Here comes the sun and I say it's alright

After cold nights the sun brings much appreciated warmth and with it the hopes and expectations of great things and this week I was not disappointed.

Monday, we moved logs, made right angle supports,  benches and jigs for sawing the logs .....

 ... and window and door frames.

Tuesday we put mud sills on the garage and ....

...  Matt and I layed the first log. The first layer was glued and nailed into the mud sill (main house first layer will be glued and screwed with the 12" screws into the rim joists).

Work was interupted by the arrival of the last logs from Burn's Lake in Northern BC, ...

... by the end of the day we had layed the first two layers in most of the garage. The second layer (and subsequent layers) was glued, with a special water and air proof sealant to the layer below. It was then screwed down onto the layer below to ensure as close a fit as possible and maximum strength.

We have to tie the garage logs into the main house logs and therefore before we can start on the latter we must bring the garage logs up to the same level.

Wednesday we really started to get going but at the cost of a squashed finger for Matt, who bravely soldiered on but left on Friday for some TLC at home in Cardston.  Hopefully he will be back on Monday ready to work with the other nine digits. Seriously though, some of  these logs are very heavy and fingers and toes in this cold weather are very vulnerable. What happened to Matt could easily happen to any of us.

By close of play Thursday one could even deduce that we were building a garage.

Door frames for the house (on the left) were also put in.

On Friday it wet snowed all morning and that meant we couldn't lay logs because all surfaces have to be clean and dry for the sealant. So, Mark, Ron and I spent the day cutting logs for Monday when (weather permitting) we shall resume laying - starting on the main floor level.

Saturday has been an admin day, getting my laundry done, doing the weekly shop and exchanging summer clothing for winter clothing at the lockup. My firearms licence has finally arrived and so I also took my rifle and shotgun into to be verified at the gun shop in Cranbrook so I can register them. Next step is to buy the .303 from Bart, next time he is down from Calgary.

Tomorrow, Sunday, I shall spend cleaning up the work place and doing some yard work - should be easier and more fun now I have the quad. A lot more animals, especially deer are in and around the property now that the cold weather is forcing them down from the mountains. I have had herds of elk as well as different types of smaller deer and there are still quite a number of geese on the lake. The elk are wary of humans as they are hunted for their meat and so disappear as soon as they see you. The smaller deer in contrast are very tame and are not bothered by the noise generated by the building process. It is quite common to look up from what you are doing and see several within a few feet.

The view from what will be my study window is breathtaking enough, but .....

... sometimes I see something that reminds just why I chose to come here and there just aren't the words to describe it, or are there? For me the words of Omar Khayyam as translated by Edward FitzGerald come pretty close.


Awake! for Morning in the Bowl of Night
Has flung the Stone that puts the Stars to Flight:
And Lo! the Hunter of the East has caught
The Sultán's Turret in a Noose of Light.