July 2, 2019

After the flood of 2018 and the near-repeat performance of 2019, we were left weighing our options of what to do with our waterfront home. To my mind, the Kennebecasis River is the rightful owner of the riverbank, and we are but guests along her beautiful shore. So, what to do? Stay or go?

To go was never in our minds, really. For 355 days of the year, it is a lovely, carefree place to be. It’s just those ten days of watching, waiting (and manning the pumps).

We have a gravel cellar, so we always get ground water and we expect and handle it with a sump pit, a 1/2 HP submersible pump and a few hand pumps. But in 2018 the rapid rise of the water caused the river to spill over the top of our foundation, overwhelming any ability we had to keep up. Unfortunately, at the time, our electrical (and propane generator) panels were in the cellar and it became necessary to call NB Power to shut off electricity at the source. With no pumps to handle the inflow, the cellar filled to within 5″ of breaching into the main level. One more high tide or wind and we would have been dealing with major damage.

Here it is on its way up; all that black is water 😦

When the EMO came to visit the day after the crest, we entered the house for the first time. You could hear the waves sloshing against the floor joists, and the house was gently swaying – a rather disconcerting feeling. Our friends’ lab pinned her ears back and would not enter the house. Needless to say, we were very very lucky and spent all last summer repairing damage outside and reinstalling new electrical/generator panels, along with water tanks up in the main level. We installed two additional sump pits and now had a total of 3, half-horsepower pumps that can pump a combined 600 gallons a minute from our cellar.

This spring, water again surrounded the house, and the wave action was worse, tearing siding off the front of the cottage. Despite that, the pumps did their job and the cellar only had 2″ of water. But hydrostatic pressure is a major issue and the foundation walls were under enormous strain from the ground outside (although, remarkably, they held).

So, as the water receded, we discussed options. On the advice of a consulting environmental engineer, we could a) stay with what we had done and deal with water each year, hoping this was not the trend (the engineer feels that we are seeing the new normal) b) build a berm around the house as our friends on our shore had done, which was particularly effective for them (they are further from the water and therefore have more room for displacement) or c) the most costly, but likely most effective option for us – to raise the house.

And so, last week, our project began. The contracts were signed, the permits obtained and the work started.

Under the watchful eye of our project manager (who I may later feature with his permission😉) the deck at the side of the house was removed, including a large second story patio. All of the mature plantings along our existing foundation were dug up (kudos to the hard work of dear husband). The excavator arrived to dig around the foundation and create space where holes would be cut in the cement, through which steel beams will rest during the lifting process.

Some of the digging had to be done by hand, some of it in pouring rain (I should have made cookies for the crew!)

Today, the water and propane will be disconnected. Depending on the amount of slack we have in the poles/wires, the electricity may or may not be disconnected as well.

And so, we are well underway. The plan is to:

1. Elevate – the company uses a computerized hydraulic jack system to slowly elevate the house five feet, after which the existing foundation will be augmented with cement and steel rebar. Finally, the foundation/cellar will be back filled with dirt/gravel and the three internal sump pits will be reinstalled in the crawl space beneath, before the house is lowered back down onto its new base.

2. Create a berm/raised flower bed to encircle the sides and front of the house, about 6-8 feet wide with a sloped armour stone front (to protect from wave action) with an exterior sump pit installed in the wall.

3. And finally, my favourite part – the new verandah/deck. Larger, higher, on ‘bigfoot’ foundations that will wrap around to the back (because our back door, currently flush with the ground, will be 6 feet up in the air). Landscaping will be our fall project.

So, as you can imagine, a big project, but a rather interesting one. For anyone thinking of doing this, stay tuned to my blog and feel free to reach out privately for specific information re contractors, costs, lessons learned etc 😉. For now, I’ll post occasionally as things are happening. Nothing like a little summer gardening project to fill your days!

Ah, spring and early summer…. a time of regrowth, renewal – and of Mallard babies!

First, ‘the boys’ come – 3 or 4 Drakes with their iridescent green heads, puffed out chests and flapping wings, vying for female attention. ‘The girls” are a little more circumspect, not entirely won over by all the strutting and quacking as they start their reconnaissance mission to last year’s nest site.

But one thing’s for sure; the minute the dock is re-anchored for the summer, our winged friends lay claim to it, leaving us humans on shore on ‘swab-the-deck’ duty!

