Back to Fairmont

A much better week. We lost only one day (actually two half days) to bad weather and Mark, who has returned, and I worked all day on Friday not getting back to the accommodation until the evening. We have now put all the dormer beams in place and three of the dormers now have valleys. It is really good to have Mark back as he does the work of two men and makes a good team with Dexter. Both are pretty tough and strong and work well together. This normally means I can team up with someone else to make a second team and this speeds things up quite nicely. We just need to make sure we have enough tools for two teams in order to avoid waisting time waiting for items the other team are using.

Winter is definitely not over, despite the official arrival of Spring.  It snowed on most days last week and on Wednesday we had the heaviest fall of the entire winter, eight inches. It took Matt and me nearly all morning to clear it from all the surfaces but we got some good work done in the afternoon, working out all the angles for the dormer valleys and cutting the first one, which took two attempts before we got it good enough to place on Thursday morning. By close of play Friday three of the dormers had valleys.

The valleys for the main roof and in particular the prow are going to be a very different story. The dormer valleys were heavy enough but the others are going to be really difficult to place and fix and I am not sure we will be able to do it safely without a crane. Owen is coming out next week to advise on their positioning and to decide how we are going to get them in place.

The return of winter

The last dormer beam to go in - the extension still has to be shaped and finished.

The first valleyes to go in.

What they look like from below.  All my work.

The two dormers in the bonus room above the garage - just a short rafter to put in on each side and it will be ready for its SIPs.

On the down side, I have injured my back. We cut the first dormer beam long to ensure we had enough to stretch the distance and decided to attach it to the cross section before putting it in place. This meant it was heavy and took four of us to lift and manoeuvre into place. To start with we lifted and rested the long end on some scaffolding and, as I was at the join, I held the heavy end up on my back while the others changed positions for the second lift. While they were doing this the beams slipped a little and as I was at an awkward angle this movement wrenched my back. Having broken my back twice, I am normally very careful with it and so I was very angry with myself for allowing this to happen. I really don't know what I have done to it. I am hoping it is only muscular. Naturally, I have rested it, socked it in hot baths and even gone up to the hot springs at Fairmont, where I gave it some ice and heat treatment. The initial pain has subsided but I am still very stiff, particularly after sitting or lying down. I hope a few days of light duties will see it back to normal.

Marmite, you either love it or you hate it.

The weather this week has been the worst since I have been here. It has rained and snowed, almost non-stop, all week and occasionally there has been some strong wind as well. The big melt has continued but, fresh snow makes it feel as if winter is trying to hang on at all costs. The ground is very soggy and where there is no vegetation it is muddy.

Work outside has been virtually impossible and therefore the manpower has been employed on the other projects, where the work is mostly under cover. We did try to get some work done at my place but, it was slow, uncomfortable and in the end impossible to work safely with the power tools.  I spent most of the week trying to keep up with clearing the snow off the cabin, doing what little work there was that doesn't require power tools and getting some lumber in for building stud walls on the top floor. I cannot get started on these until more of the rafters are in place but, at least the materials are there for when I need them.

The weather is forecast to continue to be bad for another week so, I am not sure what we will be able to achieve next week. I guess we will just take it one day at a time.

The final rafter was put in over the garage (to the right of the ladder) and ......

..... we did manage to put up six in the main cabin area, before the rain came.  Four at the far end and ....

... two on the other side of the dormers.

Here you can see why we have to trim the gable ends. The gable rises at a slightly higher angle than the rafters (which are at the correct angle). Cutting the logs with the correct angle was never going to be a precise art. It has left us with the awkward task of trimming them and this is made more difficult because some of the twelve inch screws, that tie the logs together, are in the way and have to be found and removed to avoid damaging the chain saw. At the end of the process, the twelve inch screws have to be re-placed. I have trimmed the garage gable on both sides but at the cost of hitting three screws with the chain saw. It takes about half an hour to sharpen the saw each time it hits a screw and if it happens too often I will have to replace the chain, which I will probably have to do once this little exercise is over.

I went to the theatre in Cranbrook on Saturday evening, to see the World Premier Production of a new opera, Khaos. It has been written by a local Canadian musician and composer Don Macdonald with a local librettist Nicola Harwood, both from Nelson in British Columbia. The performance was by the Nelson Community Opera and the music, which was recorded and piped for this production, was played by The Symphony of the Kootenays.

