Our Country Cottage a Narrative John

In this episode I will get you more up to date with the goings on at OCC and there are changes at the web site.


On with the OCC update.


When last we talked I had basically shut OCC down by draining the water, putting RV antifreeze in sink and tub traps.





The toilets were drained of water but then filled with RV antifreeze and then flushed. This ensured no water was left in the mechanism and the bowel had only antifreeze in it. The toilet shut offs were the only taps I closed. If I left them open the antifreeze in the tank would siphon out. Any liquids that might freeze if the generator failed were collected and removed. I was running an experiment leaving the boiler on and only having the thermostats for the two bathrooms operating.


My first day trip of the year had me almost going off the driveway, gad.


I noticed when I entered OCC I could smell a sickly sweet, maybe, odour. It was the RV antifreeze in the toilet bowels that would evaporate over time and require adding some more to keep the trap full. I took a chance and floated some plastic wrap on the liquid in the bowel, not knowing if it would dissolve or leave a nasty mess. Time would tell.


Both bathrooms were at their set temperature of 9.5 C. So that was working, but the hours on the generator had not shown the reduction I was hoping for so I turned off the boiler till I got a chance to run the numbers.


The batteries got topped up and all data logs and system control logs along with the generator log was collected.


I have been using my phone as my camera on these short trips but have come to realize it doesn’t like the cold. The battery dies very quickly. This is a bit unnerving as it is my only source of communication with the outside world while I am at OCC. Once inside and on the charger the battery springs back to life going from the red, dead indicator, to close to 50% charged within minutes …


I cleared the driveway with the snow thrower and when I left, the sun was shining and the batteries were fully charged.


Ten days pass the batts were at 99% and the gen hadn’t run since before my last visit. That sickly sweet odour of RV antifreeze no longer hung in the air. The plastic wrap was doing its job with no signs of dissolving.


Both bathroom thermostats were calling for heat but the boiler was off. Understandable. I put them in standby mode.


The trail cam by OCC was dead again. Looks like the unit was starting to act up.


Took the system and gen logs. Noted that the tracks in the driveway, from last visit, still looked fresh. So no snow and very little wind.


It was a full month till my next visit to Our Country Cottage. It had been very cold but it was time to top up the batteries. They were very thirsty.


My phone died again while trying to take pics of the propane gauge.


I noticed that the generator had not run since the beginning of the year so I fired it up from inside OCC and it started right away. The batteries were now at 100% when I put the gen back into Auto and it shut itself off after the programmed cool down period.


Like I said it had been very cold. The battery room was down to +5C ( first time I had seen it below 10C) and the utility room was at +1C (and the first time I had seen it below 7C). I had heard a report that a local town measured frost down to 18 feet below ground. Water pipes were freezing all over the place.


I was starting to get concerned about the state of OCC. The pipe to the well, runs under the driveway and is, I think, at least 10 feet down. Also I had left the hot water tanks full in the utility room. As noted the temp down there was just +1 degree. Lots to think about.


That trail cam was dead again, recording only 1 file. Some of the trail cam batteries were below .1 of a volt. Maybe a short circuit in the camera. The tie wrap even snapped when I went to secure its door.


I ordered a new cam a couple of days later in the

In this episode I will get you more up to date with the goings on at OCC and an OCC Year In Review, remembering some of what happened last year.


So on with Episode 28 OCC update.


As usual I left the last episode with some unanswered questions. Once again our trusty generator was not so trusty, refusing to start.





Three days before my next visit we had a major snow dump in the city. I think I shoveled the walk 3 maybe 4 times that day. It just kept coming. The next day, taking my life into my own hands, and on summer tires, I ventured out onto snow clogged streets in an attempt to get a new battery for the generator. Two positive things were in play, 1- the generator supplier had just got a new shipment of batteries and 2- they had moved closer to where I lived in the city. Even though they were closer it was a sketchy trip but a new battery was acquired.


My main country vehicle was now in the shop, undergoing major surgery for the foreseeable future, so I was going to use our other vehicle which was good but not as solid as my main one and it was running summer tires. I keep its snow tires at OCC and figured all I had to do was get in to OCC and put on the snowies and the return trip would be no problem


Giving a couple of days for them to get the roads cleared, up by OCC, I loaded up our vehicle with all the snow emergency stuff I had, traction mats, shovels, tow ropes, come-along, kitty litter, snow shoes and on and on.. and off I went. Oh yeah, I had the new generator battery too.


As I got closer to Our Country Cottage it became clear there wasn’t anywhere near the amount of snow we had got in the city. I didn’t need any of the emergency stuff I had packed at all. Sort of like when you carry an umbrella it doesn’t rain. But better to have it and not need it than, need it and not have it.