And so, I start my annual pilgrimage to the shoreline each morning with a cup of cracked corn in my hand. I have one boy-duck who sees me and starts swimming my way as soon as I arrive. The others seem a bit more wary. I scatter the corn and back off, giving them their space. I am rewarded with the sound of contented, murmuring quacks as they forage among the beach stones, and resist the urge to break up the fights as the mallards and the widgeons chase each other away from the food.

Mallard fun facts:

They are omnivores; they eat seeds, fish, insects and eggs

They shed their flying feathers and grow new ones twice a year – during that time, they cannot fly

Female ducks lay 10 eggs; days after they hatch, mama leads the ducklings away from the nest, never to return. At 2 months, they can fly. Born in May-June, they migrate south in the early fall, but return back to the same place each year to mate for themselves.

After breakfast is served, the drakes waddle along the beach for the rest of the day and bob on the waves, now and then tipping their back ends to the sky, like weebles, as they feed on the young grass under the water. And so it goes for the first 3 or 4 weeks, until THEY appear :).

It’s Duckling Day! Mama emerges from her nest in the shoreline bushes with her little brood; 11 fuzzy little yellow balls of baby-quacks and nubby winglets, scurrying across the water to keep up with their mother as she gathers them around her for their first outing. They stay relatively far off shore and out of reach, but 2 weeks later, having doubled in size (seen in this picture), Mama lets them come in for the feast I have laid out.

Everyday I am at the cottage, I do a head count. The 11 wee ones have become my charges. They need a human champion- someone besides mama who will keep watch.

Bald eagles are beautiful, but they are a constant worry for a mother duck. Weighing between 6-18 pounds, these strong, fast and efficient hunters can have a wingspan of over 6 feet. A thriving population on the Kingston Peninsula, they soar high above the river or roost in the tops of tall trees, patiently waiting for the opportunity to snatch an unsuspecting victim with their fist-sized talons.

Sunday evening, while we were having dinner and enjoying the idyllic scene as the babies splashed and played in the leeward side of the dock, a huge eagle streaked from the trees at the water’s edge, talons extended, ready to pluck an innocent babe from the happy scene below. With a few dishes flying and some startled shrieks from the human companions on shore, the raptor’s mission was aborted and the count remains, thankfully, at 11. For now.

Everybody remembers the ‘freshet of 2018’…it was a once-in-a-100-year event, right? Well, it seems not so much. 2019 proved to be almost as bad along our shore. This year, the wind and the waves were an added bonus, damaging houses’ exteriors and flooding cellars and basements yet again. Heck, even the cellar-dwelling country mice were running for higher ground! But, before we move on, let’s take a step backward and ‘reminisce’ about the eventful days in May of 2018.

The freshet started out like all the others in many ways. Along our shore, anywhere from about the 15th of April on, the prophetizing and the predicting begins. ‘Oh, it’s gonna be bad this year’. ‘Nah, this one isn’t going to amount to anything’. Or, you might get just a shrug of the shoulders from a seasoned local. But whatever your persuasion – pessimist, optimist, fatalist, or adventure-seeker, we are all armed and ready to do battle with Mother Nature and the mighty St John and Kennebecasis rivers.

I’ll spare you the gory but exciting details; suffice it to say, those two weeks in 2018 were a nail-biting, sleep-depriving, hero-making time of neighbours coming together and strangers turning into friends, with community pride and a determination renewed. Here are some of the pictures from The soon-to-be christened High Water Cottage in 2018, so named because, well, you probably get it.

And so, after two years of ‘the new normal’ , our humble abode is movin’ on up….almost 6 feet up, to be exact. We’re gonna ‘raise the roof’ (the whole cottage actually). Starting today, like a bug to a butterfly, our previously unnamed little house is about to undergo just a little change ;). High Water Cottage is about to be born. Stay tuned …..

Sometimes, a Sunday drive ends up differently than you’d expect. One June Sunday in 2012, we stumbled upon a re-built cottage along the Kennebecasis River in Summerville, New Brunswick. I had visited the beautiful Kingston Penninsula for years, but I never considered living there. When my husband and I saw the For Sale sign, we suddenly saw country living in our future. A week later, inside the cottage with the real estate agent, the spectacular view from the bank of front windows sealed our fate.

Aug 20, 2012 was the closing date. #cottagelife had begun 🙂

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton