Guests for a weekend up near the river

We have many friends in the area surrounding the river property.  One couple -- Johannes and Odelia -- generously invited us to spend a wintery night at their new house on the weekend of January 27.  (It's the second house on their property; for the moment it's mainly used as a guest house.)

Let me tell you, winter nights up at the river are MUCH nicer in a beautiful new house with all the amenities than they are in the cramped, cold bunkies.  We were very, very grateful to our hosts.

We took some great pictures that weekend.  Unfortunately, we didn't have our camera for the best part of all.  You see, our hosts operate a dairy farm.  We helped them with chores on Saturday, which involves milking and feeding cattle.  It also involved pony rides and lots of loud machinery for little boys.  Max was completely blown away by the "poo conveyor belt", which is just what you think it is.  He watched it in fascination while everyone else watched Odelia feed a calf that wasn't yet 24 hours old.

Our hosts' granddaughters were with us in the barn.  They joined us at the house for a couple hours afterwards.  They played with Darwyn the whole time, to the delight of all.

This house is absolutely gorgeous.  Keep reading though.  There's more below and a couple pictures of Max and daddy at the end.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The view from the second story window.

Sunrise in the morning, as seen from the bedroom.

One of the Faswall blocks in the exterior walls.  They're made out of wood chips and cement, with six inches of Roxul insulation.  The empty cavities are filled with concrete.  Their designed to be vapour permeable.  Walls built out of these blocks achieve R-28.

The building is an "eco-house".  It's completely "off-grid", meaning that there's no connection to any utility service such as electricity or gas.  The house is powered by solar panels and batteries, with a propane generator for backup.  (The propane generator runs quite frequently during the winter.)  It's heated by a wood stove and by radiant in-floor heating on the main floor, which is powered by propane.

 We spent a few hours at the river itself, too.  As usual, the trip was a bit stressful due to being cooped up in a tiny cabin with the kids.  We went on very long hikes, though.  As usual, the views were spectacular.