Arriving at OCC I didn’t even need to clear the drive, just drove straight in. On my last visit I had turned the boiler off so the batteries would not be drained. With the days getting shorter, not much sun, and that pesky gen not starting I though it was the prudent thing to do. I hadn’t accounted for the sudden season change we just had.


Now, with winter coming early in the city and temps dropping all over I was genuinely concerned that OCC might have frozen. A quick check inside OCC revealed the batteries fully charged and no frozen toilets. The living room was at 12 C just on the power of the sun. I turned the boiler on.


Outside I checked to see if the gen would start. Nope, it had not magically fixed itself while I was away. A quick battery swap and she fired to life with little effort.


The solar control panel showed the gen charging at 5.2 KW but with no load at all and the inverter light was off. I guess with the OCC batteries fully charged the gen was just supplying power to the boiler, etc. Hadn’t seen that mode before.


After about ten minutes or so, I put the gen into Auto at the generator and it stopped right away. Then, at the solar control panel, I pressed manual start and the gen started right up, so I put it in Auto and the solar control unit shut it down with the usual cool down routine. And with no internal fan fail errors, all seemed to be working normally.


Snow tires were put on the vehicle ready for the next big snow dump here, or in the city.


Before I left I checked that the boiler was heating where it was supposed to be heating and, again, all looked normal.


I took the opportunity to drop the defective battery off at the generator supply shop on the way home. It might still be under warranty. Rrright.


Two weeks pass and I am back to check on things. What little snow there was, was just about gone. Good thing I had the snow tires on. Looks like the generator had run a couple of times since my last visit. A good sign. The propane was just under a half.


It was over a month till my next visit, this time with my main country

In this episode I will bring you up to date with the goings on at OCC and, as promised, the ITB wrap up.
Finally I can close the book on ITB, In The Beginning. No more confusion with episode numbers and ITB progress month numbers. Hey, it was getting confusing for me.

*******On With In The Beginning Wrap Up******
It was at the end of month 27, (no, lets not go there again) two years and three months, that there was a logical point to finish with contractors, etc. and take sole claim of Our Country Cottage.
Not everything was finished but enough was enough and we decided to cut the cord. As reported last episode, keys were returned and good byes said. Now the only thing left was to pay the final bill, but how much would that be? Changes had been made, there was that bill that was only partially paid by the first site supervisor, incorrect items delivered costing more to install and on and on.
I don’t mind telling you I lost a lot of sleep trying to figure all this stuff out. I had kept notes, records and receipts so I could have gone through it item by item… It would have taken a long time and forced me to relive all the problems we had had over the past two years, plus. I really didn’t want to go there. Everything was still very raw and I just wanted to see the end of that phase of the project, construction etc, and start the next phase, the phase where we start enjoying OCC.
So instead of turning up to the final meeting with the project organizer with a pad of paper listing every item of contention, I came up with an alternate concept. With some of the bigger items in mind I arrived at a figure that I would be comfortable with. It was more of a gut thing. I know people who would have gone through every item, every receipt and done a full accounting so as not do pay one more penny than absolutely necessary and probably end up still unhappy, thinking someone had fooled them to pay more.
I remember back a few years there was this one person who was looking to buy a house and came to me to ask if I thought it was a good deal and did I think they could pay less somehow. Not being a house appraiser or even seeing the property, I asked if the property was worth it to them and left it at that.
Well that’s how my mind works anyways….
I am going to take this opportunity to tell you how the Our Country Cottage project was organized, financially speaking.
There was a contract drawn up with expectations of cost. In all fairness the hard costs for the building package were accurate but things got added and changed which was partly reflected in the construction plans.
Once we had settled on a floor plan and made the modifications to make it our own and once the plans had gone back and forth several times, (I just checked, and we were up to version 5)the final version had to be sent to the manufacturer with a deposit. Shortly after, there was a production deposit. Then the project company, who was going to assemble OCC and organize all the trades, etc, needed a deposit. These deposits were required by the various companies to add OCC to their schedule boards.
The balance of the cottage package was due on the delivery of the kit to the site, there abouts. It was the delivery of said kit that started the “In The Beginning” instalments, by the way.
Soo around the kit delivery month, the well was drilled and paid for and the solar power system required a deposit. A couple of other items requiring money were the septic system and getting setup with a propane tank. A bit later the folding doors between the sunroom and living room and the masonry heater required a financial injection. These were some of the extras I was handling myself.
Back to the nice neat payment schedule that was laid out by the project co-ordinator\ company. These consisted of five payments that would be made on the completion of certain stages,
1- When the foundation was complete
2- When the framing was complete
3- When OCC could be locked

