Most of you probably know by now that the pregnancy which we announced in the last episode didn't really turn out as we expected. After 16 weeks we found out that there was no heartbeat, and following a scan, found out that there was no baby either. It was a very weird experience, but we were told that we shouldn't worry and that Lea would be fine and we should just keep trying. This seemed easy enough to do, but as work decided to have me in the field almost constantly the logistics didn't really work out!
Way back in August we moved out of Stan and Nicole's place and into our own. The house was far from finished, but we had a bedroom and a bathroom so we figured we would manage. It also meant more work getting done in the evenings, as we now had nothing better to do with our time.
We also picked up a job lot of trees from an auction so we had a bit of landscaping to get done. Between our trees and Stan and Nicoles we managed to get about 600 trees planted over a weekend. This makes the yard look a bit less like a field, but does emphasise how many trees we will need to plant over the next few years.
We had a pretty busy time before we went back to England for Hannah and Andy's wedding. We had some last framing jobs to finish so that we could leave everything ready for the siding crew to work while we were away. We also had to finish some interior bits and pieces so the drywaller could get the main floor done while were away.
We had a pretty hectic 3 weeks in Europe, taking in England, Denmark and Scotland. Sadly we didn`t get a chance to catch up with as many people as we would have liked. By the time we mad it back home we were both ready for another holiday. That wasn`t quite the way it turned out as I was shipped up north on fieldwork, starting a depressing run of 2 and a half months when I barely saw home.
In addition to this, Lea started a new job on our return from Europe, so she was exceptionally busy getting in to that.
In the few days that I was home we managed to get the groundwork for our windmills done; trenching in power lines and having the foundations poured. Finally in November we had the windmills installed, and on November 21st they started producing power (which is being closely monitored to work out if we have made a good decision, or a very expensive bad one!).
We had a fairly quiet Christmas at home, instead of travelling to Alberta to see Simon and Arin and the kids. Luckily this gave us a two week period where we managed to get through a lot of work on the house. We are now getting close to being complete, but have had a slight setback in that regard. Last week we went to Banff for a week of skiing with Simon, Arin, Andrew and Lizzie. It was great to spend the week with everyone, but I managed to have a bit of an accident on the first day. I fell and have separated my shoulder. Luckily I didn`t land on my head (and I have learned that I will be skiing with a helmet next time). Originally there was a suggestion that I may need surgery to pin the shoulder back together, but luckily I have escaped that option. However, I do find myself wearing a sling for the next 4 weeks, and very limited in what I can do around the house. Obviously, the timing for this couldn`t be better as I quit my job on January 4th in order to get the house finished, so I don`t even qualify for any sick pay!!!!!
I will leave you all with a few pictures of how the house is looking now. And who knows when the next installment might be. I will try and update more often, but based on my track record I have no idea why anyone would expect that to be true.
Rob (and Lea)
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