On a Winter Day in November

Moss Paradise covered by early morning frost.

Frost on plants and old log.

Frost on moss and a dead leaf.

We installed a second hand wood stove as a temporary heater.

It works like a charm.

Wood supply

Ready for the stove.

Insulation

As the temperatures are dropping, and we now have an operating
boiler for the in-floor heating, it is high time to install insulation.
Rock wool has a few pluses over fibreglass. It is fire resistant,
it provides a slightly higher R-value, and it doesn't itch so much.

Mid morning.

Fully insulated window bench.

The view from that window bench.

A crisp, clear day in the moss garden.

Behind the house.

Looking up the slope at the front.

Judy working in the kitchen installing insulation.

Meanwhile - It's the time of year for the deer.
A couple in love just outside our bathroom window

HEAT IN THE HOUSE!!!

The beginnings of the boiler installation. At upper right the
manifold of pipes leading to and from the in-floor heating coils.

Arrival of propane tanks. The propane will feed the in-floor heating,
the on-demand domestic hot water, the gas range in the kitchen,
the BBQ in the back of the house, and the back-up generator.

Fully insulated VW Camper Van!
Just-in time insulation before the freezing temperatures arrive
in a few days. Minus 5 is predicted.

Starting with wall insulation on the main floor.
Fortunately the whole roof is already insulated.

Judy is helping with installing insulation.

This will help for now. Vapour barrier will follow in time.

One of the heating coils is operational.

A close-up of part of the heating and
domestic hot water plumbing.

Managed to bring up the interior temperature quite a bit.
It is distinctly colder on the outside.

Fixing the Water Cisterns

Urs in the tank all day. Cleaning and drying to prep for fixing.
"I hope she doesn't pull up the ladder and close the lid."

Improperly seated upper half over lower half. Not lined up
and not in key. Leaving a large gap at one end
and no space for sealant at the other end.

No space for sealant at this end.

Shane drying the concrete to receive the sealant.

Paul applying a band of sealant.

The final result. Hope it will hold water.

Electrical Installations

Urs working at electrical installations.

Electrical wiring in the crawl space.

More wiring

Close-up of wiring.

Electrical wiring, water pipes, drain pipe, central vacuum pipe.

Meanwhile on the outside, Judy is burning scrap wood.

Two bald eagles visiting.

Re-Installing the old Swiss Kachelofen (Wood Stove) in the Small Cabin

The "kitchen" becomes a handy workshop.

Sheetmetal worker Urs making insulation boxes for where the
chimney goes through the wall.

The chimney needs to be carefully insulated from the wood.

The stove has been cleaned up and polished.
This little Kachelofen from Switzerland has thick
 walls of fire brick. Once it is heated up it radiates
heat for half a day after the fire has gone out.

A very flashy stainless steel chimney was custom
built to replace the old, rusted out chimney.

Detail of chimney going through the wall.

On the outside. The lower cap can be removed
for chimney cleaning.

The full chimney.

Clean-up, Clean-up, Clean-up

There is always a lot to clean up and put away.
This is the space recently vacated by the tool shed on wheels.

The storage tent, cleaned up and re-organized.

Bringing one of the little wood sheds down to the cabin.
This almost looks like a camper with a bump-out.

Urs splitting some of the accumulated wood for use
in the small wood stove, soon to be re-installed
in the cabin.

Judy stacking fire wood in the small wood shed
behind the cabin.

This should keep us going for a while.