Once there was a way ....

With Christmas approaching, it has been a short week. Nevertheless, progress was made over the garage, where we finished laying the logs around the perimeter and started the dormer windows and door. The weather was sunny and warm all week and so no time was wasted clearing snow although, a couple of heavy frosts required almost as much effort in the mornings before work could commence. Working at the height of the garage carries its own risks so, I was glad once we had finished the perimeter and at least put a small barrier between us and the ground.

The quad decided to play up mid week. I went to start it up on Wednesday only to find a pool of fuel on the floor of the trailer. After investigation I discovered that I had left the fuel valve open and it was only the carburettor overflowing but, after repeated attempts to start it, I managed to kill the spark plug. So on Thursday afternoon while the boys were enjoying an end of term barbarque, I went into Cranbrook and bought another one.  After draining the bowl and replacing the spark plug, it started first time but, it now needs a tune so I am searching the internet for help doing that.

Heavy snow is forecast for next week while I am away in Calgary so I have moved the trailer and quad into the garage. There is still quite a lot of wood work in there so I haven't been able to turn the trailer so the back doors face outwards but at least, when I get back next week, I should be able to get into the trailer and be able to get the quad out of the garage with the plough to clear the driveway. Work starts again on Tuesday 4th January and so it will be a couple of weeks before the next progress report. Having said that, I will publish a short blog next week to let you know how Christmas went. I am sure you will all be dying to know.

This is becoming my favourite view of the cabin as it is ideal for getting a good perspective of the property and its surroundings. You can see the dormers over the garage taking shape and this was taken before I moved the utility trailer from beside the wood piles into the garage.

From inside, the dormer windows look very different. The roof will slope down between and on each side of them and we can almost see the height that the roof will be at. I made a model of the cabin so I could see what the roof formation will look like but I forgot to take a photograph of it before I left the property this evening. I will photograph it next week and include it in my next blog page.

On the other side of the garage you can see the start of the shed (long) dormer with its French window (leading out on to a deck) and two standard windows. You will have noticed by now that I have gone for long windows throughout the house (except the bathrooms and kitchen for obvious reasons). This is to make the most of both the views and the sunlight.

From the outside you get a better impression of what the dormer fronts will look like. The sides will be stud walls with log siding put on. The impression will be that the dormer side walls are solid log.

At the back of the garage you can see where the French window will come out and the foundation footings that the wood stilts will stand on to support the decking - more of this at a later date.

The same wall but from a different angle.

And finally, the trailer at home in the garage with the quad (behind) and its trailer on the left.

Well, with Christmas only two days away and a new year approaching, thoughts turn towards family and friends who will be absent this year. So I send to all those who have been kind enough to read this blog, comment and offer words of encouragement, a heart felt thank you and best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Thoughts also turn to the path that lead me here and whereas once there was a way to get back homeward, Blighty and Sarah seem a long way away now.

Eight Days a Week

The construction industry, it seems, is no exception to the mad rush up to Christmas and I am endeavouring to get as much done as possible before the inevitable pause until January. So it would be handy to have an extra day in the week. Nevertheless, it has been a good week with significant progress completing most of the joist work but, significantly, getting the ceiling on the garage to enable work to commence on the area above it this coming week.

The weather has also been kind with only one snow flurry leaving a couple of inches of snow, which was quick and easy to sweep away. This weekend the temperature has risen above zero for the first time in three or four weeks but a little snow is forecast for tonight. The roads have been clear but, would you believe it, two days after I had my windshield fixed another stone flew up and dinged the wretched thing again. Fortunately, it is only a small mark on the edge of the shield and if it doesn't spread across the screen I will wait until the spring, when the gritters will have finished laying the ammunition for these things, to get the glass replaced again.

From the far end of the garage looking back towards the main cabin. Visible is the ground level dividing wall, the kitchen on the left and the stairwell underneath the tarp.

Standing in the main bedroom (over the study) looking back across the main living area to the kitchen on the right, the room above the garage and the stairwell again. Two joists are missing from the area just on other side of the tarp and another two long ones for the landing at the top of the stairs, which will protrude another four feet above the living area. These are all on order and I would like to think that they will arrive this week before the break for Christmas.

The garage ceiling is supported by I joists sitting on joist hangers at the walls and a single beam consisting of four 12" x 2" plywood joists, which runs the length of the garage. 

The floor and second dividing wall of the 'intermediate/utility area', between the garage and the main cabin, have yet to be put in.

Looking back into the garage from the utility area.

If the truth be known, I am looking forward to a break for a few days at Christmas. The body is in need of a bit of R&R and some food that hasn't been put together by rough hands in too much of a hurry. I am hungry but in the words of Robert Service...

