#60 “Favorite Works”

Howdy,

here for your ears:

https://tinyurl.com/ysxq3gsm (55 minutes)

Sunday...phew, it was characterized by a really nice depressive mood. 😅 Especially when you talk to very close friends on the phone, you immediately realize that these are exactly the people you miss here. On top of that, it was just wet, cold and windy (although the wind died down later). But this day was right for the bin and so Netflix & Co. shaped my day. 😂 However, there was also some good news. I had already heard a bird on Friday that I could immediately identify. It was the Steller's Jay. To be honest, I was surprised that I still knew his “singing” since I had last seen him in Golden. Interesting how the brain keeps some things in the background. This bird is characterized by dark blue plumage starting at the tail, which mixes with the black head feathers up the chest and a white line can be seen on the eye. A very beautiful combination and always a moment in which I think and am amazed at how beautiful nature can be and how all these colors are possible. ❤️

Monday started with a really nice “Monday message”. Jenny told me to further insulate the floor with the wood chips. I asked her which area at the back (near the terrace) was more important and then she said like this: Nene, you have to do that here too. – and pointed to the area that already had the finished floor wood installed. I just thought to myself: Excuse me? Why have you already installed the final floor if it is not yet insulated underneath? Since the wooden planks had already been cut into the appropriate parts, Jenny told me unnecessarily often that I should definitely pay attention to the order of the planks.

So all the wooden planks were covered (in the right order!! 😂), only to find out that the *peeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeepppp* plastic wasn't even put anywhere. Jenny really couldn't manage to put the plastic on in three months. Or rather, she had already installed it, but the final and, above all, very complicated areas were not yet finished. So I had to crawl back under the ground. There's so little space down there that really deep breaths wouldn't be possible. So the only movement was crawling flat on the ground. You massage your back with stones and, above all, your sweater and T-shirt are pushed up and you get very fine wood chips that are still lying down there in your shirt and sweater from “back in the day” (when we still sawed everywhere there). and somewhere else. But it's so scratchy 😭😅 You really have it everywhere and you feel like you have to take off your clothes right in the shower so that they don't end up scattered around the cabin. 😅 I've always wondered why we don't use chipboard for this, as it is much more stable. Some plastic areas cannot hold the load of the wood chips and are falling down. Putting these back on is a very modest job. There is a very simple reason why we use plastic: money. A piece of particle board simply costs up to 90 CAD. The plastic version costs around 30 CAD. However, you could also use the plastic that we used to attach the insulation to the walls and ceilings, as this is also very stable. A roll would cost 38 CAD (I briefly delved into the world of Canadian online hardware stores 😎😂), although it covers a much larger area. But I think Jenny will continue to stick to the yellow plastic. Luckily, David and I went out to get wood, so I didn't have to focus exclusively on the plastic. Again, fortunately, I didn't get any serious injuries because when David drove the trailer backwards, I was briefly distracted by Troops and at exactly that moment the trailer caught me on the ankle and pinned me between the ground and the trailer I stood on an embankment. Blessing in disguise. 😅

On Tuesday I actually just struggled with the soil and the plastic all day until David asked me to build him a second wood storage facility. When I was finished, I wanted to take the remaining wood back to the woodpile and suddenly the black bear was “in front of me”. After a long time, this was a somewhat uncomfortable situation again, as the bear did not immediately want to escape. He stopped despite the loud quad noises and only ran away when I called. That was the first time I saw a bear really run (without driving past) and let me put it this way, if the bear had been looking to attack, it would have been at me in under 5 seconds (distance was like that approx. 20 - 25 m). These animals can run incredibly fast. Craziness. Nevertheless, I was of course super happy to have seen a bear again. 🐻❤️ Then it was time to despair again on the ground and painstakingly attach the plastic. Fortunately, the weather had now improved. On Monday it rained incredibly and on the one hand that was (sadly) amusing because I find it unbelievable how water gets through everywhere and on the other hand it was shit because I had to work outside and after a while I was pretty wet. 😭😂

On Wednesday morning I went to get wood chips because Jenny and David actually wanted to leave in the afternoon. I couldn't really enjoy the ride in the truck on the way there. Due to the low sun and the trees, there was a constant change of shade and sun, so I may have also seen the bird (this species is the stupidest bird species in the world and I'm not lying! 😂 But the explanation + examples would go beyond the scope 😅) haven't seen it. I could hear an impact, but I couldn't see anything in the mirror. So I think I just touched on him. When we arrived at the neighbor's house, we had to shovel wood chips again and have a quick chat with the woman. She told me that two wolves were spotted nearby. Otherwise it was time to continue finishing the floor.

Jenny and David didn't leave until Thursday and I don't know what Jenny was thinking, but she didn't tell me until Wednesday evening that the chimney was coming on Monday and so the trench and floor had to be finished. That doesn't sound like much, but it was a huge job because the ground had to be made straight again, then the plastic had to be cut to size and filled with wood chips and then the grand finale was the 18-inch deep trench.

I actually barely got anything done on Thursday because straightening it (which wasn't possible) took me an incredible amount of time until I wrote to Jenny and she said that it would be enough if I just straightened one page. It doesn't matter if the house is tilted anyway. 😂 However, since I barely got anything done on Thursday, theoretically I should have finished everything on Friday and my goodness, what did I accomplish that day. 😎😅 This 18 inch trench isn't finished, but I'm still more than satisfied - I've done so much digging. Especially since at some point I just couldn't do it anymore and then I always moved to the large room to fill the floor with wood chips. That was always a short break for the body before we started digging again. At the end of my working day, David asked me what the “ditch” looked like and then I sent him a photo and I wanted to write about it:

I'm not ready. The green line is 18 inches, the red is not. But I can't dig anymore.

In English:

I'm not done. The green line is 18 inches, the red isn't. But I can't dig anymore.

But I wrote to my boss:

I'm not done. The green line is 18 inches, the red isn't. But I can't dick anymore.

The difference between digging and dicking is.

Digging means digging and dicking can be translated as .... fucking. So I wrote to my boss that I can't fuck anymore. 😭😂😂 Yep...now I definitely know how to write the English word dig/dig in English.

Jenny and David then decided to stay away one more night and so I spent another night in the main house. The mice are really crazy. They run everywhere and you can hear them nibbling everywhere. Really disgusting. I set nine traps last night and this morning the world was six mice poorer. I also think I saw a squirrel in the house, but it was gone so quickly and I waited probably over an hour before I went to bed, but it never came back. Of course, my perfect trap didn't work either. 😅 But all those typing noises from the mice and maybe the squirrel make it hard to fall asleep and when Daisy lies down on your bed and stretches out all four legs and takes up the whole bed, then the night is really short. So I probably woke up every hour because there was always some dog in or near my bed. I woke up this morning in a really good mood.

Annoyingly, I wanted to clean up the kitchen and write the blog around lunchtime and then David and Jenny just came back. Much, much earlier than I expected and so I'm finally back in my mouse-free cabin.

Luckily the weather has changed again, so I can now actually start the audio recording in beautiful sunny weather. But before I come to the end here.

My trip will be coming to an end soon and I don't know if anyone would be interested in listening to me give a talk about my year. :D I think an average of 40 people are currently looking at my blog and more than half of them are listening to it.

I would have thought of a Saturday afternoon in my home village in December or so and since I can't keep it short, I would probably talk to you enthusiastically about Canada for at least two hours and just review my year. However, you already know a large part of my adventure, as I actually wrote a report almost every week. So I don't know how much interest there is in it. You can think about whether that would be something for you.

See you next week (I'll still be in Canada)

Samuel ✌🏽😋