Baby, it's cold outside!

Brrrrrr! We received more than 10cm of snow over the weekend, the mercury is hovering around -20*C, and there's no relief in sight for a few days at least. We've been confining most of our efforts to the cozy interior of the house. The exception is the ever necessary excursions to cut, retrieve and split firewood. We have taken to pulling apart the big piles of felled trees (from where the driveway was put in last winter) with the tractor. I sling a chain around the trunk of the target tree, attach one end of a stout 20 foot long tow strap to the chain and the other end to the tractor. Put the gearbox in low range-4wd and just back slowly up, hopefully pulling the tree from the pile. It is then easy to limb off the branches and buck the trunk into 18" logs, ready for splitting, using our trusty Stihl chainsaw.
BTW, I have become quite proficient at sharpening the chain on the saw. It took a little practice and futzing around to find how to position and hold the saw while carefully filing each tooth to the correct angle, but now it only takes me about 10 minutes start to finish. The payoff is a saw that cuts through the wood almost effortlessly.
Inside, Carol has been busy cleaning, organizing and making the house feel more like our home. She's doing a great job because the place feels very cozy and very much the way we envisioned it. I have been working on the electrical system in anticipation of an electrical inspection in the near future. Almost all of the wiring in the basement is now complete and to code. I have vented the battery box and cleaned up the wiring and conduits around the panels. I have yet to enclose some of that mess with a cable raceway, but that just needs a little carpentry to complete. Hopefully, we get a warmer day soon so I can set up the table saw outside to get that done.
We are in the process of getting some quotes on the drywalling and hope that we can get started on that as soon as we pass our electrical and vapour barrier inspections. Our fingers are crossed!


The dogs have been loving the snow and seem to have boundless energy, running and jumping, sniffing under the snow, and chasing each other around. Eventually they do get cold and they show up at the door with snowy faces, asking to come in so they can lay by the fire and snooze for a while.