And hunger not of the belly kind, that's banished with bacon and beans,

But the gnawing hunger of lonely men for a home and all that it means;

For a fireside far from the cares that are, four walls and a roof above;

But oh! so cramful of cosy joy, and crowned with a woman's love —

A woman dearer than all the world, and true as Heaven is true —

(God! how ghastly she looks through her rouge, — the lady that's known as Lou.)

The shooting of Dan McGrew - Robert Service.

So, I am off to spend Christmas in the best house of ill repute in Calgary - only kidding. I am going up to Chestermere however, which is near Calgary to spend it with friends Jeanette and Elizabeth, who is coming over from Vancouver Island. They were both, in their day, pioneers in their own right in the logging industry in the 70s and 80s and shouldn't be compared (as far as I am aware) with the "lady known as Lou". Nevertheless, two very interesting ladies who have a tale or two of their own to tell.

It's getting better all the time

Mark and I were the only people working on the cabin for the vast majority of last week.  Owen has two other projects which require resourcing and trying to keep all his customers happy is proving a challenge for him and a frustration for me. That said, Mark and I made steady progress putting up the remaining posts, beams and most of the joists to support the upper floor and I took full advantage of the opportunity to sand some of them before they were put in place. Not all the joists are up in the main cabin area yet and we still have the garage to do, and these, because they will not be seen, will be I joists similar to the ones used for the basement ceiling. I hope that all the cabin and garage joists will be up and secure by the end of this week.

With help from a friend, I managed to rig up that short cable for powering up my 240 volt power tools, which I mentioned last week, and I am now happy that I will not have to replace them all. It also gives me the freedom to work independently at the weekends if I wish. I haven't done so this weekend because, frankly, I was knackered and sore. On Friday I managed to fall off a ladder from the height of the upper floor and landed on the wretched thing that was supposed to be helping me up but decided at the last minute to slip away (on the icy floor) from under my feet. I think it frightened Mark more than it did me but the result was a tender back and a sharp reminder of the potential for injury that is never very far away in these conditions.

Friday was altogether a bad day. On the way to the cabin in the morning a stone (or something) hit my windscreen, thrown up by or having fallen off a passing truck.  Shards of glass sprayed off the inside of the screen into my face and it was very fortunate that I was wearing my spectacles or else some of them would have gone into my eyes. The good news is that the windshield was replaced the next day, and thankfully the cost was covered by my insurance (mostly). By lunchtime we also ran out of glue (again) and we broke our remaining tape measure, which we needed to size the joists accurately. So we finished early and called it a week. Nursing a few bruises, I decided to have a lazy weekend and have spent most of it reading, which is a pleasant change. (A man called Intrepid, by William Stevenson - highly recommended).

The joists over the study area are all in place and mostly sanded down. The joists for the other side of the cabin can be seen beneath the temporary flooring in an attempt to keep the frost and snow off them.

Seen here are the posts and beams for the landing - in place, with the joists above the entrance visible on the left. Mark and I needed help lifting the beams that will support the landing. It hasn't been possible to plane or sand all the frame-wood because some of it has ice from the frost and snow still on it and in it. This clogs up the sand paper very quickly and so I shall have to wait until the ice melts and the wood is dry before I can finish it all.

Here you can see the framing for the partition wall that will separate the main cabin area from the garage. The cabin flooring will actually extend six feet into the garage and this 'partition' area will accommodate a number of small sub rooms/areas. From left to right along the wall; door into a cloak room for the main floor; a door between the main cabin area and the partition area leading, through another (fire) door, into the garage; a wall behind which will be a utility room; a recess for a fridge/freezer; and finally, a door into a walk-in pantry.

This view shows the same wall from the garage side. The second partition wall will be six feet closer towards this end of the garage and will be the main fire break between the garage and the main cabin area. The side door into the garage seen here on the right will lead directly onto steps or a ramp (haven't decided which yet) going up to the fire door leading into the partition area. 

The broth (stew) turned out to be a great success, so much so I have decided to repeat the exercise again this week with some minor variations to keep it palatable. I am looking forward to the time when I can keep a pot on the wood burning stove, for which I have now received a quote. I am hoping to be able to invite the installers up to the cabin in early January to plan the installation.

Some days you just gotta let it be.

I am going to turn in now and have an early night and hope I wake up in the morning feeling better than I did this morning. But I mustn't complain - it's not the English way.

The long and winding road

The team didn't reassemble again until late Wednesday and on Thursday Kyle and I planed off the rough from the joists that will support the upper floor (too difficult to explain to Canadians that the second floor is actually the first floor in England - a bit like trying to explain cricket). It took a long time and it was hard work and I don't think Kyle is going to volunteer to work with me again but, our efforts now will pay dividends in the long run because it would have been much more difficult to do this work once the joists are in place. We worked a full day on Friday and got the first posts and beams in place and the cabin interior is continuing to shrink as we put more into it. Mark had a very nasty attack by a flu virus and so we were a man down for two and half days and because of his prodigious work rate he was sorely missed.

