about 24 hours. My Mom was able to cook dinner for 19 people, and we were able to enjoy a hearty meal.

Night Wednesday: Hope springs eternal, so after dawdling over the dishes for awhile at my parents’ we headed back to the farm. We turned into the driveway, and the outside light was on. As devastated as I was on Christmas Eve, I was equally elated on Christmas night. I nearly cried at the prospect of moving back into my house.

We walked in, and the thermostat already read 16 degrees. After the temperatures that we’d been living with, 16 degrees felt positively balmy. According to our blinking clocks, the hydro had come on at roughly 2:15pm–close to exactly 3 1/2 days after it had gone out. While Matt headed back to his parents’ to grab our things, I stripped the bed and threw all of the comforters and blankets into the washing machine.

Yes, the thing I wanted to do most after moving back into my house and being without power for half a week was laundry. The washing machine didn’t stop running for nearly two days, as I laundered bedding, towels, clothes, jackets, hats, mitts, sleeping bags and everything else we used during the outage.

As miserable as I was for my powerless Christmas, there were people much worse off. During the outage, I thought a lot about the farmers around us who had to take care of their animals without power or water. In Toronto (where I guess they probably had running water), some people were without power for the whole week.

I think for many it didn’t feel like Christmas. I know it didn’t for us. But now it’s a new year, and we’re all safe and sound and warm and watered. We’ll have a mini-Christmas celebration in a few months when we get a generator… ’cause you know there’s no way I’m going through this again.

Were you one of the powerless this Christmas? Were your holidays particularly memorable this year? Have you ever gone through a long power outage?

Merry Christmas

Posted on December 23, 2013 by Julia at Home on 129 Acres

Thank you all for reading, commenting and following along on all of our adventures over the past year. I’ll be taking a little break for the holidays but will be back in the new year with lots of new projects, renos and stories. Wishing you all a wonderful holiday and a very Merry Christmas.