In this episode I will get you caught up to date with the goings on at OCC and ITB, In The Beginning, well, this might be the last one. Lets start with probably the most action packed ITB yet. ***In The Beginning, Month 27, October *** ITB is the part the podcast where I use pics, my log book, texts and emails along with any other mind jogs I can find to give you the most accurate recollection of the creation of OCC. I even referred to an old check book record this time. Looks like we had five, three day trips, to Our Country Cottage this month. In the last ITB I had noticed a boom loader, or Zoom Boom had been parked by OCC ready to go. The first day of the month did not disappoint. The crew arrived early and went to work moving all the construction extras to a predetermined area near the Quonset, away from OCC. This included leftover bricks from the masonry heater, lots of dimensional lumber, siding, trim, metal roofing and about 50 lengths of powder coated rebar that for some reason was grossly miscalculated for the deck railings. Keep in mind that all this stuff was bought and paid for and on site. To toss it out would be a great waste of material even though there were no plans to use any of it. As long as you have a place to put it so you aren’t constantly looking at it or tripping over it. With 160 acres or so, we had room. It did take some time to organise it and move it and the contractors doing it were on the clock, so it did cost a bit. But, it got done and tarped over, out of the way. The following day a dumpster was dropped off and the grounds started to get cleaned up. Concrete pathway slabs were being placed on the ground at the base of the deck stairs. Two loads of gravel were dropped of and spread in front of the garage and around the turning circle, making it look much more like a real driveway. OCC hadn’t looked this good, well, ever. A few days pass and I return to find the septic guy back to finish off the septic mound. It needed to be covered with dirt and the ground leading to it required tidying up too. The next morning the contractor returned and started using the zoom boom to add the bits and pieces of trim and siding that had been missed for any number of reasons. The following day saw the zoom boom being put to great use installing decorative cedar beams in the gable ends of the roof. Interesting story bout these inserts. They were on the detail drawing, as part of the building and the material was on site, but the contractor tried to convince us not to do them for some reason. If it was up to me I probably would have let it slide but my partner insisted that they should be done. And done they were and in retrospect I am glad. The detail, it added to the roof, really helps make the looks of Our Country Cottage. I think the contractors were as fed up as we were and just wanted it to end. While they were doing that I was laying some rubber patio squares in front of the generator and propane tank. I had built up the ground so I would be well out of the mud when checking either one. They also looked way better than the shipping pallets that they replaced. Less rustic. By this time it was the middle of the month and I was back for another 3 day visit. The contractor was painting the edge of the metal roof where it had been cut so it wouldn’t rust. I was looking at the tractor and contemplating the winter, snowblower rear blade, conversion. I was told that the mounting brackets for the mower and the snow thrower could co-exist but in order to have both mounted at the same time longer bolts were required. After careful measurements taken and sketches made in the log book, I picked up the required hardware from the local dealer the next day. The following day I mounted the brackets permanently and did the winter conversion. I took copious amount of pictures for future reference. Just before I headed back to the city I noticed some corrosion on a pipe in the utility room. Five days pass and I’m

