Now is the winter of my discontent .......

Not a good week. I was hoping to lift the roof timbers and put them in place this week but the crane is not available until the coming Tuesday. Some work was done to prepare the timbers and do other small, tedious tasks but, really, it was mainly a frustrating week that has come at the end of a number of weeks when more could have been achieved while the weather was good.

The weather has turned and as I write there is more than a foot of snow sitting on the cabin and it is still falling. To make it worse, it is wet, heavy snow that is impossible to push more that a couple of feet before it gets too heavy to move with a snow shovel. It will take three or four man hours of hard labour to shift it. And shift it I must before it either freezes to the logs and sub-flooring or melts and soaks everything through. The sub-flooring has already suffered some damage and I want to keep further damage to the absolute minimum.

I had it coming really. The weather so far this winter had been ridiculously mild with (frankly) very little snow. So there is a sting in this winter's tail after all.

The choice to build over the winter always carried a risk and on balance I have been very lucky. If I had delayed starting the build until the Spring of 2012, I would probably have spent the time travelling and exploring North America and probably Mexico as well and despite my best intensions I would undoubtedly have eaten into my meagre capital, which would have had serious consequences for this project. So, given the constraint of arriving in BC in August, I think I made the right decision to start the build in 2011 and have been very fortunate.

A conventional build would also have been quicker and would probably have been close to completion by now but that was a compromise I was not prepared to entertain. The dream was always a log cabin and life has already killed too many dreams.

A second footing for a post in the garage to support the garage ceiling and the roof above the room above the garage - got that? Two days hard labour!

The roof timbers cleaned and cut ready to lift in place ON TUESDAY. The logs at the gable ends will overhang the gables by 21 inches (the roof SIPs will overhang 2 feet). Each one (seven in total including the dormers), like the prow gable you can see in the middle above, will have an eye-ring in it. I have decided to put these in for future use as a belay point for safety when either cleaning windows or refreshing the log protection finish.

As I mentioned last week, mild weather can bring the bears out of hibernation in winter and before the latest snow arrived John, the homeless man, spotted a very large black bear near his camper. I am told this is unusual as normally it is grizzlies that come out. Anyway John is safe but sadly no photos.

The snow arrived on Friday evening and I was just putting the finishing touches to the steel bars in the latest footing for the second garage post when a friend decided to pay me a visit. It was none other than Ron Cavers, who house-sits for the Brit who owns the only other log cabin on this development. Ron invited me to join him, and about a hundred or more others, for a fund raising charity sled (skidoo) ride on Saturday on the other side of Cranbrook. The only hitch was that I would have to haul the trailer with the two skidoos on it. No problem I thought and agreed to go up to Ron's place and load up the trailer with the sleds that evening. About five hours later after much ado with grease guns, spanners and wrenches, it became obvious that we were probably not going to make it. The trailer was playing up - not all the lights were working, the jack support was broken and it was looking doubtful whether the jeep tires were up to being able to haul it all up the steep icy slope out of Ron's place. On top of that, Ron's skidoo was also playing up and appeared to be losing coolant as fast as we put it in and we couldn't see where it was all going or coming out. At nine thirty, covered in snow and ice, we called it a day and agreed a decision point for the next morning after a few hours rest and daylight that would hopefully help us solve some of the problems. I drove back to my accommodation in a snow storm and was grateful to get back without incident.

Next morning Ron called early to say that he didn't think going to the charity event was on but that we should go for a sled ride locally. I was a bit relieved myself as the roads were really bad and I thought we could have just as much fun in our local wilderness. So I went up to Ron's place and again after an hour or so of much fiddling about we set off on his two skidoos.

We rode a few miles up into the mountains to a small temporary cabin built and used by some of the locals as a survival refuge and general meeting place, where Ron (pictured above) and I had a beer and we roasted some sausages on the wood burning stove.

We had only been there about 20 minutes when we heard the distance drone of skidoos, which quickly got louder and louder. Within a couple of minutes Marilyn and Joanne appeared and joined us for a drink and a drive around the woods in the afternoon. I think they had come to check up on us to make sure we were OK. I am serious. They knew we were going up there and that Ron's skidoo was dodgy. That's what people do here - look out for each other. As it was, Ron's skidoo only played up a little bit and we all had fun and got back safely but, thank you ladies.