The Craftiest Workshop

When my brother Russell had mentioned that they were selling their house and moving into another, I had casually mentioned that our house was available for company if they needed a place to stay between houses. He didn’t really think it would be necessary but as it came closer to the date, he asked if they could stay for a week because of house building delays. One week turned into two and eventually a whole month. Their stay may have been even longer yet but Heather needed to get to their stuff in a storage pod before her trip to Italy and Russell needed to get to his paint supplies to work on some painting projects.

Their stay was a good distraction for me. Chris is often away for work so it was nice having people around.
Both Heather and Russell have taken an interest in bird watching. Every day one of them would come in from a walk proclaiming they had a new sighting of a bird to add to their life list. Russell particularly seemed to enjoy having the chickadees eat from his hand and he went out many times in the day to engage with them.

Our guests offered to tackle taking down a shed that we weren’t really interested in using. Here are some photos Russell took of the process.

Being an artist, Russell felt the need to create while he was at our place. Lucky for him (and us) we have lots of wood available and he was able to create whatever project he had in mind. It started with a queen bed, headboard, footboard, two side tables and two book stands made from reclaimed barn wood. Our extra bed sets are still at our house in Fort McMurray.

Next he got to work on making two 2-person picnic tables for around the firepit. I have been wanting a table of some sort for this area since we moved in. They are so comfortable to sit at. I spent an afternoon sitting on one out in the sun cleaning rosehips. Here are Heather and I testing one of them out after having moved it over to the fire pit area

The last thing Russell made was a long work table for beside the garage. We usually go there to do any sanding when the weather is nice but have been using a tiny table up until now. I have already used this new work table to clean the last of my vegetables from the garden.

Russell also enjoys taking photos. He took many bird photos catching a nice photo of a Bald Eagle, some Sandhill Cranes and a few of our resident Northern Harrier. He was like a kid at Christmas the morning a moose walked by in the field across the road. He ran out to take a photo so I took a photo of him. I am not sure I would have been comfortable getting that close.

The other thing we did a lot of during their visit was play games. Heather and I played a game together almost every day and some days more than one. It helped her keep her mind off the house building issues and I got to play some games that Chris is not a big fan of. We also spent a few evenings playing Wizard with Russell and Chris. It amazes me how much I see my father in watching my brother play cards; same way of holding/choosing cards.

Heather went on many walks down our country roads to prepare for her month long hike of a trail in Italy. One day she walked just over 20km. She said she enjoyed the views and the birds along the way with only a few cars to interrupt her walk. Some days the dogs, Russell and I went along. The dogs were grateful for being able to run free on the road.

Speaking of the dogs, they have two poodle mixes. Shay is a medium sized poodle mix and Coco and miniature poodle mix. Because their temporary accommodations won’t allow for it, Russell and Heather have left the dogs with us for potentially another six weeks. They enjoy running around the yard trying desperately to catch the squirrel that lives under our shed. Having dogs around keeps us more active as we feel the need to wear them out so they will have restful nights.

It was a nice change having company stay for more than just a couple nights. I had some meals cooked for me, someone else to do dishes and a willing volunteer to cut the grass with the ride-on mower. I think I can safely say that both Russell and Heather enjoyed a vacation on our “farm” (as Russell calls it).