log-house moving day in Wilno

This morning's weather is typically November...some sun, some cloud, some cold snow flurries, a bit of rain, a lot of wind and in the midst of it all, the old Burchat homestead securely mounted on the old grey Valley Cottage Moving truck sailed majestically down the very steep hill into the village. A stationary log truck winch at the top of the hill was attached to the rear of the house, to hold it back in case of brake failure or some other sort of fiasco...which would have resulted in a heap of very old splinters in the valley. By the time the house...log walls and tin roof and all...reached Hwy 60, pretty much everyone in the village was out with cameras and video equipment and all work on the general store porch roof came to a dead halt. I rushed out with my video camera and got some good footage of them coming around the Stoppa Lake Parkway and on to the new house site. Some interesting maneuvering to get the building backed into a fairly narrow laneway and the added complications of overhead hydro wires and all that sort of thing. But the able men of Wilno did their usual best and when we drove home tonight, the house was sitting high and dry on its temporary foundation.

We had barely arrived at the cafe (via our own back road) when a contingent of local press and heritage society movers and shakers arrived hoping for hot coffee and muffins. Fed them a rich streusel coffee cake and also coffee for Pete, Henning and Ritsuko who had also been out watching the truck. That was it for the day's excitement. Spent the rest of the day cleaning out shelves in the kitchen, looking for paperwork for our liquour licence renewal and made a lovely apple crisp for dessert.

We were home early in our little Wilno hideaway, had a lovely supper of tarragon chicken stew and mashed potatoes and plan to do little or nothing on this chilly night. I see the temperature in Malaga is 27 today. Four years ago this day, we were in Spain for the first time...driving from Toledo to the Costa Blanca and our fabulous hilltop villa Alta Punta.