Is it a dog, is it a bear... or is it a wolf?

The answer is...wolf prints. We were in Huntsville on Tuesday and saw the attached fresh foot print right outside our deck....Russell took a picture and as soon as we got home that night, he went on the Internet and looked up various animal prints.  No big deal, it's just good to know who we are dealing with!

Once again, Matt's crew had an amazing day, temperature in the upper 20's, not a cloud in the sky. The snow has all melted. Because the leaves are not out yet, there was no shade so the heat was almost too much.  Good progress was made and most of the roof structure is now up. We also met with Matt's brother, John, who will do our fireplace, to discuss the design and stone layout.  We will go back to Huntsville in a few weeks.  In the meantime, we finished the interviews with the real estate agents and, in the end, we chose Royal Lepage as our realtor. Our house will be on the market as of April 1.  We spent the balance of the week sprucing up the outside and inside of our house.  Ben, our gardener, mulched our flower beds last Wednesday. It looks really nice and fresh, the daylilies are already 6 inches high, all of our ornamental trees are budding.  I put pansies in all our pots to add some colour.  Russell started up the pond. So the outside is ready for showing, so is the inside.  We do not have to do much to "stage" our house for showing but still, there are a few things that we need to do. No doubt that the "For Sale" sign will bring mixed emotions.  We have been in this house for 18 years, so lots of memories, but we are ready for a new beginning.

Last Thursday, we took Cooper to his Trick Training Class.  He really had a good time. He can do the "Spin Right/Spin Left", and we are now working on "Play Dead".  He also learned how to jump through a hoop, but he already knew how to jump through a hurdle so jumping through a hoop was a breeze!  I often wonder if Cooper is wondering why Russell and I are so busy around the house. I know that dogs don't think that way but I wonder just the same..... If he only knew that he will be living in a brand new house soon!

Yesterday morning, we had ducks in our pond for the first time ever.  We used to get them when we had a pool but they haven't been back since we've had the pond.  So we took Cooper outside, very quietly, but the little noise that we made was enough for the ducks to fly off and for Cooper to get quite startled by the sound they made when they took off.  It will be interesting to see if they come back.

This week coming will be busy. We are meeting with our real estate agent on Tuesday, with her photographer, to get pictures done for both an on-line virtual tour and the write up of the house.  On Wednesday, we are meeting with Patricia, our interior decorator, to discuss fixtures, etc,  for our new house. We have another training class for Cooper on Thursday.  My parents will be coming over on Friday, for the weekend. We are looking forward to their visit, so is Cooper.  On Saturday, we will take Cooper to the grooming salon for a nice bath with all the trimmings! During that time, we will all have a nice lunch somewhere in Port Credit.

Wolf paw prints

Tower entrance view from Northwest looking Southeast

That's it for this week's blog.  Have a good week!

Time Marches On.....

Sometimes, when I start thinking about what to write in my weekly blog, I can't think of anything.  Why?  Because, at times, the week that has just passed is a blur by Sunday morning.  Not sure if that is good or bad.  All I can say is that the weeks go by too quickly for my liking.  Russell reminded me that I have been retired for 6 months now.  Wow, those 6 months just flew by!  Cooper has been with us for almost 5 months and he turned 10 months old yesterday.  Our new house will be ready in about 4 months.  When I think back about when we started this log home project, it seemed like it would take forever for our house to be built.  We are now just a few months away from moving in.  This brings me to what we did this week:  we started interviewing a few real estate agents so that we can make a final decision about which agent will sell our house for us.  Time is of the essence now as the market is hot, especially in the area we live in.  Our goal is to have our house on the market by end of March or beginning of April.   Our house is ready for selling.  Spring cleaning got done this past week, both in the house and in the front/back yards. Russell is getting ready to start up the pond in the next few days.  All we need to do now is put up the For Sale sign.

Last Monday, the few pieces of furniture that we had made of reclaimed hemlock were delivered. They include a harvest table and buffet, a sofa table, coffee table and two drink tables. This was my retirement gift from Russell, beautiful handcrafted furniture, which will look amazing in our new log home.  I attach a picture of the coffee table.  The carved bowl on the table is made from a birch burl and was a retirement gift from my staff - handcrafted by a Muskoka artisan from Huntsville.  It also looks beautiful and is a nice contrast to the table.

This past week, being March break, brought amazing weather. Those of you who were off lucked out. We sat on the back porch a few times, while Cooper was playing in the backyard.  It is so nice to be able to sit outside and feel the warmth of the sun. This coming week looks to be a repeat of last week.