In this episode Our Country Cottage finally breaks free of winters grip, entering the summer months while In The Beginning, ITB, reveals some progress. ***In The Beginning, Month 26, September.*** ITB is the section of the podcast where I do my best to remember, through pictures, my log book, texts and invoices, well basically anything I can get my hands on.During this period of little getting done, it seems I also did little with my log book. That is to say sketchy notes. The second month of year three of the creation of Our Country Cottage started with our contractor calling to say he won’t be back for another two weeks. If you remember, the previous month we didn’t see him at all. So you could say, things are looking up. It appears that the month was broken into three, and a bit, trips. The first trip was generally rainy and cold. I tried out the in floor heating for the first time but didn’t keep it on for long as there was hardly any sun. A fire was built to take the edge off. There was a trip to a nearby town to check on cell phone boosters. My partner came up for a day and we went to visit friends in the area. The next trip up wasn’t until the middle of the month. We were definitely at the peak of fly season when I arrived, running the fly buster 2000 down a couple of times trying to clean up. The “spray and go away” tactic was then employed. Put out a good fog of anti fly stuff and go to town for supper. The shop vac was used to collect the, um, remains upon return. My log book indicates that, between visits, there were warnings and errors along with low levels and generator start faults reported by the solar control unit, but all appeared normal. Hmmmm. The next day Our Country Cottage had its first official guests for lunch. A good time was had by all even with the flies peaking in number in the afternoon. Ahhh country living. The dishwasher was run with a full load for the first time. I recorded the time and power used for each cycle it went through. Bottom line the batteries were at 99% at start and at 98% upon completion. And this was after sunset! Finally, the following day saw some Cottage items taken off of the to do list. The electricians showed up early and went to work. Among a long list of things done was, a wall switch in the mudroom to turn the well pump on and off. This was really handy as up to that point I had to flick a breaker in the utility room. I never leave OCC for any length of time without turning the well pump off. My reasoning is that if anything fails, only the water already in the tanks would escape. They ran an Ethernet cable from the generator to the utility room so I could get data inside OCC. Network cables were run from the utility room to the loft, over the garage, and to the kitchen. They fixed the ac plugs in the master bedroom that were not working. They installed heat tape in the drain in front of the garage. They installed all cover plates missing and installed the tracks for track lighting in the loft. By the time the electricians were done, most if not all of the electrical deficiencies were taken care off. Best day in months. Five days pass and we are back at OCC again, this time to receive the new furniture that we had been shopping for in the city over the past little while. Here is a bit of a cautionary tale. When the truck showed up the head dude proclaimed that they didn’t realize how far they had to come yahda yahda yahda. They wanted more money than the original estimate, of course. Always get a firm cost in writing for these sort of things and be very clear what is expected etc. etc… In our case we thought that we were covered but the trucking company was hired by the furniture company was an independent and a few loose ends crept in. Not being totally heartless and seeing that they put the furniture in OCC where we wanted it, including a very heavy piece in our upstairs bedroom (they worked hard) we settled on a price. It seems there is always som

In this episode Our Country Cottage has not finished sending me power failure alerts and In The Beginning, ITB, covers the first month of year three of construction. In The Beginning, month 25, August. This is the part of the episode where I go through pix, emails, logs etc to give you the best recollection of the construction of Our Country Cottage. I had three visits to OCC this month. Each was three days long. The first visit, I had a load of those flat pack boxes from that store, known for its assemble yourself furniture. My collection promised that they would turn into two closet organizers for the master bedroom closet. The instructions had a picture of two characters putting them together. Seeing that I was by myself, I took it as a handy suggestion and proceeded to do it with the, unwritten, one character option. More challenging, but more rewarding and much less debate as to what goes where etc. I found a picture with them assembled and in place. Proof positive that just cause it ain’t written in the instructions, doesn’t mean it won’t work. Our cook top was used for the first time to make breakfast. Also, due to very heavy hail our vehicle was parked in the garage for the first time, but not without acquiring some new contours. I seem to remember running around outside with pieces of cardboard protecting my head from the hail. Yes, cardboard cut from those flat pack boxes. The last day of this visit was a gorgeous, sunny day and I took the time to do a photography project with my phone. 30 pix in 30 minutes. Got some cool shots. So this part of the podcast ,ITB, is supposed to be about how the construction was proceeding not what I was doing by myself. Spoiler alert. Nothing happened for the whole month. After spending alone time at OCC, I called the project coordinator to see what was going on. Turns out our contractor had been very ill for a time, hospital stuff, etc, but he was doing better and should be back soon. While back in town, more furniture evaluation trips were made to flesh out Our Country Cottage. My next three day visit saw the grass getting cut, some brush getting wacked and my partners first overnight stay. The last visit of the month, yes three days again, gave me pix of starry early morning skies, drainage round the septic tank area, a gravel pile and those piles of construction leftovers. There are a couple of lovely pix of the front of OCC with the lights on at night. I printed some of those pictures from that 30 pix in 30 minutes project and put them in a multi pic collage frame sort of thing, and that got hung on a wall. A note in my log book informs me that there were 4 deer and two elk on the front clearing at the same time. A regular zoo. So that’s it for ITB, month 25. Will next month pick up? Tune in next time for, “Its month 26, do you know where your contractor is?” Now on with the OCC update While winter has been refusing to loosen its grip on Our Country Cottage, my visits have evolved into a one day trip, every other week. The month started with, what has become, the regular “Power has been lost” email from OCC. A check to see what local weather condition were at the time of failure revealed that the temp had dropped to -35C (-31F) that night. So understandable. I was not concerned about anything breaking in the cottage as I had drained the water a while back and was in no rush to go up. In fact, it was ten days later that we went up. In that time span Our Country Cottage emailed me 110 times to let me know that power had failed. You would think that once it failed that would be it. Remember that OCC is primarily solar powered so when the generator decides it does not want to work until someone presses its buttons, to clear errors, the batteries get charged by the sun on clear days. So here is what happens, power fails, sun comes out and charges the batteries until they reach a certain level to turn the power back on. Once the power is back on the boiler sees a de