We are and adventurous, outdoor family so we have had to do a lot of adapting now that we live in a place with 7 to 8 months of winter. If its below 50 then its winter.
During these warm months, where we can actually go outside, we have been racing to get ready for the next winter. It was hard to pull away from the anxiety of completing so much work during the short summer, but we did find time to enjoy ourselves and some sunshine.
The Canola
The canola is a major crop around here and turns the landscape bright yellow.
This is the second largest source of protein meal in the world and is used to feed both humans and animals.
If you have ever used canola oil or vegetable oil this is where it comes from.
Canada is the largest grower of this amazing, flowering plant.
Above is my village on the Canadian boarder.
If you look closely to the left you can see my church steeple.
My Kitchen
So yes, my kitchen is a mess.
I left only the sink standing until the last moment so I could do dishes.
For about three weeks we were doing dishes in buckets.
I was so glad we decided to do this in the summer even though this is an indoor project.
The pipes were a challenge since the sink was in the middle of the room, but I had designed and open concept kitchen so this needed to change.
We removed the worst of the floor that was like walking though a fun house with slants and hills.
Alkali had cracked the floor and we had white foam coming though the cracks when it rained.
We laid down a concrete vapor barrier to protect against the powerful minerals in the ground.
New floor!
The Sink Hole.
I kept wondering why the foyer of the church was cracking. During the winter the wind blew through the cracks and frost grew on the walls.
It wasn't until the snow melted that we realized the front part of our church was SINKING!
We didn't know how deep and massive the sink hole was until the contractor started excavating. Its amazing the front part of the church stayed attached as well as it did!
The sink hole was caused by water run off over many years and so we came up with a new way to direct the water.
I love working with Preston. I have presented him with several unique/nonconforming ideas and designs while working on the church. He just smiles like I broke the monotony of his projects and says, "Yah, we can do that."
He can see the vision and then makes sure that my ideas work structurally and engineers out plans.
This time I talked to him about pit/turf houses.
This is what our ancestors in VERY COLD climates built to stay warm in before electricity and heaters. See image below for example:
Of course I couldn't make the whole church like this but we raised the ground up to the bottom windows. This has already helped with our drainage issues.
Cat on a CAT.
Before
After
Our new drain valley was a success during the storm and tornado!
NO FLOODING!
If you've seen the vlogs you know flooding has been a constant issue for us.
The tornado was only a small tornado, but we had no idea where it was coming from, how big it was, etc. We had no property damage, just lots of clean up in the aftermath.
It was very powerful. The rain drops felt like getting hit with paint balls. No one was hurt and our stinker cat made it back home safe the next day.
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