When I saw the advert in the Mall in Cranbrook on Friday I really didn't know what to expect. I knew I shouldn't assume Don Giovanni, La Traviata or Madame Butterfly but, I also knew that it was not going to be a ham, amateur production. I am happy to report that my expectations were well exceeded and, judging from the standing ovation the, admittedly local, audience gave it at the end of the performance, I don't think I was the only one.  I would love to see this opera performed with a full live orchestra in a theatre that is big enough to take it and, with world class singers. That is not to denigrate the performers, they were very good and some with impressive careers in Europe and North America. It is to give full credit to the quality of the music and the libretto.

The story is that of Dementer and Persephonie from Greek Mythology. Persephonie was the daughter of the Greek Goddess Dementer, who was the Goddess of the Harvest (fertility, grain and agriculture), and the wife and Queen of Hades of the Underworld. The story, in good Greek tragic mythological tradition, is full of love, treachery and betrayal, all food enough to make a wonderfully evocative opera about the human condition against a theme of living in balance with nature that has an eternal resonance and which is particularly relevant today. Macdonald and Harwood keep the pace going throughout the opera, with a twist at the end to surprise classical scholars, who might think they know how it is all going to end, but not sufficiently wide of the original story to draw criticism.

I also went down to Eureka (the Greeks seem to be everywhere in this blog, Peter Cassimatis I hope you are appreciating this) which, is just over the border in Montana, principally to check out the price of kitchen cabinets in the local builders' merchant, only to find it closed. So instead I bought some groceries and came home. I was expecting the price of most items in the super-market to be cheaper than here in British Columbia, where the cost of living is renowned for being high, but I was disappointed.  With very few exceptions (diary products chiefly, which we are not allowed to bring back into Canada because the Canadian, or should I say Quebec, diary industry is protected) most food items were more expensive.  Even on reflection I find this hard to understand.  Identical items like cans of Coca Cola and snickers bars are more expensive over there and in some cases by quite a wide margin. This is in stark contrast to hardware goods and building materials which are far less expensive in the USA. The only explanation I can offer is that, in the USA, Eureka is quite remote, a bit like the Outer Hebrides in UK terms, and the cost of getting things there must put quite a lot onto the final retail price - so why not building materials as well?  Next time I am in Kalispell I will check out a bigger supermarket.

The slow pace this week has also had the added benefit of allowing me to take a bit of a break from the manual labour and that hasn't been a bad thing. Although the work has been quite slow for a few weeks the cumulative effect of seven months labour with little break has taken its toll on the body and the mind. If I could afford to take a little break and get away for a week or ten days that would be even better but, the truth is I don't want to lose any more momentum with the build. Already things have slowed down beyond my wishes and I don't want them to slip any further. You might ask why, as it may appear that I have all the time in the world. Well, there are a couple of reasons. The first is that without a roof on it, the structure is open to the elements and the sub-flooring in particular is taking a beating and I don't want to have to replace it. The second reason is that I have visitors scheduled for the summer and although they won't expect the place to be finished, it would be nice if they didn't have to stay in the trailer and spend their whole visit with me helping me build the place.

Finally, some of you may have seen Matt Sample's comment about woodpeckers not liking marmite. Well, as you can imagine, I have spent hours researching this on the internet but, haven't been able to confirm or deny this claim. Of course, you either love marmite or you hate it.  It might turn out that woodpeckers love marmite, so I may just do a little trial before painting the whole cabin with it. Personally, I prefer Vegemite.

Bring me my belt fed shotgun

Work on the Indian Reservation took manpower away from my project this week and therefore little was achieved. To speed things along at the Reservation I also went down there to help out, reasoning that the sooner work there was complete the sooner more manpower could be switched back to my place. Having said that, some things were done. The third and final footing in the garage to support the structure above was dug out, a few more rafters were put up, the gable at the south end of the cabin was straightened and secured in place and the windows were all brought up to the house unloaded, stored and covered.

On the bright side, apart from Monday when it rained, the weather was warm and sunny and in the afternoon of most days we were down to T shirts. The snow is melting fast and consequently the ground is starting to get mushy. Hopefully, it will dry out quickly and soon we will be able get on with laying concrete in the garage and deck foundations but, the forecast is not good.

Monday Dexter and I put some more rafters in the bonus room but rain interrupted play because it was too dangerous to use the power tools. So, in the afternoon, I decided to dig the third footing in the garage floor - thought I would spare you all the pleasure of a photo of another hole in the ground.

On Tuesday and Thursday I helped out on the Indian Reservation cabins and as you can see, from the photo taken at lunch break, the weather was warm. Dexter, Tex (in the background), Kevin and ...

... Tex's new room-mate Byron, who has recently joined the team. Matt is still with us but somehow escaped the photograph.

