Back in Tree Planting Camp.

It's been awhile since I posted...sorry!  The kids and are back in tree planting camp for the season and it was pretty hectic at the Shack prior to leaving with little time to sit and blog.  Then, our first camp was without the internet hook up as it was the companies first year with 2 camps to set up at the same time (more contracts to plant this year) and was rather crazy all around.  But, this weekend, the kids and I are off and we are spending some down time at friends in Telkwa, BC.  Tomorrow we head out to the bush again to a new camp site and will be hard at it again for a few weeks.
So far the summer is shaping up to be another fun one.  The group of planters I am cooking for are a great bunch and very appreciative.  It's very rewarding after a long day in the kitchen preparing piles of food to hear 'thanks for the great meal' over and over! Makes it all worthwhile!

Alley (my daughter, in the green apron) and my baker, Krista, in the front end of the kitchen.

Planters hanging out in the kitchen on 'pizza night'.

A cold morning.

Camp life is never boring and there is always something going on.  From waking to snow on the ground at 5am and frozen pumps, to beautiful sunrises and warm afternoons...we've had lots of weather changes already.  We are awaiting the arrival of a litter of puppies from one of the camp dogs this year, which the kids are pretty excited about!  Things are going well all around and we are enjoying camp life again.  I'm hoping to have the time to update you all from out at camp once we are all hooked up with the internet again, and keep you posted on camp happenings.

'Anxious For Spring' Garden

As I was seeing Trev off to work yesterday morning at 6am, I noticed these little guys in my garden.

  I couldn't believe how quickly they had appeared!!  I'm sure they weren't there the day before!!  The melting snow has just clear them and they were obviously chomping at the bit to get growing!  I love seeing the bulbs come up in the spring.  It is always satisfying to see them appear out of the ground each year after being buried under the snow for 5 or 6 months.  Way to go little guys!!

I Miss Mail!

Living out in the middle of nowhere has many advantages...peace and quiet, scenery, wildlife. It also has disadvantages...like a long drive to town, not being able to make a quick run to the store for something and having to pick up the mail at a community mail box area.  Our mail is delivered weekdays to our rural route box about 1 1/2km away.  We don't pick it up everyday, and sometimes it doesn't get picked up for a week!

I miss having my mail delivered to my door.  Even though it's mostly junk mail these days, what with email bringing an almost complete stop to 'real' letters.  I still liked having the mail and newspapers brought right to my house.  I liked watching for the mailman to arrive with the weeks fliers for me to sit with a cup of coffee and look over. Not an option were we live.

Regardless, I couldn't help taking a look at this mailbox site called Simply Victorian Mailboxes and drooling a bit!  For those of you who do live where the mail is brought to your door, it might be worth a peak!

They have all kinds of mailboxes for all sorts of locations at your house!  These are primarily Victorian mailboxes and come in Victorian wall mailboxes and  Victorian pedestal mailboxes.  I'm rather partial to the pedestal mailboxes myself!  This one in particular!

I can just picture a pedestal mailbox out by my garden, with morning glories climbing on it, waiting to be filled with fliers, bills and ads!  Maybe a letter!! Well, Christmas cards anyways.  

Oh well, maybe I don't 'need' one, but I do 'want' one!!

Getting Decked Out!!

My new deck is finally going down!  Trev and I got stuck into getting the new decking in place last week when it was too nice to be inside working on the basement.  I love the way it's looking!  The deck was one of the things we really needed to change when we first looked at all the things begging for attention here.  The decking had never been treated, so the part that stuck out past the roof was rotting and would be dangerous if we left it for too long.  This resulted in having to chop those 3 feet of exposed decking and support beams off, which made me sad as the deck was such a nice size.  But, safety first!  We had to remove the railing as well, and have been stuck in that place for over a year.  Last spring we had changed the deck from being just 'a deck' into also being the roof to a sunroom we are enclosing under the deck.  That entailed laying down new 2x6s over the support beams, then a layer of plywood, tar paper and finally rolled roofing.  Over the summer while the kids and I were away, Trev tried re-using the decking wood that was still in good shape after cutting off the rotted end.  It didn't go so well.  While the wood is still very good, it was rough cut and not very even.  Plus, as I wasn't around to be the 'supervisor', he spaced them too far apart, and things would just disappear under the planks and get messy.

Old decking..not good.

So, this year, we decided to take it all up again and go with treated decking planks.  Trev had put the old stuff back on in sections with treated landscaping ties as supports underneath.  As we think we can re-use these as another deck project, we didn't want to take them all apart, so we cartwheeled them off the deck...very heavy....and they now are sitting on the walkway, making it feel like we live on a dock!  Eventually, we'll get those moved (I hope!).

Old deck...not good.

Now for the new deck! 

                                         

First, treated 2x4s were laid down...

                                         

The new decking goes down.....

                                                   

And it began to take shape!

We still have to put up the railing, which will hopefully get done by Trev while the kids and I head off to work at camp for the next 3 months.  But I am loving the way it looks so far!  After 60 days of being in place we can put a coat of waterproofing stain on as well which will preserve it even more.

My deck is my favourite place at the Little Shack and I enjoy sitting out there in all seasons.... huddled in a blanket in the winter with a mug of hot chocolate, or relaxing on a summer evening, listening to the birds and enjoying the scenery. It's my 'happy place'!

'Hop 'til You Drop' -Blog Hop!!

Whoa!  This must be some kinda blog milestone!  As I type, this is my 90th blog entry as well as today marks my 90th follower on GFC!  Hmmm.....cause for celebration??  Maybe a wee one!
I decided to try hosting a Blog Hop!  I've joined many hops over the past year and have gained so many lovely followers and found tons of great blog friends!  I hope you'll jump in and join the Hop and make some new bloggy friends as well! The rules are...
Follow my blog, leave a comment and visit at least 2 other blogs in the list and either follow them or leave a comment.  That's it!  Pretty easy!
I even made this little button for you to add to your own blog to help promote it and get us all more blogs to check out!  So, I hope you'll join in and grab the button!  Have fun!

<a href="http://littleshackonthehill.blogspot.com/2012/04/hop-til-you-drop-blog-hop.html" target="_blank"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-HYW8zwf3oNU/T5WFT58DF2I/AAAAAAAABG8/SYhe_t5y5-4/s125/103180755_fb17f2d646_o-001.jpg" alt="YourSiteTitle" width="125" height="125" /></a>