We are off to Huntsville again this week, for a day trip.  The roof system is going up on our log shell.  We will also meet with Matt's brother, who will not only help to erect the roof system, but will do our stone work, including the fireplace.  We look forward to meeting him.

There was no Obedience / Trick training class last week, so we resume this week.  Cooper really enjoyed the first class two weeks ago.  We are practicing some of what he learned as this training uses the clicker method.  He seems to be responding well to the clicker...but he responds well to anything that has food as a reward...I mentioned above that he is now 10 months old.  We are noticing some changes in him, in terms of behaviour.  He is not as attention seeking as he was a few months ago.  His walks on a leash are now as perfect as they could be.  But he is still a puppy, so he still does some puppy "things".  His new "thing" now is to go after our slippers... whether they are on or off our feet! We are told that the puppy phase lasts until 18 months of age...not too bad.  We love him more for it and he is truly a great doggie!

Those are my little news for this week's blog.  Have a good week everyone and enjoy the spring weather!

Logs rise up on a solid foundation....

Anne and Cooper taking in some sun.

Adzed and glistening in the sunshine!

The "Beater"

What a week it has been on the log home front!  The reassembling of our log shell started last week and Russell, Cooper and I were there to see it all happen.  Very impressive to see it all come together, like a big jigsaw puzzle.  Matt and his crew did an amazing job and you can tell that they work so well together.  You can really see how passionate they are about their work.  The words "Artisan" and "Handcrafted" have taken on a whole new meaning.  Each log is handle so very carefully.  We took it all in, sometimes with an awe that words cannot describe.  Russell took hundreds of pictures, Cooper and I were watching, at times taking in some nice rays.  Cooper even had a nap on one of the logs!  I attach three pictures, one of them a close up of the adzing that was done on each and every log.  The other picture is the hammer, aka the "Beater", used to settle the logs into place.

The weather in Huntsville couldn't have been better, sunny and warm, but lots of snow still.  So, what's next?  Matt is now working on the roof structure to be installed on the log shell in a few weeks,  as well as the windows and doors.  The log shell will then be completely enclosed.  This will be followed by the installation of the cedar shingles beginning of April, to be done by Cedar Roof Ontario.

I could go on and on about what we saw this past week but I will let you watch the attached video, courtesy of Russell, which speaks for itself.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we are.

I don't have much else to report in this week's blog.  The focus of this past week was truly on our log home and we are anxious to be moving to Huntsville.

Have a good week and enjoy everything that "Spring ahead" brings!

A big load ready to roll.....

Cooper, Teaser and two of her pups

Logs loaded and ready to roll into Huntsville

The truck is loaded, the logs will be on their way to our lot in Huntsville on Monday for assembly on the foundation. WOW! This will be a very exciting week. We will be there with bells on to watch it all happen. Look for a video and pictures next week!

March has arrived, the days are longer, Spring is just around the corner! Once again, we lucked out in terms of the weather this week and did not get any snow in Mississauga, except for rain and high winds. Oh....I forgot to mention that one loud bang of thunder that we got at around midnight on Wednesday night. Needless to say that Cooper did not like that at all.... Since Cooper was born in May last year, I am sure that he was exposed to thunder throughout the Summer but he probably forgot what it sounded like until Wednesday night!

We had a good week. Thursday, we visited with Nathan and Darlah of Talemakers Havanese and Cooper got to play not only with his little buddies but also with his mom, Teaser, and her four 10 week old puppies. Teaser was quite protective of her puppies so she corrected Cooper a few times when he was getting too close to them. Those four puppies have the same character as Cooper so it was nice to see them all in one space acting very similarly, especially in terms of being so outgoing and high energy. I attach a picture of Teaser, Cooper and two of her pups.

We did not start Cooper's second level of Obedience as the date got changed to tomorrow night. We look forward to it. We received the course content and we know that Cooper will just love the various tricks that he will learn. We will be using a clicker for this particular training.

We picked up the sample board for our engineered hemlock flooring.  It will be very nice. This sample will help us choose the interior stain. Our harvest table is currently being made and we have seen the in process pictures.  It will look very nice.  It should be ready by March 12.

So, our log home project is coming together nicely but there is still lots to do.  We are still aiming for an early July move in date. The wait is long sometimes but it will be worth it in the end. Russell and I were reminiscing this week about when this whole project started.  We started to look for land a little over one year ago. Lots has happened in one year!

This is it for this week's blog.  We're off for our morning walk and this afternoon we will take Cooper to the doggie indoor park for some fun.  I wish you all a great week.  Ours will be quite special!