Adventures at Apple Jack Creek: Part One

By Lonna Cunningham

In the spring of 2005, I was out for a drive in the country and saw a piece of land that simply called to me. Though I couldn’t have told you why I felt the way I did, I knew that I needed to live there. It was crazy, really: I wasn’t looking to move to the country, I had no intentions of leaving my city life, but there it was. I let the idea marinate in my mind for awhile, and it simply would not let me go: this was a Leading I had to follow, and so, with more than a little help from my boyfriend (who is now my husband), six acres of cattle pasture became our home.
This book is a collection of the blog postings that chronicled the early days of the adventure: building the house, living in a shed during construction (in the winter), dealing with scheduling problems, acquiring and losing animals ... I can’t believe we made it through all that without losing our grip on sanity and each other, but we made it, and we are still here, loving our country life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Apple Jack Creek Books
• Release date: Dec 5, 2011
• ISBN: 9780987862624

Lonna Cunningham

Lonna Cunningham is a fibre artist, writer, and small holder who lives in rural Alberta with her family, some chickens, dogs, cats, sheep, and a cow or two. Her former career in Information Technology came to an abrupt end with the onset of Delayed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in early 2011: you can read about her journey through trauma in her first book, Just Keep Knitting: a journey of healing through forgiveness, faith, and fibre. Lonna is also the author of The Rookie’s Field Guide to Supported Spinning, a how-to book for people who would like to be able to make pretty string with nothing more than a handful of fibre, a weighted stick, and a dish. Fibre artists will probably know Lonna as Frazzlehead, from Ravelry – and if you are a fibre artist who has not yet found ravelry.com, you need to check it out! There’s a wealth of information and a lot of interesting people hanging out there, Lonna included. Look her up – she’d love to hear from you.

Book preview

Adventures at Apple Jack Creek: Part One

by

Lonna Cunningham

Copyright 2011 by Lonna Cunningham

All rights reserved.

Published electronically by

Apple Jack Creek Books

ISBN 978-0-9878626-1-7

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

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Adventures at Apple Jack Creek: Part One

In the spring of 2005, I was out for a drive in the country and saw a piece of land that simply called to me. Though I couldn’t have told you why I felt the way I did, I simply knew that I needed to live there. It was crazy, really: I wasn’t looking to move to the country, I had no intentions of leaving my city life, but there it was. I let the idea marinate in my mind for awhile, and it simply would not let me go: this was a Leading I had to follow, and so, with more than a little help from my boyfriend (who is now my husband), six acres of cattle pasture became our home.

This book is a collection of the blog postings that chronicled the early days of the adventure: building the house, living in a shed during construction, dealing with scheduling problems, acquiring and losing animals … I can’t believe we made it through all that without losing our grip on sanity and each other, but we made it, and we are still here, loving our country life.

Enjoy the tale!

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Contents

October 2005

November 2005

December 2005

January 2006

February 2006

March 2006

April 2006

May 2006

June 2006

July 2006

August 2006

September 2006

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Apple Jack Creek: 10 October 2005

One day when I was very small, I was eating Apple Jacks cereal at the breakfast table at my grandparents’ house (my parents would certainly never have given me that sugary stuff!) and I thought how funny it was that the cereal had the same name as my grandfather, whose first name was Jack. I decided he should be called Apple Jack too. My parents tried to talk me out of it (I remember Dad saying, what about Grandpa Jack? and stubbornly refusing to say anything but Apple Jack). Apple Jack himself did not seem to find it problematic, and the name was adopted by all the grandchildren. He signed cards to us with a little picture of an apple, then his name. He was the best grandpa a kid could have—he loved us completely, exactly as we were, and always had time for us. When I was trying to find a name for the acreage, I went through a lot of different options and then, driving on the highway one day, this just popped into my head and I knew this was it.

This is the creek on the land. It essentially forms the south border of the property, and divides our land from the neighbour's. Most of the time it's just a little trickle, but in the spring it runs a little higher. Apparently there are beavers upstream, and their activity changes things for us. Standing down there by the creek on a warm day feels like standing in a holy place. I just love it down there.

First step was to get the land levelled for the house. This picture was taken in the early summer and shows the site for the house. We're standing at the north west corner of the site, looking south - the creek is back there in the trees. The lake is actually off to the left of the photo, it'll be visible from the kitchen window.

The house is a package bought from Allpro Building Systems in BC. The large windows will face south, for solar gain in the winter and for a view of the land. The north side (the back of the house) is just in off the access road, with enough space to build a garage between house & road and still meet county setback requirements. The siding will be a pale yellow, and the roof was supposed to be dark green but apparently that shade isn't available here, so I opted for a nice mocha brown. The deck won't be built at this point - we'll see how things go and decide what we want to do out there.

The Boy gets the loft all to himself - that's his bedroom, play room, homework space, everything. This arrangement means that I won't have to even look at the mess if I choose not to - the downstairs has to stay neat and tidy but if he has a disaster area going on upstairs, well, as long as nothing falls over the loft railing, I suppose it's manageable.

By the August long weekend, the shed (now referred to as The Cabin) was fit for human habitation. We got it all painted, shingled, and the furniture moved in. Believe it or not, in this tiny building there is a twin bed, a double bed, several shelving units, a portapotty, and a really neat sink from Canadian Tire complete with gravity fed water system. Oh, and a kerosene heater. It gets cold at night.

And for those who think my hour long commute to the city (each direction) must be long and painful, here is a picture of what I see in the mornings. I tell ya, this beats city rush hour any day.

We both find it really relaxing to be out at the acreage. There are lots of sounds, but not the busy sounds of cars and trucks and kids yelling and dogs barking - we hear the cows in the field next door, and the coyotes at night. Most mornings I see 3 white tailed deer hop across the road into the trees as I'm on my way out, and I've seen a pair of little red foxes up the road a ways. There are hawks overhead every day, and a killdeer (a little bird that looks a lot like a sandpiper) had a nest right on our access road - we even saw the little hatchlings. And then, of course, there is Duggan. Here he is sitting in his tire, soaking up the sunshine. He's gotten more accustomed to being outside - at first he was really confused, and panicked if we looked like we might be walking off and leaving him. With his own little dog run (complete with tire) he is more content now.

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How firm a foundation: 13 October 2005

After several delays due to the rain, we got a big hole dug in the dirt, and started on the foundation. Footings had to be poured first, which meant laying out boards and bending rebar to go inside, then getting concrete poured into the troughs created by the boards.