On Wednesday, two weeks of clear skies and sunshine were forecast and so it was no surprise when I woke up this morning, expecting to get straight out to the cabin to sand off a few beams, only to find 4" of snow everywhere.  It took me an hour to clear it off the floor, hampered by all the wood now sitting on it ready to be cut and put in place for the upper floor. Fortunately, it was also minus 8 degrees C and the snow was dry and powdery and didn't start to melt until after mid-day, which gave me plenty of time to get it cleared. I also left the basement window protectors off overnight so some snow got into the basement as well, but this will evaporate away in a couple of days.


It is getting to the stage now where I can do useful work contributing to the build by myself at the weekends and towards that end I have moved most of my tools from the lockup in Cranbrook into my trailer. Luckily, I brought with me to Canada some plastic shelving that I had in my garden shed in the UK and I have assembled this in the trailer for the tools. The challenge now is to work out how to rig up some wiring so I can use my 240 volt power tools here (the Canadian electric system is primarily 110 volts). I know just the man who can help me with this little challenge.


I have started a nice winter broth to keep me going all week. This will ensure I get a decent meal every evening for the least amount of effort. It sure beats the hell out of snickers bars, peanuts and biscuits (even if they are cooked twice).

Well the forecasters got the blue skies and sunshine right, they just forgot to mention the snow.  Michael Fish would be OK here.

Looking down at the property over my neighbour's driveway.

Standing in the prow looking back towards the front door.

Looking from the front door through and across to the study area.

From outside the front door - you can see the first stud wall that will partly shield the stairs to the upper floor.

Last Sunday I zero'd my two rifles. I had forgotten just how much fun shooting is. I managed to get a nice half inch grouping at 50m with the .22 and but didn't do quite so well with the .303 at 100m. Anyway, I am now content that at least I can hit a barn door if I am close enough. I wanted to go out again today but really needed to sand the beams that we have already put up, before the joists go on top of them and make it more difficult to get at them - maybe next weekend. I did however manage to take the quad out for a short ride mainly, if I am honest, just to give it a run because it has been sitting in the trailer all week and its small battery will go flat if it is not used regularly in these temperatures. I went up to see Ron Cavers who is house sitting in the other log cabin here, had a beer and came back down the cliff hanging on like grim death.


With Christmas approaching, I realise that I have been here for nearly five months and with the slow pace this week, there was time for some reflection. On the surface here you can be forgiven for thinking that you live in a modern, developed part of the world. The infrastructure is good, there are towns with all the trappings of modern life and society, ski resorts, schools, colleges, golf courses, hospitals, TV, internet, mobile phone networks, even quirky groups of middle class liberals and green coloured tree huggers. 

But you don't have to scratch far beneath the surface to discover that there is still enough of the old frontier wilderness to make you feel as if there is some distance here between you and true civilisation. You don't have to go far off the beaten track to find yourself in real grizzly country where, without your rifle, you are definitely not at the top of the food chain.

And with this wilderness comes the people, mostly men, who still make up the frontier folk. The black sheep, the misfits, the outcasts, the broken men, the adventurers, the gold diggers, running from their shame, working out their own atonement, grimly living down the dead past, seeking excitement or fortune. All are looking for something in these mountains and forests that they cannot find in the city or where folks wear fine clothes and men shave daily. Quietly spoken men, reduced to few words, each in his own way fits, more or less, comfortably into this environment, in a parallel universe to the rest of society.

Men like John, the homeless man, who will live out this winter in a tent, or not. And Randy, my part (Red) Indian next door neighbour at the cabins, who gets up at 2.30 every morning to drive his logging truck 90Kms up the Bull River Forestry Road, up into Grizzly Country to pickup a load of logs to bring it back to the mill down the road from here. Men like Mark, who builds homes for other people but has no home of his own. Young men like Kyle who before long will have leathered skin and wrinkled eyes. Men who find more comfort in nature, the bottle or God than they do in humanity. These men are the modern Canadian equivalent of the old pioneers, lumberjacks, trappers, mountain men, all are frontier men - men without women, who follow the long and winding road of life alone. Men who look up at the night sky and think of the men they might have been, or want to be.

And slowly I noddingly acknowledge to myself that the men who come here, these men, are men like - me, because all the reasons above are, in part, the reasons why I have come here and that makes me a frontier man. So my transformation has turned once more, from middle class man about town to trailer trash and now to frontier man and very content to be so, thank you very much.