I spent Wednesday alone at my place. I cut 66 spindles for the railings for the landing and stairs inside the cabin. These will be turned and peeled by Kevin in his workshop. I also made a start on trimming the garage gable to a more accurate 12:12 pitch, ready to take the SIPs. I did this with the chain saw initially and finished smoothing it off with the band sander. All in all not a bad day but working by myself is very slow and working at that height with the chain saw at an awkward angle carries it's own risks.

Friday Dexter, Matt and I brought the windows up to the cabin and stored and covered them in the study area.

We then set about straightening the south gable and, once that was secured, to putting in place some of the larger rafters in the main cabin area. These were heavy and tricky to manoeuvre into place, requiring an additional notch to accommodate a beam supporting the ceiling above the study.

One of my neighbours is having problems with pack rats and woodpeckers. The former leave a nasty smell, a bit reminiscent of skunks I am told, and he has put down a trap to try to catch them, which I have been checking for him. The latter are making a mess of his wood cladding and this is a bit alarming for me, as I am building a house made entirely of wood. Another friend has also had a problem with woodpeckers getting inside his house and destroying the window framing on the inside. I haven't been able to find any damage to my wood, which is interesting as well as a bit of a relief - maybe they don't like my wood. Woodpeckers are protected and therefore it is a question of scaring them away. I have done some research on the internet and there are a few things I can try if they become a problem for me. And no, before anyone suggests it, a belt fed shot gun is not the solution, however appealing it may sound.

The other good news is that, thanks to the network of mostly ex-UK military people in Canada, I have learned how to watch live rugby, including the Six Nations, on the internet. I am sure my many French friends will not deny me the pleasure of the England win in Paris this weekend. I have also made myself a massive stew that should last me all of next week - my mother would have been proud of me.

Have crane will build

A much better week, albeit not without it's challenges. Monday was spent finalising the preparations for lifting the posts and beams into place on Tuesday and, as we had left several little jobs over from the previous week, it was a long day. We arrived bright and early on Tuesday morning to clear the overnight snow off the timbers and sub-flooring and were still doing some last minute tasks when the crane arrived, which came on time. It was another long day lifting the heavy timbers up onto the top floor and putting the posts and beams in place. It took longer than expected as things didn't all go our way.

The weather was mixed and on Wednesday we worked through light snow falling most of the morning but, it soon disappeared and in the afternoons of most days we were stripping off the layers to stop from overheating. Thursday we lost both Kyle and Matt, the former to two months carpentry training and the latter to a long weekend with his girl friend. That left us short of manpower at the end of the week and consequently things slowed down.

It was quite a big crane unit, more than capable of doing the work we required of it. First, the posts were all lifted into place and then there was a short pause, while they were secured, before we were ready to lift the beams.

The first beam to be lifted. We started over the garage and worked our way southwards from there.

Dexter guiding the beam into place over the second bedroom.

The garage nearly done.

By the end of the day all the posts and beams were in place and there was a different feel to the place. Despite the ominous looking clouds it didn't snow or rain.

Wednesday and Thursday were spent cutting rafters to size and man handling them into place. By close of play Thursday we had done most of the room above the garage. There are two more to place over the shed dormer on the right of the picture and two more to place .....

.... to the right of the ladder, where the room joins on to the main cabin.

We were going to make a start on the main cabin on Friday but we were overtaken by events and due to lack of manpower it was decided that the best value from the day could be gained from driving down to Kalispell in Montana to pick up the windows. This turned out to be eventful. As we started to load the windows onto the trailer we discovered that the two small windows for the prow were the wrong shape and were not accepted. Owen will be resolving the differences with the company and re-ordering the correct shape and size next week. At the border on the way back there was a delay because the paperwork wasn't in order and Owen had to go down on Saturday to sort it out.

Each step brings it closer to appearing like a house and I am looking forward to a hard week ahead getting the remainder of the rafters in place. I hope we will also put the valley pieces in and mount some of the windows on the ground floor. The weather is forecast to be wet and mild and it may present us with an opportunity to lay some concrete in the garage. We'll see.

I continue to see and help John Sheppard, the homeless man, whose seemingly endless optimism and cheerfulness in the face of adversity is nothing short of inspirational. On Saturday I bought him some food, took him for lunch (turning a blind eye while he helped himself to a pocket full of salt and pepper sachets) and took him home. His cat and dog are both thriving and are a great boost to his morale.

There are others here however, as I have hinted before, who have much more than John but who are, in other ways, less fortunate and live with troubled souls and whose hearts beat a lonely rhythm through long, sleepless nights.  Most struggle with debt or addictions and often both, which are but the symptoms of deeper problems. Others stoically bear the pain of past sins. And there is one, who often fears that one day his sins will catch up with him and that when they do - the pain will be unbearable.